Skall

KIAS = Knots Indicated Air Speed. It's the number on your air speed gauge.

Also stuck at work. Will buy as soon as I get home.

Thanks, I understand where you are coming from. Just wanted to see what DCS's approach is as most game engines only have a handful of basic events since invoking and managing event handlers usually has a relatively large performance overhead. You can even see this on the ME where the number of events that can check for a trigger is relatively low. However the events help filter out the number of times a trigger is evaluated. It's a balancing act. Just curious of how much of a role events play in the various models that make up a DCS aircraft.

Is there a tanker in the area that the Su-27s can use to refuel while away from the base? As for spotting targets without labels, there are a few things to note: 1. It is common for A-10 pilots to use binoculars from the cockpit to spot targets. I would get used to using the view zoom functionality to mimic having binoculars. Most online servers allow this. 2. Most A2G sorties aren't just given a bunch of ammo and told to go blow stuff up. Pilots usually have a good idea of the general area of their targets before they get in the plane. This can be expressed as waypoints, target points (on the Ka-50), map coordinates near target areas or even very detailed descriptions in the mission briefing that walk the pilot's eyes onto a specific region of the map. These will give an area for the pilot to search and he/she can hone on the targets using plain sight or the targeting pod. 3. If the pilot does not know the location of the units to attack, he will more than likely be instructed by a JTAC/FAC/AFAC in the front lines. As always, there are exceptions to the rule. But a mission with no direction what-so-ever that forces you to locate and destroy a handful of units hidden inside a city is little more than an exercise in frustration. Of course, there are clever ways to make targets stand out while not seeming as structured. I'm toying with a mission to defend some allied units that are surrounded in a small town. I set one of the units to immortal with a supply truck nearby. His near-constant stream of shots allow you to visually follow tracers to units that threaten your protégé. Of course I'm setting up lose conditions so that you don't auto-win by letting him do all of the work :D

Keep in mind also, that most missions task you with a primary objective that is meant to be beneficial to the ground forces, such as eliminating an artillery battery that is shelling allied units. Your job is strictly to complete the primary objective. That usually does not entail being a one-man army and doing the work of the ground forces for them. 6-8 kills sounds pretty good as long as that kill count is focused on the primary objective. You can probably squeeze out a bit more with better precision, mission-relevant ordnance selection, and use of your AI wingmen if any are allocated to you. However do not expect to wipe out all enemy armor by yourself. In this regard I find that the fast mission generator is flawed. It gives the impression that a lone ground attack plane is going to take on tons and tons of armor while allied forces sit back and play poker. And while it is possible to kill everything yourself, it will require multiple trips back to base to re-fuel and re-arm. Not very realistic or practical. I usually take a look at the generated units and their positions, decide what the primary threats and objectives are and then tweak unit waypoints and compositions to support some kind of on-the-spot narrative I make up. Then I fly the mission to help the ground forces achieve that objective.

I don't know much about game development but the idea of building a system model intrigues me at a purely academic level. I assume DCS is like most game engines: fixed simulation steps with rendering phases occurring at the fastest rate the hardware can handle. When it comes to building a model, do components notify each other of state changes or do they poll each other instead? For example, if power is supplied to the bus by a battery and the battery switch is turned off, do components connected to the bus poll the bus to see if the bus is still powered or does the bus notify connected components that power has been lost? If DCS goes the polling route, is polling for state done at every simulation step or are different systems prioritized differently so that low priority components are updated less frequently than higher priority components? If DCS goes the event route, are all system activities kicked off by events to reduce the amount of component querying/updating per simulation step? Or is the engine a whole other animal altogether?

It could be the autopilot trying to get you back on your original course but since it only has 20% authority on control input, it can't deflect all the way back to the right. The biggest issue most new Shark pilots have is understanding the autopilot and trim functionality. It is very different than trim and AP for fixed wing aircraft. You should read this 5 part article http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_426a.html. It clears up a lot.

