Exorcet

I know preferences vary from person to person, but the ME gives you unlimited content in DCS. I haven't actually played any of the official content for any module because of the ME and I never consider what content is available for a given module because of that. The ME will take some time to learn, but making small missions is pretty simple. DCS also gives you tool to randomize missions so that even if you make them, you don't necessarily know what will happen when you fly them. In the longer term ED is working on a Dynamic Campaign to produce content automatically. There is a very very simple version of this already available in the Fast Mission Generator.

Just wanted to bump this again as it has been a long standing issue and I've never been able to get clarification on if it's intended or if it's a bug. Either way reverting to the old system where the plane jumped from followed its route would be useful in a lot of situations, especially when wingmen don't quite do their jobs.

If you're bombing vehicles, CAS is the task to use. Then you can tell the AI to find and attach vehicles on its own with Search Then Engage (in Zone). It won't use JDAM's for this though since they can't track moving targets. Disperse under fire off should stop the vehicles from moving.

Start is a triggered action for the group, under Commands. You won't find it under the trigger menu, unless it was added on a unit, then it shows as an option for AI Task Push. DCS works as it does because uncontrolled was added some time after late activation (which is the same as changing the start time). It is also useful to have the start command tied to triggers and not WP0 time because then you can make AI start in reaction to events, like an enemy attack of unknown time.

The issue might be more complicated then. If someone from ED sees this they may ask for a log from your last session with stuttering. You can find the logs in the Saved Games folder, C:\...\Saved Games\DCS\Logs I don't know if this will help, but having it here might save a tiny bit of time.

It's more than maps. I don't have stutters anywhere. What is your PC? Do you use mods? How large are your missions? If you're using a HDD instead of a SSD, that might be hurting you.

Modules are fine. You don't have to own the same ones. You do need to own the same module to fly multicrew in 2+ seats. Both players need asset packs to see the associated units from those.

I think civil traffic in this case means the road traffic.

Typically I set refueling on AI ingress, I've used pushes a couple of times I believe and this seems to work as expected. Is the next waypoint after your CAP a landing? If so maybe the push is making the AI consider the orbit and CAP task ended. What happens if you set up a waypoint with a refueling command and instead of directly ordering refuel tell the AI to switch to that waypoint? Set the waypoint up so it's skipped initially, so WP1 (include switch to WP 3) > WP2 (refueling) WP3 > WP4 (CAP and orbit). This would mean that there is definitely a CAP and orbit task after the refueling.

Ship formations are an issue and I agree with the suggestion to have better control over their movements. Some automation would also be nice, like trying to avoid attackers when applicable. Due to the issues with ships I'm generally very careful when making them maneuver. I usually try as much as possible to limit them to straight lines and have them change speed rather than direction. Groups of one ship won't have the issue obviously so there is at least that solution, but it's less ideal from a mission building perspective.

Even if it is feature complete, ED can still listen to ideas. DCS is not set in stone.

If the smoke doesn't end up resting on top of the building, the only thing I can think of is to try placing a unit on the building and then hoping it explodes from the attack, forcing it to explode with the Explode Unit trigger, or use smoke marker on unit to place smoke on it. This might interact strangely when removing the building though.

Some unique buildings do not have damage models and you're probably attacking those. You might be able to remove them with Scenery Removal trigger. You can add the smoke and fire by activating Smoke/Fire static objects. Something similar was asked in this thread: Instead of using a mission start trigger, you can use Once and Bomb in Zone to trigger the indestructible buildings to be removed with a clear scenery trigger instead of a destroy building triggers. Or perhaps add a destructible unit near the building and trigger the building to vanish and produce smoke if that unit is destroyed.

You do need to setup the second install if you want it to match the first, but DCS saves a lot of information in the Saved Games folder and from there you can copy from one DCS folder to another. This won't always work 100% because updates sometimes change controls and things, but it should work most of the time. The Config folder contains module controls and sim options. Also backup your DCS folders in Saved Games before messing around with them just to be safe.

I very rarely update right away and actually have two installs of DCS. One for normal use and one to try the latest update. It's also possible change versions, including going backwards, with the DCS updater. So it's possible for you to stick to a specific version while also playing with others on the latest version through multiple means.

I don't use MIST, but you could do this with no scripting at all, or at least something similar. Spawn a bomber group with multiple waypoints and multiple switch waypoint triggered actions. Have it orbit at spawn and then trigger it to go to a specific waypoint when required. I don't know exactly what you're trying to do so this may not be a good solution, but it is a way to make a plane take a random route to an objective.

I was able to reproduce on the Caucasus Two versions of the mission. I tried to see if moving the disembark point away from the waypoint would help. With the disembark at the default location (on top of transport waypoint) the troops ran. Moving the disembark off to the side of the waypoint helped, at first. But trying a second time, the troops starting running again. I think part of the issue is the troops being too close to the transport on disembark. They sometimes slide away from the vehicle as if they are being pushed by its hitbox. Or maybe they are colliding with each other. test_embark_forever_run_black_sea_offset.miz test_embark_forever_run_BlackSea_offset.trk test_embark_forever_run_black_sea.miz test_embark_forever_run_BlackSea.trk

This is very much needed. I try to steer comments away from the user files section and on to the forum where I would actually see it, but most people comment in the User Files anyway. It can take me years to respond to something posted there as I have no way of knowing without checking everything I've uploaded.

The bug might be ever weirder. I made a mission to try to replicate no embark, I could not reproduce it. But it did reproduce forever run: I did not save that track, but I took the above screenshot. I also backed out and saved the mission first because of the previous issues with saves. Then I played the mission intending to save the track and everything worked as expected. Saving the mission might change how/if the bug appears? More testing, moving the mission editor camera so as to get the save because of changes prompt and then running the mission causes the bug to appear. The bug might appear when the save prompt does in the ME. test_embark_2.miz test_embark_2_success_after_saving.trk

I will try to recreate it, though just for my information is the intended way for disembark to work is that having a disembark task makes the transporting unit stop and unload, automatically, and then once all transported units are unloaded, it will resume the route? There is no stop condition or switched waypoint needed? I ask mostly because I've found ReFuAr waypoint for planes need a switch waypoint which seems unintuitive, unless that's also a bug.

Use switched condition triggers instead of Once. See this discussion for more information:

Yes, you can do exactly that. There is no one answer. Real aircraft are designed to complete missions with a specific task and take what they need to maximize success. While you can load a plane up with a ton of weapons that leads to being heavy and slow which can lead to being vulnerable and short legged. If you do want to take weapons to fight anything you'll probably want 2-4 air to air missiles, preferably AIM-120C and then fill the remaining stations with ground attack weapons like AGM-65F, Mk80 type bombs, or AGM-88 HARM missiles for protection against SAM's. There are a lot of weapons to choose from but some require other weapons, for example Paveway bombs require a TGP to be able to be lased, so I'd suggest you avoid them until you want to expand your weapon selection and mission complexity. Despite all I said there are some options to give you a more flexible experience: -DCS allows you to set unlimited fuel and weapons which will give you more flexibility in loadouts and lets you use low amounts of fuel so that you aren't penalized for carrying so much -DCS lets you jump into AI planes with R Alt + J. With this you can just fly more than one plane instead of trying to carry everything on one aircraft -You can command wingmen and nonwingmen (they are more complex to command than wingmen) to perform tasks for you, so you don't need to do everything yourself. For the type of mission you seem to want, you'll probably get a lot of mileage from the first two.

You can create any situation that you want with the Mission Editor, and this includes starting on the runway with the plane running or even starting in the air. If you don't want to create a full mission you can also load unprotected missions in the ME, find your plane, and set it up how you want. Be warned that changes can break missions so if possible try to check with the mission creator. The mission editor itself isn't hard to use when setting up missions. There is also a Fast Mission generator which might be perfect for you. Give it some inputs and DCS will populate the map with an autogenerated mission. The mission can be loaded in the ME to be customized further. To expand a little more, a lot of your questions are explained in the DCS User Manual that comes with the installation. It's a big manual but you don't need to read everything. You should also know about the user files where user created missions (and other things) are hosted for download. Some missions that fit your goals may exist: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/ DCS being a deep simulation will require some knowledge to setup properly. If you take a shot at setting up a mission in the ME or using the Fast generator, you could post it here and ask for more help in tweaking it. When it comes to setting difficult, not only will the AI skill matter but their equipment. To make it easier for a F-16 or F-18 you'll want to limit enemies to aircraft like MiG-23/MiG-21 or lower capability. Also avoid SA-10 and SA-11 SAM's and probably most IR guided weapons since they cannot be detected by the F-16/18.

In addition it might be nice to just have an emission option for some objects. That would allow you to place an emitting object and then copy it across the map instead of setting up many triggers and having to input many locations. The mentioned radio tower would be an example, although since it's a static object and not a ground unit it might not be straight forward.

My understanding is the orientation for the object rotates with the object. The x, y, z after the p are telling you where the x axis, y axis, and z axis of the object are pointing. This is 2D and not 3D, but the p would refer to the blue lines while the x would refer to the black x orientation line and y would refer to the black y orientation line (though I think that's actually z in DCS). The x and y are vec3 because you need the three components along the global x, y, z coordinate system to define them.