What’s next in terms of updates

We are working on both, but pilot models and such are not as easy as one might think, as they also have to show the correct animations and so on.

 

We know that this patch seems small, but fixing the lights, the AHS and the FM changes were no small tasks either. Rest assured that we are not neglecting anything. Thank you all for your very kind patience.

FM should always be the number 1 priority IMO, glad to see you are focusing on it :thumbup:

As others said and Ironmike stated, it would be nice to see a pilot body for VR, though it is hard.

I also would really like the external engine noise to ramp up when the canopy raises. I have begged for this in the past.

One other tiny matter... it would be nice to have a place on the Jester wheel for jettisoning droptanks. I fly quite long missions, being mainly into the flight rather than the fight, and those empty droptanks must cut my fuel mileage considerably.

 

One other tiny matter... it would be nice to have a place on the Jester wheel for jettisoning droptanks. I fly quite long missions, being mainly into the flight rather than the fight, and those empty droptanks must cut my fuel mileage considerably.

It's already there. Within visual range radar --> jettison tanks.

As others said and Ironmike stated, it would be nice to see a pilot body for VR, though it is hard.

 

I also would really like the external engine noise to ramp up when the canopy raises. I have begged for this in the past.

 

One other tiny matter... it would be nice to have a place on the Jester wheel for jettisoning droptanks. I fly quite long missions, being mainly into the flight rather than the fight, and those empty droptanks must cut my fuel mileage considerably.

the empty tanks don't reduce the mileage that much. They are pretty streamlined with the airflow over the air-frame. Bring them home or piss off the guys on the boat.:thumbup:

BUT, if you must, the option is already in the jester menu.

Thanks Airhunter and Strikeagle... never really get that far into radar menus. Contact...tws.. launch a couple of Phoenix. Suddenly dipping contrails, small fires on the ground, then turn for an hour's flight home looking forward to tea and medals

Happy days.

Tried the visual range radar. Found the jettison droptanks, selected it after looking at external tank contents and found them to be zero.

Asked Jester to drop them and he refused. I had to climb over the seat, cuff him around the head a few times, select the stations for the tanks and hold the jettison switch till I heard the pylon squibs kick em clear.

I then climbed back over the seat, kicking Jester in the teeth for good measure, before resuming my role as a steely eyed missile man.

I am having doubts as to Jester's overall commitment to the mission.

Tried the visual range radar. Found the jettison droptanks, selected it after looking at external tank contents and found them to be zero.

 

Asked Jester to drop them and he refused. I had to climb over the seat, cuff him around the head a few times, select the stations for the tanks and hold the jettison switch till I heard the pylon squibs kick em clear.

 

I then climbed back over the seat, kicking Jester in the teeth for good measure, before resuming my role as a steely eyed missile man.

 

I am having doubts as to Jester's overall commitment to the mission.

LOFL.. yeah thats happened a few times here too.

the empty tanks don't reduce the mileage that much. They are pretty streamlined with the airflow over the air-frame. Bring them home or piss off the guys on the boat.:thumbup:

 

BUT, if you must, the option is already in the jester menu.

I haven't jettisoned them yet, not even when entering a merge, not even when fighting human opponents :thumbup:

Tried the visual range radar. Found the jettison droptanks, selected it after looking at external tank contents and found them to be zero.

 

Asked Jester to drop them and he refused. I had to climb over the seat, cuff him around the head a few times, select the stations for the tanks and hold the jettison switch till I heard the pylon squibs kick em clear.

 

I then climbed back over the seat, kicking Jester in the teeth for good measure, before resuming my role as a steely eyed missile man.

 

I am having doubts as to Jester's overall commitment to the mission.

I am having doubts as to Jester's overall commitment to the mission.

That you, Kitty?

You could always use voice attack and ask Jester to do it that way.... "Jester, dump the tanks". I have "Jester" as a prefix and "dump the tanks", pickle tanks", "drop tanks" as a suffix which is mapped to the correct sequence of keybinds, works a treat...

So it seems like the "substantial art developments/fixes" that were announced for the next patch a month ago https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3994518&postcount=7 still aren't in today's open beta patch. Any update on when to expect those? The various visual inaccuracies and bugs in the cockpit seem like a rather simple texture/model fix, why is this taking more than half a year at this point? Not trying to point fingers here just genuinely curious why such things were stated in the main update thread in the first place? I think it's also about time to get a clear roadmap of things ahead, as we haven't had anything "official" on that front since release of EA.

And since that happened, HB as made a few posts saying that they had to re-evaluate their plans because of changes ED was implementing within DCS itself.

Personally, I'd rather have the FM working properly first (alongside bugfixes), even though I'd like to see those visual updates (TIT, VR pilot, external antennas, ...) as much as anyone else...

I would honestly prefer for the TWS auto to next in line, but without knowing how it actually works during engagement, i can't really tell. It's nice to see you guys implementing new radar elevation for Jester, unfortunately i won't be able to play around with it for some time.

Has anyone gotten around to it yet?

