life of george🙄... Ideas and suggestions.

[Watari]

Hi fellow apache pilots, cheers ED

So we all know george is sometimes not firing. 

For me is george the biggest issue with the Apache. I also hope ED rethink the idea with the slave option. I hope on something like a free fire or fire at will/ target of opportiunity option. Something like in the F14.

George is not a bad gunner but often he wont accept to engage targets at the slaved area. Its very frustrating to fumbling with george and fly or hold the heli stable.

IT would bei much better if he search on His own for targets and wait for your fire clearance.

Also the menuwheel is not very practical cause you need already looots of buttons.

I hope on upcoming updates ...

[speed-of-heat]

I agree, but i wonder, if we are looking at it the wrong way round and we are meant to be in the CPG seat for firing and leaving george to hover the bird, rather than being the command pilot ... and trying to get the gunner to work?

[admiki]

1 hour ago, speed-of-heat said:

I agree, but i wonder, if we are looking at it the wrong way round and we are meant to be in the CPG seat for firing and leaving george to hover the bird, rather than being the command pilot ... and trying to get the gunner to work?

George is even worse pilot than he is as CPG. If hovering, I find it easier to have control in front seat, get into hover, activate hold mode and then blast off. Also makes it a lot easier to scoot if someone starts shooting at me. Forward flight (which makes more sense) provides more challenges to "do-it-all-yourself".

[Raptor9]

@Watari George is still very much WIP (I know its been said a lot, but it is true), as both a Pilot and a CPG. We are always looking for ways to improve the interaction, and a general search mode has already been requested: 

As the aircraft evolves in Early Access it is necessary to ensure George's abilities evolve with it. Sometimes these changes cause unforeseen effects in his behavior. Typically these are found in testing, but a few slip through. We have a number of bug reports regarding George's flying habits and his weapon usage that are being addressed.

As for the AI interface, it shouldn't impact the number of keybinds since those keybinds are only active when the interface is displayed. As an example, I have a 4-way POV hat set as both my Sight Select switch and my George AI interface 4-way commands in both cockpit.

[Poptart]

Slaving George is the way it should be. He is already unnaturally good at finding all kinds of targets. And from what I've seen, the pilot in the real aircraft is giving the CPG areas to search. The only thing that should be able to automatically detect and classify targets is the radar.

[martinistripes]

23 minutes ago, Poptart said:

He is already unnaturally good at finding all kinds of targets.

He doesn't search himself for targets yet (which I'm sure a real CPG would be doing). So in that sense, he's difficult. But like you said, when you tell him where to search he comes up with a long list of targets and seems to know exactly what they all are in a couple of seconds. In this sense, he's overpowered. I hope that we'll end up with something very realistic. Not dumb, not OP.

[Raptor9]

6 minutes ago, martinistripes said:

when you tell him where to search he comes up with a long list of targets and seems to know exactly what they all are in a couple of seconds. In this sense, he's overpowered. 

It depends on what the mission maker has set in the mission file. When AI Gunner skill is set to Realistic, I typically will get a list that is full of just a bunch of yellow "GROUND" "GROUND" "GROUND" "GROUND" "GROUND" when hovering at like 5 or 7 km. And then as I scroll to the next target and command him to zoom in, it will change to a red "ZSU-23", and then scroll to the next target and let him slew the TADS there, it will change to a red "T-72", etc.

[martinistripes]

You're right, I forgot about the AI Gunner skill option. I'm probably talking more from my experience in the training missions.

[SharpeXB]

A “fire at will” command would be great when using the gun. As it is, it appears you have to identify one target at a time for him. So a strafing run doesn’t seem possible to do. 

[Varry007]

Hi,

 

Now that George is able to store targets, it would be nice to have the possibility to call the list of saved targets on George command wheel. So we can tell him to e.g. target "target 3" from the list.

This would add value and usability for the ability for George to store targets

This could also be taken further; If George selected a stored target, as we ordered him, and he confirms the target is destroyed, he could just as well delete the target from the stored targets list. mimicking what a human CPG would do.

 

I know we can set a stored target as ACQ, and then have George look in that direction, but this is a big hassle and very little added value.

 

 

[gdotts]

Having the current George flight mode shown in status bar

[Rufnax]

I don't expect and want George to see and identify everything on the ground but I would appreciate the ability for george that he is reacting at least to targets / enemies that are shooting at me. So for example like jester is doing in the f14 back seat. George should call out, identify and mark targets that are threatening or engaging (shooting) at the apache.

