Delayed Start in Missions

[Flyco]

There used to be a way of putting AI ac on the pad, visible but not started. They could then be activated by a trigger and 'push' command in response to a trigger. I know because some years ago I used this option in some of my missions. It was useful because an early attack on the airfield could prevent those ac from subsequently getting airborne.

Does anyone know if this has been deleted, or, if not, how I set it up?

I have checked my earlier missions and those in which I recall having used it appear to be corrupted. So perhaps DCS have changed the rules (it was always a bit iffy).

[0405 Andrew]

Hi Alan
Yes there is.

Set the aircraft to uncontrolled.
Set the advanced way point push command to start.
In the trigger menu, set push command on the unit.

I believe Chris added a post in the mission builder's section, I can dig out the link when I get home.

[0405 Andrew]

Here it is
viewtopic.php?f=344&t=4841&p=36024#p36024

[Flyco]

OK, thanks I’ll give that a try. The other aspect is that I want the aircraft to be visible (and therefore destroyable), before start up. I will take a look and see if this is the case.

[0405 Andrew]

Yes, they will be visible.
It would be like they were sat on the driveway, key in hand, just waiting for their wife to jump in and tell them to drive off. (i.e. the trigger)

[Flyco]

OK, that did it. Thanks Andrew - and Chris.

[Telson]

Ok daft question time,
Can this method not be used on mission nights, say use a tanker reaching a waypoint as the trigger to give the command to launch?
That way, if you know how long it takes the tanker to reach that waypoint you can start the mission on the server at say 7:30pm tanker reaches the waypoint at 8pm, popup says permission launch, people take off, we can even have the briefing while the mission is running if the tanker can be set to take 45 minutes to reach the Waypoint, people who are ready can get in their aircraft and set them up without being in a rush, and most importantly the server won't be lagged out with everyone joining at the same time. you could even block runways with vehicles so nobody can take off before mission start and then delete them when the trigger is activated, its just a thought so don't shoot me lol

[Flyco]

I think that is over complicating things. It is easy enough to find out how long it will take for any AI ac, such as AWACS and AAR ac, to reach station to within a minute or two. The same is true of manned aircraft, albeit with more variables.

I am afraid the reason for the occasional timing clashes at start up is usually human error. Sometimes made worse by glitches in the hardware and software but basically due to us being late, early, or just plain dumb. In real-life aircrew will generally be early for their sortie by building in a few extra minutes here or there. Obviously that may not be possible in some cases, but for a crew to be late off in real-life is a pretty serious matter, and they would be made well aware of it.

At a risk of being accused of “telling war stories”, in the 1960-70s, I flew a couple of times in a Hercules formation of up to 30 or more aircraft. We were required to man aircraft around an hour in advance, and taxi at least 30 minutes before take off. Not a feasible option for us, given that most of us in RAF Air have day jobs.

I have looked carefully at the last mission, and still cannot work out what happened. Certainly there were some who didn’t stick to timings, and some incorrect times being given out, but I believe that there was also a ‘clock error’ somewhere in the system. On my computer the DCS replay and the Tacview recordings have a difference in the time shown of around 14 minutes.

[Telson]

I was not overly thinking of the last mission but most missions up to now, I know the carriers have had an issue in the past, I know people have crashes etc when joining the mission, my thought is the more people that connect the more work the server has to do, It could also have in fact caused the time issue on the last mission, these issues happen mostly when we all join at the same time, once the mission is running and we are all airborne it works fine,
My thought was to have a way of getting everyone on the server without issues or lag, if you open up the server a little earlier and people join over a longer period, it gives the server a little breathing space to catch up and sync with all the clients.

[0405 Andrew]

We're always trying to make the missions smoother.
There's going to be a slight tweak for next week that may help.
But we'll never be able to manage pc problems and updates.