Simple Range Script

[Draken35]

@Captain Orso I just took a quick pick at your mission and I do not see anything obviously wrong with it (I'm not able to test it until later tonight). Scripts check, F10 menu is there, groups and unit names seem to match.

 

Couple of things:

1) Just confirming that you are rolling in between 500 and 1500 meters (not feet!) (you probably are but ...)

2) I've never used static objects as the strafing targets, just regular units without waypoint, ROE to weapons hold and disperse under fire disable. (I don't know if this is an issue or not, but that would be my first change)

 

I'll report back once I'm able to actually fly it... I have available the following a/c : AV8B, A10C / A10C2 / F18C, F16C, F5E, C101 and Community A4 (Beta 5.1) ... Let me know if you have any of those so we can reduce a variable (that shouldn't matter anyway).

 

EDIT: I just tested your mission with the A10C II... Works perfectly for me ....When inside the altitude parameters  ... (Outside of the parameters, I don't get the roll in message)... 

 

The strafing zones are really short for the jet thought

 

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by Draken35

[Captain Orso]

I Draken, I only just noticed that you updated your last message  - you don't get notified on updates, only on new posts  . Many thanks for your testing the mission and your reply!

 

I actually did read somewhere that the Max and MinAlt are in meters (should be commented in the script for clarity  ). MinAlt doesn't seem to always make a difference, but generally I set it to 1, because I'm mostly using these missions with warbirds. I believe you can set MinAlt to 0 too, but I didn't want to take the time to test that at this time.

 

Static objects live longer, because... DCS  ....  . I usually use 476 vFG - Air Weapons Range Objects - Downloads - 476th Virtual Fighter Group. I took all the object out to make the mission usable for everyone.

 

Yeah, the mission is setup for warbirds. A longer lead-in for warbirds is not necessary at and leads to the test subject making very long, straight approaches, which are not very good in actual combat.

 

I'm really perplex, why the mission works for you within the Range Script parameters. Are you running it in SP? I'm starting to think that DCS is holding some parameters that break running the mission if you edit, run, edit, run, etc while making adjustments.

[Draken35]

4 hours ago, Captain Orso said:

I Draken, I only just noticed that you updated your last message  - you don't get notified on updates, only on new posts  . Many thanks for your testing the mission and your reply!

 

I actually did read somewhere that the Max and MinAlt are in meters (should be commented in the script for clarity  ). MinAlt doesn't seem to always make a difference, but generally I set it to 1, because I'm mostly using these missions with warbirds. I believe you can set MinAlt to 0 too, but I didn't want to take the time to test that at this time.

 

Static objects live longer, because... DCS  ....  . I usually use 476 vFG - Air Weapons Range Objects - Downloads - 476th Virtual Fighter Group. I took all the object out to make the mission usable for everyone.

 

Yeah, the mission is setup for warbirds. A longer lead-in for warbirds is not necessary at and leads to the test subject making very long, straight approaches, which are not very good in actual combat.

 

I'm really perplex, why the mission works for you within the Range Script parameters. Are you running it in SP? I'm starting to think that DCS is holding some parameters that break running the mission if you edit, run, edit, run, etc while making adjustments.

 

Hi, yes, running in SP.

 

Look at the advance actions on the waypoints... You can make the units immortals and change the to prevent them to fire among other things  ... 

 

The only times I did not get the roll in message in you mission was when I was outside of the Alt parameters.

 

I haven't discovered the "right" workflow yet but I've noticed that if you do make changes to the script after flying the mission for the first type, DCS do not take those changes even when saving the mission again, so, I got used to go the triggers, select another script, select another trigger, the go back and select the correct script again... Its a pain but it refresh the script 

[Captain Orso]

I haven't found it necessary to make the targets immortal, yet, but thanks for the tip.

 

I'm not actually using normal vehicles for targets, because I'm using the 476 vFG Rage Object; mostly these two:

 

The strafe pit does get chewed up sometimes, but good luck trying to get enough bombs close enough to the shipping container to do any actual damage to it -- ah ah ah, no lasers, no GBU's -- only using CCIP, or ... warbirds *gasp* 

 

When you add a script-file to a mission, the file is read from your disk and it's content is physically added to your mission. If you later change the original script-file, to implement those changes into your mission, you must go to the trigger and re-add the script-file to your mission, to instruct the ME to read the file again. If the ME is not doing this, then it is a major bug and must be reported.

 

Honestly, I've spent so much time on this without any actual perspective of success, I'm going to try this solution out - MOOSE for DCS World - Ranges, and if I'm not forced to do back-flips to get it to work, I'll just move on to this.

[Draken35]

Thanks for the tip.. That is what I ended up doing...

 

I find it really odd that the mission doesn't run for you. Are you running in SP too?

[Captain Orso]

I've been testing in SP. I've tried in the dedicated server, but it won't wait for you to join as observer to load the scripts, and then they range script doesn't work.

[Captain Orso]

Two and a half years later and I see that I never reported that I had discovered what the issue that I was having was *sigh*

Management Summery

The Strafe Pit area definition through following the plotted path of a 'Late Activation' vehicle somehow got pulled apart. Per definition the first leg of the path and the last leg must cross, thus forming an enclosed area, which is the Strafe Zone.

In my mission the start of the first and end of the last legs were very close to the crossing. The mission had been modified many, many times and somewhere along the way, for whatever reason the crossing of the first and last legs became uncrossed  No crossing, no enclosed area, no strafe zone definition, no rangescript function. I then made the crossing very distinct, with the first and last legs clearly crossing and the start and endpoints far enough apport that even a Japanese earthquake won't uncross them again.

One simple thing I might suggest would be, instead of this difficult to use vehicle path to create an enclosed area, simply use the now for functional trigger zones. A Quad-point trigger  zone would be perfectly function and easy to create in the ME and easy to reference within the script - easy-peasy.

[Rudel_chw]

Dear @Ciribob  

First of all, let me thank you for sharing such a useful script with the DCS community. It has worked fine all these years, but after these last couple of DCS updates something must have changed within DCS that affects the script

I use it on single player, but with two client aircrafts that I can choose from, so they are set as "Client". When I start the mission, I begin as Observer, and after the script loads, I choose one of the aircraft slots.

The script used to refer to me by my MP call name, but today its saying "New callsign", like this:

 

 

Not a big deal, but if you have the time maybe can take a look to see if it can be fixed?

Thanks a lot,

 

Eduardo

[Draken35]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:17 AM, Captain Orso said:

Two and a half years later and I see that I never reported that I had discovered what the issue that I was having was *sigh*

Management Summery

The Strafe Pit area definition through following the plotted path of a 'Late Activation' vehicle somehow got pulled apart. Per definition the first leg of the path and the last leg must cross, thus forming an enclosed area, which is the Strafe Zone.

In my mission the start of the first and end of the last legs were very close to the crossing. The mission had been modified many, many times and somewhere along the way, for whatever reason the crossing of the first and last legs became uncrossed  No crossing, no enclosed area, no strafe zone definition, no rangescript function. I then made the crossing very distinct, with the first and last legs clearly crossing and the start and endpoints far enough apport that even a Japanese earthquake won't uncross them again.

One simple thing I might suggest would be, instead of this difficult to use vehicle path to create an enclosed area, simply use the now for functional trigger zones. A Quad-point trigger  zone would be perfectly function and easy to create in the ME and easy to reference within the script - easy-peasy.

WOW... Didn't see this until now... At the end , I  stopped using this script and developed my own. You are a persistent fellow, glad you found your issue!

[Captain Orso]

32 minutes ago, Draken35 said:

WOW... Didn't see this until now... At the end , I  stopped using this script and developed my own. You are a persistent fellow, glad you found your issue!

LOL yeah, as I said, I found the solution two and a half years ago, but forgot to report it. I though somebody down the line might make use of my experience, for than just general amusement 

[Rudel_chw]

Dear @Ciribob .. probably you are on a short vacation, but I wanted to report an error that the script sometimes produces, the message is:

 

 

2024-01-06 12:43:50.657 ERROR   SCRIPTING (Main): Mission script error: [string "C:\Users\Eduardo\AppData\Local\Temp\DCS.openbeta\/~mis000022E6.lua"]:417: attempt to concatenate field 'zone' (a table value)
stack traceback:
    [C]: ?
    [string "C:\Users\Eduardo\AppData\Local\Temp\DCS.openbeta\/~mis000022E6.lua"]:417: in function <[string "C:\Users\Eduardo\AppData\Local\Temp\DCS.openbeta\/~mis000022E6.lua"]:390>

 

The script line 417 is this one:

 

local _msg = _unit:getPlayerName()..": left ".._currentStrafeRun.zone.."  too quickly. No Score. "

 

Hopefully you can take a look at it when you have time. If needed, I can send the mission, but it employs a user mod (the 476th VFG Range objects).

Best regards and happy 2024!

 

Eduardo

 

Edit: here is a video of the moments prior to the error:

 

 

Edited January 6, 2024 by Rudel_chw

[Tricky11]

Any ideas why i cant get the range script to activate on the kola map?

I have been using on the NTTR map for years but for some reason i cant get it to work on KOLA?