Didn't get online last night. Decided to uninstall and reinstall all of DCS and my modules trying to troubleshoot some issues. Some went away, others remained. But I'll scoot on over to the appropriate forum for that. After installing everything I started piecing together the beginnings of my own mission. Will still continue to go online though to see what people gravitates towards and what I would enjoy to play. I'm personally not looking for uber-realism (though I'd be fine with that as well). More like getting a sense of at least being with other people. Never thought multiplayer could be so lonely :P

I'll take a stab at it. Programming is what I do for a living so it shouldn't be too hard for me to pick up LUA. But first I'll see how far I can push the editor. I've seen a few library names thrown around. Mist I think it was. I'll check those out as well.

Just read this over. Definitely helps put things in perspective from a public server's point of view. Experience actually designing missions trumps the ramblings of a newbie like me. But I'm also not looking for realism, just a more focused experience I guess. Not asking anyone to undertake that, however. If I want a mission tailored to me then I better damn well put it together myself. Obviously these public missions see their own level of success as the 104th and 77th servers are usually the busiest public servers when I'm able to play (evening EST). Might try joining the blue side even if it's the most populous by a long shot. See the other side of the fence. Just a few questions on your other thread if you don't mind. You stated that A2G is the first to start getting filled out in most public missions. Is it mostly A-10s and Ka-50s (since they are the originals), just A-10s or does that include Su-25/T and A-10As as well? Is there a way, script-wise, to tell how many clients are playing on each side (yes or no is fine, don't need the code) and what planes they are flying at any given time? Have you had much success with A2A only missions or has high AC variety been the most successful? Have you found Russia vs. NATO to get a good amount of players on both sides or do you prefer to balance out the countries so either side can essentially fly whatever they want?

Thanks, I will read this over. I didn't mean for my post to come across as derogatory. I appreciate the fact that the 104th (or anyone else for that matter) is willing to create and host custom content and TS servers. And again, I think a lot of the blame lies with me and my lack of familiarity with the content. I guess I should maybe focus on playing slightly simpler/smaller scale missions and work my way up. I talked a bit with the 77th guys last night while on their mission. They sounded like they were having a lot of fun but they were completely into their mission (which is good) so I kind of sat by the sidelines a bit. That's when I decided to switch to the Eagle since they were short on CAP. That way I could contribute a bit more (not that it happened since I got DCed and it was time to get ready to go to work again). But I had all the intentions of tying up the loose ends. I'm not great (or even good) in any particular AC but I will happily fly the A-10, F-15, Ka-50 or P-51 if that is what is needed at the time.

That's kinda the vibe I'm getting in my short exposure to MP. I noticed most fighters just go out hunting for other fighters cuz its cool and kinda neglect the whole ground war. Meanwhile strikers are off in some corner shooting things because reasons. Unfortunately I've been largely by myself even in servers with 20+ people so I have yet to experience the cluttering of strikers in a location. I feel like the missions I've played in MP so far lack focus so everyone is all over the place. Add in the fact that the missions try to be balanced with similar A2A and A2G objectives and you end up with a really thin force spread out over a big area. Maybe missions should be more like Blue has to do X, Red has to stop them. Depending on the outcome of that then Red has to do Y and Blue has to stop them, etc. Not each side with 7 objectives for strikers and several other objectives for fighters that have nothing to do with the strikers. I might toy with the idea of making my own MP missions even if they are not super fancy pants. Do campaigns work in MP?

