Gilligan

I just did that mission today. I didn't have any issues with my HTS pod locking up the ship radars. Are you actively jamming when with the ALQ pod while trying to lock up the SAM radars in HAD mode?

Mission 4 one of the audio lines for the airfield departure does not play. It shows the text on screen but no audio. I was on the correct channel. Tested 3x. Same every time. Also on mission 4, not an audio bug but unless I put extra fuel tanks on the rest of the flight (2 wing tanks each) they would run out of fuel and eject right after getting near to STPT 3. Even with the bags, my one surviving wingman had to eject after mission complete (I sent him to the tanker when he said he was bingo but didn't make it). Mission 5 the audio line when your player character asks 2 if he is saddled and he responds with something to the effect of "Have visual contact, in formation in two minutes" plays twice, maybe a minute or 2 apart.

I haven't tried with the HTS pod since the update but using POS mode works. Hit an SA 10 track radar on a pre-planned strike in that mode. Tested today with the HTS pod and HAD screen - everything was working fine for me. Could lock and engage with good hits on SA15, SA6, SA8, HQ7. I don't see why it wouldn't be working on other sites. Also able to use the HTS pod to get a lock on a SAM with the HAD screen, slew the TPOD onto the locked SAM, and engage with Mavs/CBU's.

Spoiler - RE: surface contact The JHMCS is not equipped to start the mission, but you can equip it using the mission planner or have the ground crew install it if you want.

No idea if this is working as intended but you need to press CZ while still in VIS mode after you boresight your mavs to get the TGP to look at your Steerpoints in PRE mode.

Your coms with your flight should be on VHF 127.00 (the default VHF FREQ) and I believe the Dev said orders are given like normal via the vhf coms menu. You can use flight/engage/mission and rejoin or flight/hold position. You can also just not do anything and hit the ships. First time I tried I had her engage and rejoin. She successfully employed her ordinance. 2nd attempt I sunk both targets without needing to tell her to engage and she just stayed on my wing. Everything progressed like normal.

Experienced a similar issue. Both myself and my wingman hit both ships with all our ordinance, no misses. Only 1 went down and the mission was scored as a draw. Will try again and see if I can get them both to sink. Just ran it again. Changed which ship I used the mavricks on and swapped the 500lb LGBs for 2k lb paveways and dropped those on the tanker. Both sunk. Easy day.

I honestly don't know. You're creating an 'SPI Offset' in the VIS mode for the mavs, and SPI offsets do tend to carry over from mode to mode - for example if I'm using the HTS pod and target a SAM Radar, that creates an offset that I can use when I change to the TGP to find the radar that was selected. If I switch to NAV mode without clearing that offset, the SPI cursor box carries that offset over to that new mode and doesn't coincide with the STPT anymore, unless your go back to the pod and CZ it. However it the "offset" behavior for this issue is different than the usual behavior described above, as it doesn't seem to be a relative offset carried over to each STPT, rather a "hard lock" on whatever object you selected in VIS mode when doing the boresight. I feel that it is bugged because if you were to be utilizing the different weapon modes in flight it would make for a weird workflow, but that doesn't mean that's how the real thing doesn't work. For example, you're flying along to a pre-planned target and and see a target of opportunity, switch to VIS mode and engage the target, then want to go back to the pre-planned target position that coincides with a created STPT, but the TPOD is "hard locked" to the location you just engaged unless you go back and specifically CZ out the target location you locked up while in VIS mode. Something I've incorporated into my cold start procedure that seems to have fully "fixed" it for me is that after I boresight the Mavs (and the "problem" really seems to be primarily with MAVs) in VIS mode, I unlock and CZ before changing modes, then ensure that the TPOD is facing roughly the correct direction when in PRE mode. As far as "targets of opportunity" go I typically create a markpoint and just stay in PRE mode so everything works like I am used to.

DCS is DCS, love it but at the same time there are definitely limitations and shortcomings that show up when trying to make something as detailed as your campaign. I totally understand the reason's behind a lot of the design choices. It's unfortunate the game doesn't allow more creative freedom, but I know we all have to work with constrains sometimes. If It wasn't clear, I absolutely respect the dedication to realism and trying to accurately depict what the Gamblers actual deployment looked and felt like and trying to provide that experience to us (The Less Exciting moments included!). I don't view that as a negative at all, just pointing out that I did enjoy the liberty taken with the included SEAD mission, so thank you for including that.

