Cold War 1947 - 1991 *** 2nd Limited Edition ***

[BodyOrgan]

Possible to add the rest of the Viggen AG ordinance in this mission? Attacking the ships was fun (I'll post some formation screenshots later), but after making the 300 nm round trip a few times to attack the Kuz we were ready to do something else, except we couldn't.

 

If a few BK90s (8 or so) were added we might even be able to help take out one of those SAM sites (timeline wise it's still too early, but we could pretend we're field testing the prototypes).

 

The RB-15 would also be nice because it can help alleviate the super long range we have to fly for the Kuz. This missile was at one point OP, and may still be that way, so depending on findings maybe have it as an unlock for achieving a goal, and or have a reduced amount available.

[rogorogo]

vor 8 Stunden schrieb Alpenwolf:

 

1:

Mi-24's remain all the same. The players didn't do much, although the AAV-7's are literally sitting ducks while crossing the channel between the two islands.

 

 

 

The Shaitan-Arba currently has FM issues, which finally some people start to notice as in "bugreport" and "type about it" (it has basically become an unstable twitchy noclip cam esp in transition, hover aso and is barely controllable in most envelopes or at least extremely unpleasant to fly for most).
Also if flown by one player, the Petro-AI still has spotting, locking, and weapon release problems.
Maybe that was the reason they were not that effective/underused, as the population on CW is more likely to truly know their modules and also appreciate fidelity.

Also the module in its current state (no R60s) is even more dependent on actual friendly CAP, moreso in this scenario. I was unfortunately too late to use one (AAVs already standing next to the slots) but looking forward to try - and fail - next time.

[Alpenwolf]

On 8/1/2021 at 7:06 AM, BodyOrgan said:

Possible to add the rest of the Viggen AG ordinance in this mission? Attacking the ships was fun (I'll post some formation screenshots later), but after making the 300 nm round trip a few times to attack the Kuz we were ready to do something else, except we couldn't.

 

If a few BK90s (8 or so) were added we might even be able to help take out one of those SAM sites (timeline wise it's still too early, but we could pretend we're field testing the prototypes).

 

The RB-15 would also be nice because it can help alleviate the super long range we have to fly for the Kuz. This missile was at one point OP, and may still be that way, so depending on findings maybe have it as an unlock for achieving a goal, and or have a reduced amount available.

 

If you check out the warehouses at the airbases and aircraft carriers, you find out that a very limited number of different types of weapons is available. This is in order to keep the mission going towards completing the task, especially for Blue. This is why F/A-18C's have access to AGM-88'C only, in terms of air-to-ground weapons. They are tasked with SEAD at all enemy islands so if AGM-65's and other types of weapons were included, they might get tempted to provide CAS or anti-ship operations instead. And CAS is the Harrier's objective and not the Hornet's while anti-ship is the Viggen's.

 

Now, if the ships are wiped out and you still want to provide assistance for your coalition, then how about grabbing an Eagle or a Mirage or any type of aircraft that might be available, so that Blue strikers (Hornets, Harriers and later on Thunderbolts) can get along with their tasking? If the Viggen and other aircraft had access to more than what they should, everyone would end up doing his own thing being a multi-role ace, neglecting teamwork and barely bothering to pay attention to what others are doing, because he can do it all on his own.

 

I was on the Blue side yesterday listening in and the teamwork was brilliant! Almost every Blue player and at some point all of them were on SRS. That's what I want! That's why I design these missions so we can experience that, where every tiny little detail matters.

 

After ca. 6-7 hours all Red ships were destroyed! The RB-15 would make it even worse on Red, and losing the Kuznetsov is very costly. That's a total of 24 x Su-33's! Not to fail to mention that Red aircraft were almost completely wiped out after ca. 5 hours, before the Kuznetsov was destroyed.

 

On 8/1/2021 at 11:26 AM, rogorogo said:

The Shaitan-Arba currently has FM issues, which finally some people start to notice as in "bugreport" and "type about it" (it has basically become an unstable twitchy noclip cam esp in transition, hover aso and is barely controllable in most envelopes or at least extremely unpleasant to fly for most).
Also if flown by one player, the Petro-AI still has spotting, locking, and weapon release problems.
Maybe that was the reason they were not that effective/underused, as the population on CW is more likely to truly know their modules and also appreciate fidelity.

