Query regarding Spawn points / orders and statics & parking

[markturner1960]

Does the number of potential client slots in a mission affect where you will spawn? I have a training mission that has several spawn options ( However, its only used by myself and a friend at any time) such as 2 F18's hot, 2 cold, 2 Tomcats hot, 2 cold ... 12 in total

The mission also has some AI flights taking off right at the start -  a prowler and the rescue helo. There are also 2 AI F18's airborne. I have another 2 F18's set to start from cold ( start from ramp) 15 minutes after mission start. I enclose a screen grab of the deck layout

I also have carefully placed various statics to enliven the deck, making sure not to block any taxi paths for the new directors and leaving spawn slots 1 - 4 in front of the front elevators free and the 2 slots on the starboard rear elevator plus one at the very back of the starboard side nearest the ramp.

When we spawn in, its always on the rear elevator, not in the first slots....why is this?

How does the logic work for spawn order ?

And in my example , where will the AI park when landing and where will myself and my buddy be directed to when landing

 

 

[fagulha]

"When we spawn in, its always on the rear elevator, not in the first slots....why is this?"

Set the mission time of AI aircraft to 2 secs later than start of the mission, in that way the slots will be populated first with your flight.

regarding the position after landing is trial and error. Didn´t tried yet landing after the update.

In my deck config in the pic i have 3 AI aircraft launching and then my flight of 2. The airframes will be directed to cat 1, 3, and 4. You may take ideas from my layout.

And sometimes i park static aircraft in the fantail to give a crowded deck feel and set a trigger to erase the statics after i launch so the landing area will be cleared.

Edited December 28, 2024 by fagulha
Typo

[markturner1960]

Thanks for the quick reply! I should clarify, that I dont WANT to spawn in the first 4 slots, I am just curious as to why they do not get used, when they are not blocked? Since the screenshot I attached in the OP, I have added another static on the slot 16 and just left 15 & 10 free at the rear, in an attempt to get the crew to direct us to CAT's 1 & 3 when we spawn ( as it should do for a covey launch) however,  my AI flight of 2 Hornets, set to start from ramp at 5 minutes into the mission, now do not appear and start up....and this is in single player with me just using one of the 6 available spawn slots.

I dont understand why, as there are plenty of slots? 

Would you mind sharing your mission for me to look in? 

Can share mine if you like, will need to make a copy without the sound samples as it is 56mb with....unless you want the chatter etc, in which case I will need to send you a wetransfer link.

Edit: I made the AI flight taking off 4 jets and to start same time as the mission does, they all spawn in spots 1,2,3,&4 and take off as they should. So something stops them spawning if I set them to take off later....any ideas? 

I do need to try and work out what happens to AI flights when they recover and are parked using the new crew, especially as all the elevators have statics on them. Are they supposed to be marshalled to an elevator and taken down, or parked on the deck? Or a mix of the 2? 

Edited December 28, 2024 by markturner1960

[markturner1960]

Well, I ran the mission and the first AI flight of 4 to recover, simply dissappeared after they trapped.........so that generates more questions.....

Does this happen only under particular circumstances? If so, which? And why? The AI deck crew will taxy them to take off properly but seem not to be programmed to taxy them to parking. .......why? Is it because of the statics? 

[sLYFa]

The four spawns in the sixpack (that's the area in front of the forward elevator) is only used for AI or player aircraft which are created at mission start (i.e. no 'late activation' or client slot) or if no other spawns are available for player aircraft. The spawn order is: Elevator 2, 4, 3, 1, the spot between elevators 1 and 2, patio and finally the sixpack. If a spot in this sequence is occupied by aircraft (static or 'live'), the system will choose the next free spot. In your case, since elevators 2 and 4 are occupied, you are spawned at elevator 3.

If AIs dissappear after landing it means there are no parking slots free or that the route to free parking spots is blocked. In your layout, the AIs should be able to park on elevator 3 but perhaps the static object in front of the island block the path.

Edited December 28, 2024 by sLYFa

[markturner1960]

Thanks, really helpful.......is this in the manual anywhere? Or just hard won knowledge? 

 

[sLYFa]

Hours of testing actually. I'm trying to improve the routes for our group and the first step was understanding the default logic.

[markturner1960]

Thought that might be the case as it does not seem to be documented! Well thanks for sharing this information!

Regarding the parking, will the carrier send jets down to the hanger using the elevator ? Or does it only park them on deck? 

Can you see any issues with my deck layout that might prevent proper function of the logic? I am having trouble with an AI flight Prowler that keeps being directed to take off from CAT1 even though there are statics there

Do you also happen to know how the Carrier changes from launch to recovery mode and is this a state it has to be in to land on it? I guess if you check in as a player, it switches, but what about with AI flights ? 

Edited December 29, 2024 by markturner1960

[sLYFa]

The routes are fixed, meaning that the catapult an aircraft is sent to is bound to the spawn point. The system doesn't take statics blocking catapults into account, so if you don't want to use a particular cat, you need to make sure that the spawn points associated with that cat are not used by placing statics on them. Here's a list of which spawn point are sent to which catapult:

Position	Dest. Cat
Elevator 2_1	1
Elevator 2_2	2
Elevator 4_1	3
Elevator 4_2	4
Elevator 3_1	1
Elevator 3_2	2
Elevator 1_1	1
Elevator 1_2	2
Corral	2
Patio 1	1
Patio 2	3
Patio 3	4
Sixpack 1	1
Sixpack 2	2
Sixpack 3	3
Sixpack 4	4

_1 denotes the spawn point closer to the bow.

So if you wanted to 'block' catapult one, you'd have to place statics on elev2_1, elev3_1, elev1_1, patio_1 and sixpack 1

 

AI are sent down to the hangar if the parking spot is on an elevator but that parking spot is still marked as occupied by the system afterwards, so you do not gain additional parking spots. There is also no way to prevent AI being sent to the hangar. Player AC will always remain on deck.

The change betweem launch and recovery state is a bit obscure. What I know is that the carrier will change to recovery state when an aircraft is listed for recovery in the the lower display on the LSO platform. Apart from that, I do not see a way to force launch/recovery states. I always recommend to strictly seperate launch and recovery (as IRL) to prevent the directors from deadlocking.

[markturner1960]

Again, super helpful, thank you. In my particular training mission scenario, I have placed various statics and scheduled AI flights to take off and land for immersion. I can send you the mission if you needed to see it. its tweaked slightly from the layout shown in the OP 

I think I have the take off situation sorted, I have effectively blocked CAT1 using your suggestions and information as I have statics there and I also want me and my buddy when flying together, to be able to directed to the correct catapults for a covey launch - in this case, cats 2 & 4. I did not want to place a static on spawn spot 1 on the sixpack as I think that would get in the way of taxying and parking...so got around that by scheduling the AI flights to start a minute later, which means it spawns on the patio instead. Not managed to test in multiplayer yet, so it may need tweaking.

So the idea is that we take off amid the immersive deck action, do our training and then recover, which should also be at the approximate time my AI flights ( 2 flights of 4) are recovering. What I dont know is how this will work with the parking and static placements. 

I would like to avoid being teleported to a parking spot which seems to happening currently. 

Edited December 29, 2024 by markturner1960

[markturner1960]

For anyone interested, I have after lots of questions and helpful answers here, along with many hours of testing and tweaking, come up with a carrier training scenario that provides immersive deck action, working deck crew alongside statics and AI flights and parking. Please let me know if you are interested in me sharing details. It’s based around 2 flyers in multiplayer. 

[markturner1960]

Played the mission in multiplayer today and its run fine before, this time, we got stuck after start up, with an "awaiting personnel" message. There was more spawns available and nothing blocking anything anywhere else on deck......The only way we could progress was for one player to change slots. I am intrigued as to why this started happening after previous successful playthroughs.....

Will try again tomorrow....