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Looking for solution for developing Air Squadrons for perpetual missions?


Dangerzone

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I'm struggling to find a solution that can cope with the following:

  •  
  • Have the CAP and air units not deplete because of time alone. (ie - they need to be able to refuel and continue CAP, with GCI launches returning back to base and be available again for the next - forever until they're actually shot down).  This is my major hurdle at the moment.
     
  • Have this function correctly regardless of whether the server has been running for 5 minutes, or hundreds of hours after start. (I believe this is the reason for my hurdle - it wouldn't be a problem if it was a mission that only lasted a few hours)

 

  • Have an area of the map with 20 AI air units available for 'that area' (or protect a certain zone) (ie, not ulimited)
     
  • Have 2 AI air units in CAP at any one time in that area
     
  • Have an additional units 'take off' for GCI if CAP is shot down, or the number of intruders is greater than available aircraft in the sky. (This can be varied, but in short - I do want 'reinforcements' available depending on the number of players that invade that area).
     
  • After the 20 air units have been actually destroyed (shot down) - no more air units available to spawn from that location (it has been 'cleared out').
     
  • Have the units no longer able to spawn at airfield if that airfield is captured.

 

Can anyone please give advise as to what would be the better solution to achieve the above?  I've tried using both MOOSE's A2ADispatcher as well as AUFTRAG and seem to still have issues with depleting aircraft over time when there has been no engagement:

 

The problem I have is that if I start a server and no one engages the area where I have CAP and GCI - after 12 or 15 hours if a client flies into that area - there are little to no AI aircraft remaining compared to the value initially set. I can 'invade' the zone and aircraft don't come out. It seems as though when the aircraft run out of fuel, either they don't land but just circle the airfield until they flame out and then crash (I have observed with AUFTRAG - and there seems to be no solution to this at present)...   or otherwise seem to deplete the remaining aircraft over time with A2ADispatcher. Given the large times involved I haven't been able to fully track what's going on - but I'm also suspicious it has to do with aircraft 'falling out of the sky' after running out of fuel from what I've observed so far. (I have set landing to be 'At Runway' and have also tried "NearAirbase"). I have tried placing AAR in the map but that hasn't solved the issue properly. 

 

If possible, I want to avoid going down the path of having unlimited squadron resources, because if a group do invade and shoot down CAP, and then the remaining 'X" GCI aircraft - I want them to have the reward of their work and be air threat free to give the ability to move in with ground units and capture the airfield. Removing the limit would have a constant barrage of new fighters taking off and intercepting.

 

Pausing the server when no clients are on won't work, because I have different areas of engagement - and it may be that the area I'm talking about hasn't been engaged in the last 24hrs as games are flying in other areas.... plus I want to run this mission until it's complete - which could be weeks.

 

I thought of having a timer that every x hrs (an interval before all aircraft 'run out') checks to see how many resources are left in the squadron and if it's down to 0, but the airbase hasn't been captured to replenish it (maybe by destroying and recreating the squadron) to keep the area 'alive' but not invincible. The problem with this is that I can't see how to get a count of the units remaining in the squadron- only a count of the units that are airborne. (CountCapAirborne).  Plus doing this would mean there are times where their may be zero AI defenders even though no one has actually don't any active work in that area.

 

The other option I thought of was to hook a function when a plane is shot down, check to see if it's part of the airsquadron being referenced, and increment a count - when that count hits 20 - then destroy the Dispatcher and recreate it - but it seems as though there should be a more elegant method. (And I'm not even sure this is possible to do). 

 

So just looking for some advise. Has anyone created missions like this before and if so -can you please share what method you have used to get around these issues?

 

Thanks in Advance.


Edited by Dangerzone
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I just tried running the mission for 7 hours at x7 speed to emulate 2 days gameplay (but with no combat activity over this area - just CAP and GCI which GCI shouldn't have launched anyway) and just came back to a whole lot of parachute markers showing on the map near one of their airbases with no CAP remaining in the air. This one was using A2ADispatcher again with 'LandingNearAirbase', so I'm thinking that this isn't a A2ADispatcher issue, nor a AUFTRAG issue - but is a DCS AI issue - however I'm still not sure of how to figure out a workaround for this - so any suggestions would be greatly apprecaited.

 

At this stage the only thing I can think of which is 'less than elegant' is to drop A2ADispatcher and AUFTRAG and just have a timer for CAP that repeats every x mintes/hours to relaunch another set and just expect the existing ones to eventually crash, and not worry about asset warehousing/counts for CAP - and use A2ADispatcher separately for GCI only.

 parachutes.jpg

 

(Running latest Stable Release)

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