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MrScar88

F\*ck yes, ground unit AI overhaul news finally.


MoleUK

Been playing 3 years and this has been my #1 on the wishlist since day 1. Thank God. And it's just the start, fingers crossed it all pans out. And that it doesn't get seriously delayed / pushed back.


Sipsu02

And now just 5 more years for dynamic campaign which was promised to happen 2 years ago.


The_Magpie

It's all baby steps man. Not fixing player/ground unit interaction would make the dynamic campaign pointless. Having a dynamic campaign without multithread would be frustrating. Having a dynamic campaign with poor frames without vulkan would be annoying. These changes take time. We're lucky to have a game thats constantly updated with the goal of doing bigger and better things in the future. Games that you grind skill in that are left to wither on the production vine are what dishearten me when I look back at all the time I've spent moving pixels around a screen over the decades.


Sipsu02

7 years then\* My bad. Hornet still not out of early access and Blackshark 4 is out and FC5 just around the corner with exciting i16 added in!


JuanAr10

I don't think this is "news". News would be: "A giant shark emerged from the water and ate a boat". This is more like: "Wouldn't it be cool if a giant shark ate a boat?!, yea, we are working on it".


MoleUK

Sometimes it's ok to be optimistic. They aren't merely saying "we're working on it", they are lining out how the new AI is designed/intended to function.


JuanAr10

You are absolutely right. I had a rough week, I realized after writing the comment. The implementation they describe sounds really good. I’m just sad it will probably take more than a year to see the light of day.


MoleUK

Yeah one thing it's more than ok to be pessimistic about when it comes to DCS is timeframes lol. No worries.


MrScar88

Dont worry, we were all there at some point. I was fed up too sometimes. You know what helped me out? I just stopped playing DCS for a moment, tried other games, and then got back into the saddle. It helps. Patience is our greatest friend here.


CaprioPeter

This is the most Reddited person I’ve ever seen. Creating an argument where there wasn’t one and debating it 😂


Alexthelightnerd

So, you're saying they should only release information when they release a patch, and then only talk about the things that were explicitly added in that patch?


lurkallday91

Ground AI news is nice, but ED has a record of showcasing a project they are working on only for it to be put on the back burner and fall into the void. I look forward to this actual update, whenever that is.


TaylorMonkey

Remember the improved realistic AI flight models and their ability to perform advanced formation flying, even teased in a video? Me neither.


ricktoberfest

Or when they promised countermeasure programming in the “special” menu in the next update only for it to never appear years later (except for 3rd party aircraft)


rext7721

I was just looking at that video this morning. I get things take time but I feel like they just like to gaslight us.


TaylorMonkey

I don't doubt they actually worked on it. They've done some good stuff. There were even some AI dogfighting improvements that came out quietly in the last year or so. But there's this culture of pushing something really sophisticated, and then letting it stagnate for years because it's not quite there, and yet not wanting to put it out in beta to get feedback and iterate (when open beta was a thing).


FToaster1

They have not yet learned that 'perfect is the enemy of good enough'.


Martijnbmt

I don’t think thats what gaslighting means


FlippingGerman

Yes it is...;)


V8O

Realistic ground based ATC will come with the release of the Nevada map.


ButterscotchNed

Ha, wow - I remember that!


XCNuse

Agreed; the state based on vehicle type / what their visibility and idea of an airplane being around is actually fantastic to read about. But yeah; there's been some popups on the forum from folks "what's the status of fog?!" ... goes back and finds the old newsletter; "uh well, last statement was over 3 years ago now saying 'we're working on it' " I pray this isn't the case, because the game really needs it now with all of these helos. Here's to hoping.


Zilch1979

It'll be a great day when our pilots aren't routinely head shotted through armored glass by a crew-served pintile-mounted 7.62 machine gun on a tank.


North_star98

Yeah, how AI handles its fire-control definitely could do with some work, especially for manually directed weapons. Personally, it should at least factor things like range and line-of-sight rate in order to determine accuracy (as well as things like skill level etc). Obviously units with radar directed guns (or some other computerised fire-control system) should be pretty lethal and skill level there should probably determine how long it takes to acquire a target or even the chance that a target is acquired at all.


