Yeah…last night was the first time I think I shut DCS down in disgust over my inability to come to grips with a control setup. Made doubly hard by the fact that while you are trying to learn all those HOTAS commands the airplane is always actively trying to kill you.
I admit that happened to me way too often. I learned a module to some degree, mapped everything out, took a break for a month or three, and boom, nothing makes sense any more 
In an ideal universe I’d invest the time to unify the control setups for the different planes, but that’s a pipedream for now.
Anyway, good luck with the Harrier! May it work for you in the end.
Yeah, well there still plenty of 11s out there
In Gallivanti there’s a couple units sunk beneath the land. Couldn’t kill them. So I flew a bit further south, gunned a mirage and speared a couple SA-11 units before succumbing to either 11 or 15 missiles.
As @Deacon211 said, fly it like an A-4. Dumb bombs and rockets. If that’s easy, load up a maverick and sidearm. When those are simple and routine, start fiddling with the TPOD . Crawl, walk, run . Me, I hardly ever take the pod on a harrier. It gives me helmet fires for no net gain.
Is there anything to do on the server currently for someone without any kind of HARM-like capability?
My best weapons are Hind and Bombcat
I could provide DEAD in about 45-60min if desired (2026-04-06T14:30:00Z→2026-04-06T14:45:00Z)
We should setup those manual FARPs near roads for the harriers and viggens!
That is an amazing idea! Sounds like a lot of fun
Is there any other evidence the config is getting picked up, like disable a rare aircraft and see if it works? Kola seems rarer to be used so if that works might be worth asking Leka on the discord. Less SAMs would be good like intended I think.
Just thinking out loud - is the modified config in the correct place, Missions\Saves\ folder?
From the manual 1.6:
Extract the config, then place it inside your server saved games folder. Missions\Saves. It’s important that if you don’t have a saves folder, create one. If you’re running this mission on your own pc, then add the file inside your own mission’s folder and make sure to create a saves folder if that folder does not exist.
At least the bomb splash damage script provides massive secondaries once you manage to get a warhead amongst the units, often wiping the whole site out. Me likes XD
We have taken Gavagabadavida (15) back (using a motherlovin hind in UN colours!) and our Italian hooker replenished the southern FARPs. Sadly he borked his approach on the final one and but she dust. Alas.
With German precision a 2000pounder JDAM was placed on the Jokkmukkblah (16) runway while I battled all kinds of red air in my viper.
I destroyed a strike flight inbound to Kiruna (10) before helping neutralising Jokk (16). There was a strike taking off from there, so we speared those, and a very sneaky Mi-28 working his way towards Gallivanti (15) who could wreck it. I managed to find him and gun him.
I love my viper, it feels like an extension of my fingers and feet by now. There’s only a few things I can’t readily do with it and those are irrelevant to these campaigns Harrier is my second favourite ride, love the view and sound of it’s engine. For slinging snakeyes and Zuni rockets it’s the best.
Who let this Pit Bull off his chain? 
I wonder if those are sort of init flags as well that run on initial generation to place units just the once at the beginning, or that the script will place them as we go? The not great scenario (but not a disaster either, we’ll just SEAD more) is that now we’ve started the mission it’s going to be like this. I’m not sure how it works.
Yeah I did something really stupid.
I knew I didn’t have time, and tried to fly a fully loaded Chinook as if it was an empty Huey.
VRS killed me like I deserved it.
So, since I hadn’t flown the Harrier in awhile, I figured I’d try her out again to see if I could help clarify anything for ya’.
First of all, since we live in interesting times, I feel I should state that everything I’m about to say comes from the DCS manual or Chuck’s Guides which still work with the Harrier for the most part and is open source and unclassified.
Second; even if all the switchology was in keeping with the supplied manuals at some point, I think RAZBAM’s absence has allowed some things to be broken in the last year which adds a little inconsistency to the already Rube Goldberg weaponeering process.
So don’t feel bad!
Third, while you can certainly CCIP your way to success, I’d recommend getting comfortable with the DMT, which is the heart of the Harrier’s bombing system, right from the get-go. IRL it really ups your bombing effectiveness, either in CCIP or AUTO mode. [TBH, CCIP in DCS actually seems to be the best bombing method, but that Sensor Select Switch (SSS) is going to come in handy for everything else later!].
It might help to think of the SSS hat as a half Viper DMS, particularly in the Fwd/Aft positions (Down too, but only with the TPOD). So, SSS Fwd alternates between telling the DMT to look at the designated INS Waypoint (or W/OS) and allowing for control of the Maverick. SSS Aft, alternates between the TV and the Laser Spot Tracker. Double Down selects the TPOD.
So, basically, whatever you have the SSS selected to (it’ll say on the MPCD [i.e. INS/TV/LST…]) becomes the SOI in Viper terms. Thus, the trick in the Harrier is making sure that the MPCD is showing what it is that you want to control. A real quick way to tell that you are not controlling what you think you are is when slewing the sensor either seems to do nothing at all or slings the sensor across the horizon!
There are definitely some things that make the Hornet or Viper easier to move around in but, once you can codify the steps, it actually moves along fairly smoothly!
.Aaand another fun couple hours on the books. I flew mostly viper but started out the session in a severely overloaded Hip carrying two crates and a gunner towards Jokkyboys (16). I damn near made it too, but got blasted by a couple MiGs that I was certain would not detect me crawling through the woods from their angels 30 perch. Well they did so they did.
That angered the living fook out of me of course and I really wanted that base turned blue, so I took a blue-grey eagle, hung it full of missiles and taxied out at Kiruna (10). Right into a major red strike. Well ok, I can do that. So I fought them off, netting four or five kills, then turned south to bring some holy retribution to my Mig nemeses. I got one, but his wingman got me! Two schurem kills! What does that make the guy?
I ejected, but switched to the new plane too soon for the pilot to spawn in as a rescuable map object. Alas. By now @Freak had come online and was making ready to do more proficiently what I had so ignominously failed to accomplish. He also used a way cooler chopper for it, the famous white Hind. (somebody post some pretty pictures of that soon please!).
Of course that bloody b’stard of a MiG still needed killing. So I took up my trusty steed the viper and proceeded to whack the fokker with all the accumulated hate and desire to see it burn bundled into the shape of an AIM-120. And that’s when we saw this little red Mi-8 symbol being almost at the neutral base. Well *fork*!
I plugged in the burner and thundered down to Jokkabrokka (16) at mach fook with my hair on fire. The thing was making to land. My radar refused to lock it on account of its low speed I reckon. I swooped down like the angel of death and with a mighty BRAAAAAP from the six barrels of my Vulcan cannon, the little chopper that could couldn’t anymore.
I landed the viper at the neutral airfield expecting @Freak to land his white steed in mere minutes and went AFK for a bit to do urgent dad stuff. When I got back the unimaginable had happened: @Freak suffered a DCS client crash just as he was about to land his Hind.
He tried again. This time he brought along some missiles on the big bird because it looks weird with empty wings. He ran into a couple BMP’s on the way from Gladysknioght (15) to Jokka(16). He shot one. He got too close. They shot him. Oh dear oh dear.
Third time lucky, he flew the distance again, giving the sniper APCs a wide berth promising them fiery retribution in the near future and capped the field. I refilled my viper and started work on the southernmost airfield, Visniks (17).
It was eventful. I killed a bunch of stuff, slinging harm and maverick into the field and spearing red air as they tried to counter. Ended the evening running flat out on the deck from a Flanker whose wingmate I had shot just after they took off. As long as I stayed cold and fast, he couldn’t hit me. So I stayed cold and fast until I made it back to Jokkabway(16) and gleefully watched the NASAMS swat the flanker as I turned the viper on finals.
I love this game.
ps.: Thank you @stavka for the company in the last half hour or so.
ps.ps.: I can’t for the life of me fit those swedish place names in my head. It’s a good thing Foothold also numbers them.
Yes the mission is definitely in the correct directory. And the saved game files are in the same directory.. and it is definitely referencing them since server restart results in progress that has been made already.
Could be. Another possibility is it is a naming convention thing where if I change the name of the mission the SAVE files don’t completely agree with it and perhaps it just populates default stuff. If that is the case though, things like splash damage I would think would be off too (it is OFF as default)..but maybe it is reading from different files or writing to different files.
I’m not sure and I pride myself on my lack of DCS knowledge I have, I think @TeTeT was referring to the bit here that you might have done already?:
(you might already have that, dunno) So that’s having the Foothold Config.lua not updated in the .miz (e.g. updating the one in the zipped miz file using winzip etc) but having it under Saved Games \ DCS \ Missions \ Saves next to the save file instead (so it reads it for setting)?
Anyway, we can ask Leka on the discord, he seems happy to answer stuff if we still see the bad sam people around still..
Honestly, I figured since we had all the toys the bad guys did too. I’m totally fine with it.
Which is good, because a Tor shot me down twice at WP7, once in an Apache, and once in a Harrier. I believe that there is one SA-15 (I got the other) and a SA-19 there still along with some armor still (killed a bunch already). Best approach route for terrain cover is N/S. If you have something with some standoff E/W gives you clearer sight lines.
So I cleared out a zone that @schurem already had bombed a bit, only some launchers left. I had prepared a nearby mortar team to attack and be all sneaky spec ops etc. Well it went neutral and Schurem suggested playing the mortar team on the zone to deny enemy mi-8’s from capping. It turned the zone blue!
Woefully under supplied, but a useful fact I think. How do we make our own FARP’s? The distances become so so large for helicopters now.
