fargo007

Thank you guys, Sure, It could very easily be randomized in terms of light/heavy. You could also hamhock that in now by mixing the group contents up as you see fit. They're already chosen randomly within their own sets. I left it as a choice because with a helicopter we go out loaded in a more particular way sometimes, or want a target set that lets us work rockets and guns. Been considering a possible future update of doing the voice comms as one of the friendlies giving a RW five line.

Been through all that. Even when I trim the helicopter out so it is absolutely frozen dead steady and in a straight line with the reticle centered, (no control inputs made, nor required) the misses still occur and so does the 4/8 or maybe 5/8 hit rate. It's reading artifact movement from somewhere, and imparting that into the control logic of petrovich. Virtually ALL of the misses are over the top. These tanks needed to be engage three, and four times each to eventually hit them. You can see the explosion marks on the ground, behind them. This is highly inconsistent. Sometimes it happens over and over again, other times it does not.

You can place and configure aircraft as you wish. That's there in the instructions. I put a few there just for illustration but people will want to configure and arm them their own way. The one you chose has the info boxes deliberately shut off in the aircraft options tab. The areas are clearly marked on the F10 map, e.g. You could configure waypoints if you chose to in order to maintain distance from center or some other purpose. Have fun with it! /F

Mods may wish to move this - it's not being managed as a "mission" anymore but a mission design tool/script. Attack aircraft, CAS, Helicopters.... We always hear that: "It's about supporting the guys on the ground..." So in that spirit, I've adapted a "Troops in Contact" scenario I came up with at BSD (I'm a mission/scripting gremlin there) for more general usage. Fixed wing, or Rotary wing, no matter. This is just hours of fun. You check in on station via F10 menu: Then decide if you want light or heavy enemy. Light are APC class, infantry, artillery. Heavy will see BMP's AAA guns, and hard armor. Enter into, and remain in a grid area. You'll receive some tasking. You can request the friendlies to throw a new smoke, or clean up old sets of friendlies when you are finished. As you begin your runs, if you are getting good hits on target, the guys on the ground will cheer you on. The friendlies may take some hits if it takes you a while to get there..... But they'll just hunker down until you start bringing some hurt. I tried to make aspects of the mission editable/tunable to suit. The concerned zones can be moved, reshaped, or otherwise manipulated as you like. CUSTOMIZATIONS: *** See the script file. There are a huge number of configurable parameters. *** Top left of the map are the groups. You can control the makeup of the enemy and friendly groups entirely. Groups and statics that are to be included must be named according to a convention: FRIENDLIES-1, FRIENDLIES-2, etc. FRIENDLYSTATIC-1, FRIENDLYSTATIC-2, etc. HEAVY-1, HEAVY-2, etc. LIGHT-1, LIGHT-2, etc. SUPPORT-1, SUPPORT-2, etc. Each category must have minimum 1, and that one must be named with the appropriate string, and "-1". There are no upper limits on any category, only a minimum. Instructions, also contained in the briefing inside the mission: --------------------------------------------------------- TROOPS IN CONTACT! BY [BSD] FARGO OF BLACKSHARKDEN, A.K.A. BSD. FREE TO RE-USE PUBLICLY WITH @ATTRIBUTION. PILOT INSTRUCTIONS: 1 - PLACE YOUR AIRCRAFT CONFIGURED HOW YOU LIKE THEM, WHERE YOU WISH. 2 - USE THE F10-OTHER-TROOPS-IN-CONTACT MENU TO GO ON STATION WITH EITHER LIGHT, OR HEAVY (HARD ARMOR, AAA). 3 - ENTER ONE OF THE CHOSEN GRIDS AND REMAIN IN IT. 4 - YOU WILL GET A CALL FOR SUPPORT WITH RADIO TRAFFIC. 5 - PROSECUTE, AND WHEN READY, REACTIVATE TIC IN THE MENU. --------------------------------------------------- MISSION DESIGNER INSTRUCTIONS: ** SEE THE SCRIPT!!! NUMEROUS CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS ARE DESCRIBED THERE TO TUNE TIC EPISODES TO YOUR LIKING. ** 1 - IN THE TOP LEFT CORNER OF THE MAP YOU WILL FIND A SPAWN FARM. IF YOU WISH TO MODIFY THE MAKEUP OF THE FRIENDLY OR ENEMY GROUPS, THIS IS WHERE YOU DO IT. 2 - YOU CAN HAVE AS MANY OR AS FEW GROUPS AS YOU WANT IN EACH CATEGORY, (MINIMUM 1). GROUPS WITH NAMES CONTAINING THE STRING "HEAVY-" SPAWN WHEN HEAVY TIC IS ACTIVATED. DON'T USE THIS NAME UNLESS YOU WANT IT TO SPAWN WITH A TROOPS-IN-CONTACT CALL. THE SAME APPLIES FOR "LIGHT-" , "SUPPORT-", "FRIENDLIES-" AND "FRIENDLYSTATIC-" (THESE MUST BE STATIC OBJECTS, NOT UNITS/GROUPS). PORTABILITY: 1 - THE TIC AREA (YELLOW) ZONES CAN BE ANY SIZE, AND MAY BE MOVED ANYWHERE ON THE MAP. YOU MUST MOVE THREE THINGS: a. THE LARGE SQUARE OR ROUND ZONE. THIS IS THE "PATROL AREA." b. THE SMALLER INDIVIDUAL ROUND ZONES WITHIN IT. THESE ARE WHERE THE CONTACTS CAN APPEAR. c. THE MAP DRAW ARTIFACTS IF DESIRED. IF YOU WISH TO PORT IT TO A DIFFERENT MISSION, RECREATE ALL THE ZONES, GROUPS, ETC. AND LOAD THE SCRIPT & SOUNDS AS IS DONE HERE. Give it a try and let me know if you like it. /Fargo ---------------------------------------------------------- CHANGELOG: V5: No triggers required. TROOPS IN CONTACT! is now entirely script driven. Feature added to have friendlies throw a new smoke. Numerous config options available, e.g. show/disable messages, and display time use/disable sounds names of zones onstation_time = how long you might wait to be called by friendlies. FLANKING! flanking percentage = the likelihood that a heavy group will separate from their support elements and attempt a flanking maneuver on the friendlies. A 0 means never, 100 is every time. flanking delay = amount of time they will stay in their initial position before attempting their flank. offsetX, offsetZ = the distance from the friendlies the enemies will appear. Please see the git repository for this project for the latest version including required sound files and an example mission. https://github.com/Fargo007/TROOPS-IN-CONTACT

