Biggus

I've been reading rumours that newer 5800X3Ds are needing more voltage as production continues, rather than less as has been the case with other Ryzen CPUs. So it's not a given that you'll be able to set a given negative curve with a newer production example.

Hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

A couple of Halloween screenshots.

I did notice that DICE stopped working for me with the 2.8 update, however reinstalling DICE seems to have fixed it. I also found something odd with DICE in the Viper (although it might be present for other modules, I haven't checked yet). When I first went through the countermeasure programs on the DED, program 1 had a chaff release set after I specifically set DICE to not dispense chaff in that program. Cycling through the other programs and back to program 1 seems to have fixed it.

For what little it is worth, I'd buy a 2000-5F day 1.

This app is a massive time saver. Thank you very much. Is there any more information about support for the Hornet? I see posts through this thread sporadically and there's some references to it on the github page, but I can't find a way to actually use it with the Hornet.

This would make the F1 a more useful module for me by a pretty significant margin. I'm pretty sure I've seen the same rack used on the centre pylon too.

@Willdass Thanks, that's a really informative response.

Would you mind telling me a bit about the rest of your system? I'm on a 5800X right now with a 3070 and 32gb running at 3800 CL17, and I've been torturing myself going back and forth for the last couple of months. It might help push me over the line.

S slats were different from E slats, from what I recall.

That's contrary to everything I've ever read on the matter. The Tomcat had the CW/PD illumination switch in the back seat for the late -7E variants it used in the first couple of years of service. The -7F was able to be guided with either signal, but the -7M was not able to use CW due to it's inverse monopulse seeker. There was a good post about this in the Tomcat forum a year or two ago, I wish I could find the post now. Having said that, I'm open to the possibility that later on in the development of the -7P which once again supported CW guidance, some of that new hardware flowed into the rebuilt -7Ms at some point. The timing certainly looks about right. Looking at the Navy side of the house, if the -7M supported CW guidance, they'd have been sending their Phantoms out on cruises with it almost immediately.

Thanks @KlarSnow, that's a really informative post. Perhaps you've stumbled onto the same issue as one of the posts I'd found, that the fix to integrate the AIM-7M wasn't found in the TO? The -7F didn't need anything to illuminate a bandit that wasn't already needed for the -7E. It was able to guide with both CW and PD illumination. There would be a range penalty, certainly. But it was still a decent step up from the late -7E variants. I'd really like to know whether they modified the plane for the inverse monopulse seeker or whether they modified the -7M to work with CW, though. But that's all pretty unimportant window-dressing for DCS, the reality is that there's a black and white statement that the -M was integrated before retirement. This raises the question of whether the last of the Navy Phantoms ever had a -7M strapped to them? Probably not, given the timeframe. I'll go hunting for a copy of 1F-4-1167.

Being a mostly Navy Phantom enjoyer, I hadn't really had a good look through the USAF docs until this week. I was able to have a look at the 1990 dated F-4E flight manual and noted that the AIM-7F and AIM-9L and M are listed in the external stores limitations chapter. This got me thinking about the AIM-7M a little more, and so I went looking in the fount of all modern wisdom, Phantom-related Facebook groups. So take the next bunch of sentences with a particularly large helping of salt. One F-4G driver recalled having -7Ms around 1992/93 and mentioned that they initally didn't integrate well, something about a solution not being found in the Tech Order. A second commenter who I believe was ground crew mentioned that he was involved in trying to integrate it for foreign military sales and they couldn't get it to work following the T.O. He accidentally destroyed a missile in the process. A third poster mentioned that he had written a set of instructions for the steps required to integrate the -7M and passed it up the chain of command but nothing came of it. I've got three hypotheses that probably aren't anywhere close to the truth: 1. That those posts I discovered were garbage; 2. That at some point in the early 1990s, USAF Phantom squadrons were considering doing what the RAF did with their FG.1s and FGR.2s when they received the inverse monopulse Skyflash, i.e, provided new hardware to support -7Ms. I don't think that this is particularly likely, given that the snippets I found relate to F-4Gs which I wouldn't expect to be getting funding for air to air radar upgrades nearing the end of their lives; 3. That the AIM-7P program (which apparently was able to use both CW and PD illumination like the -F did) enabled some upgrades to flow through to the -7M inventory. It's worth noting that the AIM-7M F1 build uses a guidance unit in the same series (albeit earlier) as the one from the -P, and it seems to have appeared around mid 1992. Foreign military sales certainly gives me reason to think that perhaps CW-supporting upgrade kits to existing -M inventories would make sense, and it wouldn't require much additional funding. Perhaps there were enough new parts in the system to cobble together a workable AIM-7M for the Phantom? I'd really like to see the 1995 flight manual to see if anything about a Sparrow later than an -F is mentioned!

Honestly, I'll buy every Phantom HB produces. While I'm most excited for the J/S, I'm thrilled to be getting the Echo in the not too distant future. The Spey Phantoms would be a great addition to DCS too, should HB ever have the inclination to add them.

Game-altering changes happen all the time. Missions are updated to account for those changes, or are not updated and end falling into disuse. Players adapt to the changes by altering their tactics or finding something else to fly. That's just life, and it's true of every module. Just look at the Viper. Six months ago I could be confident of getting five or six kills per sortie with a full load of -120s. Today it's closer to two. Changing AI skill settings in the editor won't make an appreciable difference until and unless ED do some further work on the AI's ability to defend. No more perfectly timed split S, no more hitting the notch with precision. AI needs to defend to be believable, but needs to do it without perfect situational awareness. To ED's credit, it's far better today than it was a year ago and I'm confident that this will continue to improve.

That's not a Phoenix problem though, that's an AI and mission design issue.

I think you could probably edit the controls luas to give the front seat the ability to control the HCU and the next target command. I've done similar things for lantirn control before Jester had the ability to use it. Would just be a matter of finding the commands in the RIO keyboard control file and copy/paste to the front seat control file.

Good work guys, looking forward to playing with the kitty after having had a break for awhile!

As per @DSplayer, the diamond is flashing on the position the bullets are reaching at the range that the target is detected at. It's a pretty neat system.

It's nice to dream though! Oh well.

I'd love to see this implemented. This and tanker underbelly lights. I'm not sure whether it's just my monitor, but these critical lights are impossible to make out for me at any reasonable distance and I'd really like to be able to build a device to emulate them. Great suggestion.

No AIM-7Ms on Phantoms in US service. Possibly on other modernized Phantoms, but not with the radar it left the factory with. USAF Phantoms aren't really my area but 9Ls were mostly a post-Gulf War item. B/N/J/S could all carry the same air to air weapons. It's a question of dates and locations rather than variant restriction. F-4Js certainly carried AIM-9Ls around the time of the first Gulf of Sidra incident, and I'd expect F-4Ns to have carried them in the same time period. I suspect but can't confirm that AIM-9Ms would have been on the last F-4S cruises.

Her bath water, probably with bonus hep C?

Yes. Needles were fine. Activation results in immediate violent pitch down when configured for landing.

I tried it and did not have a positive experience. It absolutely will get you to the ground, but probably not the runway.