Feedback Thread - F14 Tomcat Patch 16-06-2021

[IronMike]

Dear all,

as always we would like to offer a feedback thread for the current patch. As always we appreciate your input a lot!

As you noted we have been a bit more silent and afk lately, this was due to peparation of this major patch, which needed most of our focus, as we try to push the F-14 to completion. Below please find the changelog.

Known issues:
- Wings over-oversweep re-occured in the latest update of the closed beta, so please expect it to be un-fixed again, unfortunately this issues is not on our side. We hope it can be fixed for the next hotfix/patch.
- CTDs on respawn or mission reload occur far less frequently, but still occur. This is also an issue that cannot be fixed on our side.
- We believed the release of the Mariana Islands map was imminent, so we included the missions prematurely. They will be waiting for you on day 1 of its release though.

 

Special Note: Since we included the Brake Pressure Gauges as working now (they are the green-red gauges behind your stick below your HSD), you can also manually handpump the hydraulic pressure back for the wheel-and parkingbrakes (to test simply shut down engines and engage wheelbrakes or parking brake until you see the pressure drop). However: the gauge only starts indicating (bottom of red) at 1900 PSI. This means, if you deplete your pressure fully, you need to pump around 38 times to see the pressure rise again, since each pump only adds around 50 PSI. The green area starts at 2150 PSI and ends at 3000 PSI. Happy pumping!

EDIT: unfortunately we found that we might have to decrease pressure per 1 pump cycle to as little as 8 PSI. We are currently still investigating.

Thank you all for your great support and feedback!


Changelog DCS: F-14 Tomcat by Heatblur Simulations

 

• NEW: Hook Physics

  • Added physics based hook model.

  • Hook will skip now if landing too fast.

  • Hook will shear off when arresting with excess kinetic energy.

  • Hook no longer clips through ground. (Spectators and RIO may notice some clipping due to network lag.)

  • Added collision shell to hook. 

  • Hook can now be damaged by gunfire or explosions and detach from the aircraft.

  • Added spark effects and hook break sounds.

• NEW: Iceman Features

  • Iceman can now orbit a steerpoint or map marker.

    • You can select between a variety of speeds and diameters

    • You can ask Iceman to fly a left or right handed orbit

    • You can smoothly transition between orbit diameters and speeds at any time

  • Iceman can now fly to a steerpoint or map marker.

• NEW: Carrier Burble Aerodynamics

  • Carriers will now create a burble behind the stern.

  • Burble intensity differs with carrier and wind speeds and needs to be taken into account when landing on the carrier. 

  • When in close, the burble will first generate positive vertical velocity, immediately followed by negative vertical velocity. 

• NEW: At night, the catapult launch is triggered by turning the exterior lights on (in accordance with manual procedures). Added a new special option which flashes the lights automatically together with the pilot salute.

• NEW: Added MAK-79 bomb clamp models and revised loadout code. Bombs will now no longer float around the aircraft pylons.

• NEW: Added 15 Mariana Islands Quickstart missions. Note: Will be available when the Marianas map launches.

• JESTER reporting improvements: JESTER is now more selective in reporting incoming missiles, and he will ignore the missiles that don’t look like potential threats.

• Completely rebuilt turn and slip ball indicator physics.

• Overhauled several aspects of Autopilot behaviour:

  • ALT Hold will now null the rate instead of returning to a set altitude.

  • ALT Hold will now engage only if within +/- 200FPM vertical speed.

  • ALT Hold will not disengage anymore with lateral stick input, but with approx. 10lbs longitudinal pressure (or its equivalent in vertical velocity).

  • HDG Hold will not disengage anymore with lateral stick input. Lateral stick input can now be used for steering in HDG Hold and will set the new heading upon release and leveling. 

  • With HDG Hold engaged and if lateral stick input is released within 5° bank angle the AP will level the aircraft now.

  • Fixed ATT and ALT Hold not engaging properly at higher altitudes.

  • The aircraft will roll smoother now if lateral stick input is used during ATT, ALT and HDG Hold. 

  • If the aircraft is overbanked or overpitched during ALT and/or ATT Hold, ATT Hold should now return the aircraft to 30° pitch and 60° bank.

• Taught JESTER the importance of breathing: he will turn on his oxygen on startup now.

