CC Mission Builder

Part 3 A 'Wake' up Call

Getting Started

For this lesson we are going to write what I call a shoot-em-up, a mission with lots of planes and lots of action. We will take off from a carrier located near Wake Island. Both the fleet and the base are coming under attack and we must engage the enemy and try to defend them both. In this mission we will be using delays to prolong the action and complex triggers and events to end the mission. We will accomplish all of this without using any warping. That will be good news for some of you. Fire up Mission Builder and let’s get started.

Begin by clicking the New Mission button. Select ‘Airbase’, scroll down to ‘Wake’, highlight it, and then click on ‘OK’.

The map now places you at Wake Island, flying North in a Zero. All of our action will take place on and around Wake Island. Before we change planes, add enemy bombers and lay in our waypoints, let’s zoom in on the base and set our infrastructure and ships.

First, place your cursor on top of waypoint #2 and right click. Select ‘Delete’ from the pop-up menu and left click. Now, drop down to the buttons along the bottom and left click on the plus sign (+). Place the cursor directly on top of Wake Island and click. Do this twice to zoom in on the island.

Notice that Wake Island is shaped like an elongated ‘V’ with the open end pointing Northwest. There is a sheltered lagoon formed by the arms of the ‘V’ and open ocean surrounding the island. Now place your cursor on top of the airfield and zoom in three more clicks.

As you look down on the island, notice the additional infrastructure that’s placed there. We can see hangars, aircraft revetments, buildings and gun emplacements among other things. We will be using some of these items as targets for the Japanese bombers. Let’s add a few additional items to make it interesting.

Placing Infrastructure & Targets
Center your cursor on the aircraft revetments and zoom in three times.

Remember: right click to turn off the zoom, or any other feature. On the toolbar above the map press the ‘New infrastructure’ button. Under ‘Class’ select ‘Aircraft’. Under ‘Type’ scroll down and select the ‘B-25D Mitchell’. Place 3 Mitchell bombers in any of the revetments that you wish. You will need to set the orientation on each one to get them pointed correctly. Set the orientation to 210° for bombers placed in the three upper revetments and 30° for those placed in the lower set. Leave the ‘Goal’ as ‘None’ for all three bombers. See the detail below.

B-25 detail

Now zoom back out to the 0.5-mile width (2 clicks). We are now going to place a wharf along the shore of the lagoon. At this level of detail you can just see the lagoon toward the upper left of your map. Zoom in 2 clicks on the shoreline along the lagoon.

Note: If you prefer you can move around the map area by panning using the button that looks like a hand. Click on the ‘Pan’ button then, while holding the left mouse button down, drag the map to get the area you want into the image window. Use whichever method (panning or zooming) you prefer for moving around the map.

Click on the ‘New infrastructure’ button
again and select ‘Infrastructure’ under ‘Class’. Scroll down and select the ‘wharf’, then place it along the beach so that the docks extend into the water. Be sure to get the orientation correct. In my example below, I have the orientation set at 0° as I have placed the wharf at a bend in the shoreline. You may set your wharf slightly differently.

While we’re zoomed in we’re going to add two ships. Both of these ships will be stationary so we will use the ‘New infrastructure’ button and not the ‘New ship’ button. Following the steps above and using ‘Ship’ as the ‘Class’, select a ‘USS PT Boat’ and place the PT boat at the wharf along side one of the docks. Then select a ‘USS Tanker Ship’ and set it off shore a short distance from the wharf. Set the goal on the wharf and both ships to ‘None’. See the illustration.

I have the PT boat oriented to 0° and the tanker to 230°. Your settings may vary slightly. When you’re finished, zoom back out to the 0.9-mile map width.

Using the Pan button, move the map around until you have a good view of the built up area around the airfield. If you look carefully you will see quite a few gun emplacements located around the island. These emplacements are empty right now. We will place antiaircraft guns in several of them at various spots around the island. In the illustration below I have circled some of them in red.

To place an antiaircraft gun, zoom in close on one of the gun emplacements. You will want to be at either the 0.1 or 0.0 map width. Click the ‘New infrastructure’ button then select ‘Infrastructure’ under ‘Class’. Scroll down to where the antiaircraft guns are located. You have two choices here, the .50 cal machine gun and the 40mm cannon. Choose whichever one you prefer.

Note: You must select an American gun. If you select a Japanese gun it will fire at you instead of the Japanese bombers. In this mission Wake is an American held island so you must select an American gun to defend it. I have selected the 40mm gun in my example.

Orient the gun so that it is pointed away from the entrance.

Go around the island and place as many antiaircraft guns as you’d like, wherever you choose. You should place at least four to cover the four ‘corners’ of the island.

Note: Remember the lesson from Part 2, the more infrastructure you add to a mission the more drain there will be on your computer. This will be a very busy mission with lots of planes and ships. Don’t over do it on the antiaircraft guns.

When you are finished placing your guns, zoom out to the 6.9-mile map width and using the pan function, move the Island down toward the lower left-hand corner of the map.
See the illustration.

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