Zimmerdylan

Yes....this is one of those pesky "Whining" threads. But not what you think.:cry: I am very disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm (or seemingly) I see in the servers for the Normandy map. Between NTTR and Normandy, the combined server list for both of them isn't but a fraction of the size and population of the Caucasus map. And of the short 2.1 server list, the Normandy servers are usually empty in most cases. I love the Normandy map. Although I only fly WWII planes on it, I see all of the other modules flying around there. But it gets a bit lonely there because I do not encounter a lot of traffic on the Normandy map. I'm just curious so please indulge me on this. Why aren't you flying the Normandy map on line? I'm guessing that one of the following reasons apply here: 1. You do not own the map 2. The lack of a dedicated server on the part of ED (and yes, of course....the whole purchasing two copies to run a server problem) 3. Too small 4. I've heard some call it boring 5. Doesn't run well on your system, or you are waiting for it to be updated to a better status 6. Immersion factor not there To me, Normandy is a perfectly fun map but I know that people have perfectly good reasons not to be flying it. I would really just like to know what some of them are. Thanks

Hey guys! I know that a majority of you are perfect pilots who studied all of this stuff and know the keys to executing these basic maneuvers flawlessly. I too thought that I was pretty proficient at some of them. But for me, there were always little issues that prevented me from doing them perfectly or even without stalling in some cases. So.....for those of us who want to improve our skills in combat and aren't sure what it is that we're doing wrong, this film gives lessons on basic maneuvering. It tells you in detail what control surfaces to use and exactly when to use them. It's just what I needed as an armchair pilot who learns by watching the example of others. I do not know if this video has been posted before in the past but I do know that I have never seen it and it exited me to see that I now have a good guideline to follow and practice with. I hope this helps some of the other guys who need to work on these basic but important maneuvers.

I too hate that friggin plate. I have had many a frustrating fight because of it. What I do is when I want to look up and back behind me in that annoying hot spot that seems to be my main issue is I zoom out ( I mean way out) until I can see everything around that plate and the plate itself becomes much less of a problem. I saw that there were a lot of guys on Youtube doing this with great success and they were shooting planes out of the sky like swatting flies so I adapted that tactic. It feels a bit unorthodox to me but I have had good luck with it.

Yeah.....This may have something to do with your particular DCS download. I have noticed that different people's downloads act and react differently to each one's scenarios. For me, the carpet bombing works, but only 1 of the for bombers in any given group will drop it's load. The other three will simply fly over the target area in formation. Sometimes it's the 2nd bomber that does it and sometimes it's the 3rd, but never more than one on any group. I set up a mission where I just gave the command "bombing" to 10 different bombers, set up each bomber as it's own group with full loads, and assigned each a cluster of buildings to target and that worked much better than using the "WWII carpet bombing" command for me. It was much more accurate. However, out of the 10 planes, only 7 actually dropped any of their load on the first run. When I re-ran the mission, only 6 of the 10 dropped any bombs. I think that it is very much a hit or miss with this early alpha release. But then, there has never really been very much success with IA performing specific tasks in much of DCS as far back as I can remember. IA is just a problematic issue. I'm kind of torn about whether it's actually worth the effort. On the one hand, elaborate IA that truly thinks for itself, has an accurate flight and damage model, and follows every command correctly will certainly have a huge impact on your game and it's overall performance. On the other hand, IA have always been a source of frustration and sometimes misery for gamers of all genres and games in general. So it's a matter of living with the trade off. And not at all worth complaining about because it's just an unfortunate part of gaming. Not that I'm accusing anyone of complaining. :smilewink:

Cool....Thanks guys, I'll give it a go.

Has anyone been successful with getting the B-17's to actually carpet bomb anything. I set up a series of about 20 warehouses and factories. I sent out 12, B-17's fully loaded and gave them all the "WWII carpet bombing" command in the mission editor. They went to the target area, once over the target area, they opened up their bomb bay doors and dropped one bomb each and headed for home. So I did the same mission and gave the command "bombing" or something like that and the first B-17 in each squad dropped all of it's bombs and they all headed home. Any one had any better luck than I have with this. On a funny side note. On the same mission, I sent along some P-51's loaded with 500 lb bombs and was pretty amused when they were dropping their bombs from 18000 ft. level. I just thought "Wow......a Norton bomb sight in a P-51. Who knew. In that same set of missions, I set out 8 Tiger tanks and set the p-51's with unlimited ammo and it took more than 48, 500 lb. bombs to destroy only 8 tanks. Many of them took direct hits from a 500 lb bomb with minimal damage. I think maybe ED might want to take a look at the damage models for those German tanks again. I mentioned this before and I keep trying out new things but those German tanks outlast even the most modern Russian tanks against bombs and rockets.

