Matrix Games Forums

Game Engine: 3.9.3 release
Database: Player´s Database
Scenario: GC2, Attack on Kamchatka

Background: Playing Soviet side I created Patrol AAW missions
Problem: Only the aircraft of three bases (Icha, Poronaysk, Petropavlovsk) appear in the selection screen; not those of Opala and Sobolevo.

Those three bases with aircraft available for missions appear as unassigned units. The other two bases (Opala and Soboleo) do not show up - eg not even in the Plotted missions.

This fits to the map window "Base Status": three bases have a mission - unassigned; Opala and Sobolevo have no mission.

So that should be the reason why those two bases and their ac are not visible in the mission window. But why do some bases have a mission and others no mission status?

And how to change that?

tia

Ralf

I concur. I see the same situation with the file you mention. Unfortunately, I am looking at the original H2AE scenario that was first posted in 1996! [:D] A copy has been attached for your convenience. The ODb version of this scenario for ANW also suffers from this problem.

This problem was observed when the ODb scenarios were all re-built for compatibility with the PlayersDB. This scenario is not unique, either. During the conversion process, other scenarios were also found to be in the same poor condition.

My hypothesis on the cause behind this phenomenon is that an error has occurred while using the H2/H3 editors. I've encountered this problem when writing other scenarios using those editors, too. For some reason, units that are inserted into the game somehow 'drop out' of the communications net and are lost. This can happen to both land facilities (bases) and ships. Sometimes, it is possible to remediate the situation by simply breaking up the base or group and then re-forming it. Unfortunately, it does not work in all instances. If ungrouping/re-grouping does not work, then the only proven remedy is to delete the affected units and re-insert them into the scenario.

During the re-writing process, the lack of mission assignments was noted. However, it wasn't deemed circumspect to 're-write' the entire scenario with personalized orders and missions in our image. If the original scenario didn't have them, we didn't see it as our place to fabricate new ones. AGSI, to their credit, openly allows for re-use of their scenarios and databases. We could have created new orders, but chose not to do so. Others have re-written these scenarios with new orders.

This certainly causes problems for a player who selects the USA side. However, the planes will fly so this scenario is still playable from the USSR side as well as in MP. Thus, we restricted our changes and repairs to ensuring that the Victory Conditions were complete and functional as well as the magazines and ammo dumps. If you are interested in re-making this scenario with proper missions and orders for all the various units, I am sure that the community of players would be grateful for your efforts and we'll get it posted with the next release.

Interesting. Just started my old Pentium-II whith my H2AE installation. Always good to have it [:)]

In H2AE the problem already exists. I´ll try the scen version you attached, but if it isn´t older, e.g. original H2, the problem will be there, already.

Ok, looked at my H2AE installation. The file in there is identical to that one you attached - May, 21st, 1996.

And it already has this problem. Thus the issue is neither H3 or ANW related.

It is H3 related, IMO.  After all, that problem arises from use of the H2/H3 editor.  I would say that the problem is also related to ANW if the ANW editor is unable to re-build the communications network when the scenario is revised. 

As folks re-build their old H3 scens for ANW, this should be corrected in order for the process to work.

In the past, there was a command in the ANW ScenEditor that was supposed to 'force a re-building of the comm network'.  I can't remember the key combination or if it still works.  I didn't see it in the documentation, but I may have missed it.

In the old H2AE version, there are no missions for the Soviet Side. Not one.

In the H3 version, there are a lot of missions, but some of them without units assigned. That could be the point: Somewhere and somehow these missions were broken because the comm network was lost and thus the two bases and their ac fell into oblivion.

So, in the H3 version all missions with their refpoints and commands are there. If we find a possibility to rebuild the comm network, thus reestablishing the contact to that bases in the mission editor, a lot of scens could be rebuild - with all missions working correctly for the very first time.

That´d be great.

