Gaming Digital Combat Simulator Thread

[Hielor]

So...mission 7 done. Sort of.

I killed a tank and then managed to get myself blown up while trying to strafe a helicopter. Would've been nice if HQ had given us anti-air support for this mission...

I watched the remaining friendlies do their thing on high time acceleration.

My wingman flew all the way back to base to hit the first waypoint, then back to the engagement area, where he Vikhr-d a AAA site and then circled the front line launching flares and being useless until a SAM took him out.

I then watched the tanks proceed to mop up all the enemies and arrive at their final destinations intact. Apparently, my air support was largely optional for this mission.

Thinking this might still at least get me a passing result, I exited the mission at this point.

And then DCS World crashed. I start it back up, and it says the campaign is inactive and I'd have to restart. Screw that. I looked up info on how the campaign is stored on disk online and discovered it's in "logbook.lua" in the MissionEditor folder of the DCS saved games dir. In the campaign record, it shows all the missions you've done with basic stats, and the next mission with no stats.

The mission I'd just failed was listed there (amusingly, with a 100 result--apparently I was truly optional, or the tank I killed was pivotal or something), but there was no "next" mission. Rather than trying to figure out what the actual next mission should be, I'm going to reset this last mission and fly it again--since it already had the 100 result, I can't exactly do any better, and at least now I know to avoid those evil helicopters...

Edit: still had some trouble getting the campaign to work, so I hunted a bit more. I'd switched "Invulnerable" to "No" in the Logbook in DCS World, thinking it was a game setting or something. Turns out, what that actually does is forcibly retire your profile (and any campaign progress) when you die.

So yeah, unless you enjoy having to start the campaign over, make sure "Invulnerable" in your user profile in the logbook is "Yes." I mean, if you're a masochist maybe keep it that way, but yeah.

---------- Post added at 23:21 ---------- Previous post was at 23:18 ----------

Strangely poor Vikhr performance (as mentioned before on this thread). However, I believe I know the reason. They don't like being launched cross-wind, and there was a hefty breeze from the south in the first mission. It is actually quite a reasonable deduction; the designating platform (ie; you who launched it) is drifting with the mass of air and the Vikhr is having trouble riding the constantly changing angle of the beam on target (ie; cannot maintain co-linearity). I know the Vikhr is in the same mass, but the ground target isn't, and the changing beam angle defeats its guidance, it seems. As I had already cleared the southern flank (from the south, with no Vikhr inaccuracy evident), I reverted to attacking the main offensive up the valley from the same direction and presto, regained Vikhr accuracy.

Odd, I've never noticed an effect like that. I'll keep an eye out...

Well, again, thanks for the introduction to this cracking simulator, and the help and advice (in particular Hielor's debriefs!).

Glad they were useful to you!

---------- Post added 10-31-13 at 01:01 ---------- Previous post was 10-30-13 at 23:21 ----------

Campaign mission 7 do-over complete. Sort of.

Mission success, took out all targets, lost wingman to MANPADS beathead. Landed fine, was shutting down the plane and DCS froze up. Close it, it comes back to the main DCS window, where it states that it can't find the debriefing file.

:compbash:

But the campaign still wants to progress...I check the LUA file, and it turns out that somehow it reset the mission 7 progress to my first go-round, with one A2G kill, one death, and a 100% result. So the last two hours I just spent re-doing the mission properly have vanished, but oh well--a 100's a 100 and the campaign is progressing forward. Apparently the missing "next mission" in the LUA file wasn't the issue before, it might've just been the profile thing. D'oh.

Also, I tried to pay attention to Vikhr behavior in crosswinds, both with making a point of crabbing into the crosswind to maintain a ground track and just pointing straight at the target. Only Vikhr miss of 16 shots was when I fired just beyond the minimum range, so it didn't really have time to catch the beam. So no idea there...

Edit: ohhh, I just checked the next mission. Apparently the coalition has finally joined on the Georgian side, and I'm no longer facing exclusively ex-Soviet hardware. Now I'll need to re-learn visual identification of all the various threats... and dang, the US SAM hardware seems to be better than the Russian equivalents. Will need to be a lot more careful approaching SAM sites...

