Spirit X

I've recently received my WinWing Orion 2 joystick base (with the F-16 stick) and the thing I don't like about it is that you can travel the first 80% of movement on the stick quite nicely and then there seems to be some kind of extra resistance that requires a good hard push to get that last 20%. Is there a way for my to change that so it feels nice and smooth all the way to 100% stick travel? I went through the pdf manual and googled around but couldn't find anything and I'm in no way technical enough to just open it up without an idea of what I'm doing!

Thank you chaps, some great info for me to check out. @72Stu I've just been checking out https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/ and that'll come in very handy. @Bossco82 I am thinking of getting a new monitor as mine is old but I hadn't considered/ didn't realise that it's the resolution that determines how much grunt you want on the graphics card. I'm going to check out the hardware in your posts and see what different cominations look like in terms of bang for my buck.

I'm a UK gamer and love my DCS....but I really know bugger all about PCs and techie stuff. Reading the forum, I realise I probably have weeks of reading ahead of me in order to understand what they hell I'm looking at if I want to buy a new PC and would appreciate some advice on getting started please. (Sorry, I bet you guys must get tons of these kinds of posts!) First and foremost, I'd like to get an idea of how much I would need to realistically spend to get DCS running nice and pretty and nice and smooth (not VR but would like to get into multiplayer eventually). Not necessarily looking for the best of the best, but I do want a machine that will last me at least 5 years or more, primarily for DCS (and some other Steam games). What kind of range should I be expecting to spend? I've been having a tentative look at Scan UK and the whole thing is just gibberish to me at the moment but one thing I'm wondering is, with the state of the semi-conductor shortage at the moment, is this actually a good time to be thinking about a purchase, or would you guys be more inclined to wait it out for a while? Many thanks for any advice.

Interesting point. As I'm much more of a 'gamer' than an experienced sim guy, I hadn't really thought of it in those terms. I guess weapon use in DCS is obviously much more free and easy than rl. I'm sure that if I was in an actual jet during wartime and saw a two-ship of Tomcat's at 100 miles, my first thought would probably be to just gtfo.

Well sadly I had a look at my hat switch in the windows game controllers and looks like when I press it up, it's registering intermittent. So just my joystick getting old and not any kind of Tomcat issue.

BUM!

Can we reverse?!?!?

Sorry, don't think I was very clear about that. I'm talking about the highlighted switch in the pic below which controls the HUD tapes. Top position is marked as 'VV VAH' and should show Vertical Velocity (VV), as well as Velocity, Altidude and Heading tapes (VAH). When in middle position, marked as 'VAH', it just shows Velocity, Altitude and Heading tapes, without the Vertical Velocity. Problem is, when I select the 'VV VAH' position of the switch, the HUD looks identical to the VAH position. My question is, is the 'VV' part of the 'VV VAH' position actually modelled. Do you guys see anything different on the HUD when you select it?

Ah, hadn't thought of that yeah, cheers.

Unlikely that this is the cause but I've been caught out a couple of times because you have to wait for Jester to stop pushing buttons as he tunes the radio. Sometimes it takes him a good few seconds.

I've noticed this in an intercept mission. I have 4 Phoenix's on board and we spot a two-ship of mig's at 120nm. As they close, Jester goes TWS-A and I fire two missiles, one at each target. When we then get to about 40-50 miles, I want to do another round of two missiles in TWS but the trigger is cold. Jester won't lock them up again after I've fired the first two unless I order an STT lock on them one-by-one....which is a real pain. Any way around this? Am I not doing something I should be doing?

Thanks very much, that's useful info. It does remind me of something else I was trying to find though: when I select VV/VAH for the HUD, I see absolutely no difference between that and the switch's centre position of VAH only. Is the Vertical Velocity simply not modeled on the HUD yet?

I'm not sure I've noticed that but I have noticed that sometimes the trim has no effect. What I mean by that is that I usually have the controls indicator on screen, so I can see the effect of trim on the little diamond and when I hit trim up or down on my hotas, sometimes it just won't move. Then I have to hit it a few times for it to have an effect. Could be my joystick of course but I haven't seen this happen in any other aircraft and I'm not sure if this is since the update or if was present before.

