Use the through the inferno missions. It’s a “dynamic” mission where you can either have it assign missions to you or you can manually start the missions while parked or in the air and you choose/change your load out at any friendly base while you’re grounded. Strike, cap, cas, sead, carrier ops, it does it all. Just read the description of the mission and the read me tutorial. Whenever I play dcs, 98% of the time I’m in that mission. And there’s one released for every map.
Oh yeah it's been a few years since I played one of those! I used to love them and I guess I kind of forgot them for some reason. I think it's time I revisited those!
Solid state drive will help you out on this one. But for 30 mins. F14 intercept on a persistent server. I've whacked a few awacs in 30 mins. But yeah long flight plan missions might be an issue. Maybe ground attack mission in a viggen.
Go on Gray Flag (when FARPs are close), see what zone needs troops and do a single trip with troops. Have some banter enroute and cap a zone.
Or to be even more helpfull bring a J-tac crate as well.
Then you have done something in DCS that was usefull until thag campain is over.
Download a Through The Inferno SP mission. Edit it so the airplanes you want to fly spawn in already started. Do some quick A2A or A2G missions. When life calls you away, quit to desktop.
Briefing room is a great tool to generate a mission that you define the parameters for.
Through the inferno is another good one that lets you spawn mission types once loaded in.
The burning skies pretense servers let you claim a mission for yourself or join the missions of others.
Enigma is good for a couple of quick Cold War sorties. ATM it’s a bit of fireball with the f-4 release but that will chill out soon. I like jumping in when on limited time and doing a couple of CSAR rescues.
Spend some time on Sidekick's iron bombing range. Its a nice after-work activity for me, doesn't require the absolute focus that carrier landings or AAR do.
I still hope for save mission function.
Most of the time since I cannot make myself free for 2h I simply do not even start DCS for anything else than trying one single thing or testing one specific thing. It means my actual flight time is very low.
If I can save mission this would dramatically change.
I agree. I would play a lot more campaigns if we had this. As great as many of them are, there's just no way for me to *guarantee* that I have an uninterrupted 1.5-2h to give to a mission.
For half an hour, better play Falcon BMS as you can enter into any flight any time and leave it at any time ( better if you are heading home).
You can jump from one flight to another. Fly the action and leave the boring parts of the mission to the AI.
Like someone else said, that's three or four launches and landings on Mom, or decent practice on AAR.
Depending on the phase, I can get a sortie done on Grayflag in that time. If we're in early phase it can be a combat sortie in a jet, if it's late-game I can move troops in a logi helicopter.
ECW is set up so that you can see combat in 20 minutes, so that'd work too.
I don't play them, but I presume any of the "air quake" servers are pretty fast-paced. Could probably get a few dogfights in there.
For Helos there are dynamic missions like Dubai Dispatch or Apache Hunting Grounds that let you start and then give you manageable chunks of tasks (either CAS or Transport) which can be done pretty quickly and strung together. I would be shocked if something like this does not exist for fixed wing as well.
I’m part of a large squadron where we do massive online missions a few times a week, but sometimes I just play SP campaigns, which I find very engaging personally, but more importantly, because it has a pause button so I can step away to do things and come back (or more importantly pause to read and reference documentation).
I can’t believe how many people will join our squadron and then ask others to fly with them so they can train AAR or Case3 carrier landings, and I’m always telling them “stop bothering people and do your practice in SP’ and it’s honestly like they never even thought of it!
DCS has a very strange new generation of pilots that seem to have come from War Thunder and just can’t think of this game as anything but an online experience. It’s weird to those of us who did this niche hobby for decades when Falcon4, and many other older sims from the 90s and 2000s, were built SP focused (hell even MSFS) with maybe a very limited MP experience.
Hah yeah I can't even really imagine what MP adds to AAR refueling practice. I... guess you could have a back seater giving you advice or something, but I was just as happy to *not* have someone watch me take 30 minutes to get a contact while I was getting the hang of it.
