Brain

If a flight gets cancelled the client gets the "end flight" window. Considering Viper is online 24/7 an attached timer would automatically cause him to go back to 2D. It's a far stretch but BMS doesn't have a separate EXE for 3D that could CTD like in DCS so it's my only guess. Why this happens is another question. Usually it's because a flight fails to take off withing a certain time frame, mostly because of a destroyed runway. Unless some troll bombs Kadena every once in a while I have no idea. Addition: If a player needs to reconnect for some reason, hurries and by accident joins Kadena there is a chance he/she will hijack Viper's plane by accident, as joining a flight through the ATO doesn't change the plane you're sitting in. Since tankers are winchester by default, ending the flight might automatically cause it to be canceled after the player leaves it. We had a similar incident once and it did NOT screw up the original pilot but with BMS you never know. I was thinking about a separate squadron just for hosting purposes but I think joining a server always defaults to the host's squad anyways. Lack of AWACS support is not caused by a server bug. Looking at the ATO only one E-3 was actually tasked with AWACS (now called EW/ABCCC, Early warning/Airborne communication command control) ... 2 hours in the future (TO 15:00 server time). The airborne search radars showing on the RWR are E-8 JSTAR planes.

I already thought about a modified Day 1 save to include some of the new toys Benchmark Sims gave us, but it's hard without "overdoing it" considering the most common threads are easy AI, low-tech MiGs with the occasional MiG-29s in the mix. (NOE, 20nm north of the FLOT, got jumped by 3 MiG-23s at 16000+, less than 15 miles away, simply lofted AIM120s at them and won) Harriers and Warthogs would work well for CAS but question is how many people would actually use them on a regular basis and therefor if it's worth it. Hornets appear to be too strong (just look at the possible loadouts) and I don't think anything else would fit into KTO. We could switch to "strong DPRK", get more modern toys (IIRC including a carrier group with Hornets) and still have a fairly balanced campaign, but then: how many people are actually confident going up against Fulcrums and Flankers with AA-12s on a daily basis? I'm all for raising the bar but with the lack of interest in the forums (still people with 300BW) and communications in game (a few people never respond) it's hard to teach how to deal with the more hostile environment. Some would probably quit which isn't in anybodies interest I guess. Seosan and Osan are close together so a mixed Blk40/52 package is already an option. Kunsan could be changed to have a squadron of each as back up in case the other ABs get knocked out...maybe even US Blk52 to make up for the longer travel time (nothing is free). Anyways, I have to agree with Semler. We are still pretty much testing the server and should change as little as possible for the moment. Just thinking out loud here. @Sinu: KF-16C Blk52s come with an internal jammer, making space for a center line tank and allowing for more A2G ordnance. No "cool" weapons but extensive CAS with 6 Mavs and 6 MK20s is still kick-ass. F-16C BLK40s get all the cool stuff but have a notably weaker engine. Think it's a fair trade off given the current circumstances. EDIT: MiG23s can't even shoot down a fully loaded A-10A (Osan) at 3000ft, 260kias. Calling it "Easy AI" is being extremely generous.

Just as BLUFOR was making a push north ... did you have a look if Seosan is (...was) still operational? Could have been the reason why.

I'd like players to connect with no less than 500 and let's see how this works out. The TS also still states VG is running 4.32 U7...somebody needs to update this and maybe add a link to this post or forum section. We had a BW mix (2x300 + 1x500) and everything went smooth but I still remember issues with different BW settings back in the 4.32 days. Better safe than sorry IMO. EDIT: also noticed the server info on the bottom still reads 4.32 and could use an update ... if people ever scroll that far down do find information :D

So, you actually connected and played successfully on the VG public campaign server using a BW setting of 1024? With several other players online at the same time? I'd usually be mad about it because it caused problems in the past (I strongly remember some ruined flights in 4.32 u6 because of one client) but given we can pretty much rule out everything else ... Well, bandwidth seems to be an issue and I can understand why. We don't need synced control surfaces and pilot head movements but "it's a cool new feature" and nothing we can do about it. Why it has priority over "loading" crucial objects is beyond me but what do I know about making a game. Anyways, the minimum BW for a campaign appears to be 1024 or at the very least 768. If anybody wants to dig deeper into the BMS forums, please do so. I need a brake after reading some of the most unintelligent/useless posts ever.

How do you slew the radar cursor normally? Using DirectX keys or key combinations on the joystick? In controls - axis mapping - avionics there are two axis for the MFD cursor. Set those to "keyboard" unless you are using a analogue micro-stick.

I'm getting "Kevin pending message" when attempting to connect to VG which probably means the server needs a restart ... again (has been done while I'm writing) I've seen people committing multiple times, not deleting accidentally planned / obsolete packages and even got my flight deleted yesterday even though I already joined the plane in 2D (this shouldn't even be possible). Things like this happen all the time and guess what: it will eventually break stuff. Other communities running BMS have lengthy SOPs to ensure people don't mess things up for a reason! You spend so much time learning about handling the F-16, why is it so hard to watch maybe one hour worth of tutorials to learn about how to properly plan, join and abort a flight? Or how about asking when things are unclear? Either post all your questions here or feel free to ask when you see anybody on the server. BMS (as any other flight sim) is about teamwork so I'm sure people will be supportive if you just ask. Personally I'd rather have people asking questions all day long, preventing me of flying myself than having them crash the server every 24 hours. If I see someone committing 4 times in a row, asking in chat if everything is alright and get NO response EVER there is nothing that can be done. It tells me "go way, I don't give a shit" every single time. THAT is what brings my piss to a boil, NOT lack of experience with one of the most temperamental flight sims out there. Finally, please ensure you connect with a BW of 300 only and restart BMS after each flight. There is an issue with desync (blue "paused" message when joining the pit, 2D map not updating) and this should take care of it.

