icecold951

Anyone work out any good ways to get the craft to share a tanker's fuel? Now that tankers have a limited supply, this is a new issue. The AI always want a full tank. But a S-3 might fill up one plane that is low. No way it can do it now for a flight of 4. I've taken currently in my missions to use a 135 tanker, even when unrealistic in situation, just so the rest can get a drink too. And that's before the hopefully soon fixed infinite refueling issue. And they still love to over use afterburners. Face palm. I'm currently learning to better stage landings and refuelings, though broken. Just made a naval action that included 24 F18, 8 F14s and try getting them all back on the boat before gas runs out. I did manage to make the infamous Harpoon missiles kill a fleet. It only took 96 harpoons. Also, is their anyway to get AI to jettison their external tanks? I can't tell the other flights to do anything of the sort. And my flight has only Jettison Weapons, which can be a little inconvenient if they need....weapons. We really need a Jettison specific pylon triggers.

Multiple points. 1, I was right about file size. 9 MB. can't attach it here. I can and am attaching the miz file. 2, I was in error about missile numbers for last night's test. I had failed to actually give the two additional flights a push task of attacking. So their 32 additional Harpoons never actually launched. And it was actually enough to finally get through the defense enough to do the job. Blew the Kusinstov away. A possible glitch here. All the missiles targeted the same ship. That probably really shouldn't happen, as Harpoons can't be specifically targeted that way. They find a radar track in their cone and attack it. They should have acted more like a mad dog AIM-120. The carrier is the bigger target, but some of them should have gone after other ships. 3. The defenses engaged at in excess of 20nm. That probably is unrealistically far, given curvature of the earth blocking radar detection that far off. I do believe there is a mission editor function that can limit the attack range, though I've yet to use it. Still, that defense probably breaks physics. 4. At no time did the US ships obey the order to fire on the Russian ships. I'll be examining that one a bit. On one hand, one should expect any real fleet to be a very hard nut to crack. On the other, that is still probably an unrealistic defense capability against such an attack. And it was against a fleet size that was probably not realistic. Only three escorts. In the end, a proper mission of a fleet action is extremely demanding on any computer system. I recommend if you try it, you view the final attack in map view. It locked up my computer trying to watch it with missile view. Oh, and a reminder that any attempt to use time compression tends to result in mid air collisions. Anti ship test.miz

Takes time sometimes to get an answer. I don't think your description was the cause. In my case, the lead craft broke off normally. The second pair came up behind, then went straight in with the enthusiasm of a pair of rams.

Unless there is an update today, I gave a track to a beta tester, possibly you, in my thread about that. He reproduced it and was surprised he got the same results. Was planning to test his own refueling mission vs mine. Edit. Mine was about F18s doing it. Thought they joined the air force or something.

When I get home later, sure. 6pm or so EST. Good timing, asking. I was going to delete it later and skip that portion as just unworkable in my campaign. During testing, it air starts to save time. I even upped it to six groups of F18s. Do not accelerate time though. That causes planes to have midair collisions, all following Panther 2 to an attack trigger zone. I'll move the waypoints and trigger zones to save time, unless you would prefer the raw original effort. But that takes approx 25 minutes to reach attack range, plus the time for the harpoons to attack. And that much data might exceed the 5mb file size limit. I don't think this is a bug. It is the long time issue regarding Harpoon missiles in DCS. They just don't get attributed the one advantage they are supposed to have, sea skimming. It should be impossible to target one more than about 15nm out. Radar would have to see over the horizon to do this. But from what I see, you'd have to burn up a CPU to add enough to get past this defense. And it would be an unrealistically high number of aircraft out in the ocean without large tanker support. Landing that many planes after a mission would take to long, even in CASE I. Also, several slowed down and went into the water. I suspect those were extreme range shots and simply ran out of fuel. But as of last night 96 missiles couldn't get past one carrier and three escorts. Missiles timed on target. In case you don't know, and you probably do, timed to reach the enemy together so they in theory swamp the defenses. The only possible actual bug that I see is the US ships not firing as instructed. They should have TASMs that could reach the enemy at that range.

FYI, it isn't a new bug. I saw this, in some form or another back in 2.6 and I think 2.5. So it may be changed in 2.7, but not a new bug. In that article about infinite refueling, someone noticed that issue is also related to external tanks.

Panther 2-3 and 2-4 both did it. They approach like going for the boom, then fly into the tail of the tanker. Strangely enough, they didn't when I tried without external tanks. Straight up air spawn for all participants. Tanker mission and refueling way point. Track 1 attached. I also have the mission file available if useful. 1.trk

I was just making a naval action between a US Carrier group and a Russian one, part of a campaign. I currently have four groups of four hornets with full loads of harpoons. 16 planes, four missiles each. 64 harpoons. All timed on target. Can't get through those defenses. I'm ready to add a couple more flights, but I'm already seeing issues with how many objects are being simulated here. I mean....The Russians were kind of in the same boat. but their missiles fly higher and are more realistically able to be tracked. Which leads to the Harpoon problem. It is impossible to detect and track a harpoon over the horizon with ship radar. The prime advantage to the harpoon is it's sea skimming attack gives a ship only about 15 or so NM to detected and engage. It is impossible for ship radar to do this over the horizon. That isn't being simulated in this. I just don't see why not. It isn't as if it should be difficult to make it hard to track at range. I know it doesn't simulate the curvature of the earth, but they could simulate the issue with radar return signature. It is like they want the harpoon to be worthless. And the reality is they are anything but worthless. The attack profile is specifically designed this way, and not the the US had no capability to make the same types of missiles Russia prefers. And do the US ships not feature TASMs? I tell my ships to fire too, and they don't. TASMs were around in 99, and easily have the range. 200 miles, simulating the fuel issue of having that many planes up and needing to land them again before they run dry.

