UKLZ FSX Acceleration Multiplayer Combined Ops

[RichC]

Am willing to host (on Gamespy Flight Training server) a combined ops MP training mission on Friday 2 March between 21:30 and 23:30 (extended to 00:30 if possible).
This is to test the water on formation flying at low level with more than two helicopters for future UKLZ Exercises.

You will need :
Horizon VFR Photographic Scenery Gen-X version 2 (Southern England)
UK2000 VFR Airfields
Treescapes for Southern England
World Power Project (Pylons etc) http://forum.mutleyshangar.com/index.ph ... oject-v40/
Teamspeak 3 Client
Microphone (embedded laptop mics work fine)

Aircraft:-
Alphasim MH53, Acceleration EH101, Alphasim Apache AH.1, UKMIL Chinook, UKMIL Puma

The choice is from those above, no other aircraft will be allowed to fly in formation.

The mission will be set out by myself and will involve:-
Simulated Troop Lift/Drops
Low Level Flying (Tree top height, hence the need for Treescapes) and possibly for long periods.
Simulated Extraction of downed pilot or multiples (several SH needed)
Escorting those SH assets (Apache) and dealing with threats (simulated) and calling in the SH when needed.
Possibly some short notice field work along the route if objectives have been achieved.

No scenery files are needed as we will not be using any exercise scenery in this mission. You can even turn off scenery complexity to Very Spare to get better FPS if you wish. Just need the Autogen (trees) set to "Dense".

Max number of helicopters will be set at 6. (4 x SH and 2 x AH or 5 x SH and 1 x AH) or whatever we have available. More than 6 would become very hard work.

To fly with us, you will need to read the UKLZ guidelines/tips i have set out for everyone to fly in formation (loose or tight) without major problems when flying helicopters. Otherwise it can get a bit difficult with people playing catch up or some whizzing off into the unknown leaving others behind.
You can get the guidelines/tips by sending me a PM if you wish to include yourself.

To enable others to fly with us, we will include default scenery out of area missions soon, these will be conducted "abroad" using default FSX Acceleration scenery.

If i receive up to 6 players of interest (with the above specifications) i will get going on the "route" and mission type for the first MP period on Friday.

If i do not receive much interest due to others not having the required scenery, we can do low level formation (loose) and short notice field work Out of Area (abroad) using Default scenery. This will involve mountain flying.

For those who suffer from frame rate issues (like myself) and if things do not go to plan, do not worry, we will try and work around them if we can.

[Rotörhead]

I'll be there from about 9:45 until the end

[phoenixegmh]

Hi Rich,

I'd definitely be up for this!

Best Rgds

Alec

[RichC]

Cool,
Can you confirm you have the above software (Horizon, Treescapes etc?)

[phoenixegmh]

Have the UK2000 stuff, use FS Earth Tiles and will grab the treescapes this evening!

I am on call Friday night so may get interrupted by the work phone, but will generally be there!

Might bring out an Apache with Crazydunc, as I'm sure he'd be up for this.

[RichC]

Not familiar with FS Earth Tiles. Is that photographic scenery? as we need the same scenery to be able to talk onto areas with the same reference points (field shapes, hedges, trees, bushes, etc).

If we don't get enough Horizon people then we will have to do a default scenery mission in somewhere like Switzerland. I will then call out fields to land and so on at short notice....but this will also involve a long endurance low level mountain flying sortie and will see, how in a large formation, if that works well with FSX Acceleration.

Holding at a specific point will be interesting with so many helo's!!!

Edit: I see FS Earth now, it's a Tile Proxy programme. I have tried tile proxy before but it needed simconnect so i could not go any further with it unfortunately.
That should be okay though if you have the tiles for southern England and hopefully should be the same as Horizon (google).... but perhaps more updated and i assume more detailed?

Shame my simconnect is broken...

[phoenixegmh]

Rich,

FSEarthTiles is good, but the advantage is that it doesn't download on the fly, you download in advance, and it parses the scenery and creates it as though it's Horizon VFR. It's also free!

Switzerland would be good, as I have the Swiss Pro Scenery also!

If you can let me know rough areas that we're likely to be playing in, then I can get the appropriate Earth tiles installed! Cheers!

[RichC]

Switzerland or France (Likely France ) would be a default scenery area only. Every person would need the same scenery whether it be default or VFR photographic. (Just Flight VFR should work fine instead of Horizon too).

So, its either default or VFR..... we cannot use both at the same time. As others would not see what some other players are seeing and vice versa.

We need to get everyone on here first to say whether or not they have the appropriate scenery or not first... then i can start planning.

The first sortie would be really getting to grips with a large helicopter formation and doing certain things on the way to keep everyone on their toes.

Would need atleast 6 but can be 3-4 players by Thursday Night so i can plan ahead a route and/or things to do during that sortie.

Teamspeak 3 is needed, i will provide the details later this week...

Those who wish to fly more can eventually join us at UKLZ to conduct frequent joint operations.

[crazydunc]

I'll come along as Ugly51 If thats okay with Rich?

I'll have all the sceneries needed as well!

