Gaming Digital Combat Simulator Thread

[ex-orbinaut]

"Padlock missile"?

Interested to know how it works for you. I have not finished my keyboard configuration for DCS yet, BTW. Still WIP!

Had a similar event during take-off with a A-10... engine lost and on fire right after take-off, though I think it was rather caused by a bad take-off, too much pitch and a bit of bank to the side of the failing engine.

Had to bail out, because one engine isn't enough at full thrust to gain altitude.

Did you manage to dump all your weapons?

 

[Urwumpe]

Did you manage to dump all your weapons?

No, had been right after taking off, didn't even reach 50 ft RDR ALT

 

[Hielor]

Interested to know how it works for you. I have not finished my keyboard configuration for DCS yet, BTW. Still WIP!

Looked up some info on the forums. Near as I can tell, this will focus your view on the missile and follow it, but only if the missile is already within your field of view. Might work well for a three-monitor set up, though... :lol:

 

[ex-orbinaut]

No, had been right after taking off, didn't even reach 50 ft RDR ALT

Might even have been a VMCA or back side of the power drag curve problem, by the description of what happens after the engine failure, and certainly sounds like the correct decision was executed. At MTOW I can just about "eek" a 1 m/s climb out of the SU-25T, provided the IAS is above 340 kmh, first notch of flap down. It is not blistering, which is why getting rid of the extra weight and drag is imperative (I am as bad as the wing man where throwing weapons away is concerned :lol. Most of my "home testing" of the type on one engine was with full fuel, but no weapons, as that was the situation I could quickly guarantee myself, and know what to expect.

Whatever it is, it is really well simulated. I don't stop being impressed by this sim.

Looked up some info on the forums. Near as I can tell, this will focus your view on the missile and follow it, but only if the missile is already within your field of view. Might work well for a three-monitor set up, though... :lol:

I think you will find, when you test it, that "field of view means" what the pilot can realistically see from his position in the cockpit, not what is on the monitor itself. It is reasonable, really, and as I do everything possible to keep my track roughly perpendicular to the axis of a possible threat, when I have no intention of attacking it. A tap of the button, and if a missile is launched, the view slews around and the missile position is identified with a green cross. But yeah, thanks for that clarification; it explains why the odd IR launch goes by undetected, obviously cases when I have my tail or belly turned on the threat. Steadily learning, here! :tiphat:

 

[Urwumpe]

Might even have been a VMCA or back side of the power drag curve problem, by the description of what happens after the engine failure, and certainly sounds like the correct decision was executed. At MTOW I can just about "eek" a 1 m/s climb out of the SU-25T, provided the IAS is above 340 kmh, first notch of flap down. It is not blistering, which is why getting rid of the extra weight and drag is imperative (I am as bad as the wing man where throwing weapons away is concerned :lol. Most of my "home testing" of the type on one engine was with full fuel, but no weapons, as that was the situation I could quickly guarantee myself, and know what to expect.

Whatever it is, it is really well simulated. I don't stop being impressed by this sim.

It was a A-10C here, but even with two engines, the A-10C is a bit weak on the chest. Climbing back to 10 kft takes seasons after a bombing run. Loosing one engine on take-off should not be a big problem, but in my case it was, likely because it was also on fire and I had more warnings and actions to handle than I was competent for.

Yesterday, I practised bombing techniques with the A-10C, with and without the JTAC. The new understanding of the radios was right, just the use of the presets is a bit strange still.

VHF-1 = VHF AM => Air fields, UAW JTACs, AWACS
VHF-2 = VHF FM => JTACs
UHF => Wingman

Got one engine damaged by one of three ZSU-23-2 batteries while attempting to bomb a Smerch with an unguided cluster bomb guided by a JTAC with WP. Leaped home and landed myself to death (I really need rudder pedals in such a situation)

Later found out that I mishandled the engine failure, had been shutting down the engine too fast without need. While I have lost thrust, generator and oil pressure, the oil pressure was still stable at low level and the engine might have been capable of a restart attempt.

 

[Richy]

Had a similar event during take-off with a A-10... engine lost and on fire right after take-off, though I think it was rather caused by a bad take-off, too much pitch and a bit of bank to the side of the failing engine.

Had to bail out, because one engine isn't enough at full thrust to gain altitude.

Sounds like a bird strike with one of DCS' invisible birds.

