JupiterJoe

Game has frozen a couple of times for me in Mission 2, when trying to change waypoints via Jester menu. null

Auto-throttle light (below NWS light) not coming on. AT only engaging for me when the throttle is roughly lined-up with the the rivet. Not when it's between 75 - 90%, as stated in the manual:

Just before the game froze-up again today I noticed the radio tuned to a frequency automatically when I attempted to contact the carrier via the Comms menu. When I asked Jester to tune to the Carrier TACAN the game froze and crashed. Some servers have Easy Comms as a global setting. I have Easy Comms deselected/switched off in my local settings. Perhaps this hints at where the conflict is. I suspect it's only on servers with Easy Comms that the crash occurs. Suggested workaround: If you stick to using the Comms menu on servers with Easy Comms, then the radio will automatically tune to the right frequency and you can avoid using the Jester menu for this purpose.

I commented on this on May 18th. I cannot get auto-throttle to engage at between 75-90%. It usually only works just above idle for me, but not any more than that, making it a very narrow target to hit. It sometimes takes multiple attempts to engage. As per a Grim Reapers video AT used to engage anywhere between idle and about 90%, now it's very tricky:

I concur. APC (Auto-throttle) is still too tricky to engage.

I think the manual says you must be between 75 - 90% power for auto-throttle to engage, but in practice I find it engages more easily just above idle. It certainly doesn't engage as easily as it used to, but perhaps it's been made more realistic. I find it helps if the gear and flaps are fully deployed and probably the DLC too. There is an auto-throttle light beneath the NWS (Nose-wheel steering) caution light, but for some strange reason it only seems to come on for a few seconds, instead of staying illuminated when the system is activated, like the NWS does.

Mission 7 completed

Yeah, that's about where mine froze-up too.

Thank you Sandman. I shall keep an eye on Enfield 3 & 4. If they don't leave the rendezvous point I'll know it isn't worth continuing the mission and restart. I've played the mission four times and have only had it work properly on one occasion. Unfortunately on that occasion I failed to land on the Carrier, d'oh! I appreciate all your efforts and I'm loving your Campaign. EDIT: Just playing through now. Everything's working as it should...and the game froze on approach

Mission 7 doesn't seem to unfold as it should sometimes. Am I not hitting certain trigger points?

I too take a big frame-rate hit. Perhaps it's something DCS could take a look at optimizing. I don't want to have to lower my settings for shadows etc when everything is fine in all other aspects of the game. It's just when looking at the tower in close proximity.

I agree. Refuelling at night is incredibly difficult (unrealistically so), due to a combination of glare from the tanker's lights (using NVG) and the lack of illumination coming from the refuelling probe's light. You would see the whole side of the tanker and wing bathed in red light in real life. Giving you a fighting chance at a sense of depth. The lighting for the F-14 Tomcat has always been an issue, including the fuelling probe light. If you look at the Hornets for example, they have much more impressive lighting at night, including shimmering bloom on the green 'slimes'/formation lights. I doubt it's a coincidence that the Hornet is DCS's own product and gets preferential treatment. I suspect in order to correct the lighting issues Heatblur may require DCS to do something on their end, particularly regarding light blooms. Watching Hornets come into land on the Carrier at night is a thing of beauty and the F-14 should be no less impressive.

DLC = Direct Lift Control Please make sure you have a keyboard/joystick binding to toggle DLC on/off. I have a button on the joystick to activate the system and use the thumbwheel for control. You must press the Nosewheel Steering button (N on the keyboard for me) to activate the ACL system when within about 4 miles of the carrier. Make sure your needles are as closely lined-up as you can, the Auto-pilot takes a while to centralise otherwise. Take a look at The Grim Reapers' tutorials for the F-14. Here is the one relating to ACLS:

A CTD as a result of asking Jester to tune to tanker radio frequency. Happens quite a lot online. Anywhere here's the log file: dcs.20220521-200423.crash

Whilst AT has far more resolution now, it's still difficult to engage unless the throttle is put into a specific position (just above idle). Sometimes taking multiple attempts to engage. Not sure if this is accurate. It used to engage anywhere between idle and about 60%. The auto-throttle light (in yellow, below the NWS light) come on for a few secs when engaging/disengaging. Is this accurate? Seems strange that it wouldn't just remain illuminated when it's engaged. After landing using auto-throttle and ACLS the plane trims full nose down (and sometimes full nose up). Despite auto-pilot being disengaged automatically with weight on wheels, cycling of the AP switch is required to give you back control.

