Raisuli

<RANT> ...which is what cracks me up when YouTube content creators whip out a couple mods and proclaim this aircraft superior to that aircraft in some performance characteristic. They're mods. Fiction. Somebody's idea of what the real thing might be capable of. In my world there's no point wasting time watching videos of mods; better to watch Star Wars, because we can decide once and for all if the X-Wing is better than a TIE fighter... </RANT>

Work ups, work ups, and more workups. Invariably there are some experienced crew, and some that 'haven't done that in a while', and quite a few newbies. I know where I lived transferring in from somewhere else doesn't buy you much because you have to qual, and the chiefs, who are supposed to be the old experienced hands, were...not. I suspect up on deck that's quite a bit different. When you get back out on the water it's brutal. Pretty much every department and division is doing their own particular things to get back into the grove; ORSE in our case, but nobody has it easy. The first time we went out to sea after the yard it took about a day for everything to end up on the deck (nobody knew how to secure for sea) and we ran out of things on the mess decks in days (they didn't know what to stock up on). I did notice there's not much institutional knowledge on the Kuz, and when/if it goes back out they'll have to start from scratch; and that's the whole boat. One of the other differences is when we get back from deployment there's always a yard availability to fix anything that's broken. After the '85 WestPac (all you Hornet drivers know about that one) we went to Hunter's Point for a few months, but all the ships got some TLC before returning to the grind. From what I've heard, and I don't know this for a fact, the poor Kuz never really got a decent break, and certainly not the care and attention he needs. I would be a little surprised if he deploys again.

I go to thinking about the original question as opposed to picking on a ship Seaeagle really likes, which was probably unnecessary, and got to wondering how much we really know about carrier operations on 'red' ships. Sure, there are some Youtube videos out there from the Kuz, and we can make a few WAGs (no not that one, Wild ...Aviation Guesses) about comms and procedures, but is it really possible to replicate the SC functionality without making that stuff up or just copying what we have on SC? For SC we've got NATOPS and people who have been there and done that from both pilot and deck crew perspectives. I imagine that depth of knowledge is lacking for the Kuz. It would be way cool to have it, just not sure it's available. And the cold hard reality is RedFor is woefully under-represented here. Some of those reasons have been mentioned, maybe there are more, but ultimately that's a business decision.

I've seen 25kt winds and no swells. I've seen 25kt winds and 40' seas. You get spray and some surface chop from wind, but the really big stuff is generated by pressure or, in the case of the Golden Gate ground swell, bottom contours. Went from Pearl back to Alameda (where the nuclear wessels are*) with some second year midshipmen who thought they were 'real' sailors...at least until we got close to the coast and that ground swell... *why do the idiots who write Star Trek have the Russian character unable to pronounce "Victor", which is an actual Russian name, because he replaces the "V", which is the third letter in the Cyrillic alphabet with a "W", which doesn't exist in Russian? Why did the Russian actor allow this to happen?

At that distance, with 4 targets, RAID will absolutely split them out for you, but against AI I'd recommend staying in TWS. A human might realize an F/A-18 can lob an AMRAAM at a particular distance, but I don't know that the AI takes that into consideration. If you can identify them on the SA page just use that information to lock the same target over on the radar. They're both top down and relative locations should give you the clues you need. It might help to decenter SA so you can range closer than the center view allows. Another option might be AZZEL; you can use relative altitudes; if the -27 is higher than the froggies and SA will give you that information as well. Another suggestion is not to drive straight at them. Flank a bit and that might help with separation, just remember the -27 can lob long range IR missiles and you'll never get any kind of warning prior to the sudden deconstruction of your aircraft. Keep them in the gimbal limits and just assume the -27 is firing missiles once you get in range and defend accordingly.

US ships generally don't spontaneously combust at sea. Well, other than the Forest Fire. And the Tuna Prize. Those weren't spontaneous. "In the shipyard" and "on deployment" are ever so subtly different, and having been in both situations I can personally attest to those subtle differences. Fire watch while sparks happen in reactor compartments is a boatload of fun. Modeling a Russian Swiss Army Knife would be even harder. As for self destructing, I think you've captured the reasons very well. I wasn't going to go there because it's not important, but thank you. I actually don't hold the shipyard accidents against it; trivial things, like not bothering to spend the money allocated to fuel the emergency generators to buy fuel. I'm sure there are reasonable explanations for all of it. The Miami and Bonnie Dick were malicious and intentional, with the incompetence coming only after fires were set without first getting a hot work permit. In a year and a half in the yards I don't remember a single real fire, just endless drills and a guy in a red hat waving his wife's vermilion panties at us. Probably a good thing we didn't get to charge the hoses, because nobody liked him. We did have a trim party while they were trying to calculate CB and meta-centric height after all the changes made in the yard. That was fun, until they figured out why their measurements kept coming up bollocks. Some people have a really deficient sense of humor.

Because to model the Kuz to full fidelity would require new fluid dynamics models to get the smoke and flames right, and an ocean going tug, and the feature creep would make the model uneconomical for a ship that self destructs regularly. I like the one we have. Would be cool to have deck crew in Russian uniforms and some equipment to give it a lived in look, but then I also want AF ground crew, huffers, generators...I'm pretty needy, really.

