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It had datalink showing you the position of every friendly fighter, point 7. in your list is a pretty massive one. If the F-16 launches with datalink in DCS, we can do without IFF - knowing where your friendlies are is as good as an IFF system for most scenarios. It's not an excuse because you're not comparing like for like between that game without an IFF and what we'll get here - we also won't have a TGP for long range VID at launch and might not have AWACS declare (if there's even an AWACS/EWR still alive in the mission).

1. Not useful for aircraft in a furball / chainsaw 2. Ditto 3. Airspeed just tells you if it's a fighter or not 4. AWACS couldn't declare on the Hornet at release, don't expect it to be able to for the F-16. Also, not every mission has an AWACS. 5. Not all MP scenarios have organised packages, it's a free for all, you're never going to understand what 30 other people are doing in a 24/7 battle without hours of briefings which don't happen. Also, most servers put fog of war on the F10 map, so you can't see friendlies or enemies, some you can't even see yourself. 6. Doesn't happen in the vast majority of MP scenarios - the phrase herding cats comes to mind. 7. There isn't going to be datalink on EA release. 8. Not all scenarios have different aircraft on different sides. 9. Did you play the Hornet on release day in MP servers? It was ridiculous, 30 people shouting raygun, 30 buddyspikes, pretty much every second or two. It was chaos. Not to mention that in a PVP environment, while you're reading the tea leaves trying to discern if they're friendly or not, they know that you're not friendly and have probably already fired. If ED don't want the F-16 to be restricted to SP / WVR fighting, we need IFF on release.

+1 not having IFF was the worst bit of the Hornet launch, and having the IFF logic / process switch during development has confused a big chunk of the playerbase at each step and caused untold thousands of friendly fire incidents. Even if its a 'cheat' underneath, please give us an IFF placeholder that matches the end product.

Yep - think it needs to be a 40nm+ shot. The lofting algorithm isn't great though - was testing max range shots today at 60kft on a hot Mig-25 going Mach 2.5 or so and the missile lofted but didn't come down in time (target flew right under them). It's a bit hit and miss though, I fired six shots over three runs - 5/6 lofted, everything missed except the one that didn't loft (78nm shot tho!).

I passed out pulling 1G on my sofa after lunch.

New screenshots: From here: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/screenshots/

The videos are probably from before LTWS was added in. LTWS is meant to be on by default, it's not a bug. You don't have to switch LTWS off - in order to STT lock you can either press TDC depress on the target again (i.e. once to tag it in LTWS, twice to STT), or you can use AACQ (Sensor Select Right) on a brick to skip LTWS and go straight to STT, or you can simply pull the trigger while LTWS locked with a Sparrow selected and it'll auto-transition to STT.

Don't know if you've noticed, but he always calls the Hornet as friendly, even when it's on the opposite team. It's very noticable on DDCS where the F-14 is on red but the Hornet is on blue - Jester always calls it as friendly after doing his VID.

It's got significantly higher PPD (pixels per degree) than the Pimax 5k but less FOV, the 8K has less PPD than the Pimax 5k. So yeah, Reverb should look much clearer than either of those for the FOV it has.

They've already said how they're going to split the features between launch and afterwards: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/2019-02-15_Beta/ Seems like it'll be a little bit more capable than the Hornet was at launch (it'll have the JHMCS, 9X and 120 which the Hornet didn't have), but all the smart munitions and pods come after launch.

The Hornet does not have an in-built laser spot tracker - it has *no* idea where the laser is. It can only target an AUTO drop on a TGT, you have two ways of designating a TGT currently, either turn a waypoint into a TGT or use the ball and chain on the HUD. Without a TGT it can't create an ASL as it has no idea what you're trying to drop on. The bomb can take the target from the laser - but the bombs aren't wired into the plane, they sit on the same dumb pylons as Mk82s, so the seeker can't tell the plane where the laser is. You can CCIP drop in the rough area of a lazed target and the bomb will track, but the only way to get an ASL near the target is to either WPDSG so you get a TGT or use the ball and chain.

Think the person you're replying to was talking about real-life, not the game, given IIRC he's a Strike Eagle pilot/WSO and has dropped them in real life.

