Cunctator

Not to mention the FC planes, we already have 2 versions of the Fw-190 and F-14. Razbam has announced more Harriers, with the vastly different Sea Harrier coming next. There is always hope for more F4Us.

Finally! The long wait is coming to an end.

A year ago the showed an Essex Class CV model in game that will be released together with the F4U-1D.

The decision to add the D9 was made when DCS WW2 was not a thing, to have an Axis counterpart that can fight the P-51D on equal footing, just as we only have the F-86 and MiG-15 for Korea. I think the K4 was the real mistake. They should have made the G-6 or G-14 instead, the true workhorses of the Luftwaffe and in service until the end of the war. When late WW2 Europe comes to my mind I think about Luftwaffe fighters desperately attacking huge, escorted, heavy bomber formations. That is the direction I would pursue as ED to flesh out the Europe theater. Expand the current Channel map to the north and east to include parts of East Anglia with some bomber bases and the coast of the Netherlands where the Luftwaffe can try to intercept incoming raids. Most of the new map area would just be water. The D9 would still fit in. A true late 44 - early 45 theatre would require a resource intensive map of densely populated central Europe/Germany. I rather would like to see them spend this resources on a Cold War Germany map than on the very tail end of WW2. Yes, as the first operational jetfighter the Me 262 eventually deserves a place in DCS and I would buy it on day one, but I am fine with it being added later. It is of enormous importance for the development of combat aviation, but the actual combat ops in WW2 were more of footnote compared to the scale of WW2 air war. The latter is especially true for the K4. I wouldn't built the entire theatre around them.

Not always, the first stretch goal was changed midway through the kickstarter campaign, when Luthier begun to believe that the Me 262 would be more popular and thus more likely to raise more money. When would you consider a WW2 theater finished? Every single vehicle, plane and map? Half of them? Just the most important ones, but that would already be the matter of much debate. The entire timeframe or only the most crucial battles? I don’t think that it is possible or even desirable to spend that many resources for each warzone. Adding anything to DCS seems to require a lot of man hours and at some point you just get diminishing returns. Lowering the level of detail and watering down the sim just to get more stuff finished quickly is nothing I’d like to see either. Personally, I would prefer to have spotlight like the most iconic aircraft, their adversaries and some supporting stuff for all theaters in DCS, than just one super detailed one, but I understand that for some the opposite might be more appealing.

The 2013 Kickstarter was a giant mess. It was run by Ilya Shevchenko, with the online nickname Luthier, who is apparently a nice and passionate guy but a poor project manager. All his previous flight sim projects had to be saved by someone else and before that he had some business in the US that he was force to shut down in about 2002. For me the kickstarter was a high risk investment from the beginning. I guess Luthier hoped this would become a flight sim repeat of Star Citizens success story with millions raised. When the money didn't flow in as expected he looked increasingly desperate and promised anything the community wanted to hear. The Me 262 wasn't even the first choice as 1st stretch goal, something B-17 related if I remember correctly. A lot of promises he couldn't keep or would have been economically suicidal. Like a DCS map SDK accessible for all backers or a separate DCS WW2 Europe free to play version with a number of warbirds for free, that was later in the Kickstarter changed to one. But nobody seems to remember that today, or that we sort of got the budget version of the next 275.000 $ stretch goal not achieved back then. I am glad that ED did not stick to the flawed original plan forever and instead tries to make a historically coherent WW2 environment with aircraft relevant to the maps we got and hopefully expanding to the Pacific soon, theater ignored by serious flight sims since almost 20 years.

Originally in the early 2000s, when LOMAC was first released and was the only up to date jetfighter sim left on the market. A few years later I was heavily invested in FSX when Black Shark was released and got a lot of praise, I then returned for FC2 and A-10C.

New screenshot from Leatherneck's Facebook page:

Posted on the Leatherneck Facebook page a few days ago. Possible hint? 9.12. almost 21

The Soviet Union supplied a greater number of I-16s to the Chinese. They fought against Zeros regularly over mainland China.

ED has provided APIs for new features like A2G radar to 3rd party teams before. Why not for (certain) radial engines? It is in their best interest to speed up the development and increase the quality of of 3rd party DCS modules.

I hope they just wait for new DM to be finished by ED before showing some progress, but after more than 5 years and now almost one year of silence since the Christmas demonstration my hope is waning.

There are many more self taught modelers eager to get their favorite planes into the sim than competent coders with the required skill level to code systems and FMs to a level people are demanding. I doubt the modelers see any money from Razbam until their module is actually released, which in most cases will probably never be the case. What happened to the Mirage III, OV-10 or Super Tucano, that Razbam was teasing years ago?

I think that's a sure bet. Probably they need to release a new module every two years to survive as a company. I doubt Razbam will ever finish something as complex as the F-15E to a true study sim level most here expect. Hopefully they will change their marketing strategy and make less bold claims before it will be declared "finished".

My suggestion and as I handle things now: Don't pay for promises. Only make a purchase if you think the current product is worth the price. I've learned my lesson with Star Citizen. I bought the Harrier at a 50 % sale two years ago and I already got enough hours of fun out of it for my 32 €, especially compared to other hobbies.

Out of early access does not equate "finished" or "complete" in DCS these days. This was discussed at length when the Fw-190A8 left early access back in spring. Out of early access??: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=267282

+ 1 Good idea. Finally finishing the new damage model that is in development for 4 years would be my number one. Than shift to Pacific theatre.

Zeus said on Discord that there was a second problem with analog TDC slew. An incorrectly assigned dead zone. It should be fixed with the next update.

I hope they will do the AV-8B+ as a joint venture eventually. Razbam could supply the 3D model, FM and current code base. ED could code the remaining system and reuse a lot of code Hornet radar code in the process., while Razbam coders could focus on their other projects.

I can only 2nd this. Last night I just drove a truck through Dover and up into the castle through the gate and was blown away by the visuals. ED should really consider full fidelity car and tank modules to fully utilize the potential of such beautiful maps. I can easily imagine some fun 1930/40s cross country race.

Here is a reasonably detailed 1938 period map that, compared to the in game map shown above, demonstrates the additional build up zones. http://www.bsswebsite.me.uk/A%20Short%20History%20of/enlargement.html?map=42 Personally, I love the new map and don't need every single building to be correct for the period to have a good WW2 experience in flight sim. At least as long as they look like buildings from the 1930s or 40s its no immersion killer for me. I and most likely the vast majority of DCS customers would not know that the 1940s factory complex below is in reality a nuclear power station that should not be there. When using period maps for in game navigation things like that will eventually be realized, but simply being able to use correct maps is good enough for me. I can understand however, that people who lived in this area can have stronger feelings about such things.

A radar equipped F4U somewhere in the future would be superb. An accurately simulated WW2 or Korea era nightfighter would be unique and was never done before in any sim as far as I know.

Baltic Dragon is writing the official manual. It will come eventually.

The Zero is being done by Magnitude 3L. First as an AI aircraft to accompany their upcoming F4U-1D. They rarely post updates on anything they do. The last one was about Christmas time. Updates would be posted here: https://forums.eagle.ru/forumdisplay.php?f=535

The AV-8B+ still has the NAVFLIR, in a more squared faring directly above the radar.