Your INS needs to be fully aligned (either Stored heading or regular alignment, doesn't matter), and set set to NAV. Press "6" on the ICP - the top row on your DED should read "GPS SYSTEM" if "GPS SYSTEM" shows on the DED you can turn the MIDS to ON. sometimes starting in a bunker or under a structure can block the satellite's line of site and you will have to wait until it's unobstructed to see the "GPS SYSTEM" text correctly and turn on the MIDS, although I don't recall any missions starting that way in FIWOS.

going to do some more troubleshooting on my end but had a major performance drop after the update. Missions which usually run at an easy 120 FPS were struggling to break 90, and others were running as low as 50, with dips down to 20 or lower and occasional freezes. Tried several F16 instant action missions and all I tried were effected (Caucus - Fighter sweep, night fighter intercept/ Syria - Stop Rockets Rolling) EDIT: Did a little house keeping on the machine, installed windows updates and uninstalled some superfluous security software and things are running better, but still a little down from normal and still seeing some large frame drops. I'll keep messing with it. I know this up date *shouldn't* affect performance, but mine is definitely down from prior to the patch.

I'm fairly certain I have experienced this bug as well, and usually cycling through the modes of the weapon I have selected clears it. EX: Cycle through CCIP and back to CCRP for bombs or VIS/BORE/PRE for mavs. I doubt this is intended behavior but might help you guys out for the time being.

Maybe? I think the HTS still powers on if you turn the hardpoint on before starting the jet, so possibly. Agreed that, If you do a re-arm without turning them off, the hts pod will still work, but the tpod will need to be power cycled before it will come on. No idea if this is true to life, or a bug, or what. Just stating the current case as I've experienced it.

If you turn the hardpoint power on before the jet fully starts it will not power on. I started turning both hardpoints on later in my start up procedure, like after I start INS, and they've been working fine. It does take a couple minutes to come on but I figured that was normal/functioning as intended.

If you don't mind my asking, what is your start-up procedure? Are you doing a full "real-life" start up, testing the FLICIS and other BITs, etc? I use Bogey Dope's quick start up (and a couple personal preferences) and have never had any issue with getting in the air in time, including HMCS alignment and maverick boresighting. Things I do, personally, to save some time, particularly with mavericks, is to turn them on as soon as the jet powers up. So if I was doing a cold start with mavericks: Battery to main power IFF to norm UHF radio Function knob to "Both" Ask to start up Canopy Down JFS to Start 2 Lock Canopy, & Arm ejection set power on RWR & HMCS and setup countermeasures and ECM as desired Set Stores Config Settings, Turn on Taxi Lights, Set Parking break, Enable Ground Jettison. Set Master Arm to SIMULATE, Let laser arm ON Set Left Eyebrow brightness, Set HUD brightness, Set Right Eyebrow brightness Uncage and set Standby Altitude Indicator *At this point your engine RPM should be above 20% RPM and ready to go over the horn with the throttle. Keep an eye on the engine RPM gage between setting the JFS to Start 2 and now, IF RPMs exceed 20% before you get to this point, by all means go over the horn with the throttle and then continue with the above procedure. Set FCR and RADAR ALTIMETER switches to the ON position Set the MMC, ST STA, UFC, MSD, and GPS Receiver Power switches all to ON *At this point I usually have to wait a second while all these systems power on. I double check my procedure up to this point and fix anything I may have missed. *IF I am carrying mavericks, as soon as the MFD's power on, I go to AG mode and turn the Mavericks on, then exit AG mode. Turn the Altimeter Mode Switch to ELECT Set the INS Selector Switch to Stored Heading or NORM, which ever is appropriate at the time (99% of the time it's stored heading). A stored heading should take about 90 seconds to complete, and a NORM alignment takes about 8 minutes and may require you to manually enter some LAT, LONG, and HEADING data into the DED. Align HMCS Set Bullseye to ON (LIST -> 0 -> 8 -> 0 -> Return) Set the DED back to the INS page (LIST -> 6) to monitor the alignment progress Set up my DOGFIGHT mode preferences (Right MFD to show HSD) Set up my AA/MISLOVERIDE preferences Go into AG mode and set my AG mode preferences Turn power on to both the left and right hardpoints (HTS and TPOD) *about this time my Stored Heading INS alignment should be complete Set the INS Selector Switch to NAV Turn on any GPS guided munitions I may be carrying and let them align. *If I am not starting under a shelter I turn on Datalink and GPS time at this point in my procedure. If I am starting under a shelter I have to wait until I can taxi out from under said shelter On the ICP, press 6 - the DED should show "GPS SYSTEM" at the top. If it just shows "SYSTEM" do NOT turn on your datalink If the DED is showing "GPS SYSTEM" then turn the MIDS LVT knob to the "ON" position Press "RETURN" on the dobber, then press List -> Enter to pull up the DLINK sub page, hit any number key to set GPS Time to ON. Wait until the SYNC changes from Course to Fine then press Return on the dobber Check GPS munitions Alignment - if it's not done now it will be soon. Check your MAVs WPN page and see if they're powered on yet. If they are not wait until they are IF you want to do a ground boresight alignment. The process is super simple. Make sure your ground jettison switch is set to enable, and your master arm is set to simulate. Lock something with the TGP (If I do this on the ground I use the light poles), then lock the same thing with the mav's seeker. If lock is achieved then hit the OSB next to "BORESIGHT" on the WPN MFD. If you have mav's on stations 3 and 7 you'll need to do this for each station. If you plan on doing this in the the air then proceed to the next step. At this point I will set any other settings I want to set (or while waiting for the mavs to finish powering on) like external and cabin lighting, setting laser codes, setting bingo, entering extra steer points, setting any extra COMMS channels I want, etc. Turn on Nose Wheel Steering. Request permission to taxi and taxi out. All this should take about 5 to 10 minutes at the most if you're using the Stored Heading alignment. *IF you were starting under a shelter (Not relevant in the FIWOS campaign), check the TIME page on your DED (ICP 6) once you're clear of it and wait until it shows "GPS SYSTEM" then turn the MIDS LVT to "ON" and set the GPS Time to on using the same procedure as above. Don't forget to set your master arm to on when you fence in.

