Convoys BRUTAL

[ENO]

I can't even just start a convoy on the road at half its maximum speed without it turning itself inside out (last vehicle becomes second in line... inchworm to follow).

 

Anyone got any tricks up their sleeve to prevent this from happening or to resolve it once it's happened?

 

It has been CRUSHING every fricken mission I make and it's driving me insane.

[Grimes]

Track please.

[karambiatos]

you could spawn them off road, and then make a waypoint near it so they go on road?

[ENO]

Track please.

 

Generating one now. Two separate problems... units collision avoid other units that aren't spawned in (this existed before) and the other is the convoys turning themselves inside out.

 

 

This mission is set to spawn in a variety of different possible convoys- and it seems one of them is always slugging it out while the others are fine. I've had this issue in many missions- basically any mission I have that uses a convoy- particularly on the road.

 

Problem in this particular track starts about 4 minutes in. By 6 minutes it is in full swing.

server-20140220-145704.trk

Edited February 20, 2014 by ENO

[ENO]

Another one... this one shows the full spectrum of problems.I moved the convoys offroad for the first waypoint- so that if one behind it spawns (and the front group stays unspawned) it doesn't cause that collision avoidance behavior.

 

Thought that might have resolved it... until one had to take a turn... then cross a bridge. By the time the route was finished 1 out of 7 or so vehicles remained.

 

What a mess.

brutal.trk

[Grimes]

From the "brutal' track you should probably change the group "Vega22" so that WP 1 and 3 are on the other side of the bridge. Basically if AI are told to cross a river near a bridge but not on it, the AI will automatically try to use the bridge anyways. However the waypoints were to close to the self created waypoints and they freaked out. Aside from that it looks like a BTR-80 has slower acceleration than the BMP-2 does, they took a sharp turn, the BMP-2 saw a gap and went for it, thus the BTR-80 got stuck behind it. The good news is it looks like it only occurs on greater than 45 (approx) degree intersections and with certain units (slow acceleration in front of high acceleration).

 

The 100% most effective method of getting AI back into the correct order of formation is to use a hold waypoint action with a duration set for a minute or so. The AI aren't really able to "pass" while the group is in motion and in a convoy formation, they basically go "ok I have to go faster to get into the right spot, oh crap a vehicle is in my way, slow down and try to drive around". The problem is the AI collision avoidance speed is quite slow to begin with, so they are simply never able to pass. The other units or groups aren't actively aware that an AI is trying to pass it, so they trot on obliviously just like people with camper vans. Likewise a somewhat slow first waypoint should allow the AI to get into position. Also the AI are generally ok at staying in formations like line abreast, cone, etc, because there won't be any unit directly in front of another to block their attempts to get into the right spot.

 

I've made a bug report on it.

[Galwran]

Is there a way to make formations more sparse? I don't like that you can take out the whole formation/convoy with a single CBU-97.

 

Is it possible to create formations like "on road - sparse" with 100m separation between vehicles?

 

This would also be useful with the off road formations.

[104th_Maverick]

I'm not saying this is the be all and end all solution here....

 

But I've found when placing convoys on the map with 'on road' selected... once I have them all in place on the road I select the LEAD unit and drag the whole group up or down the road a little bit (usually in the direction of travel), that 'seems' to sort them all out so when they start the mission they all in a nice order and start moving as one!

 

No promises though, just seems to work for me!

 

Grimes has reported the issue as he mentioned so if this doesn't work, a solution should be inbound soon!

[Exorcet]

;2001719']I'm not saying this is the be all and end all solution here....

 

But I've found when placing convoys on the map with 'on road' selected... once I have them all in place on the road I select the LEAD unit and drag the whole group up or down the road a little bit (usually in the direction of travel), that 'seems' to sort them all out so when they start the mission they all in a nice order and start moving as one!

 

No promises though, just seems to work for me!

 

Grimes has reported the issue as he mentioned so if this doesn't work, a solution should be inbound soon!

 

I can vouch for this method as well. Dragging the group causing the mission editor to force sort them for on road. I made a Ka-50 mission that basically has you patrolling a highway looking for multiple groups of vehicles and I haven't seen any issues with them.

 

A recent Su-25 mission that I made hastily does have an issue, I noticed a pair of T-72's quite a ways behind the rest of the group (all T-72 tanks). I don't believe I used the ME sorting trick but I can double check later.

[ENO]

Eh Grimes- thanks... that's what I was hoping for.

 

And Mav / Exorcet: I do that already and as Grimes describes it is fine until they turn sharply... I guess a work around to that may be to set waypoints that allow them to cut corners at lesser angles. Better yet would be to get a fix and it looks like that can be a possibility.

 

Anyway again thanks to you guys for weighing in. Hopefully a few of these pointers will help others in their efforts!

Edited February 21, 2014 by ENO

[Ranger79]

I have noticed ai vehicles bunching up in this patch and not keeping their interval compared to 1.2.6.

[Ranger79]

I guess the vehicle ai wp issue isn't going to be fixed anytime soon.....

[ENO]

I rolled the dice with a mission and committed them to no roads and still had about a dozen trapped on bridges... New patch.

 

Wish there was a way to make the units that don't move for 5 minutes disappear.

[Rapier-VCG-]

My two cents on the subject. Found that if you place your slow movers along the back with the light trucks and APC near the front of the column, they generally stay in formation the entire trip.

As for getting them to move out of the way once they reach the final way point, just have them hold with a predetermined formation off road and clear of the road. Do it a lot with Sam systems with good results so far.

 

One last thing. Eno, putting together a campaign template for a multiplayer campaign. You interested in testing it for usability of building campaign mission on. It will have Sam systems and army bases in place. Let me know and if you want will forward it to you once complete. Utilizes mist as well as iad, medevac, and transport scripts.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Rapier-VCG-

[Ranger79]

Anyone with 1.2.8 installed confirm the vehicle ai waypoint bug has been fixed?

[ENO]

Which AI bug specifically are you talking about? Not to sound sarcastic but there were a few issues pertaining to AI pathfinding with or without direct association to waypoints.

[Ranger79]

Which AI bug specifically are you talking about? Not to sound sarcastic but there were a few issues pertaining to AI pathfinding with or without direct association to waypoints.

 

In 126 you could just place a group of vehicles and wps without worrying about route time, speed, etc. I use to put in max speed and they worked. Now if everything is not perfect they go off route and don't finish task.

[ENO]

I'll keep my eye on a few of my missions. Up until the last RC I did have units stacking on / under / over bridges with no on road instructions at all... but I know they will take bridges automatically if the water is too deep.

 

Others get hopelessly lost in "rings around the rosie" in or around buildings-

 

Hope my regs like static targets.

[Ranger79]

Hey guys, I just installed a fresh copy of DCS and the vehicle AI problem is still present, bunching, no proper vehicle interval, does anyone know if this is on DCS's radar for a fix. They do not correctly follow the route, etc. My missions are at a stand still until this is fixed.