redmantab

Hello pilots. On many campaign missions it will take 15 minutes in pre-flight, take off, and travel time to get to the 45 minute mark on a mission and then...boom, understandably, you may die. For those of us who don't wish to repeat a mission that takes 45 minutes to get to a main point....and then die....and then have to do it again, please advise your best technique to "get right back" to where you were. The time skip feature still isn't a desired solution as then I skip triggers, miss important events, and still have to manually control so many portions of the mission. What works best? Loading tracks after I die? Is that viable? How well does it work? Invincibility mode could help but then really feels like a weak solution? Also, I realize that this can lead to debates about realism, how simulators should be played, etc. I would agree with both sides on many points but ask that we put this aside. I love realism but need to find a time efficient way to handle running 45 minute sessions....just to reach a point, 3 - 5 x + until I'm able to pass the mission. Please advise and thank you in advance.

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Not sure where to place this. Pardon if this is incorrect. I started a thread in this section that really isn't fit for "chit chat" The thread is, based on substance, about seeking solutions for a game play issue. Speeding up missions, solutions for replay-ability, etc. Time management in campaigns and techniques to assist in that regard is really the meet of the thread. Now that the thread has been moved, it went from active to dead. Can it be moved back here based on the game play heart of the thread? Thank you! Thread is called - "DCS - Why it's so great . . . and why its hard as hell to click the Icon to play " https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=231817

Thank you for the reply. Respectfully, neither of those resolves the issue. I'm not going to give up on the Mirage when I've completed the first campaign and half of red flag. Just need some way to speed this up. As I was trying to find out, would using the track work well? Also, can someone please help me find the Mirage Red Flag missions. Also, I somehow can't find my Red Flag missions anymore. I know that may seem silly...can someone help me know where they are so I can use them individually perhaps? Thank you!

1 - If i watch the track where up to where I died, I can just "take over" at that point? Also, it sounds like the tracks only last so long? I sense some sort of hold up on using tracks....as if you guys don't think it will always be a solution. During a campaign, I'd imagine if I loaded a track and took over that it probably wouldn't credit me for completion? I'd need to load the missions up individually? 2 - With that in mind, I can't seem to remember where I find my Mirage 2k Red flag missions to use them individually. Please point me in the right direction? 3 - Perhaps I'd consider, gasp, invincibility. Feels beyond stupid but you have to understand that I'd rather learn systems that I'm spending 45 minutes to "get to" only to check out wihtin 3 minutes...then 45 more minutes to practice them again. I dread using invincibility but may go with it for practice. Again, this conversation is immensely enjoyable and I sympathize with some of the tougher stances some of you have towards casuals having to use hardcore systems and death giving it some actual meaning. I prefer the same approach to my survival simulators etc. Check out Hunt Showdown....a very enjoyable death is the end experience. In DCS, it just happens to be such a long "cycle" that even though I completely control my schedule...at some point, i need to increase time efficiency. 3 hours of flying to the same spot in a very well made campaign can make it tough to want to play again.

Honestly, I'm not surprised. Not at all ... and only in the DCS forums. Not surprised to see so many positive and reflective replies. I have spent HOURS in multiple sims and forums, we're talking heaps of games....no community is as open minded, helpful, and constructive as this one. Thank you everyone for the replies. This all makes sense. I am fortunate enough to create my own schedule and can devote hours a day to something as a hobby. My point isn't not quite having the time...it is the dedication needed to (using my example from my OP) take off, fly for 45 min, die, then repeat, die, then repeat again, succeed. While the journey is really the fun...I enjoy learning and campaigns help with that too. For me, it just isn't great use of time with all the repetition. I can move on to other hobbies, writing, reading, other sims/games, activities etc. Just want DCS to have options for not so much repetition. Love the realism....just need a bit more balance to be smarter with time. It is good to see so many others in my boat and how they have some small solutions. One being where someone here said, "Seeing that we can kind of do that by taking control of a track at any time, perhaps implementing it may not be too resource consuming." This sounds like this is not something currently in DCS (hope it is!?) but something you want? One other reply made it sound as if you can do this already and it may seriously be all i need to play regularly. What is currently, in DCS, the best way to accomplish what I'm going for? Resuming "close to point of death" or "shaving off time." The time advance part? That's tough cause you can miss triggers. Open to your ideas. Ty.

