Really struggling to learn, any advice?

[AussieSnag]

Hi guys and gals.

So been on DCS for roughly 2 months now and struggling a little bit to learn/remember things. Was hoping some people could give me some good insights, videos, guides ect, and maybe some tips/tricks to help me out. I have watched tons of videos, and read chucks guides multiple times, but still can't seem to get the grip of things, and I am not sure totally what I am missing.

I have currently learnt the F18, I feel confident in AG, but AA, horrible. Unless it's a un-armed fighter, or a friendly flying directly at me, chances are I am getting shot down.

I really need help with Missions, knowing my objective, where it is, just navigation as a whole really, no matter how many times I watch a video, or read a guide, I can never seem to get it right when in a mission, and just get lost up when I am in the air

Can people throw things at me to click my brain into gear.

PS: I am determined to learn, and be good. I love planes, jets perticular, and I refuse to give up even though it frustrates me a lot.

Thanks for any replies, muchly appreciated in advance for the time

Edited October 7, 2021 by AussieSnag

[Oozler]

Although this is not really the answer you might be looking for I can offer this. Flying the plane is easy. Using the systems to employ the aircraft as a weapon is all the work and learning. This is how it is in real life. One learns to fly and operate an aircraft fairly quickly. The next couple of years is learning to become mission capable. My advice is immerse yourself in what you can find online and keep on practicing. It doesn't exactly happen overnight so to speak and DCS is a very challenging game sometimes.

[Caster]

A2A is all about tactics, I've found this is pretty good 

 

[159_Archer]

I am a mud-mover in the 159th, and don't have a great deal of A2A experience relatively. I did notice that Rule 1 of both A2G and A2A is learning to stay alive. I tried to fathom how to kill the enemy straight off in my learning days, but that will only prove useful once you learn how to dodge what they send back at you. Once you get to grips with that, you'll be much better able to get somewhere with being offensive, I think.

Decoys and manoeuvring are amongst the first lessons and also perhaps, where to position yourself (if you have any choice!).

[Hiob]

Do you use any kind of head tracking (like trackIR)?

Dogfighting without is very hard (close to impossible), cause the number one rule in close combat would be "Don't loose track of the bandit!", I guess.

 

I'm sure, there might be people like "I'm totally ok with using a hat-switch on my hotas to look around", (for me that would be nearly impossible) but it is certainly a lot harder!

 

Regarding the orientation on the map.... Find a nice picture of a compass rose with the heading numbers (000 =N, 090 = East and so on), print it out and lay it on your desk.

You can write the different directional cues (like SSW, NNE or 12'clock, 3'clock etc) next to it (the 'clock thing is in relation to your aircraft, not your heading though!).

 

I found it once very difficult, to get those things in my head. To have a physical disk/card/picture on my desk helped me a lot.

 

Edit:

Edited October 7, 2021 by Hiob

[Glide]

3 hours ago, AussieSnag said:

Can people throw things at me to click my brain into gear.

Welcome, and wow, all that wonderful discovery time ahead of you!

 

Two bits of advice.  Imagine that you are a real pilot, not a space invader trying for a high score.  Fly like you think a real pilot would even if you are not a real pilot.  For example, even though you are not going to refuel, fly to meet the tanker like you would, wave and carry on with the mission.

 

Also, imagine you have cadets behind you.  If I imagine that I have to explain my action to a cadet I think about what I am doing a bit more.  This is also the type of radio chatter you might expect during a training flight.  "Nose up 3 degrees, roll right 30 degrees, level at 2400, heading 300 etc."

 

These two things should help you develop discipline and muscle memory.

[AussieSnag]

Thank you all for the replies!! I will take some time and go through all of what was suggested.

Regarding TrackIR, yes I do use head tracking, I did forget to mention that. I played for about a month without it, and now that I have it, have no clue how I ever did play without head tracking.

Thank you again.

PS: That compass idea is great

[JetCat]

It takes 2 years to learn a type-rating of an airplane so don´t expect to be able to control the systems of a jet in one afternoon after watching one YouTube video from Grim Reapers tutorials

it takes time. Get comfortable with your jet, learn to fly and learn one system after another, and always have paper and pencil next to the computer to write down details about the MDF subsystems and relatively hidden easy to forget steps like caging/uncaging seekers and things like that down.

