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#3397107 - 09/25/11 12:40 AM 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report  
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EinsteinEP Offline
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Tucson, AZ
The 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In on Sept 24, 2011 was a big success! The community owes a big thank you to Wrecking Crew and the 104th Phoenix administration for coordinating and supporting this event.

I joined on at 9am Mountain Standard Time (GMT 1600) and the 104th server was nearly packed: 22 slots of the 32 available in the Rampaging Bear mission were taken. The SimHQ Teamspeak 3 was decently filled as well, with about 8 or 10 folks chatting away there.


Smoke trails point to target-rich areas.


Text comms supplemented TS3 in coordinating the action.

This Fly-In was intended to be a low-key, unorganized get-together with an emphasis on fun for all, and, considering there were no enforced communications protocols, strict flight procedures, or task assignments, the missions played out very well.

There were some server and/or mission stability issues early on that caused a few server crashes, but the 104th administrators were monitoring the events and brought the server back online as quickly as possible each time.


The fires of victory burn brightly tonight!

Some of us found out the hard way that the 104th Phoenix server has a kick system that instantly kicks players that are involved in the death of another friendly aircraft, player or AI, and prevents them from logging on for another 15 minutes. This is true even if a friendly AI vehicle happens to be located in your spawn location when you join the mission. A number of us were temporarily blocked from playing when these instances occurred.

We also ran into a number of issues that seem to be bugs with the DCS A-10C game in multiplayer: the JTAC would only respond to whatever player had first checked in and would ignore requests by other players for target info. Maybe this is tactically correct, but it got confusing in a mission where not all the players were in close communication with each other. There were also numerous graphical glitches that didn't really affect the play of the game but made for some odd screenshots.


I think you got too much nose down trim there, Rooster.

Despite the mass mayhem that can occur at high traffic airports without a dedicated air traffic controller (the in-game AI ATC cannot efficiently de-conflict incoming and outgoing human traffic on this scale), there were only a few intermittent traffic issues in the air or on the ground, none of which stopped the game.


Busy night



Aircraft landing the wrong direction on an established runway can cause traffic headaches. Follow the active traffic pattern flow unless in an emergency!

The good turnout turned out to be too good at one point as the missions running on the 104th Phoenix server ran out of open slots! Folks started heading over to the related stallturn server, which was running the same missions.



Player-player cooperation is why I play multiplayer games and there was plenty to spare.

I was pleased by the overall demonstration of respect by fellow pilots. Right-of-ways were yielded, there were no intentional air-to-air teamkills (that I knew of), and folks were doing their best to make sure everyone was having a good time. Experts were answering other folks' questions, guiding them to targets and helping them put weapons onto said targets. I know I learned quite a bit from listening to the advice of fellow fliers today!

From an execution standpoint, I think we learned a bit about how to make the event run more smoothly next time, but I'd like to hear your feedback: what worked for you? What didn't? What could be done next time to improve your experience?

Post here or feel free to PM me.

Thanks to all who participated in today's event, and a special thanks to Wrecking Crew and the 104th Phoenix. Hope to fly with you next time!


Shoot to Kill.
Play to Have Fun.
Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#3397175 - 09/25/11 03:11 AM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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Toadster Offline
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Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada
My personal thanks to Manawar, Polecat, Moa, IronMike, the good folks at SimHQ and everyone else who helped make this A-10C weekend a lot of fun! Sure we had some server crashes, but we moved on and still had a great time!

More importantly, a huge Thank You to everyone who came to "Fly and say Hi"... it was a sheer pleasure to meet all of you and I had fun just chatting about everyday stuff.

S!

104th_Toadster
Squadron Leader

#3397209 - 09/25/11 04:40 AM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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Wrecking Crew Offline
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Colorado
tHANK you to everyone who touched base for the A-10C Fly In.

It is 24 hours into it, and folks are still flying on the DCS Mercenaries site. What a day!

