SEDCS - Confirmation of Skill based target selection?

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Rejsyg
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat 10 Sep 2022 2:14 pm

SEDCS - Confirmation of Skill based target selection?

Post by Rejsyg »

Hello,

I noticed some irregularities in targets being selected correctly, but I assume that this has to do with the skill level of the pilots and SEDCS introducing inaccuracy?
A pair of bombers were given airfield fuel installations as targets, but the flight that had the Rookie skill level ended up targeting a completely different object (AAA)
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Also, does skill level, aircraft type, or target type determine whether or not the GAttack waypoint is provided a specific Target (the highlight in green)? I find oddities when AI flights are horizontal bombing at high altitudes, because when a GAttack Target is given, the bombers end up extending into a drawn out line and dropping their bombs, instead of dropping as a formation if it were simply a GAttack waypoint on the ground.

Unlike the previous airfield fuel installations image, in another instance of me selecting industrial factory and fuel objects for ground attack, all the GAttack waypoints were set Targets. So I am confused what determines a GAttack being set a Target.
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IV/JG7_4Shades
Posts: 2220
Joined: Mon 08 Jan 2007 11:10 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Re: SEDCS - Confirmation of Skill based target selection?

Post by IV/JG7_4Shades »

Hi Rejsyg,

This is a good question. I'll start by describing the intention of the SEOW target selection feature as implemented in the MP. The idea is that a commander (not admin) is presented with a range of potential targets, including industrial and transportation assets, and enemy units. Enemy units present with differing recon information and varying positional uncertainty, while the locations of assets are well known. The commander plots a series of flight waypoints and places a waypoint near the intended target and designates that waypoint as GATTACK. Then the remaining waypoints for the flight are added taking the flight back to base. When the flight plan is finalized, the commander is presented with a target selection menu which lists all the potential targets detected near the plotted GATTACK waypoint. The target list is compiled independently of the flight skill rating. Some listed targets may be very vague due to poor recon, and some may be quite well defined. The commander selects the target of interest, or simply chooses "local search" which tells the flight to attack whatever target it sees in the waypoint vicinity. The commander finishes the flight plan and hits "Commit". At this stage the MP packages up all the flight plan data and puts it into the database.

The only randomness in this MP planning process is due to recon uncertainty. When targets have low recon, their positional uncertainty is high and their icons (e.g. "?" marks) in the MP may appear kilometres away from their true locations. In this way low-recon targets may be able to be selected in the target menu when they won't actually be sufficiently close (IL2 hard-coded distance) to the GATTACK waypoint in the actual mission. In this case the flight will fly to the GATTACK waypoint, then search for the designated enemy unit, fail to locate it, and simply return to base.

OK, when the DCS comes to build the mission file it simply goes through all flight plans in the database and translates waypoints and targets into IL2 mission file format. The DCS adds no extra randomness into the GATTACK targets. This bit of the code is deterministic. Of course some randomness may enter into how many planes in the flight actually take off, whether the flight can reach its waypoints or not (e.g. due to radio or engine malfunction etc), but the target designation remains as completed in the MP planning. So that is the intent of the target feature.

If the SEOW software is working properly you should be able to open the Built mission file in FMB and see all your planned flights (waypoints, loadouts, GATTACK target reticles etc) as you entered them in the MP, together with all exact locations and ground movements of all combat units (recon values have no meaning in IL2 mission files). Of course, SEOW may contain a bug so it is possible that something is going wrong and we need to check that, BUT ...

IL2 itself has bugs and some randomness! Il2 also factors aircraft skill into in-game performance and it is perfectly possible that flight aircraft with well-defined and valid GATTACK targets on occasion may simply ignore the targets, or miss them by miles, or attack the wrong target, or just crash into terrain or each other. But, usually, the flights make reasonable attempts to fulfill their orders.

Now, having said all that, what do we do about your bug report? Well I am about to release a new DCS major revision (moving from .NET Framework 4.8 to .NET 8 Core). This platform revision has not changed any SEOW mission logic at all and is almost complete now, but I have a clear opportunity to check the GATTACK targeting functions again before the revision release. I'll do that over the next few days.

Cheers
4S
IV/JG7_4Shades
SEOW Developer

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Rejsyg
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat 10 Sep 2022 2:14 pm

Re: SEDCS - Confirmation of Skill based target selection?

Post by Rejsyg »

Thanks for the explanation. Glad to hear DCS is upgrading to .NET 8.
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