I keep snapping bits off the wing dogfighting
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Spoiler: Look at the reflection in Viperās sunglassesā¦he isnāt looking at Maverickā¦
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I havenāt had any crashes in single-player. And thatās after at least 20 hours in the thing. I have had several in MP plus heavier-than-normal performance issues.
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I wonder if the crashes are running-out-of-RAM types?
I have a Logitech keyboard with the LCD display built in and I use a little task manager plugin that lets me see CPU and RAM usage while Iām in games where normally you couldnāt see task manager.
Thatās how I know how much RAM Iām using in a given game, and I can honestly say out of over a dozen games new and old I have installed DCS is the only one that gets close to using my 16GB RAM.
It not only gets close, it gets very close, regularly reaching almost 90%. I have not seen it go over that or crash on me yet, though. knock on aluminum alloy
Iāve updated DCS today and had another flight in the Tomcat. Took the mission to protect the Vicksburg (hope I got it right) in Black Sea.
Took off, had 170nm to WP1 (shipās location). After getting there started to fly BARCAP between WP2 and WP3. We had several calls from Darkstar (E-2D) about bogeys in the area. Decided to stay in proximity of the Vicksburg until any enemy flight get in close proximity (around 60nm) which eventually happened. Flight of 3 Flankers crossed the line. Engaged them with 3 Phoenixes (2 hit 1 missed), my wingman took care of the last Flanker. Unfortunatelly it seemed it was a diversion. When the 3rd Flanker debris hit the sea we got a message that the ship we were to protect was fired upon. We quickly turned back and noticed it was too late. Vocksburg was trailing smoke. Jester managed to locate Su-24 flying low to the floor. I immediately engaged with the last Phoenix. I think my wingman took out the second one. After that I buzzed the damaged ship, it didnāt looked good.
Wingman called out bingo so we set WP to HB. I lost track of my wingman, his last call was about his fuel state. I presume he run dry and ejected. I got back to the boat with over 4000lbs of fuel left. Went for the brake, lined up pretty nice, touched with the ball nicely centered but didnāt felt the hook catching a wire. Was it bolter? Took a glance at the hook handle. 
I used the āHā key to drop my hook, which is not bound to that action in F-14. Damn. We will have to make another pass. Still had plenty of fuel left so no biggie, more training for me. Put her down nicely, that DLC is a godsend. Hereās my Trap Sheet - too much time in the groove and was bit high at the end but got that 3rd wire.
My three victories:
Unfortunately we failed the mission in the end.
Iām happy to report that I had smooth experience after the last update. Not one freeze during mission! I hope it stays that way.
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The trap sheet is another nice touch within a module containing hundreds of nice touches.
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Bit of a stupid question, but is that trap sheet grade box ever filled in for anyone? I think Iāve only seen it blank, which might more a commentary on my landings than a bug 
Also, after that F-18 LSO script, Iāve been trained to wince if I see more than 15 seconds in the groove. I feel like unless there is someone else waiting for me to get down on deck then I shouldnāt be in such a rush to screw up with an early turn in for a short groove.
I did a few of the tutorials today (and lost the first Tomcat, overstressed the airframe during a turn).
I like.
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Iāve been pretty consistent at snagging the 3 wire but I havenāt gotten a grade yet. On both glide path and lineup I am pretty much green until just before the fantail, at which point there is a bit of yellow then red. The red may be why I havenāt seen a grade yet. You knowā¦the boss has a pretty high standard.
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Not at my PC, but now I remember, isnāt there a āRight Control + Enterā OLS ball display that is special for the Tomcat? Did I dream that?
You know, Iāve been wondering what that colorful square is when I bring up the control position display. Havenāt tried it on approach, but I bet itās the glideslope indicator.
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Yeah, thatās it - I think Left Control + Enter does the old Control Indicator, while Right Control + Enter does the whizbang glidescope thingy. Could be really useful in VR I think (I keep forgetting to try it).
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After doing a few dogfights I am torn between finding Jester awesome and finding himā¦ mediocre.
Spotting is hard in DCSW, and I thought Jester would help immensely with that.
ā¦but for me he doesnt. His calls are really weird sometimes. He keeps saying stuff like āweāre on his sixā when we arenāt, and ādead aheadā when the enemy isnāt. I cross-checked it using the F10 map (labels werenāt available in those training missions, and I donāt like them anyway). In some ways thatās worse than if he just said nothing.
But then the calls are pretty cool and immersive, and they do help. Just not as much as I would like them to.
Same for the aerial refueling btw. When I overshoot the basket (no HOTAS so controlling thrust is a bit harder) and of course I avoid hitting the hose (although I could. We need some upgrade to the hose, it sucks) he still keeps saying āa little rightā and such stuff, which is just annoying at that point. And sometimes he is just too slow, which leads to things like him saying āa little leftā when in reality I am already too far left.
EDIT: and yes I know they are still working on it.
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I have a hotas and canāt refuel
I agree with what you say about Jester but it is still a game changer and he does take a lot of work away. Setting the radios and tacan is worth having a backseater for
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Welcome to the world of having a co-pilot. 
Copilots, of course, are at home typing the same thing, but sayingā¦
āWelcome to the world of having a crappy Captainā¦ā 
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I have found Jester to be a surprise so far. I mean, take into account my jaded, bitter developer heart and he is doing better than I expected. I have not gone beyond the simple things yet - tanking, trake off and landing - but I was pessimistic about his performance given that I can fairly guess at the complexity and coding challenges involved. He does lag behind, but I would account that to the code making a choice at an edge case and starting the dialog but by the time you hear the dialog the situation has changed. It is a very tough problem to solve but so far it is better than I expected.
I will give some ACM a try tonight and see how it goes. There is an option to silence Jester, which I tend to turn off when tanking. āLittle rightā - No kidding Jester. I can see that too. I just canāt quickly fix that
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Some of the tanking lines he says are hilarious though.
Try connecting and disconnecting immediately, for example. Jester laughs and says something like āyouāre teasing her! Come on, jam it in there!ā
I nearly fell off my chair laughing. 
Btw: Dear ED, tankers are still bi&ā¬#es. Please fix.
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Same observation here. Then again, maybe itās just that heās helping highlight how terrible the spotting is in general in DCS, and how terrible I am when it comes to anything air to air with anything smaller than a cargo plane.
Two words: Dot Labels.
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Frankly I donāt think spotting is that bad in DCS now (in VR). It used to be terrible for many years which used to greatly affect gameplay. You couldnāt even see your wingmen in tactical formation. Then came the imposter(?) labels which made it really easy and were probably overdone. Then they went back to nothing. But since about 1-2 years I feel spotting is pretty good. Its hard and you frequently lose sight, which I think is fairly realistic. But if you know where to look you can (not necessary do) see stuff at appropriate distances. You can find your wingmen, see fighters in dogfights and even make out tankers 20 miles away.