Drone Carrier Software 2 (DCS2) v2.07a

Etyneo · Post by **Etyneo** » Thu, 26. Dec 13, 01:49

That is useful information. Hopefully you can find a way to fix it. What is the scanner range on the drones usually?

zanzal · Post by **zanzal** » Fri, 27. Dec 13, 05:48

Greetings Dr. B,

I am seeing some strange stuff with the script watching it out of sector, the fighters and bombers undock at all at once and sometimes some distance from the carrier. Then they move toward the target, but all the sudden they all redock (instantly redock) some from quite a range even though enemies are still in the area. Then they undock again to give chase and then redock instantly when its dead again. Could it be interference from another script?

I am not running anything too exotic, XRM, LoCo, BonusPack, Pirates Guild, PhanonCorp, and quiet a few from your list. No other carrier type scripts, nothing that I suspect would take control of the carrier.. Of course I did "acquire" it from TandItech so maybe it has some PhanonCorp script running on it, seems unlikely though.

Any ideas?

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 27. Dec 13, 06:31

It is not a conflict, it is a bug. Probably. I have not seen the exact scenario you describe, but I am reworking the drone AI to have fewer problems like your description.

Make sure that you are using the most recent version of DCS2.

Etyneo · Post by **Etyneo** » Mon, 30. Dec 13, 20:52

DrBullwinkle wrote:When they launch and do nothing, it is usually either because their original target has died, or there are no targets within scanner range of the drone. This can easily happen if you set the engagement range of the carrier very high.

In my case where I want to use it in my own sector, I have used MARS to deploy Advanced Sats to cover most of the sector (8+gates). Pirates spawn and I see them immediately.

Your comment leads me to believe, perhaps incorrectly, that the Drones do not care about other friendly scanners and are unable to utilize them. I find this unusual because vanilla AI does utilize all friendly scanner coverage, not just the range of their own onboard scanners.

Etyneo · Post by **Etyneo** » Wed, 1. Jan 14, 08:37

Is there a way to turn on debug logging for DCS2. I'd like to find out why my DCS2 managed drones refuse to engage targets. I'm fairly confident I've eliminated the issues you mentioned with original target being destroyed, and targets out of scanner range with a range setting of 20km and no other ships or defenses engaging enemies...

At this point I'm consistently watching DCS2 launch drones, and not issue them orders. It's quite irritating.

Spectre01 · Post by **Spectre01** » Thu, 2. Jan 14, 05:25

Great mod! Now my Griffon finally can do something instead of collecting space dust in Argon Sector M418.

A small suggestion, maybe give an option (in t file I guess) that automatically set all drones to not show up in the property menu? It's just p hard to find anything in the property menu if you have couple drone carriers running around (pages after pages of drones...).

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 2. Jan 14, 07:05

The only thing I can do about the Property Menu is to set the homebase for the drones. You can then turn off homebased ships in the Property Menu.

Some people complained when I did that in the past, so I will offer an option in the future.

Spectre01 · Post by **Spectre01** » Thu, 2. Jan 14, 08:04

Found some weird problem.

http://puu.sh/66s4q.png

This is my "testing" setting. I start the DCS2 on an OOS Griffon with a maximum of 10 drones. As the drone building starts, the money is correctly deduced when the carrier is building Interceptor. However, it costs around 1.6mil for every bomber built(1,999,500 goes to 300,395 when the bomber is in the hanger), even when I have 0 credits. No matter what number I'm using in the "Drone Bomber Cost Percentage Multiplier" section, it always costs 1.6mil to build a bomber. I've tried reinstall the mod numerous time and still can't fix it.

My game language is English and I only use the 8562-L044.xml file in the t folder. Dem pricey bombers run me dry faster than a gold digger...

edit: almost forgot. Even with homebase set to "yes", all the newly built drones are still homebaseless for some reason.

{Images posted directly to the forums should not be greater than 640x480 or 100kb, oversize image now linked - Terre}

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 2. Jan 14, 08:09

Spectre01 wrote:No matter what number I'm using in the "Drone Bomber Cost Percentage Multiplier" section, it always costs 1.6mil to build a bomber.

... Even with homebase set to "yes", all the newly built drones are still homebaseless for some reason.

OK, I will look into those for the next version. Thank you for the thorough report.

If you think that 1.6 million for a fully-equipped bomber is "expensive" then you cannot afford a carrier.

A well-equipped M3 costs about 10 million in the vanilla game.

Etyneo · Post by **Etyneo** » Thu, 2. Jan 14, 18:45

So, Bullwinkle, is there a way to get DCS2 to log it's actions for debugging purposes? I'm curious to see what it's doing as it launches drones IS and gives them no orders, even with unengaged enemies within 10km of the carrier...

Etyneo · Post by **Etyneo** » Fri, 3. Jan 14, 08:36

Found the log, unfortunately it's not quite as detailed as I'd hoped. However, I see where it builds drones, and where it sends them off to attack things.

Most recent test was with a Griffon DCS2 on, set to engage enemies at a range of 10km (I should hope that in XRM all ships would have a scanner range of at least 10km...). The carrier was set to Defend Sector. I watched a group of pirates spawn in, the Griffon moved to engage and shortly thereafter launched its drones (it was close to where they spawned). The drones sat there, and I checked their orders. Once again, they had none. In the end, the Griffon itself (plus the two Vidar Sentinel bodyguards I had flying in formation with it) slowly killed the pirates. I had the turrets on the Griffon and its escorts set to SMART Capture, with a capture method of Chip Hull. This takes a while to kill things, giving the drones plenty of time to enter the fray, yet, they sat there with no orders for the whole fight. Yes, the test was conducted IS.

