Autopilot Landing Dead Man's Switch

[bek 744]

I have a feature suggestion/request for aircraft (I have in mind the VTOL's from Apex, but perhaps others too) — sufficiently advanced aircraft should be able to activate the "Autopilot Landing" feature on pilot (and co-pilot) death. The logic here is quite simple; this would save the passenger, cargo, and craft. Obviously this hasn't been necessary in the past, because the pilot of a moving aircraft is not going to be killed without the aircraft itself being damaged/destroyed. However, with Apex, we have VTOLs that have the ability to hover in place, and carry crew+cargo. It is now a plausible scenario that the pilot+gunner of the Y-32 be killed without destroying the vehicle — at this point, the Autopilot landing should kick in, rather than have a futuristic craft drop like a rock, which is the current behaviour - even if the autopilot landing is active when the crew is killed. It does not seem unreasonable that an advanced aircraft like this could monitor crew vitals, and if they flatline, prompt for input. If none is given, assume the crew is unresponsive, activate autopilot landing and RTB.

 

I'm not sure how the autopilot landing functions exactly (I only became aware of it recently; never really used Arma jets before) but if it only lands the plane at the nearest airfield (my experience so far) it would be very cool from a mission-making perspective if a home base or preferred airfield could be defined for the unit. Otherwise you might get sniped over the AO only for the autopilot to land you right at the enemies doorstep. Perhaps a whitelist/blacklist for airfields per unit would both make sense. Or even more advanced, if you could define an onCrewDeath marker, so in the eventuality the dead man's switch is tripped, the craft returns to a certain marker, then performs an action (activate autopilot landing).

 

So, thoughts? Should a similar function exist (perhaps simplified) for UAV's (darter, new NATO autonomous heli) when their UAV connection is lost (but perhaps not on operator death)? I imagine you could simply enter autohover and slowly descend, and hope that you're in a clear area for it to be recovered.

[veles-zv 176]

Uav in arma 3 are really just invisible AI, technically its just a NPC which is stuck in purgatory inside the vehicle at least im pretty sure that is how this functions . the auto pilot is just the player movements being controlled by the AI while giving the player some controls such as head movement and few other basic controls. im sure you could just somehow script a invisible AI to pilot the craft if a set of conditions has been complete such as a dead pilot... however I cant really see this being worth your trouble in doing, personally if you hit a pilot i think the aircraft should crash because its a reward for shooting down an aircraft and a punishment for the pilot for not know the disadvantage of his craft such as flying a little bird up close against a section of infantry which is just asking to be killed. or flying a hind the pilot and gunner is invincible against small arms from the front while the canopy sides are weak and cant stop a pistol round point blank. one should learn the advantages and disadvantages of what the player is using and use tactics which is confined to those advantages this is what Arma is all about. 

[bek 744]

That's why I make the distinction between the new high-tech VTOL's and the old ones. Obviously a little bird shouldn't become sentient at the flick of a switch. Ideally this would just be a boolean in the vehicle config. My argument mainly has to do with logic. Autopilot Landing exists. Ability to check crew vitals already exists in our current timeline. Anyone with half a brain-stem would think to combine the two in this situation.

 

And... obviously it's the game's AI that controls the craft. What'd you think I thought it was, magic? Being able to script that aside, this should be a default (but toggleable) behaviour. Learning the weak points of a vehicle has nothing to do with what I'm talking about either. I could even argue that this increases the possibility for shooter knowledge to be vital to mission success. Does the craft have dead man's switch AI? If so, aim for the systems, not the crew. Unless of course, you don't want to destroy the aircraft, but rather capture it. Ooh, new possibilities. I could come up with a whole mission based on that mechanic. I can picture it now...

