WinterH

If I recall correctly, the first one with a RWR is P, or thereabouts at least. On Marine Cobra side, not exactly sure if T had one, but W very much should. Technically, our UH-1H is somewhat post-Vietnam as far as I know, so it'd be more contemporary with at least Q/S, perhaps even P and on. To be fair, I think even F is early 80s, and it'd be more contemporary with our particular Huey than the G. G is a step too much backwards for me personally. I'd say its only draw is authenticity for Vietnam enthusiasts, and I'm not one. It lacks a couple things that is iconically typified with Cobra: 20mm chin turret, and TOWs. It would also very much miss the mark on being a great counterpart to the Hind. In my opinion, it would really be just Huey but thin... and laso lacking troop transporting capacity I guess I agree that the W seems probably to be the best first variant to do. Hell, perhaps even a couple different Ws could be a thing to do like we'll have with two F-4Es. One from 1986 when it entered service, and one from a later period. I can see such an arrangement making many people happy. W at some point gained nigh capable FLIR optics, a missile approach warning system, and a laser warning receiver in addition to existing RWR. But it's weirdly difficult to find info on Cobras, so far couldn't quite find when did these upgrades happen, seem like mid to late 90s, but some sources write about it in a way that almost sounds like it already had them in 80s, while others recounting Gulf War experiences very much seem like they didn't yet in early 90s when that happened.

AH-1W AH-1F AH-1T AH-1E Are my choices, but I find it hard to decide what is the best option. (Vietnam era ones and 2000s+ ones are boring, I don't want them :P) Imo, ideally at least one flat glass Army and one Marine Cobra would be nice, and I'd prefer them to be between late 70s to early, maybe at most mid 90s. After that, as much as I don't personally care for them, seeing AH-1G or Q/S, as well as if possible an 2000s+ one wouldn't be bad either for folks interested in those. To be fair, Cobra I believe is really another one of those aircraft, like the Phantom, which almost needs to exist in multiple modules/variants in DCS. Here's hoping, we at least get one of these sooner than later

Hence, late one being the MUCH better choice, as it does in fact create value in being a unique and cool Fishbed derivative that's also been fairly popular in less fortunate airforces. For similarity to F-13, really, I'd rather like us get F-13 itself. For me aircraft being interesting for whatever reason will always heavily trump historical relevance, though the definition of interesting is always going to be subjective, perhaps even tenuous at times, I'll admit. I like Fishbeds a lot, and having a super high fidelity rendition of one that got quasi improved pilot ergonomics, a canopy that you can actually see out of, double delta wings with leading edge slats, while still being of the lighter airframe variety of fishbeds, will always be incomparably more desirable to experience than being an exact fit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying "best/most modern version means more interesting", qutie the opposite in fact, I really prefer older stuff, but there are some oddballs like a late J-7 that's just way too interesting to pass on. I'd rather prefer that opportunity not be sacrificed for representing things like Vietnam and Six Day War etc. For that, I'd really rather have us the proper MiG-21F-13 too, perhaps from another studio, or perhaps from the same studio, at another time. Perhaps it doesn't need to be the very latest J-7s, I'd be just happy with earlier "Phython-3 but Chinesium" equipped, double-delta + high lift devices variant with or without single piece canopy. But honestly, why leave the nice canopy out either :P. Yes, it would be an 2000s aircraft, that is in fact a warmed-over 80s-90ish aircraft at best, and I'm just happy with coming up with scenarious where I can get it to somewhat work, plausibility be damned in this particular case I'd have more fun in a warmed over 80s-90s aircraft, than most proper 2000s aircraft anyway

Nah, I'd much, much rather see a late one with single piece windscreen, double delta wings, and the works, as a really different "other end" of the Fishbed legacy, an early "MiG-21 but painted white" would be highly uninteresting and a missed opportunity quite honestly. I'd rather get the actual MiG variants for the earlier birds. If it isn't at least a double delta, might as well not be made as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah these two are my top wanteds from Deka!

I'll see if I can get that working later on for 2.0, should be possible. For a bit I'll be working on a few other scripts and a few missions now that I've brought this one up to a v1.0 state, but I'll get back on this later.

And thus, I was somewhat right in my assumption :)! I really prefer for a single engine Cobra we don't go earlier than F personally. But I guess I'd still say a late 70s one is better than nothing, and indeed better than a 2000s+ one too, just not as much as an F would be for me. For twin engines, I'd very much prefer W, but can still be convinced with a T with TOWs.

