TAIPAN_

My bad choice of words, there is infantry, but not to the extent of real life armies. DCS has always had more of a vehicle/tank focus but yeah this may be changing with A-10C now. Still not as big of a deal as real life infantry.

I just used the mission planner, I have saved favourite loadouts. The default loadout only works if you use your wingman to hit the bunkers too but he's not so reliable is he :)

I have a "Practice pilot" for messing around, even so i sometimes forget to change pilots so I have to edit logbook to fix things.

Probably realistic but it's also realistic to have less missiles fired at us! In real life every SAM scares the shit out of the pilot. Sims always raise the challenge in having extra SAMs to make it more fun since our virtual lives are not as valuable. The only way I can think of changing it could be a LUA edit mod or something like Goldfinger did for blackshark.

Holy #%#$ That is amazing, didn't know it was possible in FC2. Did they mention any planned release date?

Yeah DCS probably the D,G are going to be best, as heat comes from vehicles all the time I think. Similar thing with cluster bombs and rockets, since infantry is not modelled it's usually best to always take the anti-tank clusters/rockets over the anti-personnel. Very easy to build favourite loadouts like this but not realistic I guess.

Yeah labels off, located purely by the flashing beeping SD warning symbol. As I got closer I ordered wingman to "attack air defences" to ensure they would keep launching to aid visual. Then closed sitance at dust cloud alt. The new AI is much improved my wingman survives even though they are spamming missiles at him. I suppose he's helped by the new countermeasures system of the C model. Targeting pod I only had so I could do the bunkers afterwards. Also what effte said - very bad defences on the enemies part to not at least have a 23 or some kind of close range AAA protection :) Ideally a SEAD flight would help us. It was a very stupid move in flat territory like that and should be reserved for hilly terrain but I was lucky. This sort of mission dropping standoff GBUs seems very suited to the new A-10C, and setting TGP to the waypoint is great. Good to master GBU in missions like this first where the target location is known. What I really have trouble with is CAS missions, finding hidden enemies even with TGP there is so much ground to cover!

Here's a track from "River Raider" mission using GBU-38 + GBU-12 only. I never touch the units guarding the bunkers, just climb up and drop bombs on the bunkers and go home. Of course there IS something that can touch us up there, that being the nasty SA-11 so I sorted him with guns first. In real life they would probably call in SEAD or ask me to go around, but I got annoyed at all the beeping and missile launches :megalol: As long as there is nothing like SA-11 around, you can avoid all the other low altitude SAMs etc. Low SAM threat first bunker - I took with GBU-12 from only about 4000. Then climbed higher through the rest. SA-13s in the mission can shoot maybe 10,000 feet altitude, and this was not a problem at all. Also had warning from dog ear radar but don't know if that signified anything. After the GBU-12 I do a long spiral climb so faster forward that with Ctrl Z. If short of time I do this when playing too, if it was my REAL life in danger I wouldn't mind waiting while I climbed. http://www.oceanicwing.com/o_memberftp/o_taipan/BukSA11Guns_RiverRaid_Completed.rar So in answer YES you can use them in standoff. See the targeting pod I launch the GBU-38s from 5km out. Add to this the altitude and most air defence has a hard time and won't even bother launching. NOTE: You'll have to SHIFT Z to go normal speed when you open the track as I flew the real bombing mission after replaying the SA-11 track. ps Just replayed the track, I noticed fast forwarding sometimes screwed up the last bomb drop and made me crash into a mountain. I made it back to an airbase I swear :)

Anyone have trouble with recording tracks onto video? When I playback the track it goes ok for about 5 minutes while recording video, then it just slows down to a slideshow. I've turned graphics down, plus am FRAPsing onto a second disk, so its not the same disk as the track. Any ideas?

thanks. I hope Ricardo does a hires cockpit for Su-25 like the Su-25t one day too.

Yeah thanks I thought so, as the laser can keep tracking their movement. Although the manual states the GPS guidance is better in adverse weather so I wonder whether ED has modeled the weather/cloud effects on the laser guidance? Interesting point about not having 2 mavs per side. Some of the default "anti-armor" loadouts in the mission planner have 3 per side!

Thanks for the info guys, seems like in the long run the D is going to handle more situations but H can identify targets better in some situations.. Also the K and larger warhead version I think I'll give them a miss. GBU-38 and GBU-31 are much more fun suit these hard targets. Exception being moving ships, will probably need a mav for that. Since mavs are expensive, is it realistic to go for moving targets with any of the guided bombs? Which guidance method is best for moving targets? Laser, wind corrected cluster, or GPS?

