xvii-Dietrich

Kang has already answered it, but here's a few extra comments, in case it helps. As Kang said, yes, you can play coop against the KI. Yes. Although you don't need a separate server if you don't want to. In other words, you can host the game and play a commander role, and then let others join your game. This is done by going to multiplayer, and selecting new server and then hosting your mission. Yes. However, it is important that all the people joining the server have the same DCS version. So, if you host the mission using DCS 2.5 beta, then your friends will need DCS 2.5 beta to join in. (It doesn't matter if they are using Stand-Alone or Steam versions of DCS... it's just the DCS beta/stable version that counts). In brief: 1. Build the mission in the editor. 2. As Kang says, set multiple "Tactical Commander" roles. 3. In the mission options, set the F10 map visibility to Fog of War (or similar). 4. Save the mission and go to the multiplayer section. 5. Select New Server. 6. On the right hand side, click the "(+)" button to add your new mission. 7. Add a server name, password (optional) and anything else and then create the server. 8. Your friends should now see this in the multiplayer lobby. 9. They can then join the server, select one of the tactical commander roles (or aircraft, if you put some in). 10. If you are running the mission yourself, you then need to "unpause" the mission... ... and away you go. Just ask if you have questions. :)

Yes, please! That would be extremely useful. Especially if the helicopter spawn points were in addition to the existing ones, letting us operate both our Harriers and helicopters from the ship.

On 01-Jun-1944, the following bomber squadrons were operating near the Normandy area. This is pre-D-Day, of course, so by the time period of the Normandy map (late June to late July 1944), bomber numbers would be significantly lower due to attrition, fuel shortages and units being withdrawn from the frontline area. UNIT QTY TYPE AIRFIELD I./KG6 22 Ju 188 A-2 Bretigny-s-Orge II./KG6 3 Ju 88 A-4 Melun-Villaroche I./KG66 22 Ju 188 Avord 9 Ju 88 S Avord I./KG40 27 He 177 Orleans-Bricy 16 FW 200 Orleans-Bricy II./KG40 32 He 177 Bordeaux-Merignac III./KG40 29 FW 200 C Cognac II./KG51 24 Me-410 A-1 Gilze-Rijen III./KG26 35 Ju 88 A4 & A17 Montpelier I./KG77 28 Ju 88 A-17 Orange-Caritat II./KG77 25 Ju 88 A-17 Orange-Caritat III./KG100 31 Do 217 E/K/M Toulouse-Francazal 6./KG76 15 Ju 88 A-4 Istres 6./KG76 15 Ju 88 A-4 IstresDCS Normandy is quite small, so all of these fields are "off map". The only "on map" post-D-Day Luftwaffe airfield modelled is Évreux, but it was used for fighters (JG3) and only until 05-Jul-1944. Many raids were actually into the Normandy area, made from aircraft based in the south of France, with refuelling stops (e.g. Dijon, Angers, Cognac, etc.). Examples: KG26 attacked shipping near Cherbourg on 18-Jun-1944, KG77 attacked Le Havre on 22-Jun-1944 and KG26 attacked Barfleur Harbour on 30-Jul-1944 Also, the above are ONLY the bomber units (Kampfgeschwader), I am omitting the battle groups (ground-attack, Schlachtgeschwader), which also employed bomber types (e.g. Ju 88 A-4) in addition to other ground attack aircraft (e.g. FW 190 G-8 ). Ju 88C aircraft were employed by Zerstörergeschwader 1, from Lorient, and were pressed into service as ground-attack aircraft at the time of the invasion. ZG1 was withdrawn on 12-Jun-1944 and disbanded completely a month later. References Ehrengardt, Operation Overlord, L'Aviation, pp20-21 Meál, Le 6 juin 1944, La Luftwaffe face au debarquement, p18-63. http://stormofwar.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=6813 ... and other references therein.

Also agreed - 100% Sadly, PG development has been finalised (as stated in several places, e.g. https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3880187&postcount=191 ) so there will be no significant changes now. Ironically, it seems that out of all the Persian Gulf, the only bit that is modelled is the area which has seen the least combat. I do hope they make a map of the area mentioned by the OP, although I'm not sure what they'd call it.

Description: The encyclopedia entry for the SA342Mistral is incorrect. It shows the weapons as Rockets and 20mm guns, rather than air-to-air missiles. The problem is ONLY in the text description. The displayed 3D model is correct. DCS Version: 2.5.4.30038 Steam: Yes Map: n/a SP/MP: n/a Reproducible: Yes Step to Reproduce: 1. Start DCS 2. Select the Encyclopedia 3. Select the Helicopters icon at the top 4. Select the SA342Mistral entry from the drop down menu. 5. Note that the weapons are listed as per the SA342L version, not the SA342Mistral. Screenshot/Video available: Screenshot attached. Track Available: n/a Mission File: n/a Controllers: n/a OS: Win 8.1N RAM: 16 GB GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 750M Mods: No Any Additional Information: It should be straight-forward to fix, and it would show the developers still care about the module. But, being just the encyclopedia, it is not critically important.