 

[Urwumpe]

Sounds like a bird strike with one of DCS' invisible birds.

Possible... but I am not sure it did not have other causes. Usually, there was a good cause why I crashed so far, usually because I lack the patience to be careful at one point

---------- Post added at 09:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:37 PM ----------

Successful quick mission

While Sukhumi was again unwilled to talk to me, the JTAC operated as called for. Got taskings for two groups of artillery, one by Maverick, one by gun. 6 targets destroyed directly and counted as kills, two artillery pieces caught fire and exploded when I returned for the second run. Then I was send home by the JTAC, all available targets destroyed.

Ended the mission again at Sukhumi, refueled and rearmed there with running engines, but decided to end the flight after a look on the map. Only a few infantry soldiers and IFVs had been left of the enemy forces and got chewed by the artillery.

What I want to improve next time: Better approaches of the targets - After detecting them with the TGP, I flew over them and attacked them on the second pass. Next time, I want to stay away and strike with more surprise, like they prefer in the real CAS.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

It was a A-10C here...

:lol: Here now mainly to say; so sorry about that! I had been up for nearly 24 hours as I had worked through the night before, can't sleep during the day, and was really rabbiting on a bit by that stage. Completely slipped my mind you are an A-10 jock!

What I want to improve next time: Better approaches of the targets - After detecting them with the TGP, I flew over them and attacked them on the second pass. Next time, I want to stay away and strike with more surprise, like they prefer in the real CAS.

My own objective, too. Hanging around in one sector makes my skin crawl. It is what I like about the Fast Missions. They usually seem to create a rather broad front that allows that sort of streak in, strike and then vanish (to appear in another sector) tactic.

On another subject; I was thinking, several Fast Missions can be used as a template, edited in the Mission Editor and tweaked with resource/supply parameters, player objectives, weather and custom conditions to form a basis for the missions of a first-time user made campaign (?). Only the very special missions would need to be built from scratch.

Sounds like a bird strike with one of DCS' invisible birds.

I am convinced that it was what I got, though. Quite exciting, I am leaving the invisible birds on...

 

[Hielor]

Losing a plane to a birdstrike isn't entirely unrealistic: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2zB7Z-b6Kc"]Bird Strike and Ejection in a Hawk Jet - YouTube[/ame]

Of course, that's a single-engine jet so it's probably more the expected outcome...

 

[Urwumpe]

BTW: For some reading about CAS tactics and how to interpret what the JTAC says:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/jp3_09_3.pdf

A lot of nice reading, including how you as pilot can deliver your payload.

 

[Hielor]

Bleargh. Failed the next mission as well. Recon mission, whiffed a lot of Vikhrs during the first outing due to the crosswind. The Vikhrs on the upwind wing were fine, but I could never hit with the downwind wing. I wish I could toggle on/off pylons per side, like I think the A-10 can, so I could always use the upwind wing.

Got the nose shot off while working on some "targets of opportunity" after getting both recon objectives, and returned to base. Interesting landing without airspeed or HUD, although it was actually one of my better ones.

Hadn't actually managed to kill any full groups of enemies, and the wingman was busy unloading all of his rockets, gunpod ammo, and fuselage cannon ammo on an MBT with exactly 0 effect. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to complete the mission with just the recon objectives completed, so I repaired, rearmed, and headed back to finish off some of the partially-dead groups for more points.

I took out one of the groups of artillery and then pancaked into the ground while strafing the HQ group. I'd forgotten that I still had basically a full load, so wouldn't have the performance I'd gotten used to, and stalled. D'oh. :facepalm:

Really, though, I blame whoever designed the Su-25T--having a cannon pointing along the longitudinal axis when the airplane is pretty much always at a 5-15 degree AOA seems like a pretty boneheaded decision to me. It would be so much nicer if the gun were pointed down 5-15 degrees...

I exit the mission and am met with a score of 20, which (based on looking through other missions) is just what I get for a group of artillery. WTF? Do recon objectives only count if I live? Could make sense, I suppose, so I open up the mission (ATO-C-P2.4) to check.

Turns out that the mission designer screwed up the recon objectives. They're set as "unit inside zone" objectives, which only trigger if the specified unit (in this case, the player) is inside the zone when the mission ends. Each was worth 51 points, so with it like this, if you did nothing other than fly straight into the recon zone and exit the mission while inside it, you'd pass.

I opened up another recon mission, and the right way to do this seems to be to have a flag set to true as soon as the player passes through the zone, and then give points passed on the flag being true or not at the end of the mission.

I'm posting the bug on the ED forums now, but such an amateurish bug is rather frustrating.

 

[Urwumpe]

Really, though, I blame whoever designed the Su-25T--having a cannon pointing along the longitudinal axis when the airplane is pretty much always at a 5-15 degree AOA seems like a pretty boneheaded decision to me. It would be so much nicer if the gun were pointed down 5-15 degrees...

Actually, the guns should have an option to depress them by a few degrees, like the external gun pods, if I remember correctly.

Still, you should usually dive for a gun attack with the Su-25T. It is the same with the A-10C, where you have two types of attack with the gun:

• Dive attack to hit armored targets
• Shallow strafing attack against soft targets

For strafing with the Su-25T, deploy flaps, this further reduces the AOA quite a lot, but limits airspeed and steals energy.

 

[Hielor]

Actually, the guns should have an option to depress them by a few degrees, like the external gun pods, if I remember correctly.

Still, you should usually dive for a gun attack with the Su-25T. It is the same with the A-10C, where you have two types of attack with the gun:

• Dive attack to hit armored targets
• Shallow strafing attack against soft targets

For strafing with the Su-25T, deploy flaps, this further reduces the AOA quite a lot, but limits airspeed and steals energy.

I've never seen any indication that the fuselage cannon can be depressed, but I'll give it a try with the same keys as the gunpods next time I'm in game.

 

[Urwumpe]

I've never seen any indication that the fuselage cannon can be depressed, but I'll give it a try with the same keys as the gunpods next time I'm in game.

Just checked - no, was wrong there, works only for the gun pods. So, you are left with the flaps, if you want to strafe from a shallow angle.

 

[Hielor]

Got a 50 on the next, which is (I guess) neither good nor bad...

Was a "defend friendly forces from advancing armor" sort of thing. Was going fine right up until an enemy artillery group, including a MANPAD, spawned right under me (that's not even fair). Survived the MANPAD, but the artillery took out the friendly group I was supposed to be defending before I could do anything about it.

This meant that the enemy F-16s, instead of ignoring me and going for ground forces, happily ganged up on me and exploded me since they had nothing better to attack. Also not even fair. :facepalm:

Somehow managed to eke out a 50 anyway, guess I blew up enough. Seems that the missions where you're defending are a lot harder than the missions where you're attacking, so once you start to lose you tend to keep losing. Makes for a very frustrating experience.

And no, as far as I can tell, there's no way to depress the fuselage cannon.

---------- Post added at 02:12 ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 ----------

The 50 doesn't move you forward or back in the campaign, so I had the "opportunity" to fly basically the same mission again. This time I stayed well away from where I knew that extra group with bonus MANPAD would be spawning until after they did, and was able to easily finish the mission without taking any damage at all. It helped that the enemy didn't get F-16s this time.

Next mission will be that bugged recon mission again. I'm not sure how exactly I want to finish it--fix the mission so it can be properly flown, or just zoom to the first recon point and exit the mission there so I win with the mission as it is...

---------- Post added 11-16-13 at 00:20 ---------- Previous post was 11-15-13 at 02:12 ----------

Edited that recon mission to have proper mission objectives (set flag when in recon area, check for flag at mission end) and passed it fairly easily. Took out a group of artillery, a group of MBTs, and the enemy HQ group for good measure just to give myself enough points to pass even if the recon objectives didn't take, but they did.

Normally I'd feel bad about editing a mission like this, but given that it's pretty clearly broken I don't feel bad in this case.

Next mission (finally) brings me back up to where I started my failure streak, with taking out artillery behind enemy lines. I'm a good deal wiser this time around, however, and won't be wasting pylons on -25MPUs...

---------- Post added at 00:54 ---------- Previous post was at 00:20 ----------

And succeeded this time. Drilled enough of a hole in enemy air defenses to get to the artillery, took them out in two careful passes, then left back the way I came in, taking out a group of MBTs on the front that was in the way. Looking at the debrief, neither my wingman or I ever even got shot at, so that's good I guess...

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Mission 13 done. Not everything went according to plan. Track is available here because a few interesting things happened. I'll refer to timestamps as I watch it, but due to the way tracks work it might get out of whack.

Finally got around to watching this one. I rather like the high angle attack run with the Vikhrs. I do think the SU-25T is a bit short on speed brake effectiveness. Just a tad more would enable that sort of run in more often.

I saw the explosion on the Shkval and started to turn away, but then as the smoke cleared realized that the dudes were still there. Too fast and too far off angle to put more munitions on them, all there is to do is maneuver, launch flares, and pray.

Catching that missile in the blast of your own was quite a stroke of luck! It was unfortunate that your situation after the break was far from optimum for evading that second SAM (climbing, losing speed and with the missile on a quartering stern chase, as far as I could see from the replay. Could not have been worse, really). Later on, your wing man's clear violation of the priority of aircraft to land is excusable only because; a.) he was in worse shape than you and b.) it didn't actually happen :lol:. The track replays are a bit like events from a parallel universe, at times. I got as far as watching your go around and then I was suddenly looking at a blank screen (we had a power cut, not all that uncommon around here, and always results in the next Win 7 boot being a BSOD). Too bad, finish watching it some other time.

EDIT: Forgot to add, I am impressed by the use of Vikhrs to bring down helicopters, having seen it in action here. I'll be trying it, now.

Normally I'd feel bad about editing a mission like this, but given that it's pretty clearly broken I don't feel bad in this case.

Any chance of identifying which mission file name it is, so the same correction can be done here, please?

I have concluded my ninth campaign mission. It was a similar one to the above mentioned mission; take out HQ units behind enemy lines, but clearly not the same one. The location was around the Gudauta / Sukhumi region. On the previous two missions to this one I had been obliged to eject again (that's two more in the log, as I don't take as many chances with belly landings anymore, especially if a fuel leak is evident, as on one of these), but both passed the objectives 50+ score milestone. I went a bit nuts on the ninth mission, and decided on a full load of MER mounted FAB-100s! Threaded the needle on the way, identified the HQ unit group and went at them BANZAI! fashion at 780 kmh from a dive, levelled at 500 meters AGL, dropping flares like a maniac (there was an active MANPADS unit there) and rippled off the lot of the bombs in one pass, using Shkval/laser to designate the bomb ripple initiation point. There was an inevitable SAM launch, every AAA unit there was firing on me, and I didn't get as much as a scratch! Ridiculous. However, I did not hit much, either, so I used the wing man's Vikhrs to finish the mission with approaches from the safe sector. Got back without damage, and passed.

EDIT II: Well, how about that? I was just doing some rather rare browsing of the ED forums and it turns out that I am not a stranger to Eagle Dynamics. I had this sim, when it was new. Thought it was great then, too, and aside from Jane's USAF and WWII fighters, was the last sim I played up until I downloaded Orbiter!

 

[Hielor]

Finally got around to watching this one. I rather like the high angle attack run with the Vikhrs. I do think the SU-25T is a bit short on speed brake effectiveness. Just a tad more would enable that sort of run in more often.

Yeah, it worked really well. I still think that one attack run is possibly the best single attack run I've made in the Su-25T, ever.

EDIT: Forgot to add, I am impressed by the use of Vikhrs to bring down helicopters, having seen it in action here. I'll be trying it, now.

Seems to work best when coming from behind the helicopter, with a head-on approach being a distant second in the case of an armed target. Attacking a helicopter flying at 90 degrees to your direction of motion seems to be pretty much a lost cause. Add crosswinds for more fun.

No, I've never sent 2 Vikhrs and 2 S-25Ls after a helicopter on one pass and had them all miss, I don't know what you're talking about.

Make sure you change the Shkval's targeting reticle size for the helicopter (20-25 seems to work), and don't forget to change it back to 10 afterwards for ground targets. Having a joystick knob for this is really useful.

Any chance of identifying which mission file name it is, so the same correction can be done here, please?

I mentioned it a couple posts prior--it's ATO-C-P2.4.

I'll probably be checking all future recon missions I run into as well--really, as long as you don't look at the list of hidden enemy groups, opening the thing up in the mission editor doesn't tell you all that much more than what you get from the briefing, other than the specific scores for each thing, which I think should be in the briefing anyway.

I have concluded my ninth campaign mission. It was a similar one to the above mentioned mission; take out HQ units behind enemy lines, but clearly not the same one. The location was around the Gudauta / Sukhumi region.

