Best way to quickly get into combat?

[maverick90]

I mainly use the F16 and F18 modules and would like to know besides the instant buttons on the main menu. Are there better ways to go about getting into the game quickly?

I'm a very casual player and don't care much about flying by the book. I just want to load up, take off and get straight into shooting/bombing enemy planes, tanks, boats, etc. I don't like using the quick instant presets and would like to be able to customize certain aspects before I start. Such as setting the time, weather, location, types of enemies, etc. 

I would like to use it for training purposes. Such as the AI enemies skill level is very dumbed down as it to not make it too difficult for a beginner and have a team of AI pilots backing me up. Is this possible? I want plenty of non-stop action happening.

I don't understand a lot of the military lingo. What are all these mission types such as CAS, CAP, etc mean? I just want to go in and blow up and shoot down every enemy I see.

Edited April 17, 2024 by maverick90

[ricktoberfest]

If you don’t want to learn about anything then you will be limited in what you can do. Most of the time you will either be air to air or air to ground, but not both. If you aren’t happy using the quick missions (I never use instant action) then you will have to learn the basics of the mission editor. 
Also-  CAS - shooting at ground target enemies currently fighting with friendly ground targets

CAP - fighting enemy aircraft. 
 

that’s about as basic as can be done but the whole point of this game over war thunder is the fun in learning all the stuff that you seem to be saying you don’t want to learn 

[Raisuli]

21 minutes ago, maverick90 said:

I don't understand a lot of the military lingo. What are all these mission types such as CAS, CAP, etc mean? I just want to go in and blow up and shoot down every enemy I see.

 

Learn to use the mission editor.  Stack targets up somewhere close to your starting point; even the flying kind.  Blow up and shoot down to your heart's content.

[Exorcet]

You can create any situation that you want with the Mission Editor, and this includes starting on the runway with the plane running or even starting in the air. If you don't want to create a full mission you can also load unprotected missions in the ME, find your plane, and set it up how you want. Be warned that changes can break missions so if possible try to check with the mission creator.

The mission editor itself isn't hard to use when setting up missions. There is also a Fast Mission generator which might be perfect for you. Give it some inputs and DCS will populate the map with an autogenerated mission. The mission can be loaded in the ME to be customized further.

 

To expand a little more, a lot of your questions are explained in the DCS User Manual that comes with the installation. It's a big manual but you don't need to read everything.

You should also know about the user files where user created missions (and other things) are hosted for download. Some missions that fit your goals may exist:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/

DCS being a deep simulation will require some knowledge to setup properly. If you take a shot at setting up a mission in the ME or using the Fast generator, you could post it here and ask for more help in tweaking it. When it comes to setting difficult, not only will the AI skill matter but their equipment. To make it easier for a F-16 or F-18 you'll want to limit enemies to aircraft like MiG-23/MiG-21 or lower capability. Also avoid SA-10 and SA-11 SAM's and probably most IR guided weapons since they cannot be detected by the F-16/18.

Edited April 17, 2024 by Exorcet

[maverick90]

39 minutes ago, ricktoberfest said:

Most of the time you will either be air to air or air to ground, but not both.

So it's not possible to set up a scenario in the mission editor to have both?

25 minutes ago, Exorcet said:

You can create any situation that you want with the Mission Editor, and this includes starting on the runway with the plane running or even starting in the air. If you don't want to create a full mission you can also load unprotected missions in the ME, find your plane, and set it up how you want. Be warned that changes can break missions so if possible try to check with the mission creator.

The mission editor itself isn't hard to use when setting up missions. There is also a Fast Mission generator which might be perfect for you. Give it some inputs and DCS will populate the map with an autogenerated mission. The mission can be loaded in the ME to be customized further.

 

To expand a little more, a lot of your questions are explained in the DCS User Manual that comes with the installation. It's a big manual but you don't need to read everything.

You should also know about the user files where user created missions (and other things) are hosted for download. Some missions that fit your goals may exist:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/

DCS being a deep simulation will require some knowledge to setup properly. If you take a shot at setting up a mission in the ME or using the Fast generator, you could post it here and ask for more help in tweaking it. When it comes to setting difficult, not only will the AI skill matter but their equipment. To make it easier for a F-16 or F-18 you'll want to limit enemies to aircraft like MiG-23/MiG-21 or lower capability. Also avoid SA-10 and SA-11 SAM's and probably most IR guided weapons since they cannot be detected by the F-16/18.

 

Using the ME sounds like the best solution for me to create my dream scenario then. I just want to be able to take off and blow and shoot down a bunch of enemies, both ground and air. 

What's the best loadout you recommend for air to air and also air to ground? Best meaning, easiest and most efficient to use. Something that's more SMART and automated that is.

[PawlaczGMD]

9 minutes ago, maverick90 said:

So it's not possible to set up a scenario in the mission editor to have both?

Using the ME sounds like the best solution for me to create my dream scenario then. I just want to be able to take off and blow and shoot down a bunch of enemies, both ground and air. 

What's the best loadout you recommend for air to air and also air to ground? Best meaning, easiest and most efficient to use. Something that's more SMART and automated that is.

You can set up both scenarios of course, but it's usually a huge handicap to fly with heavy bombs in air to air.

