Mission 2 - play through

[Lt_Jaeger]

Mission 2 - play through

If you want to see how I disgrace myself, have a look. 

Two hours of boredom for the viewer, two hours of terror for me

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Lt_Jaeger

[Reflected]

Well done, very good flying! Impressive grades too. Now let's see how you handle the same but at night in mission 3

[Lt_Jaeger]

First I need to get my neck back in check. Flying in VR, as one can see, it is pretty fast clear, that pretending to be a pilot is actually not an old men's game. 

2 hours of "flying" equals 2 days of necessary recreation time. 

[Jayhawk1971]

Nice! Do you plan to make this campaign into a playthrough-series on your YouTube channel? It's always nice to see how others are doing.

And I'm glad I wasn't the only one surprised by the very abrupt heading changes by the AI.....incidentally, I did use pretty much the same vocabulary as you did  

[Lt_Jaeger]

Have done mission 3.

 

Not sure if I want to show it, I guess I cussed even more, I might even mentioned that Paco need to give back his drivers license. There was no "yes, Sir" involved. 

 

Have to check grading. Remember one unsat, which does not make me very happy. 

 

This all gets me scared about what is still to come 

[Indianajon]

1 hour ago, Lt_Jaeger said:

Have done mission 3.

 

Not sure if I want to show it, I guess I cussed even more, I might even mentioned that Paco need to give back his drivers license. There was no "yes, Sir" involved. 

 

Have to check grading. Remember one unsat, which does not make me very happy. 

 

This all gets me scared about what is still to come 

....Well now I'm worried about this evening,  that's what I'm about to do.

[Jayhawk1971]

Zitat

This all gets me scared about what is still to come 

MIssion 4 was actually quite fun and not all that difficult, somewhat of a "break" from the previous 2 missions (=not as nerve-racking as flying formation with suicidal maniac AI in the dark  ). 

On to the next one: I've already watched Redkite's video preview of mission 5, so I'm forewarned.  

Unless I'll be getting an "unsat" in upcoming missions, my plan for now is to go through the campaign without repeating a lesson, then do the whole thing again more thoroughly. Hopefully by then ED has finally fixed some of the AI bugs and quirks.

[Reflected]

The thing is, I managed to make the AI fly gentle turns with shallow bank angles, not like its usual erratic turns, but the roll rate it uses to start and finish, that’s completely hard coded, can’t do anything about it. 

[Reflected]

@Lt_Jaeger did the progression from mission 1 to this mission 2 work fine in the campaign menu? There is someone who can't progress, but I'm suspecting unofficial mods.

[Lt_Jaeger]

Yes, the progression worked like a charm.

My open kneeboard get CTD after the switch, but that is clearly a thing of the application. 

 

 

I like what you got done about the gentle turn. If I rant it is actually about the suddenness of the onset. I can imagine the real life guys would avoid such sudden maneuvers. There would be a tell to adjust too, I guess. The suddenness is what throws me off. 

Another thing, probably also out of your control is, that the plane is not trimmed with mission start. Especially in the formation bit, it takes me a while to get it stable (lack of feedback on the sim), so it all takes longer to get in place. But that is a minor annoyance. 

[Reflected]

Thanks for the info.

Yeah, both of those are out of my control. But the mission does set up your cockpit, so you don't need to bother with switcholigy  except the trim  

[MAXsenna]

Another thing, probably also out of your control is, that the plane is not trimmed with mission start. Especially in the formation bit, it takes me a while to get it stable (lack of feedback on the sim), so it all takes longer to get in place. But that is a minor annoyance. 

You're not using an FFB stick by chance are you?
The Tomcat will always be out of trim at mission start, at least with my MS FFB2. HB never fixed THAT 100%.

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Reflected]

Just now, MAXsenna said:

 

 

You're not using an FFB stick by chance are you?
The Tomcat will always be out of trim at mission start, at least with my MS FFB2. HB never fixed THAT 100%.

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk
 

 

No, it's the same with regular sticks too.

[MAXsenna]

No, it's the same with regular sticks too.

Ah, I see. Thanks!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Jayhawk1971]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb Reflected:

Yeah, both of those are out of my control. But the mission does set up your cockpit, so you don't need to bother with switcholigy  except the trim  

For both day and night cruise formation training parts, you included an additional "press spacebar when ready" option after mission start, which I found very helpful, as it gave me time to get settled (trimming and catching up). Even though I "pre-trim" during active pause and set the throttles in anticipation of the briefed speeds, it still takes some time to get settled.

This option would be very helpful for other mission sets as well.

[Reflected]

1 minute ago, Jayhawk1971 said:

For both day and night cruise formation training parts, you included an additional "press spacebar when ready" option after mission start, which I found very helpful, as it gave me time to get settled (trimming and catching up). Even though I "pre-trim" during active pause and set the throttles in anticipation of the briefed speeds, it still takes some time to get settled.