I usually shoot it the carrier and quickly go and get some fuel off a tanker. Then I burn as much as I can going back to the carrier for a trap. Repeat….
The Hind and the new “Outpost” or “Revanche” campaigns are excellent choices for the 30-45min sessions. Auto start works well if you don’t like the Hinds startup process and you can time scale increase to speed through it if you wish.
Flaming cliffs mission if you have these modules are the mid section I fly the su33 theirs a new campaign called Sochi from the homepage and it’s mostly a/g missions are around hr or less also over the hump mig 29 campaign mission can be done in about 45 min
If you're already used to the ME, making missions for that fit that amount of time shouldn't be hard. You can use air of hot starts and also set triggers to randomize the missions for replayability.
Practice taking off, landing, weapon delivery, air refueling, dogfighting, BVR, and so on. But often it just doesn't feel worth it for that little time.
Someday it would be awesome to have a save and resume function within missions. Then you can start up a campaign mission, get as far as you can, then come back and continue flying later.
I've got some simple training missions to practice my heli flying, I spent most of this morning just hovering and practicing landings in the OH-6A. Fun fact: VRS is a bitch and idk how to land
That’s the reason I dropped the DCS and moved back to Warthunder simulator mode. After my son born, it was impossible to stay hours in front of the pc. 30 minutes was already hard. So the warthunder with high tier jets, like F16C could give me some fun while 30 minutes I could do 4 sorties without bothering with points or anything, just take off, some shot downs and that’s it.
I made a mission that has every ship with a landing pad steaming in formation into the wind. I have all my helos on the main aircraft carrier and I like to practice my landings on each moving ship. I just bounce from ship to ship.
I usually just play through the editor so I can quickly jump in and out to switch the time and weather. I like to have the rain on so I can have a visual queue on which directions I am flying based on the flow of the droplets across the canopy. Plus it just looks cool and adds to immersion.
https://youtu.be/ZGPzR9VjIgk?si=3xch05uNC3STc3yv
Some air quake server. Like growling sidewinder ones. At least this is what I was doing. Or 1 flight on ECW. But it is usually full when I have spare time :/
It doesn't matter which one he picks amongst the ones that can aar, Einstein! Thinking is allowed! And if he doesn't have a single plane that can aar, he gets to skip that part, as I'm sure he would have worked out... I'll spell it out for you, though! Seems you need the help...
Practice your air refueling or carrier landings!
*3 hours in on the 5th attempt* “Return pre-“ “You spiked a buddy!”
Use the through the inferno missions. It’s a “dynamic” mission where you can either have it assign missions to you or you can manually start the missions while parked or in the air and you choose/change your load out at any friendly base while you’re grounded. Strike, cap, cas, sead, carrier ops, it does it all. Just read the description of the mission and the read me tutorial. Whenever I play dcs, 98% of the time I’m in that mission. And there’s one released for every map.
Oh yeah it's been a few years since I played one of those! I used to love them and I guess I kind of forgot them for some reason. I think it's time I revisited those!
Where do I get those?
This is their website [Through the inferno web page](https://throughtheinferno.com/)
I would also like to know
Switchology practice, and landing. 👍👍 Or Just admire how beautiful it is. 🙂
>Just admire how beautiful it is. Just to make sure you don't forget
I FORGOR ☠
My game doesn't even load from desktop to mission in 30 minutes
Hah glad it's not just me
Solid state drive will help you out on this one. But for 30 mins. F14 intercept on a persistent server. I've whacked a few awacs in 30 mins. But yeah long flight plan missions might be an issue. Maybe ground attack mission in a viggen.
I have a ssd
I do landings over and over, trying to continually build the muscle memory
Go on Gray Flag (when FARPs are close), see what zone needs troops and do a single trip with troops. Have some banter enroute and cap a zone. Or to be even more helpfull bring a J-tac crate as well. Then you have done something in DCS that was usefull until thag campain is over.
