Raisuli

What's a little sad about this whole topic is nobody bothers to point out the artists who did that weathering are geniuses. Like it, don't like it, the work is amazing. Dymo tape and scratches and pure wear and dirt and grime...incredible. Whoever they are deserve accolades for the obvious care and pride they have in their work. It's unfortunate all that effort has become such a point of contention. Almost makes me wonder if the 'factory new' option on the A-10C-II wasn't somehow a result of this debate. We now return you to your regularly scheduled subjective discourse. <edit> While plotting out some changes to the simpit I opened Chuck's Guide to get switch names right, and I really paid attention to the images. When I was in the Navy many, many years ago I lived in front of control panels, and I have to admit they weren't in better shape than the panels I see in that aircraft. White on black engraved labels (ours were grey, mostly), the illuminated annunciators, bezels on steam gauges, condition of paint on the panels, places where countless people have left fingerprints here and there, wear on the switch handles. Yeah. Been a 'minute', as Tom would say, but it's all very familiar. Doesn't change my opinion, just reminds me the SMEs are probably right and any errors are incremental, not orders of magnitude. Not really important, just an observation. </edit>

Full boot isn't necessarily a bad thing. If there's no significant crosswind NWS is off before the brakes; like everything else you need to be ahead of the aircraft, though. Rudder before you need it, off before you don't, otherwise you spend a lot of time swerving around the runway. There are days when I swear the engine is causing precession, though... This, like pretty much everything else, is a matter of practice. The good news is DCS doesn't count the number of aircraft you prang practising and kick you out of their program. I've scraped more ventral fins than I can count. The crew chief rolls his eyes and replaces them without a complaint.

I've been learning about departure plates and routes and all that. For all its faults the internet is the sum total of human learning; if there's something you can't figure out it's not for lack of opportunity! Heck, I take classes from MIT just because I can and it's pretty cool (MITx/OpenCourseware). This isn't a problem that can't be solved, it's just an unexpected prerequisite! I've already decided to work on departures this afternoon rather than getting shot in the face by Private York on that Zu-23 while I practice rocket attacks.

I'll assume that's not a rhetorical question. Disclaimer: I do not work for DCS. I do work for a software company, though. QA is a nightmare, and the more complex the software the more nightmarish it becomes. Then consider our friend Bill Gates, who found out *nix (there's more than one flavor) uses something called linked libraries, and the guy who wrote the NT kernel, who until MS hired him from DEC wrote VMS, which is why the underlying OS is (still) case insensitive. The upshot to that paragraph is every installation of windows is a little different. When you install software you also install DLLs, linked libraries. That means my Windows is different than yours is different than the one five feet away that I game on that's different than the laptop a few inches away I work on. Now write a piece of complex software, and DCS is a beast, that's designed to run on that quagmire of an operating system. There is simply no possible way for them to replicate every possible permutation of Windows versions, DLLs, motherboards, memory , video driver versions, sound drivers, mice, keyboards, monitors, usb devices...the possible combinations are close enough to infinite. It can't be done. So, write software, run it though in-house QA to get the low hanging fruit. Hand it off to the closed beta team and see what they find. There's more of them, more permutations, and they'll find even more problems. Then open beta. No idea how many users, but orders of magnitude more than closed beta. More permutations. I absolutely promise the open beta users do things with the software that nobody else has done before...mission designs, scripts, flying spitfires through the wires of the tower bridge (I'm looking at you SevenLine)... Once they think they have most of the problems solved and the bug reports are down to a dull roar cross their fingers and release as a stable version. It still has bugs, guaranteed, but they hope the most egregious have been resolved. The open beta version, which is buggy, also has the latest and greatest. Some people think that's enough to overlook some inconveniences while ED works on problems. Others do not. Hence the 'stable' version. It's a choice. Lots o' bugs and lots of shiny newness, or less bugs and less newness. It's all about what is more enjoyable for the player. You can even pick both, if you want.

