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View Full Version : Is it time to increase AI bomber raid sizes?



92 Sqn. Philstyle (QJ-P)
Oct-14-2013, 10:38
Last night we had a full server (80 - 100 players). We had a raid of 25 bombers over england, being attacked by ~10 spitfires with ~5 or more 109s in esort. The server held up just fine.

Should mission makers be thinking about larger amounts of AI bombers, espcailyl if the patch helps a bit more too?

ATAG_Lolsav
Oct-14-2013, 10:50
I think we should see if all is ok with new patch, performance wise. After a 1 or 2 weeks running a proposal like yours could make a trial run i guess.

SoW Reddog
Oct-14-2013, 11:11
Phil,

Version 2 of London Raids is going to have raids sized from 6 to 27 aircraft depending on player numbers. If there's plenty of players on the server, bigger raids will be spawned but less frequently. That's the idea anyway!

ATAG_Lolsav
Oct-14-2013, 11:18
How many aircrafts would be spawned in with 98 players? Those were the numbers i saw yesterday when i log in.

And if that is the principle, the more players the more AI i hope there is no performance hit on the server. Nothing against a huge furball, just tossing some questions.

92 Sqn. Philstyle (QJ-P)
Oct-14-2013, 11:22
How many aircrafts would be spawned in with 98 players? Those were the numbers i saw yesterday when i log in.

27 spawned in yesterday when the server was nearly full.


My out-of-thin-air-with-no-real-justification suggestion would be;

1 raid of 25 every 45 minutes during busy (70+ players) server times
1 raid of 8 or so every 20 minutes when server has less than 20 players
1 raid of 15, every 30 minutes when server numbers are between 20 and 70...

ATAG_Lolsav
Oct-14-2013, 11:27
1 raid of 15, every 30 minutes when server numbers are between 20 and 70...
[/LIST]

Theres a big gap there. Maybe room for more options?

Kling
Oct-14-2013, 11:30
Well I would say, increase it until the server complains, otherwise we will never know what can be done!
If the servers crashes, people will understand, and the mission will have to be edited untill it works. I would say, if the erver ran fine with 90 players yesterday and a raid of 27 bombers, then spawn another one after20 mins and see what that does to the server.
My question is, does one 27bomber formation need to be despawned before another 27bomber formation can spawn over France? IS there a problem having two such large formations, even if very far from each, on the server at the same time!

And Reddog, congrats for your mission! It seems very stable indeed!

Kling
Oct-14-2013, 11:36
27 spawned in yesterday when the server was nearly full.


My out-of-thin-air-with-no-real-justification suggestion would be;

1 raid of 25 every 45 minutes during busy (70+ players) server times
1 raid of 8 or so every 20 minutes when server has less than 20 players
1 raid of 15, every 30 minutes when server numbers are between 20 and 70...


45 mins is a very loong time, without any bombers... I would say make it every 30mins for the 25 bomber formation. I think we need to stress test the missions... if the server crashes, increase it to 35mins, 40 mins, 45min etc etc
Lets be honest, huge formations more seldom is more fun and emotional than few 8bomber formations every 20 mins... ;)

ATAG_Bliss
Oct-14-2013, 11:36
27 spawned in yesterday when the server was nearly full.


My out-of-thin-air-with-no-real-justification suggestion would be;

1 raid of 25 every 45 minutes during busy (70+ players) server times
1 raid of 8 or so every 20 minutes when server has less than 20 players
1 raid of 15, every 30 minutes when server numbers are between 20 and 70...



Just remember the timings need to be based on when the previous flight is landing/despawning. Adding bombers in at a set time will only exponentially increase them as time goes on unless they are timed to the bomber groups real time landing. Because if not, next thing you know you'll have 120 bombers in the air scattered about. And I know that won't work too well :D

92 Sqn. Philstyle (QJ-P)
Oct-14-2013, 11:36
Theres a big gap there. Maybe room for more options?

Takes them 15 minutes to cross over and bomb at least. If they don't de-spawn, or get shot down before 30 minutes is up and then next one spawns in, there will be 30 bombers online. Making it less than 30 miutes increases the chance of a third raid spawning in... 45 bombers online at once.. risky....

SoW Reddog
Oct-14-2013, 11:41
In a test on Saturday, we air spawned 6+ 92Sqn players over Hawkinge, at the same time as spawning 2x 27 AI bomber raids, 1 at Dover, 1 at Dymchurch. These raids flew to folkstone, bombed it, then went to France.

This was all hosted on my machine.

Some players reported FPS as low as 15 when both bomber streams were concentrated and they were flying through it. Most seemed to be able to play around 30fps+ around a single bomber formation of this size with no adverse affects.

This of course was a VERY simple stress test of my code and a sample of peoples machines. I'd never suggest having more than 27 bombers in a SINGLE formation, however I think the server is easily capable of handling two formations this size simultaneously. The key is to make sure they spawn away from each other and do NOT cross paths haha. That makes for some pretty serious code if we want truly dynamic and non-predetermined flight paths (which was my initial idea). Now, I'm thinking that a number of "presets" will be created, and a random one loaded. These will be carefully created to make sure that the ingress and exfil routes are kept separate from each other.

ATAG_Lolsav
Oct-14-2013, 11:45
These will be carefully created to make sure that the ingress and exfil routes are kept separate from each other.

As i talked with Phil on chatbox i have a request on this mission for blue side. A message from time to time (15 mins or so) informing where is the bomber formation to cover. Or else its a hard job to find it. I happened to find it just by accident. Pilots are absolutely lost on blue side on that mission. While the red side has the nifty radio (for those who dont know its on TAB 4) who allows to track targets, blue side cant find their own bombers.

Kling
Oct-14-2013, 11:56
In a test on Saturday, we air spawned 6+ 92Sqn players over Hawkinge, at the same time as spawning 2x 27 AI bomber raids, 1 at Dover, 1 at Dymchurch. These raids flew to folkstone, bombed it, then went to France.

This was all hosted on my machine.

Some players reported FPS as low as 15 when both bomber streams were concentrated and they were flying through it. Most seemed to be able to play around 30fps+ around a single bomber formation of this size with no adverse affects.

This of course was a VERY simple stress test of my code and a sample of peoples machines. I'd never suggest having more than 27 bombers in a SINGLE formation, however I think the server is easily capable of handling two formations this size simultaneously. The key is to make sure they spawn away from each other and do NOT cross paths haha. That makes for some pretty serious code if we want truly dynamic and non-predetermined flight paths (which was my initial idea). Now, I'm thinking that a number of "presets" will be created, and a random one loaded. These will be carefully created to make sure that the ingress and exfil routes are kept separate from each other.

Well preventing them from crossing paths should be easy I guess. Just make them fly back to a completely different part of France and despawn there.
Is there a limit to how close these formations can before the mission dies?

And I think FPS are alot better in 4.0 than in 3.01 due to reworked clouds and smoke particles/codes etc etc. I no longer have ANY visible FPS slowdowns next to clouds in 4.0. This itself will give people better FPS.
What the server can handle however is a different story!
The coming weeks will the perfect time to test it as the servers will be full full full so take this opportunity to stress test the mission!