Has anyone gotten around to it yet?

Well, it kinda works, at least for BVR 15nm and beyond. Jester > Jester > BVR > Rad. elev. > Alt rel. > Range > Elev. So it's a long road to the final setting.

I think it works great, particularly in the AWACS environment where their BRAA calls can be used to specifically focus the radar at where the bandits are supposed to be, something I found very unreliable with the previous "high/high-middle/middle/low-middle/low" options.

I think it works great, particularly in the AWACS environment where their BRAA calls can be used to specifically focus the radar at where the bandits are supposed to be, something I found very unreliable with the previous "high/high-middle/middle/low-middle/low" options.

Surely the scan area can be set to cover any altitude range, which was not possible before. So thx - if I was not grateful enough. :thumbup:

So it seems like the "substantial art developments/fixes" that were announced for the next patch a month ago https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3994518&postcount=7 still aren't in today's open beta patch. Any update on when to expect those? The various visual inaccuracies and bugs in the cockpit seem like a rather simple texture/model fix, why is this taking more than half a year at this point? Not trying to point fingers here just genuinely curious why such things were stated in the main update thread in the first place? I think it's also about time to get a clear roadmap of things ahead, as we haven't had anything "official" on that front since release of EA.

DCS F-14 Tomcat by Heatblur Simulations

NEW: JESTER can now tune radar elevation for a specific distance and altitude

Added JESTER Elevation Menu

Adjusted trim speed

Adjusted pitch damping

Adjusted power at low speeds

Adjusted Speedbrake drag

Adjusted pitch moment with gear and flaps

Adjusted High AOA buffeting to start at higher alpha

Fixed VF-24 Livery

Gave JESTER a bit more trust in his pilot, adjusted his eject criteria

Fixed swapped x and y in map markers, will work with JESTER again

Fixed possible right engine flameout bug on in-air respawn

Added new Quickstart mission “Watching the Devildog - Laser Guided Bombs”

Added SP and COOP (2 Crews) version of Watching the Devildog

More Tweaking to Afterburners (which remain WIP)

Part of those substantial art fixes are in further tweaking the ABs (and part has been delivered prior to this patch in the black wing fix), and while it might seem easy and small to fix this or that, in reality it takes a lot of work and we need to prioritize - hence not all that has been done always makes it into the patch.

Since 2.5.5 we've been working on re-integrating some of the lighting, AB effects etc to the changes within DCS, which is not as easy at it sounds, as some of the stuff, like ABs has now to be reworked almost from the ground up.

"The various visual inaccuracies and bugs in the cockpit" are in most cases lower if not lowest priority, and they are not as various as you say they are. None of these are game breaking atm.

TWS Auto, Jester Lantirn, the A version, the Forrestal, bug fixing, etc etc.. is all on the same plate, too. We really do appreciate the concern, but a roadmap at this point imo is not the best idea, because we need the freedom to respond in development to what is most important to advance our internal roadmap. This can change a lot: a new bug might take a week away from what was intended for something else and so on, and whenever we give you a date, or make a comment like above quoted, we're creating expectations that can be easily disappointed as you can see. Please have the patience and trust that we are advancing everything as fast as we can and that we prioritize in favor of playability, major bug fixes, medium bug fixes, new assett (or functions) development and minor bug fixes - more or less in that order (which again needs to be somewhat flexible) for the time being.

The list that we need to work down is extremely long, and it simply takes time. If something hasn't been fixed in half a year, it does not mean it hasn't been worked on, it just means that other things are more important (from the development perspective) and that we need to accomplish various steps in some cases to free ourselves to address the smaller, less important stuff, too.

On a sidenote, what Cobra meant for substantial art fixes (read "substantial") was most and foremost the black wing fix, which was included thankfully prior to this patch in the hotfix. The NEW Jester function is here, too. Sorry that we were not more clear on that. But yes, they were released as promised.

Thank you all for your continued support and understanding!

Thanks for the update @IronMike, It's still the best module out there IMHO

@IronMike - Personally, I'm VERY happy with what I've got to play with at the moment.. ;) I see your hard work in every update as well as your devotion and dedication to this module. I can only try to imagine how difficult it may be to navigate through a long "to do" list with limited crew while not owning all aspects of the environment.

Nonetheless, please keep up the great work you are doing and take as much time as you need. I will never stop flying your bird!

Thank you guys, your support means the world to us, it is literally what we strive on. And I hope I did not come across annoyed or something, also comments that ask us why and where is something do count as support to us 100%, because it shows the tremendous passion this community has. The worst for us would be if no one would care, because we really do this for you, or for all of us as I might say, as we count ourselves as part of the community, we're all flight sim fanboys ourselves, and we know both sides of the spectrum: we really understand how hard it can be to wait on certain things. We wish we could deliver stuff quicker and so on, if something takes longer, please understand that it is most certainly neither negligance nor a lack of motivation - all we constantly care about is how we can improve your experience - balanced against the various necessities reality imposes on our work unfortunately. There are like some super small bugs that have been a thorn in our eyes for a long time, yet we have to put them lower in priority, so that other more important ones can get fixed and so on... It never is because we think "it is not important". Every bug is equally important, yet it has to be prioritized up or down, depending on its nature, feasibility, impact on playability and so on.

