Cunctator

That seems to a limitation of the terrain engine. It's the same at the edge of the Persian Gulf map, deep in the Indian ocean, far far away from any detailed area, the sea suddenly ends.

Yeah, I am curious how they will handle that. Backdating an islands map would certainly be much easier than anything with a huge surface area. But I really appreciate it that we will get any map for the F4U so soon, even if myself and my carrier have to stay away from certain areas. No Corsairs over Normandy for years to come.

They said previously that the free map will be dual purpose, i.e. suitable for modern and WW2 scenarios. Thus I expect some area like the South China Sea with Okinawa, that was strategically as important in WW2 as it is today.

I would not oppose a Solomons scenarios, in fact that would by my dream for a WW2 Pacific theater sim. But just don't think it can be realistically done in less than 5+ years. The Normandy map was released 2.5 years ago, we just got the first axis plane that actually fought over Normandy this summer and still don't have any transports, medium bombers or actual warships. ED already has quite of list of modules to finish or release (P-47, Mosquito, Me262, announced WW2 Europe map, assets pack update ...) + modern stuff and engine improvements (Vulcan, New Clouds, dynamic campaign, new FLIR renderer ...). 3rd parties so far have demonstrated that they can release about one module per year. For an pure F4U campaign the three month long battle of Okinawa has more variety to offer. A small Iwo Jima and large East China Sea map could coffer over half a year of carrier warfare. Strikes against Japanese convoys in the East China Sea and airfields in the entire region prior to the invasion, close air support missions on the islands itself, strikes against the other islands of the Ryukyu chain and Kyushu, defending the fleet against massive Kamikaze raids or conventional attack, air combat against almost anything Japan fielded during the war including the latest army and navy fighters. Eventually, the Corsair equipped, British Pacific Fleet could be introduce too, useful assets if we ever get a Norway-Murmansk map.

With the new DM close I could imagine that they are now waiting for its implementation before releasing any new AI planes. It might be that Wags is doing this on his own or that the WW2 team mainly or only speaks Russian, but I would really appreciate it if we could one day have the same level of transparency regarding progress, inevitable delays and planned features as for the F-16 and Hornet development.

A realistic implementation of the hotspot detector might actually depend on the new FLIR model ED is developing together with the ATFLIR pod for the Hornet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Highjump Essex class carrier is already coming to DCS.

Since it takes a huge amount of time to add anything to DCS, any first step Pacific project, that can be finished in a reasonable period, should be based on a minimum amount of additionally required assets. What we have now, or what is already announced is exclusively mid-late war stuff. US ground forces, P-51D-30NA, Essex class carrier, F4U-1D, AI A6M5 model 52 Zero, which will hopefully become flyable someday. Plus the Iwo Jima map once in development that will hopefully be finished one day. Thus I would propose a 1945 Battle of Okinawa project. The USN would at least need a destroyer as carrier escort and picket ship. Fletcher and/or Allen M. Sumner classes would be good candidates. Both also served throughout most of the Cold War, thus would generally be a good addition to DCS. Same is true for an East China Sea/Okinawa map, also highly useful for modern scenarios and carrier ops. It might even be the upcoming free map currently in development. The incredibly flexible TBF Avenger would be great to supplement the F4U and offer a lot new gameplay elements. Torpedo bomber, level bomber, minelayer, rocket attacks, eventually radar equipped and ASW variants. For the Japanese: Yamato class battleship Kagerō-class destroyer Another late war fighter that can engage our Corsair on equal terms, such as the Ki-84, or N1K1-J/N1K2-J If the map in the map includes the Chinese coast and parts of the mainland the Mitsubishi A5M should also be a candidate as an appropriate opponent for the I-16. The remaining airframes were later used for Kamikaze attacks during the Okinawa campaign.

There were two US carriers named Yorktown in WW2. USS Yorktown, CV-5, namesake of the Yorktown class of pre-war aircraft carriers and sunk in the battle of Midway, and the second Essex class carrier USS Yorktown, CV-10. Originally planned as Bon Homme Richard it was renamed to honor the former ship after it was gone.

:punk: Didn't notice that during the presentation. Rudel posted a WIP image what looked like a Zero engine years ago. Glad to see that an Zero is still on the table. Hopefully it will be flyable one day.

Good to hear :). It was a very nice show last night. The F4U is my all time favorite aircraft. Take the time to get it right. Still I hope release is not too far away, I can't wait to land her on a carrier.

