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Hey all -- I'm a fan of ED's products, and a DCS nut. I love flying, I love creating missions, I host two public dedicated servers (at >100 USD/month), I adore most of the modules for DCS - and own them all (yeah, that includes the Hawk). As the year is drawing to an end I looked at my hangar, and thought "well, there now sure seem to be a *lot* of unfinished 'Early Access' titles in here". A full 18 of them are slowly leaking an ever-increasing bit of frustration onto the well-lit floor. To me, each and every Early Access title that ED sell to me comes with a promise: that they will work diligently to finish as quickly as possible. Why do I think that? [source: Eagle Dynamics Home Page] Being an Engineer by trade (even though I'm a management goon for the past 30 years) I took stock of my EA module stable, fired up Excel (don't judge) -- and these are the cold hard numbers: Top Sheet Results: I currently own 18 EA modules that have accumulated 49 Years of EA Time. That is a lot, and my tiny mind immediately spat out another number: Assuming (educated guess) that the EA models on average require an effort of 18 person months to complete, ED's total Early Access Debt (to complete all modules) are 27 person years. So please hear my plea: Dear ED, please remember the promises you made to me and all your customers. I understand that you must sell modules to survive. And please understand that I also measure your efforts on how well you keep your promises. In that regard I think you can and should improve; the numbers currently are not in your favor, I know that you can do better. Please strive to be better in 2025 and the years that follow. I think it would befit a company of your status and reputation to reduce the Early Access Debt at the end of 2025 by 10 years, to 17, and I think it realistic that you can get under 10 years by the end of 2026. Here are the numbers, lest you want to check them yourself Module Released EA Time (Years) Remarks F-16 2019 5 F4E 2024 0.5 F-15E 2023 1 Assumed discontinued Mirage F-1 2022 2 Mosquito 2021 3 JF-17 2019 5 F-14 2019 5 YAK-52 2018 6 AJS Viggen 2017 7 CH-47 Chinook 2024 0.5 AH-64 Apache 2022 2 Mi-24 HIND 2021 3 Afghanistan 2024 0.5 Kola 2024 0.5 Sinai 2023 1 Normandy 2 2023 1 South Atlantic 2022 2 Assumed discontinued Super Carrier 2020 4 Total EA Modules 18 Products Total EA Time 49 Years Est'd Backlog 27 FTE (1 FTE ~ 1 Person Year) Data Source: Eagle Dynamics Web Site, as of November 2024 Yes, it's a simplistic world view (I am a manager after all). I hold ED accountable for everything that they sold me. I do not care if some subcontractor acted up. IMHO, ED are run by adults, and they know what accountability means: no excuses, no finger-pointing. They took my money, they made the promises, and I think they are good for the trust that I placed in them to keep them. And occasionally, they may need a soft push to remember that we believe in them and have not forgotten their promises.

Imagine being mad because ED improves weather in a FLIGHT sim... I often criticize them, but come on.

I did.

