DarkStar

Hey guys, thanks for making an enjoyable experience for the F/A-18! I thought I'd give some initial impressions after 12 missions, as I see some recurring issues and have som thoughts! 1. Sometimes when we get mission fail, the mission quits.. Real life doesn't quit. If I miss a single chopper barrelbombing as I defend against Syrian MiGs, please allow us to return to base and move on, we'll deal with the reprecussions after the deployment I believe allowing us to return to base and move on will increase the immersion. 2. In some missions the wingmen can't be commanded. When we have limited weapons onboard its frustrating to be winchester, but seeing the wingman with full stores but unable to command him to hit an undefended target. Then, see nr 1. 3. Stores: CBU's in heavy winds generally don't work too well. And some missions have too many targets for the loadout given, some missions requires near 100% hit rate, which is totally unrealistic even in real life. Raqqa Convoys had me using the entire inventory on convoy nr 3 since the AI never came to attack, despite calling in. 4. We should have an ability to reply "negative", "winchester" or "RTB", instead of being forced to say wilco (when ground troops marks a target) when we are out of ammo, or fuel. Then, see nr 2 5. Climbing out at 300knots as per standards sometimes makes it impossible to refuel before entering the AO. 6. Chemical Alley.... would never be allowed to fly in real life, I mean it is a suicide missions, haha. There are some inconsistencies that is a bit annoying. On airports, sometimes you are meant to follow the HMVV as a giude vehicle to the RWY, other times the vehicle takes you nowhere and you have to buster to catch up to the tanker as you get airborne. High Value Targets (and other missions) - for some targets you are given "cleared hot/engage" order (as would be normal). For the next there is no comms, which had me circle the target forever before finally recieving mission failed because he got away. We need some kind of consistency to be able to understand what to do. Just choose a path, we will follow Love the story, love the voice acting, and extremely well crafterd missions! Keep up the good work DS

The tanker is moving away to fast, since I have to wait for the HMVV to move it took me the entire way to Syria to catch up in full burner, he towed me half way home before I got all my fuel Also, yeah, ridicilous aaa precision and hard to hit the targets (are we sure the waypoints are accurate enough to drop on in ccrp?). DS

Same, helo never moves, Cajun never taxies. DS

Possibly, so what is correct? I have not bound a PTT button in VA other than enabling the houstick and POV as far as I know. Am I missing something? Again, only affected in Fear The Bones campaign and F-14A, no other missions. Best, DS

F-14A consequently recognised as Hornet on the carrier. No spread wings command - nose strut extend command and getting hornet ball calls from pilot when calling the ball. Slow speed calls from LSO when on speed. DS

Experiencing this bug in the Single Player Fear the Bones campaign from Reflected. Thought it might be a F-14A problem, but tried the instant action missions and VAICOM works in both the -A and the -B model. Loading up the campaign, and immediate "listening suspended" issue. T-45 mod is only mod installed. Every mission is affected so far. Best, DS

Any way to have a Sticky with known bugs or other info such as this dealbreaker with the patches? I just wasted 3 hours of my life circling above the Perry, I figured something was wrong when the Hornets used 1,5 hours before doing their task, and when I was bingo I was alone in the whole world... DS

Different engines on the jets, GE in the F-16C and Pratt and Whitney in the AM, so different procedures for the shutdown. A 10 sec "run-up" is used for PW engines before idle-cutoff. Best, DS

@NineLine Have the team talked about this at all? Would be nice to have a (later in EA)/(after release) tag to the posts about DTC, JMPS and mission planning overall. If you don't plan on it, it would be nice to know that as well so we can move on in our lives Best, DS

I mean both, NAV lines and geo lines, but also points like targets and threats. In JMPS (unclass) you can assign different functions to "lines" and have them appear with different looks, differentiating a route (waypoints) from a FLOT, or a FAOR or whatever you like (dashed - full, red,yellow cyan etc). Indeed, a core function and extremely basic, but alas not found in DCS yet, sadly.

Roger that, my experience is limited to Block 10/15s, so anything to bring the Viper up to par with atleast 10's functionality is welcome

That map must be a block 60 thing but yeah, both bullsye reference, bullseye under cursor and the different colours of lines are shown there. Of all the complex system of the Viper this surely should be low hanging fruit for ED to implement, right? It would increase the playability of the F-16 ten-fold, DS

I totally get you mate. I was wondering myself if the only way to get a realistic arrival sequence was to "force" the player flight to the tanker (just for a rejoin or dry hook-up) and when the player is busy, despawn every single AI and respawn them on a perfect approach in a straight line with spacing between each jet. Nah, I hope by voicing our grievances that ED might push on the ATC side of things instead of more jets or helicopters. The world should come alive someday (without making mission designers go mad in the process! )

Putting the flight into trail and then ordering an open formation seems to keep them from flying into the ground. On my attempt, Springfield's HARMS actually killed the SA-10 seach and track radar, so there was little left for us to do than mop up the rest of the launchers. One peculiar bug I had was with Colt 1-2 dying mid-air. The exact moment is visualised here, he just disappears mid-air. There was no SAM or AAA fire, and from his hud-view in tacview he is well above the ground (same level as the rest of us).