I'll keep that in mind next time I try the 104th server. I read the briefing and knew the waypoints marked the primary conflict areas for my side. I was just worried about killing our own units after my incident in the first waypoint. Started making me doubt if I interpreted the briefing properly and incorrectly second-guessed myself after that. Not looking for autobalance but I went back to the 104th last night and it was the same deal: 15+ on blue vs 2-4 guys on red. I'll admit my enthusiasm for MP has started to wane in the course of a day. Other than my brief time with the other F-15 pilot, my experience has been largely the same as playing single player. Except it's taking me twice as long to get to the hot spots and most things are already dead once I arrive. After mucking about the 104th for the second night in a row and realizing I was just going to be by myself, I moved over to the 77th. Kinda liked what they were doing. Their mission was tailored to be lopsided from the start so the guys on red were few but were on battlefield commander roles. It was more of a coop scenario than a head to head with red CAP and SEAD AI flights periodically spawning. We, in turn, had to have a few people on CAP protecting our attack planes while taking out the AI CAP and attack planes. Got to fly a bit on the Hog and a bit on the Eagle. Didn't get to contribute much since the first round finished shortly after I joined and then I got DCed 20 minutes after the second game started but I'm looking forward to trying it again tonight. Definitely need to adopt a different mindset to playing MP. I'm not looking for instant action or gratification (don't really play online FPSs and the like) but it is taking me a loooong time to do anything. A lot of that is my fault, though. I'm still not terribly familiar with the location of the different cities and airports so I find myself stumbling about to gather my bearings when everyone else is saying "oh yeah, the tank column is north west of Gaudata". By the time I've located Gaudata on the map and determined where to start scanning for the tank column, the more experienced players are already running in guns blazing.

Thanks for the video. So as long as the mission has bullseye coincide with the first waypoint, this method should work. I guess maybe that's why the fast mission generator always co-locates the two. That answers that.

I hear where you are coming from. No doubt its my gamer mentality at work. I guess I'll need a bit more exposure to MP so I can see both sides of the "teams are not balanced" equation. I was expecting a slaughter-fest but I didn't encounter as many opponents as I thought I would. It is fairly difficult to actually find stuff to shoot at. Especially if you are new to the map. In retrospect, I realize the waypoints for the hog were areas to defend, not areas to assault. I was expecting ground units in contact with the enemy. Maybe I had to search other areas for enemy targets. Never really saw any attack tasking.

Thanks for the videos. I'll check them out when I get home (still at work). I think I like the prospect of a coop MP game. If balance is not expected, how does the force with lesser numbers cope? Is there extra AI assistance or something?

