SparxOne

One thing i have to add here that irritated me was the initial Sniper XR targetting pod that was initially written on that list too, than months later, if not a year after release, it was edited and removed because "We don't have documents for it" (But never told to us until very recently), why put it on the list in the first place than if you never even did the research to be sure you'd be able to model it down the line ? (I know, there is a thread about it on the forum already, but this was a good time to remind people about what i consider shady methods/moves)

Yes, and i think you might have forgotten the totally valid operational F18 loadout also known as the "One man Navy" where they go out with 10 Amrams and 2 9Xs. Clearly something you see around the world as totally operationnally valid !

I'm feeling the exact same thing on my end. I've tried many different settings, curves, trimmer option, mix of different settings + different curves, AP channels on and off, nothing does it. The only way i was able to feel stable and precise at takeoff, hover and low speed was by enabling the control helper (Noob option) in the special settings tab. That was literally the greatest thing, but the big downpart to using that is how it makes the chopper feel kinda arcadish in its flight model and restrains you from using full deflections in the axis', you're for example unable to do a full roll in any ways. In a way i was happy gaining on the smoothness and stability at takeoff, hover and low speed, but didn't really like downgrade of the full axis usage, inability to do hard manoeuvers basically. So yeah, great to hear that some people with extreme precision hardware are having no issue what so ever, but it seems that a lot of people not owning those expensive dedicated hardware are having big difficulties getting the chopper to fly precise and stable at those 3 different flight stages. I'm still hoping for a way to get it improved, after all the tweaking i've done, i don't see how else i could fix it all. When i have the motivation i'll try and do a complete overview of my options, tracks showing the flights etc. But until then, hopefully something is found/changed that can help all the ones in the same situation.

Fair enough, but i don't see the reason for removing the post if the thread was locked anyways after my post, it's like as if i didn't have the right to expose my feelings of certain precise aspects (I was also replying to some other user), kind of a shame after all to not be allowed that. Don't take it the wrong way, but deleting posts like mine kinda feels like a way of censorship because i exposed some reality. I know i'm repeating myself here, but if it wasn't the case, the post would have been left and thread simply locked. I have nothing against you precisely, but forgiving is one thing, loosing faith and trust is another, and towards ED as a whole, i've taken a big hit on both unfortunately. Getting posts deleted doesn't help.

Hey @NineLine, why would you delete my post in the process of locking that thread in the F-16 section (Worth it on sale??? or wait another 6 months) ? Was it too harsh for ED ?

Don't call me daft because you're feeling too entitled to get your absolute wanted answer here on the forums when the answer would literally be the same as the one i got on steam that i passed forward on here (Which by the way was on the official DCS newsletter section of steam) ! Jojojung even proved it by sending a PM and receiving the same damned answer here on the Official Forum ! As you're saying it yourself and seem to strangely understand it for that matter, this thread has 50+ answers and none from an ED employee ! They don't seem to want to respond directly here while havin given the answer twice already. What more do you need ? Nick to call you personnaly or something ? Just like Furiz, unless your personnal agenda isn't filled, you'll be having a fit until you get your candy. Whether they stealthily removed it or don't want to talk about it, matter won't change, Bignewy decided to give an answer via steam and via a PM here on the Official Forum, that seems to be all you'll get until they decide to change, which for some reason won't seem to happen soon since they've left this thread going for 50+ responses without their official response. Now please go ahead and unleash yourself on me, have the last words on this matter, i can't be f***ed to respond anymore.

