Bahger

Thanks but could you possibly give me a bit more of an idiot's guide to how I translate those coordinate numbers in the ME into whatever format JTAC would use? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with UTM or LL.

I want to give the player coordinates of a unit's position but in the form he can enter in his CDU, which appears not to be the format used in the ME when the cursor position corresponds with coordinates at the bottom of the screen. I'd like to give the player the same format as JTAC would use. Can anyone advise re. conversion? Many thanks.

Does anyone know what the probs are with CBUs that Matt references? I'm asking because I've been working on CBU delivery in B4 and am thinking of incorporating them into a mission I'm working on in the ME.

This could help me with my mission concept, Tharos, thank you. I want to recreate the essentially harrassing but not pinpoint-accurate MANPAD fire directed at allied aircraft from canyon walls in Afghanistan, but in the Caucasus. Therefore I'll place the Iglas without the comms units, thanks again.

Useful to know, Frederf, thanks, I'll place both units now.

This is very helpful, thank you. Also, I've noticed that Beta 4 incorporates range/detection circles in the ME for various indirect fire units, which is very welcome.

I'm looking to place a few man-portable heat-seeking AA missile units. It appears to me that the available Insurgent MANPAD units (Igla, Stinger) are radar-guided, with pretty impressive ranges. I have two questions: If I want to harrass low-flying A-10s without tipping the balance in favor of Red defenders, should I go to RPGs because the above-mentioned units are pretty potent and would usually be counteracted with radar-homing SEAD platforms? And what are the Igla and Stinger "Comm" units in the ME, which are listed separately from the main units? EDIT: OK, I see on Wikipedia that both systems are indeed infrared homing rather than radar-guided. I'd still appreciate knowing what the "Comms" unit adds to their deployment in the A-10 ME.

Guys, to reduce trial-and-error I'm wondering if any of you have answers -- or informed speculation -- re the following: - Should an AFAC Hog be given an "Orbit" command, or will he orbit automatically when designated "AFAC"? Can I just place him and give him the necessary FAC command sequence without waypoints? - Is there a mimimum/maximum altitude AGL for the AFAC to be effective? - Do I need to place a UAV? - What is the AFAC's maximum detection range? Will he call out anything within his TGP's LOS? - If I want the player to attack a moving convoy with CBU-97s, will the AFAC mark with Willie Pete (daytime)? - How does the "Shift" command work? Can the AFAC be set to shift to another target group, or does this apply only to single vehicles within a group? As always, thanks.

Thanks ndp. Yes, there's a ruler, but no indication of range for arty units.

I'm surprised there is no ranging tool in the ME map. I'm looking to place a Red artillery unit that can lob shells out to 56,000m. This may be preposterous, as I do not know much about artillery capabilities but the lack of available info on-map in the ME and in the Encyclopedia hardly helps, unfortunately. Can anyone give me an assist? It also appears that the "Attack point" task will not alert the mission designer to an out-of-range condition. All of the above might be worthy of the devs' attention but for the time being I'd appreciate an assist with plotting arty ranges so that I do not have to trial-and-error my way through it, many thanks.

Hayha, sorry about your problems with the JTAC comms. See WarriorX's post above. I would only add that if you are using the "Simplified Radios" option, radio communication can be a process of trial and error. "Realistic Radios" is preferable for all sorts of reasons, just make sure, as Wx says, that you tune 72.00 into the VHF FM (bottom) radio and that you use the correct mic switch. It's possible that the appearance of the FAC is not perfectly synchronised with the text message so if you get no response the first time, wait for about 30 sec and try again. I've played the mission 50 times with "Realistic Radios" and always get through to the FAC in the end.

Yup, it's clearly going to be the state-of-the-art in high-fidelity PC combat flight sims for the foreseeable future. Thanks guys, and thanks for letting us participate in the Beta.

Thank you for archiving the archive. I understand what you're saying about .miz files but the problem for some of us is that once Windows defines an incoming file as a .rar, it has the wrong extension and when you try to run it in A-10 the sim crashes, which is a pain. I know I could set Windows (or WinRAR) not to classify .miz files as .rar files but it baffles me why most downloaded .miz files are not misinterpreted in this way but some, like this one, are. I've tried saving them straight to the A-10 missions folder -- one time I think I even changed the extension to .miz -- but once they are classified by WinRAR as proprietary .rar files, they crash the sim. Thanks again for supplying the "raw" .miz.

Strange, huh?

That's very odd, I get a .rar file as described above. Would you mind uploading the .miz?

You call the FAC after you receive a notification (via screen text message) that he's online. First you get a message from the SpecOps team telling you they are on the ground and that the FAC will be available in about 3 miniutes, then you get another from the FAC informing you that he's ready to brief you re. the bunker target. The FAC is on 72 MHz FM; the frequency only activates after the FAC spawns.

There are four files in the .rar folder, 2 jpgs and 2 files called "Options" and "Mission". For whatever reason, there is no file extension on these 2 files (like .miz). Can someone confirm what these files are and if they both go in the "missions" folder in DCS A-10? It's worth checking because the sim will crash if it doesn't recognize files. Thanks, I'm looking forward to having a good AF training .miz.

Q: How many programmers does it take to reset a hung JDAM? A: 10. 3 to code hung stores procedure, 7 to put user posts about it somewhere else. Heh heh, kidding, guys, kidding...

You know I can't figure out if you all feel the aerial refeuling is FUBAR atm or if some of you are making it work. If the latter, I wonder how...

This looks great, thanks for the assist, dane48.

Ha, always good to see you here, Sobek. I like the ME. I'm finding it to be a powerful tool, capable of creating soundly tactical scenarios. It has its eccentricities though, that's for certain. I'm going to shelve A2A refeuling for the moment, I guess, unless someone has created a .miz that works.

Good lord, if it's as messed up as that I had better wait for the final release to learn aerial refeuling, what do you think? Pity, as I had hoped to incorporate it into a mission I'm making.

Adding an AWACS just messed up the "Rejoin" command from the tanker. I'm sure it's my fault. It's always difficult trying to learn a procedure at the same time as learning to create a mission for it in a mission editor. If anyone can point me at a reliable refeuling training .miz I'd be grateful because then if it doesn't work I'll know it's a procedural problem on my part and not a problem with how I've set it up in the Mission Editor. I'm getting nowhere trying to learn this.

Is there a way for the player to determine, while out of visual range, if the tanker on the inbound or outbound leg of a racetrack pattern?

The mission I've been using appears to have the tanker properly programmed at a WP to orbit but it orbits in a circle rather than in straight legs, making it impossible for me to catch up to him wings-level. I'm trying to learn aerial refeuling but first I need a mission file with the correct relative starting positions for the player's A-10 and the tanker, a properly set tanker and a short briefing with TACAN and radio info. So far I'm getting nowhere. I get the first call in and am told to join the tanker at 15,000ft but, as I say, he's in a constant-rate turn, which appears to screw up both the ability to join and tracking him via TACAN. I have not yet succeeded in making a successful pre-contact call. I'm at the foot of a steep learning curve here so I'd certainly appreciate an assist in the form of a workable .miz, step by step instructions or even a link to a tutorial video. I have RTFM but (see above) I do not have a stable learning platform yet.