ARM505

I also find fighting the AI to be an immersion killer, this topic has been discussed a bit already, but yeah, most agree the AI is ridiculously (inhumanly) good in some aspects and poor in others. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I would pay full module price for a DCS:AI module where nothing visible in the sim changed except a massive improvement in AI all round. I'm not expecting an Iain M. Banks sentient 'Mind' level, just something that doesn't blow it all out the water in most cases. Across the spectrum of sims/games I play (DCS, ARMA etc) the AI so often stands out as the deal killer in so many situations. Whether it's retarded wingmen, ridiculously good enemies that can see through buildings/trees but can't realise you're walking around behind them etc, it always feels like somethings going to come along and smack you in the face saying 'Well, THAT wasn't realistic AT ALL!' That being said, it's pretty impressive how far along we've come, and the number of factors that the AI has to be able to deal with is definitely an incredible challenge for developers of modern sims!

Does anybody remember the IL2 'Shock, horror, using Trim on a Slider is cheating because you can trim instantly' discussions?

OT, sorry guys, but thanks Suchacz. The Huey throttle is indeed called 'Corrector' in the axis menu! But the P51 mixture is still buttons only - the engine RPM setting axis is as it says, for the RPM setting, not the mixture. Thanks!

It definitely feels better, less 'random'. I wouldn't worry about people commenting on how easy it is, it's still properly challenging for a precise hover and approach to confined/small spots! See how fast you can hop from building to building (been doing that more than playing missions I confess - look at me, I'm a corporate heli pilot!) Like the initial Mustang release with it's crazy yaw sensitivity on take off, 'realistic' doesn't equal 'uncontrollably difficult'!

Great to see this - this is one of the helo's that I've actually flown in, and seen in operations quite a bit (Sierra Leone, UN). They of course have to get that distinctive 'swish swish swish' high pitched whistling kind of noise right too (I think if you've been near them you'll know what I'm talking about), otherwise it won't be dead on! They got the Huey sounds bang on if you ask me, so that's good. I was quite close up to a Huey this weekend, nice to see it again, now to organise a ride..... Great news for the helo sim world in any case!

Well, if you're not happy with the 'it's a sim, it's more demanding', then there's fallback position number 2: It's a sim, the development team is MUCH smaller than the BF3 team, and the return on investment is MUCH lower - ergo, there is less investment in core technology. Feel free to code a new multi-core, multi GPU DCS core engine - I'd be both extremely impressed and happy :)

The paint is a bit worn. If that bothered you, I'd recommend never climbing into a real aircraft :)

No, above a certain airspeed, the weathervane effect of the tail fins and tail are enough to keep some conventional helicopters straight enough to fly, even under power (ie torque is being applied). Once below that speed, they will start spinning though. They can be successfully landed at speed though, in theory.

Wow, these new cockpits look fantastic, congratulations to the team that produced them. I love just flying the Su25 around now, just sightseeing for the thrill of that great flight model and excellent visuals. Plus Mark 1 eyeball attacks and steam gauge challenges! Well done ED, excellent job.

...and those exhaust flames till look silly during the day I'm afraid. Maybe at night, but you don't see little flames like that during the daytime.

Weirdly enough, I just had another go, this time with weapons and it all seemed a lot easier. Maybe something sunk in in the meantime? Maybe the weight helped a bit? But I could hover ok (ha ha), and while it didn't seem 'odd' in the cruise either. The only thing I still felt was noticeably out of place was the 'pitch penduluming' if I could call it that, while trying to hover - I find it very hard to get it nice and smoothly damped in pitch while hovering, it's always going nose up or nose down. But who knows, maybe I suck too much still :) Oh, and the 'fall out the sky' pitch and roll when bottoming the collective - that seems a bit abrupt too, but maybe it does that?

I also have a floor mounted stick, a Cougar with Cubpilots Hall effect sensor mod, and thank goodness for that, because the helicopter's super sensitive anyway. I fly fixed wings for a living, and have (very) limited time in an R22, but I reckon if an aircraft was this.....wobbly....more people would be dead. I've trained a lot of people in light aircraft, and while I know helicopters require more hand/eye co-ordination, this one feels a little random and harsh. That being said, I don't think they've got too much to tweak to get it spot on. My first hover had pretty much the same result as my first hover in an R22, ie hovering, but wobbling around quite a bit, and can't stay over the same spot on the ground. In straight and level, it seems to swing around a bit more than I would have expected too. I've watched larger helo's being flown a few times from inside (Oryx, South Africa's version of the Puma), and they're pretty stable, although the cyclic is always being moved, it's small smooth movements. Again, never flown the real Huey though, but I seem to have to use more cyclic than I would have thought. I'm really enjoying the challenge though, and look forward to however they tweak it! There is actually one down here in Cape Town, occasionally hear it thwop-thwopping around, hard to miss!

