Ripcord

TM was the same way about availability of the MFD packs -- available in Europe, no word about availability in the US, and pinning it largely on their manufacturers (who are just filling the orders they were given, IMHO). Then I think they finally released a list of stores where they would be carried. Pretty sure I got mine on Amazon, finally, and they showed up right away, but I did have to wait months, like over half a year, before I could even order. Of course, nobody was actually ordering and paying for those MFD packs over here, AFAIK, only to be told later that the shipment is delayed. That's harsh, if that is happening here with these HOTAS, but I don't think that was their intention. You know, the North American market used to be the largest market for a lot of things, such as construction equipment and airplanes. No longer the case. And remember our electrical/power standard here differs a little from most the rest of the world, so they have to consider which version of the widget they want to make first. Probably you'd start with the largest market, no? I think I would. Plus they pay more for stuff in EU than we do here in the US.... not sure why that is, but they just do. So on this level it does make sense they would start over there, if those assumptions are valid. However, the North American market is still HUGE, so they DAMN SURE wouldn't want to bungle it. Gotta be a better way to handle it than 'no word, sorry'. Ripcord

Are there going to be commands for EMCOM (I realize this aircraft has no radar but it does have radios)? And what about a Dump Fuel command? Sorry, another home cockbuilder question here.....

I got a set also. Need to test to see if they work -- not sure how exactly to do that, as I don't have anything that fits the old gameport connection.

I see your point, but you wouldn't have to be tracking that many events, and some events you would not necessarily have to track at all, after you reach a certain stage or level. For instance, you have a 12 stage campaign, and you have two massive SA-10 sites, fixed/permanent, that you really need to take out fairly early on in the campaign in order to proceed. Say by the time you hit Stage 8 or Stage 9, it is quite safe to assume that it was destroyed... if not by a player or AI flight, then by some other flight. So from Stage 9 on, it's gone. And conversely, we can be fairly certain those sites are up and running in the later stages as we are pushed to the brink of defeat, in Stages 1-4. So you only really need to make an allowance for the possbility of the site being operational or not operational (eg, tracking its status) in stages 5, 6, 7 and 8. And further, the regular everyday mission results -- such as 'enemy unit killed' or 'friendly units protected' or whatever chunk of real estate is gained or lost -- can be tracked in 5 or 10 point increments. So that whatever the point score, it is going to be a number ending in 5 or zero. That is unless our 'special event' trigger is tripped, such as the SA-10 site going down, then that adds 1 more point to the final tally. So here we are looking for scores of 6, 11, 16, 21, 26.... and so on, and even then, we need to track this only in our 'mid stages' of our campaign. You are correct, however -- I will admit there are only a couple major events you can track that way, beyond that it just gets to be too many variables. Ripcord

I agree. Would be better if we just had damage tracking for ships, runways and stationary objects/buildings -- like other sims have. Instead we have come up with work-around solutions. Ripcord

I also have the 1024x768 res set up and I am considering now going with HD LCD TV monitors instead -- they are getting so much cheaper now. Going to test with my existing LCD HD and if I feel good about that, I'll go get a 46" or 50" LCD TV for the home cockpit.

Thanks guys, this is really good gouge here. This here is very good: I get it now, the little light came on for me. The score is the ONLY way to pass any kind of state info between stages or missions -- that's what I needed. I think just had a bit of a revelation in terms of coming up with a workaround to compensate for not having damage tracking. Say that in a mission one of several (permanent) things happens: (a) a major surface combatant is sunk -- we would then not want that same ship out sailing around in future missions, regardless of the stage. (b) a major SAM site is taken out. © a runway is blown up. OK, maybe a ship can be replaced after some number of missions with a new ship, maybe a major SAM site can be restored or rebuilt, and certainly a runway will be repaired/rebuilt after some time. So what we can do here is add increments or decrements of 1 or 2 or 3 for these events. So when I tally up my score, I am getting scores that end in 5 or 10, provided none of these events happen. If the big SA10 site, which is central to the story line, is taken out, then the mission ends in a 2. So what would have been a score of 60 is now a 62. Then I just have to take care to include at least a couple missions in the next stage that will have that SA-10 out of commission. Alright, thanks Mate. I got the old grey matter workin now. Ripcord

Have read this section of the manual several times, so let's get that out of the way. 1. Do these campaigns have damage tracking? For stationary units? For ships? 2. I see the value in the stages/ladders concept of this campaign builder, this is very very cool. However, is there a way to insert 'intro missions' into the beginning of the campaign, so that these are one-off missions which are never played again? 3. I understand that the score of the mission determines if we drop down a stage or move up a stage or remain in the same stage. How does the mission score then determine which missions we get within that stage? Say our player scores a 55, and he moves to the next stage. Which mission will be campaign assign him them? Will it look then for only those missions with a range that includes 55? So if I have a mission with a range of 60-100, our player would not be assigned that mission.... correct? Had a couple other questions, but can't remember right now. Let's start with these. Ripcord

I am new to this sim but learning it, after building a lot of 0missions for another Matt Wagner sim. Here is an alternative technique that might be more practical. Maybe just put a friendly hummer or a transport truck or something there at the objective where your trigger zone would have been. Put them right in the path of the enemy units, right at their final wp as you mentioned. If those enemy BTR-80s reach that objective at their final waypoint, they will almost certainly blow the heck out of that one hummer or truck. All you do then is check to see if the hummer is alive or dead. Simple. If it's dead, and was subject to attack from enemy air or other ground forces, then well, I guess those BTRs made it to their objective. This is a little bit simpler than trying to set triggers for each and every BTR unit -- and the more enemy BTR units advancing on the objective, the more work it would be to set up individual triggers AND the greater likelihood that they would seriously overrun that 'test hummer' sitting there. I am trying to model a decent ground FAC in this sim, so making sure the ground FAC unit is alive on the ground is sort part of the whole proposal - ain't nobody going to talk you onto your target if they are dead already. Ripcord