The only instance I can remember and could find where ED officially mentioned the F8 is this newsletter from last January. https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3774154&postcount=180 It says nothing about the F8 being included in the A8 package. I seriously doubt that this will be the case, otherwise they would have said so in the e-shop product description and threads like this. At least I expect that ED is still undecided how it will be marketed.

However, the Fw 190 F8 has the outer wing MG 151/20 cannons removed to save weight. One planned modification of the F series had two much heavier MK 103 30 mm cannons installed in under wing gondolas, intended as anti tank weapon, but this wasn't used much operationally, if at all.

On some Fw-190 Rüstsatz mods ( R2 / R8 ) a pair of Mk108 guns replaced the outer wing MG151/20 cannons. I hope we will get them eventually, as well as other weapons already implemented in DCS as the W.Gr.21 rockets.

:pilotfly: Light at the end of the tunnel? Happy times ahead!

An Illustrious-class carrier. Nice! :)

+1 for the idea. As a first step, a PT Boat or English/German equivalents are probably a lot easier to implement than submarine warfare and we already have a suitable map for the latter. In my eyes DCS Fletcher class would be a perfect choice to expand the naval aspect, especially since they were still widely used after WW2 and some saw service until the end of the century. ED can utilize the tech build for the upcoming Supercarrier module, introduce the original WW2 version first, just surface warfare during early access, ASW later, followed by an upgraded cold war version.

They did this in the past, when DCS as a concept was just announced ca. in 2007/2008, but for various reasons ED had to change their plans repeatedly. For example: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=27694 Remember when the AH-64A Blk. 49A was in active development, or the Mi-24 and F-16C cockpit screenshots from 2008? Eventually, everything gets done, but from an PR perspective threads like this one are a good example why it isn't wise to announce stuff to far in advance, long before it is ready. It will only create disappointment later.

Still, there is a lot more material available for other in-service aircraft, like the Harrier or even the Super Hornet . Seems to me that the legacy Hornet never attracted much interest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis

The F4U-7 was basically the AU-1 (F4U-6) airframe mated with the F4U-4s engine. It retained the additional armor and weapons stations of the AU-1, but had a better high altitude performance. A ground pounders dream, the F4U-7 could carry a mixture of 10 light bombs/rockets and 3 heavy bombs or 9 x 500 pound bombs, one more than the WW2 He 111 bomber. Since the French also used some former USMC AU-1s, an AU-1/F4U-7 or F4U-4 combo would have been very nice. B.T.W.: Today, 75 years ago, the Fleet Air Arm launched Operation Goodwood IV, the last carrier strike against Tirpitz. Among other planes it included 17 Corsairs from 1841 and 1842 squadrons from HMS Formidable. As already during Goodwood III, a number of the faster Corsairs was armed with 1000 pound AP bombs to dive bomb the Tirpitz ahead of the main formation of 26 Barracudas armed with one 1.600 lb. AP bombs each. The rest of the Corsairs acted as fighter escort and more importantly had the dangerous task of flak suppression, which included strafing the German AAA positions along the cliffs of the Fjord. One Corsair and one Firefly was lost. TL;TR: ANY NEWS?

Ju 88 is coming. Matt is also talking about DCS WW2 at the very end of the podcast. https://www.fighterpilotpodcast.com/episodes/055-forward-air-controllers/

This summer for the assets pack update was their last estimate. I hope that hasn't changed. They still have one month. A sentences or two in the newsletter about the progress of DCS WW2 once a month would be nice. Even the Fw 190A8 cockpit update this week wasn't mentioned in the official change log.

The updated cockpit was part of today's hotfix. Thanks! :)

+1 I am always surprised when people see secrecy and surprise as an universally good marketing tactic. That might work when you have a million followers eagerly waiting for your next product, or an equally big budget for advertising. Nobody has made a Pacific War sim since 2004(!). The F4U could be a good opportunity to bring new people into DCS, from the civil sim world and others. But people must know about your plans to get excited. Currently we only know that M3L will eventually release the F4U-1D someday, is making a carrier that never operated F4U-1Ds and that their follow on module will not be something that fits the Corsair, but a F8 Crusader. It's hard to see any coherent plan. Are the carrier and Corsair just leftovers from previous more grandiose plans? With the same effort they could have made a Korean war/late WW2 F4U-4 and Essex class CV to expand the DCS Korea plane set, instead of starting something new.