FCR, HSD and HMD questions

[Mivina]

Probably not a bug, but I'd want to know if it's realistic.

 

First issue for me is the radar scale when you switch off ACM mode. Why is it set to 10 miles? Shouldn't it revert to what was selected before you entered dogfight mode?

 

Secondly, why do the different modes (nav, ag, aa) have unique radar settings? I sometimes scan the area in nav mode and after i decide to engage and select aa mode, all my settings are different.

 

Thirdly, when you press tms down to undesignate a bugged target, your azimuth setting is back to 60 degrees, which is incredibly frustrating, especially in TWS mode, which doesn't have hotas support.

 

Is all of this realistic? If not, when would we expect to see this changed?

 

P.S. The missile override and dogfight modes currently don't have HSD tab on the MFD by default. Is there a reason behind this? I basically need to select it after each spawn.

And why does the HUD not show azimuths in dogfight mode? Bearings are incredibly useful even in the merge (though 10 miles is not always a merge), so to understand the callouts you either have to awkwardly look around the HUD to see the bearing via it or duck down to see the compass, drawing your attention from the outside

[Furiz]

22 minutes ago, Mivina said:

First issue for me is the radar scale when you switch off ACM mode. Why is it set to 10 miles? Shouldn't it revert to what was selected before you entered dogfight mode?

 

It is reverting back to whats selected now, it was fixed recently.

 

23 minutes ago, Mivina said:

Thirdly, when you press tms down to undesignate a bugged target, your azimuth setting is back to 60 degrees, which is incredibly frustrating, especially in TWS mode, which doesn't have hotas support.

 

This is probably cause you bugged them in TWS mode while at 60 degrees, then when you start tracking it goes to 30 degree scan.

 

27 minutes ago, Mivina said:

And why does the HUD not show azimuths in dogfight mode? Bearings are incredibly useful even in the merge (though 10 miles is not always a merge), so to understand the callouts you either have to awkwardly look around the HUD to see the bearing via it or duck down to see the compass, drawing your attention from the outside

 

This is greek F-16 but I doubt its any different in HUD symbology from USAF F-16, not sure tho;P

 

[SFJackBauer]

8 hours ago, Mivina said:

Secondly, why do the different modes (nav, ag, aa) have unique radar settings? I sometimes scan the area in nav mode and after i decide to engage and select aa mode, all my settings are different.

 

This is actually a feature of the Viper. You can leave, as an example, NAV mode with RWS 120 azimuth, A/A with RWS 60 degree azimuth and MSL Override with TWS 60 degree, thus allowing you to quickly change the radar modes without actually fiddling with the settings separately. But if you don't want to do that, then just set them to the same settings before flying, or just stick to the same mode all the time.

 

What I personally do is:

- Never use NAV mode for anything except landing, takeoff and noncombat cruising.

- Never use A/A mode. At all. I stay in A2G mode if doing that, and then I use the MSL OVERRIDE for BVR and DGFT for close combat.

 

8 hours ago, Mivina said:

Thirdly, when you press tms down to undesignate a bugged target, your azimuth setting is back to 60 degrees, which is incredibly frustrating, especially in TWS mode, which doesn't have hotas support.

 

It reverts to the original setting you had before bugging the target. What I did is to bind the MFD button that controls azimuth and radar modes to a HOTAS function, in addition to the buttons that controls radar range and HSD range. Works really well.

 

8 hours ago, Mivina said:

P.S. The missile override and dogfight modes currently don't have HSD tab on the MFD by default. Is there a reason behind this? I basically need to select it after each spawn.

 

I also like having the HSD visible in all modes. It is possible that this kind of customization will be added once the DTC (data cartridge) functionality gets implemented, but we will only knows when its announced. What I ended up doing is I modified the auto-start script for the F-16 to, not only do the exact auto-start routine I am used to, it also sets up all my MFDs for all modes and even the radio settings to my liking.

[Frederf]

Real airplane saves a lot of settings unique to master modes. You can have NAV in CRM/VSR, MO in ACM, AA in CRM/RWS, DGFT in TWS and they will return to these settings when the mode is reselected. Right now DCS is forcing certain setups on mode change without regard for last left config. Even details like azimuth/bar/range are saved so AA and MO can both be RWS but one is A3/B2/80nm and the other can be A6/B1/40nm.

 

This is a handy feature. It lets you have three whole radar setups accessible with just a flip of the MO/DGFT switch. Naturally these are all saveable to DTC so you set up your favorite configuration for each mode so it's the way you want it the first time. If you change it then it'll be changed but next load from DTC it will be those cartridge settings again.

 

TWS bugged is narrowed to Az 30 and will resume Az 60 preference with no target. If you want permanent Az 30 in TWS then you choose it with the OSB.

 

There is a default arrangement of the formats if you don't put a DTC in and load it. DCS's arrangement is customized beyond that but it's fixed without DTC. I don't know why the preferences are set the way they are. I like HSD in all modes although I would have SMS selected in DGFT since I care most about the state of the stores.

 

Dogfight HUD just doesn't have a heading tape. I find the HSI quite a quick reference and possibly the HMCS has a heading on it too.