MagicSlave

I just purchased this campaign, and based on the positive reviews here at the forums, I am eagerly looking forward to starting it! Sorry to be nitpicking right at the start but I have one question regarding the CASE 3 departure procedures, as presented in the briefing of the first mission: the briefing says "after a 10 degree clearing turn climb straight ahead", however, in the CV NATOPS of 1999 (NAVAIR 00-80T-105) it is stated that clearing turn shall be made ONLY during day VFR launches. Is this something that was done differently back in the 80s? Sorry, I know this is just a minor detail and I know your campaigns are top notch. I'm just very interested in the details Thank you for making one more great F-14A campaign, I love the 80s vibe in this!

Bump?

Will the AI learn to follow correct CASE 1,2,3 departure procedures at some point (e.g. CASE1: 300 KIAS or under at under 500 ft until 7 NM from carrier, then turn to route; CASE3: climb at 300 KIAS until 7 NM, then 10 NM arc to departure radial)? It is kind of pain in the ass manually plan waypoints for AI so that they will somewhat follow this... Thanks.

Returning from Event 4 in the Zone 5 campaign by Reflected

Thanks for the tips! These settings seem to work very well. FPS still takes a dip at the end of the missions when / after landing, because there are so many aircraft and other objects on the parking areas, but it is not unplayable. Just finished the third mission. Enjoying the campaign very much so far! It is so cool to hear Bio's voice in the briefings, having read his books and watched his interviews! I really like the feeling of authenticity and immersion.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I understand, this performance issue is out of your hands. Just a little update for others who may have similar issues: Today I tweaked some settings, and noticed that lowering the draw distance / texture detail and/or terrain texture detail removed the stuttering and improved performance drastically. I ended up with setting texture detail to medium (not a huge drop in quality in VR), terrain textures to low and draw distance to high, which resulted in pretty good performance. My theory is that the stuttering was caused by VRAM getting full? I base this on the observation that the stuttering / FPS drop is an on-off kind of thing, where the performance drops suddenly and drastically when there are lot of objects on screen and lot of units moving around near the player aircraft.

Hi, I started playing this campaign after the newest DCS update came, and the first mission played totally smoothly until I landed. Sometime after touchdown at Nellis AFB at the end of the mission the FPS dropped severely and stuttering began so bad that it was hard to taxi. When I started mission 2 on the ramp, performance was flawless at first, but then the FPS dropped and stuttering began as bad as the first mission. Then, after some AI soldiers had finished running across the nose of my jet and Chinook helo had flown over, the stuttering went away again and performance was very good. Then, when my AI wingman in the F-5 started up, the stuttering and poor FPS came back. It was very hard to taxi and take-off because of the stuttering, but I managed that and also to join up but the poor FPS and severe stuttering persisted during the flight out at the range. Unfortunately, the game crashed to desktop before I could save the track. Attached is the dcs log file. Otherwise the 2.7 has run pretty perfectly for me even in the F-14A and crowded deck of Supercarrier. My specs: i7-8700K at stock clock 32 GB RAM ASUS ROG TUF 3080 OC Valve Index DCS installed on 1TB M.2 SSD dcs.log

Thanks for the insights. I did have the speedbrake open as per NATOPS and also was moving the throttles a lot.. but it seems that not the way the A-4 likes it. I think I have her better under control now that I make a little bit slower and smaller throttle movements and after each correction make a counter-correction. I think you have to give the engine a little bit time to respond to throttle changes. Just the basics of flying the ball, as you said: "don't stop moving the throttles". So.. I guess that I'm saying that getting the feel for the correct amplitude and frequency of throttle corrections with practice and more practice has improved my flying, if that makes sense? Also, I think I have improved in spotting the nose pitching movement earlier and staying ahead of the airframe more than falling behind. I guess that really is the key, that you learn to anticipate how the nose is going to react and stay proactive rather than reactive, getting the nose pitch attitude where you want. And you are absolutely correct, that if she gets slow then she falls out of the sky.. I have had two ramp strikes to prove your point Now that I don't (usually) have to do so drastic throttle changes anymore, I see that she really stays trimmed steady on the yellow donut on the AOA indexer! Pure throttle for pitch and stick just for bank. So, I don't know if any of this is news to anyone, but maybe some other noob finds it is helpful to read me learn something... One clip of one of my more succesful traps: https://youtu.be/UgBTIdi7UrM

