yngvef

I think it looks interesting. I would ofcourse love a more modernized version with chinese avionics just to see how it is, but that is probably not feasible at this time. And there may be many reasons for that. Considering the level of fidelity required on DCS modules, the availability of non-classified information is crucial, and that means not everything is possible. In a dream world, I would love to see a J-10 in DCS for example, but I also realize that technical information is hard to come by, so I must simply accept it. And that's why I like DCS: the modules attempt to be quite faithful to the subject matter. If I want an arcadey surface-level game with F-35s, J-20s and all kinds of bleeding edge tech, then that is not DCS. I am sure there are games that can provide this but it will come at the expense of realism. (or the complete lack of it) Realism requires information, and on this type they have clearly found enough information to be able to move forwards with it. Ofcourse even DCS is still a video game and can never be truly 100% accurate, but at least it can come decently close. People are obviously entitled to their opinions, but from my own personal experience I would recommend focusing your energy on the stuff you enjoy rather than bashing the things you don't. If this isn't interesting to you, then that is perfectly fine. You want everyone to know? Okay, sure. But why though? Someone hops into the forum for this plane and starts criticising Deka Ironworks for choosing this plane. What is the best case scenario you are expecting? That they drop their three years of research and progress because some random user on the forum don't have an interest in this particular type? Or do you want someone to comfort you? I am nobody's boss, so you obviously don't need to listen to me, but my advice is to instead go to the forums of the planes you DO look forward to and share your hype instead of being toxic on the modules you DON'T care about. Just a thought. Like the things you like and ignore the things you dislike, and you'll probably be happier in the long run.

I am excited! Deka has done a great job with the JF-17, so I am sure this project is in great hands!

I was flying the Apache and doing some changes to the control settings. All good so far. Then I switched to the Mi-24 Hind and whenever I open the control settings, it doesn't default to the Mi-24 as it should, but still shows the setup for the Apache. I know I can switch which plane I am changing the settings for in the drop down menu, but it's very inconvenient that it keeps defaulting to a plane I am not flying. Several times I started changing things like axis settings before realizing I was messing up my AH-64 settings rather than tweaking my current plane. As far as I know, it only happens with Apache. Even going back to the main menu and starting a new mission doesn't fix it. I have to restart DCS for it to correctly display the settings og the active plane. To reproduce: Fly the Apache, open controls settings, close settings, switch plane type, open controls settings -> should still show Apache settings rather than active plane.

I have Flyingiron Simulations F6F Hellcat and P-38 Lightning for MSFS, and they are both incredibly well made. These guys are very talented, thorough and seem to care a lot about their products, so I have zero concerns about the quality of this upcoming A-7 module for DCS. I am sure it will be amazing.

Obviously it needs a good mix of US Navy squadrons, but I also hope the few non-american operators will be represented: Thailand, Portugal and Greece (yes, they all used the A-7E version at one point).

I seem to recall them saying (in 1975) that it could carry "any air-to-ground ordnance available in NATO". That might have been an exaggeration though, however I think there's a lot to choose from. Though most of the time, in Vietnam for example, it carried mostly Mk-80-series iron bombs as far as I understand.

Here's a good documentary/commercial for the A-7: Roll rate (clean I assume) of 200 degrees per second isn't bad. It is no dogfighter, and that was never intended, but I don't think it will be like a cargo plane either. Sidenote: I never understood what makes it "light attack" when it can carry 30x mk-82 bombs. Three A-7s can carry more Mk-82 bombs than a B-52.

If they implement a voiced WSO, then I think a female voice would be a nice change of pace. I don't really care so much about the callsign/name though, as long as it works.

Just to clarify. My original comment might seem a bit passive-aggressive, but that was not my intent. I simply meant that making something as complex as a plane module for DCS takes a lot of time, especially for the smaller dev teams. The fact that they have other projects to take care of as well, doesn't make it easier. Considering the attention to detail required would make a different version of F4U quite a lot of work, I'm sure. I don't know all the differences between -1D and -4, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are plentiful enough to warrant a completely separate module.

