Dynamic Medevac Script

Hi so here is my current version, basically your script with some minor tweaks (search for 'shagrat' and you can identify the tweaks.

 

In addition, I reworked some of the messages, not that there was anything "wrong" or "bad", just my personal preference and idea of "military talk" and to better fit into the mission scenario.

 

I commented on some points with ideas, if you like them feel free to implment them. I'll sure try myself, but as I said, I'm not a LUA native speaker. ;)

 

The major change I've done to the bleedtime limitation. In standard it pretty much gets "challenging" everytime, especially when close to a MASH.

 

So I set more relaxed parameters in the options from scratch and added a padding to the minimum bleed time, so you always should have enough time to pick up a second group of survivors in anticipation of the tweak with the two groups... and to make it feel more real. Why would a survivor near to a hospital always have the most severe wounds? That was something I already tweaked in the old version. :music_whistling:

 

If you like some of that stuff feel free to integrate it, just check for the Medevac names, No. of MASHs, survivor settings etc. it's already adapted to my mission.

Again many thanks for the recoding of that script and the nice documentation. :bounce:

 

[ATTACH]117029[/ATTACH]

Awesome, thanks! Not sure how I missed that tweak when I recoded it so apologies for that but I think your change is a good idea as it is always pretty challenging!

I havent got much free time this week but I'll have a proper look through and test this weekend with the changes.

I'm tempted to make as many messages as possible configurable at the top so they can easily be changed to fit different scenarios.

Awesome, thanks! Not sure how I missed that tweak when I recoded it so apologies for that but I think your change is a good idea as it is always pretty challenging!

 

I havent got much free time this week but I'll have a proper look through and test this weekend with the changes.

 

I'm tempted to make as many messages as possible configurable at the top so they can easily be changed to fit different scenarios.

Oh, sorry, you misunderstood. The original script on Github etc. doesn't have that tweak. I put it in because in the scenario in my major mission it was "necessary".

You did NOT miss anything. Your recode is awesome!

I just feel it is beneficial, to have it in now in general. If for example you run a second pick up try with the one group limit now, just that try could make it very hard to reach the MASH in time, when you pickup some wounded close to the MASH. It relaxes the pressure a bit, so to say.

Yet, others may like it with fast paced action...

Just thought about that texts configurable at the top idea, won't that put a lot of global string variables?

The local ones get scrapped when the function ends, right?

Or is lua garbage collection as bad as in Visual"Whatever" and that doesn't matter?

Ok, I think I've got the group limit working, need to verify some things before posting it, but no need to put additional effort, yet.

Added a max survivors option for groups spawning, test that out tomorrow and then we would be set, it seems.

@ Ciribob - I'll upload the complete script here again as soon as I have tested it, then you could verify and upload to GitHub... :thumbup:

Ok, I think I've got the group limit working, need to verify some things before posting it, but no need to put additional effort, yet.

 

Added a max survivors option for groups spawning, test that out tomorrow and then we would be set, it seems.

 

@ Ciribob - I'll upload the complete script here again as soon as I have tested it, then you could verify and upload to GitHub...

Nice work!

In answer to your other question, lua is pretty good at managing memory and some extra global strings won't have any performance impact.

Great to see some refactoring done on the script towards added stability, the effort is appreciated.

I haven't had the chance to test the new version yet, but on a look through the code it seems you kept the functionality for injecting existing groups as well? My mission Two-Pin Hedgehog is one to make use of this, and being able to add in groups to medevaced at will opens up all kinds of SAR mission building possibilities.

My time for such has been rather tight lately, but there's a few features I'd rather like to add in sooner or later. One of them is an option to have the crews set up radio beacons for locating. This would go very neatly with the Huey capability to home in.

Also do medevac units that were not active at the time of a distress call get the SAR events added for them as well already? That's another thing that I've had in mind to fix. This has been an issue during multiplayer.

My original idea with the changes to the bleed timer was to build a system that would always give you a fair chance to make it to the MASH - while also giving you a fun challenge for it. There could be more variance built in for it though certainly. It could sometimes give you a more leisurely flight and a chance to pick up multiple groups - while other times it should really make you kick it in the gear to make it on time for a critical case.

