DCS Black Shark 1.0.1 Patch Includes New Skins

Chizh, an Eagle Dynamics team member, has announced here that the 1.0.1 patch will include 29 new fictional skins for the Black Shark attack helicopter. The new paint schemes are from Russia, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Georgia, United Kingdom, USA, France, Ukraine and Israel.


Very nice ... but where's the patch? Just kidding, patch is still scheduled for August.

Cheers,

ArmA 2: First Impressions

After struggling for two days to get my ArmA 2 DVD to work, I finally could get some time to play.

Having neither enough patience nor time to play, I dived straight into the editor and scrambled a little something to both get my bearings and see what's new in ArmA 2.

Some assorted impressions follow.

• The editor continues to be one of the best out there. Easy to use, incredibly flexible and powerful. I found at least one exciting new addition to the editor: linked waypoints (you can make one unit at a waypoint to wait until other arrives to a linked waypoint). This will make editing coordinated computer-controlled units a piece of cake.

• In my aging computer (far from a gamer's rig), ArmA 2 runs better than ArmA. As noted elsewhere, ArmA 2 is using my two processor cores. Off course I had to make compromises like disabling post-process effects, putting everything to "normal" settings and lowering the resolution down to a 1024x768 pixels resolution. The majority of graphics-related options can be changed on the fly while playing a mission, which made finding my sweet spot relatively easy. Keep in mind, though, that graphics options are very scalable and tweaking settings to a comfortable level may take some time.
  

• Visually, ArmA 2 is stunning. I'm not a graphics kind of guy but I have to confess I was floored. I really liked how my virtual Marine's vision blurred a bit while sprinting or while being suppressed by enemy fire. As noted by a fellow gamer who commented in my previous blog entry, some visual effects look more like the computer monitor is showing the virtual battlefield as seen through a camcorder rather than from human eyes.

• OPFOR AI appears to be better than before. I edited a few small missions featuring a squad of insurgents against a fire team of Marines. The insurgents always tried to flank my Marines, this time apparently with wider maneuvers than the ones seen in ArmA 1. I still have to patch my game to version 1.02, which allegedly brings some changes into the computer controlled attack routines. I liked how the surviving OPFORs pull back when almost all their teammates have been neutralized. At least in my hastily-edited scenarios, the OPFOR refuses to take full-advantage of the cover offered by buildings in built-up areas. But compared to ArmA, at least they don't stand in the middle of the street. Don't take this as set in stone, as I have to explore more the options for waypoints available in the scenario editor.

• As for the friendly AI, I was able to command my Marines fire team quite nicely. I've seen a lot complaining back in the ArmA days about the friendly AI being rather useless and eager to get killed. IMHO, the two most important things you have to recognize in commanding computer-controlled soldiers in ArmA/2 are: (1) computer controlled soldiers are not able to read neither your mind nor the OPORD and (2) tactically speaking, you are in charge (i.e. don't expect your computer-controlled subordinates to solve YOUR tactical problems). So, keep yourself busy with those command keystrokes and tell your subordinates what's going on ("All, danger"), what position relative to you to occupy ("Formation, column"), and where to look at ("All, watch at 2 o'clock"). And speaking of the "watch at" command, in ArmA I remember pointing with my mouse for the direction to watch at. Is that possible in ArmA 2? I liked the convenience of pointing with my mouse better than using cardinal points (my spatial orientation is less tha stelar).
  

• Saving Marine #4: half-way cleaning up a town with my Marine fire team and, still not very handy with the command controls, I order Marine #4 to "Close doors at that house" some 30 meters in front of us. I was trying hard to find the damn keystrokes to stop the poor fellow going right into an enemy-held block when he comes back to me with "Men, dangerously close, front!". I pull out the virtual map and I could see how close he was to the danger with only a few meters plus a wooden fence between him and the certainty of being shot. I found the key commands to order him to hide and he went inside a house (closing the door behind him I would guess?). I then order Marines #2 and #3 to come through the flank of the enemies while I shot that fence with almost all the ammo I had on me. The flanking maneuver payed off handsomely, Marine #2 (machinegunner) mowed down the enemies with a thick curtain of fire. Marine #4 was saved. What's a "close doors" command useful for anyway?

