Surviving

[Mike Force Team]

Whenever virtual pilots are forced to eject over water, they have no virtual chance of survival.  Since the pilots have no water survival gear, they are dead when they land in the water.  Speaking for myself, I prefer that my virtual pilot is able to survive.  I like to perform (or receive) SAR support to recover my downed pilot.  

Can ED create a fully functional module for the SAR missions for the following:  MH-65, HH-60W, Ka-27PS, MI-17, MI-14, H-145, Sea King, and USMC Osprey.

Here are some real-world products that are used for maritime survival:

Here is information about an inflatable single person life raft:  https://ses-safety.com/ses/isplr-inflatable-single-place-liferaft/

Here is information about a compact single person life raf:  https://ses-safety.com/ses/help-pack/

ED:  Make necessary changes so that virtual pilots survive water bailouts.  Add options, animation, or whatever is needed, so that the downed pilots land in the water, they deploy survival life rafts, can use signal flares, and players can respond with their choppers for SAR.  When virtual pilots see their pilots die virtually, it is a disappointment.  ED pays close attention to the vetted flying modules, yet ignores, skips, overlooks some of the finer details.  The hyperlinks above point to vetted survival equipment, which might inspire ED's programmers to create comparable survival gear that is more closely aligned to the jets and choppers on DCS World.

[SharpeXB]

Not a bad idea but I don’t think it needs all the functional models and animations etc. Just a message in the debrief screen. Why does it matter anyways? In MP you’re going to be “shot down” and respawn. In an SP campaign you’ll get a “fail”

Now if there was a career mode or dynamic campaign then all of the above would be really cool. But it needs exactly that, a dynamic ongoing campaign so that your survival matters. 

[Beirut]

If DCS is going to model this, then I want an option for a kick ass bailing out swag bag for when I "accidently" get shot down over France.

Find me a couple of mademoiselles by a quiet river and sit out the war.  

[Tank50us]

5 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

Not a bad idea but I don’t think it needs all the functional models and animations etc. Just a message in the debrief screen. Why does it matter anyways? In MP you’re going to be “shot down” and respawn. In an SP campaign you’ll get a “fail”

Now if there was a career mode or dynamic campaign then all of the above would be really cool. But it needs exactly that, a dynamic ongoing campaign so that your survival matters. 

Something like this would be a great addition for CSAR missions, especially if the pilot can 'board' the helicopter, and be flown out. GR for example did an operation where the only way for a player to respawn, was if a helicopter 'picked up' the pilot, and returned him to base. They could only role play this however, but something like that, where servers require that downed pilots be rescued or captured to 'score', would not be a bad thing. But then again, I'm all for the idea of objective based multiplayer

[cfrag]

5 hours ago, Tank50us said:

GR for example did an operation where the only way for a player to respawn, was if a helicopter 'picked up' the pilot, and returned him to base

I wrote a similar mission: player blocked until rescued after being shot down. Feedback from my test players was that they love the idea in theory, but hate it in practice: "I hate to sit around for 40 minutes for AI or another player to get around to rescue me. I don't log on to DCS to wait". Fact is that DCS is very realistic, and a realistic rescue operation takes at least that long - provided the CSAR succeeds. Even if we cut that down to 20 minutes (8 minutes each for in-/egress (i.e maximum range to downed pilot from helo FARP is 15 miles), 4 minutes of hover-rescue), that's a lot of idle time for someone who has only a couple of hours per week to give to flying (between other life demands like work, children, and partner). Yes, great idea, but poor experience for the player who is rescued (great experience for the CSAR pilot. Ho-hum for the gunners) 

[SharpeXB]

It’s not realistic for a downed pilot to jump back into a jet immediately after being fished out. They’d likely be injured by the ejection process it would be a long time before they were cleared to fly again if ever. So trying to simulate this in MP is really questionable (and boring for the pilot player)

In an SP career or dynamic campaign such a timeline could be simulated but not in real time MP

[Northstar98]

Didn't you wish for the exact same thing here? It was even tagged as requested...

And like I said in that thread, this is a long requested idea, and one I support:

Even if I don't end up rescuing downed player pilots, having life rafts would still be very useful for (C)SAR missions (provided we get a helicopter with a rescue hoist, well, the Mi-8MTV-2 has one, but is wholly non-functional eye-candy).

[mkellytx]

On 1/10/2022 at 7:29 AM, SharpeXB said:

It’s not realistic for a downed pilot to jump back into a jet immediately after being fished out. They’d likely be injured by the ejection process it would be a long time before they were cleared to fly again if ever. So trying to simulate this in MP is really questionable (and boring for the pilot player)

In an SP career or dynamic campaign such a timeline could be simulated but not in real time MP

All depends on the conditions when the handles are pulled.   Fifteen years ago I completed water survival, water landings aren't nearly as bad as the ones on a hard surface, but still, "Feet and knees together eyes on the horizon..."  It's actually kind of fun, except for manually inflation of the single man raft.

IRL all ejection seat kits had a one man raft, and when we flew over water inflatable life vests were worn. Now, if you put that on wrong you could break a rib...

[SharpeXB]

1 minute ago, mkellytx said:

All depends on the conditions when the handles are pulled.   Fifteen years ago I completed water survival, water landings aren't nearly as bad as the ones on a hard surface, but still, "Feet and knees together eyes on the horizon..."  It's actually kind of fun, except for manually inflation of the single man raft.

IRL all ejection seat kits had a one man raft, and when we flew over water inflatable life vests were worn. Now, if you put that on wrong you could break a rib...

Well as a gameplay mechanic it wouldn’t matter. I think a human player wouldn’t be too eager to spend an hour waiting to spawn in again in MP. Doing this in a dynamic campaign would be better.