Hippo

Edit: no problem with the tanker. I was trying to find it after I had failed to hit the targets and didn't realise its appearance was trigger based. After hitting the targets found the tanker no problem. Mission now completed. Onwards and upwards. Thanks.

Thanks again for responding. I admin that I didn't read the PDF briefing, but having checked it, the text is the same as the in-game. Suggestion: perhaps put it in the kneeboard as well; as a VR user I'm all for having as much as possible in the kneeboard. The red/ green alert thing seems fine to me, but the point is that the player shouldn't have to come to a forum to find this out. I was running low on fuel in the mission on the way back to the carrier, I must've been around 60 nm from the target, and activated the TACAN but couldn't lock on to the tanker, so I assume it was just too far away (but where?). I didn't expect to locate it from the briefing, but to know its general wherabouts would've been helpful. This is information which I assume is normally provided and imho should be in the briefing (is it the blue arrow on the chart?) I am not posting to be negative or difficult, but to suggest changes that would've improved my experience in the mission and so might help others in the future. Whether you decide to make changes or not is of course your decision. I have no idea how many people are still buying your campaign, and I understand and have every sympathy that you can't be expected to support and improve it forever. Whilst I'm here. I was unable to hit the targets in this mission but still attempted to make my way back to the carrier and was then greeted by a MISSION FAILED message and the mission ending. I much prefer allowing the player to continue and providing any such information after landing. IMHO returning safely to the carrier is the most important objective. Obviously not suggesting that you change that, just that you maybe consider it for your future campaigns, which I hope there will be.

I guess my eyesight must be going. Thx.

I've been away from the Apache for a couple of months or so. When I tried it out today, I'd swear that I'm having to focus my right eye close in to read the IHADSS, whereas I did not have this issue before. It's as if it's no longer at infinity but much nearer, on the monocle perhaps? Also is the pilot's head position higher than it used to be? I'm pretty sure his helmet must be hitting the "ceiling". Am I just imagining things?

The briefing, imho, does not make it clear that the JSOWs are at risk of getting shot down if you get closer than 40 nm. Also, if the SA-10 can shoot down the JSOWs, then it will be able to do it whether your F-18 comes within 40 nm or it doesn't. Hence some reason is required to explain to the player as to why he has to keep 40 nm away. Another thing I had trouble with was that I couldn't work out where the tanker was from the description in the briefing, which I found too vague ("just west of the mountains").

I've just played this mission and wanted to offer my 2c. What I took away from the briefing was that the my aircraft was at risk of getting shot down if I got too close, so I should keep my distance. I don't think it's fair to assume that the player should know that what's actually happening is that by his getting too close the SA-10 is being activated and his JSOWs are then at risk of being shot down. The end result was that although I got the SA10 on my EW, I thought I was doing ok as I didn't get shot down but, of course, then my JSOWs did. And so here I am in the forum trying to find out what's going on, and the whole immersion thing has taken a bit of a hit. I think it would be preferable for the briefing, in some way, no matter if contrived or unrealistic, to directly tell the player that his aircraft must not be detected by the SA-10 or e.g. the operators will suddenly get very jumpy and spot the JSOWs which they otherwise wouldn't have, or some such. Anyway, I continue to enjoy the campaign, thanks for making it.

For either thread it seems to me very likely that the issue is that if HPTP is selected, the logic for when the harpoon starts its search is not affected (when it should be).

Thanks very much, that fixed it. It's odd though as this didn't happen the last time I flew this mission (I'm almost certain it was this year). I have a number of other missions with a JTAC set up the same way (although it and the enemies are in different positions) and it doesn't happen there. Still, very useful advice which I'll be sure to follow in future, so thanks again.

Thanks for replying but that option is not available with BOL, which is what I am attempting to use. I am specifying a SRCH of 20nm which, if I understand things correctly, means the harpoon should activate its radar 20 nm after the turnpoint.

See attached track. Shouldn't LASER time get to zero around 10 seconds before bomb impact? Instead the countdown carries on for over a minute. gbu24_laser_issue.trk

Thank you, but I am referring to the ME unit perform command "invisible". I apologise for not being clearer with my explanation. The DCS user guide states on p 274

Pls see attached track, the JTAC is attacked and destroyed soon after mission start. I don't remember when I last flew this mission, but this had never happened before.jtac_issue.trk

I just tried your mission again, and I saw the issue you described: the weapon activates and attacks the ship before getting to the turnpoint at WP1. It's curious as this doesn't happen in the mission I set up. Speculating, perhaps in your mission the distance between the turn point and the target is too short and the weapon is forced to activate early?

