LanceCriminal86

I'd really like for them to shoot for the moon with Jester and have a toned back version for online if that's possible. I'd rather Jester be like riding with "Bio" or "Goose" than an AI that's purposely held back to be "fair" online and encourage multicrew.

Not a fan of the new helmet UVW maps but apparently you just need to git guud at the warp tool.

Added Jester functionality, even if it's not voiced, would be nice. Having at least popups of the various NATOPS procedures for emergencies for example, like hydraulic loss, engine loss, flameouts, etc. where Jester can either pop it up for you to read, or have each item come up and you can "acknowledge" it as you do it. Like I said even if it's not voiced having some kind of interactive emergency checklists is realistic to what a RIO does during emergencies, while the pilot tries to fly the jet. And I'd still like a few more Jester options like "leave canopy up" for startup. Frankly I'd also like the Offline Jester to be beefed up, I understand they didn't want him too superman to encourage online real human RIOs to be needed, but for offline, I want a Jester that acts like a real RIO, even if that means having his code "cheat" a bit to make it happen.

To get them working you need the original model files, not the converted DCS files. They have to be re-exported with some of the many changes made over the last major patches past 2.5.4 or 2.5.5 or so. That's why they weren't simply updated

Dibs on VF-201 and VF-202! I've been gathering photos and references since around the paint kit dropped for the B. Once the A hits and the revised models/paint kits happen I'll push to finish them. And yeah, there are a few changes that are eventually going to have to happen whenever the NACA duct on the right engine is removed and the textures for the main her locking points get shifted so they align properly.

That is true, it's a preferred way by some as I believe you don't have to worry about where the textures are being split etc. But I'm not sure if it lets you use layers like photoshop to separate details, so that you can make a "template". Templates are always appreciated as that means we can do all kinds of things with the textures to enhance them, represent different ships of the class, make ships be stand-ins for ones that are missing, weathered vs just painted, target ships like you seen in missile tests or SINKEX. What texture sizes are you using for different areas? Naturally you don't want it to be an FPS hog but as an example, the Tomcat dedicates about 7 large texture files to cover the main body of the aircraft, versus the Hornet cramming everything into two main textures. In order to have the same level of detail as the Tomcat you basically have to bump the Hornet's texture files up to 8k in order to get the same general resolution as the Cat across the jet. There's a Discord for skinning and liveries, lots of folks in there could probably point you towards some resources, might even get some volunteers to help create the base textures and templates.

On the texturing, are you tiling a general metal texture across the hull of the ship, or are you actually exporting the whole side of the ship's UVW map and creating a texture for it? If you compare to how different DCS aircraft modules do it you may be able to improve certain portions as it would give you some more ability to specifically texture certain areas with wear and weathering.

To go past that: Can we bypass Jester closing the canopy at startup? Tons of footage of startups with the canopies open, would be nice to have the option at that stage to tell him to leave the canopy up.

Yeah, but the new JFK coming in the future will never have Intruders and Tomcats flying off of it. It'd be cool to see a CV-67 mod that can somehow use the Supercarrier deck crew and animations but I suspect not going to happen. Having the boat is better than no boat though right?

There's not really a tutorial per-se for the F-14. It's a template you have to jump in and learn, the hard way, all of its quirks. You're going to want a LOT of ram and Photoshop. GIMP has issues with the template. You're going to need a lot of patience. The EXT 1 and 3 textures are "backwards" as is the right wing. So any text will need to flipped horizontally. The tails have a significant shift from where it goes from the VSTAB to the actual rudder, that you have to shift any designs to make the transition seamless. One of these days I was thinking about trying to stream or records some of the tough parts of the Tomcat and some tips but school and work take priority right now.

You know you want to add Big John, CV-67 in. I found an okayish model out there but not sure how much work would be needed to bring it up to DCS standards. It looked at least as decent as the old Vinson.

I think these data points would be great for integration into a dynamic campaign where you have X amount of airframes available, and downtime is tracked. I believe "the other sim" out there has something like that modeled, or maybe one of the 3rd party campaign generators does. If ED's new dynamic campaign can track the status of an aircraft at the end of the mission and create down time that would be pretty cool. Maybe HB can create values for various component damages for how long a jet is unavailable. Keep breaking jets, can't sortie as many jets and missions get harder.

Trying to find the page but the Bye-Bye, Baby...! book has a maintainer mentioning Snort brought a jet with the G-meter pegged at 9+ and leaking from all over the place, so apparently it has happened. Here it is, page 23: "Snort would bring in a bird from a cross-country. He'd give the maintainers a thumbs up: 'Jet's good to go, fellas'. Roger that Sir. Then you'd start looking closer: Over-G'd. Leaking fluids. We're going to be here all weekend on this one." -Rocky Riley

You should see my template folders where I keep all my skins, the templates, and the duplicated templates that I stripped out and dedicated to VF-201 which is now as big if not bigger than the original Heatblur template lol. On top of that my actual DCS directory with the finished skins, with custom roughmets and all that jazz! A while back they said they are intending to represent each of the squadrons, but since I figured the attention would be more on the main fleet squadrons I've been working hard on VF-201 and eventually will do VF-202. Like other devs I believe HB are open to incorporating skins as official ones, they just need to be researched and accurate as possible, and up to their standards of quality. I've made that my goal, and @Ensamvarg has been a great mentor and resource on skinning the Tomcat. I'm certain whatever he's got coming for the A is going to be absolutely awesome!

Is it the limiters they put in place after the initial TF-30 issues? I think I remembered something about that being one of the solutions.

When will you simulate the maintenance shop holding you down in your bunk and beating you with bars of soap in a sock for over-G'ing their jet and breaking the torque tubes for the 3rd time this week? Maybe as a bonus Supercarrier feature?

