ARM505

Not that great a shot, but I did!

Can you elaborate? I know what they are and do, just can't really figure out where they would put one in a 190D? And why the gains would be so big?

Ok, I'm boasting again, but here's my rather grubby legs in the SA FW190, you can see the instruments more clearly, some replacements from the original I suspect:

I still have fond memories of tearing through a herd of Mustangs on the old South African SGS IL2 servers, cries of 'Who's that!' over comms following on as Ponies fell from the sky.....(hey, it happened, even if only once!) Looking forward to this one, the 190 remains my favourite.

Hey, that's my brother - he's got the good eyes in the family! :D

Oh, don't ask why Oh, don't ask why :D Ah, good to see the traditional FW190 cockpit bar discussion progressing here too (was just at the IL2:BOS forums :) ) It's not just the bar, it's the perceived depth of the side bars surrounding the thick front windscreen. Just so we're all clear on what's been happening there. The first thing I saw when I stepped into the BOS 190 was 'Gosh, look at those massive bars obscuring my view to the sides of the windscreen!' Thick glass makes those (as well as the lower bar) look thinner when looking through the windscreen, so it doesn't seem like you're staring out through a metal valley :D :D

Just as a trial run, I set a 4 Ship Mig 15 AI flight against a 4 ship Sabre flight, then a 4 ship F15C flight, then a 4 ship F16D flight (all gun only of course). The Mig 15's won each fight 4 -0. Yay, beta! And AI being odd of course :D

Ok, fine, fine, I'll buy it dammit! :D

Funnily enough, Steel Beasts was made to work in combination with VBS, the professional version of ARMA. The infantry dudes saw VBS, the tank guys saw Steel Beasts. So it is possible. But yes, we can only dream. I'm glad somebody mentioned Spintires, that has epic mobility challenges - really makes just driving around a challenge, and is surprisingly good! Wish we could match that one up with SB or ARMA.

I actually the whole situation rather frustrating - here we have sims like ARMA, Steel Beasts, DCS, Combat Mission, IL2 CLOD, BOS etc etc etc all trying to duplicate a lot of effort in so many common areas, and one of the biggest is plausible, intelligent infantry behaviour. With so many fails along the way. I've just been scratching my head while playing the ARMA 3 campaign at some of the occasional AI oddities, although for sandbox infantry it's still the leader, as it should be given it's focus, with the individual soldier as it's core unit. It's funny really - each sim treats the AI mechanics along the lines of it's original 'theme': In DCS, AI unit pathing and behavior was built around aircraft (an aircraft could never stop and engage), in Steel Beasts, the logic is built around armoured vehicles (infantry are retarded but can function), and in ARMA it's built around individual people (witness the truly abysmal attempts when vehicles were trying to follow roads in the beginning, thankfully a lot better now!) It's almost like we need some kind of common AI OS or plugin, something like PhysX for AI. But right now, ARMA infantry in DCS would be EPIC - and impossible really, given how long BIS has been working on them I doubt DCS infantry would ever be comparable. And it's a pity really, because CAS units really need plausible infantry.

*sigh* *Fires up latest version of IL2 1946 again* So many aircraft in one package. Maybe in another 50 years time....

Detonation.

It must be a Russian thing :D Play World of Tanks enough and you get to experience the magical power of the KV series of tanks, with special AP ammo-eating Stalinium armoured tracks which chomp your rounds so they do no damage ;) Maybe it's the same for some heli's?

It's definitely not out yet, don't even bother checking.....maybe check in, say, an hour or so? *evil laugh, continues to enjoy high download speeds!*

Wow, but I want a cloth to wipe that thing down before I get in! Can I have a factory new one please? Those shots are sort of like the ones I've seen rotting quietly away in corners of Angola. Give me a can of virtual paint!

I still think this is a failure of the core DCS world blast model (mentioned before many times). It's like the engine just considers the shotgun type fragmentation effect and ignores the giant explosion that just occured right next to the helo. Watching the replays in slow motion, sometimes it seems odd to have the helicopter disappear in a giant fireball, then come out the other side with some holes in it, trailing a bit of smoke or something (admittedly this is one the rare-ish side, but weird things do happen with the current model) Especially if it's hit tail-on or something where the warhead's effect seems to get 'eaten' by non-critical structures.

• Corrected HE warheads for unguided rockets. Hmmmm....reckon this is a better HE blast/frag model for HE rockets, or just some kind of balancing with the current model? I'm assuming the latter, I guess a new blast/frag model is more engine related and less individual weapon related? Won't get my hopes up. As usual, nice change list, F15 AFM and SU25T 6DOF the icing on the cake of course...

The trim tab 'flies' the control surface - it's correct. It's not that you get more than you put in, it's like a kind of aerodynamic boosting, the same as control surfaces where part of the movable surface is placed ahead of the hinge line to reduce stick force.

You could do that too, but the previous suggesting is to delete only your control (and other) setups - upon starting DCS again, they will be regenerated with the newer additions. This would save you having to download the entire DCS again.

I must say, RAIM prediction warning must surely come pretty far down the list in terms of whats needed in a combat sim. ED don't plan on doing all the coding for genuine RAIM warnings do they? Cost/benefit analysis would say no, but who knows...

One thing I've thought I've noticed is that it feels a little short on power compared to the previous version. Dunno, maybe it's just me, but I've found that power management is more critical - I'm over the green band of the EGT more readily, and have to watch pulling pitch too suddenly compared to before. Again, with these subtle changes, it's hard to tell if it's real or imagined.

Try F6?

My gut feel is that DCS punishes you very harshly and very quickly for any engine exceedance. In a way it's a good thing since it's a workaround for the 'brand new shiny plane every time' syndrome of sims (ie a brand new factory fresh P51 could likely last longer, but would be abused horribly in a fight because we get a new one everytime, unrealistically so), but on the downside it may not represent how well a real Merlin would have held up. IMHO.

Longer sticks help massively. I personally think it's high time that the higher end stick manufacturers start including connections and options for stick lengthening as standard. TM Warthogs etc should all include screw off/on attachment points (not hard since they already do actually) with TM available lengthening pieces of different lengths available as factory options (not necessarily in the box, but available to buy as extra). None of this bodged stuff with garden hose pieces (which work awesomely, but why am I having to do that for a high end stick that ALREADY has attachment points?!) The P51 is another one that benefits a lot from this kind of mod. Seriously, TM et al - when is this happening?

Finally! Nicely summarised. I can't rep you for this post for some reason, so give yourself a +1 internets in the meantime.