1.73.2252 + Behemoth + landing clearance - problem?

[zevans]

Trying to dock with a "Behemoth - Geryon." Have asked for clearance a few times and I was 3 in the queue... and I can see three ships in the docking corridor (more or less) which seem to be doing about-face fairly often, but not actually, erm, you know, docking!

A Navy Transport, and 2 x Minesweeper II...

Is this a known problem?

And as I type had another go, I am now 4 in the queue and pretty sure nothing docked meanwhile.

(Have uninstalled OSE for now so it's not anything in there...)

Could commit 2247 or 2248 relate?

Edited subject to 1.73 D'oh

[another_commander]

We will need to see the status of one of these ships. Next time it happens, target the ship that seems stuck, press Shift+H and then post the log. You don't happen to stand directly in front of the door (or too close to it) when this happens, correct?

I am sure that commits 2247 and 2248 are unrelated. It could be that commits 2247 and 2248 are related but I honestly doubt it. We'll just have to see the log describing the AI status for the ships in question before we can be sure.

Oh, and now that we have TAF in trunk, next time it happens, try to set time acceleration to x8 or x16. It might just be that the ships are waiting for an event to happen before they proceed.

[Svengali]

I've had the same in v1.72.2 while writing one of the carrier missions for LH. There I've got the feeling that the sent coordinates to the ships are sometimes wrong, specially if the ship that tries to dock is not in front of the carrier and only for ships that are not launched from this carrier. Then this ship will try it forever, flying to a point somewhere near (means within scanner_range) the carrier, aborting, flying to a another point, aborting. I'll check it in SVN2252 today.

[Eric Walch]

Trying to dock with a "Behemoth - Geryon." Have asked for clearance a few times and I was 3 in the queue... and I can see three ships in the docking corridor (more or less) which seem to be doing about-face fairly often, but not actually, erm, you know, docking!

I know of two situations that could do this.

- 1) Ships belonging to the station have problems navigating. But that is already longer wrong than the last few revisions. This is noticeable that ships start to pick up the station rotation at spots were they shouldn't do it.

- 2) At low FPS counts ships with a high pitch value stay jumping between two positions.


I hope it is not one of the last revisions, but can't rule it out. There I added a counter for frustration when performFaceDestination didn't succeed fast enough. I related this time to the ships turn-speed to allow slow ships more time. In my last revision update I included a line in the AI to react on this frustration during docking approach. The main reason for that line was to order ships that were stuck in condition 2) to just proceed.

Tracing the AI I notice I do get FRUSTRATION messages during the final docking stage, but not from performFaceDestination, but because of performFlyToDestination. I even managed to find a ship that kept flying circles. But because the AI state seems to be able to receive a FRUSTRATION for two different reasons that need a different response, it seems wise I remove that FRUSTRATION reaction from the docking AI and not react on it.

To prevent condition 2) I now added a line in performFaceDestination itself that should act on the flippering during low FPS.

[Eric Walch]

OK, I just submitted revision 2253.

- Changed the FRUSTRATION messages in dockingAI so no docking problems anymore.

While logging all frustrations to the log I noticed fly_to_destination was logging way to often. Even at startup there were already several logged. Reason was that it already logged when "slowdowntime == 0 ". Excluded this situation now is making the frustration message much more useful.

I also added a frustration counter to target_twelve attack so it switches easier to another attack mode. When looking exactly what this attackmode does, I noticed it was only designed to frighten the opponent and never was designed to attack.

My docking changes in revision 2248 made it more likely that ships kept rotating in the final phase of docking. e.g. the workcoms from commies.oxp always crashed with me because they stopped rotating for a brief moment when their nose was already docked. BAMM! This was fixed with 2248 and now with 2253 all docking should be back to normal.

I also added a check for the flipping between positions, without docking at low FPS counts. This condition was one of my biggest frustrations on my old, slow computer (✝). With my current fast computer I am not able to reproduce this situation. I am convinced that my added check improved things for low FPS values but I appreciate any comment on this from players that do notice an improvement on this.

[DaddyHoggy]

You really are the God of AI!

Bravo!

[Griff]

Eric, i'm seeing a lot of ships behaving oddly in the docking AI, they stop travelling in any direction but they roll in sync with the station, here's an entity dump from a cobra I that was doing it just now

Oolite trunk 2253

Code: Select all

<ShipEntity 0x49d1010>{"Cobra Mark I" ID: 559 position: (66872.1, -14896.8, 348767) scanClass: CLASS_NEUTRAL status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT} mass 47240.14 <AI 0x6797fb0>{"dockingAI.plist" in state: "GO_TO_COORDS" for Cobra Mark I 559}

I'm testing a lot of oxp's at the moment by spawing angry ships outside the station and getting into a fight with them, an awful lot of the police vipers that launch to help me out get affected by this weird bug when trying to return to the station, am i just not waiting long enough for their frustration levels to build up and send them off on some new behaviour?

as an aside, i spotted a few vipers doing some lovely loops and rolls around the space outside the station the other day, just flying along in S shaped curves - they really looked like their pilot was enjoying just flying around in such a kick-ass ship like any real person would be, it was really cool to see so a massive thumbs up to whoever has coded that into the newer oolite builds!

