Cold War 1947 - 1991

[Alpenwolf]

19 minutes ago, Pilot Ike said:

Some thoughts on some missions:

 

"Once upon a time in Abu Dhabi" and "Five points" are pure helicopter / tank races. I don't know how other users feel about this, but I for one don't like that particular element of the mission very much. The one who starts up and flies the fastest/gets his tanks to the targets first usually wins these missions. It encourages helicopter pilots to despawn immediately once they have dropped their cargo and respawn with a new helicopter, because it takes longer to fly back than just throw away a helicopter and take a new one. I've seen that quite often on Tacview.

 

"Homs" seems to be interesting, but I don't think having the MiG-21s and MiG-19s depart from Hama AB is a good thing. When it was on for the first time, the 19s and 21s swarmed the AO while no F-5s were in sight, and I witnessed some blue players leaving frustrated. I suggest restricting the 19s and 21s to Bassel Al-Assad and Abu al-Duhur.

 

Which is why helicopter "lives" are limited in Once Upon a Time in Abu Dhabi. In Five Points Unleashed the distances are too big for limiting helicopter lives. Which is why I stated that a rework of the mission has been added to the to-do list.

In Once Upon a Time in Abu Dhabi the neutral airbases will be assigned to the coalitions. Two go for Red and two for Blue. So capturing the airbases quickly wont be an issue any more.

 

Homs is still a new mission. Still, I was aware of that. However, instead of just being aware of it or guessing it, I wanted to see what effect it has on the mission before making the changes and I will make the changes nonetheless. In fact, quite a few changes were made and added already. More on the way.

[ROSS_Pups]

24) Operation: Fight Island
very dark map.
battle for the gamma, it's not nice to fly knowing that the enemy is with a twisted gamma, and you're breaking your eyes looking into the blackness.
+3.5 gumma, no good. IMHO  - but see anything 

[Alpenwolf]

1 hour ago, ROSS_Pups said:

24) Operation: Fight Island
very dark map.
battle for the gamma, it's not nice to fly knowing that the enemy is with a twisted gamma, and you're breaking your eyes looking into the blackness.
+3.5 gumma, no good. IMHO  - but see anything 

I think you're referring to the mission One Night in Arabia. Yeah, it's pitch dark, I know. The mission lasts for 3 hours only. Something for the change. Helicopter pilots get to have some fun at night and fighters the unusual "fun" or hard time.

[ROSS_Pups]

This was interesting until one of the opponents turned out gamma to full. ground targets were visible as in the daytime - 10 minutes before the end of the mission I turned on + 3.5 , and we all could not understand how so clearly kill our units.
If everyone flew honestly, it would be interesting.
Wanted the best, but it turned out as always. ( с )
offensively. a good idea was vulgarized by the gamma setting
tnx

[Alpenwolf]

2 hours ago, ROSS_Pups said:

...
If everyone flew honestly, it would be interesting.
...

Only if.

Cheaters will always cheat. Dishonest people will always exist. The thing is, there are two missions at night (one is currently offline). All the work I put in 'em, the exceptional experience we get through flying at night and the challenge that comes along with it are either thrown away because of that individual, or I do keep the missions while trying to deal with the cheat/s.

Punishing all those who want to fly the night missions doesn't sound right to me. It's like banning the RB-75 missile so that a small number of Viggen pilots stop scoring aerial kills with it, especially when it's bugged as it is. Again, punishing all the Viggen pilots who use the missile for ground attacks because of 2 players whom I caught doing it sounds unfair for others. So I warned them both and they've never done ever since. I can only warn that guy you're talking about and if he does it again still, he will be kicked out of the server. If he continues to do it, he gets the ban. The question is, how can we be sure someone is doing that?!

[Alpenwolf]

Server News:

 

Operation Homs:

 

- Instead of 4 x MiG-21 slots (for a total of 36 x MiG-21's) at Hama airbase, it's now 2 slots with a total of 18 x MiG-21's.

- Instead of 4 x MiG-21 slots (for a total of 36 x MiG-21's) at Bassel Al-Assad airbase, it's now 6 slots with a total of 54 x MiG-21's.

- This should give Blue fighters a slight breather when most MiG-21's come from afar.

