2024..and Beyond Speculation?

Hangar Flying
41

Same. That’s sorta what I meant above by providing more/better tools (that don’t require unsafeing your install too). And like a good, no GREAT, book; I’ll enjoy it but only once (maybe twice).

My Lil Project is - I swear - coming along and hopes to address some of the things I’ve been bee-itching about. I knew it was going to be a ton of work. And I was 100% correct (first time being correct about something for me :slight_smile: ).

  • I was determined that it be just a couple of mouse clicks and you’re ‘there’. No fiddling required; accomplished this one.

  • You didn’t have to unsafe your install; figured if the first thing you ask your user to do is shut off something that protects them is not a good idea (the veracity of how harmful it really is isn’t the point).

  • Was all self-contained (within DCS); this one went out the window about a year ago; DCS just has to many limitations and forced me to edit/create things outside of it [I have what amounts to a 90% feature complete mission editor written in c# - but I didn’t really want to have to do that], thus the last 12 months writing a desktop app [1] (hate spending 90% of my time writing tools but no way around it).

  • Fix the issue most succinctly described by a helper from this very forum, “DCS has no soul”; subjective [2]

  • Flexible (and address a shortcoming in the air-to-ground combat world as I see it); this one hurts - a general solution is, to my limited brain, a LOT more complex to build than a fixed, tightly-scripted, one. Had to rewrite some things more times than I care to admit: getting there.

  • Portable: across maps (relates to flexibility): should only take at most a week to start a new ‘war’ on another map; so I started an NTTR campaign (have the Syria one basically done). 3 weeks later (1972, pre Linebacker [Vietnam war] days) and my scheme wasn’t as solid as designed…thus a partial rewrite.

So, having just enough , barely, knowledge of how to code (decades ago, floppy disk days) I decided to stop complaining and “just do it”.

[1] The UI ain’t gonna be pretty for a while; going for functionality first (will it do what I want it to)

[2] Forget which campaign I was testing (Syria,1996 or NTTR, 1972) but ‘it’ generated a “FCF” sortie (Functional Check Flight - think joyride; go fast, slow, try to see what isn’t working [IRL])…

Cruising along with “Blackjack” (or was it L.A. Center?) broadcasting to someone else in my ear and I spot a dot (ok was the 1972 campaign, no Data link or RADAR [A-4E-C]) high at 11 o’clock…

Hmm…was a BUFF cruising to [somewhere?] at FL310. “Cool”. I KNOW I put it in there at some point - allowed it to just happen - but the AI, such as it is, generated this an thus - it surprised me. Would not have if it was a typical mission where you know everything, every time you fly it. A small thing but they add up.

I’m still going to request more victims testers from the muddy[spike] pool here but I just can’t handle a lot of questions right now (a time thing). Pushing HARD to have the basics of Phase 1 out when the Phantom drops. There’s a selection item in there for it but I can’t flesh it out til I have the module in my grubby lil hands (mostly getting the loadouts).

PS: Then I get to re-write the manual (not too much as it’s not changed significantly)…and do the Youtube tutorials…ugh. I’ve had to admit that this is a 4-5 man job, really. Wife wishes I would re-retire and play golf all the time (get me out of the house?).

Back to work

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42

While I’m downloading the latest patch…

From the DEPLOYED manual, ref’d in the Quick Start, that I wrote when I started all this. I’m still holding to it so far. Mostly :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Game Play - Different types of “Fun”

  • Preamble: It’s About Authenticity, not Perfection

Have you put the time in? Are you ready to put it all together and go kinetic? DEPLOYED! won’t hold your hand. It expects you to know things - the ‘system’ would fall apart if real aviators didn’t “know their stuff”.

Each mission will take time; DEPLOYED! is designed for you to apply all the things you’ve learned how to do in a particular aircraft - think of it like a Red/Green/Blue Flag operation from days of yore (depending on what phase of the campaign you are in). This isn’t something you would necessarily have the time for every day.

From my last mission [actually about 18 months ago]…

Somewhere over Raqqa, Syria:

"Ugh. I’ve studied this map; drilled holes in the sky waiting for “K-Mart” to rustle us up a target; kept my Bot from running outta gas; dodged 2 ‘lawn darts’ at the WRONG altitude in the CAP holding stack!; found the target; pried consent out of “K-Mart” to attack; dropped a pretty string of ‘Snakes’ right on the button…and now I’ve got to fly All. The. Way. Back? And stop for gas!

Then land on that smelly barge with big numbers on the side - in weather a duck would feign illness to stay in bed for?.