What about setting/adjusting the skill levels of the AI pilots? How much does that really effect the outcome? Ripcord

Ahaaa! That's what they were trying say in the GUI manual!!! Now I get it! Thanks Grimes. Actually that is a really cool feature. I like that. Ripcord

OK, man here you go. dagger -- kinzhal scimitar -- they just say curved turkish sword, or simitar sword -- mech broadsword -- palash pistol -- pistolet (also refered to as a stvol, or gunbarrel) rifle -- vintovka tiger -- tigr ("teegr") wolf -- volk fox -- lisa jackal -- zhakal snake -- zmeya javelin -- metatel'noe kop'yo (literally "throwing spear") spear -- kop'yo I guess these are meant to be used as codewords? those of you native speakers that care to disagree, please correct me here. good luck on your campaign. Ripcord

I started to write that this is an absolutely untrue statement here, but then I realized it is a matter of opinion. So I don't agree. I guess you've spent a lot of time monitoring Russian/soviet military comms there in Croatia? You don't think their use of the Russian phonetic alphabet (eg, az, buki, vedi, etc) is similar to how we use it in NATO? I don't remember anything poetic or macho, but I damn sure remember them screaming at each other on the radio. Ripcord

#3 in the photo is just a knob to adjust brightness.

I am not Russian but I play one on TV. Let me see if I can help make heads or tails of this. ЗАХВ-АВТ-РУЧН This is probably a toggle between auto and manual modes for something related to locking up a target. Think it might be TWS? Could be pretty similar, I guess. АПК-АП-ОТКЛ Not sure here, the last part OTKL means "TURN OFF". Could it have something to do with Autopilot (AP)? АЗ-Д/ОБН/АЗ-V I am guessing the AZ means Azimuth. AZ-D / OBN / AZ-V. OBN might stand for Obnaruzhit, or detect. Maybe it adjusts the radar azimuth somehow? Interesting that they use the latin V, maybe it's a physics reference. Sorry, just some initial guesswork. Really we need a real Russian to chime in. Ripcord

Our whole economic model hinges on a steady stream BS for national dumbass consumption. If you want facts or unbiased reporting, turn on BBC. I think it is less about the aircraft than the radar and the weapons systems, if you are talking head-to-head conflict. The Russians make a mean aircraft, and it is probably a damn good value for the cost, but then you have to worry about availability of parts, engines, etc. And how good is the radar/weapons package going to be? Is Sukhoi going to sell you the latest & greater radar/weapons package they got? You going to get the same level of cooperation of Pogasyan and company in Moscow as you will get from Boeing and the Pentagon? Ripcord

The Russians showed this on their channel one news show last night... had a shot of one of the Bears doing some inflight refueling, making it sound like the object of the exercise was to stay in flight long enough to set a record.

FA-18E/F.... about as multirole as it gets. Would also like the F-15E Strike Eagle. The AV-8B would also be quite good particularly with the LHA Tarawa class helo carriers. Ripcord

In terms of installation, this was the easiest I've ever done, or as easy. Works great, just a matter of learning the key presses and/or mapping them to HOTAS and other gadgets. Of course this is a survery sim, a very good one, but still not as in-depth as Black Shark is and probably A10C will be. But I don't have any major complaints so far. Ripcord

Doing nothing is really not much of a choice, and not my best option. I still fly Janes FA-18. Graphics are horrendous but nobody has done (or probably will do) more realistic carrier ops. VNAO has better graphics, without question. FSX isn't a combat simulator, we can all agree on that. That's good for just what it was intended for. Not the same thing. Seven-G, well, let's see what they finally come up with. I am interested to learn more about your direct X overlay work. In any case, I am very impressed with all of this work that your group has done. Amazing stuff. Ripcord

This is a deal-killer for me, I need that familiar cockpit to work in. I'll have to just stick to flying the USAF jets. Hell, I guess I could learn to appreciate flying the Russian planes -- at least I speak the language so from that standpoint, it is kinda cool. So do we anticipate all some wiggle-room in allowing us to mod cockpits at some point? Ripcord

Maximize support for pit builders (which is already not bad): -- exporting MFD and screen data to smaller/separate monitors or at least other windows that can be moved/resized. -- programming functionality for TM MFD panels -- allow for development of drivers for Saitek panels (which now work with FSX and X-plane only) and Saitek instrument panels, either using lua data or some other connectivity. Ripcord EDIT: And please, please PLEASE plan for additions of more theatres in the world, like some kind of SDK for third parties, so that we will have other places to fly going forward

So what is the situation with the cockpits? I fly the FA-18F and I get the cockpit for the Su-33. That's not by design is it? Is there part of the VNAO mod that I am missing? I have VNAO FC2 FC3. Ripcord

Good news. Thanks. I need to get this mod. Ripcord EDIT: OK now I see what you mean. I got the VNAO FC2 RC3 and the tweaked FA-18F flight model for RC3, somewhere I located it. As earlier advised, I installed MODMAN 7.3 first and managed to make that work without major difficulty. What I am missing are the cockpits for the US Navy carrier jets, and the payloads. I guess I should have installed some earlier version first....?

What? Seriously? You mean the EFA mod, for the VNAO mod also? Ripcord