15 November 2024 Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends, Our new fog system will at last be coming to DCS in the next update! For the past three years we have worked hard on delivering a radically new fog solution that will dramatically change your level of immersion in DCS. Please read the Volumetric Weather White Paper. It’s with great pleasure that we also announce the deck crew director system for DCS Supercarrier also coming in the next update. This long awaited feature will direct player and AI aircraft from parking locations to catapults and from the landing area to a parking location. Please read the details below. We’ve also included an update from Aerges on their Mirage F1 and upcoming F-104. Aerges are making impressive progress and we can’t wait to see what you think! The F-16C Arctic Thunder Campaign by Reflected Simulations will also be available in the next update. This intense F-16C Viper campaign over the Kola map will include 10 missions and over 2,000 voice lines. Check it out below. Thank you for your passion and support. Yours sincerely, Eagle Dynamics New Fog Effects Enhancements The next update will feature substantial enhancements to DCS weather in particular a new state-of-the art fog and dust rendering system. This highly immersive solution, which took more than 8’500 man hours to develop, allows both automatic and manual fog generation and accounts for sensor and AI line-of-sight blocking. It is calculated with our future spherical Earth in mind and can be highly variable based on density and altitude. It supports self-shadowing, blends with clouds, and is fully animated with moving cloud banks. Scenes from the early morning and evening hours are particularly convincing and offer a surprisingly realistic atmosphere. Please do read our detailed white paper here: Volumetric Weather White Paper. New Supercarrier Plane Directors Development Report When DCS: Supercarrier was originally released, it included a rich set of deck crew and animations that mimicked the process of taxiing on to the catapult and launching. In the next update, we are delighted to announce the added feature of plane ‘directors’ (yellow shirts) who precisely marshall aircraft from their parking space to the catapult. This usually involves multiple plane directors passing control from one key position to the next ensuring precise hazard free taxiing of the aircraft to their designated catapult. After landing, the same new director system will marshall players and AI aircraft back to their designated parking location. While the process of creating this for single player was a challenging task given the myriads of ways the process can be interrupted, the multiplayer aspect was far more complex than ever contemplated given the numerous ways multiple human players on the carrier deck could “break” the system. This led to more than four times the development initially budgeted for this feature and we apologise for the delay and hope you will enjoy the experience. Regarding the CVN-74 John C. Stennis, it is available as both a free aircraft carrier and as part of the Supercarrier module. This allows the Stennis to be used by pilots that own and do not own the Supercarrier module. For now and to maintain this compatibility, deck crew will not be supported for this particular aircraft carrier. We are working on a solution to resolve this in the future. F-104 Starfighter Development Report Aerges is pleased to update you on improvements to their Mirage F1 and C-101 and progress of their F-104. Mirage F1M MFD and HUD symbology, as well as their respective avionics logic, are in an advanced state of development. Much work is being done to polish the F1 systems in addition to fixing bugs reported by our community. Attention has also been made to the C-101 in order to keep it up to date and bug free. There has been an overhaul of the code structure to allow more effective coding and feature-sharing between the F1 and the upcoming F-104. Research continues on radar picture rendering and physics improvements. The resulting technology is also expected to be used for the F-104. Coding of the F-104 flight model and general aircraft systems is complete, as well as initial flight model validation. This includes engine, hydraulics, electrics, fuel, controls, armament, and miscellaneous systems. Avionic systems and integration with the cockpit animations and inputs is currently in-progress. The F-104 external model and cockpit textures are the result of a thorough research that included laser scanning. The next step will be the creation of the set of liveries. Please check out the F1 and F-104 development progress video. F-16 Arctic Thunder Campaign by Reflected Simulations February, 2024. Finland is on the verge of joining NATO when the unthinkable happens: Russian armed forces cross the frontier into Finland accompanied with massive air strikes. Its NATO allies immediately join the conflict to push the bear back across the border. Reflected Simulations’ F-16C campaign over the Kola map is based on real life events and tactics. Strap into a US Air Force F-16C Viper against a formidable threat. Take part in study level, highly realistic missions such as CAP, CAS, SEAD and precision strikes. Follow real life procedures in unprecedented detail. Launching simultaneously, a companion F/A-18C campaign by Baltic Dragon will be available that is woven into the same storyline. Now is an excellent time to purchase the Kola map! Experience what it would be like to fly as a fighter pilot in a large-scale air war today. Key Features: 10 immersive missions with a variety of different tasks: CAS, X-CAS, CAP, escort, pre-planned strikes, and more. An interactive intro mission that guides the player through the most important aspects of the campaign. Operations from road bases in Finland. Over 2,200 lines of dialogue with voice-overs. Custom ATC interaction for all the missions. Optional use of air-to-air refuelling or the choice to skip it. Detailed documentation, flight plans, maps, and target information available in both PDF format and from within each mission as part of the kneeboard. Thank you again for your passion and support, Yours sincerely,

Allow me to break the prolonged silence with a few clarifying words. The delay in the module's release is currently due to addressing the shortcomings in the flight model identified during the summer certification process by ED. Otherwise, the module is largely ready for early access.

