ColonelColt

Any news on this? I see they've been working on the Hind and I would hope some of the Mi-8 stuff would be related.

@BIGNEWY I hope this suffices. Unfortunately it doesn't appear the armament panel comes up in tracks so it's just me quickly taking off, firing rockets, landing. I can create a separate one for the Hind if you want but this is a very generalized bug that's easy to replicate at least on my end. I've also attached the specific mission file I did this test in. Thanks! Mi-8 Rocket Weight Track.trk PG Mi-8 Mi-24 Rocket Weight Test.miz

Wikipedia says 16.7. One other source says 16.2. The first number agrees with the in game encyclopedia. Is there some way to flag a mod to get this moved to the bug section?

I did some tests with the Hind with the exact same rocket type but it can only carry four pods of 20 at a time. Even at 50% fuel this is overweight. As you can clearly see below the numbers are also way off. -- Expected Weights -- Expected rocket weight: 1336 at 16.7 kg per rocket for 80 rockets. Expected weight pods: 492 at 123 kg per four pods. Expected total system weight: 1828 -- In Sim Armament Panel Weights -- Unfired: 11617 Fired: 11600 Removed: 9789 Loaded rocket pods weight in armament panel when removed: 1828 So in this case 80 rockets weighs around 16 kg, taking into consideration small variance in fuel. I tried to eliminate that as much as possible.

Yeah I don't think it's just the numbers that are off. You can compare screenshots of the Mi-8 sitting on the the ground unloaded, empty rocket pods, and fired rocket pods... And there's almost no change when empty but removing the pods there's a visible change. I didn't bother posting screenshots in my original post because we've all seen the same screens and I kind of want other people to go check my numbers. Obviously things will be a little off due to fuel state but not that much.

I'm hoping someone can explain this. My group is running a small insertion mission with some Mi-8s. Fly in, drop off troops, support from the air with guns or rockets. Due to the heavy weight of troops I started wondering, how much lighter is the helicopter for landing if I dump the rockets on the way in? Easiest way to test this is starting loaded up, take off fire everything quickly, land again. I've done this several times now and the results don't add up. These numbers are loaded with 50% fuel and 120 S-8OFP2, the maximum load. Keep in mind each rocket is supposed to weigh 16.7 kg according to the in game encyclopedia and, as far as I know, the rocket pods are basically just thick sheet metal surrounding some aluminum alignment grids. According to a couple of sources the rocket pod should weigh 123 kg, presumably unloaded. Unfired: 12413 Fired: 12394 No rocket pods: 9652 None of this really makes sense. 16.7 * 120 = 2004 kg. When we fire the rockets we only lose... 19 kg. When we subtract the now empty pods we get a loss of 2742 which would make sense for the rockets and some left over for the pods, fittings, etc. 6*123 = 738 + 2004 = 2742 so that in game weigh is spot on... Or would be if the pods still had rockets in them. Anyone have a clue what's going on here? Maybe this is something everyone already knows but searching the forums and Google I found no mention of this. In the end we're effectively being robbed of losing a ridiculous amount of weight firing the pods. 2004 kg isn't nothing. That's 4418 pounds and change. My 2000 Jeep XJ at max factory weight is 3386 pounds. 4418 pounds is about what a full size rhino weighs. A rhino. I'm hesitant to report this as a bug but just looking at the number I don't see how it can be anything else. The only other theory I could come up with is that the programmers left the weight on there to simulate drag but that also don't really make sense from what I know of flight modeling in DCS even for older stuff. Thoughts? If the powers that be think this might be a bug feel free to move the thread to the bug section. Thanks

Well, I feel like an idiot. It seems weird that you need both NS 430 modules... I only want it for the Mi-8. But I'm sure that's my issue now.

Edited to add: Presumably solved as it appears you need both the NS 430 base module as well as the specific module for the Mi-8. I'll wait for another sale to buy the base module I supposed. Steam, open beta: Alright I've poked around a lot with this and can't figure it out. I bought the NS 430 for the Mi-8 in the last sale and it shows up in my DLCs as clicked to be installed. It doesn't show up in the cockpit with NS 430 Allowed selected nor do the NS 430 training missions show up under the Mi-8's training like other people seem to suggest. I unclicked the module and restarted Steam so presumably it uninstalled it. Reclicked it, saw Steam download 76 odd megs, restarted, started DCS... Still nothing. Had Steam verify the integrity of the installation with only a few problems found but that also didn't make it show up. I'm really not sure what to do next. I completely reinstalled DCS about a month ago so it's not like that should be an issue. Any ideas? Does the NS 430 show up as a separate module icon in the module bar at the bottom of the main screen? Is there somewhere else I need to look to make sure it's enabled? Is there something weird going on with me having the wrong version somehow? Is aw a post on the DCS Steam forum about the Gazelle having an NS 430 issue recently with two versions. Thanks.

