Joyride

Thanks, Speed. I take absolutely no offense to those taking custom loadouts - I know this mission is a bear. We tested it a lot at the 1st VFW and generally had success (had some missions where there we reinforcements starting to shot at the Blackhawks as we hit them), but we fly together a ton and have the comms pretty much down. Coordination is huge in this one...can't get everyone fixated on the same targets or another will slip through.

This will be awesome. :thumbup:

Here's my take on the Combat Search and Rescue mission concept - with a little twist in the ME to simulate the "search" part of it (see brief below). Co-op 4 player. Long mission - 2-2.5 hr flight time. Built with randomized scenarios for re-playability, as well as over 30 voice-over radio messages for immersion (thus the large mission file size). http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/111155/ Tips: - Stick with the pilot search, he's down there. You'll get rough coordinates of last known location but you'll have to do an organized search pattern. - Prioritize targets and threats and manage ordinance. If it's not an immediate threat to downed pilot or SAR efforts, might not be worth the ordinance. - Reduce the volume some on the VHF knob on the back left panel so that you can hear the voice-overs better if the AI happens to be talking also ----------------------------- Coalition air forces are operating south of Maykop this morning against enemy ground and air units scattered throughout the area north of the Georgian border. Sandy 51/52 and Sandy 71/72 are flying standby/airborne CSAR patrol off the coast, southwest of the coalition area of operations. Should CSAR support be needed, command will notify CSAR flights with last known coordinates of a downed aircraft to begin a grid search for the pilot(s). Be prepared to accept L/L coordinates. Sandy aircraft should 1) locate the pilot, 2) secure and defend the pilot from incoming threats, and 3) facilitate safe ingress/egress of SAR helicopters for extraction of pilot. Sandy 51 and Sandy 71 are uniquely equipped with the AN/ARS-6 airborne search and rescue transceiver. Both A-10s will be able to use this system independently to perform a search for a downed pilot. The system is on by default, and will provide distinct tones/messages at a 6000m radius, 3000m radius, and 1000m radius from a downed pilot. Simply follow the tones into the pilot and the pilot should then confirm their position and "visual" via radio message, flares, and/or smoke. An organized search pattern between the two flight elements is key. Sandy 52 and Sandy 72 are NOT equipped with the AN/ARS-6 system, though they will hear the tones of their lead's system during the search operation. NOTE that downed pilots are instructed to not use flares until they have visual confirmation with friendly aircraft in close proximity. Thus, do not expect pilot(s) to use these marks unless you are at a low-enough altitude (typically under 10,000 ft). ---------------------------------------------- TASKING: SANDY 51/52: Takeoff, proceed to SP "CHIEF" and orbit on-station for CSAR support, if required. SANDY 71/72: Takeoff, proceed to SP "INDIAN" and orbit on-station for CSAR support, if required. Coalition Forces: Overlord 1-1, 1x E2-D, 124.0 Uzi 4-1, 2x F16A (Belgium) Enfield 1-1, 4x F-15C (USA) CAP CSAR Task Force: Sandy 51/52, 2x A-10C Sandy 71/72, 2x A-10C Colt 6-2, 2x F-16C (USA) RESCAP* Springfield 1-1, 2x UH-60 SAR* Texaco 2-1, 1x KC-135, TCN 10X, 155.0* *Indicates ground stand-by Package comms is 124.0 Weather: Mostly cloudy skies, variable cloud base/ceiling. Coastal fog. Threats: Low radar/IR SAM threats in area of operations (AO), high SAM threats in areas west, north, and east of the AO (see tactical map). Expect mobile AAA (ZSU 23 and 23-4) and armored units. Enemy helos are high probability. Loadout: 2x AGM-65D 6x Mk82 2x CBU-87 7x M-156 WP Rockets TGP, ALQ-131 CM Pod

Thanks, Jeff. The voice over stuff is fun to do...I get easily carried away with it. ;-) No ideas about the re-arming problem, but will check into it. Would love to fly it with you anytime. Hoping to work on a more randomized version and fix some stuff with the second tasking soon.

Roger that, Headspace. Was in the process of getting you the logs and got sidetracked. Will definitely replicate and get them to you via website. Thanks for the reply.

Had the same issue last week, now again this week. Only solution to fix it has been to reinstall DCS each time this occurs. Today it was working fine in one mission, then flew another just after and no bueno. All radios set correctly, TARS showing on with correct radio freqs in TS, TS mic lighting up, but no comms.

Not sure if this will work, but you could create a single invincible unit in the blue forces and order the insurgents to fire away on that unit. One thing though, they will run out of ammo fairly quickly so if you want the A-10 players to see a big firefight, have to keep spawning/activating units over time to keep the tracers going.

Kylania - if you didn't hear any calls from Viking as they were inbound (6 min, 3 min, 1 min call etc) then it would have been some AAA or the SAM on the east & west ridges (in the photo 1 above) still left that they were holding on to be destroyed. Also, per the photo above, there are also ground vehicles (MBTs, IFVs) at the garrison area and near the north main gate that need to go down as well, or Uzi/Viking will have a rough go.

