homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation DCS World Eno's Firehouse and Crew's Hollo Pointe Server Lounge

I'm home tomorrow so hopefully either tomorrow night or the next night I'll be in to fly it with you guys. Always helps to have "the friend from the CIA" (as Crew used to put it) there to give tips.

One thing I will say is that though there is what seems to be an indestructible wall of SA11s in position to hamper your success, there are only 2 SA11 "sites," each with 3 launchers to cover all of Georgian airspace (as it pertains to the campaign).

One thing I have taken into account following a post in ED regarding Buk sites (http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=120202) is that the sites are actually quite spread out. In spite of this, the search radar should remain the primary target of the SEAD resources. The radar significantly increases the range at which the SA11s can acquire targets.

Even without that search radar the SA11 units themself have a limited ability to engage point targets- however at substantially lower distances.

Also, I recommend picking one side or the other (north or south) instead of going straight to Kutaisi. This would substantially limit the number of SA11s to deal with. If you delay too long (the timer starts around the time you enter Georgian airspace) the target MiG29s on the ground will launch and create massive havoc-

What I envision with this mission is at LEAST 2 fighters to support (4 would be better as you get further along in the mission), at LEAST 2 SU25Ts brimmed with ARMs and 2-4 A-10s to flatten local air defenses around the airbase not to mention the 6 aircraft shelters. I'd like for the entire package to take off together... Might be fun on Thursday night? Maybe make a mini event out of it.

The Georgia Peach campaign I'm making now is a complete ground up rebuild of the pre-existing campaign. Since CA and ground AI will likely remain a weak spot for quite some time, I've had to adjust the entire focus of the ground forces.

Some of the earlier missions that have been popular and stable will be integrated into the existing campaign during the "stops along the way." Each mission I'm making (from scratch) now is a distinctive "step forward" mission... generally a few days apart. In between each step, I'd like to put some "routine" missions that should hopefully keep everyone busy on a variety of assignments. Some aircraft may be finished their's quickly... others may be busy for a bit longer.

Anyway, I'm looking in now and I can see Wesley and Snipor going at it... Wes bought his FC3 and is in an F15C while Snipor is probably hauling some serious LB's around Georgia... Be interested to see the result...

I've just had an idea about the target MIGS...

currently they're set to take off after a certain amount of time... this may not always be practical for the sake of missions.

Instead, now I'll set it up that they take off in packages of 2 at certain intervals following the destruction of the first shelter or defensive unit.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I like it!

So....I made it all the way to Kutaisi, but I was carrying the default loadout for the mission: 4X GBU-31, 2X maverick, plus I added AIM-9s and the Jammer with the larger number. After dodging another decent number of SA-11s, Wesley told me to try going around south. If you go way way way way far down south, you can circle around the SA-11s.

Once arrived at Kutaisi, I dropped a GBU-31 on what I thought was the right hangar, but now I think it was part of the standard airport scenery. It exploded, but I just don't think it was one of the correct hangars....so then, I turned back and in a single pass dropped the other 3 GBU-31s on 3 of the reinforced aircraft hangars. I think each one hit the intended target, but had no effect. Out of bombs and on the way back to base, I circled down south again to avoid the SA-11s and just as I started to turn north towards our airfield the RWR lit up with migs. I dropped ordnance and dove down (I was at angels 30) at a moderate angle to go as fast as possible over as long a distance as possible. I think I made it back to the blue SAM umbrella just in time, because the SAMs started firing past me at the migs that had given chase.

I still rate this mission ?/10 because I don't know which hangars to attack, nor how to actually destroy them. The mission notes say that the hangars to destroy will be guarded but there are armor units spread out over a decent portion of the airfield. My best guess as to where the planes were located was "generally this half of the airfield's hangars", though with multiple players I suppose that would be a good thing.


WC: I was playing Paradise with a few other people, and we beat the mission, but then the mission paused itself. I had no idea what to do so after typing all sorts of commands I gave up and quit. Is it supposed to pause like that?

I also discovered an impressive new loadout while playing Paradise. I think it will be my standard from now on (although I will substitute in AIM-9s and a jammer when necessary)




Climbing to any reasonable altitude is a great way to test your patience.

You bring up a good point snipor. I need to turn dispersal off the protective units otherwise they'll move away from the hangars. They should be 6 westernmost shelters.

On another note- FOUR gbu31s?

I will locate Immortal Invisible ROE=Weps Hold Armed Watchtowers near enemy sites so that players can use F7 to observe the opposition. I've learned that these need to be outside of any trigger zones so that the zone is not occupied by them -- including built in airbase zones. viola' -- CIA intelligence site (aka the BIA and the RIA).


Re figuring out what Hanger to hit...
Put a watchtower or three very close to it to give a clue as to which hanger to bomb.

WC

Oh man,,,

I have seen this too, but not often.

I checked the setting, pause on mission load, and it is set to false. All the Load Mission events in Paradise pointed to valid mission files, so that wasn't it... if a load mission event points to a non-existent mission file then the server will pause.

I'll post up Paradise again. Please let me know if it pauses on a restart.

WC

I flew around in the 15 for a while having no clue about what I was doing really. I made it to Kutaisi at one point and just strafed around the hangars in the dark, taking some flak. Without a clickable cockpit it's harder for me to learn - with the A-10C I started by clicking what I needed too, switched to keyboard and now use the HOTAS/MFDs primarily.

