bonesvf103

Lately it doesn't matter if I use a HARM, JSOW, Maverick, SLAM-ER, Harpoon etc against a SAM or a SAM defended target, the weapon I used almost always gets shot down. I've tried overwhelming them with numbers, using low profiles, getting in close to cut down on their reaction time, but nothign seems to work. Does anyone have a solution to this? I even read somewhere that JDAMs or dumb bombs were even getting shot down. v6, boNes

If I select ATRK or PTRK, do I need to press TDC or is it automatically designated when I select ATRK/PTRK? Any insight on my Maverick question? v6, boNes PS The Chuck's guide I referenced was released July 19, 2022. I guess that doesn't necessarily mean it's accurate either though, huh?

Hello, If I used WPDSG on a waypoint, the TPOD slews to that WP. 1. At this point, is the target already designated, or do I have to TDC depress on it to do so 2. If it slews to that WP and I find that it is off the target a bit (say it was a convoy and the WP was on the center of the convoy but not on a tank), I can slew the TPOD to the target and then hit ATRK or PTRK. Is this now the designated target, or is it still the WP? 3. I read in Chuck's guide that you designate the target you tracked via ATRK or PTRK by TDC depressing on it. But this is also how you activate Targeting Pod Offset mode. Is there an error in procedure here? 4. If you WPDSG then fine tune the target and PTRK a moving target and select the Maverick MFD and uncage it, will the Maverick look at the WPDSG or the PTRK? Thanks. v6, boNes

Again thanks IronMike I really appreciate your advice and they are more encouraging than you know. Yes, even if they run out of gas, a kill is a kill, right? I'll check your new vids out asap and hopefully learn something new from it. v6, boNes

Oh, also, you think it is possible to do a video of a gunzo engagement with the input display on (right ctrl-enter) so I can see what your stick/throttle/rudder movements are? Thanks. v6, boNes

