M01 Stuck progression issue?

[eLgargantuan]

I've been circling an SA-15 looking at it in my pod for nearly 10 minutes now; its like PTSD from M15 in RODF.

The last voice transmissions were:
DEVIL 31: Affirm. And we have our SA-15 near the trees to the east. Got it on tapes?
PLAYER: Ee, negative, wait one...


It seems like there should have been a comms option to say that I have contact/tapes on the Tor.
VAICOM is not enabled.

Am I just being impatient?
 

[rob10]

You need to turn the physical switches for the "tapes" ON in the cockpit.  It's easy to overlook, but it actually tells you to do this at fence-in in the briefing.  The switches are located below the FUEL INDICATIONS.  The comm's are a hint as to what you haven't done (turning on the tapes) rather than a command for something you should be doing.  I had read it in the briefing and completely forgot to do it until I hit that comm's, then I had to look up where the switches were.

[eLgargantuan]

Just now, rob10 said:

You need to turn the physical switches for the "tapes" ON in the cockpit.  It's easy to overlook, but it actually tells you to do this at fence-in in the briefing.  The switches are located below the FUEL INDICATIONS.  The comm's are a hint as to what you haven't done (turning on the tapes) rather than a command for something you should be doing.  I had read it in the briefing and completely forgot to do it until I hit that comm's, then I had to look up where the switches were.

Ok thanks. I wish this was more clear. I checked that the left DDI was set on the tapes but that they weren't ON because i assumed it was automatically ON. Getting tired of wasting time trying to fly single player campaigns; I'll try again once the bad taste has left my mouth.

[Kula66]

Agreed, a very frustrating waste of time.

Also, I appreciate that DCS AI is a poor flight lead, but perhaps add a separate event or delay for change of course and change of comms?  The mission seems to give you a comms change command, and simultaneously does a abrupt change of course/altitude/speed! 

[eLgargantuan]

Got a bit further this time. Next time I guess don't get so close to the backfire? The exact moment they told me to shoot it down I heard a load bang and my wing had been sliced through...

[rob10]

43 minutes ago, eLgargantuan said:

Got a bit further this time. Next time I guess don't get so close to the backfire? The exact moment they told me to shoot it down I heard a load bang and my wing had been sliced through...

I was lucky that I happened to offset to the right so it didn't take me, but others have gotten caught with it damaging them .  That's probably a random luck of DCS thing.

[eLgargantuan]

I think it was more the unclear "Get into formation with him so he can see you" then "fall behind as I finish talking"....might be worth mentioning in mission designer notes how close you need to be for triggers.

Third time is a charm apparently...hope this helps others... 

[baltic_dragon]

Thanks. Don't want to put too much in mission designers, but I could probably add a note during the intercept.

[Blackhawk163]

Wait just how close or far do you have to be? I’ve played this mission 3 times and get to intercept and I’ll pull up about as close as one does when stationed for refueling f14s to get the pilot attention and…. Nothing. I even pulled up to the nose and that backfired (pun intended) as it turned right into me and destroyed my right wing.

 

But seriously it shouldn’t be that difficult and I don’t want to skip the mission

 

Fourth time success. I think I know what the problem was. I staggered my approaches. First on the left, then the right, then left (where I got clipped) Neither time did I get the handshake message. Then I went left again, and all the message triggers worked. Feisty bugger. Yay, we're at war... 

Edited January 20 by Blackhawk163

[baltic_dragon]

IIRC you have the be established near the Russian jet for some time, zipping around won't cut it

[Blackhawk163]

16 hours ago, baltic_dragon said:

IIRC you have the be established near the Russian jet for some time, zipping around won't cut it

See I thought the same thing, So I flew in close so that the pilot could see me (as ordered) and stayed there and got nothing as a result other than it turning on me and taking me out. Seemed that I needed to be at the 7-8 o’clock position to get the trigger to activate and not the 10-11 or 1-2 position. 

[baltic_dragon]

10 hours ago, Blackhawk163 said:

See I thought the same thing, So I flew in close so that the pilot could see me (as ordered) and stayed there and got nothing as a result other than it turning on me and taking me out. Seemed that I needed to be at the 7-8 o’clock position to get the trigger to activate and not the 10-11 or 1-2 position. 

I'll double check the shape of the zone... I think I didn't use round to avoid mission progressing when you were behind or in front of the bandit. 

[Raisuli]

I ran into that, sort of.  It broke down and left (into me) before putting two 23mm rounds through my avionics and fuel cells, which was downright rude.  Not a courteous guest at all.  When I was right on the pilot's windows, because my flight lead is "Shadow" and I'm up for close formation as well, it was pretty much straight and level

Need to re-run (to do better than a 50 point draw) and I'll be sure to fall farther back; I was told to fall back into offensive position but really I just opened up the formation a little.  Gotta remember what the game we're playing is, and it's not "ohhh...look at the pretty airplane!"

<edit>

That worked much better; fell back to the aft end during the threats, then to idle and put the boards out for a second once that ended...need some distance to get a FWDoD off anyway, so that's a reasonable maneuver.  The rounds weren't very close and I never lost visual until it went in the clouds and lead put a FWDoD on it.  The hardest part was that crosswind landing, then I taxied half way to Helsinki.  Stopped at a drive through to get some salted herring while I was there.  Shut down with 1700 pounds of fuel because I'm an idiot.

</edit>

Edited January 25 by Raisuli

[Agim]

Hi, I got stuck in the 1st mission, so I'm continuing this thread. After I observe a crane and APC and Devil 31 reports findings to Anvil, all communication goes silent and the mission does not progress. Tapes are ON, radios are set to PRI CH12, AUX CH1. No idea, where is the problem. Probably some mess in the radio settings. 

Overall, I am very frustrated by the lack of clarity about communication in this campaign. Just overhear something, or misunderstand something, and the rest of communication goes silent. This is definitely realistic. In reality, one would ask in case of any ambiguity, which of course is not possible in DCS. Some F10 hint as to which channel the radio should be actually tuned to would always help. At the moment, all you have to do is tune the radio wrong once and you are lost in the following communication and you can restart the mission. 

[baltic_dragon]

Thanks @Agim for your feedback. I hear you, but the whole radio system (Easy Comms not being supported, the need to be on correct frequencies etc) is a deliberate choice I made for the sake of realism and I don't think I will step back on these. You always have channels and frequencies listed on the kneeboard and you have pop-ups on the screens telling you which radio to switch to - and usually mission waits with progressing until you do that. So I understand your frustration, but this radio system is something that many players appreciate a lot in my campaigns as opposed to many others, where frequencies don't really matter as all the voiceovers are played as "sound to player". 

Having said that, you should get the hang of it in the course of few missions and you will start to appreciate it. Take your time to read the briefing, review the kneeboards and frequencies. Radio procedures are always briefed before the flight (check in, then ATIS, tower, etc...).