randomTOTEN

The F/A-18C is still in early access, and it's manual isn't complete yet. Other complete modules have sections dedicated to these topics. Such as basic flight, combat employment, and radio communication. If a module can use features like JTAC or tankers it will have a description of that operation, and there are difference for wingmen depending on the module used. Even the ATC will be different.

I imagine all of these activities in the same sortie could provide some interest. I'm mostly interested in the teamwork aspect of the Mi-8 Multicrew. I.E. it would be nice to have human eyes on the right side of the cockpit. Perhaps shared cold start procedures? To have one pilot fly low level while the other visually navigates, references charts, sets ARK frequencies, operates radios/lights/flares? This is a fair concern and might actually be the case. Never even knew this was a thing people wanted.. yeah agreed. This would be another thing I'm looking forward to with Multicrew. You've suggested several AI functions for a hoist/sling system. These tasks could instead be managed by a 2nd player.. who can manually operate the hoist, and give direction to the pilot. Currently single player hoist/sling ops can be a pain with various cameras, special indicators, and robotic AI responding to scripts. I think it would be much more natural to have somebody else in the heli on comms that can actually talk you into position, while you naturally look ahead and hover the helicopter. At least have the option... I don't think we've ever seen that feature anywhere before. It will be a first for the consumer simulation industry. The rest is pretty low priority for me. I also think we have engine icing modeled in the Mi-8, but it's also been a long time since I've experienced it. I recently had it happen in the Ka-50 and it manifested as an uncommanded decrease in SHP/RPM.

Did you try running a repair first?

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=276893 been around for a while

I would at least appreciate having the Cyrillic letters in parenthesis in the English manual.. because I also intend to fly with the Russian cockpit.

Nicely done! Yeah the flaps thing is probably airspeed related. You'll find the throttle lock (we commonly call it the Idle Stop or whatever) is an extremely common thing for DCS Study Level aircraft. Seems to be a common theme for real combat jets all over the world.. they just about all have them. It might have been in the tutorial mission but I would have to check. I personally don't assign any joystick buttons to this control. It's very easy to learn (or even make an educated guess...about the same for all modules). You're only ever going to use it in normal operations while stopped on the ground, or else as a part of inflight emergencies.. where you'll likely only press it once. My personal suggestion is that you have a lot more important things you could bind, but to each their own.

Yes, and you don't actually have to download them if you don't want. They are automatically installed with DCS. A little hard to find though, you have to navigate inside the DCS folder to each module and find a folder named "Doc." If you're using Steam, each aircraft's store page includes a link to the same manual on the side bar. This is also true of DCS World itself. (Handy for quickly downloading onto another device). Welcome!

What aircraft are you flying?

I just loaded the Cold Start Tutorial, and without touching any cockpit switches I see both GEN are in NORM. Check your pit.

Not in the copy I'm reading they're not. They're set to NORM even before the first step of the engine start.. as part of the Interior CHECK. You're never told to touch them after engine start, and they are not mentioned again, even during shutdown. Thus, following NATOPS (and DCS has the switches set to NORM on a cold start), those switches should still be in NORM even after the airplane is completely shut done (I.E. they are checked but never moved).

This is probably because you have the incorrect stab trim...

Got it! "Max FOV Adjustment"

I don't see any Special category for the Mi-8 Game or Sim. Don't see anything related to what you guys are posting about. Would greatly appreciate an exact category and name when you guys get the chance so I can check it out.

What are you talking about? There's no "FOV slider" in the Mi-8 axis bindings. Are you talking about zoom? I'm pretty sure every module has a bindable camera zoom axis.

We really are lucky to have publicly available TACAN information for basically the entire world. I wonder (I don't know) how hard it is to find RSBN information. I tried looking for the transmitter trailer in Khmeimim but the resolution was too low and I couldn't see it (I mostly look for the shadow of the spherical antennae dome). Spotted the VOR installation quite easily though...

:megalol:

I like this idea.

I think what I like about these videos is that Wags obviously is enjoying the experience of flying them. There's this aspect of a developer demonstrating future products, but there's also the sense of a simmer enjoying the modules at the same time.

