4324

It’s silly fun. I’m a few campaign missions in and having a blast.

4325

Holy crap! They have $1,400 in DLC. Yikeys.

Tell me what is most important. I want to blow up or bomb the crap out of lots of stuff on the ground. Maybe throw in a few dogfights as well. All single player. A dynamic campaign would be awesome as well. Also, is there simplified modes for the game if I don’t want to get a PhD in fighter operations?

4326

No dynamic campaign, but I think the best choice if you want to do both air-to-ground and air-to-air is the F/A-18 Hornet. Plus you can do carrier stuff, and if you love that, later add the detailed supercarrier add-on. And it’s one of the best-developed, least buggy planes.

For today only, you can try all of the planes for free if you were, say, trying to decide between the F/A-18 and the F-14. Tomorrow everything reverts to pay-per-plane.

4327

Is the F18 easier to fly than the F14? Also, is there a simplified flight mode for those that don’t have the time to learn every button and switch til they get used to things a bit more? I kinda want to just hop in and start shooting stuff to get acquainted.

4328

You’d have to ask @schurem but I’m almost sure that’s a big hell yeah.

Now more fun to fly…?

4329

Jeff get the hornet while its discounted. Fuck easy mode. Get a PHD in jet fighters baby! Hornet basics are fairly easy. I could have you put the dot on the thing in an hour or so and kerBOom!

Hornet is about the easiest machine in DCS, and one of the most versatile. It has all of the toys. From dumb bombs to TV guided cruise missiles. It also has a refined man-machine interface that you’ll only truly appreciate once you try to learn the Viggen or Tomcat.

Mirage is a good first jet as well. Less toys but more engine.

4330

Yes, the F-18 is much easier than the F-14. More sophisticated systems, and the F-14 has this weird interface for working with your back-seat RIO.

The F/A-18 is pretty easy to learn, and I’d highly suggest picking it up.

If you really want something you can just start shooting with, pick up a couple of the cheap Flaming Cliffs planes – F-15C, Su-33, A-10A, Su-25. They’re simpler but still look great and are a lot of fun and are only $7.49 each on the sale. If you like any of those planes, they’re so cheap it can’t hurt to grab one of them.

But really, the hardest part of the Hornet is figuring out how to map the controller. :) Once you know how to turn on the missiles and which buttons to press to make the weapons go bang, if you air-start you can have fun in the Hornet and learn the details later.

Sale ends tonight so don’t wait too long!

4331

@schurem @Editer

Super carrier and Persian Gulf too then?

How difficult is it to make a mission? Like, sending two loads of opposing ships towards each other to end in some kind of crazy calamity?

4332

Depending on how complicated you want it to be, moderately easy to moderately complicated.

There are also a few ‘dynamics campaigns’ of varying qualities done with the in-game scripting engine, and a few mission generators a la the Pat Wilson Career Generator for RoF/IL-2 (although less well-developed). There’s an official dynamic campaign in the pipeline, but this is DCS, so it’s been in the works for a year or two already, it’s probably not coming to public release anytime soon, and once they do release it, they’ll constantly break it as they update other parts of the engine.

4333

OK all you fancy pants flyers. I got my butt in an F18 and even managed to turn my engines on and close the canopy (only took me half an hour to figure that one out lol). But I can’t figure out how to get my throttle to actually add thrust to my engines. I have this thing:

All the other buttons work, and when I go into axis I do see it respond there.

4334

Go into options, special, f18, and disable “realistic finger lifts”.

4335

Also, do some quick missions starting in the air before you go figuring out all the startup switchology and stuff!

4336

And do stay away from the game mode stuff. Discovering how to do it with the full fat sim is how DCS doles out its dopamine hits. You could leave the radios on easy mode for now. The soundscape of a waking hornet is excellent, and the procedure is not at all complicated. Try booting a Huey or Ka-50. Those are fun, but I always need a refresher course when I haven’t done that in a week or so.

Try the interactive training missions. They aren’t perfect, but they will teach you how to blow shit up. Blow it up good. Iirc the hornet’s are narrated by wags himself, the producer of the game.

So @jpinard, have you managed to destroy anything besides your own crate in il2 yet? Try a quick mission vs unarmed ju-52’s for fun gunnery practice.

4337

You can always start on the ground and use LWin+Home.

That’s what I do.

4338

Nothing wrong with that, as long as you get that sweet sweet click buzz click zzzzzzZZZZZZSSSCHWIIIII brrrroooooooOOOOOOOOO of a waking jet.

Some startup stuff is less fun. If I never have to punch in coords into a mirages nav system before waiting eight minutes for the fucking thing to align. At least in the scripted campaign you get some fun chatter while that’s happening.

Russian machines are fun to boot as well, with their rows and rows of breakers you need to set. But not this one, as it will make the machine burst into flames if you leave it on.

4339

I have to say hearing the engines spool up is fantastically invigorating. I didn’t have time to look up guides last night, so I was just looking for anything that would maybe get things going. Found a battery switch, parking brake, engine thingies (all 5 minutes apart) and each time it felt like a little victory. Then I spent 20 minutes trying to close the darn canopy lol. But to my disdain I could not get my engines to throttle up with my actual throttle as I mentioned. Looking forward to trying again today.

But I do have a weird issue now. The game absolutely refuses to launch in anything besides VR mode even when I choose non-VR mode. And it always chooses Oculus VR instead of Steam VR.

4340

I find my throttle control to be very iffy with my joystick (CH Fighterstick) as well. Regardless, do give Left Windows Key + Home a try for autostart. All the vibration, none of the frustration!

4341

Try the above utility to launch your game and do admin stuff.
Have you looked at the special tab in your options screen? Have you given the Training menu a shot? Wags will patiently and calmly explain every button to you, including the canopy close button. The fact that you got your machine cranked from cold & dark without looking at the manual or anything is something you can take great pride in. You completed the Cold&Dark challenge! (or at least got quite a long way in!)

4342

I wasn’t recommending against learning to start up the plane, just suggesting seeing some of the fun that awaits before diving into the minutiae. :)

Also, there are an insane number of YouTube tutorials for DCS; just check the dates because sometimes the systems get more details, which changes things. Here’s a very recent F/A-18 cold start tutorial:

AHA! I’ve been having the “Oculus mode” issue, because DCS sees the Revive hack and thinks you’re using a Rift. Looks like I can use this to set it to launch in SteamVR mode instead. The other alternative was to stop the Oculus services, but then they have to be started to play any Oculus games, which is a hassle and breaks the experience for my son’s VR gaming.

4343

Good for you! That Hornet pit in VR is something else, isn’t it? I purchased the module on a lark, with pretty much zero research into DCS and no real experience in VR. Firing it up for the first time to find myself in that seat is my favorite gaming moment to date. The fidelity and immersion were totally unexpected.

Each module released seems to improve in that area, with the Tomcat being the bees knees. I bought a bunch of them even though I haven’t had time to fly in ages. I will continue to buy though. It’s like having my own personal aeronautics museum with the actual flying and fighting part being a massive bonus.

Enjoy!