I will admit that I defaulted to assuming you've meant a Vietnam era Cobra, and constructed the rest upon that assumption That tends to be your choice most of the time no? After all, our UH-1H is barely more upgraded than those served in Vietnam War afaik, but in case of a Cobra, that distinction is a lot greater between a 70s one and an 80s one, thus my reaction.

Also the wrong choice 80s to early 90s, or bust, honestly. Our Huey is kinda 80s-ish anyway. No other version would add as much to DCS imo, as these would make that particular time period a lot more complete. Said period is currently possibly the best mission building area in DCS. Besides imo these variants are the most interesting in-between mix of capabilities and old-schoolness. We have no blue attack helo to fill up that niche, and Cobra is THE classic fit, both in US and international service. Also it can serve as an OPFOR bird for some Middle East scenarios as Iran had some, and even built their own unlicensed versions that they still use to this day. Either F, or two-blade, pre-2000s W is the way to go. Otherwise, I'll say again, it's just Apache but gray, adds not much more, nay, pretty much nothing more than what Apache achieves in DCS right now. If anything, Apache is used by a lot more armed forces than a late AH-1W or even worse a Z. Want MARINES representation? Well, said W would do it just fine, and would fit with some of the more intense scenarios they have fought in. For example, we may not have the exact right map, but it would fit just fine for a pretend Desert Shield/Desert Storm scenario. It would also fit amazingly well for late Cold War gone hot scenarios. With the ability to choose either TOWs or Hellfires, it can fit into a wide range of periods, representing other Cobras with some similarity through 70s-80s, or represent itself with hellfires from 80s-90s, all the way up to 2000s honestly. Besides, it is supposed to have more exotic options like Zunis, Sidewinders, and Sidearms afaik. F would be more specific in being more of an 80s, at most 90s bird, and no Zunis, Sidewinders etc. But I'd still very much welcome it. It was also, apparently more power limited, so didn't like hovering too much, almost a'la Hind. Latest variant had night capability though. Also, this one would fit more options for international Cobra use, a lot more in fact. Either would be a perfect fit for late Cold War and early post-Cold War periods, and even to a degree early GWOT, at least with W. They would also be a nice mostly analogue blue attack helicopter, and a direct counterpart to Mi-24P. Going back to Vietnam era or forward into 2000s+ would be such a missed opportunity, limiting mission/scenario possibilities greatly in either direction, and having no direct contemporary counterpart. Finally, quite honestly, an early Cobra would be "Huey but thin", and a late one would be "Apache but on skids, and painted gray", because they would not represent a unique blend in capabilities and features compared to those.

Now that we are likely getting a Su-17M4 or Su-22M4 from one dev or another, my next greatest unannounced aircraft is MiG-27K indeed. Very much so at that! Funky optical+laser Soviet targeting system in a full fidelity fixed wing red bird, which would still be a different thing from what Fitter brings on the table. Besides... sorry A-10 but... Nuffin' quite sez WAAAAAAAGGGHHH like A LOT OF DAKKA in a plane that actually goes FASTAH!

F-4E and A-6E are two of the most exciting things for me to happen in DCS, but at least the latter is some wayyyys off yet, considering there's the Phantom, Eurofigther, and potentially boaty-Phantoms to happen before it. Hopefully Flying Iron's A-7E will happen in the meantime to tide us over as the oldie attack plane, but F-E is mostly a striker too anyway. As for the variant, it was discussed a lot during the original A-6 reveal in ED video but, personally I'd be super happy with TRAM if that proves possible, but while a pure early pre-TRAM A-6E would be bitter sweet, I'd still be happy with that. If WCSI or SWIP are too much to get proper info on, than so be it. It'd be cool to have them too perhaps, but I'm more into pre-SWIP period for DCS myself to be fair.

Those are upgraded variants, afaik Israeli Kurnass, and Turkish 2020-Terminator, maybe South Koreans too not sure. But not the variants we are getting. Ours should have: - AGM-65s, perhaps up to AGM-65D even. - All sorts of iron bombs up to Mk84s. Multiple modes of delivery with a weird funky old-school bombing computer in the first variant, and a more digital-computer driven and CCIP capable one in the DMAS variant. - Cluster bombs, but don't remember if it's Rockeyes only or are there other variants too. - Rockets - AGM-45 Shrike (super-craptacular) anti-radar missiles - GBU-8 TV guided bombs in the first variant, and much more improved GBU-15 TV guided bomb with man-in-loop capabilities with a pod in the DMAS variant - GBU-12 and GBU-10 LGBs - Probably M61 gunpods too but not entirely sure - Pave Spike day time only targeting pod for first variant, and Pave Tack FLIR capable gigantic targeting pod for DMAS variant. Pave Spike is manual tracking only, no target locking/tracking, but Pave Tack does have auto tracking too afaik (could be wrong not fully sure).

