Kippy

It would be great to see some things remastered in the A-10 such as new cockpit textures, and perhaps a revisit or implementation of some systems after gathering experience from F-18 development. Much to my sorrow, I highly doubt we will see any sort of capability changes or implementations of things such as the APKWS, Scorpion HMD, ARC-210, etc. This would require a newer suite A-10 than we currently have, which to my understanding, would ultimately require a new contract with the Air Force. I think the community would be largely behind an upgrade to DCS: A-10C, even if it was sort of an entirely new module. I'd pay the full price of a new module to receive a more modern A-10C. We're missing out on a lot of goodies. I reckon new cockpit textures will probably happen. A later suite, thus capability additions? Sorry, don't think it'll happen.

DCS truly becomes alive though multiplayer experience for me. Single player missions and campaigns can be rewarding and engaging, but all of my best DCS experiences are results of when I was flying with actual people behind the jets I was flying with. I got deep into the virtual organization scene, started an A-10 squadron with the help of some great friends a few months ago, and I haven't once flown single player since. Sitting down, spending an hour with my -2 briefing a mission to the point, going up, flying it, landing, then deconstructing and analyzing the mission to identify lessons learned and view our performance has become such an awesome experience what I hardly do anything other than DCS with my free time now. DCS is full of rewarding experiences... I think it can be compared to existentialism. You simply have to find the right "reward" for you, whether it be engaging campaigns, your favorite aircraft, a new aircraft, or a virtual squadron or organization.

This has been discussed several times before, and I think the consensus has been largely the same. Generally, we all can agree that an A-10C upgrade from our current suite to a more modern Suite ( such as 5,7, or maybe even 8 ) would be fantastic. For many people, myself included, this would be the best news we could ever receive following the F-18 release. I'd be so happy with ED that'd I'd mail them a bottle of their choice. Despite what we want, and despite there being an obvious community interest, an upgrade to a more modern Suite is highly, highly unlikely as it would require another contract with the Air Force and who knows how much work. We could definitely use some new textures, though.

I truly doubt that many of the people here saying "go to FSX, XPlane, and P3D" have actually flown GA in those sims. DCS's flight modeling is so much more powerful and far superior to what can be done by third parties in those sims. Flight modeling here in DCS makes even PMDG's content look like a child's work, and that speaks volumes about DCS's potential and power. I am overjoyed to see a Yak52 in development.... paving the road for a western trainer.

Yep, currently you can carry the AN/ASQ-T50 TCTS on the A-10, F-15C, F-5E, and the AV-8B. It does nothing besides look neat and add weight. Though, as FlyingPhotog says, there is TacView, which is a very flexible and awesome ACMI program that I'm sure will fit your needs. http://www.tacview.net/ So.. for the desired effect, carry the neat pod and install TacView. Note that you don't have to be carrying the pod for TacView to work. As Texac stated, maybe down the line in the future we could get a built in ACMI tools. Maybe we could even get HUD tapes?

New HGU-55/Ps are not cheap. I believe GENTEX sells them new at ≈1000$ for a Fiberglass shell and ≈1100 for a Kevlar shell. Brand new, unissued MBU-14s go for ≈ 800$ as well.

+1 Don't punish those of us who value our reputation with the community. Certainly there must be ways to stop the abuse rather than to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Feel like this is a blow to the guys who actually spend time trying to write out well thought out and helpful posts, seeking to make a good impression with the community. Rep gave us something measurable in that regard. Now, there's no consequence to being a general hooting *obscenity* as long as you follow the rules. I've always thought the DCS community to be full of outstanding individuals, and I personally thought that rep was a good way to reward those individuals. After all, if you were a person who cared about rep, you probably made a conscious effort to make posts that would get you rep. You know, the kind of posts we want to see on these forums. Constructive, helpful, and well thought out.

I've noticed pretty significant FPS problems as well with the TGP and the Mav seeker. Like the rest of my FPS problems in 2.5, it seems to be related to the trees. Looking at open ground or a mountain without trees I'm fine, but as soon as there's lots of trees my FPS starts to suffer.

Glad you guys are enjoying the Pig. Hawg community seems to be slated for a dire need of pilots, given how many people are eyeing up the Tomcat, Hornet, and Harrier...

Firewall and Windows defender is off.

Unable to host a server. My ports (in this case, 5012 and 5013) are forwarded correctly in my router control panel, but when I throw the server up and try to test the port 5012 I'm using I get this. Here's the server log. I'm dumbfounded here, I spent the last few hours with a buddy trying everything under the sun. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I think Viper over at CombatFlite was talking about looking into implementing some TAD overlays like this as he did for the KA-50. He'd be the man to ask on how that's going.

There has been no patch to this bug yet. Flood lighting in the A-10 remains very dim or completely nonfunctional for the time being. Doesn't seem to be a problem on your end.

For me, the biggest thing was my display. I was running on a 17" display at 1280x1024. Couldn't see aircraft unless they were within 5nmi. Switched up to a 32" TV running at 1768x992. I can now regularly spot aircraft in good conditions against the horizon at over 40 miles. Can also follow Mavericks visually all the way to impact, and can actually see incoming SAM and A/A missiles from a good ways before they impact. Only setting that changed when I switched display was resolution. These are my current settings.