Last night I took my first real attempt at playing MP. Joined the 104th server which I saw had a good number of players at 20+. Game was horribly imbalanced in blue's favor so I joined red and hopped into a hog. Spent a bit of time on the mission briefing to figure out where to head out and what kind of loadout to take with me. For ground attack AC, there were 5 locations that had ground units engaged in combat. We were to defend our guys while taking out the other guys. During the startup process a broadcast message was sent out: locations 1 and 2 have been taken out so head to location 3. Pretty straight forward. Put up my bullseye bearing and range on the HUD, calculated and keyed in winds and temps in the LASTE screen, programmed my 3 go-to countermeasure programs, and set my loadout (AGM-D*1, AGM-H*1, TPG, ECM, AIM-9M*2, WP*7, Mk-82*6, MK5*14). General flight path is Sochi to Maykop. Some big mountains in the way so I don't want to go too heavy. Maykop is an allied airport so I can pick up more munitions and fuel there. Briefing says to take off and land on the left side of the runway so I did just that. As I leave the airport, I start getting a bit nervous. Not used to seeing so much activity on the RWR. Not to mention I always play blue offline so I'm not familiar with the RWR symbology for NATO units. Labels are off as well. Something else I'm not terribly used to. Two F-15's show up on the RWR to my 10 o' clock. I remember in the plane selection screen there was only one red player in an F-15. Best case scenario it was one ally and one enemy. I look to my 10 high and see two contrails far off in the distance. They are close to each other and streaking across the sky in the same general direction. They are together. These are not friendly F-15s. To leave trails they must be flying in the 26-38 thousand feet range. I've flown a bit offline on the F-15 and recall how difficult it can be to pick up low flying targets on the radar. Low and slow is the warthog way. I stay 200-300 feet above the ground as I navigate the mountains to Maykop. Thankfully my load isn't so heavy that I can't negotiate some nasty peaks and vallies. I reach the first waypoint and, even though this location has long been lost to the enemy, I decide to scout out the area to get an idea of the type of opposition to expect on the ground. Didn't find much other than a few loosely scattered vehicles. These look like friendly vehicles but I don't see any green Xs on my TAD. If this location has already been lost then the remaining units must belong to the enemy. I single out a target and do a pop-up attack with guns. One burst, one kill. Egress to the south east. I check the score list. -20 points. Crap! That tank was ours. Sigh. Looks like the threshold for success or failure is not 100% elimination of units in the target areas. With no labels, no TAD indication and both sides fielding NATO and Russian units, how can I tell friend from foe? I'll need guidance from more experienced pilots. I set up a low, tight orbit on autopilot and launch teamspeak. There are 8-10 people on the blue side. In red there is only one person and he's in the Air to Air channel. Joining the Air to Ground channel would do me no good. It would amount to two pilots in their respective channels listening to nothing. I join Air to Air and we introduce ourselves. Then I spend the next 20 minutes figuring out why the push to talk button wont work in game but works fine when the teamspeak client has the focus. Turns out I need to run teamspeak as Admin in order for it to work properly. Back in the game, the third location was lost while I was struggling with teamspeak. The fourth location needs defending. Updated my steerpoint and went straight to this new location. I station myself 15 miles out from the center of the target area and start scanning for targets. I see nothing. Other than civilian vehicles on the road and a few buildings, there's nothing there. No mechanized forces. I sweep the area again with my TGP, making sure that the TGP diamond on the TAD is placed on the areas surrounding the waypoint. Do a few gain/level adjustments and switch between white hot and black hot. Again, nothing. Then I hear a loud bang. My MFCDs go black, my HUD disappears and my wings start to break off. The huge fire in the back spells out the obvious. Didn't get any RWR indication so it was probably an IR missile. Eject. I take a look at the player list again. Tons of F-15s on the blue side. Trying to do CAS at this time is pointless. Plus, time is running out. Have maybe another 30-40 minutes before I have to hit the sack. Need to work the next day. I hop into an F-15. Much quicker to just get up and fly plus I'd have an ally to fly with instead of just chat. I go for 2 AIM-9s, 6 120Cs and fuel tanks. My ally had stopped for fuel and rearming at the same airport so we take off together and climb to just below contrails. After a few minutes of scanning out the area, I get a spike on my RWR at 1 o clock. I slew my radar in that direction and pick up an unknown aircraft. The radar displays it as a bar and we are the only F-15s in the air on red so it must be an enemy. We drop tanks and start to pick up speed. We have the altitude advantage by about 5000 feet so we feel good about getting into launch params. A few miles past Rmax, I fire a spoiler and crank. Enemy plane continues to point straight towards me. Good, I think. Please fly straight into my missile. A few moments later I turn back into my opponent and fire another 120, this time at about 12 miles out, and crank again. Seconds later, my ally radios in splash one. His missile gets the kill. We are feeling pretty good about our mutual support. The next skirmish, however, exposes our inexperience. We trade missiles against another pair of unknown planes but no one gets a kill. My ally bugs out in some unknown direction while I dive and weave towards a friendly SAM site, hoping our opponents take the bait. Not sure if the SAM sites took anyone out but my opponents vanished from the RWR. Probably just turned tail. My ally and I are unable to locate each other and rejoin. Need to figure out how to make bullseye calls in the Eagle. The warthog makes it easy: put up bullseye on the HUD for self-calls and use the CDU offset functionality to make a waypoint on someone else's call. A few minutes more of wandering the area alone and the night had come to an end. It was already well past the time to go to sleep. I head for Maykop and try to land. While I was low and slow on approach I get taken out. Never saw anything on my RWR. Oh well. Results of the evening: 2 deaths, 1 fratricide and 0 kills. Guess I got an assist. Ha! Eager to try again tonight. Could use some tips on how to locate and sort enemy from allied ground targets as well as how to make bullseye calls from the Eagle. I think I'll continue with this MP business. Though I'm satisfied with the practice I've gotten offline and can now start to hone in on some specifics.

