franze

Have you already looked into Options>Controls>Controllers? You can set a range of axis options in there which may help you out.

Thanks for the information! For our purposes the RF missile won't actually track a laser spot and we don't have the capability (yet?) to store a laser spot coordinate in the system. The model is kind of a mish-mash of Block I and II based upon various photos found on the net; no two examples seem to be the same depending on the source. Nodunit removed some antennas we had on the dorsal side which would have denoted some of the equipment you speak of, like the GPS antenna. I had asked him to put them back before release but he didn't get to it. The cockpit equipment is similarly all over the place - it was intended to represent an early Block II type without a lot of the newer (post 2005) equipment. We may have a Block I for all intents and purposes, but that's the nature of things when they're released in an unfinished state. We were intending to denote the various upgrades like the SATCOM antenna, EUFD, etc. with the Block II+ designator. It's right next to the black button labeled TSD, the hint text for it is labeled as "Right MPD DMS Menu". The waypoints are only there as reference, the only strict instructions come from the instructor. :)

A bit redundant but I'll answer these too: 1 - Yes, always operate on the same trajectory regardless of launch mode or setting. 2 - FCR must be on, but you can acquire with TADS or FCR. 3 - LOS is needed only in LOBL mode. 4 - Correct, LOAL will send the missile to the target's position at launch. 5 -No, RF missiles have no laser capability. 6 - Fire and forget only if using a remote designator. If self designating then yes. 7 - LOBL and LOAL-DIR operate on a similar trajectory; LO and HI will force a higher altitude but a greater chance of a miss due to various factors like cloud cover, distance to target, etc. 8 - LOS in the terminal phase, yes. They can be launched without an LOS but a few seconds prior to reaching the target area an LOS can be acquired to minimize exposure to the launching aircraft. Tricky to pull of if you're the pilot. 9 - If LOS is lost, missile holds trajectory. Ergo, if the target doesn't change velocity, direction, etc. then the missile still has a chance to hit, depending on how far out it is. 10 - TOF is a guesstimate due to laziness on my part but part of it is the script that handles the countdown is still on the script scheduler so it doesn't always count down as it should. The countdown should be more consistent in 1.4 but the accuracy of the TOF countdown may remain suspect until I can make some better math at guessing how long it will take to hit. 11 - The gun crosshairs are a general indication of where the gun is pointing, not 100% accurate. When using HMD mode, the HMD crosshairs are where the rounds go - taking into account only velocity and distance. 1.4 will improve the accuracy of this. Basically where you look is where the rounds hit. The gun crosshairs just let you know how the gun is compensating for what or where you're aiming at for a given distance and velocity. 12 - Some pages use bones, such as the TSD, FCR, ASE, FLT, and ENG pages. The game has a set 256 bone limit (although it's actually designed to work with much less), so to conserve bones some pages are available only on certain sides. Regarding missile accuracy in general: They are not always 100% no-miss-um primarily by scripting limitations and errors, but we consider this acceptable as few real life missiles have 100% accuracy. Distance, speed of target, angle of target - these all have an impact on how likely the missile is to hit. Best hit rate is between 1500-2000 meters with a slow moving target from the rear or the flanks. In the gunner's cockpit, TEDAC is a display that replaces the legacy ORT (looks like a periscope) with an LCD. I'm not 100% sure but I believe the ORT will display FCR symbology in the HOD (small screen below the scope) and when looking down if the FCR is the active sight.

1 - The campaign was built to run with one person, but it could be tailored for two. Due to the way the game works, only the CPG can control the TADS. 2 - The game has a max limit of 3km draw distance, though you can increase view distance out to 5km. The missions were designed with a 2km draw distance in mind. 3 - A TKOH version is planned pending some tweaks to the A2 version. However, this version may be off in the future quite a ways as it's intended to have some other stuff come along with it in TKOH. Trim is available by default in TKOH unless you're referring to anything special. You'll also be able to fly the aircraft from the front seat.

Basically we've ended up with something that works but isn't as refined as I'd like it to be. I had planned to do more refinements but with A3's release around the corner I couldn't get to them. We still use a lot of execvm's for non-critical operations and where we MUST have sleeps or waits in place. And my per frame handler is clunky.

Naw, that's just because he sucks! :p

We'll probably do something like that for the TEDAC equipped aircraft. The CPG's heads down will go through some modifications so we'll see how it goes. The pilot needs a good unobstructed field of view though since the PNVS is primarily for pilotage. You're just blind as a bat.

Or a more practical example.

