DCS, like any combat sim, can be weeks of drudgery punctuated by one great mission that makes the time sink seem entirely worth it.
(Sorry…but I still don’t know how to take a decent screenshot in VR.)
I could only handle so much newness with the AV8 and decided to reacquaint myself with the Ka50. “Through the Inferno” is a semi-dynamic PvE server that generates missions on request. Before I cranked up the Ka50 I checked to see if anything worth hunting was near my location on the ramp at Nellis. According to the target list there was an infantry unit somewhere on (or is it “in”?) the strip. Recently, the server has been running its missions at or after sunset. I am guessing that is in honor of the “Night” in AV8"N/A". But today’s flight was in glorious sunlight. There was intermittent snow, however. And that snow really freaked me out because on several occasions I’d fly through a snow squall and would mistake that glint out the corner of my eye as tracer fire. I approached the strip with caution using both eyeball and Shkval to see if I could find anything that didn’t look civilian. I must admit to have taken a few cannon shots at what was probably a Honda Civic or something similarly innocent. One shouldn’t dwell on these mistakes. Eggs must be broken to make an omelet and so it goes with war as well. Given the lack of bad guys, I thought that maybe I had misread the target location and decided to land on a rooftop parking deck so I could check the F10 “Quick Target” location app. Just as I was lowering the gear my rotor took a hit. Oh god that vibration is ruthless in VR! The flight to Nelis wasn’t very far but I wasn’t sure my stomach could handle it. I tried just using instruments but that was even worse. I could feel my hand move the stick in unison with the oscillation. I couldn’t stop it. It simply HAD to react to what my eyes were seeing. I needed to get within the airport boundary to make a repair. I did and then worked hard to maintain some semblance of a hover through the oscillation. I got so fixated on keeping a position in lateral space that I failed to notice a high sink rate. We hit with enough force to break off the right gear but stayed upright. Just as in real life, the repair took exactly 170 seconds. While I was repairing, another target location was reported at PV68 near Henderson south of McCarran.
I flew to a high hover and searched for 10 minutes and never saw a thing but more innocent Hondas and various shrubbery. I got frustrated and decided to try to draw some fire flying treetop height between Mack and Henderson. Nothing. Oh wait! Tracers! Turn left hard! Calm down stupid! It’s just snow. Screw it! Let’s RTB, grab a Harrier and chase lasers like I’ve been doing all week. But as I was overflying McCarran an AV8 was asking for help tagging that infantry unit downtown. I told him that I thought (incorrectly it turns out) they were next to the “Tromp” Tower. He joked that they must be Hillary’s forces. I told him that if so, they would only be shooting flowers and leaflets. Soon after that comment he took a small arms hit and headed back to Nelis. I overflew the location where I saw him get hit and accidentally overflew the vehicles we’d been looking for. I also took a couple of hits but this time was unharmed. Now I had 'em! I found a high spot with a good line of sight down their position on the strip and let the cannon rip. Here’s something I’ve never seen before–secondary explosions! BOOOM! Maybe that’s just how stuff blows up in DCS now or it could be some special art on the part of the mission creator. Whatever, it was totally satisfying, especially after having flown for an hour with nothing but Hondas and snow to keep me awake. I took out a few more with some vikhrs but needed to head home with the few hundred liters of Jet A I had remaining. On the way back I could see the other player, this time in a Huey. I gave him the CORRECT target location this time and promised to be back with a Harrier. I decided to be cute with the Harrier. Since the vehicles and infantry were surrounded by buildings and an elevated roadway, I know it would be tough to target anything at 400 knots that wasn’t already being lazed for me. So I figured I would use a high hover like I had just done with the Ka50. Well of course I was too heavy for that. So I did something even cuter! I needed another minute for my two missiles to align. I circled right with nozzles at 60 degrees and found I could hold altitude at 80 knots and about 90 percent power. This would give me gobs of time to takeout any bad guys while “Highwayman” drops off his troops in the Huey.
I could now see my previous carnage. I struggled a bit to get the TV over the location. In the smoke I couldn’t really make out the blob that I had targeted but I knew it was something–and probably not a Honda. I switched to the AGM video and got a lock. Pickle! With the nozzles forward and the Harrier playing airplane again I flew fast by the target just in time to see another beautiful explosion. Then on chat I see “Blue player Smokin’ Hole hit friendly player Highwayman with…” (Oh No! Dude I am so sorry!) “That’s OK!” he typed, “these things happen.” Just then, “player Highwayman has been killed.” (Oh the humanity what have I done!) “Ouch”, he typed. “I flew into a building while I was typing!”
Sounds like a fun server!
This reminds me of Viper Pilot: