Extranajero

I only fly the Luftwaffe aircraft at the moment - mostly because I spent a couple of years only flying Allied in another sim, and it was time for a change. I think I'm ready for an Allied one again now though. What are the pros and cons of the ones on offer ? I have tried out the TF-51 because it's free, and I do like the docile ground handling, but thats about the extent of my knowledge as to how these planes are in DCS You'll have to work quite hard to sell me the P-47, I don't normally do early access, but everything else is on the table, including that funny little Soviet thing...

I think I remember a comment from QuiGon a long time ago where he said he'd remove the option to hide the control stick from DCS if he could. If that's his position ( he might have been joking ) then I doubt you'll ever reach any sort of mutual understanding.

A real Luftwaffe pilots wish list in 1944 would have been to NOT have underwing gunpods, they were loathed by most for the drag they caused...

I haven't seen very much mention of DCS in particular, it seems more for ex-pilots, groundcrew and enthusiasts rather than simmers. It's difficult for me to tell because 75% of the posts are in Swedish and I don't autotranslate them all. I'll find the name of the group next time I use Facebook ( can you tell I am a big FB user ? :D ) Try talking to Novelair, their simulator uses a civilian flight sim, but they seem very friendly and they must have some good information.

Let's have a SEAD platform first, my reasoning :- 1) Everyone has read Dan Hamptons books 2) SEAD is one of the most interesting and challenging things you can currently do in DCS 3) We don't have a truly dedicated SEAD aircraft yet

If a target is datalinked you can be in a situation where you can see it on your TID repeater, but not have a TWS track. It's rare, but it can happen if there is a big difference in height between you and the target. The solution is to tell Jester where to scan - high or low - and he'll pick it up.

If you are on Facebook there is a Viggen group you can join. Mostly Swedish language. There are former Viggen pilots and ground crew contributing. Also Novelair have a Facebook page - if you didn't know they own and operate a Viggen simulator cockpit.

Do a search for Luftwaffe gun camera film on YouTube. Much of it is attacks from the rear. It's not the safest way to attack a bomber, but neither was it completely suicidal. Except in DCS of course...

I think I might do that. There doesn't seem to be any sign of existing servers changing. I might also think of ways to reward realistic flying for warbirds - i.e. not at 50 feet - but that might be too complicated.

Here are some planes, on a server that has sensible dot labels enabled. The distance is 4000 metres. The image resolution ( cropped ) is the same as I see on my monitor. You can see how the labels are huge, brightly coloured, would be easily visible through your own cockpit and break 'immersion' ( that's sarcasm, sorry :D )

I agree 100% . I flew in the real world and spotting just isn't as hard as it is in DCS, especially on a 4K monitor. My exasperation with no labels advocates is that they claim it's all about realism, but the lack of labels leads to incredibly unrealistic tactics where everyone is hugging the deck. I don't mind them seeing BFM as a competitive E-sport, that's great - if you like that sort of thing - just don't pretend it's got any relation to real world air fighting. I have a lot of time in another sim based around the Battle Of Britain. The deal there - because the spotting was so much better - was that the first thing you would do after taking off was climb as hard as you could, hoping that you wouldn't get jumped on your way up to fighting height. Just like how the battle was fought in the real world. You never flew on the deck unless you had a very good reason to be there.

The 475th Satans Angels WW2 server has custom labels on it which are superbly done. I'd recommend that one for anyone like me, who has spotting problems with their hardware. Its the wrong timezone for me - maybe the right one for you - but I have a fly round there sometimes. I know exactly what you mean about servers without labels, I can fly on any of them at above 6000ft and never get attacked, or see any action at all, unless it's a bomber raid. But that's realism for you, the air war in WW2 was fought at 200 feet, didn't you know ? :D

I don't know if this is relevant here, but tracers in general have a slightly flatter trajectory than ball ammunition. The designers try to get the trajectory the same as the ball rounds they are meant to be used with, but it's not always possible. The tracer has more favourable ballistic qualities thanks to aerodynamic effects - while the composition is burning it reduces drag on the projectile. If that is what is happening here, I am impressed...

Do cockpit files placed in Saved Games override the ones in the main installation then ?