It will happen for all aircraft as the pages are set for the player, so if you team switch from one aircraft to another they will always have the same pages. HMD/AUTO gun tracking does not work for the CPG. This is due to his view being locked/aligned with the aiming direction of his selected weapon. Unlikely we will be porting to A3 anytime soon. PiP is also a pain to work with and very limited.

1 - Currently only the CPG's IHADSS brightness can be adjusted, he doesn't have brightness adjustments for MPDs. The brightness adjustment for the pilot's MPDs started out as a test and stuck around without being refined. 3 - ARM/SAFE and Ground Override were not implemented fully, so the lights were not associated with any selections and are 'always on' as it were. 4 - Page selection is handled locally as the pages apply only to players (AI can't use them). So if you team switch within the same aircraft, your pages will be the same in both seats. In multiplayer each player selects their own pages since the pages are always local to clients.

Because human visual perception being what it is, the edges of the monocle are not 'seen' and given the display limitations we have, we didn't want to add another obscurement layer.

The issue is with how lockable guided weapons are handled; it seems that if a weapon can be guided, it loses the ability to lock onto infantry. This leaves the only option as slaving a laser onto infantry; the pilot can do this too if he turns on the laser and uses HMD mode to slave it. A more complex solution to the problem is possible but it's not one I've looked into.

We considered making the sequence longer and more in sequence with reality but for the purposes of game play decided to stick with simply making it more than 'engines on' or 'throttle up'. The planned TKOH iteration will be more involved with more systems and interaction required. The APU and engine startup sounds are there primarily as a cue to let you know that they're starting up; we felt that was adequate since 'disengaging rotor brake' starts the engines for 'real' and it'd be a bit of script juggling to play looped sounds on top of the existing sounds, proper cues, etc. such as the engine startup sound that occurs after the complex startup. At one point in time we wanted a better UAV integration but as we were focused on the Block II it didn't make much sense considering Block II has only limited UAV capability. You can use the existing BI module with it, which functions just like it does in that particular OA mission; it just lacks the data transfer, etc. that Apaches have when teamed up. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the campaign, even if it's a relatively small and short campaign. :)

Yes, but you must first find a mountain; there are non available by default. :p

And then sometimes they crash the bird in the snow. :o

It would make sense to put in some conservative estimates lest pilots try to get away with more than they might be able to - especially when adverse conditions and heavy loads are involved. Army Aviation tries to get away with a lot. :)

It assumes the laser is on by default when a target is acquired with tab lock. If the missile box is solid and no inhibit messages are displayed, you have a good lock. As an alternative you can activate the laser on the WPN page with the LRFD FIRST button or the "BROADCAST REMOTE CODE" action. The laser is slaved to the cannon but it can then be acquired in the same way that other active targets are. Note that AUTO tracking does not work when used in conjunction with the laser.

Updated to v1.3: Download Changes: v1.3 - - Modified shadow LOD. - Modified pilot LOD. - Modified missile guidance. - Modified missions to account for new damage scripting. - Modified campaign missions "Pin Drop" and "Hallowed Ground" to include radio commands for ordering Dusk Knight to stop, continue, or fly to an area. Dusk Knight will also wait until the player takes off to continue his way route. - Modified pilot and gunner LODs to have weapons and rotor components. - Fixed crew placement in crew fire LOD placement that resulted in their being unhittable except in certain places. Still requires a weapon capable of penetrating armor to prevent 'makarov' crew kills. - Fixed vulnerability in underside of cockpit area. - Opening doors will now allow crew to be shot. - Fixed pilot able to use SAL missiles without a gunner.

On the same venue you say that most simulations use the xH-1 series VRS rather than what most helicopters are capable of; is the xH-1 series just more understood with ready data or is the exaggeration simply used as a form of fake difficulty?

I've kicked around the idea of a common architecture but I don't think most people would be able to make heads or tails of it; one of the major issues is that it requires integration of config, scripting, modeling, and texturing to get the desired result. In addition, most of the back end scripting is very messy and difficult to understand. It would require an extreme overhaul to make it easy enough to use.

Jamming should only start to occur when you exceed more than 100 rounds without hitting a burst limit.

Aren't environmental conditions going to have a big impact on VRS as well? I'd expect higher altitudes and thinner air to make a VRS much more likely than thicker air.