Cheers,

ArmA 2 DVD Problems

Oh man, my DVD drive doesn't recognize my ArmA 2 DVD.

Funny thing, my wife's ancient laptop (4 years older than mine) can read the DVD perfectly. So, using my wife's laptop I transferred everything from the DVD into a portable hard drive and installed ArmA 2 into my computer from there. But then of course ArmA 2 doesn't start because the executable looks in vain for the DVD which is not recognized by my computer.

I have three options

1. Forget about the DVD and get ArmA 2 from Steam
2. Get a new DVD drive or computer
3. Wait until the issue is solved, patched or whatever. After 1 patch I remember ArmA not needing the CD in the drive. I doubt this is going to be the case here.
   

Ah, the joys of DRM!


UPDATE: I got my DVD drive to recognize/read the damn DVD. I had to update the drive's firmware.

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark Printed Manual

A study flight simulator without a printed manual is almost like a party without alcoholic beverages. Either if you want to quickly browse some important data during your virtual flight or if you are trying to extend your enjoyment while away from the computer, printed manuals have always been one of those objects flight simulator enthusiasts consider as important as a good HOTAS.

A printed version of the manual for DCS Black Shark was supposed to be widely available for some time. Amazon is listing it as "out of print", so here is a link for the manual at GoGamer.com if you are interested in purchasing it from the US.

• DCS Black Shark Printed Manual from GoGamer.com

Given the complexity of this simulation, my first reaction to the availability of a printed manual was to run and get it. But on second thought, I find DCS Black Shark's manual a bit difficult to follow and I may pass on this offer. Information in the manual is often dispersed and organized in a strange way.

Do you remember the printed manual of Falcon 4? It had the technical info at the beginning of the section and then a hands-on, switch to switch description of what you had to do to get the bombs and missiles on target. I'm not saying that DCS Black Shark's manual is bad. I'm just saying is a bit strange.

Cheers,

ArmA 2 Review at Out of Eight!

James Allen has an ArmA 2 review at his "Out of Eight PC Game Reviews" blog.

ArmA II is better off when released than ArmA I was, so the large contingent of gamers looking for a realistic military simulation should not be disappointed.

Great review. Thanks, James!

Cheers,

ArmA 2 Tactics: The Definitive Guide by Dslyecxi

This gentleman Dslyecxi is just amazing. In addition to his previous guide for ArmA, now he has a guide for ArmA2.


Thanks again Dslyecxi for an amazing job. I'm looking forward to apply all the stuff from your guide into the game.

My hat goes off to you, sir.

Cheers,

Unscratched Itches of June

The month of June is coming to an end and I could not complete many of the things I had planned.

• I have an un-opened copy of IL-2: 1946 (birthday present).
  

I played the original IL-2 (plus Forgotten Battles) quite a bit in the past but now that I'm a grown up who can afford a HOTAS, pedals and TrackIR, I want to revisit this great flight simulator series

• Battle Group Commander: Episode One.
  

My initial forays into commanding British forces have been a disaster. This is one of the things I like from ProSim war games: if you are lousy, they really punish you hard.

• DCS Black Shark.
  

I want to try out the weapons delivery tactics I wrote about a few days ago. Yep, I have been delivering advice without trying it beforehand. Writing is cheap, folks.

• ArmA 2.
  

The copy I ordered from NWS Online Gaming Store it's in the mail right now. No rush here, even if a copy of ArmA2 would drop from the sky right into my hands at this precise moment, I wouldn't have had the time to install it anyway.

• Combat Mission Shock Force: Marines Module.
  

This one I promised to get back into when my disappointment over the suicidal computer-controlled soldiers washes off. To put me in the mood, a couple of days ago I visited the official Battlefront forums to see what's up. It's business as usual over there, nobody would acknowledge there is a problem with the TacAI of this game. Only few people still make the majority of posts there: developers, beta-testers and those who want to be beta-testers.

• War gaming the break-out from Normandy during 1944.
  

Does it happen to you with certain historical battles that despite a lot of media exposure, they just don't lit that fire in your belly that make you go an try to war game them? Normandy was one of those battles for me. After reading "Tank Tactics" everything changed for me and now I'm in for some serious war gaming. Game chosen already: "Anglo-German War 1939-1945" by Schwerpunkt Games. Look at this beauty:


So many games, so little time ...

Cheers,

Are World Wars a thing of the past?

This weekend I was playing one of these wonderful Panzer Campaigns war games when I was struck (yet again) by the sheer scope of WWII in the Eastern front. Granted I was playing a tiny scenario of the Minsk 44 war game, not the greatest showdown of men and material compared to other battles in the Soviet Union. Still I was there in command of the 3rd and 48th Armies (1st Belorussian Front), and using air support from the 16th Air Army. At my command: 32590 men 1256 guns 737 vehicles and 330 planes. I say it again, this is not the biggest battle of military history. But I couldn't bring myself to think about what would be in real life to have all these resources at my disposal.



Nowadays, they speak about the so-called three block wars, low intensity conflicts and small wars. These types of conflicts appear to have been particularly frequent in the recent past ten years.

Are big wars a thing of the past?

How big is the average war, anyway?

Professional staticians prefer to speak about the frequency distribution of the values observed rather than about averages only. Everybody has heard of the bell-shaped curve of the archetypal Gaussian normal distribution (see the image at right). Is a curve where the x-axis indicates the value measured and the y-axis indicates how frequent that value was found in a population. The average is the value in the x-axis where the curve has a peak and is the most typical value found in a population.




What the frequency distribution of the sizes of wars looks like?



Back in 1960, a very smart fellow named Richardson took casualties data from wars on record and plotted them in a way similar than the one shown above. Number of casualties in the x-axis and frequency of the wars having x-casualties in the y-axis.
[Please note the word "similar". There is some mathematical geeky tricks behind the type of plot Richardson made, unfortunately these tricks are beyond the scope of this blog.]
Richardson didn't find a normal distribution for the size of wars (see the graphic at the right, taken from "Modeling the Size of Wars" by Lars-Erik Cederman). The data showed lots of small wars, fewer large ones and just two of cataclysmic size (WWII and WWI). In other words, he found that the size of wars was inversely proportional to their frequency. Also, his plot shows no peak, which means that there is not a typical size for wars.

The type of distribution shown above are so-called "power-law distributions" because the frequency decays following a power law. Power law distributions are typical of systems that self-organize into a critical state where a tiny fluctuation can trigger either an event of tremendous magnitude or just a smaller, almost non detectable one. The friction between tectonic plates is a good example of these "self-organized at a critical state" systems. The tectonic plates collide with each other, releasing energy in the form of earthquakes. The intensity of earthquakes show exactly a power law distribution.

Scientists like Cederman, have been arguing that warfare is one of those self-organized at a critical state systems. The analogy of the tectonic plates and the release of energy in the form of earthquakes is more than appealing. It also leads to the unsettling conclusion that, once the pieces are all set, there may be nothing to stop a world war.

It was 11 A.M. on a fine summer morning in Sarajevo, June 28 1914, when the driver of an automobile carrying two passengers made a wrong turn. The car was not supposed to leave the main street, and yet it did, pulling up into a narrow passageway with no escape. It was an unremarkable mistake, easy enough to make in the crowded, dusty streets. But this mistake, made on this day and by this driver, would disrupt hundreds of millions of lives, and alter the course of world history.

Mark Buchanan in "Ubiquity"

So, to answer the question in the title of this entry: there is no way to tell if humankind will endure another world war. We should expect frequent small wars, that's for sure. But we should never underestimate the power of a chauffeur's mistake ...

Cheers,

"A Gap in the Screen", A New Scenario for Steel Beasts ProPE

This is the same scenario I used for my "hunter-killer platoon" after action report.

The description of this scenario follows.

A US Cav Sq is executing a screen mission in the Iraqi desert. Around 5 AM, the Sq Commander became aware of a 4 km-wide gap in the Sq's screen line. A quick inspection of the gap was attempted and some Iraqi vehicles were destroyed, but it is evident there are enemy vehicles west of the Sq's intended screen line. 3 BMPs and at least 4 T-72s were seen hastily retreating east. Time is now 6:20 and your Cav Plt is tasked with clearing the marked sector of enemy armored vehicles and re-establish the screen line no later than 8:10 AM.


