What Are People Doing With CA

So I bought CA during the recent Steam sale. I've love my A-10C, FC3 and P-51D modules. I do yearn for a tank sim. I've looked at the CS manual and I guess I should have looked into it more before purchasing but I can't argue with the price. I'm sure it'll improve with time. Probably should have purchases SBProPE for the tank itch. However I'm curious what are people actually doing with CA. I suspect its MP? I don't see any SP excitement.

Right, even MP is "challenging" while the uber AI can spot and hit you through woods and trees!

I found tactical engagement interesting (commander view on the map and ordering units to fight, like a real time strategy game) as well as the option to order units from your plane! A-10C starting to orbit, F10 view and have IFVs and Tanks seize a town or a Reaper drone attack AAA... like jumping into the AWACS or CCC and command units on a larger scale.

I treat it like a mini game more than anything. Throw some tanks on a field and shoot at them, though I honestly don't play it much. I bought it mostly to support ED. I think the concept is great though. Even if ground combat from the PoV of the ground fighter is simple, it's a huge step up for aerial observers.

It has a ton of potential, but I think the bulk of the missions running in multiplayer right now aren't designed with CA in mind (and that's probably how it should be). But, if you find someone else who likes to play CA-centered missions, challenge him/her to a 1v1 RTS style game. Those are great, especially at night for a change of pace - kind of World In Conflict feel.

Also playing as a JTAC can be a lot of fun if the mission is built in a way that the JTAC has real value and can actually be worth contacting to another human player. For instance a mission with scattered targets and AAA emplacemements (no SAMs) between buildings in a city and adding a fairly thick layer of clouds not too far off the deck in a mountainous part of the map with perhaps a light fog (higher clouds, fewer mountains to mitigate risk). Talking pilots on target (since lasing wouldn't really work) can be fun for everybody and challenging at the same time. Work the Mk-82's and maybe some shallow CCIP drops.

Just a place to start.

Most missions on my Hollo Pointe server include CA. And in many of those the CA roles can win the mission. See the briefing notes for hints of this.

CA roles definitely upset the 'norm' for the opposing team, by moving the 'known' threats to other locations -- take a Tunguska into the trees or into a city, for instance. Or move a BUK site :-)

While you can operate most of the vehicles directly, it's true that you will prolly die on any encounter with the enemy due to their super ability to detect you. But I've crept up to ridges in M1s and Hummer TOWs and had fun success against armor and especially air defense missile systems.

I like playing CA from a 'chess board' perspective -- using the F10 View, directing groups to an objective and occasionally jumping into the driver's seat for a battlefield view.

Check out this AAR --

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3865620/DCS_Combined_Arms_Gori_Gap_Red#Post3865620

WC

Oh, and it is really a blast to watch the action on the battlefield from a Ground Commander or JTAC slot. The sounds are absolutely great.

WC

For some time in 1.2.6 I think there were more MP missions with CA slots, but I read somewhere that the servers used to crash also because of CA.

I enjoyed the RTS-style gameplay, but also duels with other humans, shooting helicopters with tanks, sneaky ambushes with SAMS.

ED has already started to improve many small things that are barely visible. The constant expansion with new sound samples for explosions, missiles, tank engines etc. is starting to look quite interesting and it looks like there is still more to come.

The sounds are absolutely great.

... and if for some reason you aren't already, hook up good headphones that carry the low end well. A lot of the audio in DCS has really good low frequency sounds, especially the aftetburners of passing jets.

Before CA, I used to dial up the F11 view of the airdrome closest to the action and move my view to the battlefield just to watch and listen to everything. It was awesome and CA just made that 1,000 times easier and added functionality.

I've crept up to ridges in M1s and Hummer TOWs and had fun success against armor and especially air defense missile systems.

Especially at night. Ninja mon vibrations! CA is super in the dark.

WC

However I'm curious what are people actually doing with CA. I suspect its MP? I don't see any SP excitement.

Yep ...

The one thing that CA did that I considered valuable was allowing human adversarial challenge to the ground game in DCS.

Its no secret that ground AI, particularly that which governs SAM behavior, is atrociously unrealistic. With a human being behind the controls you'll actually see SAM radar blink off and remain hidding, then blink on when you're in the heart of his kill zone and shoot at you with a much higher probability shot than the AI would use.

Basically human SAMs are way more fun to fly against. Thats what CA represents to me as a valuable contribution to the DCS sandbox.

I suggest squadrons and other hosts to consider slots for JTAC humans.

We will be getting a CA enabled mission in our MP mission soon. Will be alot of fun!

I own it because... well, I buy everything that has DCS on it, but except playing around a bit and hopping into every vehicle once, testing the guns, driving around and shooting random houses I haven't done much yet.

Some things with it really suck, for example that the AI magically can see you and shoot you although it shouldn't be able to, and it isn't really fun for me in SP.

In MP I think it can be really cool because you can make the SAM and AAA defense and stuff more realistic (AI SAMs are just stupid, except maybe if they are really well scripted).

I have had public play of CA on my server for some months now. It worked fine but I have limited the control of vehicles to just a set of tanks and artillery for each side. That will change now that I got new hardware on my server ;)

CA give you a lot of option to setup a dynamic mission....if you find someone to play the ground commander (GC).

CA can reduce the trigger setup in the ME - if you have on each side a GC or GameMaster.

But it is still up to the mission builder, how much focus he/she set on the ground units.

If you can only win a mission, if you have someone to take control over the ground units and every aircraft is only support for the ground troops (GC), then you will see more ppl. playing GC (or leave and play on another server...)!

I still missing the take over AI aircaft on client level..... :music_whistling:

A nice mission setup is, when each GC got control over only one vehicle.... a lot of fun!

We use combined arms for JTAC/Groundcommander missions.

Together with a mission briefing like this:

http://vyew.com/room#/553549/King_of_Spades/1228916873

It's great fun coordinating CAS as a JTAC from the ground and moving the enemy units.

I haven't played much recently so it may have changed.

But it will be good when they include full stat's and logbook tracking for CA.

It would be much more satisfying if in MP when you killed a ground vehicle that was player controlled it said killed: "Player_name" instead of just killed: Tank.

I was scouting some terrain around Batumi for a Huey Farp when my chopper grounded hard. I hopped into different arty (top of a mountain northeast of Batumi), and fired at a bridge in the distance. Bang, rocking gun, smoke, and pulled up the (bin)oculars. Nothing. Ten seconds later, still nothing. Drat, I thought, not very real if there is no explosion at the receiving end. Maybe the shot fell short? Pulled away from the binoculars to see if there were any explosions at the bottom of the mountain. Nothing. Maybe there were ... wait! There! In the water! Splash!!!!!

Huh?

I fired again, lowering the elevation considerably. Smoke, rocking, clearing, nothing....

Again, I searched. Nothing. Then, 28 seconds after I fired, thick black smoke about 100 meters short of the bridge. Twenty eight seconds!!!

Fired again. For over 1/2 hour, I pelted the area all around the bridge, trying my best to zero in that bridge. Each shot taking almost half a minute to get there. I never did bring that bridge down. I switched to an apartment building.

Five or six shots later, the building looked hit but didn't burn... I loaded another round and scoped it only to find that, yep, it did burn... to the ground in rubble.

I tried for another building and eventually got that, too.

But... twenty eight seconds for the shell to get there? Wow.

I wanted to drive into the city but the trip down the mountain took a "turn for the worse" and I tipped it over. :-/

Well, I've done some serious stuff, where I was a human ground commander, facing off against another human ground commander, and calling in air support from humans flying overhead in Ka-50s and A-10Cs, who were also calling in artillery fire missions. That was really fun!

But I've also done really dumb stuff like this, which was also really fun!

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But I've also done really dumb stuff like this, which was also really fun!

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Some quite epic nonsense! Like it very much :D

Hey,

I mainly bought CA to support ED. In the long run I hope it will ripe to a more useful tool when flying online. Meanwhile I sometimes hop into a Humvee to spot targets when I need a break from flying and eat my late night dinner. Actually going to battle with it is, as mentioned before, very challangening cause the Über-AI can aim at you and shoot you in a glimpse.

It is not completely useless, no way, I already had my ball driving around in a Humvee and make A10-C pilots happy spotting targets or be Commander and control the Ground Forces. Both is fun.

Bit

I bought it in a sale some time ago (moment of weakness!), but have hardly touched it. I'm not quite sure what to do.