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I have been working with custom loadouts now for a couple of weeks with the helpful insights of these threads: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=74772 http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1284781#post1284781 http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=69465 My issue is that I am a former developer and not understanding the underlying components was really bothering me. So, I cracked open the unitPayloads.lua file (after backing it up of course! :thumbup:), and started playing around with it a bit. With this and couple of other files, I was able to derive some facts, examples, and (hopefully) insight that I have gathered. There is nothing wrong with sticking to the methods used above, and this is only meant to further enhance understanding and manual customization if you so desire. MY DISCLAIMER: Some of these concepts at varying levels have been touched upon or shared in the above posts, or other posts that search may have missed. I do not wish to take credit where credit is not due, so if any of this was discovered and shared, I implicitly give them credit in this disclaimer! I also invite and encourage any comments, corrections, etc. for the good of the community at large. First, here are several (what I believe to be) facts that I have learned that will make understanding loadouts much easier. Let's start by understanding these first: The payloads available to you in SP and MP are contained in the unitPayloads.lua file. This file also contains the definitions of all the loadouts for all aircraft in DCS. There are two unitPayloads.lua files, one that is STATIC located in your DCS installation folder (..\dcs a-10c warthog\MissionEditor\data\scripts), and one that is DYNAMIC - meaning it changes - in your windows application files according to your user (C:\Users\<user>\Saved Games\DCS Warthog\MissionEditor). The dynamic unitPayloads.lua file is modified when: You save a mission from the mission editor with a custom loadout From within a single player mission, go to the mission details and add a new loadout instead of selecting a pre-defined one. [*]These two unitPayloads.lua files are essentially interchangeable with the exception that the dynamic one contains all of what the static one contains -plus- the loadouts you have defined via #3 above. [*]Single player missions allow you change your loadout before launch, and the loadout you define becomes the "Default" option in the Ground Crew re-arm menu for the duration of that mission, but the other payloads you might have defined are not available from the re-arm menu. [*]Multiplayer missions allow for the mission creator to specify a loadout for a specific aircraft in that mission, which becomes the "Default" for that client aircraft. If you select that specific aircraft to fly, you get that loadout. [*]If you open/edit a mission that has an aircraft with a loadout that is not "out of the box", and you change it, you will be prompted to save that loadout... yep, you guessed it... it gets saved in the dynamic unitPayloads.lua. [*]The Ground Crew re-arm menu is defined by the STATIC unitPayloads.lua file in your installation directory. Nothing you do within the DCS interface will change the re-arm menu. [*]A TASK is a specific role that an aircraft can fufill, and is selectable in the mission editor for each aircraft. All aircraft are locked into a selection of tasks defined by the corresponding <aircraft>.lua file at ..\dcs a-10c warthog\Scripts\Database\planes. The most common role in most missions played is typically CAS. The valid tasks for the A-10C according to this file are: Ground Attack CAS (Close Air Support) AFAC (Airborne Forward Air Controller) Runway Attack Antiship Strike [*]A LOADOUT is a collection of stores/munitions that is associated with an aircraft AND AT LEAST ONE TASK. If it is not associated with a task, it is associated with "Nothing" - which is still technically a task in DCS. [*]A CATEGORY merely defines the re-arm menu, and is only a means of grouping loadouts for selection. [*]The Task that a mission creator selected for the aircraft you are flying at mission creation time dictates which loadouts will be available to you in the re-arm menu, regardless of the category. Ok. So with those facts understood, lets take a look at the unitPayloads.lua file in a bit more detail... **If you decide to edit or open this file, please do not use Notepad.exe to do so (Notepad++ is an excellent alternative), and please make a backup copy before you do anything!!! Like I mentioned before, this file contains all of the loadout definitions for all of the aircraft in DCS. You will find the section pertaining to the A-10C on or around line 10114 of the static file. It will begin with this line: unitPayloads["A-10C"] = {} For each aircraft there are two sections, the "tasks" section and the "payloads" section in that order. They are defined by these lines of script: unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["payloads"] = {} Each unique loadout is defined only once by a series of lines and can be located in either one of these sections. There can also be a "pointer" to that loadout that allows for the loadout to be referenced in multiple areas of the file (more on that later). Let's take a look at a loadout in the file that appears on or around line 11739. This loadout is defined in the tasks section, hence the ["tasks"] tag in each line of the definition: unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][1] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][1]["launcherCLSID"] = "{6D21ECEA-F85B-4E8D-9D51-31DC9B8AA4EF}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][1]["num"] = 1 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][2] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][2]["launcherCLSID"] = "{DB434044-F5D0-4F1F-9BA9-B73027E18DD3}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][2]["num"] = 11 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][3] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][3]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][3]["num"] = 10 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][4] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][4]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][4]["num"] = 9 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][5] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][5]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][5]["num"] = 8 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][6] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][6]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][6]["num"] = 7 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][7] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][7]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][7]["num"] = 6 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][8] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][8]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][8]["num"] = 5 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][9] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][9]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][9]["num"] = 4 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][10] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][10]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][10]["num"] = 3 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][11] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][11]["launcherCLSID"] = "{CAE48299-A294-4bad-8EE6-89EFC5DCDF00}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][11]["num"] = 2 unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["name"] = "SUU-25*9,AIM-9*2,ECM" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["category"] = "AFAC" The first line of this portion of the script defines the task. "16" is the unique ID for the task "AFAC". All loadouts defined in the task section that is associated with the AFAC task will follow this line. The following is a list of all tasks and their codes: Nothing = 15 SEAD = 29 AntishipStrike = 30 AWACS = 14 CAS = 31 CAP = 11 Escort = 18 FighterSweep = 19 GAI = 20 GroundAttack = 32 Intercept = 10 AFAC = 16 PinpointStrike = 33 Reconnaissance = 17 Refueling = 13 RunwayAttack = 34 Transport = 35 The number immediately after the task ID is the loadout ID and is the sequential ID of the loadout for this task. The number begins with 1 for each new task section. This is the first of 3 default loadouts for the AFAC task and therefore has a [1] after the [16]. Next we have the pylons section which defines what stores we will have in this loadout. Each individual station that contains a store has 3 lines each associated with it. Let's examine the first pylon entry: unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][1] = {} unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][1]["launcherCLSID"] = "{6D21ECEA-F85B-4E8D-9D51-31DC9B8AA4EF}" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["pylons"][1]["num"] = 1 The first line just identifies the entry and each entry has a unique sequential ID. In this case [1]. This number DOES NOT CORRESPOND TO THE STATION ON THE AIRCRAFT!! It is merely an identifier, and nothing more. The second line defines the store for that pylon ID. Each possible store has a class ID that is usually a non-recogizable GUID or 'Global Unique ID" that would be used to instantiate that particular store. With that said, however, some IDs - while unique - are human readable text that actually defines the store. At this time, I am not sure why some are GUIDs and some are not... a question best left to the devs. The store GUID for this particular pylon definition is {6D21ECEA-F85B-4E8D-9D51-31DC9B8AA4EF}, which is the ECM pod. The complete list of these class IDs can be found in the Names.lua file located at ..\dcs a-10c warthog\Scripts\Database. NOTE: When selecting stores for your custom loadout, it is important to understand that there is exactly one class ID that corresponds to each configuration. For example, I can load one GBU-12 on station #4, but I can also load a Triple Ejector Rack (TER) of 3 of them. The class IDs are different for these. The same is true if I load 2 Mavericks on station #3 and two on station #9... but they are mirrored left and right (to the outboard most connections on the TER), and each have unique class IDs! The third line DOES define the station that the store will be located on... in this case station #1. You will notice that the second pylon ID defines the AIM-9 pair {DB434044-F5D0-4F1F-9BA9-B73027E18DD3} on station #11, but is ID [2]. Again, no correlation between the pylon ID and the station number. The order you define these in does not seem to matter, and even in the out of the box file, there are no standard patterns. To my point, the very next AFAC loadout defines the pair of AIM-9s on station #11 first (ID [1]) and the ECM pod on station #1 last (ID [8]). The last two lines of the specific loadout definition are the name and category. Here are those two lines in the loadout we have been looking at: unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["name"] = "SUU-25*9,AIM-9*2,ECM" unitPayloads["A-10C"]["tasks"][16][1]["category"] = "AFAC" This is pretty self-explanitory... the "name" line defines the name of the loadout and is what you see in the mission editor and in the Ground Crew re-arm menu. This can be anything you dream up, and does not have to start with "AFAC" or "Anti-Tank", etc. to show up as long as you define a category. I believe, and other posts have stated, that if in the mission editor you name your loadout using the categories that have been defined, that they will appear in the right category. I have not tested this and cannot confirm either way. The "category" line places the loadout in the corresponding menu in the Ground Crew re-arm menu. DCS groups common ones together, so using the same category will put them in the same menu. There is no other "magic place" to define categories... if you create a store and name the category "Widget", you will see that menu option when you rearm with that payload as a sub-menu item. So these are the basics of the loadout definition in the "tasks" area of the aircraft section. I hope there is value in sharing all of this information, and I have strived to make sure that all of it is as accurate and correct as possible. I had to break this post up into two sections because of the 15,000 character limit, so if you are interested in learning more, please take a look at my follow on post. Thanks, and happy flying! :pilotfly: ~Python 76th Tankbuster Operations Task Force Blackjack http://tf-blackjack.com/content.php

