v11 Supply Drop Oddness

[rmonical]

In this case, the airfield accepted a resupply an the NW hex, and then moved into the hex in question.

Now resupply into the new hex occupied by the airfield does not work.
Resupply into adjacent hexes work.
If I move the airfield east one hex, resupply into the new hex with the airfield works fine.
Resupply into the vacated hex, that previously did not work with the airfield present also works fine.
All very odd. I have run variations of this sequence multiple times.

It is a server game - rmonical v. Hoooper Alt V360 1.0.7.11beta.

I suspect nobody has bandwidth to look, but I'll hold the game for a bit in case someone does.

[morvael]

It's easy to confuse two rules/bugs at work here.

Any airbase next to or in the same hex (provided it's in proper terrain) negates the loss of airdropped cargo. This rule is fairly simple in coding and thus I do not expect it to cease working. It wasn't working pre-.11 because it used the wrong x,y coordinates to look for the airbase (always 0,0 instead of the real target hex). Said airbase can be empty, full, from different HQ, etc. - it doesn't matter to this rule.

The second issue is availability of aircraft. To airdrop fuel you need transport planes in range (level bombers do not work since .11). If the game determines a hex needs a fuel drop and it will not find transports in range no drop window will come up and you won't be able to drop anything into said hex. I have fixed that for .12 (or to be more specific, I have added a workaround - if the first click determines a fuel need and no transports will be in range, a second click on the same hex will force the game to try to drop supplies). I did a research for someone who couldn't drop fuel not long ago, and what I revealed was that transport aircraft were not in range of target hex (they have 24 or 29 hexes range, I don't remember now), and that no suitable staging base was found for said aircraft to extend their range from their original location. Remember, that for an airbase to be selected as a staging base, it must be assigned to the same HQ. I think other coded rules (concerning wider use of army airbases as staging bases or bases from other Fliegercorps in the same Luftflotte) don't work correctly or at least not stable enough. Perhaps when you moved one hex back, the game was able to find some transports in range, where it couldn't one hex farther east.

[rmonical]

As the image shows, 70, 104, and 92 tons of supplies/fuel/supplies were delivered. None of this appeared in the target hex. It was not a matter of available transport. The delivered supplies just disappeared. This is illustrated by the three images on the right, one for each delivery. Nothing changes. I confirmed this by recording the supplies/fuel in a spreadsheet then opening the supply detail to verify they did not change after each delivery.

The airbase then moved one hex further from the transports. After the move, the supplies delivered to the vacated hex appeared normally. The game is still on hold. Please let me know if I should check something else.

[morvael]

I do not have the ability to access those games, sorry. Was the AB in the same hex as the motorized units when it was moved one hex away from the transports?

[rmonical]

Here are two deliveries to better illustrate the situation. The first to the hex just east of the AB is completely normal. The second to the hex occupied by the AB eats the supplies delivered. The AB started the turn NW of the current hex. Before it moved, a supply delivery to that hex worked fine. I think I have seen this before. This is the first time I have worked it.

[rmonical]

In the same game, up north, if I try to deliver to an infantry division, the selection window pops up normally. If I move an HQ into the hex, I cannot get the selection window to appear.

[morvael]

That bug in the last post is known to me and fixed for .12. Once again the game decides to drop fuel, and without transports in range it fails to display drop window.

As for the main issue, which units are isolated? Only the divisions or the airbase as well? Perhaps this is a case of airhead supply failing to work correctly. If someone could pull the save for me from the server I could look at it. Otherwise I will have to replicate the setup and that could be difficult. However, in case of airhead supply you won't be able to supply those units selectively when dropping onto the airbase.

[rmonical]

It looks like something worth examining if an admin has time to pull the game.

[Joel Billings]

I've placed the saves on the tester ftp site so morvael can take a look.

[rmonical]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
I've placed the saves on the tester ftp site so morvael can take a look.

Bless you!

[morvael]

Expect an answer in 16 hours

Please write down the steps to replicate the problem upon opening a fresh save.

[rmonical]

Cool! Attempt to deliver supplies or fuel to 112, 72. This is the hex with the 2PG airfield, GD and 10.MOT.

The are transports in range in to the north and the south. There are many bombers in range as well.

[morvael]

We're dealing here with a rare example of units being isolated not because there is no path to supply grid, but because it's over 100 MP long, with all this mud and zones of control. Perhaps this causes the game to mix normal drops with airhead supply drops and in turn to lose the supplies dropped.

[morvael]

Yeah, because this is all linked to the main supply grid, not being it's own little world, it's the units that are <101MP off the real railnet supplied by airhead supply: 298th ID, 10th Panzer etc. and not those really in need like 18th Panzer.

[morvael]

Had to fix a significant number of lines of code to get it working, but I think I nailed it. Below are the screenshots of the function working in the candidate for patch .12.

Many, many thanks for finding and reporting this bug. It could linger on forever. And I have learned how to change airhead supply range and that airbase details lists units eligible for airhead supplies and that those units are highlighed in air transport mode on the map.

Isolated at start:

[morvael]

Units eligible for airhead supply.

[morvael]

Info about airhead supply in airbase detail window:

[morvael]

The same, with range changed to 1:

[morvael]

Units eligible for airhead supply, with range changed to 1:

[morvael]

Picking air units and airbase as target: