Bahger

Can they be named?

Yup, it's not a fly-by-wire airplabe and the flight model is good enough that a realistic amount of attention has to be paid to trimming. On ILS approaches, for example, trimming for airspeed and pitch really lessens the workload.

Thanks gents, very helpful.

i. Nose floodlight: I know how the throttle pinky switch is supposed to function -- at least I thought I did -- but unless I start on the runway, I can never get the nose gear floodlight working. In the Exterior Lights panel, "Nose Illumination" does not seem to do anything. I have no problem getting all the other int/ext lights working (except anti-collision...) What am I missing here? ii. Automated BRA calls: Can someone confirm that it's possible to hook the Bullseye icon in the TAD and get an accurate readout of bearing and range so that a BRA callout for an object on the ground can be marked? iii. Is it possible to label Mark points in the CDU, using input from the UFC, as you can for steerpoints? As always, thanks!

Excellent idea, Druid, I will definitely do it that way next time. Thanks! And let me know what you think of the .miz if you get a moment.

@Avatar72: You have the wrong frequency. JTAC Warrior is 30.00FM 140.00AM is Vaziani ATC. It's all in the briefing. Call Warrior at 30nm from your primary on ingress. You can call him any time but 30nm will give you enough time to get all the data and line up for the laser cue without having to orbit at the IP.

Well, this is an anomaly. As I said, the JTAC lased the SAM by mistake when I placed it in the same village but after I moved it a long way out of the JTAC's LOS, it never happened again in multiple playthroughs. There's no way it's an intended function; in the JTAC menu in the ME you select a specific target for lasing (in this case the bunker) and the JTAC lases it every time as long as he has LOS. I hope there are not too many players experiencing this.

JimMack: Done.

@ Mirtma: I do now what can have happened to your download, I just downloaded it myself and there are just 3 files, as intended, bith .miz files (runway and ramp starts) and the readme. The .ogg files are part of the .miz files and should not be broken out. You just put the .miz files in C:\user\saved games\dcs Warthog\missions. Try redownloading as this sounds very anomalous. @ Zenra: You may be right. If the player wants to do the terminal lase as I describe above, he should re-set the laser code (the laser illumination code, not the LSS code) to another value, and reset the bomb's code to match. This would deconflict the codes being used for LSS and terminal. The problem is that you cannot change the default laser code for the FAC, so his spot code is also the terminal code unless the player changes the terminal code. If you see what I mean. @ JimMack I'd be happy to upload the mission to "User Files" but I must be missing something simple as I cannot find this location here. Do you mean on the DCS site? I'll look. I should probably link it to there anyway as I am close to my upload limit here in the forum, with just 3 .miz files and will be unable to upload more unless I take one off. Can you advise?

Thanks, mt, I look forward to hearing how it plays for you.

