Priest Posted March 5 Posted March 5 You can use funds to request additional CAP flights via radio menu OTHER > STRATEGIC COMMAND > REQUEST SUPPORT FLIGHTS > CAP > then select NORTH or SOUTH patrol areas. 16 hours ago, Eico said: And I have one more point now after playing more, it would be better imo if there was atleast 2 CAP aircrafts atleast somewhere because I sometimes cant focus on what I actually wanna do because theres just a random Su-25 destroying a captured objective and that objective cant even defend itself because theres only Rolands, so no like C-RAM even tho I did upgrade one last time and now it has vulcans but it says their inactive and the didnt shoot at the incoming missiles and I dont seem to be able to repair them, I did find out you can transfer funds to command but they didnt repair the roland search radar. I feel like theres way to few allied flights for SP, if you restart the mission there will be CAP and like SEAD but I have not seen command order a CAS on their own, I dont even think it ordered any allied flights, its only when you restart the mission. Also please no hate, I love this mission but these are just some points that are annoying and make it less fun to play.
lei Posted March 9 Posted March 9 come to say thank you for keep updating this mission. I had issue with StopGap in the past but now everything works fine. Feels much more alive or chaotic than pretense, which I always enjoys for a while before things gets a bit repetitive. One question though, is it possible to have the save interval shortend to e.g. 1min?
cfrag Posted March 9 Author Posted March 9 4 hours ago, lei said: is it possible to have the save interval shortend to e.g. 1min? Yes, and easily so: Open ths mission in mission editor, then Click on the 'zones' button (three interlocking rings) Click on Show all Click on the zone named "persistence config" Change the value of "saveInterval" from 5 (current value) to 1 Save and you are done.
Ploppy Posted March 15 Posted March 15 Hi CFrag, I´m still running that small server for friends, its a windows 10 pro machine with 32GBs of RAM and an i7 CPU. Windows and DCS are of course patched up at all times and we are using v1.71 of your mission. I access and admin it using mstsc.exe from the LAN. It runs comfortably until it crashes occasionally. I can´t see a time pattern but one or two error windows with script errors pop up. If I happen to be around and am quick I can click OK on the first one an the server continues, nobody is disconnected .. just a little confused over the server hiccup seen as the unresponsive environment. If I am not around .. the server will then remove the pilots and die. The server has 30MBit upstream to the internet clients, 250MBit down and has been running with usually 5-7 players and sometimes up to 10. Could you help me to fix it please? Thanks again for your time, Expansion is a gift that keeps giving, we are enjoying it a ton! Plop. P.S: I looked at the logs and picked out some bits that look relevant .. but that filter is ofcborn of my ignorance. Posting it to maybe pique your interest Trouble seems to start after this error occurs: 2025-03-12 23:36:29.278 ERROR SCRIPTING (Main): Mission script error: [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:195: attempt to concatenate local 'inCat' (a nil value) then no more entries until then a day later the players tell me the server is unavailable, I connect to the machine (which the log shows with virtual device conneciton events) then I confirm the popup error windows, seen in the log (? not sure I interpret this correctly) as 2025-03-14 11:41:16.836 WARNING LOG (8080): 2 duplicate message(s) skipped. then some more INFO events are logged presumably from the gameplay prior to the server problem, then again: 2025-03-14 11:41:20.767 ERROR SCRIPTING (Main): Mission script error: [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:195: attempt to concatenate local 'inCat' (a nil value) stack traceback: [C]: ? [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:195: in function 'cat2BaseScore' [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:319: in function 'unit2score' [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:745: in function 'processKill' [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:657: in function 'killDetected' [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:1183: in function 'handleScoreEvent' [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:1174: in function 'onEvent' [string "Scripts/World/EventHandlers.lua"]:13: in function <[string "Scripts/World/EventHandlers.lua"]:11> then this, which continues to remove all clients 2025-03-14 11:41:22.770 ERROR SCRIPTING (Main): Mission script error: [string "autoCSAR = {}..."]:174: attempt to call method 'getCoalition' (a nil value) stack traceback: [C]: in function 'getCoalition' [string "autoCSAR = {}..."]:174: in function 'onEvent' [string "Scripts/World/EventHandlers.lua"]:13: in function <[string "Scripts/World/EventHandlers.lua"]:11> 2025-03-14 11:41:24.586 INFO ASYNCNET (Main): client[3] occupied unit 2025-03-14 11:41:24.595 INFO ASYNCNET (Main): release unit 2025-03-14 11:41:24.595 INFO ASYNCNET (Main): client[3] occupied unit 1000566 2025-03-14 11:41:24.605 INFO ASYNCNET (Main): disconnecting client[2]: ... 