Here is a perfect example

I use this because in echo bay, more than just the zone has to be occupied for the triggers to work. Things have to be dead and stuff before the smoke turns green. For a simple version of that, we'll use THE DAM:
www.dropbox.com/s/tqy5mcqs5xvc9ig/F99TH_THE%20DAM3.miz?dl=0

Try not to let the number of triggers overwhelm you. Look at the GREEN C1, ORANGE C1, BLUE C1, RED C1 triggers. These are the triggers for capture zone "C1"

For each zone in that mission, I have a total of 4 possible colors that the zone could be depending on the conditions you see in those triggers. So for each zone, there are 4 triggers.

You also note that each "condition" trigger has a FLAG 99 EQUALS 10. This is the smoke timer cygon was telling you about. I use flag 99. It doesn't matter what flag number you use.

You need the following triggers for the continuous smoke:

This trigger "counts" all the time. Storing that value in flag 99.
CONTINUOUS ACTION
--NAME: TIMER
--CONDITION: (EMPTY)
--ACTION: INCREASE FLAG 99 BY 1

This trigger reset the counter after it reaches 5 mins.
SWITCHED CONDITION
--NAME: TIMER RESET
--CONDITION: FLAG 99 EQUALS 300
--ACTION: SET FLAG 99 TO 0

Now we have a 5 min timer that we can use for things that we need to repeat every 5 mins. For example the smoke.

In all the triggers for zone control and smoke in that mission - it is at the 10 second point - on the 5 min timer that we check the zone status and blow the smoke. The smoke lasts for 5 mins. We only check at the 10 second point. If you try and check every second you will have a NEW smoke every second. We use 5 mins because that is how long the smoke lasts. Since you can't turn it off and must wait for it to end, you will end up with different color smokes on the same spot if less than 5 min timers are used. It doesn't matter what second you pick. 5 mins is 5 mins. I pick 10 cuz that's the default in the editor

Fun fact while testing smoke: If you are not in a client slot BEFORE the 10 second mark - and you miss the triggering of the smoke timer - you will not see it until the next 5 min firing. So if the smoke fires, and then someone logs in, they will not see any smoke until the next firing of the trigger.

Feel free to open the mission and see exactly what I did.

I just realized that cygon uses a counter that counts down, while I use a counter that counts up!

lol

Just goes to show you - there is often more than 1 way to accomplish the same goal.

You want them to engage friendly? Lost me on that one.

Check each way point. They can have their own speed and alt. If you set the speed on the first way point first, all other way points will inherit that setting. Forget to do that and you will have to set each one manually.

The ai is terminally stupid. They don't always do what you want. Or there are game mechanics happening in the background that are not revealed to the player / mission maker. Like if it runs out of fuel and heads home, it won't attack at that point. Even ignoring enemy planes shooting at it. Sometimes all settings will be correct and the ai will still do is own thing because of some condition you can't see. Can be frustrating to test.

The .miz file created by the mission editor is actually just a .zip file renamed.. you could open it with the various zip utilities that are out there and browse it's folder structure.

It contains all the assets required to run the mission. You should be fine.

Also, if you have ever connected to another server and played a MP mission - you have the entire mission. The .trk files contain the mission and all the scripts. You could dissect any mission just by opening the .trk file (also a zip).