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veafAssets — Tankers, AWACS, and Carriers

Module ID: ASSETS | File: veafAssets.lua

See it in game: step 14 “Tankers, AWACS and escort” of the demo mission.

Purpose

Manages the persistent assets in a mission — tankers, AWACS, JTACs. Provides F10 radio menu entries for each asset: information (position, TACAN, frequency), respawn after loss, and optional disposal.

Dependencies

  • veafRadio — F10 menu
  • veafDcsSpawner / veafMissionDb — respawn (veafAssets.respawn) rebuilds the group with VeafGroupSpawn, from the mission record VEAF indexes at start-up. MiST is not required (it used to be, through mist.respawnGroup).

⚠️ Assets must be groups placed in the Mission Editor. Each asset name (and each linked entry) must exactly match a group present in the .miz. A dynamically-spawned or mis-named asset is not in the mission database VEAF builds at start-up (veaf.getGroupRecord) → respawn fails silently in-game. The build now emits a warning when a declared group (ASSETS, QRA, …) is absent from the mission.

Enable

veafAssets.initialize()

Must be called after defining veafAssets.Assets.

Configuration (mission.yaml)

modules:
  ASSETS:
    enabled: true          # default: true
    logLevel: info        # optional log level override
    assets:               # list of persistent assets to manage
      - sort: 1                         # sort order in F10 menu (lower = first)
        name: "Texaco"                  # internal identifier
        description: "Texaco (KC-135)" # label shown in F10 menu
        information: 'Tacan 51Y\nU251.00 (21)'  # single-quoted: \n is preserved as-is → valid Lua escape
        linked: null                    # linked asset name (optional)
        jtac: 1688                      # laser code — the asset is a JTAC lasing with this code (optional)
        freq: null                      # override frequency for info display (optional)
        mod: null                       # radio modulation (AM | FM, optional)
        coalition: null                 # BLUE | RED: shown to that side only (absent: both)
Field Type Default Required Description
enabled boolean true No Enable or disable the module
logLevel string (global) No Per-module log level override
assets object[] [] No List of assets to manage
assets[].sort integer 0 No Sort order in the F10 menu (ascending)
assets[].name string — Yes Internal identifier
assets[].description string — Yes Label shown in the F10 menu
assets[].information string — No Info text displayed to players — use single-quoted YAML 'line1\nline2' or "line1\\nline2" (double-quoted) to get a \n Lua escape
assets[].linked string null No Name of a group to respawn along with the asset. ⚠️ This is not what declares an escort — see Escorting an asset
assets[].jtac number null No Laser code: the asset is a JTAC that automatically lases with this code (requires CTLD)
assets[].freq number null No Override frequency for the info display (MHz)
assets[].mod string null No Radio modulation override (AM or FM)
assets[].coalition string — No BLUE or RED: the entry is shown in that side's Assets menu only; absent, to both. With red playable, a red tanker's frequency no longer shows to blue

The DCS group referenced by name must exist in the mission editor.

Minimal example

modules:
  ASSETS:
    enabled: true
    assets:
      - sort: 1
        name: "Texaco"
        description: "Texaco (KC-135)"
        information: "Tacan 51Y\nU251.00 (21)"
      - sort: 2
        name: "Overlord"
        description: "Overlord (E-3A)"
        information: "SRS 251.00"

Defining Assets

Populate veafAssets.Assets before calling initialize():

veafAssets.Assets = {
  {
    name        = "KC-135 Texaco",       -- DCS group name in the mission
    description = "Texaco (KC-135)",
    information = "Tacan 51Y\nU251.00 (21)",  -- info text (truthy → adds the Info button)
    disposable  = false,   -- allow players to despawn it
  },
  {
    name        = "KC-130 Arco",
    description = "Arco (KC-130)",
    information = "Tacan 50Y\nU251.50 (22)",
    disposable  = false,
  },
  {
    name        = "E-3A Overlord",
    description = "Overlord (E-3A)",
    information = "SRS 251.00",
    disposable  = false,
  },
}

Asset Table Fields

Field Type Required Description
name string Yes DCS group name in the mission (also used as the internal identifier)
description string Yes Label shown in F10 menu
information string No Info text shown to players; non-empty → adds the Info button
disposable boolean No Allow authorised players to despawn the asset

Carriers are handled by the separate veafCarrierOperations module, not by veafAssets.

Escorting an asset

An asset's escort is the group named <asset name> escort. That name is not decorative: it is what lets the framework find the escort in order to repair its Escort task, which DCS invalidates every time the escorted group is recreated — by a respawn as much as by a teleport (_move tanker … teleport).

In practice: set the Escort task on any waypoint of the escort's route, in the Mission Editor, as you normally would. The rest is automatic.

What a respawn does to an escort

Respawning an asset (F10 → ASSETS → Respawn) respawns its escort too, and then repairs the Escort task. Both halves are needed, and neither replaces the other:

  • The escort comes back with its charge, because the asset reappears where the Mission Editor drew it while its escort has kept flying. Measured in game on 2026-08-28 on the demo mission's tanker, minutes after a respawn: 78 km and 82 km between the two, one escort already landed — against an engagementDistMax of 60 km declared by the Escort task itself. Repairing the task alone therefore achieved nothing: it handed the escort a charge outside its own engagement distance.
  • The task is repaired all the same, because what breaks it is the escorted group's id changing, not the escort's.

Worth knowing: the escort that comes back is a fresh one. An escort that was engaged, damaged or low on fuel is replaced, exactly like the asset itself — and an escort that was shot down comes back too.

⚠️ linked is not what makes a group an escort. The two mechanisms are still declared separately: linked lists arbitrary groups to respawn along with the asset, while the naming convention is what identifies the escort. So an escort need not be listed in linked: it comes back with its charge anyway, and its task is repaired. The two end up having the same effect on the escort at respawn time, but it is the naming convention — and only that — which allows the Escort task to be repaired.

The symptom when the name does not follow the convention: the escort takes off with its charge, holds for a while, then leaves to land after about ten minutes. That is not the AI giving up: it is an escort whose task points at a group that no longer exists, so it flies out its route and goes home.

F10 Radio Menu

Assets appear under F10 → ASSETS. An asset with neither information nor disposable is a plain Respawn [description] command; otherwise a submenu is created with:

  • Respawn [description] — respawns the group at its original position
  • Get info on [description] — displays the information text (if information is set)
  • Dispose of [description] — despawns the asset (if disposable = true, secured command)

Notes

  • The DCS group must exist in the mission editor with the exact name used in name
  • Tanker information (TACAN, frequency) is read from the DCS group's waypoint/route settings

See Also