Shibbyland

I've managed to sneak up on a flight of AI A10s once by using the terrain and getting around behind them. As for coming up against AI fighters, they just head straight for me. Would love to know the answer to this too. I'm just guessing here but I think the AI's behaviour really depends on the task they have been assigned in the mission. If they are tasked to intercept you they'll do exactly that. In the mean time have a go using ground cover to get into a better position. Not sure what military pilots do. I've known a few strike pilots over the years and they talked about pushing at the target from various directions trying to get enemy defenders to commit to them while another flight attacked the target. Other times they talked about flying in very tight formations and at speeds which mimicked commercial traffic to fool radar operators into thinking their formation was a single large aircraft. Once they got within a distance to target where the enemy response would be difficult, they would break up, speed up and attack. None of that helps against AI though I suppose.

Hi, I haven't bought the MiG 21 yet, I'm tossing up between the MiG and the M2000. I think I'd prefer the MiG as I already have BVR capable aircraft with all the modern kit, the MiG seems a bit more...'classic' I suppose, I bit rougher and I like that. In saying that, it seems to lack support from the developers (I could be wrong it just looks that way from the reading I've been doing). For those of you who have owned the MiG for a while, has it changed much during it's early access? Has it improved? Are you confident it will be fully released? I'm always cautious when I see something has been in early access as long as this module has. It'd be nice to get bonus $ or be able to use my bonus $, I don't know why this developer has opted not to do that, it's a shame but it's not a deal breaker. Looking for opinions please, and if you can, any information which supports the ongoing development of the MiG. At the moment all I can find is the bi-plane they're working on and their facebook page doesn't have much recent information on it.

Hi All, Posted here to get maximum coverage from the community. I’m considering buying the MiG 21 instead of the M2000, mostly because I’m after an older fighter still capable of high speed. I’m just a bit confused about the MiG being early access. I could be wrong but it looks like developer support for the MiG isn’t quite the same as some of the other modules. What’s left for them to do prior to full release and for those of you who’ve had the module for a while, are you confident there will be a full release? I only play single player so getting wasted by BVR aircraft online isn’t a concern for me. Cheers

Here’s one thing I don’t understand about running multiple drives and it’d be great if somebody could enlighten me. Some of the games on my HDD store their save files in the user folder on my HDD, others (including DCS) store save files and any user missions on my SSD in the user folder. What determines where these saved files go? Let’s say I buy another SSD just for DCS and maybe one other flight sim. I’d have an SSD with Windows, Logitech, trackir and a few other things installed, an SSD with DCS installed and an HDD with everything else on it. Is there an issue with DCS having to pull save files off seperate SSD? I get frustrated because I really only ever wanted the operating system on my small SSD but somehow over time more and more stuff has ended up on it. For example I don’t want Logitech gaming software on the SSD but it never gave me the option of selecting where to install it. Same goes for Nvidia files, some of which are quite large. I’m missing something I’m sure.

It's really hard to tell what the cause of some of the issues I had is. Originally I had enormous issues running the operation Epsom campaign so I bought a small SSD to put my operating system on and a new HDD to replace my really old one. I had DCS on the HDD and it ran really well. Then I started getting similar sort of freezes just trying to run basic instant actions but in the last couple of days that's stopped again, the only change being a recent small update. I've got several upgrades due. My GTX 970 is getting quite dated but I think it'll hold for a while yet. I find it difficult to get my head around that ED recommend 32GB RAM for nearly all their modules, that seems like a monstrous amount of RAM. I think I'll do what you recommend, get a bigger SSD, get DCS on it and see what happens then work through RAM and GPU from there.

I'll buy an evo 860 I reckon then. Here's the other thing I'm thinking though, I have 16gb of DDR4 RAM. Would I be better going to 32GB RAM and keeping DCS on an HDD or buying the SSD and staying at 16gb RAM. Ultimately I'll end up doing both but it's a money thing at this stage so one thing at a time.

Hi All, Looking for hard drive advice please. Earlier this year I bought a 128gb SSD just for my OS and kept all games on a 2 TB HDD. I haven’t had any issues until it came to running DCS. I get stuttering and the hard drive light remaining on. Long load times etc and difficulty with mission editor and lots of units. I’ve got 16gb RAM, a reasonably new i5 processer and a GTX 970. My question is, what SSD should I upgrade to since my 128gb Kingston doesn’t have the space. I’m looking at a Samsung Evo 860 with 500gb. Cost is an issue, I need something relatively cheap. I had considered an evo 970 but I don’t think my motherboard can take it and I’m not convinced I really need 3400mb/s read speed for gaming. The evo 860 has 550mb/s read speed. Is this enough?

