Feedback Thread - F-14 Tomcat Patch, Dec 16th 2022

[IronMike]

Dear all,

as always we would like to ask for your kind feedback regarding the last patch. Our apologies that Reforger II. is not included today yet, some minor issues are currently holding back release which we hope to iron out over the weekend, and bring it to you next week, in time before the Holidays.

A new addition to the F-14 - finally! - comes in the form of wheel chocks, which will primarily help holding the Tomcat in place during turns by the carrier. They are set to be on by default for all cold starts, so do not forget to remove them, or taxiing will be difficult. Taxiing over them is not possible. Please also note: when requested to be set by the player, they appear instantly. This is on purpose, to provide immediate fixation on air craft carriers, should a player get surprised by the carrier turning. The ground crew call will follow a bit later and somewhat desynced, unfortunately this is a small, but necessary trade off.

All other fixes please take from the changelog below. Thank you for your great feedback thus far, we are always looking forward to more!

The Heatblur Team

 

DCS F-14 Tomcat by Heatblur Simulations

• NEW: Added wheel chocks. By default on for cold starts.
• Fixed aircraft in place when chocks are active, avoiding deck sliding on carriers.
• Fixed LANTIRN CTD with 2.8.
• Added FPS-117 to the RWR threat library.
• Fixed not all masses contributing correctly to the total mass and balance on each respawn; causing discrepancies in aircraft performance on subsequent flights.
• Fixed shader definition for far LoD - aircraft will now sample a small part of main aircraft textures for the right colour.
• Fixed Op Reforger Mission 5 TALDs not working for Pontiac.
• Updated Quickstart F-14A_IA_NTTR_Zone5 by Reflected Simulations.
• Added VX-9 XF240 White Whale livery by Isaac. (Thank you!)

 

EDIT: Our apologies, the mission fixes have not been pulled in time anymore (like the wheelchocks fix), please download them here.

F-14B_Campaign_Mission5.miz F-14B_Campaign_Mission5_SC.miz

Edited December 18, 2022 by IronMike

[DSplayer]

Seems like the show pilot body toggle doesn't work like its supposed to now much like what the RIO seat was in the last patch.

[Shahriar0]

On 12/16/2022 at 1:00 PM, DSplayer said:

Seems like the show pilot body toggle doesn't work like its supposed to now much like what the RIO seat was in the last patch.

Workaround is to jump to back seat and toggle pilot body there. The front seat pilot body will then disappear.

 

On a different note, I jumped on a multiplayer server, launched a Phoenix C variant in TWS-Auto mode, which was defeated by maneuvering plane. Once I activated ACM and locked via PAL and pressed trigger to launch, the computer rebooted! I have had this problem before and only happens with this module specifically with Phoenix. It happens frequently enough that it is always in the back of my mind when launching that missile type. No crash files are ever captured.

Edit: Not all the reboots have happened in ACM with PAL mode. Routine TWS launches also account. 

Edited December 17, 2022 by Shahriar0

[captain_dalan]

25 minutes ago, Shahriar0 said:

Workaround is to jump to backseat and toggle pilot body there. The frontseat pilot body will then disappear.

 

 

What about in MP?

[Shahriar0]

2 minutes ago, captain_dalan said:

What about in MP?

I was actually in MP. 

[captain_dalan]

6 minutes ago, Shahriar0 said:

I was actually in MP. 

You can change seats in MP now? 

Edited December 16, 2022 by captain_dalan

[Shahriar0]

21 hours ago, captain_dalan said:

You can change seats in MP now? 

 

I suppose. I have no problem jumping to back seat and doing stuff. 

Edited December 17, 2022 by Shahriar0

[captain_dalan]

5 minutes ago, Shahriar0 said:

I suppose. I have no problem jumping to backseat and doing stuff. 

Nice! Didn't know that.

[WarthogOsl]

8 hours ago, DSplayer said:

Seems like the show pilot body toggle doesn't work like its supposed to now much like what the RIO seat was in the last patch.

Same issue.  Both pilot and rio body are there now even with the option turned off, it seems, at least in the F-14A.

Edited December 17, 2022 by WarthogOsl

[Comstedt86]

3 hours ago, captain_dalan said:

Nice! Didn't know that.

Added half a year ago or so

[WarthogOsl]

Not sure if this is an ED thing, but the wheel chocks seem to be bound to a fixed spot on the wheels, rather then the ground.  If you remove them and roll away from that exact spot (or take off and then land later), then place them again, they could appear anywhere around the wheel.

[Gun Jam]

Anyone having issue with ground crew not hooking up?

