cosmicdoubloon

Well someone's gotta stop them :lol: I consider it fighting fire with fire; whats the best way to deal with a low level, datalinking IR missile spamming fighter? By being a low level, AWACs spamming IR missile fighter! Only difference is, one takes a bit more skill to actually detect and kill the enemy with ;)

I like your ideas Mirknir for the CAP. I never liked the idea of the 'no CAP' version before the crash patch, and the limited version we currently have proved my concerns because fighters (once the initial dogfight scrap is won) can skulk in the hills just outside of the enemy team's protected zone and use the AWACS to surprise attack anything that enters the conflict zone until they run out of ammo/fuel or someone dedicates time to flushing them out. I know people complain about the F16s and their spamraaming and I have to admit it is indeed annoying, but those F16s provide a much needed level of defence for ground pounders and helos on the unstacked team. Therefore I was thinking (I know I've suggested something like this before but I'm building on your ideas) of a couple things: After the initial respawn timer has expired, if the teams are even the AI CAP spawns as usual in what I'll call 'normal mode'. This is the base fighters like the MiG-23s but could be another legacy aircraft like the Mig-21, AI Mirage 2k, or Mig-29A/G. They provide a base level of defence for both team's ground pounders and are basically there as extra targets to take the bullet/missile before the attackers giving them time to hide/flee/do a bert and shoot them down. If there is a small stack (using NASA6's algorithm or similar) or there are small number of dishonourable kills (I would say killing medic helicopters, strafing of landed helos, strafing of crash landed planes who haven't re-spawned yet) then 'boosted mode' AI spawns on the next trigger, which would be the F16/F15E, SU27/30. As we already know these more powerful planes tend to be a real pain in the ass for fighters and so are a more powerful defence, and could serve as an incentive to players to even out the teams so they don't spawn these guys. If there is a large stack or continued dishonourable killing then a 'super mode' could be used. I think this could be in the form of 2 pairs of 'boosted mode' fighters, one on the coast and one more inland, or using 'super' fighters, which would be the F14 (leatherneck plz) or the Mig-31. Personally I would say the F14 could wreak too much havok unless you limited the AIM-54s to 2 per plane (so 4 total), so I would say use the Mig-31s. Their R33s have double the range of the SU27's R27ERs, but are also Semi-Active (Fox-1). This means they can't spam them and the targeted plane gets a launch warning straight away. To compensate for their insane range they'd have to sit almost in the safe zone, but they would be dragged in whilst firing the missile so they couldn't sit in the safe zone and splash players that way :) It would take a concentrated effort on the part of the stacked team to kill these supers and so could help balance the team, for the same reason as the 'boosted mode' spawns. Keep up the good work Mirk, the 'crazy veterans' will tell you that I haven't stopped pestering about the donations, we need to 'make Open Conflict great again' :lol: This patch has borked our favourite server and as the most common players on the server we aren't about to stand by and watch it flounder without helping in some way!

And guess who's just booked Tuesday off of work? ;) just to echo what Dust has already said the no AI version seems to be running pretty smooth at the moment, not having any major problems with it as it stands. Interestingly the removal of the AI/fleets has improved FPS and similar performance hugely, the server is much smoother than before. It's a shame its at the expense of player slots and certain units/objectives, but until the situation can be resolved properly its a great temporary fix. Just to reiterate to everyone, if you want to help the server increase performance/player numbers, remember to donate! Every little helps and now with Mirk looking into what options he has to boost his internet, we can all help improve this server :) If everyone from our group who regularly uses the server donated $5/£4/€4.65 once a month, it would give Mirk around $50-75 a month which is around $600-900 a year, think about the possibilities! A link to the donation page is on the first page of this thread and in Mirknir's signature on every comment he makes. As always thanks for maintaining the server Mirknir, lets hope the bandwidth issues can be sorted soon so that OC doesn't need to stay in its current, limited form!

