Convoy issues demo missions

[Fireball 16]

For convoy issues we need more feedback, thus please attach your test missions here, so BI has some good demo missions.

Requirements:

* OA/CO only (no addons)

* Simple demo mission - no actual mission

* 78183 or newer beta used

* Make it simple to observe the problems

(like putting the player as cargo in one of the vehicles)

Sites to upload to:

http://ifile.it

http://www.file-upload.net

or attach here:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/17594

[Dwarden 1125]

best site to upload and report stuff to is CIT (Community Issue Tracker) , aka read here

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=102991

long time ago i posted list of upload sites, most of them still works (too lazy to write new one from scratch but i have that somewhere already just can't find it now)

http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1205993&postcount=16

[rübe 127]

How about this:

• RUBE_convoyTester.Takistan.pbo
  

...for a convoy test suit? It builds upon my findRoute thingy (to generate waypoints nicely along a route and also to initially place the convoys vehicles along the road for the initial placement is extremely important for convoys) and after a route is calculated, the convoy gets spawned and you will be teleported into the lead vehicle.

0-0-1 to move into the next vehicle

0-0-2 to move into the previous vehicle

0-0-3 to spawn some enemies in front (usually) of the convoy to observe a reaction on contact

0-0-0 to teleport (onSingleMapClick)

There are some hints such as average speed and every vehicle gets a marker whose pos/dir is updated every 2 seconds or so...

The convoy itself (or its composition) is easily configurable in init.sqf (just scroll down).

Now this is clearly not as simple as reproduction demos should be, but I think it's quite convenient to observe convoys this way (especially to quickly try things out with it). Also the route.fsm the convoy is executing is more or less a loop that updates the current MOVE waypoint (instead of having a fixed waypoint chain) and if really mind, you may always rip that part out of the mission and simply put in a regular waypoint-chain for the convoy group to be really "vanilla". The result shouldn't really differ too much though...

Anyway, I Hope this is usefull in some way or the other.

As to some convoy feedback, IMHO one of the major problems is the reorganization of such a convoy initially with no good initial placement, after contact for example or simply because they've messed it up again for some other reason. If a single vehicle needs to turn and correct it's position, then usually all hell breaks loose :D

Another problem area is mixed convoys, especially ones with tracked and wheeled vehicles (for example trucks escorted by some bmps). After some contact has been made (and dealt with successfully), the leading tracked vehicles tend to go off-road, no matter what their behaviour/combatMode is set to... and the trucks will follow. As good as they can. In a land such as Takistan this is most of the time no good idea. If the AI is driving even less.

Third after contact has been made and there are quite a loot of cargo-units that went fighting... then the lead vehicles tend to drive away, while the convoy's "cargo"-trucks have to wait until all these units are on board again.

Sure, the lead vehicles in such a scenario will drive slower and slowlier, yet they will gain distance to the rest of the convoy in no time anyway - which is quite deadly. They're supposed to stick together.

And oh yeah, the behaviour at crossroads... still...

...too much Austin Powers, if you know what I mean

:D

[NoRailgunner 0]

AI vehicles do zigzag on crossroads/intersections (more often in Chernarus). Guess some paths are overlapping or have a bigger gap.

AI vehicles on roads should use roads and not trying to drive literally behind the leading vehicle in aware, danger and stealth behaviour. You can observe this really good if you switch into 3rd person view sitting in one of the last vehicles of an convoy.

Best way to get the perfect AI chaos convoy is to put 8-12 different vehicles together and watch them driving/cutting through the terrain. If you like it you should see how they manage it through an ambush and reorganize themselves!

Simple setup of a AI convoy driving in column formation from SW of Airport Loy Manara (072013) to Timurkalay:

pos - vehicle (and unit rank)

1 - HMMWV GPK (Lieutenant)

2 - HMMWV CROWS (Sergeant)

3 - Stryker ICV (Coporal)

4 - Stryker MC (Coporal)

5 - HMMWV Utility (Coporal)

6 - HMMWV Avenger (Private)

Preview

2nd vehicle HMMWV CROWS - Sergeant is now in position between the 4th (Stryker MC - Coporal) and the 5th (HMMWV Utility - Coporal) vehicle. :confused:

There should be no position swapping.

Just curious if an additional customisable Convoy module would be great and easy to maintain too?