blahdy

Yea, it's also possible that the chopper was preemptively dropping flares one at a time (but it's hard to see from higher altitude and at 2nmi out as I'm coming in hot) and the Sidewinder might have locked onto the flare as it was coming out than the chopper itself.

Put your CMSP to fully-auto before attacking. AIM-9M seems to work very well for me even with enemy chopper dispensing flares, if you close into about 1 to 2 nmi before going fox two on him.

It takes a rocket science to launch an AGM-65 Maverick. Try doing that while in combat.. XD

Thanks for your input. Next time this happens, I'll save a replay track and see if it occurs again in the track. I'll update here again then.

You could also have everyone join Ventrilo or Team Speak and designate one person to act as air traffic controller over vent channel XD

Flying with TrackIR 5 gives you the sense of being in the cockpit. No longer are you locked into a fixed POV when your wing man radios "check six" or your CMSP/RWR starts screaming for missile launch.

I think if they include auto-startup cheat like they did in BlackShark, it should be disabled in multiplayer, only available in local client. Knowing how to startup your plane and being able to do it over and over is very fun part of the game (and you get to learn more about the very systems you are turning on and off on daily basis) and I think enabling cheat for multiplayer would just spoil the gameplay. Honestly, I love the current manual start-up of A-10C. First it took me a while, but after getting used to it, now I can start the plane up in like 3-5 minutes rapidly (bypass all tests, just go straight up start). I'm a rookie and I die or eject a lot and that means I have to start and restart lot of times in a mission... I've gotten so used to it now that it is starting to feel like starting up a car than an air plane at this point, lol. Really, it's simple: 1. Turn on battery ; set inverter 2. Turn on fuel pumps, turn on fuel flow switches 3. Turn up APU ; turn on oxygen supply ; close canopy ; turn on APU AC power 4. ENG1 Start and wait for engine rpm/temp to stabilize, if you are in a hurry, just wait for the engine-startup trouble light to go out on the panel 5. Uncage SAI, Switch on anti-skid; Set SAS L, R switches on 6. Turn on CDU, EGI, IFCC (switch it on twice to go directly to on mode, bypass test), CICU, JTRS 7. Press and hold take-off trim for a sec 8. ENG2 Start and wait for engine to stabilize 9. Load all DTS on MFD 10. VHF1, VHF2, UHF radios on/TR, set squelch on if hearing noises 11. Load flight plan on CDU/EGI console 12. Turn off APU AC power; turn off APU 13. Pinkie button on your joystick to enable nosewheel steering. 14. Turn on EAC (though I generally turn this on after I take off, because EAC seems to dampen my ability to keep myself centered on runway or I'm doing something else wrong during take off) 15. Turn on CMS (countermeasures) systems. If you're so lazy like me, just turn on the MAWS/CMSP to fully-auto and let it deal with missiles by itself. 16. Go to DSMS on MFD, go to Missile Control and turn on Maverick E0 to align. You can do this later when fencing in but I prefer to have this done earlier..

Will do.

Yup did that, IFCC was running and HUD just died in mid-air shortly after take-off. Turned off the IFCC and restarted it and that didn't help. This seems to happen randomly, one time I had HUD fail just as I was fencing in during campaign mission. I lost patience so I just ejected to get new aircraft via crash recovery, lol.

Hey guys, I just took off from my A-10 and as I took off, at about 200 ft off the ground, my HUD decides to go dead and now it's hard to target anything without it. No caution lights are lit on any of the panels. Resetting the IFCC does not help. Any tips on how to fix the HUD in mid-air or am I screwed until I land and get a new plane? XD

This interactive training will make more people buy the DCS series, like seriously. Lack of interactive training and harder learning curve I think was the only critique I had with the DCS Ka-50 and it's really awesome to see ED improve on this, thanks! :)

Stupid me, I just tried again and made sure I kill all targets on the airfield, and mission trigger passed. Sorry to bother! :)

awesome voice acting. Btw on mission 4, is there a particular target on the airfield you have to attack to get the trigger to move forward? Attacked a bunch of stuff sitting on Gadauta airfield and the surrounding Georgian migs, still nothing happens.

The AH-64D seems like a rip from DCS. It contains the same geometry aspect differences (or geometry 'errors') DCS model has, almost like bit by bit copy; although skin appears to be modified slightly on the Israeli camo.