Press the Mk0 button, and then you can add waypoints. It's a very long-standing bug.

Correct, but you do if you want to see A-10C SPIs on the SA page which is what I was responding to...

Think Wags has already said that won't be possible - A-10's / Hornets can just share their location with each other supposedly, nothing else.

You don't need to use/buy Virtual Desktop - you're on a Windows device, so it already has a desktop built in. Once the game is running on your headset, press alt+tab and then the Windows key, and you'll be back in the Cliff House. Then press the Windows key and a menu will pop up, go to Apps and click Desktop, and you'll now have a floating desktop window in the Cliff House. To go back into the game, click the floating SteamVR window. Make sure you press alt+enter to go full screen in the game so you don't lose your mouse. To get back to the Cliff House, press alt+tab and Windows key. Easy peasy. Other tips: You can move windows around in the Cliff House by clicking the top bar and holding it, if you scroll the mouse wheel it'll move closer/further away. You can move around the Cliff House with your mouse - hold right click and an indicator appears on the ground with an arrow showing where you'll be facing when you let go, mouse wheel changes where you'll be facing. Let go to teleport. You can run the whole system without taking your headset off - most of the time I never bother even switching my monitor on.

Yep, just doesn't do it unless you specifically program it to. If people are just chucking a SAM system into the mission editor and throwing a HARM at it, the AI won't switch the radar off. There seems to be some confusion over whether HARMs should be naturally inaccurate and if that's what ED are trying to model - but instead I think they *should* be reliably hitting the targets (if the radars aren't switched off) and it looks like some guidance bugs were introduced when ED started looking at PB mode. It makes sense that it's just new bugs introduced, as in that mode they're launched without a lock and then try to pick up the nearest source when they switch on at the waypoint (which is basically what we're seeing, just from launch in the wrong mode!).

It's been pretty standard doctrine since Vietnam for defenders to switch off the radars when SEAD aircraft are around / have launched ARMs - with missiles without an INS like the 88C when the radar is off they lose track and miss. In Bosnia they fired something like 800 HARMs and barely hit anything because the crews were well trained and switched the radars off. Newer versions of the HARM have an INS (and in-game the Kh58s have it) so if the radar is switched off they still hit the last location. The in-game AI don't switch the radar off - probably won't do that autonomously until we get the new IADS AI that was mentioned in the newsletter - so it's not really possible to compare real life with DCS. Assuming the radar is left on, and assuming we're not modelling missile malfunctions (which isn't modelled for anything else), the HARM should hit - the seeker should seek to the radar.

Hasn't been in my experience but I've not dropped this patch - normally just setting it once is enough in TOO.

Not sure whether that'll actually be in the Hornet manual as it's more of a DCS-wide thing. I think it's F6 on your keyboard to follow ordinance (F1 is internal, F2 external, F3 flyby, F4 body shot, F5 looks at nearest aircraft, F6 is ordinance, F7 is ground units, then my memory gets a bit hazy but there's normally carriers/airfields on F8 or F9 and then F10 is the map).

Those items haven't been addressed yet, there are missing JDAM features, we don't have PRECISE waypoint entry (don't confuse this with being able to enter decimal seconds for JDAM, they're different), the HARM guidance is still bugged (see the bug forum), and pretty sure the last one was meant to be MSI which we don't have, not MIDS (we've had MIDS for a while now).

It's possible that in single player you've got easy comms on, which will allow you to talk to any unit no matter what radio you try to use (e.g. if you use the default \ it'll work fine). In MP, lots of servers switch off easy radio and so you need to use the correct comms switch (and \ will no longer work for contacting anything other than the RIO IIRC). The F-14 has three mic switches - one for intercom, one for the pilot's radio and one for the RIO's radio. Make sure you're using the right one to talk to the tanker or he'll ignore you.

Think the JDAM can only be programmed with Lat/Long, but the waypoints can be entered with MGRS using the GRID function (which isn't implemented). So it should come later, just won't be useful for the JDAM (unless you use TOO mode).

HARMs are called AGM-88C's in the loadout, under missiles. JDAMs are GBU-38 or GBU-31s.

Hoping the HARM guidance fixes are in but just not mentioned yet! Having DDMMSS.SS on F10 will be a great help though.