slug88

Only 5 votes in a day?? We had more contributers than that to the Georgian Havoc testing thread! Come on people, get your votes in!

Done! We're up to 2nd place!

That sounds very odd. Perhaps you should post a track. It seems that most people got through this mission without too much difficulty, so you may have discovered a rare bug.

Well, if the enemy is approaching from the vehicles' rear, most of them probably won't live long enough to turn around. So, vehicle facing does matter. Furthermore, as Grimes said, the vehicle will turn their turrets to engage the enemy targets, but they will not turn their hulls, so you'll have a very silly looking battle unless the units are set up to face in the right direction. Basically you should know that ground units in this game really don't have any sort of AI, except for rudimentary aiming and shooting at targets. Besides this, you have to script everything yourself.

Doesn't the fact that we have air-to-air modes for the Vikhr's indicate that the Ka-50 was designed to be able to engage in aerial combat? Of course it's not the primary mission, and combat with enemy helicopters should only be undertaken as a last resort, but one of the greatest benefits of simulation is that one can study engagements that rarely occur in real life. Also, note that neither the Mi-24 nor the AH-1 were designed with aerial combat as a primary focus, but these helicopters did participate in combat against eachother during the Iran-Iraq War. Therefore, the potential for combat between helicopters is a battlefield reality, and is about as probable as most of the other engagements that are simulated in this game.

Also note that the updated GOW campaign, available on the downloads section of this site, changes many/most of the mission to Cold Start. Furthermore, most user made scenarios, as well as the excellent new user made campaign Georgian Havoc, and even the Deployment campaign that's included with the game, all feature mostly cold start missions.

You do this by holding down the middle mouse button while moving the mouse.

A few quick comments: Mission 9 I really enjoyed watching the Su-25's provide top cover, but was somewhat disappointed that they disappeared after a single action. It would nice if their presence in the mission were extended, even if by having them orbit the extraction area and report on possible contacts while the extraction is taking place. The flight back home in this mission was lacking in the very nice immersive touches spaced throughout the rest of the campaign. It was little more than formation flying practice. Some light radio chatter from other aircraft would spice it up a bit. Mission 10 Haven't finished this one yet, but so far I've noticed that the Kuznetsov is facing in the opposite direction of the rest of the fleet, I'm assuming this isn't intentional. Also, you instruct the pilot to take off in radio silence, and this is obviously a very top secret mission, and yet the controller on the Kuz still refers to you by your standard callsign and calls the target by name. I think it would be a nice touch if prearranged codenames were used, both for yourself, for the target. Just something that would spice it up, and add to the feeling of a covert mission. Perhaps also adding some communications from the Kuznetsov on your approach, particularly landing clearance. Also, like NullCharacter, I also saw two of the cargo ships warping around a bit. Strangely, unlike in NullCharacter's experience, the Inguri itself sailed normally in my playthrough. Also, unlike NullCharacter, I did *not* use time acceleration.

Try it in game and see for yourself, they'll engage ground targets that threaten you. At least, this is true for the Cover Me command. Not sure if they'll automatically engage ground threats from the overwatch position.

Overwatch/Cover Me is also effective for responding to ground threats. The AI wingman will look for SAMs and AAA tracers, and engage the shooter(s).

There are also keys on the ABRIS to zoom in and out, which should eliminate any visibility problems. Keep in mind that in real life, the ABRIS display may very well be noticeably aliased as well.

I'm not sure if what I've written above is quite clear, so I've drawn this graph to explain what I mean but layered front and staggered over-watching positions. Hopefully the picture isn't more confusing than the text. This is result of saying up till 5am due to insomnia :D. SPOILER WARNING

Hmm, well I am a bit of a stubborn git, and knowing that you've passed this mission a couple times has inspired me to try again at least once or twice more :D. Heck, I've tried it so many times, I think that by now I'm about as familiar with all the units and events in the mission as you are :D. ***FURTHER SPOILERS*** Also, I thought of something further regarding my point about the ineptitude of the Russian ground forces in this mission. Not only does it make it very difficult, but it's also a bit of an immersion killer for me to see an entrenched defense, hastily prepared as it may be, get annihilated by Georgian BMP's on the move. I think there really is an issue with the accuracy of moving ground units in this sim, no way that they should be scoring hits when the stationary units are missing all their shots. So, when you're tuning this mission, I think rather than toning down the strength of the Georgian forces, you should mainly increase the skill levels of the Russian vehicles. Also, I think you could rework the first Georgian wave a bit for added realism. As I recall, the 2nd column of the 1st wave is composed of 4x T-55's, 6?x BMP's, a number of BTR's, followed by some trucks. Anyway, it seemed silly how, after every last armored vehicle was eliminated, the unarmed trucks still drove straight into the heat of the battle. I think it would be more realistic if the trucks stayed behind a few kilometers, while the rest of the column advanced into combat. The most impressive solution would be to set up triggers that would have the trucks and BTR's peel off from the convoy a few KM's from the bridge, and wait to see if the armored spearhead survived before advancing to the bridge. You could even spawn a few MANPADs next to the stopped vehicles while they're waiting. And, if the armored units are destroyed as they should be, no problem with having the second echelon units remain in place for the rest of the mission, marking the new forward line of the Georgian forces. Also, I think it would be nicer if the Georgian armor and BMP's departed the road before engaging in combat, and assumed a wedge formation on their approach to the bridge (I believe wedge is one of the formation options in the mission editor, but basically anything but straight column would do). I feel this minor touch would do a lot to build an atmosphere of a rolling land battle, rather than a moving target train. Furthermore, I don't think it's necessary for them to drive all the way up to the bridge; instead they should attempt to assume a layered front facing the bridge, with the first units to arrive stopping the farthest from the bridge, and providing overwatch as the next units roll past.

