Data cartridges for the Hornet?

[Stingray 537 Mongo]

In this week's newsletter ED said that the 2.7 update will move the Hornet from EA to Release status. That is awesome and I'm so glad the Hornet will finally be finished. What worries me though is that a long time ago there was talk about data cartridges being made available for the Hornet in the mission editor for things like CMS profiles, laser codes and whatnot. That was conspicuously absent from the list of new features that will be released with the 2.7 update though.

 

So my question is, are we getting data cartridges for the Hornet from ED or will we need to keep having to use third party software like CombatFlite to "simulate" that feature?

[Gierasimov]

Last time I heard about this it was said ED is working on a common feature that can be used with multiple modules. Therefore it was moved to core game feature rather than module specific in my opinion. 

[Stingray 537 Mongo]

2 hours ago, Gierasimov said:

Last time I heard about this it was said ED is working on a common feature that can be used with multiple modules. Therefore it was moved to core game feature rather than module specific in my opinion. 

Thanks. I must have missed that. I tried searching in the core forum and the closest thing I found was back in December where ED said it was "in the works" but they wouldn't elaborate further. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[Northstar98]

Yeah, plus the DTC is only half the story IMO; we also need a full mission planner, which should be available either before start (in the lobby) or with aircraft on the ground using the ground crew menu.

 

For the Hornet, it should at least allow you to edit all 3 of your flight plans, the countermeasures, pre-planned targets, default radio presets, IFF plan (or at least I think - in any case it won't be much use until IFF is simulated in greater fidelity - like the JF-17), and pre-planned threats. Let me know if there's something I missed.

 

Here's what it would need for the F-16 at least.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Northstar98

[Swift.]

5 hours ago, Northstar98 said:

Yeah, plus the DTC is only half the story IMO; we also need a full mission planner, which should be available either before start (in the lobby) or with aircraft on the ground.

 

For the Hornet, it should allow you to edit all 3 of your flight plans, the countermeasures, pre-planned targets, default radio presets, IFF plan (or at least I think - in any case it won't be much use until IFF is simulated in greater fidelity - like the JF-17), and pre-planned threats. Let me know if there's something I missed.

 

Here's what it would need for the F-16 at least.

 

 

 

 

Waypoints/Sequences

Radar Presets

TACAN

GPS settings and points

Winds

ALR-67 setting

CIT

MIDS

PB Threats

SA setting

Points/Lines/Areas

TAMMAC

ROE

ARC-210 setting

DCS misc setting

ALE-47 setting

JDAM

JSOW

SLAM-ER

HARM

[Northstar98]

On 3/13/2021 at 12:19 AM, Swiftwin9s said:

Waypoints/Sequences

Radar Presets

TACAN

GPS settings and points

Winds

ALR-67 setting

CIT

MIDS

PB Threats

SA setting

Points/Lines/Areas

TAMMAC

ROE

ARC-210 setting

DCS misc setting

ALE-47 setting

JDAM

JSOW

SLAM-ER

HARM

 

Awesome, thanks!

 

I wonder what the ALR-67 settings would allow you to change? And I guess the JDAM/JSOW settings will just have all the PB targets and terminal parameters?

Edited March 28, 2021 by Northstar98

[Swift.]

1 hour ago, Northstar98 said:

 

Awesome, thanks!

 

I wonder what the ALR-67 settings would allow you to change? And I guess the JDAM/JSOW settings will just have all the PB targets and terminal parameters?

 

No idea, perhaps something about which symbol is shown for each emitter, maybe new emitter profiles. The important thing to remember is that a lot of those settings are way way out of the scope of the DCS simulation, not just classification, but complexity too.

[Northstar98]

6 minutes ago, Swiftwin9s said:

No idea, perhaps something about which symbol is shown for each emitter, maybe new emitter profiles. The important thing to remember is that a lot of those settings are way way out of the scope of the DCS simulation, not just classification, but complexity too.

 

Fair enough.

[Cutter]

I'm looking forward to this too.

 

I forget where it was reported but I it was said that the coder working on the LITENING pod had to finish that and then the DTC was the next job. So with any luck it's in progress.

 

Don't know if you've seen it but in the "mission" lua inside a .miz there are already lines of code specifying the data cartridge - they just don't have any data in them yet;

 

                                        ["dataCartridge"] = 
                                        {
                                            ["GroupsPoints"] = 
                                            {
                                                ["PB"] = 
                                                {
                                                }, -- end of ["PB"]
                                                ["Sequence 2 Red"] = 
                                                {
                                                }, -- end of ["Sequence 2 Red"]
                                                ["Start Location"] = 
                                                {
                                                }, -- end of ["Start Location"]
                                                ["Sequence 1 Blue"] = 
                                                {
                                                }, -- end of ["Sequence 1 Blue"]
                                                ["Sequence 3 Yellow"] = 
                                                {
                                                }, -- end of ["Sequence 3 Yellow"]
                                                ["A/A Waypoint"] = 
                                                {
                                                }, -- end of ["A/A Waypoint"]
                                                ["PP"] = 
                                                {
                                                }, -- end of ["PP"]
                                                ["Initial Point"] = 
                                                {
                                                }, -- end of ["Initial Point"]
                                            }, -- end of ["GroupsPoints"]
                                            ["Points"] = 
                                            {
                                            }, -- end of ["Points"]
                                        }, -- end of ["dataCartridge"]

 

I found this because I've just started learning INS/GPS weapons like the JSOW and wondered if there was a way to get the info from my stored waypoints in the Mission Editor into the game directly for PP attacks, without the button pressing. Seems this is a common wish as there is a remarkable hack with "Waypoint Editor" using OCR to read your F10 map and then press the UFC buttons for you. Pretty bizzare to watch the ghost in the machine!
 

[Matt_j25]

I have been wondering if this is still WIP too, I hope ED are still planning on bringing it to not just the Hornet but also F16 and other aircraft that support DTC's  Its a function that is a big factor for how these jets operate.

[Northstar98]

1 hour ago, Matt_j25 said:

I have been wondering if this is still WIP too, I hope ED are still planning on bringing it to not just the Hornet but also F16 and other aircraft that support DTC's  Its a function that is a big factor for how these jets operate.

 

I mean, the mission planner should also support aircraft that don't have DTCs - there it would be use to change things like laser codes for bombs, radio preset channels, default countermeasure programs (think F-5E-3) and IFF (when/if that gets better implemented, with more fidelity).

[Wing]

DTC should have been priority over AG radar... been talked about since 2018. What is the hold up...

[WOPR]

On 3/27/2021 at 1:41 PM, surreal but nice said:

I'm looking forward to this too.

 

I forget where it was reported but I it was said that the coder working on the LITENING pod had to finish that and then the DTC was the next job. So with any luck it's in progress.

 

Don't know if you've seen it but in the "mission" lua inside a .miz there are already lines of code specifying the data cartridge - they just don't have any data in them yet;

 

                                      

 

Has anyone tried directly editing this structure in the miz file, filling it in with a LUA script, or perhaps with the waypoint properties editor?

[bob030]

+1 Programing JDAMs on free flight servers is a pain and error prone

Edited September 11, 2021 by bob030