PAL mode locks ships instead of air targets right in front

[SparrowLT]

Happent to me day 26 online.. we were attacking Kuznetsov wich was alone and the last ship afloat of the group and it was launching Flankers at us..

 

then after some skirmishes and so..a SU-33 took off and headed into us straight from the carrier.. i turned into him and saw him straight ahead with the carrier in the close background.. so as allways under 15nm i used PAL mode to lock the jet in front of me..

 

and the PAL mode locks...the carrier..

 

It locked the carrier.. diamong and cross firm over the carrier.. SU33 still closing fast... so i do what allways do when locking wrong target.. push PAL again to restar adquisition:

 

Nothing happens.. doesnt sweep again.. it remains firmly locked on the carrier behind the incoming SU-33 .. tried several times.. PAL mode wouldnt unlock and sweep again like it should when press again..

 

at that time the SU-33 closed enought and fired on me a single R-73 that went magic mode and ignored all the flares ..

 

im uploading the Tacview.. i have the track but being a long online game its nearly 300mb ... could try to upload it to MEGA

Tacview-20250126-233548-DCS-Client-4YA_CAU_PVE2_DS_V2.120_cap2[01_JAN_FEW].zip.acmi

[MAXsenna]

When you exit a mission, you have a button called "Save track". It's better for the devs as TacView impossible to use as a debugger. If possible, do it next time. Name the track appropriately, and just drag and drop it here. Then the devs can use it for debugging and see whats going on.
Cheers!

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[SparrowLT]

2 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

When you exit a mission, you have a button called "Save track". It's better for the devs as TacView impossible to use as a debugger. If possible, do it next time. Name the track appropriately, and just drag and drop it here. Then the devs can use it for debugging and see whats going on.
Cheers!

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk
 

I said i have the track... the problem is that its 300mb size (online server for >2 hours) ... i can try uploading it to MEGA or something if someone really wants it...

[MAXsenna]

I said i have the track... the problem is that its 300mb size (online server for >2 hours) ... i can try uploading it to MEGA or something if someone really wants it...

Apologies. Missed that. Yeah, for large tracks, one needs to upload via file service. While you cannot expect devs to sit through hours and watch it. Have to tried to simply recreate the exact, (the incident), scenario in SP? Then you can make a really short track, and if it doesn't happen it's probably some MP bug/desync error.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[razo+r]

3 hours ago, SparrowLT said:

Happent to me day 26 online.. we were attacking Kuznetsov wich was alone and the last ship afloat of the group and it was launching Flankers at us..

 

then after some skirmishes and so..a SU-33 took off and headed into us straight from the carrier.. i turned into him and saw him straight ahead with the carrier in the close background.. so as allways under 15nm i used PAL mode to lock the jet in front of me..

 

and the PAL mode locks...the carrier..

 

It locked the carrier.. diamong and cross firm over the carrier.. SU33 still closing fast... so i do what allways do when locking wrong target.. push PAL again to restar adquisition:

 

Nothing happens.. doesnt sweep again.. it remains firmly locked on the carrier behind the incoming SU-33 .. tried several times.. PAL mode wouldnt unlock and sweep again like it should when press again..

 

at that time the SU-33 closed enought and fired on me a single R-73 that went magic mode and ignored all the flares ..

 

im uploading the Tacview.. i have the track but being a long online game its nearly 300mb ... could try to upload it to MEGA

Tacview-20250126-233548-DCS-Client-4YA_CAU_PVE2_DS_V2.120_cap2[01_JAN_FEW].zip.acmi 19.44 MB · 6 downloads

A carrier broadside has a bigger RCS than a flanker headon. It makes sense that the radar picks the one with the bigger RCS.

Some more info:

 

 

 

 

 

[SparrowLT]

Isnt suposed the radar to be a doppler so it filters out static or ground targets? like the carrier was even sideways to me.. it wasnt closing or getting away as it was in a pefect notch position unlike the big honking flanker coming straight at me head on

[razo+r]

6 minutes ago, SparrowLT said:

Isnt suposed the radar to be a doppler so it filters out static or ground targets? like the carrier was even sideways to me.. it wasnt closing or getting away as it was in a pefect notch position unlike the big honking flanker coming straight at me head on

The radar has different modes, doppler being one of them. But it also has non-dopplers modes that don't filter out static targets. And by reading the linked topics, PAL seems to not use doppler, making locking onto ships possible.

[draconus]

Yes, PAL is pulse mode, like all pilot ACM modes. Use PLM and point it on the fighter if you see it. If not, tell Jester to lock him if the target is on the scope.

[SparrowLT]

Ok if PAL works in P-STT mode and not in doppler i can see it finding the carrier before the Flanker.

 

But why it didnt reset when i hit PAL again? cause when i have more than one target in the furball and im using PAL and lock the wrong thing what i been doing forever is press PAL again and it sweeps again and try to get what i want..and repeat until i get the correct target.. in this case it was like if PAL was dead glued to the carrier..pressing PAL againd didnt restarted the sweep as much as i tried.. the next thing i was thinking was telling Jester to break STT lock but at that moment i had a R-73 to deal with

[draconus]

3 hours ago, SparrowLT said:

But why it didnt reset when i hit PAL again?

I tried to reproduce the same situation. Carrier is a big target and it's easily found whenever new search pattern starts. PAL press is not "next target" button. It just starts again the same pattern search so as long as you keep your nose pointing at the carrier it keeps being locked again.

[SparrowLT]

25 minutes ago, draconus said:

I tried to reproduce the same situation. Carrier is a big target and it's easily found whenever new search pattern starts. PAL press is not "next target" button. It just starts again the same pattern search so as long as you keep your nose pointing at the carrier it keeps being locked again.

Thats exactly what i said and what i complained .. several times.. (im beginning to think nobody reads my posts anymore) in that incident pressing PAL didnt did nothing at all.. it should had resumed search...it didnt

 

 

I never said PAL switches target..it restarts the search.. only that if it locks the wrong (or unintended) target its faster to PAL again and hope it locks the correct one (with help pointing the nose).. why not use PLM?  in DCS at least i find PAL more efficient than PLM for BFM/ACM

Edited January 28 by SparrowLT

[draconus]

1 minute ago, SparrowLT said:

did nothing at all.. it should had resumed search...it didnt

Or it instantly locked it again like in my test.

[SparrowLT]

27 minutes ago, draconus said:

Or it instantly locked it again like in my test.

Well there is a chanced that the sweep starts right where the carrier was wich would lock it inmediatly (unless changing nose angle).. however from my POV the diamond never moves a mm or even flicks ..it stayed glue to the carrier all attempts

[RustBelt]

It immediately sees a giant return in its range gate and locks it again. PAL is a simple beast. It sees a thing, it locks the thing. Brightest thing wins.