NeedzWD40

No, you only need the Supercarrier if you want to takeoff and land from the CVN-71, 72, 73, and 75.

I'd put that along the lines of an EULA violation. You can however use the CVN-74 Stennis, CV-59 Forrestal, and old Kuznetsov for free as part of the base game, though.

Negative, you'll need to keep the laser steady until missile launch. Once it's launched, then you can forget about it. The only way to fire masked would be from a RFHO from a datalink. Storing a target point is a bit different from generating the target handover data. IIRC it doesn't even use our standard coordinate system, so MGRS/LL are completely worthless to it (I want to say it uses NED). The TADS passes other info like angular rate data which isn't tracked within the ownship INU. Remember, we're talking about a relatively tiny little missile with light energy potential, so getting it to the right point is important for both its sensors and trajectory. As I noted before, there's a lot of things you could technically fudge or assume, but by doing so you add in a lot of complications in addition to lowering your PK. As to why the US Army and Rockwell/Lockheed/Boeing/Marietta/et al didn't add the capability, you'd likely have to find someone from the program office willing to talk about it. I'd guess they likely aren't allowed to speak about it, so we can only assume based on known factors like properly ID'ing targets before shooting.

Off the top of my head: identifier, air/ground target, target velocity, and timing are the major ones. It's more like how the DBS radar modes work in the F-16 and F-18, so the missile needs much more contextual information than can be provided with a simple waypoint. Now, in theory one could guesstimate and fudge these values, but doing so adds great risk when you're sending live ordnance downrange to a position that you have little/no confirmation of what may be there. The missile will fall back to straight INS coordinates if it can't find anything with its radar, but it doesn't make for good optics to blow up the wrong thing like friendlies, a home, playground, etc. that might potentially be in the vicinity. Thus every form of data that the missile requires has someone, somewhere providing actual confirmation that there is a bad guy there, whether it's the ownship via TADS or FCR or another aircraft using a FCR with RFHO.

Without the FCR and datalink, the only option is for direct TADS lasing. Points don't provide enough information for the missile to properly track a target. It's a bit more involved than just coordinates alone.

First column is frequency callsign; second column is cipher, crypto variable, and power.

There'd better be strawberry gum included. On the other hand, currently AI helicopter combat consists of "fly high and straight toward opposing helicopter > fire longest range missile possible > do not flinch from incoming ATGM for you are real man and not weak fighter jockey > tank multiple ATGMs > give up after 16th hit to the face, ditch weapons and RTB." I'm not sure how to get around that problem.

Do they just fly around at altitude in forward flight all the time or what?

You can load the Gazelle up beyond max T/O and it will fly and hover without issue. It suffers no perceptible performance degradation from weight, altitude, or temperature. 30C at 7,000MSL with a fully loaded SA342M will function the same at sea level, 20C, lightly loaded. It's more important to get the right control curves and settings and I think Casmo's settings offer the best bang for the buck. Something to keep in mind as well is the trim isn't very precise, especially around the center. Pedal trim works fairly well but cyclic trim will generally require more hands on as it mostly works with big steps, not small ones.

Yes, that's pretty much it. For example, if you have control of the missiles and set a point as an acquisition source, then launch without any laser designation, you'll get the ETA and at some point you'll get the "lase 1 missile" message to indicate whomever is lasing should start designating. If it's a self lase, it might be your cue to bob up and designate. The closer you are, the smaller the window, so at 8km you might be able to get away with lasing at the last 10 seconds but at half that distance you might get the cue 5 seconds after launch. The Longbow HELLFIRE is complicated because there's nothing else like it in the game outside of the AIM-120. It's not a magic missile and it has a lot of limitations. Within typical DCS contexts it will probably be just fine, but there will be times where the SAL version is more capable and vice versa. Most of the idiosyncrasies are related to moving targets; think shooting an AMRAAM and then breaking the lock. The only thing is there's no datalink for the 114L, so if the target is wildly off course from the projected position, it likely won't acquire. There's other quirks but until ED presents the missile, it's hard to speculate what real limits may be there. The FCR isn't necessary to use it; it can be launched from data link info or TADS designation, in addition to the FCR.

SAL HELLFIRE requires a terminal designation that must be held until impact, but it isn't required for the entire duration unless launching in LOBL. That's why without an initial lase, you get a "Lase" message on the HMD, indicating that laser energy should be on by that point for missile acquisition. There are nuances that aren't reflected in the game, particularly the advantages of the 114K we have modeled, but those are negligible within the current iteration. If you launch with laser energy detected by the missile (LOBL), then you must maintain the laser for the duration of flight. Otherwise, LOAL will allow you to only lase in terminal. Technically speaking, even with LOBL, the missile should reacquire, but I've found this to be spotty at best. TL;DR: Yes, George must stay on target until the missile impacts as he will shut the laser off when you ask him to scan again.

That's why I try to use the press and hold mechanic as much as possible. As of the most recent change, I only get SAS saturation when rapidly shifting from high to low speeds or vice versa, versus the constant that used to come up (due to the collective channel ghost saturating). It's not unworkable, but I tend to be the only dedicated AH-64 guy in my group and that's kinda sad. However, I do believe a huge chunk of that is hardware based, because so many sticks in use have stiff springs and poor fine motion around the center, which exacerbates the issues.

I believe it's linked to the TSD autopage functionality. The default setting is "search" so anytime a searching radar is detected, it's supposed to autopage up the TSD. I don't know if the alternate settings work yet or not, but you can find them under the TSD UTIL menu.

I actually find it a lot easier to fly without the FMC entirely. The problem comes from trying to adjust to the jump from FMC off > FMC on. On all the other helicopters - Mi-24, Ka-50, Mi-8 - I can easily use FTR depress > maneuver > FTR release. In the Mi-24 I even just left the yaw channel off entirely, until I tried the new pedal depress option. The AH-64 I end up using a hybrid approach of FTR hold at speed, but a mix of bump and press in transitioning or hover. In particular, I notice at speed, the FMC has a tendency to cause rolling and yawing moments, which go away when FTR is held.

Is the game flight model enabled by chance?

Here's a couple of clips from the latest open beta, from the Runway Start Caucasus instant action mission. I reset the configuration to be 71% fuel, 8xAGM-114, and 38xM151. The aircraft is FCR equipped as well. dcs_ah64d_takeoffleft.mp4 dcs_ah64d_takeoffcent.mp4

A friend saw this behavior a few days ago and I have a nagging suspicion it's related to the yaw SAS over-controlling things. Have you tried turning off the yaw SAS channel and seeing if the behavior is replicated?

Configuration? Weight? Environment? If lifting from level ground with a symmetrical payload, then set default cyclic trim to slightly left and slightly aft. If your configuration is on the heavy side, you may also consider setting yaw trim slightly left as well.

If you're looking to make them from scratch, then this is what you need: The end result should look like an orange-green texture. It's probably easier to start from the existing roughmet and modify it, however.

Are you working from the existing roughmet or the template?

The text should be visible on the roughmet's green color channel, so clear/clean out the default there and add your own.

What's your weight and configuration? I can see an immediate cyclic motion forward and left when the wheels lift off, but beyond that the collective motion might've been too fast.