[sp / CO-OP MP] EXPANSION - a Dynamic Mission and Sandbox (all aircraft)

[cfrag]

9 hours ago, Retnek said:

Hint / Question: the NDB for CSAR don't seem to work.

Thanks! I'll check -- in the meantime, can you verify that the helicopter has LOS to the pilot's ELT? DCS does model radio terrain occlusion, so this may be a factor.

9 hours ago, Retnek said:

Is there an option to limit the NDB-frequencies-range to the lower range < 999 kHz to please the Gazelle-pilots (it's ADF is broken anyhow afaik)?

I think that probably I'll be able to change the CSAR module, but accidental hits on nearby NDBs may still happen unless the freq range is chosen carefully enough. There is no API in DCS to find out which NDB are close by (nor which are available), so this will have to be ensured by the mission designer.

Edited June 10, 2024 by cfrag

[Retnek]

On 6/10/2024 at 11:07 AM, cfrag said:

Thanks! I'll check -- in the meantime, can you verify that the helicopter has LOS to the pilot's ELT? DCS does model radio terrain occlusion, so this may be a factor.

I think that probably I'll be able to change the CSAR module, but accidental hits on nearby NDBs may still happen unless the freq range is chosen carefully enough. There is no API in DCS to find out which NDB are close by (nor which are available), so this will have to be ensured by the mission designer.

 

LOS of sight was given, went in from 20 km out until the downed pilots popped the smoke. No joy with NDB.

Interestingly Ciribob in his CSAR-script excluded the fixed freq. (Just pointing on it, I'm a lua-moron)
https://github.com/ciribob/DCS-CSAR/blob/master/CSAR.lua
(line 1950 ff)

Maybe worth another thread, just a draft: why not using SAR-radio analogue to smoke or flares? That's how it worked in real, too. Most of the non-satellite SAR-radios used high VHF (243 Mhz). In contrast to the MF-beacons we use in the CSAR-script now a freq. of 243 Mhz really depends on LOS. Beacon-mode usually was switched on by downed pilots after voice-contact. Just for the final approach of the SAR-aircraft. (for radios see https://www.greenradio.de/sar.htm)
So it might be worth to re-design and simplify the CSAR-script for the aspect of radio-handling? Just one freq., it's beacon-mode activated after radio-contact (via F10?) by SAR-aircraft nearby (20 nm or so)? A few years ago I've done some test-missions with the UH-1 and the Mi-8. Both were able to come along with 4 active beacons sending nearby simultaneously. Usually the nearest source was strongest and displayed on the instrument. Would need some further testing now, true. But on the long run it might make life easier.
Homing on a VHF-frequency at 243 MHz would limit the CSAR-helos to UH-1 and Mi-8 (Hind maybe?). And it might "spam" all the aircraft-radios listing to that emergency-freq. by default, too. Would be easy to avoid that kind of trouble choosing 222 MHz or even a frequency in the range of the MF-NDB, 666 kHz f.e.

24.06.11 add-on: thx @cfrag for some interesting hours with radio-stuff! 243 MHz is no way to go, no range limitation, would spam radios all over the map. Using the NDB-range offers more chances for mission building - checking Caucasus-map 666 kHz has fixed NDBs nearby. But 777 kHz has no neighbours for +/- 35 kHz. With the Mosquito one needs at least 20 kHz spacing for the radio to separate two NDB somewhat solid. That should do.

Edited June 11, 2024 by Retnek

[cfrag]

Hey all, thank you so much for all the suggestions and feedback. This is just a short note for all you Kiowa jocks that yes, I've been able to reliably link its L2MUM to reapers, and this will be in the next release, so there no longer is a need to suggest this (and boy! the Kiowa is a fun aircraft!).

Cheers,

-ch

[eric963]

cfrag,

When selecting "Request Support Flights" > "Sead" > "Beslan Area"  we get the message "F16 1 has ordered a SEAD flight towards Mineralnye Vody..." and the SEAD flight heads to Mineralyne Vody instead of Beslan.

