ApoNOOB

I think you are falling for a recurring trap here. Most of the work arounds we use for all kinds of stuff are not 'realistic'. Realism, in the terms of input hardware, interaction with the cockpit etc. is NEVER going to be 'realistic'. We can only remove the the immersion breaker and try to find something that works for us. (Joysticks, TrackIR, VR etc.) When you have accepted this reality, stuff like not being able to hide joystick, is actually a immersion breaker. (Since me not being able to easily see HSI is not 'realistic' to me in that moment) On topic: I really believe this should be a feature in all DCS modules. (Where stick/collective/throttle blocks view to something)

Buy him the Warthog! Don't you love your son!? Haha! (This is funny to me because my dad pitched in and years later still love it, really thankful he understood my hobby) I am very happy with the stick, not having read all the posts, there are two recurring issues: The slew control on the throttle is a very low quality sensor that in some units seems to be faulty built in factory. You can fix that mostly with deadzones, but if you buy it from a vendor check that out and send it back. Second and most common is low quality grease used in the stick. After about a year of heavy use, the grease will degrade and you will have to manually re-apply some by yourself, which is a little bit of work. ^ Done that, the stick is imho even better than default from factory, since you can apply 1-2 more fixes while doing that. One is to remove or adjust the spring to your liking (helicopter pilots like no spring and adjusting it may be wise for extensions) the other is to remove or replace a part that reduces or increases sticktion in the centre of the stick. The throttle is really great too, if you look past the low quality slew control (i only really use it in the a10c), has absolut great feel and has been steadily going for about 5 years without any problems. I figure at somepoint I might need to take it apart for some cleaning but there seems to be no pressure yet. For the Hornet specifically I have no problems, nor any other modules. You have enough buttons, axis, switches etc. reasonably needed, if there is need for more, with modifiers the amount of possible buttons becomes absurd. For tasks like A2A refueling in the Hornet (or A10C, Harrier, F-16, F-15 etc.) a throttle like this is great and honestly I can not imagine doing it without it. This is all with the default TM Hotas Warthog, I see currently no reason to upgrade to the hornet grip, it works quite good without it. Now I know this is a lot of money, but imho it's well spend on this, since it's also a investment in a hobby, you will use for many years / hours a year. You should also note that the price for flightsim hardware on ebay etc. will not quickly decay, if you do some maintenance you can make quite a bit of money back. There are many products I have heard good things about in the price range (and above!) of the TM Warthog, if you pay so much it might be worth to consider going a bit further if it's worth it. Last, if it's a concern your son might drop the flightsim hobby and you sit there with hole in your pocket, you can claim that stick always for yourself. "This cost a lot money, son. If you don't use it, it's mine!"

"Don't use curves on your joystick, that is not realistic!11 a REAL pilot has no curves either!11":joystick::pilotfly: Please, if you go on about realism, think about all the little workarounds we already have. We can not with our hardware (Monitors, headtracking, VR, gaming joysticks etc.) be 'as realistic as possible'. Like with curves for joysticks with tiny amounts of travel compared to their real life counterparts, there will always be workarounds and trade offs ingame and IRL to make this sim work, with all the different setups out there. I don't even fly in VR and find the sight problematic at times. There is also the reality of the MP scene and the people that build those missions. Nevermind the disregard to their workload... Even if you can make specific changes for an Aircraft in the editor, most of the mission builders don't take the time to do it properly for every slot/aircraft group, or don't know about the module and what the player needs/wants. Anyone who ever worked on a really big MP mission can assure you, the amount of time it takes, the troubleshooting, the endless fiddling around, is simply frustrating. And now the mission builder has to consider which obscure aircraft specific settings have to be set up for every slot, instead of allowing the player to make a sensible decision/use his own settings. Most of the "ah you can just set it up how you like in ME"-group(for other modules&features aswell) doesn't seem to be really multiplayer oriented, or they would know half the time on a public server you have a incomplete flight plan, nevermind small things like radio frequencys, hardpoints etc. Current system(no way to allow ingame change of aircraft specific options) urgently needs a rework, and stands in the way of fleshing out many other systems ingame(radio/nav presets for example). In the meantime consider poor VR folks and make an option to make this invis, we can already do similar in many modules.

