I'm feeling the need for a Ka-50 revival on my hard drive..so I'm wondering what mods I might be missing out on?

My current install features:

* Ricardo's (and Devrim's) HD Black Cockpit v2.1 - HERE
* Diego's FARP Textures - HERE
* Devrim's English HUD mod - HERE
* Isegrim's Ka-50 Sound Mod - HERE
* Toby23's Colored Shkval Mod - HERE

That's my short list. All added with JSGME, although you have to be careful to change "aircrafts" to "aircraft" in some of the mods directory structure or they won't install properly...





Nice work by all the modders...

Now - if we could get some more content (missions & campaigns) for the old girl..that would be awesome!

BeachAV8R

I really should reinstall this and give it a go again the Shark is a really unique bird and weapons platform.

It's my favorite module in the DCS lineup (by ED or 3rd party). I mean, the A-10C is incredible..but it is a fairly stable drive and shoot platform. The Ka-50 requires constant attention - just getting to and from the battle area is a big part of the mission. I need to re-learn a lot of it..but it will be fun..

BeachAV8R

I hope they toss a few more updates the Black Shark's way soon. Both in terms of bugs (the long lived Dopler radar never being repaired bug for instance) and some visual ones. Looking for example at those slip balls on the artificial horizon, grainy like it's 2000. Most of all though, I want the trees to start being physical objects. Not so much because I can fly through them, but because of the devastating effect hostile AAA has against such a low and slow flying vehicle when the trees aren't there for the AI.

Fix that, and I'd be a real happy camper with the KA-50. I'm a big fan of the autopilot, it really allows you to sit back and focus on other things when you're going in and out of the battlefield, so you're not as worn out having had to deal with flying the helo in except for collective adjustments to keep it at treetop level, instead of way above or way under, also known as "OH MY GOD, IT BURNS, IT BURNS!" altitude

How much sharper do they need to be to bring them out of 2000? Slip balls? Really?



Trees I'll completely agree with. But the cockpit graphics are fine in stock, fantastic in modded...

BeachAV8R

Same here, it's such an incredible feeling of flight while you are driving the Shark. A-10 is fun, but yeah, sterile in a way.
Love the colored Shkval, I may have to fire the old girl up again. I haven't crashed it in a while!

I've flown the Ka-50 in one version or another from its release, so that's what 6 years now?

To this day the only thing I know about the ABRIS is how to turn on the moving map.
Oh, and I never learned the autopilot, I just turn the heading hold stab channel off for combat and on for ingress/egress.



The Jedi Master

Lol at Jedi

Yeah owned it from day one too. my favourite platform.

As above, if the dcs engine would do something with the trees, then we could use this frame properly +other little bugs. Is time for some lurve to the shark


I think of a shark like wolves, best used in packs, especially when 1 is used as a command centre

Yeah..there is definitely a special feeling of flying the Shark. There was a mission quite a while back called "Fletcher's Hideout" or something that had you flying up into the very high mountains to make an attack. It was very hard to cross the mountains and near impossible to hover unless you lightened up the helicopter. It made for a lot of fun and nerve-wracking flying...


Yeah, I could stand to have a more thorough understanding of the ABRIS. Like the A-10C CDU, I think it is one of the more under-appreciated aspects of these DCS modules. The detailing of the functions of the ABRIS and the CDU require a ton of programming that lots of people would never use. I assume they did the programming for their military contracts and we benefited. Regarding the autopilot..I still like using the Turn to Target mode sometimes. I don't have a huge grasp on the autopilot functions, but I regularly use the ENROUTE and HOVER modes (I have them mapped to my stick).


Is Edge giving us collidable trees or not? I can't remember...


Yeah, I have this fantasy where me and Einstein's schedules manage to overlap correctly and we can combine to take on one of the campaigns in the Ka-50 together. Or better yet, have a 4-ship campaign or something that saved in some persistent state so we could all get on together and fly. I'm definitely going to be hopping online in the Ka-50 more this winter though...

BeachAV8R

Still not know, its going to be based on the impact on performance I am sure...

The issue isn't so much bad graphics as it is that the slip ball still looks like a sprite superimposed on a 3D object, as opposed to the ball being an object of its own. Is this a dealbreaker? Not by a long shot, and it should also be very low on the priority list. But it would be nice to have a 3D slip ball like we do in the UH-1.




I don't think collidable trees is as much a graphics engine thing as it is an AI engagement/pathfinding issue. We used to have collidable trees, but they were removed for combined arms as the lesser of evils.

Think it might've been either what Fries said (+24 hours lack of sleep at the time, might've had a case of bad luck remembering what annoyed me looking at it) or it might've been the right hand artificial horizon that I remembered. Either way, just a small example of the graphics update I think the KA-50 deserves.

I'm pretty sure it's the SAI that most obviously does it; you look at the primary slip indicator head on so if it is a sprite the effect is lessened.

I know I use the SAI to set my rudder trim just because I can still keep my head up.

you should see this bad boy in 3d and it will floor you

Don't take this the wrong way..but some of you just try to find things wrong to complain about rather than find the overwhelming goodness that is already there. Kind of frustrating for someone who enjoys some things, starts a thread about it, only to have it immediately get dumped on.

BeachAV8R

I'll take that as a fair point in my case in some ways.

Anyway, I've finally after these years to at least start flying the helicopter. And sorry but it is a pain in the ass (I would prefer a broken up trim function than one single one as you try and correct and it trims wrong). So far that's the only real negative thing I've had to say about it, but as you pointed out it does take time, and I need to get more time in the Black Shark as I've flown fixed-wing for a very long time and while Arma 3 isn't comparable, it still help me break me into the basic physics and synching my brain to transition.

I've often wondered if flying the Ka-50 with a FFB joystick would be easier or harder? My only gripe about the trimmer is that sometimes I get lazy and forget to put inputs in prior to resetting it, which if done at high speed, can be disastrous. That is my fault though and I should know better by now.

BeachAV8R

I fly the Huey and Mi-8 with my SWFFB2 (using the Cougar throttle as collective), and I wouldn't have it any other way. The thing about FFB is it lets you know when you're being lazy with trim, and the instinct is to hold down the trim button, reposition the stick, then release (which is good).

The only reason I don't fly FFB with the Ka-50 is that I need all of the HOTAS buttons on my Cougar; if I had a 940 I would be using FFB for sure. However, if there is any helo in DCS that you can do nearly as well without FFB, it is the Ka-50.

So when you hit the trim reset button when using a FFB joystick..what happens? Do you have to have the joystick positioned in a way that will prevent the extreme nose pitch-up..?

I use a TM HOTAS X and quite honestly don't like or enjoy FF setting at all to be honest with you over the years. yeah it's immersion but I like to just work with the stick rather than it shaking all of the time so I can't tell you if it helps or not.