Raisuli

Almost, but not quite, as annoying as the every second 'Home Fuel' deedle deedle, and setting the waypoint to something undefined doesn't help with that anymore. Nothing like a master caution every half second to distract you in the groove. As for the bingo, I got that wheels down taxiing to parking. At least home fuel stops when it thinks you might already be home and can call a tow truck if needed. Enough to make me wish there was an easier way to turn bitchin' Betty Lou off.

My home-grown missions are all about learning to set up and employ A2G weapons, and I've gotten pretty good at that. I can even wild-weasel SAMs to a degree. I used to do BFM guns-only A2A, then I found out a fight against a MiG-21 was an endless two circle until someone ran out of gas and nothing I could find on-line fixed that. Before they changed the AI I could do a MiG29, but it did vertical loops all day. Anti-gravity is nice. GVad the Pilot's videos help, but I almost need one dedicated to whatever I can't seem to do. Growling Sidewinder still cracks me up when he loses though he does better at hiding the grumpiness, but all he does anymore are mods. So...campaigns seemed a logical progression, but we're back to the original problem. If I went through flight rather than that other school (although several of my classmates tried to fly and the Navy tried even harder to cover that up) and had been a military pilot Reflected's would be right up my ally.

So...we're somehow related? That sounds like the kind of thing I'd do, assuming the initial brief didn't leave me drooling over the stuff real pilots take for granted. Then I go back to my home grown training missions and blow something up, or do carrier practice, or A2AR, or just fly formation with an aluminum cloud for forty minutes or an hour. It's really hard to keep my focus that long, so I try to improve that. In SA it's hard to look at the lead and not the scenery, in Kola that will be worse.

Which might not have an answer... I had to look at my DCS order history this weekend and realized the very first thing I paid for was the F-18 pre-release. I have all but, I think, two of the campaigns for the F-18 and probably all but 10 overall. I've bought a lot of stuff from ED. I've never flown a campaign. So, given I at least know which direction to face while sitting in the aircraft, what campaign would all you pros recommend for my first? I looked at a 'beginner' F-5 campaign and the first mission started out by flying the boingo departure and picking up bozon to the blotto waypoint and doing something that's probably not legal, even in Nevada. I'm not a pilot. I kind of know what a departure and arrival are, but in general when you say 'departure' that just means it's time to leave. I need a campaign just to teach me the stuff you have to know to fly a campaign...

Yup. Did a few tests, put a post up complete with a track, etc, etc. Someone suggested a slow rebuild because this seems to be an isolated case and I haven't done that yet, but for me, at least, it's infinitely repeatable. CV59 and SC; same outcome. Then again, maybe my jet was sabotaged by the deck crew, who really don't like it when I land on their boat anyway...

I've seen screenshots outside the sandbox; kind of hoping for someone who'd actually been there to have some sage advice. I've been to Pakistan, and the north end is pretty amazing. For that matter so is Iran if you're outside the PG limits. So far I've seen very little about the country. Some serious Iran-Iraq with the north end of the bathtub, where I have been...but as you say, no information, other than an apparent "support it blindly or go away". Happy to do the latter. Thanks for sharing what you know.

Looking for a reason to buy it, because I've never not bought a map. What are you doing here? Certainly not selling the idea, but thanks.

My controls lock until I hit the water

Right now I'm leaning against Iraq and Afghanistan. I look at the cost estimates and look at my wish list in other ecosystems and ask myself 'More deserts in DCS or something that might actually get some use?'. Several of those somethings are by the same company that's doing Kola; totally get why Wags spent years talking them into a DCS map. Those would be the first maps I don't buy, but honestly I have a hanger full of aircraft I paid for (because I bought them all) and don't use, along with Combined Arms, which I've never figured out how to use. Owning all the modules will probably change also. If ED ever gets a map that's not a desert, even an updated Caucus, I'm in. Deserts? I have plenty, thank you. Mostly desert with interesting terrain in one corner or along one edge? Got enough of those, too.

I'm on OB and it gives me the option to update

Withholding judgement on Iraq, but it will be nice to finally have a map on which I can run desert campaigns. Honestly I was hoping for Algeria and Libya to go with Egypt, but with only NTTR, Persian Gulf, Syrian desert, Egyptian desert, and the Jordanian desert in which to run desert based missions it's been pretty limited. Kola is a first day buy.