Online, TTI server with super carrier. Never ever been an issue before (as long as another jet isn't occupying a next door cat) Ground crew dont acknowledge my jet in front of them like the captain of the Exxon Valdez didn't see Alaska floating out there in front of him.  Tried F8 menu several times no Acknowledgement.  (ive maybe once had to use the F8 menu in the past and it did work) Not today!

[DSplayer]

3 hours ago, WarthogOsl said:

Not sure if this is an ED thing, but the wheel chocks seem to be bound to a fixed spot on the wheels, rather then the ground.  If you remove them and roll away from that exact spot (or take off and then land later), then place them again, they could appear anywhere around the wheel.

Yeah it's pretty weird. The F-18 and AV-8B don't suffer from this happening but their implementations of wheel chocks seem to be a bit different since you can't move your jet if the wheel chocks are placed down on those jets.
 

Spoiler

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by DSplayer

[WarthogOsl]

Example of the chocks after I had come back from a mission.

[IronMike]

The wheelchocks are a small bug that unfortunately did not receive the last minute fix anymore that we uploaded, as we hoped. It will be fixed in the patch.

[The_Tau]

Hmm is it just me or F14B feels much draggier and heavier after patch. It seems I cant reach same speeds as before with same loadouts while on buster...

@IronMike Also wheelchockes disappear on their own if you have them on, go full buster and go idle. At least on land

Edited December 18, 2022 by The_Tau

[JGS]

Tomcats are not launching TALDs on Operation Reforger Mission 5. They turn back to the carrier at waypoint 3 and the Hornet SEAD flights do not engage. Tested 3 times. Tacview file attached.

DCS-F-14B_Campaign_Mission5_SC.zip.acmi

[IronMike]

1 hour ago, JGS said:

Tomcats are not launching TALDs on Operation Reforger Mission 5. They turn back to the carrier at waypoint 3 and the Hornet SEAD flights do not engage. Tested 3 times. Tacview file attached.

DCS-F-14B_Campaign_Mission5_SC.zip.acmi 3.17 MB · 0 downloads

Oh dear, it seems the mission fixes did not get included. Our apologies.

Please download and replace existing ones with these two missions.

F-14B_Campaign_Mission5.miz F-14B_Campaign_Mission5_SC.miz

[JGS]

On 12/19/2022 at 9:24 AM, IronMike said:

Oh dear, it seems the mission fixes did not get included. Our apologies.

Please download and replace existing ones with these two missions.

F-14B_Campaign_Mission5.miz 6.86 MB · 4 downloads F-14B_Campaign_Mission5_SC.miz 6.86 MB · 3 downloads

Thanks IronMike. All good now.

[Flash_111]

Would it be possible to get a little more info about how the far LOD color sampling change works? This is addressing the issue where you would zoom out and the texture changed from the 3 in 1 to a flat grey, I am assuming. I fired up the sim the other day to see how it works, and I didn't notice any difference between the far LOD's of the black playboy bunny tomcat and the white pukin dogs (I was just swapping through skins on the runway). Does the sampling event take place during game load, sim load, or swapping skins? Which texture(s) does it sample? Do skinners/painters need to do anything to take advantage of it?

 

Thanks

[IronMike]

Unfortunately something broke in ground vehicle logic, which breaks Training Day.

You can download a fix here, please:
 

As a small headsup, this also likely means that we will have to publish Reforger II after the holidays, my apologies.

[draconus]

On 12/16/2022 at 4:44 PM, IronMike said:

Taxiing over them is not possible.

Not true, but it's ok, most probably realistic.

[IronMike]

3 hours ago, Бойовий Сокіл said:

Are the wheelchock fixes and others in today's hotfix?

The wheelchock fix should be in. It's not really changelog item though, as it basically belongs to the previous changelog entry, hence we have no changelog today.

[Lt_Jaeger]

1 hour ago, IronMike said:

The wheelchock fix should be in. It's not really changelog item though, as it basically belongs to the previous changelog entry, hence we have no changelog today.

For me it is still the same. I did the cold Nellis startup, I could remove and put them correctly, but then I rolled for a meter or two and the chocks, then placed again, were still baked in an odd angle to the wheels. So no changes in that regard. 

Edited December 22, 2022 by Lt_Jaeger

[IronMike]

21 minutes ago, Lt_Jaeger said:

For me it is still the same. I did the cold Nellis startup, I could remove and put them correctly, but then I rolled for a meter or two and the chocks, then placed again, were still baked in an odd angle to the wheels. So no changes in that regard. 

 

Ok, that means it still did not get pulled unfortunately and will be in, in the January patch. Our apologies for the wait everyone.