And from my experience you seem to be a very hard defender of the "nerf the viper" team, damn what is it that makes you so obsessed with it ? The viper is no where near its final stages, we get it that you absolutely want it nerfed as fast as possible, get over it, it's probably gonna happen when they actually wanna start dealing with such things, they probably have other things in mind to work on first. When ever i see you talking about the viper, it's about how much it overperforms and should be nerfed, go and take a break from it and fly the 18, the great Hornet that for some reason you don't have the same will to bash in terms of overperformance, cos like people say, abusing the paddle on it and flying that thing all the way to 9G constantly regardless of what should happen in reality because well, this is DCS, who cares, strangely you don't seem so obsessed on that side of the problem... The 18 that also doesn't model overstress with stores or airframe, the 18 that's almost unbeatable as a dogfighter when it doesn't even hold that title IRL, the 18 that has reached its final stage of development but all those things get brushed under the carpet... Damn, if only you were so hard on that plane i could understand, as it's reached its final stage of dev and should have these issues sorted ! But no, here you are, repeating it day after day how much the viper who's still very hard in its dev process should not be allowed to overperform compared to others !

Literally the same thing he answered on steam... But feeling better about it now that somebody else PMed him on the forum and comes back with the same answer...

Hahaha, nice read, thanks bud

Going for guns on any SPAA unit or AAA unit is pretty much suicide if you ask me, unless you're 200% sure of wrecking the target in the very few split seconds exposing yourself, with the omniscient situational awareness of the ground AI, by the time you pop over your cover and start aligning your sight, he's most definitely already looking at you preparing for your pop up, it will very much be a matter of 2-3 seconds max before bullets start going through your windshield. Even if you were to shoot guns from long range, there is no way you are outranging him with your guns, so either way, if you can shoot him, he can too, and i'm willing to bet 3/4 of the time he'll have landed a critical burst by the time you line him up and actually get a hit. I've thought about the Ataka, but unless Petro gets better at even longer ranges than what he is right now, than i'm still waiting to see how that will play out

I've explained my issue in another thread about the difficulty i'm experiencing trying to shoot ATGMs at AAAs with great range (Gepard for example) or attacking any type of armored vehicle that will instantly shoot at you with laser precise aim the moment you get inside their maximum attack range. The issue is ridiculous as you become very vulnerable throughout these processes. This is the range of the Gepard + Detecting range, on the calculator is the range of the Gepard in meters of coarse, to compare that to the max range of the Shturm missiles So we have the Shturm with its max range of 5500 meters, that gives us 1500 meters to work with when doing a run on a Gepard if you want to remain totally safe of coarse. You have to eyeball and acquire target before entering that 1500 meters zone (Good luck doing that without unit markers or preplanned intel of the exact location) than hope Petro actually hits the target before entering the 4000 meters radius or it's back to square one for a run and one less missile to put to good use (If you survived entering that engagement ring). If you take into account the speed at which you would usually fly, which i'd say is probably around 250Km/h for a missile run, that gives you 21.5 seconds to use before entering the Gepards shooting range -> (Shooting missile and guiding it to target, considering Petro had properly acquired target + you being stable enough the moment you enter that 1500m zone). Calculation i've made to find the 21.5 seconds : 250km/h = 250.000m/h -> 250.000/60 = 4166m/minutes -> 4166/60 = 69.5m/seconds -> 1500meters/69.5 = 21.5 seconds. That was a scenario in its best case, most of the time you have to take into account tree lines blocking line of sight from certains angles (therefore forced to come from a certain angle otherwise missile hits trees), height you shouldn't go over as to stay safe from other longer range SAM threats, portions of the circle around that target you can't use because overlaping with other anti air engagement zones, the lack of any precise distance measuring tool to allow you or Petro to shoot the second you enter the 1500m mark, the fact that we are humans and simply have to remove probably 3-4 seconds to those 21.5 because of human brain lag or whatever you wanna call it haha, etc. You're basically left with no more than 20 seconds at best inside that safe 1500 meters zone. As much as Petro is really cool to use, his aim i would guess from my own experience is probably a good 50% hit rate at long shooting ranges, which isn't much i feel like. I'm not gonna go too deep concerning the rocket attack runs on Tanks, APCs, IFVs, point is that they will almost always start engaging you with MGs/HMGs before you're even in range for the rocket trigger point while trying to keep the spread of those rockets to a minimum otherwise pretty much useless. Therefore, if once again you wanna keep yourself entirely safe, you'd have to engage them with ATGMs and have a greater margin this time luckily. But therefore being a No Go for the rockets. So basically this is my little Hind experience so far when it comes to using the Shturm. To me it all boils down to the fact that i personnaly feel the Hind is close to a turkey shoot when engaging AAAs or anything with decent anti-air capability. There is a lot of very defensive flying to do if you wanna go against those ! And i'd much rather use something like a Ka-50 or future Apache who have the hover and shoot capacity, allowing for much ease on all of the above. Doing rocket runs on defensless convoys, buildings, troops or simply anything without proper anti-air capability ? Yeah Hind is super fun and cool to use for sure !

