A GCI module for beeing better human awacs etc

I want a module or tools to be a better human AWACS. Like an enhanced F10 map. You click an aircraft and it instantly draws lines to the closest bogies/bandits. So you can read out the BRA calls.

Click on an aircraft and then on a tanker and you have a live feed of BRA for tanker. Yes, yes, I know we have the ruler tool, but this would be easier.

And it would then be natural to have contacts that are boogies, not yet confirmed bandits. Create some tension that way.

Have the possibility to use it as an AWACS og a factual Ground Controll Intercept, sending flights to inspect and possibly interact with aircrafts.

There already is! :)

https://www.lotatc.com/

Seconding LotATC. Its UI can feel a bit backwards at times, notably in how units and bearings are selected, but as a third-party “game mode add-on” so to speak, it's brilliant. The actual manipulation is just one of those things you have to learn, and after that, the difference in usage — and particularly the difference in the information and automation available to you — as you go set up the difficulty offers as much as, if not more, of a challenge than actually being in the cockpit.

The way it handles ATC and airport control is just frosting on the cake (even though given its name, it really shouldn't come as a surprise). If it also offered CA-compatible control over air and ground assets, it would have been the perfect module and while ED probably suffers a bit too much of NIH to ever let it happen, I'd happily buy it all over again if they bought out the developer and the code and integrated it into DCS proper.

Like ApoNOOB said. I can't think of any better solution for CGI in DCS than Lotatc, and I don't know any other sim with a better solution. I know that the Lotatc dev is closely working for years with people working in AWACS aircraft. The latest lotatc implementation added airports so you can also do ground traffic management and tower. The integration in DCS is just great so not sure @Tippis what you would like to see more. It is only lacking a better integration of SRS but I know the dev is working on it.

Like ApoNOOB said. I can't think of any better solution for CGI in DCS than Lotatc, and I don't know any other sim with a better solution. I know that the Lotatc dev is closely working for years with people working in AWACS aircraft. The latest lotatc implementation added airports so you can also do ground traffic management and tower. The integration in DCS is just great so not sure @Tippis what you would like to see more. It is only lacking a better integration of SRS but I know the dev is working on it.

On its own, yes, some tighter SRS integration is the only thing I can think of as well, and tbh it's 90% there with EAM already. It was more some loose dreaming of what it could do if it was actually part of DCS proper, where integration with Combined Arms would be the obvious way to go: not only directing player aircraft, but AI as well. I don't know if that could be done while remaining an external third-party client.

I think there's some bug with chat channels still, but that's know and already works well enough if it's just a co-op mission — that's the only thing off the top of my head that's an actual proper limitation at the moment. But yeah, that's being worked on.

Another thing worth mentioning that makes this such a great little side app is how the licensing works. You can license it for your own use, of course, but more importantly, a server manager can install a number of licenses and then anyone can connect to the server and have the client use one of those licensed slots with full functionality. For anyone providing a server for a small-to-medium group of people, it ends up being a pretty trivial cost and now it's no longer the same poor guy who always have to take the GCI role.

Why have a paid 3rd party option, when most of us have already spent money on a module which has everything neccesery to be a proper GCI/ATC tool....

You shouldn't have to pay extra for 3rd party softwere which already uses thing which are availiable in the SIM

If ED would consider this, it would be a great seller

3rd party option? So all the other 3rd party developers where you spent money on are also not needed because it's already in the sim? ED should just make all the modules themselves?

LOTATC is a 3rd party developer, just like all the other 3rd party developers. The client is a whopping 25 euro which you pay for a realistic AWACS/GCI simulator.

If ED ever comes with an AWACS/E-STAR simulator, maybe I'll reconsider, but up to that time, there is simply no substitute.

The chubaka defense in play, I see :lol:

LOTATC is a 3rd party developer, just like all the other 3rd party developers. The client is a whopping 25 euro which you pay for a realistic AWACS/GCI simulator.

…and as mentioned, in many cases you don't even have to pay for it because the server admins have already done it for you(!) Sure, full integration would open up a couple more options, but given what a spectacular deal that is, chances are that it would cost a lot of people a lot more if it was actually made a part of DCS.