Ah, those are only used by assignSetSquadTypeToVehicle() function, but they aren't the definitions themselves, if you search for these in the script though, it will get you to lines where you can find names of actual definitions, for example: --vehicles with 11 passenger capacity if vehichleType == 'M-113' or vehichleType == 'MTLB' then if squadType == 'rifleWest' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,usaSquadM113) elseif squadType == 'rifleRu' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,russianSquadMTLB) elseif squadType == 'rifleIns' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,insRifleSquadMTLB) elseif squadType == 'manpadsWest' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,usaSquadManpadsM113) elseif squadType == 'manpadsRu' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,russianSquadManpadsMTLB) elseif squadType == 'manpadsIns' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,insSquadManpadsMTLB) end else --else use 7 man squads for now if squadType == 'rifleWest' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,usaSquadBradleyMarderWarrior) elseif squadType == 'rifleRu' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,russianRifleSquadBTR_BMP2_BMP3) elseif squadType == 'rifleIns' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,insRifleSquadBTR_BMP2) elseif squadType == 'manpadsWest' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,usaSquadManpadsBradleyMarder) elseif squadType == 'manpadsRu' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,russianModernSquadBTR_BMP2_BMP3) elseif squadType == 'manpadsIns' then initializeTransport(hostVehicle,insSquadManpadsBTR_BMP2) end end for "rifleWest", you need to find usaSquadM113 and usaSquadBradleyMarderWarrior, and change some of the riflemen in those into a RPG soldier. I'll add an option soon then to turn at least one member per squad into a RPG soldier to provide an easy quick fix for this. Squad definition normally look like this: usaSquadBradleyMarderWarrior = { "Soldier M4", "Soldier M4", "Soldier M249", "Soldier M4", "Soldier M4", "Soldier M249", "Soldier M4" } If you change content between quotes for of any of the lines with "Soldier RPG" it will replace that squad member with a RPG-toting one.

Not yet, well not easily without editing the script anyway. But I am planning to move pretty much all the currently hardcoded parts of squads etc to a more customizable way and also create a windows app with a UI so you can set options, customize&configure the way things are, add your own vehicle types to script, add your custom squads etc. For now though, if you want to edit the script and change squads yourself, current default squads are all between lines 57 to 690, between "--START squads" and "--END squads" comment lines. Replace one of, for example "Infantry AK" lines with "Paratrooper RPG-16" for a VDV dude with RPG-7, or "Soldier RPG" for Mr. Beardy-Insurgent-Dude with RPG.

I am thinking of trying if I can assign groups custom formations, because that is something I will need for other features in the script too, but didn't come around to trying that yet, I assume you may have tried and it isn't possible then?

I don't, sadly they spawn close because of the initial positions assigned in the script, but once they start moving (which happens immediately after they disembark to get them away from the vehicle) they'll adopt the usual spacing.

Relatively more modern Russian aircraft, say, from 2000+, seem to be a no-go, especially from ED themselves. Blackshark 3 being an exception, but even that one seemed to let go of a few things originally planned to be included. Only hope for a modern/modernish red-bird may be from Deka if the announce a new module, it perhaps may or may not be a later Russian or Chinese bird. Cold War is where it's at if we want/hope a better decorated garden to play blue vs red inside In that regard, we have a MiG-23MLA coming later from Razbam, a new studio trying to be another licensed 3rd party, Red Star Simulations, is working on a MiG-17F, and it seems we'll get a Su-17M4 or Su-22M4 from either OctopusG or Magnitude 3 at some point in future. We already have our MiG-21Bis and Mi-24P to fit such a period too. With upcoming Mirage III, F-4E, existing Mirage F1, F-5E, Huey, Mi-8, it's getting nicer and nicer. We just need some nice AH-1F or AH-1W from 80s-at most 90s ish period to round it up nicely in addition to some more red bird from the period imo. But anything red to match with 2000s+ Hornet, Viper, Strike Eagle, Typhoon, Apache Longbow etc doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon. There is JF-17 of course, yes, but while a very nice module, and a fun aircraft, it isn't necessarily quite a proper red-bird.

Demo mission in github has a very old version of the script enabled in it which I've just realized now that you mention it :)) But to enable it in a mission is done exactly the same way, so looking at triggers in it should be enough to see how to use it :). Just creating a trigger to load first MIST, then DCS-Dismounts with a "DO SCRIPT FILE" action for each, and then just typing "mechanizeAll()" in a following "DO SCRIPT" action should be enough to enable it.