That funny as hell, thanks for the laugh

Well we all got the answer, and that answer is the one Bignewy posted on steam. Why look further than that ? Edit : Would you be satisfied if Bignewy came here in this thread and adressed it to your personnaly while saying the exact same thing he wrote on steam ?

Guys, not that i'm wanna put down your wish to have the Sniper Pod, but what more do you need as an answer from ED than the one Bignewy gave on steam ? What difference would it make if it came from anyone else from ED ? Bignewy is a staff from ED, i would assume he knows what he's talking about concerning such things and wouldn't give that kind of an answer if it wasn't official all the way up whithin ED. I was probably one of the first to be super hyped the very first time i saw it in the coming features for the Viper ---> (Which was announced black on white in the Dev roadmap of the viper when first announced, than later edited the post and replaced the Sniper Pod or removed it simply). I still hope things can change, but i don't wanna get my hopes up following what Bignewy answered me on Steam. At the end of the day the Viper is still a long way from completion so yeah...

A few points in this thread that make me want to talk about my experience with the Hind so far. Before the Hind was released, it wasn't unusual to see threads or different people talking about how the Hind would not sit well inside the DCS ecosystem that is (The typical scenarios you come across when playing MP, which is what i do 90% of the time). People were arguing about how hard or impossible it would be for the Hind to be usefull or effective in those MP scenarios, that simply put. Of coarse you had people from both sides of the opinion, the ones on the positive side were very right by saying that no one is forcing us to fly the Hind in a very contested air quake server only to receive a Fox-3 minutes following takeoff, or flying the Hind in a dense SAM/AAA environment trying to squeeze between all those AA threats. I'm also no historian but i'm fairly certain the Hind was never meant to fly in those types of environments, which of coarse meant a pretty high chance of being taken out. I think the Hind was like many have said here already a chopper meant to escort troop transports, convoys or serve as a deterant to any ground attacks not having proper AA defences, (Plus all the other tasks i can't think of right now that simply doesn't involve flying against SAM/Anti-Air threats). Slowly getting to what i'll try and explain from my experience so far... The other part of the opinion was of coarse the more pessimist ones saying that the Hind was gonna have a hard time surviving the typical DCS ecosystem because of all the things mentionned above (Fast movers, SAMs, AAA, laser aiming ground unis etc etc), which is what you'll come across with the vast majority of populated MP servers. This is where i'll start discussing what i've felt so far flying this Hind As i don't fly within any virtual squadron or anything consisting of a group of dedicated players organised towards specific flying sessions or created scenarios, i am simply left with MP servers when i wanna fly around other human players. And this is where you slowly understand the limitations of the Hind in those populated MP servers. The longest session i've had so far was on the Caucasus 4YA training server, fun scenario with a lot of human players all fighting against the AI. It was a good training ground for me to try and get into using the armament of the Hind. During those hours i spend flying there, i don't think i ever got downed by Air Threads more than once, so fast movers clearly wasn't a problem. The biggest problem i came across almost constantly while doing ATGM runs of ennemy airfields or any sort of defended areas was the AAAs... I got shot down by them more than i can count of. The AAA in DCS is really insane, the range they have and accuracy is something you have to be very careful of, especially the Gepards, their range is almost the same as the range of your ATGMs, therefore forcing you to find the best line of attack to use your ATGM to its maximum range so to not get into that AAA range. Since there's almost always a line of trees or buildings blocking one or the other possible attack run, you're typically left with few options and therefore almost always in their firing range when doing that ATGM run. Of coarse those ATGMs arn't fire and forget, so the moment you go into an attack run, you're forced to fly in a straight line to that Gepard already shooting at you until Petro either hits it or misses and therefore back to square one hoping for the best to survive the next attack run. The Hind cannot be used like the Ka-50 going into a hover miles away and picking targets of one by one while staying out of the AAAs range, so you are forced to fly towards them hoping Petro gets them before they do. Didn't think it was useful to mention it but i'll do it anyways, no need to try and do rocket runs on those AAAs, at best you'll die both, so pretty pointless to do. If by great skill you actually manage taking out all AAAs and SAMs in that AO, you feel confident going in for rockets runs now, but damn, here comes the second part of how crazy the ground vehicles become ! APCs, Tanks and IFVs will engage you long before you get into a proper firing solution with your rockets, yeah because those .50 cals or whatever serves them right as an MG or HMG they will put to good use with lazer precise aiming straight into your cockpit ! Once again, i cannot recal the amount of times i've been taken out that way... I was unable to take out a convoy of 4-5 Tanks/APCs because of how easy they had it to take me down with their MG/HMGs... All in all, i know there is probably better ways to do what i was doing, i do not consider my tactics to be the best but still feel like i did not have the right chopper for the right task, Hind against anything consisting of AAA defence, or anything that has laser aim against air threats, not good, the Ka-50 on the other hand seems to be the best tool as of right now for these kind of tasks (Until the Apache is out, will probably do just as good as the Ka-50). So yeah, my conclusion so far would be to say that the Hind is a great chopper to fly in many different tasks, from the moment there isn't good anti-air defences and or laser aim ground units. This is where it felt short of its capability to survive. Remember that this is my own experience so far, not trying to dimiss the Hind in any way, i can already see certains replies coming. Other people are probably doing much better than me or using much better tactics than how i used it, but here was my feelings so far. Cheers if you read all the way