[mcfleck]

cfrag,
When selecting "Request Support Flights" > "Sead" > "Beslan Area"  we get the message "F16 1 has ordered a SEAD flight towards Mineralnye Vody..." and the SEAD flight heads to Mineralyne Vody instead of Beslan.

Something similar happens when ordering CAP flights. It seems like you are only able to task CAP flights for the northern area.

A couple of other observations from our recent play test:

- The Russian speaking voices originate from blue KA50s as it seems.

- StopGap:
Still seems to be not working on my side. Planes keep populating airfields and after selecting an aircraft you instantly crash it.
Rechecked, that I set the corresponding configStopGap property to "no".
The odd thing is that players reported that it seemed to work at some point (empty airfields), then after one player disconnected, the airfields filled up again with static aircraft. Without a mission restart or anything. I'll check if I can find the log file.

- There seems to be a neverending spawn of BTR convoys from the east trying to capture Wasp factory. Is this intentional?
They line up on the street to the Wasp factory with a couple of kilometers in between them. Is there a possibility to destroy their home base or do we have to send CAS flights down that road frequently?


- Is it intentional, that once you capture enemy airfields and farps, the former red units will spawn as blue ones? So suddenly you have blue SU33 from these airfields.

- It would be really nice to know what objectives the AI is working on. Especially when they try to capture an enemy objective, you could plan your flights in order to support them.

- Min Vody flipped sides to blue after killing all units there, without the need of bringing in a capturing squad. Is this intentional?

Lots of "is this intentional" questions, I know. But I want to understand if the things I observed are rather bugs or features.

[cfrag]

5 hours ago, eric963 said:

When selecting "Request Support Flights" > "Sead" > "Beslan Area"  we get the message "F16 1 has ordered a SEAD flight towards Mineralnye Vody..." and the SEAD flight heads to Mineralyne Vody instead of Beslan.

Thanks to you @eric963 and @mcfleck for your reports and comments! I'm looking into that.

51 minutes ago, mcfleck said:

A couple of other observations from our recent play test:
- The Russian speaking voices originate from blue KA50s as it seems.

That is really strange. A silly question: where does that KA50 come from? I'm not using KA50 in 'vanilla Expansion'. There is one E3-A, departing from Kutaisi. Did you change the mission?

[EDIT. Ah, Ka50. Not enough coffee, sorry.]

51 minutes ago, mcfleck said:

- StopGap:
Still seems to be not working on my side. Planes keep populating airfields and after selecting an aircraft you instantly crash it.

A similar occurrence (populating enemy-owned airfields) was traced to a bug in the A4 Skyhawk mod. Are you running any mods with Expansion? That 'falling from the sky' in multiplayer is an indication that stopGapGUI is not running on the serve

 

51 minutes ago, mcfleck said:

- There seems to be a neverending spawn of BTR convoys from the east trying to capture Wasp factory. Is this intentional?

That's a prioritization from Red's tasking. It really wants that Factory, and probably already owns the rest, so it concentrates on Wasp. It's also after some other high-value target, some of which you may not see so prominently (it's usually also after June, Grand Central and the two high-value production centers at the edges). Like you, Red has the ability to bring in endless resources to some targets to keep up the pressure. Wasp Factory is one of them. 

51 minutes ago, mcfleck said:

Is it intentional, that once you capture enemy airfields and farps, the former red units will spawn as blue ones? So suddenly you have blue SU33 from these airfields.

Yes. You get the airfield, you get the types. Initially I also wanted extend this to access to player aircraft (e.g. Flankers only from Beslan, Hogs only from Nalchik), but initial feedback from my groups was negative to the latter Idea, so players have access to their slots on all captured airfields (player Flankers are missing from all but Nalchik, I'll add them soon)

51 minutes ago, mcfleck said:

It would be really nice to know what objectives the AI is working on. Especially when they try to capture an enemy objective, you could plan your flights in order to support them.

Sure it would  - your intel isn't that good atm, though. Maybe I can add this as an objective (deploy a listening outpost) or investment to get a one-time glimpse into what AI is doing - for the right amount of §, of course. Or it can be a difficulty setting. But not knowing what the enemy is doing is the main incentive for players to deploy reapers and AWACS and participate in intelligence gathering flights. Blue does get intel when Red repairs or upgrades zones, though.