Great to see some refactoring done on the script towards added stability, the effort is appreciated.

 

I haven't had the chance to test the new version yet, but on a look through the code it seems you kept the functionality for injecting existing groups as well? My mission Two-Pin Hedgehog is one to make use of this, and being able to add in groups to medevaced at will opens up all kinds of SAR mission building possibilities.

 

My time for such has been rather tight lately, but there's a few features I'd rather like to add in sooner or later. One of them is an option to have the crews set up radio beacons for locating. This would go very neatly with the Huey capability to home in.

 

Also do medevac units that were not active at the time of a distress call get the SAR events added for them as well already? That's another thing that I've had in mind to fix. This has been an issue during multiplayer.

Do you mean the ability to manually mark a group as needing medevac in the mission editor?

Sorry i must've missed that one but you can do without editing the current script is add a unit to the mission and explode it using a trigger.

As an alternative, i've just uploaded a quick fix quick fix for it to github under the test branch as I'm at work so I can't test :) . It it works for you i'll merge to the main master branch.

Link: https://github.com/ciribob/DCS-Medevac/blob/test/Medevac_CSAR.lua

There is a new function to call from the mission editor

medevac.injectWoundedGroup("WoundedGroupName", false)

and this is the added code

-- allows manually added wounded troops or downed pilots
-- Make sure that if you set _isPilot to true, the group only has one soldier in it
function medevac.injectWoundedGroup(_groupName,_isPilot)

   local _spawnedGroup = Group.getByName(_groupName)

   if _spawnedGroup ~= nil and _spawnedGroup:isActive() then

       medevac.addSpecialParametersToGroup(_spawnedGroup)

       --store the old group under the new group name
       medevac.woundedGroups[_spawnedGroup:getName()] = { originalGroup = "", side = _spawnedGroup:getCoalition() }

       medevac.initSARForGroup(_spawnedGroup, _isPilot)

   else

       trigger.action.outText( "MISSION ERROR - Could not find wounded group ".._groupName.." to add to wounded", 5 )
   end

end

That'll add any group into wounded and display the message that they are wounded, the second parameter indicates if the wounded group is a downed pilot. Make sure the group is active when you run this command or the group will be ignored.

I've fixed MEDEVAC units not being able to pickup troops that weren't wounded when they were active :)

Do you mean the ability to manually mark a group as needing medevac in the mission editor?

 

Sorry i must've missed that one but you can do without editing the current script is add a unit to the mission and explode it using a trigger.

 

As an alternative, i've just uploaded a quick fix quick fix for it to github under the test branch as I'm at work so I can't test :) . It it works for you i'll merge to the main master branch.

That's exactly what I'm talking about, thanks. Exploding units unfortunately doesn't cut it when you've got anything less than 100% chance for a medevac event to be spawned. I can't test it yet but I'll be seeing later on if I can incorporate the new version to an existing mission and give that a run through.

I've fixed MEDEVAC units not being able to pickup troops that weren't wounded when they were active :)

Excellent, that used to be an annoying issue :)

Yep, MP late join is no longer an issue, neither are respawns! Again, great job there.

I'll now test the multiple group/wounded pick up fix I put yesterday and think a bit about that dynamic bleed timer.... Though I'm quite satisfied with the result of DragonShadows parameters, if you tweak them to a bit more relaxed settings.

The only thing I needed to "change" was in the minimum bleed time, when you were really close to a MASH. Say flight time 1-3 minutes. You got always pretty challenging bleed times with minimum bleed time around 60sec plus landing buffer etc.

Just upping the minimum bleed time made for a quite static result so I added a random padding to the minimum time calculation... Still tweaking that.

With the recoded script I better understand what's going on.

That does not mean the original script was "bad", just my limited skills had trouble following the structure.

I really think this is going to make a lot of missions shine and give Huey pilots a chance to participate in lots of missions, just by adding that script and some Medevacs :)

Ok, I think I've got the group limit working, need to verify some things before posting it, but no need to put additional effort, yet.

 

Added a max survivors option for groups spawning, test that out tomorrow and then we would be set, it seems.