I've never seen a piece of software that doesn't have bugs*, including the operating system people acquiesce to use in order to play DCS given you can't run it on any of the other bugged operating systems. Windows is worse than most, in fact, and has been since at least version 2.0 which is the first version I wrote code for. You can hold your breath and wait for the bug free game, which will never happen, or you can enjoy what's available. The best news of all is that is entirely your choice to make. * 'Hello World', which I originally wrote back when computers took up one building and the air conditioner needed to cool them the larger building next door, is not bugged. It also doesn't really do anything. Knew I should have copyrighted that code!

I deleted stable ages ago. Complete waste of drive space. Personally I've never seen a bug I couldn't ignore. There are hangers full of aircraft to fly if one of them has a lose turbine blade, or maintenance needs to replace a carb. There's a virtually unlimited cornucopia of options, and at no point in the last however many years I've played this have I ever been even inconvenienced by the lack of polish. At one time I used to point out the bugs, but Wags cured me of that. Less stressful to park the problem and fly something else for a while. Sometimes I do that even when there wasn't a problem to park! YMMV, of course. IDSFES.

I've got a lot of campaigns for DCS. Lots. Never flew any of them because I was dumb and actually read the introductions, but decided to try again. F-5E, BFM (one of the first I bought, about five years ago). Easy mode. Familiarization Flight. The next twenty pages are full of routes and navigation points and stuff I only vaguely know about, because I'm not actually a pilot and don't do this stuff for real. Do I really need to spend the next year and a half reading my Rod MacHado and Clausing's 'Aviator's Guide to Navigation' to even start these campaigns? Maybe finally go get the pilot's license I decided not to finish twenty years ago so I know how arrival and departure plans work? Holy crap! I get this is realistic, but I'm not even sure where to start on this stuff!

I landed a hop last night with the max G needle pegged at 10 and no detectable ill-effects to anything. Come to think of it the other G-needle was pegged at -4. Guess I should be gentler with the stick, but I was out practicing to miss with bombs and not kill QM-21 drones. <edit> Ok, I confess, if I want to reduce weight the wings are the first thing to jettison. The aircraft flies remarkably well without wings, though. I was able to flame my way back to the airfield and eject right over the O-club. The aircraft just kept going, and going, and maybe flew better without me as the pilot than it did with me. Tried to hop in another aircraft to shoot it down, but it despawned. Pity. </edit>

Ahhh...apparently nobody told them QM-21 drones are still in heavy demand! Thanks for the help, that makes perfect sense!

That was exactly the problem, but 'historical' must have a different meaning in the ME. All the modern jets are still available, but the 'historical' aircraft are missing? Guess it's time to RTFM, because I would have expected to see propellers and not MFDs.

Needed some QM-21 drones to shoot down and realized the MiG-21bis isn't available in the mission editor. Not as AI, not as a player aircraft, not at all. I can fly it, the instant action missions show up, just can't find it in the ME no matter what country I use. Come to think of it, though the SSSR doesn't seem to show up anymore, either. Just me or is something rotten in the state of DCS?

If I had to make a wild donkey guess when you download <the updated Normandy 1.5> you get the whole smash, but the high-res area is locked until you pay for Normandy 2. What that means at our end is no feedback at all that your purchase was successful or had any impact. There's no additional download. At this point the only way to know is to go look at London or Paris; if you have a mission that uses Normandy fire it up and hit F11 at a nearby field. Based on Balrick33's comments you'll know pretty fast if you have the full N2, the 1.5 version, or N1944. Hopefully ED will fix that to eliminate the confusion, but until then enjoy the driverless cabs in London. They're worse than the real thing! <edit> The update was huge, and I think it has everything because there's no additional download for the hi-res areas on Normandy 2. It's all so confusing! </edit>

The only way I could verify one way or another was to open it and fly around (used F11, actually). London and Paris are the easy victims; you'll know quick which version you have. I did the $9.99 update and got zero downloads/feedback from it, but those two cities are hi-res and look amazing.