[LorenLuke]

It would be nice if when pressing George action up to generate the target list, if targets were sorted by how close they were angularly from when you pressed the button, allowing you to have the target closest to that line of sight be the top of the list, and widen out from there as the list continues.

[Diablo 1-1]

Would be nice to add a command for George to lase something. There have been time where I select the gun for George, George will lase,  the target will be too far, but George won't re-lase the target to get an updated range. There have been times I've passed over the target and George still says he can't fire because the range on the TADS says 4k.

I have tried changing targets to get a re-lase and he just never does. Only way I got him to re-lase was by switching weapons, targeting something else, then switching back to guns. 

Next time it happens I'll post a track file. It doesn't always happen but it happens enough it's really frustrating.

[Floyd1212]

As a work-around, you can switch George to No Weapon mode and command him to lase a target, then as you get within range, switch him back to Guns and let him engage the target.

[TEDUCK]

I'd like to see some improvements to a George AI.

It would be nice to have ability for a George to fly to a TSD cursor. Also command to evade fire (on a separate binding as this is critical stuff) would be good, especially when being fired upon by ATGMs or guns.

 

Voice recognition would be even better idea to implement. But I guess that would be a far future plan. Having possibility to give a George voice commands like:

"GO BEARING 175", "GO TO T01", "GO TO TSD CURSOR", "ALIGN ON TADS", "GO SPEED 65", "RADAR ALT 350", "BARO ALT 850", "FOLLOW ROUTE", "ENTER HOVER 5000M FROM T02", "SHIFT FORWARD 900M", "BREAK LEFT", "EVADE".

Those are just some examples of commands that could be implemented. That would add ability to communicate with george more like a real person. He could be instructed to go to any kind of point, go any bearing, any speed etc.

 

Regarding AI wingman there could also be some improvements. Apache is different from Ka-50 and has some specific abilities that could be used there.

It would be very nice to add option "FIRE ON MY LASER" that would instruct the AI wingman to fire AGM-114K on player's laser. Also the opposite, instruct AI wingman to search for targets and illuminate them with a laser, so a player could launch AGM-114K on AI wingman's laser, or just locate the target with LST. Then "ATTACK TARGET WITH" option could be added, to tell AI to attack the target with a specific weapon (gun, rockets or a Hellfire).

Later when datalink and FCR will be added there could be more options added, like firing AGM-114 on a designated datalinked target, instructing AI wingman to go to some place and search for target with FCR (much like recce option in Ka-50 for AI wingman).

Edited September 28, 2023 by TEDUCK

[Gunslinger52]

Hi there,  have you tried telling the AI wingman to Attack My Target in the comms menu?

[TEDUCK]

Yes, but it will just attack the target with anything he has. There is no option to force him to attack the target with a certain weapon. Also IIRC he won't fire hellfires on my laser and use he's own laser instead.

[Diablo 1-1]

On 9/28/2023 at 10:33 AM, Floyd1212 said:

As a work-around, you can switch George to No Weapon mode and command him to lase a target, then as you get within range, switch him back to Guns and let him engage the target.

I'd rather not have a work around. I'd rather have a command to tell him to update his range.

[martinistripes]

1 hour ago, Diablo 1-1 said:

I'd rather not have a work around. I'd rather have a command to tell him to update his range.

I'd rather not have a command, as you're then forced to micro manage things that George should be doing automatically. Sure, things like this will get fixed eventually. When the modules complete, we shouldn't be telling George to do anything that a real CPG would know to do for himself.

[Diablo 1-1]

12 hours ago, martinistripes said:

I'd rather not have a command, as you're then forced to micro manage things that George should be doing automatically. Sure, things like this will get fixed eventually. When the modules complete, we shouldn't be telling George to do anything that a real CPG would know to do for himself.

So in the mean time you would rather it just not work on some occasions? They could add it and you just not use it.

[DD_Crash]

Any chance of George for multiplayer?

[Antix70]

7 hours ago, DD_Crash said:

Any chance of George for multiplayer?

?? George works in Multiplayer just fine.

[DD_Crash]

I saw on the Grim Reapers that it was single player. Good news

[TEDUCK]

Another important option would be aligning on rocket run.
With rockets WASed George could be aligning the helicopter on I beam, allowing for player as a CPG to shoot rockets.

Now if a player wants to shoot rockets, he needs to switch to the pilot seat (or take over the helicopter using HOCAS), because George as a pilot is not very useful.

Edited November 6, 2023 by TEDUCK