PWCG Work In Progress

[PatrickAWlson]

I am working on PWCG 4.0.  As the jump in major version number implies, it's a big change. 

 

In current PWCG only your squadron is staffed.  In PWCG 4.0 every squadron will be staffed from the outset.  Replacement will change from instant to gradual.  Squadrons my be knocked out of action for some time if staffing levels get too low.  Out of mission calculations (who did what when they were not involved in the mission) will actually impact other squadrons.  AI pilots in other squadrons will improve, die, get replaced, etc. just like your squadron.

 

Also to be included is equipment tracking.  Just as a unit can be sidelined for lack of pilots, it might also be sidelined for lack of equipment.  Equipment will be tracked from a depo.  The depo will probably contain older stuff while receiving newer stuff.  If newer stuff is available you will might get it.  However, if sudden losses occur and there is not enough new equipment available, you might have to use older stuff instead.  If nothing is available you will have to wait.

 

This will lead to PWCG 5.0 - full coop support.  Instead of one "character" there will be an unlimited number of personas.  Mission creation will involve selecting all human personas to be involved in the mission.  Every selected persona will be included.  Personas can be on the same side or on opposite sides.  They can be both fighter and bomber.  Any number of personas can be created.  A person can have many personas.  If one of your person dies - or if you just feel like doing something different - you can create a new persona at any time.

 

 

 

 

[Trooper117]

looking forward to it!

[Yogiflight]

That sounds very promising.

But then you should have a look into the landings of AI on open airfields. It is no issue on airfields with runways, but on the open airfields AI often land in the wrong direction or to far left or right, which causes them crashing into obstacles like aircraft shelters, as I reported in your bug thread for the Hs129. In the missions I was flying, every AI aircraft was destroyed because they landed to far to the left and crashed into a shelter, so you lose in each sortie all aircrafts exept the players.

But apart from that issue it sounds like a dream.

[TheSNAFU]

30 minutes ago, Yogiflight said:

That sounds very promising.

But then you should have a look into the landings of AI on open airfields. It is no issue on airfields with runways, but on the open airfields AI often land in the wrong direction or to far left or right, which causes them crashing into obstacles like aircraft shelters, as I reported in your bug thread for the Hs129. In the missions I was flying, every AI aircraft was destroyed because they landed to far to the left and crashed into a shelter, so you lose in each sortie all aircrafts exept the players.

But apart from that issue it sounds like a dream.

That's a good point about the AI. Lately I have paid attention to the landings of my squadron mates. I have the distance from the takeoff spot at 500 but they are landing way short of the strip. Many of them crash. At the default setting of 1000 the landing planes hit houses and other stuff. Several of them wreck regularly. That will be a problem if squadrons will be shorted planes or pilots. 

 

But the advancements in the upcoming version sound like a major step forward for PWCG. Looking forward to it. 

Edited May 26, 2018 by TheSNAFU

[dburne]

Sounding awesome Pat, thank you so much for all your continued efforts!!

[Bando]

Sounds like a great setup.

Looking forward to see the new version(s)!!

[RedeyeStorm]

I like your ideas sir. 

[FTC_Riksen]

Amazing ideas Pat! Can't wait ?

[BlitzPig_Bill_Kelso]

Wo0t!

 

Amazing work and dedication Patrick!

 

Thank you very much.

[Herne]

Very cool indeed. Can you fly with a single wingman right now ?

[Mesha44]

I am really looking forward to the Coop.  Is it possible to go to 5 then 4.

[Cybermat47]

Sounds amazing!

[CountZero]

thanks

[Lemon]

Hi,

PWCG is the most dynamic sp mode I can play BOx... done by a single guy in is free time, you make this sim a better replayability  and value.

As soon my finances go back to normal I ll show you my appreciation and support , thanks a lot for now sir !

 

 

 

 

[Yogiflight]

On 5/26/2018 at 11:35 PM, Yogiflight said:

But then you should have a look into the landings of AI on open airfields. It is no issue on airfields with runways, but on the open airfields AI often land in the wrong direction or to far left or right, which causes them crashing into obstacles like aircraft shelters, as I reported in your bug thread for the Hs129.

@PatrickAWlson

Unfortunately it is also an issue on airfields with runways. I am flying now for quite a while on the Stalingrad map and what I notice is, that AI touch down a few hundred meters ahead of the runway/airfield, which is no issue on my current airfield Evamplievsky, because there is no obstacle ahead of the runway, but on the airfields I was flying before, Golubinsky and Kumovka, the AI crash each landing. Something must have changed with the current version of PWCG, because in the other versions they always landed on the runway and stopped at the end of it. Now in Evampliesky they stop at the beginning of the runway.