One last post here to link to new thread for my script: Hope y'all will like it! We've gone v1.0!

I was working on this script on and off since about april this year, and now it's at a stage where I can consider it "v1.0" and open up a thread for it: https://github.com/erdenizsanlav/Dcs-Dismounts/releases/tag/v1.0 The script is easy to add into the missions, and it gives every APC/IFV and most trucks some infantry squads that fits with its troop transport capacity, as well as to some degree the country it belongs to. Some squads may have just riflemen, others maybe a an RPG or two, yet other may have some nasty surprises in the shape of Igla or Stinger MANPADS! There are even occasional mortar squads as a possibility! This gives an element of randomness where each time you run a mission, a convoy may or may not have dangerous defenses in it, and each time nasties may be coming out of a different vehicle in the group. When a vehicle that has a squad assigned stops, it will drop its squad. When the vehicles gets back on the move past a certain speed, the squad will be picked back up. Any members of the squad killed in the meantime will remain dead of course, and won't spawn again when the vehicle stops and deploys its squad the next time. You can issue basic "move here" or "shoot here" commands to dismounted squads through use of F10 map markers. Another feature is, you can have weapon site transports if you have a group with suitable vehicles and assign them so. Currently these can be Rapier SAM site for UK trucks, Soviet AAA site with a Fire Can radar for Russian/Soviet truck types, 105mm LeFH 18 howitzer site from WWII German trucks and halftracks, and an American WWII AAA site with 37mm and quad .50 cals from US WWII trucks&halftracks. The way these work is, when the assigned group makes it to their final waypoint and stops, each vehicle that has a component of the weapon site assigned to it by the script will drop a few "worker/crew" infantry from those vehicles, and a timer of 5 minutes starts. If at the end of that timer, transporting vehicle and worker crew are still alive, whatever was in that vehicle (could be a radar, an AA gun, a Rapier SAM launcher etc) will be dropped. These convoys can make a nice "destroy/protect before it gets to its destination and deploy its cargo" kind of mission objective/side objective. You can either have the script automatically add squads to all the supported vehicles in the mission's start, only have squads added to certain vehicles you want, or have them added to all the supported vehicles except the ones you want it to ignore etc. Currently almost all the APCs and IFVs as well as most of the trucks in core DCS is supported, with a few random squad options fitting their troop capacities each. If, optionally enabled, WWII Assets Pack and popular community mod FrenchPack vehicles are also supported. For any unsupported vehicle type (could be a mod, or really any vehicle you want to add dismounts for), there are two different ways to get them to have some troops too. I plan to add a lot more features as time goes, and you can see them listed in the "issues" section of the github page in the link above. You can use that same "issues" section to request features and report bugs too. The script uses MIST, and aside from that, is pretty much plug&play into any mission with minimal work to get it working in it. My thx to devs of MIST, and also MBot, whose earlier script when I found out about after deciding to build this one helped with mine both as an inspiration, and even a few flat-out nicked lines of code Hope this helps adding some dynamism and extra challenge/targets into missions of other ground-pounding lovers in the community!

Eh... all the Phantoms and A-6 first, pretty please, and if it was up to me a Draken too.

At some point, it is inevitable. We now have a lot of modules, and even a few free mods are approaching/almost are at module level. Each of them being a commitment to get decent in. But I have no problem with that, because I am interested in aircraft, and I don't mind that some of my purchases ended up being more money than I got hours out of. Because I like having the option/ability to just load them up and dabble with them a bit whenever I want. Personally, it tends to be more modern aircraft that end up gathering layers of dust the most for me, as well as the MiG-19.

Voted for F-111, Su-24, Tu-22M, Mirage IV, but my eyes also searched for, in vain, the B-58 :). Tho the latter is mostly for curiosity admittedly.

I don't have direct link, but I do remember Aerges saying a few times that their intended order is exactly that indeed, CE-EE-BE-M

From the top of my head, and for us average DCS pilots: Not entirely sure, but I think the F-15E we're getting may not have JHMCS and GPS navigation compared to Hornet we have. Strike Eagle also won't have HARM. On the flip side, it's radar is much, much better in building a picture of the ground, and can be used to make precise fixes and finding/identifying/engaging ground targets even in no visibility conditions a lot better than Hornet's radar. Also, it will have terrain following radar for low altitude penetration in bad weather and night. Strike Eagle will also be able to haul around a lot bigger load outs, and will have a lot better endurance. Finally, Strike Eagle's party trick for DCS would be two seater capabilities. Front and back seats will be able to use different sensors and do different things at the same time to build SA/do targeting more efficiently, theoretically.