Also the module in its current state (no R60s) is even more dependent on actual friendly CAP, moreso in this scenario. I was unfortunately too late to use one (AAVs already standing next to the slots) but looking forward to try - and fail - next time.

 

I don't recall seeing one Mi-24 or one F-14 being controlled by two players. Shame. That would've changed the outcome of some scenarios.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Alpenwolf

[rogorogo]

vor einer Stunde schrieb Alpenwolf:

I don't recall seeing one Mi-24 or one F-14 being controlled by two players. Shame. That would've changed the outcome of some scenarios.

 

Definitely. Which again should be a reminder for RED faction players to bind their INTERCOM button in SRS.

Edited August 1, 2021 by rogorogo

[=475FG= Dawger]

12 hours ago, The_Tau said:

Remember map is set in 1990s = no satelites = no GPS. You cant set your INS to IFA, you have to set it to NAV. So keep in mind that ur nav system will degrade over time and position updates are required  

Actually, the mission date is 1990 so GPS is available. I did not know that yesterday so I ended up trying both methods several times to no avail.

 

I tested the Allied Assault mission offline this morning and was able to get everything working properly on the first try. I think this is an intermittent bug with the F/A-18. I avoid it in my missions by setting CV Hornets to Hot Start.

[BodyOrgan]

Originally we wanted to fly the Tomcat, so we could have been your two man bird, but they were all taken by singles, and you said the Viggens needed help, so we decided to do that.

 

After the Viggen mission was completed, if I were flying solo I would have grabbed the Harrier, but I was flying with a wingman, and the only other aircraft they have is the Tomcat, but the Tomcats usefulness had run its course by then.

 

The Kuznetsov wasn't an objective for the Viggen. We only went for it at first for the challenge, and continued because we found out we couldn't do anything else. Personally I suggest you unlock additional Viggen AG weaponry if they complete their primary objective, so we can help with real objectives. While it's fun to fly the 300+ nautical mile trip once or twice, it does get old, especially when we barely make a dent each time. For example, we made this trip 3 or 4 times involving 3-4 Viggens, and didn't sink any ships between 6 to 8 anti-ship missiles each trip.

[The_Tau]

4 hours ago, pmiceli said:

Actually, the mission date is 1990 so GPS is available. I did not know that yesterday so I ended up trying both methods several times to no avail.

 

I tested the Allied Assault mission offline this morning and was able to get everything working properly on the first try. I think this is an intermittent bug with the F/A-18. I avoid it in my missions by setting CV Hornets to Hot Start.

according to DCS...

I used NAV instead of IFA in F18 and it worked fine,


@Alpenwolf
any particular reason why planes had already preselected loadout on spawn?
I was thinking that maybe if you spawn them naked then it will fix infinite weapons bug (e.g. aim54)

Edited August 1, 2021 by The_Tau

[Alpenwolf]

2 hours ago, BodyOrgan said:

Originally we wanted to fly the Tomcat, so we could have been your two man bird, but they were all taken by singles, and you said the Viggens needed help, so we decided to do that.

 

After the Viggen mission was completed, if I were flying solo I would have grabbed the Harrier, but I was flying with a wingman, and the only other aircraft they have is the Tomcat, but the Tomcats usefulness had run its course by then.

 

The Kuznetsov wasn't an objective for the Viggen. We only went for it at first for the challenge, and continued because we found out we couldn't do anything else. Personally I suggest you unlock additional Viggen AG weaponry if they complete their primary objective, so we can help with real objectives. While it's fun to fly the 300+ nautical mile trip once or twice, it does get old, especially when we barely make a dent each time. For example, we made this trip 3 or 4 times involving 3-4 Viggens, and didn't sink any ships between 6 to 8 anti-ship missiles each trip.

 

You could help with being the RIO of some Tomcat player. That was really an issue yesterday, you know.

