Slant

Hello everyone. I know this topic has been discussed a lot lately, but rarely do I see people pointing out specific problems. In analysing the fights I had where I felt treated unfairly, I noticed that my main problem is really just one: AI fighters don't lose energy in tight turns. Whenever I do something that is designed to bleed energy off the opponent, it doesn't work for AI. This is even more apparent when you're flying an F-14B against a Mig-15. The power advantage of the F-14B on paper should be colossal, yet no matter how you twist and turn (or even go vertical), the AI keeps a constant speed, regardless of its own AOA or G pulled or even if they go vertical with me, a feat a Mig-15 shouldn't be able to do against the F-14. This breaks the entire experience from the merge onwards. As Jabbers has demonstrated, it is quite possible to kill AI even that and I'm the first to admit that I'm nowhere near as good as his demonstration showed, but it doesn't feel satisfying to fight AI. In his videos, he mentioned that it is possible if you know how to fight the AI. This suggests certain knowledge of AI behaviour that only really applies to AI. I'm not sure if that is fun, once you figure "the trick" out, the challenge is gone... as it is for Jabbers apparently. If anyone has input on the different skill settings of AI that I'm not aware off, please let me know. For example perhaps lower AI settings do bleed energy in tight turns?

This is my limited understanding, I may be wrong and am happy to be corrected. Baro alt = altitude based on air pressure. Pressure changes with weather conditions, hence you having to dial in the correct baro pressure every single time, so you're aligned and get a valid readout that won't fly you into a mountain. This is ASL altitude, you need it because those airport charts tell you the altitude you're supposed to be at in the approach/pattern etc. They're supposed to give you enough clearance over obstacles that rad alt can't warn you about. Take a city, for example. If you fly into a factory chimney, radalt would tell you about the problem about 2 feet into the chimney... Rad alt = altitude based on an actual radar pinging the ground. This is AGL. The air force uses it to not fly into mountains and as a backup altitude indicator. The navy additionally uses it for carrier recoveries, because it's simpler, more precise and above all, the ocean doesn't have mountains or buildings to worry about. Just ships (that you know are there). Also, there are no airport charts that you need to reference. The pattern and landing altitudes are, ideally, the same every single time (or close to). Rad alt becomes unreliable pretty quickly, that's why your radalt stops at what, 3k feet? 5k for the F-14. That 29.92 is actually the standard baro alt you're supposed to set above a certain altitude. Every a/c does it. The main reason for that is because nobody knows the current weather conditions at 30k feet precisely, because nobody has a weather station up there (usually). So to coordinate with other planes, everyone agreed to this standard baro setting so when you're near someone else, they'll have the same setting as you and when you're supposed to fly at 30k and they're supposed to be at 28k, you don't accidentally collide because you have the altimeter set to whatever your respective starting points used to have. Having it blink in your HUD is the friendly reminder to set it from the high altitude standard to whatever the airport tells you to use for landing. Having said that, weather simulation in DCS is kinda crappy and most people ignore it, because it's a pain in the ass and also... most servers are locked in on perfect flying weather, so who gives a **** about instruments, it's all VFR free style, baby! :D

I don't recall saying something about right or wrong. I merely pointed out what's happening. I answered your "why" question. You can dislike the answer, but it's there and it's obvious, too.

I'm not saying you're being unreasonable. I've tried to lay down why they are here precisely. This has everything to do with the kid that cannot wait for Christmas morning to open his presents. It's the same attitude. They want it. They really want it. Don't we understand? That's the main reason discussions like these happen. They aren't actually upset with HB. They just have nothing better to do than nag, nag, nag. Once the F14 is out, they'll have forgotten about all of this within a couple hours. Then they'll be happy about the F14 for a week or until they think they can handle it to their satisfaction and then they'll remember... "Oh wait... someone announced the F-15E (or F-16 or whatever the next module is), didn't they?" and the cycle begins anew, with research on what the dev said when and who heard what... and come the time close to release of the F-15E, the same types of people (not necessarily the actual same individuals, although the likelihood is there) will be here saying... well, pretty much what they said just now. And for the F/A-18C. And the AV-8B... and I'm guessing literally every module before that. That's the "why". :) About the countdown... Not sure how your group approached it, but my mates and I looked at it... said "yeah, they haven't hyped it nearly enough to release it now" and decided it wasn't the release but some other reveal, possibly the release date. When you see stuff like that, stop your emotions, think for a second on how games and modules are released and then come to the sane conclusion. It calms your nerves. ;) The worst outcome is, you could be surprised by a surprise release. Who wouldn't want that as the worst outcome?