I've never flown a helicopter and am not entitled to an opinion, but the AH-64 is to me as the Hulk when he had Loki's ankle and was pounding him into the floor; every once in a while I'll try, poorly, to fly it for a few minutes, then I'll go have fun in something else. Unfortunately I can't seem to let it go; a bit like Charlie Brown and that football, but the end result is the same. That can't be blamed on the flight model; there are people who fly it well despite any minor blips or glitches in the implementation; it's all between the joystick and chair.

Possibly; I've never flown a jet. I've done other things that sound sexy when you read about them, but turn out to be a grind at times. The inconvenient truth I've discovered is any adventure turns into a job now and then. Listening to real pilots talk I think that happens on station while you wait for tasking and your butt isn't quite dead yet, but it's well on the way. I do know pretending to fly a jet can get boring, particularly that gap between when your last LGB hits the target and you land a hundred miles away.

Thanks! I just staged another -50 on my new map (old map, new scenario...you can't imagine how hard it is to save the world on your own) and it's time to start flying it again! I'll give that a try.

Got the full set printed, picked the one I thought I was most likely to like, cleaned it up, got it installed (total of five hours after I found out about them; three and a half to print, another half to cool off and clean up, an hour to get the printer going with all of them on the plate). Then I set the curves to something really insane, like 40. Night and day; maybe I'll get used to that TDC. At least I don't get epileptic seizures watching it flit across the MFD!

Bit like a Jack Russel terrier that got into a bag of espresso beans. Add it to the list.

You are my hero! Time to fire up the old Prusa and print the whole collection! I just wrote a 'Second Impressions' review and the TDC is still the number one gripe. I ended up using a 5 way hat as a backup TDC; between the two I can usually get the job done, but DCSs hypersensitivity to TDC movement certainly doesn't help.

I bought a STECS Mini last year to replace my old Warthog throttle and in December I rebuilt my simpit from the ground up around the new throttle. Now that I have a few hours, for very large values of 'few' under my belt I thought I'd pass on my impressions. First, and most important, it was a worthwhile trade. No, it's not modeled after anything 'real', but neither is the rest of my simpit. Flying a steam gauge Cessna 172 with a STECS throttle and a stick with an equivalent control density (not VKB, so not talking much about that) means I can even change the 8 track tape with HOTAS controls. Some of the controls haven't found a use yet, but knowing they're there, and as I get used to the new simpit, I keep adding new commands to the throttle and promptly forget where I mapped them. Someone (*cough* VKB *cough*) needs to create a control mapping graphic. Of course...new throttle, old muscle memory goes in the dumpster. It took a while to get formations (A2AR) working without constantly hunting for the right speeds. It didn't help that the stick throw and position also changed, so it was a little like re-learning how to fly. Not that I was much good at that to begin with. The other nice thing is the throttle handles fit my hand pretty nicely, and I can get to everything without any difficulty. I do need to shift my hand a bit to get a couple controls, but on the whole the ergonomics are good. I was pleasantly surprised to find out those aft paddle switches don't get in the way, so as long as I'm not sloppy about my grip they can be safely used for whatever needs done. At the risk of breaking rules I use this with other simulators, and it's been very nice to have all those options available. Now we get to the parts that I struggle with. 1. That thumb mounted TDC makes me crazy. This is due in part to the hyper-sensitivity of several DCS modules to TDC movement. Tossing that cursor around is like playing 'where's Waldo', and it goes from edge to edge with not much more deflection than a heartbeat (1/2 MOA at 100m). I've changed the curves, but thumb control, particularly when the throttle is forward and directional control changes, is a pain. To help with this I mapped one of the forward 5-way switches to also be a TDC. Now I can quick-tap the direction I want to go and it's only the module over-sensitivity causing problems. Unfortunately it's really hard to press one of those 5 way switches and move the TDC at the same time, so I find myself pushing one button and moving the TDC with the other control. In general, clunky and hard to work with. If it wasn't otherwise a worthwhile trade this one thing would put the Warthog back in play, especially since TDC now uses two of the controls rather than the one. They seriously need to consider a module to replace a forward 5 way with an axis and software to make the axis a switch. For me the thumb axis was a bad call on VKBs part. 2. Detents Cool idea. I use black for aircraft sorely lacking afterburners (the KA-50 really needs one) and blue for real airplanes. Originally I used a second detent for idle/cutoff, but the travel arc on the throttle is pretty limited, and with both detents the difference between idle and afterburner is tight; fine throttle control is difficult because very small changes in position result in proportionally larger changes in thrust. I pretty quickly took the idle cutoff off the throttle and use a pair of toggles on a controller to handle that bit. I don't spend a lot of time using that detent anyway. Changing the detent frames on the fly is easy, but changing curves is easier since most of the aircraft I fly kick in the AB at about the same place on the throttle, so I have three that haven't found a use yet. That might change, and having the option is pretty nice. 3. Friction I like my throttles pretty soft and smooth. With the STECS if I dial the friction down the throttles will move on their own from the weight of the handles; with power down to land or taxi, for example, the throttle handles will fall to idle on their own. That means it's a little stiffer than I like, and something about the feel is...off. Not sure how to describe it, but as the throttles move they don't have that crisp feel I got used to with the Warthog; that might be due to the higher friction level though. 4. Minor Gripes from a pit builder The base isn't quite flat, so if you mount to a flat plate you'll need washers under the corner screws to keep it flat without putting strain on the case. The USB cable comes out right over the top of one of those screws; the holes are countersunk, but there's no clearance for a screw head under the USB...make your heads flat! I ended up using a 90 degree USB-B cable to connect it so the throttle bay isn't much deeper than the throttle. Saved a lot of space from from the huge Warthog bay. They don't give you any dimensions for the base; I called support and was told they build these things with no engineering drawings at all; I guess they just whittle a block of plastic until it fits. I got lucky and nailed the throttle opening on my try, though. Nice to have the right tools. Overall? I really like it. There was some concern when I bought it because I don't really need a lot of high-priced flight control hardware on shelves and I don't get trial models to review, so it was a pleasant surprise when this lived up to the hype. Because I have a simpit I don't need a bunch of controls on my throttles, which kept me away from some of the others. This is a throttle, with plenty of HOTAS controls to do whatever needs done on whichever airfame I happen to be in, and none of the other stuff that might be needed if I played on a desk or was a little less OCD about control panels.