[Eric Walch]

That is a oolite bug with station groups. That bug is there already for long. The bug is over when you remove the ship from the group by console command. Your cobra is probably a scavenger, owned by the station. The vipers are for sure owned by the station.

I think I fixed this bug now. Not defining the ships as "_escortGroup" but just as "_group" made them behave normal. The repair ship it acting again on its AI and following the programmed route and dropping the buoy on its spot.

I run against my C limits here so I have to really check if I have not shifted the problem to other ships. Certainly real escorts should still be assigned the good group attribute.

[zevans]

I'll see if I can get it to happen again and try the Shift+H trick. I wasn't anywhere near the door, made sure of that!

I tried time acceleration, left it on max whilst I read a few emails, so it must have been -hours- of game time...

- 1) Ships belonging to the station have problems navigating. But that is already longer wrong than the last few revisions. This is noticeable that ships start to pick up the station rotation at spots were they shouldn't do it.

Could well be this. I didn't see the rotation going on but then... behemoths don't rotate!

- 2) At low FPS counts ships with a high pitch value stay jumping between two positions.

Not had any problem with FPS recently, it's all smooooooth.

I'll play for a while on 2252 and see how often I can get the problem to come up, and then try the latest which sounds like it might have fixed it!

[zevans]

Got it to happen again on 2252, in a very busy Zaonce. First ship in the queue was a Navy Transporter and I had a good look round with Shift-H as follows.

Code: Select all

[dumpState]: State for <ShipEntity 0xd1a5368>{"Navy Transport" ID: 486 position: (61202.6, -14628.1, 346940) scanClass: CLASS_POLICE status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}:
  [dumpState.entity]: Universal ID: 486
  [dumpState.entity]: Scan class: CLASS_POLICE
  [dumpState.entity]: Status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT
  [dumpState.entity]: Position: (61202.6, -14628.1, 346940)
  [dumpState.entity]: Orientation: (0.0673359 - 0.722482i - 0.616524j + 0.305589k)
  [dumpState.entity]: Distance travelled: 178357
  [dumpState.entity]: Energy: 756 of 756
  [dumpState.entity]: Mass: 440113
  [dumpState.entity]: Owner: <ShipEntity 0xd1a5368>{"Navy Transport" ID: 486 position: (61202.6, -14628.1, 346940) scanClass: CLASS_POLICE status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}
  [dumpState.entity]: Flags: isShip, hasMoved, hasRotated, isSunlit, collisionTestFilter
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Name: Navy Transport
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Display Name: Navy Transport
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Roles: <OORoleSet 0xd0d2c08>{navy-convoy}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Primary role: navy-convoy
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Script: <OOJSScript 0xb6c51c0>{"oolite-default-ship-script" version 1.73}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Subentity count: 6
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Behaviour: BEHAVIOUR_FLY_TO_DESTINATION
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Target: <StationEntity 0xb398dd8>{"Icosahedron Station" "Icosahedron Station" ID: 438 position: (63412.4, -15151.1, 345475) scanClass: CLASS_STATION status: STATUS_ACTIVE}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Destination: (61161.1, -14613.2, 346960)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Other destination: (0, 0, 0)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Waypoint count: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Desired speed: 13.9659
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel: 70
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel accumulator: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Missile count: 7
  [dumpState.shipEntity.ai]: AI:
    [dumpState.ai]: State machine name: dockingAI.plist
    [dumpState.ai]: Current state: GO_TO_COORDS
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think time: 1895.5
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think interval: 0.125
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Frustration: 3.91308
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Success factor: 48.1686
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Shots fired: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Time since shot: 101033
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Spawn time: 862.105 (1033.36 seconds ago)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Hull temperature: 60
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Heat insulation: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Flags: isFrangible

