Skip to content

veafMove — Unit Movement and Tanker Route Management

Module ID: MOVE | File: veafMove.lua

Purpose

Provides commands to move or teleport existing DCS groups, and manages tanker orbit routes. Includes helpers to change a tanker's orbit position (changeTanker) and altitude/speed, or to move it along a new route (moveTanker).

Dependencies

  • veafMarkers — for marker commands
  • veafRadio — for radio menu entries
  • veafMissionDb — reads the mission's unit and route records (veaf.mist.getAllUnitData is a VEAF alias, not a MiST call). MiST itself is not required.

Enable

veafMove.initialize()

Marker Commands (Player-Facing)

Move a group

_move group, name [GROUP_NAME]

Moves the named group to the marker position. Ground units will path to the destination; aircraft will fly directly.

Move a tanker

_move tanker, name [GROUP_NAME]

Recomputes the named tanker's orbit route so it starts at the marker position. Accepts the optional keywords speed/spd, alt/altitude, heading/hdg, distance/dist, teleport (teleports the tanker near the new orbit instead of flying it there) and silent (skips creating the refuel start/refuel end named points).

Change a tanker's orbit

_move tankermission, name [GROUP_NAME]

Finds the tanker nearest the marker and changes its speed (speed/spd) and altitude (alt/altitude) without moving the orbit.

Move an AFAC

_move afac, name [GROUP_NAME]

Moves the named AFAC's orbit to the marker position. Accepts the optional keywords speed/spd, alt/altitude, heading/hdg and immortal.

Tanker Management (Mission Maker API)

Change a tanker's orbit

veafMove.changeTanker(eventPos, speed, alt) — finds the tanker near eventPos and changes its speed (knots) and altitude (feet) without moving the orbit.

-- Set the tanker near the marker to 430 kn / 7000 ft
veafMove.changeTanker(eventPos, 430, 7000)

Move a tanker along a new route

veafMove.moveTanker(eventPos, groupName, speed, alt, hdg, distance, teleport, silent) — recomputes the named tanker's orbit route starting from eventPos.

veafMove.moveTanker(eventPos, "KC-135 Texaco", 430, 7000, 270, 30, false, false)

Both tanker commands work on the waypoint carrying the ORBIT task. Since 6.15.12 that waypoint is searched for across the whole route. Before, it was assumed to be the second-to-last one: true of VEAF's own templates, whose route is [approach, orbit, leg end], false of a DCS-Liberation tanker, whose longer route ends with a landing point — both commands then refused with "has no ORBIT task defined".

  • When a route carries several orbits, the first one wins: it is the one the tanker reaches first, so the one that is active or imminent.
  • With no ORBIT task at all, the command refuses and says so. Moving a tanker to the wrong place is worse than telling you it cannot be done.
  • The orbit may be the first or the last waypoint of the route; those routes are valid and are no longer refused.

The waypoint after the orbit is the far end of the refuelling leg — that is DCS's own semantics for a Race-Track orbit, which flies between the waypoint carrying the task and the next one. That is why _move tanker repositions it.

Exception: a Circle orbit turns around a single point and gives the next waypoint no role, so it is left alone — on a Liberation route it might be the landing. _move tanker then cannot work out the leg: give distance and hdg.

Key Constants

Constant Default Description
veafMove.Keyphrase "_move" Marker command prefix

See Also