Sorry… was resetting my password to buy. What do you mean by soullessness? Do you mean I won’t be able to sit in the cockpit of an F/A 18?
Sorry, don’t mind me, I’m bitter.
Well…
I just spend more money on a video game than ever before. $80!
Now for set-up. Ugh.
OK! Oculus hooked back up… no problem. Was able to get to my key from the Eagle Dynamics site. Gave me a download to some beta world thing. I had to clear off some data, but OK. Big download! Waiting impatiently.
I can’t wait. I imagine some virtual wing leader is going to give me a choice of professions and then lead me to my tricked out F/18. Then I’ll have to choose some starting attributes and a place on the map, or even race, to start.
I hope I can get enough XP tonight! It’s going to be a wild ride!
Lol im off to bed. I’ll answer questions in the morning.
DCS is not soulless. The hornet module, or the MiG 21 ooze the soul of unremitting love for aircraft from every rivet.
It’s just not a game. Not in the traditional sense. It’s like @BrianRubin expects to have a match of football when he boots up DCS and is disappointed he only gets a ball and a field, some people and a whistle. True, not a game. Just a bunch of expensive, intricate toys to play with how you choose.
Thanks schurem.
I’ll try to get some impressions up as well.
First impressions:
Completely blown away. Tonight, my friends, I got to sit in an F/A18-C and fly.
When I focused close, there was an F/A18-C cockpit. So many controls in such details. HUD. MFD’s, detailed color maps. I suppose I could have interacted with them, but as a flight student, I was afraid. At some point, I imagine they could be used to help me blow shit up, or not crash.
When I focused far, there was the world, and I could go anywhere I wanted, fly with the freedom of a bird.
Folks, exceeded all expectation. Honestly I am blown away. Eagle Dynamics are light-years ahead of any game company I have experience with.
Maybe I’m a reborn newbie, due to life responsibilities, and you all know better. Why else doesn’t this game have a new topic on the front page?
Oh my sweet summer child
Now hang on just a minute! I like DCS, and I’m quick to defend switchology flight sims against the slings and arrows of the old guard, but DCS is objectively held together with spitballs and baling wire, and every external appearance suggests that ED is way out of its depth managing a software project of this scope.
That said, it does produce some excellent stories and some excellent immersion; e.g., “Holy cow, I’m hovering a Harrier.”
Says it better.
Who else?
OK I finally got organized. Purchased Nevada, Persian Gulf, the F-5E and the F-18. I already have FC3 and have started with the F-15 as it’s just very easy to fly (maybe not fight but that’s another story). I am surprised how good it is in VR - dials are much more readable than I expected. It’s also just a lot easier than using TRACKIR, which can jump around discontinuously if you inadvertently move outside its range of vision. And my gosh - it’s just so frigging immersive. I am considering getting the VIVE pro with the better resolution.
I have a warthog HOTAS but I hated that I was forced to use pedals with it - they shifted around too much and I didn’t want to ruin my floor by bolting them down. So I bought an X-55 which has a twist axis. The thing is somewhat temperamental - sometimes the keybinds don’t seem to work and / or it seems to repeat a key press in an infinite loop. This is the only issue that is marring my enjoyment at present.
What other modules do you recommend?
I am going undercover on this. As Eddie Murphy said, “Deep, deep undercover”. Total immersion back into DCS. The potential of this framework is immense. When the F-14 comes out I will be all over it.
I think the one that started it all, the Ka-50 Black Shark, is still an amazing beast to fly. Also the A-10C Warthog is well worth considering.
Personally I’ll be getting the Harrier next time it drops in price, same goes for the F-18.
Thanks! Actually I have Black shark 2 - bought the upgrade ages ago with ambitions to learn to fly it but never did. But I seem to have to install Black shark 1 outside DCS world in order to install the upgrade to black shark 2 in DCS world - which seems pretty darn clunky… unless I misunderstood something.
One thing is for sure - you really have to want to play DCS, because barriers to entry are high in all directions - beta branch, vs stable, steam version vs non steam versions, … and that’s just the install, never mind mastering the mechanics of the sim itself.