Couple things; first, it's not a ground object, second, no 'the' in front 'smooth land'. My wife tosses extraneous 'the' in front of things, which makes me think the author of this dialog is not a native Angrish speaker either Heliport SW of Bethlehem, SE of a-Doha. Stunning, awesome map! My new favorite! Can't wait to find out what you guys are going to tackle next! null

They're getting much better at densely packed, high performance maps. Maybe even to the point where central Europe could be done with the kind of detail it deserves. This would be a day 1 buy for me also. Heck, I'd kick-start it!

We've probably got another few weeks to wait, so this is what we're waiting for:

Interesting that Ramat David, while technically not part of this map (it's covered by Syria) is 'penciled in', but not modeled. Actually, more interesting, is now Normandy 2/Channel and Sinai/Syria have small overlap areas. Does lead to speculation.

Actually...three sets (at least), but the northern one, yes, then look on the eastern edge right before you hit all the condos. Seriously, those look really nice, and the views have to be amazing.

Yes, but the arrow is much cooler, and speaks volumes about the kind of day that employee must have had! I already like them!

Nevatim, F/A-18, Spots 20 and 21, takeoff from ramp or takeoff from parking hot (those are the combinations tested), click the green fly arrow, do NOT save, you end up in the air. If you takeoff from the ground hot and put yourself more or less in slot 20 it works. In another mission that was saved those slots worked fine, so it might be the saved game, it might be the other elements in the mission, something. I had to start new and not save it to get the results I had seen earlier. <edit> Added slot 1 and 25 (covered) to my test. All of them put me in the exact same place mid-air. It's an empty, default mission with just one aircraft, but not saved. </edit

The F-15 'leak' possibility is interesting, and actually adds fuel to the database theory, but it's still not conclusive. What we saw wasn't a login server getting swatted, though there was that too Either way ED handled it well. They fixed the problem and communicated everything the unwashed masses needed to know: We're aware of it, we're working on it, we will fix it as quickly as we can. Anything else just ads churn, and when you're talking to an internet full of 'experts', myself included, that was enough. Tomorrow morning I get my greasy paws on an F-4E. I'm sure nobody would mind if I hitch it up and tow it to my garage...

If I were to hazard a guess, and that's all this is because I don't have any more information than anyone else other than experience with the same kind of thing, the 402s had nothing to do with server load. They've done popular releases in the past. My guess is a database went casters up, and I'll bet it was more a glitch adding the columns for Sinai than because it got loaded. Human error, and humans make errors. It happens. Either way I wouldn't expect to see that again any time soon, release or no release. Until they prove me wrong I'm not remotely concerned about a repeat on the F4 launch.

They have the RF-4C. Off topic, but still interesting, I was getting all weak-kneed over the phantom, then noticed the same intakes on a different aircraft and wondered if they had a second Phantom (they've got an F-117 and a Vulcan in the restoration hanger now). Turned out to be a MiG-23. I 'know' the -23 copied the phantom intakes, but until you see them side by side it's hard to believe just how similar they are!

Two afterburning engines, two seat, wings, air force markings, must be an F-4E. Just like the one HB is going to release in two weeks. Don't tell anyone, but the Phantom would be, on the whole, a lot more fun. This is kind of single purpose and while awesome in theory in practice it would be much less so...

A sudden pre-order is the most likely. Don't forget in what neighborhood you're standing; BN announces a patch on a certain day 'subject to change'. The day changes, someone posts about how ED LIED to everybody, and where is the fix for my pet bug? Better to say nothing at all right up until release date, then whip out the titanium umbrellas because... So, to console myself, I'm going to go drool on an F-4E this weekend. The RF-4C effect is already wearing off after two days, but the Habu lingers.

Don't forget the sheep. Sheep fit in several terrains, and are very useful for weed control.

Darn it, I'm still at 504, so 252 updates to go! with the virus scanner pitching fits about the F-1 and C-101 I suspect there might be a repair or two in my future as well. Ah, well. Mission editor. Su-25. Modern coalitions (that's been nicely adjusted for a while), this: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYA7v8u34qu_LHSgylMs2_ww6KcKc_pis

I'm starting to think this is EDs attempt to promote Ralfi's Su 25: Hero to Zero video series, given the Su-25 and P-51 are the only aircraft available. On a slightly more serious note this is concerning, because (most) software companies have a grace period for click licensing that allow use without server contact for some period of time, and it would appear ED does not. This is by no means certain, but it's certainly what I see based on the errors. One DDoS, one bad server day, and all the people who bought licenses are out of luck. Like I said, Hawk flashbacks.

Infected file detected now Feature: Antivirus The file D:\DCS World OpenBeta\CoreMods\aircraft\C-101\bin\C101Core.dll is infected with Gen:Suspicious.Cloud.4.gy4@a8i6Rsbi and was moved to quarantine. It is recommended that you run a System Scan to make sure your system is clean.

nullED has a bad server day and suddenly the game is unplayable? I'm having Hawk flashbacks...

You must be very young.