Flaming Cliffs 3 vs. A-10C

[fitness88]

I read in the post about making HTML file out of the key command list...worked great! Thanks.

[cichlidfan]

Pages 87 through 92 in the Flight Manual shows you the throttle and stick layout. These buttons coorespond to the functions under the Category HOTAS in the keymap you just made.

 

Btw, you can paste the contents of that HTML file into a spread sheet which makes it easy to manipulate for your convenience.

[ravenone]

Welcome fitness88. ~salute

 

Good luck... Good hunting! :pilotfly:

[fitness88]

I've been reading and am now doing the training mission for start up...are there check lists to print out...lots to remember?

 

Never mind I found it.

 

This is amazing, really never imagined such realism...back to training.

Edited February 24, 2013 by fitness88

[cichlidfan]

I've been reading and am now doing the training mission for start up...are there check lists to print out...lots to remember?

 

Never mind I found it.

 

This is amazing, really never imagined such realism...back to training.

 

The initial 'Oh Wow' period is a lot of fun! :thumbup:

[Leto]

That's the point where you should start to be really nice to your ol'missus... soon enough you want to get your hands on this thingy: http://www.thrustmaster.com/en_US/products/hotas-warthog

and the invoice will decrease the mood of missus a wee little bit, so it should be way more than basic from the start

:music_whistling:

Edited February 24, 2013 by Leto

[mjeh]

The initial 'Oh Wow' period is a lot of fun! :thumbup:

 

Like nothing else! I still remember my first successful maverick launch and the involuntary gleefull giggle that followed

[BIGNEWY]

A10c is a lot of fun and a great modelled sim,

 

you guys just need to get used to not flying every mission with clear sky's immune from any air threat :)

 

Knowing when to scrub a mission because you don't have air superiority will be a new trait to learn :)

[NoCarrier]

A10c is a lot of fun and a great modelled sim,

 

you guys just need to get used to not flying every mission with clear sky's immune from any air threat :)

 

Knowing when to scrub a mission because you don't have air superiority will be a new trait to learn :)

You know, not every multiplayer mission needs to be turned into an airborne deathmatch. I have serious reservations about the Flaming Cliffs 3 side of DCS and I know many other people here share that sentiment. Your stance here isn't helping to allay that.

[BIGNEWY]

Sorry I am playing with the A-10C guys ( they are so sensitive )

 

Mission design will be the key for this, building missions that everyone can participate in will be the challenge at the moment, mainly due to having a very small area to fly in.

 

But once we have larger combat areas, different scenarios with something for everyone will be possible.

 

Keep smiling the future is a bright one :)

[Furia]

Bignewy is quite right. If you like missions like a shooting range for A2G you can select some of those avalaible in some servers although for that pourpose you can also fly it SP most of the time

The air war and aplication of air power is far more complex than just bombing some harmless AI from 25000 feet with guided ammunition.

 

The good thing about having FC3 units is that you cannot longer hover with your untouchable A-10C droping bomb after bomb.

That can only represent low intensity theater of operations.

Many of us enjoy the challenge of providing CAS to our AI troops with the A-10C while the enemy has human fighters in the air. It is hard, more dificult and more challenging but as you can see in most popular MP public servers, this is what the people likes and thoseservers are always full.

 

Of course the scenario must be made properly to prevent enemy fighters to do the same rhing we were doing before with the A-10C that is hovering on top with no risk or danger.

If both sides have fighters, the enemy most of the time needs to worry about our CAP.

Place some powerful SAM defences near the FLOT and let everybody sweat and enjoy the challenge. :thumbup:

[mjeh]

People always talk like there has to be the one or the other. Why fret, we have both :) It's certainly possible to make a challenging and entertaining CAS only mission for A-10s, just as it's possible to make a challenging all out war scenario with CAP and fighter sweeps and what have you. If you like the one, good. If you like the other, good. If you like both, even better :)

[NoCarrier]

Bignewy is quite right.

Yeah yeah, I've heard those arguments all before; "realistic threat environment" and all that. Fact of the matter is that, "realistically" speaking, A-10s shouldn't touch contested airspace with a 10-foot pole.

[BIGNEWY]

Yeah yeah, I've heard those arguments all before; "realistic threat environment" and all that. Fact of the matter is that, "realistically" speaking, A-10s shouldn't touch contested airspace with a 10-foot pole.

 

Exactly :)

[NoCarrier]

Exactly :)

Yeah, as you might have guessed, I don't think extending and orbiting miles and miles away because some dude took a Red pointy-nosed Flaming Cliffs 3 bird into the air a good thing.

 

I wouldn't mind so much if the people who like ground pounding had a proper multi-role aircraft to fly in. One in which you can actually defend yourself against air threats, like, say, an F/A-18C.

Edited February 24, 2013 by NoCarrier

[fitness88]

I realise that some of the check list items are for personal preference [lighting] and therefore can be skipped but as for the others do most of you do it in the exact order of the manual without skipping an item. At this early stage it takes me 15-20 minutes.

 

Also I am not able to start the engines at the proper time by moving my throttle from off to idle. I need to use the keyboard combo for that purpose, could it be that my thottle is not split, L and R but instead it's one [saitek X52Pro] and therfore not compatible with the HOTAS engine start?

 

ie.

Left console, throttle quadrant area

Left throttle> Move from OFF to IDLE position

[shagrat]

I realise that some of the check list items are for personal preference [lighting] and therefore can be skipped but as for the others do most of you do it in the exact order of the manual without skipping an item. At this early stage it takes me 15-20 minutes.