- The mission goes online again tonight around 1930-2000 zulu after the mission Two Towns.

- The repositioning of other aircraft on both sides is possible.

- For that I'll need to see how things go tonight after adding multiple changes to the mission over the last days.

 

*** Signups for the Helicopters Tournament 12 are still open ***

[ROSS_Pups]

2 часа назад, Alpenwolf сказал:

Only if...

The question is, how can we be sure someone is doing that?!

no way, it's not possible.

 

Thanks. your position is clear.

Maybe then add more vehicles and helicopters so that people fight en masse on the ground ? Never mind, thanks for the dialogue.

Edited December 15, 2020 by ROSS_Pups

[Alpenwolf]

52 minutes ago, ROSS_Pups said:

no way, it's not possible.

 

Thanks. your position is clear.

Maybe then add more vehicles and helicopters so that people fight en masse on the ground ? Never mind, thanks for the dialogue.

 

I'll see what I can do.

 

Cheers!

[rossmum]

Still not a fan of the way the missiles are set up in S&D. It's not so bad when the server is populated or blue are outnumbered, but during low pop hours usually one or both F-14s are taken. That's 8 all aspect missiles each against 2 per 29 and none for any of the 21s (the radar is currently INOP below about 5km, hopefully fixed next patch - so the R-3R is a deadweight any time the target dives). Due to the mission cycle, the server is often empty or slowly beginning to populate during S&D, and having one or two MiGs fighting a 14/F-5 pair or god forbid, 2 F-14s at once, is not especially fun. Can't get any ground attack or slinging done without getting jumped, and it's exceptionally hard even for a pair of MiGs working together to survive, let alone mount effective CAP. For the past ~2-3 weeks, I've been joining into one or two 14s flying a holding pattern just outside of the FARP's air defence coverage and picking off anything that moves.

 

I still think this mission should be given an exemption from rear-aspect restrictions (and only this mission) purely based on how silly it is to fly a 29 with two mid range missiles only. If ED ever give us base model R-60s for it, it should be less of an issue (although the Tomcat still has 8, just by virtue of having no rear-aspect missiles available to it either). The Su-25s also totally lack defensive missiles and so require an escort to survive, which then means less available fighters to deal with the Tomcat-enforced no-fly zone. This brings me to the second point: a single F-14, unless ganged up on by 2-3 aircraft while alone, can pretty much lock down the server until the teams fill up and red begins coordinating larger sweeps. IMO the 14/29 slots should be locked until a minimum number of players is reached, and honestly the second 14 slot should only unlock once the server is very near full. It's been a long time since I had a chance to play the mission on a full server but I recall it being reasonable. It really isn't during low pop hours and it's pretty much wholely and solely because of the F-14s.

 

On missions where red were able to dedicate 2-4 MiGs to dealing with the Tomcats, and particularly with less experienced players flying said Tomcats, they performed surprisingly poorly; the opposite is true any time population is low.

[Alpenwolf]

59 minutes ago, rossmum said:

...

..., and honestly the second 14 slot should only unlock once the server is very near full.

...

Sounds like a good proposition.

Added to the to-do list. I'll see what I can do if possible.

 

In the mission Search & Destroy and as you know Red has only one airbase. Same as Blue by the way. And as long as both the Su-25 and the MiG-29 are not given their R-60's, I can't add R-60M's to give them missiles to defend themselves with. You know that. Going all-aspect for all aircraft is not what I'm after. I'd rather get rid of both the Fulcrum and the Tomcat than doing that. However, I don't want to get rid of them.

 

I can only hope for ED to add the R-60's for the FC3 planes or for someone to come up with a script that blocks certain weapons for certain types of aircraft. Haven't found the like so far and that's honestly beyond my current scripting capabilities, and I haven't got the time to start going deeper into scripting, although I'd love to.

[Volator]

In "Homs" there was a spawning issue with the Hueys yesterday. I was in the first slot, and when the second slot pilot spawned, my Huey rolled over, crashed and burned. 

 

Also, request two more Huey slots to a total of four to give more pilots the chance to fly their favourite ride. 

