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

[cfrag]

7 hours ago, idenwen said:

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

Strangely enough, the phantom you are showing is a player plane, not AI. They are static planes until a player jumps into them.

[idenwen]

11 hours ago, cfrag said:

Strangely enough, the phantom you are showing is a player plane, not AI. They are static planes until a player jumps into them.

eh.. I don't even own the Phantom, and it definitely was a SP session. Will see if I can find her again - any information you need?

[cfrag]

1 minute ago, idenwen said:

eh.. I don't even own the Phantom, and it definitely was a SP session. Will see if I can find her again - any information you need?

I believe it's fine. The phantom that you saw is a player slot stand-in, it's a static object. It won't move until you jump into it. Since you don't own it, that will be never  

[cfrag]

Version 1.35 - 20240620 -- HOT AND COLD

Most of you server owners and many of you single-players know the 'dread drill': when the designer of a mission that you like prefers the other player start-up option. Be it HOT or COLD, there always is roughly half of you who prefer the other. Expansion is one of those HOT missions, and yes, I hear you kind souls who prefer a cool mission be COLD.

As we all know, DCS's Mission Editor makes the process of changing player aircraft start-up painful indeed. Expansion has some 170 aircraft, and changing them all to the other option will see even the most diligent of us in tears after the third update. 

So I talked to the fine people over at the DCS Web Editor project, and fantasized about an option to switch all HOT player aircraft to COLD. A short while later I was blown away: the Web Editor now has a feature that can change all client (player) aircraft to HOT or COLD - with a single click, within a split-second.

So thanks to the DCS Web Editor, Expansion now comes in two flavors: Expansion (as before) and Expansion COLD - all player aircraft are cold & dark. Brrrrrr. But I know that people will love it. And anyone else who needs to update or adapt some of the big classic missions that come at one temperature: head over to the DCS Web Editor, and check out this incredibly helpful tool.

Other changes in 1.35 include:

Version 1.35
•    AWACS respawn now pre-wipes existing aircraft
•    stopGap stand-ins now are all neutral and no longer attract attacks
•    HOT (default) and COLD startup (COLD provided by DCS Web Editor https://www.patreon.com/DcsWebEditor )

 

Edited June 22, 2024 by cfrag

[Grindmetal]

OMG Nice News THX 

[Grindmetal]

@cfragWhenever you update to new versions that you release the mission, SAVE resets back to the beginning and is that normal?

[cfrag]

2 hours ago, Grindmetal said:

Whenever you update to new versions that you release the mission, SAVE resets back to the beginning and is that normal?

The save file is tied to the file name of the mission. SO if now run "Expansion COLD", it looks for a save file name and save file folder that ends on COLD. If it does not find one, it creates a new one and starts from scratch. To use the old save file, either rename the saves, or rename the mission so that they match up

Edited June 23, 2024 by cfrag

[Grindmetal]

@cfrag normal ? TACAN all 1x

 

15+players 

 

Edited June 23, 2024 by Grindmetal

[cfrag]

7 hours ago, Grindmetal said:

TACAN all 1x

Confirmed. Limited to COLD version. Appears to be a conversion artifact from Web Ed, on it. 

[cfrag]

15 hours ago, Grindmetal said:

normal ? TACAN all 1x

There's a small bug in DCS WebEditor when it writes back zone properties. Until that bug can be corrected, here's a tiny patch for the cfxZones module that counteracts the bug. Simply replace it in the ONSTAR Trigger's DOSCRIP file, and you should be all set (only applies to Expansion COLD). Will be part of the next Expansion update.

 

cfxZones.lua

[Grindmetal]

12 hours ago, cfrag said:

There's a small bug in DCS WebEditor when it writes back zone properties. Until that bug can be corrected, here's a tiny patch for the cfxZones module that counteracts the bug. Simply replace it in the ONSTAR Trigger's DOSCRIP file, and you should be all set (only applies to Expansion COLD). Will be part of the next Expansion update.

