Bearfoot

Here are a couple of tracks. Of course, you cannot see me trying to pickle while on the LMAV format, but trust me I am. You can see as soon as I switch to the TGP format, instant lock and launch. (And yes, I depressed TDC twice -- once to get the offset cursor, and the other time to designate). lmav2.trk lmav3.trk

Would you happen to know if this is a DCM-ism, or how it is in the actual aircraft?

I am using the latest OB. And always have. I've been flying the Tomcat exclusively though until a few weeks ago, so never really explored A2G stuff in the Hornet, so have no experience with how this worked before. I figured out this approach through trial-and-error. Not sure if it is "as intended and correct", "as intended but incorrect", or a bug.

I have to try to use Mav F's without the pod. Though I find it OK with the pod, and maybe for me easier to slew the pod to pick up targets while on a stable glide toward the convoy rather than jiggling the aircraft around. I'm working my way, through practice, to being reliably able to get 3 out of 4 in a single pass. Last night I got a couple of 4/4's, but most others was just 3/4. One bad run had 1/4. - Find convoy through TGP - Get point track on one vehicle - TDC depress to get offset cursor - TDC depress AGAIN to designate and then IMMEDIATELY swtich to Mav format DDI; wait for Maverick to uncage and slew to target designation if needed - Pickle; if no go, switch back to TGP format and then TDC depress again to "update" target and then switch immediately back to Mav format DDI and pickle. Repeat (TGP->TDC depress->Mav->Pickle) if needed. Many times get it on first try, otherwise usually on second. If it takes more than three, then it's a bad day. - Release point track and slew to next vehicle; establish point track and rinse and repeat. (p.s. the Hornet never had, and presumably the DCS hornet will never get, triple racks of Mavericks, did it? ... 6/6 would be a nice goal)

Wow. I went from idle to A/B stop for regular calibration and A/B stop to max for afterburner calibration. The instructions should really be clearer! Thanks to your advice, though, @MustangSally I fixed it! Without your help things would have been very wonky!

Yes, definitely seems to be working (or not working, depending on how you look at it!) differently for different folks. So weird ...

This has been my experience as well. I suspect this is a bug, though, that arose in one of the recent patches (and moreover, seems to be a little bit difficult to reproduce: not everyone experiences it, and many who do experience it only rather patchily). I myself find it consistently impossible for the LMAV to pick up the emitter unless the TDC is assigned to the TPOD format even if the laser is firing (as indicated by the flashing symbol). Conversely, the instant I switch from the Mav format DDI to the TPOD DDI it turns solid and I can launch.

Lots of adequate points from a clearly non-empirical perspective, and you might be right in reality or theory ... But it really is some armchair chin wagging either way where DCS is concerned, because in practice in the game, it's eminently doable! (For better or worse) Conditional on me being able to find them in the first place, I can easily take out two vehicles in a moving convoy in a single pass. Easily. And not just easily, but repeatedly and consistently and reliably. Even with organic air defenses (e.g., Osa's). Especially with organic air defenses --- they are the first ones I target. Three vehicles is also definitely possible, and more often than not, but sometimes not as well. Four is pushing it, but can be done. So "exercise in frustration"? Maybe initially. But keep practicing and soon you will be able to do it too. It's a lot of fun, and a nice thrill.

F-111 would be a superb aircraft to model.

I'm not sure what the point you are trying to make is. That there are so many bug in DCS? Sure. That there are so many bugs in DCS that we shouldn't be discussing bugs? Nah. I mean, as I've posted above, I have full faith that HB is going to fix them eventually and appreciate the complexity of the task. But we are damn well going to talk about them until they do! And some people load up 10 AMRAAMs on a Hornet and spam them all and go and land again. And some people mix their whiskey with cola. And some people put one sock on and then the shoe and then the other sock and the shoe. And some people don't wear shoes at all. What's all that got to do with the price of fish??? This thread is not about realism. This is about a documented/acknowledged bug with TWS-A and Jester not working as intended in --- and I will say it --- a game. That "intended" bit might or might not correspond to something realistic, but whether it does or not does not make it any more or less broken. Furthermore, sure --- there are all sorts of "unrealistic" gamisms provided for by this game, and there are both features and bugs that make this game less realistic and more gamey. And sure, lots of these should be fixed. But you know what?? None of those other bugs change the fact that TWS-A + Jester is borked right now! Not sure what the relevance of any this is.