Ok, I ran into some problems, tried a different approach and no I'm stuck... I hate the inability to monitor variables :mad:

The general idea is pretty simple: Add a new table under medevac

medevac.boardedCount = {}

Now in function medevac.checkCloseWoundedGroup, while loading survivors, add a new field to that table with a unique HeliUnit ID

medevac.boardedCounts.counter[_heliUnit:getID()] = medevac.boardedCounts.counter[_heliUnit:getID()] + 1 

When running the Function again on next pick up, I try to check the boardedCount before picking up the wounded:

if medevac.inTransitGroups[_heliUnit:getID()] ~= nil then 
				
local _woundedAboard = medevac.boardedCounts.counter[_heliUnit:getID()]
					


[indent]if _woundedAboard > 1 then
					
[indent][indent]medevac.displayMessageToSAR(_heliUnit, string.format("%s, %s. We're already crammed with %s guys! No chance to get anyone else in, sorry!", _woundedGroupName, _heliName, _woundedAboard),10)

--two groups are in the helicopter
--its full

  return true
[/indent]

[/indent]
end	[/indent]													
end

...any help or ideas are very much appreciated!

Did you initialize the tables (like medevac.boardedCounts.counter) to hold enough items for you to be able to hold the unitID? From what I remember the unitID could be a number 1000+ which means your tables need to be at least that long.

Ok, I ran into some problems, tried a different approach and no I'm stuck... I hate the inability to monitor variables :mad:

 

The general idea is pretty simple: Add a new table under medevac

 

medevac.boardedCount = {}

 

Now in function medevac.checkCloseWoundedGroup, while loading survivors, add a new field to that table with a unique HeliUnit ID

 

medevac.boardedCounts.counter[_heliUnit:getID()] = medevac.boardedCounts.counter[_heliUnit:getID()] + 1 

 

When running the Function again on next pick up, I try to check the boardedCount before picking up the wounded:

 

if medevac.inTransitGroups[_heliUnit:getID()] ~= nil then 
				
local _woundedAboard = medevac.boardedCounts.counter[_heliUnit:getID()]
					


[indent]if _woundedAboard > 1 then
					
[indent][indent]medevac.displayMessageToSAR(_heliUnit, string.format("%s, %s. We're already crammed with %s guys! No chance to get anyone else in, sorry!", _woundedGroupName, _heliName, _woundedAboard),10)

--two groups are in the helicopter
--its full

  return true
[/indent]

[/indent]
end	[/indent]													
end

 

...any help or ideas are very much appreciated!

I'd approach it in a different way and use the existing inTransitGroups table and do something like this when a group gets in.

-- initialise table
if medevac.inTransitGroups[_heliUnit:getName()] == nil then
  medevac.inTransitGroups[_heliUnit:getName()] = {}
end

local _loadedGroup = { originalGroup = medevac.woundedGroups[_woundedGroupName].originalGroup, woundedGroup = _woundedGroupName, side = _heliUnit:getCoalition() }

table.insert(medevac.inTransitGroups[_heliUnit:getName()], loadedGroup)

So now medevac.inTransitGroups[_heliUnit:getName()] can store an array of wounded groups and getting the number of medevacs groups you can do:

function medevac.getTransportCount(_heliName) 

if medevac.inTransitGroups[_heliUnit:getName()] == nil then
return 0
else
 return #medevac.inTransitGroups[_heliUnit:getName()] -- returns the number of wounded groups onboard
end

end

You can then use the code above whenever you want to know how many wounded groups are onboard. This isn't a true count of units though as you're trying to do but if you really want exactly the right number of troops, just store the size of the group in the table you store in inTransitGroups table and sum it up in the function above.

The trickier bit is to dealing with the scheduledSARFlight function as really you *shouldn't* schedule another one if a group is already on board and instead modify the scheduledSARFlight function to pickup the fact another group is onboard

If you remove the countdown functionality then you can schedule two scheduledSARFlight functions as they shouldn't interfere with each other (which is the easier option)

Hope that helps!

