posted 02-11- 02:30 PM               

The principle is (in programmer's terms): sometimes in ppf or mission files you have to have an openplane identifier that matches a quoted string constant. Quoted strings can be anything really, but openplane identifiers cannot, like in any programming language variable names are expected to follow some rules. Example:

in a mission file, you will find:

code:

---

msnSquadron ( "GC III 6" "GBM Bretagne")
msnGCIII6 (  msnCount 1  msnAircraft "p39"  msnFormation "strVIC"  msnLoadOut "Guns" 
msnGasLevel 200 msnAllegiance "Allied"  msnAggressionLevel 0.50  msnLoyaltyLevel 
0.50  msnMoraleLevel 0.50 msnSanityLevel 0.50  msnSkillLevel 0.50 msnCoordinate ( 
51017 -48789 )  msnVelocity 0  msnAltitude 0  msnHeading 0 msnCountry "strFrance"  
msnSquadron "squadrons/France/squad10.ppf" msnRibbons "France/Dover/RIBBON#01.BMP" )
msnGBMBretagne (  msnCount 3 msnAircraft "b26"  msnFormation "strVIC"  msnLoadOut "Guns"  
msnGasLevel 1000 msnAllegiance "Allied"  msnAggressionLevel 0.50  msnLoyaltyLevel 
0.50  msnMoraleLevel 0.50 msnSanityLevel 0.50  msnSkillLevel 0.50 msnCoordinate ( 51686 -46784 )  msnVelocity 300  msnAltitude 
20000  msnHeading 0 msnAirfield "airfield7" msnCountry "strFrance" msnSquadron "squadrons/France/squad03.ppf" 
msnRibbons "France/Dover/RIBBON#01.BMP" )

---

in this example the OpenPlane engine expects to find msnMySquad for the squadron "My Squad". If, for historical accuracy's sake, we had chosen to call the 3ème Groupe de Chasse of the 6ème Escadre by its proper Armée de l'Air name, "GC III/6", the mission editor would have generated :

code:

---

msnGCIII/6 (  msnCount 1  msnAircraft "p39" msnBlah msnBlah msnBlah 

---

Blam! Of course, msnGCIII/6 is not a proper variable name (as in most programming languages, only english standard letters, numerals and "_" are allowed). Result: you can't fly this unit in the mission.

Left as an excercise to the reader: If you have Nations V2, seach your StringTable.ppf and find out why a fix is needed for the French version of the game.

[This message has been edited by Pachy (edited 02-11-2001).]