The issue seems to be DCS-wide Mirk, every single server is lagging to hell and are nigh unplayable. I wouldn't worry too much for now ED are gonna have to sort this at their end

No new gazelle variants this time unfortunately! That being said, we do of course have the Spitfire and the viggen right round the corner, that might be time to start planning slots for those ;)

I expect no less than a category 3 hurricane, I want to try flying backwards in the props! :lol: With regards to the taxiway takeoff issue I don't often see problems with it, only when two f15s go head on at 150 knots each and then create a fireworks display for everyone at the airport :P Like Cravgar said the Virtual Aerobatics server has a very effective limiter on its taxiways so it can be done, but I'm not sure how script heavy it is. I think EricR is one of the VA admins, I've seen him post from time to time with official updates regarding VA. My issue with it is that quite often (normally a couple of hours into a server rotation) the runways end up being rendered unusable by wrecks from crash landings and runway collisions. When this happens the only viable option for takeoff (especially in heavily laden attackers) is the main taxiways as they're the only roads long and straight enough for a plane to takeoff from. This is especially noticeable at the closest airports for each team which are typically the RTB point for damaged planes - Gelendzik for BLU and Sochi for Red. Sochi is lucky that it has the secondary runway so it doesn't really suffer but all it takes is one wreck in the middle of the runway at Gelendzik and the airport is pretty much unusable unless you can land/takeoff on the taxiway. Therefore I feel that restrictions are not a good idea unless theres a way to lift the restrictions once the game has decided a runway has taken enough damage to be classed as 'unusable' by the game, but I suspect that could be a major project... In the interim it'll just be up to the regulars to set an example and not taxiway takeoff unless its definitely clear (looking at you rustoff ;) ) As for the SAM/MANPAD idea, I know you're hesitant to put them in the dynamic objectives, but what about the advanced armour objectives such as Anapa/Ashpernok incursion? These are already protected bymultiple Gepard AAA and so an IR SAM such as the Strela 1 would fit in well I think. Gepards actually outrange the Strela 1 and MANPADs (not sure about the Strela 10, will test tonight) and so for a player to be engaged by the IR sams they would already be in range of the Gepards and such are A. being warned of the ground threats by their RWR and B. probably dead because those Gepards are monsters, even at maximum range! I think it could be worth trying them in the next patch and give us a chance to give feedback, like we did with the new destroyer at Tuapse and the Open Sea Fleet. The spawning of the advanced incursions could have an extra line in their spawn message so that their message would be something like 'A new objective detected: Ashpernok Incursion. Warning, SAMs detected at objective!' If they turn out to just be rage inducing (which I doubt) then they could always be removed. Also did some testing of the new KC135 and the A10s can happily reach it, even with combat loadouts :)

ACTUALLY I think you'll find my touchdown speed was perfect for the SU25T :P though interestingly the ILS did bring me in high. I landed at a different airfield to the one I took off from so I wonder if I have to re-calibrate it for the new airfield. I'd expect that from the DCS modules but coming from an FC3 plane? Very interesting... Going to test out the KC-135 for the A10 tonight and see if my testing from many moons ago has produced a viable result and shall report back o7

Hi Mirk, thought I might as well jump on the feedback bandwagon and just say that, as everyone has said, the new weather is awesome. The warm weather makes IR guided air to ground munitions much trickier to use and that, combined with the fog, makes ground pounding a very interesting experience! Especially with the SU25T, the tv sensor really struggles to pick out units in the fog, to the point that I'm forcing vihkrs and other missiles to fire and manually guiding them with the laser until the TV system picks up the target! Here's a quick 2 minute video of me coming back to Krashnodar Pashkovsky after a very long mission. Having cleared out the first assault convoy and artillery base by myself, I made a sprint back to friendly territory and realised I haven't practised poor weather landings for a long time! Time to test my ILS skills... Sorry for the slight fuzziness to the video, I put it in quick record at the last minute so it didn't have the correct resolution on, but I thought it might be nice for you (and the others) to see your hard work in action :)

