PWCG 9.0.0 Beta Available at PWCG Download Site

[PatrickAWlson]

@vanson77 Thanks for posting.  What was happening is that new squadrons are added at the start of the Stalingrad time frame.  For reasons TBD these squadrons were already staffed to fly in your campaign but not yet active.  PWCG was doing out of mission management on them anyway.  There were a couple of places where a further check had to be added to avoid considering personnel or equipment from squadrons not yet activated.  Not sure how old this issue was but it goes back a long time.  You are the first to report it.

 

This is fixed in 9.0.0 (not the beta).  Releasing soon - hopefully tonight.

[Varibraun]

@PatrickAWlson 9.0 Beta Bug Report:  Waypoint resets to final approach before hitting the patrol waypoints.  Flying as #5 and leader obviously turned for home when the waypoint reset (before completing at least 3 of the patrol waypoints).  This would have lead to no contact, but I broke away from the flight.

 

I believe this also happened in a previous mission yesterday (leading to no contact), but I wasn't paying close attention to realize why we were headed home so quickly - I thought we might have been chasing someone, but we simply hit the pattern to land.  Campaign created in Beta 9.0.   

Aces over Kuban20200526200579.zip

[PatrickAWlson]

4 hours ago, Varibraun said:

@PatrickAWlson 9.0 Beta Bug Report:  Waypoint resets to final approach before hitting the patrol waypoints.  Flying as #5 and leader obviously turned for home when the waypoint reset (before completing at least 3 of the patrol waypoints).  This would have lead to no contact, but I broke away from the flight.

 

I believe this also happened in a previous mission yesterday (leading to no contact), but I wasn't paying close attention to realize why we were headed home so quickly - I thought we might have been chasing someone, but we simply hit the pattern to land.  Campaign created in Beta 9.0.   

Aces over Kuban20200526200579.zip 249.72 kB · 0 downloads

 

Saw the sanme thing and was actually happy because I had taken some damage   .  I think that has to be the "go away" triggers around an airfield working too well.  

 

[Nadelbaum]

On 5/25/2020 at 10:19 AM, Nadelbaum said:

Here's another (minor?) issue, the picture of the ace Hermann Graff is not found:

 

  Hide contents

PWCG Error
Mon May 25 08:48:21 EEST 2020
pwcg.core.exception.PWCGUserException: Ace picture C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\PWCGBoSBeta\BoSData\Input\Aces\Pictures\Hermann Graff.jpg not found
    at pwcg.campaign.PictureManager.getAcePictureFile(PictureManager.java:62)
    at pwcg.campaign.PictureManager.getAcePicturePath(PictureManager.java:91)
    at pwcg.campaign.PictureManager.getPicturePath(PictureManager.java:40)
    at pwcg.gui.campaign.pilot.CampaignPilotListPanel.makePilotPicButton(CampaignPilotListPanel.java:116)
    at pwcg.gui.campaign.pilot.CampaignPilotListPanel.createPilotButton(CampaignPilotListPanel.java:80)
    at pwcg.gui.campaign.pilot.CampaignPilotListPanel.makeSquadronRightPanel(CampaignPilotListPanel.java:59)
    at pwcg.gui.campaign.CampaignRosterTopAcesPanelFactory.makeCampaignHomePanels(CampaignRosterTopAcesPanelFactory.java:43)
    at pwcg.gui.campaign.home.CampaignHomeGUI.createSquadronMemberContext(CampaignHomeGUI.java:336)
    at pwcg.gui.campaign.home.CampaignHomeGUI.createTopAceContext(CampaignHomeGUI.java:314)
    at pwcg.gui.campaign.home.CampaignHomeGUI.actionPerformed(CampaignHomeGUI.java:364)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
    at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
    at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
    at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)
 

 

Ping @PatrickAWlson

[vanson77]

Thanks Pat for looking into my Problem!

 

Regarding the Problem reportet by Varibraun, i also had this behaviour several times, but i could not nail it down to a regularity. First i thougt it has to be something with de number of waypoints, mostly it happend half the mission deep in enemy terretory. This behaviour definitely startet with 8.8.1.

To overcome this i startet to chosse wingmans that are lower ranked then me, so i had the lead. Because if you continue to manually fly over the waypoints, after 1 or 2 waypoints it switches back again to the original planned route and mission can be completed as planned (and with use of autopilot and time acceleration).

