Minhal

Latest patch made me finally quit DCS. There are so many things which are broken for years, players do excellent workarounds by editing files or making mods and then ED comes around kicking in all that work. Shaders folder is just the most recent thing happening. Finally fed up of investing so much time just to not know if i can still join servers after the next patch. Looking forward to various alternatives to DCS which are on the horizon.

Really like that idea. Maybe post it again in a separate wishlist thread? Since it probably drowns here. Relatively easy to implement and gives some nice variety in effect without damage model overhaul.

Not everybody knows how to set the parking brake. Some think it is not important. So it is not necessary.

Really sounds like the emergency weapon jettision was pressed. Do you have that put on any switch or button on your stick or throttle? Maybe double check in the controls (as DCS likes to auto-bind silly stuff )

Hey i am generally with you as long as it is optional and the mission designer (server owner) can decide if it is wanted or not. This really is my main point. Do i think the dev time could have been spent better? Yes. Was it a lot of dev time. Probably not. So i do not really care. It is just that every now and then "helpers" or "crutches" are implemented and everyone gets them forced on themselves. This is what really annoys me. I would not even mind that pesky air refuel cheat people ask for all the time - as long as i as a server owner/mission designer can uncheck a box in mission editor and disable this for my server/mission. This is all i am asking for in this thread: to make it an option for mission designers to allow or disallow. Like labels, unlimited fuel or all the other helpers. With combat ineffective: You and @draconus already said it: you do not know. You sometimes do not know in real life either and this is absolutely okay. In real life you have to judge yourself if it is worth to do another run or save that ordnance/avoid that risk. If it goes off the road and does not move anymore for 10 minutes, it is probably dead. Maybe not. You never 100% know. And this can imho make some good quality content too. Instead of outright beat everything until it burns like in a silly action movie, just kick it a bit, loiter, assess the situation, maybe talk to your (human) wingmen how to proceed. One could build an entire mission around that mechanic with calling in a helicopter to drop ground troops to investigate. I am super okay with trying new stuff, things need to evolve. But please in the right direction. Like you say, this hitpoint mechanic is from the 1990s and imho there is nothing good in adding to this mechanic. For the chimney slider This was always for performance afaik. @Northstar98 think so too, yes. Maybe the dev time could have been used to improve the BDA widget instead. Maybe add how many rounds hit, how many did not and what distance in meters you missed. Maybe even a % hit ratio per burst or attack run. This imho would have been a positive improvement of the game for people who want to know if they hit or missed.

Finally someone with an artsy eye I too loved the composition. Eyecatcher in the left third giving a vertical guideline, the main object of interest in the center but not prominent. All the dust creates depth and an interesting view. I find it a great shot!

Not literally asking for it, was just looking to put the new "feature" into perspective Find it weird to develop in a more realistic way (aware ED is working on a better damage model) and then implement such a backward feature that reinforces the simplified hitpoint model. Never seen a wishlist item for this and i do not get why something like this is, like other things in the past, forced on everybody. It is an additional unrealistic feature put on top of an unrealistic feature.

Just to elaborate a bit more, real vehicles also can also explode. But the current state of literally every vehicle exploding and burning when destroyed is unrealistic too already. Vehicle smoke on damage is five steps back into the direction of gaming, not simulation and realism. In reality, some vehicles that count as kill indeed explode (cookoff), others just start smoking and burning (fuel, ammunition burning/incendiary ammo or tracers), others are mobility kills (motor, wheels, tracks, steering components), knocked out (damage to other combat-vital systems like weaponry or electricity) or simple crew kills, where all or parts of the crew are wounded or killed and the vehicle becomes combat-ineffective for the time being. On a M113 or BTR-70 for example, a burst of .50cal or bigger should go well right through the vehicle - at least from the sides. Likely wrecking havoc inside from bullets and shrapnel. But unless motor or fuel/ammunition components are hit, there will be no smoke, no explosions. The vehicle (the passengers) will be out of action and the only indication probably will be the vehicle stopping or going off tracks. Incendiary ammunition or tracers of course can start a fire inside a vehicle, but not in 100% of hits. Especially when the ammunition goes right through like with lightly armored APCs or even trucks with fabric cover. Everything burning and/or exploding is a Hollywood movie thinking and the exact opposite to what DCS strives to be. If there were changes to damage being displayed, i would have loved to see ED to make vehicle kills more realistic as described above. Not make vehicle damage more action movie like as it was just done. Really disappointed.

Mine was 8GB but it can vary depending on owned modules. Saw others today having 60GB. Not sure what causes it.

Of course they can. But not because their health bar went below X%, but most likely because their motor got hit - resulting in becoming immobile. Vehicles do not miracly start to smoke when shot at. The current implementation is a cosmetic, displaying the terrible hitpoint mechanism. Not an actual state of the vehicles systems. And if people want feedback if they damaged a vehicle, there is the optional BDA overlay window.

I am not really happy with the newly introduced "smoke when damaged" thing. No idea who asked for that or thought of it as a good idea. It is a gamey feature to display a units health bar directly on the battlefield and by that reinforcing this simplyfied mechanic. Being someone looking for realism, this really makes me cringe. A lot. Could we please have this as an option mission designers can deactivate? I do not want any vehicles or statics smoke because they got hit by a bullet. It is horrible.

Oh, remember this. You got to really nail that setting. Good to see it fixed, probably quite confusing for a new guy

When DCS updates, it also checks all files for changes and replaces them by an original file. That is why i asked. Sounds a bit like your settings files might be altered by some external source in a way DCS updater does not like. So on every update, it replaces the settings file with an unchanged copy (which presents itself as a "reset to default"). Maybe it is the A-4 mod as the A-4 probably also injects its own sub-tab in the special tab. Could be any 3rd party tool that for some reason writes into the DCS settings file and corrupts it by doing so. Removing all mods and 3rd party tools and then adding them one by one while checking for the bug will be the only way to see what causes this. This is just how things work in bug testing. As no one else seems to have this problem (never heard so far at least), it seems like it is not a vanilla DCS issue. Edit: just to add: i also had Windows Defender block certain settings files (non-DCS) with anti-ransomware protection in mind. Had to whitelist the application that tried to access the files. Hence i asked for anti-virus software. It might just misinterpret the update process as an unwanted file change and revert. Or block it and the updater interprets this as the file missing.

Never happened to me. Do you use any mods or external tools? Maybe also check if your Windows Defender or 3rd party Anti Virus interferes.

The icon looks like the russian style unit icons. Did you check DCS settings -> game play tab (i think) -> icon style? Should read NATO. edit: dang, sniped