Hi fellow DCS-noobs,

after failing miserabely with DCS-Black Shark some time ago I now managed to learn and enjoy dcs world (su-25t). I want to share my experiences hoping that they help other simmers to find into this sim. This is surely only one way of many and I am happy for input about important aspects I missed or the next steps I should take.

1. Stick with the su-25t: There are lots of glittering modules waiting and winking. But the su-25t is (imho) complex enough for a beginner and really fun to fly. Since there are so many things to learn flying the much simpler su-25t, beginning with eg the A-10 with her thousands of buttons and displays has much more potential for frustration (although it's a cooler airplane).

2. Dont fiddle to long with the graphic settings and fps; if you dont own a high end gaming machine put the settings to minimum: On your attack runs with activated Shkval your fps gained from your carefully optimized settings will be reduced a lot.

3. Watch the excellent su-25t tutorials by Robert Sogomonian on youtube. Write down the important steps and the keys with notepad. Make a kneepad out of your notes (http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=122856 - I made each a page for taxiing, starting, navigating, landing, countermeasures, laser-guided weapons,... with the font big enough to be able to read it easily) and fly with the kneepad activated the first times.

4. Stay away from the autopilot. The trims do not recenter if you turn it of, BUT (in my case) the recentering of the trims doesnt work using the Alt-3-autopilot mode (straight and level flight) either. This has caused a lot of frustration until I stopped using the autopilot. And besides, this is a flight sim, not a cab sim, so why dont fly yourself?

5. Customize the Shkval control keys (move target box, zooming, change target size, lock) to your needs. I had many problems with target akquisition until I put them from the center of the keyboard to the WASD and neighbouring keys. Now I can fly with the right hand (joystick) and akquire the targets with the left hand and - miraculously - now I am able to akquire and attack targets! With this configuration I even enjoy decent successes, when I cannot play with the joystick.

6. Concentrate on the laser guided missiles (eg Vikhr) first: It takes practice to learn hitting your targets, so dont stress yourself with the more difficult weapons like cannons, bombs etc until you can employ the laser guided missiles effectively.

7. Practice with quickly automatically generated missions (second menu option in main menu). Unless you dont mind being shot down by F16s repeatedly (dont underestimate those nasty A10s and Apaches either), reduce the number of enemy aircraft in the advanced options during mission creation. Fly the same mission repeatedly trying different approaches to the targets and tactics. I find myself shot down by AAA, SAMs and enemy aircraft rather often, but also scoring hits (sometimes also shooting down a F16 hehe). This in combination with being within a raging battle gives me much joy and motivation trying to get better.

8. I'm now trying to learn not to get shot down by AAA during my attacks by not getting to near and practicing evasive maneuvres. It seems evasive maneuvres do require a joystick, since I crash often in the ground when I evade playing with the keyboard.

Thanks to Eagle Dynamics for providing this great sim for free and all here on the forum which posted information! Without such a forum playing this sim would be impossible for me.

Have fun!
Ralf

+1 Nicely written!

Thanks for posting that. I need to get in the Su-25t pit and actually learn how to fly and fight it. This is good encouragement.

2. Also with the A-10C I had the same problem until I focused on one thing (targeting pod use) and then it just went downhill from there, it's not hard, with the exception of the Startup/Shutdown sequence.


You're getting shot down by AAA? You can easily outrange any form of AAA with a good Vikhr shot (if equipped) but things to remember: First if you don't have Vikhrs simply find, fix, and destroy. IF you have to weed them out then look for the point of origin where the tracers start from and slew your pipper/Shkval/Mercury (works real good even during the daytime if not configured for SEAD with the Fantasmagoria pod) on your next pass and kill as necessary.

http://562.50megs.com/562nd/DCS%20Ironhand%20Guide.pdf

My contribution to this list:

• Be patient. The plane doesn't yank and bank. Stay in stand-off distances and pull 2-2.5g sustaining turns to get into a position for re-attack.
• Start your Vikhr runs at about 7km out from the target. Throttle back to about 50% if allowed by the threats in the area. Start by getting a single Vikhr shot off, then breakaway. After some practice you should be able to get 2 Vikhr shots off in a single pass.
• If you don't have a launch cue by the time you're 3km from the target, break away! You won't get the firing solution, get the shot, and guide the shot into the target without overflying at that point, and overflying the target in a slow (if you throttled down), barely maneuverable bus is a bad thing. This also goes back to bullet #1: patience. Just turn away, throttle up and set up for a 7km re-attack.
• Map the laser ranger to your HOTAS, especially if you plan to fire 2 Vikhrs on the same pass. I've found that the laser will automatically turn off and cool down after sustaining a Vikhr shot, and you need to toggle the laser and override the cooldown if you're going to get a launch cue for the second shot.

You can still do a two-shot even with the countdown, but your overall accuracy is dropping to 50% on aspect, and also if you throttle to 50% as well.

Here are my tips -

- I have a CH Products HOTAS setup. My throttle has a microstick as well as a hat switch. I have the microstick setup for shkval slew in axis setup and the hat switch set up for slew as well in the controls assignments. This allows me to very quickly slew the laser pipper around using the microstick and then make fine adjustments onto the target using the hat switch.

- Remember to adjust the target lock on a vehicle to the top half of it to account for the vikhr corkscrew flight regime. You'll get more consistent kills.

