Jayhawk1971

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_de_Agostini_National_Park ?

If anyone would go for a "what if"-plane, I'd say skip the D entirely, but embrace insanity fully and make the Grumman-proposed Super Tomcat 21. Or, even better, the "fantasy football" next-gen version (ST-21 Advanced?) with: AESA radar IRST 21 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod 9X D-JHMCS II towed decoy MAWS SATCOM capability borrowed from the Growler heavily upgraded Phoenix variant (AIM-54E ?) seamless integration of all western BVR missile systems (Meteor!) Warp drive, R2 unit may come in a later patch....

Adapt the campaign from Jane's AH-64D Longbow and Flashpoint Korea. That'll do just fine.

Funny, for me it's the other way round: I struggle with the Viper, because I find it to be incredibly sluggish, especially with the controls dampening coming on as soon as you open the probe door (also, the breakout deadzone isn't helping, either) whereas the Tomcat reacts immediately to tiny inputs.

Adjusted as in obstructed by frame/handle, or adjusted in the sense that the (simulated) HUD-projection is off? Guess I'll have to play around with that next time I fire up DCS. Also, since there are basically two ways to adjust the seating position (the numpad keys, or moving around and pressing the recenter key in VR, which allows one to, for example, "stand" in the cockpit): I wonder if the effect is the same with either method.

Or just watch 104th Maverick's great video tutorial on the subject. Edit: oh, and the most important thing IMO: don't overthink it. Baby steps.

...whereas "Maverick" could barely look over the dashboard. (or did somebody find him a box?). So for VR users, if they want the most authentic experience, would you recommend to raise the head position back to the height of the canopy bar?

I believe to have read somewhere that the "IPD" setting under the VR section in DCS is actually a misnomer, and it actually means something like "world scale". Since I have no real reference as to what the actual scale of a cockpit is, I just left the whole thing off for the Tomcat, which does feel to be right on the money regarding proper dimensions (having never sat in a Tomcat). However, subjectively the A-10 seems to be too spacious, whereas the Viper feels a little too cramped. Edit: I did have the opportunity to sit in the front seat of a CF-18B, but that was a loooong time ago, but I did seem to remember the cockpit to feel smaller in the real thing compared to the DCS Hornet. My Vive Pro has a dial on the bottom of the headset where I can manually set the IPD, which I have measured using a mirror, a measuring tape, liberal amounts of Whisky and a Voodoo Priestess.

So, "more human than human" is definitely not your motto... (it'll lead to "tears in rain" anyway, so best leave that to Dr. Tyrell) [Seriously, though, I'm mostly happy with Jester with the exception of some slightly annoying quirks, which I'm sure will be addressed; Jester LANTIRN was a major step forward, and I suppose some of the "lessons learned" will be used to improve A2A Jester eventually]

Oh, I don't mind his chatter myself. My point was that if Jester got any smarter he'll act more like a real RIO and would be convinced our only job was "driving Miss RIO" around for him to do all the "important" work like guiding the intercepts, acquiring and sorting targets and launching BVR missiles. The only time I yell at Jester to STFU (to no avail: HB, we need a literal STFU command ) is when he is constantly interrupting important (well, scripted) radio calls, or distracting me while in the groove, with irrelevant information like "friendly, 10 o'clock, 235 miles" or "naaaiiiiils" (which of course are friendly).

Just be careful what you wish for, lest your single-player pilot involvement in BVR engagements be relegated to "come left ten degrees" or "speed up".

Actually, I meant zero curves for your control stick, as in completely linear. And you could add a deadzone if applicable (depending on your X-56's precision). Regarding rudder, just add the amount necessary to fly with a centered ball. Trim is essential, as mentioned in the video I've posted. I don't know in which category you fall re. learning: Some approach this methodically by doing whole AAR training sessions. Me, on the other hand, like to tie these "chores" to other activities, so that even if I fail at one task, there are other tasks (usually blowing something up) that I can complete in order to have some fun along the way, and an overall positive experience. It can be a bit frustrating sometimes to try something over and over again with little immediate success. So maybe succeeding at something else keeps the motivation level up. There are some missions and campaigns where AAR is part of the mission, but not necessary to complete it (if you are not in full burner all the time ). So more or less optional. Back when I was learning, I had this rule that I'd try, but gave myself a reasonable time limit or window, and if I couldn't hook up, I moved on. This also had the added effect of increasing the "replay-ability" of those missions. Incidentally, what really pushed me over the "bump" was playing Reflected's "Zone 5" campaign. Where, if you are not going completely bonkers with your throttle management, don't ever have to refuel. But: you are forced to fly formation with the AI in at least a third of the missions, and you are supposed to follow other admin procedures, which somehow made my overall handling of the Tomcat a lot more precise, and immensely helped my AAR-capabilities.