There were stability issues but today was a great opportunity to check out the systems and get people talking.
And the flying was great - a lot of screenshots and a lot of jets -




104th Guys - you guys did a great job today under fire. All plans are chaos 30 minutes in... and we are still flying and fighting. Those pirates didn't have a chance,,, arrrrggghhh m8tys

We had double digit attendance in the SimHQ TS3 server for this - great crowd and conversations all day.



Wrecking Crew


crew




"Your ballroom days are over, baby"

Find my DCS World missions at Wrecking Crew Projects. All released missions are free to download, modify and publicly host -- enjoy!
#3397247 - 09/25/11 06:08 AM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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Wrecking Crew Offline
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Colorado
SimHQ & 104th DCS A-10C - Air Show - 24-Sep-2011 - Pictures

Highlights from Friday and Saturday -

Wrecking Crew
EinsteinEP
104th Moa
SimHQ & 104th Squadron



Friday staging -


Evening rendezvous & late arrivals -



Let the day begin..



ATC kept good order -



The 388th. Great teamwork!



Fall colors



What a turn out! -



Start of Pirates! Da scummy m8s var com plet'edy ov'r wehlm'd -


Moa -


















The SimHQ Fly In 20110924




"Your ballroom days are over, baby"

Find my DCS World missions at Wrecking Crew Projects. All released missions are free to download, modify and publicly host -- enjoy!
#3397272 - 09/25/11 08:29 AM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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HogDriver Offline
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I would have definitely been interested if I could play A-10 better. biggrin The casual atmosphere would have been appealing.


I refuse to buy a flight sim that I have no interest in playing, on the off chance that MAYBE someday they'll make the one I really want to play.

#3397345 - 09/25/11 01:58 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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MagnumHB Offline
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Great event. An amusing case of mistaken identity aside, things generally went pretty smoothly for a casual event with so many people. This is the first time I've seen that many people in-game in A-10C (at least in a public server), which is something I think has been sorely needed in this sim for a while. On the downside, nobody likes server crashes, but the 104th folks did an admirable job of pursuing resolutions. Unfortunately for me, my own connectivity problems and schedule took me out of the game once the server had been stabilized. I expect that the next event of this sort will run more smoothly on the technical end of things.

Another thing that I think could be improved is overall communication in-game, which was particularly hurt by some people being on the SimHQ TS and others on the 104th due to registration approval delays here. It might also help to establish a standardized datalink group ID ahead of time, then have everyone use their aircraft tail numbers as own ID (if they are indeed unique).

One other minor issue was that the default loadouts on Fulda Gap did not seem to be as intended, possibly as a result of quickly adding more slots. Overall though, the missions were fun and well constructed. I look forward to the next event like this.

#3397411 - 09/25/11 04:58 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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Manawar Offline
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WV
I just want to say Excellent event! I think this was huge for the DCS community and are proud to have been apart of it. Personally I had a blast, and want to thank everyone that participated. organized and promoted the event. DCS A10-C is by far the best military flight sim ever created. We certainly thank everyone for being patient through the number of crashes that we had during the event. I'm sure many of the issues that caused those random crashes will no doubt be fixed in the final patches to come.

We will do what we can to make the next event even better!

#3397414 - 09/25/11 05:05 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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Manawar Offline
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WV
Some "Screenies" from the event!






#3397427 - 09/25/11 05:51 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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Lorien Offline
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Looks like you guys had a blast. Wish I could fly the A-10 well enough to be able to join in smile


Intel Core2 Quad CPU @ 2.66
6 GB RAM
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#3397499 - 09/25/11 08:41 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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- Ice Offline
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Philippines / North East UK
Wish I could have joined... had problems connecting to MP.

When's the next fly-in?


