Newbie need help with JTAC

Hi chaps, I've been training and going over tutorials and read the flight manual from cover to cover along with lots of other guides I've found. In theory I think I know what I'm doing but I'm getting really frustrated when I try an actual mission, for example "Sitting ducks", where I check in with JTAC and get tasked, get my red triangle sent to my TAD, slew to it and make it SPI then slew my TGP to it. There seems to be no marking done in this instance (from the 9-line message) so I guess I'm supposed to somehow locate them in the forest with my TGP, but how on earth do I do it?? I have it on WHOT but it's a needle in a haystack. Meanwhile other AI units manage to engage stuff which I see smoking from the trees. Can anyone help at all? I'm on the verge of giving up now despite having invested the best part of 40-50hrs in trying to learn this. I'm a commercial pilot so the flying part is easy, but this seems ridiculously hard!

It might be because it’s an older mission and with the updated map the forests could be covering the units. I’d have to check the mission out when I get home. You could also open it in mission editor and see if that’s what is happening. You might be able to move the units a little and not break anything.

Exactly what he said. Older mission that wasn’t updated after they added trees. Same thing happened to me and was totally frustrating. You can also change your load to carry 10 CBUs and 1 targeting pod and just carpet bomb the forest, lol.

Thank you guys I was hoping it might be something like that rather than me massively missing a huge trick somewhere! Can I assume all the single player one off missions are therefore out of date like that I wonder... I'm sure I come up against the same thing in many of them

They aren’t all bad. Some work really well. I like the Kashuri Gap and In the Weeds the best for those SP ones. If you are really enjoying single player, pick up a solid campaign like The Enemy Within or Piercing Fury. Great fun. I’ve now moved into the multiplayer world and can’t seem to go back to SP.

Can I assume all the single player one off missions are therefore out of date like that I wonder...

I think the Instant Action missions have been reworked and should be okay, but the standard single player missions (main menu: Mission) are not up to date, so they may or may not work.

I can certainly recommend using the mission editor to set up training scenarios. It probably looks a bit overwhelming at first, but actually isn't that difficult. Plus, there are lots of Youtube videos on the editor in general, and on specific tasks like setting up a JTAC, down to the type of mark to be used.

With a bit of randomization, you might even get a surprise in a mission you set up yourself. ;)

The campaigns that GTFreeFlyer mentioned are also really excellent, that's a great recommendation!

Thanks for the tips chaps, I fully intend to get into multiplayer and join a squad at some point but I guess I need to cut my teeth first. Although the gap between how far the training missions take you and the complexities of a proper mission is huge. The "training" campaigns I've downloaded seem to just be a bunch of checkrides which assumes you've already mastered a lot of this stuff already, like how interactions with JTAC etc work. How the first guys who posted on Youtube taught themselves in the first place is a mystery to me, but I'm glad they did!

I fully intend to get into multiplayer and join a squad at some point but I guess I need to cut my teeth first.

If you're thinking about learning CAS in DCS before you join a squad, don't bother.

It's really cool that we have the JTAC in the game, but it only offers a fraction of what CAS is all about, and there's very little flexibility.

CAS in MP is a completely different beast. It is so much more challenging, demanding, and also rewarding.

I don't think many squads would ask new pilots to be proficient at DCS CAS before joining; they'll have their own documentation and their own set of rules and training materials. With a good teacher you can learn more about CAS in 2 hours than you ever could in DCS.

Of course it still makes sense to practice in SP, at least IMO. Some people learn better in MP, but I like to take my time and go through procedures on my own, until I feel sufficiently confident. But stuff like formation flying, CAS, and just about anything that requires communication just doesn't work very well in the SP environment.