Big_les

This is great news - I d/l the new files a few weeks back but was sceptical that they would actually change things enough. Time to try and remember how to fly the damned thing now!

All of them! But currently B.P2.1. I just can't keep tabs on the attacking enemy ground units and simultaneously tackle the enemy air and air defences. I'm going to reluctantly turn labels back (currently I have them at very close range, and greyed out) and see if I can meet the mission objectives that way. I hate to do that, but without any JTAC or FAC comms to direct me, I haven't a clue where to be at a given time. So my guys get whacked before I even know they're being engaged.

I accepted another failure on that Area Defence mission, and it's given me yet another, equally impossible to complete mission. Either I get whacked by AHs or even A-10s, or they Hellfire/Maverick the crud out of my T80s, or some of the enemy vehicles enter the trigger zones and lose me so many points as to make the mission unwinnable. Maybe if my guys weren't so spread out, I could actually protect them and not get splashed myself. I'm all for the pseudo-dynamic campaign idea, and for accepting failure as it comes - but when the missions you're assigned for failing are even harder - what's the point? I'll stick at it, don't get me wrong (probably by failing until I lose and then starting Oil War campaign 2 all over again), it's just disheartening to go from kicking arse to being the whipping boy. I haven't won a mission in a week because of the OP mission, and then these two Area Defs.

I'm using Freetrack. Apart from it sometimes unsetting the option to output to "Freetrack" and "TrackIR" (both of which I need ticked to get it to work usually - easily solved by pausing, alt-tabbing, and reticking those boxes), it works just fine. Really helps with the cockpit workload, not to mention HMS employment. And it doesn't affect FPS very much either, at least not on a quad core 4gb pooter. I recommend it - although it took HOURS to set up the curves, sensitivities and other options.

Nice job! I'm struggling with the Area Defence mission I got assigned after accepting 30% on the one I posted this thread about. Boy do I regret that! Another two AHs to kill, plus another two friendly formations to protect, plus three trigger areas that you lose big chunks of score for if any enemy vehicles enter them. I managed 40% once, but then lost all of that score because I couldn't nail down the advancing enemy vehicles OR stop the Apaches from hitting my tanks AND shooting down either my wingman or me! It's just as hard as B-P5.2, but I don't want to accept yet another failure in order to have another crack at the campaign. I might as well start again at this rate. Starting to think I'm going to need to take a break until the patch comes out, unless maybe I go multiplayer.

Not a bad suggestion, were it not for the Linebacker hiding behind the hill, forward of the the Bradleys. I actually managed to nearly hit that with the gun as I careered over the crest of the hill sideways, way out of shape, with Stingers and cannon rounds whizzing past my ears. But I couldn't slew the reticle over him at that attitude and speed, so he got me. Mind you, if you're in that situation, you've already lost! Having said that, I might be able to creep up to the ridge and loft a few cannon rounds over it at the Bradleys without exposing myself (har har) to the Linebacker. So if I get the mission again (god forbid) that's what I'll try. But even then - this gives me the Vikhrs I need to finish the job covering the two convoys, but not the omniscience and god-like flying ability and situational awareness needed to actually get my 50%! I'm sure it's possible, but only if you happen to have a wingmand who's doing what he's told, enemies triggered in a favourable way, the planets in the right alignment, and goat entrails in the cockpit.

Personally, I don't see how flying with labels in a language you don't know is "realistic". Sure, in terms of climbing into a real Ka-50 and having a chance of starting it up and taking off, it's realistic. But in terms of you being a Russian national with basic fixed wing flight training, some form of helicopter flight training and more besides under your belt, I feel it's actually UNrealistic to imagine that you aren't already intimately familiar with your native language. Would you watch a foreign language movie with no subtitles for the sake of realism? OK, so that's a little smartarse, sorry. But you take my point. And if you're providing for those of us not interested in learning Russian just to play a game, I think it would be best if there was a PDF manual with the English screengrabs in it. Relative to the huge amount of work put into the sim, it's surely not a big ask. That said, I managed, and I suck! So, so can everyone else.

My Vista installation places these files within c:\users, like this; C:\Users\<INSERTUSERNAMEHERE!>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50 etc etc. So if you're placing your backups into the Program Files folder, Win7 probably isn't reading them from there, but from the above folder.

Well, I was looking at reducing the number of Bradley TOWs carried on each vehicle at least, but beyond that I'm not keen to just edit the mission until I win. Current plan is to play the step-back mission I was given for failing B-P5.2, and hope I get a different one after that! Funnily enough, out of I think 8 tries, the Apaches only got me once. My wingman and I can kill them almost every time, but not everything else required to get the convoys through. And if I look at the mission editor, it looks like the mission areas they need to roll into for me to win are way beyond the town I'm struggling with. So I just can't see me winning it.

What an absolute nightmare this mission is. I'm in the second Georgian Oil War campaign, and was doing fine, when this thing pops up. You have two columns of vehicle to provide CAS for, with Abrams and Bradleys opposing them on the other side of two bridges - these alone provide a challenge to hunt and kill with all the buildings, trees etc covering them and the TOW, cannon and main gun fire they can aim at you if you get too close. At the same time, you have TWO Apaches to kill. All that I can handle. But the comedy shooting gallery of TOW-firing Bradleys behind the hill to the left? With a Linebacker tucked behind the hill in position that cannot be engaged? Insane. All with no communication between me and the vehicles, and the most inept wingman in history. Does anyone have the first clue how to crack this mission? Because I can well imagine that despite having accepted a failure at 30% complete, I'm going to be tasked to do it again soon.

Having recently read "Ed Macy"'s "Apache", they do *use* it, just not for targetting/firing - he claims it's a great advantage in terms of situational awareness (and with no real drawbacks due to the lack of integrated air defence). If it were no use at all, they would delete it as have the US Army, allowing them to carry more weapons.

<edited because I'm a dope> Just in case anyone else is too - if you have an empty Logbook folder and you're on Vista (with default install path), it's because vista has put the working version of that folder into C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\BlackShark. Your pilot and logbook lua files will be in there.

Climb to about 2500m altitude, then either fly in Flight Director mode and maintain alt manually, or hit the R button to engage route following autopilot (after having reached altitude AND trimmed at the speed you want). you can then fly over the foggy mountains until you reach the long horizontal settlement near the initial point - you can then descend to below 2000m and begin the mission proper. If you hit the mountain still, I've given you the wrong altitude :D You could always fly in at 3000m and then descend.

Surely (assuming the Mi28s are really doomed) you don't even have to engage the convoys? It's just the two buildings marked as targets in the editor, hit each with gun and then blat the chopper - job done. Have yet to try the above mind, I've been plinking tanks and AFVs in the convoy and haven't yet got the reassignment call. But it seems to be time dependent (happens after "350" apparently), not target dependent. So I guess I'll try it. Seems that they cheated slightly to give the impression of FAC reassignment, so I think I'm allowed to play the editor :D Then again my conscience may intervene.

I realise this is beside the point of the thread, but in fact the tactic was to place the wingtip ahead of the V-1's in order to upset the airflow over it, and thereby the gyro. I'm pretty sure that if you physically nudged it, you were doing it wrong...