Forward Air Controller Needed (and more)

[bigmoose332]

PR seriously needs a link between the pilot and squad on the ground. Perhaps the squad could request an air strike from the command which opens a comm link between that squad and the air crew, or just moves the attack order for the pilot squad so they can see what the ground guys need destroyed.

Pretty much some form of a Foward Air Controller.

Also, I think a UAV within PR would be realistic and make the commander spot much more realistic (and fun).

1. We kind of already have one, its called a commander i.e. on muttrah, i created a 'pilot squad' for the USA. and once or twice we've had it so only the people in this squad fly the choppers. Then squads will ask the commander for pickups/transport/whatever and he will ask us/make a marker.

So maybe the devs wont put in all this extra work, when people could just 'play more tactical'.

2. On the note of making commander more fun, i'd wait till .6. There are a lot of changes to the commander, and you should give it a chance!

Bigmoose

[Red Halibut]

It would be a shame if the UAV was hard Coded.

Here's something that *might* work, but I'm just throwing it out there.

UAV is a rotating camera that moves in a circle around the centre of a map. Anyone "commanding" the UAV, jumps into the UAV trailer, and has their viewpoint set to be the position of the UAV. the UAV operator has a camera with IR view, controllable with the mouse, right-click holds the camera position allowing spotting.

That would be a lot of work, I'm just wondering whether it would have any benefit.

[benjaminosauras]

Maybe the Air-to-Ground planes, like the A-10 can only take off when they an order from the FAC. And remove the A2G weapons from the Su's and F/14/35

[Wipeout]

I like your idea Ben.. But it's kind of lame if you think about it as it takes (10?) minutes for a plane to respond and that's an awfully long time to be punished for an unexperienced pilot who jumped in and crashed it(pretty much referring to a n00b). I believe Planes like the F-16/F-15/MiG-29 should keep their ground ordinance because in all it is not that much and won't make that much of a difference other then in defense of a single area because of the time it takes to land rearm and come back.

[Kruder]

Here are some temporary solutions i can think of:

a)if commander is present tell him so he communicates with pilot

b)if he is in a seperate squad and if it is not locked join his squad tell him what and where you need.

d)type in chat "AIRSTRIKE @ E5,tank(or lots of infantry f.e)",type in capitals so he doesnt miss the message

e)And if airstrike is on its way give the pilot 30-50 seconds(a recon run + actuall airstrike) clear the area of your squad.

f)hope he can fly(especially in 0.6) and is able to hit something other than crashing his plane

g)infact dont count on any player flying an airplane ,most of them couldnt even fly for 4 minutes in 0.5 ,and average flight time of average player is around 2 minutes in 0.6, that is if they can take off.

[Wipeout]

Pilots are responsible for watching the map and watching radio commands. You could have a FAC and all thsi fancy stuff but it's still up to the pilot on what he bombs or does. Secondly, your stupid to overfly a target more then once, in modern air tactics it's highly frowned upon to overfly a target even once. If you overfly a target more then once, especially if you don't got weapons free on the first pass you alert the enemy to your presence in the area and if they have a chance they will have shoulder fired AA kits and have AAA all trained into the air.

That's why atleast when I fly I keep my altitude and patrol the air, or, stay low and use the terrain. Staying low exposes you to small arms and .50 fire, not to mention if AAA is ready your going to go down in a hurry. The only real full time safe space to fly will be high to avoid AAA (ANTI AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY for those who don't know).

Finally to sum it all up it's up to the pilot. It's up to the pilot to pay attention, it's up to the pilot of the A-10 to keep an eye on the ground battle and support infantry, and it's up to the F-16/15 to hold air superiority. Same thing goes for the counterparts of these aircraft, the MiG-29, Su-25.

We can beg the DEV's for a FAC kit or for them to change up VOIP(hardcoded if I remember right..), the thing is, who is actually going to use this..? (I would bet all the money in the world there would be very few to use it, because people would rather be in squad formations fighting the battle up front, in a helicopter transporting, in the air, or in armor controlling the armor battle.) Don't kid yourself.

What we have is good enough it just takes some people to communicate to control the air.

[Kruder]

Secondly, your stupid to overfly a target more then once, in modern air tactics it's highly frowned upon to overfly a target even once.

No,we are playing a game which has a view distance less than 500 meters(daquin oilfields or whatever name is)and flying a jet going 1000 km/h second you have to know whether its an apc/armor/infantry and finally you might not have a clear shot in first run so you approach from a better angle etc. etc.They are slow moving targets they wont be going anywhere
besides nobody thinks aircraft is a real threat in PR they wont even notice, yet even if they notice they will be busy dealing with infantry/apc/attack choppers/ etc.
And in 0.6 planes' only enemies are hostile planes(like it should be) and player flying the jet(crashing f.e)

[Wipeout]

That's why no one ever complains about TAKE OUT THAT GODDAMN A-10! On servers..?

When I'm apart of an armor squad or team, the only thing I really fear is Air Power. You just obviously haven't seen Air power utilized as it should.

[Kruder]

I had once 65 kills 0 deaths with a-10 in greasy mullet i know what i am talking about,i am talking about public servers(i am sure it is alot different in tournaments) +average players + v.06,
btw have u tried 0.6?,major changes included,do if you havent tried yet.

And yes i never heart someone saying takeout the goddamn bomber,really never had,only when they baserape constantly.And yes you can hear some bitching about a-10 in 0.5 Al-basrah map from time to time ,but dont forget insurgents have no shilkas,no planes only 2 sa7s which need two hits to kill a-10.Even on that map average flight time was far less than a-20s spawn time.

Whatever...i dont wanna argue at all,you will see what i mean

[Wipeout]

So now whats the point of having a FAC..? You just said it yourself you have no problem finding enemies to kill with a k/d of 65-0...

Sorry my fine sir in attempting to prove me wrong you just proved me 100% right. There is no need for a FAC position.

[DarkTalon]

.Even on that map average flight time was far less than a-20s spawn time.

where can i acquire this a-20?

[Kruder]

So now whats the point of having a FAC..? You just said it yourself you have no problem finding enemies to kill with a k/d of 65-0...

Sorry my fine sir in attempting to prove me wrong you just proved me 100% right. There is no need for a FAC position.

Did i write anything about FAC?I tried to suggest something to people who are in need of FAC...

[CAS_117]

As to FACs, I believe that there simply should be a really beefy smoke grenade, producing large amounts of smoke that goes up in air (ie, it doesn't stick around like the usual smoke grenades you use for concealment). That would allow SLs, or whoever else would have the kit, to mark armor positions, and request airstrikes at smoke grenade locations. For added fun, make it a launchable grenade, so that the GL guy can actually mark distant targets with it.

The tank would just shoot said grenadier in the head. I mean unless you can throw 4000m, then the SL should just drop an attack marker down onto the tank.

Anyways, anti air is more of an annoyance. I mean the missiles are so lousy that even if you don't drop flares there's a 90% survival rate. And the Ack Ack doesn't have any aimers and they don't airburst so you can't get hit unless you're really bored and sleepy. They ground battle is actually decided by the skill of the MiG-29 and F-16 pilots. Once the sky is clear its like squishing bugs. I guess the missiles aren't THAT bad, but still, AGMs don't miss, so I really don't need to worry about whether the tunguska is gonna survive. In a jet at least I can run away.