Flight Qualifications Campaign

[Sabre-TLA]

I managed to fix the mission, I think. Got a Q on the first try.

 

- Enlarged SPRINGFIELD trigger to 6000m

- Moved FORD trigger to 41°30'21'' 44°35'39'', enlarged to 5000m

- Delayed L-39ZA flight to 2400s

 

The only small bug I noticed is that I had two entries in the F10 menu for SPRINGFIELD to engage. It made no actual difference though.

 

Lost 2 on the second set of targets (he was forced to eject), along with his Mavericks. Luckily enough 3 was good with his cannon and destroyed two of the six tanks. He also got hit by MGs while mopping up FORDs target area (they missed quite a lot of targets there), although he managed to RTB.

 

Proof that when the mission works and the AI is in a good mood, these missions are awesome!

 

Sabre-TLA, I can send the fixed .miz file via email if you want to use it as a template.

 

I was just going to reply. We retested the mission and except for FORD being blocked by the L-39's everything can be completed successfully.

 

Don't share your updates as that would violate the USER AGREEMENT.

 

I'll be posting an updated package soon with some changes.

 

The other thing we noticed is that your VUL period starts the moment you get on station at CHEVY. If you get there too early then you don't have as much time to help the troops out when they start moving at 06:20am.

 

The missions are designed with a 15min start-up period so you can do a full pre-flight check.

 

Plan to be on station by 06:15am so you will be able to prosecute targets until 07:00am. You can start hunting targets as soon as you are on station but don't use up too much ordnance or you won't have enough left over for the Troops In Contact (TIC) calls.

[Gliptal]

Sorry, I'll edit my post.

 

I guess it was just a case then, by I couldn't get SPRINGFIELD's trigger to activate without modifying the zone.

 

I get on station at about 0612. The problem with the timing is the AI can be very moody, and sometimes take 5-10 minutes to complete an attack run. It's not on your end though.

 

EDIT: FYI http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=160746

Edited February 15, 2016 by Gliptal

[Sabre-TLA]

The A-10C Tactical Training Qualification Campaign has been updated.

 

We corrected a number of issues including:

 

TAC 11 - Wingman not taking off until much later.

TAC 19 - FORD flight blocked by L-39 Flight, SPRINGFIELD trigger not activating.

 

We changed the tanker speed in all the missions and also updated all the briefing text now that ED has fixed the truncation bug.

 

We also made some changes to the comms menu (now you can call COPY when you press F10-F1) for example.

 

The updated packages can be downloaded here:

 

Part A

Part B

 

Your mission key and password can be used to install these updated packages and your campaign progress will not be impacted as it is recorded in your logbook.

[Gliptal]

Very nice!

 

I noticed another small thing while studying the TAC20 debrief: PONTIAC is mentioned in the objectives but not in the units card. You may very well have corrected this with this update though!

[Sabre-TLA]

Many of the units may be mentioned but not actually appear in the mission.

 

It's more for a reference in case they get added later.

[Gliptal]

TAC20: You tell the gunship you're using the pointer to mark the targets, but they won't fire unless you're using the laser. There's a difference since the TGP has the three modes, It took me a few minutes to understand why it wasn't working (I purposedly set it to P).

 

Also, the gunship has now been firing on the same tank for more than 5 minutes, with no effect. Testing every other mission for you guys is getting a bit tiring, I genuinely can't succeed on the first try no matter how good I fly because of this.

 

- Two A-10Cs that try to refuel end up hitting the tanker and crashing. I guess this is AI quirks again, not on your part.

- TacView shows that nothing is really happening to Target 3-1, despite there being ingame effects.

- Apparently, EXPLOSION won't kill the T55s. I'll test with the editor and see.

- The PONTIAC flight (that is supposed to bomb Target 5) gets stuck during taxi. Reason is unknown.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Gliptal

[Sabre-TLA]

All I can say is these missions worked in earlier versions and you are finding new issues before we do.

 

We will continue to test and provide updates as issues are found and reported.

[Gliptal]

I moved the three T55s on the runway, and they blew up fine. I moved them back on the hills, and one refuses to blow up.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I found the problem. The white X that represents the center of the trigger zone must be exactly over the unit card. Even having it slightly displaced won't work. I've attached a simple showcase mission as proof.

 

Now to try and understand what PONTIAC's issue is.

 

EDIT 2: I managed to fix that as well. I can MP you with the trigger fixes if you want, or directly send the whole working mission (gunship + PONTIAC fixes).

test.miz

Edited February 16, 2016 by Gliptal

[Sabre-TLA]

I moved the three T55s on the runway, and they blew up fine. I moved them back on the hills, and one refuses to blow up.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I found the problem. The white X that represents the center of the trigger zone must be exactly over the unit card. Even having it slightly displaced won't work. I've attached a simple showcase mission as proof.