[quote]The Su-27 very much can be beaten by geometry and also the MiG etc can lose their energy if you are patient enough. By the book, means what book exactly? 30 seconds is your ideal window, which means your main goal is to win the merge and shoot them right there and then. After the 30 seconds your chances to win decrease dramatically. Especially with human opponents. I forgot the calculus, but it is quite dramatic. In the end, your job is to shoot the guy, not to display some geometry. And, ofc, knowing how to do this or that, especially in PvP, helps a ton to get into a favorable position, flip a position, etc etc. But you're still not there to display an airshow, but to shoot the guy. However you can. The AI now just pulls too hard too consistently for long periods of time, inhumanly so, hence insisting on some geometry is pointless. I leave the fight with a) enough fuel and b) almost 2/3rds of gun ammo left, despite snapshots. Snapshots are super important, especially when flying against humans. The big difference with Ai and humans is that a human will always try to pull the nose on you, when you come head to head again, even if he sacrifices for that, but on a nose to nose you will have ammo flying your way. The AI, when shot at first, will just not do that, which can be exploited.[/quote] What I mean by "by the book" is the way I prosecute the engagement based on what I've studied and what I've learned from fighter pilots (reading articles by them or speaking with them). In the merge, I go in with no less than 450 kias. In these cases I won't shoot in the merge per the ROE in the briefing (although after the last few patches the bandits ignore that rule). I turn toward the bandit and immediately try to get on his tail and read his "bubble". When he breaks, I make sure I have enough energy to turn with him, and I wait until I get line of sight explosion and fly to the point about where he broke before I make my turn. I will then turn, putting my life vector on him, leaving AB on to push me through the turn. Usually the only roll input at this point that I put in is for that initial turn. After that, I pull ever so slightly back on the stick and hold it in that position. This usually gets geometry to solve the problem and pulls the bandit into my HUD and into my pipper for a tracking shot but with the last few patches, now the bandit just keeps sustaining his turn apparently without losing energy while mine bleeds away and my pipper flies off the bottom of the HUD as I turn in high speed or pull a little further to keep up. If I do need roll input, I use the rudders. But even then, I can't hold the turn forever and I then have to low yo-yo to get energy back, but it doesn't come back fast enough and by then he is already reversing his turn to go 1 circle. I'm glad you mentioned that the AI pulls too hard too consistently for long periods of time. That's what I feel he is doing too, and I'm glad I'm just not being crazy for thinking so. [quote] The 1nm pole: Imagine the aircraft is set on a 1nm stick. In most cases you need to fly around that stick first to get into a good shooting position. A lot of folks want to just get nose on and force it, getting in a non favorable position. That's just a mental/visual aid, which a Gripen pilot told me who got that from his BFM instructor, an oldschool Viggen guy. Just imagine that stick, and try to fly around it first. But sometimes, like with the AI pulling a constant 9Gs or similar shenanigans, that is not really possible. Hence you need to be able to do [/quote] I can imagine that stick, but I'm not quite sure what you mean by "fly around it." Do you mean to never close the distance so that you are within reach of the stick, or do you mean to go out of plane with the stick, or something like that? I think that when I wait until LOS explosion and then break at the point where he breaks, that that is flying around the stick, but I'm not sure. And again your mention of the AI...it seems to me that this patch has taken the already existent problem of AI UFOs and instead of fixing them or making it more real, they upgraded their UFO abilities. Which really makes flying against them unrealistic and ruins the correct technique as you either no longer fly them or radically change them to match a radically changed unrealistic AI behavior. [quote]snapshots well. Snapshots are not luck, it is something you need to practice. Flying geometry is nice, being able to hold your turnrate is something one needs to know anyway, but if it doesn't serve you to kill the guy, it is worthless, too. And btw, if you want to fly BFM PvP, practicing against the AI is a very bad thing. All my advice here is predominantly meant for how to beat the AI as is, not on how to develop a skillset in human vs human BFM. But in parts, it applies there, too, ofc. Do what works, not what someone told you one should do.[/quote] Yes, like in the above, I feel like all true BFM and ACM are now worthless in the sim with this AI even though IRL they wouldn't be. I admit I don't do too much against humans, but when I do, I usually can kill them pretty quickly (or get killed pretty quickly) but they don't fly with UFO abilities. And, I also want to say I really appreciate your advice and it sounds like others here do too! [quote]Finally, explain a bit more what regime you mean, cause I showed you 4 different ones. (I would also carefully suggest, if it takes you 8 minutes to kill the flanker from the IA mission, it is not the same regime, it should never take you that long.) Which is the whole point, to be flexible to go from a sustained turn to instantenious to forcing the angles to creating separation, etc.. as needed. The bottom line of this remains: the AI is still extremely easy to kill, because it isn't as flexible as you can be, while a human opponent can be exactly that and turn it on your head.[/quote] Yes I suppose I could have been more specific. Primarily I was looking at bout 1 because that was guns only against the Su-27, though I did look at the other ones with missiles also. You enter the merge the same as I do, high speed, deny turning room, and post merge you turn and get nose on like I do also. Hearing Jester's callouts, we both have the same amounts of energy and hold the same speeds in the turn although I try to avoid getting slower than 330 whereas alot of the times you are at around 250 in the turn. I also notice your nose dips alot up and down and there is a lot of buffeting from it, which I think is your "fapping" the stick as you explained later. I don't really do that, but I'm also always trying to smoothly bring him into my gun pipper. Now where I get baffled is through all this buffeting and nose dipping, you get off a shot and the pipper is either not even there (blind shot) or it's someplace else and you get good hits. Pipper aside, even the buffeting would be enough to ruin my aim, that, and being blind. Your kills amaze me. I also see that he goes 1 circle on you alot too and the way you react to/counter it is how I do too. So in short alot of what you do is very similar to what I do hence why I said we are in the same regime--except you kill him way more and way faster than I do. BTW the first 2 kills I got this way I did in about 4 minutes the first time and 3 in the next, but it was subsequent ones where 8 minutes later I either ran out of gas or rounds, and in rare cases killed him but ended up with 30 or less rounds and an emergency landing at Sochi. [quote]EDIT: One more thing that slipped my mind: going from slow to fast and vice versa: it can be done very quickly, but you need to manage your pull. There is a technique, which I call simply "fapping" the stick, lol, and it works basically both ways: if I want to gain speed, I go from pull -> release -> pull -> release, which works also if you want to pull more G without bleeding off speed, which goes a bit like pull -> increase -> ease off to (initial) pull -> increase -> ease off to a bit more pull -> increase -> ease of to yet a bit more pull than before -> increase ... gently. Try to practice that quickly going from 150 to 250 to 350 to 450 at a constant between 4 and 6 G (choose one and hold it) for the first, and for the second train holding around corner speed while going 3G to 4G to 5G to 6G to 7G while not losing corner speed. For me both these skills do much more than geometry. Also against humans.[/quote] This must be what is happening when I see your nose drop up and down, but with alot of buffeting. I do a version of that too from time to time, but usually it's to "reset" the turn. I will let go of the stick in the turn and quickly "start over" by grabbing the stick and doing my slight pull and hold. All of my techniques used to work all of the time but now it has just been a source of frustration for me and admittedly I wrote my last post fresh from that frustration so please forgive me. I will try your stick fapping and will also look at the Hornet video you posted. Thanks much again. v6, boNes

Well I watched your video IronMike and I ahve to say I am flying pretty much the same as you in the same regime. I did getr a few kills but they were all snapshot kills or blind hots kills, which felt more like really lucky pot shots. I dunno, I feel like when doing this everything I've learned about ACM and geometry just goes out the window and what's the point of all that theory if it just comes down to a lucky shot? Maybe that's the way it is now, but it feels so unnatrual and contradictory to actually flying and fighting "by the book." It is still very frustrating to me, especially when it always always ALWAYS seems like the Su-27 can hold his turn and hold it and hold it and never friggin lose energy. And can you better explain the concept of the 1 nm pole sticking out of his ass? Thanks. v6, boNes

CaptDalan, Thanks for your efforts. I didn't see any AI updates in the last patch and that mini one from the other day either. So their behavior changing since the last major patch with the AI changes seems unlikely. The keyword being SEEMS. There are lots of times when I felt 100% confident that the bandits had changed the way they flew after a patch, but then changed again afterwards even though there was no future patch. I theorized that maybe small updates were being pushed without us knowing, what another collegue of mine here called "stealth patches" but tons of people would tell me that's just crazy talk. But it just seems that way sometimes. So I wouldn't doubt what you said. Now IronMike: thanks for your input too. I admit I do try to get that perfect shot where it's a tracking shot, pipper on the bandit, and I rarely do any snapshots. But before the patch, this worked just fine for me. NOw, it's impossible, the behavior is how I described in the OP. I have gotten some killsm but it has been like you said--blind or snapshot, and only after about 8 minutes of frustration. I'd barely make it to shore with some gas left. But back to the fight, yes, I can get a kill if he Su-27 makes a rare error and doesn't break, allowing my pipper to get on him. Or, I lead him so much that my pipper is not even on the HUD but I take the shot anyway (what you called a blind shot) out of frustration, and it hits. Or, as often happens, after about 7 or 8 minutes the bandit suddenly becomes docile and flies away without any hard maneuvering. He may try to climb and maneuver a bit if I go after him but not as hard as he had in the previous 7 minutes. I kill him, but it feels lackluster. Wold I take more blind shots or snapshots? Maybe, but then I feel like Im wasting ammo and what good is it if I finally line up a shot and my gun is empty? I usually get the geometry right but as they are slowly sliding into my HUD, they are also reversing their turn and going back to one circle. If I lead they try to force the overshoot or I get there and I'm out of energy, or more often I have a great tracking shot and there's no pipper. The pipper itself has at times swirled around, then disappeared then instantly reappeared in a totally different spot in the HUD. ALso other times if I run out of energy or see that I am, I often go full burner and dive down in a very deep low yoyo, but my airspeed climbs back up stupidly slow. It doesn't seem to make any sense that a plane as heavy as the Tomcat with nose down in Zone V can accelerate so slow. It feels like it's against the law of gravity. I have flown the other ones with missiles. Constant Peg, DACT V Mirages in Normandy, Fox 2s against F-5s. Normally I kill them within a few minutes and that's fine. But anytime going to guns only it's a different story. I'll look at IronMike and Capt's videos ASAP, I want to know how other people fly it now post-patch. Thanks for your videos guys! v6, boNes