Yeah a lot people in this thread have been arguing a strawman, nothing that the OP said. Myself I love all the small tiny systems, and most of what I have tested actually works / has a purpose. Now if you ask about dev. priority, I can agree this stuff can come last. But I think most of these small systems are really not that difficult to code and take up probably a minimal amount of devtime compared to all the other things we are looking for. People have noted the truly dull failure system in DCS, and I think the answer is not less feature but more. Expand on the failure system(s), make them fun! Make or give server admin/modders tools to create persistent airframes over sessions. I realize there is a real challenge in there, especially since every other DCS airframe is a total loss. :3 But I see a lot of potential here. Generally there also should be better ways of starting/identifying specific and random failures, there should be different categories (if even only for gameplay sake). Like 'fatal', 'irreversible/permanent', 'fixable' etc. alone for training sake could be cool. Also there could very well be a setting that announces on trigger & walks you through, if a failure(or even damage) hits you. That way there could be 1) a helpful system for players in distress 2) a guide/tool for new player to learn how to deal with emergency procedures.

Sorry just don't have the money for it. This is already a insanely expensive hobby and I have to save up for most of the stuff. There is a notion around to have a subscription based model to simply support ED, without thinking about the consequences and nuances about what that payment model would look like. If it is only about supporting ED, buy & gift modules, petition for something like Patreon etc. Not having read the whole thread, I don't know if people tried to imagine such a system already, but generally it will leave a majority unsatisfied, once you lay it out. Is it one fixed number for everything? How much do you need to add per module? How does demand (via $ by customer) work in terms of dev-time priority etc. How to determine the subscription price for countrys with weaker economies? Will monthly payment method work for everyone globally? The more you think about it, the more brittle such a constructs becomes.

Weekly annoying Apo wishlist post: Issues again (or still) with tankers, on OP longbow, those near fleet work, but rest seems to have issues with Tacan&not on radio menu. They ARE still in the mission(spawn), just don't react. (edit2: There just was Mission restart vom OP Desert Fox to Long Bow and on first glance tankers seem to work) <- edit3: No tankers gone from menu again :( Also red reported an issue with Guduata not capturing when having cleared all units. (I think they said they got the 'all units clear land troops' message, but someone from that round has to pipe up) Similar issue we had yesterday night on Blue when having captured Sukhumi. We got troops on it, got the HAWK site setup, but still the server message reverted to 'capture Sukhumi'. The next targets units spawned, but I wasn't in the server to see if we could capture the next base (Guduata). A lot of frustration has been expressed the last view days about ranges from spawn to target area, mostly by red. As I understand this mostly came from frustration of not having any A2G people and Sochi not being captured the whole round. The server was running already for many hours and apparently there was just no crew around to fly much A2G. My suggestion for that would be somekind of assistance for the first TA (that is essential to spawn aircraft) after a fixed mission time has elapsed (let's say half or 3/4th mission time), that atleast makes it easier for the respective Team to capture a base. I don't know if the ground unit numbers for Red side are the same with tanks etc. but for example you could have AI units try to strike X amount of targets each hour. Or simply have a JTAC popup after a set amount of time. Also having made the flight for Blue to Kutaisi(in Helicopter) and yesterday trying to get from the FARP to Sochi for red in a KA-50, I gotta say those ranges are 10-15nm too long for my tastes. Personally I see no reason not to move them up a bit, while the KA-50 is mighty dangerous and dedicated rotorheads will make quick work of Sochi, and anything else on the coast, the bigger problem is that not enough people fly them and do the job. Please helicopter pilots, especially from red give some feedback from this. Personally I like the long transit flights from/to the boat with A2A refueling in&out and would love it if more of the community embraces it. Imho fuel restriction and somewhat long flights (I don't think they are excessive) are the best ways to prevent airquake and thoughtless fuel use by all aicrafts. But on a mission like longbow a middle ground should be had if there is disparity in the teams. Not saying these idea are the way it should be done, just throwing my feedback out there and some ideas to address some balancing without affecting the spirit of the mission. ---- edit4: More red helicopter confusion(longbow), I am not sure where to spawn, either there are slots missing/not loaded right or I am blind. There are no Helicopter spawns at Sochi and there are no slots for the FARP between Sochi&Guduata (don't know it's name).

