Tomcatter87

Hey there, I set up a really simple mission with the Huey in Sinai. This seems to be the map I get the most crashes in, I don't know why. Like in this mission: Mission loads until DCS crashes at World preload 45/60. I deleted all community made mods, deleted Metashaders2 / FXO folders and ran a repair, still it kept happening. I've attached the crash log file, maybe some of you can spot what might go wrong? dcs.log

I think it would be pretty cool to actually have a camera function similar to the gun camera in the F-5. Pictures should be saved as files, but only safed if you land on a carrier to emulate "developing" them. I think this would be better than just coordinates of units or something like this.

Jut built myself a VIP transport mission - some guys n' gals in suits, dresses, casual clothing, with animated movements, would be really great.

No, the server that allowed upload of mods costs way more. The way I understood it that as long as everyone has the according mod installed (which was the case), they should be able to see it. We had no problems at all using mods as flying units. Only the static objects don't show up. One way that might work is to place the mod aircraft as AI units but set them to uncontrolled. Gotta try that out.

Well seen, it's from Currenthill's Russian pack.

That update really made me jump into the Gazelle after a long pause. It looks great and feels a lot better than the last time I flew it. Also thanks a lot for the background information about the nice new liveries!

Checked it yesterday, it is still an issue. @IronMike

Dear community, I recently joined in the multiplayer hype, I'm flying together with some friends, I've rented a server from Fox3 solutions. So far it's working like a charm. However I noticed something: Whenever I place static units from mods (like VSN EA-6B, A-6A or the folded HH-60) on the carrier deck or at an airfield, it's not visible. Neither for me not my friends, we all have the necessary mods installed. There's no problem using mod aircraft as AI units, strange enough. So I do not think that the problem is that the server wouldn't accept mods. Is there a fix for this? I'd really appreciate if I could build some nice carrier deck and airfields with all those wonderful user created assets.

Hey there, I'm just setting up my Voice Attack profile, working fine so far. However I can't find any command for the Jester radar commands "Go Silent" or "Go Active". Am I just looking in the wrong spot or are they indeed missing? If so, could the heatblur team please add them? Those are quite important commands.

Some impressions of my latest hop - chasing Bears together with my friend @JeffVader

Thanks a lot! I'm pretty new to this multiplayer thing too, but me and my buddy had a blast escorting your bear the other day.

Yes, he needs to be in TWS-Auto. Also be aware that you should not fire the phoenixes until you see the contacts flashing, with infos like altitude displayed, in order for the TWS to work.

@currenthillI had a nice multiplayer hop yesterday using your beautiful Tu-95. It really is a great adition for the sim! However we noticed that the propellers won't turn. I haven't seen this when I placed the bear in my single player missions, but I was using the older version of your pack back then.

That would be a great solution. For me as a naval ops fan, it would be a must to include some carrier ops.

Sounds pretty good to me, I'll try that one out.

Great news! Even if it was just an AI model to begin with, looking forward to it!

I'm mostly a singleplayer guy usually, but in the last time I really enjoyed the hops with my buddy @JeffVader. Here's some shots of our last flight, some formation flying and refueling together. Just moments before I strayed a liiiitle bit too far to the left side, that is. Resulting in a parachute ride. Didn't take pics of that.

It was nice to see a tiny bit of Corsair footage in the 2024-and-beyond-video. Hope the release is coming closer, really looking forward to this one!