 

There is no trigger or a script line that activates weapons later on, should a certain condition get fulfilled, otherwise I might at least consider it if Rota Intl is captured or the like.

 

1 hour ago, The_Tau said:

any particular reason why planes had already preselected loadout on spawn?
I was thinking that maybe if you spawn them naked then it will fix infinite weapons bug (e.g. aim54)

 

 

To give the player the idea of what he's supposed to be doing. I removed that afterwards actually to avoid having unlimited weapons on the carriers. Same with the Kuznetsov.

[BodyOrgan]

42 minutes ago, Alpenwolf said:

You could help with being the RIO of some Tomcat player. That was really an issue yesterday, you know.

 

There is no trigger or a script line that activates weapons later on, should a certain condition get fulfilled, otherwise I might at least consider it if Rota Intl is captured or the like.

Oh yeah, I would have joined Tau if I weren't flying with a buddy that day. Too bad about the triggers. I stand by your position in that case.

[=475FG= Dawger]

7 hours ago, The_Tau said:

 

I used NAV instead of IFA in F18 and it worked fine,

 

 

As I said, I tried NAV several times from a new aircraft each time with no success. When I tried the same mission offline, it worked the first time.

 

Take from that what you will.

[Alpenwolf]

Round 2 kicks off this Friday, 06.08.2021, around 1930 zulu.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Alpenwolf

[Gunslinger22]

1 hour ago, Alpenwolf said:

Round 2 kicks off this Friday, 06.08.2021, around 1900 zulu.

Any chance we could make it 1930 Zulu, I may be the only Aus bloke flying, but that extra half hour when it's 5AM helps. Whereas I'm sure everyone else won't mind it being that little bit later? 

 

[QuiGon]

12 hours ago, Alpenwolf said:

You could help with being the RIO of some Tomcat player. That was really an issue yesterday, you know.

 

Me and my buddies would have loved to multicrew 1 or 2 Tomcats (or Hinds), but couldn't make it this time. There's nothing more fun than multicrewing an aircraft with your buddy

We should be there next Friday though

Edited August 2, 2021 by QuiGon

[Alpenwolf]

1 hour ago, Gunslinger22 said:

Any chance we could make it 1930 Zulu, I may be the only Aus bloke flying, but that extra half hour when it's 5AM helps. Whereas I'm sure everyone else won't mind it being that little bit later? 

 

 

Just for you and all the Aussies. Plus New Zealand, Fiji, New Caledonia and all the beautiful islands out there as well. Not that I've ever visited that part of the world

 

1930 zulu it is then.

[The_Tau]

 here is my stream from last round! 

 

 

@Alpenwolf
What do you say about making A-G weapons depot on the Rota island? You need to unlock it first and then you have to land there for most aircraft to load A-G weapons...?

[Alpenwolf]

3 hours ago, The_Tau said:

 here is my stream from last round! 

 

 

@Alpenwolf
What do you say about making A-G weapons depot on the Rota island? You need to unlock it first and then you have to land there for most aircraft to load A-G weapons...?

 

Well, it is the case already. How else would the A-10C's do their job?

[Gunslinger22]

5 hours ago, The_Tau said:

 here is my stream from last round! 

 

 

@Alpenwolf
What do you say about making A-G weapons depot on the Rota island? You need to unlock it first and then you have to land there for most aircraft to load A-G weapons...?

Oh so now I see the truth on my 29 guns kill, really needed to make sure that he was completely dead. Great stream though! 

[Zachrix]

On 8/4/2021 at 4:13 PM, Gunslinger22 said:

Oh so now I see the truth on my 29 guns kill, really needed to make sure that he was completely dead. Great stream though! 

 Here is my side, I unfortunately had my tank still on so I couldn't deploy speed break to get my nose for the 73 shot when you fired your AIM9. Still got you though

Edited August 6, 2021 by Zachrix

[Alpenwolf]

Reminder:

 

The mission goes online in ca. 90 minutes!

[Zachrix]

9 minutes ago, Alpenwolf said:

Reminder:

 

The mission goes online in ca. 90 minutes!