Just had this again in latest beta version in MP on 104th server, since this keeps happening to me, I watch my TGP like a hawk. I 100% turned off laser, turned off TGP, landed, refueled/rearmed -> took off and lazer does not work. Other people seemed to have the same problem. I was buddy lazing before and had a complete laze time of maybe 7-10 mins. (I always turned it off when I could, trying very hard to not have long times of constant lazing) I want to also note this is a big problem than it initially sounds, for example I was buddylazing for a teammate whose lazer was burned out after take off too. Flying for 40mins with only laser guided munition, only to realize you can't guide them and to then see your only teammate with TGP kill himself is a terrible experience. =(

Damn bro! don't link random 50min plane docus =( Cant resist that

Is LotAtc currently working? If yes what version? (I tried 1.3.0 beta1) edit: Some issue on longbow with Shell tankers (61/62). They disappeared from Tacan and later somebody said one Shell killed itself. (Atleast one is at angels 14k which is cutting it close in those mountains)

There is a new SR version that is not backwards compatible, please update soon. =)

I have dearly missed this when doing CA GCI, but generally, having this (even without reference to bullseye specifically), would be a huge help in many situations. If for example, you could place that on any place in DCS map, or stick it to your own aircraft, that could be very useful.

Do people not like the default hotkeys? I always thought the current one's were very clever made and I manually set them up, in other aircrafts with number keypads (Tomcat, Hornet) etc. that don't have them by default. Sometimes (not often) I use default ingame hotkeys for stuff, especially view keys.

To be honest, I am very wary of ED spending any dev time on this and if the result will be worth it. SRS is simply that great already, that we currently do not need this. Only argument is, that it's 3rd party and minimum effort people use that as justification not to use it. But those people are not really a factor anyway, since they most probably will not interact on a lvl in MP that the extra mile for them is worth it. We need a lot of stuff far more urgent for MP experience, mission planning tools etc. list is long, pick your poison.^^

Keep atleast dumb bombs, people doing ccip runs on shilkas etc. Should be rewarded. :)

As one of those that were very annoyed by you yesterday here is a pro-tipp for life: If multiple people respectfully ask you to stop something, just do it.

Radical idea: Fighter spawns in Sochi &Kutaisi/Senaki fighters are unspawnable if the enemy has capped the closest airbase/FARP. It turns into airquake at somepoint. We saw that a bit in front of Sochi and I think it would be same for red side if the situation were reverse. Alternatively maybe somekind of structure you could destroy on the airfield disabling spawn for a set amount of time? (Not sure how viable it is, if it has full sams, constant fighter spawn etc.) And to be fair on this, I think we should think about somekind of restriction with the rearming in Sukhumi/Guduata area. Once you take Sukhumi. you can just bomb the shit out off Guduata/FARP (and the otherway around for red of course), which I think is not really in the spirit of the mission?* I don't know what kind of restrictions/possibilities you have with warehouse/script, but if technical viable I am suggesting this: For example Blue: ->Takes Sukhumi -> can only refuel, Fox1, Fox2, dumb bombs. -> Once Guduata is taken(or even Farp between Guduata->Sochi), open up normal (restricted like now) weapons options. Both reversed for red. * As it is now, you can get a new set of GBU12/Mavericks so fast, you could clear everything out very quick(except SAMs, but even there it helps if you can take really light loadout with GBU12, not worry about fuel etc.). The FARP between those two is already very dumb bomb friendly, imho it could be a good compromise. But maybe that's just me, I can totally see how a lot of people have zero sympathy for this idea. Edit: Also on old topic of mine, you have kept WP smoke rockets out of your warehouses for years, I have not checked if it is still the case. If yes, could we maybe look at that again with the weapon restriction script? I always loved them in the A-10C back in the day for AFAC work. Even if you only shoot rocket in CCRP roughly near a target, you can still use it to walk people in better. The reason was because of performance issues if I remember right, (which makes sense if somebody can crash the server or something with spamming smoke effect), but would be really cool if people are allowed to use it again in small doses. For dirty old Caucasus map, this mission is not bad!