 

[TheSNAFU]

I see a lot of that behavior as well. I have fooled with the distance from takeoff setting but can't find a spot where AI pilots land and taxi where they should. 

[PatrickAWlson]

A quick note on changes in progress:

How pilot victories and losses are modeled when a pilot is not in a mission.

PWCG Today: 
- A pilot scored a victory.  A random victim was created.
- A pilot might be randomly lost.  His loss is not associated with any other event.
PWCG Soon: 
- Air to air and AAA losses modeled independently.
Air to air: A pilot scores a victory.  A enemy pilot is selected from an enemy squadron to be shot down.  That pilot may or may not be lost to his squadron.  No random air to air losses - losses are always the result of another pilot scoring a victory.  
AAA: Losses to AAA now specifically modeled, with odds of loss based on mission type (ground attack is most dangerous) and pilot skill. It is never good to be a novice IL2 pilot.

 

I don't know if the difference will be noticeable, but we'll see. You will have intel on enemy squadrons strength and PWCG will stop a squadron from flying if personnel losses get too high.

[Yogiflight]

That sounds really interesting. One question, will you handle pilots crashing because of dumb AI behaviour like now, so PWCG ignores them?

[PatrickAWlson]

2 hours ago, Yogiflight said:

That sounds really interesting. One question, will you handle pilots crashing because of dumb AI behaviour like now, so PWCG ignores them?

 

I do not intend to change that.  After personnel I am going to include equipment, so crashing AI will result in equipment loss, but I'm going to continue to be a bit forgiving about killing the pilot.  IMHO the AI is not bright enough not to cut it a bit of slack.

[FrozenLiquidity]

Thank you for your continued work on this tool Pat!

[Murleen]

The updates for 4.0 sound cool - it should add more incentive to bring your plane and wingmen back intact!

 

Do you plan at any point to track/name gunners as well? I always think it's a bit sad when you see the full crew bailing out of a plane, and think "no-one cares about you"

[PatrickAWlson]

No plans to track gunners.  I have actually eliminated RoF observers because of these changes.  

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

That's a bummer on not tracking gunners albeit I'm not exactly sure how you'd do so.

 

Tracking your observer/gunner is a great, immersive detail and it works well in other places like WoFF.

[PatrickAWlson]

With the move to a pilot replacement algorithm it just became too much.  The replacement mechanism itself cuts across every aspect of the code.  Adding logic for multiple crew types was too much at this time.

 

I had fun flying a mission or three as an observer, later moving to pilot.  I didn't really stay as an observer very long though, just a few missions at the start of a career.  In WWII going from gunner to pilot is IMHO less likely.  It probably happened, but I can't think of any cases off the top of my head.  Observer to pilot in WWI was very common.

 

The mechanics are that I categorize squadron members as pilot, observer, or gunner.  The underlying mechanisms are still in place and can be revived, but at a non trivial cost in my time.  I view continuing the logistics (pilots and planes) development and then moving to coop support as higher priority.

[PatrickAWlson]

After a couple of months PWCG 4.0 is starting to come together.  4.0 will only include pilot tracking.  I have to run some actual test missions to make sure that stuff generally works.  Once I can get through a few missions I will release a beta.

 

Features include:

- Every squadron in PWCG is staffed.

- Every plane in the mission maps to a pilot in PWCG

- Out of mission events affect pilots in PWCG.

- If a pilot gains a victory out of mission, the victim will also be a pilot in PWCG.

- The fate of the plane and pilot are separated - a pilot can easily survive being shot down.

- A replacements pool of pilots exists.- During each time cycle, "needy squadrons" request replacements.  Replacements are distributed from the pool.

- The replacement pool is drained to compensate for squadron losses.

- There is a lag between the time a pilot is lost and the time that the request for a replacement is acknowledged.

- The replacement pool is periodically replenished.

- I ran simulations to ensure that replacement slightly lags losses.  This means that over time manpower will become more of an issue, but not to a severe degree.

- Slightly depleted AI squadrons maynot fly.

- Severely depleted AI squadrons will not fly.

- The player's squadron will not fly if severely depleted.

 

Equipment tracking will follow in 4.1.

[dburne]

 

All sounding great Pat, really looking forward to 4.0.

Thanks for all you do !!