I flew an MP mission Wed night and I had a target which was located near WP4 (which in the Bombcat was ST). I told Jester "Track Surface Target" and he put the LANTIRN right at that WP. I jumped in back, undesignated, fine tuned it to the EW site that was next to that WP, then redesignated. I jumped back into the front pit and saw that Jester put it back on the surface target instead of my new designation. I told him "track designation" and I'd hear the beep from VAICOM Pro accept it and him say roger but he would put it back to ST instead of my designated target every time. So I couldn't make the drop. I tried to jump in the back after the drop and track the target myself but there was no time and I was fired on by MiG-25s. So we died. I played a separate mission afterwards and again struck an EW site. I did everything the same and that time he tracked the target that I redesignated and we hit it. So what gives? The only other thing that was really different was the first mission was at night and the 2nd was in the day, but I doubt that matters... v6, boNes

With the exception of him jinking his wings off, I have noticed all of what you have said. He does do a ton of jinking though! v6, boNes

ever since they changed the AI I've been having a hard time killing them. I used to be able to kill the Su-27 with an F-14B guns only in less than 3 minutes. Now it usually takes 8 minutes before I lose by running out of gas. I'm constantly offensive, but it seems like the Su-27 never loses energy in a turn and I have to keep burner on to just hold him in my HUD for a gunshot. When I do get in range, my pipper flies off the bottom of the HUD and is nowhere to be seen because I'm pulling with burner so much to keep the bandit in the HUD for the shot or lead him for the shot. If I ease up and do lag pursuit then the bandit continues his turn away from me and then we get locked in a stalemate with us being in an infinite turn with neither one ahving an advantage. If I pull lead I hemorrhage my energy and now have to concentrate on keeping my plane flying. It's really frustrating especially when the Flanker never loses energy or even sight of you in the clouds. Any thoughts? It has been a source of frustration. v6, boNes

Don't forget Voodoo! It would also be cool to have Navy tactical callsigns. For instance, they are Enfield 11 when out in the mission amongst other NATO assets but back at the boat in the pattern they are Victory 103 or Fast Eagle 107 (squadron tac callsign + modex/side number). v6, boNes

Option to not have the kneeboard default to the Vaicom Pro kneeboard without having to pin a preferred page. Jester changing scan range to 25 nm (he rarely does it when asked) (bug?) At times, I will get a message saying ATC recipient is not a Supercarrier asset when it is (Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington) (bug?) v6, boNes

Thanks Tomcat-Driver! Maybe add a note as to what the path is if you have the Steam version? v6, boNes

Can we have a sticky that explains how to do the fix for Vaicom Pro for both DCS versions (stable and beta)? It seems like instructions are spread out between Discord and different DCS Forum posts,to which you have to scroll/read through alot of posts to try and make coherent sense of things. It would be nice to consolidate everything into one post here in the Vaicom forum, especially for those who don't have Discord. Thanks! v6, boNes

what happens when I hit Q is the COM1 menu comes up. What I did was assign a mic button press and mic button release to Vaicom Pro via my physical HOTAS button for COM1 and COM2, and for ICS in the Tomcat. I also assigned a shortcut key in Vaicom Pro (in the Hornet's case, Q for COM1 and RCLT+\ for COM2. IT's been years since I did that so I'm not sure why except for that is what I have my comms set to in DCS and emulated by my HOTAS, so probably top be sure, or if I decided to not use Vaicom after trying it out. But I stuckwith it so it probably just remained there as a leftover since. In any cae I had a key assigned on my HOTAS to a TX like in the manual. My HOTAS software is HUD, which came with my Logitech X56. v6, boNes

Great news for all! My question is will it continue to be payware? I'm sure those who are taking the reins should be compensated somehow and those who have already purchased it should get their money's worth, especially those who just bought it recently not knowing it was no longer supported, it's doesn't seem fair to them to have paid for it and everyone in the future does not. v6, boNes

