Cold War 1947 - 1991

If you watch the netstats available it does seem to get worse with dropped packets and higher pings (>300ms*), which makes sense. Just the netcode seems terrible at dealing with this common issue, and I'm fairly sure the netstats show for your connection only.

 

*As a former developer myself there is only so much a simulation engine can do to overcome such latency.

Conker4 and I were chasing an UFO Mig15 yesterday and it was an absolute joke. Not only was it hard to get an aim on him/her but our fps dropped together with heavy stuttering.

Hopefully this will get sorted out with the next update.

Conker4 and I were chasing an UFO Mig15 yesterday and it was an absolute joke. Not only was it hard to get an aim on him/her but our fps dropped together with heavy stuttering.

 

Hopefully this will get sorted out with the next update.

Haha it reminds me on Mig-21 when came out. When it taxing by me, FPS dropped like to 1FPS :D

Server News:

 

We just flew the new mission Hold The Line. The bug is gone and the mission ran perfectly! A small issue towards the end but that's fixed too as of now.

 

 

Teaser:

A new mission is in the making... and... it's... completely... at midnight!

It's going to be in the Persian gulf map. Moonlight. No clouds. No winds. I ran some tests in the MiG-21 against the F-5. Once in a dogfight and both hit the burners it's a thing of beauty! You can actually see the missile's smoke sometimes, especially when flying over the water. Helicopters will be included. Not sure about the Harrier still, although Harrier pilots would love a night mission, I guess.

So go ahead and get some night mission practice, gents!

Oh god, i hate DCS at night while wearing VR shit. What do you use alpenwolf?

Oh god, i hate DCS at night while wearing VR shit. What do you use alpenwolf?

TrackIR. As long as the VR's quality in DCS (at least that's what VR users post. I don't know myself) isn't that good, I'm sticking with TrackIR. No problems spotting anything within the limits of DCS. And I rarely zoom in that much.

I try to "... kid keep it real" :smilewink:

TrackIR. As long as the VR's quality in DCS (at least that's what VR users post. I don't know myself) isn't that good, I'm sticking with TrackIR. No problems spotting anything within the limits of DCS. And I rarely zoom in that much.

I try to "... kid keep it real" :smilewink:

Cool man, we'll try our best at night :).

Is there any chance to keep an eye open on the high ping flyers, just like they do it on other servers (attachment)?

Is there any chance to keep an eye open on the high ping flyers, just like they do it on other servers (attachment)?

I do remove such players when I see that happening. I often do GCI for Red so I'm constantly listening in and watching things on the F10 map or through a ground vehicle. Can't make it 100% high-ping-players free though.

One can only hope for ED to fix that -> Ping limits don't really keep players with high pings out.

If you watch the netstats available it does seem to get worse with dropped packets and higher pings (>300ms*), which makes sense. Just the netcode seems terrible at dealing with this common issue, and I'm fairly sure the netstats show for your connection only.

 

*As a former developer myself there is only so much a simulation engine can do to overcome such latency.

My experience of this has been almost completely independent of ping. It's not as noticeable on this server, but if you head onto the circus known as GS you'll see it all over the place, and most of the warping aircraft aren't high-ping - then when you disconnect/reconnect or restart your game, the guys who were previously warping all over are no longer doing it, and a different set of players are.

I've also seen a player who lives in the same corner of the world as me, on a server also in the same country, warping all over. Reconnecting fixed it... but then someone else began warping instead. As with most DCS issues, Occam's razor doesn't seem to apply, unless we're talking the really clear-cut cases where someone is warping by miles at a time.

There are one or two players I've seen consistently lagging on other servers, but again - no high pings involved. It only became a major issue around 2.5.6 release (and was reported far and wide on other servers, originally affecting BVR engagements as well but now mostly limited to WVR) and it's quite distinct from actual laggy players, who can be seen phasing in and out of existence and rubber banding by several miles a pop. The people affected by this only jump about a hundred metres at a time or less, just enough to make combat excruciatingly hard, and eventually the effect settles. DCS will also cause teleporting (of a severe kind, way more obvious than what's been happening lately) if someone's PC freezes or if they're tabbing in and out of the game.

I have a vague suspicion it might have something to do with whatever band-aid fix they applied to stop people sliding around carrier decks, but I have no way of testing it and it's pretty much based on the fact that it became a problem in the same patch where SC code was first introduced into the game.

My experience of this has been almost completely independent of ping. It's not as noticeable on this server, but if you head onto the circus known as GS you'll see it all over the place, and most of the warping aircraft aren't high-ping - then when you disconnect/reconnect or restart your game, the guys who were previously warping all over are no longer doing it, and a different set of players are.

