Eh guys... sorry I've been absent but it's been busier than usual up here.


I finally got a chance to go in and fix a couple of items.

Donkey Kong has been changed slightly so that Blue is ALL US forces (no KA50s) and Red is ALL Russian. Huey's can deliver troops to the hilltop as soon as they can get up ther but they best be careful doing it. There's nothing hidden there- and no traps... but the Red GC may have other ideas.

I've also cut the force in half and set the second half to spawn in at a certain point during the advance. I'm hoping that will help improve performance as well as give the GC some opportunity to get creative with their tactics.

In addition to this, I've cut back on artillery (though red keeps some to contend with the infantry on DK55). Of course, one knows that DK55 is a landmark and can be easily hit from maximum range... so Blue is going to need to deal with that threat sooner than later.

I've also been humming and hawing about the TUNG and TOR SAMs in their ability to intercept missiles at a ridiculous rate of accuracy. I have tried to work around that somehow and still find that we achieve balance by maintaining the higher level SA13 IR SAMs. They can reach far enough away to prevent fixed wing and helos from running and gunning at leisure, while forcing aircraft to an altitude where acquiring targets on the ground can be a challege. The added challenge is that these assets can (and likely will) be hidden and their positions not given away by radar emissions.

I've changed gelen to blue affiliation so that all aircraft can bomb up as desired. I've pulled back red troops about 4-5 miles because they have the easier ground to cover. This won't buy Blue much time but I figured it's better for the overall.

Red units slightly outnumber blue on the ground- so that is not a coincidence. This is pretty traditional amongst eastern and western battle arrays.

The situation is a bit clearer -

Well,,, as soon as I fly outta this spring rainstorm...


Combined Arms really is a hoot - this shot is in a Blue M1-A1 hiding from Red HAVOK attack helicopters waiting for a Red armor column to come over a rise for a surprise from me -


eau-de-Persa mission with Hueys and Hogs -


That is a FARP Ammo Dump -


General Vaz is in a hurry -


Cue in Apocalypse Now music -

I have to say that Hueys pair up well with Hogs.

WC

Fulda Gap has Hueys.


We donna need no stenken TGPz.

WC

Eh guys... back home finally. Been a long set.


Anyway, wanted to try some EBD on with the new adjustments. Added some AI interference in the air and also moved some people around so there were those issues mentioned earlier.

Also lengthened the sit time for the AI... adjusted some of the narrative in the briefing.


Hope to see some of you in there! (I need the help)

Welcome home big guy. Huey is on sale for 20 bucks. What a steal!! If you buy it, you could put up some of the Huey missions bunch of us are flying.

Sounds great, when are you guys planning on running EBD tonight?

I tinkered around with this mission yesterday. It looks like a good one that combines A-10, KA-50, and UH-1H roles for each.

I flew as a Huey and I wasn't able to complete it because I needed CAS but it looks promising.

If there are no huey's available to fly, the mission subs in AI Blackhawks to do their tasks.

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/340533/

when is the sale on wheel

Starts on June 20th Pete.

Thanks wheel- if there are missions you want me to load then me not having Huey won't stop me. Let me know or mol can always install it if he likes. Just remember when it's installed in the slmod missions folder it needs to be opened in the me first, then saved as a new file. Then it's ready for loading.

Ebd was up last night but didn't quite have the group I was used to in there. I was delivering a pretty severe pounding, focussing on tungs first with bombs but just couldn't get them all before the assault started. I was able to rearm a few times with 9 97s and run along the road with ripple single 9 with a 400 foot spacing... Guys if you've never done it... Talk about the grim reaper. You're a big, lumbering cow until that drop but it changes the tide.

Sacrificer was in there learning a few things but if you're in here watching I could have talked you through your weapons issue in 5 minutes that may have taken hours of reading. Most in here are happy to help but it's tough to type it all out while in mission. Get thee ts3!

I'm off to the island for sailing so won't be around until Monday afternoon again...

Three more and M-O-O-N spells done.

But meanwhile, enough editing - time to go Back To Class.