Via Steam recently, that is the most up to date official answer i could get

Hey, you've got my interest here knowing you also fly with the MS FFB2, how is your feeling flying the Hind with it especially at takeoff, slow speed, landing and the hardest, hovering ? Day one was really hard for me, made a long post about my experience flying the hind and quoted it as being unflyable because of how sensitive it was ! I've applied a few things people told me and i'm feeling much better about it now with the modifications i've done but still experience difficulty taking off stable, hovering stable and landing stable, the chopper really feels wayyy too sensitive, every tiny input constantly sways the chopper and therefore induces drift that i'm constantly having to readjust for which ends up in more sway in another direction and simply goes into a repeating process. I've seen videos of people managing an almost perfect hover and very stable lift off/landing like as if the chopper had some hover autopilot ON (But those people clearly were not using the hover autopilot). And talking about the hover autopilot, i have tried using it, i can say it pretty much is useless, i was able to keep the chopper more stable myself even with the constant sways than what the autopilot did. So i'm still on the hunt for things i could do/use to make my takeoffs, hovers and landing as stable as possible (Would it even be possible to reach a point where i can let go off the stick and have my chopper remain almost on the spot ?).

Hey thanks a lot for the awesome reply ! Glad you detailed it that way, makes it much more comprehensive for me You seem to know well concerning the FFB, are you using that MS FFB 2 too ? I do not use rudder pedals by the way, am using the simple twist axis on my joystick which always worked well for me. I'll apply your points and see for myself if it makes it somehow bareable ! Thanks a lot for the help ! Hey there, thanks also for the reply ! As said above, i do not use rudder pedals but instead my twist axis on my joystick. So i will therefore check the option you mention ! Thanks a lot for the help too

So yeah just to give my personnal feedback too. Pretty much unflyable to me. This is my first chopper in DCS so it's hard for me to make a comparison unfortunately. Am flying it with a Microsoft sidewinder force feedback 2 joystick (I have been using that joystick for a decade minimum and have managed flying pretty much anything in a good manner in games that have flyable machines). I have tried flying the Hind with the AP switches ON and OFF to try and test if one or the other made a difference but with no success with either. I tried applying force trim to ease up things on me when slowly increasing thrust (Wags mentions force trim in his hover video which i take it to be the "T" by default keybind), but once again doesn't seem to change much as the chopper remains very sensitive and hard on the controls. Yes i did change the curves in the axis options to try and reduce the sensitivity, all my curves except thrust one went from 0 -> 20 -> 40, yet still felt as sensitive as normal "0" and therefore very hard to control the moment the thrust starts to lift the chopper. Pressing T to force trim seems unreliable to me, hard to explain the actual feeling i'm getting from it but i feel like i still need to constantly apply hard controls to keep the chopper steady in a cruise flight (Straight line flying). I've encountered some very strange behaviors while going from 60-70% power to 100% than back down to 20-30%, the chopper tends to pitch up and down really hard by just changing power settings to a point where i loose total control. I'll try and remember myself to do a demo flight including all of what i've said and link it as a track file for anyone