Draconus has suggested I try adjusting my Windows 11 Page File (Virtual Memory). Perhaps the spawning in of a large number of units at once causes my system to have a heart-attack. The freeze on my first attempt at mission 5 occurred as I (without giving spoilers away) approached Waypoint 3. As I say, the second attempt at the mission went okay. I will take a closer look at my system. Thanks for your help Sandman.

Mission 5 just froze-up for me. Here's the log: dcs.log EDIT: Worked okay on second attempt.

Thank you. I really must commend you again on this fantastic Campaign. So dynamic and realistic feeling. I hope you'll make another. I appreciate it's a lot of work.

Good idea Draconus. Thank you. Working on it... ...You're not going to believe this but I managed to complete the mission this time. My suspicion is it's aircraft manoeuvring on the carrier, once they've landed that's causing the freeze. Perhaps getting stuck on the elevator, or on the hangar deck. Just a hunch. I was watching them whilst I was in the holding pattern. Anyway, here is the debrief log. for what it's worth: debrief.log

My fourth attempt at getting through Mission 3: Night Requals. In the holding pattern and waiting for my commencement slot. Just minding my own business, not interacting with anything at this point and the game freezes. No crash report dialogue box comes up. No choice but to end task. Perhaps I'm not triggering some mission event? Last comms I had was to contact the boat on Channel 5 and press space when on the downwind. I'm not having any issues with similar scenarios on MP or SP. Just this Campaign.

Apologies. It's Mission 3: Night Requalification I'm having the issue with. The game locking-up when trying to use Jester comms has happened in the past with multi-player, but has been a lot better lately. The first two times I had the game lock-up in Mission 3 I was attempting to use Jester Comms, but this last time I was just flying over the boat, at about 12000 feet.

Mission 3: Night Requalification Is the game crashing for anyone else? On the way back to the boat towards the end of the mission, I try to tune the radio to approach frequency and the game crashes. Twice in a row this has happened. Is it a mission script problem (mismatch), or a DCS issue? It's not the first time tuning the radio has caused the game to crash for me. Is it because I have SRS open in the background maybe? EDIT: Actually the game just crashed for the third time in a row, without tuning the radio. Just as I passed over the carrier

Not sure if this is related, but when recently flying at night my speed dropped below about 150 knots in ALT HOLD and the tailerons gradually pitched hard nose-up and stayed there. Switching off AP didn't help right away either. I think I had to push the stick hard nose-down, to counteract it and then cycle the AP. At 150 knots the ALT HOLD will struggle to maintain altitude and perhaps this is this some automatic anti-stall type system kicking-in, but pitching hard nose-up doesn't seem like a good solution when the pilot is trying to take manual control. This behaviour feels similar to the off-set taileron problem we had before the last patch, when you had to cycle the AP on the ground as a workaround.

Just wanted to say thank you Sandman for the much appreciated F-14 content and for all the hard work that's gone into it. I love the dialogue you've written (yes, voice acting would be nice, but appreciate how difficult it is to orchestrate). How things progress throughout the Campaign and mission longevity feels realistic and immersive. It's nice to have a lot of activity around the boat and to have marshalling be a thing. The music is awesome, not too intrusive and comes in at great moments. Keep it coming.

How come I can't get the anti-collision beacon to stop flashing? I watched Top Gun again recently and the beacon at the top of the vertical stab is steady most of the time. The flashing/steady switch doesn't seem to do anything. Is this a bug? EDIT: Just found a thread relating to this very issue. Seems HB have made note of it, but it's still not fixed since 2019: Is there a list of current F-14 bugs? Surprises me there's not a continuously updated list of known issues pinned to the top of the Bugs forum, for everyone's reference.