Nutrition

Even though I thought I had tried setting it at 100% previously, maybe I hadn't. I went through the same basic test scenario as seen in the previous .trk, this time with gunner accuracy definitely set to 100%, and the 3 gunners took out 9 out of 10 with one pass, including the lighly armored ones. I tried it again after reading Flagrum's post above about altitude, so I ran abreast those collumns again at an altitude of 30-50 ft, and the AI door gunners hammered 8 out 10. You're right Flagrum, maybe altitude has something to do with it, when the setting was 98%, but you would think even at low alt, if 98% were what we think it is, that they wouldn't do that bad. So it looks like what we have here is stunning accuracy at 100%, just as Shagrat (and Flagrum previously) have reported, and as you would expect for a slider set to the maximum, even at NOE, but horribly bad, or at least very restricted accuracy at anything else. I think it might be possible to conclude that the Skill Slider is broken. Knowing that those AI gunners can fight now is good indeed, but hopefully the developers don't completely abandon this issue, because I still think that something buggy, or else, incomplete. However, thinking that the AI gunners were totally broken beyond repair before, I'm certainly happy now to know that they work, that I can go into missions with them, and at that one setting of 100%, probably as good as a human can do with the mouse. Thanks for your help shagrat and Flagrum.

I wanted to bump this topic once again, because I think it is a pretty serious bug when trying to use this helicopter as part of a "combat simulation", that is, the role of a gunship. The .trk file above demonstrates that the AI gunners can't use their weapons effectively. Of course, you can always jump into their positions and do their job for them, but that is not very realistic. The only effective way to hit anything is to either do that, or else to fire fixed weapons from the pilot's position, which limits the combat capabilities that this helicopter possesses. I don't want them to have God-like accuracy, but there is something very wrong. I'm new to this forum, and I'm operating under the assumption that the Belsimtek developers and beta testers actually read the English language sections?

Call it "panel shake" or "airframe shake", but obviously we are talking about the vibration that is occurring from transverse flow just under etl. :) There was a long discussion about this on the Huey, and it is perhaps understood that the effect was exaggerated to a certain extent to give the pilot better feedback in the absence of other sensations that would occur in real life. In my case, I simply preferred to tone that down just a little bit. And I would like to do the same or similar for the Mi-8. Questions about whether the current level of the vibration effect accurately conveys the sense of vibration that occurs on the real helicopter to a person sitting at a desk, looking at a screen, is actually a very subjective thing. Whether it should be just where it is, or should be more or less, in the eyes of the individual user is probably best kept for a separate discussion. All I'm trying to do is figure out what values can be changed (if any) in the mainpanel_init.lua to be able to configure it to my personal simulation preferences.

Flagrum, I just can't see how this has been fixed. I don't know what it was like before, but in the following .trk this is what "98%" Gunner AI skill looks like for me in version 1.2.16. All of the firing is done by the AI, and I think their accuracy is rotten. A human door gunner or copilot on the flex guns would have taken care of most of those vehicles in one or two passes. UH-1 AI Demo.trk

So no one has any idea? Some people thought this was too much in the Huey and sought to tone it down, so I'm surprised nobody has similar feelings about the Mi-8.

I just set up a quick mission with some unarmored trucks and some lightly armored vehicles. I set gunner accuracy at 97%. I could see the M60 door gunners making lots of hits, they didn't seem so bad. The copilot flex gunner was very mediocre at best. He had very little trouble nailing targets directly ahead, and steady in my own fixed sight (I might as well have just taken them out myself), after a fairly long run in from a steeper angle, but he was not very good at targets off center at all, especially when the attack angle was shallow. He was able to walk the guns up to a target, but not walk them side to side with any skill. And I found that if I had even a slight amount of anti-torque pedal in, he couldn't hit anything.

