You can have an ejected pilot, but you can’t control him once he ejects. The only sure way is with the infantry units available.
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Well…technically you could control him if you were the pilot…hmmmm…an interesting ME idea… 
Player flying an F-16 or a MiG-21 (something single engine)…Set it up so that you lose your engine and eject. Then run around on the ground for a while, dodging bad guys, until you get to an LZ. The CSAR helo arrives and the mission ends.
Well now you’re basically wanting to do stuff in ArmA because ejected pilots in DCS are treated as non-entities currently. It’s been a wishlist item for years, in fact.
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In ARMA’s Great Grandfather, Operation Flashpoint, I built a mission with a “cinematic” opening where an A-10 gets shot down, then you lead a SOF team to insert by Blackhawk, rescue the pilot (being held in a Castle nonetheless) and evade patrols to get to a hot LZ for dust off and return…man was that cool… I spent months on it…I only played all the way through twice…it was tough…(sniff) …I miss it 
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You can replay that one again via ArmA: Cold War Assault. I played Cold War Crisis many, many times; that particular mission was actually followed by an escape and evasion. Clever players could steal an Mi-24 and escape in style, blowing up a bunch of stuff on the way out – that was my preferred strategy. If you waited too long and did what the dirty commies said, you’d eventually be executed.
You can also play Cold War Rearmed 2 for ArmA2, which was a community-made remake of CWC with all of ArmA2’s updates.
I just noticed something rather strange.
I was working with the AI detection Lua script - starting an AI helicopter out on a Maritime Patrol and seeing where they detected a convoy of ships. Now in the actual mission I’ll use something a bit easier like a Zone trigger - I was just seeing where, for example flying at 200 kph and 500m MSL will see a OHP FFG to see about how big to make the zone - actually comes out unrealistically too close.
So I though, about doing it at night with something that has night-time sensors like a Gazelle. That turns to be unrealistically far away.
So I thought I’d dig into the Lua scripts Databases and see if I can tell what is going on. Turns out there is no entry for theGazell under AI helicopters. The Ka-50 and Mi-8 are there…no Gazelles.
Strange that.
Which database would that be? Though if it’s just an AI needed, then the OH-58D would probably be a better pick.
It was in theProgram Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World Open Beta\scripts\Database\helicopters.
And yes, the OH10 would be better (I took a look at its file while I was snooping around) but I was setting this up for Iran - true they don’t have Gazelles in RL but do in DCS. I ended up going with the hi pad judging my own view radius from experiment.
View Distance Sea Story:
Back in the day (winter 86-87), on the fine ship CV-67, cruising the Med, young Ensign Hangar200 was working in the intel center (CVIC), briefing air crews before they went flying. One of his duties was to know and brief the relative position of “Red” forces in the area. At this time we had our usual “tattle tail”, a Soviet Black Sea Fleet KRIVAK FFG in the area. I had made a rough mental note of where he was. Then they called away a FOD walk-down. Not getting much daylight in CVIC I hurried up to the flight deck to join the line forming at the bow. I ran into a couple of squadron mates who pointed out a naval ship off in the distance and asked me if I knew which ship it was. I tooked a looked around and at the sun to deduce the ships’s heading, then remembering my mental note, told them that it was in fact, the KRIVAK FFG!
A minute or so later, one of our helicopters took off from the carrier, flew over, and landed on the very same ship…so really, really, really probably not the KRIVAK…man, did I take grief for that for days.
The moral of the story…and tying it into this tread…I had noted the KRIVAK’s relative bearing from the carrier but had not noted its range. If I had it would have been obvious that the KRIVAK was out of visual range from the flight deck.
While we are talking about using the Database scripts for comparison, I was setting up a JTAC. I read somewhere that one should use a TOW HUMVEE if you can because of its superior sensors. I was thinking making the JTAC NATO-Germany. I noticed that they have the Marder IFV that looks a bit more rugged and a lot more bas@$$ than the TOW HUMVEE.
I dug into their sensors. Both the TAS4 TOW day and Marder’s PERI-Z11 day have the same scan_volume and view_volme_max. However, the TAS4 has magnification 4.0, 12.0, while the PERI-Z11 has magnification 2.0 ,6.0. Plus there is a another TAS4 TOW night, OPTIC_SENSOR_IR with similar characteristics.
I assume that means that the TOW HUMVEE can see/ID a target farther away (higher magnification?) and also see at night…or at least see better at night.
I understand how these sense capabilities would work with these two vehicles weapon systems…do you know if they also have an impact on these vehicles as a JTAC unit?
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I can’t say for certain, your exploration may find the answer though but I would guess the magnification could affect the aiming views for combined arms control. I would doubt the AI uses zoom to determine view as they always seem to be “all knowing” so it’s likely just if unit in scan volume, add to detected units kinda deal.
If you ever drum up a multiplayer mission and would like to issue a briefing to some players, I know at least myself, @Franze, @AndyE & @USMCBEANS would enjoy running the exercise. We generally know our missions to throwing in something unknown with a pre-flight brief and plan would be a new experience! Perhaps even once we get the SuperCarrier ready room? 
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You are most likely correct…but a guy can dream can’t he? 
I think the TAS4, PERI-Z11 comparison is really only valid to the point of the TOW HUMVEE having an IR capability which the Marder lacks.
Then it all boils down to “can the JTAC see the bad guys” - where “see” by means any sensor available and the LOS is not obstructed by terrain.
This I very well may do. I haven’t gotten not MP because I am not that good a virtual pilot. However, I would enjoy developing a MP mission, generating some typical intel products, briefing it and then watching what happens.
I shall work on something…
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Well, if you have combined arms you can always run as Tactical Commander (perhaps of the OpFor) or Game Master and add some extra “dynamic”.
This may affect the AI more than players, I haven’t tried a huge variety of units to to see what is available. For example, I think all units the player can activate NVG’s (which just blanket work with any view) but I don’t recall any IR sights when driving vehicles.
Any DCS ME LUA guru’s (wow, if that makes sense I’m in the right place) have any info for me concerning the Waypoint | Advanced WP Action | Perform Command | Do Script…run some code thing, more specifically:
(my copy is d/l’g right now so I can’t get to ME for, oh, about another 4 hours!)
Here’s an example of all I want to do:
trigger.action.setUserFlag(“1”, 1)
I want to set a user flag when a unit reaches a WP (though I can’t find just what the criteria is for ‘reaches’) yet it never works. I’m using a random timer for the purpose (works), which is a better fit for the mission, yet I’m just wondering if any LUA code executed in the code box under this option works?
Google shows this may have been an issue - like several YEARS ago. I mean sometimes all I wanna do is set a flag when a group reaches a WP; creating a trigger is messy.
It’s possible, depending on how the AI handles those sensors. Using getDetectedTargets, you can get a rough idea of what it’s seeing (though do note that getDetectedTargets doesn’t tell you much contextual information about the target).
As I’ve never used that mechanic, I’d offer up the alternative of making a zone for the waypoint/area and using the condition part of group or all of group in zone instead. I’ll quickly check it out and report back.
How hard would it be to transpose (copy-paste?) lots of stuff from one mission to another? I want to take my ‘Get Some’ exercise from the Caucasus to the Gulf and Syria. There’s some triggers and a bunch of flights.
Along the lines of “very hard” to “complex.” You could potentially just copy and paste from the .miz mission file itself but everything will have to be realigned to different map coordinates, etc.
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I just tested it with an F-117 and it worked; used this:
trigger.action.outText("I SNEAKY PLANE HAHAHA", 10, false)
Are you trying to make it work with a player unit?
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Yes. Did I miss something obvious in that regard? Actually, I did try it with an AI flight if I recall, too.
Yeah I’ve used the trigger zones but the random timer thing is more appropriate. I just wondered if anything worked in the Do Script code box.
Yeah, I wondered about this a ways back, for like 2 seconds. Be nice to have higher level constructs to work with but then we’re getting close to the guts of a DC engine.
Ugh. Mission editing/scripting for DCSW is so frustrating. I keep wanting to dive in but things like this…
On the positive side: It keeps missions smaller = faster to create. I’m creating a small campaign and trying hard to use only triggers and stock objects. Only outside of the box stuff is audio vs text.
Something beyond what one might cook up for real simple mission yet less than full-blown (re; hard to write; very long dev times). I’ve wondered if we, here a t Mudspike, might create a mission/campaign branch that was nothing more than a define ‘theme’, then we whip up a mission of the month based on that theme. Talking single player here at first. They’d be simple enough yet bridge the gap between just placing some objects and hitting fly and big downloadable campaigns…anyway, thanks for the time.
Thanks. Yeah my mind went there but it was like; the sim knows the client (me) is over a WP (the autopilot seems to know) and that’s all I need. In the end I used a more appropriate mechanism for my task but I just didn’t grok that that Do Script box is broken, to some degree or other.
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I’m not sure, just tells me I need to check it with a player/client set plane to see if it still functions.
ETA: No, doesn’t work with player aircraft or the parameters for the action are tightly specific. Double checked and I think the parameters for execution are extremely narrow.
I think* that the WP actions don’t really work (well) for player aircraft. For AI aircraft, there is likely logic the AI is using to detect when it is ‘at’ a WP and should proceed to the next. It may fire an event at that point, but player aircraft don’t have that logic. It may be easier to set small a trigger zone at the WP and react to a ‘Player/Client is in’ event. In LUA (and avoiding the trigger zones) I would have a polling task check every 30 seconds or so to see how close a player is to the WP and have it fire off code when it gets within a threshold (and then kill off the task that is checking) but that is more complex 
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Using waypoints for trigger conditions in a sandbox game is kinda asking for trouble. Ask me how I know! 
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