investigating Spawned AI immediately RTB at night.

[Avalanche110]

Carrier capable aircraft that spawn will behave abnormally at night (case III conditions)

If a group of Western Carrier Capable aircraft (F/A-18C, F-14A/B) are spawned at night and the closest airbase is a carrier,

Then the 2nd Unit in the group will immediately RTB to the carrier. The first unit will continue as scripted.

If they are spawned during Case I conditions, they will behave normally

If they spawn in and the closest airbase is not a carrier, they behave normally. 

If they are not carrier capable aircraft, They behave normally.

If they are SU33 and the carrier is Kuznetsov, they behave normally.

If the group inherit a waypoint from the mission editor (as opposed to having one scripted), they behave normally.

This issue started when SuperCarrier came out last year. 

 

I have highlighted this behaviour In the attached miz file.

Simply select an aircraft (they are named "fault occurs" and "fault does not occur")

enter the F-10 map and a few seconds later a flight of 2 aircraft will spawn in with a pre-scripted mission.

The only difference between these two groups is their proximity to the carrier. 

"Fault occurs" = Spawned groups closest airbase is the carrier

"Fault does not occur" = Spawned groups closest airbase is Kobulti.

Both groups are scripted exactly the same.

 

I understand how oddly specific this issue is. But it has been my pet peev for a while now.

"THIS IS MY HILL AND I AM GOING TO DIE ON IT"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CVN_TEST_MISSION.miz

Edited April 17, 2021 by Avalanche110

[Grimes]

Would you happen to have the table that is passed to coalition.addGroup by moose so its not a massive PITA to debug?

[Avalanche110]

@Grimes I understood none of what you just asked.

that might be a question best answered by @funkyfranky

I am a novice at scripting and I can only report my observations. All I can say is that I believe this is a DCS bug as opposed to something in Moose.

I appreciate you taking the time to look at it. 

 

 

[Avalanche110]

On 4/18/2021 at 9:25 AM, Grimes said:

Would you happen to have the table that is passed to coalition.addGroup by moose so its not a massive PITA to debug?

I managed to get the table that you asked for. I made a table of the fault occurring and one of the fault not occurring in the test mission.

Let me know if there's anything else you need. 

FAULT_TABLE.txt

[Grimes]

It would be in a format like this: https://wiki.hoggitworld.com/view/DCS_task_mission and/or this https://wiki.hoggitworld.com/view/DCS_func_addGroup

 

You are basically using moose to build the table for you and it then passes that table to the game to execute. With that table I could completely delete all references to moose and still get the same outcome. More importantly it would be much easier to test different aspects of it and conditions to see if something changes. Plus it is more helpful to whichever dev will look at it if its all in a format that the game uses and not something they gotta spend time trying to figure out. 

[Avalanche110]

@Grimes

Unfortunately I was not able to produce the table you were looking for.

However, I believe I can reproduce the fault in the mission editor.

Bear with me,

I Believe the issue surrounds the "Follow" task in the mission editor and is not related to scripts.

The follow task does not work for a late activated Naval aircraft (F/A-18C-F-14A/B) when the closest airbase is a carrier AND it is issued on waypoint Zero.

 

If the group is not late activated, then then the follow command will work correctly.

If the Aircraft are changed to a non carrier capable aircraft (F-16C) then the follow task will work correctly.

If the Time of day is changed to case 1 conditions, then the follow task will work correctly.

If a Kuznetsov is placed between the late activated group and the Stennis, then the follow command will work correctly.

if the late activated group is moved so the closest airbase is Kobulti, then then the follow command will work correctly.

If the group is given a waypoint and the follow command is issued at the first waypoint, then then the follow command will work correctly.

( Fault only occurs when the Follow task is used at waypoint 0.  )

 

I believe that this is the underlying cause of the issue with the spawned group that I had reported earlier. 

The second unit in the spawned group cannot "Follow" the flight lead and  RTB's to the carrier.

I have made another test miz to demonstrate this. Their are no scripts running and its all done in the mission editor.

 

In this test mission, both units RTB because they cannot execute the follow task. 

In the original mission I reported, Only the second unit would RTB. The first unit would execute its Tasks ( go to waypoint and orbit ) 

The second unit Could not "Follow" the first, and would RTB.

 

Once again I appreciate you taking the time to look into this!

 

AI_FOLLOW_TEST.miz

Edited April 21, 2021 by Avalanche110
Spellong and GrAmah

[Pikey]

This would be expected, follow and escort look for a unit id thats alive, and dont do it via a name. this is why there's lots of code to create escort and follow for spawned items. I have to say, the way it was described to me I didnt even pick up that this was a follow task failing, i only heard the RTB part - at no point in the post did it mention that you were testing follow/escort tasks :( This is mostly a symptom of being too close to your own problem and needing to come up for air to spell out what the issue is with a proper problem statement. Had you said, "spawned aircraft dont follow others" as generic as that is, i's have worked it out instantly :(

[Avalanche110]

Please allow me to clarify my observations.

As I reported in the first post to this thread. The 2nd unit of a spawned group will not execute its mission (orbit at waypoint) under the conditions outlined bellow. While, the first unit of the spawned unit carries out its mission as intended.

 

its Night. (case III conditions)

Its a Naval Aircraft group (F/A-18C, F-14A/B )

The closest airbase is a (western) Carrier.

It does not have a waypoint in the mission editor.

If any of these variables are changed. (I.e change the group to an F-15) then both units will execute the mission as intended.

 

I have also observed that the Follow task does not work under the EXACT SAME conditions. Resulting in both units of the late activated group, RTB to the carrier.

Its night.

its a late activated group

Its a Naval Aircraft (F/A-18C, F-14A/B )

The closest airbase is a (western) Carrier.

It does not have a waypoint in the mission editor. (waypoint Zero is used to issue a Follow task in the mission editor)

If any of these variables are changed. (I.e change the group to a F-15, OR move the group closer to a Land airbase, OR change the time of day ) then both units will execute the follow task (issued at waypoint Zero) as intended.

 

I believe their is some connection between these two Scenarios, because they both have the same (Oddly specific) set conditions.

If any of the variables outlined above are changed then both of of these Scenarios work normally.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Avalanche110