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Also, I tried to pay attention to Vikhr behavior in crosswinds, both with making a point of crabbing into the crosswind to maintain a ground track and just pointing straight at the target. Only Vikhr miss of 16 shots was when I fired just beyond the minimum range, so it didn't really have time to catch the beam. So no idea there...

:hmm: It is odd, then. Must have been me, but almost every one missed when firing from the west, and every one hit when I reverted to firing from the south. Only thing I could think of as a reason, during the mission, was that one described.

 

[Hielor]

You may actually be on to something about the wind--there are several posts on the ED forums talking about Vikhr issues in crosswinds. Most of them seem to be with the helicopters (since launching from a stationary platform makes the effect more obvious) but I could certainly believe it to be an issue in the Frogfoot too. I'll set up a practice mission with high winds and see if I can figure out how to make it work all the time...

---------- Post added at 22:21 ---------- Previous post was at 19:36 ----------

Ran a quick test with Vikhrs and an absurd windspeed. Determined two things:
- The Vikhr aim reticle is at least partially related to windspeed. Seems to be aware of windspeed and attempting to account for it to some degree.
- I was unable to get a mostly-crosswind launch to follow the beam for very long at all. Mostly-upwind launches, however, had no trouble whatsoever following the beam.

So yes, if you have a choice, launch upwind or downwind if you're having trouble hitting.

---------- Post added 11-01-13 at 02:37 ---------- Previous post was 10-31-13 at 22:21 ----------

Mission 8 done. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

Highlights:
- US equipment is superior to Russian equipment in the field, not just on paper.
- US AAA, unlike Russian AAA, hurts. A lot.
- US APC/Humvee weapons, unlike their Russian equivalents, also hurt a lot.
- US MANPADS are everywhere and landing a Vikhr on one of the dudes isn't always enough to kill both dudes.
- A second flight of SU-25Ts is only marginally more useful than your wingman. They'll still get themselves killed very quickly.
- Don't let your wingman get shot by AAA. In this case, everything was still working on his plane, but he still jettisoned everything and went home.
- The gauges in the lower-right of the cockpit that show hydraulic pressure actually work. Make sure you lower your gear before you're out of pressure if you have a hydraulic failure.
- Landing without hydraulics means you won't have nosewheel steering.
- Landing in a crosswind without nosewheel steering means you're very likely to end up in the grass.
- If you end up in the grass, don't taxi into the solid white snow. It will stop your plane quite thoroughly. I had to call back the ground crew to unload everything in order to get out, and then proceeded to hit a taxiway light and bust my nosegear. I suspect the ground crew doesn't like me.
- If you get hit and an engine is on fire, turn off the engine to cut the fuel flow. If it happens again in the same engine, cut the fuel flow again and pray. If it happens a third time, just eject, because your plane is going to explode shortly.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Thanks for validating that. I ran the same test myself, to the same conclusion, as my exercise yesterday. I had not seen any posts on ED forums regarding the Vikhr performance in winds (done very little browsing there, really), but I was pretty sure that many people MUST have noticed it at some point.

Great key point commentary as always, just the one about the engine is a matter of personal preferences. I regard an engine fire as mission critical and would not even dream of trying to relight it after shutdown. In fact, any slow spool times, low in flight idle, or ITT abnormality is reason enough for me to shut the thing down, dump weapons and go home while the going is good. Unfortunately we are a bit short of a couple of engine instruments (notably, oil pressure and temperature) in the SU-25T to make a good assessment of its integrity and determine if we can risk keeping an apparently ailing engine running.

Thanks again!

 

[vlad32768]

Here's an uncut video of yesterday's shenanigans with Richy:
Fly it like you stole it! - YouTube

You can start up Mi8's engines even faster: When RPM reaches 40, you can stop the starter, select the second engine and start again.

---------- Post added at 04:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:49 PM ----------

Finished the landing tutorial for the A-10C, figured I'd have a go at the cold start of the Mi8. After startup, decided to go for a quick flight around the airfield and then bring it in for a landing. Somewhere in the process, I started yawing right uncontrollably, the likes of which I haven't seen since Flight Sim 2000. No amount of left rudder would compensate. The only solution to the yaw problem was cutting the collective, which resulted in a nose-down attitude that was unrecoverable without adding collective, which brought back the yaw. I almost had her under control near the ground, but at the last second, she rolled on me. It didn't end well....

