maturin

The Taliban use guerilla tactics, so maximum fear isn't necessarily a good thing. Don't they tend to vanish or reposition themselves once they get the feeling that CAS is on its way? Let a quiet little bird slip up and drop something on them instead.

IIRC, the Buk launcher behavior was patched in, so a manual would have told you nothing useful.

You mean the 30mm? I'd imagine it's similar to the lethal radius for the Apache's cannon and 40mm grenades. With the difference being, the rounds can and likely will be spread over a wide area, and you can't predict where they will land, so the safety distance for individual rounds is a meaningless concept. And with multiple rounds impacting the same spot, you up the probabilities for getting fragged at various distances.

Either way you slice it, it's a bitter pill to swallow when the most expensive weapon system in history is not only a watered-down variant but moving backwards compared to the competition in some respects.

Can I enable the Su-25T NVGs the same way?

The best dogfighter in the world, as shown by simulated, controlled environments, is a Cessna with guns on it (in an alternate universe where a Cessna could carry them). Sure an A-10 could kill a jet in a dogfight every now and then, but no jet is ever, ever going to dogfight some slow ground attack aircraft it could effortlessly kill in a quick pass. Those videos are from air-to-air practice with the jets sidling up leisurely and then making some slow turns.

It seems that Abrams are too tough to be destroyed by the Russian AT cluster bombs. T-72s brew up nicely. All all general purpose bombs should work just fine. I love the 4-racks of FAB-100s.

And what about question two?

Except that the Apache has armor plates (any enthusiasts remember where?) that protect from 23mm AP.

I don't believe that this is actually explained in the manual. Wanting to dogfight against ground attack aircraft if an unusual request, and part of the enormous amount on knowledge in this enormously complex game that can only be gained by experience or actually helpful people from the community. No manual can hold everything. So either prove me wrong or stop making this community less pleasant.

Does anyone else feel like AusAirPower is just desperately trying to scare its government into increased military spending?

Uh, yeah, but none of the ground attack planes have AI routines and waypoints that will actually get them to engage bandits. Thanks for the especially useless response, Essah.

Hawk, Kub, and maybe S-125 (although the latter seems to have a hilariously low range in this game, so idk). Edit, scratch that, Hawk launches at 27km regardless. Maybe try it at higher altitudes, so they can launch from beyond burn-through range?

Maybe if you're trying to disengage in a BVR running fight? Freak the pursuer out with a fake launch, hoping you he goes defensive and gives you time to turn away, rather than maintaining the lock for the full duration. That's all I can think of, so far as devil's advocate.

I feel like the ECM pods delay launches from older SAMs (pre-BUK).

Absolutely wrong. If everyone felt the way the OP did, the world would be a healthier, safer place. (Of course, guilt is never healthy unless it prevents you from doing things which trouble or harm you.) His feelings are normal and human and admirable. Are you telling me that it makes no sense at all to, for example, feel guilt for playing a simulation of the Holocaust? Of course, you would not actually be harming anyone, or making the world a worse place. Playing such a game would not even be immoral (assuming that the game appeared out of thin air, and you weren't supporting the scumbags who developed it with money or publicity). But you better believe that the majority of people would feel revulsion upon sinking hours and hours into a Dachau RTS. Obviously, that's an extreme example, but the situation is the same. We derive enjoyment from something we should rationally and emotionally deplore. As others have said, this is because most of us seek out an experience that is qualitatively, subjectively separate from the raw reality of organized murder. We're in it for the mechanical and technical challenge, the sport. We want to get an approximation of the experiences of those who have terrible things, but for reasons that excuse them. (That said, I believe that a frontline soldier who is truly without guilt, conscious or unconscious is medically abnormal and something of a monster.) I don't feel much in the way of guilt for playing military simulations, but I am aware of the hypocrisy (enough so that Spec Ops: The Line sent me into a daylong funk). I have personally resolved this contradiction by observing that my morals are largely unaffected by my entertainment, as are my politics and my personality. I still wouldn't hurt anyone, and don't actual enjoy the parts that are nothing by pain and loss. I get a kick out of explosions, and try not to think about the overpressure injuries to brain and liver tissue.

In the current version of DCS World, F18s and F16s do just fine against F15s and Su-27s. If anything, it's those large BVR kings that get beat up, at least when engagements start BVR and end up as dogfights. Will that behavior change once all FC3's improvements come in? And in what ways do F-16s and F-18s fall down before the F-15 in BVR?

You drink wine at a Georgian restaurant.

This is a forum. Just paste the question and see what happens. Internet knowledge is the type that comes out of the woodwork unexpectedly, and we all want to learn from the answers given. Also, you'll have something to link to when you find someone else.

An ancient game that is either cheap or... entirely without DRM. Strike back for great justice against Ubisoft's lawyers.

Entire broken weapon? But no love?

And the precise merits of the tactic aren't likely to be scrutinized too hard when few people in the U.S. military expect one of our convoys to be in a situation without air superiority anyways. Actually, that's what we call a non sequitur. But I wasn't complaining.

I have no idea how that story is even remotely relevant, but it's hilarious!

Pretty sure it was just because soldiers had the same effects as burnt vehicles, with armor fragments lying about.

Are joysticks EVER easy to set up? And DCS is a temperamental piece of software at best.