A Stick and Rudder Man's Guide to DCS: Black Shark

For those that have not seen it, SimHQ put up a great article that may answer many of the common questions and maybe even uncover some new information for you:

http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_421a.html

For those that have not seen it, SimHQ put up a great article that may answer many of the common questions and maybe even uncover some new information for you:

 

http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_421a.html

Great read! Thanks for the heads up. My personal favourite is this one:

"The rule of thumb is that if it is as tall as it is wide, kill it first — it’s carrying some sort of radar or missile."

:thumbup:

Great article! A lot of fun to read. Thanks for the link!

Yes thank you very much for the heads up on that article, it is very good and my sorry butt needs all the help it can get, cause I am really struggling trying to get my arms wrapped around this sim...

It's just me that thinks it's full of errors and bad advice then?

Excellent read and a great starter. I wish I'd read it before I'd gotten into the sim - it would saved a lot of headaches. I really needed the section on the flare dispenser.

I will say there seem to be some errors in the article. For instance, in talking about the rudder, he says: "When at a hover or at low speeds, the rudder at the back is simply going along with the pedal inputs. What’s making the helicopter rotate about is one rotor spinning either faster or slower than the other."

From what I understand, when you press a rudder pedal you're actually adjusting the pitch of the rotors, not adjusting the speed they spin. I've seen it when I'm sitting on the ground powered off. Hit the rudder, and the pitch changes, giving one set of blades more bite than the other and allowing the helo to rotate.

That's kind of a big deal, since - at high speed - kicking in hard right rudder pitches the lower rotor up, forces it to create more lift, and can potentially drive it up into your upper rotor.

Set up your flare dispenser before takeoff; or before entering the combat zone. Trigger your dispenser when doing a run-in with guns or rockets. Swivelling your head around to look for missile fire is neat and all, but it won't cut them mustard when you need to focus on putting those rockets on targets or when you're locking that shkval - therefore use your dispenser pre-emptively, as it's meant to be used.

While mostly N/A LOMAC, dipensing countermeasurer after a missile comes off the rail tends to be less effective than doing it before it is locked onto you.

It's just me that thinks it's full of errors and bad advice then?

Think of it a casual simmers guide to black shark. At least he's enjoying his Black shark experience, where some would just give up in frustration.

Nate

I thought overall it was a good read, I was actually like the idea of keeping the trimmer set for a hover, although this wouldn't work because the trimmer also tries to maintain a heading so if you released the controls somewhere in your flight the helo would re-orient itself with that heading again.

I don't know about errors and probably don't know enough about BS at this point to even know an error when I see it - but I sure do appreciate and read up on any information I can get, that might help me understand and progress further along in this sim. I can certainly see where some , or even many, may just give up in frustration.

I am struggling as well, have had the sim for a week now, and have been working hard on viewing all the producers notes, going through all the training missions, and trying to be able to fly this thing better, and understand and use the weapons and defense systems. And I sure am finding it difficult at times - just when I think I may have a handle on it, something else totally unexpected happens that I have no clue why or how it happened, just that I crashed and burned.

It's just me that thinks it's full of errors and bad advice then?

No, i stopped reading after 2 paragraphs because i find such an attitude almost offensive.

No, i stopped reading after 2 paragraphs because i find such an attitude almost offensive.

Same here! Thank god, I thought I was turning into a curmudgeon :D

It's just me that thinks it's full of errors and bad advice then?

Nope. It's awfully wrong in many places, especially in regards to trimming and use of autopilots. Might as well switch to game mode if you want to fly like that and I can say that NOT following that advice will make sim more enjoyable and fun in long term.

I think the article serves an important purpose, which is to get someone who is new to simming, in the air and doing stuff as quickly as possible. You have to remember that the experienced simmer is not a typical representative of the wider gaming community.

I have had Black Shark for close to a month now and I still haven't fired off a missile in anger. But that's ok for me because I've set my priorities according to my past sim experiences. To most novices, spending a month learning how to fly and operate the Black Shark with a certain degree of precision before taking on missions or the campaign is unthinkable.

Getting new blood into this facet of gaming is critical because the bigger the market share the better it is for everyone involved.

Cheers,

Pogo

I take your point, but in his dismissing of trim for instance, at no point did he mention that you can press RCTL+Enter and get a nice little box which shows the position of your controls - a really good tip for beginners IMO (I still use it as a matter of course!). And telling newbies that the rudder controls ROLL is just plain confusing.

I can't knock the effort and sentiment of the article, and I've found many of Dart's articles on IL2 really helpful and informative, but this one missed the mark if you ask me.

^^I agree with your view Pogo. A LOT of people picking this sim up want to take to the skys as fast as possible and blow stuff up. Everything else is for the hard core sim heads. I always like the way Dart puts things into lay mans terms for any sucker to understand. Yes, his approach to the sim isn't exactly right (depending on your opinion) but is honest and serves a good purpose.

