nomdeplume

Your best bet will to find a virtual squadron in your timezone who flies at times that are convenient for you. Just about every squadron will be very welcoming to new members, even if they need to spend a while training you to get up to speed with them (training others is a great way to improve your own skills, so the benefit is mutual). Check out the squadron directory thread on this site, as well as the squadron listing on the wiki. Latency isn't a major issue especially if you play cooperative missions, so you don't necessarily need to limit yourself to your geographic area - finding people that fly at times that suit you is most important. You can also just stalk the server lists and see if there's any public servers that are often available at times you like to fly, and then just fly on them. You're bound to eventually run into people that way, and can potentially set up something regular out of that. You'll also definitely want to get the TeamSpeak 3 client if you don't already, as most squadrons use that, often in combination with TARS for additional immersion.

You could try moving the clients that are causing problems to a different FARP/airfield? I had a similar problem when I was testing a mission I originally designed for SP A-10 in BS2 - added a Ka-50 client and ran it multiplayer and it just wouldn't spawn my aircraft. The FARP it was operating from had 3 AI helos at it so it should've had a spare pad, but evidently the game didn't want to use it. If it's A-10 slots causing the problem, it might still be having problems picking a parking area for some reason. So could be worth trying a different airfield, just to rule in/out the possibility. Also: does the problem seem to be dependent on the number of people connected, or the number of slots used by clients (as opposed to spectators), or just the particular aircraft slot being selected?

Maybe he's just getting bored of directing traffic all day, and wanted to liven things up?

You can check them pretty effectively from the inside. There are keypresses you can use to move your view laterally, though I'm not sure what they are since I use TrackIR. Does the field of view change at all when you go back into the cockpit? By default when the game starts up, the view 'zooms out' a bit until it gets to a resting position. If you reset the view to default (NUMPAD ENTER?) it'll actually jump in a little bit. Maybe when you're returning to the cockpit the zoom is set to a different level, so the response seems different? I'd also try just hitting F1 while already in the cockpit to see if that triggers the behaviour, and see if you can control the camera with the trim hat in the external view, and if that's accelerated/overly sensitive. The NUMPAD cursor keys also allow you to control your view by default - do they exhibit the same behaviour, or is it only the joystick hat switch?

Oh okay, thanks Speed, that's interesting to know. So close to being able to lock slots until some event has occurred... yet still so far!

Does LoGetLockedTargetInformation() return anything at all? Maybe it's not implemented in DCS and refers to things like up by e.g. the F15 radar? Or padlocked targets? Given the name and age/context of what I found Googling that function, my guess is that it'd be LockOn specific and DCS A-10C may not have the same notion of 'locking' a target.

Just to note that you're likely to confuse people if you set their aircraft's start time later than the mission start time, as they'll be sitting around wondering why they don't have a plane. Also IIRC, the start time has no effect for multiplayer clients - they get created when people spawn into the slot. When you're setting the mission start time, you can set the HH:MM:SS, and also the day (final field). This is days since June 1st, IIRC. You can use this to get longer/shorter days and other effects related to the seasons.

The AEF's server has been in the list whenever I've looked and it's been running for a few months now. This is just on a home connection behind NAT, with the only inbound ports relating to DCS open being 10308 (TCP and UDP). 1.1.1.1.

Which combat missions? Campaign missions or scenarios? Both?

I think the poll choices reflect the fact that they already announced the next module would be a fixed-wing US aircraft. This poll's a lot better than it used to be, anyway..!

I don't think the LockOn flight models would really be of any help for DCS products. Except maybe the advanced flight model, but only the Su-25T has that. I wonder how classified the Su-33's systems are...

To accept the tasking, place the TAD cursor over the blinking red tasking icon and hit the WILCO button on the left side. More generally, TMS LEFT SHORT will reset/clear any warnings/cautions/notifications that appear over the MFCDs and/or HUD.