[Alpenwolf]

8 minutes ago, Pilot Ike said:

In "Homs" there was a spawning issue with the Hueys yesterday. I was in the first slot, and when the second slot pilot spawned, my Huey rolled over, crashed and burned. 

 

Also, request two more Huey slots to a total of four to give more pilots the chance to fly their favourite ride. 

The Huey's spawn far away from one another (separated by ca. 150-200 meters). Someone must've landed on the spawn spot of the other.

It is 2 x Mi-8's and 2 x UH-1's. The battle zone is a very small one compared to other missions.

In time, 2 x Kiowa Warriors will be added (while keeping the Gazelles) and 2 x Hinds will replace the Black Sharks in this mission.

Tank numbers will be adjusted again. Either more blue tanks or less Red tanks.

[Volator]

16 minutes ago, Alpenwolf said:

The Huey's spawn far away from one another (separated by ca. 150-200 meters). Someone must've landed on the spawn spot of the other.

No. I spawned and was in the process of starting up, then he spawned. Crash. No flying involved.

[Alpenwolf]

47 minutes ago, Pilot Ike said:

No. I spawned and was in the process of starting up, then he spawned. Crash. No flying involved.

They're separated by exactly 165 meters. So it's a DCS thing. Besides, Huey's were flying around all the time. Maybe some map related or DCS related glitch. Can't tell.

[Volator]

1 hour ago, Alpenwolf said:

They're separated by exactly 165 meters. So it's a DCS thing. Besides, Huey's were flying around all the time. Maybe some map related or DCS related glitch. Can't tell.

At mission start no Hueys were flying around. Why should I make this up? I'm merely reporting it.

 

***Edit***

Just checked the Tacview file. There's 58 seconds between my spawn and the other Huey before my helicopter simply falls over (and no-one crashes into me or whatever..), so yeah, must be a DCS thing. Maybe map-related, I don't know.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Pilot Ike

[Alpenwolf]

1 hour ago, Pilot Ike said:

... Why should I make this up?...

 

Let's not assume things, buddy, I never said that.

Thanks for the report.

[Alpenwolf]

7 hours ago, LoneS said:

And BLue has less tomcats than Red MIG29s, no?

Yes. And I've just reduced them even more.

[Alpenwolf]

Server News:

 

Operation Search & Destroy:

 

- Instead of 12 x F-14A's, it's now 10. The 16 x MiG-29A's remain as they are.

- I might remove the AIM-7M missiles while keeping the F and the AIM-9L's. Waiting on the upcoming update first.

-----------------------------

Operation Once Upon a Time in Abu Dhabi:

 

- No more neutral airbases at mission's start.

- Abu Dhabi International and Sas Al Nakheel are Red.

- Al Dhafra AB and Al-Batten are Blue.

- This should prevent any coalition from finishing the job quickly.

- In addition to the 4 x AAA's at Sas Al Nakheel and Al-Bateen 4 x BMP-2's/Bradley's were added to fortify the garrison.

-----------------------------

Operation Behind Enemy Lines:

 

- Will go offline once the new mission (Caucasus map) is ready - Almost.

[Alpenwolf]

A NEW MISSION HAS ARRIVED!!!

 

Operation: Sukhumi - The Beginning

 

* The mission features the early stages of the Cold War.
* Therefore, no IR SAM's and no SAM batteries.
* Dozens of AAA units including flak at the airbases instead.
* R-55's and GAR-8's only. Note that MiG-21's carry 2 x R-55's and only on the inner pylons.
* No helicopters this time. Wish we had the Mi-2 or -4 or -6 and their Blue counterparts.
* I-16's and P-51's included in small numbers.

 

Situation:

 

Red airbases: Senaki-Kolkhi and Sukhumi-Babushara
Blue airbases: Sochi-Adler and Gudauta

World War ll has come to an end! The East and the West continue to lay more and more pressure and sanctions on each other. New war machines entering series production and the only question is, who will endure?