Hey everybody, This is my first post on these forums. I was a active pilot on the Free falcon and Open Falcon forums and flew countless hours of multiplayer missons on these sims. I first off wanted to say hI to this new community, and let everyone know that I am excited about getting to know the warthog! However, as I begin I know there is a large learning curve ahead of me, I can familiarize myself with the aircraft\weapon systems, but.... I have no Idea about A10 AtoG tactics... Even normal cruise Alt/speed. Is there a place where I can begin to read about these? (outside manual ofcourse) For instance... What do you guys use as your hard deck if there is a Heavy SAM threat. What alt do gun passes occour? What is a good optimum cruising alt for a A10 assuming little to no payload? What is a good combat ingress alt? Thank you in advance anyone that responds.. BTW Sobek if you are still here WAS UP BUDDY?;)

I feel better already. :megalol: Who wants more some inspiration ? :smilewink: http://forum.lockon.ru/showpost.php?p=1292024&postcount=22 http://forum.lockon.ru/showpost.php?p=1292026&postcount=23 http://forum.lockon.ru/showpost.php?p=1292028&postcount=25

check Sky, lol ... fotoshop

Быть изгнанным из гадюшника это разве плохо? :)

I'd have to put it past the management, I'll let you know.

haha, yeah they're going to be easy to put together:)

Not that it probably needs it as Dowly has filed a bug report, but I can confirm this. I've been trying to use RAT all day (before finding this post) with the exact same result on client side tracks. They play just fine, but won't unpause in RAT.

..from one of the projects i'm planning right now. You might remember the first one all those ages ago :D

Its mostly a question of AI default behavior. In DCS it takes a fair bit of adjusting behavior parameters, waypoints, and even weapons to get the desired result. The AI in general do seem to be missing an "efficiency" paramter where they tend to have rather aggressive behavior. When they throw caution to the wind and go full burner at that Mig that is 90 km away or start doing massive evasive maneuvers against a threat they could easily defeat if they just kept their planned flight path.