Polychop Simulations

Screenshot of the week! Yes, the nose is up a bit high for some much needed contrast in this screenshot, but here is a Hellfire missile coming off the rails. The AGM-114 Hellfire missile is (in this case) a laser guided air to ground missile that can take on any armored vehicle currently in DCS. All available flight profiles have been modelled and are selectable. Ripple fire with your wingman or lase targets for him in multiplayer, together or alone you'll be able to pack quite a punch. By the way, this livery features Lola from the Looney Tunes. The Looney Tunes characters were painted on the OH-58D Kiowa Warriors flown by 7/17 A Troop Air Cav. After being specifically told not to paint pin-ups but Looney Tunes were fine, Lola was painted on the 039. Bending the rules, Lola reportedly didn't stay on the bird for long.

Hey guys, first of all, I like the discussion you keep going here. It is a decade old discussion that basically comes down to personal preferences. The chance on everyone agreeing on such personal preferences is pretty slim so this discussion will go on for another decade. When it comes to the Kiowa, it will be on par with what you'd expect from a DCS module in terms of fidelity and we'll always be open to improvements and additions after release. This discussion is no longer about the Kiowa though, it is much broader than that. I don't mind you guys continuing your discussion here, feel free to do so, but I feel this is more about flight sims, flight sim users and modules in general. This might no longer be the correct subforum if you want to discuss these topics with a broader audience. Just saying..

As it is Friday again, here is the latest screenshot of the week. This time showing off a Kiowa Warrior in a common guns and rockets configuration. The DCS OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module will give you a great amount of freedom when it comes to selecting your loadout. Many combinations are possible and besides having to take the ammunitions and fuel weight ratio in to account, you can pretty much tailor the load out to your mission specific needs or preferences. Some of the weapons included are the well known rockets with different warheads, submunitions and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, Hellfire laser guided missiles, Stinger air-to-air missiles and the .50 M3P machinegun. From the loadout screen you'll also be able to load up to 3 smoke grenades that you can see on the dashboard and drop on the fly.

Fair points but it is essentially a non issue for the Kiowa. There is no balancing involved. One of the biggest reasons to stick with fielded weapons and systems only, instead of adding experimental weapons and systems is that no or very few SME’s could provide feedback on them, directly related to the use of those weapons on the platform at hand. One thing we try to refrain from is using guesswork. In the end I personally don’t think the end user, whether this is someone playing singleplayer, campaign builder, PvE or PvP multiplayer, would feel limited by design choices. Everything that was on the Kiowa will be there on the DCS equivalents. Edit: As far as mixing different rocket warheads (zones), that has been implemented already.

I think you read too much in to that message by Sven / Borchi to be honest Pikey. It might have been poorly phrased but know that the block II was never going to be implemented. I think but can't say for sure, that Sven wanted to point out that implementing a very powerful air to air missile on a helicopter is something Polychop would not hear the end of. But in the end, what was implemented in real life will be implemented in to the module... and the block II was never fielded. Sven has a point though, you can never satisfy everyone. We will always receive some, or a lot of flack. When you implement something it will piss off the people who don't want it in there and vise versa. And as a customer you have every right to complain. But don't forget, those guys do their best and make very long days to make a module a reality. Sometimes the hateful comments actually do get to them and in the end, I wouldn't be surprised it would influence their decisions. Edit: about the only OH-58D Kiowa Warrior feature interesting for pvp would actually be the Stinger... which is going to be a block I.. I can tell you the bird does not exactly shine as a dogfighter.

Yeap, every map.. like any other DCS module.

It's Friday where we are so time for a new screenshot of the week. Last week we asked you what you'd like to see on this screenshot and we've got some good suggestions. Today a peek at a "dirty" livery! Flying in a sand filled theater made the Kiowa Warriors often even dustier than what is depicted here. You'll be able to chose from a large number of liveries that include various unit and country specific emblems, art and a gradation of dust and dirt. Keep your suggestions coming. Next week I'll pick another to take a screenshot of!

Well... As this thread has been brought back from the dead, I might as well confirm that the real Gazelle (the ones from the French ALAT, probably not the Westland UK versions) do have an actual auto-hover mode that can be slaved to the Viviane sight.

Aaand it's Friday again! So here is the new screenshot of the week. Anything you'd like to see in the screenshot for next week? Let us know!

Hi Thick8, Thanks for your question, a good one too! But it is too early for a keybinds list as systems are still being implemented and changed. You raise an interesting point on switch types though. I'm no cockpit builder myself, I have a Bodnar board laying around but lack the time to actually do something with it. With that I also lack the knowledge the pitbuilders here have gathered. We'd like to cater to the needs of pit builders, regular HOTAS owners and everyone in between so I'd like to encourage everyone to share their knowledge and needs when it comes to keybinds here and I'll pass it on to the Kiowa Warrior team.

Thanks for setting me straight, I was thinking Flagrum was talking about the ODA when mentioning a HUD style instrument. When it comes to the ODA, my reply still stands though ;) https://duotechservices.com/repairing-oh-58-sight-unit-of-helmet-mounted-display-hmd

Yeah but DCS is no first person shooter. It would come down to a very clumsy implementation of an M4, like a fixed gun moving around some axis. Besides the implementation, there is also the fact that infantry is still poorly simulated as well as the complete lack of esclation of force. If it was feasable, it'd be a feature. But with the technical limitations we face, this is a flight sim after all and never intended to be a first person infantry simulator, we think it is best not to include and spend resources on a feature that will be rather ineffective and immersion breaking (clumsy floating gun?). Maybe in time such a feature would be possible with all the DCS core engine improvements being released all the time. But for now it won't be included.

