Redglyph

As before, it's not exactly the same problem with win7 but similar. There's a lot of focus switching back and forth when starting DCS, and starting a mission. I think it may partly depend on the DLC protection because it's not the same in free or stock campaigns as in paid campaigns, perhaps you could check if you see a different behaviour too. Also, when starting the editor, some initial mouse clicks are ignored sometimes because the window is losing focus, and it flashes a few times before finally getting normal. It's really a bit erratic. I never saw that before 1.5 (except the older versions that had multiple executables for the menu and flight and which were glitching all over the place when launching a mission, but that's very long ago), it appeared in 1.5 and got worse in 2.0/2.5.

On top of what was said, I'd recommend the Basic, Advanced and Tactical, starting with the Basic to be sure you like this kind of campaign. But read the parts of the manual that are relevant to the next mission, then try the practice mission, and once you are comfortable with it, pass the same campaign mission. If you're willing to spend the time, only do the training missions then do the full campaign as a whole when you feel ready, that will effectively be a full review and repetition helps learning. You can also read the next manual part and check if there's a stock training mission on the same topic, I usually find it easier to get the info from two sources of different nature (book and hands-on), but that depends on your personal character. EDIT: Oh, Red Flag is a very nice experience. It's a bit easier than most of the other campaigns IMHO, so you could try it after the Basic qualification. Piercing Fury and Enemy Within are awesome too, though more intense. I haven't tried Stone Shield.

Start DCS and open the module manager, if that's not already done, this will install the campaign. Then simply select it form the campaign menu and start it.

Link for those who can't see the embedded video above:

Communication menu is not active until a comm has been selected (and even so, it was simply not working in the Instant action harrier landing mission), and using comm1 for ex. does not show any frequency. The mission editor doesn't show it either, so it's hard to guess. I suppose it's a fixed, hard-coded frequency for now. Thanks! :)

I was surprised to find a full section of the NATOPS flight manual on a "Banner towing system" (9.3). It's obviously meant for target practice and not advertising the latest fancy brand of toothpaste, but I'm wondering why they would use an F/A-18 for that, when airspeed is limited to about 220 kt anyway. Perhaps when they're based on a carrier. My favourite part is "Banner Release Failure. If the arresting hook fails to extend, the banner cannot be released. In this case, the following procedure is recommended: 1. Select full afterburner while increasing AOA in an attempt to burn through the cable." Can't wait to try that ;) Here's a short article on the subject: https://www.stripes.com/news/pilots-hone-skills-in-dogfighting-off-coast-of-iwakuni-1.42749

Next missions :) 4. Overview and TACAN-ADF Navigation (probably "Overview *of* TACAN-ADF Navigation") 1) The user can practice navigation, but the goal is not clear, is that free flight? When does it stop? Since setting a course has been taught, perhaps an exercise and a check that the user has the correct approach vector could be implemented instead? 5. Waypoint Navigation 1) Setting the Tacan on the UFC. The user is told to press ON, then 67 ENT. But when I press ON, all information that was displayed before (T/R, RCV, ...) is switched off. Sometimes one has to press two times on the ON button, but the logic of the correct sequence is not entirely clear (as the communications with ATC which seem impossible on manual frequency). Also, the highlight marks make it harder to read the keyboard, they should be removed or made more discreete as discussed before. 2) The user can practice navigation, but the goal is not clear, is that free flight? When does it stop? 6. VFR Airfield Straight-in Landing 1) The user is told to use the barometric altimeter, why not contact tower and ask for QNH, so we know the altitude? It should be a mandatory step. 2) "Press spacebar" at the end of the explanation, then immediately after, no text but "press spacebar to unpause...", could be merged. 3) One word of a text is said, then the voice skips the rest and directly goes on to the next part ("At this point, you should be on-speed with an angle of attack[...]" is cut after the first word by "Being below 250 knots, go ahead[...]"). 4) "Do not flare the aircraft, but rather continue on the glidepath and touch down at no more than 800 feet per minute.", and "Maintain on-speed AoA and fly the aircraft into the runway with a vertical velocity of no more than 750 feet per minute, as displayed over the HUD altitude indication. Do not flare.". Is it 750 or 800? 7. VFR Airfield Overhead Pattern Landing 1) In this mission, radar altitude is used, and not in the previous one. Is there a reason? Shouldn't that be said? 2) The velocity vector can be caged. Honestly, I don't see any difference, what should I be looking for when there is no crosswind? 3) The user is told to set course of 70°, but Kobuleti is 64°. 4) I get the indication to drop to 600 feet and so on, on downwind, but nothing after that, even after landing and stopping (trigger issue?). Note that there is no option to save the track, so I can't provide you with one.

