Shadoga

Nice wip pit pictures of the -19 on FB today, but as someone who over time gets any add-on just to support the whole DCS market, I'd rather get updates for stuff that I already paid for instead. No one needs to explain the "EA is not for everyone" and the fact of parallel development processes to me, but devs need to be reminded daily that month- or even yearlong standstill on released unfinished stuff kills their reputation, trust in them, and enjoyment of their EA products. *rant over*

On many multiplayer servers/missions you currently get to fly over or near the main Caucasus ridge. I therefore often encounter the annoying unrealism of tall single trees or tree patches way above the real tree line/altitude, the highest rows of which should not feature anything else than some lower crawling needle wood. I'd like to support the request for more realistic optics when flying through/over higher terrain. A single tall tree with leaves up high on a mountain ridge looks just so wrong and out of this world.

As has been said, the FC3 aircraft compare closer to the lower avionics simulation depth of Jane‘s bundle sims like USAF & IAF from the 90s, mainly because of FC3’s lack of clickable cockpits. In comparison, you will recall Jane’s F-15 and F-18 to go deeper, avionics-wise, mainly because of the clickable displays, systems pages, air/ground/sea radar modes, weapon choices, etc. of those true multi-rolers. Be advised, that on the one hand, FC3 offers no such multi-role but exclusively specialized aircraft. And on the other hand, FC3’s mainly advanced or professional flight models by far surpass any aerodynamic simulation that was available back in the Nineties.

I voted Yes, for all the reasons already given in this thread plus: - I liked the scenarios & missions in the fictional central-european & desert sceneries in Digital Integration's Tornado. - I like the way fictional nations / islands are used for the Op. Flashpoint / ARMA series. - I like flying multiplayer missions / events / ladders with balanced chances for red & blue. Balanced geographics (terrain, bases, resources, distances) would support such scenarios.

Too bad I can't be of any help with the opensource code, I also don't know anyone who could do it... But a donation is a good idea - your fine add-on deserves it anyway, and if it possibly motivates you to incorporate a desired feature - even better! Money sent:P

Of course I can acknowledge that my poll thread about SRS frequency input logic showed a) not much interest in the subject by other users with only 30 votes in 3 weeks and b) with 17 over 13 votes for change no clear result. But how about this:

My Longbow entry routine has become this: - Start and fly for some seconds the Caucasus Instant Action Mission of the aircraft type I will most probably choose first in Longbow, then exit to DCS Main Screen. - Open Longbow in Mission Editor and "Fly" (let it run) from there for a couple of seconds, then exit to DCS Main Screen. - Go to Multiplayer, choose own radio Callsign of the day (e.g. "RAPTOR | Shadoga", just to keep it diversified...) and then join 104th Server. It might work quite as well if you ommit the first step "Instant Action", but basically each step is a preparation for smoother loading in the next step. This way might take 2-3 minutes to get into the action as well, but it makes for Longbow loading times of less than 30 secs and no crashes for me once on the server.

@Ciribob: How about making both frequency dial logics optional and configurable in settings? - Too high of a workload to program the missing realistic one and/or too low in priority of software changes, I guess?

Any news about WiP of implementing a better GCI solution than F10?

220 views vs. 13 votes - come on fellows, give us one simple click and vote!

:thumbup:

Thanks for the reply, will give the test version a try! I've opened a separate thread/poll to find out what others think about my requested feature change: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=204333http://

Dear fellow SRS users, this poll serves to collect your opinion on a certain SRS frequency input behaviour, so that SRS creator Ciribob can see what a broader range of users think and if there is a need for change in the software. As an introduction, my change request and Ciribob's reply quoted from the main SRS thread: So please, let us know here by vote and/or comment what you think about this: - Vote for "no change" if you find the current dependent input logic convenient and more suitable for you. - Vote for "change", if you would like SRS to behave more like the majority of real-world (aviation) radios with independent value inputs for each digit or digit group. If you have any further questions or even didn't get what I'm talking about at all, let me know below and I will try to answer or to explain the subject in more detail. Thanks in advance, kind regards.

Sorry for not searching all 1900 posts in detail if this has been (probably) discussed, decided and communicated before: My biggest gripe with the use of SRS (regarding frequency input for e.g. FC3 a/c through the SRS radio window) is the logic of depency of adjacent digits: In almost all aircraft radios I ever came across, each digit or digit group is independently set from its neighbours - if you select from 8 to 1 by rotating upward throught 0, no next higher neighbouring digit is counted up 1 value. Every time I use SRS, I stumble at least once per sim session over this logic "trap" of having dependent digits. Once I'm setting a new frequency, I would like to set it each digit or digit group on its own, from left to right, each digit via the shortest way upward or downward, without side effect - as a no-brainer. Just count this as a loud vote for change, and sorry again for not searching thoroughly for previous posts regarding this subject! Edit: Since this is my first post in this thread: Thanks a Sorry, sbunch, @Ciribob, for your hard work and this great addition to DCS multiplayer realism!!!

