Slider to balance IFR Traffic on CPDLC vs Voice#1817

Now that CPDLC is implemented, as well as very beefy traffic volumes and also the issue of limited FIR numbers, it can see voice traffic from AI aircraft be rather excessive. Even with the means of pushing the action to announce on frequency or put your request in the queue, BeyondATC seems to go through other queued voice traffic first. This can mean instructions can come late or delayed and be frustrating for the user. Sometimes a number of minutes.

My suggestion is that for instructions/communication that could otherwise be completed on CPDLC, along with an aircraft type that is likely to have CPDL capability, all of which are flying IFR, have some of that voice traffic instead done ‘silently’ on the basis that CPDLC would handle it. Now the CPDLC system doesn’t need to be utilised as of course traffic is ‘dumb’ so couldn’t really utilise it and wouldn’t be seen by the player. So, it’s just the voice conversation doesn’t need to be made on frequency and assumption can be made that instructions were given by CPDLC instead.

With this, I suggest a slider along with the traffic sliders that essentially represents what % of communication should be made via voice. At 100% you get what you have now, all communication by voice. At 50%, then half of the communication suitable for CPDLC is done silently, etc. This allows the user to balance this based on preference. Communication that would not be completed on CPDLC or at certain phases of flight would remain via voice.