Does anybody have any good tips on “flying the ball” in the A-4? I’m really struggling on keeping her attitude / descent rate under control and making controlled corrections. There is a good bit of lag in the engine response to throttle changes, so it feels like it is easy to overcorrect and end up with the nose pitching up / down more than you intended. Then on the other hand it seems kinda responsive around the “sweet spot” throttle setting for on-speed and desired descent rate, where you are able to make small adjustment and get the jet respond quite quickly. So sometimes I feel like the key to succes is to anticipate: if I'm sinking too fast, get the power on for 1-2 seconds then throttle back down to "the sweet spot". If I'm too high, then get the power off for 1-2 seconds and then back to sweet spot. Then at other times it seems that what ever I do, is too much or too late and the pitch just gets out of control. Then again other times it feels like it is a matter of finding the sweet spot on the throttle and then making just small adjustments. So I am kind of struggling in my head with what would be the "correct" mindset for this? What surprises me is how easily she seems to float with throttle “off”. One would think that with those delta wings it would fall of the sky pretty easily with the power down – or is it just the engine lag and me overcompensating a too high descent rate with too much power and then trying to power off too late? I recently read this article, and I would agree that the A-4 in the mod also feels like it stays pretty well on the yellow doughnut once trimmed on-speed, as long as you don’t end up needing too large throttle adjustments: “One of the beauties of the TA-4 was that in the approach environment, it flew exactly like what you were taught to think a navy jet should fly like. Attitude controlled airspeed and power controlled rate of descent. So once you got it trimmed in pitch, it pretty much maintained that speed. If you started to see a change in glideslope from the meatball, you simply made the appropriate power correction to return to a centered ball. I loved flying it, and the way that it flew. “ (https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/9599/a-tomcat-pilots-early-struggles-to-tame-the-mighty-f-14) I really would love to get the hang of these "appropriate power corrections" and just return to a centered ball! So any words of wisdom? What is your tactic with ball flying in A-4?

Okay, thanks, looking forward to it! And thank you for the great module. I think you guys are doing a remarkable service to the community.

Ah, okay, I understand. Thanks for the answer!

I tried to add empty versions of the external fuel tanks to the loadout options of the community A-4E-C by editing some lua files in the mod. All is well otherwise, but I found out that editing the main A-4E-C.lua file in any way breaks the mod! I mean I managed to add the empty fuel tanks so that they are selectable in the mission editor and the AI A-4Es happily fly with them without problems, but the player aircraft does not respond to any control inputs anymore. Now I noticed that there is a big disclaimer at the beginning of the A-4E-C.lua: "--EDITING THIS FILE WILL CAUSE THE EFM TO FAIL." And it really seems that any kind of edit, even just adding one line of commented text, which actually does not do anything code-wise, causes the mod to break, as described above... So this is the file that is preventing me from adding the empty fuel tanks. Do the makers of this mod follow this thread? Does somebody else know what's up with the main lua-file being so fragile? I attach here the lua files I edited, in case someone wants to see what I was attempting to do, and maybe come up with a workaround. Or if the authors of this mod want to add these as an official update... The A-4E-C.lua is from the main A-4E-C\ folder, the A4E_Weapons.lua is from the A-4E-C\Weapons\ and the weapon_system.lua is from A-4E-C\Cockpit\Scripts\Systems\ Edit: you can quickly find the lines of code related to external fuel tanks by searching for "fuel" A4E_Weapons.lua A-4E-C.lua weapon_system.lua

