ironmarc

I played DCS on both Steam and standalone versions and couldn't see any kind of differences... Apparently content becomes available sooner and that's about it. Since I'm not american, the US$ fluctuations sometimes can make it less worthwhile to buy stuff in the ED website while Steam sells their products in the local currency. Bought the Huey module on Steam recently, but downloaded and installed it out of it, just used the CD-key.

I would rather have more 2nd/3rd gen jet fighters added. NO more FC3-level stuff, and I believe none is planned anyway, FC3 was a needed move to increase the initial offerings of the DCS World, but now I believe DCS has grown enough that FC3-level stuff are not needed anymore. I would definitely buy the Lancer variant, even without a discount and I own the BIS module. I think the Lancer might be more accessible to the Leatherneck Sims crew since it's romanian, so it's in Europe, rather than the Bison, which was developed in India. But I would rather see that they focus on 2nd/3rd gen. Mach 1+/2+ speeds, without great BVR capabilities, with lesser avionics, makes it my favorite jet fighter gen for the combat flight sim for those reasons.

But that issue counts for everyone doesn't it? Not a reason to shy away from multiplayer if you really want to dive in it. I'm not sure, but the AI might actually be better at spotting than a player, for the fact that it must have a determined range when if it's cone of vision that when it is pointed at the direction of a target, it will automatically spot it. It doesn't actually have to "find" anything and it can't get distracted and it won't be fooled by the background.

This story reminds me of that Hawker Sea Fury that managed to shoot down a MiG15 during the Korean Wars. Probably the MiG15 pilot slowed down and levelled the fight with the Sea Fury, taking his own advantage away. Still, if the energy management was done right, the MiG15 would be able to easily get away from the Sea Fury if he got his back, the difference in power was big enough. But it's good training. Trying to beat the MiG15 at it's own game with a F15 or Su27. I'm gonna try that while flying with the Fishbed.

Do you use a regular mouse or do you use a mouse with more buttons? I use one that has 9 buttons besides the three regular ones and the wheel. If I wanted to, I could assign two of my buttons to increase and decrease the throttle. If you do assign the throttle to the mouse wheel, what are you going to do about the zoom, since you control the view with the mouse as well? You feel that you don't need it?

Cold War era. Wouldn't got as far as early 90's. More like 60's to early 80's to me. I like the high speed and maneuverability, but without the higher precision and better accuracy and range of sensors used in modern aircraft. I like World War II planes as well, there's so much history attached to them. It was that time the last when we saw the most powerful AF's in the wold going against each other. And hopefully but not likely, the last time.

I too would love to see the Harrier, it's one of my favorites. The Harrier got a steeper learning curve but with a higher skill ceiling as well. A beginner Harrier pilot risks his life every time he changes the nozzles thrust direction, a skilled Harrier pilot however will be doing VIFF maneuvers, which are an airborne equivalent of car drifting. And it's a multirole aircraft, used on many different ways and some of them unique to it. The level of challenge and possibilities that the Harrier could bring to DCS it is unique.

The F-15 has ran out of fuel in this? :) The story behind the pic actually proves that between the F-15 and F-14, pilot skill is the more decisive factor.

Thanks for the correction.

And from my (limited) understanding, trying to apply those tactics with an F-14 against a F-16 would be very ballsy, at the very least. I have a book here that talks a lot about the dogfighting ability of the F-16 called "Viper Force", written by John M. Dibbs with the help of a retired USAF pilot, Col. Robert Renner and the pilots opinions in this book about the F-16 in dogfighting situations is pretty damn high and they were training extensively with F-15's. When the F-14 pilot tries a lag roll for example against the F-16, you are talking about an aircraft that pulls 9g (more than the F14 can, or F-15 for that matter), has negative stability, would bleed clearly less speed during any maneuvering... Pilot's skill being equal, I believe the F-14 in most cases would get outmaneuvered and shot down if it tried to do any aggressive maneuvering against the F-16. There are plenty of references for the F-16's perfromance in WVR engagements. It is (or was) extensively used in training against the F15, F22 and Typhoon. There is actually a video of a training dogfight between the F-16 and F-14, which means nothing as we don't even know the circumstances, but will link it just to add it to the conversation... Generally, when looking at any references from pilots and videos, the F-16 seems to be always a little better at dogfighting than the F-15 for example.