Ok, gotta put my foot down: The FM is staying where it is and that's the end of it. We've had plenty of people test it without issue for 3 years and as far as I'm concerned it's set in stone. I've used mouse + keyboard and two separate joysticks with it and I refuse to go back to the sluggish cow-like handling of BIS helicopters nor the 'oh shucks, my tail rotor is out; carry on' damage effects. If we do a UH-60 we'll be sure and hit you up for info! The few pictures I've seen of the AH-64's with external tanks have been the old 230 gallon types. With the IAFS, external tanks have fallen out of favor as having an extra 100 gallons internally seems to be adequate for most operations. Your state is lucky; my state only has straight up ancient -60As with no possibility of upgrading any time soon. As most AH-64s are in the active Army as opposed to Guard and Reserve, I suspect that is why most are more standardized. If you look at a lot of Guard aircraft you'll see a lot of odd combinations too.

I do believe that ACE doesn't have a custom FM for their AH-64 as they do not have access to the model for it, in which case they'd be limited to the stock BIS FM. Someone correct me if I'm wrong? Regardless, ArmA2 isn't exactly the best when it comes to helicopter flight modeling, so expecting DCS fidelity or even EECH fidelity out of it is quite a stretch. As I stated before, the handling we have now is a result of compromises and getting into a spot that we felt was acceptable. I sincerely doubt everyone will be happy with it but for the most part it does what we want it to. ArmA2 does have a kind of retreating blade stall effect in that your collective and cyclic controls are dulled the faster you go; it's not true to the effect but it does seem to serve the intended purpose - diminishing your cyclic controls at high speed.

I'll try to answer these one by one, been a long day at work. Rockets are the pinnacle of modern weapon technology, I don't see how you could be missing. Seriously, the rockets are actually scripted to disperse within a relatively large radius which we noticed from a lot of rocket firing videos. Combined with the auto tracking being on a best-guess basis and rockets are not very precise weapons. They are very sensitive to helicopter vertical movement and helicopter pitch. The best results tend to come from minimizing the angle the pods have to elevate while simultaneously keeping vertical motion at a minimum. A touch of forward speed helps as well. In addition, the rockets are not very powerful, the M151 warheads especially. I recommend getting within 1km of your target to get the best impact as well. The pylons have a maximum movement limit of about 20 degrees overall; +5 above the centerline and -15 below it. There is some odd thing that happens as a result of the scripting stuff we have to do to grab the rockets that makes them not follow the right plane of sight with regard to pylon motion which makes them seem off. It's something I meant to investigate more but didn't get around to it. This was something I didn't fully implement and document with v1.2; if you release the trigger without following through with a burst limit, there's a probability the gun will jam. This becomes greater as you exceed 100 rounds and start overheating the gun. The RNG setting is for the CPG to manually set gun range when the gun is tied to the TADS. The pilot cannot manually set the gun range when using manual fire (for the purposes of this addon at least), which is why you get the "P-GUN" message in place of the RNG setting. The ASE page chaff/flare setting and countermeasure salvo are growth positions. Currently they just track what your selected countermeasure setting is (ctrl+R key), which by extension is how the pilot switches between countermeasures. In the future we may override the BIS system entirely and simply link to the countermeasures key with a custom system. The control setup I use is a CH Products stick + throttle + pedals, so you could say that's what it's designed for. Unfortunately we are limited in what we can control with the flight model in terms of mass, inertia, etc. and the result is you have a kind of magic to work in order to get everything to play nice together. The trick was to get adequate speed, maneuverability, and sensitivity so that it could be fast enough, agile enough, and hostile enough when damage is taken. I won't say changes are impossible, just depends on what compromises we're willing to make. In short, we're handicapped by the way BI chose to handle helicopter handling characteristics, which is exclusively in the realm of mass and balance. I think we'll have to rebuild the fire geometry LOD for the glass, some very funky issues going on there. The smaller calibers won't penetrate well but the heavier ones should do so relatively easily. As for the campaign, I do think I'll add a hold command for Hallowed Ground as you suggest, but Pin Drop I may pursue a more complex solution. In the short term if you want to edit the missions in the campaign I don't see any problem with that. FWIW the campaign missions were modeled after similar missions in Comanche Gold, which I felt fit better given the constricted space we had to work with on the default maps. At one point in time a couple of larger 40x40km maps were planned which would have allowed for more playing room, but these never came to fruition due to the workload required. DCS has always felt too restrictive to me; it seems to do an excellent job at simulating individual systems and aircraft, but a poor job at immersion. I've noticed this since LOMAC was released and the world always felt empty without having much to go on. I'm also not sure how well it would go across in DCS considering that we don't have access to every single classified manual that the DCS folks seem to demand in order to get an aircraft into the game.