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I still have a bit of a cold and took a break to lie down for a few and rest my eyes and ended up falling asleep! This brings some good news - in nearly 24 hours of that mission running and restarting, both the server and my client had no crashes!

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If anyone has a reasonably well thought out control setup for the F-15C for the HOTAS Warthog and MFDs, I'd greatly appreciate it. Not entirely sure what buttons I do/don't need etc. I am a tad annoyed I cannot map wheel brakes to my rudder pedals since they are a button command and there is no axis, but at least the HOTAS has buttons to spare!

Also to note, DCS/Steam keys are 100% cross compatible. I purchased FC3 using a ED store coupon. FC3 was released on steam January 24th, 2014. I downloaded the standalone DCS to get FC3 installed and copied the files, however I have found that using that process was unnecessary.

For future reference, if you buy a DCS product in the ED store you can activate the code in steam. The process is easy.

In steam select the "Games" menu. Select "Activate a Product on Steam" - follow the steps and input the CD key. The appropriate DCS world DLC will be added to your steam account, and will automatically start downloading.

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Just thought I'd post this for any other steam users (current or future). So take advantage of the sales, wherever they may pop up!

I know my way around the F-15C from the many hours in it back in LOMAC days.

When I get home I'll post my Warthog F-15C profiles.

Hollo Pointe has about five missions especially with the F-15C in mind -- these start with 'Air' in the title.

WC

Hit a bit of a snag while doing adjustments to the Hangars On mission...

The idea was to have the aircraft in the hangar, late activated and "uncontrolled" until a particular time. I wasn't sure if AI in that state would actually register as being dead or just disappear from the mission scope.

I went to run a test on it and as soon as the hangars blew up the mission crashed. I'd been testing the ability of mist to track the dead hangars and had most of it already set up and it worked fine... put the aircraft in there, late activated and uncontrolled and instantly crashed when the hangars blew up.

I've been suspect about this issue for a long time and haven't been able to reproduce it... I'm hoping this was the crash I needed to see a fix.

Anyway- I do have the error report posted HERE:
http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=2014481#post2014481

If you care to test it out of curiosity, then please help yourself. The mission (test) is included in the zip file.

WC's Warthog F-15C Profiles

WC

The GRAD EX multiplayer mission now is available for everyone to download and use. This mission is the multiplayer version of the DCS A-10C GRAD EX mission that was distributed with BeachAV8R's final PC Pilot magazine article (Issue 89, ~January 2014) about the DCS A-10C Warthog. This version includes slots for A-10As.

BeachAV8R's GRAD EX mission is available at this link --
DCS A-10 Grad EX mission by BeachAV8R




Take a few minutes to review the AAR for this mission. It is an excellent write up and a preview of the fun to be had in this challenging encounter with an SA-6 and an opposition determined to use chemical weapons --
BeachAV8R's GRAD EX AAR on SimHQ

Hmmm, try it again...


The final objective is the Red artillery that is attacking the Blue Patriot site -


Wrecking Crew

Just taking a look now. I think I will still build my own so it seems more natural to me. This is a very good base for me to look at, thank you! Also - I had no idea I could use joystick controls as key modifiers! I have been using the paddle switch on my stick for my emergency jettison in the A-10C. However, with this new knowledge I think I will program it as a modifier to perform other functions. I am thinking (all using paddle as a modifier):

-With wep release (emergency jettison)
-With trigger stage 1 (eject)
-LG silence button (toggle gear)

The world of possibilities! Thanks - I'll think twice before launching A2A weapons upon thee.

What you should do is write an article on getting started with the F-15... 'cause I would like to do the same.

Check the latest news re the F-15C --
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3921120#Post3921120

Late March release.

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We should spend some time in one of my F-15C missions, with TS. Get to know the radar and the views. Frack, I can't access any 'LOMAC key bindings' search results from work -- search for this so you can have the key list. Know how to drop the fuel tanks, how to switch between missiles, how to switch between the radar modes (keys 2, 3, 4, ...).

I have one mission that pits F-15Cs against the Russian jets -- H2H style, called AIR The Bridge.

WC

F-15C training missions would make it easier for me.

I was trying to get on a few days ago, and didnt realize, I never updated to the latest patch level. (Whoops).

I'll update when I get home tonight.

So Sad DCS Doesnt support XFire, I'm enjoying having the power in other games

I might delete my pilot and start over in the F-15 Campaign, since I can modify and adjust controls while in game now, something I couldnt do last time I ran the F-15 Campaign.

Hoping to put a good crew together tonight for Hangars On... A couple F15s are needed anyway- might be a good place to start working out the kinks. Need some Tomatoes and some A-10Cs.

No choppers in it at this point but I'm thinking I might put in a red force "rescue." Only problem is I'm having issue with the blue force guys spawning in for the pilots because Georgia is normally blue coalition and Russia is usually Red. I have it all mixed up.

I'll see if I can get on, anyone know if there's a Helios Profile for the FC3 F-15C?

My issue is using the Keyboard for everything, lol, I think the FC2 Helio profile mapped the KB Commands to the Helios buttons.

BTW, Paradise ran again yesterday. I was able to join just as Blue won the mission and the 5 minute countdown started. We let the mission run to the end and it did restart properly -- no Pause.

WC