[0.50.01] Princess airborne Dropships not engaging with ground forces

[Dark-Hobbit]

Prerequisites and Pre-Issue Checklist

• I'm reporting the issue to the correct repository:

• MegaMek

• MegaMekLab

• MekHQ

• I've tested the issue against at least the latest MILESTONE version

• I've asked on the MegaMek Discord about the error

• I've reviewed the BattleTech rules and MegaMek documentation, and I've confirmed that something isn't working as intended.

• I've searched the Github tracker and haven't found the issue listed

Severity *

Medium (Gameplay Limitation): Non-core functionality is impaired, providing a suboptimal but playable experience.

Brief Description *

In two separate cases, opfor airborn Dropships (both spheroid) ran by Princess hid in the corner of a map at altitude 9 and ignored the fight. Could possibly be related to #6324 but I do not see any Dropship-related errors in the log, so it might be a separate issue altogether.

After some extensive testing, I once managed to get this behaviour to seemingly unstuck by chasing around the enemy Dropship with my Mechs until I got almost directly under it. At that point, the Dropship started moving towards my forces and going down to altitude that would allow for engagement.

Illiani suggested that it might be something to do with line of sight for the Dropship. I have noticed that both times this occured pn fairly hilly maps where my Mechs were visible from the Dropship's altitude but not necessarily from the corresponding ground hex. Could it be that Dropship is always treated as grounded for the purpose of LoS and thus can't see anything even when airborn?

Steps to Reproduce

1. Add enemy Dropship deploying some distance away from your forces, giving control over it to Princess. In my case it was a scenario modifier from MekHQ.
2. Don't approach the Dropship too closely. Getting within weapon range is still causing this behaviour, but getting directly under it seems to fix the problem.
3. Observe Dropship get stuck somewhere in the corner and effectively out of the fight.

Operating System *

Windows 11

Java Version *

Eclipse Adoptium 17.0.13

MegaMek Suite Version *

Free Text (type manually)

Custom MegaMek Version

0.50.01

Attach Files

Autosave.sav.gz
customs.zip
megamek.log

Final Checklist

• I've checked to make sure that this issue has not already been filed
• I'm reporting only one issue in this ticket for clarity and focus

[psikomonkie]

A spheroid dropship in the air can only attack units directly below it, and is also generally a bad idea for the dropship. They're slow and vulnerable. At the moment, I don't think we shouldn't make Princess send Dropships to their death - this should probably be resolved by this being moved to MekHQ and flying dropships be removed from scenarios involving only ground units.

[Sleet01]

Spheroid dropships are extremely limited in their movement options on the ground map, and as mentioned previously can only attack units directly under their flight path.
But they were spending an immense number of cycles calculating their move paths as though they were ASFs that could reach every single hex, including calculating attacks against ground units they'd never in a million years be able to catch.
So we chopped out that part of path planning for Spheroid DropShips; Princess should ignore ground targets with her DropShips until they are literally right under her, or near as makes no difference.

In addition to the proposed changes to MekHQ, we should probably take a look at fixing Spheroid DropShip fleeing from ground maps, so that when the fight gets down to 1 DS vs N enemy ground units, the DropShip can just fly off to safety instead of risking an ugly death.

[HammerGS]

In addition to the proposed changes to MekHQ, we should probably take a look at fixing Spheroid DropShip fleeing from ground maps, so that when the fight gets down to 1 DS vs N enemy ground units, the DropShip can just fly off to safety instead of risking an ugly death.

For Spheroids the ability to escape vertically and climb out of risk is a critical piece we need.

[Dark-Hobbit]

For Spheroids the ability to escape vertically and climb out of risk is a critical piece we need.

I would say that even escaping through the edge would be a solution here. The Dropship in question was smart enough to stay at the safe altitude 9 where it can't be hit by land units, which I would be totally fine with if it was an intentional act of self-preservation.

The issue as I see it was that at the same time the Dropship was refusing to leave the map despite being on the very edge of it. So it was staying in the fight but in the most useless way possible, stuck between either engaging the enemy or fleeing from it.