Boresight distance absolutely matters with the mavericks. If I can do an air-boresight procedure at 8ish miles I usually get solid correlation between the two. If I do it on a closer object on the ground there is parallax error. I have a couple tricks I do to try and mitigate this error but it is there. Like ChillNG recommends above, once you ID (and maybe lock) the target with the tpod, zoom out to get a sight picture that is as similar to the view from the Mav seeker as possible and make sure the two match. It is a lot to do once you've started your attack run, and it doesn't really get any easier, especially when you're worried about MANPADs and AAA. ID your target outside of 20 miles and above 15k feet. When you turn in, try to be nose on by 15 miles and 10k feet, this gives you five to seven miles to correlate your TPOD and Seeker displays. Lock with the seeker at about 8 miles, and try to rifle and turn off before 5 miles at the latest. I've found that anything closer than 5 miles is not only is it a massive risk but sometimes the maverick cannot maneuver enough to make the hit if your nose isn't dead on the target. I never use the auto handoff.

Wrapped this campaign up a couple of weeks ago, and took some time to digest my experience and think about it, and while I wanted to love the campaign, as I am a big fan of Rain and his podcast, and with the knowledge that BD is a respected developer with a proven track record, I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. There were definitely some high points that I did enjoy, and there were plenty of positives, but it was not without its, what were in my opinion, drawbacks either. I absolutely understand and respect the dedication to realism with regard to this campaign, so I will not say that the campaign was boring as a negative, I will say however, that it did feel very "on rails." I did not feel that I had much freedom, if any at all, to accomplish missions with any degree of autonomy. The bindable "1 or 2" binary input system, while streamlined and easy to use while in flight, I don't think offers as much leeway as more options in the F10 menu may have. My answers to questions were pretty limited to basic "yes, no" as to if I had weapons to accomplish a task, or enough fuel to RTB, or if myself or my wingman was going to attack a target first - In comparison to to other campaigns where you can chose which target you feel is the most important to attack, as well as the option to order your wingman to engage a variety of targets to assist you. On the other hand, I somewhat understand why this was the case due to (what in the end was a really cool and immersive aspect of the campaign) the specific, and detailed 9-line information from JTACS, or the "Shooter, Cover" instructions from flight leads having to be pre-recorded and not leaving much room for dynamic decision making. On that topic, I really enjoyed both of those aspects, the realistic 9-Lines and having to input coordinates in MRGS format forced me to learn and expand my own skillset as a "DCS pilot," and the "Shooter, Cover" instructions were just cool and fun to have included. Being "heavily scripted," imo, was both a blessing and a curse for this campaign. Some specific highlights that I think really showed the potential of the campaign in my opinion were: Mission 1, after the landing gear failed to drop - this was actually really engaging and having to work through the checklist and get the gear to drop by other means was a very immersive experience and I felt really accomplished for knowing where the required items were in the cockpit and pulling the landing off. mission 3, where we had to engage and eventually strafe the convoy outside of As Sukhnah. mission 5, escorting rattlesnake was fun and a cool experience. Missions 7 and 8 were both pretty straight forward and fun to fly. While 8 felt a little bit on rails after the initial JDAM drop, the firework show was cool to watch. Mission 9 felt like the only actual "wild weasel" mission in what was otherwise a CAS heavy campaign. I enjoyed it for that reason primarily, and despite a bug where one of the SA6 batteries failed to activate, still found it a fun and engaging mission. Watching the cruise missiles hit the airfield was pretty neat too. Mission 11 - I enjoyed the pace of action and the chaotic feel of the fight. Some specific Issues that I encountered and felt were particularly frustrating or because they were completely mission breaking: Mission 4 where the wingman would bug out and the mission would not progress after the CBU drop on the mortar site. Mission 6 after the Jordanian pilot from Tiger flight goes down, I tracked his chute with my tpod and wasted a lot of time looking in the area he actually landed for the technical I was supposed to engage, found one and killed it, but it turned out to be the wrong one. All the while I was supposed to have been looking several miles away from where his shoot landed at the fishing depot after he was magically teleported to somewhere near there. This was very immersion breaking and I felt like I was punished for actually tracking his chute and looking where that landed vs gaming it. Mission 12 - I encountered a mission breaking bug with Tally where she would not engage her technical unless I waited and let her shoot first before I shot at mine. It's really frustrating to execute everything correctly and still have to play a mission multiple times due to a bug like this. There was a lot of potential here for a great campaign. Unfortunately the mission breaking bugs and feeling like the missions were on rails really kept it from being what I felt it could have been in the end.