I've accidentally shot down incoming Russian missiles. 27Rs

I'll see what I can do to get a picture. I play in VR, so it is harder to get a proper screen grab. I see it happening a lot though, on four plane flights. I have to tell my guys to rejoin when I see it happening. I can do nothing about it when it is an AI flight. I never saw that report about infinite refueling. Do they actually get fuel? I'll click the link to see what it says.

Is there any addressment to the refueling issues this sim has? F18s crash into the back of the tanker, going in like they want the boom. I've infalso now seen a case of infinite refueling, or so it seems. During a mission of evacuating a base, I sent my flight to the tanker to refuel. They never finish. I have no idea if they got fuel at all.

I'm having a hard time lately with AI refueling. An AI flight of 18s keeps having people try to go for the boom. I deleted the mission, and then two went for the baskets and two went for the boom at the same time. Any solutions to this happening?

Ok. They appear to have fixed that waypoint issue in the update. They don't seem to go back to waypoint one, and I found the the command to advance waypoint. AI behavior regarding sam threats is also apparently improved. They obey the command to evade fire only, and don't hit the deck if SAMs are present.

I've been getting into mission editing in a big way, for me at least. But I've been limited by problems i can't find answers to. Number one, waypoints and wingmen. I'll set up a strike mission with multiple targets for my flight. I'll have some set aside for me at a second waypoint. Works. But It has to be waypoint 1, or when i tell them to attack mission target, they all go right back to waypoint 1 and proceed from there. I'm trying to figure out how to advance the waypoint after I have passed it, so that when I detach them for their strike, they'll do it from that point. It would also be nice if they didn't treat the bullseye waypoint as a real one. And I have no known way to do this other than make Bull one of my used waypoints. And if anyone has an answer, I've made missions with sam suppression before a strike. The suppression works and the SAMs are dead, but my guys won't go in. They go low level and afterburner, then RTB. That is even if I have them set to ROE Evade Fire Only. They just won't attack anything that ever had a SAM defense. So far there can be no SAM defenses near the target, even dead, and AI will ever attack.

Thanks. I won't waste time trying to make it work.

I'm trying to find out if the IR mav is bugged at night. I can't get it to lock on target at night, and I am using the same proceedures as I do in the day to lock it up. Is it bugged, or am I doing something wrong and it works for others?

I'm trying to see if there is a known bug regarding IR Mavs at night. Specifically I've had trouble at night with them not wanting to lock up a target. Both in the F18 and now in the AV8. In the day, no troubles. But at night, won't work. I looked on the internet, but didn't find anything on this issue. I do recall seeing an article somewhere mentioning it.

I've been working with the mission editor on making bombing runs. I've finally managed to get a wingman to actually drop. He only bombed one target out of four, but progress. But one problem i have is when I tell them to execute mission and rejoin. They immediately want to start over and go to WP1 and follow the whole route. I'm not sure if there is an editor issue there, or just idiot AI that don't understand we're on top of the target. Any help with this?

I'm getting better at at making missions where the wing men will do tasks. Though the really get wonky in AAR. I had two of the 18s go for the boom, with predictable results, when I told them to refuel. What I can't figure out is commanding wingman 4. no option. An example mission as a distant strike mission on an airbase. I was loaded up to go for the runway itself, 2 was set up for SEAD, 3 was set up for a strike on a building though he didn't drop, and I wanted four for air defense and a couple more HARMs. But I had no ability to issue orders to him except by ordering all, then quickly diverting the other two back on mission.

I know about the A/A WP, from learning what they were talking about regarding Rock. It is unrealistic, since it would be easier to call out a bullseye, and have the plane localize that on SA. The AWACS would have to find you, then determine your position relative to the bogey for a BRAA. And a BRAA call doesn't help any other flights, and can confuse them as to who has the BRAA. A Bullseye provides the exact same information to everyone, who can then use SA to see if it is relevant data to them..

Interesting. It sounded like the AI using Rock calls. Changed the range and bearing to match what I saw on my SA and radar. Supposedly, when I had to hunt down WTH a Rock call is, F-18s don't have easy access to Bullseye and use Rock calls. I guess it is just the AWACS directly talking to me in my mission.

I'm trying to figure out how to get my AWACS to use Rock and Bullseye callouts, such as in Raven One. So far I haven't a clue. I even dissected a mission to try and find an answer to this.

Thanks. I actually did look both here and on Youtube, but found no answer. I had originally mistaken his F8 for a key command, rather than ground crew command. And yeah, I had long thought it odd we could have both at the same time.

Did we lose NVG during this update? It isn't the end of the world, as I usually don't use it in flight. Mostly I use it to see the guy directing me onto the launcher. At night, I can barely see his hands moving.

To be honest, I wonder if the devs WANT the harpoon to be useless. Let's face it, I understand they are Russian. And there is a nice rivalry between US and Russia about each other's equipment. But one fact you can't ignore. The USN would not have kept the Harpoon if it was useless. They know exactly how capable it is, and still want it. They didn't develop a sea skimmer because they couldn't do anything better. And these harpoons should be flying lower than they are. Under fifty feet.