Many hundreds ( two ? three ? four ? ) spent more than two hours on the SoW server alone, in more than two visits ? as in they were regular visitors ? come off it...when I was using the server it was mostly maybe twenty people at a time drawn from the same larger pool of regulars. I don't doubt you've got data that you can claim shows that DCS WW2 MP isn't almost dead on it's feet right now, but what you don't say is that joining the server for more than 3 minutes gets you counted as a visitor. There is only one other WW2 server that gets any real numbers on it, the rest are all empty. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But anyway... It's obviously me that's out of step, I'm just banging my head against a brick wall here. People use DCS any way that they like and that's as it should be. If they want to either see nothing because the game looks pretty, or alternatively go with screen resolutions that belong in Minecraft and have some action, I don't care. I'm in the first camp. I'm sitting right next to an enormous, but low res LCD TV that's waiting to be thrown out, once the dump re-opens. I could hook that up and get stuck in to some no-labels WW-2 and Korea action, but that doesn't do it for me, because the graphics will look horrible. I do have this nagging feeling that a small group of highly competitive people - the kind of people who care a lot about kill statistics - are very happy with the state of the spotting in DCS, because they've found the right combination of hardware to give them an edge. Labels would take that edge away, so they really don't like the idea. I've seen the same thing happen in other sims and it is definitely currently going on in that other WW-2 sim. Hopefully ED will sort out their AI, then I won't have to put up with other people at all :D :D :D

I've started on modifying the FW-190 cockpits to make them a little more useable at night. Altering the *.dds files for the weapon arming indicator lights basically, so they aren't so overpowering. That's gone fine, but the result breaks the integrity check, I'm assuming there's a way around this ?

How many of them flew for more than an hour and then came back for an another hour ? This post isn't about SoW, except in as far as SoW is a server without labels. I've made it abundantly clear I don't have any problems with you or the way you run your own server.

Good ! I don't have any axe to grind against SoW, far from it. I hope you get plenty of users, who enjoy themselves and stick around.

I just spent half an hour circling an opposing aircraft on a server that had the map icons enabled, but no labels. We were co alt, had a good idea of where the the other aircraft was and we still couldn't see each other. If that's your idea of realism, you can keep it. The no label advocates might want to consider why Korea and WW2 servers are usually empty, with a total playerbase that must measure less than 100 people, with maybe a third of those being the hardcore regulars. Maybe that's the way you like it though.... ?

100% historical accuracy in DCS is very difficult to achieve because of the wide variety in the maps and the planes. When coming up with mission concepts if I can get two of the correct planes, in the correct theatre, with the correct assets, at the correct time period I consider it a miracle. I honestly think that SoW is about as close as you can get, and it's not because I use the server, because I don't ( any longer ) thanks to technical issues. I suppose the worst thing you can say is that the K-4 is a bit awkward to operate without MW50 because the engine will blow up very quickly if you advance the throttle too far. But it's not that bad.

I would absolutely love some runway lights, they'll make Wilde Sau possible for the Luftwaffe

Combat aircraft didn't habitually fly in the weeds until the late 60's, but on most DCS servers they almost always do, because it's a good place to hide while trying to skyline opponents. During WW-2 and the dawn of the jet age absolutely no fighter aircraft designers were chasing low level flight performance, it was all about altitude. I don't see the current situation on servers catering for WW-2 as being realistic - just the opposite really.

The shaking is way better, but the Dora can still only manage 360mph at sea level and 380mph at 6000ft, the same as prior to this update.

I obviously missed the part of early access that said " Features will be added at a snails pace and are then subject to being broken by ED on every other update " Silly me :D But it's OK, I'm well aware now :)

If Mavericks are completely fixed - including the erratic behavior of IR Mavs acquiring a lock - then why wasn't it mentioned in the patch notes ? I'm not Razbams unpaid beta tester, they need to communicate properly. I'm still trying to work up the enthusiasm to see if the Harrier still destroys itself 50% of the time when taxi-ing on the Tarawa Is the FLIR fixed ? no, it isn't Is the MFD gain control enabled for the TPOD? no, it isn't I am a whole lot more patient than most - I have defended their company before - but I've reached the end of my goodwill towards Razbam now. But don't worry, I won't continue to " rant " - because it's obvious that it doesn't do any good whatsoever - the best you can hope for is an excuse - and I have the option of just never spending one single euro with them ever again.