AI Vehicle Movements

In 1.2.7 AI vehicles do not keep their interval when driving on road as they did in 1.2.6. At times AI vehicles will not stay on road even when given the On-road route via ME. Maybe an issue with objects (buildings) being to close to the roads. This bug has made many missions unplayable and really hurt using AI vehicles from point to point.

I can provide video or screenshots if needed. Complete fresh new install of 1.2.7 on new gaming rig.

Can you post an mission with the AI group isolated exhibiting this behavior? In terms of AI behavior a mission/track file is way more useful than screenshots or a video.

Sounds like the same issue I was having grimes... I'm not sure about "not staying on the roads" but perhaps that is just short form for "warming up tires formula 1 style for an entire mission" as a result of poor place keeping ability you already reported.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=120932

Test Track and Mission

2 AI vehicles going from off-road (railroad tracks) to on-road, turn onto side road and instead of following road they go off road and stop well short of their DP. Seems like there is an issue with the roads or AI in general, this was not an issue in 1.2.6 and this needs to be fixed asap.

test_veh.trk

TEST_VEH.miz

It is caused more or less by the group missing the destination points ETA even though it isn't time locked. So the time gets reached, the AI have so long to get there, and then freak out and give up for unknown reasons. They don't get there in time because the set speed for each of their waypoints is 75 kph and those specific vehicles can't even go that fast on road, let alone off road. The top speed off road seems to be around 45 kph while if given a straight enough road they can get up to 65 kph. Thus their speed locked ETA is never going to be reached because they spend very little time going anywhere near the needed speed and fall behind schedule. I easily fixed it by removing all but the first and last on road waypoint and set the final WP to be time locked. You could also change the speeds for each waypoint to be a little more reasonable.

I will be curious to know if this is indeed a bug that came with 1.2.7 that may have had an impact on other missions or just an issue with this mission. Hopefully an answer to this question can be found in the final analysis. So often I have asked myself the question, did I fail a mission because the mission is broke or because I lacked the skills to be successful?

I wonder if ED realizes that the number of faithful DCS enthusiasts is dwindling and that many like myself are hanging on by a thread only due to their enjoyment of the MP aspect alone. This kind of issue may be trivial to many that dabble in SP only, but HUGE to folks like me.

Yeah but how about missions where they have more than two waypoints? I am not trying to be an a-hole here, but this worked fine in 1.2.6. and for whatever reason ED changed it in 1.2.7....

Ok, can we get back to where it worked in 1.2.6, why was it changed, if it doesn't help the game then why was it changed in the first place?

Its a bug with 1.2.7, I have made complex convoy routes with hold points, different speeds, off-road, on-road, and never had this problem.

It is caused more or less by the group missing the destination points ETA even though it isn't time locked. So the time gets reached, the AI have so long to get there, and then freak out and give up for unknown reasons. They don't get there in time because the set speed for each of their waypoints is 75 kph and those specific vehicles can't even go that fast on road, let alone off road. The top speed off road seems to be around 45 kph while if given a straight enough road they can get up to 65 kph. Thus their speed locked ETA is never going to be reached because they spend very little time going anywhere near the needed speed and fall behind schedule. I easily fixed it by removing all but the first and last on road waypoint and set the final WP to be time locked. You could also change the speeds for each waypoint to be a little more reasonable.

Very interesting thanks for the tip. I will give this a shot.

I experience AI vehicles stopping short on their destination in a mission I created a while back; and never could figure it out. Sometimes they would reach their destination 90% of the time, but then when I was beta testing with my squad (as usual) the bug would occur and that was no fun.

I appreciate the help Grimes, but try late activation with multiple hold points along the route. What is the best way to get this working?

Ok, got it working for the most part, checked the route time at WP 0, and checked speed lock for all other WP's. I do not have a DP (destination point), but besides the 2nd vehicle in the convoy bunching with the first, works pretty good.

Ok, got it working for the most part, checked the route time at WP 0, and checked speed lock for all other WP's. I do not have a DP (destination point), but besides the 2nd vehicle in the convoy bunching with the first, works pretty good.

Do you plan on offering an updated version of WTS A-10 only soon?

Do you plan on offering an updated version of WTS A-10 only soon?

Yup working on it right now, should be done shortly.

I appreciate the help Grimes, but try late activation with multiple hold points along the route. What is the best way to get this working?

Ran a few more tests...

So far the most reliable means is to set the speed to a reasonable and achievable rate for the AI in the group. As long as the AI can maintain or mostly maintain the set speed they will arrive at their destination. If speed lock is used any delays in their route like hold points, combat, etc won't actually have an impact. It seems to be the act of knowing they must go so fast and their inability to achieve that speed is what is causing the AI to bug out.

ETA locking is a little different as the scenario can cause the AI to get behind schedule, thus need to travel faster, thus may need to go faster than what is possible. At that point this specific bug will rear its ugly head and will cause the AI to halt about a minute after the ETA. If there are no delays and the ETA forces a reasonable speed the AI will reach the destination just fine.

