Request CSAR!

[stormrider]

Im currently reading A-10s Over Kosovo and this came into my mind while playing today. A F/A-18 went down and requested CSAR.

 

1- Is it implemented ingame? I mean, is it possible to create a mission and dedicate a flight to the CSAR role?

 

2- Does anyone AI respond to that call? Can a human player respond to it?

 

 

That would be great and very immersive if we could answer to a CSAR call, finding the downed pilot, covering him and FACing other flights in the different roles involved like SEAD, CAS, CAP and SpecOps SAR.

[nomdeplume]

Not really, no.

 

There is a mission shipped with the game where you play the role of a CSAR, but there's nothing built-in/automatic/dynamic that can take place of its own accord.

[RodBorza]

It would be nice, though.

Being able to check-out with JTAC from the current assignment and check-in with AWACS for a CSAR.

[mtuckner]

Would be great for a scripting expert to come up with something that when a bird was shot down, helos would launch for pickup and a CSAR would be generated to the vicinity to include a few light armored vehicles or something that would try to reach the pilot.

[amalahama]

Would be great for a scripting expert to come up with something that when a bird was shot down, helos would launch for pickup and a CSAR would be generated to the vicinity to include a few light armored vehicles or something that would try to reach the pilot.

 

Exactly, it seems that, even if it's not implemented in the sim core, it could be made using the power of triggers

 

Regards!

[nomdeplume]

It'd be a massive undertaking, even for ED. I don't think the scripting system allows several things that would be needed.

 

• you need to find where (and if) the pilot(s) ejected and where they landed (I think AI pilots disappear after landing, but let's ignore that...)
  
• you'd need to determine if the place they've been downed in is appropriate for a pickup
  
• you'd need to create AI flights to do the pickup, provide air cover and CAS, destroy whatever it was that shot the flight down in the first place, etc. and I don't think you can dynamically spawn anything. You could create these 'on hold' and have them activated but...
  
• you'd still need to dynamically set up a sane flight path to the target area, with a sensible place for the rescue helo to loiter until cleared in, sensible locations for the CAP flights, etc. I'm pretty sure changing waypoint locations is not possible for technical and/or contractual reasons (compare: removal of battlefield commander mode). Also, I don't think the scripting system allows for much in the way of interrogating the terrain, and even if it did, that kind of pathfinding is a very complex task in and of itself - realistically, you'd end up with really stupid operations where the rescue helo loiters over enemy SHORAD formations or tries to fly over 4,000m high mountains
  
• you'd need to somehow detect the pilot (who doesn't actually exist) was 'rescued' (not as if he's going to climb into the chopper himself)
  
• ideally the enemy forces should also react in a sane manner in order to provide some drama. (Who really cares about a CSAR if the enemy doesn't give a hoot about capturing the downed pilot? Let him walk home.)
  

[Laud]

You can at least control where the aircraft (or better helicopter!) will be shot down! I once let a helicopter fly along his WP-Route at about 300ft. Then I let him activate a trigger by flying into a trigger-zone, which lets a Shilka appear right beneath him and BOOM. The position where he will hit the ground would be within an area of, let's say 500ft radius. You can then go on from there: Once the helicopter is destroyed it triggers the Shilka to disspear (as it's not longer needed and not really wanted there). The same trigger creates a group of 2-5 men (Inf) who take the role of the survivors. At the sane time the attacking vehicles are generated (maybe with some trigger-controlled randomization). And so on, and so on...

 

The bad thing is, that it would be static as hell. For dynamic scenarios you would need to be able to request position data of different units by triggers and have it useable for other AI-units. Something like that is unfortunately not implemented as far as I know.

 

Besides that, It would be possible (and not too difficult) to create a static CSAR mission with what we have. What won't be possible would be a "detect and process randomly shot down aircrafts' positions" feature...

Edited April 16, 2011 by Laud

[mtuckner]

Well, sounds like it might not be possible, even a basic version would be cool. Something for the future maybe.

[RodBorza]

Besides that, It would be possible (and not too difficult) to create a static CSAR mission with what we have. What won't be possible would be a "detect and process randomly shot down aircrafts' positions" feature...

 

Thanks JaboG32 and nomdeplume for the info. It seems it is not imposiible, but very difficult to implement all things that must be set in motion for the CSAR dynamically. But, as far as it goes for missions, it gave me a lot of ideas. It's time to inaugurate the Mission Editor....hmmm...:smartass: