Tank50us

I can agree with this, but having new assets at the same time isn't a bad thing either. Like, for example, take the HMMWV. I'd personally like to see it remodeled, but also get some new variants not present outside of mods (such as the ambulance version, or one with a MK19, or a command version, etc). Kinda like they did with the Leopard 2s when the new model for that dropped.

Hell, the tankers should be talking to us the whole time from the moment we call them, to the moment we leave formation with them. One viable option to solve this would be to allow humans to sit in the operators seat and manually control the whole procedure (similar to the SCMs LSO slot), or, allow some visual indicators that are client side only (IE, if someone has it turned off, they won't see it if someone else has it on). Such indicators could greatly assist newer pilots who just don't have the hundreds of hours per month to dedicate to flying virtual fighter jets.

Very. Actually. And again, it'd be an option that can be turned off if the player doesn't want to have it, just like the dots and labels we already have in DCS. It doesn't magically make you better at flying the plane, it's just an aid to give pilots a visual reference where they need to be in order to perform one of the most complex tasks in all of aviation. Sure, to someone who's done it hundreds, if not thousands of times ever since DCS was just LOMAC, it's "easy", but imagine yourself as someone new to the game, trying to learn it all for the first time, and for bonus points, we'll say that this person isn't in a group willing to help him learn. The videos show you the technique, but not everyone learns by watching a 20min tutorial video on YouTube (I certainly don't). Many learn by actually performing the act in question, preferably with someone watching them in F2 guiding them. Those "arcade gamey dots" can help you figure out "Ok, this is where I need to put my aircraft in order to be formed up with the tanker.", then it moves to where you would have to be in order to call pre-contact, and then you get the visual indicator (again, similar to the meatball for the SCM) that gives you a visual aid to help you link up. That's all it does. Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't do the job for you, it's no 'easy mode', it's just "Fly here, now here, now here", similar to the other training aids and even the tutorials for literally everything else in the game.

I could agree with this.... but there's a simple problem with it... there's too many helmets for a single skin to work with. What would have to be done is ED creates a 'custom helmet maker' within the game that allows us to make custom helmet paint jobs within certain limits.

@NineLinementioned that in his interview with the Air Combat SIm Podcast, as it would make the game more 'mod friendly', and give you access to liveries you don't already have. Obviously the livery bit would have to be something optional for people to download, otherwise people might end up downloading d--k plane liveries. But then again, if the server runner is allowing that on their server, I think I know where the problem is....

When it's ready? I dunno, I know it's in the roadmap, but remember that these guys aren't working in a studio atm, they're likely still working from home, and moving a few hundred megs to a gigs worth of data can take a bit over cloud services since everyone is a slave to their internet connections.

Funnily enough, this is another thing that ED can learn from another simulator, and add as a function that can be turned off: A formation 'dot'. Basically, when a player spawns into a squad leader position in that game, they don't see this dot, but everyone else does, and that dot shows them where they're supposed to be in the formation. This could take the form of a HUD indicator, or as a little grey dot that appears in a point in space with the thing you're trying to form up on (in this case, the tanker). Once it's 'your turn' to refuel, the tanker can give you audible instructions on what to do next, and a pop-up... well... pops up similar to the meatball for the SCM. It's a thing that can be turned off for those that don't need it (although the audible stuff is in dire need anyway so the tanker can manage the chaos of planes lining up for gas). This is I think the best way to help people learn. Remember, you cite real pilots, but they spend hundreds of hours in a simulator learning how to do it before they do it for real, and they also benefit from things that we sim pilots will never have, like actual depth perception and aircraft feedback (IE, a real pilot can feel what his plane is doing much better than we can in DCS).

There's also a 7. Learning with aids will get a person used to getting the muscle memory in. Those denying this fact have never taken apart and reassembled a rifle, and it shows. Those of us who've been in the military all learned such a thing by studying a manual, and eventually got to the point where we could do it nearly blind-folded. Comments like this don't do any of those who struggle to refuel when attempt after attempt results in them hearing their engines spool down and the blasted tanker constantly telling them to "Return pre-contact"

I'm gonna side with the Gamepad owner here, because there's people that play with Keyboard and Mouse. So, anything that could be integrated into the game that can *help* the player with most of the hard things by giving them visual indications of what they need to do. Not take control of the aircraft obviously, but give some visual indicators.

The best way for it to be handled would be a display that pops up to give the pilot direction on how to get into the correct position for refueling. This could be something that's optional, and could be turned off if a player wants, but otherwise it's an aid, and not something automatic of 'easy'.

And let's not forget the various mortar carriers NATO forces have developed over the years. Heck, the M113 would fit in just about any army that isn't allied with the Reds given how many 113s were built. Then there's some of the freaking awesome ones like the PzH2000 which can put five shots in the same spot at the same time (Multiple Round, Simultaneous Impact, or MRSI). Then there's the various other NATO Rocket launchers and Tube Artillery that had been developed over the decades.

Uhm.... a ChangeDotOrg petition isn't going to affect Eagle Dynamics, especially since they're a Russian Company, and Change is a US based thing.

Yeah, right now we have what? two mortars in the entire game? One is that little stand-alone thing, and the other is the Nona. Then again, when it comes to long-range fire support in general, DCS is quite lacking.

The 'in a pinch' just refers to the unlikely scenario that those aircraft either aren't around, or otherwise not available, but the F-16s (somehow) are in a particular location. Or, if such a massive fleet (like the one the Chinese have been building, or that the Soviets had at their height), were to attack that you'd need every possible aircraft in the air that can fling harpoons as you can get. Obviously, in a situation where the enemy ships are in port or clustered together in a single location (and not moving), the F-16 could get by with HARMs and MK84s, but if an enemy fleet is on the move, and sufficiently sized, you might need more planes with the capability to attack it from a safe distance, and the Harpoon would most certainly give you (the pilot) that.

Oh goodie, another thing to turn to scrap

You don't think that people willing to drop $80(US) on a module wouldn't be above spending an extra ten bucks to have some cockpit greblies in their pits?

My unit is in need of a livery for the Hind, and until the paint kit is released, i certainly can't do it. However, I've seen several people manage to make one, and I'd like to know if anyone would be up for making the base livery for the 145th PMC Groups Hinds. Concept: If anyone is up for the challenge, I'll supply all the roundels and insignias.

@BIGNEWYfrom the research you guys have done on the Falcon, would such a thing be a software update in the aircraft to install irl? Or would it require more modification to the aircraft in order to accept the missiles?

I don't really see a reason why they couldn't. If it's a software issue, then it really wouldn't matter as that is something that would be loaded into the planes computer system. I can certainly understand it if it's a hardware issue though, as in, the computer simply can't be programmed and those features installed to the aircraft. Update, the version we have is the Block 50, and according to F-16.net, two, maybe three customers use the Harpoon on their Block 50s: https://www.f-16.net/f-16_armament_article12.html And it seems the USAF did tests with the Harpoon on the F-16, as the photos there show. So even though it's not a normal load, it does seem to be an available one for some customers, and a "In a pinch" load for the USAF.

bobble-heads aside, having some official cockpit items that we can place would be nice to have, even if it was something that we had to pay a little extra for.

Maybe we should get the F2A Viper Zero then, and it's custom anti-ship toys

Will the F-16 get the Harpoon (max of 2) and Penguin (max of 4) Anti-ship missiles? I know that the USAF may not have used it much (after all they have platforms that can carry many more missiles than a Falcon can), but other nations do have that capability, being island nations and all. If this is on the roadmap, then please disregard, but if not.... why? Anyway, feel free to discuss everyone.

Neither! Tomcats for the win!

actually, we don't need Jester-like menus for that, we already have the radio coms menu. I think it would make more sense that when I give the 'remove wheel chocks' command in the radio menu, the pilot model looks out to the right, or left, and does the animation (visible in external view). Same would apply to the ground power, ground air, as well as acknowledgements (thumbs up, thumbs down).

The problem with the UH60 series is that it would become the helicopter equivalent of both the F/A-18C and FC3 combined. The reason I say that is due to the sheer number of versions of the H-60 series of helicopters, each one with their unique characteristics and roles. It would be a nice thing to have, but it is something that ED would likely be forced to spend years on bringing all the variants to the table since the moment they announce it, people are going to demand every possible variant of the blasted thing.