It sounds like you destroyed the tail rotor during some rough maneuver.

 

[Hielor]

Great key point commentary as always, just the one about the engine is a matter of personal preferences. I regard an engine fire as mission critical and would not even dream of trying to relight it after shutdown. In fact, any slow spool times, low in flight idle, or ITT abnormality is reason enough for me to shut the thing down, dump weapons and go home while the going is good. Unfortunately we are a bit short of a couple of engine instruments (notably, oil pressure and temperature) in the SU-25T to make a good assessment of its integrity and determine if we can risk keeping an apparently ailing engine running.

Thanks again!

I don't think you can restart an engine after it's caught on fire--I meant that I was flying around on just one engine, the dead engine took a couple hits and caught on fire again. Twice.

I've found that in the absence of other failures, single engine performance is acceptable if you've used enough of the heavy parts of your payload. If I lose an engine and have Vikhrs left, I'll do distant orbits and use up the rest before heading home. Probably not a good idea to try to use rockets or guns in that scenario, though, unless your targets are truly incapable of shooting back.

 

[n122vu]

It sounds like you destroyed the tail rotor during some rough maneuver.

That's a distinct possibility. One that would be easy to test with the same short flight. I may try to validate that before I begin Dad Ops this evening.

 

[Urwumpe]

That's a distinct possibility. One that would be easy to test with the same short flight. I may try to validate that before I begin Dad Ops this evening.

I would still check if you have not accidentally also enabled the Yaw-stabilization. This one caused EXACTLY the problems you described for me, when I left it disabled, it did not try to turn into the wind again.

 

[n122vu]

I would still check if you have not accidentally also enabled the Yaw-stabilization. This one caused EXACTLY the problems you described for me, when I left it disabled, it did not try to turn into the wind again.

Will check that also. I'll need to read the friendly manual to find how to disable. Thanks.

 

[vlad32768]

Will check that also. I'll need to read the friendly manual to find how to disable. Thanks.

There is a key for it, check controller setup.

In reality, yaw channel is temporaryly disabled if you place your feet on the pedals, and is enabled again when you get your feet out of the pedals.

Pilots use yaw channel only when they fly the same heading for a long time.
It is always disabled durung takeoffs, landings, aerobatics etc.

---------- Post added at 06:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 PM ----------

I would still check if you have not accidentally also enabled the Yaw-stabilization. This one caused EXACTLY the problems you described for me, when I left it disabled, it did not try to turn into the wind again.

I'd better call it heading stabilization.

 

[Urwumpe]

Will check that also. I'll need to read the friendly manual to find how to disable. Thanks.

It is one button-indicator at the central pedestral, НАПРАВЛЕНИЕ.

---------- Post added at 07:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:10 PM ----------

I'd better call it heading stabilization.

Yes, that seems to be its function. You usually also use it for all flight-phases according to the manual, but it seems to misbehave in the released version.

 

[vlad32768]

It is one button-indicator at the central pedestral, НАПРАВЛЕНИЕ.

---------- Post added at 07:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:10 PM ----------



Yes, that seems to be its function. You usually also use it for all flight-phases according to the manual, but it seems to misbehave in the released version.

Yes, IRL you can enable yaw channel according to the manual, because your feet are on pedals and the channel is disabled during takeoff/landing. In computer simulation, there are no pedals with buttons on them, and most of the simmers use twist, so there is no way to model auto-disable/enable properly. That's why the developers recommend to enable yaw channel only at cruise phase.

 

[n122vu]

So far have been unable to reproduce the issue. Starting the same scenario (Cold & Dark) I verified yaw channel autopilot was inactive before takeoff, was able to fly relatively the same route but could not reproduce. I will try another flight later this weekend if time allows, this time with the autopilot active.

I did consider one other possibility. I do not have my throttle reversed on the X52 in DCS when flying the Mi-8. When I fly choppers in FSX, I normally reverse the throttle prior to loading the flight. It is entirely possible that, when trying to descend on the first flight, I nosed it down a bit, added right rudder, then added collective by mistake. If so, the amount of increased engine output coupled with a "rookie's excess" amount of right pedal I may have added could have resulted in the tail rotor being damaged or destroyed as vlad suggested, no?

