We need like a mudspike screenshot of the day/week/year section or something. I’d like to have had these as a poster above my childhood bed. Absolutely gorgeous work.
Hey I am flattered! To be honest it’s been a long time since I wrote a guide on anything I think. Maybe I should write something proper and make a thread out of it.
Ah thanks! DCS makes it easy to make absolutely gorgeous shots if you use anything but the standard weather and lightning!
Out of town again but was able to restart the server remotely to get you guys back into daylight…
Thanks Beach! The night is pretty but a bit claustrophobic in VR. Discovered that DCS does not render distance lights until the object has popped into existence so if you have turned the preload distance down to save on performance in VR then you get this black wall around you. Fine in a helicopter but a bit worrying in a mirage 
Night flying is fun though, flare markers and illumination bombs are cheap enough and work well.
Had a fun time flying with Jenrick but Red Air kept coming back so doing some ground pounding has been difficult. I think I might just pop into a F-14 and ripple of AIM-54’s out of anger.
With that plan in mind I took a F-18 off the Stennis. Wasted a few 120s until I figured out the radar again, then had OK luck with the remaining missiles. Bryan logged on to play foothold how it was designed to be played: first by resupplying with a Chinook. Then terrorizing Red with an Apache. He got promoted! Meanwhile I diverted to Hatay to get some more sticks but Hatay had none. Just gas. The closest carrier was the Geo W. I landed on it while it was turning on a dime. It was unable to give me anything, not even gas. So I attempted to return to the Stennis, also in a constant turn. I gave up after the 3rd bolter, quitting the server with the Hornet still flying.
Can the boats just be made to stay static? Can they be resupplied?
Usually the carriers are Warehouses, meaning they don’t run out of supplies, I’ll check on that.
Thanks. How about carrier movement? Do you think it is possible to anchor them? Or to have them steam around a much larger orbit so that they have moments of straight travel?
Better luck on this go. Bagged two MiG-29s and three MiG-21s. With the Hornet it’s a bit like clubbing seals. But I’ll probably spend the day off and on doing the same. I landed in Aleppo. No aim120s. Probably plenty of aim-7s but didn’t try. Stennis has everything. @jenrick, I think the G. Washington has nothing by design. It’s not listed as a spawn point. If anyone wants CAP just post the time in UTC and I’ll be there if I see it in time.
So the server is on a Cold War ruleset right now, which is why the 120 is nowhere to be found. The fact that you can load them, but not rearm them on the boat is probably a technical oversight. Considering how often we are getting messages that the boat is turning, I can absolutely imagine it must be frustrating to deck ops right now. Not sure if @BeachAV8R can tweak the file at some point.
I was gonna have some fun with the HOBOS..
But red air wants Aleppo back so badly I don’t even think I can make it out.
I shoot a few of theirs also.
Really hard to track the frogfoot through the terrain.
Hinds are the literal bane of our existence.
So I bought Rolands.. which would have flare immunity.. they definitely dont have a 100% hitrate and worse than that they barely do damage to the hinds, most of the time. But it’s another thing to push the Hinds away.
I also put some Vulcans in urban terrain south of Aleppo. When hinds overfly certain areas they should be attacked. good luck dodging and flaring away these.
Good news on the ruleset. And that does make sense. In the spirit I’ll stick with Sparrows. It will still be swatting seals, but only one at a time.
The mighty Phoenix is there if you so desire to fly a F-14
I’ve done a bunch of offline practicing today. All versions of the Sparrow are equally matched by the R27R/ER. Even with a F-18 against a lowly MiG21, it’s a crapshoot. Of course the Hornet has loads of gas so as long as you don’t mind trashing the missile, survival is easy. The best combo I’ve found–so long as I use the map to cheat at spotting–is the MiG29 with R29ETs. They rarely miss from 8 miles head on. And being fire and forget, you can make separation while the enemy dodges. Then there is the F-14 and the AIM54. They can be launched from 25 miles and don’t miss. Why this is OK but the 120 is not is a mystery. (Cold war era missile maybe?) To good to pass up so that will be my go-to ride tomorrow.
The 54 most definitely misses, even from that close so don’t expect miracles! I tend to go with 2 missiles per aircraft before you get a kill no matter how many you carry or what type. I think it tends to work out like that on average.
EDIT: are you sure you were up against a 21? I think it only carriers R-3R’s/R60m’s and R-3S.
Yeah. Phoenix is period correct. The AWG-9/AIM-54 combo is the whole raisin d’être of the Tomcat and this is also why it should feel OP ;).
Whereas the AMRAAM was introduced later in life for the rest of the Teen Series fighters. What we usually see in cold war scenarios in DCS MP is an attempt to simulate F-16A of F/A-18A by restricting load outs. It’s a crutch.
Also “cold war” is a really long period with significant advancement. It’s really useful to define a decade when you use the term, e.g. “cold war 60s” vs “cold war 80s”
Yeah, the S530F was introduced in 1979 for the Mirage F1, the S530D for the mirage 2000 was in 1988. I think they are both in the game so it gives you quite a wide gamut, the AIM-120 is apparently 1991 so I think the time period runs right up to the end of the soviet union for this scenario.
You are correct! Which makes it even more surprising how unsuperior the F-18 is when matched against a MiG-21 nose2nose. The scenario I’m playing is me vs 2. I’e been playing this sim for decades and only now realize what a turd the Sparrow is. Every day is learning!
The list is accurate but not complete. This jet also has the R-13M and R-13M1, these are very decent heaters for their time in the cold war, but outperformed by R60(m). And.. if you must know.. There’s R2-US which is objectively the least performing air-to-air radar guided missile in the game. It’s not SARH, its beam-riding.
well, that’s been their historical perceived value since 'nam. But the radar shot from a '21 is so poor, since the R-3R is basically a radar guided early form of a sidewinder, that a sparrow should crush the engagement easily, from a kinematic perspective. Just don’t let the Fishbed charge for the distance of half a country and use its incredibly decent speed against you.
They call this a “study sim”. I think I have a better idea why the MiG-29 existed. Swarms of those buggers at short range would be very effective against less, but perhaps more sophisticated, adversaries. The Mirage 2000 is better beyond visual range. The American stuff is better yet. But close in, 40 years ago anyways, the MiG would have been hard to beat.
I’m sure that is true. But even though kinematically superior, the tracking from the Hornet’s STT seems easy to spoof. This is why the R27ET is nicer. It optically hooks at exactly the same distance as the Sparrow’s Rmax. But the chances of a hit are far greater and the MiG doesn’t need to support the shot. I would, however, never do that against another -29 or the -23.
Really, what I am trying to do is find a way to enjoy Foothold without “clubbing seals” or being a seal myself.
Don’t forget that AI is cheating and not affected by the limitations a Fishbed radar should have…