Good Afternoon/Evening everyone and Happy Saturday. I have released the Italian Mod Pack Version 1.0.0 BETA. The mod pack includes the Comandante and FREMM Frigates Alpino & Luigi Rizzo with Liveries. Features are shown below. KNOWN Issues. Known issues will be corrected in version Two. FREMM Frigate hull numbers are blurry when viewed far away. FREMM Frigate Damage Textures I will release the Paolo Thaon di Revel class patrol vessel in version two with the updated FREMM Frigates. Cavour and Horizon Class Frigates will be future mods. I know everyone here has an opinion of how mod weapons should function in DCS. If you recognize a weapon that can be tweaked. Please PM me with your findings. Thanks Enjoy, everyone. Please PM me for any major technical issues with the mods. Thanks.

For me, the only bright spot in this Newsletter is to see the dedication and professionalism with which Aerges pushes his projects forward. The F1 is awesome but the F-104 looks to be even better. ‘New fog effects’ a nice-to-have feature for 8500 man hours. Who asked for it? Many core aspects of DCS are in a bad state and are lagging far behind. To name just the most important: - notorious performance instability in MT - serious AI problems. Special FM of AI aircraft. Keyword: General Flight Model Program - basic mission editor functions are broken and are ignored by ED - some game assets are so old and outdated (e.g. 3D models of ED and FC3 planes) that they completely destroy game immersion. - dynamic campaign, GFM, ATC and Vulkan are promises that are still far from being implemented I speak for myself, but I think that you (ED) should finally address the essential issues and the aging problems in this flight simulation. Please start finishing the things you have started and make the sim more stable overall.

Друзья, представляем вашему вниманию русскую локализацию мануала на Фантом. Надеемся что наши труды помогут в освоении этого легендарного самолета. Руководство F-4E - Heatblur F-4E Phantom II Перевод закончен, осталось немного откорректировать текст для лучшего восприятия. Если встретите неточности или огрехи напишите в личку, исправим.

Great, I see a white knight for DCS. Well, show me which post you used to make this request to DCS and tell me whether you expected 8500 development hours. Development time that could have been used much more sensibly for more important things.

I have the impression that stubbornness and pride prevent certain things from succeeding. ''We're right and you guys don't understand anything''

Yeah, this isn't a question of what I want to see resolved first but rather resolved period. Again, F-86's guns. 10. Years. To. Address. And I have seen nothing, absolutely nothing, to indicate that ED's project managers even see that as a glaring failure. If that's going to be the response? Whew! I'm guessing ED first party modules are a wait and see for me, from now on. Frankly, the insistence that they have the best view of the bigger picture is questionable at best. More and more it seems they can't see the forest through the trees. AND, when the F-86's guns did get addressed? It was right as FC2024 was made available. Let's be real, that does not inspire confidence in consumers when the only reason something receives a minor but important fix is so that it can be repackaged and sold again. What is galling and what we're seeing refusal to do is "Oh, well, I guess we were wrong. We need to review our priorities!" And do just that. I've been in software dev, this isn't the most difficult thing to do. We're not doing this because we want outrage clicks farmed on Youtube because something something Razbam, we want to see DCS be good. We want to part with our money with confidence, especially in these trying times. We want to be able to impulse buy from ED like we used to without then stopping ourselves and going "Oh wait, is ED even gonna support this adequately?"

Here is an example mission to check out. B-21 LRASM antiship.miz

Honestly, it looks great. There's absolutely no denying it and I cannot wait to kick up dirt with my Hind. It'll be a lot of fun. I'm probably going to sink a lot of hours into those. But, again, we could have happily waited for that for some REAL basic fixes and such, like.. oh I don't know: And one of those is for the Mossie. Where's my incentive to buy these when such glaring issues remain unaddressed? And they want us to buy the Hellcat when that drops? I'd love to, but if they aren't willing to address these issues, then I find myself waiting for sales or major improvements, whenever those happen. They've not been forthcoming.

"Позвольте мне прервать затянувшееся молчание несколькими проясняющими словами. Задержка выпуска модуля в настоящее время связана с устранением недостатков в летной модели, выявленных в ходе летней сертификации ED. В остальном модуль в основном готов к раннему доступу."