 

I've also seen a player who lives in the same corner of the world as me, on a server also in the same country, warping all over. Reconnecting fixed it... but then someone else began warping instead. As with most DCS issues, Occam's razor doesn't seem to apply, unless we're talking the really clear-cut cases where someone is warping by miles at a time.

 

There are one or two players I've seen consistently lagging on other servers, but again - no high pings involved. It only became a major issue around 2.5.6 release (and was reported far and wide on other servers, originally affecting BVR engagements as well but now mostly limited to WVR) and it's quite distinct from actual laggy players, who can be seen phasing in and out of existence and rubber banding by several miles a pop. The people affected by this only jump about a hundred metres at a time or less, just enough to make combat excruciatingly hard, and eventually the effect settles. DCS will also cause teleporting (of a severe kind, way more obvious than what's been happening lately) if someone's PC freezes or if they're tabbing in and out of the game.

 

I have a vague suspicion it might have something to do with whatever band-aid fix they applied to stop people sliding around carrier decks, but I have no way of testing it and it's pretty much based on the fact that it became a problem in the same patch where SC code was first introduced into the game.

Yes, I didn't say it was solely or completely dependent on ping and packet loss, but these definitely seem to contribute. CPU load is also a factor, I did put in a bug report to default the DCS process to high priority when launched to try and help combat this on a large scale. The 2.5.6 netcode is also a large contributor.

Operation: One Night in Arabia

General and highly important instructions:

- Use your navigation, taxi and landing lights every time you're on or around the airbase!
- Use the left side of the taxiway.
- Use the left side of the runway.
- Use only runway 26 for takeoffs and landings!

*** Stick to these instructions to avoid collisions with other aircraft ***

Situation:

*** The mission runs for 2 hours ***

Red: Bandar Lengeh Airbase and FARP Kalitka
Blue: Lavan Island Airport and FARP Madrid

Into the darkness!

Both coalitions have started sending transport helicopters to capture and hold Kish Island. Mi-8's and UH-1's are battling again over deploying ground units to gain dominance on the ground.

IR SAM's are only available at Bandar Lengeh Airbase (Red) and Lavan Island Airport (Blue).

Red Objectives:

MiG's and L-39's:

*** Your discipline is required like never before! ***

Get on comms to coordinate with helicopter pilots the attacks on possible enemy ground units on Kish Island, the bullseye.
Be careful before you fire!!! Make sure you're engaging the right target.
Double check with GCI operators if available.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Su-25's and Mi-24's:

Strike enemy ground units at Kish Island, waypoint-1, and clear the way for Mi-8's.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mi-8's:

Deploy ground units on Kish Island and make sure they capture the airbase.
Coordinate your attacks with other pilots on comms, especially, Mi-24 pilots.

* 1 squad contains 4 x MG's and 4 x RPG's *

NOTE:
For picking up a crate, maintain hover over it for 5 seconds while keeping an altitude of at least 7.5 meters and a maximum altitude of 15 meters.

To unpack a crate, make sure you're 3 km away from the FARP.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frequencies:

EWR / GCI: 124 MHz - Channel 0 for MiG-21's and L-39's. Channel 2 for MiG-19's. Mi-24's R-863 - Channel 0

ATC: 126 MHz - Channel 5 for MiG-21's and MiG-19's. Channel 1 for L-39's.

FARP Kalitka: 127.5 MHz - Mi-24's R-863 Channel 18
ARC freq. for Kalitka FARP: 512 kHz

ARC freq. for Bandar Lengeh Airbase: 408 kHz
ARC freq. for bullseye, Kish Island : 625 kHz

Blue Objectives:

F-5's, F1's, AJS37's, A-10's and C-101's:

*** Your discipline is required like never before! ***

Get on comms to coordinate with helicopter pilots the attacks on possible enemy ground units on Kish Island, the bullseye.
Be careful before you fire!!! Make sure you're engaging the right target.
Double check with GCI operators if available.

Waypoint-1 for AJS37's and A-10's is Kish Intl Airbase.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SA342M's and SA342L's:

Strike enemy ground units on Kish Island and clear the way for UH-1's.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UH-1's:

Deploy ground units on Kish Island and make sure they capture the airbase.
Coordinate your attacks with other pilots on comms, especially SA342M and SA342L pilots.

* 1 squad contains 4 x MG's and 4 x RPG's *

NOTE:
For picking up a crate, maintain hover over it for 5 seconds, while keeping an altitude of at least 25 feet and a maximum altitude of 50 feet.

