Bug Reports: SEDB72, MP4 v7.2.x, SEDCS v7.2.x

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

A few fixes and new features, released in MP4public v7.2.3:

*) Added extra road and forest texture definitions (Donbass and Slovakia) to the DMT tool
*) Corrected winter/snow occurrence in the DMT tool based on Sector_Climate table
*) Added Scenery table support in DMT tool, so IF maps are built using Scenery definitions for each campaign
*) Added more information to the DMT ouput page, showing date and season
*) Extended the default PHP timeout limit for the DMT tool to 20 minutes
*) Corrected Error: No Unit problem in MM-AnalyzeLog.php
*) Added Functions Module, Tank Riders Module and Additional Artillery Functions Module to MM-BuildMissions.php
*) Added init script to all soldiers to force them to go prone at mission start, in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) Revised MP-News sector listing (Dore)
*) Made army reinforcement unit selector sensitive to object class (Thor)

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Badger reported that some of the data for West Front 40 was missing from SEDB72, so I am uploading a new database release: SEDB72b.

The only substantive changes are in the Airbases, Highways, Highway_Intersections and Meta_Object_Mapping (this change is unimportant) tables. These changes are reflected in the Reference and West Front 40 sql files.

Cheers,
4S

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Based on feedback from Scannon and Badger in the Zakopane Partisan campaign, I have added support to meta-SEOW to handle freight transport better. Now, if an infantry team is loaded onto a transport unit (e.g. a truck) in the MP using the Load Freight method, then in the next Iron Front mission the infantry team will spawn into the truck at mission launch.

The infantry team will stay on the truck until given orders to disembark, or until fired upon by the enemy.

Cheers,
4Shades

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Bug patches released:


DCS v7.2.2
*) Improved handling of meta-unit hashtables
*) Added time scale to industrial produciton slider text (Kopfdorfer)
*) Corrected Meta_Unit_Status handler
*) Corrected code for initializing Ground Focus Meta_Mode campaigns
*) Added support for meta-SEOW tables to Undo Last command
*) Corrected handling of strMissionName for AddForces tool with respect to missions in progress (Badger)
*) Corrected failed mission name initialized at campaign load for IF44_ONLY metamode
*) Updated handling of Meta_Units in response to vehcile convoy additions for meta-SEOW
*) Improved init of AddForces coordinate variables
*) Improved handling of mission variable in SQL for compilation of existing regiments in AddForces tool
*) Disregard captured events for gliders in subDispositionEvent() (Badger)

MP4public v7.2.9
*) Added extra road and forest texture definitions for MM-DMT.php (Donbass and Slovakia)
*) Corrected winter/snow occurrence for MM-DMT.php
*) Improved seasonal diagnostics in MM-DMT.php
*) Improved text formating on meta map cancels
*) Added more information to the DMT ouput page, showing date and season
*) Added Scenery table scanning to DMT.php
*) Added Scenery table support in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) Commented out the manageScenery() function in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) Added snow module (WeatherParticleManager) and added fuel,repair,ammo cargo inits to transporters in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) Significant changes to MM scripts to support IL-2 vehicle columns in meta-missions
*) Added auto-coding to convert obsballoons into binocular-enabled scout officers in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) disabled supply settings in MM-AnalyzeLog.php for transporters carrying supply
*) Removed "-" characters from MM unit names
*) Updated factory buildings in .pew files
*) Improved handling of intersections for rail and highway junctions
*) Corrected Error: No Unit problem in MP-AnalyzeLog.php
*) Revised MP-News sector listing (Dore)
*) Made Army reinforcement unit selector sensitive to object class in MP-Head.js (VARP_Thor)
*) Added secret/concealed airbases and industrial installations (Kopfdorfer)
*) Extracted DMT default parameters into MP-DMTparams.js file for easier configuration
*) Added tool to adjust balloon heights for observation and barrage balloon units (Kopfdorfer)
*) Added active status to metamap text in MP-Head.js
*) Corrected init of briefing variables for multi-map cases in MM-BuildMissions.php; corrected init of hash arrays in MM-AnalyzeLog.php for multi-map scenarios

This update release will be used in the Zhitomir campaign at SEOW HQ.