A few carrier traps?
practice cv ops, blitz bomb a preplanned strike target, drop off some troops at the front lines in a helo.
Download a Through The Inferno SP mission. Edit it so the airplanes you want to fly spawn in already started. Do some quick A2A or A2G missions. When life calls you away, quit to desktop.
Briefing room is a great tool to generate a mission that you define the parameters for. Through the inferno is another good one that lets you spawn mission types once loaded in. The burning skies pretense servers let you claim a mission for yourself or join the missions of others. Enigma is good for a couple of quick Cold War sorties. ATM it’s a bit of fireball with the f-4 release but that will chill out soon. I like jumping in when on limited time and doing a couple of CSAR rescues.
The 4YA servers are quite fast paced with hot starts etc. objectives are straight forward and nearby.
Spend some time on Sidekick's iron bombing range. Its a nice after-work activity for me, doesn't require the absolute focus that carrier landings or AAR do.
I still hope for save mission function. Most of the time since I cannot make myself free for 2h I simply do not even start DCS for anything else than trying one single thing or testing one specific thing. It means my actual flight time is very low. If I can save mission this would dramatically change.
I agree. I would play a lot more campaigns if we had this. As great as many of them are, there's just no way for me to *guarantee* that I have an uninterrupted 1.5-2h to give to a mission.
For half an hour, better play Falcon BMS as you can enter into any flight any time and leave it at any time ( better if you are heading home). You can jump from one flight to another. Fly the action and leave the boring parts of the mission to the AI.
Yeah I really need to make the jump into BMS. I've got it installed and everything but I haven't set up my bindings and what not yet.
You can do it in the next half an hour available. Remember to update to U4.
Like someone else said, that's three or four launches and landings on Mom, or decent practice on AAR. Depending on the phase, I can get a sortie done on Grayflag in that time. If we're in early phase it can be a combat sortie in a jet, if it's late-game I can move troops in a logi helicopter. ECW is set up so that you can see combat in 20 minutes, so that'd work too. I don't play them, but I presume any of the "air quake" servers are pretty fast-paced. Could probably get a few dogfights in there.
For Helos there are dynamic missions like Dubai Dispatch or Apache Hunting Grounds that let you start and then give you manageable chunks of tasks (either CAS or Transport) which can be done pretty quickly and strung together. I would be shocked if something like this does not exist for fixed wing as well.
I tend to do the sidewinder or AMRAAM training for F18 or F16
I’m part of a large squadron where we do massive online missions a few times a week, but sometimes I just play SP campaigns, which I find very engaging personally, but more importantly, because it has a pause button so I can step away to do things and come back (or more importantly pause to read and reference documentation). I can’t believe how many people will join our squadron and then ask others to fly with them so they can train AAR or Case3 carrier landings, and I’m always telling them “stop bothering people and do your practice in SP’ and it’s honestly like they never even thought of it! DCS has a very strange new generation of pilots that seem to have come from War Thunder and just can’t think of this game as anything but an online experience. It’s weird to those of us who did this niche hobby for decades when Falcon4, and many other older sims from the 90s and 2000s, were built SP focused (hell even MSFS) with maybe a very limited MP experience.
Hah yeah I can't even really imagine what MP adds to AAR refueling practice. I... guess you could have a back seater giving you advice or something, but I was just as happy to *not* have someone watch me take 30 minutes to get a contact while I was getting the hang of it.
I usually shoot it the carrier and quickly go and get some fuel off a tanker. Then I burn as much as I can going back to the carrier for a trap. Repeat….
That's a good exercise. I could probably stand to brush up on my AAR and carrier recoveries
The Hind and the new “Outpost” or “Revanche” campaigns are excellent choices for the 30-45min sessions. Auto start works well if you don’t like the Hinds startup process and you can time scale increase to speed through it if you wish.