This is the kind of advice I'm looking for. I would greatly appreciate it if you could put a tacview track or replay. Here's a silly request for either you or anyone who wants to volunteer: can anyone put up a replay of an F-15 doing a well executed tight, fast turn at corner? Sometimes I just fly around a bit to get a hang of the bird, build up speed to just above corner (~470) and start a turn (usually nose low), gradually building up the Gs. I find that the horizon spins by a lot quicker at speeds much lower than corner and that I can't hold 9gs without the screen going completely black. Usually find myself only being able to hold 7-8gs. Contrast this to an ironhand video I recently saw where he executes a turn at corner in a Flanker and it's impressive how fast he was able to turn. Too bad the video was so low-res that I couldn't see the numbers on the HUD or gauges.

It used to be that you needed LOMAC or a previous Flaming Cliffs to buy and install FC3. If you look at the product page, that is no longer a requirement. http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/modules/dcs_flaming_cliffs_3/ FC3 brings several planes, not just the F-15. If you are only interested in the F-15, then you can buy that plane separately. Due to a summer sale, the F-15 can be purchased for $10 USD. The page says open-beta as there is still a bit of work left to do on the flight model but it is perfectly flyable in its current state. http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/modules/f-15c_dcs_flaming_cliffs/ FC3 planes, as opposed to DCS planes, do not have clickable cockpits so several manual procedures and interactions are simplified. As far as flight modeling goes, some FC planes (F-15C, A-10A) have a more advanced flight model than the others and are more inline with the flight modeling of the A-10C. ED plans to update the flight model for all FC3 planes over time. The next FC plane in line to be upgraded to the new flight model is the Su-27 and will be released as a stand-alone module much like the A-10A and the F-15C. If you buy FC3 now, you will automatically get the updated Su-27 when it comes out. My thoughts: if you already own the A-10C and are not 100% certain about getting the entire FC3 package but want to fly a fighter jet, get the stand-alone F-15C and see if you like it. I see little value in buying a whole suite of planes in one shot when getting proficient in one of these planes alone takes a fair deal of time and practice. I own DCS A-10C and FC3. The only FC3 plane I've used is the F-15 and it is keeping me plenty busy, even with its non-clickable cockpit. I'm not the slightest bit disappointed with the flight modeling of the aircraft. Also, even if you don't own FC3, you can still play online with people that fly planes you don't own so don't feel like you are limiting your MP options by not buying the whole thing. Edit: Just to make it perfectly clear, FC3 includes the stand-alone F-15C: DCS Flaming Cliffs and A-1A: DCS Flaming Cliffs planes. If you buy FC3, you do not need to buy the stand-alone DCS Flaming Cliffs planes. Or, if you are not interested in all of the FC3 planes, you can buy them as stand-alone products for much less.

Aye agreed. But I actually like the predictability of the AI at this stage of learning as bad or good outcomes are easily repeatable. Allows for easy experimentation. Ultimately I know I'll have to get some help online if I want to go past the bare basics. Too bad none of my friends are into flight sims :cry:. Would love to have a practice partner.

Thanks for the tips Stuge and lunaticfringe. Spent some time with GG's pdf last night. The training scenarios are setup in such a way that it is impossible to leverage the AI to practice them in any meaningful way. Such is life. I also spent some time on the art of the kill thread and read through the pdf posted there. While more basic, I think it lends itself to practicing the bare bones basic against the AI a little better. Gonna give it a shot today.

Thanks. I will start reviewing that pdf tonight.

Speaking of old posts made by GG, I just found this on a google search. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=76775 Gonna put it up here to read when I get home. Finally getting out of work.

Thanks. I really have to get around to reading that book. It would be awesome to see a practical display of this approach to combat at work from within DCS. I get the gist but an example would be extremely helpful. Videos, tracks, tacview files, whatever. I'd love to see this style in action.

Something else on energy fighting. Just trying to dig up what I can on the subject since this is apparently what Eagle pilots should be striving for. http://www.musketeers.org/?page_id=85