Stop using "CAP". Use BARCAP or TARCAP instead.
TARCAP no longer allowed anywhere but front lines, since that's all we
have mission planning for right now. Later will add TARCAP and BARCAP
for all objective types with different timing profiles.
Part two of the fix for
https://github.com/Khopa/dcs_liberation/issues/210.
Weather and exact time of day information is helpful during mission
planning, so generate it at the start of the turn rather than at
takeoff time.
Another advantage aside from planning is that we can now use the wind
information to set carrier headings and takeoff runways appropriately.
Reasonable ground speed depends a lot on altitude, so plumb that
information through to the speed estimator.
Also adds calculations for ground speed based on desired mach. I don't
know if DCS is using the same formulas, but we should at least be
pretty close.
- load plugins when loading a game
- moved plugins scripts to resources/plugins (for pyinstaller)
- removed vanilla JTAC and JTAC_smoke options and settings GUI
- call JtacAutolasePlugin in armor.py
- made a dictionary of INSTALLED_PLUGINS
- removed NIOD from the VEAF plugin
- the base LUA functionality has been implemented as a mandatory plugin
- the jtacautolase functionality has been implemented as a plugin
- added a VEAF framework plugin
The plugins have GUI elements in the Settings window.
We estimate the longest possible time from mission start to TOT for
all flights in a package and use that to set the TOT (plus any delay
used to stagger flights). This both cuts down on loiter time for
shorter flights and ensures that long flights will make it to the
target in time.
This is also used to compute the start time for the AI, so the
explicit delay option is no longer needed.
Also fixes the CAP racetracks so the AI actually stays on station.
Waypoint TOT assignment happens at mission generation time for the
sake of the UI. It's a bit messy since we have the late-initialized
field in FlightWaypoint, but on the other hand we don't have to reset
every extant waypoint whenever the player adjusts the mission's TOT.
If we want to clean this up a bit more, we could have two distinct
types for waypoints: one for the planning stage and one with the
resolved TOTs. We already do some thing like this with Flight vs
FlightData.
Future improvements:
* Estimate the group's ground speed so we don't need such wide margins
of error.
* Delay takeoff to cut loiter fuel cost.
* Plan mission TOT based on the aircraft in the package and their
travel times to the objective.
* Tune target area time prediction. Flights often don't need to travel
all the way to the target point, and probably won't be doing it
slowly, so the current planning causes a lot of extra time spent in
enemy territory.
* Per-flight TOT offsets from the package to allow a sweep to arrive
before the rest, etc.
Vaicom (a mod that adds voice control for the communications menus)
isn't able to follow the waypoint frequency change that normally sets
the radio channel for the AWACS/tanker flights. Set the group's
frequency correctly to start so it works.
Avoids crowding the taxiways, and adds some life to the end of the
mission.
Later on, this will happen more naturally because we can delay
takeoffs to align with the package's DTOT.
This still isn't very good because it doesn't work well for anything
but the automatically planned package.
Instead, should be a part of the Package itself, generated the first
time it is needed, and resettable by the user.
Pointing the race track 90 degrees away from where the enemy is
expected means the radar can't see much. CAP flights normally fly
*toward* the expected direction of contact and alternate approaching
and retreating legs with their wingman.
CAP missions should be between the protected location and the nearest
threat. Find the closest enemy airfield and ensure that the CAP race
track is between it and the protected location.
Mission planning on a per-control point basis lacked the context it
needed to make good decisions, and the ability to make larger missions
that pulled aircraft from multiple airfields.
The per-CP planners have been replaced in favor of a global planner
per coalition. The planner generates a list of potential missions in
order of priority and then allocates aircraft to the proposed flights
until no missions remain.
Mission planning behavior has changed:
* CAP flights will now only be generated for airfields within a
predefined threat range of an enemy airfield.
* CAS, SEAD, and strike missions get escorts. Strike missions get a
SEAD flight.
* CAS, SEAD, and strike missions will not be planned unless
they have an escort available.
* Missions may originate from multiple airfields.
There's more to do:
* The range limitations imposed on the mission planner should take
aircraft range limitations into account.
* Air superiority aircraft like the F-15 should be preferred for CAP
over multi-role aircraft like the F/A-18 since otherwise we run the
risk of running out of ground attack capable aircraft even though
there are still unused aircraft.
* Mission priorities may need tuning.
* Target areas could be analyzed for potential threats, allowing
escort flights to be optional or omitted if there is no threat to
defend against. For example, late game a SEAD flight for a strike
mission probably is not necessary.
* SAM threat should be judged by how close the extent of the SAM's
range is to friendly locations, not the distance to the site itself.
An SA-10 30 nm away is more threatening than an SA-6 25 nm away.
* Much of the planning behavior should be factored out into the
coalition's doctrine.
But as-is this is an improvement over the existing behavior, so those
things can be follow ups.
The potential regression in behavior here is that we're no longer
planning multiple cycles of missions. Each objective will get one CAP.
I think this fits better with the turn cycle of the game, as a CAP
flight should be able to remain on station for the duration of the
turn (especially with refueling).
Note that this does break save compatibility as the old planner was a
part of the game object, and since that class is now gone it can't be
unpickled.