- I reassign the arrow keys on my keyboard from pitch and bank to the trim controls for all my aircraft. They are marked clearly and set away from all the other keys. That way I can tap a few clicks of trim into the aircraft whenever I need. You will want autopilot for some situations and being able to re-trim quickly will help. Russian aircraft put a helpful line on top of the control stick and a corresponding line on the dashboard. This will help you dial trim back in as you can watch the stick "come back" to center as you hold in the trim key. I actually reverse the up and down keys for the pitch trim keys since tapping the "forward" arrow to put the nose down and the "backward" arrow to pull the nose up is more intuitive for me. Crazy but it works for me.

- Build a simple mission in the mission editor for all of your aircraft as a one stop place to practice the big three (Take off, Shoot, Land) without a lot of other things to distract you (like wingmen!). It also helps to get config assignments down before joining multiplayer. Here is a rough sketch on how I made mine -

- Open Mission editor and click new mission at top
- In the choose side menu move all the countries to the right - blue - except Ukraine. (not currently PC I know) This will allow you to place any module you have down on an airport as blue and shoot at red targets.
- Choose the aircraft option and on the right choose Russia and SU25T.
- Name it Su-25T
- for player choose CLIENT. This will allow you to pick the aircraft when you start the mission in a dialog.
- Double click it on an airport so it places it there. whatever airport you want to operate out of.
- Down below on the right on the first tab choose parked and warmed up and then choose a parking spot. it will snap the aircraft to that spot on the map. Record what parking space you put it in!
- Ignore waypoints for now
- On the second tab create a new loadout or several loadouts for the aircraft with the weapons you want to work
with.
- Add any other aircraft modules you have by choosing either Russia or US, Aircraft name, pick the aircraft, choose Client for player, and a unique parking spot. This will allow you to pick from a list of all of your modules when you start the mission.
- Scroll to another part of the map, Not too far away, and pick vehicles on the left side.
- Give the group a name and pick Ukraine (red) for side and place some vehicles down. I recommend trucks to start.
- place different groups of trucks down in different locations not too far from each other.
- Save the mission and name it All Aircraft Training or whatever you like and close.

Now go to Missions and My Missions and start the mission you saved. It will give you a dialog with the aircraft list. Pick the aircraft you want and you will start all warmed and ready. Practice taxiing. Practice taking off. Attack each group of trucks with a different weapon system until they are dead. practice landing.

Things to add once you have your mission working and you are getting proficient -

- Ramp start to practice start up procedures.
- AAA at the target area !
- SAMS near target area !!!
- Waypoints for a particular aircraft - Useful for navigation system practice
- Once your mission is built you can add anything you like going forward

I hope this helps and please forgive if I didn't get the buttons names exactly right in the editor. There is also a youtube video on the editor that is helpful to see what is going on.

Good luck!

Thank you all for your informative and encouraging feedback!

Thanks for the excellent guides.

Using su25T with vikhr, I always find it difficult to look for the targets using TV display.
The targets are too small. even the tv display is too small.

How do you get around this?

Hi Tirta, I use the alt-f1 view (without cockpit), then the TV is a bit bigger. (And dont forget to zoom in the tv :-)

These are two different types of zoom. One is a function of your setup and how you configure your keys, and the other is a function of the Skhval TV display.

- There are many ways for you to look around the cockpit - Mouse look, Trackir, Trackir + zoom keys, and probably a few others. This is very much a "what works for you" kind of setup. It is very important though to be able to zoom in close to the cockpit gauges and displays as if you were leaning down and close in real life. At the bottom of the Keyboard controls setup are several commands for zoom in and out. I prefer "Zoom in Slow" and "Zoom out slow" but you should experiment. Assign either keyboard, or even better buttons on your joystick or throttle to these keys so you can zoom your view into the gauges or the distant countryside or back out to your comfortable cockpit view. My personal setup is a trackir with the axis set in the axis controls so I can lean in and out with my head, but I also have a left and right part of a hat switch assigned to Zoom in slow and Zoom out slow so I can "squint" at whatever I need, so to speak.

- Bunyap on Youtube has a video up that addresses this specific zoom question. I won't link directly to it because you should watch all of his stuff. Just search for him. He is fantastic and an invaluable resource for learning to fly in DCS.

-Target acquisition in DCS is a combination of setting up your attack run, stabilizing your aircraft, going "heads down" in the information displays to find and lock the target, and then back out to drive the aircraft and launch. All take practice and a constant tweaking of your setup and method.

- As for the display zoom itself - It has two zoom levels normal and zoomed in. These are controlled by the - and = keys by default. slew around in zoomed out view to find the location of targets and then zoom the view in to lock targets. It is very helpful to map these keys onto your HOTAS setup as well.

Here is a quick rundown of the critical keys to map and know for skhval/vikhr launch:

Turn it on and off: O key
Slew the designator around: ; , . / keys
Stabilize/Lock the target: Enter key
Zoom in/out the display: - = keys
Adjust target size gate: RALT - RALT = keys
Turn the laser on/off: RSHIFT O
Fire it: space key

Here is a link to Beniboys keyboard reference sheets -

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=116059


Good Hunting!

Your best bet for finding ground targets is to check the mission planner before you actually start the mission and fix landmarks, like towns and crop fields with unusual shapes. Ai units in the mission generator are also deployed in a kinda predictable manner, typically a line of battle kind of thing, so if you find one, look to its flanks for more. AA units are always loners and usually just behind AFV columns too.

I wouldn't advise scanning large areas with the Skhval. No FLIR, restrictive FOV and it being limited to the frontal arc of the plane make it too hard to bother IMO.

Great community thread, keep this up