DCS has been an amazing experience over the prior year. I've sunk about 1,000 hours into it. Better yet, with the great community's advice, I've built a home cockpit (Volair) and purchased a flight seat. Some other adjustments were made and I use a Rift. WHAT A BAD ASS EXPERIENCE!!! But ya know what? Tell me you guys have this happen sometimes ...right? Aaaand, based on the following, what you do to stay pumped for DCS.... A DCS evening frequently starts like this : "Ya know what? Think it's time to fire up some DCS. It's been a couple days, lets hop back in a campaign and enjoy. Where was I last? Ahh, Mirage Red Flag campaign, mission 5. Sure....sounds good. Allrighty, lets align my INS.....get things ready, smile a bit while enjoying the vibe in VR (I'm IN a Mirage!) and startup sequence.....15 minutes go by, I'm in the air, loving it." But some trouble almost always awaits. I Fly through a few navs, spend another 45 min, then....I'm dead. Just dead. Totally fine, that is part of the experience. I want a realistic enjoyable sim. Problem lies in the next part. 15 min take off (not always but you get the point), basically an hour to return to the same part of the campaign in that same mission, then maybe I get through it or....like tonight...I have to do it all yet again. Three times. Phenomenal sim. Really is. But because of hundreds of variations of the above and the ultra deep time sink and need to replay major areas over and over....its hard to hit the icon to fire up my old buddy.

Thanks everyone! Funny I bought the f-14 and Persian gulf map last night and log in to see all the f 18 (as I expected) recommendations. I'm still flying the M2k Red Flag campaign so I have time. Basically im going to get both. I'll pick up the f18 soon as well. Just winder which one I'll take the time to learn first. The f14 it f18. Either way, great options and may as well have both!

HA! I've thought about it! But not ready yet. "DDI's and MFCD's" .... should I google what this means lol?

Thank you for the feedback. Just curious, why do you like the more modern planes better? I can guess, but still....since I'm new perhaps I'm not thinking of points you would make. Based on responses so far, probably now narrowing this to the F-14 or F-18.

Hello awesome community peeps! About 9 months ago I purchased the p-51, then the F5, and now am enjoying the Mirage 2000 campaigns (VERY well done). I've enjoyed learning from the "old to the new" and love DCS. Even purchased Volair Jet seat / Simshaker and love it all. I'm planning to purchase my next aircraft. I'm torn. Honestly I'd buy the Harrier, Hornet, and F14 but I learned with the Mirage how long the more "modern" aircraft can take to learn to fly. If you had to choose one of the planes I mentioned which would it be? Please share any thoughts : )

I land properly. Berger jokes around and talks to the other pilots once I'm off the runway. The kneeboard just has a blue box of where to land but nothing specific. Frustrating. How do I receive "mission ended" so that I can log off/out? Please advise. Looked all through the kneeboard and briefing nothing tells me where to park. What am I missing?!??! I have my rift and DCS paused waiting for a reply here lol. Hopefully someone can nicely respond quickly to assist. Thank you! **When I left the mission it allowed "end mission" in post flight. Wish there was something at the end of missions similar to the Mirage 2000c Campaign that shows "end mission." Would be nice having something clear that showed mission ended. Solved. Please delete.

May I ask someone to elaborate on this? If I'm correct, you are describing how to use autopilot and remain at altitude easily whole also turning so that we can orbit effectively? Please advise. TY don't know where to look.

I realize with INS this was my first mission where I had to use a West instead of the trained and common East I've used up until now. Hah. Figures. I've sorted everything out with NTTR Red Flag training mission and landed safely. The one small item at the end I couldn't seem to complete was when I change the radio to Ground and press space bar once I'm off the runway. I did it almost assuredly the proper way and, even with the correct station (flight map, R-G, double checking ground green station), pressing space bar trying to talk to ground once landed and off the runway didn't satisfy the trigger. Nothing happened. I just had to "pretend" I completed the trigger. Close enough I guess. As I suspected, triggers will remain an issue most likely. Par for the course with a flight sim I suppose.