The city of Sukhumi connects vital highways alongside the coast line between the southern parts of the Caucasus region all the way to the northwestern parts of it. The two airbases of Gudauta (west of Sukhumi city) and Sukhumi-Babushara (east of Sukhumi city) are top priority airbases both coalitions seek to capture and hold. Red holds Sukhumi-Babushara airbase at mission's start while Blue holds Gudauta airbase. Red operates from Senaki-Kolkhi airbase mainly (only I-16's operate from Sukhumi-Babushara) while Blue operates from Sochi-Adler airbase.
All 4 airbases are protected by various AAA units including flak. No SAM's available. Tanks and APC's (WWll vehicles mainly) are evenly distributed alongside the coast line between Sukhumi-Baushara and Gudaua airbases.

* Winner is he who holds both Sukhumi-Babushara and Gudauta airbases!
* Helicopters are excluded from this mission.

Each coalition has two EWR's working on two different frequencies to match the different radio systems of the available aircraft. If an EWR is destroyed it is replaced by a new unit 5 minutes later. A total of 3 x EWR's per frequency, 6 per coalition.

 

=====================================================================================

 

RED Objectives:

Important Notes:

All aircraft (except for I-16's) operate from Senaki-Kolkhi airbase. That means pilots must always RTB to Senaki and park their aircraft safely (not on the runway!) before they leave the slot. Doing so saves the aircraft and makes it available again for tasking.

There are reserve slots for all aircraft at Sukhumi-Babushara airbase, however, no available aircraft yet (except for I-16's). That means if a pilot MUST land at Sukhumi airbase (low on fuel, damaged, etc.) the reserve slot becomes available should he land safely and park his aircraft (not on the runway!) before leaving the slot. In other words, that aircraft is transferred from Senaki-Kolkhi to Sukhumi-Babushara airbase.
Note that pilots MUST always RTB to Senaki to avoid landing at the hot and risky zone of Sukhumi but ONLY if they have to.

I-16's operate from Sukhumi-Babushara airbase ONLY! That means they must always RTB to Sukhumi.

R-55's are available and only 2 can be carried on the inner pylons of the MiG-21.
The enemy has GAR-8 missiles.

*******************************************************************************************************

Air superiority is the key!

Search and destroy enemy fighters around Sukhumi city! Once air superiority is gained, a small number of pilots is required to perform CAS and help our advancing ground units capture Gudauta airbase.

Make sure you coordinate your attacks with the GCI operator if available, otherwise with other pilots on comms.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Combined Arms:

The 2 cmdr slots are for players controlling ground units while being on SRS with each other and other players to coordinate their attacks.
You MUST be on SRS as a cmdr operator!
The JTAC slots are mainly for players who want to check out the situation quickly, provide GCI for a group of people or preferably everyone. In addition, you can use the JTAC slot to drive a ground unit. However, the latter requires you being on comms with cmdr operators to avoid confusion and/or causing problems to their attacks.

 

=====================================================================================

 

BLUE Objectives:

Important Notes:

All aircraft operate from Sochi-Adler airbase. That means pilots must always RTB to Sochi and park their aircraft safely (not on the runway!) before they leave the slot. Doing so saves the aircraft and makes it available again for tasking.

There are reserve slots for all aircraft at Gudauta airbase, however, no available aircraft yet. That means if a pilot MUST land at Gudauta airbase (low on fuel, damaged, etc.) the reserve slot becomes available should he land safely and park his aircraft (not on the runway!) before leaving the slot. In other words, that aircraft is transferred from Sochi-Adler to Gudauta airbase.

Note that pilots MUST always RTB to Sochi to avoid landing at the hot and risky zone of Gudauta but ONLY if they have to.

GAR-8 missiles are available.
The enemy has R-55 missiles.

*******************************************************************************************************

Air superiority is the key!

Search and destroy enemy fighters around Sukhumi city! Once air superiority is gained, a small number of pilots is required to perform CAS and help our advancing ground units capture Sukhumi-Babushara airbase.

Make sure you coordinate your attacks with the GCI operator if available, otherwise with other pilots on comms.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Combined Arms:

The 2 cmdr slots are for players controlling ground units while being on SRS with each other and other players to coordinate their attacks.
You MUST be on SRS as a cmdr operator!
The JTAC slots are mainly for players who want to check out the situation quickly, provide GCI for a group of people or preferably everyone. In addition, you can use the JTAC slot to drive a ground unit. However, the latter requires you being on comms with cmdr operators to avoid confusion and/or causing problems to their attacks.