Das sehe ich auch schon im normalen Flight Envelope nicht so, vgl. oben genanntes Slippen oder Seitenwindstarts-/landungen oder Muster mit Propellerdrehmoment, spätestens im Bereich Kunstflug und Luftkampfmanöver ist die Aussage dann völliger Käse.

Might have been true ignorance of mission goals, a bad joke or even just a mix-up with no harm intended... - I hear people mixing up Senaki with Sukhumi ten times per evening and I've made the mistake myself more than once.

Vereinfacht aerodynamisch betrachtet machst Du durch einen deutlichen Seitenruderauschlag (Nase "giert" nach rechts oder links) den in Gierrichtung "inneren" Flügel kurz ganz leicht langsamer und den "äusseren", der Nase hinterhergezogenen Flügel kurz ganz leicht schneller, was die jeweils umströmende Luftgeschwindigkeit betrifft. Dieser neue kleine Unterschied zwischen den vom jeweiligen Flügel erzeugten Auftriebskräften bewirkt, dass der "äussere" Flügel sich hebt, der "Innere" sich senkt, und die Rollbewegung in Gierrichtung entsteht, auch ohne dass irgendein Querruderausschlag mitgespielt hat. Was auch noch ein bißchen mit reinspielen kann, ist, dass der "innere" Flügel im gierenden Schiebeflug je nach Anordnung der Tragflächen vom leicht schief im Luftstrom stehenden Rumpf etwas abgeschirmt und dadurch ungünstiger umströmt wird und dadurch zusätzlich weniger Auftrieb produziert und gegenüber dem "äusseren" Flügel absackt.

On red side, if at all, most SRS interaction takes place on default 251.0 instead of the frequencies published in the briefing. :doh: Lazy bastards! I'm with Buckeye, it's really sad to see a large part of the attractivity (i.e. realistic comms -> coop) of this great hardcore server/mission going down the shitter due to increasing times with a majority of clients totally ignoring briefing, comms & coop possibilities. Seeing 40+ clients connected with only 3 per side on TS and even less on SRS more and more often is really frustrating. I would suggest more frequent and detailed automatic server text messages encouraging teamplay via comms plus broadcasting the correct SRS frequencies for each side through those same in-game text messages. On the blue side, I suggest to consider changing the frequency plan to use 30.000FM for fixed-wing CAS and 140.0 for helo-internal coordination. Thus the Harrier in its current release could use both its radios, no.1 for monitoring GCI and no.2 for CAS-internal coordination. Transmitter switching between the 2 radios can be done through SRS. On the red side, I would love to see a new frequency selection that allows simultaneous use of at least 2 frequencies for FC3 aircraft through the available default SRS radio frequency ranges. Currently only one default radio can be used to select the red GCI and ATC frequencies. Would be good to have a UHF for GCI and if you chose 251.0, you automatically include all the default-using lazies... But then again, I don't know all radio capabilities and restrictions of all aircraft modules and it might be more complicated and impossible to apply my above suggestions. I just would like to suggest to review the topic and search for possibilities of improvement.

The JTAC will not move himself to a better observation position. You have to pick the spot carefully: it has to be within 10NM and in line of sight to the enemy units. He will only lase what he can see directly from his initial position. He has to be kept out of weapon range of the enemy units.