I have similar issues with Mavericks, however I was able to hit the required technical in 3 out of 4 attempts. IMO the key was doing an air boresight on the mavs during my ingress into the city. I picked one of the bright burning fires on my way in, locked with the tpod, locked with the mav seeker at 10 miles, and then hit the boresight at 8 miles. When I was attacking the technical I made sure to wait to lock with the TPOD until I was at that 8 mile distance, and just had to trust the mav was locking the correct spot before rifling it off. I was engaged by manpads doing this, but was able to pull off and make my escape each time. Best of luck.

Okay, so now that I was able to get the campaign finished and had a couple days to remember and digest everything, I wanted to go over the campaign some, mostly for my own purposes but hopefully there is something useful in the following paragraphs for the developers as well. First off, wow. What an incredible campaign, absolutely stellar job from a design standpoint. Overall each mission was engaging and I will definitely be playing through again in the future to attempt a perfect score, but for now I'm just happy to have survived everything, accomplished the main objectives, and come away with a decent score in the end. Difficulty progression through the course of the campaign was good and expectations were realistic but also demanding enough that sometimes I doubted if I was up to each task. There aren't many full campaigns available for the viper at the time of writing this, but of those available I have no doubts that this is the best one, especially when compared against the other "weasel" oriented campaign available. This definitely gave me a new appreciation for the weasel mission, and I think I may just have caught the "Bug" for it in game. Actual bugs in the campaign were very limited, which is more than I can say vs some other paid campaigns. The only one I actually encountered was during mission 4 when one of the Blackhawks wigged out and crashed into a tree. I don't think this was meant to happen and it definitely caught me off guard but didn't count against me in the end. Otherwise this was actually a really fun mission to fly, watching the SOF team do their thing on the TPOD was super cool. The campaign really picks up the pace during mission 6, Metro Indigo. I really enjoyed this one as well as Mission 7 - another low level ingress and pop-up attack, this time against an SA6 battery. Mission 8 was another really demanding flight, and I thought I had really screwed up when the Tornado was shot down, but now I know this is basically a scripted action and there wasn't anything I could have done to prevent it. Missions 9 and 10 I consider essentially a single mission in two parts, and Weaseling at night definitely required some extra attention and added yet another level of difficulty. Another very demanding flight that I was happy to have completed. Mission 11 is where I had to shelve the campaign initially for performance issues, however, after a recent update performance was improved enough that I was able to fly and complete the mission successfully. Dodging SAMs over Damascus was absolutely terrifying, and the "surprise" at the end was even more stressful. I did get one of the Migs, however one of the one "despawned" on me moments before my missile hit it. I understand why this happened, but it was a little bit silly. Mission 12 was probably the ultimate weasel mission, escorting and entire strike package over SAM infested airspace and knocking out threats as they popped up. Watching the hornets send their Volley of Harms was Incredible, and I managed to form up with one of the B1's was it dropped it's payload. Just super cool and a lot of fun. Some of the missions I was able to complete first try, and others took several attempts, however each time I was shot down or damaged I learned from it, and was much less likely to make that mistake again. I really enjoyed the "dynamic" mission dialog options where-by you could direct your wingman to engage specific threats, how the SAM sites reacted to those actions, and how that forced you to think and make decisions regarding those threats and how they might react to being engaged. This really made me feel like the choices I made were important, if not to the overall arc of the campaign then at least important to how I was able to complete missions successfully, or not. This interactive system was really cool and added tremendous depth to the experience. All in all, absolutely tremendous work - congrats to the Devs for putting this one together. A very fun campaign and I am looking forward to part 2.

