Idea on SAR

[MBot 0]

Since pilots were a very important and spare resource in the south atlantic war, I tought it would be cool to cover search and rescue a bit more in depth. Most simulations don't feature SAR at all and end when you ( or the AI ) hit the silk. The only exeption I know of is again the excellent Janes F/A-18, wich serves as a perfect example. Altough JF-18 didn't feature a dynamic campaign it was a primus in missions/gameplay/imersion.

 

The campaign engine should try to rescue downed pilots if it is worth the spend recources on the rescue and the threat to the tasked units. A returned pilot could fly again a certain time after he gets back to his airbase. Perhaps you could even include the pilots health status wich would determine how long after his return a pilot is on missions again, or if he flies again at all. The longer the pilot was missing, the longer it would take ( simulating the exaustion of surviving in the wildness ). Also if the pilot was downed over land or sea could affect his health. And of course injurys he got in the battle or perhaps from a low ejection.

One thing that would be very cool is moral on pilots or squadron level. A shot down pilot would lower the squadrons moral and therefore affect the skill of the AI while flying ( pilot level ) or mission planing ( squadron level ). Just think of how Argentina reacted after loosing the Mirages on 1st May. This outcome had direct affect on their future airwar strategy. Also Argentinas independence day ( was it this ? ) had a direct affect on the moral ( on both levels ) and showed results in that days sucess ( Coventry, Atlatic Conveyor ). If that sort of "modifier" could be integrated on serveral levels into the Jet Thunder campaign, that would be very cool.

To come back on topic, a secessfully rescued pilot could be one of many factors that influence moral.

 

Now how would the SAR operation look like on mission level ? First someone has to radio for rescue. I can think of three situations here.

1. The bailing pilot radios for SAR himselfe if he has the time to do so.

2. If not, an nearby unit that observes the ejection does so ( be it wingman, ship or groundtroops ).

3. If no one is in the vincinity, the bailed pilot uses his radio to call for help once he is on the ground. As these radios have limited range the pilot might have to wait hours or days until a friendly unit comes in the vincinity. Then the alarmed unit calls for SAR. Btw, Janes F/A-18 featured radio calls from downed pilots, so it isn't that exotic as it may look on the first glance.

 

Of course the above gives plenty of oportunity for intense radio communication wich creates a living envoirement. Escpecially on the 3. possibility I can think of some interesting ( and emotional ) radio chatter. Just imagine how it must sound like when a pilot that stranded for days in absolute wildness and finaly can contact a friendly unit.

 

After the notification, the campagin engine determenise if a rescue is possible. Is the pilot in range, how is the threat situation ? Can we risk a chopper for this ? Do we need all helos on more important tasks ( SAR for a sunk ship ) ? What unit to use for SAR, helo, ship or submarine ?

 

Another thing that would make SAR more interesting is, when enemy units try to rescue/caputer the downed pilot themselfe. A captured pilot wont fight again and it might be a moral boost for the own troops. Especially ground troops should try to capture downed pilots if it happens in the vincinity.

Now this generates another very cool aspect. Sandy missions.

First, wingmans should try to protect downed airmans if they are threatened, if the mission allows to do so ( mission already complete, or rescue more important than mission ). I am thinking of AIs ( and the player of course ) strafing groundtroops that are advancing on the downed pilot. They should do so as long as fuel, weapons and their own savety permits so.

Of course a single Sea Harrier with guns only has little chance on destroying some groundtroops, but think of moral here again. If a Sea Harrier blazes in with firing guns, the groundtroops take cover wich slows their advance. According to their skill level they even want to stop to capture the pilot completely. Or they wait till the Sea Harrier disapears or until it gets night. But if the same happens to some elite argentinan Marines they might procede to capture the pilot, knowing that the Sea Harrier can hardly stop them to do so.

The downed pilot also would use his radio to communicate with his still flying wingman and tell him about troops and threat levels. Something like:"Enemy forces advancing on me form the east at about 3 miles. I am hiding at this little bush... etc.". Something of the sort of a FAC.

If the downed airman is in enemy terrain, the campagin engine might even generate an dedicated Sandy mission to the SAR helo, if resources permitt so.

 

The motivation for the player to realy care about his wingmans would be the hit it takes on the campaign. The player knows that to lose a pilot means a harder future for himselfe, so he realy tries to produce best possible conditions for a sucessfull rescue.

And of course the SAR subject gives plenty of possibilitys to make missions more dynamic, full packed with radio comms and generaly more fun.

