no bug AI Tanker Refueling Weirdness

[Proper Charlie]

Playing around getting AI units to refuel from a KC-135 MPRS, I am seeing some weird behaviour.

Flight of two AI Mirage F1EEs, told to refuel from the KC-135, then continue their flight and land.

Expected behaviour; the two Mirages should refuel at the same time, using the two drogues on the KC-135

Observed behaviour v1 (Superposition.trk); the two Mirages fly into each other - they don't actually collide as such, they just "superimpose".

Observed behaviour v2 (Crashdown.trk); the first Mirage hooks up with the tanker, while the second flies in formation without tanking. Then the first Mirage breaks off, hits the afterburner, and just spirals into the ocean.

With only slightly different mission setups I have seen it work correctly with the Mirage F1 and in the F-18C, so I'm not sure quite what went wrong on these missions.

DCS version 2.9.13.6818 MT

Crashdown.trk Superposition.trk

Edited February 21 by Proper Charlie

[JupiterJoe]

Probe still not contacting drogue properly.  There is mention of something being fixed in the last Patch, but it wasn't this:

This image shows my AI wingman attempting to refuel from an S-3B.  

Edited March 5 by JupiterJoe

[Alex241]

Hi everybody. I wrote about it in the Russian part of the forum, but I did not receive a response. Around March of this year, a bug appeared - in some missions (especially in new or updated ones), the slave bot stopped refueling (regardless of the order of refueling, I tried to approach first and send the bot first). He approaches the cone, hovers with a barbell slightly lower and flies into the refueling formation. At the same time, he does not receive fuel (he checked with triggers, displaying messages about the amount of fuel). Moreover, in missions created earlier (last year), the wingman refuels normally. I am attaching a screenshot and several tracks. I fly offline. I did a complete repair of the game, nothing has changed. Description of tracks: 28032025-1 New mission. The player is the first to approach hose 1, the bot is the second to hose 2. The bot has no contact. 28032025-3 The old mission. The player is the first to approach hose 1, the bot is the second to hose 2. The bot has a contact. 28032025-4 New mission. The bot is the first to approach hose 1, the player is the second to hose 2. The bot has no contact.

В 12.05.2025 в 21:59, Alex241 сказал:

Добрый вечер всем. Примерно в марте этого года появился баг - в некоторых миссиях (особенно, в новых или обновленных) перестал дозаправляться ведомый бот (вне зависимости от очередности дозаправки, пробовал и первым подходить, и бота первым посылать). Подходит к конусу, зависает штангой чуть ниже и летит в строю дозаправки. Топливо при этом у него не поступает (проверял триггерами, выводом сообщений о количестве топлива). Причем, в миссиях, созданных ранее (в прошлом году), ведомый нормально дозаправляется. Прилагаю скрин и несколько треков. 

Летаю в офлайне.

Описание треков:

28032025-1 Новая миссия. Игрок подходит первым к шлангу 1, бот  вторым к шлангу 2. Контакта у бота нет.
28032025-3 Старая миссия. Игрок подходит первым к шлангу 1, бот  вторым к шлангу 2. Контакт у бота есть.
28032025-4 Новая миссия. Бот подходит первым к шлангу 1, игрок вторым к шлангу 2. Контакта у бота нет.

Буду признателен за помощь с решением проблемы.

28032025-1.trk 6.57 \u041c\u0411 · 7 загрузок 28032025-3.trk 2.75 \u041c\u0411 · 6 загрузок 28032025-4.trk 3.03 \u041c\u0411 · 6 загрузок

 

[NineLine]

On 2/21/2025 at 2:56 PM, Proper Charlie said:

Playing around getting AI units to refuel from a KC-135 MPRS, I am seeing some weird behaviour.

Flight of two AI Mirage F1EEs, told to refuel from the KC-135, then continue their flight and land.

Expected behaviour; the two Mirages should refuel at the same time, using the two drogues on the KC-135

Observed behaviour v1 (Superposition.trk); the two Mirages fly into each other - they don't actually collide as such, they just "superimpose".

Observed behaviour v2 (Crashdown.trk); the first Mirage hooks up with the tanker, while the second flies in formation without tanking. Then the first Mirage breaks off, hits the afterburner, and just spirals into the ocean.

With only slightly different mission setups I have seen it work correctly with the Mirage F1 and in the F-18C, so I'm not sure quite what went wrong on these missions.

DCS version 2.9.13.6818 MT

Crashdown.trk 59.23 kB · 13 downloads Superposition.trk 57.25 kB · 15 downloads

Hey sorry for the long time to see this. I played your track back, the Crashdown one and saw the same as you.

I opened the track in the mission editor and gave the Mirage flight a bit more distance from the Tanker and it worked fine. In most cases with actions like refuelling, bombing, etc its always good to give the AI time to set up, in this case they just didn't have enough time to set up. 

Same for the Superposition.trk, I extended the distance by about double and it worked fine.

null

[jross194]

Was searching for something about AI air refueling not completing/finishing. Found a topic that was closed. 

Over Multiple mission files (~8)

2 Different PC's; one use to build mission and test, one clean as I can get it (used only to 'play').

2 Different maps: Mariana's and Afghanistan

Aircraft: F16-Blk 50/52d/DCS F16, All F18 variants

Most would join on tanker and take gas, BUT

Post AR they will move to port/starboard positions and not continue on route - they continue in formation with the tanker.

However, If a single-ship (not a flight of 2) some (F-16's) would work - would continue on route post AR

None of the F18's worked at all - would not refuel to start with.

There's nothing much in these; I've been doing this stuff for years and beyond the usual issues it's always worked; all defaults except tasks

Tanker mission task = "Refueling"

Fighter WP[1] task = "Refueling", with/without tanks, internal fuel 25%, with a follow-on WP to land (100+ miles away); starting between 20-40 miles away from teh tanker track.

Thanks for the work

[Alex241]

Hi all. The Tu-160 bot is not refueled. It flies in the refueling formation, but fuel does not flow from the Il-78 hose, and the refueling does not end. I checked the same mission with the Tu-95MS - refueling is going normally, the refueling rod is located in the cone, fuel arrives, refueling after receiving 100% of the fuel is successfully completed. I attach the trk file.

 

Tu-160_bug_refuling.trk

[rob10]

4 hours ago, Alex241 said:

Hi all. The Tu-160 bot is not refueled. It flies in the refueling formation, but fuel does not flow from the Il-78 hose, and the refueling does not end. I checked the same mission with the Tu-95MS - refueling is going normally, the refueling rod is located in the cone, fuel arrives, refueling after receiving 100% of the fuel is successfully completed. I attach the trk file.

 

Tu-160_bug_refuling.trk 1.62 MB · 2 downloads

That is awesome that you're reporting with a track file!!  Congrats, you're doing it the right way.  However, since this thread is marked as "NO BUG" you really should start your own thread as the mods/people who need to see it may not find it due to the tag on the thread.
@NineLine heads up on this one.

[Alex241]

Thank you for your comment, and I will definitely start a new topic in this forum thread later today.