Cold War 1947 - 1991

The Prince of Persia has a little bug at the end when the Blue takes home the victory. We got the 15min remaining message, and when the time was up a message came up saying that the mission will be extended with 2h. A few minutes after that a message came up saying that both Blue and Red won while 6 bases were in blue control and shortly there after the server rotated.

[DEVILS] NELLUS

Had to run some tests to check this, and indeed Chaparral is only a threat to slow moving and loitering aircraft (Helicopters, circling fixed wing)

Strela-10M > Avenger > Chaparral > Strela-1

 

Capability gap between Strela-10M & Avenger is not very big but Chaparral is miles behind.

Strela-1 is only a danger to Helicopters and only from rear aspect.

Thanks for the research! I'll get on it.

The Prince of Persia has a little bug at the end when the Blue takes home the victory. We got the 15min remaining message, and when the time was up a message came up saying that the mission will be extended with 2h. A few minutes after that a message came up saying that both Blue and Red won while 6 bases were in blue control and shortly there after the server rotated.

 

[DEVILS] NELLUS

Fixed.

Any chance of the A4 being added to the server, or would this cause too many issues for those that don't have it installed? (sorry if this has been asked/tried before)

Edit: I see this was asked before in 2018 at least. Appreciate it is SFM and not mandatory mod therefore may be tricky to handle.

Server News:

- All missions have now the Avenger instead of the Chaparral as an IR SAM unit.

- In the mission Prince of Persia the airbases for the MiG-29A's and M-2000C's were moved closer by ca. 60 km (37 miles).

The Chaparral was great... as a red pilot! They were super easy to bait into enemy aircraft. I haven't had to deal with Avengers so much, so we'll see how that goes :D

Another awesome time earlier today. The server seems to be populating much more and staying active later than it used to, which is great.

Server News:

As you might know I'm working on limiting lives for players on the server. The only script out there I'm aware of is Ciribob's CSAR script: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=146994

It seems that when a player loses his lives he'll still be able to spawn but his plane will explode once he takes off. I could change that to the player exploding upon spawning but I'd rather have the slot blocked for him instead which somehow doesn't seem to work for me. I'd hate to have planes exploding all over the airbase just because the slot blocking ain't working.

If you are familiar with script or know an alternative one then do tell please.

Limited lives is a bad idea for multiplayer, except on special time-limited events.

We need more players in the air, not less.

The startup, takeoff and transit times are long enough to be a hefty punishment for getting killed.

Limited lives is a bad idea for multiplayer, except on special time-limited events.

We need more players in the air, not less.

 

The startup, takeoff and transit times are long enough to be a hefty punishment for getting killed.

A lifepoint system that limits available aircraft (or loadout) isn't too bad, IMO, like DDCS has - the problem with finite lives as per BF is that if you get killed by planes warping into you on the ground (as I did 3 times in a row a few weeks ago), or your game crashes, or your connection drops (which mine will at least once per day), you're unable to play for the next 6 hours. On a server with a more limited playerbase than GS or even BF this will kill population very quickly, while restricting players to older weapons might cause people to play a bit more carefully, e.g. restricting MiGs to R-3s and/or R-13s and F-5s to GAR-8s/9Ps.

DDCS also spawn you in with minimal fuel, so startups take even longer. But this is not a terrible thing, forces people to play more carefully rather than death match style repeated spawn ins*. I would personally prefer a more realistic style of play where losing an airframe has a tangible consequence, to discourage airquake style play. But appreciate there are technical glitches at times, as per Rossmum's comment, and this is not to everyone's taste. DDCS operate limited airframes and lives, but also have a stricter entry requirement for the server which is also heavily admin'ed.

*Where it is quicker for the shot down pilot to respawn and get back to the same point on the map vs the victor return to base to re-arm and refuel this feels wrong from a realism perspective. Cue the eternal DCS holy war on game vs simulations duh you're not a real pilot etc.

Blue Flag's system is pretty elegant: you essentially lose a life every time you take off and then regain it back if you land at a FARP or airfield. So the server doesn't have to figure out all the edge cases like when you get disconnected or ditch in a field, plus you're not penalized for dying before you take off (e.g., for a spawning collision or the enemy strafing you on the taxiway).

The disadvantage is that I don't think they've made their mission script public...

...

The startup, takeoff and transit times are long enough to be a hefty punishment for getting killed.

Exactly that. Which is why players would then fly more cautiously and actually think twice before jumping into a fight with multiple bandits. Currently most players enter a fight regardless of how many bandits are out there because it doesn't have consequences for them. They don't even bother to rtb. Some just go back to spectators and respawn. And then you'd see more players on SRS because teamwork is then vital for surviving.

Obviously many advantages to gain especially if this is a simulator.

