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You might be able to copy and then rename one of the existing Russian liveries and change the faction in the .lua file with Notepad++.

Soviet/Russian aircraft weapons and sensors - "There's a pod for that™." It's cool and fun and all that but I am trying to picture the actual real-world military situation where this weapon would actually be more useful than rockets or gunpods. I mean, it's certainly effective against infantry and unarmored vehicles, but you have to be very low and close, even by helicopter standards.

I can confirm that this works. It's probably of limited utility, but it must be admitted that it kind of rules. Based on my informal "testing", the only trick to enabling it is the covered switch Slazi refers to, to the right of the 4-position GUV 800/624/622, etc. switch - the other ones don't appear to matter. As far as I can tell, the elevation can't be adjusted, but that might be useful. On the other hand, the muzzle velocity is so low and the range so short they might already be set to the optimum angle.

I was mainly wondering if it was user-editable. I looked through a lot of .luas with Notepad++ and I didn't see anything that seemed to refer to it, although it's entirely possible I missed it. Again, not a big deal at all (definitely animate the fans first!) but if it happened to be user-editable it would be convenient for mission-building.

Hi, I'm wondering if there's a lua one can edit to change the settings of various switches and systems on the Mi-8 when one begins a mission using "takeoff from runway" as the first waypoint, or is that buried deeply in the code somewhere? When doing this, the aircraft spawns with various external lights and the master arm "on", but all the circuit breakers for the weapons systems and the pitch/roll autopilot channel "off". Obviously not a big deal, as I know how to engage/disengage everything and usually start from the ramp anyway, but sometimes for various reasons it's nice to just be ready to take off without any further preparation. Thanks for any information.

Just installed and activated it tonight. I've been enjoying the Huey (although it's extraordinarily difficult for me to fly compared to other DCS aircraft for various reasons), but I needed to go back to my first love, something with a baffling wall of Cyrillic-labeled switches and knobs. It's pretty stellar, even in beta form. And having some experience with the Ka-50 and now UH-1H, it seems comparatively easy to fly, and is good and sturdy. Although I'm familiar with and fond of the Hip, I wasn't initially interested in flying what I had thought of as a good but somewhat dull aircraft in detailed sim form, but I couldn't be happier with my purchase. It's definitely not dull.

I had the same issue. Fortunately, the procedure is simple enough compared to other DCS titles that I figured it out from written guides, etc. I can't find the engine start button, either. I'm able to do everything else by clicking in the virtual cockpit but I have to use "Home" for that. Is there actually a clickable button?

As of Thursday, November 3, the Best Buy in Roseville, MN, had three copies. When I left the store, they had two.

Okay, good to know. I may leave it on there for a while in case I need to reinstall for some reason, and it doesn't take up too much space. Thanks again for the help and information, everyone!

Whew, thanks folks. Installing the 1.01c patch was my mistake, I think. Just for fun I ran CCleaner, and then installed the base Black Shark, LOMAC, and Flaming Cliffs 2 programs from the DVDs and then ran patch 1.02. I didn't need to use any activations, everything installed fine (although that patch does take forever to initialize), and it runs great off the SSD. One question, though: Is it okay to uninstall LOMAC now? Thanks again, the help is much appreciated.

So, I just installed an Intel 120GB SSD. I uninstalled Black Shark and Flaming Cliffs 2 and installed them on the SSD, and everything was horribly botched. I must have done something wrong in the install order, or who knows what. Here's the specifics: My SSD is drive "G". Windows 7 Home Premium remains on the HDD, as I don't want to start from scratch with whole computer unless I have to. I have the following: The retail DVDs of Black Shark, Lock On, Flaming Cliffs, and Flaming Cliffs 2.0, as well as patches 1.01a, 1.01c, and 1.02. In what order should I install them, and what sort of directory on the SSD should they be installed to? The SSD is formatted as a simple volume with drive letter "G". FSX runs fine from it. As far as I can tell, I have removed all traces of previous installations, but I haven't messed with the registry. Any advice, and thanks in advance.

Frame rate, smoothness, and eye candy are far more important to me than raw resolution, as long as it's greater than 1024x768 or 1280x1024. That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy the really high resolutions, or that I wouldn't spring for the gear to achieve them if I had the money, but I think 1050p is going to overwhelm me compared to what I'm used to for some time.

This is one of the reasons I picked the GTX 570, since I plan to do everything at 1680x1050, at least for a while, and even then I doubt I'll buy a monitor with a resolution higher than 1080p.

I went for the 570 GTX, and the computer will have a Core i7 870, 8GB of DDR3 RAM at 1333MHZ, and Windows 7 64-bit. It seems that the 570 GTX is going to benefit me more dramatically in FPS games than in flight sims (performance in shooters being the other motive for the whole upgrade), but it certainly won't hurt. And it looks like the processor should be a significant step up from the trusty old Athlon. I don't overclock, and I don't have any real plans to, but it appears that the i7 870 and GTX 570 are pretty overclockable if I learn how to do it safely and upgrade my power supply and cooling solution as needed. Thanks again!

Okay, thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated!

I'm looking at getting a new computer shortly. It will have among other things, 64-bit Windows 7, an Intel Core i5 760 CPU and 8GB of 1333MHZ DDR3 RAM. The question is the video card - I've narrowed it down to (I think) the Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 and 570, and the ATI Radeon HD 6850 and 6870. I think any of those GPUs will be fine for high-quality FPS games, but I wonder if the extra expense of any of them above the GTX 460 (particularly the GTX 570) would pay off in FC2 and the two DCS titles. It's my understanding that these sims are more CPU-intensive than GPU-intensive, but I don't mind paying the extra if I'll see a concrete benefit. Super-high resolution and multi-monitor are probably not going to be my thing - I'm shooting for high framerates at high quality settings at 1680x1050. For what it's worth, my current rig has an Athlon X2, GeForce 9500 GT, and 4 GB of RAM, all under Vista, so I am hoping for something of an improvement. :) Thanks for any insight!

Never mind, I figured it out, not a bug. It was the settings on the weapons control panel switches (KMGU-2/MER delivery mode) that was disabling the cannon. Switched back after dropping the ordnance and the cannon was working in A2A mode once again.

I think I may have discovered a strange bug. I am using the English FC2 DVD, fresh install, no mods, CH Fighterstick USB and Pro Pedals USB, with TrackIr 4, most difficulty settings for "simulation" rather than "game". I discovered this in a self-created mission made for practicing KMGU-2 delivery (with a self-created payload), in which I threw in a couple enemy transport helicopters for a little air-to-air fun. In A2A mode before any ordnance is dropped, the cannon fires fine. After ordnance is dropped, the cannon no longer functions in A2A mode, although the funnel still appears, and the cannon still works in A2G mode. This does not happen with non-custom payloads. I tried a variety of things - loading the mission from the mission area, rather than from the editor, naming the payload according to the naming convention of the standard payloads, copying an existing payload and changing its contents, etc. Obviously it's not a show-stopper, but it's bizarre and kind of annoying. Any ideas?

I'm a reasonably experienced flight simmer, but I'd been out of it for a long time before recently purchasing a better computer. Needless to say, I had to have DCS: Black Shark, as I'd long daydreamed about a serious Ka-50 sim, it being my favorite helicopter of all, the last word in bizarre and gnarly Soviet outside-the-box military aerospace engineering, and was quite pleased to find out one existed. At first I was pretty discouraged, too. On the one hand, I wasn't going to play it in "game" mode, as that would defeat the purpose of having this particular piece of software, but on the other, learning it step-by-step over the course of months or years, including engine startup, radio frequencies, and so forth was not terribly appealing either. I settled on a middle ground. I set the avionics and flight model to full real, but allowed myself radio assist, tooltips, and labels, which I'm coming to depend upon much less. I then set about learning to fly the helicopter passably, operate the Shkval and HMS, and operate the weapons systems, all in small-scale self-created missions. I printed out the key commands, and also a condensed list of the really crucial ones for basic combat and flight, watched various tutorials on Youtube, and got to the point where I could take off, fly to the target area, acquire targets, and destroy them. Now I am working with the datalink a bit, and have successfully commanded attacks by wingmen using datalink information. I'm not ready for serious multiplayer, and I probably never will be, but the "baby steps" approach has been extremely rewarding, and I certainly feel like I'm getting the maximum amount of challenge and realism without it becoming a job, rather than entertainment and mind candy about a subject dear to me. Which, since it's doubtful that I'll ever fly any kind of aircraft in real life, and certainly not a Ka-50, is pretty much exactly what I wanted. And as long as my interest is captured and I continue making progress, I may get around to the engines, radios, and so forth eventually. This game is at such an at least initially overwhelming level of detail and realism that even an amateurish and shaky attack on stationary T-72s that is successfully executed can be more richly satisfying than spectacular achievements in many other games and sims, and this has kept me going with it. So, focus on what particularly interests you about the game, learn how to do it incrementally while having a good time, and ignore, at least for the moment, what doesn't. DCS: Black Shark is very scalable in that regard. Anyhow, hope this helps, and best wishes.