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[Fly On] DCS A-10C / DCS Black Shark 2 / LOMAC: FC3 - Join us in the skies
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Interesting about the Steam version. I'm in the Win 7 64 bit boat so will wait to hear back from krylon.
This thread so made me wish I had a flight stick again.
Steam: betsuni7
I don't think the overlay works, but it's not really a game where I'd use it anyway. It's definitely running the 64-bit version of the game. I've never had any issues with steam and 64-bit games.
RE: FC2 - for how cheap you can get it, I think it's still worth grabbing considering the variety of aircraft + all the other shit mods add to the game. But if its between the two DCS won't let you down.
So I "passed the test" today. I held the Thrustmaster A-10 HOTAS box in my hands (and it weighed a ton) and I resisted the urge. I was able to cast it into mount doom and destroy the evil threat to my wallet... for now.
Brrrr...I can only hope that I would have that strength of character in your position.
Being in Canada, though, the chances of stumbling across this thing in an actual physical store are pretty much nil. Would probably have to order it from the US. I don't even want to THINK about the customs charges. Or worse, the arbitrarily long time customs keeps your stuff. Oh, and I believe our postal service just went on strike. So yes, there is that too. Long story short, temptation is mercifully far removed from me.
Just out of curiousity, where'd you come across this? Is this the sort of thing that can be found just sitting on a shelf at Fry's?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQB4W8C0rZI
Now if I could just figure out what to do once I get off the ground.
It's out.
After being stuck in development hell for a long time, Ubisoft busted the developer's balls to get it out by a date that was far too early. The result was a buggy mess, plagued by very bad lag, even on high-spec machines, and a multitude of bugs that ranged from annoying (visual glitches) to game-breaking (no sound in SP, radios sometimes half-broken, game dropping to desktop, sudden and extreme stuttering, etc). This is aside from the utterly anemic nature of the game to begin with, focusing on a handful of maps, a handful of aircraft, and a dowright pitiful number of missions.
For reference, the flyable aircraft:
Hurricane (3 versions of MkI)
Spitfire (MkI early/MkIa/MkIb/MkII)
Tiger Moth
Bf109E-3 (possibly E-1 also)
Bf110
Ju-87
Ju-88
He-111
G.50
Br.20 M
Cierva C.30 (Autogyro)
Su-26
Beaufighter
Defiant
Gladiator
Sunderland
Walrus
Wellington
Bf108
Do-17
Do-215
He-59
He-115
Cr.42
All in all, not a great situation. Word is that patching has alleviated some of the problems for some people, but it was very inconsistent. Oh well.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Earlier today I took off, flew around, and came back to land and completely screwed it up, then I rage quit. Just now I decided to load up a night freeflight, since I hadn't tried that yet. Took off, flew to another base about 20 minutes away, and landed almost perfectly. Didn't do ILS since I had the heading set wrong or something, but did VFR and it just felt like the plane was landing itself.
I really need to figure out flightplans and waypoints and all that, though.
... Isn't that the plane that the US has currently spent about 1 trillion dollars developing, and it still isn't ready?
Damnit I think Australia has bought a few of them too. At least they're probably better than our F-111's
They had it (to my surprise) at Microcenter - which is basically like newegg in retail store format. They have all kinds of computer components and a decent game / peripherals selection. They had two of them sitting there. The guy says they always get 2-3 at a time, and sell them consistently. Not bad for $500. I was buying a computer case and some other stuff, otherwise I might have pulled the trigger. But I couldn't do it all at once.
CoD - I didn't think it was out cause it wasn't on Steam yet. Ah well, I was excited for it but I can definitely wait until its been fixed (if it ever gets fixed). Didn't the lead developer quit too?
I applaud your strength. Myself I blame it on my wife as a my excuse to passing it up, otherwise it woud be sitting on my desk.
I just watched a video of DCS A-10C start up sequence. That video just made this game so much cooler. I love the fact that you actually have to start the pane up before flying and the guy said that if you do just want to fy they have an option to start in the air.
Steam: betsuni7
Hah, I take it this is intended to change my mind about the A-10? Not really, since I'm speaking purely as a matter of personal enjoyment--but don't worry, I suspect I'd play DCS: A-10 before DCS: F-35, if that was you're concern.
