CommandT

Got you, cheers! I'm sorry to go off on a slight tangent, but another question - how do you set the squawk in the F-18? Not that it really matters all that much for flying and shooting stuff, but I'm still curious.

Yeah that's sort of what I figured. Only thing is the comms in DCS don't actually tell you to enter the marshaling stack or exit it. Would be good if they added that!

Sedlo, just played the second NTTR Mission. Truly excellent work. Both of the those NTTR missions are better than anything I've done so far in any payed campaign (NTTR or not). It would be amazing if you did a whole red flag campaign for the Hornet along those lines. Even the bit at the end where I did a left break instead of a right break on arrival, that was such a super touch! And in general everything flowed super well, except one part which is the tanker - you basically don't have enough time to fill up before the set push time but that's a minor thing that was not a big deal. It's a shame you can't have the wingmen refuel too. But otherwise you should really tell ED they need to hire you for mission and campaign development. It's a bit of a joke how DCS is basically just - buy plane, buy map, wait for someone else to come along and actually make good content for it. It's super frustrating they are not spending more time on making stuff like this! I've recently bought the AV-8B too. Do you have any good stuff for that? As soon as Razbam adds a pilot body to it I'll start flying it. And with regards to Eastern Friendship - I'm sure it's also great work from you but I see it's set in winter and I am not a huge fan of those winter textures so decided to give it a pass. If there was a summer version I'd try that for sure! Many thanks for your great work! P.S. Forgot to add - if you ever do another NTTR mission might be cool to add some Draken MiG-21s and L-39s in there for adversery simulation like they would in real life. Just my own idea for a bit of immersion. On the satellite view of Nellis there's a whole bunch of them parked on the southern part of the ramp.

Got you, thanks guys! I see how this works now! I figured they must have a faster way of doing it in real life for QRA. Many thanks! One side question, might sound stupid, but, is there some indication somewhere which shows if a GPS is available or not?

Hey folks, I'm no stranger to a CASE 1 recovery or the marshaling stack, but what I wonder is - what is the correct way to come in when you are the only flight inbound? Can you just make your way down to the initial (3nm, 800ft behind the boat) however you like from any direction or do you technically need to enter/ exit the marshaling stack? If so, enter at any angle and exit on downwind straight away? I feel like this was never explained anywhere for a case where no other traffic exists. Cheers!

Aaaah! Interesting. What is the procedure? You just press that and put the swtich into NAV? Also, does this work on a carrier?

Just curious, how does one scramble a jet because there's a nuclear bomber incoming, without waiting 8 minutes for the INS to align? Is there a more quick align procedure? Coz I am always set and ready to go way before the alignment is complete in the F/A-18...

Hi BD, thank you for taking my feedback into account. With regards to the mission briefs - there were a few terms used here and there that were not explained in the "guide" - like "X-CAS". No idea what "X" means in that. Either way none of those were a big deal, so I'm not really complaining. It's just a minor thing. The kneeboards are very good. It's a shame we can't have the waypoint maps from the brief in the kneeboard as well, but this is not a big deal at ll :) Also I see there was for some a reason an army UH-60 acting as a SAR chopper for the carrier instead of a SH-60. Again, no big deal, just a minor point. Unless there was a reason for that I didn't pick up on from the book or something.

Literally just wanted to start a new thread about this. Apart from making the wake waaay longer than currently, I also thnk it should be more white and pronounced. And very very white just behind the ship and where it comes off the nose of the boat. I can't see how this would be difficult to adjust/ implement? Would make the immersion and realism go up ten fold I think.

I've just flown mission 6 "Missing Man Formation" and it seems broken for me. Firstly, I taxied to CAT3 which always seems to be an issue on the SC and the ground crew don't seem to register my existence. So I immediately taxied to CAT2 before wingman 3 & 4 started moving. Then Number 2 took off from CAT4 and before I made it off the deck some wird glitch happened where the carrier and everything disappeared for a couple of seconds, then reappeared with one of the remaining planes already hooked up to CAT1 next to me. Decided to restart the whole thing from scratch and taxi to CAT2 and take off before anyone else made it into the air - great, so far so good. Upon turning to waypoint 2 I got winman 2 and 3 join up. Number 4 nowhere to be seen (not even if you cycle through F2 views). After turning from waypoint 2 to waypoint 3, one of the two remaining wingmen disappeared - he was still alive but somewhere in a totally different place. Anyway me and my only remaining wingman pushed on time and made it over the boat at exactly 0800L/ 0400Z as briefed. The other 2 planes were nowhere to be seen. Maybe the latest DCS patch ruined it, I dunno. Shame anyway. And as regards the campaign on the whole - I very much appreciate the hard work that has went into this and the fact that missions are very unique and try to recreate realistic ops which are not just all about shooting stuff. That's great BUT, I have some big criticisms. Given that I have paid money for this campaign I think it's only fair I can criticise some aspects which IMO have really killed the experience a few times. Firstly, mission 3 CAS near Basra. On the whole just as a mission idea - great, love it. However, basing the AO in a location on the map that has basically no mesh, ground texture, 3d models or buildings of any sort, absolutely kills all the atmosphere. I mean even pssing buy Kuwait and seeing nothing but flat boring terrain was buzz kill. I mean I could be flying Janes F-16 from 1998 really. So that kills all sense of immersion. I get that the campaign is focusing on operations around Iraq but IMO this mission was really best avoided, or the location changed. Secondly, this missing man formation seems broken and really just felt like I was trying to figure out how to get AI to not mess up. The idea was excellent though. Also I felt a couple of times the briefs didn't really explain things - perhaps you are supposed to get those details from reading the book, but lets face it - this is not realistic for most people who just want to have a good experience flying the F-18 off a carrier. Anyway, I'm hoping the rest of the missions in the campaign bring me more joy. And very much looking forward to the AV-8B ottoman campaign. Cheers

