bitboy

Ahhh the Pulser, good point, never thought of that, interesting. Wiring for each airframe....yes unwieldy, but that would encourage a limited number of aircraft. I'll investigate, thanks for the insight.

cfrag, Any means of running a StopWatch type of function with DML? I'm looking at delayFlags but they seem to be countdown oriented. The scenario I'm trying to implement, would be a race course with gates (trigger zones), Start a timer, get a lap time at each gate, then total elapsed time at finish. Possibly some penalty for exceeding a specified altitude. The use of the messenger module seems well suited for this as well. As always any insight is appreciated. Thxs

Thanks! Yeah my whole life has been a series of OR gates. I will check it out. Have a good weekend.

cFrag I a quick question. Is it possible to have two different flags for an input attribute? So for example, let's say I have a spawn? for a cloner or an activate? for a pulser, could there be two or more possible flags listed? (Just comma delimited?) This way having multiple options to start a cloner or pulser. Thxs

@DD_Friar You bet, let me know if you still end up wrestling with this idea. I'm happy to share a mission with you where I've done this in the past.

@DD_Friar you've probably already tried this, but setting up a switched trigger option in the ME, using unit altitude above ground (don't forget to switch to meters to get the height levels correct, we tried the metric system in the US....apparently it made too much sense...based on 10s and such! ). Usually I setup a trigger zone and make the conditions: if unit is in this zone and above this altitude then warnings and bad things happen. The only drawback is that because it's designed by unit it can be a little cumbersome to setup depending on how many players you're expecting. I did this recently with a DML based mission, using the bombing range module, and I put a ceiling limit on the players, (two actuallly, one that warns them when they're about 300 ft from the limit and then the actual "over the limit violation"). Works like a charm. Good luck!

cFrag, Thanks for the follow up. Missed that one, Persistence saving flags...so they don't fire again...problem solved. The second part the "WARNING TRANSPORT (Main): CREATING PATH MAKES TOO LONG!!!!!" is not from a DML module, (your English is fine BTW ), it's taken from the DCS.log it's what I captured when I had Attackers spawning at a factory but never moving to attack an enemy zone nearby (15 nm away). I think it's has to do with the map. I'm using Normandy v2 map. Also I did some research and this particular DCS.log warning message has been a known issue with AI pathing for quite sometime. I haven't encountered this on Caucasus or Syria which is why I'm a little suspect of the map. I was curious if you had come across this before or not. thxs

cFrag, Starting to run into this error/warning with use to the attackers with the Factory module. WARNING TRANSPORT (Main): CREATING PATH MAKES TOO LONG!!!!! The AI struggle to figure out how to get going. This didn't seem to happen on the Caucasus and Syria maps, (I'm using Normandy v2 for this one). I decided to scrap the Factory and use a cloner as a test. The "attackers" where setup in a clone zone with waypoints all on road to their destination. Using the cloner with pulser worked great, except I wanted to limit the pulser to only 3 instances and it did three pulses, but then after a while it started pulsing again. No other conditions had changed. From what I understand the AI pathing withing DCS has been a long time issue, so I may have to just find ways to work around it. Thxs

cFrag, A question regarding how input flags are processed with Clone Zones. Here's the scenario: 1) I have several Clone Zones that spawn AA units based on the activation of a Flag. The flag is activated by a standard ME trigger zone when Blue air units enter a trigger zone (call it ABLE, this is Once only trigger). Also the expectation is once the AA is destroyed there is no need to re-Clone it....so a one time Clone only. Also trying to limit the number of units at start and keep mission performance optimized as the mission covers a large area and since the players are only in certain sectors at any given time I only want the applicable units "live" for that sector to conserve resources. (Imposters maybe...I'll look at that option as well). 2) The AA unit(s) spawn in at Red airfield (Owned Zone), in order to protect it. However assume at some point the airfield is captured by Blue. 3) The mission would leverage Persistence, so the concern is, the next time the mission fires up, even with the original AA units destroyed, the ABLE trigger would be live again causing the Cloner put the AA units at the airfield, not the ideal situation since Blue captured the airfield during the last session and it was saved via persistence. Sooo, the question is, how would I go about evaluating a flag(s) to prevent the AA from spawning in if the airfield is controlled by Blue? I have tried having the Cloner pause? or Wipe? based on Flags that I have set for when ownership of the airfield changes to Blue. However I think part of the problem is, since I'm using the spawn? to see the ABLE flag go active the Cloner disregards the other inputs or I'm using the wrong inputs....or I'm approaching this the wrong way. LOL Any insight or suggestions are appreciated. Thxs UPDATE: Impostors!! Such a simple module and yet what a game changer. The Impostors module with some Switch Triggers sprinkled in to set off Flags, very slick!

Thanks I was considering that as well. I know the demo you speak of, sounds like a plan. Thxs

cfrag, Is there the ability to offset or change the placement location of Defenders in a Factory zone? I see there are attributes for attackers: attackPhi and attackDelta. Just looking for a means of offsetting the Defenders from the center of the zone when they spawn in. Using the formation attribute helps some. And these Factory zones are not linked zones so the offset feature of a linked unit wouldn't apply either. If it's not a current feature of DML, no worries, just double checking here. Thxs

LOL yeah no worries I have nothing against onStart attribute. In many cases with the Multiplayer stuff I develop, not everything rolls at the beginning. (Sometimes for immersion, sometimes for DCS performance reasons). Thanks for the insight, I'll dive deeper with the pulser, I was already looking at that based on a couple of the Clone demo missions. Thxs

cFrag, Looking for some insight on a scenario that I'm trying to sort with Clone Zones. 1) Would like the Cloner to start with a delay or fire off with an input from another trigger zone. So the spawn? would be trigger with a value or Flag, I don't want to use the no onStart attribute. 2) I would use the coolDown value of the Clone Zone to have gap, maybe 15 - 30 minutes or more, before the Cloner cycles a new group. 3) Lastly, have a Flag that would trigger the "pause" attribute in the Clone zone, stopping the Cloner when a condition is met. (Say an Owned Zone is captured, I know I could likely use a bang output from the OwnedZone here to set this value, I would just have the Clone zone watch for that value and then pause accordingly). Is there a specific demo mission I should look at or do you have a suggestion? thx

Do I have a demo miz for this, but of course! I'll send it too you. It's not a show stopper if some of the functionality is not working, but the level of detail that you can go with spawned units is very compelling.

cfrag, A few quick questions about the Spawn Orders. So I ran some tests this evening, I'm looking to have two types of groups spawn for Helo operations. One type would called Garrison and they would use the default order of Guard. The other group would be called Assault, the orders for this spawn group is attackOwnedZone. Spawning works great, no issues with types (although I came across a typeMult attribute...tried it and it didn't seem to do anything), but formation and everything worked fine on the spawners. I had placed an enemy zone (a factory zone owned by Red with a few infantry defenders), nearby. When I dropped the Assault group they never moved, in fact I would get the message that they "deployed to the ground with orders to guard". (This was using the "wait-" parameter with the orders when they units first spawned in, prior to helo pickup). The problem seemed to get resolved when I added a range parameter to the attackOwnedZone command. Does the attackOwnedZone command require a range parameter? (Well for me it did, in the documentation it appeared that it did not require it). ?? I was assuming behavior just like attackers produced at a factory...seek out and attack any enemy or neutral zones anywhere on the map. What does the attribute typeMult do? (I was thinking it multiplied the number of unit types defined in the spawner? BTW I like how the units indicate what there doing with attack commands, for example "Team -1 is engaging enemy forces at 2200 meters" Thxs

Excellent, I'll have to dive into the documentation to sort that out, probably review several of the example missions to see the config in action. Thxs Update: Ok found exactly what I was looking for (Orders for Spawning units), it was there all along but I kept jumping over the section in rush to read the next cool thing.

