636_Castle

More good answers, thanks. That's a great point, as flight lead I should have a pretty good influence on armament. I've done a lot of research. I've found it's hard to get accurate A-10 loadout data for missions with AAA/airborn threats. Most recent theaters haven't had these threats, and haven't even carried AIM-9s or ECM pods. The current Libya theater seems a lot like the Crimean theater. Gaddafi forces have air defenses and aircraft. So I've been going off of a video I've seen of A-10s taking off for a mission in Libya, and I've come up with this loadout: ALQ-131, MK-5 Rockets, AGM-65G, AGM-65K, 2*Mk-82, Litening TGP, and 2*AIM-9M. I might change that to 2 AGM-65Ds on each wing occasionally, and lose the rockets.

You mean THIS game? :D

That's what I'm wondering. Honestly though, how often are A-10s deployed with 4 AGMs and no Litening/Sniper pods? If JTAC gives you type 3 tasking, and I need good standoff range, how am I expected to perform well? That's a case of NOBODY being able to visually see what I'm shooting. It just doesn't seem realistic. But neither does deciding what I get to take with me.

^ Clever. Was 2 seconds from losing it! Surprised... *goes into detective mode*. Come on man...throw us a hint or something. We won't tell Wags on you. :)

Very wise words here. It's all about the pride, landing safely with all of your boys knowing you carried out a duty with precision, in a tight situation - all thanks to training. Although getting medals in the logbook is as about as satisfying as it gets for me. Then you sit back with a cold one, watching the sun set behind your Hog. Attractive woman walks by. "You see that jet right there? The one with the 30mm cannon on it? I'm uhh...I'm flyin' that..." :D

Hey guys, I don't normally start new threads in this section, but this one is bugging me. In the first campaign, I believe it's Devil's Cross, the payloads are a little strange. In the first mission, you're loaded up with a TGP, mavericks, and I believe some CBUs. It's great. The rest of the missions though, until the very end, you only have four AGMs. I'm on a quest to finish a campaign without losing ANY pilots in my group, and I'm considering changing the loadouts on the missions. My question is, how realistic is this? Is it considered cheating? RW pilots don't get to pick and choose in an endless supply of ordnance. So why should I get to? So is there a reason you only get four mavericks in the remaining missions? Is it for realism purposes? Would it be considered cheating if I gave myself a new loadout? I can see arguments from both sides: Limited supplies, MAJCOM ruling/planning... | But when was the last time we flew A-10Cs like A-10As? I want to be prideful in my victory. :)

Whoa nice price konkussion!! I've never used a CH product, but I hear they're outstanding as far as build quality goes. It's a serious consideration for me right now. Plus an F-16 replica stick is literally an A-10C stick too. Second best thing to Thrustmaster. :) Still nearly $100 more than Saitek, but from what I hear it's a damn nice setup. [EDIT] The CH Fighterstick doesn't have a dual stage trigger. That could be it's fate....

I can't say much about Saitek. Many people here strongly back them up. I've personally had nothing but frustration with them. (See my sig. when you need to fix your rudder ;)) But unless you're friends with the federal reserve system, I have to admit the X-52 Pro will give you a stick, throttle, programming software, tons of buttons, AND a twisting stick for under $200. Ideally a CH Fighter Stick and Throttle with pedals would be kick a$$, but they don't bundle their HOTAS which massively increases price. You can forget about Thrustmaster products if you're on any sort of a budget at all. Yes it would be epic. But I have WAY better things to spend $500 on in my opinion. Bottom line though, don't intentionally not get a decent HOTAS and TrackIR if you're planning on getting into this sim at all. The Hog's mission is CAS. You're barely clearing tree tops, hiding behind hills, dodging AAA, trying not to lose control of your jet, trying not to lose situational awareness, all while handling the most complex and in depth military avionics and weapons ever implemented into a flight sim to date. Honestly, the last thing you want to do is make things harder for yourself. Linky 1 Linky 2 :)

WHEN will they raise the curtain!? It's gotta be soon.