If anyone is helped off the ground by this article (say the intended casual simmer type) then thats a big plus to DCS, the community and said casual simmer. In a way it might open up the other finer aspects of BS and could result in a new proper study sim fan. Great article!

Remember right or wrong hes just trying to point out the things you REALLY need to know.

Good on him for taking the time to write what is essentially a very comprehensive review and critique!

...but yeah, totally disagree with 90% of the content ... different strokes for different folks though!

Right all you 'professionals' who don't like this article. I have to admit I don't agree with a lot of the detail but in terms of proving you don't have to be a qualified military pilot or have years of you life unfilled to learn it all it's a great help. To explain: I am relatively normal, my job and family mean that I don't get a massive amount of time on this sim and to be fair, even if I did I'd probably still only give it max hour a day say four/five days a week.

That said I love sims, I'm not a 'game mode' fan at all - I like the immersive experience and hate things that are too simple (HAWX etc). Realism is very important, and I love learning something from scratch etc, reading manuals etc.

BUT - Had BS forced me to run a manual start up, learn the full functions of ABRIS and Datalink, to name just three things in order to complete a campaign - it'd have gone in the box on the shelf and never played. That's my loss maybe I know but I reckon thats the same for a lot of people.

Had I not found Para's tutorial I doubt I'd have been able to invest the time to learn all that as the tutorials suggest you should. Call me unwilling to learn or part of the 'instant gratification generation' but I'm quite happy to read manuals and study tutorials... to a point.

I think BS has it down perfectly to attract a broad enough base of people willing to learn but wanting fun and the sim nuts who will be pissing into a CH Peebottle XS during missions because heck - it's all about the realism.

You're never going to keep everyone happy but ED has to balance it for commercial reasons. This is still the most specialised PC sim ever I reckon but for some it still won't be enough, and on the other hand, thank god it doesn't attract your average 'computer gamer' who thinks shoot em ups such as COD are realistic!

You may think people like me dilute the experience but if we were disenfranchised because the sim was too complicated and tough to learn then I can't see flight sims being developed ever because they won't attract enough people. End of sermon, it's my humble opinion!

No such thing as a 'humble' opinion...

And woah there big boy, no-one's having a go at you, we've just expressed our opinion on the article.

I believe that BS comes with a quick-start card to begin with.

The issue isn't with what the article represents for those of us who are uh 'professionals' for lack of a better word.

The article illustrates that you can get up and flying in a reasonably short time. You'll suck at it, but you'll be playing and having fun with it. This is what you should take away from the article, and with that I agree.

What you should NOT take away is the 'oh bah some sort of beeping but I can ignore it' and 'I fly with the throttle in manual' attitude because frankly it isn't correct (naturally, I'm biased). You SHOULD know what those warnings are - there's a whole three of them - you SHOULD look at Ekran when it tells you to, and you sure as heck should be running that throttle on AUTO.

This has zero to do with 'stick and rudder' and everything to do with 'I'm gonna fly this my way'. That's great - it's your sim, do whatever you like. I see nothing wrong with this, and Dart's having much fun with it.

My issue is with people seeing this as some sort of guide to flying the heli correctly when it isn't; and to his credit, I think Dart mentions that this is just his way of doing things.

I don't think that people who fly this way necessarily dilute the experience - they are their own group of people, like 'hard core simmers' are their own group of people.

Mix the two and the mid-core guys will be left completely behind in a rather challenging mission, or they'll botch it for everyone else because they won't know what's happening to them, or they'll lose patience - I'm painting with broad strokes here, but you get the idea.

On the other hand, the hard-core guys will get frustrated with the 'fly as you will' crowd in less challenging missions - again, a broad generalization.

And again, to his credit Dart mentions that the mission makers simply make missions where his way of flying works out.

This is what having fun is all about, and the point of the article is that you can get into the 'Shark and have fun in a reasonable amount of time.

It isn't a guide to flying well.

Turned into another 'Gives me the Giggles' Thread..........:D

Whether one agrees or not with the sentiments expressed is I dare say subjective in the extreme. Apart from a few issues which might be termed as 'Technically Incorrect', you cannot really fault the article for what it is - One User's Experience on how to get the Job done with the least amount of Hassle and a Helluva lotta Fun to Boot! As a stepping-stone from the complete novice to a more experienced pilot, the article does well to allay fears that some might find a bit 'overwhelming' and hence not even give the SIM a chance to begin with.

Interesting to note the varied opinions however........Read the Following Article: Where do you Fit?

Confessions of an Elitist

Me - I Inhabit the Space somewhere between Mainstream and Settings/FM Elitist :book:

No such thing as a 'humble' opinion...

 

And woah there big boy, no-one's having a go at you, we've just expressed our opinion on the article.

OK, a)Humble opinion - I agree, hence the ironic inclusion of it next to the word 'sermon' - ie. I've yet to hear a humble sermon.

And b) I'm not saying anyones having a go I'm just pointing out the flipside as I see it. Sorry didn't mean it to sound as defensive as it did! :doh: