Operation "Blue Flag" - 24/7 PvP Campaign - ROUND 9

TacView is totally disabled now on the server but it's looking like Harrier's may be the culprit of some of the crazy lag that happens every now and then...

I hope you can reenable TacView soon if the Harrier is really the source of the lag problems and not TacView.

Map is now 2.5 ready for whenever it drops, all positions tweaked :thumbup:

That's great news, but I'm curious: How did you know what the right positions are for the new map? I guess you already have access to the new caucasus map?

Update

Small update at next restart - AI interceptors added for a few bases, I recommend you try not to trigger EWR :)

Type of interceptors and their ordnance? I hope we won't see an increase in lag because of the AI. Other solution would be to beef up the SAM's at critical airbases.

@Ciribob external views and F10 for friendly units are currently on :smilewink:

I hope you can reenable TacView soon if the Harrier is really the source of the lag problems and not TacView.

You would prefer TacView over Harrier? :D 2.5 is pretty close i'm assuming so we'll leave as is for now anyway. Harrier will stay and TacView off but I will try to bring it back :)

Type of interceptors and their ordnance? I hope we won't see an increase in lag because of the AI. Other solution would be to beef up the SAM's at critical airbases.

Mig29A for Red

F4 for Blue

Adding more defences adds load (and eventually lag), as its more "sensors" so either way it'll make s difference. From testing it seemed fine. The AI wont even activate until the EWR is triggered so should be fine

@Ciribob external views and F10 for friendly units are currently on :smilewink:

Doh! Thanks for letting me know, I was sure I checked but should be fixed after next restart :thumbup:

That's great news, but I'm curious: How did you know what the right positions are for the new map? I guess you already have access to the new caucasus map?

Can I ask what happened with day/night rotation? Will it be back?

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You would prefer TacView over Harrier? :D 2.5 is pretty close i'm assuming so we'll leave as is for now anyway. Harrier will stay and TacView off but I will try to bring it back :)

Thanks, I appreciate the effort :thumbup:

And yes, I actually do prefer TacView over the Harrier in its current state. ;)

Yeah, I'm aware of that, but I don't know what that means exactly (do all testers get access to everything?).

Did we actually recapture that much or was the campaign restarted ?

We just tried to have a flight. Unfortenately it's super laggy and everybody is warping all over the place atm :(

Did we actually recapture that much or was the campaign restarted ?

In the new update GCI cannot track hostile aircraft illuminated by friendly radar anymore. Is this intentional?

Massive freeze at 18:50 Z time.

In the new update GCI cannot track hostile aircraft illuminated by friendly radar anymore. Is this intentional?

Same settings as the previous mission (literally copy and pasted) so not sure why you're seeing that...

Massive freeze at 18:50 Z time.

Server crashed then but restarted fine :)

Hi!

I've been playing on this server for some time now, and I've been reading about the constant battle against server lag and crashes. For me it seems that current DCS engine is just not able to handle this mission during peak hours.

I don't know if it has been suggested or tried before, but I think there should be a massive downsizing as an experiment.

I'm thinking about simply cutting the current area of operations by half, reducing the number of objects, slots and everything by half.

It could be two separate missions even, switched every round.

From my experience it is not the size of the mission that makes BF great, but the cooperation that is (sometimes) happening between the players.

A smaller area of operation might even make the experience better by forcing players to attend to the same objectives more, instead of flying around the other side of the map aimlessly.

Same settings as the previous mission (literally copy and pasted) so not sure why you're seeing that...

There is definitely something wrong as now I can view friendly aircraft in 3rd person with the F2 camera as GCI. Only friendlies though as hostile units do not appear on the map.

EDIT: Everyone can view themselves in 3rd person via the F2 camera. You can also track ordnance via the F6 camera.

EDIT2: You can see all friendly forces on the F10 map as pilot or GCI

Hi!

 

I've been playing on this server for some time now, and I've been reading about the constant battle against server lag and crashes. For me it seems that current DCS engine is just not able to handle this mission during peak hours.

I don't know if it has been suggested or tried before, but I think there should be a massive downsizing as an experiment.

I'm thinking about simply cutting the current area of operations by half, reducing the number of objects, slots and everything by half.

 

It could be two separate missions even, switched every round.

 

From my experience it is not the size of the mission that makes BF great, but the cooperation that is (sometimes) happening between the players.

A smaller area of operation might even make the experience better by forcing players to attend to the same objectives more, instead of flying around the other side of the map aimlessly.

+1. This would solve a lot more than just performance problems.

There is definitely something wrong as now I can view friendly aircraft in 3rd person with the F2 camera as GCI. Only friendlies though as hostile units do not appear on the map.

 

EDIT: Everyone can view themselves in 3rd person via the F2 camera. You can also track ordnance via the F6 camera.

 

EDIT2: You can see all friendly forces on the F10 map as pilot or GCI

Very odd - let me copy in the settings again - must've missed something... Thanks for letting me know.

And regarding doing a cut down BlueFlag - we did that with Nevada. We only relatively recently switched it back to 1.5

On the whole the server is actually stable - it runs 24 hours a day and crashes are relatively rare occurrences. It looks like it crashes all the time from this thread as people rarely report, "hey, its working!" :D

There are lag spikes occasionally but that happens on servers with half the users and half the units as well.

We won't be doing a cut down mission before 2.5, as its a waste of effort as we should have improvements with that release or shortly after. Just be patient for two weeks or so :)

There is something wrong with the FARPs or atleast Oni and Ambro.

We closed down both FARPs to 0%, but no enemy defenders showed up. We dropped our troops and nothing happens.

FARPs sit closed at 0% and can't be captured, maybe it will fix its self on restart who knows.

