New to Black Shark - Russian voices? Flight Director Mode?

[sukhoi350]

Hi guys, my 1st post here. i am new to BS... so far i think its by far the best sim ever created. i'm basically learning everything from 0. over the past 3 days i've learnt a couple of cool things like autohover, doing some traffic patterns ect ect.

 

I have 2 small issues though

 

1) I am Russian but I have the English version of the game. Only thing driving me mad is the awefully accented voices on the radio... is there any way to change them to Russian???

 

2) Could some one please explain to me the exact function of the "Flight director mode button" and when it should and should not be used. When i have no flight plan loaded, i find it MUCH easier to fly the helicopter with the Flight Director mode engaged... it stablises the yaw as i realised... however it suddenly screws everything up when a flight plan is loaded.

 

so i am wondering... under normal operating procedures, when flying around in HOTAS mode, would you use the Flight Director mode?

 

 

any info is much appreciated! thanks!

[Stretch]

1) Not without some third-party mod that I don't know of yet.

 

2) The autopilot has four modes of operation: off, dampening, stability, and on (hover, route, or descent submodes). When you enable each of the four channel buttons, you are turning on the stability mode for those channels -- the autopilot will let you fly the helicopter but will smooth out your control inputs to keep it stable. When you turn on flight director mode, you are disabling the stability mode and reverting to dampening mode, where the autopilot provides minimal input to dampen adverse oscillations and the like. You also see the typical flight director bars on the HUD that let you know where the helicopter autopilot "wants" you to fly. If you turn the autopilot fully on (by switching it to route, descent, or hover mode), with flight director mode on, the FD bars will point you towards where the autopilot is commanded to fly. With FD mode off, the autopilot will apply up to 20% control inputs to fly the helicopter according to its mode.

 

Stability mode makes your helicopter a stable flying and shooting platform but adds noticeable "sluggishness" to your controls. You may often want to revert to dampening mode for doing extreme maneuvers. Most people do this by holding down the trim button -- while it is depressed, the autopilot reverts to dampening mode. You never want to fly the helicopter with the autopilot completely off; you will find it very difficult to control.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Stretch

[ericinexile]

1) If you search you should find a post by a player who offered to post the sound folder from the Russian version of the game pending Eagle's approval. I don't recall how that played out. And, yes, the Russian Ecran is much better.

 

2) "Flight Director" is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, it does provide HUD command bars but that's the least of the functions of the mode. Primarily, it disables the autopilot while maintaining basic stabilization. Some say it's use is akin to being a silly noob who refuses to fly the way real pilots must. Others, myself included, think the Ka50 is a miserable machine to fly with the autopilot constantly butting in where it doesn't belong. For me, FD stays on unless I want Route Following or Autohover. The rest can eat my shorts. ;-)

[Frederf]

1. The English version of the game only contains the English voice files. You'd have to get a friendly person with the Russian version, trade files, and go to town swapping .ogg files.

 

EDIT: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=36842

 

2. FD mode suspends all the AP holds on the AP channels and displays some visual indicators on the HUD to help fly the last captured AP hold values.

 

EDIT: Wow, ninja'd!

Edited May 13, 2010 by Frederf

[sukhoi350]

Thanks very much guys!!! I now have russian voices on the radio and its way better! however i wish we could get some audio for BS and Lock On like this:

 

it would add such a realistic feel to the game!!! is there such a mod by any chance??? i mean with real recorded messages rather than "computer-like" voices telling you what to do as if the guy was sitting right next to you having dinner! i mean where's all the backgeound psshhhh and shhhh and stuff lol

 

here's what i did with the recording from above:

 

 

and the FD mode is still fairly confusing to me. i find it that the chopper is mach more stable in flight with FD engaged... and yet somehow:

 

"Primarily, it disables the autopilot while maintaining basic stabilization."

 

so i'm a little confused there... so its supposed to make the helicopter unstable? sorry if i sound dumb... i'll figure it out somehow :P

 

Thanks for the help guys! much appreciated!

[sweinhart3]

it doesnt disable stabilization but basically disengages any autopilot heading commands that would otherwise keep the heli in a heading hold or automatic steering. I find it much easier to employ rockets in FD mode so that small corrections can be made without engaging the trim button. Other weapons its nicer to use regular autopilot functionality to keep your helicopter facing in the right direction.