Screenshot of the week and cool video on tactics featuring the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module. It’s Friday again and with that it is time to release the next screenshot of the week but.. there is more. We’d also like to share a video on tactics created by Casmo and Barundus, featuring the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module. Watch it here! Have a nice weekend!

Sitrep 07-09-2020 The fixes to the cockpit and external lights have been sent to ED to be released in the upcoming Open Beta patch. The issues were caused by a change to the lighting system of DCS in general that increased the intensity of the lights by.. a lot. All 4 cockpits have had their lights adjusted now. In addition to the cockpit lights, the changes to the lighting engine also impacted the colors of the navigation lights and anti collision lights. They changed from green and red to turquoise and purple. This also has been fixed and should be back to normal. A few updates ago the animation system was changed, causing the retractable landing light that also serves as a search light to be no longer animated. We've implemented a new landing light that is animated again. The fixes mentioned in this update might not seem like much, and we wish we could have implemented more fixes and additions, but the COVID-19 crisis has had a severe impact on the teammembers. Those of us with essential jobs have been strained by the demands and changes that came with the lockdowns and quarantine. Things are slowly getting back to normal now though. In the next update, amongst other issues, we hope to address an issue with the new shader that causes the gunsight and Mistral sight to blind you when using NVG's. This will be done by making the intensity / brightness of the sight adjustable using a dial.

It's also different troops, insignias, paintjobs and amount of dust / weathering. What you need to understand is that by working very closely with the real Kiowa Warrior community, this module has also become a tribute to the men and women who flew this bird. Some liveries are on their request, because of emotional and nostalgic reasons.

Dear community, Today an update on the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module development was featured in the ED newsletter. Besides the update on where we are and what we're working on, some screenshots were released as well. The newsletter can be found here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4409321&postcount=260 From now on we will post a weekly screenshot of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior on our usual social media channels (Facebook, discord and ED forums). Keep in mind that the module is very much a work in progress and the screenshots reflect accuratly where we are at when it comes to the graphical side of the development process. As always, we hope you enjoy both the development update in the newsletter as well as the first screenshot of the week attached below!

It’s done. It is however not a matter of adjusting the values in the code, it is partly redoing the lighting systems in all 4 cockpits in 3ds max. The new lighting system is being tested as we speak and we hope to make the deadline for the next OB patch.

Hey Stormridersp, I will look in to this, right now I do not know if this is module specific or DCS core engine related. If it is module specific, it is something we can adjust. If it is coded in to the (AI) engine it would be up to ED to change this.

There is a difference between letting a pilot play with a module and having them actively involved with the actual development. I honestly can’t comment on how this was done with the development of the Gazelle, I’ve only been part of Polychop for a year now, but I know what pilots like Barundus are doing for the development of the Kiowa module.

Never noticed this myself, will look at it. Thanks for reporting!

Sitrep 06-07-2020 With the engine lighting changes that were introduced by ED some patches ago, the cockpit lighting was in need of a complete rework. The lighting changes made the panel lights light up like laser beams. This not only caused aesthetically displeasing effects, it also severely reduced the effectiveness of the NVG's. The lighting of the cockpit has now been completely redone and pending the results of internal testing will be part of one of the upcoming patches. The same goes for the external lights. Due to the lighting changes of the core engine, the red lights somehow turned purple, and the green became turquoise. This also has been resolved. The retractable landing light that serves as a search light as well was no longer animated and fixed in one position after patch 2.5.5. This issue has been resolved. As stated above, pending the results of internal testing, these fixes will find their way in to one of the upcoming patches.

We will support modders that need decrypted lua files, however at the moment ED’s new integrity check will no longer allow you to edit / create core file modifications. All mods now need to be done in the “saved games folder format.” That is something we can’t change. That is part of ED’s new policy and file integrity check. Due to complaints from the modding community there is a chance this system will be altered or removed, or maybe this has already been done. If you need an unencrypted lua file we can probably arrange that for you. You can read about the specifics and the issues here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=274099

The SA342_Weapons.lua file has been updated quite a bit since the release of that mod, to accomodate new ammunition types for the 20mm gun, the smoke rockets and the new Mistral flight model code. With the release of one of the most recent DCS updates, a new file protection system was put in place by ED that prevents any coremod lua changes from loading a module. I'm not too familiar with the weapons mod you mention, but if it's a "saved games folder mod" as opposed to a core files edit, we're more than willing to support the mod author to update his mod. If anyone wants to rework the weapons mod, contact me on Discord and I'll do my best to help out.

Even though these videos can be found in another thread on these forums, this new thread will keep things more organised as I will be updating the opening post whenever a new video is released. Barandus, a former OH-58D Kiowa Warrior (instructor) pilot, is one of the subject matter experts who work with, not for, Polychop to ensure the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module will be as accurate and authentic as possible. In the video's below, Barandus explains in great detail the various procedures, switchology and the inner workings of the systems with a lot of in depth background information. These videos are uncut, unedited and provide you with a good picture of where we are at in the development proces. The videos will show bugs and things that need to be added, fixed or adjusted. Kiowa Warrior Detailed Intro Pt 1 - Cockpit Orientation Kiowa Warrior Detailed Intro Pt 2 - Before Starting Engine and Cockpit Setup Kiowa Warrior Detailed Intro Pt 3 - Engine Start to Idle Kiowa Detailed Intro - Pt 4 Video by Casmo and Barundus on Scout Weapon tactics featuring the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module See Syria by air...in the Kiowa! Is this map good for helicopter ops?

I have created a new thread for these videos. The opening post will be maintained by me with every newly released video. This will keep things more organised. https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=4362550 Skip to around 30 minutes for all new content. Before the 30 minute mark, Barundus recaps some items mentioned in previous videos and goes in to more detail on them.