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Campaign mission 6 complete. New wingman management method was a huge success, and I strongly recommend it.

...

So, if you're looking for how best to utilize your wingman to accomplish things that are harder/more boring to do yourself, there it is--taking out soft targets.

...

On that note, I can't stress enough how important it is to alter your loadout before each mission.

Points taken. Campaign mission 2 successful, probably as a result. I was already a "weapons tinkerer", but I specialized each of us for the first sortie of the mission. Vikhrs + AA for him, Stand Off + AA load for me (Kh-29T and Kh-25ML). I "anchored" the wingman behind friendly lines while I identified and eliminated enemy SA units, then turned myself into FAC, selecting targets for him. Not only is it effective, it is fun! It would be nice if there were a way to make him go with you on subsequent flights during the same mission.

The mission was deceptively simple, it seemed, compared to the first one. Either the above heeded tactic made it appear so, or it is designed to lull one into a false sense of security for the next one?

I don't think you can restart an engine after it's caught on fire--I meant that I was flying around on just one engine, the dead engine took a couple hits and caught on fire again. Twice.

Ah, okay, see what you mean.

 

[Hielor]

Points taken. Campaign mission 2 successful, probably as a result. I was already a "weapons tinkerer", but I specialized each of us for the first sortie of the mission. Vikhrs + AA for him, Stand Off + AA load for me (Kh-29T and Kh-25ML).

You took off without Vikhrs?! BLASPHEMY!

The Vikhrs out-range basically all of the AA/SAMs the enemies have(notable exception being the SA-8 Osa for which you really need the ELINT pod and Kh-25MPUs or Kh-58Us) if you launch from full range while going slow. I find it hard to justify using anything else in those hardpoints...of course, I also usually try to get the mission done without having to land and reload, since there's about a 50% chance I won't be able to take off again after the landing

My basic loadout lately has been Kh-29T x2, Kh-25ML x2, Vikhr x16, S-8KOMx40, and R-60x2. 29Ts and 25MLs for MANPADs due to their generous explosion radius; Vikhrs for vehicle SAMs, AA, MBTs, and important targets; S-8KOM rockets for things like artillery and APCs, and cannon for everything else. Especially if I manage to keep the wingman alive so he can kill stuff too, that loadout has been enough for me to do every mission in one go.

I "anchored" the wingman behind friendly lines while I identified and eliminated enemy AA units, then turned myself into FAC, selecting targets for him. Not only is it effective, it is fun! It would be nice if there were a way to make him go with you on subsequent flights during the same mission.

How were you able to anchor him, and how were you able to select targets for him? I saw the "engage my target" option in the radio dialog but didn't know what it would consider "my target"...

The mission was deceptively simple, it seemed, compared to the first one. Either the above heeded tactic made it appear so, or it is designed to lull one into a false sense of security for the next one?

Having a wingman with a full load of munitions to help out definitely makes things easier. There's also a bit of repetitiveness in the overall strategy for these missions (although you have to avoid getting too cocky), so that might be helping.

But yes, there have definitely been some missions during the campaign that were a whole lot easier than others.

 

[Hielor]

Campaign mission 9 completed. I actually brought the plane back intact this time!

I was going to try to write less this time, but a lot happened...I'll try to focus on the "unusual" stuff. Sorry!

This was another "assist advancing ground forces" one, which were my favorite type until now. This mission ended up being really long and kind of frustrating.

The friendly offensive units were advancing across a bridge over a river, and the primary objectives were the MBTs/LAVs immediately on the other side of the bridge. However, there were three enemy artillery groups spread out along ~20km on their side of the river, and an additional enemy group ~25km to the north. The spread-out-ed-ness of the enemy troops was both a blessing and a curse: a blessing in that I only really needed to clear out the air defenses in the area of my targets, but a curse in that I had to be careful when choosing an exit vector from an attack run and couldn't effectively utilize the wingman since he ended up overflying other groups.