Glad you enjoyed it, Kylania. Sounds like UZI/VIKING never left it's hold point since the defenses at the compound staying active. They won't insert into the compound until all are destroyed. As such, with no Seals on the ground, you didn't get the calls of them operating. Additionally, since the enemy didn't see helos/Seals infiltrating the compound, the reinforcements were never called in from Nalchik (and were thus easy pickings as stationary targets). The mission is dependent on the air defences and tanks/APCs going down at the compound, and relatively fast. Makes me want to add a message letting the players know that's what holding up the mission, though...thanks for the comments!

I'll tell you what...if you are in Pig flight watching "Gap Z", use those flares! Hard to see off-road vehicles with NVGs and/or TGP. Hope you enjoy it, redfish.

Only problem is my A-10's won't have the same skins if I divide a flight up by "country" so that I can send messages to a specific client...I can add the skins I want to my own liveries folder, but others won't be seeing the same skins. Or am I missing something?

Grimes...the "country" workaround might just work...excellent tip, sir. Thanks. Yeah, message to frequency or group would be awesome...probably not hard for ED to add but I'm sure they've got higher priorities.

"Operation Gridiron" (4 or 8 player co-op) Coalition forces have prepared a snatch and grab mission to capture a key insurgent commander that has been behind renewed enemy activity in the region. The enemy commander, codename HUSKER, is believed to be located in a heavily fortified residential and military compound 8 km west of Nalchik. http://files.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/110077/ Zip file includes 4 and 8 player MP co-op, plus the maps. Difference in 4 and 8 player is simply volume of targets/threats. Sorry for the long mission brief that's included, but it's a time-on-target, heavily coordinated effort between flights. Total flight time 1.5-2 hrs. Night ops skills a must!

The mission editor allows you to play a sound/send message to country, coalition, etc. Any workaround if you only want to send a sound/message to an individual player in a multi-player mission? Thanks for any tips.

Downright heroic! Thanks, Jive & Tez.

I LOL'ed. :)

Awesome...glad someone got it! And as a side note, Happy Football Weekend to you sir...may your War Eagle be loud and often. Hoping my Buffs can find a way to get through Hawaii...we haven't won on the road since 2008 and HI is a tough place to play :cry:

Thanks, Juuba. The JTAC getting killed is my attempt at some dark humor...as anyone who's played with the Mission Editor enough can attest, getting the JTACs to work consistently in MP within the confines of other triggers and activated units is a pain in the a**. So, I finally got frustrated enough where I decided to have him explode promptly at the beginning of the mortar attack :D Watching Playboy vaporize into a 20' crater still warms heart...sniff sniff. That, and didn't want to go back to my wife ("Overlord") and have her redo the radio calls to remove reference to the JTAC ;) I also thought that, when it works right (tho doesn't seem to be consistent), it's more fun to have to find the mortar groups by smoke of the mortars firing at the FOB (or by the tracers coming at you from the Ural AAA's) then using the JTAC in this mission. Yeah, the timing of the "spawning" and radio message calls needs a little work. I've had a few people see the units spawn. I went back and forth using "AI Off/On" vs. "Unit Activate" (spawning) to get the timing of enemy attacks...but for various other reasons had gone this route. Thanks for pointing it out...will try to get a revision out soon.

Definitely designed this mission with player AFAC in mind. We've had some fun flying it similarly in the 1st VFW. If you have enough jets in the mission, then there is a little time to work in the TAD/TGP, but not much, as Druid pointed out. When I've flown it I've briefed the guys to keep their heads out and let the tracers be their SPI...almost every enemy unit in the mission can be destroyed but putting rounds/rockets/CBUs in on the origin of the tracers, without ever actually being visual with an enemy target.

A-10C Beta 1 was better than 50% of the final products out there, IMO...hopefully it was a success for them, it certainly was for me...

Druid...thanks. Used Audacity to record and run effects on the voices, then used some sound samples from various sound-effect websites for backgrounds. In Audacity, used the Effects>Equalize ("walkie talkie" presets) and Effects>High Pass to give it a radio sound feel. Added mic clicks from some real ATC comms available on the web.

Definitely interested in your progress, WildFire...just don't have the time to commit to testing. The concept of realistic, long patrol missions, like your SP Border Patrol mission (but in MP environment), is very intriguing.

Thanks for the kind words, Speed.

The new plug-in works great, Headspace. Tested at 20 miles each on ramps, 140 miles each at altitude, and 140 mi at low altitude. All scenarios sounded realistic, with quality dropping appropriately with range, altitude, line of sight, etc. THANKS!

Here's a soundclip, Senaki to Kutaisi ramps. http://www.mediafire.com/file/g3ywvb37kq33bz0 Here's one airborne distance < 0.5 mi. http://www.mediafire.com/file/9u1rs68nzp5pdgv This is without recording cockpit & world noises, so I'd say the real sound in cockpit is at least 20% worse than these recordings. We did notice that after about 15 miles, there isn't much more degradation beyond that out to about 70 miles (furthest we tested).