I misspoke somewhat--I actually really like ground support from attack helicopters in the simulations I've played it in, but from fixed-wing aircraft, I enjoy it less. I've probably gotten way too used to ridiculous speed in anything contemporary with fixed wing aircraft (precisely the reason I've been craving a MiG-31 simulator for years, despite knowing it'll never freaking happen outside of Russian programmers, and probably not even within them).
On a totally unrelated note, God, I love bomber-hunting and interception. I'm just that old-fashion. Loved it in a Ki-100, loved it in a FW-180A9 or Dora....love it love it love it. If I was rich, I'd contact Eagle Dynamics and commission DCS: MiG-31M, and buy enough copies to make it profitable. But I think I'd be one of the few who likes radar-directed pursuit in simulations.....
Some missions will start you in the air. But for the ones that have you cold-start, there's a key combination that will do the entire start-up sequence for you if you don't feel like doing it. The game is a nice balance of super detailed and accessible - there are also options to make the game more arcadey if you don't feel like learning all the stuff in the beginning but want to fly and shoot shit.
Synthesis - isn't Falcon (in all of its forms) considered a radar simulator? There's lots of love for air-to-air missile combat. Have you checked out the Strike Fighters games? There supposedly real good and cover some cool combat environments (vietnam, israel)
I never played Strike Fighters 2, though I did play Wings of Europe and Wings of Vietnam which were, to be fair, fun games, but sorely lacking overall.
That was the first thing I saw about the game, and what made me want it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCHcV0yBHJg
I followed flightsims for quite a while now. The first one wich got me hooked was "Gunship" on the C64, an AH64 sim. Quite simplicistic and unfilled vectorgrapics, but it really got me. It had a quite detailed damage model and everything besides grapics was quit flavourful. The next thing was "Elite", also on the C64, black-white vectorgraphics but it had this nice scifi and trade/mine/frontier war with aliens scenario coupled with a lot of freedom for player decisions. You would do hyperspace jumps an a huge map of star systems, wich was a fairly good system compared to todays common "gate sector" design where you never get quite the feeling your ship is quite capable of taking on the vastness of space and the whole thing degenerated in some odd "highway patrol" sheme. And the aliens would intercept you in hyprespace sometimes. You would end up in some black nothingness dogged by their ships launching tons of drones at you for five minutes (till the hyperdrive was charged again - if you had the fuel to make it to another station). Later i figured out that if you'd knock out their "motherships" it would render all drones inoperable launched from that vessel. You could collect those an sell for quite a fortune. Great design and it would get me hooked again twice on the Commodore Amiga, this time with filled vectorgraphics (it was so gorgeous at that time) and the sequel Elite II:Frontier near the end of the Amiga era (not to be confused with the horrible: "Frontier First Encounters"). Elite II sadly lost its Targoid aliens but it made up with the most realistic space simulation ever devised. Planetary bodys would move in a system, there were moons, binary systems and a whole galaxy to explore and tons of ships for customizing. The first flightsim i played on the Amiga was F18 Interceptor and it was the first one that demanded tricky carrier landings from the player (well Elite demanded adjusting to a station's rotation to dock, so i was well prepared) on a friends computer. As i finally managed to save up and bought one of my own i called in sick at school and played "Fighter Bomber" the rest of the day, a golden memory. Then came the Dos Era with "Falcon" (air to air refueling... whee), "F22 Lightening", Novalogic's "Commance", Jane's "Longbow" and of course "Wing Commander". Considering how dynamic the gameplay would unfold an how different opponent fighters were i miss that kind of detail in today's games. If you failed to take out a transport carrying planetary defence missiles you would end up on a totally different branch of the game, where the blockade was defeated and you got defensive missions instead of continuing to press forward. That felt quite real. Good times and i wouln't like to miss a single one if i had the chance.
Off topic: This guy is such a stereotypical engineer. He is sure he is right, and has no use for anyone else's opinions. People who don't share his view must be idiots. What is it about being good at math that encourages this personality type? (I am an engineer too, btw, I run into people like this all the time. If you ask my wife she'll say I suffer from the same fault
Steam: betsuni7
Yes, there is but i recommend you do some research on your own. First there are three F35 "variants". It was advertised as "one plane for all services", meaning airforce (A version), army (B version, no gun, less payload due VTOL system weight) and navy (35% more wing for carrier takoff, no gun).
Because of the weight problems B and C versions come without a gun. The idea is with "stealth" you won't have dogfights anymore, so you could rely on missiles alone - an assumption already made during the Vietnam war and it turned out to be a huge mistake ("search for material relating to mig alley, Phantom F-4, F-105 Thunderchief") and they are repeating that.
