Mission 9: lead & Saxon flight do not move

DCS 1.5.5.59992.205

In mission 9, I'm wingman, the other flights and my lead don't start taxiing.

Steps:

- did the alignment and started the engine

- communicated that I was ready to taxi (F10 "Two is ready for taxi")

=> received a "[PONTIAC 1-1] One. Taxi out."

- started taxiing, but apparently 1-1 remains in his box

- heard dialogue with 1-1 "[PONTIAC 1-1] Hey, this will be your first combat air patrol since you started your training. Follow my lead, stick close to me and and we will be fine." and following

- came to the runway threshold, waited a little longer, 1-1 still in his box

- took off, WP1, WP2, WP3

=> Pontiac 1-1 and Saxon remained in their parking, didn't move at all.

I tried that two times, it seems very reproducible. I don't think I did anything wrong, I haven't encountered this problem in any other previous mission.

Just as a test, I copied the mission file elsewhere and edited it with the ME.

I put the player (Pontiac 1-2) and Pontiac 1-1 respectivelly on parking IDs 38 and 39, like the first mission, and it seems to unlock the situation,

- Saxon 1-1 moves first, about 23 seconds into the mission (and Arco)

- Saxon 1-2 moves second, right after Saxon 1-1

- Pontiac 1-1 moves third, right after Saxon 1-2

This is strange to see Pontiac 1-1 start so early though, obviously he doesn't wait for the alignment to complete ;-)

Then, as before,

- did the alignment and started the engine

- communicated that I was ready to taxi (F10 "Two is ready for taxi")

=> received a "[PONTIAC 1-1] One. Taxi out."

- taxiied to the runway threshold

- had to get real close to 1-1 for the sequence to go on

- rest of the mission went apparently fine.

In conclusion,

- it seems some of the parking spots are bugged,

- shouldn't Pontiac 1-1 wait for the radio exchange before starting to taxi?

- the player has to get very close to the lead for him to move on the runway and take off.

Same issue in the first cap flight,I think mission 8. Lead is stuck in his bunker.

I will check with ED and hope this is solved soon. I will also have a look at the mission tonight.

Normally the AI lead in missions in which you play as a wingman are waiting for your sign to taxi blocked by some ground unit (there is no way to tell them to wait unless setting them as uncontrolled, but in that case you would have to wait more than 1.5 m between your "ready to taxi" and AI taxiing). But I will see what can be done.

Thanks!

That's why I provided temporary alternative parkings that seem to work, in case of doubt. I can check again with today's update, if there is any related change.

Normally the AI lead in missions in which you play as a wingman are waiting for your sign to taxi blocked by some ground unit (there is no way to tell them to wait unless setting them as uncontrolled, but in that case you would have to wait more than 1.5 m between your "ready to taxi" and AI taxiing). But I will see what can be done.

It's not a real problem, more a suggestion, since it's waiting in earlier missions I thought it was just a simple thing. In most configurations the player won't see the lead passing by anyway :)

I ran mission 9 again today, after update 3 of 1.5.5, and now there is a vehicle in front of 1-1 that I hadn't noticed before, and it works, the vehicle disappears once the player communicates he's ready and everything is fine.

Of course I get the "hold position" annoyance from the ATC as usual, hope this ATC will get some revamp soon ;)

Perhaps having to get too close to the lead before he decides to take off happens because I'm not waiting long enough?

Ah, I noticed a difference between the starting coordinates on the kneeboard (41 37 66 N, 045 02 78 E) and what is given by the map (41°37'39" N, 45°02'04" E).

The vehicle has always been there, perhaps something changed in the taxi logic. I will check it soon as well.

For the taxi, since you are No2 just switch to channel 2 and all should be fine.

As for the map / kneeboard - are you talking about the new one introduced with this patch or the custom one?

The vehicle has always been there, perhaps something changed in the taxi logic. I will check it soon as well.

I must have missed it before, I was looking at the lead with F2, but probably didn't zoom out enough.

For the taxi, since you are No2 just switch to channel 2 and all should be fine.

I could, but I'm just ignoring them, makes me feel like a rebel ;)

As for the map / kneeboard - are you talking about the new one introduced with this patch or the custom one?

I'm talking about the mission kneeboard, or the image on the briefing. Or the pdf, just realized they were there :) Here are the pics. It's not too far off.

UPDATE I still have the previous mission 9 of 1.5.5 update 2, since I tried to modify the parking number. The coordinates were correct, did you change something?

Erm. I quickly checked mission 1 and there's a difference too. The values I get on the map, by zooming to the maximum and pointing my mouse to the center of the aircraft (and which were matching the briefings before update 3), seem to correspond what is on the new Mirage kneeboard, although the latter are in decimal for the 3rd value and not in second. But they don't match the briefing...

Hmm... I changed them all from min/sec to decimal in order to be correct. But since we now have the official kneeboard, it will be easier just to stick to it.

Just checked M09, it works OK!

Yes, less work for you with the new kneeboard :)

Patched to the latest version today and removed all of my mods. The mission was still not working for me. I deleted Mission 9 and did a repair install to download a fresh copy. Still not working. I tried using ATC and not using ATC, but Pontiac 1-1 refuses to taxi in any case. I managed to get Pontiac 1-1 to taxi this time (and Saxon 1 and 2 followed) by setting his waypoint 0 to "Takeoff from Parking Hot" instead of "Takeoff from Ramp." I've attached track files showing each case.

[Edit]

Okay, now here is something bizarre. I just watched the track "Hot Parking," and Pontiac 1-1 did not taxi when I was watching the track. He DID, however, taxi when I saved the track. I think I must be losing my mind, or this is a really weird bug. I know it's not the wrong track because out of all my attempts, I only took the alternate taxiway once, and that was due to Saxon 1 and 2 taxiing when I reset Pontiac 1-1's IP to "Takeoff Parking Hot." When I played through the mission, Saxon 1 and 2 were parked in front of my hangar, but the track didn't show that when I played it back.

Mission9Pontiac11HotParking.part1.rar

Mission9Pontiac11HotParking.part2.rar

Mission9Pontiac11HotParking.part3.rar

Mission9NormalATC.part1.rar

Mission9NormalATC.part2.rar

Mission9NormalATC.part3.rar

Mission9NoATCPermit.part1.rar

Mission9NoATCPermit.part2.rar

Mission9NoATCPermit.part3.rar

That is bizzaire indeed, though things do happen in tracks which does not happen in game quite often. Try the mission I updated yesterday (changed only starting trigger) - it worked fine for me.

CORRECT LINK TO MISSION 9

I really hope you will be able to progress!!

That is bizzaire indeed, though things do happen in tracks which does not happen in game quite often. Try the mission I updated yesterday (changed only starting trigger) - it worked fine for me.

LINK TO MISSION 9

 

I really hope you will be able to progress!!

Unfortunately, the Google Drive link to Mission 9 takes me directly to the file for Mission 1. :( I appreciate the effort in trying to fix your product.

That's a good point about the track files. I recently tried again running the mission, and Pontiac 1-1 taxied along with Saxon 1 and 2. However, I got the same problem again with Saxon 1 and 2 not taking off. I tried redownloading the mission several times and setting the parking state to the same, and I still can't get it to trigger a takeoff for all three aircraft. It's like it only works randomly.

It blocked two times with further attempts, then it was fine with three more, and I couldn't find what made a difference so far. I first thought it was ATC, but it's not (though sometimes I get a denial for start-up, taxi or take-off - even when still taxiing for the latter).

That's pretty weird, I must do something different when lead doesn't start but no luck finding what. When it happened, I jumped into lead's seat and his engine had not started (or was shut down after). And I didn't check whether Saxon was off or not, shame.

Unfortunately, the Google Drive link to Mission 9 takes me directly to the file for Mission 1. :( I appreciate the effort in trying to fix your product.

 

That's a good point about the track files. I recently tried again running the mission, and Pontiac 1-1 taxied along with Saxon 1 and 2. However, I got the same problem again with Saxon 1 and 2 not taking off. I tried redownloading the mission several times and setting the parking state to the same, and I still can't get it to trigger a takeoff for all three aircraft. It's like it only works randomly.

Uh, sorry about that, I corrected the link (I hope). I will have a further look at it later tonight, if need be I will just change the version so everyone will be in the air if that helps you. Stay tuned.

Uh, sorry about that, I corrected the link (I hope). I will have a further look at it later tonight, if need be I will just change the version so everyone will be in the air if that helps you. Stay tuned.

You will love this.

I just tried once more and it failed to start again. Then I wondered whether it could be failing only the first time the mission is run after booting DCS... I saved the track (easier than doing the start-up every time...) and sure enough, when I play it the first time after launching DCS, the Saxon flight doesn't start (which seems to be the first clue here).

If I play it again, they start right away, I can see their head lights, the engine starting, and they begin taxiing.

I did it a few times, it's reproducible.

Wondering whether it could be an uninitialized flag or similar, I ran another mission first after launching DCS, a mission with another aircraft. But watching the track of mission 9 right after, Saxon was starting. So much for the uninitialized theory, unless you see something I don't.

It must be some peculiar bug of DCS where something is wrong the first time.

Anyway, it seems that the easiest work-around is launching any other mission before this one.

Well isn't it strange. Perhaps within the mission there is some kind of

weird artifact that will cause this bug for some people (I can't reproduce it, as everything works fine on my end). But its sure worth looking into deeper. Thanks Redglyph, I will let the admins know.

Here is the track file, hopefully that should help them.

Due to the limitations of these forums, I had to split the file and rename the 2nd part "mission09.z01" to "mission09.z01.zip", it should be renamed back before attempting to unzip.

mission09.zip

mission09.z01.zip

You will love this.

 

I just tried once more and it failed to start again. Then I wondered whether it could be failing only the first time the mission is run after booting DCS... I saved the track (easier than doing the start-up every time...) and sure enough, when I play it the first time after launching DCS, the Saxon flight doesn't start (which seems to be the first clue here).

 

If I play it again, they start right away, I can see their head lights, the engine starting, and they begin taxiing.

 

I did it a few times, it's reproducible.

 

Wondering whether it could be an uninitialized flag or similar, I ran another mission first after launching DCS, a mission with another aircraft. But watching the track of mission 9 right after, Saxon was starting. So much for the uninitialized theory, unless you see something I don't.

 

It must be some peculiar bug of DCS where something is wrong the first time.

 

Anyway, it seems that the easiest work-around is launching any other mission before this one.

I noticed the same behavior. Upon first launch, the mission didn't work, but if I played it back again, it would work 2/3 times.

Baltic_Dragon, I downloaded your new Mission 9 file, and that worked for me about 50% of the time. I had to play the mission twice in the campaign, but once I launched it a second time, it worked as intended. It becomes immediately obvious whether the mission will work once I've turned on my radios and battery. If Saxon 1 and 2, don't turn on their taxi lights, then no one winds up taxiing. If they do, then Pontiac 1-1 starts his engine, and everything proceeds as normal.

The mission works exactly 50% of the time. When the game is first started, it doesn't work. Running it a second time works. A third time, it does not work. The fourth time, it does, and so on. If I restart the game, the cycle starts over again with the mission not working. It's also contextual. If I ran a failed attempt from the "Missions" screen and tried to launch the second attempt from the campaign with it working, it would not work. If I launched it twice from the campaign; however, the first one did not work, but the second one did. This is probably why I didn't notice the behavior in my track file because I restarted the game before playing it back. It had worked when I saved the track.

At the very least, I was able to progress in the campaign and earn a medal for my French pilot lol. Thanks for the help.

Glad you got it working! That is a very strange bug though Hope you get lucky with M10 - as things stand with the last update parts of te campaign are unplayable, see the Important Updates section.

Oh, and gratz on the medal!!

The bizarre bug is still present in update 4 (1.5.5.60503.215), Saxon not booting if this is the first mission run in DCS. If run as 2nd or 3rd, it works. Seems more random than before, too.

Hi guys,

 

I will check today, we thought we had this issue resolved.

 

Thanks for letting us know

Hi Bignewy, any news on that weird bug? I have another shorter track if that makes it easier to debug (it's recorded with DCS 1.5.5.59992).

Saxon 01 is the AI group of 2 Tornado GR4s parked next to the player's aircraft.

If you play the track in DCS before doing anything else, you will see Saxon is not starting.

If you play it a 2nd time, or after any mission / track, you will see Saxon start (their taxi lights are visible after a few seconds in front of the player's aircraft).

This looks like a strange initialization bug, there is no condition on this AI group, it's happening to other groups as well.

mission09.03.ko.trk

I also got my mission working by playing another mission first (Get the Mainstay). Thanks for the digging! Also Baltic, they updated the game today, the triggers should work now again, but you probably already knew.

I also had this problem where no one taxi's unless you start another mission, exit then start mission 9. It works perfectly after that. Unfortunately I had the exact same problem for mission 10 too.