Do you have Normandy? I went through pretty much the same confusion, but Normandy is now Normandy 2 with all the little fiddly bits included therein.

I have conformed a few things: 1. This map is unbelievable. Ugra is the Heatblur of maps, and they did a jaw-dropping job on this one! Everyone else is going to scramble to live up to the standards they just set. Relly look forward to Sinai. 2. The Elizabeth tower is high-res 3. Big Ben is not modeled. Nor is that amazing hammer-beam ceiling in Westminster, nor is Issac Newton's tomb (for that matter there's grass growing in a choir). I didn't expect to see County Hall or the Eye, or any of the other eye-sores that have become London's skyline. The traffic isn't horrible, either! 4. The terrain will distract from flying. In TheSimThatShalNotBeNamed2020 they brag about their terrain, this is better, if more restricted.

I was under the impression everyone with Normandy gets Normandy 1.5, which covers the same space. I might well have 2, just no way to confirm that; I know the little hunting lodge southwest of Paris has been bulldozed and replaced with cottages, though. Haven't 'flown' over anything to check level of detail. Actually I'll 'drive' though Paris. At least the traffic will be manageable! Then again, lots of new things happening; might take a bit to chase all the bugs that always accompany new things. Certainly not the end of the world if that takes a few days.

I tried that and the new campaign shows up in module manager, but not Normandy 2.

How many people think that's Big Ben, and how many think it's the Elizabeth Tower?

So, not like I immediately went out to buy Normandy 2 or anything, but if I did there would be a warning I already have a license for it when I put it in the cart.

Well...actually I bought it on day one, and my opinion has nothing to do with fumbling for buttons. <edit> Text. What a terrible way to have a conversation. Just added the smiley face because I couldn't add tone or intonation or the grin I wore when typing that out... </edit>

Does make wonder what the F4 cockpit will look like... Otherwise I have a strong enough opinion about this it's best if I keep it to myself.

With sites like the Patriot or SA-10 there's more than just a launcher. There's search radar, tracking radar, command posts, meal trucks, air-conditioned recreational trailers...ok, these aren't Air Force so the recreational trailers don't need air conditioning. But you get the idea. Make sure you have (at least) one of everything when you set up your battery, in general, then work from there. This makes me think there's something missing; tracking radar comes to mind immediately.

After watching NineLine's Normandy 2 videos it's pretty apparent he's a few lines short of a brief. Maybe SevenLine. With the hype around Normandy 2, Sinai, and the Strike Eagle all building up at once ED is getting the easily twisted into quite a knot. At the very least I think we're owed some popcorn.

Unless Heatblur has a better crystal ball than most software companies they don't know, either. They have a schedule and a plan and only then find that irritating issue that forces them to completely re-write the bit about...whatever it is. The last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time, then some customer comes back and asks why something doesn't work and they scratch their heads and wonder how they could possibly have missed that... If it helps, and it usually doesn't, that sort of thing is frustrating for everyone concerned, especially the people behind the IDE.

Encoders. Let's talk about encoders for a second (I know, off topic). The same encoder, using the same sketch, will behave differently between two modules. I tested this with course and heading using the F/A-18 and F-16. On the F-16 they behaved as expected. On the F/A-18 they did virtually nothing. Worse, sometimes they 'lock in', and I've verified using the serial port output from the card that's not what's being sent to DCS. I've spent quite a bit of time fiddling with encoders, and might have a sketch that works finally, but it extends the down time on the pulse, blocks reverse outputs, and forces the pulse off. So far it works reasonably well in testing, but I need to finish the MLU on my simpit before I can really put it all together. It's nerve wracking, and worse knowing two different modules react to inputs differently. Encoders seem to be the worst, though, so back to momentary switches for some things. And yes, I have the same problem with antenna elevation. I've moved zoom off the grey slider on the throttle, so that's going to have to be the answer because anything else is redokulous. I'd love to see 'Button Tune' in the control setup to help us fix things like that.