Can confirm all the other issues, External Views and GCI not being able to see enemy units, F10 shows everything friendly in any slot.

Very odd - let me copy in the settings again - must've missed something... Thanks for letting me know.

 

And regarding doing a cut down BlueFlag - we did that with Nevada. We only relatively recently switched it back to 1.5

 

On the whole the server is actually stable - it runs 24 hours a day and crashes are relatively rare occurrences. It looks like it crashes all the time from this thread as people rarely report, "hey, its working!" :D

 

There are lag spikes occasionally but that happens on servers with half the users and half the units as well.

 

We won't be doing a cut down mission before 2.5, as its a waste of effort as we should have improvements with that release or shortly after. Just be patient for two weeks or so :)

Thanks for the reply

I think it is perfectly reasonable that you will not alter the mission now, just before 2.5, but maybe later it would worth a try just in case 2.5 multiplayer would not be such an improvement regarding performance.

It is true that the server runs fine most of the time but in comparison with other much more simple servers it seems to be struggling during saturday and sunday evenings.

I really hope 2.5 will help.

-1 for decreasing the size of the AO

People I hope you realize that the Caucasus map is too small for proper air warfare and I don't mean the airquake shenanigans. In the future more assets will be available like tankers, proper AWAC's, JSTARS, F-14's with their Phoenix missiles etc. and the map will become even smaller. What are you going to do when the F/A-18C comes out with its JSOW's and SLAM-ER's that have a range from 50 to 150nm?

Farp and views actually definitely fixed this time (3rd times a charm)

I forgot there are two places to update, options file & a section inside mission file - just did options.

We have to change settings manually to disable the briefing being able to show you a map from spectators and letting your "ghost" fly around.

Sorry for the mistake - hopefully all will run smoothly now :)

-1 for decreasing the size of the AO

 

People I hope you realize that the Caucasus map is too small for proper air warfare and I don't mean the airquake shenanigans. In the future more assets will be available like tankers, proper AWAC's, JSTARS, F-14's with their Phoenix missiles etc. and the map will become even smaller. What are you going to do when the F/A-18C comes out with its JSOW's and SLAM-ER's that have a range from 50 to 150nm?

I think weapons restrictions are the answer, just as with the AMRAAM.

In my opinion the biggest obstacle in the way of simulating proper air warfare is the lack of pre-mission, pre-spawn coordination, like an ingame tool to create flight packages and establish mission targets.

Most players (including me) fly as a single ship 90% of the time. If there is a GCI that is still ok as we can act as an interceptor, but otherwise it is really unrealistic and not very efficient.

Also there is no chain of command, people may or may not comply with instructions. It would be nice if GCI would have more power over the situation somehow.

Farp and views actually definitely fixed this time (3rd times a charm)

 

I forgot there are two places to update, options file & a section inside mission file - just did options.

 

We have to change settings manually to disable the briefing being able to show you a map from spectators and letting your "ghost" fly around.

 

Sorry for the mistake - hopefully all will run smoothly now :)

...thx - everything is fixed (capture, GCI, views).

"Warping"/lagging is a big issue still.

I think weapons restrictions are the answer, just as with the AMRAAM.

If I will be forced to still carry AIM-7's on my Tomcat I will be quite angry :doh:

In my opinion the biggest obstacle in the way of simulating proper air warfare is the lack of pre-mission, pre-spawn coordination, like an ingame tool to create flight packages and establish mission targets.

Most players (including me) fly as a single ship 90% of the time. If there is a GCI that is still ok as we can act as an interceptor, but otherwise it is really unrealistic and not very efficient.

This is a big issue for me too since BMS spoiled me with its planning and fragging of packages. Only solution here is for the GCI to make flights out of aircraft already close to a certain objective by just declaring "you, you and you are now a flight, switch to victor xxx.xxx and do x, x is in charge" or "x that just took off from y go to xx and wing up with xy on victor xxx.xxx". This way GCI doesn't need to contact each player individually. Of course lone wolfs will play alone and you cannot force people to do it.

Also there is no chain of command, people may or may not comply with instructions. It would be nice if GCI would have more power over the situation somehow.

Nobody can force others to do something they don't like that is for sure. It is the nature of video games. I hope in the future GCI would be able to at least call in a fuel tanker or sometimes a bomber but who knows if that is possible with the spaghetti code of DCS.

If I will be forced to still carry AIM-7's on my Tomcat I will be quite angry :doh:

 

This is a big issue for me too since BMS spoiled me with its planning and fragging of packages. Only solution here is for the GCI to make flights out of aircraft already close to a certain objective by just declaring "you, you and you are now a flight, switch to victor xxx.xxx and do x, x is in charge" or "x that just took off from y go to xx and wing up with xy on victor xxx.xxx". This way GCI doesn't need to contact each player individually. Of course lone wolfs will play alone and you cannot force people to do it.

 

 

Nobody can force others to do something they don't like that is for sure. It is the nature of video games. I hope in the future GCI would be able to at least call in a fuel tanker or sometimes a bomber but who knows if that is possible with the spaghetti code of DCS.

I think Simple Radio is the culprit here. Once you pull people out of teamspeak, and now they can only talk in the cockpit when they are alive, you loose a lot of coordination. I really wish more people would sit in teamspeak and use SR. A both at the same time thing. Not a one or the other.

But, I agree that downsizing the mission is needed. We need different angles to attack from. You need all the space of this mission with less objectives. Not every air base has to be a capture-able. I’d like to see more defensive units at airbases and maybe less units at farps but more deadly units. I dunno. It feels kind of easy now. Maybe I’m just too used to it.

TJ

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