In Ronen Bergman's book "Rise up and Kill First," there are scenarios described where Israeli AH-64's would yeet a spicy stick at a car containing a hamas commander or other terrorist from a great distance away, in the middle of the night. These would be lots of fun with the OH-58D playing a role as well. Tracking the car, helping the 64 get set up in a good location, and then lasing for the shot. I'm also getting ready to release a very robust "Troops In Contact" mission that is hours of fun. You check in, patrol a defined area, and eventually some friendlies will call and need your help quite urgently. This will be a hoot in the AH-64. It damn sure is in the hind.

This is how everyone does it. At least for a substantial period of time.

Good post. I'm unable to get an AI F-15C to fire BVR on me while in a Mistral. They'll shoot but only close up. Like you said, once fixed wings come in close, they are stupid simple to kill in a mistral by just masking until they overfly and pull up into the sky, usually with AB's too, which doesn't help them. I agree J-CATCH is old, but it's still a foundational experience that still influences doctrine. And it's evolved both ways. Air to air missiles have improved on the FW end, and RW are now armed with A2A missiles, when they were not at the time. Even so, it's clear the conclusions of J-CATCH still hold true.... A fighter aircraft can expect to get shot down more often than not if it decides (other than with complete surprise) to come in close and engage in a turning fight with an attack helicopter or missile platform like the Mistral. There's no example of air tasking I can find where a modern fighter aircraft has been expressly tasked to search for and engage enemy helicopters, so it seems like a very rare or even moot circumstance outside DCS.

Of course. I'll write as many as I choose to. Where exactly have Helicopters "fared quite poorly" against fighters in general? Please show the statistics or other supporting documents you rely on. In fact, I've yet to see a single piece of actual data to support anything at all that you've claimed, no less any easy to furnish proof you can do in DCS that which you purport you can. You're already here telling the Air force and Army how flawed and meaningless their studies are. And no surprise here - also with no evidence at all.

I think you're making a lot of assumptions about what's "claimed" with the pulse doppler radars here versus what their actual capabilities are. The ground clutter I'm referring to is any combination of structures, trees, and terrain. Most of this absorbs radar, and much of it will directly mask. So I question the ability to detect, lock, and engage a low flying RW actively evading you at great distance anyhow IRL, especially when he knows you're there way before you can find him. I haven't seen any evidence that the trees/veg in DCS absorb radar like they should. Your radar will show us exactly what direction you're coming from on the RWR. So we'll always know which direction to mask from, and routing will be managed accordingly. We'll also know when you are nose hot, and nose cold, and can plan accordingly. Besides - if helicopters know there are enemy fixed wings there (which means a whole lot of other things have failed to an absurd extent), we're not going to be transiting in a straight line across flat ground. So yeah you'll shoot from far away, but I doubt you'll actually bring an aircraft down before it's time for you to go home. The overarching point here, and one you seem to indirectly support is that a FW aircraft that comes into the WEZ of a properly equipped helicopter is at a supreme disadvantage. That's what J-CATCH ultimately concluded: "Your arms are too short to go in and box with RW. " And that's what's borne out in DCS too; nobody's out there actively hunting and killing RW with SPAMMRAMs. DCS is all we've got, so with the R-60's coming for the hind, and Iglas for the BS3, it makes sense to begin experimenting, and I sure will. Tactics don't really matter at this point, it's just BVR, and all about the implementation of the radar and missile.