Enjoy,
4S

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Oops, Badger correctly reported that DCS 7.2.2 did not support delayed glider flights properly, so now I have released DCS 7.2.3 which seems to have cleared up this problem.

Thanks Badger!

[=VARP=Thor]

Hi all,
Mr Shades if you can please check what is going on with railway stations.
Guys reported direct hit on the station but nothing happened. No kill in stats.
I am not admin I don't have access to DB so I can't send it to you.

But i made a test on test db setup. When i target any industrial object in the city, all objects became active. All except railway stations.
Then i thought,OK, I did not use this attack from seow 5 and maybe I need to target the station directly trough MP ground attack order.
Still nothing. No target object created inside the station building.

Also for both examples above unit_name_maping table doesn't have entry for stations.
It is the same regardless if "heavy freight on stations" is checked or unchecked.

Now, when i select to have all the industrial and infrastructure active all the time it will create target object inside station house and name mapping table get entry INF_station-name XX_Static. Ofcourse we can not afford to have that huge amount of objects active all the time.

It looks to me like a SEDCS bug....or i am doing something wrong!?

At the moment I'll inform admin how to use go around and manually add line in name mapping table and mission file itself when we need it.

Cheers,,

Thor

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Hi Thor,

I have had a look at the DCS code.

In the DCS v7.2.3, the "Environments" tab contains the "Indust. Targets: activated by GATTACK orders" checkbox. Checking the box converts this to "Indust. Targets: activated in ALL locations". What I found was that the ALL option enables targets in factories, fuel tanks and railway stations, but the GATTACK option only enables targets in factories and fuel tanks (it presently ignores railway stations). EDIT: no, the GATTACK option DOES handle railway stations. There may be a problem in the Railway_Stations table data for your map.

I think this is a bug, so I will enable railway station support for the GATTACK targeting option, in DCS v7.2.4 to be released shortly.

For now, in your campaign, I recommend you enable the "Indust. Targets: activated in ALL locations" option. I have tested this in DCS v7.2.3 and it works the way you want. The DCS uses an SQL query like "SELECT * FROM Railway_Stations WHERE Status = 'Operational' AND Map = 'MAPNAME';" to generate the list of stations to place a target object at.

People may well ask why bother with these two targeting options. Well, this code was written a very long time ago, probably 2004 or 2005, and we were experiencing performance issues with complicated mission files. So we wanted to limit the number of statics wherever possible. These days, another 20, 50 or 200 statics doesn't really matter any more, so the need for this option is debatable.

Cheers,
4S

[=VARP=Thor]

Hi,
I am not sure what is your answer, the whole text or red part overide everything?!

If the red part overide everything, than I must say you are probably wrong.
I made a test on clean Arden database, just one flight which attacks te city. Targeting the factory activate all industrial but not rail station. Targeting railstation does not activate anything. Not industrial not the station. Checking the box to activate ALL all the time activate all just like it says with railstation included. I don't think ItalyExp have any station error if behaviour is the same with different db.

Debate about few objects more in the mission file if we use ALL target activated all the time is not necessary most of the time and you are right. However from time to time monsters appear on the scene. For example Italy '43-'44 we are playing now at the beginning has ~3400 stationary objects. All entrenchments and arty emplecements are off. Only units and 5% of visible planes. Even sirens had to be removed from first few missions to keep server fps above 60. Add to that 110 planes, 100 ground moves and 40 barrages and there is simply not enough CPU juice to have this ~800 industrial/infrastructure objects activated all the time. In my case they add ~100KB to mission file.
Another problem is when units are fighting in city where industrial is active.

Sorry about long post...

Cheers,

Thor

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Well, to be sure, let me download your DB and I will have a look.

Cheers,
4S

[PA-Dore]

To reduce the number of static objects, you could remove from your database all unuseful data (Industrial_Installations, Railway_Stations) where there is no war activity. This could be done also for Airbases and Bridges. Then, checking the box to activate "ALL LOCATIONS" all the time will generate less objects.
I did that in a previous campaign and it gave good results for the server ressources. ^^

[=VARP=Thor]

Well, to be sure, let me download your DB and I will have a look.

Cheers,
4S

Your inbox is full. Will try to send again tonight.

