later in early access Adding different Points, Lines, or Zones to TSD from Mission Editor

[Shrike88]

Greetings.  

Nice feature to have in game however is it possible to add or guess coming features / wishlist item to have the ability to add the PFZ / Terrain points and other points for the TSD to avoid having to manually enter all this in game.  Would save a lot of time in game for data entry.

ME is really the only mission planning software we have available.

if there is a workaround or another option let me know

thanks

Shrike

[flanker0ne]

I feel yor pain..
All this stuff is holded back by the lack (atm) of the DTC, to load all the data at the startup

Edited October 25, 2023 by flanker0ne

[TheGhostOfDefi]

Is it possible to place special Waypoint-Types like Start-Point or LZ in the Editor? Same goes for CM types? Probably belongs to wishlist Area, doesnt it?

[NeedzWD40]

I don't recall if it's a specific wishlist item, but a similar tab as other aircraft have (Ka-50, A-10C, F-15E) for control measures/points/targets is something I've inquired about before. We'd need a function to disable or modify the automatic target/control measure mechanic currently in place as that eats up the entire table(s).

[Captain Orso]

Currently all the relative objects placed by the ME are populated into the COORD database automatically, up to the maximum number per type of point.

I've never looked into how this is organized, but I suspect something as simple as numerically per the unit id.

On big maps on MP server, this leads to your Apache being loaded down with point, hundreds of miles away, you will never see or even come close to, while units fairly close by on the ground are not inserted into your COORDS DB.

It would be awesome if when you spawned into an Apache it simply tabulated all the points and calculated the distance from your aircraft to the point--should be a trivial calculation per point--and then sort the table of objects by closest to furthest, and only then populate the COORDS DB. This would insure that only the most useful points were in the DB.

[FalcoGer]

It should be based on distance to the planned flight route and engagement ranges of those units. It should also automatically filer out units that have a route of their own, or those who have moved since mission start. Vehicles that are moving don't need to be populated on the map, nor is it realistic. And then units should be grouped, where clusters of units should be picked such that any unit within a certain radius, say 3000m, doesn't get mentioned again, and the CM type should be derived from some kind of priority list or unit type count to determine whether it's mech, infantry, artillery, armor or air defense or something more specialized. The center unit should be chosen such that overall it minimizes the number of those clusters and if multiple such units exist, then make it the most average position within that cluster.

What I'm saying is, basically use the feature where units are grouped based on zoom level on the web gci interface for hoggit. Heck you could even set a target cap for control measures and adjust the "zoom" of that algorithm (the range in which to group units) to meet that target, say 35 CMs. So when there are few units you still get a decent resolution, but when there are a lot of units, you also still get relevant and useful info while keeping some slots open in the point database for your own stuff.

You can also mix and match those approaches, such that you get higher resolution near your planned route and further out the radius in which units are clustered increases.

All of that needs to be balanced against the effort to create and maintain such a system. But the lazy approach of "jam every unit into the CM database until it's full and put them in a seemingly arbitrary order" is not helpful at all, unless there are less than 50 units.

Example of an algorithm that is clustering units, instead of circles, they should be single control measures:

Zooming in has split the 24 into a 9 +15, this could be an approach to make sure that the number of CMs doesn't exceed some value < 50, to allow some slots for user defined CMs.

[Captain Orso]

You are forgetting that in MP there are no preordained routes; only the route you create yourself.

The simplest solution would be to add all the units on the map in order of distance from your starting point. 

Another more sophisticated solution would be to allow for the player to create his RTE and then, per button-press, have the database be populated be distance from any point on the RTE.

In fact, so that the player can have a educated idea of how to plot his route, allow the player to press the populate button first, using only he present location for distances, and then build his route with the information on hand. The as above again using the route added by the player, and distances from route waypoints.

This might cause new CMs to be discovered, so allow the player to repeat the process until he is satisfied with the results. It can't get better than that, other than possibly adding filters to ignore certain unit types, if the map is so highly populated, so that important units (SAM, AAA, etc) are less likely to be left out, while some supply truck might be.

Ofc this will take work to implement, so I won't expect the issue to even be publicly acknowledged for at least "two more weeks" 

[FalcoGer]

2 minutes ago, Captain Orso said:

You are forgetting that in MP there are no preordained routes; only the route you create yourself.

Your starting point should be considered as well. And if it's the only point in the route then what you describe would automatically occur.

Of course the most optimal solution would be to allow players to put down the routes and points themselves, sort of like a mini mission editor just after or integrated into the briefing screen. And while there, might as well add the radio, iff settings and everything else that goes into the DTC.

Edited December 26, 2023 by FalcoGer

[bradmick]

This would be a great F10 map feature…

[Captain Orso]

4 hours ago, FalcoGer said:

Your starting point should be considered as well. And if it's the only point in the route then what you describe would automatically occur.

Of course the most optimal solution would be to allow players to put down the routes and points themselves, sort of like a mini mission editor just after or integrated into the briefing screen. And while there, might as well add the radio, iff settings and everything else that goes into the DTC.

 

It has to be something you can do at any time during the mission. I do not even know where I will spawn until after I've looked at the F10 map so see what area I will be operating in and what FARP is nearby.

Yesterday I did that, I cleared the first two target areas--the second being an airfield, which I captured.

I refueled and rearmed at the airfield and headed off to the next airfield to capture, taking a route completely different from the first.

So, as I stated in my previous post, the best solution would be to be able to recalculate the database at any chosen time.

[QuiGon]

It would be great if we could add lines from the mission editor map to the TSD (through the data cartridge). I have a lot of use for lines, like phase lines or (unit) boundary lines. Afaik the real apache has the ability to load such pre-planned lines from the data cartridge and display them on the TSD. Would be really cool to have that in DCS as well.

[bradmick]

Another great F10 map feature too…

[FalcoGer]

What do you mean by terrain points? Terrain points refers to the points T55 and T56 when the PLT/CPG put down a cursor acquisition onto the map without selecting any points.

What would be nice is placing down areas, lines, fire zones (NFZs and PFZs, including assignments), as well as all type of points, that is CMs, TGs and HZ and all the different type of WPs as well, not just the default waypoints.