Pizzicato

I love it when a plan comes together... 1. I finished reading Chickenhawk on Friday. 2. My new computer arrived on Saturday. 3. My Saitek Pro Combat Rudder Pedals are due to arrive this week. 4. The DCS Huey is just around the corner.

Something that's impressed me about the DCS series is why in which the graphics have gradually, progressively improved with each new release: Does anyone remember the hideous washed out, vaseline-all-over-the-screen initial implementation of HDR versus the currently beautifully tuned wonderfulness? Remember when the ground plain was nothing more than a diffuse texture and a noise texture versus the current grass, flowers and other foliage? And what about the cockpit lighting and shadows that really put you into the same world as the exterior environment? With all of these gradual incremental improvements, I wonder if we're actually seeing some of the pieces of EDGE coming in bit by bit? I could be way off, but it suddenly occurred to me that it would be fairly counterproductive to make some many really positive incremental improvements if they were ultimately all just going to be thrown away in a few months.

Yes. All you need to do is install DCS World then install the A-10 module. The DCS auto-updater will do the rest for you.

I've been flying the Shark fairly regularly since day one and I'm still not sure whether: 1. There are persistent bugs with the Collective Brake, Altitude Hold Autopilot and/or Descent Mode. 2. I'm completely misunderstanding the functionality of the aforementioned systems. 3. I'm just really, really stupid. All three are very real possibilities. :) My problem is that I can't get the Shark to hover with any degree of consistency. Sometimes it works just fine and other times I find myself constantly gaining or losing altitude. I know that the autopilot only has 20% authority over the controls, but I'm always comfortably within parameters, so it can't be that. I've tried all sorts of combinations of pressing and/or holding the Collective Brake. I've even tried using Descent Mode to set my altitude. All of that being the case, can someone please walk me through the exact steps to getting my altitude stable in a hover, please? Also, in moment of ironic comedy genius, I got into a solid stable hover with Altitude Hold on and then tried engaging Descent Mode. The indicator light on the upper left panel came on and I could see that the Descent Mode switch was engaged on the collective, but the Shark resolutely refused to decrease its altitude. :) That being the case, bonus points if someone can also tell me what I'm doing wrong with Descent Mode? Any help on the above would be greatly appreciated.

Unless you're an AI wingman, in which case it's borderline impossible... :smilewink:

OK - I give up. I've just been shot down for about the 15th time and my wingmen continue to be utterly, utterly useless. I've found the mission and loaded it into the editor, but all of the enemy units appear to be hidden. Can anyone tell me how to unhide them so that I can remove the Hinds, please? In other news, can whoever's responsible for collating the list of future fixes PLEASE get friendly helicopter AI onto ED's radar for future attention? Pretty please??? :cry:

Yeah. They still get smoked before they've even fired a shot. :( Yes. That's what I used to do in all of my previous playthroughs. Something's changed...

0 for 33 (or about 5 for 44 if you include my kills and deaths). :(

OK... deep breath... I'm currently playing through the Deployment campaign for the fifth or sixth time and something very bad seems to have happened to the wingman AI. I've reached the "On the Other Side" mission which tasks you with flying over some very high peaks before attacking an enemy supply base. It's also the mission with the two enemy Hinds... :mad: :( This mission has always been a real difficulty spike in this campaign, but it's now become impossible to progress past. I've played it 10 times in the past two weeks, and my three wingman are now 0 for 30 against the two Hinds. The problem is that the two Hinds appear to be snipers while my three AI companions are utterly blind. I've even sent them 4 clicks down the valley towards where the Hinds appear, but they still say "Unable" when I select Flight -> Engage -> Bandits. The Hinds then close in and utterly slaughter them. Again. :( I can always get one of the Hinds, but even at 3 versus 1, my wingmen studiously ignore the remaining Hind and allow it to calmly and leisurely knock them out of the sky. Could someone PLEASE either work towards fixing the wingman AI or just remove the Hinds from this mission as it's become pretty much unplayable. :(

Agreed. I'm sure not everyone would see it that way, but I'd personally be happy to pay for an Su-25T cockpit (and a Mig-29 and Su-33 one, too).