 

You're part of a morally flexible private military contractor. Your latest contract is ambitious as it is insane. CSAT forces have begun testing their new prototype aircraft, reporting name Y-32. Your employer wishes this prototype to be delivered, unharmed, to them for reverse-engineering. To accomplish this, you will be split into two teams. The plan is to exploit the new autopilot system - Alpha team will take over the Y-32's airbase during one of its scheduled test flights, which includes a test of its hovering abilities. While the aircraft is hovering, Bravo team (that's you!) must be in position to kill the pilot from long range, triggering the autopilot RTB. Once this is accomplish the should regroup at the airbase with Alpha.

 

Of course, not everything goes as planned. Once the autopilot takes over and successfully lands, Alpha team begins to lower their guard. After all, the hard part was meant to be over — right?. However, the intel about this test flight did not include the fact that this y-32 was testing manuevers with a full crew - an armed and very angry CSAT squad emerges from the cargo bay and engages alpha squad. You, the Bravo sniper, arrive at the airbase and contribute what you can. Once the CSAT are killed, the remnants of Alpha team discover their designated pilot did not survive. As the only other with VTOL training, it's all up to you. And CSAT reinforcements are on their way. TO BE CONTINUED!!!1!one

 

Anyway, tongue-in-cheek responses aside, I do think it'd be a cool, logical addition that expands gameplay in a fun and interesting way. Hopefully it's an easy thing to do.

[CannonSong 688]

I actually really, really like this idea! It's feasible for the near-future setting, opens up more engine-supported scripting options for potential modification, and as you said, seems easy to implement!

Y'know, until the machines rise up and destroy us all. But I've been brushing up on my binary for just such an occasion. Beep-boop.

[Jnr4817 215]

What is this autopilot function that is already built into the game?

[VTOLAFMPLS:3 36]

         

|          just make it hover slowly dropping an altitude                        |

|  so that one of crew members will have time to take control       |

 

- in the Blackfish it could be a second pilot or one of the gunners

 

- in the Xi'an it could be a gunner

[bek 744]

Y'know, until the machines rise up and destroy us all. But I've been brushing up on my binary for just such an occasion. Beep-boop.

Got Milk? Then you're a human and must be killed.

 

What is this autopilot function that is already built into the game?

The pilot of fixed wing aircraft, and the new VTOLS, can activate "Autopilot Landing" via scroll wheel (addAction). From what I can tell this lands them at the nearest airfield. Pretty neat.

 

- in the Blackfish it could be a second pilot or one of the gunners

- in the Xi'an it could be a gunner

 

Yeah, so ideally the autopilot DMS would kick in very shortly after pilot death, but the remaining crew, if any, should be able to 'take controls' to override this when ready. So if the gunner is busy shooting and hasn't noticed the pilot's head is now a fine paste against the windows, he doesn't have to panic and fumble with his scroll wheel looking for 'take controls' while he plummets to the ground.

 

There is also some (hopefully basic) ways this could be expanded to handle other scenarios. What if the pilot is sniped on takeoff or landing? How would the landing autopilot handle that? If the answer is "terribly", perhaps the DMS could be expanded to check if the gear is down. And perhaps also current altitude or velocity, but gear should be enough. So on DMS trip, if gear down, do A (activate regular autohover and begin to land). If gear up, activate autopilot landing. If copilot takes controls, reset DMS.

[VTOLAFMPLS:3 36]

he doesn't have to panic and fumble with his scroll wheel looking for 'take controls' while he plummets to the ground.

 

not so fast, but enough to prevent ghost vehicles if there was only one pilot

 

well additionally it can search for nearest open flat space to land relatively safe

 

also sound warning that auto descent is enabled in case gunner or co-pilot will be busy looking into optics

 

this would be exciting and actually fits into Apex era

[dragon01 902]

Some sort of "deadman autopilot" would definitely be nice. Even something as simple as "slowly lowering itself down". Also, if the pilot's seat is unoccupied, the crew should have the option to move into that seat (normally, they can't do that in any situation), except in a case like VTOLs, where the cockpit doesn't seem to be accessible from the cargobay. In all cases, a gunner or copilot should have controls of their own.