cfrag

To me 'early release' implies exactly that: a pre-mature (i.e. not fit for production) release, meaning that we (the customer) must expect that the product has (even major) flaws. The fact that it is an early release unfortunately does not imply anything about if, or when, there will be updates. Those are aspirational, and can be seen as a reward to those brave souls who trust the vendor and support them with their own funds and help them stay afloat until they can get to a full release. IMHO, there's no implied periodicity of updates with an early release - but that is where a vendor/developer can differentiate themselves, can gain a lot of goodwill and reputation. Lately, ORT seem to have dropped the ball a bit here. IMHO, these early releases are a reflection of today's changed market dynamics: the need for developers to cash in early to relieve the pressure to refinance their project - and (lets be honest) it's a disincentive to actually finish the project (the sales have been made), so only companies with a broader strategy and vision will/can deliver a steady stream of quality updates to their audience after an early release. I'm hoping that ORT have that vision and will release a product that delivers on the great promise that the early release has. That's the bet I made when I purchased Sinai in its currently unfinished state. I'm hoping that ORT prove themselves worthy of our trust. And I feel that some communication from ORT could go a long way to assuage many of our disenchantments over the long, long time between updates.

I believe that we all can agree that the reason for this is that DCS's abilities/disabilities in these things stem from the fact that their mission API has grown organically over the past decade rather than having been engineered. So IMHO the entire tree of accessors for mission designers to players is currently lacking and looks a bit bolted together. It would indeed be a boon for mission designers if we can have a unit-specific missionCommands branch. The outTextForXXX and outSoundForXXX trees have received a unit branch, even if the outSound branch still appears to be flaky in MP. But I think we can agree that those methods are also more a kludge than a designed solution to communicate, so here's hoping that ED can find the time to engineer a new, better suited API to communicate with players.

We all believe that. I think what we are experiencing now is a decided lack of communication on the side of ORT. IMHO, they are unnecessarily burning a lot of Karma and goodwill that hey had amassed with their great roadmap. That roadmap projected an update for late December. Since it was an early projection, and stuff happens, and the contents looks to be very, very juicy, people like me were very happy to see that. What now is a bit of a let-down is that ORT fumbled communications. Probably even the greatest optimist in the world would have been surprised if ORT delivered a patch on schedule. What many (me included) did expect to happen, though, was some kind of communication in lieu of a a patch - a status update. I don't think that any body here believes that ORT is holding back a patch to spite us - that would be silly. What is a bit disappointing is when someone who is held is such high regard fails to meet expectations. A simple note 'we are still working on it, progress is fine, we are looking at <warning: freely invented date following> easter" could have done wonders. I believe if you re-read the messages here it's not so much the fact that the map is incomplete and has bugs (which it is and it has), but most complaints seem to center around the fact that there has been quite some time since the initial release and no intermediate patch. We haven't even seen a 'low hanging fruit' update. Publishing updates can be expensive and fraught with risk, so to some extent I find this understandable. After some 8 months, I feel that ORT is approaching a point in time where it becomes increasingly difficult to explain even to their fans (I'm one of them) why we have to wait for so long for a patch or communications update. Either would be fine for me; I love the Sinai map, and have a couple of missions ready to release and just waiting for an update. Indeed. But that's more a comment on how far the community and flight simulation has come in general - rather than a reflection on the pros and cons of long release cycles. If I purchase a new VR set today and the experience was rotten, I would take offense if the vendor told me "sure it's bad, but just remember how far we have come since View-Master -- isn't that great?". So simply because it's been one hell of a ride since A2FS1 (my first flight sim ca. 1980) vendors do not get a free pass today. Not to be snarky, I think that is exactly what's happening, only different than you think. Many people look back and say "hey, that's 8 months since the release of one of the best maps ever, and we still haven't gotten a single patch". That does hurt a little bit, especially if we look at the incredible potential that this map has the great expectations that we have in ORT after doing such an awesome job.

huh. You may have indeed traced a small bug in factoryZones, not ownedZones. I'm looking into this now... Try this instead: factoryZone.lua

I'm sorry, I can't really tell what might be going on (it looks as if it is happening from inside persistence callbacks) because you are using DOSCRIPTFILE instead of DOSCRIPT; and silly DCS obfuscates the file names of the script (instead of simply naming the table that is throwing the error). I'll be happy to have a look at the miz and try an reconstruct what may be wrong.

If you see DCS's main menu, you are playing it wrong But yeah, it's a small thing that would help in VR. I'm using voice activated Siri to get local time, much to the chagrin of the other people in my voice chat. I once wrote a steamVR overlay to always display a local clock in your environs, but that was long ago, and I need to see if it still works.