I'd like some sandboxy option to trigger my personal failures ingame, that might be nice. If I just have it on in random missions, it's just going to end up to wreck my day from time to time, without any logic or purpose to it. Just "flew 50nm for XY not to work and limb back". In MP flying home with heavy damage is one of the most fun and challenging things to do in DCS, it might be fun to have more of that from time to time, but the system really doesn't allow for it to be made in a way that is fun with most missions.

Maybe unrelated, but are you actually hearing the sound from the ILS station? I had the problem in instant action mission for PG Landing, the ILS station has two frequencys for both runway sides, the one, that should be active runway by wind, was not working for me. The other one worked as expected, so double check that. edit: Disregard, just read your post #3 and doesn't sound like it at all.

Don't worry they are coming, in the meantime you also check youtube for content by the community if Wags is not enough for you. Good luck!

So far been unable to replicate this, but 100% ran into the same. I am very conscious about this and always turn laser off - but still sometimes get this, especially after landing. My working theorie right now is that under some condition the laser burn out time keeps running even after laser/systems off. Edit: and yes this is not hornet the specific, I am after this for years in the A10c

I started to clean mine, and now its just laying around here in parts... For weeks! =( This is not really fun to work with and if I have to redo this often... Should I just throw them in the trash? Been using them for not much needed axis, like nozzles on harrier, rotor brake in helicopters etc. but not really sure if it is worth the trouble.

There already is! :) https://www.lotatc.com/

I think Pikey made a very important point, different people learn differently. You need to find out first what kind of learning works best for you. For myself, only tutorial videos don't really work. I need it best written out in a picture guide or checklist. The manual is usually too dry and long winded for me, but I never really do completely without. IMHO if you are like me just use it to look up very specific things, it suddenly is way less intimidating. If you are currently learning something, watched tutorials, read a guide etc. but just want to know what 'this small thing here' means, manual is your go to and almost never let's you down. :)

Sidenote: Have been on MP freeflight servers that took training weapons as a compromise between absolutely no shooting (because of Teamkilling) and being able to do simple combat training. Most freeflight servers/missions that are catered to the larger public have all weapons training forbidded because of constant trouble with new players jumping in, who just attack the closest thing they can find. (Which is usually a friendly airbase the took off from) The drawback is that other people who don't screw around can't have a2g delivery training, realistic loadouts/weights while landing/taking off/a2a refueling etc. Also Windy, trying to tell others how to play this game is absurd. It's quite strange you ask others to explain why there should be training weapons in DCS, when we already have them for a long time in many modules.

"Somebody supposedly heard this general admitting they had an alien" :D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Carey_(United_States_Air_Force_officer) https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/report-us-air-force-general-drank-too-much-fraternized-with-foreign-women-in-moscow/2013/12/19/7f3cdba0-68ed-11e3-a0b9-249bbb34602c_story.html?utm_term=.bf06ae72e640 Finally a trustworthy source to give us proof! =) Haha I even remember that story. Don't get me wrong, this guy sounds like a riot, a cool dude to hang out with and drink for a few days around the globe. But just not a chap I want in charge of of nuclear weapons. And clearly also not a authority on alien life etc. :) edit: Subs17 you also have not let us in yet where you are getting your information from. Clearly there must be a source, or are all these your own findings?