BuzzLine

DCS will never cease to amaze me. Thanks for sharing !

Out of curiosity, @Badger633 , can you share what the workaround is ?

All right, I happened to have that campaign and was able to duplicate. At least in the SuperCarrier variant , "mission 4 camp 2 SC.miz". When I run it in the mission editor, I too get the offending stacktrace in my dcs.log. Good news : just speed time up for a couple of minutes after mission start, no need to do anything. Then quit and look in dcs.log if you see the errors. Now, *hypothesis* for root cause (might be correct or I might be completely wrong) : Looking into the debrief.log (see below), there's something that looks a bit off at about the time the L39s take off (here it happens before, in my case it was logged a few seconds after). That event [6] looks ... different. I'd look into that first, could be a script issue in the mission. If @Badger633 uses MOOSE or any other fancy script, then that could be a source. Scripts rely on behaviors of DCS that may change with time. If so, then I'd suggest updating the script to a newer version and see if it fixes the issue. [6] = { type = "takeoff", initiatorPilotName = "", place = "START", t = 133.2, initiator_unit_type = "", initiator_object_id = 16784896, linked_event_id = 0, event_id = 94, initiator_coalition = -1, initiator_ws_type1 = 200, initiatorMissionID = "_16784896", // that looks different from the usual values }, -- end of [6] [7] = { type = "engine startup", initiatorPilotName = "L-39ZA", t = 133.901, initiator_unit_type = "L-39ZA", initiator_object_id = 16781056, linked_event_id = 0, event_id = 95, initiator_coalition = 1, initiator_ws_type1 = 1, initiatorMissionID = "63", }, -- end of [7] [8] = { type = "engine startup", initiatorPilotName = "L-39ZA", t = 133.901, initiator_unit_type = "L-39ZA", initiator_object_id = 16781312, linked_event_id = 0, event_id = 97, initiator_coalition = 1, initiator_ws_type1 = 1, initiatorMissionID = "64", }, -- end of [8]

Hello everyone, I'm the "End Mission button not working" guy. It seems indeed like a similar problem from my old 2021 nemesis but this time from a different-ish reason. If this happens again, attach *both* the dcs.log *and* the debrief.log. Actually, the latter is the one important. Because in it, we'll find an event of type 'takeoff' and an empty/nil initiatorMissionID field (from what I can see in the code, assuming we are on the same version). Figuring out the sequence of events that lead to this will help ED figure out where the issue is. Could be some random bug or some script issue, and it could also be an issue with the multithreading. At the very least, it *might* help people create a simple reproducible test case. (Of course, please make sure you run the tests with no mods, no scripts, pure vanilla DCS). Good luck, Jim

Is it the "Northern Flank" series ? I liked it a lot.

Slightly off-topic as it's not about campaigns but rather single missions : a huge thank you to @Reflected (and also to @Sedlo) for providing us with excellent missions for the F-4. It gives great color and context to an already fantastic module. Looking forward to full-blown campaigns !

BTW, for those who have the F-4, there is a great mission on the Kola map by none other than Reflected. (BTW, they did an excellent job with the release of the F4 by having quite a few missions made by top-notch designers.)

Words of wisdom. Anyways, I look forward to what the campaign makers will make of it. And future evolutions of the map and the engine with multithreading activated. Fly safe and enjoy the map.

Thanks for sharing it ! I guess we don't have the same expectations because everything I mentioned earlier is very visible in your video, at least to me. The water/land border, the featureless grass and tarmac, the lack of variability in buildings, the walls and roofs that are still very "flat", etc. Good choices of lighting and weather conditions also help, good job with that. Still, I am frustrated by what I perceive as limitations of ED's rendering engine, as well as some areas that I hope OrbX will improve over time. Maybe I was expecting too much from this map. (Concerning settings, I have the joy of flying both in 2D and in VR with all settings at maximum and 1:1 resolution. )

I had the exact same feeling flying low and fast around Bodo as well as Murmansk. Those sharp coastlines were very visible and made the whole stuff look very artificial. Then you start to see the limited texturing and variability in buildings and the result for me was a very mediocre first impression. It does start to look ok, sometimes even good, at medium altitude, say at least 5000ft. But if you want to fly at treetop level over the Kola peninsula, over the lakes and through fjords, the best experience you can find on the market is not by DCS. And that's a shame because this map is custom-made and quite expensive.