I find that when in point track mode, the IR Mav locks on to the place where the point track was first established rather than where it is currently. Yes, even if the offset cross designated. Of course, if you switch to the Mav page to fire right after a point track is made, then there is no issue as you will not notice the difference. But if you are following a vehicle with the point track while, for e.g., waiting to come into Mav range to fire, then you have to "update" the target designation just before switching to the Mav page to fire. So, for example, establish point track on target (SCS right, right), TDC depress to get offset cross, let point track follow target until ready to fire, then TDC depress AGAIN to "update" target designation and then and only then switch to Mav page to uncage/fire. Sometimes I have to go back and forth between TGP and Mav page a few times, with TDC depress on the point track each time in the TGP page to update the target designation, before the IR Mav finally sees what I am designating.

If HB had advertised the module as "you have to have a Human RIO to play online in busy servers", then sure, it would not be a bug. But as it stands, it is. In my experience, even before the bug, if a driver on the other side half-way knew what they were doing, they could easily evade Phoenixes. Easily. At least, those fired at from more than 30nm out. And without a human RIO the SA in front cockpit is too bad (and I am not good enough a Tomcat driver) to close in more than 30 nm. I found there were two types of players --- those who knew to dodge a Phoenix and those who did not. The former started evading early and well. The latter ... well, they were the ones that made the mission pay off. If you find yourself routinely eating a Phoenix in online play, then you are my favorite type of MP player! Of course, as time wore on and people got more and more experienced, I would find fewer and fewer of these.

(1) Since the switch to RWS and tracks being dropped happen almost simultaneously, it's possible that the second is just the effect of the first -- i.e., not so much that all tracks get dropped and therefore Jester switches to RWS (which is what it seems like), but that Jester switches to RWS and of course then all TWS tracks get dropped. (2) Yes, it is the particular combination of Jester + TWS-A + busy server that brings out these issues the strongest. At the heart of it all is the TWS-A, in fact. Before TWS-A these problems were not there. The Tomcat was a supreme BVR predator, multiplayer or otherwise.

I absolutely trust HB's commitment and competency to get it working right. I understand and appreciate that it is a tough challenge that they have to juggle along with all their other commitments. And know that it will come in good time. But yes, until that time (for me, with no human RIO), the Tomcat has no teeth and is a more of a GA aircraft than a fleet defender. Practice air to air refueling and carrier landings with it. Pretend you are delivering mail. Sorta a like a jet-powered C2 Greyhound.

The issue is not false tracks. Read the thread that I linked to above. False tracks have nothing to do with, realistically modeled or otherwise. The issue is .... a bunch of things. It's documented It's replicated. It's known. It's been acknowledged to be a bug or set of bugs. The cause is not certain, but it might something to do with how HB is authentically modeling gates etc., which is great, but unfortunately this logic gets totally screwed when there are lag spikes or rubber-banding in MP. Maybe. It's difficult to fix because it is difficult to reproduce in SP or even predictably in MP, but HB says they are working on it. So, the reference to false targets IRL is not really relevant or applicable. Fact is, the AWG-9 is totally borked, at least with Jester in an MP environment It's sad, because the AWG-9 is the beating heart and raison d'etre of the Tomcat. And it sucks because such a beautiful modeled aircraft now cannot really do BVR in any capacity in an MP environment reliably. Sure, I take it up there sometimes. Spend a long time starting up, taking off, ingressing, building up SA, picking up targets, sorting them, getting tracks, and then comes the moment to fire, pickle the weapons and ... it is totally russian roulette whether: (a) the missile launches and tracks toward the target (b) the missile launches and ALL tracks drop (I mean ALL contacts simultaneously --- which is why the suggestion that what we are seeing is modeling of false contacts is totally unfounded) and you get kicked to RWS © the missile launches and ALL tracks drop and you get kicked to RWS and you cannot switch to TWS (d) the missile launches and ALL tracks drop and you get kicked to RWS and you cannot switch to TWS and Jester (now in his full-fledged "Joker" persona) maniacally starts hammering away on his keys "clack-clack-clack-clack-clack" ... And it's not even even odds on getting (a) on a busy server --- more often you get (b) through (d). If you are lucky, you can fly around and hope The Joker eats his Snickers and calms down and you can try again. But by this time you are in the other guys WEZ or somebody else is on you and by the time you are done evading your SA is zilch and/or you are down low. So ... yeah.