My missiles are ready

[=475FG= Dawger]

@AlpenwolfTACAN for Hornet CV not working. Advertised as 76X. Not really a problem as the fleet is emitting and very easy to find.

 

 

[Alpenwolf]

Just now, pmiceli said:

@AlpenwolfTACAN for Hornet CV not working. Advertised as 76X. Not really a problem as the fleet is emitting and very easy to find.

 

 

 

Worked last time. didn't change anything and double checked that in the ME. All good actually.

[=475FG= Dawger]

6 minutes ago, Alpenwolf said:

 

Worked last time. didn't change anything and double checked that in the ME. All good actually.

I just went back in and checked and its working fine. I will just chalk it up to DCS weirdness with TACAN's.

 

 

[rossmum]

Observations from today -

 

Without external views it is very hard to get the Su-33 lined up on the starting chocks properly. There is a very high chance the JBD will strike your tail and lift you off the deck, or the chocks will launch you into the air, or it'll just refuse to work. I ended up giving up on flying it when after being stuffed around for several minutes, I had the chocks lift me up and dump me so my gear broke. I'm not sure if you fly the FC3 stuff or do anything naval, but I cannot state this enough: Kuznetsov is nowhere near Supercarrier in terms of actual usability. We have no deck crew, no callouts of how close we are to the chocks, the ATC is spotty at best, and unlike the original Stennis, there's no margin for error where it gently moves you into the correct launch position if you're "close enough".

 

Su-33 players need to understand that you can't just send it from the shortest two launch positions, especially with a heavy load. I watched two or three of our Su-33s simply bellyflop into the water, one after the other, and then another two somehow exploded on the bow which damaged the ship. Great start.

 

Red players in general need to be aware that not only can the later Sparrows home on jam, at which point it will follow you no matter what you do, but they're also blinding each other by jamming. I know most people seem to roll around with the radar off doing barrel rolls in IRST close combat vertical scan, but for those of us who do actually want to use the radar, it's a nightmare. It makes IFF difficult until we're close, other contacts can hide in your jamming strobes, and the radar gets spat back to search rather than TWS if there is any source of jamming within its scan volume. Without TWS it's much harder to try keep track of a target without just STTing and alerting them.

 

As for comms, as I tried to tell you - FC3 modules defaulting to 251 means people just don't change frequency. Nobody reads briefings in PvP servers, or even if they do, they assume their SRS is auto-set to the right freq. If that's outside your control that's fine, but you need to have realistic expectations of your playerbase and you need to understand that this isn't a new problem. This is a public server and at any given time, maybe half the players on it bother reading the briefing or are regulars who understand how things work. I regularly find half the team on any given mission on 251 while I'm resetting my own freq to 124. You have to design for the playerbase you have, you can't realistically expect random players on a public server to treat it like they're flying a closed squadron co-op mission on a passworded server before hanging out on TS/wherever afterwards.

 

The mission has potential, but between the frustration caused by Kuznetsov's sadly unfinished state and people just not knowing what they were doing, it ended up being a bit too much for my nerves today. It might be worth just using the ME to set the regular channel presets for the 19 and 21 to 251 for missions where FC3 aircraft make up the bulk of redfor. I'm not sure how to account for Kuznetsov without adding external views though.

[rogorogo]

bug report (only potential bug):

For the friday mission I was able to attend and join almost directly at mission start.

• AAV7s first wave 

After starting up a Hind, making a wide pass for the Shturms to heat up I tried to engage the AAVs in the Channel
The first wave of 15 AAV-7s was already very close to the northern coast of Tinian.
They made landfall 18 minutes after mission start, which makes the engagement window extremely short, since a Hind will have trouble spot them while they are in the forest.
By making landfall I mean they just blinked out, probably until their first roadpattern waypoint was triggered.
The default loadout for the Hind carries 4 Shturms, and currently you still cannot default from presets, otherwise the module itself might have weapons bugs. With 2 Hinds avaiable, this short window makes it basically impossible to stop the first wave from reaching engagement positions.
Case in point: when a KA-50 arrived at intercept position at the NW beach of Tinian, I had to inform him that they are already in the palmtrees. He could not spot them despite the AAVs in theory rolling right next to him.