Whew, managed a no-manual startup (small search for the low rotor RPM warning 'off' switch to the tune of WEEY-WEEY-WEEY-WEEY) and circuit, followed by some hover practice and hover taxiing to a new parking spot. With small children attached to my arms (big distraction, 'Daddy, I want to look in the exhaust pipe, Daddy, what is that whining noise etc etc etc constantly). Now I just need to read the manual. And learn to actually hover properly. The Ka50 is certainly a lot more docile. I have a long-throw joystick with hall sensors, that REALLY helped. I still sucked, but at least the chopper is reusable. Nice Huey, well done guys.

I haven't done it for a while, but IIRC if you hit the lines with your rotors, you'll need that ejection seat. Hitting the lines with your hull didn't seem to do it, just caused the 'thump' noise and cut the lines (same as a jet in FC), but no rotor damage, so you got to keep flying.

I've been flying this model of the B734 I have - the FM is quite realistic IMHO, and the graphics are pretty decent all round: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y9vh3kg4t5zlaah/20130422_084717.jpg Otherwise, the model of pain and masochism that is World of Tanks. And ARMA III.

Hey Vlerkies, you're keen on this one! I must say, I'm looking forward to my usual 'Get in and try and fly it with NO training and NO manual reading' for the first flight. Runway start of course, but the rules of the game are that you must return the aircraft intact and undamaged! I managed the Shark no problem, how hard can it be? ;) In fact only the Mustang has bothered me so far, with it's crazy yaw sensitivity on take off in the initial release! (Since toned down to 'easy' level :) But I only broke an oleo and the prop, so no biggy!)

Wish I could find the link now, but there's a vid floating around of a guy who did a whole flight, from being lined up to completing the landing roll using only sim experience. The instructor with him didn't say a word from 'You have control' when lined up until 'I have control' at the completion of the landing roll. These are the days of the GoPro - somebody will have done it, and filmed it for posterity.

Actually, I thought RO2 had a few things going for it: - The cover/peeking mechanics are in many ways better than ARMA. They're scripted to orient around the cover you're using, as opposed to ARMA where you just control your body position, and the cover doesn't feature (absolute vs relative I guess) ARMA 3 helps here with the much better body position control, although it's still an 'absolute' method. - The weapon mechanics (ie how you actually manipulate the controls of your firearm) seems better in RO2. In ARMA (even the new alpha), you just reload as usual. In RO2, since there is no magical round counter on your HUD, you can check the chamber, reload individual rounds in rifles that support it, manually work the bolt in bolt action rifles (handy for shot observation through a scope, you can see where your shot landed in most cases without waiting for the scope to finish jumping around as you work the bolt, once that's done, then work the bolt), and it generally simulates the difference between the magazine and the chamber of the firearm. Of course I normally don't really like online play in general - so the single player of RO2 is a bit of a waste, but it's a mindless way to pass a little time. ARMA is a much more complete experience though, by a massive margin. I find online play with ARMA a LOT more fun, mainly due to the much higher levels of teamwork. The new Alpha is looking really good. Get it.

I must say, that's one thing that really impressed me about GTA4 - the physical behavior of the people. Bumps, explosions etc and they all fell about in a plausible manner. That being said, I doubt we have much hope of seeing that in DCS - far, far too many other priorities stand in it's way. I guess sims are doomed to have 'wooden' infantry for the forseeable future. I'm looking at you, Steel Beasts :) (who only just recently got actual 3D infantry - up until then they were sprites!) Yes, the best tank simulator in the world (commercially available to the average civilian I suppose, although military ones usually look worse) had sprite based infantry up until 2012. I guess the rules are, if you see laughable human modelling, it must be a sim?

Actually I think the DCS model is ok here, I've found that aircraft with constant speed props just 'sound louder' when you increase the MP. There's often a little 'hunting' as you advance the throttle (especially if you do it quickly), and then you'll notice a pitch change possibly, but if you do it smoothly the exhaust note just gets deeper/louder/more 'oomph' really :) If you think about it, when increasing MP with a constant RPM, there are no mechanical changes in terms of velocities - hence no real change in 'pitch' (ie cycles per unit time), only in pressure (ie sound wave intensity in this case of the exhaust). My 2c.

Fixed that for you :)

...and again, we butt heads with DCS's poor handling of shrapnel effects vs soft targets. To be fair, most PC simulations have the exact same issues, so it's certainly not something that's DCS exclusive, and shortcuts have to be taken to spare the old CPU. It has gotten better since the original Lock on, where rockets and cannon fire pretty much had to be a direct hit to do anything at all.

It only checks once a day. Run the 'update DCS world' shortcut if you want to try again on the same day.

This thing is crying out for a 3D 'pit, it's gorgeous. What a beautiful aircraft.

Sure it's a nice plane, but it's role is fairly limited IMHO (strike?) - also, adding a whole host of new weapons that only one aircraft would really use ATM is quite a fair investment of development time. If they were to go Euro, I'd argue more for something from the Dassault stable (ie Mirage of some kind - F1 and 3 for example, they saw a lot of service around the globe) As it stands now, I reckon they've got their hands full anyway - my 2c.