AI Carriers

[delta_lima]

Hey all,

Have had this issue for a few weeks now and it's starting to get really annoying. AICarriers has been working fine on my my system (W7, P3DV4.5) for almost a year as it should. I've made no changes that I can think of (other than the recent 4.5 hotfix) but lately I've noticed that nearly every time I "remove formation" - to load a different formation - my whole sim will crash with an "unexpected error" message.

Any ideas as to why? I suppose the workaround could be to place all my formations in the SWS Fleet Placer, which works super smoothly, and arguably has extra features. I just find that especially for testing, it's super fast and easy to add formations into AICarriers. But having to restart the whole sim every time I want to change formations is getting really old.

Thanks in advance.

dl

[expat]

Hey DL,

Think there are two versions - Java and .NET? Could be an update automatically disrupted your install?

OT - I have problems with the SWS CV-43 since installing the PBR F-4. Where is your CV-43 installed - in the Simobjects//Boats or is it with the F-4 in user/documents (externally to your P3D install)?

[delta_lima]

Hey DL,

Think there are two versions - Java and .NET? Could be an update automatically disrupted your install?

OT - I have problems with the SWS CV-43 since installing the PBR F-4. Where is your CV-43 installed - in the Simobjects//Boats or is it with the F-4 in user/documents (externally to your P3D install)?

Sorry - I didn't notice your reply. Yes, I'm using the .Net version.

This issue is completely intermittent. I've had a few days where I have been testing and placing/deleting different formations successfully without issue. No idea to what it correlates. Other than I'm noticing more non-FS apps and browser functionality are breaking, and so I suspect I have to make a move from W7 to W10 in short order. Will likely begin reading up on that over the next few days.

As to your question, I install everything to the My Documents/P3DV4 Addons/ folder set. No addon has ever been isntalled into my actual P3D install, except for I believe the MILVIZ Phantom, which I believe needed to be. As to the location, I just pointed the installers to the aforementioned addons folder, and it created it's own SWS folders, with boats folders, etc.

[fsafranek]

Is there any common denominator among the formations you are switching between?

One certain one up first and anything after it causes the crash?

Going from any ship/formation to a specific one causing the crash?

SWS has had a ton of new builds this week for testing. Do you completely uninstall the previous build or do you install over the top?

And somewhat OT, when you put other ships into the SWS Fleet Placer do they show up with wakes? or do only SWS ships?

[delta_lima]

Is there any common denominator among the formations you are switching between?

One certain one up first and anything after it causes the crash?

Going from any ship/formation to a specific one causing the crash?

SWS has had a ton of new builds this week for testing. Do you completely uninstall the previous build or do you install over the top?

And somewhat OT, when you put other ships into the SWS Fleet Placer do they show up with wakes? or do only SWS ships?

Hi Frank,

Thanks for commenting. No, at present, my list of included formations has been short - 7-8 or so. And that's all non-SWS ships - more on that later. A couple of Klauss's straight deck Essex boats, the two SDB carriers (prior version), and Gary's CVT-16 angled deck Essex. Wouldn't matter which I'd remove. It was never placing a formation, it was always on the removal.

As to your question, that's an interesting one, because I contemplating making SWS Fleet placer my replacement "boat placer". Especially with the extra features. I'm a creature of habit, so because it takes me so little time to add a new boat in AICarriers2, I tend to do it there and just run that, unless I want to load one of the SWS boats, where I do it using the Fleet tool.

I did experiment putting other vessels into the Fleet tool back in FSX - I don't recall the vessels losing their wakes, but that was a good year or so ago, and I've not used FSX since.

Are you noticing that to be happening, with using other dev's boats in Fleets?

Maybe after my W10 migration I'll look into that.

dl

[fsafranek]

Are you noticing that to be happening, with using other dev's boats in Fleets?

If you mean missing wakes then I can't really say.

I had intended to include the necessary files (AI Carrier cfg files basically IIRC) to get the latest Enterprise and destroyer escorts to work
with the SWS Fleet Placer by none of then had wakes when they showed up. It was a last minute idea and I didn't want to spend much
time on it since it was otherwise ready to go. So I dropped the idea. I may revisit again and it is intended to make the Enterprise fully
CEX compatible.

[expat]

Hi Daniel,

As I cannot get the SWS Coral Sea to engage cats at all with any a/c at the moment pending a promised fix from Alex so I am using for now just AICarriers2 - also I have not found any instructions on how to use the SWS Fleet Placer but have used the "warp to deck" to get on the CV43, which is fun. Don't know how to add other fleets there yet. Be interested to hear more about its features from someone!

Suggest you not give up on AICarrier2 as I think once we track down your bug it is very stable and as you say fast to use and test navair stuff. To be clear, do you get the crash when you "delete" a formation? On my setup it is usually no. 8 Delete Formation in the drop down. One idea might be you have a non native FSX boat model somwhere which it might not like. You also might try swapping your aicarriers.cfg for a simple test one with maybe just one fleet.

The only problem I have with AICarriers2 is often when I go back in the sim with it running in the background I have to then exit AICarriers2 and start it again to get my fleet dropdowns working again.

Let us know what you find.

[fsafranek]

As I cannot get the SWS Coral Sea to engage cats at all with any a/c at the moment pending a promised fix from Alex so I am using for now just AICarriers2 - also I have not found any instructions on how to use the SWS Fleet Placer but have used the "warp to deck" to get on the CV43, which is fun. Don't know how to add other fleets there yet. Be interested to hear more about its features from someone!

When in doubt, Google it.

https://simworksstudios.com/knowledg...et-placer.html

[delta_lima]

Thanks Frank and Lee,

Yeah, AI Carriers isn't going anywhere for now, don't worry. I'm in a good run of no-crashes, so I haven't pinpointed what's caused it. Right now I'm running a very short list, so hopefully things will stay working well.

As to Frank's question, I'll try and see how adding say a CVN-65 to Fleets works out. I wonder if because all the their ships don't live in the standard My Documents/Prepare3D Addons/Simobjects/Boats folder, but rather their own SimworksStudios/Simobjects/Boats folder, that there's a disconnect in how it calls for wake effects that are back in the Addons folder? I can't recall off hand, but maybe their wakes are all mdl-driven versus effects, so their boats don't need that link? Or what if you created an effects folder within the SWS folder structure? Just spitballing here ...

dl

[expat]

Thanks for the link Frank.

Guys, I set up some new formations in the Fleet Placer and these work. However, I see that when I try to save a parking space on the freeware CV-41 or CV-34 there is no place to click this in the drop down. When I use the Fleet Placer with the SWS Coral Sea, the drop down has a "save parking" tab. How do I add this for non SWS carriers?

[expat]

"Manual" (still under construction) says it's in the CEX SDK. That just has a bunch of data and specs but does not explain how to add parking spaces to non SWS carriers.

[expat]

Apologies if I am hijacking the thread . .