That’s a pretty darned awesome 40th!
whoa, a spitfire! sweet. i sims we lack a very important sense in dealing with torque at takeoff. our inner ears are sitting still in a chair, so we do not feel the plane starting to drift. therefore we are always late in correcting and well… we suck at it. a real pilot in a real plane can feel the tiniest amount and correct accordingly making for very smooth ground handling indeed.
So awesome, @PreachyPreach!
Yeah, the rivet counters still don’t understand they’ve made sim planes harder to fly than the real things. Having some sim “helpers” that compensate for lack of real feedback is just balancing things out, but you’ll never convince the IL-2 grognards.
Also, I’ll bet the engine startup sequence was not on the top 5 things you cared about getting to do that! :)
Congrats and happy birthday! What a rare and awesome experience!
I did keep a little eye on the oil pressure, I’ll be honest. Being strapped into a parachute does focus the attention a bit.
This released yesterday. It’s Early access, so no weapons any smarter than a sidewinder (yet) but carrier landings are there and amazingly hard to do right.
It is the F/A-18C Hornet for DCS world. It’s a full-realism module which means every clickety switch, knob and thingamibob in the cockpit does something.
Lately news has leaked out that DCS will gain relaxed-realism versions of some of its modules, most likely the above pictured bug amongs others. The amount of systems realism they will be aiming at should be comparable to the current F-15C and Su-27 modules. So all of the flight model, but far less of the avionics and clickety switchology.
They are also hiring. A job opening was posted for a programmer/designer with experience in RTS design… This can mean only one thing: they are serious about building a game on top of their sim.
Sounds like an update for Combined Arms? Which I bet no-one in here plays… :)
(F/A-18C looks sexy though)
Well if you look closely at structures like warehouses in the mission editor, you see there are some hooks already in place for a strategic metagame. There has been talk of a dynamic campaign in the last few months in interviews etc with Wags, the big honcho at ED.
Good. Even with its current levels of jank, DCS with a dynamic campaign would be an all-time great.
That render of the Stennis looks mighty nice as well as some of the details on the outside of that Hornet.
is not a render, its an ingame screenie, that guy just caught a wire :)
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Wow that’s some fantastic graphics if so!
Oh hell yeah!
I’ve been watching this for so long. To be fair, I’ve watched DCS from the early days of LOMAC, torturing my coworkers with screen caps showing water…
I have VR and a decent rig, but also 2 kids and a career and haven’t had time to do anything with either (except the kids). I have time today.
GRAPHSIM. First game on a computer that completely blew my mind was F/A-18. The one before Korea, whatever it was. I’ve been a fan of the plane ever since.
Enter Janes F/A-18. I used to take screencaps of that game and make posters to hang at the internet cafe. Alas this release isn’t the superbug.
Still, I am SO excited, and SO annoyed that I have to delete a bunch of space on my machine for a game I will hardly ever play!
Quick edit: I got to go to E3 in the heydays of 2002 / 3 or somewhere there abouts. Meeting Matt Wagner at the CH booth was a highlight.
Mother of all!
This game costs $80! And early access!
Gut shot. Sucker punch.
If I bought it, would I be contributing to the insanity of Star Fox?.. I mean Star Citizen?
DCS is the Train Simulator of flight sims. New maps cost a pile, too. I want the Persian Gulf, but can’t justify it until I buy a better graphics card.
DCS is the last of the jet combat flight simulators. Yes these things are expensive. They are also madly detailed. That detail and quality does not come instantly, easily or cheaply. These things need to be expensive in order to remain profitable. At least you are not being nickled and dimed with skins and such.
I have been flying my hornet hard the last couple days when kids and work allow. So about four or five hours. She is a lot of fun. The fact that you only get basic fighter weapons and air-to-air radar actually help in flattening most of the learning curve. Put the dot on the dot, pickle and boom goes the target. Sidewinders are easy too; sadle up (maneouver to a good position), get a tone, uncage, let fly.
Stuff like laser guided bombs and JDAMs are insanely complicated. That shit takes hours upon hours to learn how to do. It is fun to learn, granted, but for now, you get a version of the hornet that is only barely more complicated than the F-5E and that’s a good thing. The way to eat an elephant with a teaspoon is bite after bite after all.
@Anklebiter, If you want to try DCS, and get a cheap and easy plane to get a feel for what these things are like before you take the plunge on the F/A-18C, get the F-15C or the Su-27. These are ‘relaxed realism’ modules that are not as insanely detailed in their systems as the full fat modules. They also only cost like 15 bucks. You don’t need to learn a 500 page manual to get to the turnin’ and burnin’ with those. While the radar, engines, fuel system and EW are pretty much abstracted to single keystrokes you do get the top notch flight modelling with these modules. They fly as interestingly as the full-fat modules. The F-15 is easier to fly than the Su-27.
Get it. DO IT! you know you want to, and I want this to do well because I love it and I want them to be able to convince the bank to finance the F-4E, the F-16C, the Mi-24, etc.
If anyone needs any help getting going or dumb n00b questions, ask away. Here or PM.
I share your enthusiasm. This isn’t a jpg in sheep’s clothes then? For people like us, worth the $80?
Yes, DCS modules are generally worth the price of admission, if you enjoy detailed flight sim modules.
I still wish they’d do something about the mission environment; Falcon 4 is still ten times the combat flight sim DCS is, but you can’t have everything.
Do people equate this genre now to train sims?
schumen, I have an Oculus. I will be able to sit in the cockpit of an F/A18?
Will you hold my hand while I buy this?
In terms of fidelity, rivet countery and soullessness? Yes.