Wow......I knew Tiger tanks were tough but man. I set up a few different models of the WWII German tanks and had at em with a P-51 on unlimited ammo. I'm pretty sure that this is pretty much a damage model problem with these tanks. I can score several direct hits with 500 lb bombs and do no damage whatsoever to the 3 types of tanks I set out. Tiger, Panzer, Panther. I did not expect the machine guns to be all that effective but direct hits with rockets multiple times, bombs right on the tank, doesn't matter. When I get a chance I'll post some tracks. If any of you have tracks of you destroying these tanks with WWII planes, please post and maybe share how you are doing it. Thanks!

Hmm..... I was pretty disappointed at first but after making adjustments, learning the lay of the land, and figuring out all of the ins and outs of 2.1, and Normandy, I have to say that I am pretty happy. Bugs? Of course, but the map as a whole is pretty much what we've seen in the past with the release of Nevada. All of the assets, and other things that seem to be missing will show up soon enough. And although I do find it kind of strange that ED would show us all of this cool stuff, and not have it up and running upon delivery, I still enjoy the map. As far as being bored, I don't understand all of that. Caucasus is no different than NTTR, or Normandy in the way that they all require a certain amount of creativity and imagination to create amusing scenarios. What is the difference in the 3 maps? Pockmarked landscape (or lack there of)? Battlegrounds? What? Caucasus has none of these things. In my opinion, all 3 maps create equal opportunity for unlimited scenarios and enjoyment. I am just glad that I got Normandy to run with descent FPS, and can even take advantage of the new shading with no real performance hits. The new shaders really do make a huuuuge difference. And again.....not sure why ED made both 2.1 maps look so bad with them turned off. NTTR looks terrible (worse than it ever did in 2.0) now unless you turn them on. All of my grievances toward 2.1 had everything to do with having the new shaders off. All in all, I'm convinced that Normandy has tons of potential. People who get bored with it aren't using enough imagination (IMO). It is like everything else in life. It is what you make of it.

I have to admit that I was a little panicked when I saw how little there actually was in the assets pack. I just figured that things would come along as they were completed. Has anyone tried to kill the German armor yet? Tiger is immune to everything that the P-51 can toss at it except for the 5oo pounders. Rockets seem to do little to no damage at all. The German armor is very tough on all of it's tanks. I wonder if this is just that the DM needs work or if it's this way on purpose.

Unfortunately, I did the same. But I should have really though that through. When it comes to this kind of stuff, you cannot afford to rely on someone else's word simply because they have a completely different set up than you do. Even if they have similar hardware. I see that there are a lot of people having a great time on this map so it isn't terrible. For me, it seems that Normandy was designed with higher end hardware in mind. But again, it's early alpha. And I remember back in the early days when pretty much everything was the way it is with Normandy right now for me. It's like ED is starting over with all of this new tech. All I can do is let it play out and see where it goes. I will eventually upgrade my system. I have always been a middle of the road guy when it comes to gaming hardware. I do not invest in the high end gaming stuff because this isn't my passion, it's a very fun hobby. My rig is part of a high end recording studio for professional musicians. That's where all of my resources go because that's my living. I do not use social media, or really computers at all outside of my work and this sim. My dissatisfaction with Normandy isn't a big deal. I'm glad that lots of people are getting something positive from it. I have confidence that eventually I will too. I do remember being very happy when Vegas came out because it ran well and looked stunning to me. I was hoping for the same luck with Normandy.

LOL....Point well taken.

