F-14 A/B feature follow-up, wish list and beyond

[Bealdor]

25 minutes ago, draconus said:

Have a link? Never heard of someone defending Jester as fully authentic or very realistic. He does have limitations and was never meant as a full human RIO experience, just believable and helpful one. From FAQ:

 

I'm sure we all know what he is by now.

It doesn't hurt to ask for more though. This is a wishlist thread after all.

[draconus]

17 minutes ago, Bealdor said:

I'm sure we all know what he is by now.

It doesn't hurt to ask for more though. This is a wishlist thread after all.

Of course, I'm all in for fully competent and autonomic RIO. Wasn't that asked for in already wished Jester 2.0 though?

Edited April 17 by draconus

[scommander2]

20 hours ago, scommander2 said:

On 4/14/2025 at 10:35 AM, broda said:

Seeing the altitude when using the Jester wheel to lock a specific target.

 

Right now it’s only azimuth and distance. Sometimes it gets crowded and you have different friendlies right next to the enemy at an different altitude and you select them by mistake. Seeing the altitudes of the contacts on the wheel would help a lot selecting the correct target.

 Added the following into the wish list section with the @Dragon1-1's suggestion (it is a specific area to search for I think):

- [ADDED]Seeing the altitude when using the Jester wheel to lock a specific target with "prioritize higher/lower" choices {https://forum.dcs.world/topic/349953-f-14-ab-feature-follow-up-wish-list-and-beyond/page/13/#findComment-5631736 https://forum.dcs.world/topic/349953-f-14-ab-feature-follow-up-wish-list-and-beyond/page/13/#findComment-5631790 https://forum.dcs.world/topic/349953-f-14-ab-feature-follow-up-wish-list-and-beyond/page/13/#findComment-5631790}

Please let me know that it makes sense or not.  Thanks.

Meanwhile, I can ask Jester to do "set elevation"->"scan at altitude at distance" based on AWACS report.

[broda]

5 hours ago, scommander2 said:

Meanwhile, I can ask Jester to do "set elevation"->"scan at altitude at distance" based on AWACS report.

Yeah we can do that, but there are situations where an enemy is visible on Datalink, straight ahead, 20nm out, hot and jester does not care. Would be nice to have him more active in those situations. 

The "select specific target" option is helpful for that. On multiplayer I usually use that in combination with datalink while I ask Jester to scan the floor with the AWG9 to see low flying targets since they don't appear on DL because

a) they are often not in line of sight of AWACS or

b) are somehow not displayed in the Tomcat (I heard about this situation a couple of times, where low targets are visible on Link 16 but not the Tomcats DL. Don't know it it's a bug or feature)

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

34 minutes ago, broda said:

low targets are visible on Link 16 but not the Tomcats DL. Don't know it it's a bug or feature

Link 4A is only supposed to work with the E-2 Hawkeye, not with the E-3 Sentry. I don't know if that is actually modelled in DCS 
Could this perhaps be the reason?

[scommander2]

1 hour ago, broda said:

Yeah we can do that, but there are situations where an enemy is visible on Datalink, straight ahead, 20nm out, hot and jester does not care. Would be nice to have him more active in those situations. 

The "select specific target" option is helpful for that. On multiplayer I usually use that in combination with datalink while I ask Jester to scan the floor with the AWG9 to see low flying targets since they don't appear on DL because

a) they are often not in line of sight of AWACS or

b) are somehow not displayed in the Tomcat (I heard about this situation a couple of times, where low targets are visible on Link 16 but not the Tomcats DL. Don't know it it's a bug or feature)

No problem, we still have the entry in the wish list section.

1 hour ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

E-3 Sentry

Link 16, mmm... F-14D. Am I doing the daydream?  

[scommander2]

- F-14A/B Afteburner Effect Desync {https://forum.dcs.world/topic/356998-bug-f-14ab-afteburner-effect-desync/ https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/changelog/release/2.9.15.9408/}

Moved it into the close item list due to:

Fixed the Afterburner for one engine displaying with major delay when switching cameras.

PS: according to discord the AB animation was paused after a while and moved this item back to the "fix" section. Retested/verified please see the following share:

 

 

For:

Audio: Fixed major audio "stepping" bug for both -A and -B variant

Need to check it is in the list or not.