But but but.... muh contrails :( on a more serious note its good to see you're still in the loop mirk :) hot and humid is something I've never really flown in before and so should prove an interesting challenge! The carrier attack by Cribob and NASA isn't done justice by the tacview, watching these two FW190s racing though the fog towards the lumbering silhouette of the Kuznetsov, only for this huge wave of yellow tracer come screaming towards them from the CIWS! The entire TS exploded into a chorus of 'Very Honourabru!' 'Zig-Zag!' 'Use the Force!' and other such war cries. Hilarity ensued, they got so close! With the P40 and Spitfire around the corner I'll be delving into the world of props before too long :smilewink: Also... 28 days till the viggen!!! I can't wait to see what that carrier group makes of my RB04 Missiles.... :music_whistling:

yeah, fairly certain its 400. You get a 30 second warning when your ping goes over it and if your ping hasn't settled below it after those 30 seconds you'll be kicked. I think theres also a blocker in place too to stop you rejoining after a ping timeout, I've found I can't rejoin the server after a ping timeout until the reset.

Okay so in follow up to these two points I've done some offline testing these evening and have some findings: yeah, the F4s might as well be piloted by brain damaged amoebas. They are beyond useless in dogfights and I was having 4 'excellent' skill F4s fully loaded losing to 2 'good' mig 21s armed with a standard 21 loadout (2 R3R and 4 R60M) quite reliably in a variety of situations (head on, BVR, WVR, chasing, with/without AWACS.. you name it I tested and they SUCK!) I did discover that the F14s have a decent AI though so they could be worth trying :) just (for balance) leave them loaded with AIM-7s and not have 12 AIM-54s being flung across the conflict zone at some helpless A-10! :lol: That said, maybe a pair of F14s with sparrows, aim-9s, and 2 AIM-54s could be an option for the 'retribution' spawn if the teams are stacked. Then I could accept the phoenixes being massive force multipliers to help the undermanned team. Only issue I see is the F14s using them to attack the tankers/AWACS, but this is countered by having them set as invisible to the AI (as they are already I think). I have also done some tanker testing. All speeds given below are true airspeed/as inputted into the mission editor. Same for altitudes. Fuel was set at 65% with no external bags to simulate someone hanging around the conflict zone at low level for 45-60 minutes I put as heavy a semi-feasable load (6xmavs, 5 MK84, 2AIM-9M, ECM) I could on my trusty hog and experimented with what it could get away with and found that a KC135 at 5000m (16,400ft) doing 450km/h (243knots/280mph) was the maximum feasable speed for refuelling, but the A10 was screaming the entire time at me! :D When I reduced my combat load to my standard 'OC load' of 4xmavs, 2xrockets, 6xmk82, 3xbdu33 (for wind indication), 2AIM-9 and ECM I found that the tanker could be increased to 550km/h (297knots/342mph) before it became impossible to catch up. I then reduced my payload further to simulate a refuel mid-mission (1xmav, 4xmk82, 2xbdu33, 1AIM-9, ECM) and the A10 was more than capable of keeping up with the KC-135 doing 550km/h. I did check that the F15 was happy refuelling from the tanker at this lower speed and found no problems :) My suggestion therefore is for the KC135 to be at 5000m/16,400ft doing between 500-550km/h /270-297knots. This way both the A10 and F15 can refuel on it, as long as the A10 pilot hasn't decided to be me and pretend to be a mini B52 with 9 mk84s... :music_whistling: The IL-78 doesn't need to be changed in any way as the only planes that can refuel at it are the SU27/33 and the Mirage, and these are all able to refuel at it as it stands. If anyone has anything to add please do :) I'm not that familiar with refuelling the blufor planes so if I've missed anything then feel free to chip in.

How about a UN helo party? medic hueys/mi8s escorted by mistral equipped gazelles?? ;)

Having played on the winter wonderland version of OC for a couple days now I'd like to give some feedback. First off regarding the temperature, I've noticed no crippling problems :) some aircraft have to be more careful in their startup such as the huey's batteries struggling, but in general no issues to report across all modules. Just remember your heating systems guys! Interestingly the super cold weather has made the gameplay really fun. The contrails start as low as 4,100m (13,500ft) and persist through to 12,000m (39,500ft) which means most a-a engagements start in the contrail layer and makes target tracking easy, and has the bonus of looking pretty incredible to an observer when 6 fighters are duking it out in the skies above them! Had some great success in the mig-29 going in low with the radar off and then zoom climbing up at contrailing F15s from immediately below, and launching an R73 before zipping back into the non-contrail zone :pilotfly: Similarly it's proved very helpful for the ground attackers and legacy planes, because its very easy to pinpoint and track both team's fighters from the contrails, and I've seen otherwise dead-to-rights attackers saved multiple times by them spotting the incoming contrails, giving them time to hide/run away/set up an attack. Recently I've developed a magical ability to NOT die on my CAP runs and make it to a tanker for a top up, and boy trying to refuel when all 4 engines from the tanker are blinding you with their contrails makes it very interesting, practically have to hug the IL-78 to be able to see it! I think the server is much better running the 'colder but clear' weather compared to the 'warmer (but still cold) and snowing'. I've noticed much better FPS and being able to see the contrails are so much better, even though the snow was pretty. Not sure what you did with the dynamic weather but that's given some crazy flying conditions! we've been getting crosswinds of 9m/s + at some airfields and I've been blown IN to the water a couple of times now when doing an SU33 carrier takeoff and the wind has caught me off guard. It's great fun and an awesome challenge, I've seen crabbing helicopters and bush pilots looking like their almost flying sideways at times :D (slight exaggeration, but its proving a great challenge) Changing the AI from AI Mirknirs to MiG23s has been a success in my opinion. The MiGs are easier to combat in the legacy fighters and mirage but they still manage to shoot quite a few people down by virtue of their two decent radar missiles, and the extra numbers mean they can assist each other better if the fight becomes a WVR dogfight. They also prove damn difficult to track at low level by virtue of their grey colour scheme blending in with the snowy terrain. I hope the Mig23s are here to stay :) Have you thought about maybe doing a similar downgrade on the F16s, and making them F4 phantoms? 3 F4s armed with 4 sparrows + 4 AIM9s could prove an interesting opponent! Also I like your idea of forcing the AI respawn if medic helos are shot down. People quite often are complaining in the chat about being downed as the medic helos and I think the instant CAP respawn could go some way to alleviating that. Or, maybe have it so that the AI CAP respawns instantly and, as a one off event (for that shootdown), spawn in at increased strength of one extra plane (so 3 F16 or 4 MiG23) to serve as retribution for breaking the Geneva convention! With either option I think it should come with a global message along the lines of 'Your team/the enemy team has shot down a medic helicopter! AI reinforcements have been scrambled to provide additional protection' to serve as a notification that blindly firing 2 AMRAAMs at that helpless huey/mi8 is just plain rude ;) All in all keep up the awesome work, and thanks as always for hosting such a great server Mirknir. Let me know what you think of my idea for the tanker routes, you deserve a medal for dealing with us chirping in your ear constantly ;)

Okay so I've been thinking about this tanker idea, and have a proposal. As you can see on the diagram below (MLG Paint Skillz on show!) I suggest the tankers could take an arrowhead style path which starts out at sea, comes over the top (or just behind) their SAM base (for a degree of protection) and then out the other side. This way it would intercept the most common entry/exit paths planes take to the conflict zone and so would make for a convenient detour which could encourage going for a-a refuel instead of going to an airfield and in the case of FC3 planes, doing a full shutdown. For the protection, my thinking was this: whilst over the ocean they'll be protected by the ships, at the 'tip' of the arrowhead they'll have cover of the SAM base, and the majority of the player fighters, and at the far tip they'll be in the AI CAP cover zone. This way they'll be protected by something, but that something is destructible. Thoughts/ideas/concerns?

Life gets in the way sometimes unfortunately. As much as I would love to spend all my time downing cocky F-15 pilots in my ground pounders, other priorities have to come first sometimes. I know dust has been away working this week, I've been busy with work, NASA is moving house, but rest assured I'm sure most of the gang will be on this weekend :thumbup:

Mirknir plz

Hi Mirknir, As a follow up to this I have just done a quick test with both Russian ground EWR, the EWR 55G6 and the EWR 1L13, and both will report back to a player. They give the standard periodic reports, and respond to bogey dope, picture, declare requests. Maybe they were broken in a previous patch? but I can confirm that, in SP at least, they both talk to the player and can be talked to :)

I am not around at all this weekend mate, sorry :( earliest I'll be back on is Sunday evening, so lunchtime/early afternoon 'MURICA time. Next week I'm back on my normal timetable though so no early exits in the evening :)

I've done a little bit of experimenting regarding the AWACS(DL) OP vs AI OP debate and can make a couple of stabs at whats going on regarding the all-seeing AI. the main issue seems to be the CAP/AWACS co-operation. On their own, the AI are limited by their radar (effectiveness changes depending on the plane) and can be pretty easily tricked. However, with a AWACS present that's when they gain their 'all seeing eye'. With radar all ai planes (ground pounders/props/transports etc included!) gain an uninterruptible datalink. This can still be defeated with clever mountain flying but the moment you pop up into the line of sight of the AWACS, you're instantly painted onto the AI datalink. This is unlike the SU27/33 player datalink which has a 7-8 second refresh that enables you to pop up and dive down without appearing if you're quick/careful. To that end, I propose a couple of ideas: 1) We can try the AI without the AWACS. This would limit the AI CAP to their own radars, which are good, but no better than a competent human player. At the same time, player ground pounders/helos/legacy fighters are left vulnerable because of their lack of/inferior radars without an AWACS to guide them or warn them of opposing players. Could potentially be mitigated by extending the 'enemy player fighter in the vicinity' to the A10/SU25/trainers (trainers might already have it? can't remember) 2) We can remove the AI but keep the AWACS. Whilst SU27/33 players will still have the datalink, we know the vulnerabilities of this and will allow the legacy fighters (as well as ballsy hawk pilots ;) ) to take the fight to them with clever low level flying. I have some slight concerns due to the terrain being much more hilly and mountainous on redfor's side of the map, but without allowing the server to test it for a few sessions I don't know which side that would benefit more. 3) keep both the AI CAP and the AWACS but change the plane. When the server first restarts have the AI CAP on older planes such as the Mig-23/F4 phantom which have far less capable weapons and radar, so are easier to avoid/destroy even with the AWACS assistance. Have the older planes for the first 2/3 respawns, and if they are still being defeated eventually upgrade them to more capable aircraft (F16/SU27 like we have now, then maybe SU30/F15C/E if still defeated towards the end of a server cycle). This would make things easier for the trainers/legacy aircraft, but if they prove too capable the defence is stepped up. Also adds variety to the dogfights. 4) replace the AWACS with ground based radar. The EWR are at ground level and LOS is blocked by mountains and hills far easier. Allows both teams to spot fighters flying high, but people sneaking through the hills are protected from the most part. EWR can still be contacted by players for bogey dope etc, and would turn dog fighting in the hills into a terrifying game of cat and mouse, both sides knowing that popping up over a hill to cut someone off exposes them to the EWR and could compromise their positon. I personally prefer this idea and suggest we try this one? Thoughts/ideas/concerns?

Well you say that dust... There was one :lol: when the 27 decided to fight NASA I was sweating because I'd wagered a module he would score a werfengranate kill, thankfully it was a gun kill so my wallet sleeps sound... For now :smilewink: Also, you've got a new member for the trainer party! :pilotfly: bought myself the hawk 2 days ago, and have scored 4 air to air kills already, one su-33, one mig-29, one mirage and one su-27! (No f15 kill yet, please forgive me mighty overlord Mirknir!) It's the perfect little escort to the bush pilots. :)