curious to see it first hand. All in all, the chopper to me feels like it needs too much constant adjustment to fly smooth and steady especially while taking off and at low speeds, while cruising i'm simply unable to set up a way of allowing it to fly in a straight line without keeping my hand on the stick with applied force. Coming from a plane background (DCS F-16 flyer), trims and stability feels MUCH more intuitive and easy/smooth to control. (Literally am finding AA refueling pretty easy by how smooth it feels to me, even though it could simply not be a reference, i feel like i've seen a lot of people mentioning how they were struggling with it while on my side it feels like i've always done it before). Could also just be me being a massive noob at flying a chopper in DCS, but after the experience i'm getting flying it so far, i'm pretty concerned with the whole situation i've described Maybe more tweeking for me to do here and there ? Learn some stuff i'm not aware off ? Who knows, i'll give it more tries in the following days.

No need to say more, THIS is exactly what i wish would be done as to stay realistic in terms of development ! The whole Infantry FPS is a very far away dream, while the vehicle (Planes, Helis, Ground vehicles, Ships) is already a thing with Combined Arms, just needs refinement.

1 : I can relate to the splashed bandits remaining in the datalink and even being able to keep a radar lock after they've been splashed. Had that happen to me recently, flying on a MP PVE server, was flying close to a player F-16, 2 or 3 times in a row i fired an Amraam on a BVR target only to notice everytime that the bandit i was seeing in my datalink plus that i was able to lock had been splashed already, therefore waisting a missle each time, i'm not gonna give exact numbers, but it felt pretty long before they actually disappeared. I feel like the splashed bandit stayed in datalink and was able to be locked until it actually hit the ground, so a bandit splashed high could take probably more than 10 seconds before hitting the ground. Of coarse, i'm also unaware whether this is a normal thing or not, just thought i'd mention it in case of. 2 : I can also relate to that, it can be frustrating sometimes to constantly having to relock the bandit because of this constant vanishing. Also applies to the Datalink of coarse.

The reality is actually the opposite of what you're saying here, just like @Germane said, people usually set low settings to have less details and therefore much less obstructed view (Best exemple i've got under my hand would be this ->( https://youtu.be/YX1ltEqhWsc ). And in any case, saying that the clouds should not be too detailed as to not give an advantage or disadvantage in PVP is really nonsense, sorry to say. Literally keeping the graphical potential the game could have for PVP balance, last thing i'd wanna hear coming from ED... Don't want to jump into technical details here but i don't agree with a few things you say here. How can you talk for anyone about their hardware when there is no way to tell what they actually have, computers can literally have thousands of different builds. And guestimating peoples hardware from them saying they had no noticeable change in FPS is a bit of a voodoo thing Don't get your hopes up to quick, Vulkan coming to DCS was never said to be expected as a revolutionnary thing when it comes, i remember some official from ED actually saying it could very well not bring any significant FPS upgrade too, so as to calm the expectation around it. Either way, i'm just here wishing for an upgrade of what we currently have, not trying to change the game to the worst, any better detail added to the game, whether it be from the clouds or literally anything else should be seen as a good thing no ?

