Custom Icons Part 3/4
We can make the game more challenging and realistic
by limiting icon information. Here's how!

by
Flying Nutcase
 
Full Mission Builder Tutorials
For IL2 Forgotten Battles and Pacific Fighters
 
 
Step 4: A Shortcut for the 'mp_dotrange' Command

In this section we'll look at a really easy way to set up a shortcut so we don't need to type in the full "mp_dotrange TYPE 2 ID..." every time we fly a mission.

In a nutshell, we can set up a short version of a command so we only need to enter a few characters instead of the whole line.

After following the steps below you will only need to type in: i

instead of:  mp_dotrange TYPE 2 ID .5 RANGE 6 COLOR 3 DOT 10

That's quite an improvement! Here's how to do it:
In your Pacific Fighters/Forgotten Battles program folder, there's a file called 'rcu'. If you don't know how to find the program folder, try this link:

How to Find the Pacific Fighters/Forgotten Battles Program Folder

First, make a copy of it and call the copy 'rcu_ORIGINAL'. Then, just to be safe, make another copy and call it 'Copy of rcu_ORIGINAL' or whatever:
Now double-click on the 'rcu' file and open it in notepad:
You will that it's a very small file:
The '@a' tells the program to set up a shortcut, so for example, 'h' is a shortcut for 'history', 's' is a shortcut for 'show'. Indeed, 'a' is a shortcut for 'alias'.

We're going to make 'i' a shortcut for:

mp_dotrange TYPE 2 ID .5 RANGE 6 COLOR 3 DOT 10

So, in the RCU file, below the other entries, type:

@a i mp_dotrange TYPE 2 ID .5 RANGE 6 COLOR 3 DOT 10
Or just cut and paste it from this page if you like. Now save the file:
Do not use 'Save As' because the rcu file doesn't have an extension and if you use 'Save As', Notepad will add .txt and the file won't be read by the game!

Jump back into Pacific Fighters, open the Command Line (Shift-Tab) and type in 'i':
Then 'Shift-Tab' to exit the command line. That was a bit easier, right! Now fly around and check that the icons have changed.

If you want to make changes to the shortcut, you'll have to exit Pacific Fighters, make the changes and reload the game. 'Alt-Tabbing' out of the game won't work. The RCU file is loaded when the game loads and not again after that.

But that's no problem. Remember that while you're experimenting with different setting, you can change individual parameters. For example to change RANGE to 3km, just open the command line and type:

mp_dotrange RANGE 3

The other parameters will stay the same. If you like your new settings but can't remember what they are, type 'mp_dotrange' with no parameters, as we saw in section 3.

After you have settled on a setting for all the parameters, you'll just need to type 'i'. Nice!

Next: using FRIENDLY and FOE for more customization...
IL2 Sturmovik/Forgotten Battles/Pacific Fighters is a World War 2 flight sim
by Oleg Maddox and 1C: Maddox Games, published by Ubisoft.

This is a fan site and completely independent of the above companies...
Other than a love for this sim. :-)