[RichC]

That will be good, if we had an UGLY 51/52 and then several SH assets (Molton, Adonis or Ultimate). It can be a mixed AH/SH escorted mission.

There will be a mission brief for FTX1 D1 in the coming day for those interested and will be along the lines of the following (but detailed).

The sortie will be a NOTIONAL one meaning that all subjects (troops, vehicles etc) will be simulated and will not show in the scenery. All will be simulated "as if".
I may however by Friday insert red or green smoke in various places to provide proper references to the LZ's. This can then be emailed out to the persons involved along with the formation guidelines set out by UKLZ tp provide smooth running of the formation.
Main route will not be on SPTA but in country....so low level flying can be fulfilled without restrictions.

I will set out an AH and SH plan for those involved and these will outline the mission profile of each asset of the TAG mission.

Using Teamspeak 3, each air asset will use their callsign as briefed by the tasking order.
If you are not comfortable with proper chat then not to worry, just the use of the callsign will be needed and you can chat normally if you wish using the microphone.
You do not need a head set. I use my embedded laptop mic fine.

This sortie will be a tester for more in depth missions to come from UKLZ (Website and forum up and running soon).
Sceneries will be released for various locations alongside objects/vehicles specifically made for UKLZ. These will come as and when they are finished and will eventually be posted up on the UKLZ website.

If you're in for Friday, startex will be around 21:45-22:00 depending on people arriving/loading up.
Let's hope it doesn't drain too much FPS (for me!!).

Positions to fill:-
UGLY 51 - Crazydunc
UGLY 52 - Pheonixegmh?
MOLTON 31 - RichC
MOLTON 32 - Olicat

Two more positions can be filled for two more SH assets, either Chinook, EH101 or Puma.

SH Lead will have formation control
AH Lead will have AH mission specific control

Oh and if you can, install the World Power Lines (link given in the post above) as we tend to keep these in mind when flying low level along with height restrictions over built up areas and so on.

[phoenixegmh]

Rich,

Sounds good!

Either I can take Ugly52 or go shared cockpit with Dunc to pair up in the AH! (This may be a better option seeing as I'm on call, so it'll mean that I can hand off control to Dunc if I need to be on the phone).

[RichC]

That's fine, 1 AH will be suited to this.

[RichC]

Can you make sure that you all have MCD Iraq and MCD Afghanistan and MCDMil Object Libraries installed into the Addon Scenery folders as i have added a small quick FARP enroute
For those who are flying, you will need to PM me your email addresses.

AH pilot/gunners will need a tasking order sent to them along with the guide/tip and also SH pilots will be provided with the guide.

So, PM me your email addresses, make sure you all have the relevant scenery addons and also the MCD Libraries and so on... (for a fuel truck and tent etc).

Mission will be several hours long with a route of 190 miles and several "taskings" along those specific tracks.

Addons needed:-

FSX Power Project
MBC Studios Object Library
MCDFSXIraq
MCDMil Scenery

All of those are free and available on the Flightsim.com and Simviation/Avsim AFAIK. Or just Google them.

[RichC]

Okay guys

We will have 6 taskings during a 2hr to 2.5hr mission which will start in North Devon and end at Netheravon for shut down.
Mission route will be around 200nm long with taskings set in each track.

Mission Brief will be sent to each player.

As far as i am aware, we now have the full player list of 6 Assets. Although one asset might be shared which is fine.

That would mean we have
1(2) x AH
4 x SH

We have enough assets to do the sortie even if one or two drop out due to issues (it happens).

Mission brief will be sent by email and either print it out or write it down.

If the following can PM me their email addresses
crazydunc
Pheonixebmh
LowLevelRAF

[GreenBat]

Hi folks,

I'm not a Flight Simmer in any way, shape or form at all, I wouldn't have a clue on where to start, or what equipment is needed, and on the odd occassions I have popped into this section to see what its all about, I have just left even more baffled But this this idea of Rich's sounds really cool,and i'd be interested to see how it turns out. Perhaps someone could post up some screenshots of these missions as the ones I've see on here look fantastic.

Good luck fellas

Stuart.

[RichC]

I have that funny feeling it will be a dramatic fail.... in my part i expect

[GreenBat]

Nothing ventured ... nothing gained.... keep the faith Rich

[RichC]

Think i might need a more powerful thingmajig to sort this ambitious sortie out....

[phoenixegmh]

Rich,

Very sorry but I am going to have to withdraw from this particular event due to unexpected work this evening!

Please do let me know when you're doing the next one and I will endeavour to be there.

Apologies,

Alec

[RichC]

Alec,

No problem, i'm expecting my system to fail during this but will try my best to keep it up. Did a test flight last night by myself on the route and it took 2.5hours.
If all goes well (50/50 chance i guess) then we shall do another. If not, we will have to do it on a smaller scale (less assets).

For those involved, Startex will be c. 22:00. Please make sure your FSX is loaded up and ready to load the flight by that time.
I will send out the briefing later. It involves a lot of formation low level work to /from the locations. So lots of opportunities to take some screen shots.