Dr. Warthog or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Study Flight Sim

[republic]

I always enjoyed complex flight sims, however I missed both Falcon 3 and 4.  I had no computer when Falcon 3.0 came out, and when I did I had forgotten about it because it was long gone from store shelves.  When Falcon 4.0 came out my computer was too wimpy to run it.  Most of my button mashing experience came from X-Plane, MS Flight Simulator, and various other sims that came and went.

I decided to jump back in with DCS: Blackshark...and was overwhelmed.  Refusing to play the game on "Game" I just gave up. 

Then I purchased DCS: A10 on sale the other day.  I have a fresh attitude now.  I'm playing on full flight realism, but on game avionics.  I figure its better to learn what I need to learn first, then learn it...if that makes sense.  The list of key commands are so exhaustive, I first want to know what the important things to learn are...then I can move on to realistic avionics.

I took the A10 up just for a 'check ride' and it was great fun.  Having buttons clearly marked in English helps quite a bit.  I tried for hours and hours to figure out the trim mechanic on Blackshark...but never could stay in the air for long.  The traditional fixed wing A10 is what I know.

So I'm going to give it a try, I'll try to update as time goes on.  I hope to get Flaming Cliffs 3 when it is released, so I can have some carrier ops.

However...I can't help but think of how amazing a Vietnam campaign would be with DCS's realism.  Thuds down Route Pak 6....wow...

[Toonces]

I find BMS Falcon FAR easier to play than DCS-A10.  Now, I have a ton of years invested in Falcon 4 so I'm sure that helps, but the F-16 is just far more intuitive than the A-10 IMHO.

You should consider it now, before the graphics in DCS spoil you.

[Huw the Poo]

I'm up against a similar wall with Black Shark.  I can't wait to dive in and play but there's so much reading to be done first, and I have less time now than I did when Falcon 4 came out.  I'm determined to do it though; I even went and found my stick, and cleared enough space on my desk to use it!  Now that's determination!

[Toonces]

The only way to master the Blackshark is to figure out the trim system.  Like you can manually trim it, or there's a button you can press that auto-trims the controls to hold whatever position they're in the moment you hit the button.  You have to figure out how to make that work for you or the helo is impossible to fly.

I never could quite get the hang of it, and I really tried. 

[Nefaro]

I decided to jump back in with DCS: Blackshark...and was overwhelmed.  Refusing to play the game on "Game" I just gave up. 

Then I purchased DCS: A10 on sale the other day.  I have a fresh attitude now.  I'm playing on full flight realism, but on game avionics. ..

That's how you need to fly DCS Black Shark, too.   At least, I believe the avionics is the one to lower.  Mainly because a number of people (myself included) just can't get the screwy computer-assisted "trim" (aka auto-leveller) to adjust from one setting to another properly without it tossing the helo all over the place.  I've tried doing it numerous times, using all the pro tips I could find, but I just can't get the damn thing to be keep the proper setting past the first one.  I'm still not sure what causes the damn thing to leap to some other setting than where I let off, every damn time, but it makes me wonder if it's something to do with my joystick drivers.. I have no idea. *shrug*

So after I nullified that damn annoying thing, it was great fun.  Well.. other than the collective 'sticking' a bit too much to the neutral position, and having to be jammed a little further to get it to move, but that's a small price to pay.  I'd still rather not have the easier collective controls at the same time, but at least the computer Trimmer is automated now so that I don't have to jockey the collective, and hold the joystick perfectly still, for long trips. 

Big leap in enjoyment after avoiding the 'realistic' trimmer!  After you get past the screwy "Auto-Timmer" issue, the only big button-pushing series you need to learn is your weapon systems arming & use, and the start-up procedures only if you want to do those.  Oh.. and how to work the flare dispenser, which isn't a big deal.

[Huw the Poo]

Nefaro, it sounds like you need to remove the deadzone in your controller settings.  I'm sure I read that on the Eagle Dynamics website somewhere.

Yeah, I've heard nasty things about the trim, but if you can get it to work properly it does sound a lot better than the trims I'm used to, i.e. twiddling a knob, waiting for the aircraft to respond, easing off a bit of pressure on the stick, twiddling the knob again, and so on until it's trimmed.  I hate doing that.

Apparently with the Black Shark's trim you get 0.5 seconds from commanding the trim in which to centre your stick, and it should "just work".  That doesn't sound like long enough to me, and sure enough, there's an .ini file you can edit to lengthen that a bit.  It does come with caveats though, but...well, I'll wait and see how it is.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I got the Blackshark trim figured out after a few weeks of frustration but I could never get all the systems to work together at once.  If I wanted to use the ShkVar missile thingie, I had to do it from a dead hover or I'd never get the stupid wire sight to acquire properly before the target drifted out of view. 

If I stayed in a hover, even concealed and at a good stand off range, I still ended up getting shot down.  If I tried to keep moving, I couldn't fly and target at the same time and I'd end up crashing into something or missing my shot.

I ended up giving up on the sim. 

I've had A-10 on my PC for months now and never, ever even boot it up.

Maybe someday but I doubt it.  I just don't have the patience that I once did to take the time to learn a new sim.

[Nefaro]

Nefaro, it sounds like you need to remove the deadzone in your controller settings.  I'm sure I read that on the Eagle Dynamics website somewhere.

Perhaps that's the problem, then.  My cheapie joystick, even though I don't need to put much dead space in it.  Mostly so I can keep my hand on the stick without having to worry about tiny accidental movements.   

Sounds more like they didn't account for dead zone in the Trim programming.  :-[

[republic]

On Blackshark, I can get the trim to cooperate about 1 time in 10.  I think that trim mechanism is the point to where realism intrudes too much on fun, at least for me.  I'll try it with the avionics backed off a bit, once I get going with A10.

My main reason for getting A10 was to get my feel for DCS so that once Flaming Cliffs 3 is released, I'll be able to play with other folks online.

@Toonces

I've tried BMS once but didn't stick with it.  I need to give it another try.  Falcon has that amazing campaign that has yet to be matched.

[Huw the Poo]

Falcon has that amazing campaign that has yet to be matched.

That's the reason it's taken me so long to finally buy another sim; going from Falcon's amazing dynamic campaign to chained missions is going to feel like a massive step backwards. :(

[republic]

I seem to get registered at BMS.  First my normal forum name of "Republic" is blacklisted, and after picking a new one I've been waiting on my confirmation email for about 5 hours.  :\

[Toonces]

Do you have the original Falcon 4.0 disk?  You need that to install BMS.

[jomni]

Less mission variety in A10. I stopped playing it already. Looking to go back to falcon.

[republic]

I used to have the falcon.exe, I'll have to look it up again.  I tried BMS a long time ago, but it was summertime and I didn't have the time to devote to it and forgot all about it.  Still haven't gotten my confirmation email  :\

Edit:  Actually they sent my confirmation mail right away.  It was my stupid nested email address chain.  I have dummy accounts that feed to actual accounts, that all forward back to my main email account.  The confirmation email made it through one account but got bogged down in the middle.  Maybe I'm overprotecting myself  :)

[tgb]

I've nothing to add other than to compliment you on the thread title.