Set AI to takeoff on a specific order from carrier

In this mission (attached) I am trying to launch an attack to Bandar Abbas in waves from the Stennis. The idea is to launch an E2D and S3B first. Second, a CAP flight of 2 Hornets lot 20 set to orbit over the strait. Third a SEAD flight of 2 Hornerts with HARMS that will go to tanker and then to the strait. And finally the player's strike flight that should go to tanker and then to Bandar Abbas to attack something (there are no targets yet on the mission)

I have no idea how to set the taxi or launch order to make the flights take off in the order I want them to. By pure chance the CAP and SEAD flights did take off in the intended order when I put them on the mission, but when I added the strike's flight (group name "Player"), it stopped working, as my aircraft is located on the middle on the Stennis, and it blocks the other aircraft's path to taxi, so they won't move until I move (thus breaking the take off order I wanted) :cry:

Also, it said that there is no more space to add a wingman to the player's group. But it does allow me to create a new 1-aircraft group set to takeoff from ramp, that has indeed parking space.

So, to summarize:

1.- AWACS & tanker on cats 1 & 2

2.- CAP flight takeoff from parking hot

3.- SEAD flight takeoff from parking hot

4.- Player's flight takeoff from ramp

I want them to takeoff on that order. I though that this could be achieved by setting the groups as "late activation" and activate them once the previous one had took off... But I would like to see all aircrafts taking off before me, not just spawn in front on me. You know, it's cool :pilotfly:

PD: another thing is that I don't seem to be able to choose the parking spot of each aircraft on the carrier, am I?

8b.miz

I am interested in the solution if any also.

Menessis

This is an old thread and I can't guarantee that it will work in the current version of DCS (open beta or "release" version) but it might just achieve the effect you are going for and no, we still can't select where the aircraft are parked on the Stennis; not yet at least.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=132037

Thanks sir, the uncontrollable check did the trick to activate each flight in order.

But, as you said, the problem of being unable yet to select parking spot on the carrier still remains, so my mission as I planned it won't work. I do need some traffic controllers to solve this taxiing mess on my deck :huh:

(As you can see on the image, for some reason, this aircraft's pitot decides is better to go to cat 1 and just ram into other aircraft, although cat 3 is empty and the path to it is clear...)

What I would suggest is setting up the first two flights to take off from the runway. By default, if I remember correctly, CAT's 1 and 2 will launch before CAT's 3 and 4. While you can't set aircraft spawn locations on the ramp, you should be able to select the CAT that they launch from. Set up the third flight as uncontrolled and set them to start 5-10 seconds after mission start. This should allow you to avoid the aircraft colliding with each other. But i can't guarantee they won't taxi into you while waiting to line up for a launch.

I tried that initially, but for some reason the Hornets launched from cats 3 & 4 were just launched into the water.

This only happened when they spawned on the cats (takeoff from runway). When they were taking off from parking hot they taxi and launch without troubles from cats 3 & 4

I have found a "solution" to my problem, in case anyone is interested.

I have forzed all aircrafts to use the parking spots I wanted them to use by blocking those spots that were causing taxi collisions with static objects that are destroyed on mission start. Then I just have to properly use the "uncontrollable", take off from parking hot or take off from ramp options to control the order in which they taxi.

The four static objets are named REMOVE*, and I set a trigger ON MISSION START with four do script actions StaticObject.getByName('REMOVE1'):destroy()

And the key of all this is that you can only block those spots you do not want to use, but you are still unable to actually select which parking spot you want each aircraft to use. But, once all the aircrafts are parked on "valid spots", I have just changed all their names, loadouts, flight plans, etc.

PD: It has been a couple of days, only to properly launch the flights that will take part on my mission... Now I only have to actually build the mission... :megalol: But at least I'm learning :smartass:

8b.miz

That's a brilliant solution, Darcaem.

If memory serves, there are eight "parking" spots (spawn points):

1 on each of the catapults, and the 4 deck spots you've shown as blocked in your first screen shot.

Have you discovered more? Are you getting aircraft to spawn in other spots?

Yes. The aircrafts appeared parked on the platforms both forward and aft the deck. The second screenshot was taken a few seconds after starting the mission, those are the spots where my aircraft spawn. And all aircraft do taxi and take off without incidents.

Adding more aircraft did work, but it made the taxiing process a pain-in-the-ass riddle that I could not solve yet.

Also worth mentioning, after the fourth aircraft placed on the deck, ME shows an error message when trying to add more aircrafts to existing groups. You can place new groups on the deck, but can only have 1 aircraft per group.

In my screenshot I have the following groups:

1 - Tanker

1 - AWACS

2 - F18C SEAD

2 - F18C lot20 CAP

1 - Player

1 - F18C lot20 should be my wingman

... in case anyone is interested.

:) .. I'm sure there is a lot of people like myself, who are interested ... who read and take note of these tips, but dont know enough about the subject matter and thus cant contribute anything useful to this thread, so they remain silent :)

.. but rest assured that your experience is useful for all would-be mission designers :D

Best regards, and thanks a lot for letting us take a peek into your mission development.

Eduardo

Well said, Eduardo.

Darcaem, have you tried staggering the start times?

Yes I have. Each flight is uncontrollable and is started with a trigger activated when the previous flight is above 300 feet.

8c.miz

sorry to necro this thread, but have the devs figured out a way to set parking spots and the order of AI takeoff?

On 8/18/2022 at 1:19 AM, skypickle said:

sorry to necro this thread, but have the devs figured out a way to set parking spots and the order of AI takeoff?

The actual rule about setting parking spots is this : "Spawning on ships is automated in the extent that the player does not have much control over where aircraft are allowed to spawn. It is entirely dictated by how many spawn points the game thinks are available and the size of the aircraft."

Quoted from this page you may want to look at : DCS editor carrier spawns - DCS World Wiki - Hoggitworld.com

Order of AI take off doesn't look problematic actually, creating flights in order of spots positions (with their respective "taxiway"/cat according to linked page), and eventually using "start" command to delay taxiing. The only thing to beware off is that some plane types are only allowed on certain spots (due to size), so for example an E2D cold start that you want to TO first can be blocked by fighters until they free the "taxiway". Maybe post an example with description of what you want, for someone to look at.

Thank you. My issue is that I built a complex mission and at the end decided to add an AI CAP flight of f14s. I am concerned that these AI aircraft will block the client aircraft. I want to test this mission on a server but dcs only spawns 1 client (since I am the only one in the server) I read the supercarrier manual and it shows the assigned parking spots for f14s and f18s but I cannot figure out where the clients will actually spawn. After I built the mission with 4 f14 clients and 4 f18 clients , (all parking hot) I added the following AI: an e2d on cat 1, an f14 on cat2, an f14 on cat3 and 2 uncontrolled f14s on the ramp with a trigger to start them set once.

@skypickle so the only concerning AIs should be the 2 uncontrolled Tomcats.

According to the picture from the linked page, where you can see for each spot the numerical order for TO taxi or L taxi, the 2 Tomcats should take spot #1 and #2 (in front of elevator #1, just behind cat #1/#2 blast deflectors) because no client is spawned at mission start and other existing AIs are on cat.

So, if Tomcats fit the spots (I've not checked that), the only "blocked" spots are spots #11, 12 and 13 (only really blocked if they are AI). Knowing your 8 clients won't use it, even if they all spawn seconds after mission start, it should be ok (they will spawn on spots #3, 4, etc...but again IDK if Tomcats can spawn on any parking spot).