HUD diamond target marker in Instant Action mission

There's a diamond on the air-to-ground HUD at the start of the Instant Action ground attack mission, before any radio calls of targets from the wingman, and I've been trying to replicate that in the mission editor. I have no idea what's causing it to appear—the steerpoint in my mission is the same as the one in the Instant Action mission, but I don't see anything in my mission. Does anyone know how to make it show up?

I don't know. But I hate the diamonds. Feels like I'm cheating knowing exactly where the bad guys are before I'm close enough to see them.

The one in the Instant Action mission doesn't seem to be directly over an enemy. It looks like it's just a cue for the waypoint, but IIRC it didn't change when I selected the next waypoint. (I'll have to investigate more later.) If there's a way to mark target areas ahead of time, that would make the aircraft a whole lot easier (for me) to use.

In my own experience the diamond has always been an enemy ground target. I've never seen or used it for navigation.

Might be wrong because I do not tinker with the 25-T much, but I'm pretty sure the diamonds are emitting targets detected by the Fantasmagoria pod.

So you won't have those diamonds if you do not carry the Fantasmagoria pod or if there are no active anti-air defenses in the area (by anti-air I mean radio emitting systems).

Might be wrong because I do not tinker with the 25-T much, but I'm pretty sure the diamonds are emitting targets detected by the Fantasmagoria pod.

This is correct, but they also appear without the pod. My understanding is, that your wingman is designating targets and linking them to you. Or friendly ground forces are designating them. I'd really like someone to clarify though. If the wingman is designating them, his spider senses need to be reduced because you'll get one target after another without any delays inbetween. Like his ability to spot and call targets, it's over the top.

I guess I'll try the mission with an AI wingman tonight or tomorrow night—if I get target diamonds then, that should be pretty reliable confirmation.

This is correct, but they also appear without the pod. My understanding is, that your wingman is designating targets and linking them to you. Or friendly ground forces are designating them. I'd really like someone to clarify though. If the wingman is designating them, his spider senses need to be reduced because you'll get one target after another without any delays inbetween. Like his ability to spot and call targets, it's over the top.

Thank you for this piece of information. I should get my a** strapped more in the T-Toad cockpit.

I second you on the super-human AI. They can detect ground targets from 20nm+, I feel like I'm flying with Terminator...

There was an option in FC2 (I can barely remember it) where you would designate targets in mission editor. You had the option to set (in the tasked attack target area) does it count for airplanes, helicopters, static objects etc. You set it as ground targets, and when you cycle targets (same control as cycling Waypoints) diamond would switch between targets (as it does in quickstart mission in DCSW for Su25T) Now, you had the option to set "POINT". You set that, enter the mission, and it will show you the diamond at the place where you placed the "attack point" in your route as an attack task.

I don't remember how do you turn off/on the visibility of diamonds that are NOT related to ELINT targeting pod, but if I do - I will tell you.

Maybe tonight I'll dig into the instant action mission file and see if I can find how it's defined. It would be handy functionality to have in the Su-25T—a navigational marker in A2G HUD mode that isn't the crazy-effective wingman lighting up the exact location of targets for you.

I think Hotaburi is correct. In previous FC versions you could set a Waypoint as a Target. This then was displayed as a Diamond in the HUD.

Not unrealistic either. in the FA18 any Waypoint can be designated on the fly by the NAV system using a NAVDESIGNATION. The WYPT then changed to TGT and a diamond was displayed over the now tgt waypoint. The diamond remained displayed until the "NAVDSG" as it was called was undesignated.

So its an FC2 hangover imo. It would be nice to still be able to do this in FC3/DCS in the Mission editor

I think Hotaburi is correct. In previous FC versions you could set a Waypoint as a Target. This then was displayed as a Diamond in the HUD.

 

Not unrealistic either. in the FA18 any Waypoint can be designated on the fly by the NAV system using a NAVDESIGNATION. The WYPT then changed to TGT and a diamond was displayed over the now tgt waypoint. The diamond remained displayed until the "NAVDSG" as it was called was undesignated.

 

So its an FC2 hangover imo. It would be nice to still be able to do this in FC3/DCS in the Mission editor

Trust me, I'm right. :)

However - I can't find where it is set in DCS.

In FC2 it was under a target tab. That tab is gone (it was when you select a plane in editor, you get WP tab + Target Tab + Palyoad Tab etc.)

And it's Hotarubi FFS :P :P :P

The target point element is obviously still in the mission file and parsed/displayed by the game, so once I find the lua element that displays the target point, I'll post it in this thread with instructions for how to integrate it into a mission file.

The target point element is obviously still in the mission file and parsed/displayed by the game, so once I find the lua element that displays the target point, I'll post it in this thread with instructions for how to integrate it into a mission file.

If it is a feature of the airplane - then ED is the ones who must provide us with tools to acomplish it's usability via mission editor. I appreciate your effort, but they are the ones who must fix this.

Last night I (finally) had a look at this, but it wasn't immediately obvious what the difference was in the mission file. I'll try just copying the waypoint later; if that doesn't work, we're going to need actual support from ED, and (for all the good it will do) I'll post in the mission editor feature request thread.

Quick update: copying the waypoint in yields a mission that doesn't load at all, which is an obvious step backward. I've posted in the mission editor feature request thread, so sound off there if you want the target diamond feature back.

Just found out how to produce the diamonds while flying. Right-click to get into "Visual recon mode" A red cross will appear on the center of your screen. Put the cross over a ground-target and left-click. No idea how you do it in the mapeditor though.

It might be possible to tease out some data after doing that in a Prepare Mission setting. I was probably also looking in the wrong place in the mission file—if that's how you do it in the cockpit, it's probably not in the route list in the mission file. I'll play around with it again tonight.

Just found out how to produce the diamonds while flying. Right-click to get into "Visual recon mode" A red cross will appear on the center of your screen. Put the cross over a ground-target and left-click. No idea how you do it in the mapeditor though.

I wasn't able to get it to work--crosshair yes, but in the vicinity of a bunch of ground vehicles, no diamond. Does it have to be right overtop of something? That's hard to do from a distance/with headtracking, but if it's a route toward working out how to include them in missions, I'll have to give it a try later.

In my experience you need to have a wingman, set a target via the mission editor for you and your wingman...and the diamond should appear.

Okay, cool. I'll give that a try later—so set an attack-some-unit task on the waypoint with an AI wingman? With a little luck, I'll be able to do some trigger-fu to get that feature without actually having to bring an AI wingman.

I don't know. But I hate the diamonds. Feels like I'm cheating knowing exactly where the bad guys are before I'm close enough to see them.

From 1.2.6 changelog:

"Su-25T: Removed targe diamond on the HUD."

Very happy to see this finally got fixed. :)