Takeoff from ground option for AI

[rob10]

The "takeoff from ground" and "takeoff from ground hot" options are great for player, but would it be possible to get that for AI aircraft?  I realize it might be more difficult for AI due to pathing to runway etc, but it would solve some of the lacking oversized aircraft parking spots and open up other possibilities.

[Exorcet]

ED has specifically stated that the "from ground" options were not added to AI due to pathing issues. Though I agree that the utility to add this feature to the AI would be great.

Besides pathing I assume another issue is that DCS doesn't check for overlap on parking since parking spaces are predefined. If AI could go anywhere there would need to be checks to avoid planes spawning on each other.

[Tippis]

Based on other experiences, that whole ”pathing to the runway” is the key issue. If the plane can't figure out where the runway is — or, hell, what the runway is if we're talking about road bases — or how to get there, its being able to spawn doesn't help. The reason large parking spots are a rare commodity has to do with how the map validates, where a bounding box of a given size must be able to move along that path without colliding with anything (including other bounding boxes) on the way. It's why you can sometimes see heavies land on smaller airports, realise that they can't taxi anywhere because there are no valid routes for it, and just *pop* out of existence.

The idea is good and even much needed, but it would also have to come with a toolset to semi-dynamically add pathing and runway information to the map as well to guide the AI to where it needs to go. Doubly so if you want it to be able to land and park in the same place. It might not even be something that is currently separable from the terrain — i.e. it's baked into the map, and simply can't be added afterwards. In that case, the whole map format would need a rework. Someone who's gone elbow-deep into the map format would have to explain if the whole bounding box check is done once, of if it's something that actually happens “live”. In the former case, it would obviously be on the mission designer if a plane clipped the environment and exploded; if it's the latter, then some placement might not even be possible for reasons that are opaque to the designer.

Definitely a +1 for the idea, but it could be shockingly complex to make it work right even on existing airfields.

[Tank50us]

I mean, if ED can set it up where the airfields have a more realistic 'zones' for the AI to figure out where it is, that would go a long way. Alternatively, they could allow us to do it using the trigger zones and using the script to designate what they are so the AI can navigate them. There's certainly a few of options ED could undertake.

[upyr1]

I'd love to see this added. It's not unheard of for aircraft to operate from roads or open fields (WWII, VOTL)