I think it's intended. Members of a group share information with each other so they don't all waste their ammo attacking the same thing. Or in other words, each group can engage multiple targets, allocating different targets to different members of the group. From a different perspective, suppose you had two (or more) helicopters. With individual Strelas, they would all acquire and start firing upon the first helo to come in range -- making themselves known and wasting ammunition in the process. When they're in a single group, only a few units would engage the first helo, leaving additional units able to simultaneously engage the second one. You can also see similar behaviour with air units. e.g. if a single 4-ship flight encounters an enemy fighter group, it will behave differently than if you had 4 single-ships encountering the same enemy group. Sometimes you do want everyone to start firing at once so breaking them into smaller groups may be what you want to do. Generally though, you'll get more intelligent behaviour if they're able to work together through being in the same group.

You can do that, but it's cleaner to place the texture files in the same folder in the Liveries directory, and set the last parameter in the description.lua to false; this tells the sim to look in the same directory for the texture, rather than search for it in the system paths. See here for a better description: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1221006&postcount=8 You can also use a zipfile with the textures + description included, rather than a subdirectory. You can also create the Bazar\Liveries folders under your profile directory and place the files there, if you'd rather not modify the main installation directory. Can't find the post I read that mentioned that, though.

US Army chopper accidentally drops missile A United States Army Apache helicopter accidentally dropped an inactive missile over central Texas on Tuesday, forcing dozens of homes to be evacuated. No-one was injured in the incident, in which residents in Killeen told police they saw an object falling from an AH-64 attack helicopter into a field. An explosive disposal team found an inert M36 missile, a dummy version of a Hellfire missile used for training, officials said. "The M36 is an inert training device without a warhead or propulsion system and is designed to enable crews to simulate Hellfire missile engagements in the cockpit without launching from the aircraft," the statement said. The dummy missile, just like a real Hellfire weapon, weighs about 45 kilograms and is 163 centimetres long. Reports are pretty much all the same, from AFP. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-17/missile-falls-from-us-army-chopper/4016798 (source of above quotes) http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/16/4495748/inactive-missile-drops-from-army.html http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/weird/Training-Missle-Drops-from-Helicopter-Homes-Evacuated-151759335.html

The training in the game was provided as video files. You can view them on YouTube, or download them and install them. They don't fit on the DVD so they're not included in the base sim. http://lockon.co.uk/flaming_cliffs_2/training/

Probably not in the way you're thinking. Aircraft fly using sea level or some other standard reference because altitude above ground level has two significant drawbacks: a) it makes it very difficult to coordinate your altitude with other aircraft; and b) ground level can vary dramatically over short distances making it not-very-useful for avoiding unintended collisions with the terrain. So, the primary flight instruments always use barometric pressure to determine your altitude based on some common reference. You will however have your altitude above ground level displayed in the bottom right of the HUD if you're below 5,000 feet from the ground and not upside down. Outside of those parameters the radar altimeter either doesn't have enough power to get an accurate reading or isn't able to bounce a signal off the ground. ("Upside down" is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the radar altimeter can handle a surprising amount of bank.) If you're carrying a targeting pod, it will show you your altitude AGL at all times, in the top right corner of its display. This is derived from the onboard terrain elevation information (DTSAS). But, there's no way to get this on your HUD or flight instruments. Also keep in mind that you can set altitude alerts based on your barometric altitude, so if you want to maintain a 12,000 foot altitude over terrain which is up to 5,000 feet above sea level, you can set an altitude alert for 17,000 feet so you get an audible notification if you inadvertently descend below that point. You can also set a ceiling alert as well, which can be useful if you're using flight levels to de-conflict with other aircraft in the area. Just mash the ALT ALERT button on the UFC to cycle the types of alerts, enter the desired altitude using the digits on the UFC and press the ENTER button to set it.

The problem with this is that it would require storing everything about the current mission when you start recording. Every single detail about every single aircraft, ground vehicle, weapon in flight would need to be stored (fuel, weapons remaining, damage, avionics settings, you name it). The entire AI state machine for every group/unit would also need to be stored, along with the state of all triggers/flags/etc. You get the idea. So, I don't think that will make for smaller files, and it would probably incur a significant delay while all the data is written out. On the other hand, it would allow for saving/reloading the game mid-mission, which would be pretty nice to have 0.001% of the time.

