tovivan

Thanks for all the replies, guys! Tested the TWS2 with a friend, it gives lock and launch warnings, sadly. Should it be like that (F-15 doesn't iirc)? If not, will it get fixed? Also, any idea on the tracking fixes for ER and speed drop fix for 77?

Yes, and instead of that getting fixed, it's the AIM-9 getting more powerful because apparently the AMRAAM is not enough. :( Thanks for your response! I consider this matter more a matter of personal taste, so more emotional, rather than rational. For me only Eastern birds touch that part of my heart, Western very little if not at all... maybe because of my background, dunno. That's why I don't really find any motivation or desire to switch, especially to planes that keep shooting me down aka the "other" ("dark"? :D ) side. Where I come from we have a phrase about ETAs like that. It will be here on the Day of Saint Never. :D I honestly don't think we'll be getting any modern Russian bird. Nothing has been announced for the next two years at least. While I do adore the 15 and 21, the versions we got are hopelessly obsolete (we could've gotten the 93 or the 97 versions of the 21 instead, but they gave us the iirc 1972 version). If I'm proven wrong nobody will be more happy than I. Thanks for your response!

Yup and MP will be even more of a one-sided slaughter than it already is. :(

Okay, after a year+ of very casual flying fighters in DCS (very little of that was in the 29) I've come to next conclusions: - ER - most powerful warhead - mostly instakill upon hit, quickly loses energy, very easy to dupe and requires constant lock, which either negates going defensive or sacrifices lock/hit in favor of going defensive. Best use on Su-33 due to more favourable FM and due to it carrying 6 vs 4 on 27 - ET - silent killer, but still easy to dupe once spotted, not as powerful as ER - 73 - excellent for dog-fight, less easy to dupe as R/T, but still possible. the addition of the backwards-firing version would've been nice - 77 - TWS2, can engage two targets at the same time, easy to dupe and evade, very weak warhead, quick energy loss. - Have been testing the 77 in TWS2 against F-5 Tigers today (chose Tiger for being a small plane to see the true effect of 77 - have already confirmed this on Phantoms and Eagles). In cca 20 shotdowns there were only 2 or 3 outright kills. In all other cases the Tigers suffered only slight damage to their dorsal fins and engines, but were good enough to continue their flight. I had to finish them off with my cannon. Also engaged two Tigers fleeing at 570 kmh while I was flying at 930kmh after them. Let the 77s go at about 10-12km from targets. Both missiles self-destructed at least 1km from targets. Closed to about 6km before releasing next two, this time hits, finished off with cannon. Conclusion: pleased with the 2-target-engagement (that I never used before) and also disappointed by the weak warhead. Question: if I lock an enemy player in F-15 using TWS/TWS2 in MiG-29 (or Su) and launch 77s at him, will he get the lock and missile launch warning or not? - I've also been reading a lot of negative feedback here and on other websites about the AFM for missiles and bugged Russian missiles. Example: "Out of the 25 aerial kills, none was by an R-27ER missile, 4 by R-27ET, 1 by R-73, 2 by cannon and 18 by AIM-120." http://sa-sim.com/rf1-battlefacts-the-black-eagles-reign-supreme/ With the announced AIM-9 overpowering how much of a chance will we stand in our antiquated Soviet 80's relics having to go against not only Eagles with AMRAAMS and these new 9's, but also against Hornets, Mirages, Eurofighters, Tomcats and all the most modern Western technology, while there being NO modern Russian plane developed or even announced? Would it be better to just cut my losses and stop playing online or simply give up DCS? - Questions: How accurate are my findings? Is there any advantage to using the DCS Missile Mod while flying Russian planes? Do targets locked and engaged in TWS2 get lock and missile warning? - Looking especially for opinion from the members with more knowledge of this topic, like Rage. Thanks.

