You know thats just how I like em
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Any updates on the timeline for MAC?
Was not expecting anything less after flying both FlankersâŠ
This.
About those package dealsâŠI take it those promotions are aimed at the ânew to DCSl folksâ, which is fineâŠlikely a good business move.
And I really appreciated the âweâll give you $ off the Hornet if you already bought the PG MapââŠwhich I had and yes, I âbought the bugâ 
However, as was mentioned above,
âŠwhich has some truth to it.
With that in mind, any thoughts on a sale or two aimed at âHardcore DCS fansââŠfor example, something like if you own âthis, that and the otherâ you get 50% off the F-111 Open BetaâŠjust sayân 
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I havenât flown DCS since probably July in any serious form. Been keeping up with the updates but boy, was it a large one today! Took two hours to do a few weeks of missed updatesâŠ
Iâve been wondering about the sometimes âwonkyâ ATC in DCSâŠlike how you have to be on te runway t get clearance to TOâŠbut it first tells you that you are not cleared because somebody (you) are on the runway Personally, I donât care - it is what it is. (Heck, half the time I forget t program in the tower freq and takeoff with out clearance.)
I just read an interesting thread on DCS ATC issues âŠwell it started off interesting and turned into a âmy countryâs ATC is better than you countryâs ATCâ thingâŠso much more peaceful over here at Mudspike.
Regardless, is there any word on ATC updates in 2.5? Personally I like most of the combat AWACS/GCI and JTAC callsâŠreally like the JTAC link in the A-10 (want in FA-18).
So more curious than anything elseâŠIâd love to see some ânice to havesâ like getting my wingman to give me his fuel state (sometime before he declares Bingo would be nice) and weapons status (before he decides to attack an SA-6 site with only guns); perhaps being able to declare an emergency and get an immediate vector to the nearest divert; would really, really like a Tycho CG to act as an air controller (AWACS) since that is their prime function in the fleet⊠stuff like that.
As I said, Iâm satisfied with what we have - would love to see a bit more if possibleâŠis âa bit moreâ in the development pipeline?
Afaik it is.
Yes, though itâs been mentioned for some time with no indication as far as when weâll see the changes. But it is on their radar.
I heard they were going to do carrier ATC first. The airports should come after that.
I recall that Longbow 2 had something similar, where you could request your flightâs weapon, damage, and fuel status. The AI it wasnât incredibly useful, but it could give you some idea of his status and employ him a bit better. It was also handy having a COMM page that reported the status of other flights operating and how they were doing, so if you had a simple recon mission and another flight got shot down doing the same, you could go and do their mission and thus make a string of successes for the overall sortie.
I think Falcon 4.0 has a âSay Fuelâ and a âSay WeaponsââŠor was it that FA-18 Korea simâŠor the Janes FA-18E simâŠregardless it let you take more âresponsibilityâ as the flight lead.
Sometimes a mission goes sideways and you need to abort for fuel or if your wingman is Winchester. That âdarn itâ gut wrenching moment when you decide its better to RTB and live to fight another day, make a 180 break turn and head for the barnâŠand only afterwards you remember that you are actually sitting in a desk chair in your man cave.
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Falcon 4.0 has plenty of those moments. Just the integrated everything in the campaign, from the comms to the air defenses, gave me flashbacks to operational flying. I really did like being able to hear bullseye calls from other packages and figure out the air picture in my head.
I recall one mission (it was F4AF, over Kosovo), where we were tasked with taking out a runway. The cloud layer was fairly low, and the mission was at night. I could see the mountains above the cloud layer, knew my target was below, and I was above the layer thinking âno freakinâ way Iâm diving into that.â One of my wingmen in multiplayer who was more fearless (or wasnât thinking like real life) dove into the cloud layer and said that it broke out about 2000 MSL. At that point, I did my âitâs just a simâ suspension and dove into it, broke out of the clouds, spotted the airfield, and dropped the bombs on target. But before then, I was seriously contemplating doing a mission abort because thereâs no way I would have dropped into mountains in clouds in real life.
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YeahâŠI was always, "UhâŠokâŠIâm 225/62 to the Bullseye⊠letsâs see nowâŠcarry the fourâŠlarger than 360, subtractâŠno, thatâs not rightâŠstart overâŠhmmmm "
I vividly remember a very similar mission. F4AF. Single Player, flight of 4, airfield strike. A dark night. High clouds but some moonlight. The lead two tasked to hit the runway, the other two on other airbase targets. I was flight lead. I pulled off target to the left, gained some altitude, and looked over my left shoulder. There was my wingman, hitting the rest of the runway. I think I shouted âYes!â Every thing was so smoothâŠtotal emersion.
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Indeed it does. I decided to to a little semi-scientific experiment. I made bocks of armor - Light to heavy and a row of SP artillery. BTR-RD, BMP-2, T-80, SAU 2S19 âMstaâ⊠and a couple of light Russian Jeeps things on one side.
Using the template function I placed 4 formations and then proceeded to attack them with 2 x MK-20s each. The best result is shown below.
Findings:
Rockeyes Rock! Against most light to medium armor (to include the SP Arty) they are quite effectiveâŠhoweverâŠagainst tanks , not so much.
All the light to medium armor were killed by single bomblets.
I noted that each T-80 hit, was hit by multiple bombletsâfrom 2 to 9. 10 x T-80s were hit. Only 2 were killed. The magic number seems to be 9 bomblets. All the T-80s hit by less than 9 bomblets, survived. The two hit by 9 bomblets were kills.
Conclusion:
For light to medium armor and SP Arty MK-20âs work well enough that simple lay down patterns, adjusting interval and ripple quantity to âeconomicallyâ get the kills should work. Example: A column of BMPs and trucks on a roadâSingle Ripple with interval and number of bombs to cover the lineâŠa little overlap.
For Tanks (T-80 and up) one may need to double or quadruple up. As the pic shows, my hit covered the target squareâback row to front row and side to side is burningâŠexcept for the tanks (3rd row). No kills. (The burning vehicle in the third is unarmored.) So the tanks in this box, got hit, just not enough.
Again, there are plenty of âissuesâ in my experimental method. Statistically, overall it has holes (because each attack hit differently).
However, the T-80 statistics are pretty soundâŠ9 x MK-20 Bomblets to kill a T-80.
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Yeah, T-80 and up are pretty well protected I think, so seems somewhat reasonable, atleast till we get better damage states for ground units. I was testing for someone questioning on the forums as well, always fun to have to show off the Mk-20s now, they are so much better than previous.
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Yaaaas. I love the new Rockeyes.
Heavy armor equipped with relatively small vulnerable areas and heavy use of Kontact ERA is a difficult thing to kill, counter-intuitive as it is to everything flight sims have taught us, MK-20s probably arenât the way to go for a K kill there (which is the only thing DCS currently rules as âdeadâ). In reality Iâd opt for a nothing short of a GBU-16, preferably a something with a BLU-109. In Sim Mk-83s work well enough.
So true. I remember debriefing an A-6E BN after a life ordnance night training flight. He said something like, âRockeyes are so pretty at nightâŠthey just sparkleâŠâ
So is there a special trick to using them in windy conditions? I have found they drift terribly if thereâs a little wind. Apparently the F/A-18C bombing computer does not take winds into account when displaying a CCIP.
If parked or in a fixed emplacement (Iraq GW 1) that works great. But on the move? Of course that is why the invented the AGM-65âŠand the Apache with HellfireâŠand the M1A1âŠ
Still , you make a very good pointâUsing the right tool for the job.
No doubt. I think itâs the second mission provided with the Hornet now where your F18 is loaded up with 20âs and the drift is pretty badâŠ