• Asking JESTER to input waypoints will no longer break the INS alignment procedure. The option to input the waypoints is disabled during times when it could impact the alignment.

• Fixed Wing Sweep multi-crew initialization issue. This should solve F-14’s causing collision damage on carriers if spawned in the wrong order due to unswept wings.

• Fixed slip-ball negative G-load erratic behavior.

• Fixed radio catapult salute. It now triggers launch.

• RIO can now use radio catapult salute to trigger a launch, too.

• Fixed guard receiver in both radios. Guard frequency is now audible and automatically sets guard frequency according to your last selected frequency in the AN/ARC-182: 40.5 FM for 30 - 88 FM, 121.5 AM for 108 - 156 AM, 156.8 FM for 156 - 174 FM and 243 for ranges set between 225 and 400 AM/FM (and will always be 243 AM for the AN/ARC-159).

• Possible fix for the BDHI TACAN needle bug where it could get stuck pointing down.

• Fixed RIO aspect switch affecting only DDD, it now affects target tracking, too.

• Fix TID radar azimuth line flailing around during AWG-9 ground-based tutorial missions.

• Added radar altimeter test light.

• Brake Pressure Gauges are now operative.

• Gun is no longer operable with air source RAM or OFF selected.

• Extending speedbrakes now interrupts fuel dump (except in the case of combined systems hydraulic failure).

• Fixed Hydraulics, Flight Controls, Engines and Gear not being repaired.

• Single-player RIO Total Fuel gauge now shows correct value during INST test.

• Fixed hydraulic transfer pump operation - pressure drop to approximately 2,400 to 2,600 psi in the inoperative system is now simulated.

• Fuel transfer switch now causes engines to correctly draw fuel from forward or aft tanks.

• Fixed multi-crew synchronisation of the Yaw String.

• Fixed multi-crew synchronisation of the Wing Sweep indicator.

• Fixed multi-crew synchronisation of the Wing Sweep Emergency lever and its cover.

• Fixed multi-crew synchronisation of the Gear and Hook system. Now working from RIO’s perspective:

  • Nosewheel Steering Indicator Light

  • Wheels Warning flashing light

  • Brake lights

  • Landing Gear Indicator

  • Speedbrake Indicator

  • Gear handle emergency position

  • Hook handle emergency position

  • Nose Strut Switch

• Fixed bug where RIO low fuel warning light would never turn off in multiplayer.

• Fixed syncables bug where master INST test wouldn't register on RIO devices.

• Fixed syncables bug where master LTS test wouldn’t register on RIO devices.

• Fixed RIO caution lights for low oxygen and low fuel not showing in multiplayer.

• Fixed doubled up tow bar latch geometry.

• Towbar latches are now stowed.

• Added holes for towbar latches.

• Fixed gap in gear doors on right side.

• Fixed broken normals and UVs on the right side gear door.

• Fixed missing afterburner texture planes in F-14A-135GR.

• Added missing VID stencil text to RIO DDD Panel.

• Fixed an issue where another aircraft landing on the carrier where your F14 is parked could trigger a landing-log event for your aircraft.

• Fixed an issue where landing on a carrier within one minute of starting a mission would fail to generate a landing-log.

• Fixed a potential CTD if pilot and RIO spawned in sequence and landed on the carrier within one minute.

• Gear extension and Speedbrake sounds are now audible for the RIO in multi-crew.

• Added refuel probe turbulence sounds.

• Corrected a bug which caused some duplication of canopy-opening sound effects.

• Increased AIM-54 and AIM-7 RCS as per request from Eagle Dynamics.

• Added BDU-45 and BDU-45B practice bombs to loadouts.

• Fix for CATM being launchable (previously DCS used to ignore launch API on these).

• Adjusted BDU-33 and SUU-25 attach position on BRU-42 forwards slightly to match lug holes.

• Added bindings for VR reset base, spyglass zoom and zoom.

• Fixed Campaign OP Reforger Mission 5.

• Updated Cage the Bear Campaign (thank you Kaba!):

  • Updated all missions to 2.7 weather (clouds!).

  • Updated CN localisation. (Thank you Alphabet_Ghost!)

  • Corrected mission 5 carrier frequency.

  • Corrected mission 5 allied F14 liveries.

  • Adjusted mission 8 divert airfield trigger - should now activate no matter which spot you stop at.

