ME - How do you designate a Target so a Diamond Symbol appears in the A10 HUD?

Mission Editor

- How do you designate a Target so a Diamond Symbol appears in the A10 HUD?

I have selected a Waypoint for the A10, and then set a Target area on the map, but how do you designate a specific target like it is being Lased for you so that the Target Designator Diamond Symbol appears in the A10 HUD?

I used to do this in the old FC1, and I have seen screenshots and read about targets being Lased for you in the weapons delivery of the Flight Manual, but I do not see anything in the Mission Editor manual about specifing a Target as being Lased so you have the Diamond Symbol in your HUD....

Like This:

As far as I can tell your AI wingmen do it for you. Once they "see" a target the diamond appears. It could be a skill setting somewhere though.

Yes, I have the same question too. I used to know how to do it with the old ME but not the new one.

Mission Editor

- How do you designate a Target so a Diamond Symbol appears in the A10 HUD?

Thats the first of your primary set in the Mission Editor (Targeting).

I have selected a Waypoint for the A10, and then set a Target area on the map, but how do you designate a specific target like it is being Lased for you so that the Target Designator Diamond Symbol appears in the A10 HUD?

Target Area doesnt work like that for player controlled AC must be vehicle, ship or point target.

I used to do this in the old FC1, and I have seen screenshots and read about targets being Lased for you in the weapons delivery of the Flight Manual, but I do not see anything in the Mission Editor manual about specifing a Target as being Lased so you have the Diamond Symbol in your HUD....

As above and remember A10 does not at this moment use Laser guided delivery.

Like This:

As above thats you primary target set in mission editor or next of a group.

Hope that helps...

I am still totally confused.

So, all I have to do is place one Target triangle with a circle around it and the first one on that waypoint will automatically be the Primary and automatically have the Diamond Symbol in the HUD? Like this:

I did that and it did not work. It does not seem to be that simple because I did that for several A10s and have never seen the diamond in my missions. :cry:

It obviously is not for primary target as it always is placed on the SA-11 in the A-10 campaign. And only way to switch it is to cycle it using the same key used for cycle waypoint. You can only cycle forward and there's no way to designate specific target that's in front of you directly. So if there are 30 some ground threats in the area, you'll have to cycle through all of them.

Unless there are very few targets like the quick missions, it's useless feature.

I'm talking about how to set them up in the Mission Editor. Do you know how to do that?

I meant to say it's pointless to implement it when its use is pointless.

But when building mission, only way to mark a specific unit with the diamond I believe is to place it first. In A-10 campaign, SA-11 north of the ridgeline always has the diamond and it's "Unit #1" in mission editor.

And the order you cycle the diamond seems to be related to the order you cycle the external view (F7).

I haven't tried it but perhaps re-naming the number of the targets might work? Not sure if ME goes by the name of the target or actual order of placement.

I tested a single player mission that does it and set mine up just like that, but it did not work. No Diamond...

It seems to me that we are trying to simulate a FAC lasing a target, that the ME should allow the Mission Builder to designate the target? I mean a FAC would not just lase some random truck or tank??? I would like to designate some real AA threads, but I can't designate anything at all it appears..

I don't understand your comment of it being pointless, but since I don't think it's pointless that's not important to my thread. And I am not to the point of flying and cycling through targets yet, I am just asking about how to use the ME for this right now....

Add an AI wingman. If it is a radar based SAM threat he will point it out via target diamond whenever he detects it. Check out the A-10 campaign, your wingy always gives you the location to the BUK sam site.

I am building a multiplayer mission. Will this work online? I normally don't add AI wingmen when I was building mp missions in FC1 but I will give it a try. If I remember correctly, they did not appear in MP though.

Is this documented anywhere about the AI wingmen acting as FAC or whatever? I would like to read about it if I can.

EDIT:

I did just add a wingmen to my flight in MP and it did not work..

I also tried adding another A10 flight with Task set to AFAC, it also did now work.

No documentation on this?

I'll keep trying. Thx.

I am still totally confused.

 

So, all I have to do is place one Target triangle with a circle around it and the first one on that waypoint will automatically be the Primary and automatically have the Diamond Symbol in the HUD? Like this:

 

 

I did that and it did not work. It does not seem to be that simple because I did that for several A10s and have never seen the diamond in my missions. :cry:

Hi mate looks things have changed, I could only get a target diamond by setting a "Point Target"...............so far.