 

Now to try and understand what PONTIAC's issue is.

 

EDIT 2: I managed to fix that as well. I can MP you with the trigger fixes if you want, or directly send the whole working mission (gunship + PONTIAC fixes).

 

We appreciate your efforts however the target zones are correct when the mission was originally designed.

 

We didn't want the explosions to destroy the tanks directly but wanted to have some explosive effects visible to the player (to simulate the Gunship saturating the area with fire).

 

At that time the explosions would weaken the unit to the point where it would eventually blow up. It appears another ED game engine change has either strengthened the tanks (I think there are some threads about that issue already) or changed the effect of the explosions.

 

Will fix it in the next update.

[Gliptal]

I understand, it did seem like that was the intention. I guess you could simulate that by combining the EXPLOSION trigger with the EXPLODE UNIT trigger, provided the latter does what it seems to imply. Or even two EXPLOSION triggers per target, one that runs slightly displaced for a few seconds and then stops, and one that actually destroys the T55.

 

Let me know if you need input on PONTIAC being stuck as well.

[bunraku]

Hi

 

On the Basic Training for the A-10C I am having an issue with the Time on Target. When the ToT is given it is given as +5 minutes. So to me it must be more than 5 minutes. So if the time on the clock is given as 2348 and 15 seconds then I am rounding up to 2349 and adding 5 mins to 2354:00. This seems to work ok for the 2 L/L and the 1 UTM coordinate, but I am late for the Bullseye Offset coordinate. This is getting annoying as it's causing me to fail the entire mission after flying for quite a while. So when am I meant to get there in releation to the clock? Exactly 5 mins from the time on the clock when the waypoint is called or more or less than that?

 

Thanks

[Sabre-TLA]

Hi

 

On the Basic Training for the A-10C I am having an issue with the Time on Target. When the ToT is given it is given as +5 minutes. So to me it must be more than 5 minutes. So if the time on the clock is given as 2348 and 15 seconds then I am rounding up to 2349 and adding 5 mins to 2354:00. This seems to work ok for the 2 L/L and the 1 UTM coordinate, but I am late for the Bullseye Offset coordinate. This is getting annoying as it's causing me to fail the entire mission after flying for quite a while. So when am I meant to get there in releation to the clock? Exactly 5 mins from the time on the clock when the waypoint is called or more or less than that?

 

Thanks

 

We figure about 20 seconds for the instructions to the waypoint and start the timer as soon as the instructions complete so figure on being there after 310 seconds. We give some leeway so the late time is set at 340 seconds (30 seconds later). If you are in that window and the wp zone (5000m circle) at the correct altitude the trigger should be successful.

[bunraku]

Thanks again although I just allowed 310 seconds from exactly the point of the end of the spoken instruction for WP4(Bullseye) and it tells me I am too late. Using the same method for points 1-3 no problem.

 

If you go to about 43 minutes into the video below he uses 4m12s for the same WP I am having the problem with. He succeeds with this so it seems less time is needed for WP4?

 

Edited February 17, 2016 by bunraku

[Sabre-TLA]

Sorry I can't view the video.

 

We will see if we can reproduce it.

 

There are vehicles on the map at the waypoint so you can check to see if you are over the vehicle at the appropriate time. Think of them as the instructors checking to confirm you made it to the waypoint on time.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Sabre-TLA

[bunraku]

Hi

 

Here's the direct link. Thanks again

 

[Gliptal]

I found another freaking eisenbug in TAC20. SPRINGFIELD and BOAR are created at the same time. Sometimes BOAR ends up on hold waiting for your flight in front of SPRINGFIELD, and sometimes it's the opposite: in the latter case everything will hang up and your flight will downright refuse to even start taxiing to take off.

 

Took me 5 full startups to find the pattern, I swear to god if ED doesn't fix this ATC idiocy I'll rent a real A-10C and BRRT away on their PCs.

 

I'll modify the spawn triggers again and see if I can get it to work.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Gliptal

[Sabre-TLA]

As Wags says in his post related to the issues found in the new A-10C Red Flag Campaign:

 

To be honest though, between the Maverick crash issue and the upcoming update, you may want to put this in a holding pattern a bit to have a better experience.

 

We hope to have the updates to fix these bugs in a few days.

[Redglyph]

A-10C BFT mission 06 is broken.

 

1) Success of defensive spiral dive and lazy 8 seem random (indications are not very clear to say the least...).

