TFU AI Taxis

***BETA***

Call in a ride, pick your crew and tell it where to go, all from the TFU Field Tablet in your hand. TFU AI Taxis adds AI ground and helicopter transport, plus the driving, flying, servicing and medical systems that make those vehicles useful.


GETTING STARTED

Grab the TFU Field Tablet from a friendly US or Russian arsenal (it sits next to the radio), equip it, and use your focus/zoom control (right-click on PC) to open the screen. It currently has four apps, with more planned for future updates:

- Map: pick a destination for the taxi you're riding in.
- Ground transport: browse eligible vehicles, choose your crew and request a pickup.
- Heli transport: the same, for helicopters.
- Settings: screen brightness (70% on a fresh profile) and departure wait.

Three short hints explain the basics during normal play. Press H to hide or repeat them, or hold G for "Don't show again."


REQUESTING A RIDE

- Uses your scenario's real logistics: the nearest friendly facility that offers the vehicle and can supply it.
- Ground transport needs Corporal or higher, helicopters need Sergeant or higher. A vehicle's own rank requirements still apply.
- The facility pays the vehicle's normal supply price plus 20 supplies. Supplies, faction permissions and spawn space are checked.
- Installing a vehicle mod doesn't make its vehicles available by itself. Your depot or helipad has to offer them.
- Helicopter pickups: throw a fresh purple smoke after calling. The helicopter waits for it before departing.


CHOOSE YOUR CREW

Depending on the vehicle's seats and weapon stations: an AI driver or pilot, one or two AI gunners, or a player driver with AI gunners. The real vehicle layout is checked, so you're never left without a seat.


GOING PLACES

Pick a destination from the Map app or the destination key (F6 by default, configurable). Departure wait can be immediate, 3, 5, 10 (default) or 15 seconds. Stop-and-hold lets you park, and taxis yield to player and Game Master control.


DRIVING AND FLYING

Ground: builds on native AI navigation with speed control for bends and obstacles, following distance, stuck recovery, crew retention and threat reactions. It still depends on the map's navigation data and what the vehicle can physically do.

Helicopters: a custom flight controller handles takeoff, cruise, landing and returning home. It flies around 25 m above terrain where there's room, avoids trees and buildings, and searches within 200 m for a safe landing spot (it may reject a location). The same aircraft and surviving crew can be reused.


SERVICING

Vehicles repair, refuel and rearm using real support stations, tools and supplies, and crew get out to do the work when needed. Nothing is free, and a helipad alone isn't a full service facility.


AMBULANCES AND MEDICS

The driver drives while a separate medic treats nearby friendly casualties using native medical items. Medics coordinate so they don't all pick the same casualty, and casualties can be evacuated to an ambulance, carried or dragged. Also works for eligible AI medics outside taxi duty. Ambulances carry extra medical supplies. No ACE needed.


VEHICLE SUPPORT

Use ready-made taxis, ambulances and troop helicopters through configured depots and Game Master, or dynamic requests that buy an eligible vehicle and attach crew and controls at runtime. Support comes from 25 vehicle-family profiles (variants share their family's settings) plus a fallback. It covers vanilla vehicles and optional ones like the WCS AH-6M, AH-64D and Ka-52, Stryker, MRZR, JLTV, M1A1, M2A2, Cougar, T-72 and M270.


GOOD TO KNOW

It doesn't add an AI commander, enemy air force, counterattacks or objectives. The ground driving help can also assist eligible AI-driven vehicles that aren't taxis. It coexists with TFU Framework. Existing scenario placements aren't converted automatically.


BETA

Tested locally: purchases, pickup, destinations, movement, flight, servicing, fleet performance and the PC package. Still to check: dedicated-server multiplayer, join-in-progress, simultaneous requests, controller/console use and wider weapon coverage. AI driving and flying can fail in difficult conditions, so bug reports are welcome.