This option would be very helpful for other mission sets as well.

It's not always possible. Once unpaused, the planes start moving, and I can't always afford to have a random factor, maybe the player needs 10 sec to trim the plane, maybe they ignore the on screen message and press spacebar a minute later. These missions require the utmost precision to work, and I can't always implement leeway.

Bottom line: you'll get used to it quickly, the first 20-30 seconds are never graded anyway.

[Jayhawk1971]

vor 7 Minuten schrieb Reflected:

It's not always possible. Once unpaused, the planes start moving, and I can't always afford to have a random factor, maybe the player needs 10 sec to trim the plane, maybe they ignore the on screen message and press spacebar a minute later. These missions require the utmost precision to work, and I can't always implement leeway.

Bottom line: you'll get used to it quickly, the first 20-30 seconds are never graded anyway.

NP, I can see where timing the mission sets can become an issue, and taming that wild AI must be a massive pain in the butt as it is. 

Speaking of butts, mission 5 has been kicking mine! The fact that I hardly ever did air-to-ground in the Tomcat isn't helping.  

[Reflected]

Just now, Jayhawk1971 said:

NP, I can see where timing the mission sets can become an issue, and taming that wild AI must be a massive pain in the butt as it is. 

Speaking of butts, mission 5 has been kicking mine! The fact that I hardly ever did air-to-ground in the Tomcat isn't helping.  

I find mission 5 to be one of the hardest...so many things to pay attention to. Airspeed, altitude, your place in the pattern, in sync with Paco, and then you're still just flying, not killing anything yet...

Well, now we get a taste of what it takes to be a Naval Aviator

[Nealius]

On 1/28/2023 at 8:20 AM, Reflected said:

The thing is, I managed to make the AI fly gentle turns with shallow bank angles, not like its usual erratic turns, but the roll rate it uses to start and finish, that’s completely hard coded, can’t do anything about it. 

Have you noticed any warping after finishing turns? After executing a turn and rolling wings level, AI will then slide a bit in the opposite direction of their turn, as if the turn overshot some predifined flight path and they're warping to correct. It's not an issue when the player is on the inside of the turn (as AI will slide away after rolling out), but when the player is outside the turn in parade formation it typically ends in a mid-air or near-mid-air. It's not unique to the campaign or Tomcat AI, but I've never seen anyone else bring it up yet.

[Reflected]

Just now, Nealius said:

Have you noticed any warping after finishing turns? After executing a turn and rolling wings level, AI will then slide a bit in the opposite direction of their turn, as if the turn overshot some predifined flight path and they're warping to correct. It's not an issue when the player is on the inside of the turn (as AI will slide away after rolling out), but when the player is outside the turn in parade formation it typically ends in a mid-air or near-mid-air. It's not unique to the campaign or Tomcat AI, but I've never seen anyone else bring it up yet.

I haven't noticed that, but the AI seems to have all kinds of warping glitches. ED says it will all be solved by the new AI FM they're working on. Fingers crossed.

[Lt_Jaeger]

2 minutes ago, Reflected said:

I haven't noticed that, but the AI seems to have all kinds of warping glitches. ED says it will all be solved by the new AI FM they're working on. Fingers crossed.

And then you have to redo the campaign from scratch, probably. 

Be careful what you wish for. 

[Jayhawk1971]

vor einer Stunde schrieb Nealius:

Have you noticed any warping after finishing turns? After executing a turn and rolling wings level, AI will then slide a bit in the opposite direction of their turn, as if the turn overshot some predifined flight path and they're warping to correct. It's not an issue when the player is on the inside of the turn (as AI will slide away after rolling out), but when the player is outside the turn in parade formation it typically ends in a mid-air or near-mid-air. It's not unique to the campaign or Tomcat AI, but I've never seen anyone else bring it up yet.

I noticed that, too! Thought I was seeing things. 

It's some weird lateral sliding motion, as if the AI is trying to compensate? 

And don't get me started on the AI's instant accelerating/ decelerating! Something that has been driving me nuts for ages in DCS.

Maverick: "Gonna hit the breaks, he'll fly right by."

DCS AI: "Hold my beer......"

[Nealius]

The other thing I noticed was during the called turns, the AI banked between Paco's lines:

Paco: "...turn, here we go"

AI TURNS

Paco: "now."

Just a matter of timing and anticipation solved that, but the uncalled turns with the sliding is the biggest problem spot.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Nealius

[Reflected]

9 hours ago, Nealius said:

The other thing I noticed was during the called turns, the AI banked between Paco's lines:

Paco: "...turn, here we go"

AI TURNS

Paco: "now."

Just a matter of timing and anticipation solved that, but the uncalled turns with the sliding is the biggest problem spot.

 

Trigger timings are all messed up lately, now they seem to depend on CPU speed which is a disaster.

I'll delay his actual turn by 1 sec.