PawlaczGMD

I'm struggling to adjust the Orion 2 with dampers and no springs. I have the dampers lubed with 767A, but they still need to be quite tight to prevent the rubber boot from moving the stick. This creates some friction. Also, the stick movement feels unnatural in the diagonal. This might be because the friction on the two axes is not identical. But I still have trouble dialing it in. I wonder if I should try PG44a instead, also wondering why we feel differently...

Yeah, I also have the damage dialog on, which should show if you do even 1% of damage. This is not the case. Even with the flawed hitpoint system, I would expect any penetrating hit to do non-zero % of damage. I know that even fractional damage registers there. For example, firing the Ka-50 gun at a ship- it will show damage done! So no effect at all when a RBK with heavy HEAT is dropped straight on a tank or BTR is concerning.

That's all true, but we're talking about HEAT submunitions here. This is a shaped charge that does not have an area of effect anti-armor damage, so we're talking about direct hits that don't penetrate. I think it's an independent issue.

I've found that the KGMU is a lot more effective than the heavy AP/HEAT from an RBK (PTAB 10.5M). These ones can't even damage BTRs. So the state of Russian cluster munitions is really poor... KGMU is only useful against trucks and maybe BTRs. I've had mixed results where sometimes I can kill 4 BTRs in a line, sometimes 0. I think that's still underpowered, because by sheer density each BTR must be getting multiple cluster hits, and they should all pen from the top, but let's say this performance is acceptable. I suspect that they don't model all the submunitions to save performance, and so the chance of a good hit is smaller than it should be... RBKs I would say are totally useless in the current state, an iron bomb of equivalent weight is just better in every case. No reason to ever load them.

Pretty sure it used to stay open, and still does on the Su-25 T.

No FF Russian (modern-ish) aircraft. Boring to always fly Blue. Also I like the Su-25. But I would probably buy all the ones I want if there was a FF option...

Yes, it should be possible to fire in standalone mode in some way: https://weaponsystems.net/system/175-Zvezda+Kh-25MP It can be fired by planes that do not carry the pod. I would understand not implementing it, as it's not a full fidelity plane, but to remove it seems weird.

Comparing practice hits vs trucks and tanks, the submunitions must be getting hits. Because if I drop an RBK on a truck, I will always kill it. But dropping it even on a BTR 90: never. They have roughly the same size, so the likelihood of a hit should be the same. So it must be that the clusters are hitting, but not doing damage. Looking at some sources, these PTABs should be able to pen 100-200 mm of RHA, so way more than a BTR has anywhere, and definitely on the roof, where they should be most likely to hit.

Bump. A similar issue is present with the RBK cluster containers. Despite perfect direct hits, it rarely does any damage to armor, regardless of submunition type. Heavy HEAT/AP performs the worst of them all if anything... I am only able to destroy trucks reliably with these. An APC/IFV has very low chance of getting damage from the dispenser, and almost no chance from RBKs. MBTs- forget about it. I think it's likely that the armor penetration of the submunitions is severely underestimated. Because if it was about hit probability, trucks would also not be getting destroyed. So the submunitions are hitting, but doing no damage.

Whether the Su-25 has toe brakes, or a brake lever, surely it is an "axis" in the real plane, not an on/off button...

I don't think this is a good fit for DCS. MSFS focuses on civil aviation, so long haul transcontinental flights need a full map. In DCS, most of the planes can barely cross the maps we have, and there is little gameplay/simulated reason to do so. That's not what military aircraft generally do, unless they're just relocating to another base. It's better to have more detailed, smaller maps like we do.

I just wanted to report the same, so bump. Kh-29 T will not give LA then locked onto a moving target, and will hit where the target was at launch if you override it. I agree that given it's optically tracking, this behavior doesn't make much sense. Also while I know this weapon is intended for bunkers and such, it's the only Russian fire and forget ground attack missile, so it's kinda important.

I've done some more definitive testing, and all Russian cluster munitions struggle to deal any damage to anything more armored than a truck. BTRs and MBTs almost never receive any damage from any clusters, despite direct drops on top of them. Only unarmored vehicles can be reliably damaged.

Agreed. It would be nice to have the A2G damage model addressed and at least have some plans for in the roadmap. It is quite broken, with most A2G weapons being not nearly as effective as they should be - particularly non-precision ones, where non-direct hits are most common.

I have not been able to do any damage with the heavy HEAT/AP cluster bomb, dropped form a Su-25. I have just played some instant action strike, and I'm pretty sure I dropped the RBK-500-255 PTAB-10.5 within range of some BTR 90. They were within the blast cloud. They received zero damage. I have the damage dialog, and checked - not even 1% damage. Is this accurate performance, or is the damage bugged? If the cluster munitions called heavy HEAT/AP cannot do any damage to a BTR from the top, this seems wrong. Track attached. 255ptab105.trk

I've heard that the Warthog Throttle is pretty high quality, but if you're suffering from static friction that makes fine adjustments hard, the standard way is to apply Nyogel to the friction mechanism. If that's not it, it's a skill issue. I would not touch throttle curves, but technically you could make it more precise in the refueling range by making a user curve that's flat around the point you need. The tradeoff is that it will be all over the place in other regions.

PS the hard deck is definitely not obeyed, and breaking it doesn't result in termination. Is this a bug?

Thanks for the material! I do have your F-18 campaign, but haven't gotten around to learning that plane yet. Admittedly, I have a lot to learn when it comes to BFM. I will study up... It just felt like the AI is cheating particularly bad in these fights. In other campaigns I've played, they often rate fight you, and the performance feels believable. But these aggressive scissors the F-5 engages in here seem impossible for me to replicate in the same plane. I know that DCS AI/ flight model is responsible and it's not your fault. I do wonder if these guys are scripted to fight differently though? I've not really seen such maneuvers in other campaigns, and they are also really consistent in doing this here.

In the first mission (practice one), the opponents often seem to be breaking the hard deck, and also crashing into the ground. On this track 2/3 fights, they crashed. Additionally, maybe I'm a noob, but they maneuvers they make while I'm on their tail seem impossible. They take sharp S-turns/scissors, and I follow them in full AB, predicting where they go and cutting them off short. As a result, they are taking much sharper turns than me, and they change altitude more. I still cannot catch up to them close enough for a good shot. I can sometimes make these snap shots, but not often enough to kill all 3 (out of ammo). I don't understand why I'm not closing the distance in this situation. In case I just suck here, any advice on how to close in for the kill when I'm on their 6? Does it look like they are UFOs to you, or is it my lack of understanding of energy management? bfm.trk

I'll save a track when it happens. It's quite rare, I don't know how to reproduce it intentionally. The track is from F-5 Black Sea Resolve if that helps anyone.

Weird, in the same escort mission, I've also experienced the opponent Mig to be seemingly invincible. I dumped at least 1/3 of my total ammo into him, and he just flew away like it was nothing.

I managed to run away in the F-86, but I felt like the AI was letting me win. They were on my tail for minutes, but only shot once, took out my hydraulics. They definitely had more chances to shoot. I also "cheated" by taking Aim-9s for the transport, as the .50 cals are just too weak to take it down reliably, and that's the point of having the missile option. The Mig probably takes out the transport easily with its guns.

Thanks for all the detail! I was unaware of the altitude issue. I've assumed that it gets the target altitude from laser ranging. This might explain why points are useless in some conditions.

Well, it's a dodgy area, because KA-50 is a prototype anyway, with individual airframes having different mods. I think the Igla capacity comes from just a mockup. So they could have gone either way with this. It is really annoying in practice if the mission doesn't start you aligned.

I must have missed a trigger somewhere then, maybe WP1?