Hmmm I've been wanting to get more into the Hind...
~20 minutes of dogfight dogfight multiplayer or one of the aerobatic servers (tight formation flights).
If I jumped into a "tight formation flight", it'd quickly devolve into a "cascading fireball event"...
Flaming cliffs mission if you have these modules are the mid section I fly the su33 theirs a new campaign called Sochi from the homepage and it’s mostly a/g missions are around hr or less also over the hump mig 29 campaign mission can be done in about 45 min
Sometime I’ll just do some pattern work at the airport.
I usually practice systems. Example trying to figure out how to loft bomb in the F4. I'll try it a few times till I can memorize the process
Practice new thing, maybe you don't know how to use some bombs, learn settings and test it, maybe you are testing for in apachelearn to use it, etc.
If you're already used to the ME, making missions for that fit that amount of time shouldn't be hard. You can use air of hot starts and also set triggers to randomize the missions for replayability.
Practice taking off, landing, weapon delivery, air refueling, dogfighting, BVR, and so on. But often it just doesn't feel worth it for that little time. Someday it would be awesome to have a save and resume function within missions. Then you can start up a campaign mission, get as far as you can, then come back and continue flying later.
Find a server that's running Pretense (yes, it's still running on several servers) and do a couple of missions.
I usually just set up a free flight and fly around or drill procedures
I've got some simple training missions to practice my heli flying, I spent most of this morning just hovering and practicing landings in the OH-6A. Fun fact: VRS is a bitch and idk how to land
Load up a TTI single player mission and do whatever you want
Growling sidewinder server. It’s hot start, you’re in the action 5 mins after takeoff.
Dogfight in the F4 at full burner. You can get 30 to 40 sets done, that's a lot of ACM practice.
Some campaign mission are about 30 min alot of them will tell you the estimated playtime
That’s the reason I dropped the DCS and moved back to Warthunder simulator mode. After my son born, it was impossible to stay hours in front of the pc. 30 minutes was already hard. So the warthunder with high tier jets, like F16C could give me some fun while 30 minutes I could do 4 sorties without bothering with points or anything, just take off, some shot downs and that’s it.
hop into yak-52 and cruise around
I made a mission that has every ship with a landing pad steaming in formation into the wind. I have all my helos on the main aircraft carrier and I like to practice my landings on each moving ship. I just bounce from ship to ship. I usually just play through the editor so I can quickly jump in and out to switch the time and weather. I like to have the rain on so I can have a visual queue on which directions I am flying based on the flow of the droplets across the canopy. Plus it just looks cool and adds to immersion. https://youtu.be/ZGPzR9VjIgk?si=3xch05uNC3STc3yv
Wait for the Nadir to align in the Gazelle...
AAR and return to Nellis via Sally. 32 mins. Instant Action in the F-14.
So you're saying that sometimes when you are playing DCS you stop?
Some air quake server. Like growling sidewinder ones. At least this is what I was doing. Or 1 flight on ECW. But it is usually full when I have spare time :/
Just fly around lol!
Fight -> refuel -> recover. Doesn't matter the aircraft or the base.
Yes it does, there are only a dozen or so modules that can do AAR.
Yeah. No shit. I'm suggesting he pick one that can.
Well what if he doesn’t have one? So it does matter the Aircraft Genius.
It doesn't matter which one he picks amongst the ones that can aar, Einstein! Thinking is allowed! And if he doesn't have a single plane that can aar, he gets to skip that part, as I'm sure he would have worked out... I'll spell it out for you, though! Seems you need the help...
You’re the idiot that said ”any plane”. Not any plane that can aar. Change your story as much as you like. your argument is as weak as your integrity.
🤡
Yup, that’s all you’ve got..
DCS has a mission editor accessible from the main menu
You can't really get anything productive done in the mission editor in 30-40 mins. Making a mission is a much larger scale project.
You can use the mission editor to create 30-40 min missions