[REPORTED] Possible F-18C Lot 20 AI air to air refuel bug

[Kazius]

I'm not 100% sure of this but I don't think AI F-18C Lot 20's refuel there external tanks. I have been building a mission and testing through a few times and I take off, half way to target I top off at a KC-130 and tell the AI to refuel as well. Upon return from the strike my AI wingman reports bingo fuel, meanwhile I have 60% fuel left.

 

So I used some script to report fuel after refueling and noticed with 1 external tank each, I refuel to 120% and the AI only refueled to 100%. See image below (sorry, wasn't being fancy on making numbers into percentages):

 

[Eagle7907]

Possible F-18C Lot 20 AI air to air refuel bug

 

Did you tell -2 to refuel again? I noticed and reported that -2 will refuel internal tanks. You have to tell him to refuel again to fill external tanks.

 

Same thing happens with Harrier.

 

AI Wingman refuel Harrier

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Edited December 17, 2018 by Eagle7907

[Kazius]

Did you tell -2 to refuel again? I noticed and reported that -2 will refuel internal tanks. You have to tell him to refuel again to fill external tanks.

 

Same thing happens with Harrier.

 

AI Wingman refuel Harrier

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yeah, I told him to refuel again and no joy.

 

This is super easy to reproduce so I will add a track file next flight.

[Eagle7907]

Hmmm. Interesting. And did -2 hook up on left basket?

 

 

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[Kazius]

Made a track file. Repeatedly tried to force him to fill his tank some more and he just doesn't get it :) But that is why humans are still the superior race.

AI F-18 Dont Refuel External Tanks.trk

[Eagle7907]

Yeah. On a hunch, I tried refueling again just to test out and see if I can recreate the problem with the hornet. I made a simple mission with flight starting on airfield with center tank (full obviously) but internal tanks at 20%. In flight the fuel transferred as it should from center external to internal tanks quickly. It did, but when I told -2 to refuel, he finished before me as expected. However, when I told him to refuel again....nope. Would either acknowledge then immediately rejoin with me, or he would acknowledge then go up and get intimate with the basket but never mate with it. Then when he does mate, he quickly disconnects and rejoins.

 

 

 

I don't get it.

[Kazius]

So I discovered this isn't just an F-18C Lot 20 AI refueling bug but a more wide spread DCS World bug. I tested this in the Mirage 2000C and experienced the same issue.

 

Edit: I am Pontiac 11 and wingman is Pontiac 12. As you can see the wingman also burns fuel way faster than me. AI wingman probably need to be looked at for why they burn so much fuel.

 

 

AI Mirage-2000C Dont Refuel External Tanks.rar

Edited December 19, 2018 by Kazius
Added info.

[Deano87]

AI wingman probably need to be looked at for why they burn so much fuel.

 

Are you banning the wingmen from using afterburner out of interest? I know the AI will use burner at every available opportunity unless you stop them. They fly like me basically. ;)

[Eagle7907]

Nonetheless their external tanks are not being filled. That’s clear. Moderators please mark as reported. Two tracks were provided.

 

 

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[Kazius]

Are you banning the wingmen from using afterburner out of interest? I know the AI will use burner at every available opportunity unless you stop them. They fly like me basically. ;)

 

I hope not, I'm usually flying at less than half throttle. In this mission I have been taking off without afterburner, throttling down a bit to maintain 300-350 kias in a 10 degree climb. Once at 10,000 feet I level off and reduce throttle more so my wingman can finish catching up. Once I spot him off my wing I maintain speed of 350 kias until I get to the tanker. So usually my fuel flow is down in the 38/39 range in the hornet and I think it was the same in the M-2000C.

 

In the image I was already slowing for the tanker I think.

 

I have watched the flights in Tacview and the wingman doesn't do anything stupid that would require him to use burner.

[Deano87]

I have watched the flights in Tacview and the wingman doesn't do anything stupid that would require him to use burner.

 

That doesn’t stop DCS AI. I’ve done dry takeoffs and very leisurely climbs and my wingmen have been in burner for some of the time while catching up. I get the impression that unless you specifically control their burner usage they will use it any time they need to accelerate the Jet. Best thing is to watch live using F2 and see if they are doing it. You can limit their burner usage by one of the waypoint options. Obviosly it doesn’t help with the refuelling issue but it might stop them using more fuel then required.

[Kazius]

Thanks Deano, I will look into the ME and see if I can find where to set it so they are not allowed to use AB until after Fence In point or even IP and maybe at takeoff from carriers or airfields if loaded with near max loads.

[Deano87]

No problem!

 

Here is that actual option - https://wiki.hoggitworld.com/view/DCS_option_prohibitAB

 

And you can define it as a waypoint option. Like you would to say, set the TACAN on a tanker or change the ROE for an aircraft. Its in that menu somewhere. I'm not near my gaming rig at the moment so can't check but once you have a look it should be fairly self explanatory.