The enemy team had a ton of SAMs and MANPADs. It seems like the density of the things is going up with each mission--I've got 20 long-ish range guided weapons on my usual loadout, and I had to use about half of them to take out SAMs/MANPADs. The enemies also had a long-range SAM site deep behind their lines whose effective range reached almost to the enemy troops, so I had to be careful crossing the line too much. I tried to use the wingman to take that out, but he decided instead to orbit overhead a MANPAD group until taking enough hits to need to eject. :facepalm: Chalk one up for the "don't let your wingman do anything until you've killed all the air defenses" strategy. Also, if you're going to use your wingman for SEAD of the long-range SAMs with the Kh-58Us, it's a good idea to drag him up to higher altitude first before ordering him to attack, since he's not smart enough to gain altitude to extend the missile's range and will happily overfly enemy positions trying to get in range.

There were also more aircraft in this mission than I've seen in any previous one. In addition to myself and my wingman, the good guys had another flight of 2 SU-25Ts and a pair of Mi-24s. The bad guys had a pair of F/A-18As and two flights of two AH-1Ws each.

I haven't watched the track yet (the girlfriend's giving me That Look) but from what I could tell during the mission:
Our Pilots:
- All three other SU-25T pilots graduated from the same flight school as my previous wingmen. My wingman didn't even manage to shoot anything. The other flight was marginally more effective, and managed to take out a total of one MBT, two LAVs, two AAA vehicles, two Humvees, and a AAA emplacement before they each took a MANPAD to the face and ejected. Average survival time of an AI SU-25T pilot after they engage begins seems to be about three minutes. :facepalm:
- The Mi-24s didn't do much. One of them got an MBT, a SAM, an LAV, one of the Cobras, and a generic vehicle before being taken out. The other never fired a shot.

Their Pilots:
- The F/A-18As mercifully weren't on air superiority duty--that probably would've made this a very short trip for me. Between them they got an MBT, a Shilka, an SPH, and a truck before being taken out by MANPADs.
- One of the AH-1W flights was largely useless and despite shooting quite a few missiles, only managed to take out one of our Mi-24s.
- The other AH-1W flight bagged 3 MBTs, 2 Shilkas, and a SAM.

The net result of their air support was that one of the three groups of ground forces I was supposed to be supporting was completely wiped out and the other was reduced to nothing but a lone Shilka. However, that Shilka was a total hero and drove across the bridge and wiped out an enemy artillery group solo.

Highlights:
- Apparently a Cobra can survive a direct hit from a Vikhr. I totally should've had that kill.
- Took some AAA and lost my left engine and hydraulics toward the end of my first load of munitions. I wasn't sure that I'd finished all the objectives (and one of the groups of friendly tanks was just idling before the bridge--I wasn't sure if they were waiting for me to take out something specific), so I landed, repaired, and went back for more. Ended up with 100 result after 39 A-G kills (took out everything showing on map in the groups near the primary objective), so that works I guess.
- I think I'll be turning off civilian traffic. It's a bit unrealistic to have busses driving around in the middle of an active war zone, I think (see attachments) and at one point I accidentally targeted a civilian truck with the Shkval and was about to ruin their day...
- Apparently American forces have no qualms about parking on top of houses (see attachments).

Track is available here. It's rather long so it's probably not worth watching the whole thing (since a large part of it is me failing with rockets/cannon), but the hectic first few minutes of the engagement might be worth watching since there was a whole lot going on and it was hard to follow at the time.

Given how the number of enemy forces seems to be growing with each mission, I suspect that within the next couple of missions it's going to be unreasonable to plan to take out everything (unless by some miracle the wingman survives.... fat chance) within 1-2 sorties and I'll need to start focusing more on primary objectives...

Edit: Very possibly yes. Next mission says "forces are expected to be light with minimal air defences" around the primary target, but looking at the mission planner there's an entire frickin' army 30-ish km to the south of the primary objective waypoint, with SAMs everywhere... Almost as if the mission designers are saying "hint, hint--IGNORE THAT BIG MASS OF BAD GUYS AND JUST HIT THIS SMALL TARGET."

 

[ex-orbinaut]

You took off without Vikhrs?! BLASPHEMY!

During the ensuing court martial I was absolved only because I had ordered my wingman to carry them and helped target them in support of mission accomplished.

How were you able to anchor him, and how were you able to select targets for him? I saw the "engage my target" option in the radio dialog but didn't know what it would consider "my target"...