 

cfxZones.lua 120.62 kB · 4 downloads

i replace in ME Works fine 

 

[Grindmetal]

@cfrag 

When you have players doing the tasks, I noticed that for about 3 hours the AI stays still, and spawns but doesn't take off

null

Edited June 30, 2024 by Grindmetal

[cfrag]

2 minutes ago, Grindmetal said:

When you have players doing the tasks, I noticed that for about 3 hours the AI stays still, and spawns but doesn't take off

I've noticed this as well, and it's a result of some quite bone-headed AI that fails to drive around even the slightest runway- or taxiway incursion: have a single infantry or jeep have a tiny bit on the runway, and planes wait for the unit to move - which they don't. This is especially bad if it happens to be some silly debris that in the real world anyone would simply push aside.

I have some logic in the game to regularly sweep the runways, but it seems that I have to extend this to the taxiways as well. I'm not that happy about this since the checks are performance intensive, and hence will give the server a noticeable, 0.25 second stutter every 10 minutes. But that's better than silly AI sitting around doing nothing. 

[Grindmetal]

6 minutes ago, cfrag said:

I've noticed this as well, and it's a result of some quite bone-headed AI that fails to drive around even the slightest runway- or taxiway incursion: have a single infantry or jeep have a tiny bit on the runway, and planes wait for the unit to move - which they don't. This is especially bad if it happens to be some silly debris that in the real world anyone would simply push aside.

I have some logic in the game to regularly sweep the runways, but it seems that I have to extend this to the taxiways as well. I'm not that happy about this since the checks are performance intensive, and hence will give the server a noticeable, 0.25 second stutter every 10 minutes. But that's better than silly AI sitting around doing nothing. 

I understand, yes it's true
This DCS AI telling you doesn't work very well either. ED could improve this a lot easily

[Grindmetal]

if there are bomb craters on the runway the AI won't take off either, is there something that does like repairing the runways it would be cool to include that too

[cfrag]

28 minutes ago, Grindmetal said:

is there something that does like repairing the runways it would be cool to include that too

Unfortunately, that's (AFAIK) not possible; bomb craters should disappear after an hour by magic.

Edited June 30, 2024 by cfrag

[cfrag]

Version 1.40 - Major Update - 20240712
After some intensive coding, prolonged testing, and re-designs, this update bring a number of important changes to Expansion:

Re-balancing 
Feedback (thanks everyone!) was that Expansion's ground offensive was a bit too overwhelming, especially for single-player. The new version reduces the number of ground units spawned, and lengthens the interval between new AI tasking by 25%. This should give players more breathing room, especially when they are fewer in numbers. Furthermore, Red is less aggressive when repairing/upgrading its fortification (only on lower difficulties)

New: Convoys 
A new central feature are ground convoys that are sent out by both sides. If Blue sends out a convoy (be it to capture or to reinforce), your task is to ensure that it arrives at its destination. If Red sends out a convoy, your task is to find it and then destroy it. Now, convoys are usually protected by helicopters, and red may even mix some mobile SAMs into the mix, so be careful: Convoys have a strong risk/reward ratio. Some of the convoys can be a nasty piece of work. 

Destroying red convoys and ensuring that blue convoys reach their destination net your side significant rewards.
Convoys in their current for build the foundation for a development that I'm planning for later that may incorporate warehouses. At this point in time, they do not impact the overall strategic landscape, just the tactical (convoys can and will capture enemy locations).

DCS July-11 2024 update fixes 
The latest DCS update brought a number of undocumented changes to the mission scripting environment. This update to Expansion fixes some that I and people in the community have discovered. There may be more, so please report them quickly, and I will try and fix them quickly.