Hi All, Totally new to mission editing. I've made a couple of really basic 1 vs 1 missions starting airborne and they've worked fine as you'd expect. However, I tried to make a carrier based CAP mission tonight, again reasonably basic, no triggers (because I don't know how to do those yet). My setup was as follows: 1 Stennis Carrier escorted by 4 DDs. I had them following 9 waypoints in a big circle. I put two F18 flights of 4 aircraft on the carrier to startup at the same time. One flight was my own and I would direct it, the other was setup to do a CAP of 6 waypoints at various altitudes. I put an AWACS in a similar holding pattern to the ships albeit at 20,000ft and I put a Tanker off at a distance doing the same thing. The enemy had 12 aircraft, 8 escorts and 4 attack aircraft. They were setup on a straight line path to the carrier, the attack aircraft having been assigned to attack the ship. So this is what happened. My number 2 started up and immediately taxied into a parked aircraft and exploded. The remaining aircraft did not move but did start up. I got airborne by myself with the ships, AWACS and Tanker seemingly doing exactly what I'd set. The enemy spawned in after 15 minutes exactly as had been set. After 15 minutes the game slowed down to complete chop then crashed. What am I missing. My PC handles entire campaigns in Normandy and Caucasus with ground units everywhere, all firing at each other. I play the paid campaigns no problem and they have units galore too. I'm confused as to why a total of 26 units on simple tasks just flying from A-B would be such a struggle. Does anybody have any ideas?

Ok so I've tried everything. Multiple counter measure profiles. I've tried going high, I've tried going low, I've tried using wingmen as bait, I've tried following wingmen, and I've tried going head on. I've tried firing sparrows at them to try get them just to turn away so I can get in a bit closer. Nothing works. The after action report is always the same, the Russian aircraft fire between 15-21 missiles whilst my own wingmen fire only a couple. I can dodge a lot of them but not all. We are all shot down almost immediately. I occasionally manage to shoot one Mig down but to do that I have to burn off so much energy and use all my countermeasures. What am I missing? How are other people managing to beat this scenario?

Hi All, Every time I select the AIM 120, my RADAR automatically switches to ACM mode. I'm having a hard time finding a reason for this. RADAR modes seem to change without me making any input. For example, when undoing a lock to continue with a scan, the scan will not continue. Instead, the RADAR will stay locked to the left in a position I did not previously have locked. I find the azimuth changes from time to time too. If anybody can elaborate on what causes these changes and how to stop them I'd really appreciate it. I'm mainly interested in keeping the RADAR in RWS mode when an AIM 120 is selected. Thanks

Haha Doum, yea I couldn't resist. It's great I don't regret buying it at all but I see what people have been saying about the radar being a bit rubbish at the moment and it seems totally outmatched BVR. I've been sticking to really aggressive low level flying until I can use an Aim 9 or guns. I hope they get to the point where the radar is as reliable as the F15s. I've stayed away from the Russian fighters for the most part because they're just not as intuitive as the US fighters.

Hey hang on a minute I'm not complaining the aircraft lacks performance at all, I'm saying I don't know how to access the performance it's capable of. It's the first complex fighter module I've had so I'm not used to how it behaves. The handling is weird, large control inputs for comparatively little response and I know it's just the aircraft saying "chill out, can't do that at this speed". The question is, what should I be doing? Is it totally unrealistic to expect to it behave like the FC3 aircraft in terms of handling? I've got the A10C so I'm used to having to learn systems but up until now the only fighters I've had a go with are the F15 and Su27. The F15 is so simple and easy to fly just smashing it round with "over G over G" blaring and no consequences and the weapons are very easy to select and use it's taking time to get used to a more detailed fighter. I suspect if the F15 were a full module like the Hornet it'd be a lot more difficult to fly. Am I right in thinking the F18 should totally outmatch the F15 in a turning fight? At present I'm struggling to achieve this and in part I think it's because I can't do the mental manoeuvres I'm used to.

Hi, Is it possible to remove the protections given to you by the aircraft and allow full control deflection at any speed? I have trouble making turns against F15s, SU27s etc.

I have the following: Intel i5-6600k at 3.5 GHz. 16GB RAM (can't remember the type but it's maybe 2 years old). Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 4GB. I have a 128GB SSD and a 2TB HDD. Unfortunately given the size of my SSD I need to leave DCS on my HDD. I'll upgrade in future but that's where I'm at for now. I didn't used to have this issue running with what I have, it's a relatively recent thing.

So after 2.5 came out, I bought the spitfire, Normandy and Epsom campaign. I got horrendous crashes on a regular basis. I decided to buy a brand new SSD and HDD to take some load off. It worked really well for ages. I had my operating system and some important programs on my SSD and everything else running from the HDD. Now I've just gotten back into DCS and its back to freezing, crashing etc. I've got heaps of space left but yea just at random it'll freeze up, constant blue hard drive light. The worst one happened when I crashed an F15 at high speed. What more can be done, I'm not going to go out and buy an even bigger SSD just to have DCS installed on it.