Yes, the wingman communications menu includes "hold position" and "engage my target" commands. About what your target is; on this occasion anything I had locked in the Shkval (no laser necessary). I don't know if there is another way to designate a target for your wingman, like just centering it in your HUD, or something, as I did not try any other way.

- Apparently a Cobra can survive a direct hit from a Vikhr. I totally should've had that kill.

Vikhrs are AA capable?

- Apparently American forces have no qualms about parking on top of houses (see attachments).

:lol: Urban camouflage. Hoping to be mistaken for an aftermarket, roof-mounted, manned, solar water heater. With an anti-theft device.

Track is available here...

Thanks, will certainly watch at least the recommended part soon.

Given how the number of enemy forces seems to be growing with each mission, I suspect that within the next couple of missions it's going to be unreasonable to plan to take out everything (unless by some miracle the wingman survives.... fat chance) within 1-2 sorties and I'll need to start focusing more on primary objectives...

Edit: Very possibly yes. Next mission says "forces are expected to be light with minimal air defences" around the primary target, but looking at the mission planner there's an entire frickin' army 30-ish km to the south of the primary objective waypoint, with SAMs everywhere... Almost as if the mission designers are saying "hint, hint--IGNORE THAT BIG MASS OF BAD GUYS AND JUST HIT THIS SMALL TARGET."

So, reading this, yes. I am sure now that mission 2 is there to make you feel good about your ability, then hit you with these subsequent infernos. I think the designer has probably got the ultimate aim of trying to get you to resist the temptation to become a one man army/air force!

PS: Forgot to add, I may have thought of a valid use for the overload fuel tanks and a possible solution to the wingman's inability to do more than one flight per mission. Give him the tanks plus Vikhrs and any load that does not exceed MTOW and you may be able to leave him on patrol while you scoot back for a rearm. If it works, it could be especially useful if you are carrying a limited Stand Off / SEAD load on the first flight. Have to try, next time.

 

[Hielor]

During the ensuing court martial I was absolved only because I had ordered my wingman to carry them and helped target them in support of mission accomplished.

I'm still not really sure what you would carry instead on those hardpoints. Kh-25MPUs might make sense if you're doing SEAD and expect a lot of radar-based SAMs, but I've never seen more than one installation in these missions and you have four other hardpoints for those and the -58Us. The S-25L is much shorter range, so unless you're taking on ships there's no reason to take that instead. The Kh-25ML has a longer range, but is much slower so in practice you end up about the same distance from your target by the time it gets there, the only advantage being that you can start doing some maneuvering before it arrives since it's a traditional laser-guided rather than beam-riding like the Vikhr.

The Vikhr out-ranges all of the enemy SAM sites and MANPADs except the Osa if you're going slow enough and line up on target at max range. The SAM vehicles are a one-hit kill, and even if the Vikhr doesn't have the explosion radius to take out both members of a MANPAD pair simultaneously, you can send one at each before you get inside their kill radius and still have 14 missiles left over, compared to the 1 you'd have left over if you had Kh-25MLs instead...

Maybe if you're attacking hardened bunkers or something, the increased power of another weapon might make sense, but for vehicle destruction missions (of which every single campaign mission has been one) I don't think you can beat the Vikhr.

I love the Vikhrs and wish I could carry them on ALL my pylons...

Yes, the wingman communications menu includes "hold position" and "engage my target" commands. About what your target is; on this occasion anything I had locked in the Shkval (no laser necessary). I don't know if there is another way to designate a target for your wingman, like just centering it in your HUD, or something, as I did not try any other way.

I'll give that a try, thanks. Can you designate more than one in a row and he'll take them out in order, or only one at a time?

Vikhrs are AA capable?

I believe the tutorial said they were usable against non-maneuvering aircraft, and I was approaching from behind the helicopter so its transversal motion wasn't very high. The Vikhr definitely hit and made a nice explosion in the Shkval, but apparently wasn't enough for a kill.

I tried watching the track to see what happened, but the helicopter I shot at wasn't there in the track. Would be nice if the track was actually a faithful recording of the events...

:lol: Urban camouflage. Hoping to be mistaken for an aftermarket, roof-mounted, manned, solar water heater. With an anti-theft device.