At the bottom of the HUD we have those markers for bank angle with the carat that rotates. Does anyone know what number of degrees those markers represent? I'm guessing they're either 5 or 10 degree marks but I'm not sure which.

Very useful, thanks. Sounds like I am doing stuff in the right order but, as you say, perhaps not at the right time.

Nice one, thanks dude!

Agreed yeah

Good news fellas, "Tomcat Ball" has a binding in the Communication section of F14 Pilot options.

....a complete bitch to get trimmed out!?!!? Honestly, I've never had so much trouble just trying to fly straight and level. I've actually taken to flying around in landing mode half the time just so I can easily see the VSI on my HUD. Any tips for general trim/ flight would be great and also, a few more little questions that I'd really appreciate some advice on: 1. Couldn't find an explanation regarding why we sweep our wings fully back approaching initial to the landing pattern. I do it, cos I know I'm supposed to, but I'm not sure why. 2. Kind of similar to the trimming issue: as I come round for my downwind and set wings to auto, gear down, flaps down (correct order?) it plays such havoc with the lift that I end up pretty much fully stick forward and madly trying to trim down (and inevitably overdoing it). Again, any tips for smooth pattern flying? I find hitting the correct altitudes during the pattern incredibly hard. 3. I've never seen any tutorials or docs mention common use of the 'trim hud' function wheel but I don't like the way it seems to be offset downward by default. I usually trim the HUD so the horizon line is pretty much on the horizon when I'm flying straight and level. Is this common practice/ correct use in the Tomcat? Thanks for any help.

Thank you.

I haven't seen any advice regarding this and today will be the first update since I started playing properly. Should I uninstall all my skins and aircraft mods to avoid damaging anything?

Well, I tried building it last night and can confirm that it works (with no scripts needed). Or at least it worked with a JTAC vehicle on the ground with no issues. LSS locks on fine provided you have entered the correct laser code, and you can then TMS up for point track and use that point even if you don't have laser guided munitions. Note that from my test it seems that you have to be in CCRP for the LSS to activate. In CCIP it seems to do nothing and will not find the JTAC laze. However, when I tried the same thing with a Predator drone, it wouldn't laze. No idea why, I had it circling directly over the target and it was set to 'Laser' in the designation options but it would just mark the target with WP and no laser. Could be I just did something wrong or there's something you need to do with the Predator in the mission editor that I'm not aware of. For the time being though this is potentially useful way to build ground attack missions without having to have waypoints directly over the targets.

Appreciate the advice for sure but I'm looking to make a fun misison where everything can be done in the pit. In this respect I kind of consider the F10 map a bit cheaty (although yeah, I'm sure most pilots would probably have a map stashed somewhere in the pit just in case...). I was wondering if the F16 itself contains any facility I'm not aware of that would allow the MGRS coords to be of use.

Thought I'd ask here before going through the process of making a mission for it as I'm not sure it will work. I want to do a JTAC mission with a TGP and a few CBU-97s. But importantly, NO laser guided bombs. I was thinking that if I have the TGP and get JTAC to lase the target, the TGP will then lock on to the laser and I can go into 'point track', marking that exact location for my CCRP cluster bomb run. However, not sure if I understand the TGP very well yet so wondered if anyone can tell me whether or not this will actually work or not? I want to avoid creating a waypoint right on the target and would like to see if I can make the JTAC useful even when you don't have GBUs. And by the way what exactly can you do with the JTAC MGRS calls in the Viper? As far as I can tell we can only use Long/ Lat on the Steerpoint DED page can't we? Thanks for any help.

I'm thinking of buying a new module or two and I really enjoy SEAD/ Wild Weasel missions. I have the F16 (and eagerly awaiting Maverick and HARM implementation), F14 and A10C but wondered if there are any other aircraft that can use HARMs and what people would recommend in terms of flying fun SEAD missions?