Good morning, First of all, I'm enjoying the missions in this campaign, the documentation etc is also very good. I'm having a few issues with the arrivals. I know there is an inherent weakness in DCS with the lack of ATC, but I believe we can manage it in a better way than it is at the moment. For example, the SOP says use of ATC is optionable, and we can fly whatever arrival we want. This frequently puts the player in hazardous situations, and at more than occasion have I had near-misses with other aircraft at final. If we look at this overview of an arrival from mission 3, we se myself flying a tacan/ILS approach according to the charts, I have no idea what the rest of the flight is planning, but it looks like they are heading to a holding/marshalling pattern with the rest of the package. Again, I know it is not the mission designers fault, it is DCS code, but crashing with the AI on landing is a total immersion killer, so lets discuss some options. We know the AI enters a pattern on landing, regardless of IFR or VFR. We know where that pattern is and we know where ATC gives you a "cleared for visual, contact twr" and subsequently a "cleared to land". In the instances that you don't get a "cleared for visual", we can assume that you are not, and therefore must execute a missed approach at a certain distance from the airfield. My suggestion will then be to include all this into the SOP and state that "if you do not recieve a "cleared for visual call" you are to enter a pattern at X-feet and try to hit the markpoint untill you are cleared..." etc. It is not realistic at all, but neiher is crashing into a F-15 at the threshold when you're flying vectors to ILS under radar control by ATC, so it could be a workaround, just by describing what to expect from the AI. I would also love a few more pre-recorded transmissions from Nellis tower, like the ones in Sedlos Red Flag campaign. I like the spacebar aknowledge system, but I understand other people do not. It gives me more immersion to hear more realistic atc and departure comms, when the system doesn't work, voiceovers is a fantastic replacement My two cents, Best regards, DS

Experienced the same, went hunting for Tomcats well into Iran and even killed them with guns. Landed at the boat with 80% success and got to go to the next mission. https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhrkYkCt37jkmyKfLjferhPpdAbJ?e=dv0hHb Radar issues after the last OB update makes it a challenge to kill the Fencers at distanse, but doable in the end. DS

I understand, the answer is still the same. It does not matter if you hide it in the Mission Editor, when it goes active in the mission and emits against you, it will show up on your RWR, even if you cannot see it on your F10 map.

No, if they emit they will show up on your RWR. Guys, SEAD is not a one aircraft operation, or even a task of 4 F-16s or Hornets alone. It requires a deliberate intelligence operation through the use of many external assets and perhaps special forces on the ground to find and track mobile sams. You'll want Rivet Joints in the air, you'll want Growlers to jam and suppress, you'll spend hours and hours of mission planning. Even in DCS it's not easy, take Scarlet Dawn MP mission in Syria as an example, most of your harms will get shot down by supporting sams in a integrated air defence system.

Welcome to the wonderous world of military technology, where the jet is built by one manufacturer, the avionics by a second, the TGP by a third and the weapon by a fourth, and none are seamlessly integrated with each other. Even if you can make the calulations with pen and paper, it does not mean the weapon is able to understand the jets logigc

Fantastic visual representation of the concepts! Well done!

No spoiler: Mission 1 Departing on the briefed BRC 056 takes you away from the 7nm DME trigger to continue the mission. In reality, the BRC is a couple degrees off, and flying straight and level following the actual BRC triggers Jester at 7nm DME just fine. Had to fly the mission thrice and deviate from the brief to get succcess. Hotfix: remove 056 from the brief, or extend the trigger to 7DME regardless of heading (?). Best, DS

Do we have to fly each turn for something to happen? I tried passing 100 turns, and whatever strike missions I set up, and no matter how many tanks and infantry I buy, the front line moves closer and closer to bandar abbas and havadarya and stays there for 50 turns. Also: Is something up with the Tomcat and INS/radar? 3 out of the 5 missions I flew show my waypoints WAY off, making joining a strike package near impossible. Request: E2 Hawkeyes from the carrier would give a better picture than E3s flying into Irans territory with terrain masking etc, any way to set that up? Flying 1990 Iran only campaign, blue side Best regards, DS

Believe me, I have :) The mission card is a nice start but fails to adress the underlying issues. A mission planning tool should be separated from the mission building tool and include the ability to make several lines per mission data load, and also threat circles, FAORs, FLOTS and all the different lines with colours available in the F-16. see this thread for details https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=250310 Best regards, DS

Wish has been raised on multiple occasions, I have never seen an official aknowledment, sadly :( I don't think people know how crucial this is in real life, and how handy it would've been in the sim. Literally a game changer.

Good, now stop aiming for the wires and fly the ball all the way down and you should hit the 3rd every time ;)