I refer to the underlined. Up until reading this thread, I interpreted "multiple seasons" to mean winter was included. I had no idea that Normandy didn't have a winter texture. Normandy doesn't even have different shades of green, or brown autumnal colours... let alone winter snow. It is false advertising to claim it has multiple seasons. I accept that the Normandy Map is "final", meaning no more development.... in reality, nothing is ever "finished" (there will always be something more to do). But I do object to misleading product descriptions. Even if no more work is ever done on the map itself, this at least the description should be fixed.

That might be Me-262 Werk-Nr 170093 of 3./KG 51. It got into a dogfight with Spitfire Mk.IX from RCAF No.401 Sqn on 05-Oct-1944. During the fight, shots were fired by both sides. It is not clear whether a Spit.IX landed a hit or whether there was a spontaneous engine fire on the Me-262 due to the exertion of the combat or some mechanical failure. There was no gun-camera footage of hits being scored. Still, either way, the Me 262 burned and crashed... and Spit.IXs were involved. This was the third combat loss overall. The first was 28-Aug-1944 when an Me-262 was "manoeuvre-killed" (actually the pilot survived) by P-47s of 78th Fighter Group and the second was 02-Oct-1944 when P-47s of 356th Fighter Group chased an Me-262 until it ran out of fuel, and was forced to ditch, destroying the aircraft. The Me-262s were from 1./KG51. I am unable to find any information on the first confirmed kill (gun cam or independent witness report) of an Me-262 by gun fire.

@mazex Many thanks for taking the time researching and writing that up. You make some very good points and I learned a lot looking into what you present. Much appreciated! Good link. Yes, the last week would be a potential scenario. Of course we do not have Soviet WWII aircraft (yet!), but a Soviet-marked Spitfire could be used I guess. Definitely. I note on the map that the Kiel/Flensburg areas are still German at the war's end. So, apart from the Peenemünde site, the Kieler Bucht U-boat bases could be potential targets (esp as an AI U-boat unit is supposedly planned for DCS). All of these would be good not just for long-distance B-17 raids, but also for the DH-98 (also supposedly in planning). Nice. (Got me thinking... but, yep, point well made!) Agreed. Of course, I like the expanded map idea, especially to put the carriers out at a bit more distance for Cold War. And a single airbase in Norfolk would really help (in the same way that the single Luftwaffe base on the Normandy map really helps too). To model any area, means having "empty" terrain along the edge of the map. If you consider the Persian Gulk map, about 70% of the Gulf coast is unpopulated just to give the visual of the coastline from altitude. This could be done with Norfolk and a single base placed for the long range B-17s (WW2 scenario) or B-1 bombers or interceptors (Cold War).

Good point. The only downside is that there are no places for the Allied aircraft to take off and land. But B-17 raids could be "air-spawned", which means it would be a great place for operating "Defence of the Reich" type intercept raids for the late-war Luftwaffe aircraft.

Some missions don't have any helicopters or light attack aircraft at all (e.g. "Supervision"). If that is the case, then perhaps only those types of missions could be AAA/SAM strengthened, leaving the other missions open to flying in the weeds.

I am not sure if bugs are still being logged/fixed for this module, but in case they are... Description: There are two pairs of magnetic brake controls in the "adjust controls" section. "Magnetic Brake On/Off" (captial "B") is indeed the magnetic brake and works correct. "Magnetic brake On/Off" (lowercase "b") is NOT the magnetic brake, but rather it is "Trim On/Off" control. There is no Trim On/Off control, so it seems this is simply incorrectly labelled. DCS Version: 2.5.4.30038 Steam: Yes Map: Caucasus SP/MP: Both Reproducible: Yes Step to Reproduce: While in the SA432, press ESC Select "Adjust Controls" Use the "Search..." dropdown to look for "Magnetic" There will be two version pairs: 2 x Magnetic Brake On/Off : Start Panel 2 x Magentic brake On/Off : Main Panel Map a key to each of them. Click "OK" Look at the switches on the front panel and try the bound keys. One moves the MagBrake switch and the other moves the Trim switch. Screenshot/Video available: No, but available on request Track Available: n/a Mission File: Any Controllers: CH products Fighter stick and CH Pedals OS: WIn 8.1N RAM: 16 GB GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 750M Mods: No Any Additional Information: 1. I have my DCS set to "English Language" (in case this is localisation specific). 2. This bug applies to all versions of the SA342 (L/M/Minigun/Mistral) Thanks!

Fast aircraft (e.g. F-5E, Mig21) tend not to be affected so much by AAA, which simple cannot track them quickly enough to pose a threat. On the other hand, the slower light attack aircraft (C-101 and L-39) will get chewed up by the AAA, and they do not carry countermeasures against the SAMs. Increased air-defence might also be a deterrent to the helicopters. I'm not saying this is necessarily good or bad, but adding more air defence might well change the types of aircraft used in the missions.