Haven't had the time to spend with it yet.

Cheers

Yes, you must have an AI wingman for it work, period. You setup the targeting Snacko as you showed in your screenshot. This is not useless as it helps get a tally on target.

"Point target" is the only thing I can get to work still.

All I do myself is

1. Add my own flight, add a wingman to it

2. Select CAS / ground attack mode for flight.

3. Set waypoint

4. At a selected, add Target points, usually with 6-10,000 meter diameter.

And then target indicators will appear.

All I do myself is

1. Add my own flight, add a wingman to it

2. Select CAS / ground attack mode for flight.

3. Set waypoint

4. At a selected, add Target points, usually with 6-10,000 meter diameter.

And then target indicators will appear.

Except dont select "Point Target" type, as it will be persistant & the only dimond that shows up, even with wingman spotting. Unless its for a bridge/building etc. Watched wing take out first target area "ground vehicles" OK. Second target area included "point target" near ground vehicles & he empty his rocket load into the ground, ignoring the threats.

Then went home.

Ey folks,

I am using the target->point thing in the editor to simulate a laser designator from a ground-based JTAC during a CAS mission.

One thing to remember is that when you first select the AG mode, the diamond will go into the strongest radar emitter (an SA-11 in my case). Only after hitting "LeftCtrl + `" (cycle targets) I could get the diamond that I wanted to. I tell you this just in case (sorry if I am repeating widely known info) because this drove me nuts for quite a while.

Cheers,

No Practical target Desegnation outside of the "Wingman" feature.

I am a keen writer of mission scenarios and have been trying to get a practical means of desegnating a target (as if by an FAC) for the A10a. It has come as a real dissappiontment to me that the FC2 mission planner has no practical means to emulate FAC target designation on "movers". In particular my excitment peaked at the prospect of placing a (Special Forces FAC) man on the map with a designator and a list of priority targets and/or the commonly used FAC designation operated by the UAV predator.

Its very sad that this common mode of operation for the a10 is not available except through an AI wing, who it has to be said is NOT Intelligent enough to stay out of trouble (suicidal FAC) while designating targets (cannot effectively be directed to circle in a safe area).

Thanks for posting Ogreman, just so I know I am not crazy. Like removing the Satellite option in the map, this is just one more thing taken away from mission building. Being able to specifically designate targets. I want to build some missions so badly, but spend 4 hours trying to get a stupid diamond to appear, with no documentation about how to do it.

Do you guys know if these issues are going to be solved in DCS A-10?

We can only hope. As far as I can tell the Mission Editor is basically identical to what we have in Black Shark. I think the only difference is the flag count. In Black shark we were limited to 100 flags, now its 1 shy of a billion. To be honest, its slightly disappointing. I was hoping for some new ME features in FC2, afterall the new ME could potentially be in development for well over a year since the BS release and there have been plenty of ME request features. You would think at least a few new features might have been in development or completed.

Its not that we can't do some crazy awesome stuff in the Mission Editor, its that its not always the most practical method.

Does the A-10 have a datalink like system in real? Because if the DCS a10 will provide something like the BS datalink that would be so awesome and kind of help away over the missing diamonds...maybe

Nope, no data link in the A10. But I think you can lock onto a target and do a radio command to tell your wingmen to Attack your target. Not sure how real that is..

By the way...

I did get the diamond finally to appear. I did have to set my target to point and have a wingmen with me. What he had to do I do not know. Maybe he had a lazerpointer in his pocket?

I've been faced with the same frustration. I simply cannot understand what could make the developers remove two features that were incredibly useful such as satellite view and the diamond designation of targets.

It is possible to designate a place on the ground if under "Target Categories" you select the "Point" option. However, if what you are trying to designate is a moving target, you're out of joy, because the diamond will not track the moving vehicle.

The only way of doing so is by adding our friendly wingman who is great for getting himself into trouble and dying. Just wish there were a work around for it and we could designate just like in FC 1.0. :cry:

If it's not broken, don't fix it. :cry: Make it better, but leave the good features the way they were. :cry:

It would be cool if you could have a friendly ground unit lase the target point for you.