Jayhawk1971

Yep, Reflected's campaigns aren't "beginner friendly". They require a certain level of advanced module knowledge. Probably the best way to get into the Tomcat would be to first complete Heatblur's training tutorial missions, then do some of the single missions and the Reforger campaign. Also, there are some very helpful tips and tutorials floating around these forums and YouTube. Heatblur's SME wrote up some very helpful PDF tutorials if you can still find those. Once you feel you have a good grip on our F-14, "Speed and Angels" will be a great start if you have the patience to work through it yet (and it is work during the "RAG" phase of the campaign). An alternative route would be to start with "Fear the Bones", as it is more entertainment-oriented and not as "hard" as the other two Tomcat campaigns. Caveat: that does not mean the campaign is "easy", though. You are required to do a night trap qualification as your first mission. Also A2A refueling is required in at least two missions (IIRC). And one somewhat dicey night trap surprise (ironically, my best night trap in the Tomcat ever, proving @Victory205 's point about us all being virtual HUD cripples who would improve greatly if we would only fly by the analog instruments ).

I still watch occasionally, I just filter out the useful or entertaining parts of their content and ignore the rest. Generally, a healthy amount of skepticism towards any source of information navigated me quite well through 52 years on this unremarkable speck of dust far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm of the Galaxy.

I "third" recommending (highly recommending) Reflected's Speed and Angels campaign. It will teach a lot about the very necessary Tomcat basics. If you already have invested a lot of hours into the Tomcat module, it will help correct many bad habits that may have built up.

My thought process was that maybe they could isolate the instances when those triggers won't work that could maybe help the VAICOM team find what's going on in the VAICOM code? Something must be in there that exacerbates that bug? The VAICOM code, not ED's code. EDIT: Well, if the problem is an overtaxed CPU due to unoptimized MT code, then the problem should go away anyway once ED streamlines the code. Also, I'm aware that Baltic is a very busy guy, hence why I wrote "it would be great", not "he absolutely has to immediatly, right now, or [insert meaningless string of consequences]".

IMO, in DCS, a force feedback stick makes all the difference with pretty much every module (especially helicopters and older aircraft from Warbirds up to the Tomcat). It even helps with fly-by-wire jets like the Viper and Hornet, as it does provide at least some tactile feedback you just don't get sitting at your desk. Additional peripherals (but kicker?) or more expensive solutions like a 6DOF motion platform would probably help even more. WRT to Mover and Gonky, I suppose that they are simply struggling with the fact that their acquired muscle memory and visual cues simply do not translate into DCS and the restrictions imposed by the setup. IMO it's an interface problem, not a "skills" problem. Those who have been playing flight sims for most of their lives are much more used to those restrictions. Also, I suppose they don't take it all that seriously (which is ok if that's how they feel about the DCS thing), they seem to enjoy goofing off and create YT content they can monetize, and why shouldn't they?! If there's an audience for that sort of content (400k+ subscribers suggest there is), go for it! YouTube can be a viable business if you consistently get the required views, or at least a lucrative side hustle. Of course some grifting is required, but so is in selling insurance. For my part, I think it's somewhat disappointing that they take it too casually, as their knowledge could be very helpful to virtual DCS "pilots" who would like to take that hobby more seriously and emulate the "real thing" as much as possible, without them giving away too much sensitive information. IMO Casmo strikes a good balance between being helpful but also providing lighthearted entertainment without taking himself too seriously.

It would be great if Baltic and the new VAICOM team could stick their heads together sometime, maybe they can figure out what's going on with the flags? I don't see ED taking an interest, as I suspect they might be working on their own voice command integration. For me personally, it may not be a good situation potentially (still haven't had time to play DCS, as I am in the middle of moving, and all my peripherals are still in some boxes somewhere ), since I simply can not go back to the Jester wheel in the Tomcat. We'll see. Maybe ED simply squishes that MT bug soon. No issues in non-Tomcat campaigns so far (I think), as I don't use Voice Attack for any other module than the Tomcat - mostly because I am simply too lazy to figure out how to set up another profile, as I hardly know how I managed to set up the current one (kinda stumbled into creating a working profile for the Tomcat). Also it's not really necessary for those modules, since I would only ever use it for the radio menu, which I don't need that much anymore anyway with the current scripted SP campaigns. I can see me using VAICOM intensively with the Phantom and Jester 2.0.

I suppose the OP would like to have the Big E in DCS. If so, I concur. Also a visual representation of that wake would be nice.

Does Voice Attack/ VAICOM Pro count as a mod? Edit: I'm asking pre-emptively. I haven't had time to play DCS since November, therefore I haven't encountered any bugs. But just in case, since I don't want a vengeful Reflected knocking on my door. Although I would buy you a beer anyway!

Great video! I'm absolutely stoked about what's in the pipeline for the near future. Iraq (!), Afghanistan, Hellcat, Corsair (twice!), Marianas 1944, OH-58D, Chinook, C-130, Kola, AI Intruder....the list goes on and on. And as a bonus, every year we get DCS: ASMR (Nick Grey's voice).