 

 

Edited April 18 by scommander2

[RustBelt]

On 4/15/2025 at 6:15 AM, JupiterJoe said:

I would argue that some of the little touches the F4 has are more immersive and helps give life to the virtual environment.  Some player's even like to to walk out to their jets and simulate a walk-around.  It all helps with immersion:

 

You’re talking to someone who actively avoids the Supercarrier whenever possible. I don’t like little fake people and magical disappearing equipment. I don’t rank Immersion very high on my needs tier list when it comes to Flight Sims. It’s below like UI design, and multiplayer stability.

[scommander2]

17 hours ago, scommander2 said:

- F-14A/B Afteburner Effect Desync {https://forum.dcs.world/topic/356998-bug-f-14ab-afteburner-effect-desync/ https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/changelog/release/2.9.15.9408/}

Moved it into the close item list due to:

Fixed the Afterburner for one engine displaying with major delay when switching cameras.

PS: according to discord the AB animation was paused after a while and moved this item back to the "fix" section. Retested/verified please see the following share:

 

 

Moved it into the "closed" section.

17 hours ago, scommander2 said:

For:

Audio: Fixed major audio "stepping" bug for both -A and -B variant

Need to check it is in the list or not.

 

We do not have this report in our list  

[PhantomHans]

Not sure if anyone from Heatblur is actively reading up on this thread or checking into it, but I have a few requests for some Jester commands that I would like implemented...

1. An option to tell Jester that it's OK to automatically switch to PSTT, but to NOT do it if the radar is guiding a missile.

2. A key command to tell Jester "STT Lock Nearest Enemy Contact Ahead, Otherwise, STT Lock Nearest Unknown Ahead".
Sadly, Jester seems to be reluctant, sometimes, to go STT on enemy contacts ahead if they aren't IFFed as hostile, so in a situation where I'm closing but don't really want to use PAL or VSL, I'd like a smarter option to get him to lock a bandit without having to worry if he's got IFF on them or not.

3. A toggle and a separate pair of keys for the Jammer.  Jammer Toggle On/Off, Jammer On, Jammer Off.

[Rhrich]

On 4/17/2025 at 10:25 AM, draconus said:

Have a link? Never heard of someone defending Jester as fully authentic or very realistic. He does have limitations and was never meant as a full human RIO experience, just believable and helpful one. From FAQ:

If you read what I write, it’s clear that I’m not talking about jester, but other aspects. If I’m not very much mistaken, you where one of those defending their decisions on worn cockpit interior. 

My point is that jester doesn’t give an realistic example of flying the F-14 and that it should be easy to improve it. While in other aspects they’ve gone overboard to create what they regard as realistic. 

[draconus]

15 hours ago, Rhrich said:

My point is that jester doesn’t give an realistic example of flying the F-14...

You should try campaigns like Reforger II.

[Rhrich]

2 hours ago, draconus said:

You should try campaigns like Reforger II.

I did. Unless I’m mistaken it was terrible. 
For example, it didn’t care if I did everything right when I dropped LGBs, it wanted me to drop it according to a script. Did a test: Did everything as stated in the script, dropped when I was supposed to, then masked and went in clouds. The bomb still hit its target. 
What’s the point then?

[draconus]

Bugs happen. When it works it's great.

[Dragon1-1]

It's well written, but the LGB mission in particular is badly designed, there's zero room for error and not enough time even for the conversation to play out.

[JupiterJoe]

The latest patch included a long awaited improvement to the refuelling probe light.  So we can go ahead and remove that from the list. 

[scommander2]

58 minutes ago, JupiterJoe said:

The latest patch included a long awaited improvement to the refuelling probe light.  So we can go ahead and remove that from the list. 

Thanks for informing me.

The following entry has been moved to the "closed" section:

- refueling light gain: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/245592-refuelling-probe-light/?do=findComment&comment=4428642 {https://discordapp.com/channels/1071433028045377637/1076903951791816807}

I need to find time to try it out  

[JupiterJoe]

The hand pump no longer supplies hydraulic pressure to deploy the fuel probe and tail hook etc.  When I first discovered you could do that I marvelled at the level of detail HB had provided.  This ability and others (like the Emergency Launch Bar retraction), may have been rarely used, but they did help give a sense of depth to the systems modelled and increase immersion.  It's a 'study-level sim' after all, not War Thunder.

