Raisuli

Well, that would be the answer then! Warned you it was a dumb question; I thought the 15 was part of the engine war. Thanks!

So, pardon my dumb question, but why not use the GE engines? Isn't that what the current F-16 uses? While I realize there's no physical parts in common it's modeled so there are software development reasons for commonality. Besides, in the immortal words of Hoser, if it says Pratt & Whitney on the engines it better say Martin Baker on the seats!

You going to make me look that up? 2019.05.27 was the order date; doesn't mean I ordered same day, but probably reasonably close. Since they indicate development is kicking into gear on the -35 (which is 2.1875 times a -16 and will probably take a little more than twice as long to develop) I'll keep my predictions for release as is

HA! We're in the Tik-Tok age now. I was thinking more like lunchtime tomorrow. More than that and the langen Messer come out. Vituperation, holding my breath 'till I turn (Navy) blue, all that erudite behavior. I figure EA in '27 or '28, but we'll see EA lists and a few teasers by the end of this year. Either way this is a problem that hasn't happened yet so I'm interested but not particularly worked up. Honestly the central Europe map has me quite a bit more excited, but again we're talking long term so I'll continue doing what I'm doing (Arctic Thunder; my very first campaign! So exciting!) until something actually changes in the development sphere.

I know a guy who did contract work for the AF on Amy, and they barely let him look at one at a distance on the ground. Pretty sure he wasn't allowed to take a picture closer than a hundred meters. I probably got a better one with my big lens flying overhead. Just watched some of the old ...and Beyond videos. The F-16 was teased in the 2019 video. Go look at the release date and do the math; I can't imagine Amy will be any quicker

For me this is easy 1. The F-35 hasn't been released, so the angst is over guess work about what the module might be, not what it is. 2. Given the popularity of third party mods for everything from the Wright Flyer to the Death Star, with the mid-point skewed heavily toward Su-57s and TIE fighters, the F-35 makes perfect sense 3. As a single player I have a use case for the F-35 in SEAD/Opening engagements in my (personal) missions. Generally aircraft don't excite me; I have more than enough to last my lifetime and prefer maps and environmental add-ons, but I'm very curious what ED comes up with. Until I see release notes I'm not going to waste time with wild imaginings. As always, just my opinion, which is as useful as all the guess work about what the F-35 will bring us. Asymptotic to none.

Not that I condone senseless destruction. Track for educational purposes only. 2024.11.07 Boom.trk

@Lord Vader and @BIGNEWY I'm a little curious why this has the dreaded 'No Track File' label after two have been added. Is there a statutory minimum?

Well, for me being able to see the kneeboard at all is a cheat; sort of eliminates multiplayer as an option. A lot of aircraft have counters, so I guess it depends on which seat you're in. Even at that if you're in a situation where you need CM knowing the numbers doesn't necessarily help. No point ending up flaming wreckage to 'save' a few chaff for later.

Has anyone else noticed you can completely destroy at least some structures, command centers for sure, I think also ammo dumps, go away for 15 minutes to refuel and rearm, come back and they still show hot on targeting pods? The structure itself is burned out and the fire gone, but the command center is hot and still has the antennas up on the lightning pod view, so if cheating wasn't an option you'd never know you managed to turn it into a swimming pool. Just curious

Thanks for looking! Probably not be the air brake, more likely yanking the controls back after landing to create drag, and the air brake was coincidental. This time I also noticed the red AOA chevron flash at the same time, and maybe I was rolling fast enough to lift the nose, but that wouldn't explain the launch bar indication necessarily. I'm able to reproduce this at will now, and tried to be as quick and efficient as possible with the track file so you're not wasting time. Doesn't mean the bug isn't between the stick and chair, just that it can be 'reproduced'. While you're looking is there a reason the F-18 brakes seem to be half-on when I spawn? Have to tap the brakes to release them. BN already answered this, problem is the same <edit> Or, I can start the track on final and make it shorter. This time I think the controls got pulled before I hit the brakes. Same effect. <edit> 2024.11.06 LBAR Red short.trk 2024.11.06 LBAR Red shorter.trk

This might be me hallucinating, but once in a while when I put out the air brake after landing the red launch bar light flickers for just a moment. I saw it several times, but always at the end of a relatively long flight, which makes for a terrible track. When I try to set up a short track, of course, no flicker. It also flickers when I put the launch bar down, but that could easily be normal. I will continue to work on replicating it with a track shorter than twenty minutes, but if this is known or expected or just me being psychotic I'll ignore it and continue setting up F10 menus on the new version of Syria... (Something awesome about being able to create an entire CVBG (or remove it) with a single key click. I HAVE THE POWER! MUAHAHAHA!)

