DimSim

Just finished the AV-8B Kerman Campaign and really enjoyed it. It is clear a lot of effort and care was put into this campaign. Here's some feedback... Appreciated many of the design choices... Really really liked the ability to successfully fail a mission. That is, complete the mission and move on, while actually failing the objective/s. Liked the option for more cockpit chatter, even if not realistic. Liked the option for short landings instead of vertical, and nice to be off the Tarawa for a change. Impressed by the documentation, much of which was useful. Liked the relatively short travel times and reasonable mission times, and even the region chosen. I never found flying to objectives boring and made minimal use of accelerated time. Liked the choice of asking my wingman to attack mission objectives, particularly if I failed or was out of ammo. Liked no forced A2A refueling. As a fan of Baltic Dragon's campaigns, this was very similar in both content and quality. So I'd recommend this to BD fans. Wingman AI was a big hit and miss, literally. Sometimes the wingman would circle endlessly with bombs remaining, as if unable to line up the shot within parameters. Other-times it seemed a timeout would occur and pretend the AI did something useful. I don't recall the mission number, if this is a bug or omission. As a casual player, campaigns to me, are a bit like interactive movies. I appreciate it when I, the player, can participate more or less depending on my skill, preferences and available time.

Playing a campaign mission, I'm asked to enter UTM coords for a precision attack. Have done this many times. However, sometimes the grid reference is not present or available on the ODU. In this case, I needed EU but the 9 values included only EN, EO, EP, EQ. Looking at the F10 map, and flying over where the target was, I was flying directly over EU at that time, but still the ODU did not offer the necessary grid reference. The manual says that repeatedly pressing the UTM button will display the 9 grid references at and around your current location. I've encountered this before, but just assumed I was just too far from the target location while orbiting, and in the past the grid choice did eventually turn up. This time I could not get it to display and I was clearly over the target. Switching SOI to Map, I could move the target or waypoint near the correct location, but could not enter precise coordinates for precision bombing. Any idea what's going on here? Could this be a bug?

I too am trying to figure out reliable instructions for LMAV and on screen indicators. I *think* the important points are 1) Wait 30 - 90? seconds when selecting LMAV weapon for it to get ready. 2) Uncage LMAV. If you switch to lMAV screen, which is just a blank screen with code and X symbol, I think it can say RDY, otherwise you can't tell if it's ready or not as it's not shown on the weapon page like IRMAV. When uncaged, the X on the top of HUD should start scanning left to right, otherwise you can't tell if it's uncaged. Perhaps someone else can share reliable steps and on screen indicators?

I encountered a rare bug on the weekend. This has only happened once ever. Steps: 1) Long press Waypoint Increment button 2) Select Waypoint (From left side panel) 3) Type (waypoint number) 3 into UFC, press Enter (Same for any waypoint 1-9) Actual result: 4) HUD and Map show Waypoint W3 (As desired and expected) 5) Press Waypoint Inc button (short). Switched to Target Points, set target point T0. (Pressing Waypoint Inc again sets T1, then cycles back to T0) Expected result: 4) HUD and Map show Waypoint W3 (As desired and expected) 5) Press Waypoint Inc button (short). Expect to advance to Waypoint W4, or next waypoint. During the mission I did press TOO, 1 Ent to add one target point manually. While RTB, I had fenced out completely, no target designation, long press waypoint inc showed waypoints highlighted. But every time I pressed Waypoint Inc, it switched to Target points. Edit: This behavior continued until the end of that flight. The only way to set a specific waypoint was via the UFC. DCS v2.9.2.49940

Thanks. That's generally the case, where it's hidden when the active point itself is out of range. However, sometimes it seems to be gone when the active point is well within range. I'm mainly trying to find a way to intentionally hide it.

Same issue here. I noticed when I was real close (~4mn) and low (~6000ft) I heard "Cleared Hot" even though I hadn't made the 'in' call that time. Like others, I was trying to stay high until the final dive.

Turning the Course Line on is fine, just hold or click the CRS switch. However, it seems to have a mind of its own after that. Sometimes it disappears even though the active waypoint is visible on the EHSD map. Other times it can stay on forever and even appear twice or more, displaying on the active target point as well as previous waypoint. Question is, without changing the course bearing, how can I toggle visibility of the course line on and off whenever I choose?

Wondering if this is intended behavior... When you put the EHSD into MAPM mode, DCTR can appear in the bottom right allowing decentered aircraft location on the map. However if you press DCTR once, the button label changes to EW, which then changes the MFD to EW display as labeled. I'd expect that as long as MAPM mode is selected, the DCTR button would remain, allowing pilot to toggle between Centered/Decentered choices. Here's a screenshot after pressing DCTR once. Notice EW is now displayed in the bottom right, as if not in MAPM (or DATA) modes. Please close this issue if current behavior is by design. DSC version 2.9.2.49940

Saw this bad bearing to waypoint indicator on HUD while taking of from Al Dafra in Broken Cauldron 2 Mission 8... Looks like a bad value when expecting 0-360. DCS MT v2.9.2.49940

I haven't noticed the 'glued to ground' effect, perhaps it's a new issue in recent weeks while I've been flying another aircraft? I have on occasion in all choppers had my skids stuck to terrain or some object, such as roof top or FARP pad, but that seems like an intermittent and general issue. However I did find it very sensitive to wind, and if not facing into the wind, easy to tip over, or make a very ugly initial ascent.

Thanks, those are great!