- Ice
#3397509 - 09/25/11 08:57 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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BillyRiley Offline
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Colchester, England
Sorry I didn't get to make it - I'm still "in training" and I just wasn't confident enough to come on...hopefully I'll stick at it and be able to fly this thing...well, I can fly it - but that's about all I can do in it...and navigate...nothing more though

#3397574 - 09/25/11 10:47 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: BillyRiley]  
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104th_Moa Offline
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Originally Posted By: BillyRiley
Sorry I didn't get to make it - I'm still "in training" and I just wasn't confident enough to come on...hopefully I'll stick at it and be able to fly this thing...well, I can fly it - but that's about all I can do in it...and navigate...nothing more though


The missions were designed for folks like yourself - straightforward, with map views on and lots of targets easily reachible with bombs, rockets, and guns (so you don't have to know how o do a buddy-lased drop using a JTAC, although you could have).

One of the best aspects of the fly-in (for me at least) was that the 104th TeamSpeak and SimHQ Teamspeak hosted plenty of enthusiasts who were helping each out with all sort of stuff, some of it related to the sim and some of it not.

Next time please feel free to jump on. No-one will judge you harshly if you have some questions, they want you to enjoy the sim as much as they do (remember, all of us were once n00bs at the sim - we're just a little further ahead on the learning path 'cause we started a bit earlier or put more time in, one day you'll also be there).

#3397605 - 09/26/11 12:16 AM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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MagnumHB Offline
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Now, for your viewing pleasure, some action shots I managed to grab from my (mostly) non-corrupted tracks. The much more extensive full album from my screenshot session is here.












#3397611 - 09/26/11 12:35 AM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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Great shots MagnumHB, thanks for posting them.

#3397821 - 09/26/11 01:23 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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Toadster Offline
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A few pictures from the 104th and SimHQ A-10C weekend fly in on Saturday afternoon. Thanks again for everyone who showed up and had a sortie with us!!!



An early morning start at Lochini-Tbilisi Airfield...


Nice Sunrise...


Getting started...


104th_Manawar on my left side...


104th_Manawar posing for the camera...


Great detail by DCS on this L-39ZA...


"Hmmm.. why is the Launch Warning going off?"


"..and I'm freeeee - free fallin'!"


Chute opened and I'll live to fly another day...


#3397827 - 09/26/11 01:37 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: 104th_Moa]  
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BillyRiley Offline
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Colchester, England
Originally Posted By: 104th_Moa
Originally Posted By: BillyRiley
Sorry I didn't get to make it - I'm still "in training" and I just wasn't confident enough to come on...hopefully I'll stick at it and be able to fly this thing...well, I can fly it - but that's about all I can do in it...and navigate...nothing more though


The missions were designed for folks like yourself - straightforward, with map views on and lots of targets easily reachible with bombs, rockets, and guns (so you don't have to know how o do a buddy-lased drop using a JTAC, although you could have).

One of the best aspects of the fly-in (for me at least) was that the 104th TeamSpeak and SimHQ Teamspeak hosted plenty of enthusiasts who were helping each out with all sort of stuff, some of it related to the sim and some of it not.

Next time please feel free to jump on. No-one will judge you harshly if you have some questions, they want you to enjoy the sim as much as they do (remember, all of us were once n00bs at the sim - we're just a little further ahead on the learning path 'cause we started a bit earlier or put more time in, one day you'll also be there).

I know and very appreciative of the info...in the words of a female who doesn't want to be with her partner anymore "It's not you - it's me"...

I just felt way too inadequate...I am going over the training missions again and again and again trying to keep everything in my head.

Hopefully I will be up to speed to a point where I wouldn't feel quite so inadequate in the future.

#3397866 - 09/26/11 02:48 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: BillyRiley]  
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Toadster Offline
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Toadster  Offline
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Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada
Originally Posted By: BillyRiley
Originally Posted By: 104th_Moa
Originally Posted By: BillyRiley
Sorry I didn't get to make it - I'm still "in training" and I just wasn't confident enough to come on...hopefully I'll stick at it and be able to fly this thing...well, I can fly it - but that's about all I can do in it...and navigate...nothing more though


The missions were designed for folks like yourself - straightforward, with map views on and lots of targets easily reachible with bombs, rockets, and guns (so you don't have to know how o do a buddy-lased drop using a JTAC, although you could have).