51 minutes ago, mcfleck said:

Min Vody flipped sides to blue after killing all units there, without the need of bringing in a capturing squad. Is this intentional?

In this case you lucked out, and had one of your downed pilots (CSAR mission) inside the 2km airfield zone. DCS itself (not Expansion) counts this as 'boots on the ground' for blue, and flips the airfield: Expansion detects the flip and acts accordingly. I'll see if I can change the CSAR code to insta-kill ejecting pilots inside a 2km radius of an airfield or CSAR to avoid this (it's become a quite common tactic/exploit for players to capture an airfield quickly by ejecting directly overhead and float to the ground. Not just in Expansion, but many other missions that allow capture). 

51 minutes ago, mcfleck said:

Lots of "is this intentional" questions, I know. But I want to understand if the things I observed are rather bugs or features.

I love these questions and feedback - keep them coming. Oh - and these perceived oddities are all features, I create perfect missions, of course  

Edited June 12, 2024 by cfrag

[cfrag]

5 hours ago, eric963 said:

When selecting "Request Support Flights" > "Sead" > "Beslan Area"  we get the message "F16 1 has ordered a SEAD flight towards Mineralnye Vody..." and the SEAD flight heads to Mineralyne Vody instead of Beslan.

and 

1 hour ago, mcfleck said:

Something similar happens when ordering CAP flights. I

And boy! was it a bad bug. All flights toy anywhere ended up to be destined to whichever destination was last to install in the menu at mission start-up, and due to the randomized nature that the zones are processed, that is randomized every time you run the mission (even when loading from save data). Correcting this bug was (as always) trivial. Finding it not. So thank you, it's fixed and will release with the next updated, tentatively slated for the week-end (still testing the reaper upgrades). 

[mcfleck]

Sure it would  - your intel isn't that good atm, though. Maybe I can add this as an objective (deploy a listening outpost) or investment to get a one-time glimpse into what AI is doing - for the right amount of §, of course. Or it can be a difficulty setting. But not knowing what the enemy is doing is the main incentive for players to deploy reapers and AWACS and participate in intelligence gathering flights. Blue does get intel when Red repairs or upgrades zones, though. 

What I meant with that is it would be nice to know what the blue AI is up to. I usually get informed about the commanders intent IRL

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, mcfleck said:

What I meant with that is it would be nice to know what the blue AI is up to. I usually get informed about the commanders intent IRL

Thats's what's in the objectives menu. AI is usually working on the secondary objective, while additionally trying to harass or disrupt Red's progress.

[mcfleck]

A similar occurrence (populating enemy-owned airfields) was traced to a bug in the A4 Skyhawk mod. Are you running any mods with Expansion? That 'falling from the sky' in multiplayer is an indication that stopGapGUI is not running on the serve 

I have it in my local (client) saved games/mods folder, but I did not put it in the mission.
I also did not add it to the dedicated server, that is hosting the mission.
It shouldn't have an impact I guess.

[cfrag]

39 minutes ago, mcfleck said:

I have it in my local (client) saved games/mods folder, but I did not put it in the mission.

If you have the time and inclination, please remove the Skyhawk and try again. It seemed to help in at least one instance, so it may be worth a shot. 

[RedeyeStorm]

Hey @cfrag @mcfleck I had the issue with the A4 but I only removed them from the mission not from the install. After that no more issues.

Edited June 14, 2024 by RedeyeStorm

[dtruck260]

@cfrag not sure if caught before, OCTOBER FARP is spelled OCFOBER FARP 

[Grindmetal]

WASP factory not possible take/capture?

 

[cfrag]

59 minutes ago, Grindmetal said:

WASP factory not possible take/capture?

It is in my version...  