[PatrickAWlson]

PWCG 4.1:

 

Data:
Update aircraft files:
    Map to archtype
    Equipment start delivery
    Equipment end delivery
    
Update squadron files:
    Change plane type to archtype
    Note aircraft conversion

Make Classes:
PlaneArchType
    List<String> planeTypes
Equipment
    Map<Integer,EquippedPlane> squadronEquipment 
EquippedPlane
    planeSerialNumber
    squadronId
    dateEquipped

Make EquipmentManager class
- Associate with Campaign
- One instance of Equipment per squadron
- One replacement depo per service

Add equipment generation to campaign generation
    For each squadron, initialize with equipment based on squadron file
    For replacements, analyze usage by plane arch type and add replacements proportionately.
    Adjust squadron equipment: define archtype (Me109) instead of Type(Me109 F-4)
    Set equipment replacement rate by service

Make JSON IO (Equipment)
    Make equipment directory
    Make equipment/replacement directory
    Write equipment to directory by squadron
    
Hook equipment write into campaign write

Add equipment page (Squadron Hangar)to campaign
Add Depo page (Equipment in depo)
Add equipment section to intel

Mission Generation:
Map plane selection to actual planes available
    Assign best planes to top pilots
Limit "change plane" 
    Allow change in plane by serial number
Modify Plane class    
    Add plane serial number
Modify PlaneCrew class
    Add plane serial number (instead of type)
Modify MissionPlane class
    Add plane serial number (instead of type)
Enhance viable squadron determination
    Move is viable to squadron
        Enough personnel
        Enough equipment
        Not undergoing aircraft conversion
Do not fly squadron if squadron is not viable

AAR:
    In Mission:
        Note equipment in mission by serial number
        Map AType 3 to equipment by serial number using MissionPlane
        Planes crashed near airbase will not be written off
        Merge equipment losses into AARContext
    Out of Mission
        Change from personnel not viable to squadron not viable
        If pilot is lost, map to a plane not used in mission
        Merge equipment losses into AARContext
    Tabulate
        Generate equipment loss events
        Remove lost equipment from inventory
        Map all lost equipment to campaign update
        Map squadron lost equipment to debrief
        Replace planes for needy squadrons
        Generate equipment replacement events
    Replenish replacement
        Develop replacement algorithm based on squadron need and aircraft dates
        Add new planes to depo
    Advance Time
        Until squadron is viable
    UI
        Add equipment loss tab to debrief
        
 

[Stlg13/Sgt_Schultz]

Man I've been hoping you'd add an attrition effect like this for so long (plane and pilot related), so stoked that you're making it happen now, it will add a really cool dynamic and IMO add even more immersion to an already superb campaign generator  Hats off to you Pat.

 

One question, if your squadron/staffel gets grounded will you still have the option to fly a lone wolf mission, if you have at least one plane remaining?

 

[PatrickAWlson]

6 hours ago, Stlg13/Sgt_Schultz said:

Man I've been hoping you'd add an attrition effect like this for so long (plane and pilot related), so stoked that you're making it happen now, it will add a really cool dynamic and IMO add even more immersion to an already superb campaign generator  Hats off to you Pat.

 

One question, if your squadron/staffel gets grounded will you still have the option to fly a lone wolf mission, if you have at least one plane remaining?

 

 

I had not considered that possibility.  You need great ace status to fly lone wolf, so that limitation would stay in place.  The challenge is that the advance in time takes effect before control is returned to the player, therefore the opportunity to fly is gone as soon as the AAR from the previous mission is completed.  It can be done:

 

So ... if player is great ace

- if squadron equipment has planes

- do not advance time for non viable squadron

 

On return to the campaign menu ...

- disable mission button

- enable lone wolf button

- add skip mission button to allow player to decline lone wolf mission

 

I will put it on the backlog.  Being up front, this is a lower priority than the other aspects of 4.0.  Still, I do get to my backlog.  This might be something to get in after the bulk of 4.0 is completed but before starting on 5.0.

[Stlg13/Sgt_Schultz]

Just a thought, though that sounds like a perfect solution. With the attrition of serviceable aircraft it seems like it would add another aspect to lone wolf missions (rather than just being a bad ass), I.e. being the squadron leader and using your position to commandeer your comrade's aircraft in order to keep flying yourself , or at the very least just to keep up a presence in the air. Scrambling with your last remaining aircraft in order to protect your airfield also comes to mind.

 

 

By the way what qualifies you as a great ace compared to just a regular ace, as adjustable in the config?

[CCIP]

Quick question:

Does the "persona" logic designed for co-op in 5.0 extend to single player as well?
What I mean is  - will it be possible for a player to get 'killed' in the campaign, but then just choose another pilot persona and continue the same campaign from there? Or even change pilots during the campaign, without getting killed?

That would be very cool indeed! 

[PatrickAWlson]

16 hours ago, CCIP said:

Quick question:

Does the "persona" logic designed for co-op in 5.0 extend to single player as well?
What I mean is  - will it be possible for a player to get 'killed' in the campaign, but then just choose another pilot persona and continue the same campaign from there? Or even change pilots during the campaign, without getting killed?

That would be very cool indeed! 

 

I have had that request and thought the same.  It would not be part of the first release but the changes might pave the way for that feature in a follow on.