Has this been reported as a bug? I just now tried out the Ground Attack - Easy instant mission and flew over one of the enemy truck collumns at a fairly slow speed, on Level Autopilot. None of the 3 gunners made a single hit. While manning the flex mounts myself, I got 6 or 7 of the trucks on one pass. So their accuracy isn't just bad, it is downright appalling! I hope they fix it, because having AI crewmembers man the guns effectively while the pilot flies the copter is an essential part.

I am still very much learning the UH1, and I came upon this topic after trying to figure out why my AI gunners are so terribly lousy. Needless to say I was surprised to read that they were too good. Mine can't hit the broad side of a barn. The copilot on the Flex mounts sometimes engages random targets up to 6000 m away, while ignoring closer targets. And he can't hit anything, close or far. Door gunners are equally bad. I thought it might have been that I wasn't flying steady enough but even with Level Autopilot on, it is still no better. The AI gunner accuracy is set at 100%, and the results are still not good. When manning the guns myself, or even when firing from the pilots side with fixed mounts, hitting something with a mini-gun is almost as easy as spraying them with a hose, so something seems very wrong with the AI accuracy. Am I doing something wrong, or was there something changed in recent versions to make them this bad?

Your response was not helpful. I would like a serious answer about what variables can be adjusted to control the amount of vibration from transverse flow, similar to what can be adjusted on the UH-1, as is explained in the link I provided above.

For the UH-1, I found this topic http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=115315, and was able to change the amount of panel shake by editing the Mainpanel_init.lua. I wish to do the same for the Mi-8, but the variable names are not so obviously named as they are for the UH-1. What variables do I need to change to modify this?

+1 on all of this. I'm a newby trying to work my way around the DCS command system, and the Mig 21 scripts in particular, and would greatly benefit from rotary toggles, and Inc/Dec ability on virtually all of the Mig switches. I've been successful with 2 and 3 position switches on my Warthog throttle, but I need to be able to use my Saitek rocker switches more fully on many more of the 3 position Mig switches, (like the radar and radar low alt filters) by being able to increment and decrement, or even to toggle in a rotary fashion.

Thank you for the link, that is what I'm talking about. I'll go and add my " +1 " to that thread.

Thanks for the suggestion to use SC mapper, Platypus. I've done so much scripting already with the lua files, that I think for the time being, I'm going to defer on using that tool, and if possible stick with the LUA. @ Zabuza, those examples you gave are specifically for Warthog-like 2 position switches that stay up, or stay down. I've already got those scripted, thanks to the stickied post at the top of this forum. What I'm talking about is being able to cycle up or down through a 3 position Mig switch with a 2 position rocker switch on a Saitek throttle quadrant (which for all practical purposes is the same as 2 buttons). For example, the Mig Radar has an 'Off', a 'Standby', and an 'On' position. If the switch is 'Off', then I want to be able to push my rocker up (button 1) once and have the Mig radar move to the 'Standby' position. If I push my rocker up again, the Mig radar switch will move to the 'On' position. Then, if I push my rocker down (button 2), then the Mig radar switch will move back down to 'Standby'. And if I push rocker down again, the Radar switch will move back to 'Off'. So, again, I'm looking just for a simple Inc/Dec functionality. Most other DCS craft, such as the Huey, allow inc/dec commands natively, but not the Mig. I've spent a large amount of time reading all of the forum threads I could find on the subject of control mapping, and have still come up empty handed. Surely there must be a way to do this with the LUA scripts?

I've read the various topics on doing custom keyboard and joystick commands, with special attention to making Warthog 3 positions switches. I'm happy to say that I've got that under control, and have been editing my default.lua file accordingly. The Warthog throttle only has so many 3 position switches... However, I have a number of Saitek throttles with up/down rocker switches that I really would like to make work with some of the 3 position switches of the Mig, such as the Low Altitude Filter, or the Radar (off/standby/On). All I would like to do is have the switch go up when I push my rocker up, and for the switch to go down when I push the rocker down, to cycle through the switch positions (like they can be made to do in the Huey). Can someone give me an example of how to create these commands and get it to work this way?