Fishbreath

Helo damage models are a little broken—full-fidelity choppers crumble when hit by pretty much any missile, but other helos take an absurd number of Vikhrs to drop.

I tried a repair install and resetting my Saved Games/DCS folder. Neither fixed it; I still can't change the interface in DCS away from my external IP, and hand-edits to network.cfg still don't do anything.

RoF fast-forwards by playing the track sans graphics, and 'rewinds' by playing the track sans graphics from the beginning to the point you picked to rewind to. As I understand it, DCS's simulation engine is tied so closely to the graphics engine that it can't be decoupled like that (which is why we don't have a dedicated, no-graphics server, either). Among other things, EDGE, I think, is supposed to fix that.

Generally speaking, I unbind everything when setting up a new controller—you can clear all the assignments for a given column by highlighting that column and hitting 'Clear Category'.

I'm all for the autopilot, as I've said in multiple other threads, but I do actually think there's some value to flight director mode for transitioning fixed-wing pilots to the Ka-50. If you look at it in terms of layering additional functionality onto raw control inputs, it goes like this: No autopilot channels->pitch, bank, yaw channels and FD->three/all channels and autopilot->all channels and route mode There's not really any value at all to the first layer unless you're training for flight control system failures, but flight director mode puts a trainee a lot closer to the basics of helicopter flight dynamics, and that's a critical thing for said trainee to understand before he starts on the autopilot.

I can't say I've seen that (using a CH setup here).

To be clear, the problem isn't that the server doesn't show up, or that it can't be connected to-- my friend can see my server and connect to it, and I see the diagnostic information when he connects, but he immediately gets "connection interrupted". The only things which have changed are 1.2.6 and the interface setting being broken. Are there any network config files to delete besides network.cfg and .bault under Saved Games/DCS/Config?

Yes, I obviously already tried that—how would I know it didn't work if I hadn't had a friend try and fail to join?

I'm having a similar problem—the UI shows my external IP address in the Interface field, I can't change it, deleting my 1.2.5 network.cfg yielded a network.cfg with no interface entry, and adding an interface entry by hand, either with my local IP address or * as c0ff suggested, does nothing. I can still connect fine as a client. Ports are forwarded properly. Any ideas?

This is all true, but I would add one caveat: the moment-to-moment airmanship in the Ka-50 is more exciting with flight director mode than with the autopilot, and more exciting with no stability channels than with flight director mode. That said, the more autopilots you have off, the less effective you are as a combat pilot (and that includes the unchain-rudder-trim crutch, unless you have non-centering pedals!), and since I don't fly the Ka-50 a lot out of combat (the Mustang is the bird for that), I won't consider it.

I just use the palm button on my throttle.

Has anyone done a Wii remote plugin for FacetrackNoIR yet? That's the biggest reason to stick to Freetrack for me.

My unsupported theory is that the Russians like pastel colors because they still look bright and happy when it's cloudy and snowy. :P

The Ka-52 does improve upon the Ka-50 in a lot of ways, but as much fun as it is to two-seat helos in Arma, I like the single-seat idea too much in DCS. One of my friends was a big advocate of the two-seat layout, but after getting into the Ka-50, he thinks it's a little overrated, and says that any strike aircraft can be single-seat, given late Cold War-era avionics and automation. Having played Ranger79's Operation Piercing Fury mission #1, I'm no longer so sure that's the case—I would frequently find myself with too few hands to do target acquisition and flying at the same time, and in low-intensity counterinsurgency sorts of environments, that's not an uncommon mission parameter. It might be better with a wingman, given loose formations, good use of the datalink, and overwatch (so one guy can use his eyes and the other guy can fly).

I'd be glad to volunteer for voiceovers if you need more people for the rest of the campaign.

You don't need to keep the target in the Vikhr launch cue after launch (as you say, it's for the next launch). You do need to stay roughly in line with the Vikhr and the target, though, since it's a beam-riding missile (edit: also as you say). If you pull up or to the side too vigorously, the path between you (the source of the beam) and the target will move, the Vikhr won't be able to correct enough to stay in the beam, and it'll lose guidance. Edit: the guidance beam is wider than the launch cue; the launch cue is just so that the Vikhr, after launching sans guidance, is in the right place to pick up the guidance beam when it's ready to start guidance. If you're having trouble hitting if you don't do #4 in your list, then there's something wrong with the Vikhr modeling.

It was great up until I lost my connection. Looking forward to the final release of this and the subsequent entries in the campaign.

You can do one of two things: 1) Install DCS World through Steam and delete the standalone install, or 2) Get the key from Steam and add it to your standalone install. The second option is much more involved. There's no material difference between Steam DCS World and standalone DCS World. Both are being maintained because standalone DCS World came first, and most of us are still using that method. Steam will get updates at the same time as standalone, though, so if you're new to DCS World, there's no reason to worry about standalone (except for beta releases of some modules). It shouldn't have any bearing whatsoever on DCS WWII, so you don't have to worry about your choice now affecting that later.

I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but if you press 'lock' while the Shkval/Merkur pod is pointed at the ground, it will ground-stabilize—that is, it'll track a point on the ground, rather than move with the plane. Slewing it around will continue to track the ground until you're over a target, at which point it should begin tracking that target without further interaction. (You may have to change the size of the tracking gate.)

The only thing FFS-worthy about DCS sales is the tired, predictable whining whenever a sale happens. You are not a special snowflake for paying full price, except insofar as it marks you as less patient. If you're enjoying the module at full price, and then it goes on sale two weeks later, it doesn't change the fact that you were enjoying the module at the price you paid for it. Whereas, for the Huey and the P-51 in particular, I would not have paid full price. By having a sale, ED and Belsimtek made $10 or $15 each on me they wouldn't have made at all otherwise, because I find the P-51 and Huey to be about $15 of enjoyment a pop, and not worth more than that to me. You obviously thought the Huey was $40 or $50 of fun when you bought it. If you didn't really think so, you should have waited for a sale, too.

I believe the issue is that the TV-guided Mavs in the A-10A don't have the narrow field of view (or the narrow FoV doesn't work), while the IR-guided Mavs do. (I don't have the A-10A, so I can't comment beyond trying to clarify.)

You should never need trim reset in the Ka-50, IMO, and the no rudder trim mod doesn't make a lot of sense to me if you're using the autopilots correctly (unless, that is, you've removed the centering springs from your rudder pedals, but not everyone does that). The controls display, however, is almost a requirement if you don't have a force feedback setup.

Irregular programming has it, as far as I'm concerned—if I want to throw it around the sky and really play with its agility, I turn on the pitch, bank, and yaw channels and use flight director, at which point it trims like the Huey or the Hip, except with stabilization from the autopilot. If I'm in combat, I'm almost never in flight director mode, and I'm not infrequently in route mode. The autopilots are just so handy.

If there's a Ka-50 slot free when I get there, I'm totally in. This looks incredible.

You can buy it on Steam and use the key in standard DCS, I believe.