Thank you very much for taking care of the server Semler :) :) Haven't taken a look since the restart and not at home right now (buying an expensive kitchen doesn't mean it's well designed in terms of construction, luckily it's not mine) but will have at least a quick look later. If everything fails we can still do "private campaigns" but share the save, as clients should be able to save online as well. It's not optimal but at least the campaign wouldn't advance so rapidly by itself. It would also account for people who prefer strong DPRK or just a different campaign setting ... we'll see. I'll just be around and see what other people are up to ;)

Server is running smoothly and I didn't notice any loss of progress. It's like everything related to BMS: a pain to set up in the first place but once it runs, it runs beautifully ;) Some feedback from other users might be nice however. With only 3 (!) active SAMs left and almost every airfield taken out there isn't much in terms of opposition except the occasional MIG-21s, which are usually torn apart by F4s as soon as they pop up. I overestimated the impact the 3 SQs at Kunsan make :( I DON'T want to make it a hell hole for players but get somebody playing the campaign instead of hosting own games. BMS seems to use the desktop resolution by default. There might be a command line parameter but couldn't find it.

Since all the squadrons are set up already and you remembered to do a day-1-save after doing so (you did, right?) I don't think it's really necessary to do a TV session. Only thing left I can think of right now is activating the autosave in the server's Falcon BMS.cfg (g_nCampPeriodicSaveMinutes) which should be fine when set to 20 or 30 or something like this. We don't see large packages very often so I don't expect huge progress to be lost. If I remember to do so I'll be on TS in the evening which should be around late morning / mid-day for you. Just poke me if necessary. The people in the BMS channel usually play CS and nobody on the BMS server cares to join TS so I haven't really bothered with it. I already like the new look of the campaign. There are a lot of SEAD targets up north and the FLOT has more bandits to worry about, making flying feel less like a training mission :) Speaking of training: Yesterday somebody left because he felt "useless in the air". Don't worry, I can employ almost everything and teach others how to do so. Only thing I ask for is you already set up your controls and have a basic understanding on how basic things work. Maybe we'll get the server growing this way ;)

Server back up for about 12 hours (looking at campaign time), 120th still fragging SEAD and CAP. DPRK already lost almost all AA on the FLOT and airpower is a joke, making these missions rather boring and pointless. So, unless one cancels AI flights (which is forbidden) or plans a flight hours ahead of time there is no way a human package can be created. Consider this: Set autosave and time in Falcon BMS.cfg, start a new campaign, set up squadrons for humans, save, restart as server, load, double check settings, done. All you got to do after a crash is reload the autosave. I'd suggest setting all squadrons at Kunsan to humans instead of the 120th. It's 3 squadrons less to fly SEAD early in the campaign making things more interesting, US Block 40s are in the mix and there is less conflict with AI flights (which behave strangely sometimes). @TAC: Performance isn't as good but adjusting in game and launcher settings as well as the tweak I posted earlier helps a bunch. Other than that I haven't seen much issues with 4.33.

Autosave might be a good idea especially since the server seems a bit unstable (aka. at the time of writing it's down again). Yesterday I noticed two players flying for the 111th because there were unable to create their own flights. Nothing game breaking but I suspect there are more inexperienced players out there and I don't want to rule out the possibility of crashing the server by doing something very wrong. For those people: https://youtu.be/ghy0wBWaQ-E?t=9m30s It shows all necessary steps to create a flight/package. Until we get additional human F16s stick with KF-16 Block 52, 120th, Seosan airbase. Also connect with a BW of 300. I've seen crazy numbers and it can cause crazy desyncs. There seems to be an issue with ATI cards that will black out the screen when switching to the TGP. I'm getting a few frames of blackout occasionally but others reported it to be permanent. Alt+Tab fixes the issue only temporarily but I'm not aware of a proper solution yet. For people with massive FPS drops after the update I suggest looking at "falcon BMS.cfg" and setting g_bDoubleRTTResolution to 0. Cya in the air

Less AI Squadrons: After campaign restart it took no 12 hours for BluFor to win the air war, making CAS around the FLOT rather trivial. DPRK airforces are just relatively weak. To balance things out I'd suggest maybe 2 more F-16 squadrons for players, one of them being F-16C Block 40 because those get some of the new A/G weapons. When I joined just a few hours after server restart the 120th was still set to HQ and fragged with DEAD, please double check when starting a new campaign (just make a Day 1 save after all setup is complete for easy restarting). Weather: Unless one of you is really hardcore and wants to work with the new weather maps, setting weather to "probabilistic" would make use of the new weather effects. Clear sky gets old. @derk_axelrod No, the campaign manager only assumes none of the planes at that AFB is available and creates different packages to make up for the "loss" of aircraft. There should be a set resupply you can look up in squadron information, i think it includes planes. However completely valid reason to have at least a second F16 squad. Buddy lasing is awesome by the way so get online!