why does the f-18 not allow one to use weapons if the wheel door is broken?

[Exorcet]

2 hours ago, 79Au said:

I'm not a fan of such minor details that can break the plane for some silly IRL reason that is beyond the scope of this game.

ED should make a hardcore mode for those who want all the IRL limitations and rules. I'm convinced it's just a vocal minority of elitists that keep asking ED to reduce the fun and introduce new limitations.

Damage modeling is absolutely in the scope of DCS. It's a simulator. The plane you fly is supposed to represent the actual plane it's modeled after in reality. That means if you use it incorrectly things break. And believe it or not that's part of the fun, not a detraction from it.

Hardcode mode is already in DCS. It's the default mode, not an option that you turn on, and given what DCS is intended to be, this makes sense. I don't mind giving people options to make things easier for them though. I guess if you don't care to be cautious on takeoff you can just toggle immortal on yourself until you retract gears. Or just air start.

[Foka]

3 hours ago, 79Au said:

I'm not a fan of such minor details that can break the plane for some silly IRL reason that is beyond the scope of this game.

ED should make a hardcore mode for those who want all the IRL limitations and rules. I'm convinced it's just a vocal minority of elitists that keep asking ED to reduce the fun and introduce new limitations.

You already have a game mode. Just use it, if you don't want it to be too hardcore.

[Breakaway]

On 10/21/2022 at 12:44 AM, 79Au said:

I'm not a fan of such minor details that can break the plane for some silly IRL reason that is beyond the scope of this game.

ED should make a hardcore mode for those who want all the IRL limitations and rules. I'm convinced it's just a vocal minority of elitists that keep asking ED to reduce the fun and introduce new limitations.

Speak for yourself, and you have clearly misunderstood the 'scope' of this sim. I hear War Thunder got rid of all the 'silly' realisms maybe try that one.

[Rex]

On 10/17/2022 at 2:38 AM, EnzoF98 said:

The pilot does not own the multi million dollar aircraft.

 

Yeah! What are you people thinking? The taxpayer makes the call, duh!

No specific member of the military owns the plane, so these matters must be put to a referendum for the owner's to decide.  You know, me and you!

"Let the pilot decide?", pfffft, get a job ya hippie!

 

P.S. But wait a minute, on second thought, if the pilot pays taxes, then ... he does own the plane.!   Mr. Enzo, sir, I think I've found a flaw in your otherwise-flawless logic.  Don't shoot the messenger.

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by Rex

[Rex]

On 10/17/2022 at 6:47 AM, Crashdown2 said:

 I run into this problem from time to time because the buttons on the throttle I have assigned to the gear don't work all of the time,

I feel your pain.  I fly in VR don't like "wasting" (for lack of a better word) a hardware button on something I use twice per flight. So I assigned my gear to Voice Attack ("gear up", "gear down"). and if it doesn't understand me the first time or at least the  second time, I'll overspeed the gear.

DCS is indeed very realistic, but we all have our own custom interfaces to make it work.

That being said, despite the frustration and inconvenience, I prefer the doors being ripped off since this is what would happen in real life.   Sure, when it happens I let loose with a string of profanities and curse the plane, DCS, myself, and everyone within earshot ... but I probably wouldn't have it any other way.

Face it, gamers have fun, but simmers are gluttons for punishment.

It is what it is.

A related question I have, though, is why you can't jettison fuel tanks unless the master switch is armed.

The Hornet has all kinds of these little quirks.

[rob10]

18 minutes ago, Rex said:

A related question I have, though, is why you can't jettison fuel tanks unless the master switch is armed.

This is purely a guess, but I would think the Master Arm would cut power to the firing circuits on the hard points/launcher racks (that would be the easiest way to make sure you couldn't accidentally fire ordinance without turning it arming Master Arm -- no power, can't fire).  Since the fuel tanks are attached to the same hard points as explosive ordinance (and presumably using the same ports/wiring), logically you would need Master Arm ARMED to provide power to jettison them, same as a dropping a bomb.

Edited October 30, 2022 by rob10

[Foka]

11 hours ago, Rex said:

A related question I have, though, is why you can't jettison fuel tanks unless the master switch is armed.

Because in general you don't jett your tanks. You do it in emergency situations and (also not always) in dogfight. Tanks cost money (and they're not very cheap) and there is limited amount of them. You just fly with empty tanks.
In emergency life or death situation you have emergency jettision button. In other situations you have time to configure plane for selective jett.

[Rex]

On 10/30/2022 at 6:49 AM, Foka said:

Because in general you don't jett your tanks. You do it in emergency situations and (also not always) in dogfight. Tanks cost money (and they're not very cheap) and there is limited amount of them. You just fly with empty tanks.
In emergency life or death situation you have emergency jettision button. In other situations you have time to configure plane for selective jett.

Interesting, I thought they just dropped them when they ran dry.  I guess people would be get conked on the head left and right by tanks, though, eh?  Will they land on the carrier with three bags still attached?

I guess dropping bags when dry is one of those bad habits simmers get into which wouldn't go over so well in meatspace.

Too bad they don't still make disposable paper ones.

https://warbirdsnews.com/warbird-articles/necessity-mother-invention-paper-drop-tanks-wwii.html

Edited November 2, 2022 by Rex

[Foka]

6 hours ago, Rex said:

Will they land on the carrier with three bags still attached?

No problem
 

6 hours ago, Rex said:

I guess dropping bags when dry is one of those bad habits simmers get into which wouldn't go over so well in meatspace.

Exactly.


Here you can read a bit more
https://www.quora.com/How-expendable-are-drop-tanks-Are-they-only-dropped-in-an-emergency-because-they-are-valuable-and-of-limited-supply-or-in-a-combat-zone-are-they-something-a-pilot-would-drop-whenever-he-wanted-less-drag

[Ramstein]

My Warthog stick had a bad cable in the 4 inch extension and had some bad key presses.. some of which no doubt caused the gear to open at some wrong times. I still think the door issue is b.s. though, if a squad was going to a fight and they couldn't drop because of some sheet metal I would be pissed off. I replaced the extension cable and all is well.

[Dragon1-1]

20 hours ago, Ramstein said:

 if a squad was going to a fight and they couldn't drop because of some sheet metal I would be pissed off. 

That's why you're supposed to be careful with your sheet metal IRL. Retracting the gear in time in the real jet really isn't hard. It's pretty likely that someone on the ground would report something falling off the airplane long before you got to the fight, in any case, and you'd find the problem and abort the jet. 

On 11/2/2022 at 5:32 AM, Rex said:

Too bad they don't still make disposable paper ones.

If a big enough war started I'm pretty sure they would, although they'd likely be plastic these days. Although, they'd probably be severely limited in what you can do when flying with them, WWII fighters flew quite a bit slower than modern jets. The idea still has merit, but the modern world is just not likely to produce a war that would strain the supply of metal on either side.

I imagine DC, once it finally comes, will teach the simmers not to drop the bags for no good reason.

[Cepheus76]

1 hour ago, Dragon1-1 said:

I imagine DC, once it finally comes, will teach the simmers not to drop the bags for no good reason.

Amen to that!

[Hazardpro]

From the perspective of someone who works in aircraft engineering, IRL a failure of the gear doors that causes them to actually separate from the aircraft is kind of a big deal for the fleet just being airworthy and no one is thinking about the question 100 steps down of "well can it still drop bombs like this?". Not saying ED is wrong to model it the way they do, just want to provide maybe a little perspective on the "realism" discussion.