2025-03-14 11:41:26.321 ERROR ASYNCNET (772): The session has expired (401). Exiting... 2025-03-14 11:41:26.343 INFO Dispatcher (Main): Stop ... the some entries after everyone was kicked off that reports a win 2025-03-14 11:41:30.110 INFO Scripting (Main): event:type=mission end,comment=winner: , msg: ,t=11829.018,linked_event_id=0,event_id=9522, And concludes with this 025-03-14 11:41:32.647 INFO TERRAIN (Main): lSystem::CleanScenes() 2025-03-14 11:41:32.649 INFO WORLDGENERAL (Main): TerrainUtility:: updated in parallel: 297121, updated in the main thread: 4486 2025-03-14 11:41:32.651 INFO ASYNCNET (Main): messages tracked: 2671448 2025-03-14 11:41:32.651 INFO ASYNCNET (Main): simulation stopped, state=ssIdle 2025-03-12 07:21:29.000 ERROR_ONCE (): 2025-03-14 11:41:32.702 INFO EDCORE (Main): Created boot pool: n:8 2025-03-14 11:41:32.702 INFO WORLDGENERAL (Main): wDetectorWorker:: updated in parallel: 0, updated in the main thread: 0 2025-03-14 11:41:33.549 INFO EDCORE (Main): (dDispatcher)enterToState_:3 2025-03-14 11:41:33.554 INFO DXGUI_WIN_ADAPTER (Main): resize main window to [1024, 720] 2025-03-14 11:41:33.559 ERROR ASYNCNET (Main): Server update failed with code 401. The server will be unlisted. The first log messages are === Log opened UTC 2025-03-12 07:21:40 2025-03-12 07:21:40.300 INFO APP (Main): Disabling vectored exception handler, some debug info will be unavailable.
cfrag Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 58 minutes ago, Ploppy said: I can´t see a time pattern but one or two error windows with script errors pop up. Thank you so much for taking the time and making the effort to track down some bugs. 1 hour ago, Ploppy said: 2025-03-12 23:36:29.278 ERROR SCRIPTING (Main): Mission script error: [string "cfxPlayerScore = {}..."]:195: attempt to concatenate local 'inCat' (a nil value) Uh. Nice catch! This is a strange one as it only applies to dynamically spawned players, and Expansion (I think) doesn't yet support it (because DCS's mission API is so crude). Nevertheless, I hope I'll be able to patch this quickly. 1 hour ago, Ploppy said: Mission script error: [string "autoCSAR = {}..."]:174: attempt to call method 'getCoalition' (a nil value) Sigh. DCS's API is the gift that keeps on giving, isn't it? Again, my thanks for documenting this! I should be able to guard against that quickly. Root cause is DCS passing out nonsensical/erroneous information (pointing to a deallocated unit), and DCS then stumbles when the script asks 'tell me more about that unit'. 1 hour ago, Ploppy said: then this, which continues to remove all clients I don't think that they are connected, but you never know. I'll try and remove the bugs that you kindly documented. and we'll see what happens. From what I've experienced, the bugs that the scripts throw are all recoverable and should not cause the server to disco anyone nor restart. That being said, DCS itself resides on a terribly unstable core that dates back to the late 90s of last millennium, with libraries that are 32 bit code. DCS should be fully restarted (better yet, the entire server) once every 24 hours because it can corrupt your main memory and cause crashes for no apparent reason. My dedi servers (managed by the kind people at Fox3) restart once daily for exactly that reason. I hope I'll have a n update ready soon.
cfrag Posted March 16 Author Posted March 16 Version 1.72 - update: deploy formation for helo troops, bug hardening All Changes: - You now can set group formations when dropping troops - General updates to guard against DCS bugs - smoke from CSAR pilots vanish immediately - more DCS bug hardening in playerScore and autoCSAR - troop deployment player UI for helos 2
Ploppy Posted March 16 Posted March 16 Oh wow, you are a STAR! Thank you very much for that. We will put it to work tonight and I will report back. You are absolutely correct about the error being recoverable, however only within a certain response time. Its more than a minute for sure but I haven't timed it. If the pop-up window on the server is not "OK"´d then first the clients time out then the server decides to die. IF I OK the error message, the server continues and pilots "unfreeze".
idenwen Posted May 3 Posted May 3 I really love that mission! 2 questions though: Is it compatible with the relatively new "Save mission" feature from DCS? Do you plan to port it to other maps like the new Germany Cold War?