[Lace]

Flying combat jets is a full time job for some people.  It is not easy, it is something which requires lots of learning which in an air arm or air force is built methodically, in stages, with clear objectives and standards at each stage.  There is a reason (well, several actually) why they don't just thrown ab initio pilots into F/A-18Cs.  First they need to learn to fly an aircraft, and navigate, deal with emergencies, and communicate.  Fly at night, in formation and in bad weather, and then all three at the same time.  Then they would learn to fly aircraft with complex systems and a wide performance envelope.  They will learn tactics, enemy capabilities and their tactics.  And they will practice, and study, and be assessed along the way.  All before reaching a pointy-nosed combat aircraft seat.  The point is that even playing this as a game, you are not going to pick it up in five minutes (or even two months).  I'm not saying it is as hard as doing it for real, but if you want to fly like a pro, then you need to think like a pro.  We are lucky in DCS (from a student pilot POV) in that the comms is non-existent really, and there are no consequences for not meeting the standard (i.e. crashing), we can control the weather and rarely have equipment failures or emergencies to deal with. This means we can spend more time on the other aspects of operating an aircraft, like weapons employment, combat tactics and carrier ops.

Break it down in to manageable chunks.  If you are struggling with navigation, then plan a simple mission with a route to follow, with large easily recognised landmarks.  Mix in some magenta line waypoint nav, with some dead-reckoning (at this point I fly at heading xxx for xx NM at xxx Knots to arrive at the next point at a certain time).  When you are more confident try some RNAV stuff.  See if you can find an airfield using a TACAN beacon, and then fly an ILS approach.  Do this in the daytime, and then do it at night.  When you can do that well, move onto the next thing.  Crawl, walk, run.

Burning holes in the sky is fun, but it won't make you a better sim pilot.  Structure and deliberate learning outcomes will.

[LennyTheStoicCat]

All good advice.

 

[Boosterdog]

my solution was to gravitate to something with less buttons, an almost certain guarantee of death should I meet a fighter (thus negating the need to learn A2A) and systems that responsed well to being thumped/scowled at.

Well Hello Mi-8!

To the OP - all advice above is sound THe F18 is the perfect platfom to learn the widest range tasks within DCS........except hovering (although with some ME shenanigans that can be arranged too).  Even within a consumer based sim such as this, it takes a long time to become truly proficient at something other than killing yourself. 

[norman99]

How do you eat an elephant?…………One bite at a time!

In other words, pick one small task you’d like to learn, and only do that for a week. Weather it’s simple navigation, landing patterns, BVR with AMRAAMs, dropping dumb bombs, Carrier recoveries, a particular precision weapon, it doesn’t mater. Just pick one specific topic, read the manual/Chuck’s Guides, watch some of Wags videos, (not GR…), and then just practice only that for a few days. (For this, being able to setup up simple practice missions in the ME helps, such as a 1v1 vs a MIG, or dropping a weapon on a static ground target.) Once you’re up to speed with that particular topic, move on to the next one. But don’t forget to keep refreshing your knowledge of things already learn along the way.

Personally, I learned carrier ops, AMRAAM BVR, and basic unguided bomb employment before ever starting a campaign of any sort. If I come cross a mission that needs an additional skill I don’t have, I pause the campaign, and spend a few days to learn, only afterwards continuing. To this day I’ve still never dropped a JDAM/JSOW, or fired a MAV, and definitely need more practice with HARMs and Harpoons/SLAMs.

You don’t need to know everything to be competent in a DCS aircraft. Simply try to enjoy the small steps along the way.

Lasty, avoid missions/campaigns that just throw everything plus the kitchen sink at you all at once. There’re nothing but frustrating. You gain no skill or confidence with a mission loaded with multiple layers of unknown SAMs, waves of enemy fighter aircraft, all triggered to engage just as you’re trying to drop your first LGB.

[TheCoyoteHunter]

I use "Active Pause" when learning new weapons.

Active Pause - default key is LSHIFT+LWIN+PAUSE

And as stated above, pretend that you are an actual fighter pilot flying the jet, its so much more fun.

[44th Eagle]

Use the Grim Reaper tutorial series. They are goto for learning a module, also use chucks guides.