Returning to the AV-8B, I'm often getting my sensor and targeting controls mixed up. Can anyone recommend or point me toward a concise guide or chart to use as quick reference to assist with this? (I have a real nice one for the A-10C, which shows the effect of short and long press on the controls in various modes. That's what I'm after.) EDIT: Chuck's Guide "2 - HOTAS" -> "Sensor Select Switch (SSS):" which covers this. I'm after a simple diagram or table version of this info. EDIT: Bunny's HOTAS Kneeboard is very much what I want, just not up to date it seems. (https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3314231/)

Interesting for the modern era. (Otherwise happy to keep real world hostilities apart from DCS.) "China urges Asia-Pacific to be on high alert as US plans to reclaim Tinian airfield"

My 'fix' no longer works. This makes me wonder if the original behavior I expect was a bug all along, and what I thought was the 'default zoom' was something else. In the past, when I first get into an aircraft, the view is zoomed out to show the whole cockpit. When I pressed Zoom Normal for the first time, the view reset to a closer zoom level, typically with just the HUD and top level of cockpit instruments visible. Now, pressing Zoom Normal has no effect, as if there is one and only one initial and default zoom level, which is typically too zoomed out for normal flight for me. I don't use SnapViews or any custom view settings.

This had no effect for me. Here are repro steps to observe the 'zoom normal' issue: 1) Rename Saved Games\DCS\Config\View\SnapViews.lua to *.bak to disable 2) Instant Action - UH-1H - Persian Gulf - City Tour 3) Press Zoom Normal Observe no effect, nothing happens at all on (3). Workaround: 4) Press Numpad 0 5) Press Zoom Normal Observe zoom now reset to default for this aircraft.

Are you supposed to manually select armament at the start of every mission? I notice my aircraft has no weapons loaded at startup. Looking at YouTube plays from 4 years ago, it appears aircraft were already armed. @Bashibazouk I've only reached mission 2 and found the scene pitch black without bumping up gamma. Once again looking at old YouTube videos, it appears the night was much brighter in earlier version of DCS or perhaps the campaign.

I voted to keep the satellite / aerial photos vs synthetic, but it is a hard and possibly uniformed choice. Photos look great at high resolution and clean (of eg. clouds, shadows, anomalies). At low resolution, they are often unsatisfying. Synthetic can look very sharp and detailed, particularly at low altitude, but often has repetitive patterns of color, shape and design. Combining the two is a great challenge, particularly for any transition to be seamless. Cleaning up photographs can be very time consuming, particularly when done by hand. Creating unique landmarks or even placing trees and buildings to recreate realism, though much of that is shared between the two terrain imagery choices, is understandably time consuming. I think, near equally important is elevation map detail. This is not unique to photo or synthetic color imagery. This is mostly observed on mountain crests and valleys, but most critically roads near both of those features. Immersion is terribly broken when a river runs along the side of a hill instead of through the valley. And roads winding around mountains look terrible without the detail required to show a flat road cut out of the mountain side. Final random thoughts: Storage is relatively cheep these days, so I'd vote for more detail even at double or quadruple the storage footprint. The terrain and atmospheric lighting effects plus clouds that already exist have helped tremendously with realism and satisfaction looking outside the cockpit.

@BIGNEWYAny chance you could check that this reported bug has not been forgotten? Or perhaps report on its current status? Thankfully there is a work around, but it is a nuisance for many players and seems like it should not be a big deal to fix. (I'm referring to the 'Zoom Normal' not have expected effect until one of the work around views is instigated first. There may be other separate issues.)

The specific question this thread asks is: What is the difference between Standard and High clouds? There is an observable performance drop using High above Standard, but from my own tests, no noticeable difference in visual quality. So any information, or screenshots that do show the difference between those two settings would be helpful.

Just finished Stone Sky's MAD campaign flying the Gazelle and it was a blast, both the campaign and the new flight model. I had trialed the Gazelle some years ago but stuck with the Huey. I'd now recommend this whirly bird to chopper lovers. With the new v2.9 grass shadows, flying low has never looked so good. And that 20mm cannon strapped to the side, nice! Just wanted to thank the devs for their efforts on the Gazelle and look forward to seeing the module advance.

I enjoyed the campaign! Just finished tonight. Originally bought the campaign for the Huey but only played the first mission before getting side tracked for a month. Picked up the Gazelle on sale and played the campaign through with Gazelle. Really enjoyed flying the Gazelle with new flight model and glad to have some mission content to fly with, as the bird hardly came with any missions. Must admit I did not read all the text. Was happy the mission objectives were relatively simple and the tasks involved did not require too great skill level. Providing atmosphere and reason to fly is most of what I need. Well done Stone Sky.

I think related to this issue... autopilot status. There is an Autopilot master button on the collective. When I press it, nothing appears to happen, and there is no indication on the instruments or the control indicator visual of the auto pilot's active status. Is this feature merely not implemented at present?

At mission 5, I drop the cargo at the location requested. The mission does not detect the cargo drop. The mission text also says that in the case of cargo hook failure, just proceed to WP1 and continue anyway. I like the sound of that, as it should help avoid undesirable mission repeating regardless of cause. However when I crash the cargo, it says Mission Failed. Regardless, landing at WP1 has no effect, no trigger of mission progress. I continued the mission after a good cargo drop. Nothing at WP1, nothing at WP2. Figured I'd just fly the whole mission and skip it at the end (after 4 retries), but at WP3, the mission triggers continued and I was able to complete the mission successfully. Here's a screenshot of my cargo dropped at cargo location. I used manual release as auto disconnect had no effect: Here's a screenshot of my landing at WP1, which should continue the mission and pick up some person:

@ Gazelle Devs, is there any chance of an official English cockpit special option? I enjoy using those for my French and Russian aircraft modules. @Devrim, thanks for creating a mod for this feature.

Thanks. I tried changing Message font scale to 1.25. There was still a weird scroll effect but the text did settle down and move up the screen. Good to hear the training missions are getting some love and revision.