At least it's crash to desktop. What I get is a complete freeze and the only remedy is the power switch (with all the disk checks that implies, let alone data loss).

Glad it helped :) I just dusted off the A-10C and was getting crazy because of all those inconsistent switches, I haven't patched it up since 2.0.

Additionally, the ADF doesn't switch off when the ADF function select switch is set back to off (which also answers Tholozor's question - see below for expected behaviour). 23.2.1.1.4 ADF Function Select Switch. The ADF function select switch has positions labeled 1, 2, and OFF. Placing the switch to the 1 position turns on power to the ADF set and indicates ADF bearing to the station selected on the comm 1 receiver-transmitter. Placing the switch to the 2 position turns on power to the ADF set and indicates ADF bearing to the station selected on the comm 2 receiver-transmitter. With the switch set to OFF, power to the ADF is removed. The ADF bearing symbol is a small circle displayed on the HSI display and indicates the ADF bearing to the station selected. Squelch is deselected when the ADF is selected. After the ADF is turned on, the SQUELCH has to be reselected.

Not sure what this last one had to do with the cockpit lights :confused:

I second that, it's really comforting to have such a good feedback! :)

Same behaviour here, but I don't know the systems well enough yet to tell it's a problem or not. All duplicate mappings removed from joystick trim hat. In cruise flight, moving the hat in any direction does not seem to have any effect, the trim is not moving (visually) on the stick in the cockpit. Using the default assigned keyboard keys does not have any visible effect either. That was tested in training missions 2 and 3, today's update (DCS 2.5.2.17978.385)

DCS 2.5.2.17978.385 Great to already have those missions! :) Nicely done, there are just enough explanations to justify the procedure without overloading the user with details. Just a few remarks, some related to the DCS mission environment. 1. Introduction 1) The next active gate gets bigger, then progressively smaller as the user approaches, which is very confusing because all notion of distance is made impossible. Perhaps a simple change of colour would be much more helpful. 2. Cold Start 1) I've noticed that the training missions were not always registering when the user presses a switch (when he's asked to). It's very noticeable with DDI interaction, also with the trimmer reset for example. The user has to press again until it's registered (and usually one has to cycle back to the mode the mission creator intended to get at). 2) Also, the highlighted brackets that point to which control the user should pay attention to is often masking the labels, which makes it awkward. Example with the INS that we have to set to GND, the user has to guess the position because it's not visible anymore. 3) I noticed that a few switches have to be pulled up with the left mouse button instead of the right. For example the FCS BIT, if it was possible to correctly hold it up with the right button, perhaps the left could still be used to click on the DDI at the same time? Not sure though, perhaps the keyboard shortcut is unavoidable. 4) Perhaps I'd leave the subtitle text somewhat longer or even indefinitely until an action, when the user is expected to press SPACEBAR or wait for something which is not immediate. If he didn't catch what to do, he won't have any support to continue. 5) Why 20% RPM before throttle to IDLE? From the flight manual, it's 15%. 3. Taxi and take-off 1) The user is told not to exceed 75% RPM, but at least 90% is necessary for the aircraft to start moving, and to sustain the roll. 2) No ATC clearance request before taxiing / entering the runway? Approach free before crossing the holding point to the manoeuvring area ;) 3) A phrase is cut at the beginning: "In a Hornet, you always take off [in afterburner. ...]" cut by "As you roll down the runway, ...". 4) I'm not entirely sure it's not my fault, but I noticed before taking off that the flaps were on FULL, not HALF, are they preset that way? I can't check it again right now. 5) I'd give the indications of what to expect next, before the take-off roll, because after that things go pretty fast; the 190 kt limit for the tyres, and 250 kt for the landing gear and flaps seem to be important information.