Thanks for the comments, guys. In response to the "issues" raised above: - Tasking messages should not conflict. For each tasking assignment I set a Flag to become true on destruction of the assigned target and until that flag is true and the "target destroyed" message received, no new assignments can be given. Also, target assignments can only be given when the player is in the vicinity of the "Deniro" anchor point. I'm not saying you didn't have this experience, I'd just be intrested to learn if it's repeatable. However: Messages that can, and do conflict, because there is absolutely no way to stop this, are when custom radio messages step on JTAC "Chevy" BRA calls and vice versa. Remember, these are advisories, to assist with pilot SA, they are not specific tasking orders. I kind of feel the occasional conflicts qualify as "fog of war" and recreate the task saturation that any single-seat attack pilot has to deal with in battle. Push the BRA calls to the back of your head and pay attention to the specific tasking. - Information overload: Only one message requires the player to write down information (a L/L coordinate) and I put that up on the screen in text form in the mission in case you were unable to copy it from the SAS bloke giving it over the radio. You may not have received this assignment yet. With all other assignments, I'm sorry if the information seems to be coming at you a bit fast but, as in r/l instrument flying, the key is to have the airplane trimmed and stable, maybe in an easy orbit using A/P ""Altitude Hold", so you can concentrate on what's being said for ten seconds without distraction. Basically you only need the "gist" in each case, i.e. which town the target is at (and which of your WPs it corresponds with), or where a convoy is coming from, where it's going and its direction of travel. But I apologise if you missed stuff, as the mission is a little task-intensive. - LSS: Yup, very occasionally the laser picks out the wrong object. However, this has not happened to me in literally hundreds of playthroughs since moving the SA-9s further away from the intended object. There are a few other quirks with LSS target acquisition so, in case it is helpful, here is the procedure that works for me every time: - Check in with "Warrior" at 30nm out. There's no need to refine targeting while in an orbit if you prepare far enough ahead on ingress. - You should be navigating towards the target WP "Primary" but since the Fence In, IP and primary WPs are all aligned, the correct course should not be a problem. - When you receive the datalink triangle from Warrior, make it your SPI and steer towards it. - With the TGP as SOI, slave it to the datalink SPI. - Important: Unslave the TGP by moving the cursor very slightly off its slaved point, as, I have found, the LSS will not "take" if the TGP is still slaved to the datalink. This will mean that your TGP will still be ground-stabilised on the wider target location but not locked until you use the LSS for the lock. Make the village your TGP FOV, no wider. - Make sure your GBU-12 is set in the HUD, weps ON, armed, laser ON, latch ON (TGP "Settings"), autolase ON (DSMS/GBU-12 profile) if you are going to use it, 10 sec or so entered in the "Time to Lase" field (DSMS GBU profile) if you are going to autolase. - Call "Laser On" at 10.5nm out according to the TGP. On hearing "Lasing", hit DMS right/LONG. It will find its target if the TGP field of view is properly set, as above, not slaved, and not zoomed too widely out. - When the lase detects the target, go TGP Narrow FOV and zoom in to confirm that it has found the bunker but there is no need to hit TMS Up short or long to ground-stab or slave any further. The LSS appears to provide all the bomb guidance you need. - Refine steering to get the ASL over the segmented steering line that represents the line to the lased location. I autolase at 10 seconds from impact, latch ON. - There is no "Victory" notification, I avoided this as redundant once the player is cleared to RTB, because he won't get that clearance without having hit his primary and the two secondary on-call CAS targets selected by the sim for him. I tried to make this clear in the briefing but maybe I should have put up a text message. Anyway, when the female CAOC says "Thanks for the work, boys" that's your cue to fly back to Vaziani for a cold one, mission accomplished. Hope this helps.

It comes down to muscle-memory, really, which can only be gained by (i) repetition and (ii) a good understanding of how the key systems work together.

In this mission you will lead a flight of A-10s to strike an Insurgent command-and-control bunker at night before providing Close Air Support to an allied ground force tasked with sweeping a village in the Caucasus mountains. A full briefing and map screens are supplied with the mission, plus notes to the player in the readme text doc. This mission contains extensive customised voice comms and a full complement of battlefield support including JTACs, SpecOp recon teams and CAOC (Combined Air Operations Center) CAS coordination. Randomisation of CAS tasking invites at least two play-throughs of the mission in order to receive all available target assignments. Perceptions of mission difficuty may vary but I believe this to be an intermediate-to-advanced level scenario which, depending on specific targets assigned, will require competence in the following areas: i. Target i/d and prosecution via JTAC LSS laser guidance ii. Target i/d and prosecution via CDU input of L/L coordinates given in-flight iii. Target i/d and prosecution via TAD "Mark" for locations given by reference to a flightplan waypoint (WPs are all at nav altitudes and not suitable for target i/d) iv. Target i/d and prosecution of a moving convoy from altitude using all available resources. This is a tactical, procedural mission designed to reflect the reality of US military operations against a well-equipped militia, not the Russian or Chinese armies in full cry. It is therefore an asymmetrical scenario in which you have extensive battlefield support and are unlikely to get yourself killed unless you screw up. This is not a mission for gamers who like to fly Rambo against a wall of SAMs. The object is to complete all target assignments (your primary plus two randomly selected on-call CAS targets) and to RTB to Vaziani with both flight members in one piece. Clearance to RTB and a safe landing constitute victory in this .miz, as they do IRL. A hefty thank you to Apples and Panther for the voice-over radio files and to Grimes, who schooled me in the black arts of randomisation in the ME with enormous patience. I hope you enjoy the mission, which is the product of many hours of hand-crafting, playtesting and teeth-grinding. Comments are very welcome (in fact, encouraged). Not many people seem to be making missions for SP, so if you like it, say so and I will make more. The attached "Midnight Run" file contains the readme and adjusted versions of the .miz for both ramp and runway starts. Needless to say, I recommend the ramp start. Edit: Here is a link to the page for "Midnight Run" at the DCS User Files/Download site. Please feel free to comment there, or to rate the mission, the feedback is helpful and encouraging. Midnight Run.rar