I would bet that it doesn't get completely outmaneuvered when engaging WVR against the F-15 and MiG-29, I think it might have a good enough fighting chance depending on the circumstances and offer enough tools that in the end, it's the pilot's skill what turns out to be the most decisive factor. Against the F/A-18, F-16, I dunno, considering some descriptions from pilots that you can find around the internet, probably it is going to get outmaneuvered by these in most situations, but then it has some other strengths that might compensate for it. Or not. Talking about DCS modules, the Typhoon that is going to be a part of DCS probably beats it handily when WVR, and likely it's not going to have many advantages BVR as well. The MiG-21, in theory, can become very troublesome to deal with in some circumstances for the Tomcat, according to what knowledge is publicly available and that I've managed to find.

F-16 is a possibility and one that I personally would like very much, it's one of my favorites, but I don't really believe it will be it. It was mentioned that there will "be something for all tastes" and while there are many many differences between the 16 and 14, I think it's still a bit too similar to say that it would cater to all tastes. Maybe I'm giving too much importance to that phrase, but I think it won't be another american aircraft, as personal preferences and the nationality of the people who designed and produced the aircraft are usually very much related. So something that appeases all tastes can't be something from the same country I think. Viggen or MiG-23 were "hinted", because of said duck reference, but neither has a ground radar, I might be mistaken, not an expert and not pretending to be either. This is not really a guess, I would like the Harrier, but I would be very surprised if it turns out to be it. Would be a great surprise, a welcome surprise to me and to be released before the F-14, in this year still? Amazing. It would have to be one of the latest variants of the Harrier. I believe, that had a multimode radar. For the possible WW2 aircraft I would place my bets on the Zero.

He's talking about multiplayer in DCS, not real life...

You do quality work, you'll get people's attention. All this teasing and stalling wouldn't really work this well before the 21.

I my country we actually use "bis" to say, we want "another round" or a "repeat". I didn't know it meant "second" in latin, but it makes sense. So you don't spell it "bi-aɪ-ˈɛs" like I've seen. You just read it as you would a spanish word, "bis".

:thumbup: This. No need for a Google Search battle. I like it more because it's american/soviet. The end.

I don't think the effectiveness of the aircraft in combat has really anything to do with why it gets made as a DCS module. I think it's got more to do with access and availability of information. Besides, you tried to diminish it's value by saying that it got shot down by a MiG-21 and by doing so, you also diminished the other (beautiful) module by Leatherneck, which by the way by many reports even if you are on a F-16, it isn't that much of an easy kill in his upgraded variants, but maybe you also forgot that if the MiG-21 is actually a strong opponent for the Tomcat, then it counts as another good reason for this module to exist.

Oooo the Viggen would be nice. They said something about "cats and ducks" didn't they? Viggen in english means "thunderbolt", but it's nickname, "vigg" means "duck". So there's that.

The growth of indie gaming and it's ability to be sustainable and sometimes even very very succesful, combined with the fact that technology and knowledge to design games are getting more and more accessible and common, pretty much ended any chances of a particular genre to completely die. If there is a big enough niche, it's likely that it will survive or worse case, that it will come back to life after some time.

I don't think it's a good idea. If I were to do something like that, I would instead, allow free access to the tutorials, including the interactive ones for all modules released. Releasing the clickable cockpit wouldn't give you a taste of the real thing at all. Some people might even dislike it that they can't even taxi, especially if for some reason they were unaware of that restriction. Without the tutorial, the player will have to learn the start up procedure and will have to look it up - you are asking too much of someone who might not know much about DCS. Playing the tutorial that shows you how to take off and land and use the weapons systems, if the player goes through a few of those, he will have a real taste of the sim.

apparently the last update solved my issues with fps drops

The DCS_updater that I can find inside the bin folder just starts the game up with the 1.2.14 version, as if there were no updates available I assume, but the auto-updater that you can download separately, also called DCS_updater.exe with the DCS icon, actually does update the game. Funny.

I see some big FPS drops while playing with this module, more so than with any other, even if I play in an "empty" map, still see those drops. Funny thing is that sometimes the FPS gets back to normal, sometimes it doesn't, and I can't really see anything in particular that causes it. Sometimes I can start it up, taxi to the runway, take off and then the fps drops, sometimes it drops before that, sometimes it takes longer to drop, sometimes it recovers from the drop after a while and other times, it doesn't ever does, maybe it's related to something that is running on the background... I bought the module recently and this has really made it difficult for me to learn to fly this bird properly, it's a test for your own patience sometimes. If I try to play it on a map full with other aircraft and vehicles, it gets downright unplayable when the FPS drops. I'll buy a new PC, mine isn't completely outdated, but isn't the highest end and I plan to get one that will run this thing at full maxed out even if it costs me the price of a car, but I didn't thought that one DCS module in particular would do that if all the others can run it just fine.

This kind of thing is just so immature...