Late activation should not have ANY impact on the ai driving performance. When the late activation check box is ticked you will notice that all times are now based on if the group started at 00:00:00/00. All timings are now set to occur a X time AFTER the group is activated and are relative to whenever that happens. It functions exactly the same as normal with the only difference being that the "time based activation" is known, so an ETA is provided based on mission time.

but besides the 2nd vehicle in the convoy bunching with the first, works pretty good.

That was happening because your speed was setup so both vehicles tried to travel as fast as possible without getting into formation first. Which is another bug I have reported. Also you have the 2nd vehicle in your mission starting ahead of the 1st vehicle along their route so it just stays in front the whole time.

Ran a few more tests...

 

So far the most reliable means is to set the speed to a reasonable and achievable rate for the AI in the group. As long as the AI can maintain or mostly maintain the set speed they will arrive at their destination. If speed lock is used any delays in their route like hold points, combat, etc won't actually have an impact. It seems to be the act of knowing they must go so fast and their inability to achieve that speed is what is causing the AI to bug out.

 

ETA locking is a little different as the scenario can cause the AI to get behind schedule, thus need to travel faster, thus may need to go faster than what is possible. At that point this specific bug will rear its ugly head and will cause the AI to halt about a minute after the ETA. If there are no delays and the ETA forces a reasonable speed the AI will reach the destination just fine.

 

Late activation should not have ANY impact on the ai driving performance. When the late activation check box is ticked you will notice that all times are now based on if the group started at 00:00:00/00. All timings are now set to occur a X time AFTER the group is activated and are relative to whenever that happens. It functions exactly the same as normal with the only difference being that the "time based activation" is known, so an ETA is provided based on mission time.

 

 

 

That was happening because your speed was setup so both vehicles tried to travel as fast as possible without getting into formation first. Which is another bug I have reported. Also you have the 2nd vehicle in your mission starting ahead of the 1st vehicle along their route so it just stays in front the whole time.

Thanks Grimes, got it working to an acceptable level with your help.

Ran a few more tests...

 

So far the most reliable means is to set the speed to a reasonable and achievable rate for the AI in the group. As long as the AI can maintain or mostly maintain the set speed they will arrive at their destination. If speed lock is used any delays in their route like hold points, combat, etc won't actually have an impact. It seems to be the act of knowing they must go so fast and their inability to achieve that speed is what is causing the AI to bug out.

 

ETA locking is a little different as the scenario can cause the AI to get behind schedule, thus need to travel faster, thus may need to go faster than what is possible. At that point this specific bug will rear its ugly head and will cause the AI to halt about a minute after the ETA. If there are no delays and the ETA forces a reasonable speed the AI will reach the destination just fine.

 

Late activation should not have ANY impact on the ai driving performance. When the late activation check box is ticked you will notice that all times are now based on if the group started at 00:00:00/00. All timings are now set to occur a X time AFTER the group is activated and are relative to whenever that happens. It functions exactly the same as normal with the only difference being that the "time based activation" is known, so an ETA is provided based on mission time.

 

 

 

That was happening because your speed was setup so both vehicles tried to travel as fast as possible without getting into formation first. Which is another bug I have reported. Also you have the 2nd vehicle in your mission starting ahead of the 1st vehicle along their route so it just stays in front the whole time.

Grimes any chance these bugs will be fixed in 1.2.8? Seems to have broken alot of good missions.

This is still game breaking, AI vehicles do not keep their intervals, is there anyway to modify a lua file to get the vehicles to act as they did in 1.2.6?

I'm also experiencing this bug with convoys / AI vehicles. Even when they are set to a reasonable speed 25mph for a they don't maintain expected behavior. i.e they will buch-up, rear-end each other and, crossing bridges becomes very hit-and-miss.

I assumed this was a known bug and would be fixed with 1.2.8. But it hasn't...

It seems that when a lead vehicle approaches any corner it will slow down too much for the corner. i.e. HUMV set for 60mph on straight road will slow to 18mph for a 15 degree turn on the highway...

Eh ranger... Do what I did and start building f-15 missions instead lol.

Eh ranger... Do what I did and start building f-15 missions instead lol.

LOL, actually I have been doing some FSX flying. Modding is on hold as well. Why make vehicles when they dont even work.

Ah, that's why my AI ignore the "hold 5 min" command at intermediate waypoints ... :(

I can confirm. Is it already reported?

In the mission there is a group of 2 vehicles which spawn 1-2 miles close to an airfield. Then they should move to this airfield that it will belong to their coalition. But they just stop driving after maybe 0.5 miles. :megalol:

I guess this is not on the priority list of fixes at the moment.

sadly. Also, I noticed that using mist goToRandomPoint function, the speed of the AI units will be 141 km/h regardless of speed specified in the variables :(