Caucasus Generic Mission

[Matt]

Quick update, all A10C aircraft now have waypoints to IP's and all target locations to make things easier, along with a quite casual loadout to give you a good start on any target engaged.

As both 1.5.6 release and beta are now singing off of the same song sheet one server is now loaded with the Generic 1.5.6 mission and the other is loaded with Op Bactria as that way everyone can pick if they require A10C specific practice, or wish to fly a more sandbox type flight with whatever aircraft.

[Neil Willis]

Good idea.

Everything on the server is running the latest versions - including LotATC. I haven't done anything with that for ages however, so I don't know what we need to do with it to get full functionality on all 3 versions of DCS World.

[Matt]

In all honestly I've never used lotATC, but I shall look in to it, do our servers use Slmod from admin controls by any chance?

[Neil Willis]

We have SLmod installed, but at the moment, it is not being used. It was being costantly broken by updates to DCS World, so it was abandoned.

I think right now, the easiest way to administer the server is through the facilities made available in the mission editor alone. Once they have finished making changes to that, then SLmod may become more useful again, who knows?

[Matt]

Just a quick update,

The SEAD Mission has now been corrected, thanks to Dan Vella who alerted me to a GRID Suffix that was not in the task briefing (which has now been corrected) and I have moved IP Pike (Maritime Operation) to a new location a few miles west to stop it triggering when the Overlord aircraft passes over its old location.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused by these mistakes.

Matt.

[Neil Willis]

I have tweaked the Nevada Generic mission too. I have added frequency information for the tankers, and changed the way their flight plans have been set up, so they will orbit instead of having a finite number of waypoints in their flight plans. Ideally, we could do with finding a way of getting them to RTB on bingo fuel, and then get back on station. That way we'll always have them on station or close to it.

[Matt]

Ah great, yes I have been looking on to scripts that do just that, but so far have not had any luck with them hence why for the time being I have gone down the respawning route with the radio menu, just a temporary fix really until I figure the RTB scripts out.

[Matt]

Update as of 26/2/2017 - Currently live on the server

Major stability update today, hit a moment of eureka in flight plan scripting, and now all aircraft simulate RTB as close as the mission editor will possibly let me.

Updates
* All AI aircraft will now RTB on low fuel (including Tankers and Enemy flights) - apon their airspeed reaching less than 50Kts it will deactivate the group and automatically respawn them 60 seconds later at their starting location...its the closest I can get at simulating them refueling and going back up the ME is limited in the scripting for this so far. - - Completed

* All flight plans are now altered to remove the endless waypoints - to accommodate the above, aircraft will simple patrol between their last two waypoints until reaching bingo fuel where they will simply RTB to respawn. - - Completed

* New mission available from IP BackJack (A2G) - Completed - Maykop-Khanskaya airbase Attack - "Enemy forces have occupied Maykop-Khanskaya airbase, you are to make best speed and strike all enemy ground forces and Anti-air emplacements in the area of the airbase to allow friendly forces to recapture and occupy the base."

* Maykop-Khanskaya airbase now conveniently houses 3 flights of Aggressor aircraft (F-5E,Bf109,Hawk) - for any of your PVP dogfighting needs. - Completed

* Added USS Carl Vincen Carrier Group - Completed

****After testing the scripts for getting AI to RTB, it seems a little buggy in the sense that it will only work once, the second time aircraft RTB they will stay there...while this is not a problem for enemy AI aircraft (as they are respawned by IP Hornet/IP Jolly randomly generating an air to air tasking for the players) it is however an issue for the tankers, to that end I am creating a "fail safe" for the tankers which will respawn them intermittently every few hours incase they have grounded themselves for any reason.

[Neil Willis]

Excellent work!

[Matt]

I have updated the fail safe timed respawns for all tanker and AWACS aircraft, by playing out the mission in accelerated time I was able to see exactly when the tankers would land for the final time so altered the timed respawns to coincide 15 minutes later so actually have the aircraft on the ground to simulate refueling as near as I can, and have also added a 5 minute warning that the tankers will RTB to ensure anyone trying to refuel at those times are warned what is about to happen and that they can detach or adapt their plans due to fuel states. but there is also the F10 "Other" Radio menu options just incase any tanker/AWACS aircraft fails to respawn.

My task for the coming weekend is to get the Nevada mission up to the same standard....a long stint in the mission editor I think , but due to the DCS 2.0 servers seeming less stable than 1.5.6 it is still expected to crash from time to time