 

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by Alpenwolf

[The_Tau]

8 hours ago, Alpenwolf said:

A NEW MISSION HAS ARRIVED!!!

 

Operation: Sukhumi - The Beginning

 

* The mission will go online tonight around 1900 zulu.

 

 

Soo was this map already played or...?

Edited December 17, 2020 by The_Tau

[Alpenwolf]

41 minutes ago, The_Tau said:

 

Soo was this map already played or...?

 

Just went online!

[Alpenwolf]

Server News:

 

The server is currently offline. I'm still updating DCS on my own machine and only after I fix at least one mission (99% sure I'll have to do that) I'll update DCS on the server's machine and bring the server back online.

 

EDIT:

Server's back online! And to my astonishment, the warehouses were NOT corrupted so no missions fixing is needed. I don't know what's going on, folks, but this is the second update in a row without me having to fix the warehouses. I hope ED did something there and it's not just random. In that case, thank you ED and God bless.

Edited December 18, 2020 by Alpenwolf

[Volator]

On 12/16/2020 at 8:56 AM, Pilot Ike said:

In "Homs" there was a spawning issue with the Hueys yesterday. I was in the first slot, and when the second slot pilot spawned, my Huey rolled over, crashed and burned. 

Problem found, it was on my side. New set of rudder pedals screwed my controls (double bindings), unnoticed by me... sorry for any inconvenience.

[ROSS_Pups]

Рen test, first movie.

 

[rossmum]

On 12/17/2020 at 1:03 AM, LoneS said:

No big deal for me with the F-14 having more missiles than the MIG29 in search and destroy. I understand your point Rossmum but it's more about players than aircraft. Just last time I flew the mission there was a MIG29 firing 2 missiles at enemy huey. That hurt my eyes to watch when tomcats were approaching the TA. Your average DCS player has bad SA and little interest in understanding the role of his aircraft. You'd expect fulcrums and tomcats to hunt each other but instead they go for easier targets. They want their name on the score board to shine. And they dont want any humiliation if shot down by an inferior aircraft. It's not a shame but if you care about the score board then it becomes that.

And BLue has less tomcats than Red MIG29s, no?

 

They have less in total, but that doesn't really count for much if one or two 14s is capable of killing multiple aircraft before ever being brought down itself. I think you are missing my point here somewhat: if we assume a skilled pilot, who only takes good shots and the missiles track correctly, and the Tomcat doesn't immediately dump a massive cloud of chaff and flares (which the R-27 will dive for immediately) - then each MiG-29 has two shots to fire, at medium range. The R-27 isn't going to perform once merged. The F-14 has 8 missiles, all of them all-aspect, the AIM-7M and AIM-9L are quite CM resistant, and it also has a massive reserve of CMs and its own magical missile approach warning system (in the form of Jester). Even if you get an IR shot away at the F-14, Jester will call a launch and from there it costs the F-14 nothing to just dump 10-15 flares and watch the missile sail harmlessly by. Every time I have found myself in an offensive rear-aspect position recently with the MiG-21, the second the R-60 leaves the rail, out comes a flare dump (even if the shot was taken from his blindspot or I know for a fact he was busy watching someone in the opposite direction to me) and the missile is trashed. The R-3R was the best way of dealing with them but until the radar fix is patched in, it's not viable at the kinds of altitudes most fights happen on the server.

 

It's easy to say it's a player problem, but a) it's not, and b) even if it was, that still doesn't account for the situation that it's going to cause. You could put the best players around in the MiG-29s, they're still going to be very limited in what they can do without a GCI, a wingman, or both - and that's not an option during low population hours. I don't think there's really a good solution with the toys we currently have to play with, but limiting when the slots unlock helps.

 

Like I said, against multiple players who are coordinating, the F-14s are surprisingly vulnerable and so far it seems the MiG-21s have had the greater success in killing them. On the other hand, when there are only a few people on the server or when blue outnumbers red by a significant margin, they become an absolute nightmare that you can do virtually nothing about. I'd imagine blue players have similar experiences with MiG-29s in some other missions, although less severe, as it lacks the quasi-MAWS and the R-60 forces it to get well within retaliation range after both R-27s are spent.