To unpack a crate, make sure you're 2 miles away from the FARP.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frequencies:

EWR / GCI (Callsign: Axeman): 251 MHz
AN/ARC Channel 1 for F-5's
TRAP Channel 1 for F1's
Special 1 for AJS37's
V/TVU Channel 1 for C-101's

ATC: 256 MHz
AN/ARC Channel 4 for F-5's
TRAP Channel 2 for F1's
Special 2 for AJS37's
V/TVU Channel 2 for C-101's

FARP Madrid: 259.5 MHz and 130 MHz

One Night in Arabia

A few notes and tips:

- Make sure you turn off or dim the lights in your room so that you can pick up any light coming out of your screen for the upcoming night operation. Helps a lot with spotting.

- Mi-8's and UH-1's can only deploy BTR-80's/M-113's, artillery units and ammo trucks.

- Both the BTR-80 and the M-113 can be controlled by players.

- The BTR-80 drives faster by ca. 30 kph.

- The M-113 has a thicker front armour. The BTR-80's can hardly penetrate through that way.

- The M-113 however, can damage and destroy the BTR-80 even with head on shots.

- Helicopters can finally fly at higher altitudes, I guess. So do other types of aircraft maybe.

- Kish Island is the TA, so stick with it.

- Northeast of Kish Island is a small town on the main Persian Island. You will see lights illuminating from that town. Use it as a reference point.

- Kish Island itself is full of all types of buildings of different heights and sizes with all types of colourful lights.

- It might get boring if you fly around without being able to spot anything. But that doesn't mean you should fire the second you finally get a tone.

- I ran multiple tests and it is possible to spot bandits when EWR calls "merged!".

- Both coalitions have 2 x EWR's each hidden on the map and at safe locations to provide the best possible picture.

- A human GCI operator is needed more than ever so give it a try. One for the team!

- See you tonight...

I'm glad that I got this on tacview, was not the first time. Took a missiles head on, and it didn't take him more than 2s to acquire lock. The Proximity detonator did the rest. These R3's are bit too good.

Here are a few other screens from the same engagement.

Alpenwolf, whats your thought on this? Is this a bug that has to be rectified? Pretty sure this would have not been possible in reality..

I was doing GCI during that engagement and saw the whole thing. I've been doing and still do GCI for a long time. I check out the tacview files very often too. So I've seen it all, I'd say.

The R3S and the R-13M/1 missiles will give you a tone even if head on sometimes. However, they rarely hit anything head on. I watched the tacview file after yesterday's session to see how it happened because I know it can't be. You were flying in a straight line as straight as it can get. He was doing the same more or less. You can even see in the images you've posted how straight the flight path of the missile is too. And it shows that it didn't hit you (obviously wasn't tracking, just flying straight ahead) but rather detonated next to your plane. I watched the replay file as well to be sure and you can also see it there. I did all that investigating because I was really wondering myself how that happened.

You have the MiG-21, right? Fly for 2-3 hours with R3S and R-13M/1 missiles and see for yourself. They barely track even when you're on someone's tail (and this is the bug if anything is bugged since last week's update) and they fly in a straight path when fired head on and rarely hit (which is not a bug).

I was doing GCI during that engagement and saw the whole thing. I've been doing and still do GCI for a long time. I check out the tacview files very often too. So I've seen it all, I'd say.

The R3S and the R-13M/1 missiles will give you a tone even if head on sometimes. However, they rarely hit anything head on. I watched the tacview file after yesterday's session to see how it happened because I know it can't be. You were flying in a straight line as straight as it can get. He was doing the same more or less. You can even see in the images you've posted how straight the flight path of the missile is too. And it shows that it didn't hit you (obviously wasn't tracking, just flying straight ahead) but rather detonated next to your plane. I watched the replay file as well to be sure and you can also see it there. I did all that investigating because I was really wondering myself how that happened.

You have the MiG-21, right? Fly for 2-3 hours with R3S and R-13M/1 missiles and see for yourself. They barely track even when you're on someone's tail (and this is the bug if anything is bugged since last week's update) and they fly in a straight path when fired head on and rarely hit (which is not a bug).

Copy that :thumbup:

The new night time mission is interesting but not a fan. You either die of eye strain or adjust the gamma for ghetto dayz style night vision. Perhaps a little too dark for early fighters and lack of NV? At least some moonlight?

The “Fight Island” concept is a great idea for a battlefield, and so was tonights mission.

A far distance sunrise, 30 min before the sun shows it self on the horizon, could still be pretty dark in the early stages and then just get brighter with time.

The overcast is a great addition on the Fight Island and Two Towns mission, but could we perhaps turn of the tap? The rain looks great but adds on unnecessary fps drop.