Hey there fellow Tomcatters, with the new, cosmetic TARPS pod, I'm trying out some things how we can include it into our missions. Until we have a working pod, here's some ideas - and some facts I have collected from various podcasts and the NATOPS. If you spot a mistake, feel free to point it out - I'd also like to see your ideas for the peeping tomcats The first camera, the KS-87B, was either pointed directly downwards or at an forward oblique angle of 16 degrees down. This could be changed in-flight, however this took 16 seconds, so I don't think it was practical to change the mount position during one run on the same target. The ideal altitude for the KS-87B was above 750 feet because of the fixed focal distance. The field of view was 41 degrees (horizontal as well as vertical). This makes it pretty much a normal lens, comparable to a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera. When used in the forward oblique position, the KS-87B could be used to provide "pilot’s view flightpath tracing and ship surveillance photography", according to the NATOPS. The second, panoramic camera KA-99 was the camera the pod was built around. It took pictures spanning from horizon to horizon (180 degrees horizontal field of view and 28 degrees vertical). However, if external tanks were carried, they blocked the view from about 25 degrees on the right side and 17 degrees on the left (since the pod was located on the right station). The KA-99 camera was, among other things, used in situations where it was deemed too risky to directly overfly the target. It was able to automatically focus down to 500 feet AGL. Sometimes the KA-99 was replaced by the KS−153A that utilized lenses with greater focal lengths. Those could be programmed to any desired depression angles, typically 27 left oblique, vertical or 31° right oblique, and was used to capture stand-off imagery. The third camera was an AN/AAD-5 infrared scanner, used for night operations and as a mission trace for daylight recon flights. Couldnt find out much about it, but it seems it had reasonable resolution for the era. Here's an example: Now what to do with those facts? Using those data and trigonometry (in my case, I let GPT 4.0 handle the latter part because I'm not a numbers guy ), we are now able to play around with trigger zones for pseudo-TARPS missions. Let's say, for example, we want to take TARPS photos of a coastline. It's defended, so we want to use the KA-99 and fly parallel to the coastline. We carry tanks, so our camera only works below 17 degrees on the left side. Using these parameters, I can now ask GPT for a table that tells us which minimum altitude we have to fly at in order to get the coastline into the picture. I chose meters because the DCS trigger uses meters, too. Distance to target (left side) in nautical miles Minimum Altitude AGL in meters, rounded 1 1027 2 2055 3 3082 4 4110 Here's what I would do now: Create some square trigger zones, each is 1 nm broad and goes parallel to the coastline. I set a trigger (for example, set a flag value) if the player enters this zone AND flies above the mentioned minimum altitude. This way, the target would be in the line of sight of the KA-99. If you want to be more precise, you might also set conditions which heading the player's aircraft should have, so we can't just head straight to the coast to trigger the conditions. Another example for the KS-87B camera, this time a bit more simplified: We are tasked to photograph ships. In order to get a good enough resolution, we have to fly at 3000 feet AGL. The camera is tilted 16 degrees down, so the distance for taking a picture with the ship in the center would be 9979 feet. Now we can create a circular trigger zone with a radius of 9979 feet. Whenever the unit (our TARPS cat) enters the moving trigger zone at 3000ish feet AGL, we can trigger a flag. Example No. 3: The most simple trigger. We create a moving trigger zone condition with our TARPS-Tomcat in the centre and a unit we want to photograph that has to be inside the moving trigger. The second condition is a flight level of more that 500 feet (152 meters) AGL. If those two criterias are met, we can trigger a flag, assuming the KA-99 would have had the unit in sight. I'm not sure though if we can use square trigger zones as moving or just the circular ones, maybe someone can clarify this? A square zone would be better, of course. If we have a stationary target, we can just create a static square trigger zone, it's even easier. Then, at the end of the mission, we can show some black and white screenshots we (as mission creators) have prepared, using the "show picture to coalition" function. I know it's a complicated way to implement TARPS, but I've done some nice missions with it now. Running through the Beka valley at angels 3 with AAA and MANPADs shooting at you, while you're trying to get pictures, can be lots of fun. Anyway, just wanted to hear your approaches of how to use the pseudo TARPS pod, maybe you have some ideas as well?

I'm enjoying the TARPS pod so far - looks good, the photo Tomcat is a nice asset we can build escort missions for. The ladder would be really nice though, I hope it makes it into the next update. One thing I noticed: There was a time when static / AI Tomcats had wheel chocks when placed on a carrier deck. Now they only have the intake covers. Will the wheel chocks be fixed?

Nice! Some pods matching the light full grey schemes would be awesome

The new Tu-95 really is a beauty, thanks a lot! For 1980s scenarios, it would be great to have a soviet skin in silver and with the old fashioned red star - any chance you might do one? If you're too busy, I might try to do a simple repaint as well, like I did for the H-6 to make it resemble a Badger.

That's kinda sad, given the fact that it stands in the patch notes. I was really forward to this one, even if if was nothing more than an eyecandy.

Yeah, at least this kind of crash doesn't seem to appear anymore. I can't really tell what of the above caused it, though.

Nice new screenshot of the A-6, apparently taken from the Heatblur Discord.