Please don't forget that with the F-14 we are partially still treading on completely new and undiscovered territory, like as with Jester, whose next iterations have no blueprint that we can follow, an FM so complex and indepth, that especially the fine tweaking takes up a lot of time, texture work so minute, that even small fixes can take a very long time to get it right and so on. I don't say this to pat ourselves on the shoulder or anything, or let alone to make up excuses - we're not the kind of guys. But it is still something that needs to be understood in terms of the challenges this poses for us.

Knowing that you guys enjoy the F-14 is of course a huge motivation for us. We really want to make all of you proud and we really want to be there for you. Afterall, you guys are the reason why we do this. And nothing is more precious to us, than the joy you experience with our modules. Rest assured we will always continue to work towards that most and foremost.

There is no other community in the world I'd personally want to be part of, as much as this one (or aviation/ flight sim enthusiasts in general). This here, this is home.

IronMike, thank you for taking the time to respond in such a fashion. I guess from a customers perspective some things might seem like a quick fix that can be done in hours while in reality it really isn't, so I do apologize for that. I'm simply a guy that is very nit-picky about small details and picks up inaccuracies very quickly (I guess a side effect of being in the aviation industry).

I know that projects of this magnitude, especially software, get out of schedule quickly and unexpected roadblock may arise at any given time. It's simply that the customer never sees that and can only guess why work on even the smallest things is rather slow. So again, thank you for your response and looking forwar to seing the F-14 and especially Viggen getting polished up in the near future. ;)

IronMike, thank you for taking the time to respond in such a fashion. I guess from a customers perspective some things might seem like a quick fix that can be done in hours while in reality it really isn't, so I do apologize for that. I'm simply a guy that is very nit-picky about small details and picks up inaccuracies very quickly (I guess a side effect of being in the aviation industry).

I know that projects of this magnitude, especially software, get out of schedule quickly and unexpected roadblock may arise at any given time. It's simply that the customer never sees that and can only guess why work on even the smallest things is rather slow. So again, thank you for your response and looking forwar to seing the F-14 and especially Viggen getting polished up in the near future. ;)

Please, Airhunter, you really do not need to apologize for anything. Like I said, we understand the passion behind it 100% and it would be really sad if you guys would not care. A request like yours for me equals caring a lot, especially if it is nit-picky (btw your choice of words, not mine hehe). Please continue to question us and to keep us on our toes, afterall that is what we are here for. ANY kind of input of you guys is appreciated beyond words, it really is. All we can hope is that we can do you justice and continue to strive towards making the experience better for you. We believe in the mantra "there is always room left for improvement".

Thank you for all your input! :)

Please, Airhunter, you really do not need to apologize for anything. Like I said, we understand the passion behind it 100% and it would be really sad if you guys would not care. A request like yours for me equals caring a lot, especially if it is nit-picky (btw your choice of words, not mine hehe). Please continue to question us and to keep us on our toes, afterall that is what we are here for. ANY kind of input of you guys is appreciated beyond words, it really is. All we can hope is that we can do you justice and continue to strive towards making the experience better for you. We believe in the mantra "there is always room left for improvement".

 

 

 

Thank you for all your input! :)

This! This post says a lot about HBs customer/community relations. IronMike constantly delivers top notch respect and gratitude to us. I greatly appreciate their work and wait patiently for more. Keep going guys! You’re doing great.

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Adjusted High AOA buffeting to start at higher alpha

Oh come on guys, why did you do that? :(

There is almost no feedback now. Perceivable shaking doesn't even start occurring till 20 units of AoA, and between light shake and "all over the place shake at 25 units, you are less then 1/4 of an inch stick input without any curves. Forget about acquire muscle memory, unless you have a FFB stick she is now impossible to fly without eye-balling the AoA strip. :doh:

Did you buy chance got influenced by that Reapers guy? :P

On a sidenote, what Cobra meant for substantial art fixes (read "substantial") was most and foremost the black wing fix, which was included thankfully prior to this patch in the hotfix. The NEW Jester function is here, too. Sorry that we were not more clear on that. But yes, they were released as promised.

It's great but I would love to see:

- that airspeed indicator arrow to not start at 80 knots,

- screens not to be translucent and in a sunny weather it's especially visible

- holes in the stick to be closed (near the weapon selector switch) so that screens don't shine through the holes in VR

- and the knob on the helmet visor for the pilots :) they have visors down but fixating knob is up there as they have it all the way open

These kinda bugs break illusion of "being there" sometimes.

But I believe it will be fixed some day, I really hope so!

These looks like simple to fix bugs, not dependent from ED, yet because of low priority we look at them every day.

The day these fixed I open the bottle of champagne!

P.S. During flight I never see my afterburners to be honest, so it's not a problem, on the other hand I see pilot helmet, screens and stick all the time