Carrier Spawn: 'Delayed Flight' adds excissive weight to FM, with tracks and mission to reproduce

[sLYFa]

Whenever you try to spawn on the Supercarrier but get the 'Your flight has been delayed' message (mostly due to other aircraft already on the deck), the aircraft's performance substantially changes for the worse IF the player changes slots before the deck is clear to spawn. It appears like the plane's weight becomes much higher than it should be from what can be seen in the ME/rearming window. To test this, I created a mission which tries to spawn the player on the catapult, which is initially blocked by AIs. Once the AIs despawn (after 15s), the player spawns in. Taking off and flying on-speed in landing configuration showcases the issue. If you DO NOT change slots and wait for the AI do despawn, on-speed is 144 kts. If you DO change to the other slot (which has exactly the same loadout), on-speed is 158. This corresponds to roughly 8000lbs in weight difference.
I remember there was a similar (if not the same) bug back before the SC got released. HB eventually fixed it, IIRC citing issues with fuel weight initialization which done twice for a delayed flight with slot change.
Two tracks are attached to showcase the issue. If somebody wants to reproduce himself using the attached mission, do the following:
-Choose a slot
-Choose the other slot within 15s.
-Wait for your spawn
Aircraft weight is set to 60000lbs in the ME (no rails) for both slots. 

For comparison, do not change slots prior to spawning and you will not see the excessive weight.

This issue has been haunting our wing's (and probably several other peoples) MP missions for quite some time and I hope HB can come up with a solution.

Takeoff_without_weight_bug.trk Takeoff_with_weight_bug.trkF14_weight_bug_test.miz

Edited September 19, 2023 by sLYFa

[Silhou]

Hey! Thank you very much for your report. I'll reopen the issue for the team to look into it and add your data there.

[MRSHADO]

Interesting!
We too have gotten this message rather consistently with Tomcats in JTF-1, except it isn't AI but other players - Tomcats & Hornets alike.

What usually happens after "Your Flight Has Been Delayed" and choosing a different slot is we barely get airborne at ~65-68,000 lbs gross weight.
If this is truly the cause, we're grateful to sLYFa for finding it. Of course, we'd be even more grateful to HB for a possible fix.

Thanks sLYFa!

[Kondor77]

Can confirm. This has been a longstanding MP bug. The worst part is the only way to 'fix' it is to totally close out of the game and restart DCS. At which point you're just praying you don't get hit with it again. 

I have found an interesting workaround, BUT it's not 100%. When choosing a slot, chose another carrier plane - in this case a Hornet (I know). Spawn in. Despawn, select the 14 and you're good to go. I've gotten into the habit of doing this if I see even just 1 player on the carrier deck when I want to spawn. As mentioned, this problem is more consistently reproduced with the SC. The Forrestal/Free Stennis suffer from this, but not nearly at the same rate as the SC (shocker). 

[Silhou]

Hey @MRSHADO @Kondor77! Thank you for the additional details. I'll add them to the report.

[Biggus]

I think I'm still having this issue.  Noticing that whenever I spawn and get the flight delayed message, I come close to hitting the water immediately after a cat shot.  This doesn't happen when I spawn without the message displayed.  Same loadout, same mission.

[Nealius]

Yes this is still an issue. On multiplayer you are guaranteed to get "delayed to start" on the first Tomcat slot you select unless using the Forrestal, or unless the Supercarrier has 10+ open spawn points. Any less than 10 open spawn points and you will get delayed to start because the spawn slot sizing is screwed up over MP. Grimes acknowledged this in Nov.2022 and yet we still don't have a fix for either the overweight bug nor the delayed to start bug. 

Edited April 7, 2024 by Nealius

[Biggus]

Well it's nice to know I'm not completely mad.

[sLYFa]

FWIW, if you stay in the slot until you eventually spawn, the bug wont occur. It's switching slots after getting the delay that somehow causes the bug.

[Nealius]

On 4/8/2024 at 4:40 AM, sLYFa said:

FWIW, if you stay in the slot until you eventually spawn

Delay is indefinite. Spawn never occurs.

[sLYFa]

maybe the SC spawn management got worse but I remember that once another aircraft leaves the deck (by launching or disconnecting) you would usually spawn in. In any case, the SC spawn management is rather poor. I wish they'd focus on that more than on shiny visuals...

[Biggus]

It's not always infinite.  I've had it happen twice this week and I've spawned within a handful of minutes.  Weight seemed normal too.

[Snowcat08]

I thought a was going crazy until seeing this thread. I'm definitely experiencing the same thing. 

[RustBelt]

Easy solution, use the free and superior in every way due to bridle catchers Forestall. The Super Carrier (aka: Combined Arms the boat) is probably never getting better and heatblur can only work with what they’re given.

Edited April 17, 2024 by RustBelt

[trenchfeet]

I think this happens a lot even when trying to get max speed at 40k+ definitely gets added weight.

i might try spawning in with the hornet then swapping to the 14 and see if is constant to work.

[JupiterJoe]

Is it possible this bug also relates to rolling resistance during taxiing?  That too seems inconsistent to me.  I appreciate airfields have inclines/declines, plus wind speed/direction is a factor, but there seems to be some inconsistency with this too.  As if the aircraft has an unaccounted for increase/decrease in mass, thus it takes more/less energy to move around on the ground.  Apologies if you're already aware. 

 

If there was an updated list of known current bugs posted to the top of the forum, we'd know not to waste our/your time.

Edited May 3, 2024 by JupiterJoe

[draconus]

On 5/3/2024 at 9:58 AM, JupiterJoe said:

As if the aircraft has an unaccounted for increase/decrease in mass, thus it takes more/less energy to move around on the ground. 

If you feel it's not right, just do the tests and provide tracks in own thread.

[cw4ogden]

@JupiterJoe
 

Bug still exists.  Had this three times in the last two days. 
I'm with Jupiter Joe that it's also highly plausible this is behind the f-14 rolling friction being so inconsistent.  

[Nealius]

The whole crux of the issue is that the Supercarrier's spawn behavior is bugged with the Tomcat, reported by Grimes here two years ago and still not addressed:

 

Edited December 6, 2024 by Nealius

[Wavehopper]

Looks like this bug never got solved.  Had this happen again to a squadron mate this weekend.  Like trying to fly a winnebago.

[r_vandenbroek]

@Silhou

Hey there,

This problem still exists, almost 2 years after this post was made. It is very, very frustrating for our Carrier Air Wing, significantly delaying missions because of people having to takeoff, find out they have the bug, quit DCS, rejoin, restart the jet and try again. 

It really takes a lot of fun out of taking an F-14 from the boat (where it belongs) in MP.

Hope you guys can find something.