I should have been more clear. What I meant was my HOTAS sends keystrokes to vaicom not DCS. ie, I hit my HOTAS mic button, and my HOTAS sends Q which is what Vaicom Pro sees and knows to take whatever I say and match it with a DCS command and then sends that command to DCS. And I didn't think you were being a smart ass, nothing to worry about there. v6, boNes

Yes that's what I was trying to say. My Q keybind for COM1 is set to Vaicom TX1 and my RCTRL+\ for COM2 is set to TX2 in Vaicom. I've been so used to doing Vaicom after I set this that now that I suddenly don't have Vaicom, I have to realize that I can still use my HOTAS to key the mic since it is going to DCS now not Vaicom then DCS. But since \ was set in DCS, even with Vaicom Pro gone, I don't know why DCS ignores my \ keystroke whereas in any other plane DCS does not ignore it. That part makes no sense. And since there is no Vaicom, in theory it shouldn't matter if I had to vaicom line in that lua or not since my HOTAS buttons emulate a keystroke. With Vaicom working my keypress would be intercepted by Vaicom and understood as TX1 or TX2 and then would pass my command on to DCS for COM1 or COM2. In theory wIth Vaicom or even Voice Attack off, I can leave the code in the .lua since it wouldn't apply since neither would be on. My HOTAS keypress would then go to DCS rather than Vaicom first, but it would only bring up the menu and then I'd have to hit a function key to relay my command since Vaicom won't take my voice command and translate it into a DCS command. Which would suck, but that was what was so good about Vaicom Pro. I didn't have to hit F5 for ATC then F1 to ask to taxi. I could just hit TX1 or TX2 and say "request taxi" and it would bypass all the keystrokes for me and issue the command. I will definitely miss Vaicom Pro. I hope it comes back fine. I guess I can switch to Bailey's profile but then I would definitely have to comment out the Vaicom Pro line and re-check on the "allow pluug-ins" option in Voice Attack, I think. But for now I can work with the Jester wheel and the comms by keystroke. It will jsut take me more time to look for/choose the command, which will suck in the heat of battle/ v6, boNes

And actually to follow up on THAT, I checked my HOTAS and it looks like I do have those keybinds mapped to the right buttons, but I have them listed as VAICOM Pro TX2 and TX1, so I must have years ago set them to VAICOM Pro's TX1 and TX2 for DCS to recognize. Years of using the HOTAS to use comms rather than the keyboard made me forget this. SO without BAICOM Pro, I went to using the keyboard, expecting the default would work when I should have been using Q and LCTRL+\. Although, since comms menu is bound to the \ key, I dunno why THAT wouldn't bring up a comms menu, unless there isn't one in F/A-18C per se, but then, why isn't it listed. Maybe will always be a mystery, but as long as I have my comm1 and 2 back, I don;t think I care. Thanks for prodding me in the right direction. v6, boNes

Followup: MAX, your suggestion gave me an idea. I went back into the control settings menu and looked for the comm1 and comm2 radio instead of the communications radio. I found that there was a keybind for com1 mic switch set to q and for comm2 mic switch set to RCTLR+\. HIttineither on the keyboard brought up comms1 and comms2 menu respectively. Now why \ doesn't work for a comms menu I don't know but I suspect that with Vaicom Pro it must have understood it to work, but without it doesn't. I think before I had Vaicom Pro years ago I had set Q and LCTRL+\ as my mic buttons...and maybe I just forgot about it being spoiled with VAicom Pro. So, I think it is working that way anyway and I will just have to reassign my HOTAS buttons. I'll let you know if there is anything further. Thanks! v6, boNes

Nope it didn't work. v6, boNes

Hi MAXSenna thanks for trying to help me. My RadioCommandDialogsPanel.lua file is 61 kb. I pretty much have been doing an integrity check everytime I have tried to change something, and sometimes just for the heck of it. My keybind for the comms menu in the Hornet is \. I checked it in the controls section and everytime I hit \ in the control set/selection it does display "Communication menu." This is also what used to work for me before Vaicom Pro died. v6, boNes

Tried other things but still, the Hornet is the only one where the comms menu does not come up. I am out of ideas, any other ideas to fix this? v6, boNes

And...nope. Still no Hornet comms menu even though I did what BMG and Jayhawk suggested. v6, boNes