First off, a big thank you for everyone involved in making this mod. I tried it a little bit sometime ago, with the version 1.4 I think. While I appreciated the level of detail in the avionics and cockpit modelling etc., I felt that the standard flight model (SFM) felt too... "sterile" and the performance of the aircraft seemed unrealistically good. Now, with the new, more advanced External FM in version 2... wow. I'm impressed! The aircraft feels alive. It feels like it is small and agile and nimble (especially the roll rate is ridiculous :D) and at the same time it does not have tons of thrust and will lose energy in heavy manoeuvring. And the buffeting shake and rattle when manoeuvring at low speed / high AOA, clunks and thuds of the flaps, slats, spoilers and landing gear, the sound of airflow... The thing really feels alive! I have no real-world experience in aviation, but for its seat of the pants feel, I rate this module right there at the same level with HB's F-14. And in VR it really feels like you are wearing the jet, and not just sitting in it, as it conveys how small the cockpit really is. So, the purpose of this long-winded flow of thoughts is to encourage everyone to check the A-4E-C version 2 out. With the previous wersions, I was not a believer, but now I am converted! And to think that a module of this caliber is free! Because of how fun it is to just fly around in this thing, I've put on the VT-7 training squadron livery and just started again basic flying, pattern work, dead reckoning and TACAN navigation, air to air refueling and, eventually, carrier landing practice… Because of the absence of a HUD, I think this is excellent practice for the Tomcat, in which my carrier landings are horrible… I also attach here a training mission I use to practice landing patterns, navigation and aerial refueling in the NTTR, in case somebody wants to try it out. https://youtu.be/JU-2ltCMGCE Finally, I have a small wish for the developers of this mod. Would it be possible to add empty external tanks to the stores? I recently came across an interview of a former TA-4 instructor pilot in youtube, who mentioned that the TA-4s were loaded with empty wing tanks especially during carrier quals, because if a student would break the landing gear, the aircraft could make an emergency landing on a land-based runway using the empty tanks as skids! So that would be a cool loadout option to have! (The HB’s F-14 has empty external fuel tanks as stores option, so I think it is possible.) Nellis A-4E-C training.miz

Please, try downloading the file in my post again. There initially was a typo in the aircraft length, the post is updated with corrected file. It should now work properly. Thanks for your feedback!

Thanks for this awesome mod, I've been wishing for the EA-6B for ages!! I noticed that the AI EA-6B mod has a ceiling of about 25000 ft and a very slow top speed / cruising speed at altitude, which really limits its usefulness in strike packages... So, I did a really ugly tweak to its lua file... Basically, I tweaked the dimensions, mass, fuel loads, ceilings, top speeds etc. to match those of the EA-6B based on wikipedia and other public web sources, replaced the aerodynamic table data with the data of L-39 and the engine performance table data with the data of F/A-18 (without afterburner). This is really the limit of my skills and knowledge as far as DCS aircraft modding goes, and I really haven't tested it thoroughly, but this at least seems to give the AI EA-6B ability to cruise at 30 000+ ft and keep up with strike packages. So, do not expect anything fancy from it. I thought to upload it here so that you may try it in your own missions and maybe someone more skilled than me can tweak it further? Edit: Fixed typo in aircraft length preventing takeoff from ramp EA_6B.lua

Hi, what are possible causes for incorrect ADI / HUD pitch ladder attitude indications? I had my ADI and HUD pitch ladder starting to drift and showing incorrect attitude during my last flight. It was about 20-30 minutes after take off, without any violent maneuvering (I think max 2-2,5 G turns) and without taking any damage. No warning / caution lights on the Caution Light Panel. No error messages on CDU. EGI and EAC were on, NAV mode selected on ALIGN page, all normal. I tried to troubleshoot this in-flight for some 10-15 minutes, at which point the aircraft controls suddenly stopped working. I couldn't get even the cockpit stick, rudder or throttles moving, although I checked that they responded in the axis settings menu. Even switching to manual reversion mode did not help. What could be the cause of this behaviour, or have I encountered a bug? (Random failures were set to OFF in mission editor settings) Thanks!

+1 Thank you, a nice update indeed, and almost for free for "old" A-10C owners!

I would very much like to edit radio channel presets in the Mission Editor, as you can do with every other module. Thanks!

