An idea that came to me when I was out with my dog today, no idea what my train of thought was to get to this point!

I remember reading in Ed Macey's books about the Apache in UK Army service, and some of the tactics involved. Most notable were the covering orbits flown by two helicopters, separated by altitude and radius, and contra-rotating, for deconfliction.

Now, flying that and operating the sensors and weapons is beyond me, so I was thinking that some standard tactical manoevres could be handed over to an AI pilot. This would allow the single-player to operate the sensors and weapons without handling the aircraft as well. Things such as the orbits I mentioned, flying level on a heading, or turning to a heading.

It would reduce the workload of the single-player in a realistic way, without it becoming too 'on rails'. Not a combat autopilot, but kind of like issuing orders to the helm in a sub sim, or the driver in the old Tank Platoon games.

Yep,

That's a feature I missed in LB2 and would be terrific to have in this one if it can be properly implemented. In Gunship! you can issue movement commands from the cp/g seat, but the keyboard shortcuts aren't the most intuitive.

It's something I'd like to see too. Specifically I'd like to be able to play as the CP/G, designate a point on the ground using the FLIR, and have the pilot fly a banking circuit around that point at a certain altitude.

Cheers

How would you voice script this between pilot and co-pilot? We might be able to get it done in time.

When you hand off control to the pilot he's supposed to either maintain position or maintain speed/heading till instructed otherwise. This is what I have (forgive my discussing joypads for the moment, just go with it)...

Using a joypad, tap the pilot comm button (right shoulder button) brings up the "come left/come right/bobup/mask" commands on the d-pad. (second tap is battle formations, third is menu off).

For PC controls these are whatever direct buttons/keys you'll assign to them.

So thinking...it makes sense to have "bobup" (d-pad up or "pilot_command_1") only appear when close to a hover, and when speed greater than say 10 knots(?) have it replaced with "Orbit target"? Or "Establish orbit"? I'm not clear what the vernacular would be.

I think the vernacular I'd use would be "awesomeness" if you were able fit something like this in.

I think it's an excellent idea but I think you should keep it as simple as possible. Bob up and hover commands are of course necessary but you could achieve this by simply using WASD or arrow key-style control scheme. If in a hover a tap on the W-key would add a little forward momentum, S would go back to a hover. Q-key would increase altitude and Z would decrease altitude. It would be like flying with autopilot on and trimming the aircraft... everything done with a nice slight smooth delay as to mimic a human pilot.

I haven't figured out how you would solve a co-operative rocket attack from CP/G seat.. but hey, you can't have it all.

I think the sim would benefit a lot from having a playable CP/G seat where you could simulate having a pilot with a bit more skill than a point to point AI autopilot.

-C-

I like the WSAD idea, we're having that function anyway for one of the other control schemes, makes sense to re-use it in this situation. Brilliant.

Why instead of the WSADAZQE keys you replace that by the axis of the joystick? In some SAR helicopter there is a joystick that the operator uses to move the helicopter while in hover. So I think that you should save the keys for the systems and not for moving the helicopter, you already have joystick, so why wasting keys? Obviously this would be like having it hover but when you move the joystick the helicopter move (as said above, smoothly) in that direction maintaining the other parameters of flight, when you center the joystick (cyclic) it would return to a hover, the same way for collective and pedals. And sure it is a good thing to have a circular menu with some instructions, it's the most prompt thing. You call the menu and you just move and press the mouse in the option you want. Better is, to integrate some of this menus with the some hat of the joystick.

Bah... Maybe just some stupid and hard to implement ideas.

Regards.

It's because you're just issuing commands and not in direct control, also WASD is already used and mapped for "on foot" control, plus it handily translates to a joypad/D-Pad when using the thumb sticks. Those are used for steering the TADS sensor.

Ah... Ok nice. WASD is the best way then. Keep up the great work.

Regards.

Bare in mind that while WASD would be the key commands through which the game receives the input, it does not necessarily mean you would be inputting via a keyboard. You could simply map WASD to a controller on your HOTAS such as a hat switch. The mini stick on an X-52 throttle would work perfectly for example.

Cheers

Personally, I have no idea which method would be more effective in gameplay. I will say however, that while Gunship! CPG station's pilot commands was a great concept, it fell horribly short, probably due to the poor pilot skill of the AI. However, when flying a game as detailed and complex as DCS Black Shark, pilot workload can be a bit overwhelming, as it would in real life.

So I can see how convenient and awesome it would be to be able to give a computer-controlled "pilot", or gunner for that matter. Personally, I loved the level on COD4:Modern Warfare where you sit at the weapon's operator station of an AC-130 gunship and engaged targets through a FLIR image. The FLIR graphics were amazing (even the IR strobes marking the friendly troops), but it was basically a linear rail-type shooter level.

Imagine how awesome it would be if we had a "smart" AI pilot or CPG in the cockpit with us that didn't fly like granny. (Sorry Microprose, but it was a good attempt with Gunship!)

The AI pilot mode is to assist players who would find the full level of control frustrating, difficult, or have a coffee in one hand.

You won't be flying with the US Army equiv of "The Stig" so don't expect too much. Enough to maintain a heading, altitude and ability to fly a wheel around an engagement area while you operate the CPG station.