Baltic. Appreciate all your responsiveness. One of the things I'm noticing about the NTTR Red Flag "preparation mission" and Red Flag Mission 1....is that they are well done and also a huge step up in realism / intricacy / difficulty. The communications is much more involved. I never use easy communications anyway but this definitely is a deep system all together. I love the VO work and mood a great deal so far but I can tell that I'm almost assuredly going to miss important triggers or correspondence. I'm newer to flight and dont fly IRL so it definitely is a fun yet steep learning curve. All of the comms, radios, exact timings to taxi, takeoff, learning new terms such as what ATIS is, googling, reading, studying, and then requirements to be at Waypoints at certain times definitely has me thinking that I will understandably make mistakes and need to fly missions over again due to missed triggers etc. That can be a bit discouraging to spend 20 minutes to prepare the INS, get in the air, only to miss something due to my not being ultra advanced. Love your work. Simply sharing some concerns. Somewhat related, for example in the NTTR mission that preps for Red Flag immediately after I take off I head towards waypoint 1 but I am heading completely the opposite direction (South?) of Nellis rather than heading with the rest of the squad towards WP1. When I open the map I can tell that I should be flying towards WP1 "above" Nellis and then on to WP2 but by following the Mirage's WP1 I head almost exactly the opposite direction. I have used INS and set it countless times and am sure i did correctly as this was never a problem in the campaign. Any thoughts on why this is or anything I mentioned overall? Thank you.

If I use Oculus Rift ans x52 I'd assume you'd say that VR will work nicely compared to track IR. At least good enough to enjoy properly, correct?

Please shameless self promote away! I am newer to DCS and, while I use Oculus, have a flight seat/cockpit, I'm still unaware of many things....such as Mirage Red Flag! I'm very excited to see this as an option and to hear about all the VO work. I love that immersion and I would agree that it helps break up flight to your next destination with some human interaction and conversation. I'm going to have to purchase it. I have to say, I recently also bought (somewhat unrelated) the F5 campaign of F-5E Aggressors Basic Fighting Maneuvers Campaign (I believe I bought BFM instead of the more advanced one If I recall) and was let down. The quality and story seemed to be of good quality but the campaign was tough for me to get through. Even the first mission in that campaign was super tough. You fly for quite some time to a "showdown" F5 vs F5 (if I recall correctly) in a guns only battle. This is an extremely hard fight and I was bummed to have been held up at mission 1. I consider myself an experienced sim user and strong gamer with other experiences...and am learning that some of the realities of flight are, well, tough. Which makes some sense based on reality. They have an option where you can look "deep into the files" and skip right to the fight to practice so you don't have to start up and fly 20 min to get killed at minute 21....and it still was almost impossible for me. I wonder how common this is? I'm not worried about petty thing such as receiving my money back or returns...I"m more frustrated at myself and the difficulty. LOL. Oh well. Anyway, the Mirage campaign was challenging but balanced very well imho. What I considered a fun healthy balance and I'd guess Red Flag would be a similar enjoyable experience. If you guys had similar campaigns for the other aircraft I'd honestly buy every one.

I'm 3 months into the Mirage and just finished the excellent campaign. Looking for some folks to fly with online. Can't find much in the multiplayer section. Any ideas where to turn and/or are there any groups? I'm PST but can adjust somewhat to other's availability. Thanks!

I'm interested. When you say the guys on the wing are all running through the training program....that is really fascinating and sounds fun. Do you mean training as in, from even basic start up? What would be the requirements or "readiness" expected to then join this (besides the Hornet etc)? Thank you

I've downloaded missions before from the user missions area on the website. Now, when I try to download many different missions when I click the download box it doesn't open up a zip file or place to save. It literally opens up this small black box for a super quick second that I can barely see....and nothing happens. This is with chrome and IE. What on earth am I doing wrong? Thank you!