Never thought it could be the aa airfield triggers  

[Yogiflight]

2 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 I think that has to be the "go away" triggers around an airfield working too well.

So AI really should turn away from enemy airfields? Because in 8.8.1 I was two times chased back to my airfield and the enemy fighters then circled over my airfield, however Flak was giving them quite some love. The only difference to earlier was, they didn't try to strafe me.

The Beta runs pretty nice, no issues so far. Unforunately I don't see other friendly flights attack ground targets myself, as they attack them, while we are on our way to the target area. But the PWCG AAR reports lots of damaged art_positions, and a few of them get destroyed, too.

What now is missing, is better AI escorts, that do their job, so my flight of 110s doesn't always have to engage the enemy fighters. But that might take some time, until the Devs have sorted that issue out.

[PatrickAWlson]

The trigger happens in 90 seconds.  The trigger only applies to fighter flights.  The trigger does not apply to offensive patrols, which are supposed to be deep into your territory.

 

The problem with the triggers is that they are all or nothing.  There is no "the AI is chasing the player back to his airfield" logic.  It's is the AI close or not close.

 

I have to rethink the logic.  First thing that I have to do is make sure that the trigger is not active for airbases close to the front.  However,, I really think I might have to go further than that.  Maybe make a few deeper airfields your safe zones and note them on the map.

[grcurmudgeon]

I saw something similar on an intercept mission that was over enemy lines. I'll look for it again and get a zip to reproduce here. We took off, started the square waveform pattern, briefly saw a waypoint appear back near our base, then it snapped back to the course. Once we got near the last leg of the patrol waypoints, the waypoint snapped back to base, and the flight turned to head home, just as our intercept target appeared. Most of the flight was along the front / somewhat in the enemy territory.

 

[Yogiflight]

2 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

I have to rethink the logic.  First thing that I have to do is make sure that the trigger is not active for airbases close to the front.  However,, I really think I might have to go further than that.  Maybe make a few deeper airfields your safe zones and note them on the map.

This was with an airfield very close to the front. In my current 110 campaign on the Moscow map, I don't have that issue. Also in missions in the game's career mode, I was flying some time ago, I noticed the same behaviour. When I was based on airfields close to the front, I was regularely chased to my airfield, but with an airfield further away from the front, I never had enemy fighters chasing me back to my base, I often saw them turn around after some time. So maybe there already is some rule in AI to not follow too far into enemy territory.

[RedeyeStorm]

could that be a fuel based trigger? In standard campaigns the Free hunt mission is usually a long mission and very often my wingmen run out of fuel, call bingo and RTB. If this is the case then the solution may be to reduce fuel load on AI-birds.

 

(I usually fly as a standard crewdog and I noticed that the mission template does not use a lot of fuel)

[vanson77]

No, really seems to happen when approaching an enemy airfield. Can be reproduced in attached mission.

Between 1st and 2nd Waypoint after passing the enemy airfield the active waypoint switches back to base. Out of curiosity i flew around the airfield in a wide arc and the waypoints stayed as supposed.
Just immediately activate autopilot and time acceleration and issue happens in less then 1min.

 

Maybe just setting this trigger to home/starting airfield in each mission would be enough (exept scramble missions of course).

 

Missions.zip

Edited May 27, 2020 by vanson77
attachment missing

[Yogiflight]

First intercept mission in the Beta and also had the returning to base before reaching the intercept area. See screenshot of the game's AAR

And indeed the returning is at an enemy airfield, as stated by vanson77.

 

Bf 110 Kampagne202005271905119.zip

Additionally Lt Kuchler was credited for a killed IL-2 at our airfield, which he didn't, as he was in RTB mode and then in landing mode. The AI completely ignored the IL-2 over our airfield.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Yogiflight

[PatrickAWlson]

9.0.0 is up.  Beta closed.  Thanks all for the help.

PWCG is now ground activity centric.  
- Ground activity created first.
- Air activity closely associated with ground activity.
- AI units have real targets
- Better control of number of units
- More realistic feel to missions
Added Yak 9 and Yak 9T
Improved Low Alt CAP
- Actually CAP ground troops
- Placement is over battle
Changed "Go Away" to apply only to airfields away from front lines
Reduced font size for modification selection to fit more in.
Bugs
Fixed AAR issue in July 1942
Fixed AAR error where a plane would not be found
Fixed AAR error where victories were not recorded if no plane exit record was found
Fixed East Front 1944/Stalingrad confusion
Fixed tab label for "Notification of Victory"