• Fixed Carrier TACAN in Syria Quickstart Recovery Missions.

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by IronMike

[Lt_Jaeger]

Can I already tell you guys that I hate you? 

 

All these physics changes and burble stuff will be most probably above my capabilities for bringing my lovely cat down. Now I have to join the Airforce.

 

All your fault. 

 

 

Let me say thank you for your constant strive to perfect your product and make it as realistic as it gets for us wannabe armchair pilots. 

 

 

[IronMike]

9 minutes ago, Lt_Jaeger said:

 

All these physics changes and burble stuff will be most probably above my capabilities for bringing my lovely cat down.

 

 

 

It'll be fine...

[Skysurfer]

Good stuff! Really glad to see the AUX and BRAKE PRESS gauges be finally modelled. Can't wait to test the new deck and hook physics on the Forrestal.  

 

Any update on when to expect the early and IRIAF A's as well as more liveries and some livery fixes for the current A?

[Uxi]

The missing wings on the static F-14B ever get fixed? 

 

Excited to try the new hook physics tonight. 

 

Can I hope for some bindings to be added one of these patches?  CRS axis pretty please with sugar on top...

Edited June 16, 2021 by Uxi

[IronMike]

14 minutes ago, Uxi said:

Can I hope for some bindings to be added one of these patches?  CRS axis pretty please with sugar on top...

 

 

Wings are mentioned above in known issues.

As for binding, will all come at the end, for obvious reasons, sorry about that, Uxi. I would love to offer you that we do one pet peeve of yours right away, but then I'd have to offer it to everyone else as well, and then we can implement everything that is missing right away anyway. It is just better for us to wait a bit more still, because some things might change still (as in how we make them work internally, etc). Thank you for your kind understanding. We hope we will reach this point soon.

[REDEYE_CVW-66]

Something seems up with the AIM54 again. Still early testing- but in the last build I was able to time after time defeat 2 bandits with TWS shots at 30+ NM. That is when it was introduced that AI won't defend until missile goes active. I was able to achieve this 20+ times against 2xFlanker or Mig-29S combos, ACE and armed to the teetth. The few missions I did tonight had very different results. The AIM54's were easily defeated (the locked as they should) by some chaff and the AI did not even bother to defend. The missiles fly by harmlessly while the AI peppers me with R-27s. Even against a single Flanker with 2x STT shots I was only able to finally defeat him with guns.

 

Like I said, just a couple of prelim tests, to little hard data yet, and I am certainly no F-14 ace, just reporting VERY different behaviors and results.

[IronMike]

6 hours ago, REDEYE_CVW-66 said:

Something seems up with the AIM54 again. Still early testing- but in the last build I was able to time after time defeat 2 bandits with TWS shots at 30+ NM. That is when it was introduced that AI won't defend until missile goes active. I was able to achieve this 20+ times against 2xFlanker or Mig-29S combos, ACE and armed to the teetth. The few missions I did tonight had very different results. The AIM54's were easily defeated (the locked as they should) by some chaff and the AI did not even bother to defend. The missiles fly by harmlessly while the AI peppers me with R-27s. Even against a single Flanker with 2x STT shots I was only able to finally defeat him with guns.

 

Like I said, just a couple of prelim tests, to little hard data yet, and I am certainly no F-14 ace, just reporting VERY different behaviors and results.

 

Thank you for the feedback. This is all in regards to AI though, and we did not implement any changes (except RCS) to the aim54, thus unlikely something changed with this patch at all (except you might see them on radar occasionally). If you find more on this, we'll of course be happy to investigate more. 

[Lurker]

What is the performance like in the F14 now, did all of these changes come at the expense of some performance? (Honest question, not trying to troll or anything, my Tomcat is parked for now as I'm in the process of learning the Hind so I couldn't do any F14 tests)

 

Seems like a lot of was added (which is great, not complaining) just wondering what the relative cost is going to be with regards to how it performs in the sim? The Hind seems to be very demanding FPS wise. 

 

This question is mostly aimed at all the VR people out there, who tend to notice these things a lot more. 

[Katsu]

Did you guys changed something about drag? i noticed some minor improvement on F-14A without stores.

