sirrah

Also, the worrying part here, is that the other week I was flying alongside my F-16 wingman while he was doing AAR in orbit, and after 15 minutes of continuous formation flying, I gave up and went RTB. When I returned to base 20mins later, my wingman was still refueling... (unfortunately I didn't save that track file) and apparently, seeing @Linx's post, I'm not alone here.

That is what I noticed as well, and was basically the reason I dived into this deeper. Although the longer refuel time isn't an issue, the indefinite/never finishing AI AAR bug is. I wasn't able to reproduce the "never ending AI refueling when in orbit" in a simple mission, but I definitely had this issue as well. I'm glad you chimed in on this. Hopefully this report gets noticed by someone from ED (I think I did my best to make a proper report, so some sort of reaction from ED would be nice)

I (and I'm sure many with me) will indeed continue to enjoy DCS and I'm grateful that ED made it possible to enjoy it for such a long time already Just curious about your thoughts/reaction @BIGNEWY on what's pointed out by others in a few posts up, regarding prices of some of the older (and let's face it, somewhat outdated) modules. For instance: F-86F -> $50,- MiG-21bis -> $50,- UH-1H -> $50,- Mi-8MTV2 -> $50,- NTTR map -> $50,- Despite bugs that might have infected (some of) these modules, they are still a lot of fun to play with, but are these prices still realistic for such dated modules. (I mean, personally, I don't really care as I already own all of these modules and also I know about all the sales and the trial option. But prices for these modules without sale discount, do indeed seem quite steep to me)

Fair points

Hey @Harlikwin, first of all, no offence to you I see this "expectation" a lot about ED having to update their older modules. Although I'd love to see an updated Huey, I'm always wondering when seeing these requests: Are you indicating that ED should update their older modules for free? - I don't see how updating a decade old software (game) can be expected from any dev. I mean, A lot of developers release remasters of their old games, but hardly ever do they do it for free. Or: In case you mean that ED should update their older modules as payed DLC's (like for instance they did with the K-50 and A-10C); Sure, the community can ask. Some people would be interested in this, others won't, but wouldn't ED know best if such an update would be a feasible business case? We can of course share our wishes, but at some point, when enough people share the same wish, it appears that these wishes for many tend to change in expectations/demands.

Just for the record here: nowhere in my post am I "blaming" Ugra

Are you indicating you'd like DCS to automatically download and install mods when you join some random server? Or did I misunderstood that?

Yes a progress update would indeed be very welcome (not just for "late activation", but also "late deactivation"). Quite some time past since the poll, and its outcome was crystal clear

Can't imagine how frustrating this must be for campaign DLC makers (reading the forum, it seems like Baltic Dragon's Gamblers campaign got hit even worse by the changes Ugra suddenly implemented to its Syria map). I just hope all campaign creators can find a way to solve the issues without too much rework. I'm sure Ugra wasn't aware up front, on the impact of their extended and beautiful Syria update, otherwise they would've surely informed ED and its campaign creators.

If you approach the controls from the main DCS menu, also make sure you have the F-16CM selected

This is huge news (for mission creators)!!!

Hm, not at my pc right now, but it should be called "pilot body" something. (Might also want to check under UI layer controls. It might have moved over there, to have it work for all modules)

For that pretty occasional moment that you need to access the side panel controls during flight, what (I suspect most) players do, is assign a hotas control to switching the body on and off.

Ugra just keeps on bringing out the Matthew in me

I did some investigating, after experiencing in various missions, AI flight members never finishing AAR, while the tanker is in orbit. I wasn't able to quickly reproduce in a simple mission, but I did notice something else (possible related to the aforementioned bug?): Perhaps intended behavior to simulate the slightly higher difficulty when air refueling in a turn (in which case: "hats off to ED" ), but during one of my missions, I noticed that it takes an AI F-16CM approximately double the time to refuel while in orbit, than it does in level flight. I tested it with two identical missions. Only in one of them, the tanker enters orbit (speeds, alt, fuel qty, distance to tanker, pilot skill ace - all identical) The level flight Viper: connect after ±50sec -> disconnect ±2mins later The orbit Viper: connect after ±50sec ->disconnect ±4mins later both miz and track files added (Fun fact: I tried the orbit version with a rookie pilot and it seemed topped off sooner than the ace pilot ) AI F-16 AAR level flight - 2min.trk AI F-16 AAR orbit - 4min.trk AI F-16 AAR level flight.miz AI F-16 AAR orbit.miz