I found an old e-mail message that claimed the Ctrl+Insert command would re-build the communication networks.  I tried this with 3.9.3 without success.  Maybe you will have better luck than I did.

Ok, I´ll rebuild this scen in the way we discussed.

thx

A fix for this issue will be in the next beta release. The issue was not related to communications and you could see the displayed datalinks for these bases. The issue is actually caused by corruption in the scenario file but I do not know the source. The bases (and their planes) were assigned to non-existent missions. At some point in some editor missions were probably deleted but the units remained assigned. A symptom of this was the missing mission status in the unit status window.

The next beta release will move these units to the unassigned mission when you do a 'Rebuild All Units' in the scenario editor or unassign the unit with the 'u' key in any game engine.

By the way, the Rebuild All Units and Batch Rebuild functions did rebuild the networks as does the Force networks 'Ctrl-Insert' hotkey. Herman, Mr. Koelbach, and I had trouble using the hotkey. I found the only way to use it was a combination of the right control button and the non-numpad Insert button. This worked for me but not Ralf.

Thanks,

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

A fix for this issue will be in the next beta release. The issue was not related to communications and you could see the displayed datalinks for these bases. The issue is actually caused by corruption in the scenario file but I do not know the source. The bases (and their planes) were assigned to non-existent missions. At some point in some editor missions were probably deleted but the units remained assigned. A symptom of this was the missing mission status in the unit status window.

The next beta release will move these units to the unassigned mission when you do a 'Rebuild All Units' in the scenario editor or unassign the unit with the 'u' key in any game engine.

I believe that I encountered this phenomenon before without realizing it. I was making a large scenario with many aircraft and multiple bases. When trying to create missions, the fact that the aircraft window always scrolls back to the top and the large number of planes available confused me when trying to decide upon aircraft to assign to various missions.

So, I created a temporary 'dummy' mission and assigned it to the bases/aircraft I wasn't currently manipulating. It cleared my screen easily enough. At the end, I thought that I could just delete the (now superfluous) dummy mission. I guess that is when I inadvertently threw some of my planes into limbo. I didn't really understand what was happening, but re-built the scenario and simply avoided using this specific technique.

It might also be helpful to note that this Forced Network Re-build function is not described anywhere and is missing from the hotkey page.

Hi Rusty,

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

A fix for this issue will be in the next beta release. The issue was not related to communications and you could see the displayed datalinks for these bases. The issue is actually caused by corruption in the scenario file but I do not know the source. The bases (and their planes) were assigned to non-existent missions. At some point in some editor missions were probably deleted but the units remained assigned. A symptom of this was the missing mission status in the unit status window.

The next beta release will move these units to the unassigned mission when you do a 'Rebuild All Units' in the scenario editor or unassign the unit with the 'u' key in any game engine.

By the way, the Rebuild All Units and Batch Rebuild functions did rebuild the networks as does the Force networks 'Ctrl-Insert' hotkey. Herman, Mr. Koelbach, and I had trouble using the hotkey. I found the only way to use it was a combination of the right control button and the non-numpad Insert button. This worked for me but not Ralf.

Thanks,

Thx for fixing it in the next beta. This will thus solve a very old problem. In the meantime I´ve started to rebuild this particular scen, using the PDB version, since in the Standard DB version, there are many other issues: Magazins / ammo dumps empty; loadout mismatches and so on...I think it doesn´t make sense to work on scenarios with this old and IMO broken database any longer.

Just looked at HUD3 in the 3.9.0 release, but this scen isnt´t included yet.

Regards,
Ralf

This problem has not been fixed in Patch 3.9.4

Units drop off network

Units are listed on a mission, but none of the individual ships in the group show this mission in their unit display

1. Run [PDb] Units drop off network (3.9.4).scn in SE
2. TF Tromp is listed on Curacao 4 mission.  However, none of the individual ships in the group show this in their unit display
3. If ships are detached from TF Tromp, they cannot be found and re-assigned in the Mission Window