We can try the 'no awacs' sessions, but I do have a couple of thoughts: I do think the attackers should have the 'fighter in the vicinity' warning if there's no awacs. They're vulnerable enough in the current versions of the map! The 3 gen fighters (F5, Mig21) are quite dependant on the awacs for guidance, I don't fly them but I feel they could be a little gimped without it because their radars are mediocre at best. Other than that it could be an interesting experiment. I've never felt the Datalink is that OP, yes the datalink + EO + R27ET is pretty powerful but you can only carry 2 of them! I have always felt its asymmetric balance; the F15 gets the TWS launch on 2 targets and AIM120s, the russians get datalink and EO missiles. Just my 2 cents, we can try it and see what happens :)

I'm glad you enjoyed it, we had a fantastic time trying to complete the objective! At one point we were actually wondering if immortality was still on after a couple of missiles looked like they impacted to no effect, I guess their guns hit them just before impact. Is there a difference between the two fleets? The blufor should be the same as the red one isn't it? I'll investigate tonight, but I suspect this could be a sneaky breeky mirknir trick ;) Minor experiments were done with the fast carrier Huey and things seem pretty good and bug/glitch free :) will do some testing with the carrier su33 tonight and report back. Also, still no teleporting ships seen :thumbup:

Bonus Pic, the service ceiling of the SU25 officially is 7000m/23000ft... I think I need to be having words with the Russian Air force :D (remember the altimeter for the SU25 is in meters....)

'Open Sea Fleet is now an -ag objective' He said... 'It is almost impossible to destroy' He said... 'I know some people will try' He said.... Well Mr Server Admin Overlord, have I got some news for you :smilewink: (SPOILERS: TLDR after countless deaths and attempts, we killed the objective!) The appearance of the Open Sea Fleet posed as the greatest challenge I've attempted so far on ANY server on DCS, and once again I recruited my ship-busting squadron to tackle the 'impossible objective'. NASA and Bert joined me in SU25Ts loaded to the brim with SEAD missiles to take on the new fleet. Not much to report other than we found our previous tactic that we used on the Resky didn't work; whilst the KH58Us outrange the Moskva cruiser, the CIWS had an 100% intercept rate and the Moskva fired on us and killed us before we could fire the shorter ranged KH25MPUs. At this point GhostEngineer discovered that, by being under 10 m (that's 33 feet for you freedom fanboys!) he managed to get so close to the Carrier accompanying the Moskva that he was TOO close for the enemy missiles to engage and was only downed by the CIWS systems. Using our newfound knowledge and gaining an additional, if unconventional, wingman in the Mig21, we decided to fly out to our fleet for protection, and then get as low as we dared to close. The first run was... eventful. NASA played chicken with a dolphin and lost, so bert and I pushed ahead. What we noticed at that low level was that our radar pods couldn't detect the ships over the horizon so we were mostly blind, relying on the F10 radio menu to keep us on course. We ended up so close that as we attempted to manuever to get onto target bert accidently flew into the sea and so I tried to engage. I fired a KH58U at sea level, well within range and... dead. But not from what you think! I forgot that the KH58U is one of those missiles that drops off the rail THEN fires, so I dropped it straight into the sea and.. boom :doh: Second run was far more successful. Followed same pattern as the first, except we all got in firing range. We fired all our missiles, but they all got intercepted or crashed into the ocean.. EXCEPT ONE! One KH25MPU got through and damaged the Moskva. We may have all died, again, but we showed we can crack their armour. Take three. A couple of fighters had tried to intercept us (looking at you RustOff-69... :lol: ) but couldn't get through our escorts and Cruiser cover so we headed straight for our Cruisers and onward to the Fleet. This time, a massive volley co-ordinated between the three of us saw multiple missiles break through the CIWS screen and before our very eyes, NASA ( of all people!! :lol: ) delivered the killing blow to the Moskva! Scratch one! (check the chatlog ;) ) We were very low on missiles now, but decided to push straight to the carrier. Unfortunately, it nailed all four of us, but we discovered that (compared to the Moskva) its missiles have a far shorter range. Take four. Bert had to leave and so NASA and I pushed on. We traded our ECM and R73s for rockets and left the outer pods empty for speed's sake. Knowing the Kuznecow has inferior missiles we went in at sea level, then climbed to give our missiles a better angle. We fired, and the insane CIWS on the carrier got most of them but we found a blind spot and pounded it. It started burning, and as I lined up for the S13 rockets it exploded, scratch two! NASA and I got one of the fleet ships each. Nothing is indestructable with enough determination! and enough respawns..... :music_whistling: Final toll: redfor - 2 ships : blufor - 14 SU25Ts, 4 Mig-21 They're tough, but not invincible ;) really interesting objective though, took a hell of a lot of work (and about 2 1/2 hours!) to kill but within about 10 minutes of the ships being killed both tankers were dead and a blufor F15 was constantly patrolling the sea where the ships once were, so I'm not 100% sure how balanced it is once both are dead. Unless... respawning ships? :lol:

