Solved 4.36 Assigning Target STPTs: Please Help
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OK, this has got to be on me. If everyone were having this issue, our BMS forum would be saturated with threads about it…
I’ve RTFM’d myself to death and tried every trick I can think of in the 2D UI, but I cannot figure out how to assign my GPS-guided weapon targets to a “spare” STPT in 4.36. (Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean ‘wpntarget_XX’ STPTs, I mean ‘target_XX’ STPTs.)
The changes in the recon UI seem to be essentially undocumented. The User Manual says “You have therefore 2 choices: either you use the steerpoints not assigned to your INS flight plan (11 to 24), or you use the newly implemented target steerpoints (81 to 99).”
I have always used STPTs 15-24 for this task. But now, when I open the BMS Recon dialog, the associated TARGET LIST UI (which pops up along with it) is very different in its behavior. It only allows me to view my actual target site(s) when I select the ‘Strike’ target STPT. (It used to show all nearby locations and allow you to select any of them and assign it to a “spare” STPT.) But now, attempting to click through to STPT 15 takes me to whatever remote site that was left over in my “.ini” file (I presume).
I’m sure I could work out a way to gimmick the system: e.g., save extra STPTs, copy the resulting subset into my desired “spare” STPTs in the “.ini” file I will actually fly with, but this can’t be the answer. There’s just something I’m overlooking in my addled state.
Please, someone, tell me what I’m missing!
Thanks to all,
Slothrop -
@SoBad
You mean like this?
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Mods: If this should have been posted under Technical Support, please move it. Thanks, Slothrop
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The other screen is still there, hidden behind the new one. Just move it and you will see it
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@lcriscola Thanks so much! I’ll try this in a bit (I’m on infinite hold with Delta Airlines just now).
If your’s is the answer I’ll feel like the slowest kid on the short bus…
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We need a bigger 2d screen!!
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@lcriscola Thanks again! That was indeed it.
It took me a while to figure out that, if I raised the TARGET LIST dialog up into the map, it would allow me to enter successive STPTs without having to close the RECON UI and running it again and again.
Not running on all brain cells, I’m afraid.
But you’ve helped me immensely. Now to get those GBU-38/Bs on target!
And, yeah, we definitely need a bigger 2D screen. But my understanding is that the UI code is such spaghetti that even angels fear to tread on it (and the BMS dev crew are definitely not fools rushing in…)
So I fear we may be stuck with it even when 4.37 arrives.
Best regards, Slothrop
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While I appreciate the ‘workaround’, I’m still wondering how to interpret and use the lower section of the ‘Target List’ window. I can not find any documentation that addresses this either.
Aircraft #1, #2, etc. implies that I might be able to assign targets to my wingman??? I don’t know.
WP1 – I have no clue what it means or why it changes the way it does
Assign - So, in your picture above, could I assign the highlighted ‘Dock’ to my wingman, for instance???
So I join you in my utter ignorance.
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@SoBad said in 4.36 Assigning Target STPTs: Please Help:
While I appreciate the ‘workaround’, I’m still wondering how to interpret and use the lower section of the ‘Target List’ window. I can not find any documentation that addresses this either.
Aircraft #1, #2, etc. implies that I might be able to assign targets to my wingman??? I don’t know.
WP1 – I have no clue what it means or why it changes the way it does
Assign - So, in your picture above, could I assign the highlighted ‘Dock’ to my wingman, for instance???
So I join you in my utter ignorance.
Hi, this has been documented in the ‘Falcon BMS User Manual’ page 197.
Basically, it’s a was to assign precise DPIs to your AI wingmen. -
@DUSTOFF17 Thanks for moving this thread to the proper forum!
I don’t mean to be contrary (more than usual, anyway), but the entirety of that “documentation” is this single paragraph:
’ You can now select individual targets for each wingman for Strike and OCA missions. This can be done in the UI. If you open the Target List you can assign different targets to your AI wingman. You can also set the target waypoint (WP). If you don’t assign a target they default to “Target at will”. ’
For me, that doesn’t seem sufficient. It completely omits to mention lcriscola’s answer to my problem: that you can still get to the classic “assign target STPT” interface by moving the new dialog.
Adding a toggle to open/close the “assign to flight members” part of the new UI would solve the too little screen space problem. As it is now, moving that UI over the 3D view completely obscures the objective that you’re trying to target…
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@Slothrop In any case, I think you can properly mark this “solved”. And point to lcriscola’s solution!
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@Slothrop my post (and the reference to that para of the docs) directly answers Sobad’s question about how to use the Target Assignment window.
To respond to your point, I guess for me and many other users, it was just readily apparent that the TGT STPT option was still in the original place on the recon window.
A toggle-able drop down to show/hide the tgt assignment portion would definitely be the best solution but the ‘legacy’ UI is so old that this kind of feature is almost impossible to implement in the near term.
In the future, a new UI that has exactly these kinds of features is the goal of the dev team. In the meantime, you’ll just have to click on the recon window behind the target list to continue to use that just like 4.35.Cheers
Dusty -
@DUSTOFF17 Thanks. Like so many of us, I can hardly wait for the new UI! (And, as I described earlier in this post, I well understand the perils ofdisentangling legacy spaghetti code.)
Have you BMS devs considered using Qt for the redesign? It’s extremely efficient to use, and Qt Creator is a blessing as a GUI evolves. (Of course, that would make BMS look like other Qt apps, and incur the wrath of us old-schoolers.)
On another pet subject, are you now using boost::shared_ptr? The infrequency of seg-faults suggest it… That legacy Falcon 4 code base has become remarkably stable in the last two BMS iterations.
But I derail, again. Perhaps I’ll take this up in a separate post. Any idea which sub-forum it should be in?
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@DUSTOFF17 - If you actually read my questions, your reply doesn’t “directly answer” any of them.
I guess I’m not like “many others”, so you’ll have to color me utterly stupid.
For the truly dumbasses like me, a step-by-step guide of how to assign targets to our wingman/element would have been very helpful.
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@SoBad
You mean like this?
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@Razor161 - Yes! That’s EXACTLY what I mean. Thank you so much, from the “so few” dummies like me that the “so many” tolerate.
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