I also have the G940, and have the same problem as you. The G940 stick is "top-heavy", meaning it tends to pitch down due to its own weight, which in turn registers as a control input with the game. I have the same problem in pretty much every module wrt autopilot. The only solution I can think of is to keep the stick from moving forward, by either slightly holding it in place (which defeats the purpose of an autopilot somewhat), or maybe mount the base slightly tilted upward, so that the the stick is more "balanced". Or fiddle around with the centering strength of the motors. Unfortunately, if you make the centering stronger, you'll then need to apply more input force when flying, which I personally do not like at all, since especially the Tomcat requires a very light tough on the stick (I really only use two fingers when cruising or AAR-ing)

Ok, finally managed to finish mission 8. Holy cow, that was quite the step up in difficulty (IMO)! Rewarding in the end, though, especially the Cerberus North callback /easter egg. Here be spoilers: All in all, a rather tough but fun mission. Looking forward to mission 9 tonight.

Are you playing in pancake, or in VR? Because for me, in VR, with the Vive Pro, details on the ground are almost impossible to make out, unless I'm very close to the object (maybe with a Varjo Aero you can, IDK). While the upsides of VR far outweigh the downsides IMO, one of those downsides unfortunately is significantly degraded visuals, compared to DCS's 2D details and visuals. I've made it to mission 7 while getting generally very good scores in each mission (100 on mission 6, for example), so in this campaign it is quite manageable by using the neutral dots (by employing the Viper's sensors effectively, and particularly because ChillNG made very good, thought out missions and provided excellent voice over comms!!), but you can hardly make out anything visually - very little contrast between object and background, at least not on my headset - so red dots do help a lot, again, in VR.

I believe that was the culprit in my case.

In the current iteration, yes, I suppose. The neutral dots are too blurry at long range, and hardly noticeable at closer ranges with my Vive Pro. This could be a 2.9 thing, though. The red dots have always been more prominent against terrain, and provided a good balance between spotting something, yet not knowing what exactly.

Yes, the comms are outstanding, providing feedback where the player could become disoriented or not sure whether he's flown far enough/ too far (mission 5, for example).

The hardest thing in the campaign so far has been me hamfisting the Viper's HOTAS. Especially the Mavericks: auto handoff being off (for me at least) has ruined many a good approach (and cost me some points for being late in destroying the target). One addition to the missions would be really nice: maybe with a future patch, placing an area (marked on the F10 map) with some ground units (say, "Jordanian army staging area") between waypoint 1 and the border of controlled airspace around H4, where the player could find some vehicles to boresight the Mavericks. I feel there's nothing on the ground at H4 far enough away to avoid the parallax effect? So, for example, player takes off, flies the departure until being handed off, then before reaching waypoint 1 to "start" the ingress phase, he can align the Mavericks without having to worry about flight plan or getting shot at. Also, +1 on optional labels. Would be nice for those with older VR headsets (red dots would be sufficient in my case).

Finished mission 3, but I think I might have run into a problem regarding a set of coordinates: One other thing that I'm not sure about: What a great campaign so far, lots of fun! As usual, I'm blown away by the sheer amount of work you invested into the documentation. Very immersive campaign, and I'm looking forward to mission 4. Oh, BTW, can we do an overhead break on landing (after receiving clearance from tower, or will that cost us points? I do suffer from performance issues on the ground on H4 (intermittent stuttering), and the tanker is jittering (known issue acknowledged by ED) but that could all be a 2.9 thing, so I'll wait for the upcoming hotfix from ED.

Have you turned the battery on? Fully, not just in the middle position. Leaving the battery switch in the middle position before asking for startup clearance will not trigger the F10 option.

Yup, server just kicked me out of the download. Had to start over. BTW, when will Ground Pounder's Campaign be available on the store page? Yes, I am that impatient......

Can't we just have Ground Pounder's Viper campaign now? ED has been sitting on it for what, a month now? It'll be at least another two weeks until the next patch. I'm bored to tears with DCS at the moment, I really would appreciate some new SP content to hold me over to 2.9.

...or Red Storm Rising!

Thanks. I'm glad there's nothing more complicated to it, as I have VAICOM dialed in just right, and I already forgot half of how I got there. So I'm happy to not to have to mess around with it that much.

Hi, I just got a 1TB 990 Pro, and would like to move my DCS installation over to that drive. Now I am unsure what to do with the VAICOM stuff. Do I simply point the program to the new installation path, or do I need to mess with registry or something similarly unpleasant? Or even a complete reinstall? I still haven't upgraded to the latest VAICOM version, either. Should I do that after I've moved DCS to the new drive? Thanks

I also would like to show my appreciation for constantly upgrading and tweaking your "legacy" campaigns. Both "Zone 5" and "Fear the Bones" are even more fun now with the new additions, for example less micro-managing Jester, and the hand signals! (re-flew "Hello Ivan" in the FTB-campaign yesterday, and the visual representation of keeping up foreign relations was very neat). Thanks!

Just practice formation flying! Once you can maintain fingertip/ parade on a reasonably stable lead without breaking a sweat, you'll find AAR to be much easier. After all, air-to-air refueling is formation flying.