12/16/22 Patch Bug :: Dead Event No longer Includes Unit's Group :: Mission breaking issue

[xcandiottix]

Hello,

I run Operation Candyland, a DCS Open Beta multiplayer server that's been running for about 3 years now. The latest patch has severely broken the campaign.

The following code no longer works:

if(world.event.S_EVENT_DEAD == event.id) then
	local descTable = event.initiator:getDesc()
	local descCategory = descTable["category"]
			
	if(event.target:getCategory() == 1) then
		--This is object Type 1 UNIT
		if(descCategory == 2 or descCategory == 3) then
			--This is a ground unit or a ship unit
			unitsAlive = nil
			unitsAlive = event.initiator:getGroup():getSize()
			unit_name = event.initiator:getName()
			group_name = event.initiator:getGroup():getName()

 

As you can see above, I want to get the GROUP NAME of the UNIT that has been killed. This code, which has worked for years, no longer works. It throws the following error at the variable "unitsAlive = event.initiator:getGroup():getSize()":

ERROR   SCRIPTING (Main): Mission script error: [string "events.lua"]:727: attempt to index a nil value

Further testing shows that the "getGroup()" function of a dead unit is no longer returning a valid value.

I have tried switching "S_EVENT_DEAD" to "S_EVENT_UNIT_LOST" or "S_EVENT_KILL" (and therefore substituting event.initiator to event.target) however the error persists. It seems to me that the patch "fix" for the dead event is removing the unit from it's parent group before firing this event. Therefore, it is now impossible to determine the Unit's parent group.

Please let me know how I can determine the GROUP NAME of a UNIT that has been killed with the new patch "fix".

Edited December 17, 2022 by xcandiottix

[Grimes]

Reported. 

5 hours ago, xcandiottix said:

Therefore, it is now impossible to determine the Unit's parent group.

You have the unit name and unit Id, it isn't impossible to figure out the parent group. Its just annoying. 

[xcandiottix]

6 minutes ago, Grimes said:

Reported. 

You have the unit name and unit Id, it isn't impossible to figure out the parent group. Its just annoying. 

I have a table of all unit names and the unit names are the group name with a -## on the end. For now, I can substring the last characters off to get the group name and then count the number of units still alive in my table. But agreed, it is annoying to introduce a loop where one wasn't need before. Thank you for replying and reporting.

[Grimes]

Was more referencing how mist does it where the group name and as a byproduct the group object can be directly accessible from the unit database. But why would you loop to count them when you have the group name? Remove the -## and Group.getByName(string):getSize() would be way more efficient. 

 

[cfrag]

8 hours ago, xcandiottix said:

This code, which has worked for years, no longer works. It throws the following error at the variable "unitsAlive = event.initiator:getGroup():getSize()":

ERROR   SCRIPTING (Main): Mission script error: [string "events.lua"]:727: attempt to index a nil value

Further testing shows that the "getGroup()" function of a dead unit is no longer returning a valid value.

I believe this is a knock-on effect of a previous change (some 6 months ago?) that units - when they 'cook off' instead of exploding outright - are turned into static objects, and static objects do no implement getGroup(). Now, prior to the last patch yesterday, SSE did not invoke the dead event for these static objects. This caused many problems with scripts, but your code luckily ticked along happily (although there would probably have been an edge case with your code that doesn't detect a group being dead when the last unit that was killed cooks off instead of being killed outright. That unit's dead event wan't invoked, so your code may still have thought that group alive - unless you have regular garbage collection run that invokes getSize on all groups to determine if they are still alive).

Now that we finally get the dead event, we see that the static object change has some other unintended consequences for other scrips. 

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by cfrag

[xcandiottix]

11 hours ago, Grimes said:

Was more referencing how mist does it where the group name and as a byproduct the group object can be directly accessible from the unit database. But why would you loop to count them when you have the group name? Remove the -## and Group.getByName(string):getSize() would be way more efficient. 

 

Ah, okay. I don't use any of the DCS add-ons such as mist but I do follow what you are saying. I too have a similar database but I don't bother cloning the DCS object tables into my DB as I am relying on DCS to keep that straight. Anyway, I think a long time ago if I tried to use the Group class on a destroyed object (especially when it is the last unit dying) that I would get a similar nil error. However, I implemented both the loop and the "getSize" as you have suggested and both seem to be working well. I will post if any further error occurs.

[xcandiottix]

9 hours ago, cfrag said:

I believe this is a knock-on effect of a previous change (some 6 months ago?) that units - when they 'cook off' instead of exploding outright - are turned into static objects, and static objects do no implement getGroup().

Yes, that problem. I noticed that not only were normal groups being turned into static objects on being killed but also stationary group objects in the campaign, such as manpads - pillboxes - outposts - etc, were also considered static objects. This was a huge headache because my code assumed that if I used the Group Object method of spawning something in then I should be able to track the death of that object as a Group death. However, when they died they were of the Static object type. It was very confusing. I assume that maybe DCS was swapping these no moving objects to static to save on processing .. but they would still shoot at the enemy .. I don't know.

Anyway, I'll try to keep a close eye on if everything is back to working as expected now.
 

[omskTransmash]

Any news on update? I cannot get group of dead unit so I came here.. but it's already more than 6 month old..

Any workaround or fix?

[Kanelbolle]

Will this ever get fixed or is this just a limitation that will stay after it got broken? @BIGNEWY