Meaning of the Last Digit in Waypoint Start Time?

[ferriwheel]

What is the significance of the last digit (the one behind "/") in way point start time in mission editor? Is it a count of days?

 

I've been examining the first mission file of the Su-25 campaign, the target Leopard 2 column's start time vary from unit to unit causing some units to not spawn at all. Also some are due to spawn at 9:00??

[Grimes]

Yup counts days. Its typically used to spawn stuff late by design so that either the group will activate at a specific time or earlier via triggered group activate. If the intent is to only spawn a group via group activate then the date of activation will be some time not usually reached through gameplay (24 hours). This can also be accomplished with ticking the "late activation" check box.

[ferriwheel]

Nevermind after a little testing I realized that it is the number of days into the battle. Even though setting it to zero has the same effect as setting it to one except that it shifts the day count for that particular unit by 1 making day 1 for units that spawn on day 0 the same day as day 2 for units that spawn on day 1...

 

I guess it means that ED needs to change the spawn time of those Leopard 2's to 10:00:00/1.

[ferriwheel]

Thank you Grimes for the fast reply!

[Grimes]

Its based on the mission start date as specified in the briefing screen. Day 1 (or 0) is June 1st. Day 15 is June 15th. The start time is also relevant to the mission start time, so if you change the mission start time then each groups start time will adjust itself as needed. I don't know if that Leopard group is supposed to spawn or not, like I said it depends on the mission design.

[ferriwheel]

In the first mission, they are set to spawn at 9:00:00/2 with no associated activation trigger. After reading your reply, I realized that ED must intended to trigger them by some specific event but forgot to add that in.

 

Thanks again.

[Nealius]

Does it even work? I've had the "day" default to something bizarre like "134," and then another group would be something completely different. Yet they both still spawn on the same "day."

[ferriwheel]

I guess they have a maximum number of days for a mission and probably any value outside of that range being 0 or 134 or 12345 just default to day one and simply shift the indices of the dates for that unit.

[Wrecking Crew]

Does it even work? I've had the "day" default to something bizarre like "134," and then another group would be something completely different. Yet they both still spawn on the same "day."

 

You can have them set to a late activation by setting the days > 0, but you can use an event to activate them at an earlier time. So two groups can can different number of days late, but if they are both activated in the same event they will appear at the same time on the map.

 

Here is a useful link from MadTommy, the DCS Calendar -

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1590249&postcount=21

 

WC

[ferriwheel]

I'm pretty sure that group set to start from day one also spawn on the first day of the mission. If you take a look at and fiddle a little bit with the first mission in the Su-25 campaign, units with no trigger activation and the same starting time on both day 0 and 1 appear simultaneously on the first day of the battle.

[Wrecking Crew]

^^^ Then check the date on the Briefing page.

 

If that is set to June 2 then the days offset would be a one, I think. But it would be at least a one for every group.

 

It threw me at first, but after working with it a while I think it is working correctly. A bunch of my missions start on different dates throughout the year, in different seasons, and for a fuller moon for night missions.

 

 

Here's another thread on the topic -

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=102311

 

WC

Edited August 15, 2013 by Wrecking Crew

[ferriwheel]

Thanks wrecking crew, very informative thread!