 

Edit: In real life, you dont have to fight the stick in regular autopilot mode because the stick is always maintained in its last trimmed position. But we have to deal with joysticks that always center or have a high quality FFB joystick that will keep your last joystick position.

Edited May 14, 2010 by sweinhart3

[sukhoi350]

aahhh i see! thanks! that helps!

 

another quick question: i realised that i cant enable the autohover function unless the trim is on! i dont really understand why it has to be on for autohover to work! will it be the same issue with "heading hold"? (i havent tried that function yet)

[sweinhart3]

Yes but your trim (dampening channels) should never be off in the first place. If your talking about having FD on, as I stated in my last post it disengages any steering commands which the autopilot needs to hold heading in both hover and heading holds or route modes. If you want to use either of those features, simply disengage FD. Blackshark FD is much different than fixed wing FD which is simply an extension of the regular autopilot modes.

[Zenra]

I am not sure I understand what you mean by "trim is on". Trim is always "on", you just change the trim state when you release the trim button (or the T key with default mapping).

 

EDIT - Ah, I see - by trim you mean the pitch, roll and yaw AP channels as sweinhart3 deduced...

[winz]

Trim isn't something that can be on or off. Trim, as a button, sets new central position for control surfaces and sets the desired heading/pitch/bank/roll to the autopilot.

1)Control surfaces - You are virtualy saying to the heli 'I want to maintain this control input (i.e. pushing the stick forward to fly forward), but I don't want to push the stick for the rest of the flight'. Think of it as a magic hand holding the stick for you at the position you left it. But this alone is not enough to keep you flying the way you desired, wind/speed changes are enough to change the result of these input. Thats where tha autopilot comes in play.

 

2)Autopilot - In order to lower the workload on pilot, the Ka-50 is equipped with an autopilot that will try to maintain the heading/pitch/bank/roll the way they were the last time you released the trim button. This is the functionality that the FD disables. You can temporaly disable the AP by holding down the trim button (press it during your maneuvers, so you don't have to fight the AP).

 

If you have a strong feeling that you are fighting the heli without FD than it's because you don't trim, and AP is trying to get the heli back on the set course.

 

So the basic rule of flying the Ka50 is - trim, trim, trim.

 

In autohover the trim works to set a new position you want to hover above.

 

sorry if i sound dumb... i'll figure it out somehow

I think, in the beginning most of people had hard times figuring how the whole trim+ap system works. But once you get the hang of it, you gonna love it ;)

[sweinhart3]

I think, in the beginning most of people had hard times figuring how the whole trim+ap system works. But once you get the hang of it, you gonna love it ;)

 

Or hate it lol.:doh:

[sukhoi350]

thanks guys! ok i see what u mean... half the time the pilot is fighting his own autopilot, not the terrorists lol

 

there's a new episode of "Smotr" TV program that went online today. Unfortunatelly it's in Russian (lucky for some like me though). It's a brand new episode about the Ka-50 operations in Chechnya in 2001. After watching it, I am totally convinced the Ka-50 is the most awesome strike chopper ever! (although be it without night capability (for now))

 

anyways, after watching it i am actually wondering 2 things.

 

1) According to "Smotr" almost every mission flown by Ka-50s was in conjunction with Mi-24s (i am not sure of how many choppers the strike group consisted of) and also Ka-29s as observation/command posts which send target details to Ka-50s. So i was wondering if anything like this is possible in DCS BS? Or are we limited to just our wingmen for info on new targets? is there any way of other choppers relaying new target info to the player? Is it possible to create missions to work together with Hinds in the same target area and share information with them?

 

2) How many Ka-50s doe the Russian Army currently have in service?

[Frederf]

1. Datalink transfer is only possible (by AI) inside the same flight. I think all aircraft of a flight have to be the same.

 

2. Wiki says Russia has 15 -50's and 10 -52's.

[sukhoi350]

Thanks. wikipedia says lots of rubbish loads of time so i dont always tend to believe it.

[ToWcH]

i just have one question, how do u stop auto pilot from intefering with my rudder input....i apply rudder then the heli just turns its self back to the original position

[Frederf]

Trim the new position (a.k.a. capture the new heading value).