Unlimited fuel

[BRooDJeRo]

I was searching and looking for a way through MIST and/or do script to give a certain AI unlimited fuel, however i seem to have trouble finding anything around this subject.

 

Is it possible to set? If yes, what would the little piece of script be?

 

Thx for any answer you might have.

[ENO]

Any reason why you couldn't just respawn the unit once it lands- or once it leaves a zone (to RTB on its own)?

[BRooDJeRo]

Any reason why you couldn't just respawn the unit once it lands- or once it leaves a zone (to RTB on its own)?

 

Yes, i have a reason. The reason is to have AI fighters stay on the scene for longer than 4 laps of combat plus half a tour around mount Caucasus under a almost full map size FC3 multi-player mission. Small scale in a corner of the map is fine yes, but to be honest i'm tired of small scale. Think of at least 8 vs 8 + at least 32 AI fighters on top of that. Continues rtb-bingo-ing is a drag of time and it outbalances these large scale packed with cool action engagements.

 

Most AI fighter aircraft don't even make it to the closest airport because rtb on bingo fuel kicks in too late.

Waiting on AI that constantly run out of fuel and need to do the whole procedure all over again while they still have weapons left takes time.

There's also the time between players that lost connection, left or someone else connects to blend in the whole theater from a certain side. By the time the new guy is on the field the enemy AI is long gone on retreat to base to sign off. It doesn't help a slightly more arcade style field and it makes me quit the whole project to be honest.

 

I've tried a handful of things with code, but nothing worked towards any indication it's remotely possible in the original build.

I'm kind of hoping that it is possible, but i'm overlooking something. Google leads me to i believe Speed asking about this feature already a couple of years ago. Perhaps it's there already.

 

Enough reason? I'm pretty sure that multi-player missions will have more focus on fighter combat with the FA-18 and some other fighters and any decent mission builder will run into this fuel stamina problem that exists in such case. You build missions too. You learned to work around things or rely on awesome 3rd party code guru's that spill some ego into the engine. You must know about these standard AI behavioral patterns that exist today and that you'd love a work around for fuel to work around another problem in mission design. With this in mind i find some celebs around here too quiet. What's going on? Did i miss something?

Edited November 9, 2013 by BRooDJeRo

[ENO]

You can go ahead and calm down- it was just a question with a suggested alternative.

[BRooDJeRo]

You can go ahead and calm down- it was just a question with a suggested alternative.

 

I'm calm my friend, even very stoned. Don't take it the wrong way. :thumbup:

 

But have you found a way to work around the fuel stamina? I already use the MIST respawn functionality. Perhaps something could be done with teleporting to a zone or spawn AI much closer to ground zero, but these are still work arounds not in line with the original idea.

 

["fuel"] = true, FTW

Edited November 9, 2013 by BRooDJeRo

[ENO]

I've been working hard to try and find ways to make longer missions and keep them interesting and haven't had much success- I mean, the concepts are generally pretty sound but the stability doesn't support a lot of the scripting in place to help randomize the events and help keep it playable.

 

Have you tried putting a tanker on station nearby? You could use St3v3s script to respawn the tanker so one was always (or almost always) close by so that when the fighters go bingo they can hit the tanker. Client tanking is broken but I think AI still works? If fighters engage and use up all their weapons they would still need to rtb... but if you kept only 1 nearby airbase red I think you could control where the fighters would return to... set up a zone and then respawn a fully armed aircraft that would return to station close to the tanker... where it would tank as necessary. At least, in concept.

 

Again- I'm no mission wizard at all... I'm just putting out things I would try if I had the same problem.

Edited November 9, 2013 by ENO

[BRooDJeRo]

Currently i use scripting purely as a last resort when the standard engine can't come up with a reasonable workaround like a non existent option or extensive triggering.

 

I don't think having a tanker around will be a method of salvation in my case. For now i'm down to 5 options as a possible remedy in order of best method.

 

1. Unlimited fuel (under investigation)

2. Closer spawn locations to ground zero (takes away mission intended immersion)

3. A 2nd layer of AI fighters to fill up the time gaps (might have more server load/stress)

4. A combination of MIST's respawn and teleport to zone when in a certain zone under low fuel conditions (might create errors for the server and players due to not personally tested)

5. DCS world modification (may the lord be merciful on my soul)

 

These RTB fighters don't give much fun when everything is airborne ready to brawl massively and half of them starts running for fuel and tries to land which they won't make because they don't resist anymore or crash near the airport.

 

I wonder though what happens when i manually change AI fuel consumption in the mission editor client and the server and if that would automatically make them fly longer too for clients. I guess it works the same as for skins. Fuel consumption seems to be a local thing and might create instability for everyone. Unless the server tells the ai how long to fly on a certain amount of fuel. Modification of the game itself is somewhat holy ground for me you know.

Edited November 9, 2013 by BRooDJeRo

[ENO]

One thing I will caution you about teleport (not sure about respawn) is that it seems to work server side but doesn't work for clients unless they came in after the fact. I mentioned this to grimes and he said it was a function broken in the current build. I've also been having issues with group to random zone (mist).

 

Crashing all the time kills emersion too my friend so don't get frustrated focusing on it- cut the corner now but have a plan for when they iron it out.

[BRooDJeRo]

I'll figure something out as usual with everything. Leaving it as it is and bring focus on it might just convince the right people too.

I'm sensing it might even have a back story i don't know about. Let's just say that i'm average smart and somebody writing code for this game must be stages beyond smarter than i am to be able to do that. Why didn't that person think about doing something with unlimited fuel when the same type of godmode function/hack/cheat like immortal was written for AI. Somebody smarter than me must have noticed this too in some way during the years. Did the idea meet with resistance from within? It's alright, but it just makes me wonder. I'd love to hear the story.

 

Anyways... Back to the editor!

[ENO]

I hear ya Brood... I'm in the trenches trying to finish up a campaign for the SimHQ fly in that we are hosting next week- so I know the frustration.

 

My biggest problem is that I can't tell if it's something I'm screwing up or if it's something broken in-sim.

 

Ugh.

[BRooDJeRo]

Yeah i can drown for hours in those step by step Test.miz files too to see if it's me or Santa.

[Winfield_Gold]

You can go ahead and calm down- it was just a question with a suggested alternative.

If only the forums had a "like" button

 

Not having a crack at you brood.....but this was quite funny

[BRooDJeRo]

The problem with forums or text messages is that you don't see or hear the dude. A calm mind can still go 300 miles an hour. In my case i was calm. It was also a joke from Eno who knows how much things can crawl up your skin when something doesn't work with many hours invested. :joystick:

Edited November 21, 2013 by BRooDJeRo