 

 

P.S.: Just so I don't get misunderstood. I am not talking about a 1st peron shooter after you bailed. That is way out of scope. I think of a downed pilot that doesn't disapear but remains as a unit in the dynamic campagne and interracts with other units on mission and campaign level.

 

 

P.S.2: I just had another idea when writing this :) These Sandy missions would also be cool when SAS teams try to board ships out of helos ( happened one time IIRC in the Flaklands ). A Sea Harrier was stand-by to enage threats on the ship, should they arise. What would make such a mission much fun would be to follow the boarding processe on radio. And of course strafe troops on the ship should the SAS call for it :)

[+Dante-JT 6]

Very good post and great ideas as always. I remember 'something more' regarding downed crews, since a old Commodore Amiga title called 'Combat Air Patrol (CAP)', I remember you had to switch to a SAR radio channel to declare an emergency and then bail out.

 

I have Janes F/A-18 and Janes F-15, but all I remember is the ejected crews standing in the desert ground with a little pistol in hands, but doesn't doing anything just waiting. :) I'll dust off these this week to study this issue.

 

As an overall simple rule, an ejected pilot with known position, will spawn a rescue helicopter in the carrier (Lynx or Sea King for brits) - or nearby argie base, UH-1H or Super Puma for argies), this rescue helicopter will then procceed autonomous (A.I. commanded) to the pilot's known position; as it is a helicopter with a specific flag (brit or argie) it can be shoot-down by other A.Is (for example, if our brave brit Sea King cross the path of some argie Pucaras, and then the pucaras decide to open fire and shootdown the helicopter). The problem is, if the helicopter ditches/crash lands, the campaign engine must check for survivors, their position, if they made contact with nearby friendly units, and then, to spawn another rescue mission to rescue the helo crew - a lot of triggers and events to be generated by the campaign engine, quite demanding indeed. Would be a lot simpler in terms of development, if a rescue helicopter downed has its crew always KIA, and only fighter pilots are really "rescuable" :)

 

Well, this is an issue that would be better discussed by Steven, our campaign programmer. :)

 

But of course, we'll try to make our downed pilots do more than a simple scripted animation of run away and take cover :) It'll add a lot of variety if we are in a mission to bomb Goose Green (for example), then one of our Harriers is shoot down by AAA, the pilot eject and the Goose Green argie troops start to move to the downed pilot's position - you know that they will capture the pilot and will change focus, from bombing the targets in Goose Green, to at least slow down the argie troops by strafing the nearby ground with your 30mm guns - another demanding campaign/AI programming issue (to make AI ground troops retreat or slow down their advance if an enemy plane flies by blazing its guns...)

 

Anyway, rest assured that we'll feature individual ground troops (as they're the mainstay of Falklands war on ground, armour was rarely used there, it was a man vs. man fight).

 

Individual troops invading ships, that's a more complex thing to do.We're pondering at this point of development, if is possible to include some deck crew doing their stuff in our ships so they won't look like 'ghost ships' as in other simulators, butif these will be individual AI objects or parts of ship hierarchy (like turrets and gun placements) - I don't know what is best for development - of course I would desire dozens of individual AIs doing their stuff in the ship's decks, but I yet never saw such thing in other sims, lets say Flight Sims :)

 

Well, thanks again for the feedback and the good ideas posted!

[MBot 0]

Wow, I am very pleased with what I read here :) It seems that the Jet Thunder team has very similar ideas how a sim must look like as I have. You guys are building my dream sim :)

 

You are right about Jane's F/A-18 Dante. The little guy realy just stands on the ground with a gun in his hand until the SAR helo arrives. But that is the most I have seen so far in a any sim regarding SAR, so I used it as an example ( and basis ). Btw, like in JF-18 the downed pilot needs to use coloured smoke once the helo arrives :)

 

I am also quite excited that you try to populate the carriers. Something awaited since ages and finaly current computer power seems to make it possible. I hope you succeed with it.

I also hope you can add these small peoples on the argentinan airbases. Little guys that remove/applie the brake "thing" ( that "stopper" ), refuel und rearm planes. Also I have a picture in Osprey Combat Aircraft Vol. 28 of a ground crewman that has plugged in earphones on a taxiing Mirage III. These sort of ground procedures would be very cool. Also perhaps the "arming station". I don't know much about fighter ground operations, but I think that on the taxingway, short before the runway, is a station where all planes stop and groundcrews go arming all weapons. This in a flighsim would be so cool :) And now I perhaps get a bit carried away too much, but cheering groundcrews at your parking lot after you return from a particular succesfull mission would be realy atmospheric :)