"Okay, "Fuel state check!'. “Two, go echelon left”…what’s that tanker freq again?

And when you finish all you have to show for it is, “I got it done”. That’s fun to me. But I’ll admit that I can’t do it all the time! A little Instant Action 1 V many “furball” is a kick too, for sure.

In DEPLOYED you have to:

  • Read the briefing
  • Find things on the map
  • Do weaponeering (it has defaults but you may need to adjust)
  • Program the gizmo’s so you can get where you’re supposed to be
  • Understand the basics of communications with outside [the flight] agencies
  • Be nice to your wingman so they don’t do Stupid Things (good luck)
  • Manage your fuel (be aware of the fuel state of your wingman)
  • Aviate
  • Navigate: Oh, the TACAN might not be turned on and/or SatNav might be kaput. Just sayin’.

And of course land, safely. That’s it.

Your briefing might resemble, digitally, something like this: “See that coffee stain on the map? Go there. Blow something up.”

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43

I have these paid campaigns:

Su-27 The Ultimate Argument Campaign
Black Shark 2: Republic Campaign
A-10C The Enemy Within Campaign
The Museum Relic Campaign
The Border Campaign
P-51D High Stakes Campaign
HU-1H Argo Campaign
Mi-8MTV2 Oilfield Campaign
Spitfire IX The Big Show Campaign
P-51D: the Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney Campaign
Mi-8MTV2 and Ka-50: Memory of a Hero Campaign
L-39 Albatros: Kursant Campaign
UH-1H Worlds Apart - Spring 2025 Campaign
A-10C Stone Shield Campaign
Mi-8MTV2 Crew Part 1 Campaign
F-86F Hunters Over The Yalu Campaign
UH-1H Paradise Lost Campaign
F-5E Black sea Resolve '79 Campaign
F/A-18C operation Cerberus North Campaign
AV-8B Kerman Campaign
A-10C Operation Persian Freedom Campaign
A-10C Operation Agile Spear Campaign
UH-1H the Last Show Campaign

But I haven’t flown a single one. I did start Museum Relic a while back but got a bit lost with the navigation and lost interest (which is funny, cos at school I wanted to be an RAF Navigator! :smile: ).

I’ve done a couple of the ones provided with modules - Ka-50 and Su-25, but nothing else. I still keep buying them, though. Bought another 3 in the last sale.

As for ‘fidelity’ and sims past - I used to avoid the more complicated ones - such as Falcon 4 - simply because I was worried I wouldn’t get my head round it and would end up frustrated. I didn’t touch it until the late noughties when I read Beach’s AARs and got BMS 4.32 - it was only then I found out it wasn’t that complicated after all, just needed a good memory.

Same deal with the original IL-2 until I actually flew it, I felt a bit intimidated by it! I refused to do any air to air stuff until I realised I could actually shoot stuff down! :thinking:

We need a “head slap” emoji :wink:

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44

The problem is true realism makes it a job, as it is for the actual pilots, not fun.
They have fun like 10% of their day and the rest is work.
I enjoy simulating the fun, but I don’t enjoy simulating the work. If I was retired, or rich enough not to have to work, maybe I wouldn’t mind.

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45

Different kinds of fun, one per individual. There’s a significant body that, in MSFS primarily, like to do 1-G for hours in tube-liners (seems to be a lot them); those that prefer an instant action dogfighting simulation. I’m somewhere in between. It’s a large window.

I came across a sub-sub-group years ago of people that were really into playing Air Traffic Controller within MSFS (like 20+ years ago - I’m sure it’s still a thing). Now THAT was work to me. Had zero interest. They had a passion for it; tried to make it very realistic, down to the documentation level! Wow. I was impressed with their dedication.

They set up the sim one day and wanted me to run a busy arrival push into PHX. IIRC they had 7 or 8 guys ready to be pilots. I’m like, “uh, I just did this [with X2 that many planes in a similar setting], like three times today. No thanks, I’ll just watch”. [1]

I would have rather run them all together frankly - make a game out of it (embrace my inner GCI controller?), if you will. That would have been fun to me. A perspective thing?

I never have been nor will I ever be a combat pilot (or pilot of anything) but my imagination is helped along doing what I believe are ‘work things’, ie; know how to use the radio; program the gizmo’s; hit my TOT (and the actual target); not get shot down; land (smoothly) etc, etc. In the end I feel like I accomplished a task.

Meaningless in the real world for sure but…fun (to me).