(1) I wasn't critiquing your technique. My implication was that this could be where the issue is (if not done in that specific order DCS gets "confused"), it might be worth trying. (2) Just asking out of curiosity. (3) Thanks, I didn't know that. V useful.

Thank you both for replying. I assume you are both referring to issue 2. _SteelFalcon_, if you wouldn't mind, please could you expand on your statement? My understanding of BN's post re immediate lasing is that it's only necessary as workaround to an existing bug. Please correct my limited understanding of how these work: once a point is designated the bomb is launched towards that point, the lasing is only needed at the end of the trajectory for final guidance. What the point of CLAR OVR is somewhat eludes me. Why would you want to launch outside of the LAR? The bomb would then never be able to reach its target. I can perhaps see why it might disable automatic lasing, which I assume is what the manual is referring to, if someone else is also lasing. What about issue 1? Sorry if I didn't explain myself correctly, but my understanding is that it should be possible to drop the bomb at any time once you are in the LAR. It is not. The bomb only drops once the dot passes through the FPM.

I've taken a look at your track and (sorry) found it a bit hard to follow (there's a LOT of button pushing happening). I attach a mission and a track, where the behaviour I see is as expected. I usually select the wp I'm going to use as a turnpoint in the hsi before selecting HPTP. Why are you not using the SEA radar mode? I have tried to reproduce the issue but have been unable to. harpoon_01..trk harpoon_test.miz

The EA guide states: 1st issue: in attached track gbu-24_01.trk, although it may not be evident I hold down the pickle button as soon as I am within the CLAR (dot has gone below top horizontal line) however the bomb doesn't drop until the dot gets down to the FPM / horizon line. This would appear to be in disagreement with the above statement, or at least as I understand it. 2nd issue: so I try a slightly different approach in track gbu-24_02.trk. This time I turn on CLAR OVR, and I can drop the bomb when I want to, so I drop it as soon as I am within the CLAR, but this time the bomb misses completely and I am at a loss as to why. I have tried this several times with the same result. gbu-24_02..trkgbu-24_01..trk EDIT: immediately after posting I noticed (wrt 2nd issue) "and post-release lasing is disabled". Not entirely sure what's going on here, but now strongly suspect it's me doing something wrong. Perhaps someone can advise? 2nd EDIT: on further checking I'm guessing CLAR OVR is for when someone else is doing the lasing so your laser is deactivated? So issue 2 is "correct as is" I suppose?

My apologies to both of you. When I wrote my post I was thinking of and referring to BOL, but blundered in without taking enough time to read to your post properly. You are quite right, those settings don't apply to R/BL. I will amend my post shortly.

Is that right? I had understood that with R/BL the distances were both measured from the launch point or the turnpoint (if used). I reported a similar issue some days ago.

In the attached track at 02:03:50 I am trying to lock onto the blob, which I believe is the tu-22 parked on the apron, but the cross always appears to snap to a point just off it. Am I doing something wrong? Is it a bug? A real-life limitation? a2g_radar.trk

Fair comment, but bear in mind that I had no issues with the first coordinates message, which cleared exactly as expected and after which I could continue to fire guns/ missiles with the space bar. I've just flown the mission again and the same thing happened again: I was unable to use the space bar to clear the 2nd coordinates message or fire guns or missiles in the mission thereafter. You'll be happy to hear I was able to successfully complete the mission on this occasion, so I won't be back.

Thanks. if you mean: Note "a" and not "the" discounted price. I can't understand why they didn't just provide this information in the e-mail. And, apologies, I've just realised I posted in the wrong (sub)forum.

I just did a clean reinstall of my system and now find that the site for this sofware no longer appears to exist and that I am unable to register, and so unable to use it. Just wondering whether anyone else has had this issue, and hopefully knows of a solution. I had everything working just as I wanted with VAC and don't want to go through having to set up and learn another product. I get the following when I put in my details and try to register the software: although earlier I was getting

Hi. Thanks for the campaign which I'm now enjoying. I'm having a minor issue in the third mission, where I am unable to clear the second co-ordinates message by pressing SPACE. It does go away by itself eventually, but then later I find that when I try to launch a sidewinder at the Mig, it doesn't work. I have the space bar mapped (by default?) to the trigger, and it's what I use by mapping the key to my joystick trigger (with joystick software). (BTW the missile wouldn't fire even if I pressed the space bar so I doubt it's anything to do with the joystick mapping). I'm guessing something's gone wrong with the clear message functionality and it's "blocking" the SPACE bar from working. I got around it in mission by mapping another key. Apologies if it's me doing something wrong.