I don't believe even the Microsoft Flight Simulator series provides default profiles for popular joysticks. I believe it's the same standard as DCS (pitch, roll, POV, but they bind brakes to the trigger). I'll admit I downloaded a user posted profile for my joystick for my first module (it didn't work, but luckily it included a diagram so I could reproduce it using the Controls page). That was for the A-10C. I personally don't think it made a stinking difference if I had used a ready made profile. The binding part takes all of 5 minutes...call it 15 as I was new. It took 6 months to figure out all the A-10 HOTAS controls. What's a new user going to do with a *5 direction* CMS switch if he doesn't even know what CMS stands for, let alone how to use it, or why to use it? Instead of binding that switch when he gets to it, he has to instead look up his control bindings to find where it was again (as he's forgotten about it from never using it). Big difference there... Lets talk about perceptions, and how many of you in fact work to make DCS less accessible to new users: You think a new user can tell the difference here? Mapping controllers is a menial task. You've characterized this task as taking literally HOURS for new users. They may have the perception that they have to spend hours researching and basically programming their computer before they even fly their aircraft. They don't know.. they have to go off what users like you tell them. Compare that characterization to this example: Likely the same events happened here. What does a new user see from this characterization? The user spent "hours" learning and flying (testing) their aircraft, and those hours did include control bindings. Which process do you think sounds more appealing to anyone? Back to default HOTAS bindings. I eventually bought the acclaimed Warthog HOTAS. I plugged it in and it was already set up nicely for the A-10C? Wanna know how I know this? Because the Grim Reapers told me it worked that way? No. The first thing I did was go into the control screen and actually verify every switch and axis was working properly, and correctly bound (I had to fix the POV/Trim binding). Having a profile was a nice touch, but it saved me all of 2 minutes in the control screen. It's a similar problem as OP had. "I want to learn how to play DCS, but I don't want to read it's documentation." Well he probably doesn't want to read the documentation because you all keep telling him how many pages it has instead of trying to explain that it will answer many of his questions. If he'd have read the book he would at least know how the engines are started, and which controls were used to test different systems, and how those tests work. He'd be able to take that knowledge and look at his F-14 start and go "I need this, but I don't need that." But no, the solution is to water this down for people. Not point them to the tools which will help them succeed.

Yes, I'm curious how you spent "hours" mapping HOTAS controls.

I admit I've never really used the mirror in the Mi-8 or L-39.. I'll have to try that some time. I find the MiG-21's mirror to be incredibly useful in a dogfight and checking contrails. I've made use of the Su-25's mirrors (to successfully detect and evade SAMs), and welcome an improved eyeline. I'm not sure what I should be using the F/A-18's mirrors for...

It's happened to me enough that I've found the "easy" solution to this issue. I don't know if it's a window focus issue, but basically the black DCS World screen displays but the main menu loads behind it (including theme music). Behind the "screen," everything is working fine. You can click menus items (but you can't see them or your mouse). So... how do you cleanly exit this situation to try again? The easy and clean way: 1. Tab out, then attempt to quit the simulator using regular windows interactions (I like to press the X that displays when I mouse over minimized DCS icon). 2. You don't see it, but DCS has "displayed" an invisible confirmation window "Are you sure you want to quit?" The one you would normally see if you tried quitting DCS from outside the main menu (or anywhere else). 3. The default key command to confirm the exit is ENTER, when you press that key (even though you can see none of this), the simulator closes using the normal quit command. Less easy way: 1. Move your invisible mouse to the invisible location of the EXIT button and click it. The dirty way: 2. Brute force the program to end using the task manager. This breakthrough has completely knocked the wind out of this bug for me, and now it's nothing more than a slight annoyance.:thumbup:

Well if it's prebriefed IRL lets make it the same in DCS. There should be a way to determine the holding altitudes of the AI so we can predict the proper one to assign to player flights. I would want that more than unrealistic comms (like we have with the tankers and speed?)

Yeah I saw that too. Wags mentioned in his Su-25 Syria video that mirrors for FC3 will be getting a overhaul so hopefully it won't be around for long.

1. The Multiplayer mission designer needs to consider these items when they place an aircraft in their missions. Just like they have the ability to set the communication presets right now... but many don't. Ideally, they would set profiles for the threats they have informed you via the briefing (the one they wrote, and placed the enemy units) that you can expect. We as a community shouldn't assume that incomplete mission construction is "normal," even though it will continue to happen. As a community, we should have the expectation when we open a mission that the aircraft will already have an appropriate route and weapons loaded. We expect to be able at a minimum to press FLY and be able to achieve the mission. Not having something like communications or countermeasures profiles set should be viewed as a mission with no loadout chosen during mission building, and no route has been assigned for the player flight. Those missions might interest certain groups but that should be a conscious decision for the user that wishes to take on all flight planning (and setting a countermeasures release program should be considered a part of flight planning). 2. There are already means to modifying these settings in the aircraft. 3. Yes ideally there should be some means of performing mission planning before entering the aircraft... even in multiplayer. ED have mentioned that they are looking into making the Mission Planner available in Multiplayer. 3a. It would be nice to "import" user saved preferences, but I still think the primary relationship should be between the data card and the mission, not the user's module.