You could slew the TDC onto the target and set that as your SPI to engage. Alternatively, you could set the TAD as SOI and slew the TAD cursor to your target, set a markpoint, set the markpoint as your SPI, and engage. There's of course the option of inputting the target cords into the CDU to generate a waypoint, set that as your SPI and engage that way. Plenty of ways to go about it.

Just wanted to post this thread up and see if it was possible for ED to produce a model for the ALQ-184 Long variant. From the images I've seen, they seem to be far more common on A-10s and F-16s these days than the short variant. There is an option in the A-10C DSMS inventory page to load up an ALQ-184 Long. (As well as the ALQ-131 deep/shallow.) Obviously we can't actually psychically load one up because there's only a model for the short variant. Considering that DCS's ECM is incredibly simplified and the only difference the ALQ-184 and the ALQ-131 share in game is aesthetic, I figure adding the ALQ-184 Long variant would be as easy as just creating a model for it and plugging it in. But I have no experience in the field, so take that as a grain of salt.

Huzzah!

Two weekends ago I landed myself in serious trouble. I was through the first hour and fifteen minutes of providing support for a player JTAC and had checked out to grab fuel while -2 and -3 covered my position over the target. I had loitered too long and soon found myself chasing the tanker's TACAN with less than 1000 pounds in the tanks. The panic set in when I realized he was 40 miles out, heading away from me, and I only had about 700 pounds left and was burning through fuel quickly. I went to contact him on the freq I thought he was on, 297.5. No reply. So I tried another common tanker freq for our ops. 312.5. No reply. Pucker factor 7.5. At this point, I was nearly 35 miles to the nearest airport, Tblisi, and on about 600 pounds. I decided to go for the divert. I flew towards Tblisi for around 45 seconds until -2 keyed up on freq and said "Try 251, the default frequency." I did just that, and like a robot saint, the AI responded "Proceed to precontact at nine-thousand." A swift 180 set me on course to the tanker. 500 pounds. TACAN read 30 miles. A few seconds pass. Still 30 miles. Nearly a minute since I turned 180 to him. 28 miles. I realized he was heading away from me. At this point, I pulled the power back to best endurance speed. I waited for the tanker to complete his racetrack, and has he turned back head-on to me, I gunned the throttles to catch him out of despair. Nearly 300 pounds now. I eventually merged head on, and swiftly swung my jet behind the tanker and once again, gunned the power to try and catch him. But he was again moving away from me, and at full power I could hardly gain a closure rate that would satisfy my puckered buttcheeks. I refused to look at the fuel indicator as I was pulling closer. Thankfully, I got up to precontact position and watched the boom come down. I glanced at my fuel indicator. Less than 100 pounds. Pucker factor ∞. I wasted no time cruising up onto the boom. Now, I will swear up and down that my engines were five seconds from fuel starvation when I got plugged in. It was one of the most intense moments I've had in DCS. I really, really did not want to embarrass myself and damage my ego in front of my squadmates and our guest JTAC. I wish I had recorded this. It would totally be a YouTube video if I did. Learning AAR is essential for Hawg pilots! I recalled this story to demonstrate just how rewarding it is. If you're having trouble with AAR - don't become discouraged. AAR is what I personally like to call a "reference maneuver." It relies entirely on your ability to fly the aircraft whilst focused on things outside the cockpit entirely. You don't want to be fixated on your instruments or any of that nonsense when flying attached to the boom. You see, AAR is just an example of these overarching "reference maneuvers." The idea is really simple - how well can you maneuver your plane in relation to anything outside the cockpit? The trick is to hone these skills. The best example of these maneuvers is formation flying. Unless you're a lead, most of your time spent flying formation with another aircraft should consist of you staring at the plane you're flying with, creating the ideal formation sight picture. One of the best ways to hone these skills is just to do a load of formation flying. And not just in nice straight lines, grab a buddy and fly a cross country route will all kinds of turns, climbs, and descents. Another other way is dogfighting. It might not seem connected, but think about it. Dogfighting will teach you the importance of staring out the cockpit at another plane while maneuvering. Being an old WW2 sim guy (Aces High II), I learned the fastest way to lose a dogfight was to lose sight of my opponent. As a result, you have to learn to keep watch on something outside your cockpit without fail. You'll learn to make rolls, climbs, and whatever else while looking and leaning forwards, left, right, backwards, up, and down and in whatever other direction(s). There's also Ground Reference Maneuvers. Many real world pilots are familiar with these... S-turns, Turns-about-a-point, etc etc... These are good training as well. Will get you looking out of the cockpit and learning how to fly the plane "by feel." At least, the best you can for a simulator anyway. To conclude! Sadly, there is no "secret trick" to AAR. It boils down to experience with your aircraft and your ability to maneuver in reference to things outside the pit. There is no substitute for practice! Stick with it, and you'll be topping off in one connect in no time.

Gonna have to make use of the poor man's targeting pod - Maverick sensor. If all else fails, you'll always have your trusty Mk.I eyeball. Welcome back to the Pig!

Now if there is a champion of bias, let it be me. The A-10C in multiplayer really comes alive for me because of it's datalink capabilities. It's just so easy to be lazy! Find a target, send it to -2, kick your feet up and watch somebody else blow it up for you. Jokes aside. The sheer poundage of ordnance a flight of pigs can deliver boggles my mind sometimes. It's tons of fun to get a flight of A-10s low over a target area, running gun passes in trail. Add a player JTAC in a danger close situation on the ground, and you'll have one of the best and most immersive experiences you can get from DCS.

Great to see you guys standing back up.