I'd actually love to test this someday. Recreate J-CATCH in DCS. Once we get some longer range AA missiles on RW anyhow. The Mistral is pretty capable as is. Aside of the vagaries of whether or not the FW radar we have would IRL accurately be able to pick out and lock a helicopter that was flying literally below treetop level against a massive amount of ground clutter - most of it cheerfully absorbing radar.

Wow! It seems you know way more than the Army and the Air force. Good luck with all that.

I still have a problem with Petrovich HITTING targets after he eventually finds them. Saw in the changelog to try disabling pitch altitude, and this does help a little. Also tried holding trim down which instantly zeroes all AP channels. Even starting the attack run from 7-8km out, trimming the helicopter and choosing an altitude such that the reticle is centered and I am totally hands-off produces misses, almost always over the top. Most misses are going to be high, over the top but some do go short. I reported this before, and for SURE, not everyone has this issue. This may to some extent also be target-specific. With T-55's, he has a very high miss rate even with this tactic. With T-72's less so. I did get a 7/8 once. If this is hitting you, you'll be lucky to kill four T-55's with eight SHTURMs or ATAKAs. Tried all three flavors. It's not hamfist flying either. Have MC'ed with multiple pilots for comparison and "steadiness gut check," and with a front seater reliably 8/8. When one of them hits on the first try, it's kind of like an exciting surprise.

Come chase after us RW in fixed wings all you want. We'll make you get real low and real slow. Most likely you'll be led right to manpads. We can carry a big handful of them around in the back. And this is before we have a true, high G air to air missile available. The most dangerous thing about a helicopter isn't always what's up front. It's what's in the back that kills the most stuff. RW vs FW was tested extensively. J-CATCH. The conclusion was that fighter and attack FW should stay far the F away from RW. https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/army-air-force-pitted-jet-fighters-attack-helicopters/ If real life has a vote anyhow.

That's why the best strategy is to go ultra low and force them to disengage and overfly you before they crash into the ground chasing you with their reticle. Because they immediately pull full afterburner and shoot up into the sky, making them a perfect target for a heat seeker. This was my Mistral strategy and it worked every single time as long as they didn't get a head on shot on me.

I Also say KA-50. Generally. Ask yourself - are you really more concerned with very basic flight maneuvers, or do you need to learn to fight in the helicopter, and manage the navigation, weapons, and data systems involved? The KA-50 is almost like a single seat, steampunk version of an AH-64. Yes, the coaxial rotor is a little different, but not so dramatically that it matters in the big picture IMO. If effectiveness in missions is considered, the transition from KA-50 to AH-64 will be easier than UH-1H to AH-64. Hands down.

I see we can create them and they do run back 'n forth quite well in MP. They also seem to throw hit/dead events at some level, but these aren't accessible as far as I can tell. --- onChatMessage--- RED AI in T-90 killed BLUE unknown in Locomotive with nil I cannot make them respond to waypoint actions of any kind. They also don't draw enemy AI fire, or make triggers fire. Is there anything I am missing at this point?

I just ordered this exact arrangement having seen it endorsed here, and also by a squaddie. Added the chair/collective mount too. Super excited. I've been using a warthog throttle, and I use the ever lovin' sh1t out of all the buttons and hats on the grip itself. the Alpha-L seems to have even more, and I get an extra modifier to work with as well with the second pinky lever.

Might come in handy for autorotation practice....

Almost certainly this will be an AI (George) function. Will be interesting to see how it's implemented.

Very similar. These functions got exposed to scripters in the API before they had ME controls. An example attached.

This is already possible via scripting and is also built into the excellent "GameMaster" script by Cake/Sorbus. You can type stuff into map marks and make it all happen. In MP, in realtime.

And when you get into Mission Design, and beyond that really being able to control AI behavior via scripting, you literally never run out of cool stuff to do or experiment with.

Which of us hasn't left a dent in that damn wall?

Please backtrack and let us know if this works. I've stood off of a collective because I didn't see one with what I felt was enough mappable controls on it. What you're showing here blows that limitation out of the water.