Proximity fuzing is definitely a thing, although it appears inconsistent because the fuzing is calculated on the firer's side and is also affected by desync (this is why sometimes you see missiles pass through your cockpit without going off). I'm not sure what the prox fuze is set at for R-3/R-13 family missiles, but it looks like it was within that range.

This is also important to remember when you're trying to engage something a teammate is already on - a few months ago I had all my wing control surfaces blown out because a teammate tried to lob an R-60 over my shoulder, and it prox fuzed about 5-10 metres off my left wingtip.

The new mission One Night in Arabia was supposed to have some moonlight which makes things literally way brighter. I said I'll check it out but was about to enter a dogfight myself so couldn't do it right away. Several minutes later I did that and put the mission back online with moonlight included. And then, even a player with VR was able to spot bandits and got some kills.

In DCS, it seems that with moonlight available you can pick up aerial units from afar due to reflections on the airframe caused by the moonlight itself. It looked like bugs flying around in the air. Those who stayed online enjoyed it and I talked to players on both sides to get their feedback and potential ideas for improvement.

Players on both sides flying different planes got enough kills and some even made it back home and landed. Obviously, it is doable. In fact, I like how challenging it is and if some don't enjoy the difficulty that comes with it then just wait for the server to rotate.

Yeah, the moonlight glint is visible from very far away. It applies to both aircraft and ground units, becomes visible somewhere ~100km out and then disppears as the units pop in to LOD1 or LOD0 (essentially when you get very close or zoom right in on them). Far as I can tell it's basically a rework of the markers system, and also somewhat similar to scaling in other sims, it's just visible from a little further than it should be and is a bit bright. If they toned it down a bit, made it only apply to units not in contact with the ground, and then applied a similar toned-down effect in daylight we might finally have decent spotting in DCS :D

I'll probably be on tomorrow, hopefully I'll get a chance to try the mission out!

I generally prefer dogfighting in bright light, but lately I have been catching servers just before the reset with sunset and/or near dark lighting. It may not be fun for WVR dogfighting, but the DCS environment at sunset/dusk/night is absolutely beautiful even in VR. I love the way some of the cockpits glow, too. I wouldn't otherwise have experienced these scenic views if it wasn't for some servers lasting long enough to go dark for a bit.

... becomes visible somewhere ~100km out and then disppears as the units pop in to LOD1 or LOD0 (essentially when you get very close or zoom right in on them)

...

Not sure if ~100 km is accurate but surely from afar which is not how it's supposed to be. And yes, when very close or in a merge the reflections disappear. But you can still see the enemy or the smoke coming out of his engines even without afterburners.

Helicopter pilots had a blast as they all have NVG. But then again, NVG weren't really necessary.

- 2 x Mistral Gazelles were added.

- 2 x Harriers were added.

- Some airplanes spawn in the air - fixed.

EDIT:

Red ground units not firing - fixed.

A suggestion for the mission "One night in Arabia"

Can we get some pre spawned ground units to strike before helicopters deploy stuff at the main airbase/bulls/Kish island?

It could be just a small outpost on the main land, that should make it easy for both coalitions to balance the placement, and it would give strikers something to do before the battle properly develops

Striking it doesnt neccesairly have to lock/unlock anything, just an extra objective

Cheers!

yo alpen have you ever thought about putting in AI bomber interception as part of the missions? maybe landing jtac units near the objective would spawn in a bomber flight or something. would be a pretty fun side mission and could add some fun high alt escort/intercept action

The new mission One Night in Arabia was supposed to have some moonlight which makes things literally way brighter. I said I'll check it out but was about to enter a dogfight myself so couldn't do it right away. Several minutes later I did that and put the mission back online with moonlight included. And then, even a player with VR was able to spot bandits and got some kills.

In DCS, it seems that with moonlight available you can pick up aerial units from afar due to reflections on the airframe caused by the moonlight itself. It looked like bugs flying around in the air. Those who stayed online enjoyed it and I talked to players on both sides to get their feedback and potential ideas for improvement.

Players on both sides flying different planes got enough kills and some even made it back home and landed. Obviously, it is doable. In fact, I like how challenging it is and if some don't enjoy the difficulty that comes with it then just wait for the server to rotate.

I flew MiG-21 with a friend and we loved the no-moon mission. First we got some Hueys who made the mistake to fly with their nav lights on. Then we proceeded to drop illumination bombs over the enemy FARP and blast it with rockets. I eventually ate a Stinger. Great fun! The full moon variant I didn't enjoy as much as you could basically see air and ground units glowing like lighthouses from Kish as far out as the FARPS.