Ah, that's what you meant, I suppose it's better, yes, or it could say "turn right". But I'm confused now, are you the developer of the campaign, or is this mwd2?

You missed a word, see the screenshot again ;) - "TURN LEFT OVER[...]" Then there are all the other issues in mission 1.

OK, thanks!

DCS 2.5.2.17559.377 Two problems: 1) Landing and taxi lights illuminate the cockpit as if those lights were inside. 2) The main white light knob does not rotate, but its light is switched on/off as before (the problem is only with the knob model not moving in the cockpit).

Same here in 2.5.2.17559.377.

Bug still there in 2.5.2.17559.377 (if the campaign's author still cares, seems not to be around anymore)

Good to know... that's obviously a very nasty bug worth reporting in DCS 2.5. You can edit your %PROFILE%\Saved Games\<DCS>\MissionEditor\logbook.lua file to force the mission as a success, but make a backup of that file first, it's easily broken! EDIT: Found back a link to an explanation on how to change the logbook. Don't do it if you don't feel comfortable with it.

Wow, that's great! So many training missions for this awesome aircraft, plenty of joy! :) I really don't know where you find the time to make all that ;)

Surely not an easy debate, but we have seen this one under other appearances. The bottom line is, can you lower the quality to make it more affordable to anyone? And it's really what this is, do we have to fabricate unlikely scenarios and always stick to Caucasus just because a part of the users don't want to/can't buy a terrain which is more suited to a campaign/aircraft combination? Of course it's understandable that some don't want to buy several terrains given the price, but that is a choice. If the only free terrain is Caucasus, and someone buys a WWII aircraft, does it make sense to force the accompanying training campaign (that we would already be lucky to get free) into that region that has very little to do with the aircraft in the first place? It lowers the credibility of the simulation, in spite of all the efforts to produce a high-fidelity aircraft model. So if the aircraft you want doesn't fit the terrain you already have, perhaps you should expect to have to get another one. Or perhaps a good move would be allowing to select the first, free terrain that comes with DCS once a new user buys the first high-end aircraft (in which case the Caucasus would have to be bought back). In any case, and at the risk of being controversial, I'm against the principle of aligning the quality to the lowest affordable criterion, it has never been a successful strategy. Or we may as well have lower-quality and more affordable modules, as in other and cheaper sims, but that wouldn't be DCS anymore.

There are some info in the DCS doc directory, in the DCS user manual. In summary, you open the mission editor from the DCS main menu, you can then open any mission and edit it (except paying DLC content). Alternatively, you can do a one-time modification with the mission planner (button on the briefing page, just before starting the mission), which also opens the mission editor. You have to find your plane, click on it, and you can then modify the radio channels on the right part of the editor, by selecting the radio tab, see the screenshot. If you open the mission, you will be able to save the modified mission file, be aware it will be replaced on the next DCS update though, so save it under another name or elsewhere. If you use the mission planner instead, the modification won't be saved and you'll have to re-do it again. Or you can use that to quickly check the current frequencies, but if you have already tested them all perhaps it's pointless.

Oh yes, found it! Somehow the rudder pedals have non-existing X & Y axes which are mapped by default to pitch and throttle, who knows why. I had tried in the past to define the "default" setup for any new aircraft but could never achieve it, but I admit I had not tried very hard either. And sure enough, all those fake controls reappear every time on the rudder pedals (had that with Saitek, same with Crosswind). Now the synchronization works perfectly. Thanks again for the tip, that made my day!