Best way to simulate civilian traffic?

[ColonelMolerat]

I'm planning a fairly long mission, subs vs ships, and wanted to put civilian traffic in to make things trickier.

At first, I just put a load of civilian ships on an ASuW Patrol (to get them moving in random directions), but they all run out of fuel pretty quickly.

What's the best way to keep the traffic up over a longer period of time?

I'm pretty new to this, so am hoping to keep it simple... Perhaps something like an occasional trigger to spawn a ship, have it enter the mission area, then despawn again when it leaves? I could probably handle the spawning/despawning, but how would I make it cross the area (if the route was to be different for each spawned ship)?

Any suggestions or tips?

Thanks!

[magi]

ask gunner... he does it alot... i think it adds to the game.....
with fishing boats.... you could assign them a patrol area.... with commercial ships i bet you could give them a ferry mission.... just guessing here....

[Gunner98]

Hi Molerat

There are a couple of tricks to this but its not overly difficult:

-Set up one or more non player sides. Make them 'Blind' unless you have a reason to let them see stuff. This saves computer horsepower. If you need them to report incidents keep them as normal. I would also 'un-tick' Collective responsibility, this makes them independent of each other.
-for Air traffic, set up two bases (single unit airfields) and set up a ferry mission between the two on a continuous cycle. Not sure if it has been fixed yet but make sure the ferry mission is set to 'single aircraft' flights. There was an issue with that earlier
-For sub-surface Biologics. Put a patrol box way off the game area, assign your whales and fish to that and they will head that way. Or you can just give them a long plot line
-For transiting ships, I find the best way is to simply give them a plotted course. Do a distance/speed calculation to make sure they still have a plotted course at the end of the scenario or they will just stop, which is a PITA
-For fishing boats in an area, I find that the best way to handle it is to assign them to an ASuW (Ground) patrol. Have experimented a bit with this, and AAW patrol generally works but they will try and track any aircraft flying through the PZ. An ASW or an ASuW (surface) or (mixed) means they will chase things you don't want them to. Make sure that you 'un-tick' '1/3rd rule' and 'Investigate outside patrol area'
-For ground units, it depends on what you want them to do but using patrols is a good method.

What I have not yet tried is setting the Biologics to go through an area and have the fishing boats on an ASW patrol - could be interesting [:)]

B

[ColonelMolerat]

Thanks for those tips!

My problem is that the ships will run out of fuel before the mission ends, leaving them standing still. Is there a way to give them unlimited fuel, or to spawn civilian ships with a (random) route that will take them into, around, then out of, the mission area (so I can despawn them at a safe distance from the action before they run out of fuel)?

[Gunner98]

OK must be a really long mission. Cannot give them unlimited fuel I don't think. You can set them to creep/loiter speed which conserves fuel.

To achieve what your asking for I would either use Teleport or Lua 'Add Unit'

Teleport is simple, set a trigger so that when it enters the area it teleports to another area on the other side of the globe. You can then teleport a new unit in and then use a Lua event to assign that new unit to a mission which will get it moving.

How long is you scenario? Standard commercial shipping should be able to steam for several days (?weeks?) without refueling. Smaller boats can probably be puttering around on creep speed which will make them last a long time.

B

[ColonelMolerat]

The scenario is intended to be a few days (it's a sub vs surface ship battle, so I'm expecting lots of long, slow stalking, firing, running, repeating). It's also in Indonesia, so there are lots of small close-to-shore vessels with limited fuel.

You've given me some great ideas and tips, so I hope to get onto it over the weekend. From your tips, I'm wondering if I could 'store' a few ships a great distance away, then teleport them in to the mission area every time an existing ship leaves it (and is teleported away).

I may be overreaching myself with the very concept, but I suppose that's the way one ends up learning!

Thanks again for your help!