Thanks for your reply, Stonehouse! I am actually using your version of the script from your website. :beer: The strange thing was the sheer number of flights spawning, that even got so bad I went into game-master slot and just watched my friend battling Sabres with his Su-33 because my frames dropped too much to be playable. Haven't tested it yet, but this is what I've changed so far according to your recommendations: - deleted CAP zones for red and set them to 0, deleted all but one blue and set it to 1 - set stucktimelimit to 500 if that's the reason for the spamming of flights - I think there were over 30 planes for each side before I stopped the mission - set borders on - I admit, I didn't read the borders part of manual thoroughly since my this is hot, so didn't know that means that they respond only to border-crossers - enlarged the Gelendzhik airfield trigger zone to be much larger than just the airport - to get the GCI to respond to threats further out - left at airport spawn - I'm mostly flying MiG-15 and the enemy has Sabres, so I either give them a fair fighting chance or they take off by the time I get there; they only have 2 planes per flight so they take off quickly - put numberofspawnedandactiveinterceptorgroupsRED to 0 (oversight on my part leaving it at what it was - my only excuse is that it was late at night and I've been tired the whole day even before that) What I noticed in that situation from last night (the pic that was attached), while in game-master slot: - ALL red flights were CAP, not one GCI - after spawning one GCI flight the blue side didn't spawn another - there was a shot-down pilot (medevac script) for one blue gci pilot, but that was it - this is the reason for my suspicion of medevac conflict - all the blue flights that spawned after that were CAP - red flights spawned at enemy Gelendzhik (again mistake on my part because I deleted friendly airfield spawn in wrong belief that that would be easy way of preventing them spawning without going into script) - Pyotr Velikiy was engaging enemy flights that neared our border. Imagine my surprise when I saw an SA-10 knocking out planes just north of Gelendzhik, lol I would really like to keep the medevac script as it actually gives some usage to my Mi8, but if conflicts get confirmed I will take it out of the mission. Honestly, I don't think there's a bug in your script, it's just a matter of me not finding the correct balance yet. I'm hoping this script will replace a mission we've been using for private combat flying for the past few weeks from a server that's been defunct for a year now, that is 35mb big, compressed. My upload is 50kbs so it takes over 10 minutes for my buddy to actually join the mission. :( That mission has a "net" file (no format) that is, uncompressed, 188mb in size. Any idea what this net file is? Should I put the mission on some file-share and send you a link? But this script gave me and my friend some of what we both agreed was the best fun in DCS ever. Thus my thanks to both the original creator and to you! PS: especially funny part was my friend shooting down Sabre with gun and that Sabre then falling out of the sky directly on my friend's Su-33 as he flew under. :D

Okay, to explain again, it forces an additional step into the process of making a kneeboard page and one that is dicey in execution and end quality. From my experience pdf conversion degrades the quality of the document compared to the original. And not just that, it's a security issue. For example: in DCS I click the button to produce an html input text file of my keyboard settings. I hope you'll agree that with the keyboard it would be impossible to produce a pictorial representation of the kind you use for your joystick, yes? Anyway, the game puts the files in the Saved Games folder, in html format. To be able to use that file I need to then specially download an app that will let me convert that html file into pdf - so I have to go online and look for free apps (together with possible adware or spyware dangers of free app traps). Mostly accessible are apps that tap into existing programs (html maker, firefox, iexplorer), put pdf production as a "print" option and thus gain unrestricted and unmonitored access to the internet and their "homebase" - who knows what they send. Then I have to convert that file into pdf, with all the restrictions that forces on that text file (maybe smaller font, worse quality, etc.). Only then can I use the KBB. Example of non-pdf use: in DCS I click the button to produce an html input text file of my keyboard settings. The game puts them in the Saved Games folder, in html format. Then I use the KBB. The much shorter and painless process is, I hope, plainly obvious. :beer: I did, from 150 to 300, and it was even worse. File size difference is minimal, its still under 1mb. That version was completely unreadable in kneeboard, no matter how much I pressed my nose to the screen. I deleted it and went back to 150 and this time I was able to read it by pressing my face about 15cm from the screen. Attaching a kneeboard page I use as an example. This is how it comes out when directly converting the html input file into pdf and then using kbb. I tried making font size of the html file bigger, but that completely messed up the formatting. From what I can figure out the main problem is the high resolution of the end-file, 1240x1754. Can that be changed into smaller resolution or is it a limitation of DCS? Smaller resolution - bigger font/pics. It namely crams a lot of information into a high-resolution file that is then compressed into a small window in the game. Thus the biggest issue with readability of html input pages. Excellent news, thank you! :thumbup: :beer:

pnG. ;-) Why PDF in the first place? Why pdf of all the possible formats out there? It's a useless format for such use. Nobody uses it except for manuals and books and editing it is a witch. While on the other hand the GAME ITSELF produces the input text file in HTML... Is there anything more natural than using that exact html file to produce a kneeboard page, especially for planes with a huge amount of keyboard commands, like the A10C, Ka50 or Mi8? That pretty picture of a joystick (or keyboard) would be pretty darned useless or actually impossible to make with that amount of required commands. pdf is sadly an additional unnecessary step, a step that hampers getting the quality from the procedure that could be gotten other ways. Also, don't know whether it's pdf's fault or the builder's, but like I said, when using the html input text file the font is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small to read even with 24" screen and the quality of the font is very bad (lines of the letters and numbers seem... "degraded"). That's nice, but doesn't really help me. Neither the picture, idea or asking TS (it's not 100% someone would know the command + not 100% one is always on TS or even online). I was also hoping the answer I would get would be from the modmaker himself :beer:

Thanks!