Over the past 2-3 months of reviewing Tacview tracks from when I've been on, I've only seen one or two obvious instances of going back to spectator - I'm sure it happens, but I don't think it happens as often as people think. More often you see people either RTB as you'd expect, or sometimes run out of fuel and belly land (which I'll occasionally do if it means saving an objective or a teammate, or if my math brain is just a potato on a particular day and I misjudge it - but I always try to bring the aircraft down with as little damage as possible, in friendly territory).

There are a few things I like as ideas, but I'm not sure of the practicality of (either due to the necessary scripting, or the realities of one person being able to muck things up for the whole team). Each airbase having a finite number of airframes of a certain type which are only replenished, say, every two hours would be one thing - but again, all it takes is one person wasting them to screw the whole team and hand total air superiority to the other. This could possibly be partly alleviated by considering crash-landed airframes as "recovered" if they're within friendly territory - but this in itself is probably a pain given DCS' lack of a true 'frontline' a la Il-2. I always try and recover an airframe out of habit no matter what state it's in, so maybe that's why I like that idea.

Pilot death/capture locking out a slot until they're 'rescued' by a helicopter pilot or AI as per the version of CSAR being tried for the ATWG COIN experimental server is another option, maybe only requiring the CSAR deployment if they land within enemy territory (we can assume they just hitch-hike back if they land on friendly soil). This may cause people to jump slots, though, which results in the same problem as the above - and the more impatient ones might just leave.

A straight up limited life system like Blue Flag doesn't work out very well with a game as crash- or desync-prone as DCS, IMO, and is the reason I almost never play there - I get sick of losing one, two, or all three of my lives due to connection loss, game crash, or someone rubber-banding into me on the parking area. If you set the lives limit higher (say somewhere between six and ten) or the renewal time lower (maybe an hour or two instead of six) it should get around this, though.

Of course the other option is DDCS-style life points, e.g. starting out with 10, a MiG-21 costs 2 points on its own, R-60s and R-60Ms cost a point each, then set the life point gain rate to whatever.

I'll be honest, even if you implement a lives system, I don't think it's going to get people on SRS who aren't there already - more likely it'll just see more of those of us who are on it flying as pairs or threes, which isn't a bad thing. Might serve to make the community a bit closer-knit if we're relying on each other a bit more directly :D

Blue Flag's system is pretty elegant: you essentially lose a life every time you take off and then regain it back if you land at a FARP or airfield. So the server doesn't have to figure out all the edge cases like when you get disconnected or ditch in a field, plus you're not penalized for dying before you take off (e.g., for a spawning collision or the enemy strafing you on the taxiway).

 

The disadvantage is that I don't think they've made their mission script public...

The BF system isn't foolproof - on at least one occasion I lost lives to ground collisions, because it considered me 'airborne' for just long enough when I got hit (probably from the force of the initial hit, the other MiG was teleporting all over the place and contacted mine at warp speed). Spawning in craters also seems to count as a death.

I just spent too much of my life trying to get an EWR deployed with an Mi-8 (my pedals are broken so it was like pulling teeth but nobody else cared to do it) then I found where I wanted to put the EWR and.... how the f*** do you deploy it?

I just spent too much of my life trying to get an EWR deployed with an Mi-8 (my pedals are broken so it was like pulling teeth but nobody else cared to do it) then I found where I wanted to put the EWR and.... how the f*** do you deploy it?

Picking up the crate went well I assume?

Once you land at a certain place, bring up the radio menu, press F10 "Other", then F1 "CTLD", then F3 "CTLD Commands" and then F2 "Drop Crate".

The crate is now on your 12 o'clock but needs to be unpacked.

Again bring up the radio menu, press F10 "Other", then F1 "CTLD", then F3 "CTLD Commands" and then F1 "Unpack Crate".

The crate is now unpacked and the unit comes to life.

If it's a KUB site (SAM SA-6) you're deploying, you'll need to deploy two crates; KUB Launched and KUB Radar crates. You do it one at a time or some other Mi-8 helps you out. Only when the two crates are deployed and within 100 meters from one another you can unpack them. You can't just unpack the launcher or radar on its own. But the KUB site (or Hawk for Blue) are the only units that require more than 1 crate.

Server News:

The warehouses in all missions have been fixed after the latest Open Beta update.

Looks like the Scud has been added in the latest update!!

Might be cool to see it in some missions.

Looks like the Scud has been added in the latest update!!

 

Might be cool to see it in some missions.

Yeah, why not! Good idea :thumbup:

Server News:

The Scud_B unit has been added to the following missions after running some tests: (Mi-8's will have to deploy the Scud's as crates using the CTLD menu)

- Search & Destroy

- Prince of Persia

Scud_B characteristics:

- Requires 7 - 8 minutes until it fires the missile.

- Min. firing range is 60 km.

- Max. firing range is 350 km.

- Only 1 missile is available.

