A detected in zone trigger.

[FlankerKiller]

I’m constantly running into situations when I build a mission where I want the detection of something be a trigger. I know the Ai has a decent detection logic. Not perfect l, but what is perfect? It definitely detects and responds to that detection. It would be nice to be able to use that for say alert fighters, activating SAM networks, and a whole host of other things I’m not thinking of at the moment. 

[Exorcet]

100% necessary.

Ideally we should also have easy ways of accessing what a specific unit or group has detected. Options for sorting by detected type (plane, missile, etc) would also be nice.

[Northstar98]

+999999999

There should be a trigger that returns true if a unit detects another unit type (and preferably not just restricted to a specific group or a specific unit) and whether it detects it in a zone (preferably a trigger zone, especially if we can get polygon trigger zones with n number of vertices, as opposed to just circles and quadrilaterals).

I'm probably dreaming a bit too hard here but it would be fantastic if the trigger could return true if either:

• A specific aircraft or group is detected (this, should it be supported in the future, could be tied to IFF for instance)
• Any hostile, neutral or unknown aircraft is detected. Again, assuming we get improvements to sensors, how the AI determines what is hostile, what is friendly etc, could be tied to IFF, NCTR (if available), other sensors etc, though the option should still be there to give the AI the God's eye view they have now when it comes to classifying and identifying targets.
• A missile not identified as friendly is detected, even better if it could determine whether such a missile is on-course for a friendly unit, which could be used to say, turn off a radar when a possible ARM is inbound.

In each case, it would be good if we could also have additional, optional conditions, that check for bearing, heading, speed and range (though range would be redundant in the case of detected in zone).

It's probably getting into the realms of scripting, but it would also be good if the trigger not only returned true/false for the above conditions, but also returned the parameters of the contact that the unit is able to measure.

On 10/7/2023 at 4:20 PM, Exorcet said:

Options for sorting by detected type (plane, missile, etc) would also be nice.

I agree, though while tangentially related to this request, I wish the AI (at least optionally) didn't have the ability to immediately classify and identify everything it detects with perfect accuracy. For instance, when it comes to detecting missiles, short of a rough categorisation by altitude and speed or whether a sensor is detected (such as a radar) they really shouldn't be able to tell what exact missile it is (as is currently the case for the missile in zone trigger).

Edited October 9, 2023 by Northstar98
grammar

[Fisherman82]

+1

It is wierd that there not is a selectable condition in the ME for this since it is possible to accomplish it already with a pretty simple script there.

[FlankerKiller]

3 hours ago, Fisherman82 said:

+1

It is wierd that there not is a selectable condition in the ME for this since it is possible to accomplish it already with a pretty simple script there.

Maybe that’s why it’s not a selectable condition. But I’m not that knowledgeable with scripting so it would be nice if it was selectable from the drop-down menu. 

[Exorcet]

On 10/7/2023 at 12:55 PM, Northstar98 said:

I agree, though while tangentially related to this request, I wish the AI (at least optionally) didn't have the ability to immediately classify and identify everything it detects with perfect accuracy. For instance, when it comes to detecting missiles, short of a rough categorisation by altitude and speed or whether an sensor is detected (such a radar) they really shouldn't be able to tell what exact missile it is (as is currently the case for the missile in zone trigger).

Yes. Even just looking at things practically, having an "any" option for the missile in zone trigger would be helpful at times.

Fallibility is definitely something the AI needs more of though. Without that, even reasonable limitations like FoV, or realistic sensors can break down. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has seen AI turn 180 degrees and instantly fire a missile on a target that a human would need to visually search for, or at least hesitate to shoot on because of the possibility of friendly fire.

[FlankerKiller]

8 hours ago, Exorcet said:

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has seen AI turn 180 degrees and instantly fire a missile on a target that a human would need to visually search for

Yeah, related if we got the detected in zone logic having an ability to set a detection time would be a nice way to deal with it. Say example part of coalition detected in zone <2seconds. Would be extremely useful. 

[upyr1]

Yes this would make ready 5s easier to set up