Atillery wishlist

[upyr1]

Any order.

More ammo types- there should be options for smoke, guided shells, VT shells and regular HE shells.

Fire missions and Forward observers- instead of making "fire at point" the only option, when an artillery piece has ammo but no assigned target it should fire at targets within visual range of air and ground-based FOs. Also the presence of a forward observer should improve the accuracy of pre-planned barages. So when there is a "fire at point" waypoint and FO the FO will call fire on targets in the zone.  I guess he would be a place to roll out some of the dynamic campaign AI. I'd also give JTACs the same treatment.  

 

more artillery types - static SP guns name it, these bad boys for example, would be period for the German map they were retired in 1994

edited to add the fire at point bit

@Silver_Dragon please add your ideas 

Edited Monday at 12:50 PM by upyr1

[Kang]

Definitely in favour. Not only would this be a major enhancement of the Combined Arms experience, it would also make light observer vehicles much more viable within DCS. Think OH-58, or L-39, for example.

A modest rework of JTAC is long overdue anyways, in particular about the way it would be very welcome indeed to have them pick their own targets without the need for scripting in the mission, and adding the functionality for them to communicate with artillery should really be part of that.

In a second step it would of course also be nice to be able to direct artillery via radio, especially for aforementioned light aircraft. Perhaps a kneeboard-based map reference grid could be implemented. But that is both far away and mayhaps not what this thread is really about.

[upyr1]

3 minutes ago, Kang said:

Definitely in favour. Not only would this be a major enhancement of the Combined Arms experience, it would also make light observer vehicles much more viable within DCS. Think OH-58, or L-39, for example.

I'd want improvements to the visual recon mode to make it easier to act as a AFAC/FO

3 minutes ago, Kang said:

A modest rework of JTAC is long overdue anyways, in particular about the way it would be very welcome indeed to have them pick their own targets without the need for scripting in the mission, and adding the functionality for them to communicate with artillery should really be part of that.

In a second step it would of course also be nice to be able to direct artillery via radio, especially for aforementioned light aircraft. Perhaps a kneeboard-based map reference grid could be implemented. But that is both far away and mayhaps not what this thread is really about.

My question is if any military branch combines the FO and FAC roles doctrinally. From an AI/software design  I could see arguments for a combined FO / FAC but I could also see some idiocy behind it as well

[Kang]

8 hours ago, upyr1 said:

I'd want improvements to the visual recon mode to make it easier to act as a AFAC/FO

My question is if any military branch combines the FO and FAC roles doctrinally. From an AI/software design  I could see arguments for a combined FO / FAC but I could also see some idiocy behind it as well

My thinking exactly, regarding the recon mode.

As far as the line between the two scenarios goes, I think you are looking at it a bit too much through the prism of real life procedure. Within DCS they'd have pretty much the same effect, I believe. The main reason the are usually distinct is that to effective direct the fire one needs knowledge and experience on either how to aim artillery guns properly or how things look from a CAS run. Since in DCS they only have to relay position and - if we are ambitious - an attack direction, that should be a bit simpler.

[upyr1]

59 minutes ago, Kang said:

My thinking exactly, regarding the recon mode.

As far as the line between the two scenarios goes, I think you are looking at it a bit too much through the prism of real life procedure. Within DCS they'd have pretty much the same effect, I believe. The main reason the are usually distinct is that to effective direct the fire one needs knowledge and experience on either how to aim artillery guns properly or how things look from a CAS run. Since in DCS they only have to relay position and - if we are ambitious - an attack direction, that should be a bit simpler.

The issue I'm thinking is a multiplayer server you would only want the FAC/FO to designate 1 unit at a time. So the differnce might be scripting and targeting prioity. Frankly I don't care wich path they use as long it works for both single and multi player games. 

Edited Monday at 09:59 PM by upyr1