I strongly agree with this (although I'd add that imo ED is "ambitious" in a positive sense of that word) DCS (and its predecesser versions) has evolved to something extraordinary/unique and I feel kinda sorry for the devs that lately there seems to be this strong, very vocal, movement of (what appears to be mainly new) unsatisfied DCS players. I'm not judging anyone here and all should of course feel free to express their concerns, but what I don't like, is all these posts saying stuff like "we want change". Not sure why anyone would feel entitled to speak for everyone. I'm very happy that we have DCS and I have all the trust in ED knowing what's best for DCS. Do I like to see improvements to specific DCS features? Of course I do. But I'm also very aware, that what I want, may not be what is best for DCS to evolve further. I (or in this case I dare to say "we" ) jsut don't know the bigger picture. I hope all this spreading negative flow (it's even worse on YouTube I noticed), will soon make place for positivity (Kumbaya, my lord Kumbaya )

No worries mate, I'm sure they're just waiting with more teasers, until they've finished adding Volkel Air Base

You can't, at least not without scripting. What you describe in your OP can't be achieved with current mission editor tools. Perhaps it can be done with scripts , but someone else should chime in on this, as I have no scripting knowledge.

Are you guys running any mods? Where approximately were these screenshots taken? I'm asking because I flew quite a lot on Syria map last Sunday (after updating to latest DCS version) and I didn't see any issues.

Apparently something broke with the latest DCS update. It's been internally fixed and we'll have to wait for ED to rollout a (hotfix) update. (also, there's separate sub-forums for all DLC campaigns: https://forum.dcs.world/forum/113-dlc-campaigns/ )

No Remove your wingman and the "takeoff from ground (hot)" option should appear. Realize that AI has programmed pathing from ramps to the runway. You can't place AI anywhere on the ground, because they won't know where to go (they don't work like ground units which you can command to follow roads). That's why with AI aircraft that don't need a runway (like the harrier and all helo's), you can set them to "takeoff from ground". As they will just take-off from that spot.

Not possible with today's AI. It's hardcoded that once they touchdown, they can't be controlled at all. Would be nice if a feature like this was added, but it'll probably not be a quick fix changing AI logic and adding AI taxi pathing. (While at it, an AI touch-and-go feature would also be cool)

Yes, I've seen it, but I didn't understand at all how it worked (probably just too complicated for my grey cells). I'd prefer to see something (simple) implemented to DCS core

There's been over a thousant similar wishes to make it more easy to add mission kneeboards. It's such a huge addition for proper missions (especially for VR users that can't use a second screen or notepad) Here's my version of this wish : (but Google search shows a lot more and also older variants )

I completely agree (and don't think that anyone can deny) that AI behavior and ATC improvements can only go hand in hand. No point in having fancy ATC if AI is completely ignoring it. Huge and complicated endeavor? Yes, I'm sure of it. But imho, it should be way up there on the priority list together with the DC. Flying missions without proper communications/procedures makes this sim feel "empty"/"not alive" (sorry, can't find the correct wording) and arcadish. As an example: In the "Weasels over Syria" campaign from Ground Pounders, a large portion of the missions consists of handing the radios and communicating with other flights and airfields. Obviously these communications are completely scripted and tailor made for these missions and something like this would probably not be possible within our lifetime, but these communications are the main thing that make this particular campaign so brilliant and compelling. Without it, it would just be: Fly from A to B, drop a bomb, fly back from B to A and land. Again, I don't expect comms like in this campaign, but right now it's more realistic to not use the radios at all, because current ATC/comms in DCS are so bad. I was kinda hoping/assuming, that ATC/AI improvements where in progress together with the new DC, but I am concerned now that I was wrong, as ATC seems to be low on the priority list for ED. At least, that's how I read this reply from BN: But I think I'm repeating myself here, which isn't useful for anyone I just hope, some day, I will be able to effectively use the radios in all those fancy modules I own, without having to only rely on scripted DLC campaigns.