The last few newsletters were like early Christmas. I really appreciate the effort of new Core functions. Really looking forward what we can expect in 2025 and beyond. I also like the white papers with more and additional information of new functions like the new fog system. Thank you ED for all your effort and for making our dreams come true [emoji1317][emoji1303]

How they have the big picture and AI is still in that state ? Hard to believe for so many years ED didn't prioritize to adjust AI mig-15 or 21 parameters to fly a bit less like space ships. Or 'two, bingo fuel' or ai wingman fly over enemies and get obliterated by small arms . Like those are discussed to dead in forums for years.. not one or two years, I am sure I will find those topics regularly discussed 8 or some even more years ago. Hard to understand what kind of big picture they have if this wasn't prioritized years ago. AI is not like some small issue that just a few people care about. And before someone say they are working on it, adjusting the simple flight model for some units shouldn't need 10 years work.. or tunning the 'breakaway' state of the AI wingman. At least some workaround was added for the bingo fuel bug altho for the years this issue existed, it's hard to believe so many years of work is required for a proper fix. Sent from my SM-G985F using Tapatalk

Since volumetric lights are also implemented, would that mean we should also see landing lights, beacons and propulsion systems illuminate the fog and clouds?

Only if your project managers reconsider their outlook, honestly. Because, as it stands, the vast majority of the user base probably wants just a few core developments and actual fixes paid to their products.

Туман на сенсоры будет влиять? Ну например Зу в тумане не сможет стрелять? А бот самолёт потеряет из виду? А ик сенсоры будут смотреть сквозь? А к облакам всё это прикручивать будут?

Resources can be re-allocated else where. And we've BEEN reporting those bugs. For years. And, yet, we're here.

Here is a quick update from last night. Did a tour of our updated FARPs using the VAP pack assets. Loving the feel of this now. We will start adding smaller things like ammo cans and other smaller details pending no impact to performance. Kandy just upped the immersion level this morning (have not had time to test it out yet) and added fog to the Jungle. Hopefully it does not tear up performance too much. Coincidentally the ED news letter spoke about new fog changes coming in the next update. Fired up.

What's given in most sim AI? AI that is both dumb, and all-seeing. The fog and clouds are a pre-requisite to make the AI dumb only Have you also missed the part about the design criteria to have everything fluffy (including the AI sight blocking) syncable via net? Not to mention the rendering. To some degree DCS still looks worse than old Rise of Flight, not to mention the Il-2 we don't mention, as far as atmosphere rendering goes. Hell, the new cloud system was the single feature that got me back in the DCS saddle over a year ago! TLDR: The fog is as core as it can be.

Well, we understand that other things are fun, too. And that they may be worth our disposable income.

Thanks! I'm looking into making the BMD-4. Thanks for the suggestion, it's been done.

@Sofapiloz Die Base ist bestellt! Der Haussegen hängt dafür schief! Meine Frau fordert alle Meinungsbildner zur kollektiven Schadensbegrenzung auf!

Great!! The M version will add great abilities to this wonderfull plane You Aerges are doing an amazing and serious work: Thx!

Nicht gerade eine konstruktive Kritik. Ich besitze die MOZA FFB Base seit einem Monat und bin recht angetan. Auch die von dir weiter unten erwähnten Probleme habe ich überhaupt nicht. Nutzerbericht: Wenn man in der Software auf integrated FFB stellt, bekommt man einen Mix aus Telemetrie und FFB aus dem Spiel. Angebracht an meinem Simulatorsitz (mittig) von Next Level, werden alle Vibrationen komplett auf den Sitz übertragen. Selbst wenn ich den Stick nicht zum Fliegen nutze, weil ich den Sidestick der F16 benutze, bekomme ich alles mit. Egal ob ich Chaff und Flares ausstoße, die Fahrgestelle ein oder ausfahre oder wenn ich Waffen abfeuere oder Bomben abwerfe. Die Russenjets lassen sich jetzt auch viel besser fliegen, weil das Trimmen endlich so funktioniert, wie es soll. Geht viel feinfühliger. Aber so richtig gut wird es im Heli oder den Warbirds. Das ist ein ganz anderes Fliegen. Das Trimmen im Heli ist einfach nur traumhaft. Und in den Warbirds kann man jetzt genau am Rand zum Stall fliegen. Das Popometer ist zurück. Einfach genial. Es gibt aber auch Schwächen. Auf dem Boden vermisse ich die Rückmeldung beim Rollen, Abheben und Landen. Ob das an DCS oder an der Moza-Software liegt, kann ich nicht sagen. War bisher der beste Kauf einer Joystick-Base für mich.

