George Options: Filter by range, threat or target type

[Hentai Paisen]

I would love if George would prioritize trucks over infantry or to provide us with an option oh what he lists first. I don't really want to scroll through 20+ infantry to find the one truck I want him to hit unless there's someway for him to separate out manpads. Also wondering what the ETA is on removing the extra fuel tank to give us 1200 rounds of ammo. 

[tromac2010]

Further to the OP I think the ability to give George priority targets would be great. Playing on the Rotorheads server I constantly get smashed by Mi-28's even when I know they are there and I'm actively looking for them. I can't get George to find them in the massive list of potential targets and even if I do it's usually at the bottom. So a way to command him similar to how we can assign priority targets to wingmen would be good, could be either keyboard command or via the radio menu system

[450Devil]

Having looked through all the current suggestions in this Wish List thread I note that a couple almost touch on this matter but do not go as far as I would wish.

It would be helpful (and I suspect closer to real life) for an Apace pilot and Gunner to consider what are the likely targets and threats they will encounter on a sortie. Doing so they would probably agree a priority list that should be targeted as the sortie progresses. 

This could be simulated in SP by the pilot setting George some targeting parameters such as Threat or Target Type and Distance out from the aircraft. For example, priority targeting parameters could be Priority 1 SAM Priority 2 AAA Priority 3 Enemy MBT within 10 Kilometers (or perhaps from 5 to 10 Kilometers from the aircraft's current position). George could then take these parameters into account when directed by the Pilot to Slave the Sight.

The great thing about George is that it allows a player to fight the Apache without a human CPG. The limitation with George is that the AI is currently very limited in its ability to substitute for a human player in the front seat. 

While I have no idea how a priority list could be programmed into the game; perhaps the front end implementation / setting could be through the kneeboard in a similar way that chaff / flare settings are managed for some of the other modules.

Anyhow, Ed please keep up the good work.

[NEECH]

I was flying towards a small base, less thank 4 km, and slaving George towards it. George, since he prioritizes threat-type over range, was focusing on a larger base well over 10 km away which happened to be in the same direction I was flying (toward this smaller base). Of course, this larger base had many more dangerous threats compared to the T-80s, BMPs and infantry I was trying to hit. Those closer targets were mixed in toward the bottom of his long list.

Scrolling through the targets, watching the TADS cursor finally focus on the nearer threats, was painful and dangerous as I was wasting closure time.

If there was a quick way to limit the range at which George can scan, e.g., 5 km max, 10 km max, unlimited, why maintaining threat prioritization it would prevent this from happening.

[Ian Boys UK]

It would be great if George had two options - showing highest risk targets (as at present) or closest. In some servers with 20 items in the list, this would be a huge bonus! At present you have to stay exposed too long and watch the cross jump around before you realise there's a T90 at 4km who just killed you while you were looking at the Osa miles off.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Ian Boys UK

[dedlike.]

i agree, it would be nice if we had a switch in the special options to sort by range or threat, especaly since we dont have the Laser warning yet wich would alert me of tanks trying to take shots at me while im looking trough the list

[Scaley]

To be fair there are a lot of customisation options that would make george as CPG a lot more useful:

• Sort order (range / threat / axis)
• Filter (Air defence only / armour only / all)
• Auto scanning and reporting of targets (within realistic limits not the all-seeing-eye george we have now)
• Auto return fire / auto engagement (again within limits, likely only with gun - basically the door gunner logic)

I suspect one of the issues ED will have is they set some pretty tight internal limits on how the interface was allowed to work, so some of this might get a bit complex given the current way it functions.

[NEECH]

I asked for something similar last week. It would be a welcome option for sure.

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/306874-george-ai-needs-a-search-range-limiter-option/?do=getNewComment

[NeedzWD40]

At the risk of adding more keybinds for the AI, at a minimum I'd like to see two more bindings: filter and range. These would be always on with the interface so they could be adjusted without needing to have the target menu up. I would also like to see the consent to fire button modified so that if we hit it while the target menu is up, it will skip over the "designation" requirement and in essence tell George to target and launch at the currently highlighted target in the list as soon as targeting conditions are met. Further, a mechanic similar to Petrovich in the Mi-24 would be nice: consent to fire bound with the HMD, cuing George to look at your viewpoint, find the first and most threatening target (if there) and acquire it.

Proposed changes: in addition to the target list, which is very hard to figure contextually, I'd like to see a little "radar" display that could be used to give rough ideas of heading, what else is out there, what was previously known, and so on. This display would replace the target text list.

Theory of operation: By default, George searches a ~45 degree azimuth from where the search was requested; as he sees things, the display is populated with an icon of the approximate type. As it works currently, adjusting his FOV will narrow down the search azimuth. Target keys up/down work as currently, with the exception that now the icon is highlighted, boxed, and "elevated" above any nearby icons/contacts. Using the filter key will cycle through a generic list of types and will not disallow selecting a target outside of the filter, it will simply bring the filtered types to the top of the list. Pressing the filter key again will reset the list, ie if AAA is the current filter and the next would be TANK, then the next target will be the closest first tank George knows about. As requested previously, pressing the consent to fire button would result in George acknowledging and attempting to slave sensors to the target, lase, and fire.

Solid target icons would represent targets not moving and holes in the center would indicate moving. Red would be confirmed hostile, green/blue confirmed friendly, yellow unknown, and an opacity reduction would mean no current line of sight to the target. Gray icons would indicate targets that are outside of vision and would be a generic reference in a "I saw a tank there before we turned" or similar. George would prioritize the visible targets first, but he could be told to target obscured targets based on their last known position (I would like to see him eventually guess where the target might be, but that's a different discussion).

In this scheme, the filtering and range bindings don't become mandatory bindings and can be relegated to more administrative keybinds, as not much changes from the existing schematic.

Further changes: I would also like to see functionality similar to Jester from the F-14, particularly in control of laser designation. Right now, if you use up all your HELLFIRE and rockets, George will not constantly lase, preventing you from serving as a designation platform for other units. Either a separate dedicated "laser" option in the weapon interface would be nice, or simply always allow all weapon options to be cycled regardless of ammunition or quantity so we can get designation back. Further, the ability to tell George to look at an area and lase it would be extremely useful, especially when needing to acquire things such as map objects.

In addition, leveraging George with target points would be an incredibly useful growth function: in the filter list, an option for a TG point set up by the pilot could be used to direct George to search the radius and filter fields based upon that target point rather than from the helicopter's position. This could potentially be expanded with PFZs when/if we get them.

[Strikeman]

I have recently found that troublesome also. When you discover a near threat george still does his wide field of view search. If the target is on the nose at 2k I should be able to direct him to that location and just have him search in a close proximity. Not showing me the SA-8 km down the road.