reported Threat rings of 'late activation' Air Defense units not showing up on F-16 HSD for multiplayer clients

[LieutenantFalcon]

Placing an air defense group that normally qualifies to generate a threat ring on the F-16s HSD page and enabling the 'activate later' setting hides the threat ring for multiplayer clients. I have been informed that this is a bug and has been reported internally, but I already had put some effort in isolating the bug and making it reproducable. I believe the bug is best demonstrated using videos and tracks.

Attached to this point are 3 tracks and a .miz file. The .miz file contains an SA-2 group (1 SR, 1 TR, 4 launchers) set with 'late activation' enabled, but is not set to be hidden on map, planner or MFD. The mission contains no triggers or conditions to activate the SA-2 group. The tracks have been recorded in DCS Open Beta 2.7.15.25026.

Running this mission in singleplayer (track: 'Singleplayer_Late_Activation_Guideline') you can see that in the briefing the SA-2 group shows up, and it is indeed reflected on the MFD. The SA-2 group doesn't spawn/activate since it doesn't have a trigger to do so, which is correct. Exiting the replay confirms the SA-2 group never spawned.
This is how I believe the 'late activate' should be working in conjunction with SAM/AAA groups. It draws a threat ring on the position the group is placed at, regardless of when/if it spawns later in the mission. If this wasn't the case the 'Hide on map/MFD' options would become redundant.

Running this mission in multiplayer as a host (track: 'MP Demo Host') shows the same exact behaviour as singleplayer. A threat ring is correctly generated off of the late activation SAM group, since it is in no way hidden but just hasn't spawned (yet).

Loading this mission on a dedicated server and connecting to that server as a client ('MP Demo Client') yields different results. In this mission the SAM also never spawns, but a threat ring also is not placed on the HSD page. 

Below are links to videos of the same track recordings, to show the process I took of getting them.
Singleplayer
Multiplayer as a host
Multiplayer as a client

Having late activated air defense units/groups create a threat ring on the HSD/SA page is a very useful tool for mission makers. You can 'plan' threat rings without having the SAM site/unit directly in the center, as you simply chose to never activate the late activated group and can make a second unit/group to be hidden. This makes for a bigger and more realistic challenge for people hunting SAMs, which makes coordinated missions vastly more fun. It would be nice to have late activated units generate threat rings for clients the same way it does in singleplayer. Until we get a mission planner where we can input threat rings ourselves, this is a good workaround but unfortunately it doesn't work correctly as of now.
 

Reproducing the bug is as simple as taking the .miz file and running it in singleplayer and on a dedicated server in multiplayer. 
In testing I have used the F-16CM Block 50 module, but I believe the issue is also present for the F/A-18C Lot. 20 and maybe the AH-64D

MP Demo Host.trk Singleplayer_Late_Activation_Guideline.trk MP Demo Client.trk Late Activation SAM.miz

[LieutenantFalcon]

Any update on this? It's been marked 'investigating' for a while now so if you guys need any help let me know. Bug is still present as of 2.8.1.34667.2 

[Flappie]

Hi, you should have posted in the F-16C dedicated section. I'll ask a moderator to move he thread. Then you will probably get an answer.

[Moonshine]

+1 bump

[Lord Vader]

Hi @LieutenantFalcon

We are reviewing the logic on how the threat rings are being depicted currently. Please be patient as this will be addressed in future updates.