[DCS Bug] Catapult throws aircraft

[Gracey]

So the cat kinda throws you around when you do not get exactly lined up.

 

I think this is a ED issue though as the F-18 did it to me once.

However if HB looks into it and fixes it for their aircraft maybe ED will do something about it for everyone. Anyways. Heres a vid to go with it.

 

 

 

${1}

 

Edited March 20, 2019 by IronMike

[shagrat]

Nothing to fix really. You need to be lined up or you induce swaying...

What we need is marshallers, that guide us in spot.

[Gracey]

I am not really sure that is a good response. Considering how would that happen in real life?

 

My other question is, if it is simply not being lined up perfectly, then why does it get so significantly worse as you go down the cat?

 

That just sounds like an excuse to not look into it.

[Harlikwin]

On time, I wasn't aligned well, and it threw me off the deck and into a flat spin, woo F14 frisbee... Jester was not amused.

[Sadist_Cain]

I am not really sure that is a good response. Considering how would that happen in real life?

 

My other question is, if it is simply not being lined up perfectly, then why does it get so significantly worse as you go down the cat?

 

That just sounds like an excuse to not look into it.

 

Or an excuse to push the carrier module and functional deck crew more :D

 

I haven't had a tank slapper yet, though my slapdash haphazard texan buddy has had a good few.

I tend to do my line up in third person, double check in first, kneel and then slowly trundle towards to cat.

I find kneeling early helps me gauge how well I am aligned with the launch bar with the cat better.

 

Personally I think that the wobbley cat is a minor issue that doesn't really need time and energy looking into and "fixing" when just aligning properly is a fix itself.

 

The best solution to this problem as I see it is everything going into a functional deck crew to better assist folks in their lineup.

[Shadow_1stVFW]

 

Personally I think that the wobbley cat is a minor issue that doesn't really need time and energy looking into and "fixing" when just aligning properly is a fix itself.

 

The best solution to this problem as I see it is everything going into a functional deck crew to better assist folks in their lineup.

 

I mean, if code can place you you nose wheel in the correct position, it can surely align the aircraft too.

 

I wouldn't call it a trivial issue if you are able to damage the aircraft, or even worse, throw it into a spin off the ship. Not to mention, you may be barred from using external views, so your alignment method wouldn't work.

 

I'm not a huge proponent of deck crew eating up CPU cycles, but that's just me. I'd rather the catapult code work better.

[Harlikwin]

I mean, if code can place you you nose wheel in the correct position, it can surely align the aircraft too.

 

I wouldn't call it a trivial issue if you are able to damage the aircraft, or even worse, throw it into a spin off the ship. Not to mention, you may be barred from using external views, so your alignment method wouldn't work.

 

I'm not a huge proponent of deck crew eating up CPU cycles, but that's just me. I'd rather the catapult code work better.

 

Yeah exactly this. I mean deck crew is cool and all, but DCS already has performance problems. And really in its absence the cat code should just align the aircraft too, it can't be that hard to code. It would "look" bad most likely, but thats a tradeoff I can live with.

 

If you are minorly misaligned you can rudder it out, but sometimes its baaad.

[TheGuardian]

?

 

My other question is, if it is simply not being lined up perfectly, then why does it get so significantly worse as you go down the cat?

 

That just sounds like an excuse to not look into it.

 

Think of it like this. When you haul a trailer behind a truck, you try to place the load closer to the truck, ideally slightly ahead of the axle. Now think of where the F-14 is heavy. That's right, the engines, which a slightly behind the rear wheels. Once the wobble starts, there is nothing that can be done about. You have to align yourself properly down the track or you will wobble like crazy.

 

Here is a vid to show you what I am talking about.

 

Just a thought.

[Gracey]

It't not even that I am not lined up well. I am pretty damn close to being lined up.

 

The fact is, this isn't a truck, nor a trailer.

If it was however, because the centre of gravity is not at the back of the aircraft, that wouldn't happen anyway.

 

My point is, it gets worse, almost having the aircraft beyond 45 degrees on the cat. I'm no structural engineer, but would that not break the aircraft long before it gets to that point.

Also, what I see here is the game is trying to centre the aircraft. While it does this it throws the aircraft left, then reaches a point where it no longer needs to centre the aircraft. But because now the craft is moving to the left, it goes beyond the cat, and the cycle repeats.

 

My annoyance is that I am not THAT far off. It gets progressively worse.

In my opinion, to fix this is to have the aircraft moved straight if you are slightly off. I'm not saying you should be at more than a 6 degree angle lets say. Since it can already move the aircraft backwards. Which does not happen IRL, then why can't it line me up just a bit better when I am off a little bit to make it so it does not wreck my craft.

[shagrat]

It't not even that I am not lined up well. I am pretty damn close to being lined up.

 

The fact is, this isn't a truck, nor a trailer.

If it was however, because the centre of gravity is not at the back of the aircraft, that wouldn't happen anyway.

 

My point is, it gets worse, almost having the aircraft beyond 45 degrees on the cat. I'm no structural engineer, but would that not break the aircraft long before it gets to that point.

Also, what I see here is the game is trying to centre the aircraft. While it does this it throws the aircraft left, then reaches a point where it no longer needs to centre the aircraft. But because now the craft is moving to the left, it goes beyond the cat, and the cycle repeats.

 

My annoyance is that I am not THAT far off. It gets progressively worse.