@Dore

Yes i already did it. In original ItalyExp db there is much more infrastructure objects. I left only the one i need. Yes, by better campaign design and production values this 800 number could go lower by at lest 200. Also i deleted the whole towns,villages and airports from map level where we don't fly.and saved that way ~80KB on map size. I did not touch bridges. For them i wasn't sure is it safe to delete them on map level.

Cheers,

Thor

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Probably best to send me a download url by PM.

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Thanks to Thor we have found a long-standing bug regarding specific targeting of railway stations. In fact we have found two bugs:

First Bug
The MP incorrectly places into the NewWaypoints table the verbose name of a railway station that is targeted via a GATTACK order. The MP should place the defined name instead. The symptom is that an automatically generated verbose name like "Benevento Station Railway Station" appears in the Target column in NewWaypoints, when the proper value should be "Benevento Station" (as defined in the Railway_Stations table). Changing this Target field accordingly to match the defined names in the Railway_Stations table before Mission Build will enable proper target placement in the mission file.

The MP code fix requires a simple edit to MP-Head.js, in the makeTargetForm() function:

// Target = RailwayStation[RailwayStationTargets[k]].Name+' Railway Station';
Target = RailwayStation[RailwayStationTargets[k]].Name;

Second Bug
In the DCS, the code that generates railway targets under the GATTACK option was using an uninitialized nationality variable, providing neutral targets regardless of railway station control. This has been fixed in DCS 7.2.4 (to be released shortly).

Many thanks to Thor for his assistance here.

Cheers,
4S

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Some bug fixes:

MP v7.2.15
*) Improved handling of neutral units in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) Added toggle metamaps to context menu in MP-Head.js (Tanker)
*) Corrected display of (X,Y) location in MP-Head.js (rounding)
*) New tool for supporting meta-SEOW campaigns: MM-BattleFocus.php which auto-selects candidate Iron Front map areas from a live campaign (Kopfdorfer)
*) Re-enabled Pilot Reports after catering appropriately in isRouteValidForMetaSEOW()
*) Corrected toggleAirbases() for secret airbase feature (Kopfdorfer)
*) Corrected railway station targeting bug (Thor)
*) More graceful handling of IL2 only metamode.
*) Corrected handling of Meta_Combined_Units fields
*) Fixed crewlist reference in make_Combined_Unit for new meta-units with CUdefs
*) Added useMobileMorph() function in MM-BuildMissions.php to avoid swapping to mobile forms for crewed weapons like MGs, mortars, AT guns.
*) Improved handling of means and reduced means in MM-AnalyzeData.php
*) Updated IntelTools() to handle Battle Focus tool, and added new icon for the tool
*) Improved handling of MM-BattleFocus disabling conditions (Brandle)
*) Validated HTML5 coding for MM-BattleFocus.php.
*) Enhanced MM-AnalyzeLog.php to handle OPFOR (O) and BLUEFOR (B) unit identifiers that may crop up in SEOW logs
*) Added damage.sqf init commands in MM-BuildMissions.php to handle armour destruction code
*) Added $MetaMode check to MM-Engine.php
*) Updated MM-AnalyzeLog.php to improve fuel usage calculations, comparing with idle usage etc (Tanker)
*) Refined the threshold logic for damaged.sqf
*) Corrected $p crew pointer for wreck placement in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) Added code to compare DB names in MM-Engine.php to prevent DB mismatches.

DCS 7.2.4
*) altered isMetaUnit to return Object_Type - useful in subProcessStationaries when preparing to loadNewMetaUnit.
*) updated copyright year; updated version number; added code check for subStoreMU()
*) Added DATABASE key to web service URL to support DB matching in MM-Engine.php for IF mission support.
*) Ported Visual Studio solution to VS 2015 Community, and made new CVS module at sourceforge called "SEDCS7.0"
*) Corrected railway target object nation in subGenerateInfrastructureTargets() - (Thor)

Thanks to everyone

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Thor noted that the scrambler feature was not working properly for signaller operations. I checked this today and he was right so I updated the DCS to v7.2.5 with fixes incorporated.

Here are the DCS changes since the previous release (7.2.4 in Feb 16):

*) Re-ordered Web Service calls to ensure that Iron Front results are applied before resupplying units, updating morale, control etc.
*) Altered modSupply.intGetSupplyFromResource() to allow supply to be extracted from hostile supply resources by ground forces.
*) Fixed submarine state confusion and target mapping problems that were preventing scrambers being activated by signallers (Thor).