Thought I would share this epic story from tonight's session with you all, sorry for the long essay of a post below! Well then, I decided to try out the new Tuapse objective today. I attacked it a few times on my own in the SU25T and discovered that, regardless of what weapon I threw at it, the Resky's missiles and CIWS (with the Molynia in support) was too tough to punch through. Frustrated, I assembled the team... Bert and NASA volunteered as tribute to the DCS Gods and joined me in my intrepid mission to free the port of Tupase from the sneeky breeky Ruskies. We loaded up the super long ranged KH-58 missiles with a mix of KH25MPU and KH-25ML in case those weren't enough. Heading out we formed an arrowhead formation and activated our ECM to both confuse the ships' air defence and also as a protective screen for our fighter escorts, consisting of an SU27 and an F15 up at altitude. We made our way to the coast and turned towards Tuapse. Once we got set up I took NASA on the quickest SU25 SEAD tutorial known to man and we were soon ready to launch our assault. Soon we had the pesky Resky locked up and launched a carefully timed volley of the gargantuan KH-58s at our target, and pressed forward to follow it up with a barrage of KH25MPUs. As we closed to range of the secondary missiles our RWRs lit up, the Resky was returning fire! soon white smoke from our missiles and theirs filled the air as a precarious game of chicken commenced. We would fire a volley, the ships would intercept some of the missiles and fire back, we would retreat and set up to fire again. Eventually the sheer volume of missiles proved too much for the naval CIWS systems, and Bert claimed the first Resky trophy for the regulars :thumbup: Of course this wouldn't be Open Conflict if we weren't then ambushed by SU27s using datalink whilst darting through the rolling hills! NASA was hit by an R27ET, and Bert was being locked on whilst we retreated. Noticing I wasn't being locked, I quickly turned round and, with the help of AWACS, sped straight towards the flight of SU27s. AWACS sent the dreaded 'Merged' message and suddenly my hud was filled with a rapidly approaching fighter and, with a flick of my plane's nose to put the seeker on target, he learned why R73s and afterburners are best friends :thumbsup: Thinking we were in the clear I turned to join Bert for the trip home, only to spot the unmistakable trail of a Russian missile speeding towards Bert! He frantically pumped flares and the missile thankfully slammed into a nearby hill. Lining up my final R73 I put the second SU27 in my pipper and prayed. Finally good tone! Fox 2! The 27 attempts to flare it off but to no avail. Two air to air kills for this Frogfoot! :pilotfly: But there's no rest for the weary. Now totally Winchester my RWR started beeping frantically, a THIRD SU27 was on top of us! First missile ate chaff, second followed suit, but despite mine and Bert's best efforts, the third slammed into my right wing and I was forced to eject. Bert then frantically entered a turnfight with the offending fighter, throwing off R73 after R73 with his IR jammer and well timed flares. Finally he gets tone, Fox 2! But the missile never left the rail! His energy exhausted, the SU27 cut his turning circle short and gunned him down. 3 SU25Ts lost, but we proved that the Resky is tough, just not 'that' tough ;) TLDR, the new Tuapse objective is awesome, the perfect level of difficulty to encourage teamwork :thumbup: