Making AI flight take off time delay

[adler_1]

hello

which MCU's do i use to get a AI flight of 6 aircraft take off from runway and in the air with time delay ? in the past i used to add a timer and begin MCU's and set the delay ,now it does'nt work anymore .

Edited October 7, 2019 by dog1

[Habu]

It's still the timer and it works fine for me.

[adler_1]

hello

what other methods are there to delay ?  

[Habu]

None, or use a checkzone or complex trigger. The main trigger is the timer.

[adler_1]

will try that out to .thanks headsup

[Panzerlang]

Set the time in the timer, this worked for me.

[adler_1]

HETZER

 

what was the violet message from the spawner and to what MCU or object ? I have tried spawner but without the violet message  and strangely enough it deleted the object connected to the spawner while the remaining 5 planes remained on the runway .

Edited October 14, 2019 by dog1

[Panzerlang]

4 hours ago, dog1 said:

HETZER

 

what was the violet message from the spawner and to what MCU or object ? I have tried spawner but without the violet message  and strangely enough it deleted the object connected to the spawner while the remaining 5 planes remained on the runway .

It was a link to a plane on another field, I accidentally linked it to the wrong one (which I've just found out by opening it in the editor). I have no idea if it would have worked, it was a test file I was using to 'kit-bash'. The setup as pictured was the original one however that successfully delayed take-offs according to what time I inputted into the data-window.

[Gambit21]

On 10/14/2019 at 3:54 AM, J3Hetzer said:

Set the time in the timer, this worked for me.

 

Best practice is 2 timers.

One to spawn, then a second small delay to take-off. It can be short, 100ms etc.

[Panzerlang]

So a second timer between the first timer and the take-off command?

[JimTM]

15 minutes ago, J3Hetzer said:

So a second timer between the first timer and the take-off command?

 

Like so:

 

Begin  ----->  T1 : 2s -----> Spawn -----> Plane

                           |                                          |

                      T2 : 2s -----> Takeoff-----------+

 

Two-second timer T1 is recommended to ensure that the mission finishes loading. T1 can be longer if you like.

 

T1 triggers the spawn and T2.

 

T2 waits 2 seconds for the spawn to complete and then triggers the takeoff command. You can specify a short time (e.g., 100ms) if you want takeoff to occur right after the plane spawns or you can specify as long a time as you like.

 

 

Edited October 15, 2019 by JimTM

[Panzerlang]

1 hour ago, JimTM said:

 

Like so:

 

Begin  ----->  T1 : 2s -----> Spawn -----> Plane

                           |                                          |

                      T2 : 2s -----> Takeoff-----------+

 

Two-second timer T1 is recommended to ensure that the mission finishes loading. T1 can be longer if you like.

 

T1 triggers the spawn and T2.

 

T2 waits 2 seconds for the spawn to complete and then triggers the takeoff command. You can specify a short time (e.g., 100ms) if you want takeoff to occur right after the plane spawns or you can specify as long a time as you like.

 

 

 

All done, still working good. A lot more visually elegant too.  Cheers Jim.

Edited October 15, 2019 by J3Hetzer

[Habu]

My advice about the second timer after a spawn is to set it to 5s. Under, you can have some trouble.

[Gambit21]

Hmmm...I’ve never had trouble - 2 seconds is my long standing habit.

What problem have you seen Habu?

[Habu]

When you have a group of planes/vehicles which spawn, the server can take time to spawn all the object, and some can be after 2s and dont receive the order. It depends of the server, the mission.

[Panzerlang]

My gaps are in the order of 30 seconds (+ - a bit), so the humans get to see them start their motors.

Also a little less of a kick in the CPU's nuts.

Edited October 15, 2019 by J3Hetzer

[Habu]

Yep that's fine, but carefull for plane in the air. A timer too high can be a problem because your plane do as they want, and you can have some plane which bump other one. ?

 

 

[Gambit21]

37 minutes ago, Habu said:

When you have a group of planes/vehicles which spawn, the server can take time to spawn all the object, and some can be after 2s and dont receive the order. It depends of the server, the mission.

 

Ahh...MP stuff, makes sense.

[Habu]

Yep, always MP with me. ?

[Panzerlang]

57 minutes ago, Habu said:

Yep that's fine, but carefull for plane in the air. A timer too high can be a problem because your plane do as they want, and you can have some plane which bump other one. ?

 

 

 

I've had to fine-tune them a fair bit but I now have 12 on each side safely up and away.

[adler_1]

the objects "planes " attached to the lead plane do not react . i tried adding  as object the spawner to each plane but no improvement . Does spawner work only for one object ? and if so you have to repeat adding begin timer spawner for each object ?  

[Panzerlang]

37 minutes ago, dog1 said:

the objects "planes " attached to the lead plane do not react . i tried adding  as object the spawner to each plane but no improvement . Does spawner work only for one object ? and if so you have to repeat adding begin timer spawner for each object ?  

I gave up with all that sharing stuff between the Begin and the waypoints. Separate timers and spawners for each plane works nicely.

