arteedecco

Thanks for the replys. I wish the server could be standalone (without graphics requirement, headless, ssh into or something like that, command line) but do NOT want to lose the ability to run a server AND play on the same physical computer, since many of us just don't have more than one comp capable of that. Wonder if there is any chance for an open-source / community port of the DCS server?

I'd vote for the TM, which would bring it's avionics up to par w/ the A-10C. ...but before any of that... multi-seat support. Give me an Apache with two human playable positions, simultaneously and both aspects modeled. PLEASE! and and F-15E with both seats modeled and playable with 2 humans simultaneously.

+1, yep. The way to take this SIM to the next level is to add two seaters. Look at some of the other titles that managed it: Battlefield series (sorry for the comparison :) and ArmA to mention a couple I've played and enjoyed. The 2 seat capability in Cobras / Apaches / Hinds and Su-34 / F-15E / F-18G / A-6 / F-4, would be amazing. Obviously the level of modeling and detail for systems logic would be intense and I think one of the major show-stoppers is intel, frankly. Like you though, I think it would be so worth it. I agree with EDs direction in getting Fighter out the door, with the F-15C in the new AFM. That's a great start. But then it would seem obvious to make it the F-15E and model the backseater and all the avionics back there IMO. Maybe a 3rd party dev will save us? Basically, could just make two aircraft that fly in REALLY tight formation with one being front-seater and other being backseater :)

@xaoslaad (or anyone else who's knowledgable on the subject), I don't know much about WINE, so maybe you can answer some of the following questions/stipulations... 1: I would assume that running anything through WINE would incur a detectable performance hit, especially something like DCS A-10C? 2: Graphics are **usually** going to be worse in Linux because most of the time the drivers are written first (and optimized for) Windows and the Linux version (if it exists) is usually not given as much attention (is usually significant versions back from Windows version)? 3: In your mind, what would running on Linux offer as an advantage to running on Windows, other than making it so you don't have to buy Windows? 4: Like I said before, I figure there would be some better scripting support and server support that would come with Linux, but what would you say to that?

If it doesn't already exist, I would recommend a sub-forum be started specifically for new members / training. We could sticky all the common training questions and any issues / questions on the training missions. Good idea??? If "yes", how do we do it?

You can make a sort of syllabus for yourself if you grab the sections for each part you are practicing. You can tab them apart in the binder and then use each section as your guide for each hop. This separation also helps your mind break things up into blocks which helps reduce the "overwhelmed" factor. What @EddieMuntz said. Use the Wiki and get the checklists, layouts. The guides you will find most helpful from now through whenever are: 1. Checklists (memorize flows and use checklists to make sure you did it all and got it right) 2. Stick / Throttle / Key commands / layouts (having on ONE page is very helpful to avoid page flipping and struggling to remember quickly what TMS up does when you're trying to get your Maverick's going!) 3. Threat guide (when you're buzzing around it is really helpful to have knowledge of what can kill you at what range and altitude combo.. and how.. IR / Radar, bullets / missiles) 4. Airport / approach charts (optional, but can be handy and adds to game realism) Happy hunting!

Too bad, I've often wondered the same thing. Completely understand the limitations and that the demand is probably almost incalculably low. I do wonder what neat things a Linux version would make available in terms of customization/scripting/what else? Just musing!

Really cool Mike!

Man.. I gotta go learn about that. There is something VERY rewarding about a successful delivery of "dumb" bombs on target. Especially rippling of two full TERs on a column. I need to read about the LASTE... what threads / pages from the manual do you recommend @shagrat? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last night was flying on a server with Dragon's The Dam map. The server didn't cycle after mission accomplished so we were just buzzing around and shortly @K L R rico hopped online and asked if I wanted to try some ACM (air combat maneuvering) and scrimmage. This was a great, fun way to a.) get really familiar with the air to air gunsight on the A-10 (we were guns only), b.) handling of the A-10C in various extreme maneuvers (up against stall, max performance, etc), c.) start procedures :) <-- because when someone hits you with a well aimed burst of GAU-8, your wings tend to come off and you get to practice your startup again! All in all, just "playing" is really educational and having fun leads you to repeat things, which leads to muscle memory, which leads to getting a handle on everything (learning). @GGTHaros says he can get the A-10C airborne in about the same amount of time as the DCSW Su-25T doing in-air alignment... I've gotta look into that because that's the one thing that slows me down.. waiting for alignment. I will say, the aircraft has gotten MUCH more forgiving in its startup sequence than during BETA and other previous releases, so be happy for that. The whole "not in DTS mode after startup" nightmare cost me several hours while learning - course I'm better for it now! At any rate, I'm really excited to have all you new pilots ramping up and getting onboard. The more folks in this community, dedicated to learning how to operate this amazing SIM properly, the better IMO. Keep at it and keep asking questions.