To add to this: the AI Kord gunner seems to work fine but I still can't switch to that seat. The on screen interface says I'm in that position while I'm still in the pilot seat and can sometimes fire the Kord with the left mouse button. Other times it fires things like the rocket pods.

Just wanted to chime in I'm also having a problem getting the LCU to show up in the ME unless it's labeled as something very strange. The LCACs worked just fine.

I was enjoying it right up until I ate a missile from a MiG in the last mission of the campaign (I think) literally as I got the audio message about "Success!" Death over Kutaisi, what a way to go. I'll give it another shot in a moment though. I wish they would stop releasing new modules for a while and just fix things like the JTAC and other core mechanics. It's tedious enough when it works properly. Also, give me Kuwait, damnit! I need to fight some Iraqis up there.

I'm providing this hoping it might help fix something if it's really the mission but I suspect it's just the poor JTAC system in DCS. My experience: Flew the mission last night for the first time and arrived at the ~20 mile zone where you get the audio cue to call. I was probably higher than intended at 26k but from some above comments that shouldn't really matter. Contacted the JTAC on the proper frequencies, nothing. Over and over. I eventually tried changing distance (Iglas were shooting at me) altitudes, angles of approach, all combinations of radio channels, frequencies, that I could think of. Nothing. I decided to try to finish the mission with the IR Mavericks and as soon as the first one hit the building suddenly the JTAC shot a bunch of seemingly delayed messages at me with no issue and I was able to run through the normal JTAC radio menu including at my initial altitude and position. The laser worked fine and I was able to launch the laser Mavericks at the already destroyed building locations. I suspect this has something to do with DCS's poor JTAC system than the mission but maybe I broke something showing up at too high of an altitude initially. I was able to complete the mission by gunning the BTRs that showed up thereafter. Today I ran the mission again and came in at 15k and everything worked exactly as I would suspect. The only weird thing this time is the JTAC said the target was a ZSU-23 initially but when I asked what my target was again he said "bunkers" I don't remember it doing this the first time but it might have been lost in the warp speed radio messages. Again, pretty sure this is DCS rather than the specific mission build. Probably unrelated to the above: Both times I couldn't get the tanker's TACAN to work at all. I checked repeatedly that I was on the right settings and flipped it over to the Stennis with no issues. It just continued to hunt for 10X with no resolution. Both times I ended up finding it with radar so it was definitely spawned in. I can provide a screenshot sitting in the drogue with the TACAN hunting. I glanced in the mission editor and Texaco's TACAN appears to be set to 10X so again, probably DCS being a pain in the ass. Keep up the good work Badger!

Alright good to know. I almost thought it was the revetments but I thought it was weird because I turned on labels and clearly if I was *really* low they weren't display but when I rose up the Gepard labels would appear but Petrovich still wouldn't see them. So is there a limit to the number of targets that can be listed at once?

Thanks Unknown! I was actually testing some very similar stuff since I first posted and hadn't had a chance to come back to share but I found basically the same results. I tried in winter, as you did, and in other high contrast situations like out in the flat desert with no real difference. I've actually been able to see and kind of lob missiles into targets in low light from beyond "max" range so it's not like it can't be done but Petro's detection ability seems very limited right now. It mostly bothers me because of the kind of hard time that seems to exist rather than actual light/contrast levels. Even the TV guided Mavericks seem to have a far better ability to pick up stuff in lower light. I might continue my tests by moving the clock back and forth in smaller increments to see if there's a specific number.

As an add onto this, and why it would be useful, is there a maximum number to the targets that can be listed? I've been trying to do the H4 Mission and using missiles to take out the Gepards is almost impossible because there are just too many targets. Even when you point the cursor right at a Gepard and tell Petro to look he often lists about a dozen other targets and you just have to select one, tell him to look again, and it's totally random whether he'll show you a AAA listing to select. As far as I know there's no way to set his target priority but being able to look directly at a target and hit a designate button would kind of solve this.