[Kazius]

I did further testing while building a scheduler for tanker rotations. Non-wingman AI do refuel external tanks. It is only the AI wingman that is broken.

[Deano87]

I did further testing while building a scheduler for tanker rotations. Non-wingman AI do refuel external tanks. It is only the AI wingman that is broken.

 

Interesting, how are you confirming that the Wingmen aren't filling tanks?

[Kazius]

Fuel report script using the getfuel API function. In the missions I have had the script in. I have refueled when at about 60-80% I think. After refueling the report showed me at about 120% and AI wingman at only 100% which would indicate only his internal fuel was filled. I have done another test but didn't save a mission track where I set the AI to restrict AB usage and flew it carefully so the AI was on my wing at all times. We refueled from roughly the same amount and ended up with me at over 120% and him at 100% still. When we took off it reported him at same as me which was over 120%.

 

Here is the script. Its something I modified from hoggitworld example. Just replace the names in the groupNames list. I used MOOSE framework too. So you will need to include the framework or just change it to use the API message function. The round function is found on many various webpages, not sure who gets the credit for it. I was being lazy.

 

function round(num, numDecimalPlaces)
 local mult = 10^(numDecimalPlaces or 0)
 return math.floor(num * mult + 0.5) / mult
end

function GetFuelReport()
 local groupNames = {
   "RCAF Attack CF-188 #001",
   "FAF Attack M-2000C #001"
 }
 local flightFuel = {}
 local callSign = {}
 for n = 1, #groupNames do
   if Group.getByName( groupNames[n] ) ~= nil then
     for i, unitObject in pairs(Group.getByName( groupNames[n] ):getUnits()) do
       flightFuel[i] = Unit.getFuel(unitObject)
       callSign[i] = Unit.getCallsign(unitObject)
       MESSAGE:New( callSign[i] .. ": " .. round(flightFuel[i]*100, 2), 15 ):ToBlue()
     end
   end
 end
end

 

Or a more pure MOOSE framework version I did. This one you just add a partial group name to the SET_GROUP constructor method.

 

function round(num, numDecimalPlaces)
 local mult = 10^(numDecimalPlaces or 0)
 return math.floor(num * mult + 0.5) / mult
end

-- Test Script for Fuel Reports

UtilitiesMenu = MENU_COALITION:New( coalition.side.BLUE, "Utilities" )

function ReportFuelSets()
 ActiveSupportFlightGroup = SET_GROUP
   :New()
   :FilterPrefixes( { "AWACS", "Tanker" } )
   :FilterActive()
   :FilterStart()
 SupportFlightGroupNames = ActiveSupportFlightGroup:GetSetNames()
 MESSAGE:New( "There are currently " .. #SupportFlightGroupNames .. " AWACs and Tanker flight groups.", 30 ):ToAll()
 for i = 1,  #SupportFlightGroupNames do
   FlightGroup = GROUP:FindByName(SupportFlightGroupNames[i])
   FlightGroupType = FlightGroup:GetTypeName()
   FlightGroupsFuel = FlightGroup:GetFuel()
   MESSAGE:New( SupportFlightGroupNames[i] .. " - " .. FlightGroupType .." : " .. round(FlightGroupsFuel, 2)*100 .. "% Fuel", 15):ToBlue()
 end
end

FuelReportSetsAdd = MENU_COALITION_COMMAND:New( coalition.side.BLUE, "Set Groups Fuel Reports", UtilitiesMenu, ReportFuelSets)

Edited January 30, 2019 by Kazius

[Kazius]

Ok, one more thing. I think it is only the center line tanks that don't get refueled.

 

I've been testing refueling a lot since I was creating script for fuel rotation and getting tankers in the air before the other tanker goes off station. I now noticed that the AI Mirage 2000C's that are not wingmen only refueled to 100%. Since I was only using a center line tank on that aircraft.

 

The F-15C's (3 ext tanks) refueled to about 140%. The F-18C Lot 20's (3 ext tanks) to about 130%. But I think they take off with more fuel as a % but that would require further testing to verify. So it is possible that the center line tank only for all AI aircraft is not refueling air to air refueling.

[Deano87]

Ok so going back to your earlier statement. You said wingmen AI don’t refuel and non-wingmen AI do, when you rested this were you using two different aircraft/tank configs?

[Kazius]

Ok so going back to your earlier statement. You said wingmen AI don’t refuel and non-wingmen AI do, when you rested this were you using two different aircraft/tank configs?

 

AI wingman refuels, but there middle external tank doesn't get filled up.

 

Then I noticed AI non-wingman refuel beyond 100% and so I thought it was only AI wingman that was bugged. However, later testing I noticed AI non-wingman who only have center external tanks don't refuel beyond 100%.

 

This leads me to believe it is only the center external tank that has a bug for AI controlled aircraft.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Kazius

[patpatpowercat]

If you check the SA page you can see a wingman just after topping off at tanker doesn't fill external tank.