Loadout for a2a: as many aim-120C as you can fit, plus a couple of aim-9 for close-in.

A2G: you have a large selection of weapons, TV-guided Maverick is probably the smartest and easiest to use.

[Exorcet]

4 minutes ago, maverick90 said:

Using the ME sounds like the best solution for me to create my dream scenario then. I just want to be able to take off and blow and shoot down a bunch of enemies, both ground and air.

Yes, you can do exactly that.

 

4 minutes ago, maverick90 said:

What's the best loadout you recommend for air to air and also air to ground? Best meaning, easiest and most efficient to use. Something that's more SMART and automated that is.

There is no one answer. Real aircraft are designed to complete missions with a specific task and take what they need to maximize success. While you can load a plane up with a ton of weapons that leads to being heavy and slow which can lead to being vulnerable and short legged. If you do want to take weapons to fight anything you'll probably want 2-4 air to air missiles, preferably AIM-120C and then fill the remaining stations with ground attack weapons like AGM-65F, Mk80 type bombs, or AGM-88 HARM missiles for protection against SAM's.

There are a lot of weapons to choose from but some require other weapons, for example Paveway bombs require a TGP to be able to be lased, so I'd suggest you avoid them until you want to expand your weapon selection and mission complexity.

Despite all I said there are some options to give you a more flexible experience:

-DCS allows you to set unlimited fuel and weapons which will give you more flexibility in loadouts and lets you use low amounts of fuel so that you aren't penalized for carrying so much

-DCS lets you jump into AI planes with R Alt + J. With this you can just fly more than one plane instead of trying to carry everything on one aircraft

-You can command wingmen and nonwingmen (they are more complex to command than wingmen) to perform tasks for you, so you don't need to do everything yourself.

For the type of mission you seem to want, you'll probably get a lot of mileage from the first two.

[609_Relentov]

Hey there @maverick90

I just put this together as a fun mission if you want to jump in and have fun air-to-air or air-to-ground with the F-16C or F/A-18C, using the Caucasus map.  I loaded my OpForAC and BluForAC scripts so you can call up friend or foe AI aircraft as needed/desired, and an F-10 menu to spawn some ground units on the road to Sukhumi airfield from Senaki airfield.

============================================================================================================================

F-16C and F/A-18C fun mission

"The road to Sukhumi"

Using the map, search for enemy units on the road to Sukhumi (from Senaki).  Targets are more dangerous to your aircraft the closer to Sukhumi you get.

Use the F-10 menu to spawn enemy ground units, if you desire air-to-ground targets.

Use the OpForAC and BluForAC F-10 menus to spawn opposing force (OpForAC) aircraft to fight against, and friendly force (BluForAC) aircraft to assist with air-to-air and air-to-ground targets.

Have fun!
AKA_Relent

============================================================================================================================

Feel free to edit the mission, adding other spawn aircraft, or ground units, etc., this was just to give you a place to start.  Play in single player or multi-player mode.  If you want to see the aircraft kills counted, play in multi-player mode, as there's a bug with SSE (scripting engine) regarding counting kills of AI aircraft spawned dynamically, in single player mode

More info on OpForAC: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3332275/

More info on BluForAC: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3335913/

F-16C and FA-18C fun mission - Caucasus.miz

Edited April 18, 2024 by 609_Relentov

[maverick90]

@609_Relentov thanks so much! I will give this a try. Will this work with the latest DCS 2.9.4?

[609_Relentov]

10 minutes ago, maverick90 said:

@609_Relentov thanks so much! I will give this a try. Will this work with the latest DCS 2.9.4?

Yes, just created it yesterday so should be good to go.

[TEMPEST.114]

On 4/17/2024 at 9:33 PM, maverick90 said:

I mainly use the F16 and F18 modules and would like to know besides the instant buttons on the main menu. Are there better ways to go about getting into the game quickly?

I'm a very casual player and don't care much about flying by the book. I just want to load up, take off and get straight into shooting/bombing enemy planes, tanks, boats, etc. I don't like using the quick instant presets and would like to be able to customize certain aspects before I start. Such as setting the time, weather, location, types of enemies, etc. 

I would like to use it for training purposes. Such as the AI enemies skill level is very dumbed down as it to not make it too difficult for a beginner and have a team of AI pilots backing me up. Is this possible? I want plenty of non-stop action happening.

I don't understand a lot of the military lingo. What are all these mission types such as CAS, CAP, etc mean? I just want to go in and blow up and shoot down every enemy I see.

 

Not gatekeeping here, but this is a 'study-level' type military flight simulator not a War Thunder / Battlefield shoot 'em up. Sure you can gamify it to a degree with unlimited ammo and no crashes etc, but you still have to learn the aircraft and weapons systems - unless you only fly the Flaming Cliffs gamey planes. Either you're going to have a invest time and effort into learning the systems and how to do things properly or you're not going to get very far.

From the main menu you can create a quick mission on the fly and change the parameters each time, or you'll need to download free missions from the USER FILES area on the main site, or invest even more time in learning the vagaries of the Mission Editor.

But this isn't a pow-pow shoot 'em up. You're going to need to put some effort in, either way. 

Edited April 21, 2024 by Elphaba