Instant Action editing: format of F.ia / M.ia files?
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Hi all,
I wanted to change the loadout of the Instant Action missions, for example to replace the AIM-9M with AIM-9X. I found sufficient information to get me started for this very specific example via the comments in https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/12225/instant-action/2, but I’d prefer to understand the file format of f.ia / m.ia fully so I can be more flexible with my changes.
In my installation, the files are located at:
c:\Falcon BMS 4.36\Data\Campaign\F.ia
c:\Falcon BMS 4.36\Data\Campaign\M.ia
(There is no
Campaign\Saved\
folder as mentioned in the 2018 link above.)As I understand:
#Loadout Hardpoint 1 # 1 x AIM120C 159 W1 1 C1
- First line is the comment for the specific Hardpoint, in this case 1.
- Second line is the comment for which weapon it is, preceded by the amount, in this case 1.
- Third line is Weapon ID (weapon#) AIM120C, followed by Wing#. You can find the weapon ID in the BMS Editor > Weapons tab > Index column. I noticed that the Weapon ID may change between BMS releases, so the link above from 2018 is correct about the format, but the actual weapon IDs have changed since.
- Quantity of the weapon, followed by Hardpoint#.
For example, if I want to change the loadout for hardpoint 1 in the example above from AIM120C to AIM120B, I’d change it to:
#Loadout Hardpoint 1 # 1 x AIM120B (to keep the comment consistent with the data below) 158 W1 1 C1
My questions:
- The comments are indeed comments, they don’t have any significance other than giving human-readable info about lines 3 and 4?
- How do I know which Wing#'s (like W1 or W3) are available for the selected plane, and how they map to the plane? For instance, is W1 the first inner pylon on the left wing?
- How do I know which Hardpoint#'s (like C2 or C5) are available, and how they map to the plane?
- In the stock f.ia and m.ia files, the Wing# is always the same as the Hardpoint#. Is that a coincidence, or do I have to manually ensure that the numbers always match? For instance, in my example above, line 3 says “W1”, so line 4 MUST say “C1”?
- How can I specify the plane to be used? The stock
F.ia
for 4.36.2 is set as follows, but I don’t quite get the format. I looked in the BMS editor, for example, and under Units > Flights, index58
isF-5E ROKAF
. Under Vehicles > Aircraft, index58
isF-15E-220
.
# Own plane (Unit Information) Example: F-16 # KF-16C-52 1 type 9 subtype 58 specific
- Apart from answering my specific questions above, is there a place in the data/files where I can look up this information myself, rather than bothering other people like you to answer such questions.
Thank you!
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Pic will say/save 1000 words
Good Luck!!!
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@white_fang Brilliant, thank you!