Feature Request - Add "Custom Flight Name" to Squadron Yaml File

[falcon76]

complete - Before filing, please search the issue tracker to see if this feature has already been requested.

Not a bug - If requesting a DCS AI feature, check If reporting a DCS AI bug, check https://github.com/dcs-liberation/dcs_liberation#dcs-bugs.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. A clear and concise description of what the problem is. Ex. I'm always frustrated when [...] We are trying to auto track munitions in our squadron quarterly cruises and to do that we need to match the unit name with the client pilot name. To do this we were going to use the Custom Flight Name in the squadron yaml to make the unit name match with squad names. To make the yaml available for multi division I would think that we could have a parameter in the yaml [CustomFlightName]=Chippy then the custom Flight name would insert Chippy 1 for the first division Chippy 2 for the next division for VFA-195. For VFA-103 the custom Flight name would be [CustomFlightName]=Bones and would insert Bones 1 for the first division, Bones 2 for the next division and so on.

Problem resolve: The unit names needs to have a consistent value to reference to be match to the online pilot name and unit name on the server and relying on human input to put it in at the time of the flight creation tends to produce inconsistent results - caps, typos, random naming etc. We may want to make it modifiable once prepopulated when creating Flight.

Describe the solution you'd like Add parameter in the squadron yaml that would populate the Custom Flight Name and append 1,2,3,4 depending on the division that was already created. we are a medium size Virtual squad so 4 divisions should be enough but there does not need to be limit on that it could be any additional numbers

Additional context

Please feel free to contact me for any additional questions or clarifications

[DanAlbert]

As far as I could tell the Pilot field does nothing in DCS, and that's why it's not using pilot names there. Is that wrong?

[falcon76]

when you are online client name is the field that dcs recognizes as the pilot the AI is not a client and therefor does not use that field. since we are only interested in the online clients and what they expended as ordinance we can just pull the client field.

[DanAlbert]

I don't understand what you're describing. Afaik it does nothing aside from changing the name of the unit in Lua events.

[falcon76]

i am only asking that in the Squadron yamls a parameter be mapped to the Custom Flight name box so that when the squadron is task with a mission the custom flight name is always the same through the entire campaign.
here is an example of the squadron yaml and we have 10 squads.

name: VFA-195 CustomFlightName: Chippy nickname: Dambusters country: USA role: Strike Fighter aircraft: F/A-18C Hornet (Lot 20) livery: VFA-195 mission_types:

• Anti-ship
• BAI
• BARCAP
• CAS
• DEAD
• Escort
• Intercept
• OCA/Aircraft
• OCA/Runway
• SEAD
• SEAD Escort
• Strike
• Fighter sweep
• TARCAP pilots:
• Falcon AI
• Spartan AI
• Killjoy AI
• Sniff AI
• Dirty AI
• Fozzie AI player:
• Falcon
• Spartan
• Killjoy
• Sniff
• Dirty
• Fozzie Now that custom flight name get attached to the unit name. as in the picture above. To keep custom names unique a number should be appended to the name so if you had eight players that is two divisions the custom name would be Chippy 1 and Chippy 2. the function to give it a random flight name is already running since if I do not select a custom flight name it generates a random one. it seems the code would be AssignFlightName => if Squadron contains customFlightName then use squadron value => Check all schedule flights for CustomFlightName count + 1 => append to customFlightName => populate customFlightname in Flight schedule screen else generate random name.
  Certainly i am simplifying this, but only because i do not know you code and what it would take. Hope this clears it up.

[DanAlbert]

I know what you're asking for mechanically. I'm trying to understand what observable behavior it would have.

[falcon76]

i do not understand your question "observable behavior"?

[falcon76]

sorry i did highlight the pilot but the unit is really the field we use. but there is no need to change the way CustomFlightName is added the pilot and the unit name.

[falcon76]

observable Behavior - Problem resolve: The unit names needs to have a consistent value to reference to be match to the online pilot name and unit name on the server and relying on human input to put it in at the time of the flight creation tends to produce inconsistent results - caps, typos, random naming etc. We may want to make it modifiable once prepopulated when creating flight.