With regard to the air to air combat at present. Are the AIM 120 and AIM 9 missiles working well at present? What's the BVR capability like as compared to the more basic F15 module? Do you need to be running DCS 2.5 Open Beta for this to work? I only have DCS 2.5 as I don't want to install more than one (space reasons).

I'm pretty limited with regard to the number of modules I have. The only really complex one I have is the A10, if you're paying those kind of prices I wouldn't want it to be any less complex. I bought a couple of the piston engine aircraft just because they're awesome but I waited for a sale. I think you're going to be right about the RIO, managing the RIO AI could turn out to take you away from actually flying the aircraft. It's probably going to be a better multiplayer component. I'll probably buy the F18 and take a more wait and see approach to the F14. With that said, got any tips on good single player content? I haven't had a go at creating missions yet. I want to make a decent naval battle.

That's the thing with the F14. It looks awesome, and two crew aircraft are really interesting but I don't know what state it will be in at release. The main reason I've held off buying the F18 is just that lack of content to use it with. I mainly play single player so tend to focus on modules which have campaigns. In saying that, I really liked the detail of the A10, having an air to air capable aircraft with that detail would be great. Slap_chop, you're right I'll almost definitely cave eventually but buying both isn't an option in a short space of time. I heard the F14 is out in a month, does anybody know if that's true?

Hi All, I held off pre-ordering the Hornet but now it's been out a while I'm pretty interested. Then again, with the F14 coming out soon I'm trying to resist the urge to buy the F18. What are your guys thoughts comparing what you know about the F18 and what you expect in the F14. Really want a carrier based aircraft, I mainly enjoy air to air combat, I like both aircraft. I'm looking for whatever is likely to have the best access to campaigns and single player content in future. If you didn't already own the F18, would you buy that or wait for the F14 and why? Cheers

Dunno if this is still a living thread, I see it hasn't been posted in for a while. Anyway just in case, I'll give my 2 cents. My main gripe with this mission is the chopper is so massively overloaded it doesn't really perform well enough to maneuver in the terrain. In saying that, it's an awesome mission from a navigation perspective. I couldn't pick up the Batumi NDB initially, you just have to rely on your heading once leaving the ship. If you do get lost, try another NDB and once you find the coast, change to Batumi NDB and you should get it once close enough. As for navigating to the refugee camp, once you cross over Batumi airfield, track the tail of the ADF needle to maintain a track of 110 degrees for 9nm. If you're really pedantic you could rely on your clock too (at 60kts it should take you 9 minutes to reach the camp), the critical thing is maintaining a reasonably good track of 110 degrees from Batumi using the tail of the ADF needle. I've not made it further than finding the convoy since the chopper is so overloaded it just falls out the sky once you lose too much speed.

Has something changed in the Huey in a recent patch. I see videos online where guys are doing 100kts+ sling loading, climbing no worries etc. Every single Argo mission I play I seem to be massively overloaded and the chopper struggles to leave the deck of the carrier without overtemping the engine. I'm trying to do mission 4 but with the marines on board and a full combat load the chopper just wont climb or turn in the terrain, to fly slowly enough to track the enemy convoy requires overtemping the engine at times unless you choose to briefly land. Have to be able to change fuel load in these missions in order to make them playable because at the moment as fun as they are, its just a pain flying aircraft so overweight. I'd gladly take tips if it's something I'm doing wrong but I keep the engine within limits wherever I can so shouldn't be deteriorating power.

Hi All, I'm doing Argo mission 3. I have two problems. 1) The sling load swings like mad above 60kts. I've seen videos of others carrying a stable load at 100kts so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I get to the objective by repeatedly slowing down, steadying the load and carrying on. 2) By the time I've dropped the ammunition and marines off I no longer have enough power left to climb away. It's like the engine is deteriorating throughout the mission so I can't do the target practice because it just won't get off the ground anymore. It's almost like the weight doesn't reduce once I've dropped the slingload off. I'm running the engines within the green during slingload (except to actually get it off the ground and get moving). Tips please

Hi All, Just registering a bug for UN Mission 6. Once the formation enters the valley, the flight leader crashes into the trees and I fail the mission. I see a number of other people also have this bug but I haven't seen a fix for it yet. Thanks

I've tried fiddling with the gamma settings but it makes no difference for me. The only improvement I get is if I turn deferred shading off but then the sim loses a lot of its beauty for all the day flights. At this stage I'm just not doing any night missions which is a shame as the A10 campaigns I play have a lot of night in them.

Hey, Just to reply about the suggestion off turning of deferred shading. That is exactly what the problem was. I can see terrain I would say exactly as it is intended. Thanks