On my second playthrough of the campaign, just finished missions 8 and 9, and still loving it! While playing, I noticed something that might be a bug. When returning to base and kissing the wingman of, in both missions, they seem to fly back towards earlier waypoints, way way away from the boat, and certainly not coming around for landing. In mission 8 I opted to refuel first and then land, in mission 9 I opted to go direct to mother. Furthermore, in mission 9, Dutch remains on my left wing the whole time during CASE I pattern (instead of right, as it is supposed to be). I started to wonder if I missed some triggers or something.. however, I did my best to follow the ingame prompts and be on the correct frequencies at all times.

I just played this mission again today, and noticed that there is a confusion on radio channels in the pop-up messages. When returning from the hostile airspace after the "encounter", the tooltip says to switch to Departure on AUX to contact the tanker and remain on CH1 on PRI. However, there is no Departure freq listed on AUX comm plan. So maybe this should be Departure on PRI and Strike on AUX? While fumbling around with frequencies I missed some radio calls, but was able to refuel and finish the mission.

Started a second playthrough of this campaign this weekend. I never would have thought I would have wanted to play such heavily scripted and non-dynamic missions again so quickly, but I am having as much or even more fun the second time through! It certainly helps to "know the script" beforehand, so you can stay on top of things and feel like a real fighter pilot :) One question / feedback regarding the loadouts in the A/G missions: is there a particular reason you went for 2 tanks on inner wing stations instead of the "double ugly" configuration with one tank on the centerline and the other on the right inner wing station? The double ugly would decrease targeting pod masking and also free one wing station for weapon.

In mission 15, when Weed warns me to break right and dispense, I always die, even if I react immediately when Weed starts his sentence. This is getting really frustrating... EDIT: Okay, it was my mistake... I thought that, after splashing the two F-4's, I had to egress 230 as Flip said in the dialogue. until told otherwise... Instead I turned back hot the instant that I saw a fleeting 29-spike on my RWR and splashed the Flatback straight in the face with AIM-9

Hi, I don't know if this is a bug with my DCS installation, DCS Hornet in general or something with the campaign, but instead of the XXNN type identifiers for friendly contacts on the SA page (where XX are the first and last letter of the callsign and NN id numbers) I get all numbers, i.e. 0111 or 0411 etc. I have removed and reinstalled both the Raven One campaign, the Hornet module and run the repair install but nothing helps. Now, if I build a simple scenario with some friendly flights in Mission Editor, the ID's show correctly after reinstall & repair, but whenever I run a mission from the Raven One campaign (specifically missions 10 and 11 where I have noticed this for sure) the ID codes are back to all numbers again, and same thing if I run my simple trial scenario. After reinstall and repair the trial mission is back to normal again, but in campaign missions the IDs are borked again... Has anyone else run into similar problems or has any idea what this could be about? Thanks.

Hi, and congratulations on the campaign! It is the best experience I have had in DCS! On mission 9, where you provide close air support for the Venom spec ops group, it is very hard to score hits on the sniper with 20mm cannon. I think this may be related to the Hornet gun dispersion and the fragmentation damage modeling in DCS, as I think that I saw my rounds hitting all around the sniper. Now my suggestion is, that maybe you could make small trigger zone around the sniper and make him run away or get pinned down (or even kill him) if you hit that zone with 20mm. Other observations: when Venom requested 20mm on that sniper, I ordered Dutch to cover while I attacked via F10 menu, but he did not circle overhead as I expected, but instead followed me in loose formation, getting close to the ground and getting shot at by the triple-A around the airfield as I made my gun runs. Is this how it is supposed to be, or is there a bug? Now when I decided to prosecute the target myself, the F10 option to command Dutch to engage also went away. Would it be possible to retain the option to switch roles if you empty your gun and do not score hits on target? Thanks again for the great campaign! I'm really having fun playing it!

+1 F/A-18C refueling probe light is blindingly bright for me too. I fly in VR (Oculus Rift CV1). Happens with S-3B Viking, haven't tested night refueling with a KC-135.