@Druid_ Completely agree with that! Sometimes it would be nice to be able to create a sort of "damn the torpedoes" type AI that is just hell-bent on getting to the target regardless of "reasonableness", but that's not a biggie! :) I was proud of myself, being able to figure out the Alert 5 scenario and feel like it's my first step towards some more complex missions. It's help from people like you that really make it possible! Like @Razor5-1 said: Cheers!

Gah! I knew I forgot something! You're completely right, rudder pedals make a big difference but should not be considered a barrier to getting started (I still don't have any and use the keyboard for rudder on t/off and landings!). One word of advice on rudders... get ones with a heavy base! And/Or anchor them down to something that won't move. Super annoying to have your pedals scooting all over the place on ya! I'll go back and edit my equipment list... for posterity. :smartass:

Well... the newer ARMs might have some brains so that they go where the last emission came from. Did you try moving your vehicle after the ARM was launched at you (thinking of a mobile radar AA vehicle like Tunguska, or something)?

Let's not be too hard on him. ;) After all we want to encourage people to feel comfortable posting! I know what you're saying of course! (thanks for the amen). Cheers!

Yeah, I hear you. I created a mission (attached) where there is a flight of 4 F-15C loaded up on the ramp and then there are two attacking groups. First is four L-139 set to CAS and second is 2 Su-33 set to CAS. One thing I have noticed when I originally created the mission I gave the F-15Cs 3 external tanks! Yikes... I thought they would dump the externals as soon as they engaged other aircraft, but they didn't! Odd! So maybe this is a clue about the AI algorithm for when to dump stores. Maybe if the aircraft is significantly disadvantaged in the fight, it attempts escape? Some more experimenting is in order to be sure. Let me know what you find out too, because this is troublesome for me as well. When the first attacking group enters a trigger zone, the F-15Cs startup and launch for a Fighter Sweep. Because of the way things are timed in my mission, what generally happens is the lead F-15C is airborne and searching right as the L-139s begin their attack run, or are close. Then you start seeing the L-139s dumping ALL of their external stores as they go into a defensive posture. Now... usually one of them is not engaged and you will see him continue to press the attack, but AS SOON as an F-15C engages him, he goes defensive and tries to escape. On the other hand, the Su-33s usually come into the battle late and begin to attack with their Medium Range missiles, usually taking out one F-15C before they are killed as well. You will notice a difference in behavior between the Su-33s and the L-139s... mainly because I believe the Su-33s have AA missiles - possibly also due to their AA radar... making them more on equivalent footing to the F-15Cs. One interesting thing to try on this mission would be to remove all but one of the F-15Cs. I believe by making him outnumbered he would be downed by the Su-33s. It would be curious to see if they continue with their CAS mission or RTB after being engaged? So... back to the CAS / ground attack question. Yeah... you are right about CAS being general and not what you want specifically. Isn't there a way to change the ROE for aircraft and maybe alter their prioritization and how they react? Maybe you could adjust the ROE for your attacking aircraft and keep them from dumping all external stores, or taking evasive maneuvers (though I know you really just want them to not be pansies and remain in the fight if they are not downed... like a Human player would! :). Alert_Aircraft.miz

