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

Nope no such thing. Never ran across a single plain mission, ever.

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But here is a mission on a plain -- the plain between Maykop and the big lake south of KC --

I'm moving Ants -- pouring gasoline over the old ant farm and seeing what comes out. Going to add Hueys in with the A-10s, and narrow the Red threat to Maykop. It's a night mission so the plan is to add more ground flares shooting up from the Red ant farms to give the Blue pilots targets to roll in on...

Those damn Ants attacked three airbases in the last version -- Gelen, Novo and Minsk. This next version will have them on the march to Maykop Airbase (seeing as how the Ants captured Minsk).


WC

I've been doing a lot of thinking now that I've had some down time and I figured what my missions were missing was a little more "fun."

With this AFM for the F-15C right around the corner, I thought it may be about time we "have an old friend for dinner."

I figured it might be fun to bring the Eagle out and do a speed run down the highway- you know... the Highway that Crew made famous with his mission. Oh yes, you remember!

Anyway, I thought it might be easy to capture time between two points- and it probably was- but I didn't want it to be just a straight line from one point to the other- with guys hitting high mach numbers at 20000 feet and then nose diving across the finish line. No- I wanted a reckless high speed run down the highway.

Fortunately for me, a member over on the ED side "Jo-Kur" was one (hundred) steps ahead of me and already had a script written for just such an occasion. It will track times, number of people in the course etc. All I needed to do was set up the course and create the zones. Granted there are about 50... but now that's done it's time for some fun stuff!

The first version I've created is just a basic speed ball down the highway. The next version I'm dreaming of is a "Smokey and the Bandit" version... this would involve pairs of aircraft going through a certain distance apart and it would be up to the smokey to keep up with the bandit and staying within a certain distance. I've been working with this concept in my "Stop the Runs" mission involving the drug trafficking aircraft. You need to find them, then close to a certain distance to visually ID them... then you can shoot them down. Of course- all this needs to happen while outside of range from innocent bystanders in the form of aviation tour groups, training flights and private pilots (cough paid decoys cough).

I thought that might be kind of fun... Whichever guy is in first is the bandit... tail end is the smokey.

Anyway- when I get things rolling again I think I'm going to try and make a little more use of some of the other great community missions that are available. A part of why I was so territorial running mostly my missions was that when you guys came back with feedback about what was broken it was generally a bit easier for me to fix it since I know my way around the mission. Other people's missions aren't as easy to fix since sometimes it's hard to interpret the means by which people go from A to B.

I'm HOPING that MIST and the High Speed Highway mission survive the update to 128... I'll bring things back online slowly around that point and with any luck I'll have a few new missions featuring the F-15C.

...over a million...

Wow, lots of great times, discussions, screenshots, ideas, lessons, frustrations,,, Lot's of folks have come in here and the other two Firehouse threads, since this all started with DCS A-10C in late 2009. The second I saw that Thrustmaster Warthog -- I knew that the DCS A-10C was what I wanted to spend my gaming time with.

This thread hit one million views today. Go figure! And with all of the developments under way, we may get to two million --

A new F-15C AFM in the next week or so


Reach out and touch someone...


Combined Arms integration


Keep shooting those missiles at me and I'm a gonna thump ya!


KABOOM

Spring 2014 Fly-In announcement --

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3933280/Spring_2014_SimHQ_DCS_Fly_In#Post3933280

WC

Marked on the Calandar and booking vacation time. I am _not_ missing this one too.

Yep ^^^ my vacation request goes in today!

WC

Unfortunately, I had to put in my vacation requests for this year months in advance.

Still, maybe I can go without much of a paycheck for one week, since taking time off without pay is still an option. Maybe.

Also, I do admit that I'm pretty much at a standstill regarding how to use the rest of the Warthog's switches, most notably the throttle base ones, on FC3 aircraft which are highly simplified (to the point where engine start/stop can be handled by the idle/cutoff detent area alone) and use a noticeably different system for handling autopilots (save the A-10A, for obvious reasons). I'm thinking that the EAC and radar alt switches can handle sensors on/off, with the former for EOS or Fantasmagoria/Mercury LLTV and the latter for radar or plain old Shkval.