- Ammo trucks can rearm the Scud_B.

- The Scud_B vehicle travels at a max. speed of 60 km/h.

- Accuracy is really an issue: Fired 10 missiles and they all missed by 1-3 km.

- The missile tends to overshoot the target so maybe place the marker closer by 1-3 km off the target?

I had my first chance to test out the Chapparal-to-Avenger swap last night while flying a Frogfoot in The Desert Has Eyes, and it was definitely a step up in difficulty. I started out by trying low-level, long-range attacks with the laser-guided rockets and kept getting brutalized by the Avengers. But then I switched to CCRP bombing from high altitude (>3000m AGL) and had much better success—which is, of course, famously the Soviet reaction when they faced Stinger missiles in the Afghanistan war. It's always nice when you can recreate real-world tactics in DCS!

Of course, the high-altitude bombing was only possible because the F-5s were occupied elsewhere, so maybe we'll see some interesting coordinated, escorted strikes come out of this change in the future.

Elsewhere during the mission, it seemed like some of the MiGs were having success with high-speed rocket and Grom runs on the Avengers; I'll have to try that tactic next.

Incredible run this morning on Battle Over Sukhumi (right up until DCS crashed on me, about 6 or 7 hours in)!

I had my first chance to test out the Chapparal-to-Avenger swap last night while flying a Frogfoot in The Desert Has Eyes, and it was definitely a step up in difficulty. I started out by trying low-level, long-range attacks with the laser-guided rockets and kept getting brutalized by the Avengers. But then I switched to CCRP bombing from high altitude (>3000m AGL) and had much better success—which is, of course, famously the Soviet reaction when they faced Stinger missiles in the Afghanistan war. It's always nice when you can recreate real-world tactics in DCS!

 

Of course, the high-altitude bombing was only possible because the F-5s were occupied elsewhere, so maybe we'll see some interesting coordinated, escorted strikes come out of this change in the future.

 

Elsewhere during the mission, it seemed like some of the MiGs were having success with high-speed rocket and Grom runs on the Avengers; I'll have to try that tactic next.

Good point Brown, I have already noticed an increase in combined attacks on both sides. This is great for the future of the Cold War server.. just wish there were more Huey’s flying around on the Blue side. Not sure why this is lacking.

Incredible run this morning on Battle Over Sukhumi (right up until DCS crashed on me, about 6 or 7 hours in)!

Oh yeah! We eventually won the day. Never Thought to see the day on which a coalition wins in Battle Over Sukhumi Unleashed especially after Blue were advancing all the way up to Sukhumi itself.

Great teamwork, Reds!

Good point Brown, I have already noticed an increase in combined attacks on both sides. This is great for the future of the Cold War server.. just wish there were more Huey’s flying around on the Blue side. Not sure why this is lacking.

It is frustrating for Blue to see. The Huey is a very popular module in DCS and quite many players own it. Not sure why they don't fly it though. And when I sometimes fly on other servers I always see more Mi-8 pilots that UH-1 pilots. I can only hope for Blue to get their hands on the Black Hawk one day. That might change the outcome of all missions. With Red getting the Mi-24 Blue really needs something here. The OH-58 is really nice but not enough. The AH-1 has been confirmed and that's good for attacking operations but a transport helicopter is what's obviously really needed.

Many Viggen flyers enjoyed what you did on the Catch me if you can mission.

It would be a great fun factor boost for the Viggen community if the traditional Swedish road base system had to get implemented, as they historically were used in wartime.

I was personally stationed on one in my Air Force Ranger unit, and it was amazing to see how hidden the whole BAS90 system was.

The kneeboard rearming and refueling function works like a charm, but what is needed is for the Huey to be able to fly out 3 vehicles.

• HUMMER M1025

• AMMO TRUCK M818

• HEMTT TANKER M978

It will take a bit of workload and time from the Hilo side, but could be a fun addition to the missions. I tried it and managed to land 2 times out of 3.. bit hard, but always fun with a challenge.

NELLUS

Many Viggen flyers enjoyed what you did on the Catch me if you can mission.

 

It would be a great fun factor boost for the Viggen community if the traditional Swedish road base system had to get implemented, as they historically were used in wartime.

I was personally stationed on one in my Air Force Ranger unit, and it was amazing to see how hidden the whole BAS90 system was.

 

The kneeboard rearming and refueling function works like a charm, but what is needed is for the Huey to be able to fly out 3 vehicles.

 

• HUMMER M1025

• AMMO TRUCK M818

• HEMTT TANKER M978

 

It will take a bit of workload and time from the Hilo side, but could be a fun addition to the missions. I tried it and managed to land 2 times out of 3.. bit hard, but always fun with a challenge.

 

NELLUS

That’s a wonderful idea, that would add more dynamic in the games with espaced airfield, and importance of blue helicopter like the huey