But hell - this time I am determined. I tootled around in the Hornet on the Persian Gulf map and it’s simply mind blowing. I can imagine Black Shark on that map would be amazing - let me see if I can figure out how to install it…
Let’s see… you have the F-5E, the Hornet and FC3…
Well you can get to choppering or into exotics. The MiG-21 is very nicely done, very low tech but complicated and Russian. The other combat exotic you don’t have is the Viggen. This is a Swedish jet from the 70s. It has 70s tech so no easymode digital cockpit like the hornet :P It requires you to think Swedish as well as Saab. Very hardcore. I have it, but haven’t gotten further than running some of the training missions so far.
And of course the A-10C and the Mirage 2000C. The Mirage is an avion de chasse pur sang. A fighter jet. It has a digital fly by wire control like the hornet and F-16 which makes it easy (if not a little boring) to fly. The radar is quite a step above the F-5s but other than that it resembles the F-5 quite a bit. Agile high performance jet. Beautiful too!
The A-10 is beautiful as well, bit in a whole other way :D It is not fast, nor high performance, but it is one of the oldest DCS modules with the most content for it. It has a targetting pod that allows you to peer miles into enemy territory and pick out a booger from an insurgents left nostril with a laser guided bomb. Fun times :D
I’m leaving out the harrier as that is Early Access yet, not feature complete and lacking interactive training. I would not reccomend that to a DCS n00b. very fun aircraft tho! :D
And choppers of course. An entirely different kind of flying. There’s the big, versatile and very russian Mi-8. There’s the perennial huey that’ll have you blasting creedence all day long and there’s the Ka-50, an exotic whirly blade monster of a combat chopper. Very fun, very weird and also very Russian. Last there’s the gazelle which I heard is not entirely cooked yet. Its a light recon chopper.
Contact DCS customer support about your black shark, you can get a ‘new’ key and not have to deal with the BS1 hassle anymore.
You might want to put a box or something behind your rudders to hold them in place. Jam them against it or something.
Also do not forget to bind VR zoom! and VR PD is a better use of your resources than MSAA. It’s either, not or.
Oh and look what I found:
https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=209438
Put it in /users//Saved Games/DCS/Missions and have at it! Maybe not a game per se, but definately a playground!
Thanks for all the advice! I feel my next module will probably be the Viggen. The Mig-21 is an iconic jet - I will probably pick that up after the Viggen. I suspect the grim reality is I will probably get them all, as I am interested in all the jets on offer to some degree or another. In the meantime I have a lot to chew on - the F-15, while super simple with no real systems to speak of is still a challenge to use effectively in combat (at least for me). The Hornet could keep me occupied for years.
As for the F-14, I will buy that as soon as it is available… Aargh. I wish I was twenty - I don’t have time for this hobby…
The irony is at twenty I didn’t have the money for this. Now I have the money, but I don’t have the time. Life is perverse.
Thanks for the link, looks just the thing!
The F-14 is gonna be so sweet. And take at least two years for me to learn well enough to be tactical in. F-4E is gonna be the same story.
Luckily the hornet (and harrier to a lesser degree) is such a user friendly jet, about ten flight hours in I already am tactical in it! Killing bitches left and right \m/ And hornet is only going to get deadlier over the coming months / years. It’s going to gain HARM antiradar missiles, Maverick guided missiles, AMRAAM active radar AA missiles, Harpoon antiship missiles. A targetting pod like the A-10 has and the accompanying array of smart bombs.
I can second the Viggen recommendation. It’s probably my all-around favorite DCS plane. The cockpit graphics and sound are very well done, and the typical mission profile of Mach 1.3 at 500 feet should be a hoot in VR.
Too, there’s one of the semi-dynamic campaigns available for it. Not as lively as Falcon 4 or even Rise of Flight, but much better than nothing.
Viggen low level flight is the bomb in VR (any low level flight really) but yankin and bankin a harrier is pretty awesome as well. The harrier has this big bug-eyed canopy that allows you to see all the things out there but also has these exploding wire things in the canopy that help anchor you in the cockpit. It’s really sweet. Too bad the harrier can only carry 300 rounds of gun and four mavs at max. Load more on it and it wallows like a pig.
I have spent half the day in DCS VR. I am in love. Why, oh why, did I wait so long to come back?
It’s frigging amazing. And this is only in the F-15, never mind a fully modelled aircraft.