Checking the log that I'd cleared before even firing up X3, I found a ton of lines like this one: Drone Interceptor (M4) launched to attack null

In this test I attempted to eliminate the two common issues you noted. The targets they were launched at were not dead by the time they launched, and all targets should have been within scanner range. I'm really becoming frustrated by this as I don't want to have to use something like ADS to get the drones to automatically launch and engage targets.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 3. Jan 14, 11:27

The "Engage Enemies" drone AI has some bugs. I have said it about 50 times. You know it is true.

Rather than being frustrated by it, why not turn off "Engage Enemies" and use normal commands (such as Broadcast, Wing commands, or Fleet commands) to manage your fighters, just as you would with any other fighters on any other carrier in the game?

I have never had a need for ADS or CODEA in my own game because there are plenty of vanilla commands that work just fine to manage the fighters in a carrier.

For OOS Defense, the drone AI seems to work well enough. It will work better in a future version.

wanderer · Post by **wanderer** » Fri, 3. Jan 14, 17:23

Well, one question:

Has anybody attemped to make it compatible wih XTC (Xtended mod). For that you have to change several ware types/ship types (aka the drones) inside the 'createDrones' subroutines. As well as the ship weapons. Shields are working. Laser/weapons partly (ware types again!) not.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 3. Jan 14, 17:36

wanderer wrote:Has anybody attemped to make it compatible wih XTC (Xtended mod)?

Give me the ID numbers from TShips and TLasers and I will add them.

How about torpedoes? Are they working correctly? If not, then give me the ID numbers from TMissiles as well.

You should be able to create custom drones now, because that feature allows you to choose from your current game files. You can already change the ID numbers for bombers in the language file.

Etyneo · Post by **Etyneo** » Fri, 3. Jan 14, 18:27

DrBullwinkle wrote:Rather than being frustrated by it, why not turn off "Engage Enemies" and use normal commands (such as Broadcast, Wing commands, or Fleet commands) to manage your fighters, just as you would with any other fighters on any other carrier in the game?

Can't use wing or fleet commands with the drones as they don't stay in said wings or fleets. Likely something to do with being rebuilt every so often (i.e. the reason bombers with player equipped missiles lose their missiles after awhile).

Broadcast to commands affect all vessels classed as a fighter in the sector, even those I don't want to give the orders to. Not useful having my OTAS Maintenance Pods (classed as M5s and have no offensive weapons) go on patrol... Even then, I run into essentially the same issue I do with the wings/fleet issue above. When the drones get rebuilt, they tend to forget what I had them doing.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 3. Jan 14, 18:45

If bomber rebuilds are bothering you, then increase the bomber lifetime (ID 305).

The default is 600 seconds (ten minutes). As a temporary workaround, you can increase that number. The maximum value that you can use there is probably about 2 billion.

The downside is that the carrier may fill up with bombers when an enemy M2 is in range. Probably the best compromise, for now, is to make your bombers normal M3's. Like Falcon Haulers or your favorite M3. That way, when the carrier fills up with them, it will still be OK.

When I add per-carrier bomber settings, I will also add a maximum number of bombers per carrier (when In Sector only). Bombers should recycle only when there are more than the Peacetime Bombers number. I will double-check that that feature is working.

wanderer · Post by **wanderer** » Fri, 3. Jan 14, 19:12

wg.: TWare & TShip - kommt, sobald ich wieder 'zocke'...

sry here in EN: will be send as soon as I'm playing it agin...

Etyneo · Post by **Etyneo** » Fri, 3. Jan 14, 19:55

Bullwinkle, for whatever reason it's also happening with the interceptors, not just the bombers. Doesn't seem to matter whether I'm using the default interceptor type, or one of my own choosing.

Figge04 · Post by **Figge04** » Sun, 5. Jan 14, 00:05

Fully automatic. Everything is set up for you: Just turn it on (Active) and it will do the rest.

Reallly?

Tired of buying and equipping 30+ fighters for your carriers?

nooo, not at all, I love spending hours and hours on something that dies in a few secs.. AGH!

Another common problem is maintaining fighters and supplies on carriers that operate OOS on Sector Defense and Patrol duties.

YYEES......
THEY DIE ALL THE TIME!!

automated carrier software that really delivers on the "automated" part.

at last!

Thanks, for this simply to use carrier/drone script, sometimes simple is better and I feel it's so much easier to use than alot of the others, I've just startede using it, after a Xenon raid party, parked next to my Pulse canon complex, I deff need help in fighting stuff, im either getting old, or this game has gotten alot harder since reunion

can anyone give a advice on what missiles is good for the bombers?
there's so many diffrent missiles it's hard to get a overview, in what to use,

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 5. Jan 14, 00:22

Figge04 wrote:can anyone give a advice on what missiles is good for the bombers?

The default bombers use torpedoes. "Which torpedo" depends on which bomber.

If you are wondering what to stock in the Weapons Depot, then look in the cargo of one of your bomber drones and see which torpedo it carries.

The default SpecOps bombers fire Hammerheads. Hammerheads are not buyable (they can only be collected when dropped from destroyed ships), so DCS2 can convert Firestorms to Hammerheads (see the second post in the thread for details). Firestorms can be purchased or built at a player-owned complex (and then stocked at the Weapons Depot).

XRM bombers use Tomahawks (Commonwealth) or Phantoms (Terran/ATF).

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Drone Carrier Software 2 (DCS2) v2.07a