Ok, I think I see what I did wrong (thought the medevac.xyz.counter_VAR_thingy was a field of the table, yet it's another table and needs to be intialized... :doh:)

I've not enough time today, to update that, so I'll do some tomorrow and I thought of forking my version on GitHub. I've a friend who may help out a bit with the programming know how I lack.

Thanks for the hints!

P.S.: I still think I'll leave your intransitGroups as they are and use my own table, as this isn't changed or touched in any other function, so if we add functionality or more data later, it doesn't interfere. :)

P.P.S: If anybody knows a way to monitor variable content etc. in DCS Script engine in realtime I guess he would make a lot of people happy! DCS Witchcraft is nice, but I couldn't find anything that remotel resembles a "monitor variable" functionality like in usual SDKs (e.g. VisualBasic)

I guess ED wouldn't be so kind and publish their SDK for the Scripting Engine? :music_whistling:

Ok, I think I see what I did wrong (thought the medevac.xyz.counter_VAR_thingy was a field of the table, yet it's another table and needs to be intialized... :doh:)

 

I've not enough time today, to update that, so I'll do some tomorrow and I thought of forking my version on GitHub. I've a friend who may help out a bit with the programming know how I lack.

 

Thanks for the hints!

 

P.S.: I still think I'll leave your intransitGroups as they are and use my own table, as this isn't changed or touched in any other function, so if we add functionality or more data later, it doesn't interfere. :)

 

P.P.S: If anybody knows a way to monitor variable content etc. in DCS Script engine in realtime I guess he would make a lot of people happy! DCS Witchcraft is nice, but I couldn't find anything that remotel resembles a "monitor variable" functionality like in usual SDKs (e.g. VisualBasic)

 

I guess ED wouldn't be so kind and publish their SDK for the Scripting Engine? :music_whistling:

No worries and good luck!

Unfortunately most languages don't have the ability to monitor variables but you can always use scheduled tasks in lua to monitor something.

Yeah, very cool think to have monitoring in real time while step debugging...

We already have a good idea to make it better than what I have in mind.

I've a friend who may help out a bit with the programming know how I lack.

Done.

https://github.com/shagratdcs/DCS-Medevac/tree/feature/multiple-groups

New config key: medevac.max_units

The amount of units loaded in the helicopter and the maximum that can be loaded are displayed in the F10-F1 SAR overview.

@Ciribob:

Would you like me to isolate the change and prepare a pull request?

OK, forget about it, all my changes are already included. Cool, and thanks Audax.

<strike>Please wait until tomorrow, I need to update the messages first, or better, can we have to separate changes? One with just the code changes and one only with the messages?</strike>

Looks really good, I'll test the new version and verify it works in our standard mission. Then we can merge, OK?

Well done. Thank you all. I'll wait for final script. :thumbup:

antonio.

Looks really good, I'll test the new version and verify it works in our standard mission. Then we can merge, OK?

I now can fly and land pretty fast with the Huey. 5 minute flight to find out you an underscore in a variable name is fun.

At least it works now.

:megalol: I know what you mean... Testing and verifying is hell in DCS.

Send me a pull request and I'll merge. Editor wise if you download intellij 14.0 - not the latest one and install the lua plugin it really helps catching incorrect variables as it highlights them differently. Community edition is free as well.

I now can fly and land pretty fast with the Huey. 5 minute flight to find out you an underscore in a variable name is fun.

 

At least it works now.

I have to bow low before thy mighty lua voodoo!!! :notworthy:

I simply have to say FAN-TAS-TIC!

Works like a charme... and I tested quite a few tricky situations (e.g. multiple close groups, crashing and rejoining, switching Hueys during mission etc.)

I love the F10 Active medevac feature telling you how many wounded are already aboard and how, many you can take overall. So we can at least simulate a crammed Huey now!

I could have never come up with that code, I was thinking across a total different path... Everybody rep Audax he desreves it! :smilewink:

@ Ciribob - I would suggest Audax prepares the pull and you merge the changes to the original script and may be you can ask RagnarDa to update the first post finally, with the new script and GitHub link?

I love this community and how it simply gets stuff done without much coordination! :thumbup:

Thanks for all your help and input guys.

Great community!

:)