:lol:

Thanks, will certainly watch at least the recommended part soon.

If you do, probably best to keep an eye on what the other aircraft are doing, it's probably a lot more interesting than whatever I'm doing at the time. At first, I was trying to play this like mission 1 where I took out most of the threats to ground forces and would let the friendly ground forces take out the SAMs/AAA, but then I realized that the friendly ground forces had been slaughtered by enemy aircraft and those that were left were a good half hour or more away from being helpful...

So, reading this, yes. I am sure now that mission 2 is there to make you feel good about your ability, then hit you with these subsequent infernos. I think the designer has probably got the ultimate aim of trying to get you to resist the temptation to become a one man army/air force!

Yeah, it's certainly more realistic to have the planes taking out specific high-value targets instead of single-handedly destroying the entire opposing forces...

PS: Forgot to add, I may have thought of a valid use for the overload fuel tanks and a possible solution to the wingman's inability to do more than one flight per mission. Give him the tanks plus Vikhrs and any load that does not exceed MTOW and you may be able to leave him on patrol while you scoot back for a rearm. If it works, it could be especially useful if you are carrying a limited Stand Off / SEAD load on the first flight. Have to try, next time.

Might not be a bad idea, I'll give that a try maybe.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

I'm still not really sure what you would carry instead on those hardpoints. Kh-25MPUs might make sense if you're doing SEAD and expect a lot of radar-based SAMs, but I've never seen more than one installation in these missions and you have four other hardpoints for those and the -58Us. The S-25L is much shorter range, so unless you're taking on ships there's no reason to take that instead. The Kh-25ML has a longer range, but is much slower so in practice you end up about the same distance from your target by the time it gets there, the only advantage being that you can start doing some maneuvering before it arrives since it's a traditional laser-guided rather than beam-riding like the Vikhr.

Excellent commentary, and I am not inclined to go against your recommendations, as it has been the close following of your exploits that is getting me (thus far) unscathed through the campaign! Before starting the campaign I had run some tests on each of the missiles. Regarding the times to target from maximum range I can only agree. Perhaps my stand off missile of choice is the Kh-29T. With 28 seconds to target, it is a long flight time, but the advantage is the lack of any need to "nanny" it onto the target with the laser. No doubt about the fact that the Vikhrs are the optimum weapon for CAS, however, with only 10 seconds to cover the distance of its full range. The scariest of them all is that guided rocket, the S-25L. It takes the same time as the Vikhrs at 8Km to cover just 3 Km, and you have to keep closing on the target all that time. For that, I would much prefer taking the unguided variants (S-25 and S-24), as already tested, allowing a break immediately after delivery. The HE/FRAG radius of kill on them is good on soft targets.

No opportunity to do anything yesterday, but just finished mission 3 a moment ago, without incident. It promised at least one SA-8 Gecko (Osa) unit in the briefing, and I have some "apprehension", you might say, of radar guided SAMs, having had a rather bad experience of the first and only encounter with SA-3s during my test period (described in an earlier post). Took a couple of ARMs with the ELINT pod, but there were no Geckos! Faulty intelligence. Again, the mission was relatively simple; a recon of two points. As that is what they asked for, that is what they got from me in the interests of survival. Tried the wingman on station concept, and it works quite well, but as his holding pattern is rather loose he needs stationing well back to avoid straying over the front line. The Su-25T's fuel consumption at 87% power, 3,000 meters I find is around 2,600 Kg/Hr, which with the four overload tanks gives him about 2 useful combat hours on station.

Can you designate more than one in a row and he'll take them out in order, or only one at a time?

I think it is only one at a time. I don't know, as I always call him to rejoin as soon as he reports "round on target".

I believe the tutorial said they were usable against non-maneuvering aircraft...

I missed that, must have been scribbling something down. And I have not even looked at the new tutorial missions. Maybe it is time for a quick recurrent.

 

[n122vu]

I feel like I should be getting better performance out of DCS World with the hardware I have. Even with graphics set to medium across the board and resolution down to 1600x900, it's still unacceptably choppy from a FPS perspective most of the time. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can check? I've scoured the various forums but have yet to come up with anything that makes a difference. Thanks in advance for anything that helps.