That's good to know, because... Are those part of the WWII pack? If so, that *may* have to be installed on your server as well. "May" because I don't use that pack I strongly recommend that you enable and turn on labels in the mission options. Yes, as a matter of fact, that would be the default way, the one that everyone is using. After you die (or really any other time that you want to re-slot to a different plane), press 'ESC' and then choose your next action. Choosing a plane should be among them. Apologies, but silly me cannot understand what that means.

While I believe that DCS‘s netcode can be improved, my experience is (luckily) radically different from yours. Now, DCS, even as headless server is a resource hog, so since you did not spec your current host I simply deduce that you are hosting on a 5 plus years PC (for the simple reason that I cycle PC after that time span). That’s probably on the lower end. That being said, if your friends time out regularly while you don’t (you seem to indicate something along those lines), you may have a latency issue with one or more of your network devices: your net will always be as fast as your slowest link, and a bad firewall, router or switch can cause havoc for anyone outside (especially if your hardware doesn’t automatically support IPv6). Have your friend measure your ping to see if there may be network issues. Oh, and if anyone in your group you is on wireless, don’t. From what I’ve experienced is that DCS and many wireless network connectors don’t play ball. Now, I think you are taking the smart route evaluating Fox3. They host my private server, and I’ve experienced no discos or timeouts ever since. tl,dr: it may be your net, not necessarily DCS‘s netcode. IMHO, of course. Good luck, I’m hoping it works out for you.

Some like to do that, even I. The big point here is that it can be skipped. And yes, I regard a cold-start as tedious busy-work 90% of the time (especially the Apache, yet I'm kind of fond of the C-Hog's start-up proc). And it's the job of good game designers to take away the tedium and refine the fun aspects. For example, your walk around the aircraft (pointless unless there is a chance that we find something amiss, and shelving your flight 25%-50% of the time because your bird isn't fit is not what people would enjoy much), as well as pre/post briefings, METAR study and W&B are all thankfully skipped, even if they can (from a timer perspective) make up to 50% of the entire flight. Yet even if all that was in DCS, they are all active parts, things we engage in. Watching the chief and some people scurry around your plane for a minute is dead time, and will - subjectively - feel much, much longer. One method to strip the tedium is to allow people to skip the those parts (and DCS delivers in spades here). Truth be told. I'd enjoy taxiing much more if ED invested more into Tarmac/Ground AI, and I'm looking forward to if/when it arrives together with the improved Tower/Approach AI.

Version 1.4 - 20240302 This update fixes a rare bug where weight can accumulate when you crash a helicopter after picking up evacuees. So if you are a good pilot, you don't need that update

Version 1.4 - 20240302 This update fixes a rare bug where weight can accumulate when you crash a helicopter after picking up evacuees. So if you are a good pilot, you don't need that update .

Maybe this thread can be moved to the Syria section of the forum?

Thank you all for helping to stress-test "Levant". The mission is now up for download from ED's servers.

ANGELS OF THE LEVANT: SYRIA === HELICOPTER RESCUE === Version 1.4 (Rescue Core) Download: here You are an "Angel", a member of the Levant's elite Air Rescue organization. Your task is to evacuate injured people from all over Haifa, Beirut, Adana and Nicosia, and deliver them to Hospitals in the area. Since the Angels operate in metropolitan areas, and accidents happen, there will always be more people requiring your assistance than you can provide - so bring a friend or two if you can: this mission is fully multiplayer capable, and keeps track of your accomplishments, even between mission restarts. There are multiple slots available (hot and cold) for Hueys, Hips, Gazelles and Hinds, allowing for up to 16 pilots simultaneously per city (more than 50 pilots total). [There are also slots for the Apache and Black Shark, but those helicopters can't perform SAR] You perform SARs by flying towards the evacuee (they all have locator devices for your ADF). Pearly Gates, your Command Authority can vector you towards your target. Once you get within 1km, help on the ground marks the spot with smoke, and you'll be guided by your chief for the last 100m. Land close enough to pick up the evacuee. If landing is not possible (too densely populated, roof-top rescues, open water, steep inclines or inaccessible ground or forest), you can winch-rescue by hovering within range and altitude for some 20 seconds. Once the evacuee is confirmed on board, you then transfer them to the closest Hospital for triage. Which hospital you choose is your decision. All hospitals are marked with red smoke for easy identification, and Pearly Gates can vector you to the closest hospital on request. At all times please be mindful of other traffic, both fixed-wing, rotor wing, and - of course - other Angels. Be mindful when entering controlled airspace - although you have priority clearance, try to avoid those congested areas. Difficulty: The difficulty level of this mission is a marked step up from "Angels of Caucasus": metropolitan areas often require very precise control of your helicopter, and big helicopters like the Hip may not fit into the claustrophobic warrens where some of your evacuees wait for your help. Use winch-rescue procedures in those cases. That being said, this map offers multiple areas of operation with varying levels of difficulty: Haifa The classic. Mind the inclines. Two hospitals with stand-alone landing pads. Beirut A dense city, drop dead beautiful, and full of evacuees waiting for your assistance. There is only one hospital here, and it requires roof-top landings. Adana A sprawling, beautiful city. Many evacuees to rescue, with a diverse mix of difficulty. Two hospitals: one with a stand-alone helicopter pad, the other with roof access only. Nicosia / Kyrenica Ah - Nicosia! The jewel of antiquity, and capitol of Cyprus! A split city on a split island. Since the Angels are one of very few groups that both sides trust, the Nicosia Base serves both Kyrenica and Nicosia. Missions can require longer flights. There is one easily accessible field hospital at Nicosia, and another make-shift hospital at Kyrenica harbor. Other notes: This mission is entirely non-violent, flying-skills only If you also have one of the other "Angels" missions (e.g. "Angels of Caucasus") and persistence is enabled, the missions share all player's accomplishments. If run on a server, this mission auto-restarts every 8 hours. It's an endless SAR sandbox mission This mission can persist all your accomplishments (landings, time, rescues) per airframe if you have persistence enabled (this requires that your DCS is 'de-sanitized'). When run on a server, install 'stopGap GUI' on the server to allow static scenery occupy open player slots. If you are a fan of the Blackhawk, you can add it to the mission and it is immediately supported. Acknowledgements PearlyGates and other voice acting by ElevenLabs Mission by CFrag Created with DML Uses StopGap Enjoy, -ch