Code: Select all

[dumpState]: State for <ShipEntity 0xd1a5368>{"Navy Transport" ID: 486 position: (61207.7, -14626.9, 346943) scanClass: CLASS_POLICE status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}:
  [dumpState.entity]: Universal ID: 486
  [dumpState.entity]: Scan class: CLASS_POLICE
  [dumpState.entity]: Status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT
  [dumpState.entity]: Position: (61207.7, -14626.9, 346943)
  [dumpState.entity]: Orientation: (-0.0519544 - 0.722695i - 0.550872j + 0.41419k)
  [dumpState.entity]: Distance travelled: 180037
  [dumpState.entity]: Energy: 756 of 756
  [dumpState.entity]: Mass: 440113
  [dumpState.entity]: Owner: <ShipEntity 0xd1a5368>{"Navy Transport" ID: 486 position: (61207.7, -14626.9, 346943) scanClass: CLASS_POLICE status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}
  [dumpState.entity]: Flags: isShip, hasMoved, hasRotated, isSunlit, collisionTestFilter
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Name: Navy Transport
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Display Name: Navy Transport
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Roles: <OORoleSet 0xd0d2c08>{navy-convoy}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Primary role: navy-convoy
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Script: <OOJSScript 0xb6c51c0>{"oolite-default-ship-script" version 1.73}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Subentity count: 6
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Behaviour: BEHAVIOUR_FLY_TO_DESTINATION
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Target: <StationEntity 0xb398dd8>{"Icosahedron Station" "Icosahedron Station" ID: 438 position: (63412.4, -15151.1, 345475) scanClass: CLASS_STATION status: STATUS_ACTIVE}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Destination: (61161.1, -14613.2, 346960)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Other destination: (0, 0, 0)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Waypoint count: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Desired speed: 13.3328
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel: 70
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel accumulator: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Missile count: 7
  [dumpState.shipEntity.ai]: AI:
    [dumpState.ai]: State machine name: dockingAI.plist
    [dumpState.ai]: Current state: GO_TO_COORDS
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think time: 2022.46
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think interval: 0.125
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Frustration: 5.57383
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Success factor: 51.5461
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Shots fired: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Time since shot: 101160
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Spawn time: 862.105 (1160.3 seconds ago)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Hull temperature: 60
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Heat insulation: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Flags: isFrangible

Code: Select all

[dumpState]: State for <ShipEntity 0xd1a5368>{"Navy Transport" ID: 486 position: (61150, -14610.9, 346962) scanClass: CLASS_POLICE status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}:
  [dumpState.entity]: Universal ID: 486
  [dumpState.entity]: Scan class: CLASS_POLICE
  [dumpState.entity]: Status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT
  [dumpState.entity]: Position: (61150, -14610.9, 346962)
  [dumpState.entity]: Orientation: (-0.713733 - 0.115665i + 0.2782j + 0.632307k)
  [dumpState.entity]: Distance travelled: 180120
  [dumpState.entity]: Energy: 756 of 756
  [dumpState.entity]: Mass: 440113
  [dumpState.entity]: Owner: <ShipEntity 0xd1a5368>{"Navy Transport" ID: 486 position: (61150, -14610.9, 346962) scanClass: CLASS_POLICE status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}
  [dumpState.entity]: Flags: isShip, hasMoved, hasRotated, isSunlit, collisionTestFilter
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Name: Navy Transport
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Display Name: Navy Transport
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Roles: <OORoleSet 0xd0d2c08>{navy-convoy}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Primary role: navy-convoy
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Script: <OOJSScript 0xb6c51c0>{"oolite-default-ship-script" version 1.73}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Subentity count: 6
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Behaviour: BEHAVIOUR_FLY_TO_DESTINATION
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Target: <StationEntity 0xb398dd8>{"Icosahedron Station" "Icosahedron Station" ID: 438 position: (63412.4, -15151.1, 345475) scanClass: CLASS_STATION status: STATUS_ACTIVE}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Destination: (61161.1, -14613.2, 346960)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Other destination: (0, 0, 0)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Waypoint count: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Desired speed: 6.66639
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel: 70
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel accumulator: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Missile count: 7
  [dumpState.shipEntity.ai]: AI:
    [dumpState.ai]: State machine name: dockingAI.plist
    [dumpState.ai]: Current state: GO_TO_COORDS
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think time: 2029.18
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think interval: 0.125
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Frustration: 4.12581
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Success factor: 11.6252
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Shots fired: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Time since shot: 101167
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Spawn time: 862.105 (1167.03 seconds ago)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Hull temperature: 60
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Heat insulation: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Flags: isFrangible

I managed to get that ship moving again by flying very close to it a few times to try and trigger collision-avoidance or something...

