Hacking DCS Client Spawn Points via script to relocate during gameplay.

[Dangerzone]

Dynamic spawn points has been high on my wishlist for some time. I keep thinking over and over again is it possible to hack a solution into the existing game.

Now I know that changing client spawns via script seems to be an impossibility with DCS in it's current state- but I've been wondering if I can attack this from a different angle - not touching the client spawn itself but fooling it via it's attached FARP. 

From what I can tell in the mission editor - units that are assigned to parking slots 'snap to' their relevant airbase. (Normally in the mission editor this will snap to the nearest airbase or ship available when placed on a map).

Looking through the .miz file I see there is an AIRBASE ID that is allocated to the client aircraft that are assigned parking locations. 

So the idea I'm playing with is in the original mission, to create some farps and have helicopters assigned to these farps as one normally would.

Then in script during runtime do some sort of hack - the initial idea being to destroy those farps, but then recreate those farps somewhere else. Clone everything identical - including and especially the ID of the FARP itself. 

Thus - the original client spawn would still have the original ID - which is now assigned to a new FARP that's located elsewhere. Then - when a client jumps in to a spawn slot - maybe there's a chance that it may trick DCS, and DCS will 'snap' it to the relevant parking area of that particular FARP - which now has been virtually relocated to a new location. 

I don't know if it's possible to create a new FARP down to a level of assigning it an ID value or not yet, so I thought I'd check to see if anyone been down this track before / considered it? I figured I'd ask first to see if I'm wasting my time before attempting if it's already been tried before or not.

I can't say how invested I am in trying to find a solution to this - especially with the C130 being in development at the moment. The ability to have missions where players can create new FARPS and transport cargo (including helo's in a way) would completely open up a whole new world for multiplayer missions.

[Grimes]

I've had mixed results with doing this with ships. In a small isolated test mission teleporting ships with client spawns seems to work well enough. In a much more complex mission, where perhaps I'm not doing it precisely the same way, clients spawn where the ship was originally at over the water and die. I have not tested this with static objects. I don't even recall exactly what happens when you try spawning a FARP with the exact same values. With units it replaces it entirely, but FARP objects are a bit special so it might not work. 

[ADHS]

Hello.
I would suggest to check both helis and planes
to the same situation, as i didn't got the same
info for base. And it's totaly different if you
start from ground and not from parking slot.

[Dangerzone]

14 hours ago, ADHS said:

Hello.
I would suggest to check both helis and planes
to the same situation, as i didn't got the same
info for base. And it's totaly different if you
start from ground and not from parking slot.

The problem is these are client spawns, not AI spawns, so as far as I'm aware there's no option to change the location of the spawn points. Otherwise starting from ground and moving the location would be a great idea.

I'm hoping that the farp ID fools DCS into 'snapping' the client to the new location. Since Grimes says that he's had (limited) success with this with ships - maybe, just maybe it may work with FARPS as well. Since no one has replied saying they've tried and it's failed - it might be worth me pursuing. 

[PravusJSB]

Yes it's possible, but about the hardest thing to make DCS do. You should just come play my server instead

We have dynamic Client Spawns that are runtime movable