rddaos

"Easy/realistic avionics mode makes no difference," I don't mean to go off on a tangent, but I the "easy" mode just meant fewer enemies with maybe less effective weapons, but you're saying the avionics are not functioning in a realistic way? Really?

I'm brand new to the targeting pod. I'm trying to learn how to use it to locate ground targets. I've been using the following steps with no luck: 1. start quick mission in easy mode airborne. 2. switch TGP to A-G mode 3. slew TGP to default steerpoint (in easy mode, i THINK this should be the location of hostile targets) 4. slew TGP around in general area to try to locate targets using BHOT or WHOT My first problem is that after I slew the TGP to the steerpoint, the TGP is pointed at the sky (why??). The enemy would be on the ground, so I don't understand why the TGP slews to the sky. Secondly, when I then manually slew the TGP straight down until I see land, and then slew around in the general area, I don't see any targets. Am I just not looking hard enough? Well, i DO see lots of buildings sometimes, are these my targets? I was expecting to see vehicles, rocket launchers, etc. Is there a way to use the TAD page to verify that there are indeed hostile targets at the steerpoint? Because maybe I'm slewing to a steerpoint that contains no hostiles. But heck, I even tried slewing to every single waypoint and all I saw was gray mountains at each waypoint. What am I doing wrong?? One last thing, I was somehow able to get the TGP into a mode that caused it to automatically slew to the steerpoint, i.e. I could cycle waypoints with the UFC rocker and the TGP would automatically slew to each steerpoint. That's a nifty tool, but I'm not sure how I did that, anyone know? Thanks!

Page 323 at the bottom: To fire the laser only, the following conditions must be met: The TGP switch on the AHCP must be set to ON  The Laser switch on the AHCP must be set to ARM or TRAIN  Aircraft must be airborne  Laser code is entered  TGP is not masked by own aircraft  LSR must be selected from OSB 7

The manual states that in order to fire the laser (for example, to point the laser at a location for designating as a mark point), the laser code must be entered. Forgive my stupidity, but what code must I enter, how do I enter it, and once entered, which control is used to activate the laser (HOTAS pinky?). Thanks!

Can someone please explain to me the difference between the targeting pod crosshairs and the little square dot (situational awareness cue)? One indicates what your targeting pod camera/laser is pointed at, and the other indicates something else that I can't figure out. Thanks!

I can only guess that there are technical/programming reasons why it's not practical to provide a save function. Otherwise, surely they'd have one?

Saving Progress Could someone please tell me is it possible for me to save my mission progress, and return to it later? Also, is it possible to pause the game and review the mission briefing/mission editor page? Because once I begin the fast mission, the only thing I know how to do is press the escape key, which brings up a menu of only 2 options: quit or cancel. After quitting there IS the option to "save track", which I did. But I cannot figure out how to load the saved track. When I begin a mission and browse the mission folders for the saved track, the files are .miz, not .trk. Please advise.

I want to practice starting up, but the only options I see are: 1) begin mission airborne. 2) begin mission on runway. 3) begin mission on ramp. In all cases, my engines are already running when the mission begins. Could someone please tell me how i can specify to begin my mission with a cold start up? Thanks...

Thanks LostOblivion. I will indeed practice the bullseye offsets. Are there any OTHER major principles of navigation that I'll need to practice? I mean aside from approaches and landing. If I learn how to fly the flight plan that loads with the data cartridge and take bullseye offsets, am I good to go with navigating (ignoring takeoff, approach, and landing)? Something tells me there are more principles of navigating I need to practice for the enroute part of the flight. For example, what kind of typical situation would I be in where I would need to create a flight plan from scratch using the CDU?? The flight plan is usually part of the mission info loaded automatically with the data cartridge, so why would the A10 pilot bother with creating a new flight plan itself? Secondly, there are tutorials that instruct me on how to search the CDU waypoint database (which contains up to 2500 waypoints). Under what circumstances would the pilot be searching the waypoint database? Perhaps I might receive instructions over the radio to provide support at waypoint POTI? Is that how it works? Thanks!

I asked this question accidentally in the tech support area and maybe that's why I got very little feedback. So I hope I'll get better feedback in this part of the forum. Here goes. I am new to DCS A10, and I want to create a training regimen for myself. I want to begin by practicing navigating, later move on to practicing weapons. Can someone please suggest a series of progressively more difficult navigation challenges that would and cover all the basic principles of navigation in the A10C? For example: 1. Start with practicing flying the flight plan that loads with the data cartridge 2. Next, practice taking bullseye offset calls over the radios and locating the target. 3. Next .... Etc. Something like that would be really helpful for me. Oh and one last question, a guy told me that I should forget about practicing bullseye offsets because I won't need them with the digital TAD screen. Any ideas what this guy was talking about? Why wouldn't I need bullseye offsets? Thanks!

Actually, it would be very easy to make the training better for people of all levels. But unfortunately, very few people are good at explaining things to people. Very few people seem to be good at imagining themselves to be the reader, not the writer. Therefore, very few training tutorials are as good as they could/should be.

Thanks, and sorry for the duplicate posts guys. I forgot to click email notification and had to repost to get email notification of replies.

Can someone please tell me how to reset the keyboard key assignments to default? I wasn't thinking when I mapped spacebar key to the pause function. So now, when I try to do the training missions, I cannot press the spacebar to continue(as the game is asking me to do), because pressing the spacebar now just pauses the game. And I cannot figure out what the spacebar key used to be mapped to before I messed with it. Thanks...

I'm a beginner and I cannot figure out how to engage the speed brakes. According to the controls menu, B + left shift or B + left control should engage the brakes, but when I press that combination, i don't see any speed flaps opening or closing. Any ideas? Thanks...

Why is it that during the start up procedure, I have to use ALT + HOME to advance the left throttle to idle, i.e. why can I not simply advance the throttle on my joystick? Once I have used ALT + HOME to start the left engine, and CTRL + HOME to start the right engine, the throttles become unlocked, and I can use my joystick to move them, but prior to that, the only way to budge them is using the above key combinations? Any ideas? Thanks...