Can someone help me make US Infantry (regular DCS) be able to be placed on a carrier (CVN or TARAWA) for embark/disembark?

[Elphaba]

Is there some way to mod the lua for the units to make it so I can load troops from the carrier onto say a Huey and then drop them off again at the end of the mission? 

I find it incredible this is prohibited by default... 

[Los]

CRIBOB's Complete Transport and Logistics Scripts already does this:

https://github.com/ciribob/DCS-CTLD

 

 

[Elphaba]

Yeah, I don't use 3rd party scripts and there's nothing there that shows infantry ON a carrier boarding a helo. Because you can't PLACE infantry on a carrier because the stupid ME says it's water. 

[Chump]

On 3/17/2023 at 12:17 PM, Elphaba said:

Is there some way to mod the lua for the units to make it so I can load troops from the carrier onto say a Huey and then drop them off again at the end of the mission? 

I find it incredible this is prohibited by default... 

Loading troops has always been hit and miss. I think the way to do it is how CTLD (and others) accomplish it: use radio command to "load" troops, fly to insertion point, use radio command to "drop" (spawn) troops near helo.

[Elphaba]

15 minutes ago, Chump said:

Loading troops has always been hit and miss. I think the way to do it is how CTLD (and others) accomplish it: use radio command to "load" troops, fly to insertion point, use radio command to "drop" (spawn) troops near helo.

Exactly; which isn’t what I wanted. I want to see the troops board, not add more fakery… hence asking modders for help making it work…

[Chump]

2 hours ago, Elphaba said:

Exactly; which isn’t what I wanted. I want to see the troops board, not add more fakery… hence asking modders for help making it work…

I am continually inspired about your dedication to make DCS the best that it can be!

So, I did some digging...

• The linkUnit property is not available for ground units, and fails in the editor more-than-miserably when inserted by hand
  • force quit DCS
• Took a step back and tried to determine first what kept ground units from being placed/moved into water
  • eventually stumbled upon a function named getCanSwimUnit which looks up the unit type in the me_db_api module's unit_by_type table, specifically looking at the chassis.canSwim property
    • We do not have access to the unit definition file for normal infantry units, but then I noticed that we DO have access to a few other units, so I tried with a soldier from the VPC addon
      • I added chassis.canSwim=true to the object definition and made a quick mission:
        • carrier moving at 27kts
        • four (non-static) soldiers placed on the carrier deck
        • huey set to cold takeoff on carrier

Maybe someone with modelling skills can make this a real thing!

[Elphaba]

8 hours ago, Chump said:

I am continually inspired about your dedication to make DCS the best that it can be!

So, I did some digging...

• The linkUnit property is not available for ground units, and fails in the editor more-than-miserably when inserted by hand
  • force quit DCS
• Took a step back and tried to determine first what kept ground units from being placed/moved into water
  • eventually stumbled upon a function named getCanSwimUnit which looks up the unit type in the me_db_api module's unit_by_type table, specifically looking at the chassis.canSwim property
    • We do not have access to the unit definition file for normal infantry units, but then I noticed that we DO have access to a few other units, so I tried with a soldier from the VPC addon
      • I added chassis.canSwim=true to the object definition and made a quick mission:
        • carrier moving at 27kts
        • four (non-static) soldiers placed on the carrier deck
        • huey set to cold takeoff on carrier

Maybe someone with modelling skills can make this a real thing!

My hero…

This is amazing! Thank you so much! You are an incredible detective!!!

[Elphaba]

9 hours ago, Chump said:

I am continually inspired about your dedication to make DCS the best that it can be!

So, I did some digging...

• The linkUnit property is not available for ground units, and fails in the editor more-than-miserably when inserted by hand
  • force quit DCS
• Took a step back and tried to determine first what kept ground units from being placed/moved into water
  • eventually stumbled upon a function named getCanSwimUnit which looks up the unit type in the me_db_api module's unit_by_type table, specifically looking at the chassis.canSwim property
    • We do not have access to the unit definition file for normal infantry units, but then I noticed that we DO have access to a few other units, so I tried with a soldier from the VPC addon
      • I added chassis.canSwim=true to the object definition and made a quick mission:
        • carrier moving at 27kts
        • four (non-static) soldiers placed on the carrier deck
        • huey set to cold takeoff on carrier

Maybe someone with modelling skills can make this a real thing!

Did you get them to walk? I'm looking at Suntsag's Infantry Unit - Animated Pilot Mod - DCS Modding - ED Forums

I can place it on the carrier (it's a pilot not a solider - I can't get any of them to work) but when I set it to walk it just spins like a top in place. I then tried it with another infantry unit mod and that span in place too. 

Do you think this is related to the 'link unit' thing? That's just for statics though right? 

I can't find the exact mod you referenced, but those 'people' - could you get them to walk/board? 

[Chump]

5 hours ago, Elphaba said:

Did you get them to walk? I'm looking at Suntsag's Infantry Unit - Animated Pilot Mod - DCS Modding - ED Forums

I can place it on the carrier (it's a pilot not a solider - I can't get any of them to work) but when I set it to walk it just spins like a top in place. I then tried it with another infantry unit mod and that span in place too.

The Animated Pilot Mod has the correct setting to be placed on the carrier, but as you noticed, they are pretty lost when given a waypoint! I would guess that this is a pathing issue on the carrier since the pilot moves just fine on land. I also tried using the Kuznetsov thinking that maybe it was supercarrier-related. Unfortunately, no difference.

[Elphaba]

1 hour ago, Chump said:

The Animated Pilot Mod has the correct setting to be placed on the carrier, but as you noticed, they are pretty lost when given a waypoint! I would guess that this is a pathing issue on the carrier since the pilot moves just fine on land. I also tried using the Kuznetsov thinking that maybe it was supercarrier-related. Unfortunately, no difference.

/facepalm...

Just like everything else, the AI pathing in DCS strikes again... so many, many things are broken because of that ******* pathing. 

Grrrrrrr.

 

Thanks for everything you've done. It was an interesting little sojourn, but like everything in DCS it's one step forward and two steps back.