In my opinion, to fix this is to have the aircraft moved straight if you are slightly off. I'm not saying you should be at more than a 6 degree angle lets say. Since it can already move the aircraft backwards. Which does not happen IRL, then why can't it line me up just a bit better when I am off a little bit to make it so it does not wreck my craft.

What happens after launch? If you wreck the plane on the carrier, you may have a point. if you wreck it after launch check flaps extended, Max take off weight, trim and wing sweep...

[Gracey]

What happens after launch? If you wreck the plane on the carrier, you may have a point. if you wreck it after launch check flaps extended, Max take off weight, trim and wing sweep...

 

None of that has anything to do with the issue.

 

Watch the video, I added a link to the original post since the youtube this is not working for me.

[shagrat]

None of that has anything to do with the issue.

 

Watch the video, I added a link to the original post since the youtube this is not working for me.

Thanks for the video. Whatever is causing this issue for you, it does not happen on my install. I can't say if it is something related to your controls, brake axis, a corrupt install, or something completely different. I can just say I started multiple times with that kind of "misalignment" and it wasn't much misaligned, at all.

The behaviour from the vid never happened to me...

@everybody - anybody else had similar issues?

[Harlikwin]

Yes i have.

[HereThen]

@everybody - anybody else had similar issues?

 

Yeah me in MP.

 

After the "Hotfix" i'm not able to launch from the carrier. Plane starts shaking and thats it.

Didn't had this on the release version, either I was lucky then or this is a new feature.

 

Edit:

I think it is related to the deck sliding. I'm perfectly lined up to the CAT (F2 view confirms), lower nose, press F2 and noticed the plane slided a few inches away from the first position. Press U and the shaking begins, plane is taken to the correct position by the CAT, unable to launch.

 

2:

Even if I change my mission so the F14 will start at CAT3 already hooked up I can't launch.

As soon as I spawn in the aircraft I'm already detached from the CAT by some deck sliding.

 

Untill I know what the **** I am doing wrong Ive ordered all the F14's to launch from an airfield :).

Edited March 19, 2019 by HereThen

[shagrat]

Need to check. Hotfix was monday, last multiplayer on Sunday. Likely time to check in detail on the weekend. This is definitely a bug or something. The swaying of the nose alone looks totally weird.

I mean I had some really misaligned starts with the F/A-18C Anfang never seen anything remotely like this.

[Deano87]

My 2 cents.

 

From your video you were poorly lined up. I've done 20 or so cats in the F-14 and had no issues but then I take my time to get lined up properly. One thing which will help that is approaching the cat from a bit further away so you can get lined up exactly and make sure your nose is pointing exactly down the track of the cat.

[Pougatchev]

Have to try what can do putting the cat 90° on the catapult :D

 

The new us Navy flying saucer :pilotfly:

[shagrat]

My 2 cents.

 

From your video you were poorly lined up. I've done 20 or so cats in the F-14 and had no issues but then I take my time to get lined up properly. One thing which will help that is approaching the cat from a bit further away so you can get lined up exactly and make sure your nose is pointing exactly down the track of the cat.

From the video he wasn't poorly aligned. The swaying was extreme, never seen this before.

[Deano87]

From the video he wasn't poorly aligned. The swaying was extreme, never seen this before.

 

I disagree with you. He was poorly aligned. Watch the video, he's about 2-3 degrees nose right of the correct heading. At 0:10 you can see that the marker on the heading tape at the top of the hud is well off to the right of the track, you can even tell he's wonky from the outside view at the start by looking at how far off the back end of the jet is compared to the centreline of the blast door behind it. If I replicate his error, I get the same result. Work on your alignment and you'll be fine.

[Harlikwin]

You can recover it with the correct rudder. But honestly it shouldn't happen in the first place, they should have some sort of "align" with cat command or just do it when you hook up. And yeah I think it has to do with the magic floating deck effect.

[HereThen]

Work on your alignment and you'll be fine.

 

It has nothing to do to the alignment.

 

I create a mission, put a F14 down on CAT 3 hot and ready.

 

I open the mission in SP, plane starts straight on CAT 3, put MIL power on and shift + u, got launched as expected.

 

I open the same mission in MP, plane bounces once on spawn, slides around a little, put on MIL power, shift + u, never launches.

 

Then I start the CAT 1 launch training mission in SP. I taxi to CAT 3, hook myself up few degrees of the center, MIL power and Shift + u, still launched.

 

For me the problem is MP missions.

[shagrat]

I disagree with you. He was poorly aligned. Watch the video, he's about 2-3 degrees nose right of the correct heading. At 0:10 you can see that the marker on the heading tape at the top of the hud is well off to the right of the track, you can even tell he's wonky from the outside view at the start by looking at how far off the back end of the jet is compared to the centreline of the blast door behind it. If I replicate his error, I get the same result. Work on your alignment and you'll be fine.

If you can reproduce this behavior with 2-3 degrees nose right in Single Player show us a video here and I believe you, until then I consider the possibility we have a potential issue in multiplayer when doing CAT launches and hope Heatblur/ED look into it... I did multiple launches in single player and was aligned worse. Yes, the F-14 swung a bit and I needed to stay sharp to correct after leaving the deck, but nothing like what is happening in the video from the OPs multiplayer session. :dunno:

[Pikey]

There's two things going on here. MP desync and poor lineup and people are talking at cross purposes. The MP wobble stuff is serious. The lineup issues, meh, i did it sloppy once and i wont again.

 

 

The wind and roll on deck will really mess with sliding around and it should be sorted by ED.