Stuck on 1st mission

[stenji]

Well, for sure I am not a pro F-14 pilot, specially in close dogfight, so I am happy playing Zone 5 to learn how to fly it better. My questions are:

1) I saw a video where the F 14 could shot the F 5 when the cross on the HUD shows up. I thought the cross was sort of "not to" like in the F18 HUD.

2) In the aforementioned video the bullet count was 670. Mine is always zero. I eventually can fire but the Rounds display is always 0 from the beginning to the end. How it comes?

Is it possible a previous version of the game related to that video was different? 

Anyway after few bursts my M61 stops firing like I really am out of bullets, is it normal? Wasn't it suppose to be training? So maybe having "infinite rounds" just to simulate the "Top Gun" hops with virtual bullets could be better, don't you agree?

[Reflected]

Hi @stenji thanks for stopping by.

1) the cross means you're too close (debris may damage your own jet). But you can still fire. It's up to you, but I'm sure it's gonna be a point in the debrief

2) you need to set the ammo counter manually before startup, see my tutorial here:
 

 

The ammo should be plenty enough to down 2 F5s, unless you're really spraying and praying. It's training ,but simulating real combat. If we gave you unlimited ammo, you could just spam the enemy with infinite Phoenixes later which would defeat the purpose of the training. The same logic applies to bullets too.

If you run out of bullets, no problem, you can just call knock it off using the F10 radio menu and RTB with Gator. Remember, the purpose of Topgun is not go score kills and get some sort of trophy but to apply more though to your tactics and learn from your mistakes.

[stenji]

@Reflected To be honest yes... I am still at the "spraying and praying" level so far but hey, that's my problem. Anyway I clearly understand your point and I'd like to congratulate for your great works on the campaigns. Thanks for the video embedded which gives me a way to learn flying the mighty Turkey better.

[Reflected]

Thank you and good luck with the rest of the hops!

[draconus]

7 hours ago, stenji said:

I saw a video where the F 14 could shot the F 5 when the cross on the HUD shows up. I thought the cross was sort of "not to" like in the F18 HUD.

Small cross + is a gun piper. Giant X means you are below minimum weapon range. Some DCS users ignore it because there are no consequences in case of a gun fire and flying into a damage debris yet. But it can harm you if the missile blows up too close, obviously. For the sake of training and realism you should stick to the rules though.

The simulation mode for weapon training is not implemented in DCS, so is hard to do it by mission creators. This topic always come up in these kind of missions, like here: