@jenrick I did see your chat request.
but I think ‘ping’ will be an issue? 1st attempt was a wash. everything just ‘froze’ here.
2nd I managed to log in and spawn in an empty CH47, but after some faffing about decided to just try some ‘free flight’ but managed to crash it… and I aint that bad?
Before I completely give up. I could see the menu items for missions… how do I select one?
@Harry_Bumcrack, I’m glad my wife wasn’t home, because she would have wanted to know why I suddenly yelled “Harry F***'ing Bumcrack!” when I saw you log in.
Syria is pretty detailed map, and when you logged on there was a lot going on. It can take 2-5 minutes when I log on for things to load up and stabilize even with no one else on, and if there’s a lot going on sometimes DCS will crash out on me. I’ve only got 32gb of RAM, so I’m sure that’s part of it.
Depending on what exactly happened, you probably hit a bit of lag, and then hit the ground. It happens unfortunately, even with Google Fiber. I’d try logging on at some time when there’s only 1 or 2 people on, and away from any big towns/cities. See if you still have issues controlling the CH-47 due to lag or connection. You might also try using one of the Flaming Cliffs aircraft like the A-10A, see if that runs okay.
So the missions are optional basically, and they are as far as I know all strike missions. The Other - Missions - list what is currently available. These are kind of generic missions that are present all the time (Attack XXX is kinda the whole point of everything). These can be accomplished at anytime by anyone. For the S"trike Missions", you got to the missions chunk of the radio menu, and pick which one you want to go for (warehouse strike, bridge strike, etc). I believe it activates the mission for BLUFOR as a whole, so anyone can work on them.
On the logistics side if you look at the map you’ll see some place like Incirlik has “1/3” or something next to it’s label. Sites are captured by delivering “zone cargo” to them via logistics flights (C-130’s, CH-47, etc). Each site takes a particular number of crates of zone cargo to be fully upgraded, which adds air and ground defenses. If the site receive damage from REDFOR (bombed runway, blown,up SAM site, etc) they lose “crates.” And if they get to 0 they are neutral and Red can recapture them. The crates also provide munitions for BLUFOR (us) to use, so getting the site initially captured and then fully upgrade has multiple benefits.
For a how to: Foothold - Logistics How To - Flight Sims - Mudspike Forums
You’ll also see “Resupply” “Warehouse low” and few others I can’t remember off the top of my head. These are basically the script that runs the Foothold mission saying that base is either actually low on munitions, or it has generated a “supply run” mission for someone to do for extra points.
Hoped on this evening with @Sryan. We teamed up for a joint strike on the Power Plant, in F-100’s. Gotta say for two random guys on the internet I think we got our timing down pretty good.
Excellent work, I need to drag Salt 1-1 back on sometime.
That strike @jenrick and I did was very hectic considering all the anti-air thrown at us! @MiG21bisFishbedL I believe I saw Salt 1-1 online last night.
I have cleaned up the powerplant, didnt have much a threat against a Hind, only a SA-8, a hidden SA-9 and a SA-2 battery that is useless up close. Then I started to attack the plant with the S-24’s. Had to go back to rearm and finished it all up. Then I discovered that I wasn’t supposed to blow up the plant… Whoops. 50% is gone, 50% is on fire now… It is “Neutralized”…
I tried to get a AI flight to capture it since I have no time but alas, no pilots available.
Captured the power plant, as I was on the way I noticed we had lost Aleppo. 2 Mi-8’s were on the way… Quickly respawned at Moscow and skidded a UH-1 with some troops into the airport as those hips were hovering there. Saved it in the nick of time!
@Sryan if you do want to fly at night, buy the illumination markers from the shop and a JTAC. The enemies air defenses feel severely limited at night, I could spend quite a bit of time overhead the enemy in the Mirage F1. Though two cheeky -29’s spawned…
I take up an Apache and use the TADS and PVNS to bring a stop to an assault on Aleppo.
Here is @TheAlmightySnark about to do some damage with a lot of cluster bombs.
Good to know Snark, wish I was there to help against the MiGs!
No worries, another day!
Here’s the dramatic story of how smokin and I went for Hotel.
@smokinhole coming back in to rearm at Hatay, I’ve been starting up the glorious F1 and we decided to go together and cause some havoc.
The F4 and F1 do surprisingly well in take-off together.
We had a most lovely time flying towards the objective, admiring the sunset, the ocean and the general conditions and beauty of these two aircraft.
And thus we were completely oblivious to what was coming to us.
Still happily chatting away milliseconds before impact.
I quickly hit the burners and dive down, one thing the F1 is good at is getting out of a engagement. I opted to continue the attack as I hoped the -21 would loose interest in me.
Unfortunately all the munitions missed, I dropped em a bit early, it’s a tricky one in the F1.
Getting home, but the damaged wing did not help. The plane rolled over as it lost lift.
That could have been awkward.
Yeah almost surely, had a substantial delay between control input and effect which manifested as a severe case of what could best be described as pilot induced oscillation…
Got it. But how do I actually select the mission in the first place? I managed to find the list of available aircraft and maybe it is because I had (as the wife would say) ‘a man look’ but I couldn’t find where to go for a mission brief, change the loadout, etc once I was in the aircraft.
This is actually only my second go at DCS multiplayer. The first was a schurem ‘fight club’ ages ago but I didin’t have the scooter and was stuck in spectator mode.
I also have the simpit set up with my collective at the moment so restricted to choppers, and I actually find the CH47 quite easy to fly. Plus more interested in logistics and CSAR than blowing stuff up right now.
We had a run of fine days so the solar system got a full charge. Rain/solid cloud today, but I should have enough for at least an hour or so, will check batteries a bit later?
Good day mr Bumcrack, I am so happy that you’re considering flying with us online! Personally I think it’s a lot of fun. What really makes it tick for me is the meaning and consequences your actions have. Taking bases, shooting bad guys, moving bullets & beans all have their impact on the course of our fictional online war. In terms of missions, the game mode we play is much more open and sandbox-y than what you’re used to from singleplayer missions in DCS. It takes a minute to get used to. In singleplayer, you get your airframe, your briefing, your route and the whole mission follows a sequence made by a designer, par example if you get attacked or not, or who and what the enemies will be.
What we play online is much more open, you pick your own airframe, design your own route, set your own objectives (partially based on what the situation asks for) and the enemy AI can or might respond or not, with an amount of force that is unpredictable. Spent ammunition and lost frames are drained from a pool that the logistics guys will try to keep topped up. This means sometimes bringing the airframe back alive is more important than completing any objective, and that airframe will remain available until the end of the campaign (or somebody else loses it). Not accomplishing the objective in singleplayer, but not dying either, usually means flying the same mission again. In our online world, time always progresses and it’ll have to be seen what the consequences of failure will be. I find that to be a lot of fun.
The online F10 map will display a few things we refer to as missions. You can see a few locations have requests. Some bases are asking for more supplies, command is giving missions to recon, do runway attacks or perform air-ground attacks on enemy bases. These missions are not strict, attacking any enemy force or supplying any friendly base will be rewarded with points and rank.
Perfect! You will see a lot of bluefor guys on the map with AK in the name and a circle around them. These are our shot-down pilots (AI and real players from here on Mudspike..) and they could use some CSAR from you! One way you could approach this..
You’d help yourself to the dynamic spawn menu and find yourself an airbase. This will allow you to look at its inventory of airframes. You pick the Chinook you’d like to fly, fuel it and arm it (it really is CSAR in this game! enemies try to encroach on the pilots and kill them.. they will shoot you too!). In the top left there’s an icon with a few connected lines This is the route tool that you can use to design your own route. This will be preloaded into the navigation system and primary flightplan so you don’t have to manually punch this in. When everything is to your liking, you can press the green ‘ok’ and start flying this to rescue the downed pilot. Fly him back to base to get a reward of points for your time spent flying and for the rescue. the rescue will pay a bonus for all the work the survivor pilot did in his or her life, minus a penalty he got for getting shot down. The reward goes into our war economy pot that we can all use to buy upgrades, built up ground forces, command AI strikes and the like.
Hope this helps a bit, it takes a bit to wrap your head around how foothold works. Very different from singleplayer. Have fun trying and please don’t be too afraid to experiment. We’d love to replace whatever gets lost, it’s the meaning we are looking for.
Yup, I even jumped on to squeeze in one sortie with the F-100 and he was giving me top cover since he’s a Tomcathead. 
Zero dark thirty might be a good time to resupply our lines.
It can be so beautiful at night
Between stops I spend so much time fumbling with the CDU (before tonight I didn’t even know what an ACP is..) that the moon is out proper, providing more illumination.
F15 x2 on overwatch for me.
the route to Minakh was the only place I’d actually got shot at!
All bases in Turkiye and Syria have been topped up, ready for more conflict!
Awesome. @Sryan that helps a lot. I had it barse ackwards… I was selecting and spawning in an aircraft first and then looking for how to change loadout and choose a mission.
So just to make sure I have this 100%. I don’t actually select a mission from a list? I look at what needs doing and just go for it?
For example. If I see a base that needs supplies: I choose a suitable aircraft - plan a route - change loadout/fuel/livery (if required) - click OK - spawn cargo - load cargo - fly route (try not to get shot down) - deliver cargo - mission accomplished.
my new favorite quote!
You are 100% getting the essentials here! It would be working exactly like that. A few things to add only to make it more complicated:
The route planning is not a mandatory step. You can also punch it in in the sim, or use some form of radio, VFR or even F10 map navigation. If you don’t punch in waypoints before spawning any aircraft that has modern navigation equipment, a route will be put in that follows all bases in sequence (not meaning you have to follow any of that).
A rather crucial step in foothold would also be to do a succesful RTB. If you get a fancy combat result, but get shot down in the progress nothing is awarded. But if you supply a base, then that would immediately count as a succesful landing also. If you do not RTB but elect to hop off at the new base, the airframe will go into inventory there, and that is generally considered to be fine.
There’s a bit of a difference between just regular “supply” and “warehouse supply”. On the map, bases will only ever ask for the normal “supply”, this would be the things that are needed for ground forces tied to that location. the FIRST unit of supply is always used to repair and re-arm any ground forces, and then any further supply would be used to activate new defensive forces in that base. So if you see a base asking for 1 unit of supply but it has damaged units, it might be worthwhile to bring 2. “warehouse supply” is the stuff our airborne equipment needs such as bombs, missiles and rockets. We can generate “supply” somewhat indefinitely, but “warehouse supply” is more finite in that if you load up a bunch of missiles, they are really depleted out of that base and added to the other. There’s special places on the map labelled [WH], meaning Warehouse, where we can find larger inventories of warehouse supplies but they have to be hauled in from a long range.
But don’t let me confuse you too much! Doing what you said should be working for starters! Have fun on the server.
Those screens were awesome @TheAlmightySnark! Thanks for the memories!
Logged on to do a bit of recon - I see it now. Once again, thanks heaps.
I will limit myself to CSAR and ‘simple’ supply for now & get a feel for how it plays with my crappy ping.
Will wait for daylight though 
Mods, would it be possible to setup a MS DCS-MP category, and sticky @Sryan’s absolutely amazing posts in it. Those are awesome introductory/explanatory posts for anyone joining in on the Foothold missions.