Greetings, fellow jetjockeys, rotorheads, C2 operators & 104th admins! As a follow-up to my personal observations & impressions regarding human GCI on 104th Public Server Operation Longbow I'm writing this as an unsorted brainstorming of conclusions and suggestions. All below is only valid IMHO and as long as there's no major change to server settings, rules or DCS MP code. This is not a call for change, it's already great as it is and I love it. I just want you to remember that if you change your tactics in Operation Longbow because of what I post below, you will need to review them from time to time if still valid after future adjustments... So for introduction, please start with post #317 above (that is now one page back...)! *imagine Jeopardy music here* (oh wait, wait, it's out there...): I conciously tested my above-posted impressions yesterday evening on the server while flying a blue F15 under human GCI (awesome jobs, @Migdriver & @Aeons !): While I can see 4 bandits on my scope all the time in RWS or TWS, human GCI will only call individual short-notice pop-ups on them if I put one of them in STT hardlock. TWS softlock shows him absolutely nothing. If I unlock them again from STT after only 1 or 2 seconds to get my full radar picture back, GCI might not have had the time/chance to click on the enemy target to readout altitude and type from the info box. His call will be incomplete ("level/type unknown, faded again."). - Suggestion: in order to feed human GCI with target data, it would be great if all fighter pilots travelling towards an engagement would put all their bogey radar targets into STT one after another and keep up each hardlock for at least 4-5 seconds. Of course, when approaching weapon employment ranges, other priorities take over like target sorting, TWS softlocking etc. But between 40-20NM out, commiting to this new STT workload would give GCI the chance to figure them out and assist you in your tactical setup for the engagement ahead. If 2-4 friendly fighters proceeding forward employ this new system operation at the same time, CGI will almost have a continuous picture on the bandits. Note: I haven't fully tested what locking an ECM strobe does, but it also doesn't seem to relay data to CGI (which is realistic except that he should see the strobes on his own screen himself). (You can still continue hardlocking strobes to annoy the emitter with RWR sounds...) I also haven't checked out yet for the red side if a russian fighter's EOS-only lock might be "uploaded" to the red GCI's situation display... - any input on that is appreciated. Btw, sneaky red Flankers can now fly assured that they are not at disadvantage when blue has someone in the GCI slot and red doesn't: your datalink shows you way more than what the blue GCI can see and blue fighters still only have your position occasionally through AI AWACS/EWR or own onboard radar but not through human GCI with godview... - he's blind most of the time instead, even when you're flying out in the open and not being locked. - Conclusion: AI AWACS/GCI have a better picture than your human GCI because those bastards don't relay their data to him. Therefore it is wise to request an AI bogey dope more often, e.g. when airborne or cold after defensive maneuvering (human GCI will not see the bandit close behind unless another friendly locked him up). Since client bogey dope request numbers might rise because of this, it is even more important to NEVER EVER "request picture" from AI!!! On a half full server, AI will give you 10 contacts, taking away precious frequency time from other players while calling them out - and you will not be able to memorize or deal with more than the first two contacts anyway...! Heads up, rotorheads! - Conclusion: since AWACS and EWRs don't seem to feed radar data to the human GCI operator's F10 display, it currently doesn't make any sense to ask him where to haul crates to dangerous locations and build new EWRs for the benefit of human GCI. You still can do it, the results are ambiguous: on the one hand you get your coalition a new AI info source and radar coverage at a location where the other AI units maybe couldn't see before. On the other hand you clutter AI radio chatter with some new AI units who call enemies to different friendlies in an unreadble and annoying mix of several english & russian AI voices at the same time... The errection of EWRs and the arrival of new AWACS doesn't do anything good for your human GCI's picture, nor does destruction/shootdown of one of them have any effect on him. It just effects the available AI services. Drifting away from the "datalink or no datalink" a little now, I would like to suggest that everyone should contribute more to an even greater, more realistic and diversified gaming experience on 104th server while playing Longbow. First to @[Maverick] : - The mission is never the same since the state of conflict and air and ground situation are never identical when you join - you really achieved that gloriously. But I think for daily or regular hardcore fans of the mission, especially the first two hours after a restart have become somewhat routine: same longhaul chopper & CAS missions, same enemy units in same places to be killed. I'm not asking for this to be changed since I know the workload would be immense. But I strongly suggest to keep up the great job of diversifying the mission variants down to even smaller tidbits: Having different seasons variants is great! The winter map made Air-to-Air at the even longer night hours in the FC3 aircraft bearable and added a nasty challenge of being easily spottable for chopper pilots. Keep up testing and tweaking around with weather! Clouds are a huge gamechanger for BVR/WVR (not overcast but scattered with cloud base heights varying. Keep playing around with temperature and please start changing atmospheric pressure! It was great to see different engine idle power readings on the cold winter map. Now make people think about their altimeter settings other than ISA - maybe give rotorheads a headache by creating a "high&hot" summer variant with high temps and low pressure! Everyone else: - Calls to join Teamspeak and especially Simple Radio are already all over the place - operating those radios with frequency changes and volume management already adds so much! And yet there is even more every one of you can do, examples: - Operate your flight under a callsign instead of your pilot nickname! You will have to connect to the server with that flight callsign but you can still keep your pilot nick written behind for identification, for example: connect as "DODGE11 | Shadoga" and human GCI/ATC will be able to adress you with a realistic callsign. If you don't want to chose something spectacularly individual: find out what the DCS AI callsign of your client slot is and use this one. That way you have the highest realism by being called the same callsign by AI as well as human GCI. Makes it much easier to uphold comms SA. - Don't fly on your own without any contact to fellow players!Get on Teamspeak for an actual sitrep, to coordinate with fellow fighter, bomber or helo pilots for better effect of your intended flight! Once in game, use Simple Radio - every level of communications is better than zero! Even on your lone wolf mission the chance to pick up GCIs attempt to warn you of enemies might save your gaming experience of the day! The mission is a team effort and only teamplay can win the map. - Another great way of diversifying the mission would be to use varying callsigns for AWACS/GCI. "MAGIC" is so commonly used that it has become the synonym for C2 service in the DCS community ("Do we have a MAGIC online?"). @Migdriver has set a great example for using different callsigns for himself acting as GCI: besides MAGIC, I heard him use DARKSTAR and others. DCS ME offers 5 different callsigns for an AI E-3 AWACS: while MAGIC is used for 90% of all missions for being the ME default, OVERLORD is rare and DARKSTAR even more so. I never came across FOCUS & WIZARD, don't even know if they exist as sound snippets for AI radio chatter... ;) Again for @[Maverick] : - I know you can't just alternate callsigns for the tankers due to briefing text and in-game identification reasons. But you could easily alter AI AWACS callsigns for different variants of Longbow. To my fellow human GCI operators registered as C2 service providers for 104th public dedi server: - Try operating GCI using different callsigns for yourself, it's a great and fun challenge for you and your "customer" clients! There are dozens of real US/NATO callsigns for AWACS/GCI available on the web, e.g.: BANDSAW, CHALICE, DISCO, IMAGE, KAPUT, LOOKOUT, MAST, SCORE, SHOWTIME (real red side NTTR C2 callsign) and many more. I will mostly use SHOWTIME or VANYA on red when providing GCI. On blue, I operate mainly as LONESHIP, SENTRY or SKYNET. - Funny war story to wrap it all up: Last week I was Sunrise as LONESHIP for a whole evening session. Someone who didn't get my callsign just right when I called him adressed me as LONGSHIT, and in the aftermath at least two other friendlies died lacking heads-up calls from my side until I could stop laughing and resumed service... It's up to all of us to contribute to the fun and longevity of Longbow. Thanks for your attention, kind regards!

