rweaves6

I’ve seen a lot of good F-14 reference material here on the site, both written and video. A huge thank you to Victory and others for taking the time to help the community out. There are many different reasons we fly this module, for me it’s my love of air to air combat. I haven’t been able to find much for F-14 BFM or ACM tactics on this site or the internet in general. A simple google search gives a wonderful old video from the 70s but really all you get from that is to go vertical. I thought it would be great if we could start a thread to discuss tactics for aerial combat in the F-14. I’m mainly talking BFM, bare sticks and stones fighting. I’m of the opinion that the best way to start is to understand the basics-how to position yourself on a bogeys six, in close proximity for a gun kill. With this we can truely understand the aircraft’s characteristics, limitations, and tendencies. So please share any resources or personal experience whether its armchair sim or if you have real life experience. Let’s keep this specific to the F-14, after all there is a ton of reference material for general BFM and ACM on the internet. Perhaps this could serve as a basic reference for those interested in learning BFM tactics in the Cat.

Well I think I disagree with 100% of your post haha. That’s fair, we can all have our opinions. I think the F18 and F-14B pits are very much optimized for VR. Again, if you flew the other game you’d know what I mean as far as rendering. The cockpit and terrain textures in DCS are nicer imo but the visibility and clarity in the other game is better. Spotting in the other game is no problem as you can always see a dot. When you add in the x10zoom mod for VR, that game is really good as far as identifying as well. It’s pretty much impossible to do either in DCS in VR.

I fly VR with an Oculus so my opinion is based on that. The challenge is the game engine. DCS cockpits are difficult to read gauges and dials and spotting/identifying aircraft is pretty much impossible. Yes the resolution issue with VR plays a role in that but I play another flight sim in VR that has a perfectly readable cockpit and spotting is no problem up to 10km. DCS is such an amazing product in so many ways but the way the game is rendered is a major handicap imo.

I too would love to hear someone with bfm experience chime in. I’ve seen the above video many times and all I can get from it is to keep going vertical. The problem I have is when I go wertical I essentially leave myself with an aircraft that is barely controllable with stick. It’s very difficult to come over the top and only be able to adjust with rudder and baby pitch inputs. This is the toughest aircraft I’ve flown in a sim as far as bfm. But I’m sure enjoying trying to figure it out :)

At 24000ft and 350knts, level flight and trimmed level, I get about a 50ft drop on alt hold engagement. It will then climb back to set altitude.

Is it normal for a slight dip in altitude (slight pitch down) when setting alt hold? It seems to want to dip then climb back to where you originally set it. I can’t seem to set alt hold while maintaining a steady alt.

I’m still very confused on this. If you move the flap lever (with mouse), you can set the flaps at any setting. Just look at exterior view and you’ll see the flaps are in various settings- not full or none. The manual says: “The flaps can be set to anywhere between retracted and fully extended where the flaps will extend to 35° and the slats to 17°. The auxiliary flaps, the innermost section, only have two positions, retracted and extended. They will extend fully when the FLAP handle is at more than 5° extension.” Based on all that it leads me to believe we should have a key binding to manually adjust flap settings. ??? What am I missing? Thanks :)

I'm hoping the proper amount of wing flex and burner flame get prioritized about 36 months after Full Release, not pre Early Access.

I really enjoyed the campaigns, I had many hours of fun with them and was fairly impressed with the AI. The only slight drawback with the AI is if you draw them low to the hard deck they usually break it. But that isn't a campaign issue but rather an AI issue. I'd pull the trigger and go for it, you'll get your money's worth.

Thank you Mover for taking the time to do this. The #1 goal of disaster relief was achieved so that is awesome and all that really matters. It's too bad you weren't using VR or at the very least track ir. I would have loved to see you perform your own startup and fly a few patterns, pull a few Gs, and land. A detailed analysis of just that and how it compares to the real bird would have been pure gold.

But you're saying there's a chance.. Good looking plane, could be a lemon, but it looks good.

Well this looks interesting. What does everyone think? http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/24997/russia-releases-first-official-video-of-its-su-57s-on-their-absurdly-short-trip-to-syria

Is there a working 3dmigoto zoom mod available for DCS?

It was set up day 1. Thanks.

Would you mind sharing your grafx settings?

Great. Oh, and we will need lots of Nellis air combat training campaigns for the F14 too!! Keep up the great work.

Unfortunately me too. It’s a must. 100% agree, well said.

Well I’ve read through the spotting threads and after more gameplay I’m now convinced that it’s a bigger issue then I earlier expected. There doesn’t seem to be any adjustments to settings that can straighten the issue out. I have to say first though that I really wish there was something that could be done with this as I do love the product the DCS crew have developed. But as for VR, I just can’t seem to get around the visibility. For example, in another flight sim I fly regularly, the visibility is obviously limited due to VR but where I find the difference is one is still able to spot. In fact I can generally spot other aircraft sooner than non VRers because of the smaller resolution. Where the disadvantage comes in is in identifying. The image won’t be as sharp therefore more challenging. But that really isn’t an issue because of the zoom mod that gives you 10x zoom. With DCS, I find there’s no identifying or spotting. Instead, the way the game is rendered I just don’t see anything. Again, im very impressed with DCS and am thankful for this amazing product. This is by no means a rant but rather me expressing where I feel they could make some adjustments. I will continue to buy their modules and support the team although it’s pretty difficult to fly in VR.

Ok thanks, I'll read up on that.

Is this still alive? I’d love for you guys to do a 3rd (training) campaign for the tiger.

Is there anything I should look at tweaking in DCS? Without labels, I’m finding a no radar / no labels dogfight nearly impossible in VR. Thanks **EDIT** After playing with the settings and doing a ton of tweaking, I’ve come to realize the VR graphics aren’t limited like I had originally thought. The VR graphics are certainly comparable to other sims and I’m loving the sim again- this time in VR!

I agree, really cool. Bravo ED, it’s looking great, especially for EA!

Well done-thanks!

Was just thinking the same thing. Hopefully it’s a big success for them.

Can’t wait to feed from a basket in VR!