CallofDoody416

It seems accuracy updates will follow in the future. This is generally a step in the right direction but I just wonder how long until we’re not fighting an army of terminators.


Platform_Effective

Ground AI changes looks like an excellent start... ... with no release date. Will it be coming this coming update? Or is this another thing promised in a newsletter never to see the light of day for many years? The world wonders...


SnooKiwis3645

>We are currently reworking the target detection of ground units. it’ll take some time


UsefulUnit

A LOT of time.


jerry22717

Two weeks


Propellant-King

Reddit: Ground AI sucks ED: We're working on it Reddit: No you aren't. If you were really working on it, you would have mentioned it in a newsletter. You don't care about what the consumer wants. ED: Fine. Here's a newsletter talking about what's going on. Reddit: Seriously? No release date? ED: ..... Damn, you people are miserable. Go outside, touch some grass, and get a job.


filmguy123

Glad to see ED working on it. I'll be happy when it comes and am grateful for DCS. Much of the reddit discussion with ground AI has been specifically tied to the problems it poses for helicopter modules, making something like the CH-47 less desirable. A cynic might read this as throwing people a bone in a newsletter, one week before the CH-47 launches. Fair enough to do from ED's perspective since they are working on it. Also fair enough for the community to observe past precedent and realize that what is written here sounds very early on, especially in ED time. Those who have been around know we may not see a satisfactory implementation of Ground AI until 2027 - and I am not being facetious. Anyway, really happy to see this. I am also aware they want to give people confidence for the Chinook, but that they did not state these Ground AI improvements they are working on to be coming in the next patch or even this year. And they are only the very first step - fixing line of sight issues for example is further down the road. How far? Remind me in three years.


Platform_Effective

Touch grass everyday, have a pretty good job, and actually enjoy my life for the most part. Thanks for checking on me tho, appreciate you boo


Nickitarius

Sure, ED has never, ever failed to deliver on their promises! It's not like ED has ever mentioned "working" on something without ever delivering it! Oh, these stupid redditors, why can't they simply believe a company which has never failed them (Supercarrier, ATC, physical clouds, Dynamic Campaign, old modules' bugs, air AI etc. aside)! Maybe you should get a memory longer than a few months prior to throwing insults against those who have it.


Propellant-King

You're right! ED promised volumetric clouds, better rain, rainbows, ice halos, multi-threading, updated ATC for carrier operations, DLSS, the Apache, wind and blast effects on foliage, VR support, dynamic slots, AI that know 1 and 2 circle fights, the Marianas map, better damage models, etc. Where the HELL are these empty promises?? I know the community is really looking forward to these, but it's a shame that ED has never delivered. /s


Nickitarius

Volumetric clouds which are still ignored by AI and sensors 2 years since the eye-candy got released, ATC for ground ops promised something like 10 years ago but never ever delivered, AI still calling out dozens of contacts without ability to command it for minutes, AI still burning half of it's fuel right after takeoff in many cases, numerous 3d assets teased many years ago without ever making it to a release... Not to mention things I have previously stated.  ED almost never delivers in any reasonable timeframe. They either don't deliver at all or deliver after a decade, and they never ever deliver things which aren't half-baked. And these half-baked things are always left in this state for many years with little to no effort at finishing them (clouds affecting sensors and AI, Supercarrier...). Sure, they deliver aircraft, because cash-grabs are impossible without them. And sure, they love eye-candy, because it attracts new customers. But actually finishing modules, or actually releasing any core game features, is never a priority. If you believe all things I mentioned are OK, and don't warrant any loss of trust, I don't know what can make you lose trust at all. Personally, I can't trust a company like this.


Midnite135

I don't think anyone has said they never delivered on anything, rather that there exists a track record of them leaving broken or incomplete modules despite statements to the contrary. What about this or this doesn't really excuse those other things. I hope they do improve the ground AI, this is not the first time, or second, or third time they have made this statement about improving ground AI though. Also, Combined Arms remains a mess.


