Difficulties from the left seat / other suggestions

[Qiou87]

Hi @Reflected,

Don't worry, I love the campaign (cleared Miz. 7 yesterday). I just have a couple of improvements:

- in M06 I think it was noted already, when picking up guys on top of a hillside you are supposed to ask them to count to 10 and FM home on them. The homing works for 2-3 seconds only.

- During a cold start from the left seat, as you made it so that the helo captain is in the left seat, aligning the main compass is very difficult. You have to lean over to the right, check the backup compass and align the co-pilot's compass on it... Not so easy. Would love to have a way to ask the copilot to align it!

- Is there a way to implement a command for the copilot to change radios? I find it quite ridiculous at times that I am flying the helo, navigating, and also managing the radios. At this point and before we get to the gunship part of the campaign, he is just a useless cheerleader. I preset the radio on the ground as much as possible but it can be very challenging, when retasked in flight, to change a frequency whilst not flying into the ground...

- In M05 (I think), when transporting the general from HQ to a ship offshore, I would love to have a possibility to recall the instructions. I was busy taking off when told to head south-east to a ship heading north, and I understood "go north the ship is heading south-east" - as a foreigner such things take a little bit more brainpower than for a native speaker perhaps? Lost 10min flying in the wrong area... A reminder in F10 radio menu maybe?

Is there any plan for the future to convert the campaign to the WWII version of the map, when released? I know this is a lot of work. I am just curious how much more immersive it would be with less luxurious homes and SUVs on the ground. No pressure, but if you do, I will happily play this campaign again on it.

[Reflected]

35 minutes ago, Qiou87 said:

Hi @Reflected,

Don't worry, I love the campaign (cleared Miz. 7 yesterday). I just have a couple of improvements:

- in M06 I think it was noted already, when picking up guys on top of a hillside you are supposed to ask them to count to 10 and FM home on them. The homing works for 2-3 seconds only.

DCS bug, but I found a workaround for the next update.

35 minutes ago, Qiou87 said:

- During a cold start from the left seat, as you made it so that the helo captain is in the left seat, aligning the main compass is very difficult. You have to lean over to the right, check the backup compass and align the co-pilot's compass on it... Not so easy. Would love to have a way to ask the copilot to align it!

Just switch seats until you align it 

35 minutes ago, Qiou87 said:

- Is there a way to implement a command for the copilot to change radios? I find it quite ridiculous at times that I am flying the helo, navigating, and also managing the radios. At this point and before we get to the gunship part of the campaign, he is just a useless cheerleader. I preset the radio on the ground as much as possible but it can be very challenging, when retasked in flight, to change a frequency whilst not flying into the ground...

This has been answered several times. Just use the level autopilot option.

35 minutes ago, Qiou87 said:

- In M05 (I think), when transporting the general from HQ to a ship offshore, I would love to have a possibility to recall the instructions. I was busy taking off when told to head south-east to a ship heading north, and I understood "go north the ship is heading south-east" - as a foreigner such things take a little bit more brainpower than for a native speaker perhaps? Lost 10min flying in the wrong area... A reminder in F10 radio menu maybe?

That would take a lot more work than the added value unfortunately. Doubling/ tripling triggers just in case the player forgets something. What I can do is to add a map marker, like all those other times in the campaign. I don't know why I didn't add one in this mission...

35 minutes ago, Qiou87 said:

Is there any plan for the future to convert the campaign to the WWII version of the map, when released? I know this is a lot of work. I am just curious how much more immersive it would be with less luxurious homes and SUVs on the ground. No pressure, but if you do, I will happily play this campaign again on it.

 

Sorry, most definitely not. 
1) The current version of the map is much more realistic for 1968 than a WW2 version with a few huts and sandy runways.
2) Changing the map in a DCS mission is not possible, only if you rebuild the missions from scratch. And that is not gonna happen.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Reflected

[Qiou87]

4 minutes ago, Reflected said:

Sorry, most definitely not. 
1) The current version of the map is much more realistic for 1968 than a WW2 version with a few huts and sandy runways.
2) Changing the map in a DCS mission is not possible, only if you rebuild the missions from scratch. And that is not gonna happen.

No problem, again I know it takes a lot of work to rebuild everything.

Good idea on the map marker, indeed I checked and there were none. Thanks for your other answers and quick feedback.

[wowbagger]

22 hours ago, Qiou87 said:

... I would love to have a possibility to recall the instructions. I was busy taking off when told to head south-east to a ship heading north, and I understood "go north the ship is heading south-east" - as a foreigner such things take a little bit more brainpower than for a native speaker perhaps? ...

Even as a native English speaker I almost always pause the game (I even have it mapped on my hotas) when instructions pop up. There is usually something else requiring my attention in cockpit (or "in family" ) when the dialog appears and I need the extra time to digest and comprehend what I'm being told - not least because it often involves military acronyms, abbreviations, and jargon which takes a while for me to decipher.

It would be a great addition to the base game though - a command to either pin a dialogue box on screen, or pop up the last shown dialogue a second time.

Edited January 18, 2022 by wowbagger

[Reflected]

That would be nice, but not quite feasible. There are over 1000 lines of voice overs in the campaign. Adding a repeat option would add at least 2-3 lines of triggers to each. That's an additional 2-3000 triggers, which is an insane amount. 

What I always do in my campaigns is that if the player receives a radio message that he needs to act upon, there is a "blip" and an on screen message that repeats what you need to do, just to be sure the message was received and understood. These messages stay on screen a little longer than usual. When it's a new location, a mark is added to the F10 map. So there's always something you can check again if you forget. You never have to remember a distorted radio transmission after listening to it once.

[wowbagger]

Ya, sorry. I meant added to DCS as a base game feature, not something that mission designers would have to script into their missions. Just hit LAlt+tab to repeat last on screen message kind of thing.

I love the way you handle important radio communications. I get no joy from role playing hardcore radio operator in DCS. Frankly, tuning most of the radios is a pain in the butt, and probably significantly easier in the real aircraft than dealing with mouse (right click? left click? click and drag? top bezel? bottom bezel?) and Track IR.

Edited January 18, 2022 by wowbagger

[Mistermann]

On 1/18/2022 at 2:50 AM, wowbagger said:

It would be a great addition to the base game though - a command to either pin a dialogue box on screen, or pop up the last shown dialogue a second time.

There's a fairly new option we now have at our disposal that's been a godsend to me as a VR player.  The Messages History option.

In case you're not already aware (or there are people just reading this who missed this feature add), pressing this gives you a complete history of all messages that are written to the screen.  This is one of those quality of life changes that ED made that gets me super excited as I use it almost every mission.