Spawning an escort for clients

[VapoR]

I'm trying to accomplish something in the ME and nothing I've tried has worked. I figured one of you brilliant mission designers could help me!

 

What I'm trying to do is spawn a fighter escort (2-ship) every time that a MP client spawns. I've created all the necessary flights and their flight plans and tasks.

 

These are some things I tried:

--Trigger Once and Continuous on player taking control.

--Trigger No Event and Unit Alive.

--Trigger zone placed at spawn location, then both of the above.

 

Nothing seems to work. Is there a different way to do this?

[ENO]

I would likely do it the way you planned... Set a zone around where the client spawns in... then do a "unit in zone" condition that results in activating a 2 ship AI formation that as an advanced waypoint option to "escort" on the client aircraft. You might choose to set the zone at the end of the active so he / she is airborne when the AI flight joins up-

 

Of course, if the client crashes and comes back into that specific aircraft, that AI flight is spent and it won't work anymore... (the way I'd do it).

 

Is that what you did and it doesn't work?

[Wrecking Crew]

Well,,,, an alternate idea can be to set up an Add Radio Item, and let the Client know to use that to spawn the escort. There could be a few Radio Items to spawn different escorts and in diff locations.

 

I just started using these Radio adds and they work well.

 

 

Another idea is to have a zone at a waypoint and tell the Client to fly to the WP. In the v2_0 Mist Guide on Page 14 there is an example of detecting any Blue or Red plane in a zone -

mist.flagFunc.units_in_zones{

units = {'Chevy11', 'Chevy12', 'Chevy13', 'Chevy14'},

zones = {'Mozdok', 'Krymsk', 'Anapa', 'Mineral'},

flag = 100,

zone_type = 'sphere'

}

 

^^^ Your zone should prolly be a cylinder, though. This type of script is very useful when vehicles or helicopters might occupy the same zone.

 

 

You don't need to specify Group/Unit names --

mist.flagFunc.units_in_zones{

units = {'[blue][vehicle]'},

zones = {'Point Bastion'},

flag = 99,

req_num = 8,

stopflag = 1000

}

 

WC

[Grimes]

The scripting engine. :)

 

Make a group set to escort each client aircraft. Open up the miz file with winrar or something, and then the mission file within with notepad++. Grab the table with all of the data for each escort flight and put it into a new file. Change the format as needed for each escort flight and name the groupTable into whatever makes sense. At the bottom of each group segment use the function:

 

coalition.addGroup(country.id.USA, Unit.Category.AIRPLANE, nameOfMyGroup1)

 

Create two triggers for each client aircraft.

 

Switched Condition> Unit is Alive> Do Script (Copy and paste the groupTable and coalition.addGroup() function script into this box)

Switched Condition>Unit is Dead> Do Script :

if Group.getByName('relevantGroupNameHere') then
trigger.action.deactivateGroup(Group.getByName('relevantGroupNameHere'))
end

 

This will simply respawn each group into the mission whenever a client aircraft spawns in. When a client dies it will completely despawn the group. Alternatively you can just let the group live and if the client respawns the group will respawn with it.

[VapoR]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

 

I definitely don't want the escorts to vanish if the player dies as they might be engaged with a human opponent at that moment.

 

I think the radio F10 option will work excellently for my mission. I have to admit I'm very intimidated by scripting so anything I can accomplish with triggers would be awesome.

 

I'll give that a shot and if I run into trouble I will yell for help. Thanks guys!

[ENO]

They won't vanish at all... I just mean they won't spawn in again if the client leaves and comes back to that aircraft.

 

Grimes has a good suggestion as well- but I caution you that in the MP environment we're having some trouble with respawn / clone / teleport etc- it happens on the server, and it's happened on clients that join afterwards... but it doesn't move across server client connections when it happens.

 

Seems a bug that will hopefully be fixed next patch- we hope since a lot of great functions are very limited right now.

 

I would try the run once / group in zone (client) / AI group activation set to escort your client in advanced waypoint actions. If the client is shot down, the AI group will either finish the engagement, do the following waypoint action or RTB.

[VapoR]

If anyone is interested this was my final solution:

 

Created a Once-No Event trigger

Set the Condition to Unit's Speed more than 2 m/s, this prevents people that click through several slots before deciding on one to unnecessarily spawn escorts.

For actions I put a group activation for both an escort flight as well as a SEAD flight along with a message to the client with information about the package. Set up this way the client can take time to select their load out and everything without having to worry about the timing.

 

What I'm trying to accomplish is create a large MP mission with lots of activity. If I would have gone the standard route of having random flights across the map the player would still feel disconnected and have a me vs. the world feel (typical problem for DCS IMHO).

 

The escort and SEAD package only spawn for the flight lead, the wingman slot does not initiate the spawn. Wingman slot gets the package message though so hopefully this will encourage coordination there once this mission is online.

 

Look for this mission soon on the 314th server...

 

Thanks again to everyone for your help, you guys are awesome!

Edited December 9, 2013 by VapoR

[ENO]

Just be advised that the sim isn't handling "eye candy" very well right now. Most are limiting the number of AI that aren't crucial because of instability and bandwidth issues- I've subsequently stripped all my (excess) AI out and have seen remarkable improvement.

 

Not to rain on your parade at all- it sounds like a great idea... My suggestion will be to do it up the way you want, then save a version- then change the AI triggers so they can't happen and save it as a light version. That way you get the best of both worlds.

[VapoR]

I haven't really had any stability or FPS issues in my missions, even with lots of AI. I do try to avoid triggers as much as possible but sometimes you can't do the simplest of tasks without them. One of the ones that annoy me the most is having to use a trigger to have AI visible before start. This would be SO much easier if it was a checkbox "Visible Before Start".

[ENO]

Isn't the "uncontrolled" option like the visible before start? If you late activate it?

[WildBillKelsoe]

I'll take a redhead :D

you guys really need to check your titles.. ;)

[Vedexent]

I'll take a redhead :D

you guys really need to check your titles.. ;)

 

and here I was biting my tongue to not say it :D

[WildBillKelsoe]

and here I was biting my tongue to not say it :D

 

heheheee

[ENO]

Ummmmm what did I miss?

 

EDIT:

 

Whoops- a little too Focussed on business there. I see it now.

 

 

But on another note- a redhead? Seriously??

Edited December 9, 2013 by ENO

[VapoR]

Isn't the "uncontrolled" option like the visible before start? If you late activate it?

 

Yeah but you still have to set an advanced waypoint action to start and the set a trigger to get it to work. WAY too complicated.....

 

I'll take a brunette.

[ENO]

 

I'll take a brunette.

 

Yes. :clap_2:

[johnv2pt0]

Does this still work in 1.2.10? For me it only works in SP or for the host in MP, which doesn't help when you're running it off a dedicated server! :)

[eric963]

Johnv2ot0,

 

I seem to be having the same issue. SP and host in MP and ai escort works witj client, but no no matter what i do when trying it on dedicated server the ai escort flight ignores the escort command.

 

Eric

[LFCChameleon_Silk]

lol escorts for clients, what kinda thing are you trying to get at here :lol:

 

well I'm building a script that does kinda the reverse of this, spawns an AI plane that you have to escort to a certain area as a task to complete.

 

take a look at the kutasi intercept script from akp, I've modified it and am gonna keep extending the functionaltiy of his and my scripts, at the moment it spawns things for interceptors to shoot down at random distance from a trigger zone and makes them orbit on CAS tasking... but I cant see it not being to hard to make a function out of it that spawns AI that escorts you or follows you.

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2195394&postcount=8