Honez

Feedback on “George” and Multi-Seat Rotorcraft AI in DCS Apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to say what's on my mind about George. First, let me go on record by saying that I — and I suspect many others — would gladly pay for an add-on module that brings a “Jester”-style AI companion to the rotorcraft fleet, including the Apache, CH-47, Kiowa, and Huey. Flying a Heatblur two-seat aircraft with Jester is an absolute joy. He’s not only helpful and responsive, but also creates a convincing sense that there’s another crew member aboard — one who’s genuinely assisting in combat by identifying and calling out targets. Heatblur has truly hit it out of the park with their implementation of the multi-seat experience. So, to the DCS program managers: please take note. Partner with Heatblur to develop and license an AI crew module for these multi-seat rotorcraft. Give players the same immersive, interactive experience they enjoy in the F-14 and upcoming F-4. I’m confident that the community would be willing to pay for it, and such an initiative could open up a valuable new revenue stream for both Eagle Dynamics and Heatblur. Thoughts on George’s Current Implementation Now, let’s talk about George. While I appreciate the recent addition of a scan mode — thank you for that — it’s simply too slow. In real life, a front-seater wouldn’t take that long to visually scan for targets. The current behavior, where George slowly sweeps with the TADS and then announces irrelevant targets, adds unnecessary workload for the pilot, who then has to decline them one by one in the menu. If a Jester-style logic system isn’t in the near-term roadmap, please consider giving mission designers more control in the meantime. A simple checkbox in the Mission Editor to filter what George can detect or report (e.g., ignoring blue, neutral, or green forces) would make a world of difference. Many mission creators add extra friendly or neutral objects to make the environment feel alive — but George’s habit of locking onto them constantly can quickly become frustrating. A more useful behavior might be for George to report unidentified targets as such: “I have an unidentified contact at one o’clock, 3,000 yards — should I mark it?” And when he identifies a hostile, he should call it out by name and make it available in the pilot’s selection menu. My other major issue is George overriding the pilot’s choices. When I, as the pilot, visually acquire a target and direct George to engage it, he often decides to lock something entirely different that he perceives as a higher threat. That behavior breaks immersion and control. If George is not in scan mode and the pilot designates a target, he should respect that command — even if it’s not the most dangerous target in the area. Sometimes, I want to deal with a nearby threat (“danger close”) rather than a distant SAM site that hasn’t even detected us yet. Closing Thoughts Thanks for the opportunity to share these thoughts. I offer them not as complaints, but as constructive feedback from someone who truly loves what DCS and its partners have achieved so far. Enhancing George — or better yet, implementing a Jester-style system for helicopters — would take the rotorcraft experience to a whole new level of realism and enjoyment

Exactly! This is the problem. The other day I cracked up the wind to 25 knots and it barely changed the look of the water.

Apologies if this is an old question answered somewhere else, but do you have these types of templates for maps other than Caucasus?

Ditto! I was creating a very complicated mission and when I did the paste, I walked away for more than 10 min waiting for DCS to complete the paste command. It did eventually paste it, but wow! It took forever and I thought it was going to crash before completing.

Ditto bro! That would be great. Yes, this does work, but you can't save the statics as a template to easily use on multiple maps. It's a bit of a pain to load the Syria map you have the statics on, copy, then load up a different map, and paste them in.

I didn't know that, it's a shame! It would have made a lot of pepps happy.

Hey guys — I need to jump in here and voice my thoughts on this. It seems like a lot of folks are getting hung up on the physics of the ocean and trying to explain how the real ocean works. Honestly — I don’t think anyone is asking for an accurate ocean wave simulator here. As a mission builder, the feedback I get from my crew is simple: they want cool-looking seas for immersion, without having to crank wind speeds up to ridiculous, unflyable levels just to get decent wave visuals. And I 100% agree with them. DCS already did a great job giving us a set of cloud presets that look awesome without forcing mission builders to match them with dangerous, gameplay-breaking weather. For example — I can drop in a big thunderstorm from the cloud library, and it doesn't require me to set hurricane-force winds to match. It’s about visual storytelling and immersion. So to the DCS dev team: please don’t waste time coding realistic ocean physics, currents, and all that. Just give us a visual sea state picker — like the cloud presets — so we can set the look of the water to fit our mission atmosphere. It’s a game. It’s about fun, immersion, and giving mission builders more creative tools — not turning DCS into a naval hydrodynamics lab.

Yes! I agree that the KB is more usable but it's how all these things are created and edited that I have a rub with. They need to give us a tool within the Editor that allows mission creators to easily put things into it.

I would like to see an integrated knee board editing tool inside the mission editor that allows you to customize each flight groups boards with text and pics, etc. Right now there is no easy fast way to edit the knee boards. You either have to use a third party editor or go deep into various directories and add graphic files etc. to the individual aircraft. I would like to be able to create custom boards for each flight group that has different rolls in M-Player.

I would like to see an integrated knee board editing tool inside the mission editor. Right now you either have to use a third party editor or go deep into various directories and add graphic files etc. to the individual aircraft. I would like to be able to create custom boards for each flight group that has different rolls in M-Player.

Hi DCS Dev Team, We’d love to see an option that allows us to adjust the visual appearance of the sea state independently from the wind settings. Right now, the only way to get rougher seas is by cranking up the wind, which often creates unrealistic environmental conditions just to achieve a certain ocean look. If you could implement a “Sea State Picker”, similar to how we can select cloud presets, it would add a lot to mission immersion and scenario flexibility. As a former Navy guy, I can tell you there are plenty of situations where seas can be rough due to distant storms or swells while the local winds remain light — and it would be fantastic if DCS could capture that nuance. I believe this would be a widely appreciated quality-of-life improvement for the community and enhance the realism we’re all chasing. Thanks for considering it, and for all the hard work you put into making DCS what it is! Much appreciated,

Why now just make one big zone and use "Scenery Remove Objects Zone"? I believe that option should work for what your trying to do.

With regard to the carrier, create it first, then add ships to that group and they will follow perfectly. Also, if your using the "Super Carrier" with the latest directors, keep in mind that they will try and park incoming planes in spots where we used to be able to place static aircraft. Now, if you want to place aircraft on the deck in and around the supper structure you need to make them "uncontrolled" not static objects. Hope this helps!

Thank a for the idea of uncontrolled aircraft

Yeah, I have just given in and depopulated the deck before I fly the mission and save it as update. Painful to have to do that but it's not the first time I have had to make changes to missions because of an update. Part of life in DCS!