[adler_1]

i tried placing one begin and timer for each object with different timing , for example in my case its 3 planes on the runway , in one case 2 planes took off and one disappeared , in the second attempt 2 disappeared on the runway before take off . If i dont bother about delay timing just one begin and timer is enough for a large number of objects activation .  

[Panzerlang]

12 minutes ago, dog1 said:

i tried placing one begin and timer for each object with different timing , for example in my case its 3 planes on the runway , in one case 2 planes took off and one disappeared , in the second attempt 2 disappeared on the runway before take off . If i dont bother about delay timing just one begin and timer is enough for a large number of objects activation .  

This is the big problem with complex software, not knowing if something going squiffy is user error or a bug.

[Habu]

4 hours ago, dog1 said:

the objects "planes " attached to the lead plane do not react . i tried adding  as object the spawner to each plane but no improvement . Does spawner work only for one object ? and if so you have to repeat adding begin timer spawner for each object ?  

Activate = Can use group of plane and command formation

Spawn = plane as single unit with each plane must have their own waypoint, can't use the command formation. You have to simulate the formation by the location of each plane.

 

With spawn, you can have one spawn for several plane, but you must have one waypoint by plane.

[Panzerlang]

1 hour ago, Habu said:

Activate = Can use group of plane and command formation

Spawn = plane as single unit with each plane must have their own waypoint, can't use the command formation. You have to simulate the formation by the location of each plane.

 

With spawn, you can have one spawn for several plane, but you must have one waypoint by plane.

I'm sharing single waypoints for multiple AI planes, it's working fine. ?

[Gambit21]

31 minutes ago, J3Hetzer said:

I'm sharing single waypoints for multiple AI planes, it's working fine. ?

 

It will work, they just won’t be in ‘right edge’ formation etc. They will each just follow the path.

[Habu]

47 minutes ago, J3Hetzer said:

I'm sharing single waypoints for multiple AI planes, it's working fine. ?

It works, but until when. The rule is one waypoint by object when you use spawn. sometimes it will works, and sometimes not, as a beta tester which did like you discovered it until i said him that it's not how it works.

 

It gives more works if you don't use groups. With groups, you dis one group you duplicate to achieve the number of object you want.

[Panzerlang]

38 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

 

It will work, they just won’t be in ‘right edge’ formation etc. They will each just follow the path.

Some of them form up into quite nice formations, I thought it was the AI being clever. Others form loose groups. I like the randomness, it feels real.

Edited October 16, 2019 by J3Hetzer

[Gambit21]

Weird.

We’re talking ‘spawn’, not ‘activate’ correct?

 

[Habu]

yes we are talking about spawn.

[adler_1]

Spawn

its way too much work if we are talking about 30-40 planes involved . Just imagine what the mission looks like , hundreds of criss crossing lines and total confusion once you start fine tuning . I also remember clearly with combat flight simulator 2 20 years ago the spawned objects pop up on the mission map only when ordered to . Maybe spawn MCU could be modified to be more independent by link to object or objects unlimited , one start and timer and same timer to one WP if they are all linked to leader going to that WP or WP's if others are not following the leader of the flight but at the same time . Then again a parallel set up for another flight with a different schedule and flight plan . just a thought .

[Panzerlang]

14 minutes ago, dog1 said:

Spawn

its way too much work if we are talking about 30-40 planes involved . Just imagine what the mission looks like , hundreds of criss crossing lines and total confusion once you start fine tuning . I also remember clearly with combat flight simulator 2 20 years ago the spawned objects pop up on the mission map only when ordered to . Maybe spawn MCU could be modified to be more independent by link to object or objects unlimited , one start and timer and same timer to one WP if they are all linked to leader going to that WP or WP's if others are not following the leader of the flight but at the same time . Then again a parallel set up for another flight with a different schedule and flight plan . just a thought .

It looks like hell even with shared waypoints, each plane has a connection line to each waypoint icon. My next task is to see if all the lines can be hidden except for the ones relevant to the unit I'm currently working on. Tracing lines to find links I've missed or messed up is like trying to nail smoke to a wall. Lol.

Hot tip: you can create an entire whatever off the side of the map. Build it, then rough- shape it, select all of it and then drag it onto the map.
 

And if/while we're requesting new features, a way to open the game directly from the editor would be nice, instead of having to close the editor and launch the game each time a test is required (very frequently). I've spent as many hours doing that as I have actually making stuff in the ME. Major productivity/time killer.

Edited October 17, 2019 by J3Hetzer

[Habu]

6 hours ago, dog1 said:

Spawn

its way too much work if we are talking about 30-40 planes involved . Just imagine what the mission looks like , hundreds of criss crossing lines and total confusion once you start fine tuning . I also remember clearly with combat flight simulator 2 20 years ago the spawned objects pop up on the mission map only when ordered to . Maybe spawn MCU could be modified to be more independent by link to object or objects unlimited , one start and timer and same timer to one WP if they are all linked to leader going to that WP or WP's if others are not following the leader of the flight but at the same time . Then again a parallel set up for another flight with a different schedule and flight plan . just a thought .

I don't imagine, i did it several times. That the way it works. The main problem with that is to manage the turn.

You have to do sub group to help you.