Battle of Britain is not just the White Cliffs of Dover, or even just southern UK. On "Adlertag" (13-Aug-1940) only Erprobungsgruppe 210 attacked Dover and the surrounding airfields. Other Luftwaffe forces were directed against Dorset, Hampshire and Thames Estuary. But places in the north were also targetted: Yorkshire, Northumberland, Liverpool, etc. While the White Cliffs of Dover is the somewhat romantic location in the public consciousness for the conflict, it falls short of the scope and extent of the actual battle.

If you have already been flying Caucasus, and then switch to Normandy, there is sometimes a bug as you describe. A temporary work-around is to exit DCS and restart whenever you switch maps. This has the benefit of clearing some memory too making performance a little better.

The "fire control bunker" can also be manned via first-person if you have Combined Arms. Not particularly useful, but it is fun to mess about with. The "pillbox" might be by a different name. I vaguely recalled it was armed bunker or something?

Matt Wagner talks about his career path, including Jane's F/A18 hornet, as well as his aspiration for the new free map in the podcast... https://overcast.fm/+PCDL8E03g# The scenario for Jane's F/A18 hornet was Kola (an internet search will find that for you).

NTTR. I have all the maps. My squad uses Caucasus for combat missions, Normandy for WW2 combat and NTTR for training. Although we do have Persian Gulf, it is very rarely used. NTTR seems more convincing and immersive as a training area, due to the airfields, test ranges, and military bases that are scattered across the landscape. There is a city (Las Vegas), but it is not as OTT as the Oil cities on the PG map, so it doesn't hurt the FPS so badly. There is some inland water (Lake Mead), but if we want to fly naval ops, we go to the Caucasus. The NTTR bases are big, useful and work really well for training missions. (Yes, there are campaign DLCs too, but I don't have any of those.) The big frustration with Persian Gulf, is that it is doesn't have any Gulf War areas... Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia are all missing. (Well, the basic coastline is there, but the landscape is completely unpopulated... a bit like the North coast of Turkey on the Caucasus map.) The Persian Gulf map seems like it has only about 20% of the Persian Gulf and feels very unfinished. The NTTR map has the entire NTTR. It depends on your preferences, of course, but I really like NTTR (although Caucasus is still my current favourite).

That would be awesome. I do so hope you are correct!

And C101CC and L39ZA FTW. :D

You can listen to the interview yourself... https://overcast.fm/+PCDL8E03g The comment on the "free map" start at 39m55s.

Like all ground units, you can move them around on the F10 map. So they are all "controllable" in that sense. However, if you mean "which ones can be human driven from a first-person perspective?" then ... https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3524322&postcount=13 Yes, that post was a while ago, but nothing has changed. If you look at that post, you'll also see the interface to the units, which is pretty primative... esp. the StuG, which has no gun sights. So, the list is still...StuG IV Sd.Kfz. 7 artillery tractor Sd.Kfz. 2 Kettenkrad Horch staff car Also, there is Fire Control Bunker (fortification) But this is not something you drive... just man the machine guns. There are no Allied units you can control from a first-person sense although, as mentioned, all ground units can be controlled from the F10 map. Also, I've just double checked all the above (in the Mission Editor as I type this). Maybe when the new damage model is implemented, then they might go back to this, but at the moment, the WW2-assets/CA environment seems rather abandonned.

I've been using SRS quite a bit, but last night was indeed special. There was someone on GCI (Ground Control Intercept / tactical command) who did an excellent job. What was really useful was that he put the frequency he was using into chat and came and let people know on the other frequency channels. By doing this, it gathered everyone to a single place, which was great. CGI via SRS really added a lot (e.g. you get appropriate situational awareness, and he helped fix a nav error I'd made). It is sooooooo much better than the in-game auto-bot "overlord" messages which are slow, monotonous and often irrelevant. Human CGI is much better, especially when you get someone who really knows what they are doing. I really had a great time... well, until I was shot down by AAA... I'm still getting used to figuring out how to find the radio frequencies though. I can find out the ATC channel from the kneeboard charts, but how do you work out the others? I didn't see them in the briefing, and it is not as if the aircraft comes with the radio channels pre-set-up.

One thing that people often mention is the idea of finding a virtual squad. Now, there is a stickied DCS Squadron Directory thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=34062 The problem is that it is 34 pages long, and is filled with huge graphics or meaningless text that don't necessarily help figuring out what unit does what. Some carefully list their requirements, but many leave you wondering what are the days of the week, timezone, aircraft flown, spoken language, comms method, formal/causal, current members, or other things. Much of the information is obsolete or outdated... the thread dates back to 2008 (yes, over a decade old!). Certainly for someone who is new to multiplayer, it might be rather daunting to try to figure out how to find and contact a suitable squad.

Should be. ED works with the Fighter Collection and, according to Nick Grey, they are in touch with other collections. From the Q&A (REF)...

The FW 190 A-8 (and F-8 ) has a radial engine. Not having a radial engine sound-set to go with it would be a major set back. So, I really hope they record new audio for it!