The journey so far...​

After a frustrating weekend of trying to add some new features, it became apparent the Frag Orders code base is starting to buckle under it's own weight. After 5 years and over 1300 code commits, many of the decisions that were made early on are causing friction when trying to extend and maintain the project. In addition, thanks to our Premium subscribers, we now have some cash flow that can be used to pay for some of the operational costs of a more robust and professional architecture.

Some stats about the size of the project:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                     files          blank        comment           code
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeScript                     441           6564           1298          52794
JSON                             9              0              0          18852
JavaScript                      13            177            731           3655
SVG                              4              4              0            219
HTML                             4             16              0             75
YAML                             2             10              3             60
Markdown                         1              9              0             14
TOML                             1              2              0              8
DOS Batch                        1              0              0              1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                           477           6795           2032          75760
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's time for the rewrite​

We have already begun work on what can be thought of as "Frag Orders 2". This new project will be built using a client-server architecture (original Frag Orders was VERY client-heavy) that will allow for a wider range of new features. Some of these might include:

• Real-time planning and drawing: changes to waypoints, radios, drawing, etc can be synced in real time between planners, allowing for a richer planning experience
• Collaboration and Role-based Access Control: allow for multiple mission creators to work on the same Frag Order and control access to Frag Orders via Discord roles
• REST/RPC API: with a client-server model, data and operations can be opened up for third-party tooling
• Events, Organizations, and Signups: this will be a major focus of FO2 enabled by collaboration and role-based access control

These are some of the areas that would have been very difficult in the current architecture, but are somewhat easier if baked into the backend logic from scratch.

FAQ​

Q: What happens to the current version of Frag Orders?
A: It will keep running as it is today, staying ready for any bug fixes to be deployed. There will not be major feature development on this going forward.

Q: Will my subscription roll over to Frag Orders 2?
A: Yes! No change or additional purchase necessary

Q: Will Frag Orders 2 Premium cost more?
A: Nope! No price increases for the forseeable future.

Q: When will Frag Orders 2 be launched?
A: When it is ready! There is no launch timeline currently. I can say with confidence it will be released before the DCS F-35.

Frag Orders has moved to a self-hosted tiling solution. This new tiling system will hopefully be a large cost savings and ensure the long-term health of the product, as well as open up the ability to have custom tile sets and styling parameters.

New Map Look​

Our new map look has a new color scheme for various districts. The style of this map is a work in progress, and the upside of this new hosting solution is that the map styles are customizable, allowing for different styling schemes that better suit a military flight sim.

This change will also open up the possibility for individual users or groups to edit their map style to their liking. Stay tuned!

One of the most larged pieces of technical debt in Frag Orders was the wonky mechanics around two users planning the same flight. The "rules" of planning flights have had several iterations, including various best-effort merging strategies, as well as prohibiting multiple planners from editing a single group. Each one of these iterations was a band-aid on a larger data modelling problem. This entire system needed to be re-worked.

Multiple users planning the same group​

The main goal of the new planning system is to allow multiple users to edit the same flight within a Frag Order without causing conflicts with each other. The new data model converts the plans from a single object per group to a collection of plan items for each group. This allows for different users to own different items in the list. As of this release, if users attempt to submit conflicting plan items, they wil recieve an error message:

Even though this waypoint will not be saved, the second user will still be able to submit radio frequencies or laser codes, for example. On the mission creator side, they will be able to see all of the plan items that have been submitted:

Future Development Goals​

This new system will allow us to extend planning capabilities to support other feature requests, including:

• Real-time plan visualization: showing what other users are doing on the Frag Order in real time
• Advanced Fuel Planner: Waypoint-by-waypoint fuel plans, edited by multiple users.
• Timeline annotations: Add events to the Timeline editor to improve coordination

All new frag orders that are created will use the new planning system. Existing frag orders created before the release will still default to the old system.

Two new major features have been released to Frag Orders:

Timeline Editor​

The timeline editor has been added to give mission planners the ability to set their Time-on-Target information in relation to other flights. This will be an area where there will be more development in the near future. Read more about it in the documentation.

Fuel Planner​

A new fuel planner widget has been added to help planners calculate and communicate their fuel gameplan. Check out the section in the docs for more info.

Lots of new features were released over the summer! Here is an overview of our recent development efforts.

New Feature: Tacview Object Export​

We added the ability to export flight path as a Tacview data object. This can help level-up your debriefing process adding extra geo-spatial context to the tacview file. Read more about it here.

Lots of new features and bug fixes have been deployed in the last few months. Here is a recap of the highlights.

Major Feature: Batch Edit​

A new spreadsheet-centric workflow for editing data in your miz file has been added! The Batch Edit feature should make creating and updating large missions much easier.

Read more about it in the docs

February was a busy month for Frag Orders! Here are some of the highlights from the last couple months.

Navigation Target Point Planning​

It is now possible to for planners to add Navigation Target Points to via Frag Orders. This should help extend the capability of planners for certain modules, including the F-15E, F-14, JF-17 and more. Read more about it in the docs

Planning Rule UI Improvements​

A major rework of the planning rule input has been launched! Mission creators will now be presented with a more intuitive UI that can handle missions with many groups. In addition, it is now possible to edit a planning rule (rather than having to delete and recreate every time). The docs have been updated to reflect this new UI.

Large .miz file support​

A new storage backend has been deployed to remove the previous limit on .miz file size for publishing Frag Orders. This change will only apply to newly created Frag Orders, while old Frag Orders will still use the legacy storage backend. Upload your most complex .miz file and try it out!

We have launched the initial version of the user-requested Control Measures features. Control Measures allow for mission participants to draw various shapes on the Frag Order map canvas. This will hopefully allow for new ways to collaboratively plan a mission, and is especially good for any human controllers that might be participating in missions via third-party software, like LotATC.

Read more about it in the Frag Order Docs

It's time to go live! Our closed alpha period is coming to an end and will be replaced by an Open Beta program. Here are the highlights and what to expect:

Here is a quick recap of the features that have been added to Frag Orders recently.

Players Menu and Windows Re-work​

The behavior of the window system has been altered to allow for multiple flight info windows to be open at once. Before, when a group was clicked, their flight info would be visible while the group was focused. Now, clicking on a group's "View Data" button in the "Players" menu will bring up their window.

In addition, the Player menu has been re-worked to allow for easier filter controls and focus logic, as well as to accomodate the new window logic.

This allows for two flights to be easily comparable, and for planners to reference other flights more easily.

New Aircraft Data View​

Accompanying the new datalink features that have been added to DCS are some new Frag Orders features to visualize datalink addresses.

A new navigation button and window have been added to the public frag order view. This window will show aircraft-specific data for all flight members, and is meant to make it easier for adding other flights to your datalink configuration. Laser code data is also visible here for modules that support it.

STN numbers will also appear on auto-generated lineup cards:

Control Point Card​

A new auto-generated kneeboard has been added that shows the "Initial Point" locations that are defined in the DCS mission editor. Frag Orders refers to them generically as "Control Measures" in the hopes of adding more types of points in the future.

This kneeboard is intended to make the in-game "Initial Points" useful for more airframes (not just the A-10!).