GCI mostly never sees enemy aircraft without his coalition's fighters painting them with onboard radar, and yes - many other factors seem to play in... - I just can't figure them out. In another aspect, GCI (i.e. JTAC/field observer CA role used here in this mission) screen data is quite unrealistic IMHO since your own friendly GCIs will always see you, no matter how deep you hide below any radar coverage. This is similarly unrealistic as Simple Radio being set to unlimited/unobstructed range on the server. Now, SR settings are a well considered decision by the server admin, for the unlimited visibility of friendly units I'm not shure if it's a setting or an issue of DCS not offering the realisic radar coverage option for that. For GCI on the F10-Map seeing enemy airborne units or not, I have the feel it is modeled far from realisic in the sim and the probability of detection is very low plus based on wrong (simulated datalink) information. I'm also almost shure that what human GCI sees on the F10-Map is less than AI AWACS is calling out on radio in-game. Examples: - AWACS/EWR will not show inbound hostiles even within 50 - 10 miles from themselves and above the horizon on the GCI F10 view if it is not additionally tracked (search mode is not enough) by a friendly fighter radar. - The same crappy performance like AWACS seemingly not datalinking anything down to GCI onto his F10 situation display goes for any EWR radar. I've never seen an impact on radar coverage for the GCI F10 view if an EWR is erected or destroyed. The only ones who show you enemy aircraft are friendly fighters. AWACS getting shot down doesn't seem to matter either. You also don't get datalink from friendly SAM sites (not even medium or large ones who should integrate into an air defence network) - you just see their missiles after launch but not what they are going for. - All friendly fighters seem to have virtual datalink to GCI view, so if a MiG21 or an F-5E have locked someone, F10 will show it... - GCI F10 map also shows what friendly units pick up on other sensors, like sometimes you get a popup of an enemy ground radar that some friendly has a mudspike of on his RWR (or is it only in case of mud launches?). It is my observation that GCI has way too low SA due to missing AWACS/EWR/SAM data and is mainly relaying to his "customers" on frequency what some other friendly fighters can actually see on their scopes - which is a huge setback for me. I usually like that part of our online gaming experience enough to provide GCI service anyway every now and then. But when only a little thing comes on top of the abovementioned drawback, like no longer being able to see aircraft labels alone since Hotfix1 (now only all labels = too cluttered screen - or no labels at all), I step back for a little while from offering hour-long, whole evening GCI services and enjoy flying around instead...

Possible ME issue report: Today I spawncrashed into an other player's F15 in Kutaisi Shelter 22. I was using slot 2B_Kutaisi_F15C_A2. The conflicting slot might be 2A_Kutaisi_F15C_A1. Not shure about that though, I just vaguely recall spawning in 22 when taking this first Kutaisi Eagle slot...

Strange: from one day to the next, the problem couldn't be reproduced. I set the exclusive access anyway, thanks for the link!

Hab gehört die F-4 war von hinten fliegbar, mit einer Einschränkung: die hinteren Throttles konnten nur bis Full Mil, AB konnte nur vorne angewählt werden.

Thanks for the fast response - I will check it out and give feedback, promise!