ACMI Pod, simulated shots, and tacview

[BreaKKer]

My squadron did a training session yesterday where we were unable to fire live munitions due to our aggressor aircraft being set to vulnerable and taking off with us out of Nellis. As stupid as it sounds, lol, we simulated shots in a simulation. We threw the jet into the training mode as well as threw on some ACMI pods to test whether they

a. decreased missile count in training mode

b. showed TTI on TID in STT and TWS

c. showed simulated missiles in TACVIEW

From what we saw, a. b. and c. weren't a thing and nothing was changed besides cosmetics. Was curious what the master arm training mode did in real life, as well as if there was a future for the ACMI pod and training mode besides cosmetics?

[KlarSnow]

TCTS/ACMI pods in DCS are solely there for looks, they have zero functionality. Also you are making a lot of assumptions about how they work and are integrated in jets in the real world. 
 

This also seems way more like an ED feature than a heatblur one. But I also don’t see any dev putting any effort into virtual training tools within the virtual game environment when invulnerability and infinite weapons exist…

 

[draconus]

17 hours ago, KlarSnow said:

But I also don’t see any dev putting any effort into virtual training tools within the virtual game environment...

@Reflected at least tried some in his Zone 5.

[Reflected]

20 hours ago, KlarSnow said:

 

 But I also don’t see any dev putting any effort into virtual training tools within the virtual game environment when invulnerability and infinite weapons exist…

 

 

You make it sound really easy, but it's not. 1v1 maybe, but a lot v a lot, we don't have enough tools in the mission editor for workarounds. E.g. if you make one unit immortal, the 'unit damaged' trigger will not work. Even if it did, some people would complain why do we fire actual missiles?

 

Bottom line is, let it go. It's one of the advantages of being in a simulation, that you don't have to be afraid of blowing up other planes. We've talked about this with Bio when making Zone 5, and he was all for shooting and killing, because it's more fun.

[draconus]

6 hours ago, Reflected said:

We've talked about this with Bio when making Zone 5, and he was all for shooting and killing, because it's more fun.

I can understand him very well. Real flights aren't that packed with fun usually. I guess he never killed anybody too. In DCS we do a lot so we don't crave for it every time and since we really like to simulate everything real fighter jocks did we also want to take part in the training like it was done IRL. Of course it's not possible until the right tools are handed to us and it all sounds like inception but we still want it.

[Spartan111sqn]

Simulate a shot in a SIM awesome!, strange, in my squadron those type of exercises we do it in invulnerable, later in tacview you can analyze all that stuff. The training is focused in the maneouver and if the shot is valid.

Edited July 13, 2021 by Spartan111sqn

[KlarSnow]

So the problem with that is that the training is limited because you aren’t shooting real missiles. You train better by shooting actual missiles than shooting simulated missiles every time. So that’s just a limitation of the real world. You are getting the training fighter pilots wish they could have and know would be way better than all the artificialities of the training environment. But we can’t do because you know, cost, killing eachother, risk etc…there are downsides to employing that way and we know it.

[BreaKKer]

19 hours ago, Spartan111sqn said:

Simulate a shot in a SIM awesome!, strange, in my squadron those type of exercises we do it in invulnerable, later in tacview you can analyze all that stuff. The training is focused in the maneouver and if the shot is valid.

 

Our specific circumstance was where we weren't able to have invulnerability, because we were on a server with different squadrons doing different things. We normally have a controlled environment where we do have invulnerability, but then again, we just didn't have access to that.

[ataribaby]

HI,

some time ago I tried to make something like that. Its more MP toy than serious shots simulation though.

 

Top Gun Hops MP with working ACMI pods (digitalcombatsimulator.com)

 

T-45C Goshawk 4v4 ACM MP with Virtual Mission Training System (VMTS) (digitalcombatsimulator.com)