TrackIR is something that really should NOT be benched in this sim. I've had it for years, and only touched it a few times, until A-10C came out. Now it's an absolute necessity, for so many reasons. With SO many HOTAS functions like DMS, TMS, CMS, Coolie, NWS...you'll likely not have any keys left for a view HAT. That'll mean going hands OFF for vital hands ON functions. It also helps out tremendously with SA. Sometimes you spot new targets on a strafe. With TrackIR you can just keep eyes on your target the entire time until you circle back around. "Padlock" is considered a cheat AFAIK, so I don't think you can use it in many multiplayer servers. Seriously man, do yourself a favor and put TrackIR 2nd on your list, right underneath a good HOTAS so you can control weapon sensors on the fly, without going heads down and hands off just to simply change your SOI. Here's what I'd go with if I were you. 1) HOTAS with either a twisting stick for rudder, or pedals. Lots of buttons/HATs. 2) TrackIR 3) Time and patience. Anything else you need, you'll get from this great community. This sim really only requires those two pieces of hardware. PLEASE don't sideline a good HOTAS and TrackIR! I know they're not wallet friendly, but without them, you might as well be tieing your hands behind your back. Edit - I don't know about the UK, but The Find and Newegg have always been my go-to places.

At Vaziani by any chance? http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=71617

I just tested myself, 32/64. Maxed out settings w/ mirrors, sitting on the runway at Batumi. 52 FPS constant on both 32 and 64 bit. Just as Wags said in the FAQ, x64 only allows the software to access more memory, which certainly won't boost processing speed. It'll just allow more of it, if you have hardware that allows it. :) Besides, from what I've seen, DCS usually only takes up no more than 1.5GB of RAM at any given time anyway, so it's not like more RAM idling in the background is going to help you that much. I think any performance increases are placebo effects and/or coincidence.

There's the community too. :) I've found the A-10A manual to be the greatest help to me so far in terms of procedures like ramp start, TOLD computations, etc. And the DCS manual to be great for learning Charlie specific avionics. It's a bit unfair though to give newbies a hard time. I could dog ED for not implementing intelligent AI and dynamic campaigns, and poor mission planners/briefings, but that wouldn't be fair either. People will complain about things that challenge them, simple as that. It's especially true when you're not used to hardcore flight simming. It's the fact that they're unaware of the complexity and the amount of effort it'd take to put together built in training. Once they take a look at the flight manual, they'll understand those reasons. :)

Yep I did a full reinstall yesterday. 99% of the freezes are fixed, and loading times are back to normal. :) I hope it's not required after each subsequent patch...

I think it's the new Windows 7/Vista way of handling things. I bet yours is probably in the documents and settings folder or something. It's an all-in-one install, with all of the patches built in. :) No need for the original. Now if only the download process wasn't 1 day + 22 hours long. :P

I could do that. As long as I can be sure it's not tied to any of the bugs I'm experiencing though.

I guess I'll do a fresh reinstall. But I swear, I hate throwing my logbook in the trash. :(

It shouldn't be "altimeter" nor should it be "QNH". It should be QFE, just like real world operations over there. :) Even still, assuming 29 in place of 30 doesn't seem to give you proper QFE. I was wondering if maybe adding/subtracting QNE would give you a correct reading. Don't know. Fingers are crossed for 1.1.0.8 though!

The A-10 has an engine too, which climbs better than gliders. :P

Yep, the JMR will switch back into standby mode after successfully breaking a lock. That way he doesn't have enough time to home-in on your jammer.

Well I don't know if your ECM did much for you if you activated it after he fired. The point is to keep him from getting a good lock on you, and force him to home in on you before being able to fire. I just pick up speed while forcing the missile to fly at it's max range, usually by diving and keeping it somewhere near the 3/9 line, but not on it. Then when I've depleted most of the missile's energy, turn in and climb, so that the missile has to work against gravity. That should keep the missile from having enough maneuvering energy to change it's angle to compensate for your turn at the same time. Works most of the time, as long as you have enough time.

Nowhere near that. Maybe only 10 or so frames. But the freezing is something new, and it's pretty frequent.

I'm seeing frame rate loss too...also momentary freezes rampant.

It's not that hard to get off 3 or so AGMs like that. Just use a weapon profile so it automatically picks the next maverick. Slew, fire, slew, fire.

That was an awesome video, it really showed me how to make AI wingies useful.