I'd expect later -A skins than the cool 70s High-vis ones. The problem with the B is that there really weren't a ton of them in use during the time periods HB is representing. Two squadrons only had them for a few years (211 and 24) before transitioning back to A models. So you're basically looking at VF-11, 32, 74, 101, 102, 103 before and after assuming the JR name, 142, 143, and then some test birds with Pacific Missile Test Center and the VX squadrons. And they've already included a decent sample from those squadrons so I'd probably only anticipate seeing a few more "line" jets here and there if we get anything. Maybe someday Camel Smoker and Thief of Baghdad but some more model work needs to be done to make sure the camo patterns look right (various parts here and there mirrored left/right would need to be separated). I spent a whole bunch of time researching what other B model skins we're missing and honestly, it's just more MODEX here and there of the exact same schemes. Most of the squadrons listed went through significant changes of scheme from the early-mid-late 90s. VF-32 basically looked the exact same from 1992 all the way through OEF/OIF. 101 was a RAG squadron. VF-11 basically just stuck with the same getup like VF-32 with some minor changes to the CAG/CO jets. VF-103 and 143 did have a few style changes but again a bunch of those are already represented. The dynamic MODEX issue is what we are waiting for from HB, as they already said it's going to be hard to implement a generic MODEX that works for most squadrons. I've also heard concern that trying to have multiple MODEX styles like the Hornet might be very resource intensive. Once that hits each squadron should be fine with a CAG/CO bird and a generic line jet skin for MOST people, except the rivet counter nerds like me that love having a full 10-12 jets with every MODEX to BuNO correct from a certain period of time, at the expense of 65% of my SSD (only partly joking). If you need a fix for that early look A model, look up YaeSakura's stuff on Userfiles. I've been feeding him research and we've been sharing photos and stencil references, down to correct BuNOs per MODEX. He's been churning out some awesome stuff lately and redoing stuff as his skills increase and we get more research done. I'm personally hoping to knock out some reserve A models, who knows if they might pass muster someday. It's not easy when you can't go out and scan a jet from 1998.

C'mon Mike we got like 42 squadrons that operated A models to paint! Screw flying, I just want to paint high-hour airframe reserve Tomcats and cover them in corrosion control paint and boot marks! Looking forwards to seeing if some of the model adjustments made it in for the B and A, that NACA duct on the right engine nacelle needs to go and that means reworking/re-exporting a bunch of skins to make them correct but it makes for a nice break from school.

Good one! Separate models for the AIM-54 variants both on the jet and once fired, with their own markings and possibility of paint. You can paint the missiles on the jet but it doesn't differentiate between A Mk47, A Mk60, and C Mk47, and once you fire them they go back to the built-in ED projectile model.

You spelled Tomcat wrong.

Do you guys know if there are any plans to introduce missile failure percentages? I know tracking of missiles that fire 100% of the time is already frustrating enough but there seem to be all kinds of anecdotes about rocket motors failing to fire, missiles not linking at all and just going straight off the rails, or in some cases bombs/missiles not dropping due to pylon issues. I'm guessing some of that would be on ED side to create an argument for missile reliability or failure option to tie into.

You are absolutely slaying it with all of the little "quality of life" mods Taz! If only the maps and more aspects of the sim weren't so locked off or encrypted. There's a lot of potential for what the mod community could do to tide us over until the promised major overhauls happen.

Actually, something I just thought of that I think has been asked before: Will the Forrestal class come with any other "period" ships as part of the strike group? While our Tomcats are generally mid/later 90s there were other ship classes that aren't represented in DCS that would have been seen in the battle groups of the late 80s through mid/late 90s. And I guess this would transition to a more off topic question but related to the oft asked about potential for an A-6 module: Is there a chance that IF the A-6E becomes a full module, Heatblur would consider modeling the USS John F Kennedy? The ship is historical both for the Tomcat module's A and B, and would still be an accurate home for the Intruder as well. With the JFK being essentially a separate ship from the rest of the Kitty Hawk class (different smokestack and island, 17 feet shorter length) I can see how it wouldn't fill as much utility as a model that can represent multiple ships of a class, but it was such a cool ship that served all the way through from Vietnam to OEF and OIF, her Tomcats shot down the two Libyan MiGs in 1989, she was the ride for VF-103's last Tomcat cruise. Her A-6s and A-7s performed bombing raids following the Beriut bombing, and both the Syria and Caucuses maps are portions of her main area of assignment for her career (the Med). And, her squadrons performed 2,900 sorties during the Gulf War.

Thanks Mike, I'll keep an eye out. Hoping we can get this renovation finished so my fun money can be a thing again. I gave the phone head tracking app a try the other week and for 10 bucks it definitely does the job, however I still feel like ultimately VR is the way to go for Flight and Racing sims. It'd be great if DCS can get some of the optimizations it needs and better multicore support but at least for now a good GPU upgrade I think would give me some better 2D framerates to enjoy the Cat. That, and a floor mounted Virpil stick with their 200mm curved extension, I think the longer sticks are an important part of being able to fly smoothly with more finesse that the Tomcat needs. And of course rudder pedals. I have a ton of school to focus on before 31 October so here's to hoping the "A" model will be the victory prize at the end to enjoy!

I'm running a 6700k/32gb/970GTX and was looking at upgrade options to get better usable performance. I know to see any CPU improvement I have to go new motherboard and start over since DCS is super CPU bound. Would trying to pick up a 2070 Super be worth it with an OCd 6700k? I pretty much exclusively fly the Tomcat and don't see that changing until the Corsair, Crusader, Corsair II, or A-6 happen.