addman

"Two weeks, be sure" (tm Oleg Maddox)

Yeah, love people defending a company when they have no idea what's going on inside, what do you know that I don't? You don't seem to be aware of the already broken M2k, please read before replying. Plenty of "useful little helpers" to go around I see.

No, they are not being "plenty transparent", if they were then there wouldn't be 70+ pages of speculation. Contract breaches has EVERYTHING to do with sustainability in this case since it's the third party which has the power to support or not support their modules in case there are breaches by ANY party. It means that the customers are left hanging in the cold, like literally RIGHT NOW with the bug in the Mirage2k. I don't think you get it, it's about trusting first and third parties, if there is no trust then you will lose your customers. I get this happens all the time but ED isn't MS with a gazillion different contracts with a gazillion different parties. ED is small potatoes with a handful of third-party developers who are the LIFELINE of DCS: World, without them DCS: World would absolutely not have the player base it has today. It's a big deal, stop downplaying it. It happens all the time you say? we, the customers just don't hear about it most of the time? We'll, that's definitely not a good thing to mention, jesus it just makes it seem worse. Like the whole business is basically just a fragile house of cards waiting to keel over in the wind. I don't think this is the norm, when did a third-party refused to update their products recently? I can't remember. I don't care about rumours, I react to facts. Fact: Razbam has stopped updating their products (excluding SA map) Fact: This has already started affecting products that people have purchased from them. These are a few but important facts, not rumours and the effects of this conflict between first and third party are just beginning to show.

No but your customers might, unless ED becomes more transparent towards the community and finds a more sustainable way for 3rd party developers to maintain their products. I'm not sure I want to buy even Heatblur products any more if I can't be assured that it will be 100% supported to function in DCS throughout it's life time. Even if ED manage to square things out with Razbam it doesn't solve the fundamental issues long term. This has been a real wake-up call for the community and should be one for ED too. ED should restructure with third party developers where third parties are OBLIGED to support their products, in return they may get compensated financially by a small monthly subscription fee for the customers which will be a pool of funds, ear-marked for updating and maintaining existing products. This way developers don't have to work "for free" when maintaining their products. Or, ED could assign a couple of developers from their own stables to work more closely with third parties in maintaining their products, they might be privy to source code under NDA of course from third parties. You could make it work in many different ways but it's obvious, by this problem which is yet to be resolved, that the current model is way too fragile and consequences of a relatively large developer like Razbam leaving DCS World would be catastrophic, to say the least.

Splash! MiG-31

They don't have to be low-res, I'm talking about low-poly trees, less drawcalls etc. They can be 8k trees for all I care, that mostly affects VRAM usage. Amount of polygons affects performance and to be honest, how geometrically advanced does a tree need to be?

I agree, just make some new low-poly tree models that don't necessarily have to sway in the breeze, most conifers don't sway that much anyway unless very hard wind. I guess removing the photoreal textures isn't an option at this point but if they want to save storage space, custom made ground textures will do that because you can use the same tiles over and over again. Like if they really want to improve the map then priorities should be trees, towns and air bases. Those are FUNDAMENTAL things and should've been better from the start to be honest. I'm not bashing, just giving constructive criticism here, it's obvious someone pushed the release button way too early in this case. I really looked forward to this map, being a nordic native and all, but when I see the videos and screenshots of this map I just can't bear myself to buy it. I also don't appreciate that statements from some people "if you don't buy it they can't fix it", that's BS and really unconstructive. It's not the consumers fault that they release a sub-par map. Here's how it works in capitalism, you make something that's good and THEN there will be demand.

They have created the ”negativity” themselves by releasing something so unfinished, EVEN for an early access release. I also judge them by their previous work which has been of overall good quality. I’ve bought and used their products for over 11 years so I have a pretty good understanding of their potential. That’s also why I’m so critical.

Released way too early and with Orbx track record of abandoning low profit platforms, I don’t have high hopes for Kola. Please prove me wrong Orbx.

I even prefer Orbx own almost 10 year old products for FSX/P3D over the current Kola map. Screenshots below are all Orbx, northern Sweden. It's Orbx "plausible" ground textures which I think looks better and sharper than any photoreal and doesn't take up a lot of storage space. Combined with custom landclass, HD trees and vector data. ALL Orbx products. Great fps, minimal storage space and looks more authentic than the current smeared out photoreal textures amd totally innacurate flora.

Yeah, I’m from Sweden and it totally ruins the map. I’m not buying until they figured out a way to implement fps-friendly conifers. They’ve done it in their other work for P3D and MSFS. I’d be fine with low-poly trees, you don’t notice even when you’re low. Speedtrees are actually worse fps wise because they are overdetailed AND animated so I don’t quite get the excuse.

That's almost funny, a reveal of an upcoming reveal. Why not just wait until you have something to actually to show? DCS has really become a "Product Preview Simulator". Things that are coming but not yet, things that were supposed to be released but are now delayed, things that MAYBE have been cancelled or maybe not. Sorry to sound so cynical but the last month haven't been kind to DCS or my patience with it.

If the 23 is dead, why is this forum still open?

Two weeks

+1 It get's more and more obvious the more you listen to interviews with veteran Vietnam war pilots. Either the US pilots got ambushed or they accidentally spotted som MiGs down below which they in turn jumped, often the MiGs weren't even aware they were jumped until a missile hit them or nearly missed. Other times they tangled up and after a few turns and yo-yos they completely lost sight of eachother and just turned home to respective home airfields. The "growling sidewinder" dogfights were probably exceptions to the norm. Hate to brake it but irl wasn't like DCS.

Yaay! It's pre-order time again! No thank you!

Yep, key right there. That’s why I haven’t even pre-ordered the F-4. Pre-order EARLY ACCESS? yeah, no thanks.. It’s not like there’s a limited amount of licenses on release day right?If developers don’t get money before they even release the product, more incentive to crunch and release right? I mean look at Star Citizen, worst and most extreme example of pay now and maybe get something down the line.

Far from spring here in Finland any way

Nice!

Just for the record, I'm not a SJW in any way, shape or form. I am however a fan of accuracy and authenticity. Hence my question, will there be pilot options for ethnicity? Like flying a JASDF livery Phantom as the most caucasian looking dude with a big old moustache kind of ruins the immersion and authenticity. It's not the end of the world if the option won't be there but it sure would be nice. Thank you!

Well, considering there's an actual pilot customizer as seen in some vids I'd be very surprised if we didn't get the body too.

Fantastic news! Looks like you guys have made a lot of progress under the radar, so to speak.

Yeah, I agree with this. Just watched a video of, a somewhat "refreshed", "Joemate" bagging 4 player flown F-16's in his F-5 on a multiplayer server. So yeah, plane is only as good as it's pilot and the MiG-29, even in somewhat capable hands, will be a real threat to any opponent.