This is a great script, but I'm having problems getting the results that I want. I would like the GCI to launch a mission against me when I approach their airfield and then after those planes were killed for new ones to immediately be spawned and so on until I leave the proximity of the airfield (say 30km) or get shot down. This is how the mission looks like in the ME: And these are the settings in the lua: And this is the situation 20-30 minutes into the mission: For some reason the GCI spawns ONLY ONCE, the first time, after that nothing, while the CAPs spawn quite obviously excesively. I'm also using the Medevac script from this site. Any help getting the script to work as I would like is greatly appreciated!

A friend of mine made some nice skins and we wanna try them out in MP mission, but we've hit a brickwall when trying to include the skins in the mission file. Searched for hours, but couldn't find anything on the net on how to do this. How do we go about getting skins included in the file when mission is saved so users would not need to download them separately, but get them together with the file? Thanks!

So, basically, we'll be getting/development time and effort is being spent on an ability that is not much or of no use, a decoration, instead of being spent on something useful/needed/requested like ability to pre-heat fuel/engines/generator in order to start in cold climate (climate that is regular in parts of the developer's native country) or on-board gunners or bomb-sight or any of the number of stuff that was requested and are still not implemented? :( ^I realize that was maybe a bit harsh, but this realization just shocked and upset me, especially with last year's 6-or-more months with no updates on Mi-8 in order to get F-86 and Mig-15 out; coupled with the unbelievably long time it took to get the flight manual out. Personally, I would rather get fewer new features that are systems that are useful than more features that are little more than switches to throw that don't do anything meaningful and are more appropriate for a module that is not still in Beta.

Excellent work with this app, but I do have two comments: 1. why not make it for html files instead of pdf? DCS exports inputlayoutstxt in html afterall... Logic dictates that keyboard/controller layout would be the most common thing people would want to save into their kneeboard. It would also make the kneeboard files easier to make because: a) it would take one step out of the equation (being forced to use the cumbersome pdf converters) b) it would cut down on the number of files we have - reduce clutter on drive c) editing an html file is easier and cleaner than editing a pdf file in order to delete what we don't need/want d) pdf is more used for files that won't be edited (manuals, books, etc.), unlike html and 2. for some reason the text from the inputlayoutstxt comes looking very small and readable only with difficulty in the game. Don't know if that's the problem with the pdf convertion (just one more reason to get rid of that step) or with the builder itself. I honestly, with no exaggerating, have to almost press my nose to my screen and then decypher what is written there (not just due to small font size, but font quality itself seems to degrade significantly in the process), which takes my attention away from flying for way too long and, considering I need a specific info/layout at a critical moments, it presents a danger to flying/mission. Font size larger than 18 seems to work better, 24 is pretty good both in terms of visibility and readability, but sadly not so much info can be put on one page I like this app, but these are two aspects that I think could be better and since you asked for suggestions in your first post... :beer:

Thanks for the link! It will be nice when we get this update, flying at all temps. Sadly, it seems that gunners are still a long way off, if ever. :( Hopefully the heater won't be only in DCS 3 as I've seen posts from 2008 claiming that DCS 2 will be "out soon". Now it's almost Q4 2015 and still waiting... Well, ME says alt is 1609m. Nalchik is 430 - the elevation difference is not that apparent when you're on the map, but that alt in real life already has effect on engines. Quickly jumped into the mission during daytime and it was -45°C. Set dynamic weather to -15 and in that valley it was still almost -30. :doh: But at least the engines started okay. The FARP is located right next to what is a village in ME, with buildings and everything. Strangely, in the game it is normal ground texture with some smudges here and there (no buildings or even trees) with the provision of one large yellow light turning on when it gets dark enough. Didn't know smuges are classified as buildings and villages. O.o Was quite surprised when I first spawned there and no village anywhere - at first thought I chose the wrong aircraft to spawn into. :D EDIT: APU starts okay, even if a bit cold. It's the engines that won't turn over... getting to 17% and then dying.