IMO, your priority list for equipment would be: 1. DCSW - free 2. DCS A10-C Module 3. Stick (I run a crappy / broken Saitek X52 and it does the job... the Pro may be better and will get you going) 4. TrackIR 5 (must have) 5. I really like the Thrustmaster MFD Cougar Pack (http://www.thrustmaster.com/en_UK/products/mfd-cougar-pack). Relatively inexpensive and adds a nice realism quality to the sim. EDIT(BEGIN) 6. Rudder pedals (get them with a heavy base, or make sure you anchor them down to a sheet of plywood or something like that) (END)EDIT 7. Eventually, get yourself the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog. I will tell you this, the fidelity and quality of the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog make it an excellent purchase. This stick is to DCS A-10C as a crappy generic Microsoft Sidewinder stick is to HAWX. <<-- Not sure if that made sense, but basically, what is the main thing you are doing in this SIM? Flying. (Some might argue operating systems, which is fairly true, but at the end of the day you have to fly the plane... WANT to fly the plane). So... if you get this stick it will add a quality and realism to the game that will take it up a whole new level, making it that much more rewarding. 8. Pit with three projectors and a large screen behind avionics stack for exporting all the cockpit instruments behind a nice bezel and mounted Cougar MFDs, etc. <<-- Definition of lust! At any rate, you guys are doing the right thing. Get involved with the community. Ask questions. And... RTFM (read the f*ing manual). Don't mess around with Game mode... in your settings (I'm sure you've already done this) put 'er in Simulation mode and start there. Learn checklists, which you can find and download from stickied posts on these forums. I wrote mine out and practiced practiced practiced them so I wouldn't have to take 30 minutes to get the plane taxiing. Then... like others have said... one realm of flight, one system, one weapon system / mode at a time. If you want to fly w/ someone who's been flying for a while PM me. Sounds like we're in different timezones, but we can figure something out. My wingman and I would be more than happy to provide some training and tips (we've got a Teamspeak server we can use to communicate). Cheers!

Okay, figured it out. It's just the "Uncontrolled" checkbox you want to check, not "Late activation". Uncontrolled does pretty much what it says... no pilot (operator) of the vehicle, therefore it doesn't go anywhere or do anything. Neat! The "Late activation" checkbox looks like a checkbox to replace having to set a start time for a vehicle waaaaayyyy out beyond the mission start time (usually 24 hours or more to be safe). Now, if you click "Late activation" the vehicle isn't shown at mission load, no matter the start time you have selected for it. Nice. Just wish there was hover tooltips in the ME! Now... big question I can't find anywhere... can AI aircraft rearm after landing? I've read that if you peek in the .lua scripts you can see that various launchers are reloaded eventually, but I'm not sure about aircraft and the reload time is around 60 minutes!!! Yikes! Here's Combined Arms the thread I was referencing: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1505827&postcount=11 Not sure if that applies to AI aircraft too??

First, let me just help you out: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1117116&postcount=1 Find the "A5 version by PlainSight" in that post. The SA-15 TOR system can hit up to 35K feet above it's starting elevation, which explains the results you are seeing. The Tunguska you can get up on top of in the A-10C, though it takes a while if you're heavy. Now... you can win against an SA-15 with Mavericks IF you: a.) Know where the SA-15 is by an FAC / JTAC, shared SPI via datalink, or get lucky spotting it with your TGP b.) Are at relatively high altitude and/or have lots of kinetic energy (speed) when you launch the Maverick giving it maximum range potential, since the SA-15 can hit out to 7 nautical miles (+/- depending upon your maneuvering, speed, altitude) That threat guide made a big difference for me. Depending on the briefing for the mission you can determine your safe altitudes. In general I stay above 12K to avoid the nasty IR SAMs. If I think there are Tunguska, I'll try to get up above 20K, but hey... in reality... you would brief on intel and suspected / known threats and you would go defensive and get out if you ran into a serious SAM. In-game we tend to go into missions that are not super realistic in terms of what an A-10C would be dispatched into w/out SEAD support.

Yup, MatzWarhog! That's why we love DCSW because it adds the level of realism that gives that sense of accomplishment beyond just going out and mashing the "pickle" button without having to consider all the many factors that lead up to being able to release a weapon and get a hit. Love it. Wish we had a list somewhere of everyone's multi-player handles so we could correlate between forum and in-game. Also wish there was a 24/7 public server that everyone frequented so we could see familiar faces and help newbies like MatzWarhog out, getting to know the ropes of working with a wingman, etc. What's out there that address that stuff? I may just update my in-game handle to match my forum handle.

Ah, completely. That makes sense. The other post I read made it sound like you had to manually lower the flaps, but I get the whole hydro thing. Thanks for that! Also, where is the list in the manuals (not in a post somewhere) of the vehicles you need to facilitate refueling / rearming / repair? Many thanks!