First off, we're comparing the work of two groups on the forum of one, so I don't want to give the impression I'm denigrating OnReTech at all. In fact, them adding Ramat David and that 100 kilometers or so of overlap is maybe the most awesome thing in DCS maps in a very long time. Short answer, they're both off, and they're both on. Sinai has some features that appear better than Syria, and vice versa. Sinai's shelters seem better modeled, the locations and overall base look closer on Syria. I believe OnReTech is working to get Tel Nof dialed in, so this is subject to change with the next release, and those other guys haven't even had time to get all the structures painted (or add 87X) so nothing is settled. Longer answer, it doesn't matter. Sure, in a perfect world those guys get together and the base is the same on both maps so we can more or less seamlessly land at one of the duplicated bases, switch maps, and take off again without shelters magically transforming between hardened and unhardened, or concrete to dirt, or whatever. Of course then I want that copy/save/paste feature for the map editor so I can also put all the eye candy in the same place at both bases. Land, hit the head, grab a snack, swing by maintenance, and when you walk out the map has changed... I could see setting up a campaign that does just that; start at one end and end at the other with the transition during a restart. Not global earth, not seamless, but a nice doable intermediate step. Think Sinai/Syria/Iraq/PG/'Stan. Ok, some gaps, but not many.

For those of use who don't bat an eye at aircraft releases because they have so many one more won't make a lot of difference, but who get really worked up about maps. Since I'm not particularly patient in these cases, and have a soft spot for Tel Nof (I have a lot of soft spots, mostly on my head, but that's a different story...) here are my impressions of Tel Nof on the Syria map. First of all, the O-club pool is legendary. If you like counting laps and love the idea of a full-body cardio workout this place has it all. This was taken on the ground on the runway 36 overrun. It's not everywhere you can kick up dust on the water. The pavement markings could use a little darkening , and the grounds keepers should really think about mowing the runways a little bit. Generally this is an excellent airfield for people who like the great outdoors and see nothing wrong with combining a love of camping with aircraft maintenance. Still over 36 with the parallel runways off to the right. Of course it wouldn't be a DCS airfield if there wasn't a place to store fireworks. These are ready to go, with a full assortment for all occasions There are a couple things that could be done to improve the base. Runway 36, for example (which is traditionally my runway) has some grading issues that makes landing a bit of a challenge. This is what it looks like on final. The big hill in the middle of the runway made it more difficult to show the runout, mostly because it looked more like a crater. Just as well. The taxi lights seem to be broken.

It takes about six weeks for the world to appear. I thought they had that down to 7 days, but it's been like this for a very long time.

This is nuts. Syria is my go-to map, pretty much has been since it was released. Ramat David was my primary southern base. When Sinai came out I flew it for a while with Tel Nof as the northern base (Ramat David is just dirt; you can see the outline), but I came back to Syria. Afghanistan I think got used once. Iraq...we'll see. No idea how many years it will take to get those baked; Syria is game ready. At the rate they're developing this map I don't see any competition on the horizon. Every kind of terrain imaginable, no shortage of bases (no geopolitics on my maps, so everything is fair game), endless possibilities. Flew around some helo bases south of the grid at the north end of the Dead Sea tonight (first time I've flown any sim in about three months. First landing I put an AH-64 within a couple feet of where my eyeball was pointed, second time I put it on a helipad. This has never happened before. Ever.) and realize Jerusalem has the urban infrastructure in place. This is all OFF the bloody map, so now I wonder if they're going to extend the grid south. Tel Nof? I know there was a guy building models for Tel Nof to correct the errors when Sinai was released, and I can't wait to see what gets done with it here! Screenshots look really nice! New southern base. Carriers to the west. Bad guys wherever they happen to be, R&R in Beirut, exploring the ruins at Palmyra, exploring the old town at Acre...what is there to want?

I'm impressed! Thanks!

I used to cold start everything, then got bored with it and use hot start on my missions. I also have a locked momentary switch that's mapped to auto-start and auto-stop. It used to be a regular momentary until I found out there's not enough time to air-start the engines on an F-18 if you hit auto-stop accidentally at 33,000 feet. Sometimes flipping switches by feel is fatal. This is mostly because I'm in the short time for play crowd. I still cold start on occasion just so I remember how for a few of my favorite aircraft. With others I've never, ever done a cold start.

White text elements in front of a white background? Needs a marquee tag. Flashing red and yellow boxes. Busy, full saturation backgrounds...

Been that way for a long, long time. Pretty sure we've already gone over the reasons; also sure that's a mental health benefit for BN and 9L.

Somebody uses the launcher? So far no issues, other than some eye candy on the ground at Ramat getting shifted around. Nothing quite like spawning in with a canopy support running through your spine, but the aircraft and I seemed fine once I taxied out from under it. Did some eaggbeater runs to check out new heliports, overflew Beirut at mach 1.something, then landed and had lunch at this really awesome place near the waterfront (no idea why all the windows in town were blown out). No skips, stutters, or problems. Performance was excellent on my antique 2080ti; I'm due for a refresh when the 5 series comes out. No (almost no) mods either. Maybe those are related.

Now that is a spicy neighborhood.

Syria, Kola, and even some Sinai. For those of us on 110 baud acoustic couplers this might be an exercise in patience. Then try to go offline again. Not much hope, still going to try. Then back to Syria, because it's basically impossible for that not to be the primary map at this point. Up to those other guys to change that if they really want.

Is that $59.99 each? I've found that allying the insurgents with CTF Red (which might not be too significant a stretch) smooths over the gaps yawing crevasses in the 'Insurgent' set. Also gives them air and naval assets. I do confess that I try to make those gullible (baby blue) beret guys a little more professional than the dudes standing in the back of pickup trucks. Good thing the NHTSA hasn't caught them yet!

The hornet is one of those aircraft you have to fly all the way into the ground. If you chop the throttle the ground accelerates up to meet you very, very fast.