 

2) After the emergency landing at Kobuleti (safest choice), there is no contact from the instructor.

 

After I restarted my engines, he said something still related to the lazy 8. Then he starts saying "2, RTB" all the time.

 

Once I take off, he says I failed to recover at the right altitude or something like that (still saying "2, RTB" at the same time, with a different voice).

 

 

I think I'll just have to cheat and skip this one :/

 

(to be complete, I'm now on 1.5.3.50355.19).

Edited February 17, 2016 by Redglyph

[Gliptal]

I also had problems with this one, it's probably ED's updates messing up the triggers.

[Sabre-TLA]

A-10C BFT mission 06 is broken.

 

1) Success of defensive spiral dive and lazy 8 seem random (indications are not very clear to say the least...).

 

2) After the emergency landing at Kobuleti (safest choice), there is no contact from the instructor.

 

After I restarted my engines, he said something still related to the lazy 8. Then he starts saying "2, RTB" all the time.

 

Once I take off, he says I failed to recover at the right altitude or something like that (still saying "2, RTB" at the same time, with a different voice).

 

 

I think I'll just have to cheat and skip this one :/

 

(to be complete, I'm now on 1.5.3.50355.19).

 

Thanks for reporting the issue. We will see if we can reproduce it.

[Redglyph]

Thanks for reporting the issue. We will see if we can reproduce it.

Thanks!

 

I had the problem in both the practice and campaign. Let me know if you can't reproduce it, I'll try to save a track. Unfortunately I didn't last time.

[Sabre-TLA]

Just following up on the issues you reported in BFT06:

 

1) Success of defensive spiral dive and lazy 8 seem random (indications are not very clear to say the least...).

 

Can you give us more details about your experience?

 

For the Spiral Dive you should hear the FE say:

"Keep pulling that stick into your gut Cadet!" When banked and pulling heading between 0 and 30.

"Good." When banked and pulling heading between 90 and 180.

"Good. You can level off now. You completed the spiral dive." When your altitude is lower than 7700'.

 

For the Lazy 8 you should hear the FE say:

"Good." When banked and heading between 0 and 180.

You should then level off (roll wings level) above 7800' altitude.

"Well Done! You are back on course and altitude.' When you are on heading 200 to 220 and altitude higher than 7800' and wings and pitch level.

 

We tried to put checks in where it makes sense and in testing this worked for us but we will retest again.

 

2) After the emergency landing at Kobuleti (safest choice), there is no contact from the instructor.

It may be the safest choice however the mission brief specifically states to land at the Emergency Divert Airfield (#13 in the Mission Objectives). I think we will add a message to indicate if the player lands at the wrong airfield.

[Sabre-TLA]

I found another freaking eisenbug in TAC20. SPRINGFIELD and BOAR are created at the same time. Sometimes BOAR ends up on hold waiting for your flight in front of SPRINGFIELD, and sometimes it's the opposite: in the latter case everything will hang up and your flight will downright refuse to even start taxiing to take off.

 

Took me 5 full startups to find the pattern, I swear to god if ED doesn't fix this ATC idiocy I'll rent a real A-10C and BRRT away on their PCs.

 

I'll modify the spawn triggers again and see if I can get it to work.

 

We retested this mission and didn't get the AI taxi issue you saw. It played fine for us.

 

We did see the immortal T-55 (twice, once at the 3rd target set and once again at the 4th). However we were able to destroy the first one with our GBU-12 and I sent the wingman and 2nd element after the 2nd group and managed to killed them too.

 

We got a Q- rating (likely because we violated one of the altitude blocks).

 

So we can fix the T-55 immortal issue with a explode unit trigger as you suggested. I'll see if we can stagger the AI takeoffs so it's less of an issue.

 

BTW we ran the game as Administrator to see if it would make any difference and so far I can't say that it has.

[bunraku]

Managed to pass A-10C BT10. Did exactly 310 seconds from the last verbal message. Thanks again

[Gliptal]

We retested this mission and didn't get the AI taxi issue you saw. It played fine for us.

 

We did see the immortal T-55 (twice, once at the 3rd target set and once again at the 4th). However we were able to destroy the first one with our GBU-12 and I sent the wingman and 2nd element after the 2nd group and managed to killed them too.

 

We got a Q- rating (likely because we violated one of the altitude blocks).

 

So we can fix the T-55 immortal issue with a explode unit trigger as you suggested. I'll see if we can stagger the AI takeoffs so it's less of an issue.

 

BTW we ran the game as Administrator to see if it would make any difference and so far I can't say that it has.

Yes the AI issue is hit and miss for me too, sometimes it happens but most times it doesn't. It really comes down to the AI's lack of consistency.