SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Simple question to a dev (elanaiba?) about the ship Groups in editor/game.

In the mission editor, you can make a random group, and the code allows multiple columns and spacings up to 2000m between ships.

When you add units to a group, they appear like this in the mission file:

Code:

[RndGroup 1]

GroupName=41a_Jap_Merchants_001

Category=0

CommandEntry=0

Long=16243300.000000

Lat=4156400.000000

Height=0.000000

DelayMin=60

DelayMinInterv=4740

SpawnProbability=70

RandStartRadius=0.000000

ReportPosMin=2880

ReportPosProbability=50

Heading=237.731003

Speed=9.000000

ColumnsNo=1

Spacing=500

DeleteOnLastWaypoint=true

CurrentInstanceID=0

GameEntryDate=19411201

GameEntryTime=0

GameExitDate=19420228

GameExitTime=0

MaxInst=10000

MaxUnitsCreated=100

DockedShip=false

NextWP=0



[RndGroup 1.RndUnit 1]

Type=102

Origin=Japan

Side=0

CargoExt=1

CargoInt=0

CfgDate=19411201

No=1

Escort=false

SpawnProbability=100

CrewRating=1



[RndGroup 1.RndUnit 2]

Type=102

Origin=Japan

Side=0

CargoExt=1

CargoInt=0

CfgDate=19411201

No=1

Escort=false

SpawnProbability=25

CrewRating=1

Can you tell me what the formula is for the placement of units in the group in game. What I mean is their position in the arrangement.

For example, if I make a group with 4 ships (RndUnit 1 through 4) they appear:
1---2
.
3---4 (heading "up" on this page).

If I do 3 columns, things get unpredictable (but not random, with the same set of ships they always appear in the same order). The leader is always the middle front of a 3 column Group, and the smaller ships seem to always be on the left, and the larger ones to the right or middle.

I ask this because it would make setting up random Task Forces better if we knew the order they would appear. then I could place ships in the group list in such a way the random TF would look the way I wish it to look in game.

Too bad the grouping only supports ship separations of 2000m as well, since IJN practice for carrier groups was a far wider spacing, 7000m. You can make your own formation in the editor, but the AI doesn't seem to deal as nicely with theose groups in turns.

Thanks for any insight you can give me!

tater