[1] There are times in DCS when the “fit hits the shan” (air-to-ground stuff I’m working on) and I get what real aviators refer to as a “helmet fire”: the jury is still out as to just how much I enjoy that. At some level surviving it is satisfying but…

But it’s not real, so therefore fun :slight_smile:

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46

When i was at the FS Con earlier this year i was invited to watch a VATSIM control room in a hotel conference room. It was very impressive. They took it all very seriously. A few of them were RL controllers. They were younger guys, who became controllers after getting interested with VATSIM when they were teenagers.

I guess that is the same thing with a lot of pilots these days. I fall into that crowd…simming since I was 12, learned to fly when I was 23 and stared flying for a living when I was in my 30’s. Still simming in my 50’s although I’m not exactly a hardcore simmer these days.

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47

Yes, I’d like to think I was helpful at some level in the hiring of a couple of those referred to in my above blurb. This was around 2001-ish. Both of them (dang I recall their faces but not names) did well, got through the training program a year sooner than most.

So, being the forward-thinking type that I am, in 2001-ish I said, “hey, this could be a thing; they’ve shown the interest; are all young [mentally ‘pliable’] - boss, lets make this happen”.

The worlds largest bureaucracy was having none of it - was too different. None of us grew up with computers (I was the odd one out it seems, being able to explain what a CPU did). I even said we could test new procedures and airspace this way - you get the sim pilots for free! Lots of technical reasons this went nowhere. Another story.

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48

I would like to hear that story.

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49

An episode or three back on the “Mover and Gonky Show”, “Wombat” (being a Delta pilot) got @wagmatt a trip to their sim! “Wombat” commented that in his opinion @wagmatt (among others at ED) had done more for aviation than most (I’m paraphrasing here). I agree.

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50

For that particular story, it failed in my opinion due to lack of vision by those higher up the food chain than I. They always open with we don’t have the money of course. I even volunteered to go to D.C. (actually I think it was Atlantic City, NJ) and live in a cubical, away from my wife, to do what I could to advance related concepts.

Now, I know fully well that great ideas are a dime-a-dozen. Worthless without a lot of effort.

I was an ‘old’ controller but a ‘new-ish’ manager (decided to put my money where my mouth was and, ick, become a ‘boss’).

But I figured I would be the guy I would pick (was logical) because, a) I knew the job, and b) I understood, more so than the ‘old guard’ anyway, how computers/software/networking worked and what they could do.

I didn’t want to do it as my sights were set locally on getting my new team and advancing our inhouse training. But for the above reasons I decided to make my pitch.

My boss, “Nope, you don’t have enough seniority as a manager for that job, sorry”. [was a lateral move, not a promotion]

Me, “Whaaaaatt?”

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51

I’ll be careful how I respond here, but I see this attitude a lot with Government employment and certain other employers who allow organizations to tell it how to operate. It creates inflexibility that stifles creativity, decreases productivity, and decimates morale.

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52

Yup, agree. Finding the “Yes” person is a lot harder than finding a “No” person.

The US Gov’t has issues for sure (can’t speak to what it’s become in the last 15+ years). I will say that my job did have a ‘screening’ process that I didn’t see in may other departments (another story, or ten); having alarms go off if you missed something and and being constantly recorded made it hard to hide (though some managed it).

As with most things performed by and managed by people, it gets complicated.

The commercial side has it’s issues too; someone very close to me worked for…lets say the worlds number one chip designer/maker…back then. They lavished them with perks (free food, good pay [better than mine] - massages! even) while they were working but would not hesitate to ‘redeploy’ you based on some numbers that didn’t add up, somewhere, regardless of your history (they hated when I said it was a euphemism for “you’re fired [in 4 months]”).

What to do? Be flexible and press on I guess.

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53

Semper Gumby is the name of the game.

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54

Hey, that sounds like F1!

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55

LOL. I remember a crusty old Warrant Officer (E7 ish equivalent) back in the day. His motto was “Be like Gumby, flexible but not limp.”

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56

There’s a joke there somewhere. I think. Possibly.

I learned the phrase in some training I endured during my first career many years ago before the 21st century.

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57

I really need to give that a whirl. Been in my “purchased” bin for a while…just haven’t gotten around to it.

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58

The candy dish at PDK airport last night was filled with Rolos. Like…one of my favorites. I made it my mission to eat $400 worth (the ramp fee at Atlantic Aviation)…

:nauseated_face:

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59

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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60

back in '96 I was on the path to being a naval aviator,

unfortunately 2 things happened:
-Chenney killed the 'cat.
-I suffered a injury that disqualified me from enlisting my Junior year of HS, also got my scholarship to play hockey revoked…

Flight sims and communities was the only way I was able to fulfill those dreams

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