So, tonight on the PG map, I successfully hit 4/4 moving targets each and every time in point track mode .... as long as I switched to TGP page before firing. I saw the "X" on the Mav page immediately turn to a square the moment I assigned the TDC to the TGP, and I could launch immediately after. Conversely, while on the Mav page, the "X" remained and "X", and could not fire. Each and every time. Absolutely reliable, predictable, consistent, and reproducible. Is it possible for a test to look at this again? PLEASE? Perhaps using point track as a test case (the original post only mentioned Area Track).

The instructions posted above work perfectly! Thanks for sharing. Now, though, with markpoints, for me a better approach is to first cycle through targets in the TDC creating markpoints, and then use the markpoints to program the TOO1 and TOO2 targets. Several extra steps (maybe even double, because you have to undesignate between each markpoint programming), but somehow despite this, less fiddly. I think the decoupling of markpoint creation and programming also makes for better flow (e.g., you can break away from the target after quickly creating markpoints, program the weapons, and then turn back in for the delivery). The procedure for using markpoints/waypoints that works for me for programming and simultaneous releasing is: (Just reading the Osprey series on Hornets in OIF/ONW/OSW etc., and it looks like they carried 3-4 J-weapons max, and often just 1-2 were also common (especially toward the end, when they weren't enough targets so returning with unexpended ordnance become a thing; as they could not jettison these, they had to take-off with a loadout that was a safe landing weight even if none were dropped). So this "8x" load is probably rather DCS-ish, but hey, it's DCS and not OIF/ONW/OSW and it's fun so let's go with it!)

I've read that it is really bad at dawn / dusk due to the thermal transition.

Ah, OK. What was confusing me was this Vertical Acquisition (VACQ) - Aft (when HMD on only from WACQ) i.e., the "only from WACQ" part. I kept trying to command VACQ right after switching to guns, and with the helmet sight on was not getting anywhere. I thought the weirdness was due to the gun being selected ... but it really was because the helmet was on AND the gun was selected. Strange logic though (why only from WACQ if HMD on??).

It's .... complicated https://forums.eagle.ru/forum/english/licensed-third-party-projects/heatblur-simulations/dcs-f-14a-b/285136-multiple-radar-awg-9-phoenix-issues-since-patch-2-5-6-52437 In general, yes, especially in multiplayer, you have no idea whether going into breach whether you are going to get Jester, the trusty guy who knows his stuff and is on the same page as you as far as what the job is and how to do it, or this guy ... ... less "Jester" and more (demonic lunatic villian) "Joker"

Am I correct in thinking that in ACM mode, SCS functions are yet again different if GUN is selected weapon rather than any of the missiles (or is it GUN is selected AND JHCMS is on?)?

Stick a dead zone on your slew axes.

Anyone have a guide on this? I've managed to do it for two. But I cannot do it consistently. Most times, bizarrely, the missiles all head toward the target OK, but then just sort of slow down and start diving and crash into the sea/ground well short of the target. And yes, I'm in range! Note that I have to use waypoints for the location programming, and thus TOO mode, because currently we cannot set elevation in PP mode. Here's the recipe I have: Like I said, using the above I've managed to guide two SLAM's on to two different targets in very close time (20 seconds apart) -- could see the explosion from the first one through the seeker view of the second. But every time I try to run with 4, they ALL fly into the ground well short of the coordinates. It's not even close. It's possible that with 4 weapons I'm messing up things, especially with the datalink correlation. I also am not sure if 4.2 is needed: do you need the datalink correlation while programming the weapon, or just at launch?

The trick is in actually remembering whether left-to-right = top-down or the other way around! My brain always forgets. I will use your "right-bank" = "the right way" as a mnemonic ..

Because I ALWAYS forget, here it is: +---------------- | SLAM DL13 | | S | L [sTATION 2] | A | M | | S | L [sTATION 3] | A | M | | S | L [sTATION 7] | A | M | | S | L [sTATION 8] | A | M | +----------------