[Kula66]

Just had Jester call out a missile that I'd just fired ... no other missiles in the air

I've not noticed any performance hit flying over Cyprus compared to previous over other parts of Syria. I've certainly noticed the additional shaking behind the boat

Edited June 17, 2021 by Kula66

[IronMike]

Thank you for the feedback, guys! I will answer in "bulk", if I may:

- no date on forrestal and early As yet, but Forrestal is one thing we concentrate on now, so should be soon, provided everything goes well. Early As will follow suit then.

- we did not make any changes to performance or drag in this build. The performance tweaking currently runs on a separate, experimental development branch.

 

- we're investigating the missile callout, for own missiles (good find!)

- nothing that has been added should affect your performance in any kind of way.

Thank you all again!

[wadman]

Something significant appears to have changed with this patch and it's not good - F14 radar on TWS with AIM 54 seems "porked".  In the Instant Action "Beyond Visual Range" mission on Persion Gulf Map, I could pretty reliably press in at a slight offset while reducing altitude and take out both Mig 29's with Phoenix TWS shots (one at ~30 miles and the second at ~19 miles).  Now with ZERO changes on my end, the TWS tracks drop before 30 miles range and do not reappear.  So... pre-patch both Migs could be taken out consistently - but... post-patch it's not possible as the tracks drop and do not reacquire for some reason.  So something definitely got screwed up here.

 

It's very frustrating as DCS never seems to settle down - I get's it's open Beta, but things that worked keep getting broken!    

[Lt_Jaeger]

23 minutes ago, wadman said:

Something significant appears to have changed with this patch and it's not good - F14 radar on TWS with AIM 54 seems "porked".  In the Instant Action "Beyond Visual Range" mission on Persion Gulf Map, I could pretty reliably press in at a slight offset while reducing altitude and take out both Mig 29's with Phoenix TWS shots (one at ~30 miles and the second at ~19 miles).  Now with ZERO changes on my end, the TWS tracks drop before 30 miles range and do not reappear.  So... pre-patch both Migs could be taken out consistently - but... post-patch it's not possible as the tracks drop and do not reacquire for some reason.  So something definitely got screwed up here.

 

It's very frustrating as DCS never seems to settle down - I get's it's open Beta, but things that worked keep getting broken!    

I was going to yell at people for the same reason. I have a mission editor mission where I try AIM-54 against MiG 25 / 31. There was no chance to fire the things due to radar not picking up the targets. I was angry....  Then I tried At devils Edge and everything was fine. Both MiGs with the first 2 MSL...Firing at 45, cranking, descending, both good splash.  Dunno.... have to watch it a little more.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Does iceman obey commands to climb/descend/speedup/etc when you leave the cockpit for the backseat with the autopilot engaged?  Or is it something on my end? 

[IronMike]

6 hours ago, Lt_Jaeger said:

I was going to yell at people for the same reason. I have a mission editor mission where I try AIM-54 against MiG 25 / 31. There was no chance to fire the things due to radar not picking up the targets. I was angry....  Then I tried At devils Edge and everything was fine. Both MiGs with the first 2 MSL...Firing at 45, cranking, descending, both good splash.  Dunno.... have to watch it a little more.

 

 

Just to give you more info: on devils edge is done very simple, so no scripts or anything run to change it from how you would set up your missions. It is very basic so to speak.

 

1 hour ago, RaisedByWolves said:

Does iceman obey commands to climb/descend/speedup/etc when you leave the cockpit for the backseat with the autopilot engaged?  Or is it something on my end? 

 

He definitely should.

Edited June 17, 2021 by IronMike

[near_blind]

Y'all got any of them Sparrow fixes planned for the next update?

[CoBlue]

On 6/16/2021 at 2:46 PM, IronMike said:

Dear all,

as always we would like to offer a feedback thread for the current patch. As always we appreciate your input a lot!

Hey Mike I don't experience any hook-skips when fast/slow? Can you take a look? Great job with the "burble"!.  (I thought it was better to start a new topic.)

I

[Eroxz564]

The physics just went mayham tbh..

[Digital_Camo]

Hey there,

 

Not sure if this is on your radar, but the "musical tone" dissonance sound emitting when the engines start has been rather quite annoying. Im hoping this is something that can be addressed or at least put on your radar? After some testing, I've noticed it is from when the engine is fully up and running. ECS to "both" drowns out the sound, but its still there. The sound goes away when any afterburner kicks in. I dont hear it in the B model, so its specific to the A. I've linked the forum post where several others are experiencing the same issue and at the top, someone has pointed out the specific sound file in which the sound originates from.