Code: Select all

[dumpState]: State for <ShipEntity 0xd1a5368>{"Navy Transport" ID: 486 position: (61812.4, -14766.9, 346534) scanClass: CLASS_POLICE status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}:
  [dumpState.entity]: Universal ID: 486
  [dumpState.entity]: Scan class: CLASS_POLICE
  [dumpState.entity]: Status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT
  [dumpState.entity]: Position: (61812.4, -14766.9, 346534)
  [dumpState.entity]: Orientation: (0.114863 - 0.877202i - 0.00315248j - 0.466168k)
  [dumpState.entity]: Distance travelled: 182737
  [dumpState.entity]: Energy: 756 of 756
  [dumpState.entity]: Mass: 440113
  [dumpState.entity]: Owner: <ShipEntity 0xd1a5368>{"Navy Transport" ID: 486 position: (61812.4, -14766.9, 346534) scanClass: CLASS_POLICE status: STATUS_IN_FLIGHT}
  [dumpState.entity]: Flags: isShip, hasMoved, hasRotated, isSunlit, collisionTestFilter
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Name: Navy Transport
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Display Name: Navy Transport
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Roles: <OORoleSet 0xd0d2c08>{navy-convoy}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Primary role: navy-convoy
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Script: <OOJSScript 0xb6c51c0>{"oolite-default-ship-script" version 1.73}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Subentity count: 6
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Behaviour: BEHAVIOUR_FLY_TO_DESTINATION
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Target: <StationEntity 0xb398dd8>{"Icosahedron Station" "Icosahedron Station" ID: 438 position: (63412.4, -15151.1, 345475) scanClass: CLASS_STATION status: STATUS_ACTIVE}
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Destination: (61979.8, -14808.8, 346420)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Other destination: (0, 0, 0)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Waypoint count: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Desired speed: 48
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel: 70
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Fuel accumulator: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Missile count: 7
  [dumpState.shipEntity.ai]: AI:
    [dumpState.ai]: State machine name: dockingAI.plist
    [dumpState.ai]: Current state: GO_TO_COORDS
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think time: 2178.72
    [dumpState.ai]: Next think interval: 0.125
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Frustration: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Success factor: 210.533
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Shots fired: 0
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Time since shot: 101316
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Spawn time: 862.105 (1316.55 seconds ago)
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Hull temperature: 60
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Heat insulation: 1
  [dumpState.shipEntity]: Flags: docking_match_rotation, isFrangible

[Eric Walch]

Got it to happen again on 2252, in a very busy Zaonce. First ship in the queue was a Navy Transporter and I had a good look

Should have been fixed in 2253 and probably only occurred with revision 2252 where I added a wrong AI response on a FRUSTRATION message.

On the strange behaving ships Griff is referring to: It was caused because all station ships were launched as escort of the station. Only traders were not launched as escorts. And a mothership is constantly uploading a destination to its escorts. The escorts only use that destination when in fly-to mode, not in attack mode. Therefor all returning vipers never could dock after finishing their fight. This bug must have been there since mid februari. It happened with all stations. e.g with the pirate cove also. There also the pirates never could return because the staton was constantly overwriting the docking coordinates by its escort position coordinates.

In revision 2256 docking should be even more smooth. At least my boa mk now never has to turn a bit round to get the right flight path.

Docking behaviour of cause strongly depends on the ship characteristics: speed, pitch, thrust. e.g. the griff boa always has to make a loop during its final approach. The final step in docking is more save now. With the Armadillo of buoyRepair, docking was always a problem because the ship was a bit to tall. We had to give the ship a high energy, just to let it survive docking. When docking at a large station like the thorus station, damage on docking was always between 600 and 1000. Currently it is seldom more than 20.

[Griff]

Awesome bug-squishing Eric!, i just updated to 2256, picked a fight with some thargoids outside the station and afterwards i watched the 2 vipers that launched, return and dock with the station, amazing stuff, they even queued politely outside until it was their turn to go in!

[zevans]

Good skills...

I have developed an eye for the problem in 2252 (seen it more times since) so I'll know if an "svn up" has killed it good and proper, here's hoping!

[zevans]

I -think- this might be back - haven't seen it for weeks, and then downloaded latest trunk yesterday and had ships taking an extraordinary amount of time to dock again... seems a bit of coincidence.

Also, some Behemoths still won't let me dock - they turn away. The AI scripts looks right in that they ought to be IDLE once docking clearance is requested... is there something else the script has to do to turn off collision avoidance?

[Eric Walch]

I -think- this might be back - haven't seen it for weeks, and then downloaded latest trunk yesterday and had ships taking an extraordinary amount of time to dock again... seems a bit of coincidence.

Needs more specific info as I haven't seen a problem for weeks now. Are the problem ships hanging completely still?

Also, some Behemoths still won't let me dock - they turn away. The AI scripts looks right in that they ought to be IDLE once docking clearance is requested... is there something else the script has to do to turn off collision avoidance?

That is a problem with docking clearance. It grants permission to dock, but does not put the ship in docking mode. Only a start with the docking computer itself will send a message to the ships AI to stop.
shift-L should also stop carriers and when the time-slot has passed send a signal to carry on. But that is for 1.74. Maybe should also change that the docking computer can force any carrier to halt, even when it is a target carrier.