On Tacview he hovers directly next to them, while I am seen making 3 passes and getting shot at while actually there were no vehicles there to see.

 

• Tinian parking positions for spawnslots

Exactly 40 minutes after mission start that first wave arrives at their engagement positions and Tinian AF, and start blowing up stuff.
From that point on the SW part will also engage the spawnpoint of the roleslots. Not permanently but randomly at different stages during warmup or takeoff. I personally was able to take off and get hit before leaving ground effect, or got hit while doing the startup, or had impacts or tracers fly by (all from around 220° off the 6 of the parking position) immediately after loading in, or got splashed by them when leaving the AF (the latter is absolutely correct for the positioning, that is not a bug).

 

• repair timer wait counter for Hind, textline feedback, counter

The Hind seems to have no repair "wait time counter" or any related textline on Tinian, I managed to somehow land (actually, not totally fataly crash) a damaged one in autorotation, and tried to repair. I never got at this or any other instance any feedback from the ground-crew whether this would actually happen. Thus I had to change role (thus blowing it up). The rearm gets the usual "copy" as a textline after the angry line in Han? Mandarin?, so the player know the process is underway.

Conclusion:
I do not know if this is intended, but the channel crossing is very fast (for every wave), and they are very much not "sitting ducks for 40 minutes". Currently 40 minutes after mission start rotories can effectively no longer spawn at Tinian (as in will get hit directly at the parking position) and with its AA screen gone on top.
Furthermore the landfall currently (map related) seems to have the AAVs melt into the ground for a while, while they are "on the beach going for the road", again reducing the already short engagement window directly at mission start that effectively takes out Tinian (in the case of the Friday mission, an Su-25T thankfully showed up and cleared enough of them to at least make spawning possible again - but that was far far later in the mssion).

 

Trackfile and Tacview to illustrate what is mentioned above:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VRHTUg9e_G4KEjYyD7Z-DVbe_snfy500/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lq957wqM9tgutJs2KP1tMUfaV1a3CePM/view?usp=sharing

 
Unrelated notions (not part of the bug report):
A two player Hind of course would be far more effective, as the Petrovic-AI still has locking issues when the craft are in the water. A lock is achieved at extremely short distances or not at all, even when guiding the Petrovic AI directly on the target pixelprecise. Reliable locks from a bit more standoff distance are achieved if the approach is higher - but then the Hind will also be toast, immediately, since the Channels is a hot zone as intended for the duration of the mission (I took a Hind very late, and immediately a Harrier showed up and took care of me, twice, direcly over and next to the airfield).
With the current realities I do not know if it is intended to have effectively Tinian out of the mission equation 45 minutes after the map has rotated.
Even two Hinds with 4 competent players in 2-player crews (that means I was completely double useless) would not be able to stop the first wave or make a dent keeping the spawnslots/parking positions unegaged.
Also as the permissable weapon loadouts are now more flexible, I think the briefing (in this thread and in the mission file) needs more clear statements what players are allowed to do.
For exmaple Hinds cannot do manual loadouts for the time being, removing weight works, adding anything might trigger global module problems (early access).
In the Mig-21 I was unsure whether I was allowed to carry 4 R60Ms or stay in the default with R60Ms only on the inner pylons as stated in the briefing.
Other modules seemed to be free in their loadout choice (on SRS magic told us that we had some Tomcats doing what they seem to have learned on DCS:Fortnite aka "Howling Sh...winder"- take off, ripple fire HARMS from a galaxy far far away, land, rinse & repeat.. but that is #justDCSthings).

So something clear, and I mean CLEAR, beyond any ambiguity what modules are allowed to do with their loadouts would help. (fe for the Hind: "DO NOT CHANGE YOUR DEFAULT LOADOUT!"

P.S. I had great fun, and the mission is very intense, even for someone who does not achieve anything but blowing up .
Also ty to the human GCI (in this case Legolas), for those on SRS and working together, that alone made the mission perfect. (well.. me blowing up in everything witout ever doing anything also eluciated some earnest laughter - so I helped!! wohooo  ).
 

Edited August 7, 2021 by rogorogo