Yeah, it's a type I've seen a few times before. Not my least favorite type, to be honest--at least it has fairly clear goals, although I'm still a bit fuzzy on what exactly constitutes the HQ, especially with the EU units that just use APCs instead of an actual HQ-type truck...

On the previous two missions to this one I had been obliged to eject again (that's two more in the log, as I don't take as many chances with belly landings anymore, especially if a fuel leak is evident, as on one of these), but both passed the objectives 50+ score milestone.

Probably not a bad idea--the AI won't make belly landings either, and will just eject on final.

I went a bit nuts on the ninth mission, and decided on a full load of MER mounted FAB-100s! Threaded the needle on the way, identified the HQ unit group and went at them BANZAI! fashion at 780 kmh from a dive, levelled at 500 meters AGL, dropping flares like a maniac (there was an active MANPADS unit there) and rippled off the lot of the bombs in one pass, using Shkval/laser to designate the bomb ripple initiation point. There was an inevitable SAM launch, every AAA unit there was firing on me, and I didn't get as much as a scratch! Ridiculous. However, I did not hit much, either, so I used the wing man's Vikhrs to finish the mission with approaches from the safe sector. Got back without damage, and passed.

Haha, yeah, I'm not too impressed with the bombs overall against most targets. I can reliably take out 3-4 targets with Vikhrs in a single pass while using 1/8th of a pylon per target. With bombs, I'd probably be lucky if I managed more than a couple kills per pass, with 1-2 pylons per target.

Although, I haven't tried level bombing from low altitude, which might be easier than dive bombing or level bombing from high altitude given the current bugs with the CCIP/CCRP HUD pipper. The easiest would be if the Shkval/autopilot mode actually worked, and that could provide for some pretty damn accurate bomb placement, but that's currently busted...

 

[Urwumpe]

I had managed to cluster bomb a Smerch in such a bad way, that all bomblets exploded around it, without it even getting a scratch...

But the Mk-82 AIR bombs are really better for low-level attacks with CCRP.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

No, I've never sent 2 Vikhrs and 2 S-25Ls after a helicopter on one pass and had them all miss, I don't know what you're talking about.

:lol: Must have been some else, then...

Make sure you change the Shkval's targeting reticle size for the helicopter (20-25 seems to work), and don't forget to change it back to 10 afterwards for ground targets. Having a joystick knob for this is really useful.

Technique noted, though I have run out of buttons and knobs of the joystick!

I mentioned it a couple posts prior--it's ATO-C-P2.4.

Thanks!

The easiest would be if the Shkval/autopilot mode actually worked, and that could provide for some pretty damn accurate bomb placement, but that's currently busted...

Not even tried that yet, so I was unaware that it was broken.

But the Mk-82 AIR bombs are really better for low-level attacks with CCRP.

Indeed, the FAB-500 might have given me better results. Maybe. Larger blast radius on soft targets, and less bombs rippling off so that the explosions would have been concentrated into a smaller area, like the rather tightly packed HQ group. The way I did it and what I mean by this, loads of FAB-100s had the result that of the entire ripple trail only about a quarter of them were actually within the group I was bombing. The rest were bombing nothing, as the trail continued beyond the group.

I had a quick, first look at multi-player yesterday. It is not too bad (though I cannot remember which server I was on). There was a two-objective mission in progress to take out some SA-11 sites north of Gudauta + cover some ground units advancing on the airfield along the coast from the east. There were not many players on, however. Did two flights, eliminated the SAM sites, and during the take off run for a third flight (going through 190 kmh), on which I had changed my load-out to go and help some helicopter pilots covering the advance, I got another bird strike. I aborted the take off, taxied back to ramp and called it a night (I had been on for over an hour already). Things noted; it seems the server can set some of your options, as several external views were inhibited, and I could not select any labels. This last, however, is indeed not so bad and you don't miss them all that much, as with previous experience you have already learned to scan around constantly, both visually and with the Shkval. At one point I even detected an IR SAM launch visually with more than enough time to evade. In one way, it was better, as you watch the smoke trail of the SAM to gauge its distance from you and get a better perception of its closure than when you are concentrating on the label. The only worry is some ambiguity regarding the identification of which side units that are not shooting at you are on, which I suppose is only realistic, after all!

 

[vlad32768]

I had managed to cluster bomb a Smerch in such a bad way, that all bomblets exploded around it, without it even getting a scratch..
.

Yes, CBUs are useless now, but they were very effective 2 years ago.