nomdeplume

HEI should be more effective for air-to-air, as punching a nice little hole through an aircraft (AP rounds) is less likely to do crippling damage. HEI is also best against thin-skinned ground targets like trucks. AP is most useful against tanks and other heavily armored ground units. CM is mostly AP with some HEI (4:1), and is reasonably effective against everything. As a general rule for A-A missions I think HEI-only would make sense as even a few hits with high explosive should do significant damage to fragile things like aircraft. For A-G missions where you might be facing BMPs or tanks (and you want to shoot them with your guns rather than just drop some bombs and disappear) then combat mix would be the way to go.

Mostly it's just practice, practice, practice. I'd say just take it up at an airport and practice hurtling down over the runway and coming to a stop as quickly as you can, while minimising your altitude gain/loss. As you practice it the pedal inputs to maintain heading will become somewhat second-nature. It will vary a little bit based on altitude and temperature but once you've got the general feel of it those differences should be pretty minor and easily corrected. As for technique, what I normally do is dump the collective to zero as I approach the stopping position, and pull back on the cyclic to pitch up in order to maintain altitude. It's generally easier to use an out-of-cockpit visual reference for this if you're at low altitude, as the vertical speed indicator will lag a little bit. If you find yourself descending while you're still reasonably fast (80+ km/h) you can just pull back more to decelerate faster and maintain altitude. If you find yourself climbing you'll need to pitch forward a bit. Practice doing it a whole bunch and you'll develop a feel for how fast you can come to a stop without popping up. As your speed drops through 80-60 km/h, you'll need to start applying right rudder to maintain heading. This is just normal transition and you can practice until you get a feel for when and how much rudder you need to apply. Also as your speed drops below around that 60-80 km/h range you'll find yourself needing to pull in collective to maintain altitude. I'd suggest start practising at a hundred metres or so above ground level so you have plenty of time to recover. As you get more confident start doing it lower and lower, until you're racing along at 10 metres above the ground, then coming to a rapid stop. Another technique is to roll into a steep left or right bank and pull back on the cyclic - basically placing the aircraft perpendicular to your velocity vector, and rolling against it (picture it the same as pulling back to pitch the nose up in forward flight, only your tilting the helo left or right instead of 'up'). This feels like it sheds speed a bit faster (wind resistance against the fuselage?) and can be useful when you need to dash into cover and then turn to face the target. Also in some cases, you will actually want to gain a little bit of altitude - imagine if you're doing a ground-hugging dash to get behind a large hill or ridge line, you can then pull back back more than you normally would in order to stop faster and also gain altitude to put you just below the peak as you come into a hover. Again, mostly it just comes down to muscle memory or intuitive feeling - so, practice and lots of it. The nice thing is that Gazelle is quick to start up and really fun to fly about at low altitude, and if you spend an hour just zipping around the cities and skidding to a stop behind buildings you'll find yourself developing a really good feel for how it handles, and those rudder corrections will start to become automatic.

Radar vertical deflection adjustment is done as well, so is pulse frequency selection. All third party developments use the "External Flight Model" (EFM) which doesn't really tell you anything - just that's external to the DCS code. It does not give any indication as to how accurate it is. They have obviously put a lot of work into the flight model, but there is a lot of tweaking still happening and sometimes changes to improve accuracy in one regime causes problems in other regimes. My overall 'gut' impression is that there's perhaps more guessing as to what the behaviour ought to be than in some other modules, just due to the nature of the aircraft and difficulty in getting good documentation and people with lots of flight experience in it. Certainly the intention is to deliver the most accurate and highest quality flight model possible, given the limitations inherit in trying to simulate an actual aircraft on a home PC.

For single-player you can try the "Prepare mission" function in the editor. This will take you into the mission, and any changes you make to the aircraft state are saved with the mission. But big caveat of course: it needs to be implemented in the module, and I don't know what states the F-5E module saves and restores. So even if it does work, it may only partially work.

^ that sounds good, some kind of indication that it tried to lock but was unable to would be quite useful. Have you had a chance to look into the accuracy of target information when it's being tracked in PID mode? I haven't done any specific testing in the latest open alpha we have, but I'm fairly sure I noticed on the weekend when I was pursuing a damaged Su-25 that the closing speed reported in PID was very different to that reported in PIC.

Yep, concur. Looks like it wasn't properly fixed. You can use 3 magic though! ;) 1st Magic (left outer wing) - fires no problem. HUD still indicates G and D for Magic (as expected). Cannot fire second magic (right wing) normally - perhaps it's still trying to launch the 1st Magic? Enable selective jettison, fire - 2nd Magic (right outer wing) will launch. Disable selective jettison. Remaining Magics (inner wings) work fine. Strange that the selective jettison picks up the next Magic properly, but the normal fire button does not.