Open ME. Flight: On l/h side, click "Add Vehicle". Select A-10C and "Player" under "Skill" Click on the map where you want to place the flight. In flight menu select "Fly over point" for where you have placed your flight. Select "1 of 1" or "1 of 2" depending on whether or not you want a wingman. In the loadout tab, select loadout (must be done individually for each flight member). With the waypoint tab on "Add", add waypoints, adjusting all parameters such as altitude and airspeed. Target: On the l/h side, click "Add vehicle" or "Add static object" Place it where you want it, adjust quantity as above, adjust facing direction, etc. ...That's about it, really.

Well I do think this is an exceptionally civilised community. I see very little posturing or chest-beating at the expense of new users on these boards and I have benefited enormously from the advice and help of several forum "regulars".

Well, for this I must defer to Grimes, a resident ME guru who, with much patience, taught me most of what I know about randomisation logic in the ME. I do know a certain amount about r/l air combat tactics and doctrine, though, so teaming up with an ME genius (that'll never be me, I do not have the mind of a programmer) might be worthwhile.

Thanks for the very helpful response, GGT. I want to showcase JTAC laser designation in this mission, hence the GBUs, so I might have to see if there is a level of weather I can dial up that will add tension/interest to the scenario without disabling the GBUs. However, the player does carry CBU-105s for a possible attack on stationary tanks from a coordinate given by a virtual SpecOps JTAC (i.e. a voice file). Hmm, if the weather over the GBU target turned out to be too cloudy, the pilot could switch to a WCMD. I wonder if he'd still have an LSS cue? If not he'd have to use the target coordinate and/or datalink provided by the JTAC and search for himself. This might be worth doing. Unless it's just homework for the player in an already task-intensive mission.

This strikes a major chord for me, so please bear with the following editorial: I think the future of this product, for much of the non-contracted military user anyway, resides with the ME. I think it would be worthwhile for ED to promote "handmade" (as opposed to those using the mission generator) user-built missions. ED could run competitions, give prominence to worthwhile SP and MP missions here and on its web site and run or solicit tutorials in graduate-level ME stuff, like extensive randomization, scripting and importing voice files. Ultimately this will produce user-made campaigns which, with no disrespect to the dev team that had a great deal else to cope with, will eclipse the stock campaigns very quickly and provide longevity for the sim. I also think that an official or semi-official effort to align the possibilities of the ME with coordinated promotion of real-life Hog tactics and deployment would be useful. It would be great if ED got r/l Hog pilots and tacticians to comment on this and educate sim pilots/mission designers. One thing I cannot abide in this, or any other high-fidelity sim, is flying missions, even well-made ones, with unrealistic tactical environments for contemporary USAF operations, such as a wall of SAMs without SEAD cover, or the lack of air superiority in any scenario except a balls-out cold war conflict with Russia. A true "study" sim requires parrallel study of real-life tactics and deployment and ED could promote this, partly in its own interests.

Yeah, the training missions are very good indeed but, obviously, scripted. Dynamic, interactive in-flight instruction is impractical and even if not, would be an unwarranted drain on developer resources. The voice-over training series provides a very sound basis for learning the Hog; after that, it's about close scrutiny of the manual, use of numerous and valuable resources available online and voice-commed MP with a more experienced user. People also underestimate how easy it is to make small missions in the ME which can be really useful to practice just about every weapon and system in the sim.

...even if you don't agree with it. "Wot I Think" by Tim Stone I don't agree with it, not because I don't have compassion for his technical difficulties -- I do, and I'm grateful I don't suffer from them myself -- but because I did not buy this sim in order to experience a middle ground between arcade simming and study simming. Maybe he has a point about this being a commercial "sweet spot" but I bought DCS A-10 because I wanted to experience "the whole hog" (forgive me...) which I think it delivers. It took me three months of the Betas to get up to speed and now I simply cannot imagine simming without 15-minute ramp starts.

Hey gents, I'm almost finished with a detailed night mission in which both the terrain (the Caucasus mountains) and the presence of SAM threats will keep the player above an 18,000' floor. All briefed targets can be hit with LGBs, Mavericks and CBU-105s from altitude. I was wondering if it might be worth putting in either rain/clouds, or dynamic weather to spice things up even more (the mission is quite task-intensive for the pilot). However, I have to make sure I do not make any of the mission assignments unattainable due to weather/low visibility. I was wondering if any of you can comment on the following assumptions, which may not be correct, in which case I shall refrain from adding weather: - Whereas the TGP in FLIR can see through clouds, the laser for LGBs cannot. Therefore if I want the player to hit a target through cloud cover with an LGB, I will need to have the AI JTAC (who currently provides LSS guidance but not terminal laser guidance) to lase the target for the bomb. - If the above is true, as long as the bomb code and the JTAC laser code (which is unchangeable AFAIK) are the same, won't the bomb guide on the JTAC's lase anyway, as long as LSS remains on until impact? Or would this not work because the LSS Search/Detect guidance for target location from the JTAC would not be recieved in the A-10 through the clouds? - I see no reason why CBU-105 target i/d, designation and deployment through the TGP should be hampered by low visibility. - Ditto I/R Mavericks. - How much will weather effects, at any level, hamper players running the sim on medium or low-end PCs? I do not want to create a solid layer of cloud between the player and the terrain, that would make the mission far too abstract and procedural. However, I'm thinking of either "Dynamic Weather" or rain plus clouds at a density of, say, 5 -8. Rather than spend many more hours I cannot afford to playtest different weather combos/consequences, can anyone save me a little time by commenting? Thanks!

So I plotted a convoy that had to go north, reach an objective, hold until a trigger fired, and then turn round, drive back south along the same route, passing its starting point, and go further south to its final waypoint. On five successive playtests, the convoy (Blue HMMVWs) did a U-turn at its start point and went south. NOT user error, I checked every WP, every WP order and every trigger. Only when I eliminated all WPs after the convoy holds at the outbound point in its two-way journey, did the vehicles head in the right direction from the start. Maybe when I replot its inbound route -- whch is not mission-essential, just good for realism's sake -- it will behave, otherwise I'll leave it as is, nobody will notice. I wonder what happened, it's the most eccentric AI behavior I have yet observed in the ME.

YoYo, play them in a LAN server you create for the mission in MP. If you read anything that Dragon has written, here, in the brief or on his own web site you will see that he makes it very clear: These missions are for MP.

Figured it out now, the image has to be square, so I crop it as a square in MS Paint. Jeffy, go to the "Make Briefing" menu in the ME and you'll see a little window to insert screenshots there, just above the text entry fields.

I can't save it as 500 x 500 or 512 x 512 without changing the aspect ratio and squishing the image. Stumped. Can anyone advise?