So the D locks easier? What carry the H at all then?

Ahh UK a bit expensive for post. I'm going to be selling CH Fighterstick + Franken Potato modded CH Pro Throttle as I'm buying the Warthog HOTAS this week.

I'm setting up some saved loadouts for day and night various roles etc. Obviously AGM-65D is best for night, but for daytime it's not clear. For daytime operations with moving targets - should I prefer the AGM-65D or the AGM-65H? One being infrared, one being optical, I know this but now we have the targeting pod it seems that the IR advantage of being able to find targets easier is not so important. Is the range the same or is one farther than the other? For the larger mavs, are they really worth the extra weight if we're not trying to hit a bunker or something? i.e. Does the AGM-65ks extra heavy blast radius do more damage to surrounding units than the AGM-65H?

The very next module is not confirmed to be a fighter? If it is where is it confirmed curious to know? And why is it not years away? The basic engine for A-10C was already there from Black Shark in 2008. However there is almost 3 years between the two releases. Yes FC2 was delivered in that period too but still we're not talking 12 months for DCS 3. Developing a DCS module is not a trivial thing. By the time we get the next module it IS going to be 2013/2014 or maybe even 2015. Sure DCS has better avionics and FM, but if you're flying an A-10C and red has KA-50 and Su-25t (which are NEEDED to work together because of the ka-50 lack of long range SEAD + heavy strike capability), you are not needing to know whether the Su-25 pilot is pushing more buttons than you or not. Unless you think he has it EASY? Once we master the A-10C it will be just as, even more effective than the Su-25t as it is a better aircraft. The ROLE of the aircraft and the TACTICS are still the same no matter how much of the avionics are modeled. Air Quake fear? Then don't add fighters to your servers. Don't take a mission editors or a servers decision and put it in the hands of yourself because you think you know better. Split communities are the worst situation, we'll have sims like cliffs of dover or rise of flight where the communities are still whole and they will be having much more large online events. Yes if you are hardcore DCS you will play only DCS but many of us will be pulled away into other sims if the multiplayer for DCS consists of "take off with others A-10s, shoot AI helicopters, blow up AI tanks, receive no fighter threat and no fighter cover, enemy side has no Su-25t or bomber jets etc". Purely due to the key element that is the multiplayer... That's what keeps a sim alive for us in the long run. It might be an acceptable compromise if say we had the two Su-25 brought into the DCS series, then both sides would have more even strike capability for some competitive play. Even if no fighters, at least we could make some fun missions that feel like human competition in the ground war. A while ago I suggested not enabling the A-10a in combined servers with the A-10c. Would you believe that I was shouted down for that! I don't even believe it now after seeing so many not wanting FC2 combined... seems ideas have changed now A-10c is finally here people aren't FC2 lovers anymore and ready to dump it because they flew the A-10 and not the Su-25 hey?

Ha I love this forum

Yes but were not hoping for the scope of changes in FC2 they're already done, were only hoping for a compatibility patch like that which came out after FC2. Besides, all titles are overdue a patch anyway when you look at all the little bugs that are unfixed. Some of these issues don't happen in A-10C build so that can help the other titles if they get combined engines again.

Mapping the directx button in DCS itself didnt work - no cannon. However mapping the keycombination of holding down NUM0 and NUM5 does work now. Gun runs are much better!

DCS is not that hard come on. Once you're in flight you only use <20% of the switches in the cockpit. Also having a clickable cockpit makes it much easier in my opinion. I struggle to fit all the mig-29 commands on my HOTAS but in black shark I have space to spare as I use the mouse for non combat stuff. Fidelity doesn't spoil it now - if I'm in a ka-50 and there's a Buk system or hidden Tunguska I love to call in a 25T for SEAD. It not only works but it's wonderful.

Thanks great stuff

Exactly, fairness isn't the priority for a simulation producer. Otherwise we would have to make the A-10C perform like a black shark :) Mission design is always the key. Put some mobile SAMs or some air support if one side is having trouble.

I have the same problem in black shark at that speed dive, but more extreme :lol:

Volume=100 GUI=60 World=80 In-Cockpit=70 Helmet=100 (so I can hear what they are saying on coms/radio/training) Music=60 (awesome music but already loud)

I fly mostly zoomed right out, but the HUD snapview is perfect for checking whats ahead of me and looking down the gunsight. However when holding the snapview, I cannot fire the cannon or make any other controls work for that matter. Are all controls supposed to be disabled when using snapviews? Is there any way to make the gun work when using the view system? Many Thanks