Looks interesting, thank you! Anyone made anything with Syria yet?

Hey folks, Can anyone suggest some good SP missions or campaigns that are well done with good attention to detail? Preferably something that involves low level penetration/ attack runs (but could be anything). I'm playing through the Raven One campaign now, and although I appreciate the focus on realistic carrier ops in the middle of the Gulf, I feel like there's a real lack of action involving operations over detailed terrain and low level stuff. The third mission that involved some bombing near Basra was just terrible... I have no idea why that mission ever made the cut given the total lack of terrain resolution or mesh or any surface detail/objects in that part of the PG map. Felt like I was flying Janes F-16 in 1998 :( Happy to try any of the modern maps. I know Sedlo has a cool NTTR Red Flag mission for the F/A-18. That was good. I think I tried "Cage The Bear" but having to shoot a swarm of unprotected bombers in the first mission was a bit of a turn off just in terms of a lack of realism. Finding it difficult to find genuinely realistic and good content. Any suggestions?

I have no hick ups with Syria. Same crappy fps as before over densely populated towns and cities, HOWEVER, a definite improvement in performance on airfields. Using same settings as before I now have mostly smooth fps on air bases and it used to be unflyable before so happy with that! If only densely populated areas now got some better performance that would be amazing. Also feel like the trees could be better optimized. Syria and Georgia. 3950X 2080 Super 64GB RAM Evo 970 2TB SSD 38" ultra wide screen

I respectfully disagree. As an airline pilot I fly over the ocean on a moonless night quite often. If I focus my vision outside I can still have a good perception of space around me. Normally you can still make out the horizon (roughly) and ground or water beneath you (roughly). I mean it's good enough to orient yourself anyway. It's not pitch black like being inside a bunker with no lights. So I maintain that DCS's pitch black nights are too black. And with regards to the tanker - yes, that was my issue, not seeing it at all as I closed the gap below 4nm until it was too late as I came in a bit hot. So some better nav lights would go a long way.

So in an unfortunate sequence of events this evening I rammed the tanker I wanted to refuel from because I couldn't see it coming. Are there any external lights you can use to help you? Landing light is on the front gear which is retracted so that's no use. And this is without NVG btw. P.S. I think DCS nights are waaay too dark, especially clear nights, even without a moon, they are unrealistically dark.

found it, disregard.

Hey folks, I just downloaded the Raven One campaign. Anyone know which folder the briefing packs are in? I can't find them.

One circle high-alpha, JF-17 wins. At least in my experience.

Interesting. Thanks for writing about your experience. Ideally I'd like to not overclock but we will see. I suspect the new G2 will require more computing power than the Rift S so I think that 3080Ti really will be a requirement.

Thank you very much guys! The paddle shift was indeed assigned to a UI Layer. Got rid of it now and it's perfect!!

Ah, every day is a school day! Will try more vertical boom and zoom next time!

I am told the architecture won't be much different to my 3950X. Need all that extra VRAM from 3080Ti. Apparently it is the Ti that's coming out in December. Just wonder how long before you can pick one up after the dust settles and you don't over-pay.

What makes you think I'm a hater? I'm just confused. Genuinly wondering how to fight a JF-17. Was not expecting it to be a serious opponent in 1v1 guns only, I was wrong. Also, ED are very careful about realism and what they allow so I don't doubt the real thing could be a serious opponent.

So, first time ever dogfighting a JF-17 in a Hornet on one of the servers today. Got my ass handed to me 100%. Tried rate fighting, tried radius fighting, tried everything I could think of. The only thing I think I could maybe do is outrun or out-climb it but not significantly to turn that into my advantage. The only tactic I found to work is try to force a 1 circle after the merge and try to get a quick head on shot. Otherwise it really felt like I was doomed. So basically I'm sitting here thinking ... what the hell... Any ideas? How is this bloody Chinese thing so good? I thought at low speed, high AoA the Hornet would wipe the floor with it - errr, wrong... For reference majority of the time I didn't use the paddle switch but I did try it few time but again couldn't really turn that into an advantage.

How do I check I haven't got it as a modifier? Tried un-assigning and reassigning the paddle switch but no effect and also I see it doesn't work in other modules like the aileron limiter for the F-5. And even if I assign it to something like landing gear - doesn't work. I mean it clearly is recognised when binding it in the controls but in practice it doesn't do anything. Grrrr....