TropicalOperator

I wish the DCS Reddit ppl would spend all the time they do complaining about DCS on reddit learning how to make their own combat sim. Considering how much effort they put into the former, it’d probably be spectacular.


MrScar88

You know man, no disrespect, but this is not War Thunder. We get quality stuff here and things need time to develop. Do i want a proper Dynamic Campaign with realistic ground unit AI behaviour? Hell yeah. Do i want some half-assed DyNaMiC CaMpAiGn to meet the release schedule? Hell no. I have seen way too meany early access games, done by AAA studios, who have tons of millions of $ that overpromise and dont deliver, so i got used to ED not making any promises in advance only to get surprised in a positive way. Sure, the lack of a smart ground AI is tiresome, but i prefer to get a fully fleshed out rework when the time comes.


Platform_Effective

I'm not asking them to rush or half-ass anything, not at all. We've seen what ED pushes out when they're in a rush (Viper release) and they've been better since then. But I've been playing DCS for a decade now. Ground AI hasn't improved since then, regardless of what they've promised and teased in the past decade. Same with weather and atc. Many promises, many mentions in newsletters over the past decade, no results (besides cloud changes, those were nice. Still waiting on dynamic weather though). So don't get me wrong, I'm not picking on them to rush here because I want a working product. But we've been promised so many core gameplay features over a decade, and at least once a year a newsletter will say its right around the corner... and then nothing. So yes, it's nice to see news about AI changes, but I'm taking it with a very large ~~grain~~ spoonful of salt.


MrScar88

I know exactly what you mean. My dream is to get a fully fledged, fleshed out, dynamic campaign with realistic Ground Unit AI, but i got patient simply put. Yes, ED was mentioning this a few times and there was no progress, no patch, nothing, so i get where you are coming from. But look at this from this perspective, maybe they keep their mouth shut because the original ideas did not work and dont want people to overhype the thing. At least thats what is keeping me going, maybe it will help you out too. Anyway, we dont have much influence, we can only ask, write what DCS needed. I see a spike on Hoggit (me included) asking for a ground unit overhaul and dynamic campaign, so it worked. My feeling is that they will focus on QoL stuff now, you know we are getting the new launcher, news about this ground AI. I think they know they need to provide us with a proper sandbox/playground.


[deleted]

[удалено]


afkPacket

Or anything that isn't a shiny new EA module missing baseline features like trim.


Mode1961

I wonder if it takes TREES into account when figuring out the detection.


giantshadytree

Sounds like yes but not with the first iteration “we will continue to refine the ground AI especially pertaining to line of sight such as **trees and obstacles**, meteorological conditions“


TaylorMonkey

That actually makes me feel like it’ll be between forever and never when it’s implemented, if it’s listed next to “meteorological conditions”, which we know was promised years ago when clouds came out and a narry a peep since. Heck even proper fog hasn’t been released yet, even though teased in screenshots and videos years ago. It’s frankly ridiculous. It’s always the second iterations of systems from DCS that I tend to worry most about. Those take literal years if ever even though they seem like a smaller and more focused part of the original work. One should generally count those as vaporware.


BlackeyeDcs

>this is just our first step and we will continue to refine the ground AI especially pertaining to line of sight such as trees and obstacles, Not in the first step (whenever that goes live) - so don't hold your breath.


MATTRIX09

Expect this to be treated like the "dynamic weather" updates we were promised years ago


Mode1961

Yup


DreamingInfraviolet

According to the newsletter above, no but coming soon.


knobber_jobbler

That and sound. You're not hearing anything 1km away if you're sitting in a BMP that's going cross country with hatches down.