 

Also I am not able to start the engines at the proper time by moving my throttle from off to idle. I need to use the keyboard combo for that purpose, could it be that my thottle is not split, L and R but instead it's one [saitek X52Pro] and therfore not compatible with the HOTAS engine start?

 

ie.

Left console, throttle quadrant area

Left throttle> Move from OFF to IDLE position

15-20 min is totally normal when you start with this, even as an experienced Flight Simmer.

When first learning to drive a car you learn adjusting the seat, mirrors etc. and how to start the car, later it is 5 sec. what started as 1-2 min.

 

You may skip some steps and yeah you can speed up things. The fun thing is, when you are familiar with startup and actually know what all these little systems do, especially which depends on what to work, you will do this like second nature.

 

The X-52(pro) does NOT have a Throttle detent button(!) so you can't trigger the Engine start other than with keyboard commands or button press on the Joystick. Used a X-52 prior to acquiring the TM Warthog and used the levers up/down for engine start/stop... I advise using "down" for start and "up" to stop, so you don't hit engine stop by chance in mid flight (...yep, happened to me).:D

[shagrat]

This is amazing, really never imagined such realism...back to training.

That's the spirit! :thumbup: As soon as you are familiar with the startup, start, basic maneuvering and landing, you may consider multiplayer with teamspeak on a training server.

It is fun and helps a lot, to learn with others and ask questions that get answered by more experienced Hogdrivers, while actually flying.

 

Got a colleague at work we recently addicted to this, so he is skipping FSX 727 for the Hog and after 3 online sessions and 2 weeks training in single player he is now capable of ramp start, flying, landing and even employing bombs, GBUs, MAVs and starts mastering the TGP quite good...:smartass:

[fitness88]

shagrat thanks for your encouragement;

 

The only sims I've flown were Jane's F/A-18 for 12 years before getting into the Flaming Cliffs trilogy. I always get comfortable first with start-up, takeoff, NAV/situation awareness, landing and shutdown. Then after that I work on the radars and weapons [one by one].

I know having a voice 1 on 1 training would put a steep upward learn curve, but only at the right time. I want to first know what questions I want to ask before being with pilots who have the answers.

As for the joy stick bindings, I need some time before I get too serious about what I want to map besides the obvious already mapped.

I know I asked this before, but is there a keyboard command list out there somewhere? I created an HTML of the binds [DCS>options] but its missing a lot of the keyboard commands.

Edited February 25, 2013 by fitness88

[fitness88]

Are most of you assigning your HOTAS directly to the A-10's HOTAS and not going through common keystokes like in other sims to take advantage of the multiple 'modes' on the joy stick.

This would for example allow each Saitek HOTAS button multiple options by using its shiftstates.

Edited February 25, 2013 by fitness88

[galagamo]

Are most of you assigning your HOTAS directly to the A-10's HOTAS and not going through common keystokes like in other sims to take advantage of the multiple 'modes' on the joy stick.

This would for example allow each Saitek HOTAS button multiple options by using its shiftstates.

 

I managed to emulate the a10c hotas on my x52 using shiftstates and modes. It was convoluted as all hell though.

[fitness88]

I managed to emulate the a10c hotas on my x52 using shiftstates and modes. It was convoluted as all hell though.

 

Yes I'm getting that feeling.

 

To work with the X52 Pro:

• did you bind through the Saitek programming software first creating a keystroke if one did not exist?
  
• did you forget about the x52 programming software and assign buttons directly in the options>command in DCS directly to the cockpit controls through the options>command?
  

[shagrat]

• did you bind through the Saitek programming software first creating a keystroke if one did not exist?
  
• did you forget about the x52 programming software and assign buttons directly in the options>command in DCS directly to the cockpit controls through the options>command?
  

You need to do a combination of both. Focus on the DCS internal bindings as much as possible. e.g. don't assign a "shift+keyboard" shortcut in the Saitek profiler. When you press this button and another "key" this key will be modified with shift as well.

 

So basically there are some profiles available for the X-52 pro on the Wiki and if you start with SFJackBauer's it is a good one.

EDIT: http://en.wiki.eagle.ru/wiki/Hardware_Profiles

The trick is to use the X-52 Slider as Airbrake by assigning keys (v/b) to Open/Close and then map the keys to zones in the Saitek profiler...

 

You will need the pinky button as a modifier so NWS is not an option, how tempting it might be.:joystick: In the end it works quite ok and is managable, but this will not beat or replace a TM Warthog HOTAS :D

Edited February 25, 2013 by shagrat

[galagamo]

• did you bind through the Saitek programming software first creating a keystroke if one did not exist?
  
• did you forget about the x52 programming software and assign buttons directly in the options>command in DCS directly to the cockpit controls through the options>command?
  

I used the programing software for all of the keystrokes, the axis I had to bind in game of course.

[fitness88]

Thank you both.

Interesting side note on the X52 Pro [slider], I used to use it for zoom as it seemed perfectly designed for the task...but some of the zoom focus had the jitters. So I'll be glad to put it to use for the airbrakes, hope the airbrakes don't get the jitters as well:(

 

Have you ever had Z rotation [twisting of the Joy Stick] issues such as left or right range reduction or jumping from 10% range to 50% w/o touching the stick? I deleted the regedit files and did some twisting back and forth followed by reducing the outside range in the dead bands, helped a lot. Short of going inside, this is about all you can do unless you have something else to look at.

I mention this because I found it difficult to taxi, the plane would be all over the place. Now with it stabilized I still find it too sensitive, have you fine tuned the axis Z rotation?

Edited February 25, 2013 by fitness88