Work has continued on the MP steadily over the past 6 months. The current MP suite versions are v7.2.35 (MP core), v7.2.1 (Statistics), v1.4 (DMT), v1.14 (meta-SEOW). Here is a list of changes:

*) DMT: Enhanced addVenue() to include more descriptive building names on IF maps (Brandle)
*) Statistics: Added detailed partial ship damage event display to Stats mission details page, including updating SD() function in stats_functions.php (Thor)
*) meta-SEOW: Excluded the "Client: Object " line from analysis in MM-AnalyzeLog.php
*) meta-SEOW: Relaxed mobile morph condition for AT guns in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) meta-SEOW: Tested and improved MM-BuildMission.php and MM-AnalyzeLog.php for multi-strength infantry units with progressive damage and exact locations
*) meta-SEOW: Corrected special character translations in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) meta-SEOW: Initialized Supply Drop strings in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) meta-SEOW: Corrected updateUnitMemberData() in MM-AnalyzeLog.php to handle unit name ending legally in c,d,g
*) meta-SEOW: Corrected Meta_Map SQL in buildBriefing() in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) meta-SEOW: Added newline translations for local MM tactical orders
*) meta-SEOW: Improved init.sqf and briefing.sqf to ensure that briefings are written for every player after a TeamSwitch (Scannon)
*) meta-SEOW: Moved some buildBarrages() code element into !isMobile clause in MM-BuildMissions
*) meta-SEOW: Corrected reduced mean calculation in MM-AnalyzeLog to account for cases where the array is all zeroes
*) meta-SEOW: Removed duplicates from IF event log
*) meta-SEOW: Trapped and handled self-kills in IF event log
*) meta-SEOW: Revised unit stance and behaviour settings to increase combat effetiveness and to reduce headlights at night in MM-BuildMissions.php
*) meta-SEOW: Updated sqf files to use getPosATL and someAmmo() calls for greater unit status reporting
*) meta-SEOW: Updated MM-AnalyzeLog to write Z, supply, ammo and damage values to Meta_UNM table for each object, allowing better continuity of unit status between IF missions (assumes a DB structure update to Meta_UNM table)
*) meta-SEOW: Added stance to save file format in MM/sqf
*) meta-SEOW: Incorporated and debugged IF checkpointing data scripts in MM-AnalyzeLog.php and MM-BuildMissions.php
*) meta-SEOW: Corrected MM tools for initialization of campaigns and checkpointing in new MM maps
*) meta-SEOW: Enhanced obliteration log record to include getPosATL data
*) meta-SEOW: Bypassed spy processing in MM-AnalyzeLog.php
*) meta-SEOW: Corrected handling of partial damage, supply and ammo for Meta_UNM updates
*) MP core: Corrected display of meta unit strengths for units with strength > 1 in MP-Head.js
*) MP core: Partial GUI improvement of barrager selection (Badger)
*) MP core: Added 50% to DMZ width for waypoint calculations (Kopfdorfer)
*) MP core: Corrected DMZ number caste in isRouteNearbyDMZ() in MP-Head.js (Badger, Scannon)
*) MP core: HQ units without supply now do not show HQ range circles (Scannon)
*) MP core: Allowed freighted HQ units to draw HQ radius circles (Kopfdorfer)
*) MP core: Improved meta-map coding to support map titles containing space characters
*) MP core: Added speed to unit tooltips (Brandle)
*) MP core: Added Freight tool reset on selectID()
*) MP core: Added new StandardAzimuth() function to MP-Misc.php
*) MP core: Four updated object images (Badger)
*) MP core: Initialized $totalFuel variable in MP-NUCommit.php
*) MP core: Fixed up DMZ->MM movement transition
*) MP core: Added meta-health indicators for unit displays, including red-green-orange icons
*) MP core: Cleaned up html output for ajax status in MP-UnitWithdraw.php

The system is still not perfect, but I am delighted at how stable it is for generating/supporting both conventional SEOW and new meta-SEOW campaigns. The Korosten-Zhitomir campaign (meta-SEOW with combined IL-2 and Iron Front action at a large scale) is working very well indeed.

Cheers,
4S