No updates to the Tomcat in today's patch?

[Ryeman]

Just verifying no updates to the tomcat today.  Was hoping for some fixes to the Autopilot.

Edited November 18, 2021 by Ryeman

[AdrianL]

See 

 

[Ryeman]

Thanks for the info, I wish HB would have posted something here as well.  I guess we have to put up with the broken stuff for another month.

[WarbossPetross]

24 минуты назад, Ryeman сказал:

Thanks for the info, I wish HB would have posted something here as well.  I guess we have to put up with the broken stuff for another month.

Some people have been doing it longer than that though.

[Callsign JoNay]

1 hour ago, Ryeman said:

Just verifying no updates to the tomcat today.  Was hoping for some fixes to the Autopilot.

 

Yes, and some fixes to the internal lighting would've been nice.

[IronMike]

The autopilot will take a bit longer, because we need to overhaul it more or less completely, and any more bandaid fixes at this point would be rather wasting time. We will keep you updated on the process.

We're also waiting for a second patch to come, which will see additional Tomcat fixes, and a major patch for the Viggen this time, which is why the Tomcat is taking a bit of a backrole right now. Unfortunately shipping 2 major patches within 3-4 weeks time is unrealistic for us, which is why we opted to skip on this one.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Edited November 18, 2021 by IronMike

[Clunk1001]

I usually fly at night (or return to carrier at night), so f14 is pretty much unplayable now for me. Its disappointing that bugs like internal lights are shelved, when they are complete show-stoppers for some people who’ve purchased this aircraft.

‘new features’ on new products shouldn’t take priority over game-breaking bugs on existing products. Well, it’s game-breaking for me anyway

hope you find time to fix the lights and the autopilot soon.

[Jayhawk1971]

Flood lights (both red and white) work fine in the F-14A. Just the B is affected. Other lights can be dimmed, so not all that dramatic. 

[lunaticfringe]

25 minutes ago, Clunk1001 said:

I usually fly at night (or return to carrier at night), so f14 is pretty much unplayable now for me. Its disappointing that bugs like internal lights are shelved, when they are complete show-stoppers for some people who’ve purchased this aircraft.

‘new features’ on new products shouldn’t take priority over game-breaking bugs on existing products. Well, it’s game-breaking for me anyway

hope you find time to fix the lights and the autopilot soon.

 

The Viggen isn't a new product. 

[Clunk1001]

38 minutes ago, Jayhawk1971 said:

Flood lights (both red and white) work fine in the F-14A. Just the B is affected. Other lights can be dimmed, so not all that dramatic. 

If that’s the case surely the fix for the B shouldn’t be that big?

22 minutes ago, lunaticfringe said:

 

The Viggen isn't a new product. 

My bad.  I’m fairly new to DCS.

Edited November 18, 2021 by Clunk1001

[Callsign JoNay]

2 hours ago, IronMike said:

The autopilot will take a bit longer, because we need to overhaul it more or less completely, and any more bandaid fixes at this point would be rather wasting time. We will keep you updated on the process.

Thank goodness. The current AP is . An overhaul is music to my ears. 

[Eagle7907]

The autopilot will take a bit longer, because we need to overhaul it more or less completely, and any more bandaid fixes at this point would be rather wasting time. We will keep you updated on the process.

We're also waiting for a second patch to come, which will see additional Tomcat fixes, and a major patch for the Viggen this time, which is why the Tomcat is taking a bit of a backrole right now. Unfortunately shipping 2 major patches within 3-4 weeks time is unrealistic for us, which is why we opted to skip on this one.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Thanks for the news IronMike. Besides the autopilot overhaul and reported bugs, what’s left to be developed for the Tomcat? Is there more stuff coming? My list of to-do’s is practically complete for my expectations (Tomcat wise), hence the question.