[cfrag]

Version 1.32 - 20240616: "Better Reapers and Kiowas"

Version 1.32 Changes
•    Drones now can cycle their targets 
•    Drones now work with Kiowa'2 L2MUM ability (will not yet reflect drone target cycling due to DCS shortcomings)
•    complete overhaul of drone control menus 
•    Added two additional drones (June and Kislovodsk)
•    Corrected a bug involving support flight destinations 
•    Added player Flankers (1x CAS, 1xCAP) to Bes, Min, Moz 
•    Added Kiowa to all FARPs as well  
•    Pilots ejecting onto airfields/FARPS can no longer capture them

Enjoy,

-ch

 

[dtruck260]

3 hours ago, cfrag said:

Version 1.32 - 20240616: "Better Reapers and Kiowas"

Version 1.32 Changes
•    Drones now can cycle their targets 
•    Drones now work with Kiowa'2 L2MUM ability (will not yet reflect drone target cycling due to DCS shortcomings)
•    complete overhaul of drone control menus 
•    Added two additional drones (June and Kislovodsk)
•    Corrected a bug involving support flight destinations 
•    Added player Flankers (1x CAS, 1xCAP) to Bes, Min, Moz 
•    Added Kiowa to all FARPs as well  
•    Pilots ejecting onto airfields/FARPS can no longer capture them

Enjoy,

-ch

 

Does it take some time to show up (new version?) in the user files?

[shinobi61]

can i get the reaper updated module

[cfrag]

5 minutes ago, dtruck260 said:

Does it take some time to show up (new version?) in the user files?

It just became available to me, so hopefully for you as well (I re-submitted the update)

[dtruck260]

Just now, cfrag said:

It just became available to me, so hopefully for you as well (I re-submitted the update)

Yep, 1.32 downloaded now, thanks!

[cfrag]

5 minutes ago, shinobi61 said:

can i get the reaper updated module

If you want to play with fire  -- I'll put it in the DML thread, and it'll be part of DML's regular update.

[dtruck260]

@cfrag

Friends and I played for 5hrs last night, noticed two things which might be fixed in the .32

Convoy to wasp from lp52 generates over and over (good for $ farming  ) I dont think its intended though

AWACS and other AC are speaking Russian (In attempting to fix this, changing AWACS to USA, worked, changing the AI CAP/CAS/SEAD, did not work, they still spawned as country Ukraine)

Spelling error in October FARP

AWACS can get jammed up on the runway (where it takes off) because players can request it over and over even if it already exists

 

Edited June 16, 2024 by dtruck260

[cfrag]

Thnak you so much for the feedback, @dtruck260!

2 hours ago, dtruck260 said:

Convoy to wasp from lp52 generates over and over (good for $ farming  ) I dont think its intended though

It's a result of the AI *really* wanting that factory. I'll see if some balancing can even the pressure slightly. That being said, a reaper drone and some LGB make indeed easy funds - but watch out for the enemy flights (the Kiowa armed with APKWS has become a really helpful little bird with this  )

2 hours ago, dtruck260 said:

AWACS and other AC are speaking Russian (In attempting to fix this, changing AWACS to USA, worked, changing the AI CAP/CAS/SEAD, did not work, they still spawned as country Ukraine)

Ah, I may be able to change that to USA, probably an oversight when I set up the cloner. 

2 hours ago, dtruck260 said:

Spelling error in October FARP

Can you perhaps show me a pic? I'm sure the typo's there, but my tired eyes...

2 hours ago, dtruck260 said:

AWACS can get jammed up on the runway (where it takes off) because players can request it over and over even if it already exists

That's odd, there should be a 1 hour cooldown. Looking at it now, thanks!

 

[dtruck260]

25 minutes ago, cfrag said:

Thnak you so much for the feedback, @dtruck260!

It's a result of the AI *really* wanting that factory. I'll see if some balancing can even the pressure slightly. That being said, a reaper drone and some LGB make indeed easy funds - but watch out for the enemy flights (the Kiowa armed with APKWS has become a really helpful little bird with this  )

Ah, I may be able to change that to USA, probably an oversight when I set up the cloner. 

Can you perhaps show me a pic? I'm sure the typo's there, but my tired eyes...

That's odd, there should be a 1 hour cooldown. Looking at it now, thanks!

 

null

[idenwen]

There seems to be a problem with one of the Phantom spots for the AI

This one here sat there all the time vibrating with running engines but never managed to leave the parking spot