Given all that I've written above, I do still accept the possibility that I just suck. So, if someone else had a different experience with the Fight Back mission, please let us know :).

Alright, I've had some more play time with this campaign, and so here's so more commentary: ***SPOILERS*** So far, I'm still on the "Fight Back" mission in which you have to defend the northernmost of three forward locations. I've now replayed it five or six times, still without success. The first couple of tries resulted in failure due to my own mistakes, however my last two attempts were almost perfect executions on my part (imho :D), and still I've failed. Simply put, the Russian ground units are utterly inept in this mission, and there's simply not enough Vikhrs, rockets, and cannon ammo between my wingman and myself to destroy the Georgian ground forces. On my second to last attempt, I even managed to fly back to the rearming base and get my ammo refitted before the Russian ground forces were completely destroyed by the second wave (the only reason they survived is because the bridge was blown up and there was one last T-72 that was just out of sight of any of the Georgians), but wouldn't you know it I experienced my first laser burn-out in weeks before I managed to destroy the remaining Georgians. I think the most significant issue here is the quality of the Russian ground forces. Every single time I've played, the first column will take out every Russian vehicle to the left of the bridge, without taking a single casualty of their own, unless the Ka-50's intervene and destroy all the enemy armor and BMP's first. Thankfully, the Russian T-72's and BMP's are at least capable of handling the remaining BTR's of the first wave. Unfortunately, in order to prevent a total slaughter from the first wave, the player's Ka-50 flight has to expend a minimum of half their Vikhr's, and that's if every shot lands. Most times I've played, the flight was down to about 1/4 of the starting Vikhr's. Engaging the first wave with rockets or cannons results in disaster for the Red ground units, as by the time you're in range for rockets, the Georgian BMP's and T-72's start happily taking out the Russian forces at will. Therefore, for the second wave, you're either left with 5-10 Vikhr's total between you and your wingman, or 50%-80% casualties among the friendly ground forces, or both if you're unlucky. Once again, it's completely up to the Ka-50's to destroy the armor and BMP's of the second Georgian column, since, again, in my six attempts I have yet to see the Russian ground forces score a kill. Given that there are eight MBT's in the second column, plus a mobile Strela launcher, it's very unlikely that the player's flight will have enough Vikhr's to eliminate those targets before they start mopping up the friendly ground forces. Rockets are a difficult proposition due to the Georgian SAM coverage south of the river, but even then, on my last play through I managed to destroy 3 BMP's with rockets, while my wingman took out two before being shot down. Unfortunately, even this wasn't enough, and the second wave managed to slaughter the remaining friendlies to the last. As I mentioned, I think the ultimate issue here is the quality of the Russian ground forces. I think there's a significant problem with the game's modelling of ground engagements, in that it doesn't seem to account for the difficulty of firing on the move. For this reason, the Russian T-72's and BMP's will miss all of their long-range shots against the fast moving enemy, while the Georgian T-72's, cruising at 50kmh, find the stationary Russian vehicles to be easy targets. Therefore, I think that it might be prudent to upgrade the Russian ground forces to Veteran or better, so that at least the T-72's can get a kill or two before being taken out by a BMP.

Very well edited, but though you commented that "the story should be more clear to those who didnt pick it up," I still have no idea what the plot is. Is it about a rogue Georgian pilot who goes on a random rampage against American, Russian, and civilian targets, before offing himself in the Black Sea? I hope I'm close :D.

Check the \Doc\ subfolder of your DCS install. Ex: C:\games\Ka-50\Doc

I think you must have meant 3m/s there :D.

My guess is engine icing. Make sure to enable engine anti-ice and rotor anti-ice and pitot heaters when flying at high altitudes.

Yes, both behaviors are normal.

Mark this as a vote to keep it the way it is. I say there's nothing wrong with an extra difficult mission or two in a user made campaign like this. The stock campaigns and single missions provide plenty of stepping stones for new users. On the other hand, the sim has been out for a year now, and even now there is a lack of SP challenge for more experienced users. Furthermore, this is a study sim, and one of the major appeals of study sims is difficulty, and the reward that overcoming such difficulty yields. So, again, I say there's nothing wrong with having a few scenarios that put both the player's skill and luck to the test. Especially since, in this case, the mission is well made and exciting, and I enjoyed replaying it several times until I discovered a successful tactic.

As GAJ52 posted above, it's the apostrophe key: ' You press it while in the mission, and it shows you your current mission score, as defined by the mission designer.

Not at all. In fact, for experienced players, manual start up can be done quite a bit faster than the automated start up. It took me three tries but I got through this mission; each time I was able to lift off before the Hinds began attacking, but twice I was shot down while foolishly trying to dogfight them. On the third try I decided to do what I'd probably do in real life in such a situation, which is utilize my superior top speed to run away, and let the friendly fighters handle the Hinds :D.

Hitting Esc doesn't work?

The button for launching missiles/rockets is different than the button for firing the cannon. At work right now and can't check what the default assignment is.