WC

Happy to say that Moa sent me his original Operation Rampant Bear - ready in about two weeks with an update for v124, UH-1Hs and Win/Lose trigger logic; this is the first Rampant Bear that Moa designed with ships and Tu-22s inbound Kutaisi and Tbilisi. Rampant Bear is the last mission edit left for me to complete.

Lots of refinements in the mission library - cleaned up stuff that I sure hope will improve frame rates, and went through all loadouts, waypoints and advanced actions,,, etc.

In the meantime, I am off for New Orleans next week to live INXS!

Have fun in Hollo Pointe - admins, there are a bunch of missions to choose from.. pick what you want! I'll be back!

Hi Eno, Crew and everyone. Just wanted to say I was by Back to School today for the first A-10 work in a couple months and it was a blast! Enjoy the show in N.O.Crew!

Eh there TC! Was wondering where you've been!

I'm going to be in tonight (very soon)- hope to see you there! I'd like to run kill box again...

Anyone interested?

Unless CINCHOUSE changes her mind, I should have tomorrow night free to fly! Yippee!

Who wants to do two-ship ops? Formations? Time on Target?

The Killbox was fun last night. Don't know if it was blind luck but I managed to maneuver the old huey around the battlefield most of the evening. I even evaded a couple of missiles and took down some trucks. Lots of fun Eno.

Eh Einstein... hope to see you onboard tonight. Not sure what will be running at this moment. I have added a few missions that Mol was talking about (Asset Extraction and Huey Airlift)- and we ran Killbox Zulu Romeo last night. Full Throttle might be nice for a training session with the potential to escalate once a certain number of people are in.

I also fixed a few aspects of the Killbox mission-

- I moved the hueys further apart so they don't actually smack into each other if both are winding up (parking spots are too close together).
- Made all departing bases full blue so that weapons restrictions were lifted. If you're going to fly that far to get into the action you might as well have what you need. (On that note, however, I found a few guys were regretful of bombing up so heavy and they had a hard time keeping up)
- Adjusted the MANPAD SAMs so that in the event of a full attack or full retreat these are deactivated so that we can REALLY get down and dirty with the guns and the choppers.
- Added a "Fence in" message that describes the resident threats and hard deck recommendation.

Mol made a good suggestion about setting up the Huey to evacuate personnel to the Vinson- which I think would be a great idea... I just need to set it up and that takes a bit longer. I've had some trouble with it on the Eastbound and Down mission- so we'll see.

I also wouldn't mind running Donkey Kong again- provided we have red and blue ground commanders interested in playing the role. I've adjusted that one so that the forces are divided in half- with the second halves being reinforcements that deploy at certain points in the advance.

Frank the Tanked V2 is also a great training ground for formation flying and Two-ship ops. There are some targets, JTAC, tankers (both Russian and US)... as well as some stuff for the Hueys to chew on.

I sure wouldn't mind flying Fulda Gap again somtime. It has been a long time since I played that one.. I remember it being really tough without the pod, and that SAM site that forces you to fly low.. I saw it was running last week, but I didn't see anyone playing during the usual business hours.

And a comment re Kill box.. Would it not be better to have all of the jets spawn at the closer airport? Sure would speed up the action as far as getting back out to the fight, getting late comers into the fight quicker.. Just a thought.

Back when the 9th was active, we would fly long missions and my squad leader would drill me all the way to the fence check.. 2, close it up.. 2, shackle.. 2, 90 right.. 2, go tactical line abreast...2, what are you doing way out there? 2 rejoin.. LOL Fun, but damn it sure was nice to get to that fence...

Nowadays, I would be totally OK with an air start at IP, 40% gas, 4 mavs, 2 97s and pack of smoke markers

The idea is insert formation flying into "normal" missions - buddy up with someone in a Wingman/Lead pair and stay together for the mission. I've got some experimentation to do with respect to time on target ops before I get too serious - I've been out of the Hawg cockpit too long and need to freshen up on the basics anyways.

Looking forward to hanging with you guys tonight, probably about 7:30pm MST (7:30pm PDT, 10:30pm EDT)