after the last update performance has increased threefold. Which means I'm getting 30fps over damascus instead of 10 for mission 11, making it at least playable. Was able to complete the mission this way. Little bug, I killed one mig but the second de-spawned moments before my aim9 hit it, so didn't get the points there. A little frustrating but oh well.

What stick are you using/do you have the paddle switch depress bound to anything? I had an "Accidental"/unintentional input from the paddle switch binding that would disable my autopilot on ground starts (hot & cold) that I would not encounter during in air starts. (WW F16EX)

It's "normal" at this point but it is not working as intended. This bug has been "on their radar" for a while now, however no fix is forthcoming so far as I can tell.

Sorry for misunderstanding. I didn't realize it was in the knee boards, that's neat. I knew that the redflag campaign creates a page with the JTAC 9 lines, so it makes sense they'd be there for this one too. You should also be able to pull it up in the message history. The JTAC says the elevation before the coordinates so I have to jump down to the ELEV line then back up to the coordinates when he's reading out the 9 line but it's there.

Its at the bottom of the MRGS input screen on the DED. Be sure to hit ENTR after you input the value, and then hit ENTR again on CONVERT to save the steerpoint. Part 16 (NAV & ILS) of Chucks guide for f16C, 5.4 - MRGS Coordinates null

Lasers will not guide the AGM 65D. They are IR guided (Heat seeking). IIRC there are laser guided Mavericks but I don't think we have access to them in game. You SHOULD be able to visually see the laser the JTAC is emitting on your TPOD screen in either of the FLIR modes. JTAC gives coordinates in MGRS format. You CAN input these directly into the F16 as STPTs 21-25. Press 4 (STPT) on the ICP Press "21" (or 22, 23, 24, or 25) to select the steerpoint you want to use. Press SEQ (Dobber Right) and after a couple seconds the readout on the DED will switch from the usual degree decimal minute format to the MRGS format. The coordinate will follow a format similar to: "37S DV ### ###" or "37S DV ##### #####" (GRID SQUARE EAST NORTH) the specific numbers or letters are different depending on where you are but it will be in that format. GIRD - the "37S" will be one entry, hit ENTER on the ICP to edit the field, use the number buttons on the ICP to set the numbers, hit Enter and it will highlight the letter, use the Increment switch up and down to change the letters, then press ENTER again. SQUARE - the "DV" will be anther entry, Hit ENTER, use the increment switch to change the first letter, hit enter again to highlight the second letter and set it using the increment switch, then hit ENTER again when you're done to save it. EAST/NORTH - The numbers can be either 3/3 or 5/5, it will automatically detect which one you input, IIRC you can just type them in then hit enter. Set the Altitude the same way. After you entered the info into all the fields, dobber down until the CNVRT field is highlighted and hit ENTER one more time. This will store the STPT and your TGP should slew to it automatically. https://chucksguides.com/aircraft/dcs/f-16cm/#pf2bd Section 5.4 for MRGS Steerpoints