More bad news for Russian aviation No survivors after Indonesia plane crash Indonesian rescuers says they have found no survivors after a Russian Sukhoi passenger jet crashed into into a mountain near Jakarta, officials said on Thursday. The twin-engine Superjet 100 vanished from radar screens on Wednesday, 50 minutes into what was meant to be a short flight to show off its capabilities to prospective buyers as Russia tries to rebuild its civilian jet industry. ... A helicopter pilot spotted the plane's debris after rescuers resumed their operation at first light on Thursday, locating one part with the Sukhoi logo on the face of Mount Salak, a dormant volcano.

Tracks are known to have problems. When you playback a track, the game is actually running the mission again, with your aircraft's inputs being provided by the data recorded in the track file rather than by your controller. Pretty much everything else is re-calculated/re-simulated. There's two basic issues with this: sometimes the track doesn't properly record (particular?) events, so the track can diverge from reality - the longer the track is, the more likely you're going to run into this in a visible manner. Second, if you play a track back on a different version of the program than it was recorded on, different things may occur due to changes in the engine. For example, if the flight model changes then even if the track correctly applies precisely the same inputs at the same time, the aircraft's behaviour may be different. The second problem is likely insurmountable, the first is I think just some bugs in the export and/or import functions. Issues have been known since the olden days though, so either it's something that's difficult to fix or it's way down on the priority list. If you're wanting to be able to perform post-flight analysis, you might want to look into Tacview. This works by adding a script that export events etc. as you play, which can then be read back by the Tacview program. You don't get the graphics/sounds/etc. of the game, but it is an accurate record of what occurred in the flight.

The current server supports up to 32 players. I don't think we'll be seeing a massive server anytime soon, just like I don't think we'll be seeing Falcon 4-style dynamic campaigns with large numbers of units populating the entire map. The engine is really designed to handle smaller engagements with a high degree of fidelity. Also, I think modern aircraft pose problems for this kind of development that WW2 sims/games don't suffer from (i.e. the speed at which units move around and the distances they can detect/engage others from). Not insurmountable, but I don't believe this is the direction ED are going. I could be wrong though; the new warehouses thing really only makes sense in the context of either a (somewhat) dynamic campaign or lengthy missions (implying lots of units). Still, it would take resources that I think they see as better employed elsewhere (and I don't disagree). I'm not sure ED could really bring anything special to the table in terms of hosting one or more "official" servers, anyway. It's all about the missions, and if they want to dedicate resources to making excellent multiplayer missions there isn't a shortage of people willing to run them. They could much better serve the multiplayer community by a) making a dedicated server and b) making it easier to find and install additional missions (e.g. by integrating a mission browser/downloader into the DCS: World front-end). It probably is also worthwhile reiterating what WarthogSmurf alluded to with the difference between the kind of missions public servers can run and the kind of missions private servers can run, and hence the experience offered. Just having a group of people who are all briefed on the mission goal, all starting at the same time and not out to play air-quake makes a world of difference, and it's almost impossible to get that to happen on a public server.

You might also want to consider downloading the DCS: P-51D beta (download page here) and installing the new "DCS: World" as a bit of a demo. This will give you a flyable Su-25T in single-player (albeit not of DCS standards), allowing you to actually run the game on your PC and see how it goes. It's not quite the same as the current build of Warthog, but it's close enough and should give you a good idea of performance. Keep in mind though that it is a beta, so don't be too discouraged if you do have issues. It might however give you peace of mind that the game will run for you before you commit to a purchase.

Methinks that 'michaeljee' be a spambot establishing some credibility before spamming; or getting some posts on the forum prior to setting up a signature with spam links in it.

Doesn't the Quick Start guide have something like this? Or is it only for game mode?

I've never encountered this, so I can only suggest the usual. Is it a particular mission it's occurring with? Try clearing out the log folder after it happens and then try again, see if it logs anything that might be useful in trying to track down the problem. Most/all of your customisations should be in your user directory, so uninstalling and reinstalling the program will preserve them.