But don't in IRL pilots have ways of prepping/warming up the engine before trying to start? Otherwise, how do the Mi's in Siberia or Himalaya etc. do any of the work we can see them do... Would be nice if the game would take not just dry manuals into account, but RL facts and experiences as well (for example, Afghanistan showed the engineers that these choppers can take much more punishment and perform much harsher maneuvers than they thought and safely overexceed limits that were written in manuals).

Wasn't that actually a RUSSIAN test pilot showing the capabilities of the chopper for the South American (gov) customers? Thus that display was sanctioned by the government with all permits. They didn't. :( According to description 2 dead and only 1 alive. RIP

Oh, crap, I mistyped, it's 43°14' not 41'!

Of course they will hide such a useful instrument somewhere out of the way. facepalm FARP location is: LAT 43° 41' 12" N LONG 43° 07' 27" E Turbulence is 9 m/s (I had originally set over 40 to make plane take-off and landing a bit challenging, but that sadly made choppers practically unflyable - especially in the mountains). Thanks! :beer:

I have mission where I set dynamic weather on -34'C (it's winter) and night. While the Mi starts up okay in Nalchik it refuses to in a valley between mountains between Nalchik and Kutaisi. The engines RPM reaches to somewhere 17-20% before returning back to 0, even WITH autostart! It simply refuses to start, even with multiple attempts. Does cold-weather start have a different procedure than normal "cold ramp start"? Is it needed to first warm up the engines somehow? If yes, how? Well, except for lighting a fire under the beast's belly, literally, that is. :smilewink: Cause I refuse to believe that the Mi-8, known for operating even in Arctic conditions and Himalaya, is incapable of starting at the balmy -34. PS: is there an outside-temp gauge somewhere in the Mi-8?

Thanks, but got it working by simply instaling the new version of KBB and reinstalling my custom pages since they were still in cache of the app. Looks like DCS updates hate stuff like that (one of the last 2 updates also broke my NVGs for Su-25). I like to also keep the original/default kb pages because, while they DO clutter a lot, they DO contain some useful stuff, especially for the '21; so I don't choose the options to clear kb of all pages. :beer:

Thank you, my friend. :beer:

Hi, this great app worked for me, but I think one of the last few DCS updates broke it. Not only did the pages disappear in my MiG21, but also some weird new ones appeared, plus in other planes I now have only one page from all the stock pages (or the kneeboard is totally broken and the pages won't go forward and backward). Any idea how to fix it? Thanks!

They may do it on a smaller scale and don't build carriers (but submarines), but Iran achieved all that, even though it's been under embargo for the last 36 years. Pretty impressive as well. In business world France and that shipyard got themselves a pretty big black mark with that stunt. What I'm wondering is what do the penalty clauses in the contract specify. Be assured there ARE penalty clauses in there. It will not be just that one billion that Russia paid for those two ships, but there will also be penalties for not holding to contract. It's possible France will have to pay those penalties even if they deliver those ships in condition promised (without software and hardware compromised and full of back-doors built-in).

No probs! There's actually a long line of documentaries made by this excellent studio, about everything possible Russian and Soviet that flew. Just type in youtube "Wings of Russia" and you'll get hits. One of their docu series has 18 parts. Do NOT mistake it for "Wings of the Red Star", that's a crappy western docu that focuses more on demonizing USSR/Russia than talking about technology. :P And even in that regard they're lacking because their knowledge about Soviet equipment is not as good as it could be. Apart from the Wings of Russia signature series that has everything from fighters, bombers, ground-effect vehicles, flying boats, etc. they also have more indepth docus about specific vehicles. For example MiG-25&31 "Best in class", Su-27 "The best fighter in the world" (over 2 hours in all), MiG-29 "Take-off into the future", Tu-160 "White swan", Mi-24 "The warrior"... In quality of the docus they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with teh best docu studios/producers West can put forward. So highly recommended watch. :thumbup:

In development destructible environment and British tanks. The tactical possibilities this will offer makes the mind boggle.

DCS Il-76 MD I would definitely love to fly this big transport legend and do some logistics. Anyone else feel the same? Maybe do a replay of that final action scene in the very interesting movie Kandagar... :pilotfly: Funny thing I noticed is that the 76 model ingame is much more detailed looking than for example the Su-30 and maybe even on par with MiG-29 (aside from outside-into-cockpit that is). Plus, there's some excellent opportunity/motivation for multicrew right there. Would bring back the good times of IL-2 of planes full of buddies taking all the stations. :D