So...today's uber dumb question. If I take DCS offline I can run it forever. If I want to update (every six-ish weeks) I take it on-line, do the update, then go off-line again. Apart from not being able to access MP servers, which I don't anyway, is there a downside to this? I'm really, really liking it. <edit> Ok, I have two installations; one for reviewing tracks and creating missions on my desktop, one for playing on the simpit game machine. Offline the desktop version has the time limiter, which makes absolutely perfect sense. I can always RDP into the game machine for that kind of thing or pop back on-line long enough to log the desktop in. Either way that's a me thing and ED did it right. </edit>

Woot! Thanks, BN! I owe the guys a beverage!

Won't even be a blip unless downtime becomes significant. This is the second time in recent memory, though, and the 'offline mode' failed then, too. You only get to 'investigate' so many times, and how many hours does a server need to be down before someone gets an alert? Not exactly five nines. It does set my teeth on edge, though, because I'm about to start a SOC audit (yeah...ugh) and once again we have 100% uptime because my department rocks. EDs IT team might need a review...

Don't they have fish ladders? Barbarians, I tell you! Of course this brings to mind Craters of the Moon National Security Area (the most bombed place on earth, even if most of them are subsidence craters). Sedan crater, that really big one at the north end, was going to be a demonstration of the 'peaceful atom' where nuclear charges are used to dig canals and other large earth moving projects. Mountain in your way? Why tunnel when we can remove the mountain? I recall the Friday Follies (kind of a long, boring, off topic story) that said the light on the D1G ball indicated a submarine was inside being refueled. Never mind how it got there. Nuclear powered ships are just slightly to the left of witchcraft anyway.

Nope. At least not as long as it takes to hit the water after going into a nice ballistic arc with only flaps and some rudder to manage it. Took off from 59, landed on 59, took off again, same problem. 59 is now retired and has been replaced with a different carrier. My gut is it's not likely to come out of mothballs in my lifetime. Incidentally if you run up to AB, then back down to mil salute gets you off the boat. On non-SC carriers all you need is mil. Still need AB to get off the Kuz, though. At least if you want to keep flying after the deck ends.