All Changes in Detail
•    Hardening of code for WebEd conversion oddity (COLD only)
•    Chemical Complex AAA and defenders ownership fixed 
•    more unit sweeping to clear out debris etc. on all airfields
•    sweeper interval set to 15 minutes 
•    convoy script infrastructure added to mission 
•    Added convoys:
•    added 3 blue convoys 
•    added 3 red convoys  
•    added 2 heavy convoys 
•    DML framework upgrade 
•    Rebalancing
•    increased interval for AI General's 'rounds'
•    only repair or upgrade per round for red (on lower difficulties)
•    reduced probability of launching new ground attack (Red)
•    First integration of convoys into red/blue strategy  
•    Integrated convoys with tactical objectives 
•    Blue receives rewards for tac convoy completion 
•    added Hook stand-ins for imminent Hook release
•    slightly tuned financial interval  
•    patched some DCS 7-11-2024 update incompatibilities
 

Enjoy,

-ch

Edited July 12, 2024 by cfrag

[Grindmetal]

@cfragCan I set a dynamic slot on the home/main base without any problems?

[Grindmetal]

well I put 3 Dynamic slots, for a test
works OK
However, there is a detail: some functions disappear from the F10 Radio Menu, as you can see in the print

 

null

[cfrag]

8 hours ago, Grindmetal said:

Can I set a dynamic slot on the home/main base without any problems?

Please do not do dynamic spawns.

I'm getting up to speed with DCS's dynamic slots, and the entire feature seems half-baked to me. Unit naming, Group naming, menu allocation, location etc are fully undocumented, and this will create problems with the mission. In the past 15 years of DCS it was assumed that there can't be player units that aren't enumerated in the mission file itself. Hence, advanced scrips can check against the internal whitelist of 'player planes' to determine their action. This now fails, a central assumption has gone out of the window without warning, and now a lot of re-coding has to take place before some missions can support dynamic spawning. 

Expansion heavily builds on a framework called 'DML'. A dynamically spawned plane will create issues as soon as it dies, and Expansion's built in slot blocker will then try and reset the state for that slot. If the plane is dynamic, it's not on the player plane whitelist, and the module takes a dive off the deep end. A similar problem exists with menus that are assigned at mission start and hence will not be available for planes that weren't known at that point (e.g. dynamic spawns). So, any dynamic spawn will hit the mission hard. If you stay on the safe side until I can announce dynamic spawn support (which I am determined to get done, it's too good a mission design opportunity to pass up), the mission should work.

 

Edited July 13, 2024 by cfrag

[cfrag]

BUG ALERT: EXPANSION ON DEDICATED SERVER

Please be advised that a number of bugs in DCS 2.9.6.57650 (released on Jul-11) can result in unpredictable behavior when Expansion (and probably other missions) is hosted on dedicated servers. For example (and originally reported to me by @dtruck260, thanks you!) player units can lose access to some F10-Other menus, or have their menu structure garbled. This DCS bug has been verified and reported, so I am hoping that ED can deliver a fix.

[Grindmetal]

I understand, thanks for the information cFrag
Thanks for the update

[Grindmetal]

@cfrag i get this error 

 

ps, Orignal Mission no Modify only add Ground Spawn client Su25T [ no dynamics] null

[WipeUout]

Hi @cfrag, balance seems much better from a single player perspective.  However, I noticed a couple of issues:

1. No detection of landing back at blue airfield, not getting any points earned.  no error message displayed.
2. Upon landing and off-loading troops at Beslan to capture the airfiled, game crashed completely (CTD).  I will look at saving the log next time it happens, sorry i did not save it.

[cfrag]

BUG ALERT: EXPANSION IN GENERAL

The DCS July-11 release has introduced a host on new, unannounced 'features' that will require some changes to the scripts that run under the hood in Expansion. One such change that I tracked down this morning is that (at least for helicopters), there was (unannounced to me, but I don't count  ) a change to how events work in DCS. Scripts now get different notifications when a helicopter (and maybe a fixed wing, will have to test) takes off or lands. This means any script that looks for this to happen no longer registers this.

16 hours ago, WipeUout said:

No detection of landing back at blue airfield, not getting any points earned.

Thank you for this hint, @WipeUout, I believe yours was the message that sent me on the right track. If you don't mind my asking: were you flying a helicopter or fixed wing (i.e. is this just a normal DCS screw-up for helicopters, or did the entire scripting community get hosed?)

I'm now amending the many scripts that are impacted, and how that I'll have a fix soon.