[Gunner98]

I think that is very doable. Some more ideas:

You can simulate port to port movement by:
-set up RPs outside each port, use these as a combination of trigger and teleport target
-set up a dumping area on the other side of the globe
-park your extra ships on the other side of the globe
-If it's a simple transit set up a mission for each port (A & B for instance)(this can probably be a support mission)
-you can trigger this on time or when a unit enters the port
-E.g.: Event 'A1', Trigger 'Time', Action 'Teleport ship Y to Port B' and Lua 'assign ship Y to support mission transit A'

By using this type of set up you can layer a fairly complex layer of civilian traffic, ferries, coastal shipping, high speed pleasure traffic, fishing fleets etc

I'm not the smartest on Lua but it can be quite helpful with this type of thing. Fire away if you have questions

B

[blh42]

I had an idea to hook up flightradar24.com and marinetraffic.com and rip positions and destinations from that feed until i read the EULA that states you can't use the data without their permissions. But i made a working proof of concept.

[ColonelMolerat]

Gunner: My knowledge of LUA is simple, but I may be able to do something as simple as assigning a ship to a mission. How is it done? (Or can you point me to a guide)? Yer a star, thanks!!! You've helped with all of my issues and more!

blh42: Have you considered firing them off an email? Since you're not using the data for commercial gain, they may give you permission. Especially if you phrase it as innocuously as possible ('To simulate shipping in a free mod for a computer game' rather than: 'To simulate unprovoked attacks on civilian shipping in a military simulator'!)

[blh42]

ORIGINAL: ColonelMolerat

Have you considered firing them off an email? Since you're not using the data for commercial gain, they may give you permission. Especially if you phrase it as innocuously as possible ('To simulate shipping in a free mod for a computer game' rather than: 'To simulate unprovoked attacks on civilian shipping in a military simulator'!)

No, i actually havent. Should do or maybe we should talk to the devs to see if they would consider adding civilian traffic into the game if they get permission

[ColonelMolerat]

I'd maybe consider writing to them yourself first - if a game developer got in touch, they may want money. If a moddder got in touch, they're more likely to let you do it for free.

[AlGrant]

If you wanted to get an idea of realistic sea traffic levels & routes you could take a look here:
http://www.livecruiseshiptracker.com/LiveCruiseShipTracker.html

Just zoom into an area of the world map to see what's there, tracks far more than 'cruise ships', commercial/cargo, fishing etc all tracked (also some Naval).
If you click the ship marker it will even give you an image along with ship details.

You can turn on certain layers to show Ports, lighthouses etc and it will also show oil/gas rig location (something I'm adding into a scenario I'm working on)

I do think that in some areas realistic traffic levels would cause some serious issues with the number of units the game has to deal with.
However some areas, like the Syrian coast seem strangely quiet!

** This site can get addictive[:D] **

[ColonelMolerat]

Ooh! Handy! Not much traffic on the area I was working on. That could be a help! I'll have to check back when it's morning there, though...

[Gunner98]

ORIGINAL: ColonelMolerat

Gunner: My knowledge of LUA is simple, but I may be able to do something as simple as assigning a ship to a mission. How is it done? (Or can you point me to a guide)?

There is a list on a sticky here: tm.asp?m=3784722

The ones I use are:
Baloogan has a good site here: http://forum.baloogancampaign.com/viewforum.php?f=10
Another good one from ckfinite is here: http://baloogancampaign.com/2015/02/18/ ... tionality/
The WarfareSims site is: http://commandlua.github.io/#DoctrineSelector

I am a true numpty when it comes to programing so I often go onto Baloogan's chat room and there is usually guys there that can help.

I think that to achieve what you wish the most helpful will be:

ScenEdit_AssignUnitToMission('[Unit Name or ID]', '[Mission Name or ID or NONE]')

Build a mission, build a dump box and a drop box. To get a new unit, teleport it to the drop box, add it to the mission. To get rid of a unit simply teleport it to the dump box and assign it to mission NONE.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, build a sandbox scenario and turn on the 'Lua Script Console' which is the final item on the Editor menu, and test. Did not even know this existed until ckfinite pointed out on Baloogan's chat.

B

[ColonelMolerat]

Damn, a link *and* some direct help? Brilliant!!! Thanks!