Version 1.3 - 20240229 This update adds shared accomplishments with the other "Angels" missions (e.g. "Angels of the Levant", so you always have a total of rescues across all Angels maps.

Have you de-sanitized your DCS installation? By default, the modules lfs, io and os are 'sanitized', i.e. set to nil. That may be where you get the nil error from. It would of course help if you posted the error message and location where the error happened.

I believe I understand the general direction of your suggestion. If this animation can be skipped and is entirely optional, sure - it could show off some mad animation skilz present at ED. But if there is in any way some mandatory, presentational stuff that I have to sit through, that does not hand me control at the earliest possible time, I will hate it. Because it wastes my time, with (for me) no added value. When I develop missions, I already waste inordinate amounts of time because ME and the mission can't run concurrently - I have to wait between ME and the mission, with DCS's typically abysmal loading times. If I now have to look at some animation over and over again, that would drive me up the walls. On an average day that I develop a mission, I start that mission (for debugging purposes) 6 to 10 times an hour. What I don't need is to watch an animation each and every time that mission starts up. Worse when I switch planes (all the missions I develop have multiple planes). Optionally? Heck yeah - maybe I'd even look the second time it plays.

change your script to ["x"] = 77192, -- use dcs local coords ["y"] = 244632, -- use dcs local coords when spawning, you must use DCS local coords for your objects. And "y is z" unit_location.miz

A frigging minute???? I'm not the average DCS user - I spend a lot of time designing missions. If you force me to watch a one-minute animation each time that I want to test some mission aspect, you'll soon find me up a tower, brandishing a large-caliber rifle, giggling hysterically... If it's optional, fine with me.

Can you explain? I *believe* @Tank50us is talking about the VR 'hangar' that we see when in VR while looking at a DCS window. It by default shows an Su-27 inside a hangar, in full 3D splendor, and can be configured (undocumented, of course) to show others. It's static, we can't really move inside the scene, though. It's one of the most sadly underused cool features that is tantalizing every VR user each time we get into DCS

I just checked - it was updated in 2.0.2 - you just missed it by a hair

I believe that bug was fixed in the last update. Cheers, -ch bombRange.lua

While I agree that this would be a nice touch, I also think that would be one of the candy-cotton additions that we enjoy once, and ignore in all subsequent instances; it doesn't bring anything to the table except a graphical novelty. And I would starting pulling out my (already thinning) hair if thanks to some animations, I'd have to wait for it to finish before I could proceed to the cockpit. I'd want to skip this probably even for the first iteration, as it does nothing for me except getting in my way. HELL NO if that in any way involves moving the HMD by itself, which can be vomit-inducing to many players. Remember the into to the "Rising Squall" campaign where the camera (position and angle) is driven by a script? Yeah, bad times. I really don't want this in VR. If I have to walk around my aircraft, I want to do it on my time, my way (one of the things I like when I fly DCS is that I can skip that boring inspection part and jump right into my seat). Other than that - yeah, we really, really need more and better animated ground crew, and desperately need some civilian 'units' as well.

Version 1.1.0 - 20240226 This version fixes a rare bug when players immediately re-spawn in their helicopters after a crash Enjoy, -ch

csarFX is indeed the module that creates these decorations. It's still experimental, but since you've already identified the source, all you need to do is change the code to spawn other decorations. There's a chance that it creates a two-vehicle crash decoration per spawn, so you could change the code to spawn single dead aircraft instead.