 

 

I apologize if this isnt the right forum to post in, but Im just trying to get the word out!

 

Thanks,

Digital

[IronMike]

14 hours ago, CoBlue said:

Hey Mike I don't experience any hook-skips when fast/slow? Can you take a look? Great job with the "burble"!.  (I thought it was better to start a new topic.)

I

 

I replied in the thread.

 

8 hours ago, Eroxz564 said:

The physics just went mayham tbh..

 

How so? It is a physics based model, and if you do not meet the requirements for a hook skip, which is a mix of speed, AOA and vertical velocity + swinging mass (to simplify), you will not experience any skips. It would help if you could be a bit more specific please. Thank you.

To everyone: the hook appears twitchy or can be clipping if you are a RIO or spectator in F2. This is something not possible to do better, because of network lag, etc. At the same time it is difficult to spot the exact moment as pilot. To just enjoy the full "look of it", you can however try and simply slow down time and land and watch from F2. That's unfortunately the nature of the game.

Edited June 18, 2021 by IronMike

[IronMike]

15 hours ago, CoBlue said:

Hey Mike I don't experience any hook-skips when fast/slow? Can you take a look? Great job with the "burble"!.  (I thought it was better to start a new topic.)

I

 

Thank you! I replied in the original thread.

[Whiskey11]

I'd say the things that did change were solid changes, but I'm definitely getting tired of Jester's lack of A2A engagement prowess...  I was flying on the 107th Through the Inferno server and we had a pair of MiG-23's at about 80nmi, off the nose, hot and hostile at about 26k feet.  I was at 33k feet and Mach .9.  No Datalink on these targets, but at about 70nmi, without me telling Jester to do anything, but the radar clearly in TWS-A, he loses lock and doesn't find them again.  MiG-23 went from Nails, to Spike to Launch at around 15nmi where I was visual with them and at NO POINT did he ever pick them up again, even after I tried telling him to look at where they'd be at range (set him to 50nmi -30k feet and got nothing).  THANKFULLY, they are JUST MiG-23's and I successfully sent them to the earth in a ball of fire... but it was frustrating to lose two hot hostile contacts at 80nmi for what seemed like no good reason at all... 

After that engagement, I hit the tanker up and he struggled to maintain the tanker on the screen too even after I commanded him to TWS-A.

Hoping Jester's improvements include better ability and desire to locate datalink targets which aren't on the radar, and to IFF hostile datalink targets BEFORE unknowns and friendlies.  Maybe even a "Hey, there was a radar contact there a second ago, where the heck is it now?" tree to his AI as well so if he does have a situation like my MiG-23 engagement, he can actually find them again.

[ShinyMikey]

Jester is mostly just a control interface so that you can run the radar from the front seat, don't expect him to do many things for you except for IFF and callouts. If the MIG-23's tracks dropped, they might have turned and notched the radar or perhaps they went down to the deck. You can tell jester to look at a certain range and altitude (like 40mi at 5000ft if you think they have moved down to the deck). In this situation you might want to change your own aspect to slow down the closure and start searching at different altitudes while intermittently returning the radar to auto elevation and azimuth.   

[WOPR]

On 6/17/2021 at 8:11 AM, Katsu said:

Did you guys changed something about drag? i noticed some minor improvement on F-14A without stores.

 

On 6/17/2021 at 9:44 AM, IronMike said:

Thank you for the feedback, guys! I will answer in "bulk", if I may:

- no date on forrestal and early As yet, but Forrestal is one thing we concentrate on now, so should be soon, provided everything goes well. Early As will follow suit then.

- we did not make any changes to performance or drag in this build. The performance tweaking currently runs on a separate, experimental development branch.

 

- we're investigating the missile callout, for own missiles (good find!)

- nothing that has been added should affect your performance in any kind of way.

Thank you all again!

The F-14A seems super slippery with and without external stores.   Braking for join ups definitely seeems to need more time than previously.  Linear acceleration also seems like it is a little more sporty.   If HB didn’t change anything, perhaps ED did?  I haven’t flown the14B much this patch.