Just enough mental model
Seven short explainers — the ideas that make the capabilities click. No internals, no Lua, just how to think about what you're asking for.
Sessions: open, edit, save
Editing starts by opening a mission — open_miz hands back a
session that all further edits apply to. Changes accumulate in that session and touch
nothing on disk until save_miz writes the file in one atomic
step. You can open several missions at once, and abandoning a session leaves the file
exactly as it was.
Practical upshot: edits are cheap and reversible until you say "save".
open_mizsave_mizclose_mizlist_sessionsTheaters & coordinates
Every mission lives on one theater — Caucasus, Syria, Kola, Persian Gulf, and the rest. Internally DCS uses flat theater x/y coordinates; the world uses lat/lon. dcs-mcp accepts either everywhere a position is needed and converts per-theater, so "69.27°N 16.13°E" and a theater x/y both just work.
Airfields, runways, helipads, and parking spots are queryable per theater — useful anchors for placing things.
list_theaterslist_airfieldslist_parking_spotsGroups, units, routes, waypoints
DCS organizes everything as groups of units: a 4-ship flight is one group with four units; a SAM battery is one group whose units are launchers, radars, and support vehicles. Groups belong to a coalition and a country, and moving groups follow a route of waypoints.
Waypoints carry more than position — speed, altitude, and tasks (engage, orbit, refuel…) that shape AI behavior from that point on.
add_plane_groupadd_waypointadd_taskAir-defense sites
A working SAM site is a choreography problem: search radar, track radar, launchers, and support units, each the right type and spacing, or it won't fight properly. The site tools place the whole ensemble in one call with correct composition and layout — you pick the system and where it stands.
EWR radars extend detection; SHORAD fills the gaps; FARPs, convoys, and carrier groups follow the same one-call pattern.
create_sa11_sitecreate_patriot_sitecreate_ewrcreate_csgF10 drawings & layers
The F10 map can carry drawn overlays: threat rings, corridors, phase lines, labeled areas, icons. Drawings live on layers (Common, Blue, Red, Author…), which controls who sees them in multiplayer — draw the enemy IADS picture on the Blue layer and only Blue sees it.
Every drawn shape supports color, fill, and line style, so the picture reads like a proper mission brief.
add_drawing_circleadd_drawing_text_boxclear_layerWarehouses & cargo
Every airfield and supply unit has a warehouse — the stock of fuel, weapons, and aircraft available there. Limited warehouses make logistics matter: strike the depot and the fighters run dry. Suppliers chain warehouses together so stock flows along the network.
Dynamic-cargo and troop-transport setups build on the same machinery.
get_warehouseset_warehouse_inventoryadd_warehouse_supplierTerrain analysis
dcs-mcp reads elevation from DCS's own terrain, so questions like "is this slope flat enough for a FARP?", "can the radar on this hill see the valley?", or "profile the ridge between these two points" get numeric answers — elevation samples, slope statistics, line-of-sight verdicts, and full viewsheds.
The caveat: it's bare-earth data — buildings and trees aren't in the elevation model. A separate scenery check covers man-made obstructions; forests deserve a human eye.
sample_terrainterrain_statscheck_losviewshedTriggers, zones & goals
Zones are named areas — circles or polygons. Triggers watch for conditions ("unit enters zone", "time elapsed", "group dead") and fire actions (messages, flags, sounds, AI pushes). Goals score the mission so DCS can declare a winner.
Together they're the difference between a sandbox and a mission: consequence, pacing, and a win condition.
add_zoneadd_triggeradd_goal