cfrag, Is there a means of using the Commander module to set specific orders for spawned troops? For example, it looks like requestable spawn helo troops default to "guard" which is fine, but is there logic in place currently that would allow orders like "assault" so that helo troops dropped into a LZ would behave like factory spawned units.....seek out enemy owned zones/factory zones and attempt to capture? Currently they way I handle this is the DCS "Player can drive/control ground units" option, thereby letting players go to the F10 map and issue orders to deployed units. Thxs

cfrag, Reference the Mortar addition to the heloTroops - legalTroops scenario. Ran your Morty and Me mission, worked just fine. The only difference from what I was doing is, I was using a requestable spawner to pop the mortar team in. I took your mission, added the spawner and presto it worked as expected. (I even used the now "old" Spawner 2.0.1 with the newer DML 2.0.2 stuff). So my conclusion is, I probably fat fingered an entry on an attribute at some point. Thxs

The Bean counters!!! Like'em or not...they do make the world go round. DML 2.0.2 looks great, thanks for sharing.

Yes that's correct, 2B11 mortar as you indicated (my feeble eyes fail again). I used the MrSkortch DB of units and just copy-pasted. I also tried just added it as a single entry for the legelTroops and with a copy and paste of the defaults units in documentation....along with adding it at the end of the string. Also added the mortar to the spawners for the Helo Troop pickup areas. If the mortar is considered a "legal unit" at the LUA level, in other words there are no restrictions to adding artillery to the list, versus adding armor for example, then I'm likely doing something wrong.

Very interesting indeed, good info. Well don't be too harsh, your "Goldfish Brain" came up with DML and that's pretty slick. Coach Lasso would be proud. On another note, the heloTroopsConfig module, in terms of the "legalTroops" attribute, I've tried adding a Mortar 2811 to the list, however the group fails to appear as a pickup option in the Airlift troops section. Is this because it's not "infantry"? Would an edit to the Helo Troops LUA make that possible? (Not planning on doing that, just curious.) Not looking at the whole sling loading thing, but the ability to transport a small mortar team would be nice. Maybe it's something already in the works for the next DML version? Thxs

cfrag, So looks like there is indeed a hierarchy for airbase capture. Check out this post from November 2023. The testing Grimes conducted appears to clearly call out a hierarchical order, a good list to keep note of for sure. Nothing scripting wise to fix this per se, it's as you mentioned more of how ED has designed the rules. Either way it's enough clarification for me, I'll just keep this little list handy and go from there. Thanks, bitboy

razo+r, Most excellent, thanks for the follow up. The hierarchy definitely stands out, especially based on the testing from Grimes. Thanks for sharing. bitboy

Hi, So what is the defined logic for airbase capture within DCS? To be more specific does an armored unit's presence prevent airbase capture versus the presence of an Infantry unit? Here is the scenario, Batumi airbase (Blue), is guarded by 3 or four Infantry units and is attacked by 4 Red units, 1 BMP and 3 Infantry. The airbase capture logic in DCS, as I understand it, is once all the defenders are destroyed and the attackers are withing the airbase zone, the airbase will be captured and switch to the capturing coalition side. In my scenario, as soon as the Red attackers (specifically the Red BMP), enters the Batumi airbase zone, the airbase is captured despite the fact that there are still Blue Infantry defenders in the airbase zone. ?!?!? Is this the expected behavior or bug? When I give the Blue defenders an APC as well, the assault on Batumi goes as expected, the battle between Red and Blue wages until one side or the other is defeated. If Blue wins, the airbase stays under Blue control, if Blue is destroyed and Red has forces within the airbase zone, then the airbase is captured and goes to Red control. Just looking for clarification or if this is a bug, then a fix or correction. Thanks, bitboy

cfrag, Nice analysis, I think you're on to something there. I'll see what "cages I can rattle" to see if ED can provide a definitive answer or definition to the capture rules. Thanks!