Here you go, I hope you live the livery. I will send a couple more, I can only submit one livery at a time. description.lua Douglas_DC_10.bmp Douglas_DC_10.dds description.lua Douglas_DC_10_b.dds description.lua Douglas_DC_10.dds Douglas_DC_10.dds Douglas_DC_10_RoughMet.dds description.lua description.lua description.lua

Great, can't wait to see more. I'm sure the M version of the Mirage F1 will bring other possibilities with all these improvements in progress. Well i wasn't before a big fan of the F104, it makes me want to after this video ! nice work

Thanks, Admiral they will be joining my joint task force today on my Indo/Pacific maneuvers, around Guamanian waters with a port call to Apra Harbor.

Thanks! It's the Mi-28N. The Mi-28UB training version and I believe the export versions had the radar. And of course the Mi-28NM with its upgraded radar.

Hello, this issue has been fixed internally already and will be in the next update. Cheers

Exactly. Only 80 people, of which 20 even voted "no"

I have only one question: How strongly will it affect performance?

(Don't forget the WWII assets pack that itself alone adds another 7 years of EA)

Ага, вали все в кучу! Бей ногами. По поводу и без повода. Ибо ведь это ED.

Боты всегда имели ограничения в видимости. Также это зависит и от скила. Поставьте среднего бота и он может пропустить много объектов противника, не заметив их. Еще и от освещения зависит.

Well well well you ask for FFB now everything has a FFB option. Don't know anything about this Chinese retailer but I believe it supports VPC SharKa-50 Virpil and VPC Hawk-60 Virpil collective Grips. Just a thought with all these FFB device rolling out will the game be able to supply each unit with the correct Telemetry i.e FFB Stick, FFB Seats, FFB Collective all vying for telemetry we'll just have to wait and see. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/387469955190

I see your point, while we're not privy to the deal between Razbam and BD, and how it affects the current situation. Lots of other stuff are affected too. Training missions, manual and what not for the Harrier and SE comes to mind.

A full reinstall will not do what a repair won't do. And if it's on your end. It's faster to rename the Saved Games folder which neither a repair nor a full reinstall will touch.

Good improvements to the core game. The white paper on the fog shows how difficult and complicated things can be to implement. but the end result should be very satisfactory. Also, SuperCarrier Marshalls! Finally!

It has been a while since last development progress update as I was busy in the past months. A short video demonstrating how ILS and airbase assistance system works in the Elytra.

Making a few custom skins and will be available soon.

The fog looks very nice, if anyone wants more screenshots it's worth taking a look here: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/screenshots/572/

Speaking of good time! We are close to releasing our Dynamic Vietnam Mission. Really been working on getting the FARPs looking more like the time period with the VAP pack. Hope their are more Vietnam assets in the future. We will add them for sure. This NEVER gets old. We are in trouble when the Little Bird gets released. A lot of Afghanistan and Iraq content coming with it and the Blackhawk mod.

yeah, really great news about new fog effects and new SC plane directors. At this point I can't wait for the next patch to be released. Thanks ED for your continued hard work.

STOP EXPANDING and START FOCUSING/FIXING, is what ED needs to do.

It will have an updated INS, aswell as an HUD (mix between Mirage and F/A-18), CCIP/CCRP feature thanks to a Cyrano IVM version with A2G designation, and proper digital mission computer, Data cartridge for upload of mission data into the computer, ALR-300VR2 RWR, Radios UHF BER 8752 with HAVE Quick II, AIM-9M support, Datalink (MIP, MTD/PDS), HOTAS control scheme, NVG Compatible Cockpit, and GPS.