Yeah, maybe I was a bit optimistic indeed ! But my point was more that mere sightseeing missions should not be too much of an effort and a great showcase of the map. I was not expecting any Reflected or Baltic Dragon-like effort ! Imagine the seller of an apartment showing you the good parts and taking your attention away from the ugly old cupboard and creaky floorboards but LOOK ! The view from the balcony is amazing.

After having flown around a bit, I wonder if that is not a missed opportunity for good publicity. Even in EA (maybe especially in EA), I think it would be useful for a map designer to provide a few missions from the get go. So as to focus players' attention on the high-detailed areas, and flying the types of missions that show off a map in the best possible light, both literally and figuratively speaking. It's basic marketing, so to speak. And I don't think much complexity is needed there, at most a couple of hours in the mission editor for a few airframes (the free ones of course, maybe a couple of popular ones, like the F/A-18C ? Make it a Finnish one), and mostly for sightseeing. Selecting the right combo of time of day, weather effects, locations to explore, etc. And of course, have Wags deliver the usual "This is a Free Flight mission to explore the map. You can follow the planned course or explore as you will. There are no threats."

Bringing back Max on an exchange tour with the ALAT flying Gazelles would be nice !

That would indeed be absolutely awesome !

There are already a few missions available in the user files section, using the SA map. This is an example : https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/fr/files/3332713/

The list of landing places in the ATC communications submenu is sorted by distance, closest at the top. So once you're close to the ship, that should be the first one listed. The frequency may or may not have been changed by the mission designer. But in doubt, you can try on 127.5 AM, which is the default.

Call them on the radio and say you are "inbound".

I get weird looks when people ask me what got me to start learning russian and I answer "to read the cockpit labels in my virtual plane". Back on topic : I flew in circles for 20' in an F18 and didn't get anything AP-related on the UFC. With wpt, without, auto sequence wpt, nothing. Try a full repair ?

role-playing it all the way, I love it !!

(I'll assume everything is setup correctly, fuel pump is on, magnetos on, etc.) Just a hunch : make sure you continue pushing (pulling ?) the starter button long enough. I used to have the same trouble, thinking the engine was not starting, but it was because I was releasing the button too soon. Maybe you're doing the same thing ?

Thanks ! I followed your advice, it's indeed a very good book.

I picked up a great tip some time ago : zoom out. The issue is that in 2D (and even a bit in VR), we lack the peripheral vision to gauge small movements. Zooming out (*really* out) looks awful and distorted but it will help anticipate those small movements. In VR, like in real life, look far ahead.

Nope, no saves by default. Some campaign makers build their missions in two parts or allow an air start right before the action but it's tricky to manage and quite time-consuming for them so it's rarely done. Speaking of campaigns, there's a free one that any Hornet driver should try, it's as good as most paid campaigns and even better than many :

Campaigns like Raven One (both of them) or Fear the Bones are magnificent pieces of artwork with excellent production value and a lot of immersion. If that is your thing then my opinion is that it is worth buying SC (maybe on sale if budget is tight) to have access to those. But then again, it depends on your taste and the type of experience your are looking for in DCS.

Actual F16 manuals are easy to find on the Internet but I'm not sure they can be shared here. The supplement with the appendices has all the charts you may want to use to adjust based on gross weight, altitude, temperature, pitch angle, center of gravity, etc. I found someone rule-of-thumbed it to "70kts + 3*gross_weight_in_kpound" so a 30k lbs tow gets you 3x30+70=160 t/o speed. Rotation speed is 15kts lower if on afterburner, 10kts lower if dry. That gets you 145/150kts for the rotation which seems about right for a light plane in normal conditions (altitude/temperature-wise).