Seems to primarily affect the (still in beta) FC3 aircraft. I get consistent, repeatable crashes after completing the first mission of the F-15 "Bear Trap" campaign, too, but no such problems (touch wood) with Ka-50. I guess I won't be touching FC3 until at least 1.2.5 since 1.2.4 will hopefully bring the Huey. :)

That's pretty much exactly my take, too.

Synopsis of Matt Wagner's interview on FS Break posted by Paulrkiii Highlights, mostly nothing new Mid range DCS ACFT closer to FC level detail (around 0.26.00) F-86() & Mig-15 in development (don't remember these two being mentioned before) (around 0.34.00) New Maps, ED & 3rd party (0.34.50) Maps (EDGE), Nevada (delayed a "bit"). When done should allow new maps being developed "quicker" (0.41.08 ) After release of 1.2.3, finalize FC3, UH-1 will be released, work "diligently" on new modules (1.02.00) Dedicated Server in works, hand-in-hand development with EDGE....on hold currently (1.05.25) Eventually see a dynamic campaign. Not a question of "if" but "when" (1.10.00) F/A-18C & F-15C internal ED developed (not 3rd party) (1.11.40) "Probably" APG-73 radar (F/A-18C) "Probably" APG-63 Version 1 (F-15C) http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1682821&postcount=1160

FWIW, this seems to be specific to the first mission of the F-15 campaign. I've flown several missions of the Ka-50 Operation Medvedev campaign tonight with no crashes at all.

My first "sim" was the same as the thread starter's - "Bandits at 3 o' clock" on the Acorn Electron. It looked like this: I then moved on to "sims" such as Combat Lynx... ...and Flightpath 737 I played a number of other "flight sims" on the Electron, and later the ZX Spectrum, but it wasn't until my dad finally got a PC that I finally started getting the flight sim experiences I was looking for. The one that really grabbed me was F-14 Fleet Defender: PxTnNcLISGY After that, it was Tornado on the Amiga... ...and Gunship 2000. EqfX3oakclU I eventually returned to the PC and became utterly obsessed with EF2000, which remains one of the best sims I've ever played. After that, my main flight sim loves were the Jane's sims, especially Longbow and Longbow 2... ...followed by a many years-long affair with Falcon 4.0. I played all the ED sims throughout this period, but I just couldn't get into them. :( My next move was to Il-2, which was wonderful. I'm not much of an older-plane guy, but that sim was astounding. I eventually came back into the ED fold with the release of Flaming Cliffs. The Su-25T remains one of my favourite aircraft. These days, however, it's the Ka-50 Black Shark that occupies pretty much all of my simulation time. Looking back, it's absolutely amazing how far we've come. :joystick: :D I never could have dreamed way back in the mid eighties that I'd one day be playing sims with this level of realism and visual fidelity. Quite amazing! :thumbup:

Because I didn't think to add it. ;) Also, it's not very interesting.

And overstatement of the year. All in the same thread! :thumbup:

Yep. The poll only allows for 10 options, so I tried to pick the highest profile options. Should probably have picked Beczl's Mig-21 ahead of the Coretex Superbug, though. My bad. :(

Question's in the title. Which of the (long term) DCS features are you most excited about?

Just tried again. Flew the entire first mission, start to finish, landed at Vaziani, quit out and got the "DCS.exe has stopped working error".

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

Same here. :(

Did he clarify that comment?

Hey guys, This isn't going to be the most useful post, but the game just crashed after I'd successfully finished the first mission of the F-15 campaign, taxied back to parking, shut down the engines and then ended the mission. Almost as soon as I'd hit Escape and selected Quite, I got a Windows error message "DCS.exe has stopped working". Unfortunately, I don't have any more details than that. Can someone explain how I can gather more useful info (e.g. crash logs/dumps) the next time that it happens, please? Thanks!

I believe I'm seeing the exact same thing. I've attached images of two F/A-18Cs from a Quick Mission I jumped into.