I was browsing through Turbosquid.com, looking for AH-64 models on market and ran into these, created/submitted by author 'swelsh23', just recently on May 30th, 2010: http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/536884 http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/535264 Taking a close inspection of these preview pictures, they look awfully similar to the AH-64D model made for DCS/Lock On FC2. Starting with intense similarity on the textures/skin features and the notable geometry aspect difference on the electronic bays, these look very similar. The DCS/LockOn AH-64D Apache has a slightly taller electronic bay at the very beginning section along the frontal aspect than the real-life AH-64D helicopter, and this geometry difference is also visible on the Turbosquid.com model. I wonder if the Apache model for ED was made by a contractor and the same company that made it decided to sell it? Or may be it's just a coincidence and I'm being silly :S

You won't be disappointed. DCS Black Shark is worth every penny, realism alone is spectacular.

Roger that, looking forward to seeing a bundle pack in the near future :thumbup:

Will the boxed version of FC 2.0 coming out in April be stand-alone (in other words, I don't have to buy older version of LOMAC). I've never played Lock On before and I'd like to be able to just buy the new FC 2 stand-alone. Thanks!

I'll work on those soon ;)

You can try my Beacons.lua file here: http://216.93.240.36/~blahdy/dcs/Beacons.lua (NOTE: Be sure to back up your existing file before replacing) It has radio towers broadcasting within close proximity from all major airfields on the map on the same AM frequency. You'll get radio coverage pretty much in most places around the map with exception of terrain interference.

I've tried those commands but to no effect. It seems to me, devs prefer to create keystrokes only on real button/knobs that's visible inside the cockpit. I cannot for the life of me find a volume knob for R-800, I've read the pilot's manual and can't find any description about volume controlling switch or knob for R-800, though I can easily find for R-828. No problem; the file is uploaded at this URL: http://216.93.240.36/~blahdy/dcs/Beacons.lua The broadcasting towers are located all within 1-2km of major airfields that have airfield icon on the map. Each broadcasting tower on the Beacons.lua have 3-letter code I made up to depict each airbase, so you can get approximate idea on where the tower is (though long/lat's should tell you that in detail). For example 'SAM' means tower at field for airbase near from Samtredia, 'ADL' means airbase near Adler, etc. All of the towers are broadcasting on same frequency as Mayak, 125.675 AM. The only caveat is that when you fly into an area where you are receiving overlapping "cellular" coverage, you'll hear some echos on your music due to duplicate reception. Eventually the tower that has stronger signal to you will jam out the other and it will stop echo'ing as you fly by. I've never tried multiplayer yet so I don't know (I'm still a total noob. I just learned & figured out through practice how to fly without crashing myself :P).

Thanks. I've found a solution -- looks like you can change radio's volume in game settings :) I just finished editing my beacons.lua, I have 125.675 AM broadcasting Mayak music folder out of all major airbases on same frequency. You can keep hearing the music as you fly in and out of range of the individual towers, kind of like cellular phone coverage :P Really makes learning to fly enjoyable.

Hi everyone, Sorry if this was asked before; searched on the forum but couldn't find an answer. Is there anyway to control the sound volume up/down for the R-800 radio receiver? There appears to be one for R-828 and game's LCTRL-LSHIFT-[/] key combination appear to be mapped to the R-828's volume knob. I can't seem to find a volume control for the R-800 (flying around Maykop City listening to 125.675 but music is too loud for me lol). Thanks

I am a new simmer as well, I bought DCS Black Shark a while ago, but found the learning curve to be quite high. I love the absolute realism on this simulator/game, and I think that developers should keep up the work they are doing to simulate realism to the highest level, rather than sacrificing challenge and realism by catering to the lowest common denominator to newbies like myself. However, I think one element that DCS could use lot of improvement on in helping the learning curve for newbies is a more thorough training facility in the game. The current training setup in DCS is very crude and boring -- the instructor just talks and you are not given a chance to operate and try out the vehicle yourself (i.e. instructor doesnt tell you 'try this now'). And often times it takes forever for the instructor to say the next phrase, while you're just sitting stand still inside the cockpit wondering when the instructor is going to move forward. It's like sitting in a boring class with a professor that just says random things :P For me, I'm learning as I go. Fortunately, DCS has very good tools (such as permit crash receiver, and the ability to mix arcade+real control keys for both avionics and flight regimes) for hands-on trial-by-flying/trial-by-fire learners like me. But I think improvement to training missions would be a nice addition in the future..