If you're using 1.5 then that's a known issue. You'll have to wait until next week (probably) for an update. Or, roll back to the previous version. If you have the NTTR map, then the open alpha version should be fixed. I think it was related to the Eclair countermeasures pod, so you could also try removing that from your loadout if you're using it and see if that helps. Don't know whether its presence actually makes a difference or not for this bug, though.

Are you using Game Mode by any chance? I think I've read mention of this issue elsewhere here. Edit: discussed here.

I think probably just not fully implemented yet. Do they actually do anything useful in-game? The changelogs don't mention anything about it so they might not have even been "intentionally" made available in our public builds. Only official mention I've seen of them is in relation to the WW2 theatre.

Pic 2 looks like the bomb is still largely horizontal while over the green marker where presumably the laser spot is? If that's the case then I definitely wouldn't expect the seeker to be able to pick up the laser reflection. Keep in mind the M-2000C can release bombs at a much higher speed than the A-10 can, so they'll be travelling longer distances with a relatively flat trajectory. If the impact point was meant to be at the green smoke then the release trajectory is definitely a problem. It might be worthwhile practising with Mk-82 LD iron bombs to see how accurate you can get your bombing. Once you can reliably get the bomb within the vicinity of the target, then you can switch to using LGBs to benefit from the terminal guidance. The pipper in pic 1 looks to me uncomfortably far past the green smoke, but perhaps that's where the target actually is? I can't really see any targets in any of the pics, I assume they're lost in the terrain noise. What exactly is the JTAC lasing? Have you tested this mission setup with the A-10, since you're already comfortable with LGB employment on that platform?

Are you pressing the NWS button before or after you apply the pedals? I've had no problems using it as suggested by others - press and hold NWS button, use pedals to steer (gently), straighten up, release NWS button. The plane's supposed to have a very tight turning circle at max deflection and as far as I can tell it only reaches the limits at 100% pedal, so anything done to reduce the response would either reduce the maximum deflection or give you weird non-linear responses.

You shouldn't receive anything on your HUD from JTAC lasing, the M-2000C does not have a laser spot detector. Releasing an LGB is exactly the same as releasing a low-drag dumb bomb (only difference is the bomb can guide on a laser spot if it happens to see one on its way down). The cross marker on the HUD is your waypoint indicator; it's the "house" symbol until you get within (I think) 7 nm (somewhere around that distance) and then it becomes a cross. If you've entered the target coordinates from the JTAC that's where it'll be from, alternatively you may have a mission waypoint pre-set at the same location. If neither of those are true, then you may be delivering the weapon nowhere near the JTAC's intended target. Was 2,000 feet over target correct? That seems awfully low for an LGB delivery. You'd probably need to release in a dive for the bomb's seeker to be able to acquire the laser spot in time to guide.

Very nice, almost enough to make me wish I had friends! Who was hosting the session and what sort of latency (ping) did the other player have?

This seems like a fairly good thread for minor/edge case bug reports, so: F-5E's set as "start from ramp" with "uncontrolled" ticked will play their engine start sound effect at mission start, despite the fact they're not yet starting. They will also play it when actually sent the start command. (This has been present since the AI F-5E-3 was added.) It appears that if you take damage to your fuel tanks that causes all fuel to leak out of one set of tanks (easy to do :)) then land and request rearm/refuel, the refueling will never complete and the ground crew will not carry out further requests. Fuel goes in, fuel goes out... I'm also not sure it refuels properly after repairing either, but I need to properly test that to confirm.

Campaign won't be free, it's being developed by another third party (Maple Flag). Don't know when it will arrive. I haven't tried any of the training or quickstart missions yet. A quick look shows 9 training missions, so it seems pretty comprehensive (four air-to-air, two air-to-ground, one cold start/takeoff, one landing). Quickstart folder has 6 missions: air to air; cold start; free flight; ground attacck; intercept; takeoff. So, probably a bit lacking in the standalone missions at present. If you don't like making missions yourself and the SP missions are important to you, it might be worth waiting to see what other people think of the campaign when it (eventually) arrives, and what sort of user-created missions are produced by the community. Also, Belsimtek might add additional canned missions further down the road. Anyway, you've asked this before and still nobody will be able to tell you what to buy. Since you like the MiG-21 then you might enjoy flying its natural competitor. The F-5E systems are very simple and it's a very "hands-on" type of aircraft, like the -21. I can only really suggest checking out videos of people playing both modules on YouTube and see if you find them appealing enough to want to buy either one now. If not, you could always wait it out until they eventually go on sale and pick one of them up cheaper.

Well, DCS World itself is free. You need to buy the NTTR map to do anything useful with the 2.0 alpha, but the Black Sea map comes with 1.5 for free. Module serial numbers work for both versions, so if you don't want to wait for 2.0 to be updated then you can install 1.5 and us any modules you've purchased.