My first impressions are not very good. I'm very sorry ED but I'm not going to say much that's very positive about Normandy. You folks want constructive criticism and so I'll give you my opinions. First glance.....TERRIBLE. Just terrible. My first thought was that this map is either designed for people with rigs that are up at the top of the performance spectrum, or it's just buggy. From the things I saw on Youtube, this map isn't anything like what I was looking at. My setup being on the lower end of things shows none of those great details that I saw on Youtube. Honestly, it comes very close to another flight "sim" that I decided was way too gamey looking to play or take seriously. And again, this could be that I'm not using top of the line gamer stuff. If that's the case, well then so be it. I'll just have to begin to phase simming out as I am not going to start investing $700-800 in high end gaming cards, and then hundreds more into high end computers. If this is the direction that sims are moving, then I'll have to bow out pretty soon. So the performance was just bad. Even with all settings relatively low......bad. Lots of flickering everywhere. AAAnnnnd again, could be that it's just too much for my computer. But I ran Las Vegas just wonderfully, and it still does (Even over the city). Buildings and other stuff, very boxy, generic. Again, reminds me of yet another sim that I do not fly any more because I chose DCS over it. I fired off some rounds while flying around. No tracers at all, but black dots floating off into the distance. Gamma seemed so high that a lot of things just blended together. For me, Normandy was pretty much a bust. I loved NTTR immediately, but Normandy....not so much. I almost want to ask "What was so wrong with the old graphics?" My hope is that this is Alpha and things will get better as we go. I am certainly willing to wait all of it out as you guys have always come through in the past. So after seemingly tearing you apart. I'm ok with it all. You guys will make whatever improvements you need to make and I am sure that naturally, it will get better. I'm sticking with you guys. NTTR after the update.......Ummmm well........Pretty.....different. I can't say that it's too much better than Normandy at this point. Light flashes all over the cockpit whenever I go in and out of cloud shadows (I'm guessing). Ground shadows that are just plain midtone blue. The mountain textures are very very cartoony. Guys....I have flown all over the Sonoran, and Nevada deserts for a long time. They're dull. They lack color, especially in Nevada. They do not have a bazillion shades of whatever those colors are. 2.1 honestly looks like one of those paintings that the retirees paint of the desert in one of their painting classes. These guys always complaining about the mountain textures haven't been around desert mountains all that much because they are more like they were in 2.0 than they are now. The shadows of the mountains are also very odd. They are colored weird, and they grow, and move as you fly over them. It really messes up the scenery. The performance in 2.1 is still quite good. No hits whatsoever for me. I find that strange because down town Vegas is a lot more detailed than anything I have seen in Normandy. Again.....I'm going to ride this out with you guys. But my only hope is that the Caucasus map isn't headed in this direction. Anyone thinking I'm crazy or wrong. It's all good. It's my opinion and I have to stick to it. And my opinion is that this is very early alpha, and my thoughts are just initial observations. This is all from a guy who doesn't have a 1080 card or a high end i7 processor. If you have a good rig, I'm sure this thing may look a whole lot better to you.

Probably read any one of the several threads already posted about the problem. All solutions are there. https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=187908

Thanks guys! If I understand correctly, you can only do one at a time? So do it for the map, and after the map is downloaded, I do the assets pack?

I have 2.1 installed. When I go to the module manager it gives me this: Failed to retrieve data An error occurred while receiving data, try later Could this be that ED's server is kind of being overwhelmed right now?

Guys....all you can do is wait. Mine also says up to date but you just have to keep trying every so often until the actual update reaches your area. It's this way every time DCS does this. It's all good. Patience....nothing is wrong with your DCS.

Wow...... I must not have died in the Huey in a long time. I have never experienced that. Every time I die the chopper just crashes unless I switch seats. But it's been a long while since I have had the pilot die without crashing the chopper so they must have implemented this feature along the way. Must be something relatively new.:noexpression:

So when NTTR dropped, there were a lot of people who sat by their computers and waited for midnight where ever they were thinking that the map would auto drop or something. Just an FYI for new folks. It's doesn't work that way. At least it has never in the past. From experience I know that drops are pretty consistent with their times. Everything drops for me at between 10 - 11 A.M. mountain time United States. Whatever time that is in other parts of the world is beyond me but it seems to be the time in this area when things drop globally. So otherwise if it drops at Friday, 10:30 A.M. here, it drops Friday at 1:30 P.M. in New York. So if you are thinking of waiting up all night till midnight.......I cannot say 100% that you are wasting your time. But from every other important drop I have ever seen. It isn't going to happen. So get your rest folks, your gonna need it for long download times and lots of exploring. Good night!

Most very unfortunately, I was watching an overview video of the Normandy map yesterday and there was still no prop. Looks like a fix is a ways away. Or....they don't think that it needs to be there. Not really sure which of these apply.

I think that only you can be the judge of that given that you are more familiar with your computer's condition than any one of us. But under normal conditions.....I would say probably not, or that it's personal preference.

Wow....That's it?

Boy....That's hard to say. I live in Arizona and usually drops happen between 10 and 11 A.M. on Fridays here. I could not say if they'll have the 20% off up to the release time. I am guessing that as soon as the news letter is released, the sale is off. That's just an educated guess so don't hold me to it.

Yes.....And it drives me crazy out of my mind the people either do not understand this or they seem to forget it altogether.

I let it get down around 80 before I touch down. Makes it easier to control on the ground while I slow it down. I my particular case, that's what it took for me to be able to land without beating up the plane. I still have issues some of the time. It's certainly the hardest of the 4 WWII planes to land.