The big issue is the assumtion was engaging non-stealth opponents. But if both use stealth you end up close togheter again, and respectively end up with dogfights again (search for T-50, J-20 and Mikoyan LMFS). So that assumtion is bound to be a mistake.
Also, as stated radar guided missiles are the most inaccurate weapons in aerial warfare. There were 17 AIM-120 fired through the Irak war and those scored 10 hits (a hit probability of 59%). And the target were old planes, assumtions are versus modern planes, especially with thrust vectoring and modern countermesures it might end up well below 20%. Close range missiles like the IRIS-T or Sidewinder are the real killers (90% plus hit probability for an AIM-9X).
Also stealth has a couple of vulerabilities, like ULF radar - but i could here easily spend hours going into details... see the videos below.
So stealth and long range missiles looks good on paper as a concept but it isn't really practicable.
Additonally to that internal weapon bays are also a problem. Carring weapons internally generates less drag and won't have a negatve impact on airframe performance. However, in the most crucial situation where you have to fire you have to extend the weapons and that has an even greater impact on performance than usual because now you also have open weapon bay doors as well. Also, it takes time to extend and the airframe has to be larger than usual (wich isn't good for airframe performance, thats why those planes are so bulky) because the weapons are carried internally. Also the possible size is limited, so you get into trouble beacuse you can't fit some of the modern weapons (MBDA Meteor for an example).
Wich means that you are low on weapons, a problem wich plagues especially the F22 wich is a good plane otherwise, except its hefty pricetag and service requirements (A F22 carries eight missiles where the standart is more around twelve plus).
The F35 was intended to be a cheaper alternative, but its slow (mach 1.6 for the A version is the fastest) and its quite expensive by now (around 200 million USD compared to the 350 millon USD a Raptor costs) with none of the Raptors qualities.
Because of the weigth problems they used a lot of light materials, ommited safety mechanisms and REMOVED GUNS. Its not a very durable plane and its stealth characteristics are also nowhere near the Raptor.
I got here another couple of videos for you, but at best you look for it yourself to get an unbiased picture of the situation.
http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/
Is also a good source of informaiton on military aviation.
The F35 is "too big to fail". Its a failiure, but nobody admits it because that would cut a few heads in very high positions.
It can't perform as an interceptor. Its too slow. There are bombers which fly mach 2 (TU-160) and there are mach 3 fighters (MiG-31). Also it can't hold its own in a close range fight (two versions no gun, bad turn rate).
It can't perform as a bomber because its payload is so low.
It can't perform as ground support because there is no gun in two versions and it is not survivable enough, nor has it the fuel capability to stick around.
What it can do is carry a nuke to an enemy (relying on stealth), albeit slower than conventional bombers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS7O14nzrzE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8KOPzLbdF0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6IlNoP1Ng
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JisXRv1o6_Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgeUaD4SB_8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=563qVlXFbx0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QNuK35urhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKBi66g6nOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w91FEykjlUg
Jumped into instant action.
Can't figure out how to fire missiles.
Tried doing the "tutorials" but they're only videos that you watch (and there's several that are 30+ minutes each).
Wondering if I'll ever play this again.
I can help you out with most of the aircraft - but you probably weren't in the proper mode (like nav, air to ground, air to air). Once you're in the right mode you then have to select the weapon you want, then use the weapon release button to fire. The manual will show you where to look to tell what mode you're in, what weapon is selected, and what to look for on the hud.
I wasn't a fan of the HAWX multiplayer (barely played it), but that's because I didn't like the HAWX cornerstone gameplay--forget the story and other aspects, I just didn't like how the game played it. It took the qualities I disliked in AC and stretched them to extremes.
Pretty game though.
I tried switching into the different modes (OTH and bore sight) but all I could manage to do was go guns on him. Missiles didn't even appear to be a selection; I got a warble tone on a plane but never a fire tone. I was in the F-15 and just did an instant action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOhT0lVDLQA
Great, now I need to get FC2.
Maybe it's finally time to give Falcon:AA a try. I have it, and have even installed it, but have been too scared to start it up. DCS A10 has eased me in to modern airplanes, though.
Yeah, certainly not everybodys cup of tea. Either you love it or you hate it. Turns out most people hate it.
I have Free Falcon installed, but I haven't really played it. Just loaded it up to make sure everything looked ok. Seems pretty cool, but the plane feels like its on rails and the terrain isn't that hot. Not to say all the flight models in FC2 are super realistic - but the world looks a bit better.
We should do a newb night where we all fire up fc2 or dcs and learn all the shit we couldn't figure out alone (while shooting missiles at shit)
edit: I actually bought HAWX the other day when it was on sale on steam. I know its insane-o arcade action - but it looks pretty and should be fun for that type of game
o_O
WARNING:
CHOKING HAZARD -- Children under 8 yrs. can choke or suffocate on uninflated or broken balloons. Adult supervision required. Keep uninflated balloons from children. Discard broken balloons at once.
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What all does that contain?
I would probably be up for that sometime. I've gotten pretty comfortable actually flying the thing. I'll probably start on the weapons training missions today.
You'll enjoy the weapon training. I can't remember if the official training gives you cluster bombs, if not make sure you try them out in another mission - it's always satisfying to see those things blow up over the target.
And do you need FC if you have FC2?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/45300/
Normally $30, it's $7.50 for the next 24 hours.
It's a pretty decent WW2 flight sim.
RE: LOMAC - The platinum version is everything you need, pretty sure its lomac + fc2. Unless it's just fc2 licensed in a way that you do not need to have lomac on the drive first. If you were buying things separately, or if you already had lomac, you would just need lomac and fc2. I would think FC was deprecated at this point.
But Flaming Cliffs does? And it's technically a mod?
And it's like... flamboyant DRM.
FC2's drm is just a single online activation of a product key - with an unlimited number of activations. Definitely not that bad, and nothing intrusive on your machine from what I know.
Yeah, I don't play WoP as a sim. I put it full arcade and just fly around blowing fools out of the sky. It's definitely pretty. When I want an actual sim, IL-2 still is the king.
Changelog taken from SimHQ:
FEATURES
Audio
•Added new surround sound system. Working in any Windows supported configurations, from 2 up to 8 channels: 2.1, quadraphonic, 5.0, 5.1, 7.1, etc.
User Interface •Added the Briefing panel in the flight - [LALT-B]
•Added the Debriefing panel in the flight - [RSHIFT - ‘]
•Aerial refueling now tracked in log book.
•AIM-9 loadout listed twice corrected.
•Option to turn random systems failures on or off.
•Pre-set HDR options of Off, Normal, Hard, and Soft added.
Units
•New E-2D "Hawkeye" AWACS.
•Corrected L-39 landing/taxi lights.
•Fixed CH-53E textures.
•UAZ LOD model fixed.
•Su-33 floating on carrier deck fixed.
•Low-level of detail (LOD) distance adjusted.
World Environment
•Detailed terrain texture distance extended.
•Building shadows corrected.
Effects
•New dynamically self-shadowing cockpit with option to turn off and on in Options screen.
•Improved cloud density.
•HDR overcast blur adjusted to be less noticeable.
•HUD preventing shadows in field of view fixed.
•Lightning color fixed.
•Fixed glowing dust clouds behind ground units.
•Fixed blue flare.
•Fixed disappearing cloud shadows.
•KC-135 navigation light bloom adjusted.
•Improved distant terrain noise texture.
•Internal canopy glare added.
•Improved distant terrain noise texture.
Artificial Intelligence
•Reduced delay in JTAC messages.
•JTAC Abort messaging adjusted.
•JTAC releasing player before all targets destroyed fixed.
•Predator taxi problems corrected.
•Wingmen Engagement logic improved when threats are in target area. Better self-preservation.
•Corrected remaining gun ammo report to JTAC.
•JTAC "use cannon" message fixed.
•After refueling other aircraft, tankers will no longer fly into oblivion.
•Wingmen now better engage targets around player SPI when give "Engage With..." command.
•Wingmen no longer detect and reports RWR spikes well before the player's RWR detects any emitters.
Weapons
•Corrected inaccurate AGM-154 JSOW.
Track Replay •Improved track replay accuracy.
Multiplayer
•Multiplayer performance degradation due to an anomaly large SADL message traffic was fixed.
•Muliplayer users spawning at same location fixed.
•Multiplayer timeout / server timeout fixed.
•AI planes will stop taxiing when more than 1 player is on server.
•Client aerial refueling corrected.
•Air-to-Air TACAN working correctly.
•Laser Spot Search and buddy lasing working.
Avionics / Cockpit
•Fixed – M274 rockets on LAU68 launcher appear as M257 in DSMS.
•Sidewinder jettison capability was removed.
•HUD will not revert to NAV when Master Arm is cycled in Air-to-Air mode.
•DTSAS status message on HUD and CDU was reworked. OFF MAP capability was restored – digital map is available in radius of 450 kilometers around operating area.
•Numerous HUD symbology fixes in HARS mode.
•Fixes to GCAS caution light – it will be lit now if EGI is not providing attitude information.
•Fixed GCAS training auto-scroll function.
•Fixed ILS audio control.
•Fixed AC Generator caution lights logic.
•More accurate signal light test indications.
•Momentary AC electrical power loss (causing CICU restart) was removed when engines generators turned on.
•Altimeter PNEU fixed. Additionally now ELEC/PNEU switch has 3 positions with spring loaded center position. It should be held in desired position (ELEC or PNEU) for 1 second to switch altimeter mode of operation.
•Cold start IFFCC elevation correctly set to DTS and not HOT on ramp start.
•Maverick power management by location fixed.
•ILS working with no power fixed.
•RWR symbol placement adjusted.
•ILS and Marker beacons fixed.
•Laser guided bombs guiding with no designation fixed.
•Fire detect bleed air leak test button light fixed.
•System Status page 1760 station indications corrected.
•EGI is no longer selected automatically on NMSP on ramp start. In all cases the EGI should be selected manually now.
•Fourth depress of UFC ALT ALERT button will exit altitude alert edit mode.
•Most of the UFC SEL rocker functions were made UFC mode independent.
•DTSAS PGCAS function was implemented – now GCAS will better predict collision in mountainous area with DTSAS turned ON and operating.
•GCAS and weapon events counters were implemented on CDU LASTE page.
•Fixed missing audio during RWR test.
•CDU DIVERT page was fixed – some airfields were missing.
•"Slave all to SPI" function for Maverick now works only if missile is RDY on DSMS page, and Maverick video is up on any of MFCDs.
•Airfield name on CDU FLDINFO page has correct maximum length now.
•TAD hook is cleared now if it was a SADL symbol and SADL was switched off.
•AI radar detection range by RWR was adjusted.
•Maverick stations selection logic in DSMS was fixed.
•TAD symbols hooking and display priorities were updated.
•HUD SPI symbology display conditions adjusted.
•Maverick impact point accuracy in Forced Correlate mode was improved.
•An option to turn on/off closest friendlies symbols was added on TGP CTRL page.
•T-handle lights now working correctly.
•Corrected cockpit tool tips.
•Reduced probabilities for cockpit random failures. Random failure for gun and CICU was added.
•Jerky Flight Path Angle indication on HUD during taxi was fixed. Minor logic adjustments were made to TVV symbol.
•JTAC SADL NetID now working correctly.
•HARS navigation is defaulting to active at ramp start. With the HARS mode active, you will not get any FPM/VVI in the HUD, and you will not be able to arm the EAC. If you switch from HARS mode to EGI mode after complete INS Alignment, then the FPM/VVI returns, and you can arm the EAC.
•SAI excessive precession was fixed.
•SAI cage function was fixed - it should cage much faster now.
•ILS frequency selector function was completely reworked according to video recorded in the real cockpit.
•Inverter OFF/TEST logic was reimplemented. In TEST it will revert Essential AC bus power to inverter. In OFF Essential AC bus will be not powered by any source (even if AC power from generators is available).
•INST INV caution lamp logic was implemented.
•APU GEN caution lamp logic was implemented.
•LEFT/RIGHT GEN caution lights logic was fixed.
•Inverter noise was added. It will be heard when inverter goes online.
•With ITT gauges inop, L/R ENG NOT caution lights will be always on.
•L/R MAIN PUMP, and L/R WING PUMP caution lights are connected to Essential DC Bus now (and thus will be lit in cold cockpit once DC power is provided by any source).
•Excessive SAI precession fixed.
Campaigns
•Reported errors in campaigns have been fixed.
I didn't really notice a lot, but I don't know enough about it to really notice those fixes, but glad they're there. I get a warning light once my first engine starts up until I turn off the APU. Also, like it mentions, you have to manually switch to EGI during startup, since it defaults to HARS now (probably like it should).
Oh, and I also turned off random failures, because screw that.