They also need value_up = 0, otherwise the cockpit switch stays in the left/right position after you release your button. It doesn't really hurt anything but looks a bit weird.

Best bet is to post a track, preferrably a short one. Also if you're using 2.0 (NTTR) the that hasn't been updated in yonks and there's likely more than a few radar-related bugs that have been fixed since then. The usual suspects are 'notching/beaming', i.e. the target flying perpendicular to your radar and therefore being filtered out by the 'doppler notch' the radar uses to discard ground returns; and potentially chaff breaking your lock. Main way to counter notching is to lower than your target so the radar is only looking up over the horizon, and therefore doesn't need to filter out ground returns. It's never been clear exactly how the M-2000C module determines when to enable/disable the doppler speed notch though, or even if it actually does.

Not sure about 'standard', but there's an air-restart switch to the left of the throttle, which seems to work if you have enough airspeed. Otherwise just doing a normal engine start seems to work fine. There may be some limitations (altitude/air density, speed, temperature..?) but the very few times I've tried it I've had no issues.

x/y/z coordinates are in metres. Or meters, if you prefer. If I recall correctly, x is north/south (positive -> north) and z is east/west (positive -> east). y is altitude (positive -> higher). However there are some functions that take 2D coordinates, in which case x is north/south and y is east/west instead of being "up". The heading is in radians. You can use math.deg(radians) in lua to convert from radians to degrees, and math.rad(degrees) for the other way. Lua 5.1.5 Copyright (C) 1994-2012 Lua.org, PUC-Rio > print(math.deg(2.0943951)) 119.99999986288 >To offset units you use standard geometry, multiplying the distance you want to offset in each direction by the cosine or sine of the angle. Lua's math functions use radians. function translate(position, heading, distance) local hdgrad = math.rad(heading) -- assumes heading is in degrees local vec = { x = distance * math.cos(hdgrad), z = distance * math.sin(hdgrad), } return { x = position.x + vec.x , z = position.z + vec.z , y = position.y } endYou might want to experiment with this a bit to verify it's translating in the correction direction. e.g. translating {x=10,z=10} 10 metres at heading 0 or 360 results in {x=20,z=10} which is correct if x -> north.

Nope, you're doing it right. You definitely don't need to call timer.scheduleFunction() every time within your scheduled function, the return value will re-schedule it automatically (or not, if you return nil). The OP's issue is they only had the one parameter: local function testFunction(time)but the timer function calls it with two: func(uservalue, time). The user value being passed to the function was nil, so their return value: return time + 5was becoming return nil + 5which won't work; so the function is never called again.

The currently available (English) manual just says: GBU-12 Release WIP. But like Flagrum and QuiGon, I'd be surprised if the sight (it's not really a "HUD") had special symbology for GBUs. Maybe there'll be extended bombing tables allowing for higher release altitudes than what's currently available in the manual, albeit with lower accuracy making them only acceptable for guided bombs.

Screenshot would be helpful, you should be able to get one just by hitting the PrintScreen button on your keyboard and looking in Saved Games/DCS/ScreenShots. Also, what screen resolution are you using and what video card? Might be relevant.

That's (probably) what it's supposed to do. The heading bug is the course the AP will follow, so if you move it (with the trim hat) then the AP will turn the aircraft to the new heading.

Edit: too slow :). Oh well. Part 2 of Rlaxoxo's video shows inputting coordinates. If you're super impatient, skip to 2:00. For startup you modify the position of "waypoint" 0, the aircraft's current position. Set the parameter knob to L/G so you get the coordinates displayed. Your PREP waypoint should be 00 - it'll start there but you can always get back to it if you've changed it by hitting PREP, 0, 0. To edit the left parameter (for L/G, it's the latitude value) press either 1 or 7 on the keypad. When you begin editing, the selected parameter will be blanked out (--:--.--) and both direction symbols will be displayed. So for the left side, it'll show both N (north) and S (south). The 2 and 8 keys have "N" and "S" on them which should be your clue that pressing 2 will allow to input a latitude north of the equator. So, press 2 and the "S" will disappear. Now you just enter the degrees north in decimal format. So for 41 degrees 36.60 minutes north, you just enter 4, 1, 3, 6, 6, 0. If you make a mistake, you can press the EFF key to start over. Once you've entered all digits correctly, press the INS key to commit it. Now you've entered the latitude, you can enter the longitude value in the right side of the display. By pressing either 3 or 9. For the right side, it'll show both E(ast) and W(est). You'll note again the W and the E on the 4 and 6 keys, so press 6 to enter a longitude east of the meridian. Note that the longitude field is longer, as it allows for 3 digit degrees (---:--.--). On the Black Sea map you'll be between 37 and 45 degrees east, so you need to enter a leading 0 to get the required number of digits. So if you're at 41 degrees 47.35 minutes east, you'll enter 0 4 1 4 7 3 5. Then press INS to confirm your input.