Love this simulator. I run in VR with a nice home cockpit. I've modded games before and it is always a process. I've looked at the sticky in this forum for help. It is a long long long list of a gabillion steps. I've downloaded OvGme because apparently JVGME or wtvr that one is is supposedly old now. I've tried to setup the directories in OvGme and have downloaded mods from the ED website. When I try to extract it keeps stopping halfway through extraction so I literally drag the file from where its downloaded to the desktop and then drag the mod then into my _mods folder I created. OvGme shows that my terminator Mirage 2000 skin is "green" and working. I'm used to loading the "game" from the mod tool but OvGme doesn't have a load option. So the mods are green in OvGme and I just open up DCS beta separately? I tried, and cant find the skin anywhere. Honestly, I know once it's setup mod managers are the way to go. For those of us that are candidates for needing modding for dummies, this is a huge barrier to entry. When in God's name will someone Ever make a modding tool that you just open, drag mods into, and launch game. Thats it!? Can anyone type a simply 3 sentence guide to how on earth to get a modding tool to work? Maybe I should just download the mods directly into the mod folders. I'd bet that will work. Yeah it may not be idea, supposedly it "breaks" this or that, but I could get it to work I'd bet.

Also, do I have to restart DCS every time I make a change to see how the label "takes" after I make adjustments? That could be tedious but I hope you will share that I won't have to.

Thank you! Ok, just a bit more questions. When you said open it with wordpad and modify the symbology for what you want....um, you assume I know how to do these magical things lol. How do I do that? Actually, I'd be happy simply shrinking the wording dramatically in size but so that as I learn the game in VR I can still tell what is an APC, what is a mig, etc....just without 5 inches long wording where they all cram together. It sounds like what you are recommending accomplishes that a bit eh!? Can you kindly elaborate a bit. I found this video below and wouldn't mind something like this where I still see the small horizontal line on each target but it looks like his "sentence descriptions" are shorter. I think you know what I'm aiming for.

Searched all around and through these forums for a way to simply make the Labels that I need to actually spot targets in vr and change them from long sentences that run into eachother to just the current horizontal red or blue lines in game but remove the long wording afterwords. Looking around I see all this Lua jargon and JSGME etc. What on earth are all these acronyms?! More importantly, let's skip long stories about how I should just know this stuff to the solution. Please share in common terms detailing everything (no assumptive acronyms or descriptions) how I can accomplish my goal. What do I download or change and, if possible, a solution that "sticks" after each patch would be great. Thank you! Great game in vr, phenomenal actually, just need to make this change.

Love the Mirage. Went from the Mustang, to the F5, and then Mirage. 6 months into DCS. There are a few things I just can't seem to find. These are small but they are driving me a bit crazy lol ! 1 - The INS waypoint altitude manual input. Are we supposed to do this? In the campaign it keeps mentioning that we should manually update each waypoints altitude. I saw somewhere else that one of the guys that made the campaign replied in these forums somewhere and it seemed like he said we aren't really supposed to do that. Thoughts? 2 - What is the trick to keep weapons working when switching between them? It always bugs out. I know how to use guns, Magic, etc. but when you use drop tanks or even no drop tanks at all....it just seems that swapping between all the weapon systems causes many of the next weapons you switch to to not work. I can use guns, swap to missiles, fire 2 missiles, then its kind of hard to get guns to work again. Any tips? 3 - The auto pilot. I can easily get it to use the "main" autopilot feature of simply holding altitude. Easy. When I try to use the one that causes the Mirage to fly up or down to the target altitude that I manually put in, it never works. Let's say i put in 20,000 feet. I'm flying at 15,000. I hit autopilot green button then I copy what some other DCS pilot showed in his video...and I just can't get the altitude adjusting autopilot to engage. Any tips? 4 - Bombing. The campaign mission 6. Honestly, it barely teaches anything about how to bomb. I know the Mirage is an interceptor but I'd love to still learn how to do this. The mission is fun and immersive....but doesn't really say too much. I watched some videos and they are far more in depth and still vague. I almost figured I'd just give up on bombing (in the Mirage) but that feels kind of lame of me. 5 - Flares. I know the little black "box" on the left is turned on. Ok, gotcha. But then what else do I need to do to use flares. They are tricky and don't always work. Thanks all !