Multiplayer - Datalink to A.I.

[maskim]

I must say first, i love this sim, you guys did an excellent job. Also i'v never seen such good support, keep up the good work. :thumbup:

 

I tried multiplayer with a couple of friends, we all had a lot of fun, but we couldn't figure out how to send datalink targets to an A.I. wingman.

I slightly modified the "Near Gundelen - coop 2" mission, so we had 6 client helicopters, each with it's own wingman, a total of 12 choppers.

 

We could use datalink to send stuff to each other, but when i tried to send a target to my A.I. wingman and then make him engage the target via radio, he either replied with "negative" or "unable".

I'm guessing he never even received the target in the first place, since the four IDs were set to human players.

 

So the question is, how can i make the A.I. tune in to a different radio frequency, or select an id for him?

[Frederf]

I assume this was 3 flights of 2? Human+AI, Human+AI, Human+AI?

 

You certainly have to have separate radio frequencies to have 3 separate rounds of datalink groups going. This is not something I fear the AI is smart enough to do.

 

However the AI will always pick the self-id that matches their position in the formation so #2 will pick 2, #3 with pick 3.

 

You might get partial success getting around the issue with a 4-ship flight and a 2-ship flight. I don't know if #3 can give orders to #4. You can certainly have more than one ship sending out contacts through the datalink.

 

I also don't know what happens when datalinks conflict on a single frequency (maybe you'd have to take turns using AI?) You might also try keeping terrain between flights so they are isolated on the radio despite being on the same frequency.

 

You know this all goes back to the fact we need a proper pre-flight environment where we can diddle with all of this.

[maskim]

I assume this was 3 flights of 2? Human+AI, Human+AI, Human+AI?

Almost, we had 6 flights of 2.

However the AI will always pick the self-id that matches their position in the formation so #2 will pick 2, #3 with pick 3.

But in this case, the AI was always in the 2nd position in every group, since the human players were the flight leads. So i guess that means every AI had their id set to 2. Which was already taken by the 2nd human player.

You might get partial success getting around the issue with a 4-ship flight and a 2-ship flight. I don't know if #3 can give orders to #4.

The idea was to have the four human players be able to share targets and pass them on to their AI wingman as well. Since human players can't form a flight group (or i just missed it in the editor), having a 4 ship flight would mean a human lead and 3 AI wingman. If there is a second player in the game, even without a wingman, that would be more than 4 IDs.

You can certainly have more than one ship sending out contacts through the datalink.

Sure, whenever we sent out any wingman to recon, we could receive their targets without any problem. I thought they just selected "all" before pressing "memory/send". So i tried to do the same, but only the human players could receive what i sent.

You might also try keeping terrain between flights so they are isolated on the radio despite being on the same frequency.

Or maybe set a different frequency for human players, and when we want to send targets to the AI, just change it back to the original? This should work, but still, there will be wingmans with the same ID, because every one of them is in the same position in the flight. I'm gonna try this, maybe by selecting one ID, all of the wingmen will receive the data.

[Frederf]

Ok you had 6 flights of 2.

 

Flight 1

#1 Human

#2 AI

 

Flight 2

#1 Human

#2 AI

 

...

 

Flight 6

#1 Human

#2 AI

 

No human player should self ID as #2. It does not make sense to do this. Six flights traditionally means six independent datalink rounds. ID#2 is not "taken" unless you are on the same frequency which you shouldn't be. If you want inter-flight data exchange then you should have pre-planned points where you and another flight lead switch to an alternate frequency, select non-conflicting self IDs (say receiver goes self ID 3), and exchange.

 

I am suggesting that instead of 6x2 flights you can have 3x4 flights.

 

Flight 1 - Frequency 128.500

#1-1 Human SID-1

#1-2 AI SID-2

#1-3 Human SID-3

#1-4 AI SID-4

 

Flight 3 Frequency 129.500

#2-1 Human SID-1

#2-2 AI SID-2

#2-3 Human SID-3

#2-4 AI SID-4

 

Flight 3 Frequency 130.500

#3-1 Human SID-1

#3-2 AI SID-2

#3-3 Human SID-3

#3-4 AI SID-4

 

When exchanging data between the 3 flight leads:

 

Package Frequency 126.500

#1-1 Human SID-1

#2-1 Human SID-2

#3-1 Human SID-3

 

This is far less confusing and does the same thing. You can have any combination AI and humans in a flight. "Selecting All" does not send to everyone just everyone in the datalink round. AI can receive datalink information.

 

You could try having a "flight lead data" frequency that all flight leads tune when they want to share data inter-flight (as opposed to intra-flight) and then return to the normal flight frequencies when they are done. It does not matter what the AI self-IDs are as they are on a different frequency.

 

I honestly do not know if AI will follow you in frequency or how they handle the radio at all. There is no control over their behavior in this respect. Also I don't know what happens when you "overcrowd" a datalink round with more than 4 members. The datalink was never made to handle more than 4 aircraft so you will have to do a lot of slow, tedious reconfiguring and working with the system to get any use out of a 12-ship package.

Edited February 2, 2009 by Frederf