cfrag Posted May 3 Author Posted May 3 (edited) 7 hours ago, idenwen said: Is it compatible with the relatively new "Save mission" feature from DCS? Unfortunately, DCS itself isn't compatible with the "Save Mission" feature. Meaning: any mission that you save using that feature is so broken, that you can't really continue it. To me, that feature appears as a low-effort attempt to shoehorn something onto DCS that was never designed with save & continue. To me it also seems evident, that very little, if any engineering has gone into this. Should ED continue with the present-day architecture of this feature it won't ever become a "Save & Continue" feature that we are hoping for. All we will have is a (very) cheap & dirty solution for a non-existing problem. So is Expansion compatible with "Save Mission"? No. Currently DCS does not meet the requirements for such a feature. 7 hours ago, idenwen said: Do you plan to port it to other maps like the new Germany Cold War? I'm thinking about bringing Expansion to other maps, yes. The stunning deterioration of quality in DCS's core gives me pause, though, and I'm currently scaling back my efforts. Edited May 3 by cfrag 1
cfrag Posted May 3 Author Posted May 3 Version 1.75 - MANDATORY UPDATE, works around show-stopping DCS bug Another DCS release, another bad (show-stopping) bug to work around. v1.75 Changes • worked around a show-stopping DCS bug in persistence • improvements to CSAR mission • slight improvements to reaper drones • better airfield logic integration • PlayerScore integration with SpecialK's server mods • Airdrop ability for helo troops And, whatever you do, DO NOT USE DCS' "SAVE MISSION" FEATURE. THAT WILL FUBAR THIS MISSION.
dmatsch Posted May 4 Posted May 4 On 5/3/2025 at 4:30 AM, cfrag said: The stunning deterioration of quality in DCS's core gives me pause, though, and I'm currently scaling back my efforts. ^^this. I'm not really sure what's going on at ED, but a good deal of core-level bugs make any kind of mission design either impossible or such a chore that it's unfeasible. 60%-80% of mods, scripts and static templates are broken, which makes this software mostly unplayable as a Combat flight simulator.
idenwen Posted May 5 Posted May 5 10 hours ago, dmatsch said: ^^this. I'm not really sure what's going on at ED, but a good deal of core-level bugs make any kind of mission design either impossible or such a chore that it's unfeasible. 60%-80% of mods, scripts and static templates are broken, which makes this software mostly unplayable as a Combat flight simulator. I think this one works quite well in general. And is quite some fun until you win it. edited it a bit to have a clearer western/eastern bloc differentiation between blue/red sides in regards of flying units - left the ground units as they where. null But two things that came up: Something changed either in the mission (more units through convoys?) or DCS because I can only play it with lower terrain graphics to free GPU memory it seems, last time I tried it worked with higher details. If you upgrade SAM N and the SAM on the left side you get red units instead of blue ones (and they recapture the site when you don't have tanks nearby).
ricktoberfest Posted May 16 Posted May 16 Coming back after a 4 month hiatus from DCS, is anyone else having an issue flying the longbow or blackshark? Current mission and DCS release, the sim comes to a literal standstill and eventually throws an error crash. This is on VR. Taking one of the jets doesn’t seem to have this issue, and the regular Apache and Huey worked.
cfrag Posted May 16 Author Posted May 16 10 minutes ago, ricktoberfest said: is anyone else having an issue flying the longbow or blackshark? Current mission and DCS release, I do not experience these issue, so in order to narrow down the possibilities, please allow me to ask some questions: - COLD or hot (standard) version of Expansion? - SP, ad-hoc hosted or dedicated server? - Which airfield are you taking off from? I'm assuming Nalchik. Is that airfield in your possession? - Please ensure that you are staring from a fresh mission, i.e. delete the Expansion (data) folder before you start the mission (after a long time, an old mission data file can wreak havoc on a newer version) I hope that we can straighten this out quickly
ricktoberfest Posted May 16 Posted May 16 3 hours ago, cfrag said: I do not experience these issue, so in order to narrow down the possibilities, please allow me to ask some questions: - COLD or hot (standard) version of Expansion? - SP, ad-hoc hosted or dedicated server? - Which airfield are you taking off from? I'm assuming Nalchik. Is that airfield in your possession? - Please ensure that you are staring from a fresh mission, i.e. delete the Expansion (data) folder before you start the mission (after a long time, an old mission data file can wreak havoc on a newer version) I hope that we can straighten this out quickly I wasn’t in the mood for troubleshooting yesterday so didn’t try too many things. Single player, nalchik, at the very beginning of the mission. Cold or hot start seemed the same. I did download the updated mission without deleting the old data folder so that could be it. I’ll try again soon
ricktoberfest Posted May 20 Posted May 20 On 5/16/2025 at 12:22 PM, cfrag said: I do not experience these issue, so in order to narrow down the possibilities, please allow me to ask some questions: - COLD or hot (standard) version of Expansion? - SP, ad-hoc hosted or dedicated server? - Which airfield are you taking off from? I'm assuming Nalchik. Is that airfield in your possession? - Please ensure that you are staring from a fresh mission, i.e. delete the Expansion (data) folder before you start the mission (after a long time, an old mission data file can wreak havoc on a newer version) I hope that we can straighten this out quickly It seems to be a problem on my end with VR. When I tried it pancake it worked fine (stuttering in spots but still workable). Thanks
cfrag Posted May 21 Author Posted May 21 19 hours ago, ricktoberfest said: seems to be a problem on my end with VR Thank you for the update. It seems that DCS is gradually ramping up the minimal VR requirements; lucky me just significantly upgraded my aging rig, so I no longer see 'marginal system' issues (at least for the next few months, I hope). 1
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