Either they release some information and get hated on for taking too long or they don't release information and get hated on for poor communication. You're ****ed with this community either way, aren't you. The funny bit is that nothing the devs do can actually fix the situation. They say Winter 2018/2019, normal people assume instantly "right, that's funny.. so it'll be March 21st..." and go with that. Other people become overly excited and immediately assume it'll be the first date of Winter. God knows why, but they'll stand on the mat every single day checking if DCS has an update with the F14. And every day they get a little more disappointed until they vent on some forum or on reddit. This is ridiculous. Think about that for a while. Nothing (!) Heatblur has said is incorrect so far about the F14. When they phrase stuff vaguely, they have a reason for it. It's not to piss you off, it's so you can't later go "But you said..." And discussions like this one are the reason for that.

Early Access = feedback on content. Early Access != feedback on company policy.

This peaked my interest. Which ones?

Not an engineer, but I'd believe it's because that activates a heater that prevents icing and keeps the tubes clear.

Cannot confirm. Have fired Maverick Gs on MP servers, a dozen or so. No crash.

Yeah, I just figued that out, too. I wonder, is it "official" or is it an oversight in the module? It seems so.. cheesy. :)

Yeah, you're right. I thought about the right stuff, but thought the skid hanging low was a result of translation rather than the counteraction. Great stuff, learned something about helicopters in this thread. I approve. ;)

You check AoA to prevent ice from being ingested, not to check if ice is actually present, do you not? Perhaps I read it wrong.

For helicopters, it's been my experience that as long as you think about control inputs, you will struggle. We can deal with hands doing two different things well enough, but throw in feet in the mix and I've seen players spin all out of control when they get panicky. For me, it just clicked at some point when I realised I was correcting for yaw with rudder almost before it happened and certainly before I realised what I was doing. Quite surpring when you do a landing, wonder why it's going to smooth and then realise your feet are not in the position you remembered them the last time you thought about them. ;) The message for you isn't easy, but... it'll come to you eventually. keep calm, learn to counteract movement that you don't want and what remains is an artful landing. That's all there is to it. Know what you want to do and counteract things that you don't want to happen.

I swear I've seen rain effect on the Gazelle already. But it was going all sideways and in some places even upwards. :P

Hum. If I understand helicopter aerodynamics correctly, it should be the left skid hanging low, if any. And this issue is most likely addressed by the SAS. Newer helicopters tilt the rotor dish slightly to compensate for the natural translation tendency. I'm curious, do you want to see these features because you know the Gazelle to be having these flaws or because you're used to them from other helicopters, specifically the Huey that has a very pronounced translation/roll tendency?

To be fair, the old model didn't make sense. You could barely hover with 4 HOTs and 60% fuel without blowing the engine after 1-2 mins (faster if you yawed and increased torque and thus engine strain). I agree with you, though. She's a joy to fly at the moment. Still like to visit the Huey whenever I can. For some reason it feels more... raw. :)

Yeah, now it is. A year ago it was an underpowered VW Beetle from the 60s. :D

I don't even understand that. What should the helicopter do?

What I do for any landing (in quicker succession for carrier landings, of course) is - put gear down, lose speed, - flaps half, adjust trim "nose up" slightly to balance the jet, - flaps full, adjust trim further "nose up" until I'm happy with the picture (usually pitch at 8° and velocity indicator at 0°. The nose tends to drop down, so I compensate that with the stick or simply let it drop until I got the trim under control and can hold altitude without any pitch input. Usually I end up between 125kts (light jet) and 145kts (heavy jet) with ~8° AOA. After that it's just cruising it onto the deck using throttle input to adjust the glide angle. I've made a little video to show the difference between landing setups w/o and w/ trim. I think the difference is quite noticeable if you look at the controls. Also I found the trimmed approach to be more stable overall. Workload is a lot easier, IMO!

Nice one! Now try it with flaps. :D

Trim is so important, actually. I've done a few carrier landings but only today trimmed it properly. It's night and day. Whenever I have a problem now, I keep telling myself to trim it out. No wonder those flight instructors always talk about trim. :P

I understand the limitations. But this wouldn't even be an issue if the release dates (yes, even for early access) were the same. The beginning of new content is the most exciting time to play with friends. I feel robbed of that particular type of fun activity, where you discover new things together. You know, that's what makes a multiplayer game multiplayer for me. If ED could improve the release situation, nobody would even be talking about Steam vs. Standalone and they'd have all the time in the world to solve the licensing issue.

That's too much emotion for cool people. Just sayin'. You're gonna love the next three months. Is nobody else curious why they even release on Steam? If it's that troublesome, why do it? New players? Sensible, exept all you're doing is plant them into this silly two stores nonsense.

Okay, after having deleted three longwinded rants... the situation is quite unsatisfactory and needs to be resolved. Preferably without me throwing 100 bucks out the window just to be forced into the standalone version to play with my friends.