Allow us to specify an altitude for the "Fire at Point" task

[Speed]

I would like the option to specify an altitude for the fire at point task you can give ground units. Most of the time, IRL, it seems AAA guns like Zu-23s are just wildly and randomly firing into the air. However, unrealistically, in DCS, AAA only fires directly at aircraft.

 

The fix is to simply allow mission creators to assign a fire at point task that specifies an altitude as well. This should be an easy change for the the ED developers to make. Somewhere within the AI logic for fire at point it does a land height check. Change the fire at point task so that instead of firing at the altitude of the land height, it fires at the specified custom altitude if that input variable is defined.

 

Furthermore, with this ability, we can actually write lua scripts that completely redefine how AAA targets aircraft.

Edited June 15, 2011 by Speed

[Frostiken]

I actually assumed AAA was firing 'randomly into the air' because they're being subject to deception jamming.

[Speed]

I actually assumed AAA was firing 'randomly into the air' because they're being subject to deception jamming.

 

No, Zu-23s do it all the time (see Iraq, and now Libya), and Zu-23s have no radar, just an optical sight. They see their leader's palace get leveled, or a major bridge get blown up, but it's nighttime and they have no radar. They gotta do something, right? So they just fire randomly into the air. It's not jamming, for example, in the opening night of the Gulf war, the only aircraft that were over Baghdad were the F-117s and cruise missiles. No EA-6B or EF-111. The Iraqi gunners just randomly threw everything and the kitchen sink randomly into the air for the hope of the golden BB. There were cases, I donno about the first night, but later for sure, where the Iraqis were actually firing SA-2s ballistically without guidance. It scares the hell out of the fighter pilots who see it coming. Now that could have been at least partially due to the presence of jamming aircraft.

Edited June 16, 2011 by Speed

[159th_Viper]

....They gotta do something, right? So they just fire randomly into the air....

 

I think it's time for the ZU-23M:

 

# Electromechanical elevating and traversing drives;

 

# Laying panel;

 

# Binocular collimator sight with an integrated miniature viewer and illuminating reticles for operation against air and ground targets;

 

# Optronic system comprising a laser range finder, television channel, optical-mechanical unit. For operation at night, the ZU-23 can also be outfitted with a thermal direction finder channel or low-level TV system;

 

# Automatic lockon and tracking device (automatic tracking unit);

 

# Digital computer;

 

# Slip ring;

 

# Control and indication panel;

 

# External target designation reception and processing equipment.

 

 

Oh yeah - did I forget to mention the 2 Iglas that can be launched from the system :D

Edited June 16, 2011 by 159th_Viper

[Speed]

I think it's time for the ZU-23M:

 

# Electromechanical elevating and traversing drives;

 

# Laying panel;

 

# Binocular collimator sight with an integrated miniature viewer and illuminating reticles for operation against air and ground targets;

 

# Optronic system comprising a laser range finder, television channel, optical-mechanical unit. For operation at night, the ZU-23 can also be outfitted with a thermal direction finder channel or low-level TV system;

 

# Automatic lockon and tracking device (automatic tracking unit);

 

# Digital computer;

 

# Slip ring;

 

# Control and indication panel;

 

# External target designation reception and processing equipment.

 

 

Oh yeah - did I forget to mention the 2 Iglas that can be launched from the system :D

 

Nice system. If that thing's around, it will really force the CAS aircraft to fly high! Is it in active service anywhere, or is it just a nice toy a Russian defense contractor put together?

[159th_Viper]

Is it in active service anywhere, or is it just a nice toy a Russian defense contractor put together?

 

A cursory glance at info seems to indicate that it was a planned upgrade as far back as 1998 for the Russian Ground Forces.

[VFA41_Lion]

Key word being "planned." ;)

[GGTharos]

DECM is not modeled in this series. (Yet, I hope).

 

I actually assumed AAA was firing 'randomly into the air' because they're being subject to deception jamming.

[GGTharos]

I don't think it was random - at the very least, I believe they had specific laydown patterns. It might have been blind, but not random. In this case what you need is not 'fire at point' but rather sector fire with appropriate ROE's or something.

 

No, Zu-23s do it all the time (see Iraq, and now Libya), and Zu-23s have no radar, just an optical sight. They see their leader's palace get leveled, or a major bridge get blown up, but it's nighttime and they have no radar. They gotta do something, right? So they just fire randomly into the air. It's not jamming, for example, in the opening night of the Gulf war, the only aircraft that were over Baghdad were the F-117s and cruise missiles. No EA-6B or EF-111. The Iraqi gunners just randomly threw everything and the kitchen sink randomly into the air for the hope of the golden BB. There were cases, I donno about the first night, but later for sure, where the Iraqis were actually firing SA-2s ballistically without guidance. It scares the hell out of the fighter pilots who see it coming. Now that could have been at least partially

due to the presence of jamming aircraft.

[Speed]

I don't think it was random - at the very least, I believe they had specific laydown patterns. It might have been blind, but not random. In this case what you need is not 'fire at point' but rather sector fire with appropriate ROE's or something.

 

Interesting. I always figured it was random because that's what was claimed and it sure looked like it, but it wouldn't be surprising to learn that it was planned blind fire, lol.

 

While an addition to the mission editor such as you suggest would be nice, if I had to pick between the two and not both, I'd rather just have a modified fire at point task type that includes altitude as an input parameter that is actually used (you can always pass a fire at point a y coordinate, but none of the experimenting I have tried suggests it's used for anything), because then I can just make whatever the hell I want through Lua, then release it as pre-packaged script intended for wider community use. You want sector fire? Can do. You want AAA that shoots in the general direction of aircraft it "hears"? You got it. You want completely random panic fire? You got it. You see, it's better to have Lua logic for something like this than inflexible and over-complicated triggers and trigger logic.