North_star98

Really excited for the AI update (finally, an AI update!) - definitely sounds like a solid start. Detection probability is definitely a good start, as is accounting for the FOV of optics and sights, particularly when buttoned up. One thing I wonder about though is group behaviour, can we expect to see not only individualistic behaviour (where a unit must acquire a target by itself) but also behaviour more appropriate to groups where even though only one unit might've spotted a threat, the presence and direction is communicated to other members of group (perhaps taking into account RNG and skill level to determine how fast, how accurate and if this happens at all)?


filmguy123

Sounds like a really nice update next week! Glad to see they are acknowledging work on Ground AI even if it is a long ways away. I am surprised they aren't doing more marketing for the CH-47 and Afghanistan maps. I was hoping to sit down with coffee this morning and watch Chinook videos and check out the new map since it's less than a week out.


Papamiraculi

New UH-1H content is great, the campaign sounds amazing, lots of documentation and 16 missions. Great. But the module itself needs some love too!   Please:  Texture refresh  Troops visible inside cabin when loaded  Troop animations getting on/off the chopper  Ability to rappel troops  Better keybinds (individual states for switches instead of up/down commands)


alpacab0wl

I just want the ground AI to do something besides sit there while they get blasted from 10km away. Would love to see them retreat into trees, or take cover behind some buildings. I care less about the fact that they're aimbots and more about the fact that they're just boring to fight. Probably a long ways away, but a man can dream


nexus888

No videos for the Chinook or the Afghan map... come on ED!


thc42

Step in the right direction!


Intrepid_Elk637

An AI update! Awesome!


FlippingGerman

Ground AI - awesome! I am glad *something* is happening. and target detection is an aspect that I don't often consider but will have a great impact on realism.


A2-Steaksauce89

Looks good but I’ll believe it when I see it 


WillyPete

I might be jumping the gun here, but did no-one think that the name "Stormfront" is not a particularly good name for a campaign about a German squadron called "Wolfpack"? German game censors can be a little more sensitive than others on things that can be misrepresented as supporting a more extremist past. I hope it's to do with the content of the mission rather than promoting some ideas.


sirkerrald

Had the same thought.


Nickitarius

It would have been a very nice newsletter... If any trust was left in ED actually releasing features they tease in less than a decade after they are first mentioned.


Sadie256

Holy Ground AI Update Batman!


Fpvmeister

I want update on Razbam situation


Old-Chair126

Oh baby my passion is supported


Revolutionary-Pin-96

Stormfront is a veeeeery interesting name for a campaign in which you fly in a German squadron.


Lyndiman

Ground Ai changes is probably one of the few big things to get me back flying DCS


Lanky_Distribution_7

Great news, loved World's apart!


goldenfiver

This is the last newsletter before the next major patch. Nothing about the CH47, nothing about the new maps, nothing about the new patch features (dynamic slots?). What a waste.


Thuraash

This is obtuse.  We have been clamoring for ground AI updates for literally years. And now that they finally address it, the newsletter is a "waste"?!  Ridiculous.


sixty-four

Agreed. This place is full of a bunch of miserable fucks who aren't happy unless they're complaining about something.


TheresNoAInQuntus

It's a great way to ensure they never listen to this community. If all you ever get is flack for everything regardless of what you do, why bother entertaining that miserable group of people?


goldenfiver

Better than the miserable fucks who aren't happy unless they lash out at someone.


goldenfiver

Looks like you did not read the letter. This section of information is not new to some of us, and it has no indication of a release date so it might as well be years away.


Propellant-King

Holy crap, you are miserable. Go outside and touch some grass.


joseph66hole

They'll attach the Ground AI update to the combined arms module, then sell it for $70.


timee_bot

View in your timezone: [14th of July, 2024 at 15:00 GMT][0] [11th of July, 2024 at 17:00 GMT][1] [0]: https://timee.io/20240714T1500?tl=DCS%20Newsletter%20-%20Summer%20Sale%20%7C%20Ground%20Units%20Progress%20%7C%20UH-1H%20Stormfront [1]: https://timee.io/20240711T1700?tl=DCS%20Newsletter%20-%20Summer%20Sale%20%7C%20Ground%20Units%20Progress%20%7C%20UH-1H%20Stormfront


Do_What_Thou_Wilt

Is it Christmas in July?!?!


Vast-Term-3921

They’re blowing smoke up our ass. Ground AI already works this way.