Edited July 1 by JupiterJoe

[Zabuzard]

46 minutes ago, JupiterJoe said:

The hand pump no longer supplies hydraulic pressure to deploy the fuel probe and tail hook etc.  When I first discovered you could do that I marvelled at the level of detail HB had provided.  This ability and others (like the Emergency Launch Bar retraction), may have been rarely used, but they did help give a sense of depth to the systems modelled and increase immersion.  It's a 'study-level sim' after all, not War Thunder.

Not sure what you mean. The hand pump does work. If you run into an issue, please create a bug report and send a track

My guess would be that you are not pumping enough. You need to pump it around 50 times to see any pressure change on the gauge (as the minimum of the gauge is 1900 PSI). Around 50-100 pumps to get into the green area.

The launch bar switch is generally misunderstood. It doesnt work that way IRL. That said, afaik we were forced to do some changes on it to support DCS updates to the carrier systems. Someone else from the team can probably provide more details.

Edited July 1 by Zabuzard

[JupiterJoe]

20 hours ago, Zabuzard said:

Not sure what you mean. The hand pump does work. If you run into an issue, please create a bug report and send a track

My guess would be that you are not pumping enough. You need to pump it around 50 times to see any pressure change on the gauge (as the minimum of the gauge is 1900 PSI). Around 50-100 pumps to get into the green area.

The hand pump used to deploy the fuel probe bit-by-bit.  You didn't need to accumulate pressure, pumping had an immediate effect.  Now the needle never moves no matter how many times you pump and the fuel probe doesn't budge.  In the following video you can hear me operating the hand pump.  The sound stops once I speed up time (as you can see from the clock), but I am pumping the whole time and the needle never moves.  What am I doing wrong? 

Edited July 2 by JupiterJoe

[draconus]

4 hours ago, JupiterJoe said:

The hand pump used to deploy the fuel probe bit-by-bit.  You didn't need to accumulate pressure, pumping had an immediate effect.

It works that way but you need electric power. Is this correct @Zabuzard? Manual says "This is mainly for unpowered ground operation but can be used as a backup in the air."

[RustBelt]

5 hours ago, JupiterJoe said:

The hand pump used to deploy the fuel probe bit-by-bit.  You didn't need to accumulate pressure, pumping had an immediate effect.  Now the needle never moves no matter how many times you pump and the fuel probe doesn't budge.  In the following video you can hear me operating the hand pump.  The sound stops once I speed up time (as you can see from the clock), but I am pumping the whole time and the needle never moves.  What am I doing wrong?  How can we ascertain the hand pump is working like you say it is?

 

The brake pressure/AUX gauge with the hand pump is a long term noted not working. 
 

The main gauge, and the actual electrically actuated hydraulic selector valve to extend/retract the probe requires electrical power to operate. 
 

Try it with Ground Power connected. 

[JupiterJoe]

8 hours ago, draconus said:

It works that way but you need electric power.

8 hours ago, RustBelt said:

Try it with Ground Power connected. 

The power has to be on! I'm an idiot.  Sorry everyone.  

[scommander2]

An update from HB from discord at:

https://discord.com/channels/1071433028045377637/1071574236403081287/1395028665775161364

Below, some quotes are related to F-14 for "A" and "B(U)":

Quote

We’ve got a simply put, comprehensive list of new additions, changes and updates to essentially every product coming! Some of these include another large Viggen update, the early -A for the Tomcat, the A-6E AI, and a slew of new stuff for the F-4 such as Jester Pave Spike, Combat Tree, a novel EFB feature, and persistent aircraft...

 

Quote

We’re also growing - and are excited to talk about the A-6E and F-14BU being in active development...

 

 

[captain_dalan]

On 7/18/2025 at 2:50 PM, scommander2 said:

An update from HB from discord at:

https://discord.com/channels/1071433028045377637/1071574236403081287/1395028665775161364

Below, some quotes are related to F-14 for "A" and "B(U)":

 

 

 

Does it mention bug fixes and FM changes?