Dino Might

I'm just going to practice diving in and firing off everything from about 10' AGL so the F-5 has a chance of hitting somewhere in the circle. Then, with judicious stick and parachute usage, I might be able to pull out of it by about 2' AGL. The key is to black out after reaching positive pitch angle. After regaining consciousness, I'll set up for another pass using the rockets, but I'll have to give myself an extra 5' or so clearance for not having the parachute and trying to miss my own frag pattern. It's a foolproof plan...

Sorry, missed the template. Dino Might US Eastern Standard Time F-5

Alright, since there seems to be no love for the F-5, I'll take a reserve slot as one of those. If I hit the target ring with anything but guns, I'll be surprised.

Mine, too, but if they make a new, upgraded base by then, I will probably have to get the whole kit. Then I can set up dual controls and use the sim pit for the L39 as well.

With today's HB post, the stick question is put to bed. I guess I need to look at making a throttle (please oh please be making one of those, too!)

I had an idea. With a good 3D model of the stick, one could 3D print metal infused plastic and then bake off the plastic to get a fairly accurate (not perfect) F14 stick. Already been done with figurines using copper. I wonder how it would work with aluminum... Taking a 3D printing course this week, hope to get some more details on this idea.

I think if I use red LEDs, it will show up pink when backlit, but I can always give it a shot. I'll probably go with the white for now and redo them later if the red looks better.

Some test cuts on painted acrylic today. Will post a pic later tonight. Looks okay, but I'm also going to test clear with paint for a backlit setup. Painting was a quick and dirty job, so its already coming off, but should work well with a decent prep and paint on the finalized panels. Backlighting looks decent on the ivory panel. Will stick with that for now. Challenge will be redesigning panels to accommodate large switch bodies to allow backlighting. You can see in 2nd pic where the letters are partially blocked by the switch bodies.

I'm 100% with the Tornado crowd, but... I thought E-2 would be boring as heck, especially if playing NFO; however, tonight I just spent a couple hours switching back and forth with Zooker playing JTAC for each other on Nevada Blue Flag, and it was really fun talking each other in on targets, lasing and smoking 'em. I have done enough GCI in Blue Flag and it's not bad, but having an E-2 platform and allowing for one person or more to perform all the functions (pilot, then set autopilot orbit and jump back into NFO positions) could be really cool.

I like the current limitations of the Su25 and A10A. It even makes the F5 valuable as a multi-role aircraft. After seeing how effective some guys were with rockets vs shilkas in the red flag rumbles, I like that this scenario rewards skill and knowledge, but is not inaccessible to those of us without those traits (we just make up for them with numbers).

I played Su25 fairly often in the previous iterations. I can usually close a small airfield like Echo Bay in one load of 32x FAB-100s + guns. But it takes quite a long time, and I am pretty helpless to any fighters and the occasional overlooked SAM. Considering the time it takes to close a base this way with one striker, I think one way the bomber system could be changed would be to require the intel gathering aircraft to land back at a friendly airbase to deliver the intel. This would then make it a more thoughtful decision on whether to use a bomber call or a striker. Each has its advantages in this case, and both take some amount of time. This also prevents bomber spam by one recon plane calling in 3 bombers at once over the vegas fields. Can put bombers back to 2 closing an entire airfield, because it will take a little more time to call in two of them.

I think bombers should be toned down. Restrict to two at a time, max, or reduce the targets hit per run (I know they take at least 2-3 to close something right now). When server is unpopulated, one L-39 can wipe out half the map.

Haha, well, I'll still be looking for you to fly a few sorties on blue flag!

You don't have FC3? The Su25 is a lot of fun. Strap on 32x FAB 100s and go to town!

I've been tempted to buy a cheap joystick handle, cannibalize it, and try to make a weapon selector switch, simply because that closeup scene from Top Gun always looked so cool to me. Yeah, I know, ridiculous, but until someone finds a set of old F-14 pilot sticks for reasonable $, or any $ for that matter, that's my only option. Unfortunately, TM probably won't make an F-14 stick offering because there are too many Hornet fanboys and not enough Tomcat fanboys.

Done and done. And if you want a player to pair up with to either pilot or RIO, let me know! I'm probably going to be flying the Tomcat about 90% of the time I am online once it is available.