Hey Razor5-1, I appreciate your post and question because I've been having similar questions / issues forcing the AI to do what I want. I created a simple mission where there was a bunch of ground units and some CH-47Ds at an airbase... and a Hawk SAM battery. I then added a flight of two Mig-27's with 100% gas, full load of rockets and flares / chaff. They are setup for CAS and I put their second waypoint within visual range of the airfield where all the enemies are. If the Hawk Search Radar is downed (making it unable to engage air threats), the Mig-27s engage until their guns run dry, expending all AG munitions first (as you'd expect). However, IF the Hawk SAM battery is active, they dump flares / chaff and make defensive AA calls and just orbit around with full afterburner and never seem to do much. Also, if I put them into "Ground Attack" mode (I think that's the correct name), they do basically nothing, fly to the waypoint and RTB. I don't get it. So... I switched them back to CAS and all works as expected. Okay, so the point... a.) Are your planes running out of gas? If they are defensive they may be full afterburner and then hit bingo fuel pretty quick and have to head home. b.) Are your planes running out of flares / chaff? I wonder if they DO expend all these defensive countermeasures if they will head home? -- What about if there is still an active AA threat, then will they head home if they have expended all chaff/flares? I am also confused about the "number" condition and what exactly it does?

Thanks for the response. I think the only part I'm missing is a flight plan that includes more than just the start point. I wondered if this was the issue. The part I am unsure of is if the F-16 will deviate from it's flight plan to start engaging the enemy aircraft since I don't think "Fighter Sweep" shows up as a command, like "CAS - a - ref" and other commands like that. I ran into the same issue with setting up some Mig-27's for "Ground Attack", they did nothing. Once I switched them to "CAS" it showed up in the actions and they did exactly what I expected. Can't figure out the ones that don't seem to automatically generate commands / actions for the group.

Hi there everyone. Wondered how to create an AI aircraft that will start from ramp and takeoff from an airport, and immediately engage attacking fighters, like an alert aircraft? I created a missing with an AI F-16A, did the ramp start, created a trigger that activates the F-16A when aircraft from the opposing Coalition begin attacking the airport. However, the F-16A just taxied out about 1/2 way on the taxiway and then held position. Now, I had the F-16A setup for Fighter Sweep and only had one waypoint, the first one for the ramp start. I thought this might work because when you start a helo on the ramp, it always takes off, orbits, and lands. I continue to be mystified by the AI and how to get it to do what I want. I was afraid that if I gave the F-16A a waypoint after the start, he would takeoff and go to the waypoint without engaging any enemies and go defensive right away instead of aggressively engaging enemy aircraft immediately after rotating. Any help would be appreciated! :thumbup:

What was the problem, for the rest of us? I believe you want to use the "Attack map object" for specific objects, but you can also use "Bombing" action and specify essentially a lat/long where AI will try to place bombs regardless of there being anything there at all.

I have the same question. (FYI, I have 1.2.2 and all the latest updates) I created a mission last night and assigned an airport to the Red coalition, positioned Russian refueling and GPU vehicles all over the ramp, added Russian AA vehicles, and added Russian APCs all over the airfield. I thought I had everything possible covered. However, after I landed in the Su-25T and taxied to the ramp I used the radios to request refueling, rearming, repair, and even used the Alt+' trick... to no effect. Now... I will say it IS possible that my engines were not 100% spooled down. Gah! We need better feedback in the SIM via Radio responses, messages, or some other way because it is downright impossible to troubleshoot. This is especially annoying being that you can hot refuel / rearm in the A-10C. I've even seen someone say in the Su-25T that you need to have the flaps all the way down, which I doubt...? Also wondered if either a.) I am missing something (totally possible! :), or b.) the manuals for the ME have not been updated since the latest releases? There is a new "Late activation" option in the ME which is not described anywhere that I can find in the GUI User Manual.pdf. Which doc should I reference and what directory is it located in? Many thanks! :pilotfly:

Funny you should say that :music_whistling: http://bentcorner.com/in-harms-way/ That is a for-real story. I don't know if the Su-25T ARM system prevents locking up airborne emitters, if DCSW correctly simulates that functionality if it exists in RL, or if you actually can lock up airborne emitters in DCSW (I don't think so based on the manual). The main issue with hitting an airborne emitter from a fast mover is that the missile was designed for a much less agile target than a maneuvering aircraft. At least that's my take on it. However, since ARMs are passive... you might just get lucky. In either Desert Storm or Iraqi Freedom (maybe both), I've heard that enemy radar operators would listen on the radios for Coalition forces to call out "Magnum", which is the radio call you make when firing an ARM like an AGM-88. When they heard "Magnum" they'd switch "OFF" their radar set to avoid the inbound missile... I believe that Coalition forces would even spoof this and just make the call and see some radar sites go dark! Someone else more versed in their lore than I can correct me if I'm wrong. Cheers!