One of the best aspects of the fly-in (for me at least) was that the 104th TeamSpeak and SimHQ Teamspeak hosted plenty of enthusiasts who were helping each out with all sort of stuff, some of it related to the sim and some of it not.

Next time please feel free to jump on. No-one will judge you harshly if you have some questions, they want you to enjoy the sim as much as they do (remember, all of us were once n00bs at the sim - we're just a little further ahead on the learning path 'cause we started a bit earlier or put more time in, one day you'll also be there).

I know and very appreciative of the info...in the words of a female who doesn't want to be with her partner anymore "It's not you - it's me"...

I just felt way too inadequate...I am going over the training missions again and again and again trying to keep everything in my head.

Hopefully I will be up to speed to a point where I wouldn't feel quite so inadequate in the future.


Hi BillyRiley.

If you do get stuck on a certain area of training, please feel free to drop into any number of TS3 servers for Squadrons who fly the A-10C. If they are too busy to assist, they'll let you know right away. For example, our 104th TS3 Server has a "Help" Channel assigned specifically for just about everything from software issues to Flight Sim questions. When we see someone in there, one of us will pop in and see if we can help.

There are many people in this community that would be more than happy to get you up to speed for the next A-10C "Fly in". Having said that, you would have been more than welcome to join this past weekend and simply get airborne and listen to the chatter in TS. I've learned many a tip by just hanging around with other Virtual Pilots in TS.

Don't be shy - come and fly!

Cheers and S!

#3397888 - 09/26/11 03:55 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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EinsteinEP Offline
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EinsteinEP  Offline
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Tucson, AZ
ED let us know that the JTAC "bug" I pointed out earlier is actually as desgined - the JTAC will not communicate (even to say it can't communicate!) with another flight until the current checks out. If a mission designer wants an MP mission with multiple JTAC comms at the same time, they need to create multiple JTACS.

Also, some of the graphical issues we saw during the day (planes bouncing thousands of feet into the air on landing, aircraft coasting off into space with both engines burning for 20 mintues, or standing on their nose during startup [see here]) are due to connection issues.


Shoot to Kill.
Play to Have Fun.
#3397901 - 09/26/11 04:29 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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- Ice Offline
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- Ice  Offline
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Philippines / North East UK
Billy, I see you are on my side of the pond. I could take you up sometime for a training flight if you want, er, provided my schedule allows it. Very busy at work at the moment.

The point is, the training missions are not really too helpful for new pilots. I had to take a pen and notepad to take notes when I started, but I found out that learning with a friend speeds up the learning a lot.

And don't worry about being too green to fly with us, I've flown with a couple of guys who I've had to help set up ("err, where's that switch located again?") before getting airborne. All of us are newbies at some point.... and after months of not flying, some of us are newbies all over again! biggrin


- Ice
#3397965 - 09/26/11 06:04 PM Re: 104th Phoenix / SimHQ DCS A-10C Fly-In Report [Re: EinsteinEP]  
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MagnumHB Offline
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MagnumHB  Offline
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Originally Posted By: EinsteinEP
ED let us know that the JTAC "bug" I pointed out earlier is actually as desgined - the JTAC will not communicate (even to say it can't communicate!) with another flight until the current checks out. If a mission designer wants an MP mission with multiple JTAC comms at the same time, they need to create multiple JTACS.

Also, some of the graphical issues we saw during the day (planes bouncing thousands of feet into the air on landing, aircraft coasting off into space with both engines burning for 20 mintues, or standing on their nose during startup [see here]) are due to connection issues.

This was always my understanding of these issues. I didn't realize they were in question. The JTAC thing is annoying since it doesn't allow for the control of multiple aircraft as is common in the real world, but there's not much we can do about that other than liberal SPI broadcasting. As for the other stuff, pretty much all online games are subject to warping and other odd behavior as manifestations of connectivity trouble, so that's certainly nothing new.

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