Haha. Yeah, I mostly included the point about the Me-109 supercharger being technically advanced as a protection against over-zealous wehraboos.

Very true. It would have been significantly better to have a two-stage supercharger like most american planes had early on as well as the Spitfire (from Mark IX onwards). My point about the Me-109 supercharger being well designed was referring to the variable intake and the fact that it didn't suffer the normal drawbacks from throttling the engine that other superchargers did. It was a clever design, but as you point out, making clever things usually make them technically complicated, harder to maintain and expensive to manufacture. In fact, I would argue that the germans made this mistake on a lot of their equipment. Some of it was very sophisticated, but not necessarily suited for the gritty conditions of war. Being good on paper or in ideal conditions won't help if it breaks down before even getting to the front (like the Panther tank for example) And even if it was reliable, there is something called over-engineering as well: making something so fancy and exotic that it costs significantly more materials and money to manufacture. Like field radios in fancy wooden boxes that were polished and engraved to a quality making it look more like a musical instrument than something that will the thrown around in the mud. Sure, they were good quality, but at what cost? One of the big mistakes the german airplane manufacturers made was ignore the need for high altitude performance. Except some late-war stuff that never reached mass production (Ta-152H-1 for example), they never were truly competitive at high altitudes. So, in DCS, I would try to pull the dogfight down to a lower level if I'm flying german planes. In my opinion, the biggest advantage the FW-190A-8 has is it's ridiculous firepower (though that is best vs bombers. You don't need all that to down a fighter and it only weighs you down) Edit: I just need to mention that the video you linked is very good. That whole channel is very good for anyone wanting to get technical deep dives on warbirds.

I think there are too many variables to make any definite answer to this. You can compare top speeds, roll rates and g-limits till the cows come home, but it never tells the whole story. Altitude is, as always, a very big factor. I see some people compare the F4U-1D to the P-47, and while they have the same(ish) engine, the P-47s turbocharger will make it more and more dominant the higher you get. The P-47 was never famous for it's agility (except roll rate), but at high altitude it could overpower both the Fw-190 and Me-109 due to their lack of a turbo. (even though the Me-109 had a very well designed supercharger) My gut feeling says that the F4U will benefit from its very high top speeds in low level fights against 190/109, making boom and zoom a likely effective strategy. At high level it's anybody's guess. My other gut feeling is that they are close enough that it can go both ways, making it quite pilot dependent.

Considering it's (so far) taken them almost eight years to make the -1D version, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Considering most of the other warbirds are all late-war models, I assume this one will be too. But that is just a guess.

Those defending the sounds seem to be misunderstanding something. Yes, the idle sounds are okay-ish, at least when parked on the ground, not moving. I've never stood right next to a Harrier with its engine running on idle anyway. I've also never been inside the cockpit of a Harrier that is running its engine. But that's not what the main complaints are about. At least not from my point of view. Try a high power flyby (F3 camera), or hovering seen from an external camera at a distance. It sounds absolute trash. When a real Harrier is hovering a few hundred meters away from you, you don't hear a "tone", all you hear a wall of white noise, almost like an afterburner. Anyone who's ever been to an airshow should know this. The flyby (something I heard a LOT during NATO exercises where I live some years ago) also sounds like any other jet plane. From the front you'll hear some different tones from it, but from the back it sounds like a jet plane, with more or less just white noise (no discernable "tone"). The white noise mayb have a higher frequency (thinner sound) than maybe an F-16 or something and a bit less volume, but that scrawny "meowwwwww" when it flies by in F3 camera in DCS sounds like complete and utter crap and anyone with ears should be able to hear that. All those talking about how they used to work with Harriers must either have bad recollection or, more likely, are misunderstanding what we are talking about. And yes, I am fully aware that we can't get the full "experience" of hearing a real jet on a computer. But ALL other modules sound more realistic than the Harrier.

Yep. But don't worry about the fanboys. They, as well as Razbam themselves, never read the forums apparently.

