Tonker

Gosh, has anything happened recently which might shorten fuses round here...?! I agree, good call @Scoobyon and co - much better to have a decent flyable Lanc in the skies where she belongs than in perpetual 'two weeks, be sure' due to tertiary systems. I'm sure an awful lot of people will spend far more time in the start up proceedures (no pressure on your sound guy!) and in the circuit than they ever will over the target at 03.30, angels 25, on an overcast flak-lit night wishing they had access to more experimental blind bombing equipment to take up their mental capacity...! Gotta give us monkies time to learn to fly the old girl first

I had noticed Thanks to you and @Rudel_chw for the continued effot to keep the mod up to date and useful to the community

Ricockulously excited by each update, thanks for sharing. I finally caught up with Masters of the Air (what a 'kin waste of all that time, money and effort), and afterwards stumbled across this, rather more intetesting, series. Now looking forward very much to the Lanc, and the chance to understand a little bit better what those stupidly brave young men went through. All power to your elbows, godspeed!

"Two weeks, be sure"TM

I was looking at their stuff the other day, getting excited for the Mossie throttle too, and also thought this...but had a closer look at what the kits provide, the amount of support available, the Youtube vids etc etc etc and now think I was wrong. For sure it's a bit of effort, and needs to be viewed as a sort of mini-game within the hobby, but that's no bad thing at all. It would also be immensely satisfying. Is it plug and play? No. Is that an issue? Honestly I no longer think so - I think anyone could put the kits together!

Understood, thanks

@Rudel_chw of course! You're a star. @Fresh Ah cool, user error is a great solution! Thanks, and for the icons also Those little quality-of-life upgrades make a big difference to those crucial first minutes with a new community (or any!) module. Woop woop, *salute* EDIT: Ah, sorry, having reread the above post and opened up DCS I see wires have got crossed. I could always see the two familiarization flights in Instant Action. What I can't see are the training missions referred to in the .lua but not present in the download.

@Fresh, the T45 folder structure: ...\VNAO_T45\Missions\EN\QuickStart That folder contains some .miz mission files and quickstart.lua, which I assume chats to DCS and tells it what mission files to use: -- {name = _('Cold Start'),file = 'VNAO_T45_COLDSTART.miz',}, -- {name = _('Free Flight'),file = 'VNAO_T45_FREEFLIGHT.miz',}, -- {name = _('Takeoff'),file = 'VNAO_T45_TAKEOFF.miz',}, -- {name = _('Carrier Takeoff'),file = 'VNAO_T45_CARRIER_launch.miz',}, -- {name = _('Case 1 Carrier Landing'),file = 'VNAO_T45_Case_I_Carrier_Landing.miz',}, -- {name = _('ILS Landing'),file = 'VNAO_T45_ILS_LANDING.miz',}, {name = _('T45 Familiarization Day'),file = 'T45_Familiarization_Day.miz',}, {name = _('T45 Familiarization Night'),file = 'T45_Familiarization_Night.miz',} However, only the familiarization flight .miz files are present. No biggy, just would be useful to know where the discrepancy has crept in.

Just downloaded - easy, quick and simple. Fired up DCS to give it a quick spin - looks ace, handles a dream, well done VNAO. Ten points for continued support too, it makes a big difference However...\DCS\Mods\aircraft\VNAO_T45\Missions\EN does not contain the training mission files which the .lua refers to. Did my download skip a beat, or are training missions no longer included? /paging @Rudel_chw...

Just a quick note to congratulate Polychop - because they decided to double down on support and updates for the Gazelle, they've made one more sale. It's my first paid DCS module. Although I've flown a fair bit in the sim over the years, I've only recently had time to dedicate myself to learning a platform properly. Between the included modules and the increasingly excellent community modules (if you haven't got the OV-10 Bronca, H-60 family or the outstanding A4 then you're missing out, they're brilliant!) I had plenty to keep me busy. However, the commitment shown by Polychop to support the Gazelle and the huge improvements they have made to it seemed worth celebrating. So, cheers PC, well done and keep it up! Tonker

Discord is your best bet. I'm unable to get into Discord at the mo, but have a couple of queries too so please do let us know if you manage to make contact. FWIW my file path is .../DCS/mods/aircraft/DCS-SK60-Mod-1.2/Sounds. Only the one folder, capitalised. Seems to have installed correctly, although I am having some minor issues with inputs (particularly cockpit lighting rotaries) and the head-tracking menu not picking up the output from OpenTrack. Regardless, an excellent aircraft (it's really beautiful to look at and great fun to fly), and @Rudel_chw's full set of training missions* are highly recommended. *https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3329082/

Just ran through the missions - useful as ever, all working well and a great way into the SK60. Thanks again!

Hi @Rudel_chw, thanks for these, you're a huge asset to the 'community module'...well, community! I was holding off on the SK60 until the FM update which dropped a couple of days ago, and it's downloading right now I note it includes your Taxi/Takeoff and Landing/shutdown tutorials already. Does it miss out the weapons tutorials because they rely on the Range Objects Mod? Looking forward to getting stuck in

Well named with that empty cockpit - spooky! 'kin stunning pics, the hype train accelerate

Then keep up the good work!

Never mind rivets on the outside - what about the stud and nuts on the inside?! Seasonal dynamic bugsplatters or I'm not buying...

I'm sure you lovely lot are ahead of me, but I've finally got round to this episode: and was immediately put in mind of @Reflected's genius bit of mission design to give us: Trying not to get too excited too soon, but the options for the Lanc are genuinely game-changing. Nothing we have in sim will be able offer a remotely comparable experience if the community gets behind the project with missions, supporting scripts etc. Woop woop! Merry Christmas @Scoobyon, and to all us wannabe Bomber Boys Tonker

Thanks for that @MAXsenna - looks good. I don't use one with DCS currently (barely worth it for a few 'community module' aircraft), and I've lots to keep me busy just with the stock game for now! But a decent manager is a fine thing, and it reads like it is a useful tool. So IIUC a campaign maker could create a repository of required mods, and the user could get all they need for a given campaign from there? Seems like a good solution if so.

Congrats on the upgrade! Yup, all understandable and thanks for the response Don't think there's a right and wrong with it all, just wanted to provide at least one data point. I know how frustrating it can be to see downloads but no comments, so I thought I'd comment on why I've not downloaded! Watching how modding changed the scene around Il2 1946 over the years was fascinating, with many useful lessons to bring forward as DCS starts a similar journey. One of these was to release mini-bundles of required mods alongside campaigns. It's a nightmare trying to keep on top of compatibility, but that does at least give people a fighting chance of using the right version of the right mods to run a campaign! No idea what the practicalities of this are like nowadays, but it used to be a way of getting everyone the required assets etc for an immersive experience in an easily installed (and uninstalled!) package. Anyway, thanks once again, I'll be keeping an eye out for you in the User Files section from now on! PS.Work involves much travel this end too, but I'm the opposite - I only get time for DCS on leave, a few weeks a year!

Hey @42jeff, just wanted to quickly say a couple things: By far the most important: thank you! The time and effort you put into making a much needed campaign for the A4 is much, much appreciated The campaign sounds awesome, and I love that this first section seems to be based on proper flying - proper nav, proper comms, proper training. It makes the effort others put into DCS and the brilliant A4, and pilots' effort in learning it properly worth it And it's fun using all the systems with intent! Just FYI, the reasons I've not yet downloaded, flown and provided feedback on the campaign are mostly personal: Primarily, use of the Syria map. I fly mods on DCS because of financial constraints; it's hard to justify shelling out a lot of cash for something I don't need to have fun. Never say never though, it is Christmas after all... Secondarily, enough time! This is compounded by the requirement for finding, installing and checking extra mods. It all takes up time I could be spending flying! However, some things would have helped: more screenies at the download page to help me understand what the campaign's like to fly, functional links on the download page (particularly to this thread), a quick explanation of why the extra mods are essential to the campaign/add essential elements to the experience, evidence of support and general housekeeping. It's a pain, I know, but makes a great impression to see that a campaign has been recently updated, that all links work as intended etc. Coming here and seeing you actively engaged with supporting the campaign and working on Part 2 is a huge incentive to sort out my end and get involved! Re mods. I don't like them, hassle and fuss to manage/update/resolve conflicts/interfere with online play etc etc...but I get that some can add a huge amount to the experience. If they're truly essential, then okay The simpler you can make their use, the better - packaging with the mission files, liveries etc into a single download would suit me and makes uninstallation a breeze later on. Won't suit all, who prefer more control, but from a more 'casual' perspective, where I want to focus on flying, not file management, it'd be appreciated. Mostly, thank you once again. I hope this little note has been of some use, and I really hope, one way or another, to be able to fire up an Skyhawk in one of your missions before too long - they sound really promising! All the best, Tonker

...and then another 32 excellent in-depth systems, procedures and general interest videos. Enjoy

All fair points @rkk01, and agreed re North and South bounds. I think all Easting - at least as far as Szczecin-Berlin-Dresden - would add to gameplay for a high fidelity Lancaster module. The sense of relief at being briefed for a short run to Bremen for example...! @Reflected, the legend, is all over it: Save game option would still be great, but long range no longer holds things back like it used to.

Would the IL2 (1946, modded) approach of having a dedicated terrain optimised for long-range high-altitude/night ops be viable in DCS? This was a game changer back in the day, allowing for 'proper' Bomber Command/8th AF missions without breaking either the game or our computers. Such an approach would rely on a handful of high-detail airfields and their surroundings, and perhaps a few of famous low-level targets (I'm sure we'd all generate about the same list), but otherwise low-resource. Most of the map would be viewed in the dark and/or from angels 20+ so use those computer resources for super-size rather than super-detailing! I can see this appealing to the 'modern' DCS aircraft too - from BVR chess to decent intercept profiles for the Mig-21 and upcoming EE Lightning etc. Just a thought /offtopic

I hate to admit it in such august company, but I'm only on freeware modules* and so a) I can't really comment, but whichever gives more/better UK airfield options for 'safe' navigation training/cross-country flights b) a Tiger Force Lanc in the Marianas would be my preference...! *Spending cash on hardware for now (to help with RL gliding, using the Condor gliding sim**); between the A-4E, SK-60, OV-10A and UH-60L there's plenty to learn! **Although how long before this is a part of DCS...? (Yes yes, I know it's a Halibag...but still...!) EDIT: Just a quick costings of my 'most wanted' to check if the current c.50% sale means I could afford to jump in Map - The Channel - £20.78 Assets - WW2 - £12.49 Aircraft - Mosquito FB. IV - £24.59 Campaign - V for Victory - £7.33 Total - £65.19 I'm sure it's good value...but it's still hard to justify when so much entertainment is available for £00.00 courtesy of the community

@Scoobyon: Wibble @Rudel_chw Phew, that's a relief 'cos your training missions (please!) are going to be essential in getting to grips with this grand old lady