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[IronMike]

12 minutes ago, Eagle7907 said:

Thanks for the news IronMike. Besides the autopilot overhaul and reported bugs, what’s left to be developed for the Tomcat? Is there more stuff coming? My list of to-do’s is practically complete for my expectations (Tomcat wise), hence the question.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

There is a couple of things left: early A and IRIAF A, A6 AI, couple model corrections and changes towards accuracy for early A models, 2 more campaigns we will overhaul and improve JESTER, the continued work on the new missile API for the aim54s, among a list of minor issues. And finally, a product in DCS is never really finished as such, as the platform constantly evolves, we develop and discover new technologies for our newer modules and then want to retrofit previous ones, we want to keep adding new content in terms of missions, too etc...

4 hours ago, Clunk1001 said:

If that’s the case surely the fix for the B shouldn’t be that big?

It isn't and it is in the works of course and should come soon. Just that this patch was way too quick in succession of the previous major patch to do it right, and it isn't quite such a show stopper, because if you dim the lights a bit, they are actually just fine. Just at full brightness they are appaling atm ofc - but that is not considered as game breaking by us, even if it does impact immersion and ofc means a regress in quality of life for you guys, which we of course do take seriously. As an example: game breaking would mean that you could not dim them, and they would glow so bright that you literally cannot fly at night anymore, but even that would be an edge case, because it would be still usable during the day. "Game breaking" is used very quickly by players when it concerns their own pet peeve, but if you take a step back and look at it more objectively, it is far from being so.

But anyway, the Viggen community has been waiting on many fixes for far longer and thus atm they get priority. Unfortunately sometimes, when we focus on a really major patch, like Tomcat previous one, and Viggen now, we cannot divide ourselves and have to shift focuses. Thank you for your kind understanding.

Edited November 19, 2021 by IronMike

[Eagle7907]

Thanks IronMike. I guess there is much more to do. I forgot about the missiles still being in development/tuning. However, nonetheless, I’m still pretty contented with how the module is. It’s great fun to fly.


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[Nealius]

6 hours ago, Jayhawk1971 said:

Flood lights (both red and white) work fine in the F-14A. Just the B is affected. Other lights can be dimmed, so not all that dramatic. 

A's instrument lights are still whack and hard to read at lowest dimness, plus high HUD light glare on the windscreen. It's pretty bad in VR, and like Clunk said, a bit of a game stopper for those of us who like to fly at night (or have campaigns like Fear the Bones that have a lot of night ops). I keep coming back to the Naval side of DCS wanting to do night stuff after hours and hours of daylight flying, but there always seems to be something going wrong somewhere, either with a module or with the core game.

[Thundercat710]

9 hours ago, Clunk1001 said:

I usually fly at night (or return to carrier at night)

You can absolutely still do this, good sir

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

7 hours ago, Eagle7907 said:

I guess there is much more to do.

And there’s the in-cockpit pilot model still as well

[draconus]

6 hours ago, Nealius said:

high HUD light glare on the windscreen

You can and should dim it too. Lights, while ugly, are absolutely not a game stopper. You can always choose to revert to some previous version where it worked better.

And for a roadmap:

https://trello.com/b/HsMiJggJ/heatblur-public-roadmap

Edited November 19, 2021 by draconus

[Slant]

2 hours ago, draconus said:

You can and should dim it too. Lights, while ugly, are absolutely not a game stopper. You can always choose to revert to some previous version where it worked better.

And for a roadmap:

https://trello.com/b/HsMiJggJ/heatblur-public-roadmap

 

SP mentality... you can't just "revert to some previous version" when you're playing in multiplayer.

@IronMike Thank you for your continued support and transparency. I'm curious about what you said about the lighting. We tend to fly night missions on a frequent basis and even just having the cockpit lights at "1" makes them absolutely unbearable. They're too bright and not readable easily at all. I don't know how they were IRL, of course, so I will defer to SMEs for this one, but if I go beyond 2, it's basically pointless. For reference, I set Gamma to 2.1 as one of you guys once said that's the default gamma you tune your lights for.

Also, would this be a good time to bring up external lights once again? I know you retouched them already in the past, but their LODs are still all over the place and the overall brightness is too low.