My worry is that Razbam doesn't care about this. They've known for a very long time that their sounds are bad, but Razbam official never comments on it.

Yes, please! That would be so much better. Making it sound like it actually has a jet engine rather than the embarrassment we have now. Anyone who has seen real Harriers on airshows or something knows that they are absolutely deafening when hovering.

Let me just add to this post. External sounds on the Harrier are so crappy that I almost never fly it. It's a cool plane but I just get so annoyed whenever I want to enjoy it from any external viewpoint. It's the absolute worst module in DCS when it comes to sounds. It's nothing like the real plane and flyby sounds especially terrible. Also, when standing still on the ground there is zero difference when moving the camera around the plane. It doesn't have different sounds regardless if you are looking into the nozzles or the intake. And ANYONE who has ever seen a real plane of any type knows that they sound vastly different depending on where you see it from. If Razbam never fixes this then I have severe doubts about ANY of their upcoming modules as well. And the fact that they've barely made any changes or fixes to this for years makes it even worse. It's not like the AV-8B is a new module anymore. In fact, I can't believe that ED accepts such low quality sounds in a sim that they've tried to upgrade the sound quality in for years. Just compare to EDs own planes like F/A-18 and F-16 which are sounding pretty decent. Ofcourse a game can never truly capture the sound and feeling of powerful jet engines, but the current harrier sounds like a vacuum cleaner. They CAN do better.

There is currently no way (that I know of) to sit in the front seat of the Apache and having George AI in the backseat in multiplayer. This works, as we all know, in single player by simply pressing 1 and 2 to switch seats. The buttons don't work in multiplayer, as the other seat is kind of another client or something. Also, you can't spawn directly into the front seat without a human in the back as it is not clickable in the list of roles. Only way currently to be in the front seat in multiplayer is to have another real human first spawn into the helicopter (and get the back seat) and then requesting multicrew for the front. But, as Wags said, they are working on it being possible.

I was about to add my +1 to this when I saw that Wags sayd they are working on it. So I guess I'll just say thanks and hope it comes soon. Being able to play multiplayer with a couple of friends and everyone gets to man their own TADS and let their respective Georges take care of the flying sounds like a lot of fun! Doing coordinated strikes with hellfires and guns and such. Also, just for good measure: +1

Haven't flown this for a while and discovered that there is no sound in cockpit (or at least only a very distant weird sound). Don't know how long this has been a problem. External sounds are also weak and strange and sound like the plane is behind you (or something) when doing a flyby with the F3 camera. Buddy in multiplayer had the same experience. What's the status on this?

Yeah, 1943 was just an example, not really a thought-out suggestion

They should have decided on a specific year, say 1943, and made modules of planes that actually operated in the same time frame, as well as fitting AI planes for the same period. I think it would at least make more sense if you intend to have the different modules fight eachother.

My impression is that 3d model and texturing is the smallest part compared to the work-hours required to create the flight model and systems simulation (MFDs, radar, targeting systems). Particularly on something as complex as the F-15E. I remember ED posted a list of the work-hours required to create the F-18, and it was something like 40 work-years total or something crazy like that. And the F-15E is definitely not any less complex than the F-18. As we've not seen a functional, interactive cockpit yet, I remain highly cynical about the possibility of a release in 2022. Still images of external and internal model and a few basic weapons doesn't really show anything. Like that image of the F-15E dropping general purpose bombs that was shared in the other thread on the 29th of december (i think it was). Sure, it's nice to see that it can drop bombs at all, but considering the extreme level of complexity of precision weapons (and the large selection that the Strike Eagle can carry), it tells very little about the amount of progress being made. I mean, slick Mk-80-series of bombs are probably the simplest AG munition there is, as they have only a basic free fall ballistic and there are only a few sizes of the same bomb type to choose from. It makes sense that this is the first AG munition you implement as it is probably the easiest, but if that means they still haven't started with all the PGMs that this plane can carry, then we are a very very long way out still.