I could also try to make the F-15C throttle mappings more authentic, but it comes at the cost of giving people serious muscle memory issues when coming from the A-10C and other FC3 aircraft. Not worth it.

Should I just release what I've got already, even if it might be seen as "incomplete" for not using absolutely every little thing available on the Warthog?

Control maps are very personal items, in my experience. What might be an optimal setup for one person is pure disaster for somebody else. My humble opinion is you should make the control maps to be the best *you* think they are, and then share them, if you feel like it. Folks can either take your maps as-is, adjust them to suit their individual taste, or not use them at all. I wouldn't get too hung up on making something that *everybody* likes.

e.g., IMHO, if you can't get a 1:1 mapping to the real deal, it's not worth it to "get close". If you can come up with a layout that group functions in a way that a pilot can remember in the heat of battle, you will have come up with a great method.

I'll ditto that EP.

Since I have my Warthog all set up the way I want for the A-10C, including my customized switching with the modifier, my Huey and F-15C profiles use many of the same switch functions as the Warthog, especially my views.

What I would like on top of what I have is the capability to use all three states on a double throw switch -- I don't know how to detect the middle position, using the Lua files (I don't use TARGET).

WC

I jump in to ask a control configuration question... The profile we save when we modify axis and buttons is for the aircraft selected in the top left corner or an overall config for DCS world?
I mean... do I have to save when I complete each aircrafts profile or, so to speak, when I've done them all?

If I have to save for each... can I save a profile and load it in for a different one?

Many thanks in advance!

Each profile is by the aircraft and by the control. So, for the A-10C I have a Joystick, a Throttle, a Rudder and a Keyboard file -- four files. I don't bother with the Mouse or TrackIR.

I also have profiles for the Huey and the F-15C -- total of 12 files.

The profile files do include the axis assignments.


It seemed like a PITA to save all 12 but it really was not a big deal. I hope I answered all your ?s.

WC

Purrrrr-fect!
Thanks.

Just keep in mind that when you save and load profiles, you do so for the device in the currently-selected column. Make sure you don't load the joystick profile into the throttle or pedals column by accident!


One of my concerns is that muscle memory is a very real issue when switching between aircraft. Just compare the F-16C, A-10C and F-15E HOTAS mappings, the former two bearing similar sticks and the latter two bearing similar throttles. Ultimately, I'll be prioritizing something similar to, but not exactly like, the first two due to existing mass-market HOTAS equivalents from TM and existing sims like DCS: A-10C and Falcon 4.0 properly replicating and documenting their HOTAS controls.

That, and the radar mode mappings on the F-15E are all over the place. Boresight on coolie switch up, but almost everything else on the Auto Acquisition Switch (like the CMS, but no left and right, only forward, aft and click-down/Z-axis)? Really? Another trip-up is that the weapons mode switch is actually cannon-SRM-MRM, which on the real aircraft is the china hat switch. The boat switch is momentary in both directions, undesignating targets and missile-stepping. (So much for the DCS devs claiming the A-10C's right throttle was taken from the F-15E...clearly inspired, but different!)

Another concern of mine is that I may not prioritize the same bindings and commands. I give relatively little regard to autopilot and other miscellaneous systems, instead prioritizing weapons and sensors with a bit of speedbrakes, flaps and wheel brakes thrown in, and my profiles have no mappings for view panning because they're designed with the assumption that the user has a head-tracking device like the TrackIR.

I also haven't really mapped anything to mic/comms since I haven't entirely figured out how DCS handles that menu-wise, especially in multiplayer, and mainly assume that any real communication will be done with human players in VoIP, so I leave one button aside (mic switch Z-axis/center) for push-to-talk.


To me, the solution is simple: treat the middle position as an unshifted state and the two extremes as shifted states.

The only drawback to doing this in Lua is that if you set those controls to be modifiers in DCS, you can no longer directly map commands to them, so you can't make the boat switch do things like automatically switch your master mode AND make the TMS context-sensitive for each master mode.

Oh, and if it wasn't obvious enough, I want to make sure that all prospective pilots for the upcoming fly-in have a nice, ready-to-use profile that they can get started with, just to ease the learning curve a little.

I'm starting with the Warthog due to ED's glaring omission in providing good profiles for anything aside from the A-10C, but would gladly expand to other common HOTAS systems like the X-52 Pro (which will be more difficult now that I've sold mine and don't quite remember the DirectInput button/axis mappings 100%, and that one requires either registry edits or SST to make the mouse mini-stick useful), or even simple 4-axis, 8-button, 1-hat sticks like the famed MS SideWinder Force-Feedback 2 (which will require two shift buttons on the base and some memorization on the pilot's part).

Eh guys.


Got a few new missions I'm going to need to test out before the fly in. One is mostly A-10AC / SU25/T called Leap Frog (tentatively) and the other two are mostly SU27 / F-15C... one is called "Stop the Runs" and the other is High Speed Highway.

Leap Frog takes place around the same area as I shot the Shilka from Crews mission and involves all those nearby bases. Short version is that you need to locate a specific target at one of those bases to help expedite the clearing of the others. There are also convoys moving through the area that, if destroyed, will shut down SAM threats and open up the possibility of using the gun a bit more freely.

Stop the Runs is a low level intercept mission between the Tib/vaz/Sog airports and Beslan. TAke a look at the mountain range between those two areas and look at the many canyons- should make for some fun flying!

High Speed Highway is mostly a race against the clock... but there's some opportunity for competition as well. Guys who want to go do some air to air can do the course then head up to Anapa / Krymsk and there will be some opportunity for intercepts- or even just head straight there and shoot down some migs before starting the mission.

I am trying to sort out an F-10 radio menu item script that will allow users to spawn interceptors as desired from different areas- but it hasn't been working so far. I also tried the GCI script but wasn't able to make it work since Russia is on blue for HSH.

Anyway- you may see the Firehouse Server up over the next few days and I'll likely be testing out those missions so please drop in and help break stuff so I can fix it and polish it off for the upcoming fly in!

Eno, When did you sign a record deal with Warner Brothers Music Group? lol.

I had Uploaded an Off Camera Recording of a DCS Session to Youtube, and it recently was flagged and suspended (pending deletion) and a hit against my account for copyright Violation.



7:15 was when we were coordinating TGP/SPI's via TeamSpeak.



Along with 3 other disputes I had to file today (1 on a iRacing Video, voice comms w/ drivers, and another for DCS)

My response was:

Uh- that is weird.

Sounds like maybe you could use some briefing help? Maybe? Hmm?

I'll send ya the missions if you want to take a stab at it!

I have always liked the concept of Ants -- where the Red forces expand out to new hives and multiply in two or three different directions. It was never a popular mission -- too confusing, too many airbases to cover -- Gelen, Novo and Krymsk. It is a night mission by its nature of flares shooting out of the ant hive factories; a lot of people join HP only to find out it's nighttime and leave.

After thinking about it for a long time, Ants is getting a remake. Blue now has to defend only Maykop, or die. The Red ants are spreading out on both sides of Krasnodar Lake and heading straight for the Blue base at Maykop.

Hueys are invited to this party. It should be pretty fun watching them try to stomp out ants in their pants. Many of these crazy rotor heads don't mind the dark at all.

Red Clients are going to be able to use Mi-8Ts to advance their cause. These copters can hop forward a level or two beyond the ground ants and start new hives that the ground ants haven't reached yet.

The final ring of Red ant hives around Maykop will produce armor to attack the Blue base.

Blue Maykop will be defended with good air defense.

Red Client Ka-50's will be available to engage Blue forces at Maykop, and to cause general havoc.

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What a re-write. Ripping out the old, merging in the new.




Yes, Virginia, there are TGPs.