Thanks to your team for all the work they do, it is much appreciated. Another year almost over, nearly there! And then you can sit back and admire how far you've come with the Viggen and the Tomcat. Great planes!

[Clunk1001]

6 hours ago, Thundercat710 said:

You can absolutely still do this, good sir

Yes, I know I can absolutely fly at night, but I cannot fly at night properly as the gauges are unreadable:

Instrument readability is absolutely key.

I know that getting the colour of the flight suit of the cockpit pilot absolutely the right shade of green is important (to some),  but I'd suggest there are other priorities which need addressed.

I know I'm being harsh.  I've 20 years as a pilot, 30 years in various simulators (both home and commercial) and I genuinely think I've had the most fun in Heatblur's F14B Tomcat (at night, in bad weather).  It is an absolute masterpiece!  but please fix the flood lighting

Edited November 19, 2021 by Clunk1001

[IronMike]

Oh you have to absolutely turn of flood lights until we fix the bug, everything is just much too glowy. For night missions I turn the flood lights off and all lights to 1 or 2 on the respective wheels, which in my case makes everything readable, my gamma is on 2.2.

But don't worry guys, it is definitely a priority item for the Tomcat. So hopefully we can give you a fix soonest.

[Jayhawk1971]

vor 9 Stunden schrieb Nealius:

A's instrument lights are still whack and hard to read at lowest dimness, plus high HUD light glare on the windscreen. It's pretty bad in VR, and like Clunk said, a bit of a game stopper for those of us who like to fly at night (or have campaigns like Fear the Bones that have a lot of night ops). I keep coming back to the Naval side of DCS wanting to do night stuff after hours and hours of daylight flying, but there always seems to be something going wrong somewhere, either with a module or with the core game.

I fly in VR, I've played Fear the Bones as dozen times now, so I am one of "those of us". And while it's not ideal, it's manageable, IMO. Instruments at night were never easily readable, but set to "2" I can read altimeter, speed gauge, VVI, engine instruments well enough to operate the plane. Just yesterday I played "Bad Moon RIsing" (from Fear the Bones campaign) and managed to fully complete the mission (without going into spoilers, but you know what I mean if you've played the mission  ).

Maybe it's because I am relegated to play on dated hardware for the time being (including VR headset) so that I don't have a good comparison to what real high-end hardware could display pre-patch, but for me there's hardly any change in the A. 

BTW: I never fly with flood lights on, anyway (same when I drive at night, only turn on "flood lights" when entering or exiting the car), because I always found them distracting (the glare on the canopy, and the general brightness in the cockpit). I only use it for startup/ shutdown. Once I'm ready to taxi, I turn both white and red flood lights off. 

Edited November 19, 2021 by Jayhawk1971

[grant977]

Why you using flood lights anyway when on approach. You want the pit as dark as possible and the gauges just readable.

[Callsign JoNay]

Yes, we all fly with flood lights off, but that doesn't mean they never come on to help find some switch or dial that isn't backlit, especially in the RIO seat. I'm using the flashlight a lot more than I want to ever since the Oct patch.

Glad to hear that fixing it is a priority. 

[Clunk1001]

15 hours ago, Callsign JoNay said:

Yes, we all fly with flood lights off, but that doesn't mean they never come on to help find some switch or dial that isn't backlit, especially in the RIO seat. I'm using the flashlight a lot more than I want to ever since the Oct patch.

Glad to hear that fixing it is a priority. 

Actually, at night, I always flew with a low floodlight on (though this was civilian flying and not in f14 obvs).  Has more to do with spacial orientation and emergency procedures. If something goes bang, you don’t want your first action to be trying to find the cockpit lights or fumbling with a torch.  If your cockpit is black yes you’ve got better night vision (takes about 20 mins to get), right up to the point the guy next to you (or behind you) puts his torch on to find a sandwich or a switch. A low floodlight always worked for me, thats what I’m used to, that’s why I was a bit upset about the floodlight in the f14b (old habits)….or maybe I’m afraid of the dark?