If this was the only reason behind the added details or what i was wishing for in my initial post, i wish ED could still make it happen and let the people decide with their settings whether they want to sacrifice the FPS for the details or have standard cloud details for added FPS. DCS is a pretty hungry sim in terms of performance, with or without the new clouds, not everyone is able to run it maxed out, yet all those people don't specially come crying on the forum asking for the sim to be dumbed down in terms of details, they simply set their settings accordingly. On the other hand, you gotta take into account the people with machines that can actually handle high details or higher ones. Why not allow them to have those added details if they were made possible ? My point here is that nobody is forced to max out the sim settings if their computer can't handle it maxed out yet can handle it in medium settings, would be stupid of someone to come here and ask for the sim to be made lower details so he can play the sim maxed out on HIS medium machine. Other thing that comes to my mind, don't forget the amount of people that also said they didn't loose any noticeable amount of FPS with 2.7 and their clouds set to Ultra, yet the amount of details we got coming from the old clouds clearly is MASSIVE.

I've been hesitating to post this in the wishlist as i know the weather just made its first appearance with 2.7 and i know there still is a lot of work to be done to it, but not knowing what exactly is to come in the future, i thought it would be best to post it and have a clear conscience that hopefully ED can either realise it or let us know it's in the pipes The weather does look really beautiful with 2.7, such an upgrade we got ! Not trying to deny that for sure, but small details like the one i'll talk about would be very welcome in the future hopefully. So here is what i'd wish to see in the future --> I was hoping to see this much more noticeable, the distinction between the clouds edges and thin air, as much as some clouds IRL have a very fady kind of edge, some clouds can also have a very sharp edge kind of appearance, when flying around them it allows you to really have a feel of distance and have a clear sense of approaching it than flying through that edge or right next to it (Just like cloud surfing, you're really able to discern the edges of the cloud). With the current clouds, the closer you get to them, the blurrier they look and feels like you're "gradually" getting into light fog until you're actually deep in the cloud and it simply becomes all greyish around you (Heavy fog yet real since a cloud is actual fog we could say). As i remember from my many experiences of flying through clouds IRL, there is really this distinction when approaching a cloud and suddenly passing in it, just looking at the wing of the plane you can almost feel the cloud, it's hard to describe this sense i'd love to see reproduced ingame but as of right now, to me it feels like you're inside a bubble of a few meters surrounding your plane and everything around that bubble just becomes greyish to let you know you're inside the cloud. It's hard to find videos properly showing this sense and feel i'm trying to represent here but this is what i could find to help to a certain degree. https://youtu.be/-tf16HdSncM <--- Cockpit view from a 737 kind of cloud surfing https://youtu.be/JY4-D8qMtSc?t=436 <--- Cockpit view with a very clear exemple of sharp cloud edges and feel of approaching + passing through https://youtu.be/DuMmXRSdOS4 <--- Cabin view of the proper sense and feel of being inside a cloud (No bubble around the plane, wing is fading in the cloud itself)

Thanks, makes sense indeed ! So from what you're saying, it would be pilots responsibility to not go over it after all. I wonder how milsim pilots do it in this simulator (Do they use the Cat switch ?), like i said, it's so easy to go above those limits in a flinch without noticing, flying 500Kt and slightly pulling on the stick and you quickly reach 6G and above. I can confirm after a test yesterday that pulling 10.3Gs with fuel tanks on did nothing, tried it a few times and never did i break anything (I was even surprised to be able and pull 10.3Gs)...