Nice work blue. It all switched in a day or two when I wasn't around. Last I remember was bombing the heck out of echo bay and capturing it, leaving blue just the Vegas airfields. You guys pushed fast!

I can live with the labels/spotting. I'm not even sure if they are working for me (I have labels turned off in options), and my spotting distance hasn't really changed significantly, in part because of graphics and a projector on a huge wall screen helping me out. The F5s are indeed a bit tougher to spot than the MiGs, but they're close enough that I feel on relatively even footing in either one. Missile-wise, the F-5 has a slight advantage if he defends well against the R-3R. That thing is a dog and can't track worth a darn, but it does force the F-5 to maneuver when head-on and can give the MiG an ever so slight advantage at the merge (not that I know how to use it). I appreciate that a helo flying across monocolor desert should be relatively easy to spot, but at more than 10 miles? That seems a bit much. I checked again last night and could see my own team's helo at closer to 15. That may very well be realistic, because I'm no pilot and am just used to a nice clear vis day giving me 10 miles out to the horizon, and even without much haze having a tough time spotting some ships at that distance. Given the helicopter's relative size, it's a bit jarring to see one from so far out. Suicide take-off and book it straight to intercept helos may end up being the ideal tactic for defense if overwhelmed, because it just takes one pass, and if the attacker's CAP isn't on the ball to get you right as you take off, he may not get you in time.

MiG21s use it a lot, with R3R being the best thing it has to deal with F5s. Also, anything that makes helicopters easier to spot is a big problem. Flying helos is already enough of a PITA. ETA: Was able to.spot Mi8 on the deck from about 13000 ft and about 10 miles. That's a bit much. Granted, he was on the flat, so silhouetted against the monochrome desert, but still. With the extra engine performance hit with the alt and temp, helos got it rough in nevada.

Bug on Creech. Flying Red, trying to cap. Base says closed, but a single Vulcan still up after close message, on the east side of the base. Totally f***ed us twice by shooting down our helo after we thought no more air defenses. Presence of the Vulcan confirmed by JTAC. It was within a minute after the closed message that I got shot up flying over the airstrip with an Mi8.

Woulda coulda shoulda, but I didn't figure both R60s would inflict no damage. And if they're allowed AIM-9Ms, that's even worse. Frankly, if I flew blue and cared more about score, I'd just fly an A-10 all the time for A2A with that loadout. Damage model is questionable and it has the best A2A missiles, as a striker. That's a bit odd, but if that's the way people want it, so it goes. I'm just seeing the inevitable stomps by Blue side over and over, which really makes me feel guilty when I join them to fly my beloved F5.

A10a gets P5s? Earlier shot one with 2 r60s, no damage (maybe the missiles hit each other, but exploded on tail on my screen), and then he shot me down with 3 P5s (Was in mig21, evaded 2)... hanging 4 of those bad boys on there is just a bit much, seeing as the su25 doesn't have the DIRCM and only gets 2 inferior missiles, so the A10a still has a pretty big leg up on the 25, and it makes it hell for me in a mig21 as well when I can't even kill it reliably from a rear aspect 1 mile shoot.

So we won't be saying, "s***, Ice, I can't get a tone!"

I think F/A-18 on Blue, Harrier and F-14A on Red. Leave the F-14B out for the moment. Capabilities are definitely an issue in balancing, but more often than not, it's mostly the number of people active at any given time that makes the bigger difference. 3 MiG-21s and a GCI will be killing 2 F-15s who aren't well coordinated much of the time. I think the goal should be separation of airframes so each side is unique, but split up the new options between the two sides so that we don't have a 40 blue vs 5 red situation. With the new arrivals in the coming year, keeping it East vs. West just doesn't seem reasonable in my mind. Or else, I'm going to be flying exclusively blue for quite some time...

I'm very tempted to get into VR, but the lack of good tools to sync with a home cockpit is preventing me from doing so. I am wondering if DCS will ever see the possibility on the software side to have pilot arms move based on gloves you wear that give full position info of each finger - that way you can watch your in-game pilot avatar flip the switch you are physically flipping in your pit. Once that is feasible, I'm sold. Until then, I want to build my F-14 cockpit and have the immersion of sitting in the pit and actually touching the instruments.