Expected enemy resistance is probably a mechanized infantry Co(-), likely reinforced with at least 4 T-72s. Your Plt is organized in two "hunter-killer" teams (each one consisting in 2 M3 CFVs and 1 M1 MBT) plus a 2 M3 CFV team. Units located north and south of your sector continue with their screen mission. Watch your fires, we don't any blue-on-blue incidents. The Sq's aerial component is grounded until meteorological conditions improve. No indirect fires allowed due to the close position of the other Plts north and south of your sector. Good luck,

You can download the scenario at the "Real and Simulated Wars Companion Website".

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark Tactics Primer (Part 3)

The attack

This entry relies heavily in material taken from this web page. Images are used without authorization but without monetary gain. Please comment if you need them removed.

Several forms of attack are described below. You will have to choose among those based in the following considerations:

• The mission objective (area objective, groups of units, individual units, etc)
• The firepower and maneuver opportunities available to the enemy
• Terrain
• Climate
• Fire support available (number of helicopters in your flight, indirect artillery fire, etc)
• Time available to complete the mission
• Collateral damage to civilians

Attack from the horizontal flight

Once you have determined the area where you want to attack (usually without knowing the exact position of the targets) you climb keeping forward speed until you reach the minimum altitude that allows you to detect the enemy. As soon as you detect the enemy, you stop climbing and continue the horizontal flight trying to get your selected weapon in range. After firing the selected weapon, you break right or left and simultaneously drop altitude so you can better use the terrain to mask your return in the opposite direction of the attack.

The good

• You can use a great variety of weapons with this form of attack
• The time you spent above the minimum altitude is relatively small
• Can be used under unfavorable climatological conditions, like low ceiling
• You can use non-guided munitions
• (Very little piloting skills needed!)

The bad

• Short time available to detect and destroy enemy units
• There is always a chance to be detected and engaged by enemy anti-air defenses while you fly at altitudes above the minimum

Attack from the dive

This type of attack can be used against area or individual targets. You can use un-guided munitions or the cannon in this type of attack.
You start flying at minimum altitude and maximum speed. Around 6 km from the target, you climb abruptly up to an altitude such as you can descend on a dive with your nose pointing directly to the targets. This altitude is generally higher than the minimal altitude needed to detect the targets. You then dive towards the targets, firing your weapons. You then quickly break and return towards the opposite direction of the attack.

The good

• Better chances that you will detect the targets because of the high altitude used during the approach
• Better chances of hitting targets with non-guided rockets
• (Adrenaline rush!)

The bad

• You will be flying higher during the approach and enemy anti-aircraft systems can detect and engage you
• Impossible to use under low ceiling conditions
• You need to keep an eye on airspeed and rotor rpm

Attack from the hover

You start from a position where your hovering helicopter is covered by terrain and bob up or pop sideways to acquire the targets. These movements must be conducted in a way that quickly allows you to return to the covered position in case the enemy detects and/or engages you.

The good

• Ideal for ambushing the enemy
• If you are flying with wingmen, you can distribute targets with the other members of the flight more easily
• (Allows the virtual pilot to sip beer and eat pizza during the attack)

The bad

• Ideal for the enemy ambushing you
• Almost impossible to use non-guided rockets
• Difficult to implement for flights of more than two helicopters (it's difficult to find a terrain feature big enough to cover 3 or more helicopters)
• Risk of brown-out and/or impairment of optical systems performance
• (Increased risk of beer-spattered keyboard and cheese-stuccoed monitor monitor if the enemy is waiting for you right behind that bloody hill)

Attack from the climb

This form of attack can be used only with rockets or bombs. This type of attack should be considered an exception rather than a norm.
You start a climb with horizontal speed with the nose of your helicopter at a positive angle. At certain distance form the target, you launch your rockets or bombs in a way that they fly in an arc. You then reverse your flight trajectory and simultaneously dive towards the safety of terrain cover.

The good

• This form of attack increases the range of rockets and bombs
• You keep more distance from the target
• Can be used even when climate conditions are such that visually acquiring targets is difficult
• (If you hit something of value, you will have eternal bragging rights)

The bad

• Low precision
• Munitions impact on a wide area
• Watch out for not accidently letting your rockets and bombs on friendly troops

Cheers,