I'd advise against using curves for stick and rudder in the Tomcat. Just maybe a teeny tiny deadzone (depending on how precise your flight stick is). It's an analogue aircraft, so curves are counterproductive (even if you flight stick doesn't have an extension). You could add custom curves to your throttle because many HOTAS throttles lack the range (just search the forums, there are some helpful posts on this). The Tomcat needs a light touch which will take a while to get used to: I usually only steer with two fingers while resting my arm on top of my leg. Do yourself a favor and invest in some form of headtracking; it's pretty much mandatory if you really want to get the most out of this sim. There are other solutions than TrackIR, although I have no experience with those. And don't be too hard on yourself, everybody was struggling with AAR at first. For me, switching from "pancake" (2D screen) to VR was an absolute game changer in this regard. With TrackIR I kinda sorta got it to work after much practice (and after lots of swearing and shooting the tanker in frustration); as soon as I made the switch to VR, it became a lot easier: where at first I tried to avoid AAR at all costs, now I do it even if I have plenty of fuel, just because it's become fun. Depth perception, sense of scale, sense of motion, and leaning around the canopy rail is much easier in VR. The next best thing is head tracking. There are some good tutorial videos regarding AAR in the Tomcat. I've found this to be among the best (albeit a bit dated, because probe drag wasn't modelled at the time of the video; now you need to add a bit of rudder to compensate):

I'm sorry too for reacting thin-skinned to that, but I was really take aback by Tharos' "tone" to an IMO innocent post (I was in mere conversation mode), and your post was immediately following his which made me perceived that as piling on. I guess I felt I was being put in the same category as the "troll we all know and love".

I'd appreciate if you could kindly refrain from including me in some perceived group of people making such "bold" claims, because I did neither. I mentioned something that was all over the news at that time, with an IMO appropriate expression of skepticism

I was just wondering how much of a discrepancy real life vs. simulation may be. Simulations tend to always take best-case scenarios into account, whereas a lot of things work differently in real life. Even real-life tests with the Luftwaffe MiG-29 vs US Hornets only could give theoretical results. I suppose it's always a problem since (thankfully!) so few air-to-air missiles get exchanged in real life. But when it happens, it can lead to surprising and possibly unexpected results (like that Rhino's AIM-9X seemingly getting spoofed by old-ass Syrian flares a couple of years ago)

How often was the R-73, in real life, fired in anger, how often in HOB-mode, and what was its PK?

I'm wondering whether what Bio said was true for all variants of the Tomcat. I could imagine that at least the latest D-models might have had "better" sensor integration. Although, I have no idea if the LANTIRN system generally was a stand-alone, independent sensor environment, or if it actually was integrated into the avionics suite of the F-15E or those Block 40/42 F-16's that carried the pod. My latest interaction with the Strike Eagle was "Jane's F-15", so what do I know.... If only there was a Strike Eagle Wizzo on these boards that could chime in (if he's allowed to reveal such information, of course)

I get the impression that MS speech recognition is getting worse over time, just like Android autocorrect gets worse and worse. Edit: it's almost like it's unlearning things it already understood. Like "TACAN", for example. Saying TACAN tune used to work flawlessly, but lately I get the odd "tech and tune". OTOH, sometimes Jester says "Roger" (or I get a "confirmation beep") out of the blue (even when there's no background noise like the TV or music). Mostly he is hearing "south", a command to "navigate to waypoint 2", or switching to a different preset channel on the VHF radio. Might be my breathing into the microphone, or scratching noise when I'm looking around (VR headset), or a delayed reaction to a previously given command?

I created shortened versions of the phrase as aliases. That seems to have worked. Took out the "switch" and shortened the phrase to Aspect Nose/Beam/Tail. Still got problems to get it to recognize "tail" instead of "tale". Finally, for the umpteenth time I sad "aspect tail" and suddenly: I don't know how or why, but I ain't complainin'

Hi, maybe I am slurring badly, or my pronunciation is off, but I can't get Vaicom to recognized the three new phrases for the Aspect Switch. I got the update, I clicked "finish" and pasted the list into the Voice Attack profile, as usual. The phrases are there, I can select them for training (which I've been trying for two days now), but somehow they don't get recognized correctly, neither in game nor during training. Either I get nothing, or some weird misinterpretations like the thread title. Normally I don't have problems with Vaicom not understanding my commands and phrases. Just these three new ones. Does anyone have the same problem, or even better, a solution?

Princess? Pah! VR is the Mode of Kings!