Devil 505

It is with heavy heart today I say goodbye to longtime friend and mentor of 26 years, Zipper. He passed away last night after battling some long-term health issues. He is a retired Army Vet and retired Police Officer with a combined total of 44+ years serving his country and community. His passion for military aviation, his country, his community, and DCS had no limitations. I have never met anyone who could talk to you for 3 or 4 hours about any military aircraft you had a question about. His house was museum of aviation relics, and he was walking encyclopedia of knowledge on the Army. It was a hard hit this morning getting the news as I had just finished putting something together for us on the new Marianas map. He always enjoyed flying with Kandy and I and receiving the kind responses out of the community that followed our videos. DCS will not be the same for me without him. He will be missed. I wanted to thank everyone who has followed him around with us on "into The Jungle". We always had a good laugh with the comments, and he was always our comic relief. To the best virtual wingman and friend a guy could ask for....Zipper.

Just want to kind of set the tone here because I have been tracking the word from ED, Polychop Discord, and news straight from them. First and foremost @BIGNEWY has reached out multiple times to Polychop for some follow ups to questions and received no response. A while back (can't remember the date) it was officially announced internally they had lost a significant number of employees. Polychop stated very clearly this had nothing to do with Eagle Dynamics or any sort of payment problems from ED, it was 100% an internal conflict. Several months later they laid our worries to rest stating their 2 helos would continue to be supported and they were working on hiring new staff. The message came with a welcomed response and they said they were still in the game and not going anywhere. Since that last post, the only thing out of Polychop was the article posted below from 02/24/2025. I will not start rumors because I know nothing official other than the fact they have not responded to the community on the ED Forums, Discord, Youtube Videos, or their Facebook since their last post below. We can speculate all day and stir the hate train until this thread gets shut down, but bottom line is, until someone speaks up from Polychop, we will remain in the dark.

Here is a video from last week. Getting back into it and hoping the boys can join soon. We also, I just posted some photos from ViolentNomads discord of the AH-1G Cobra. Looks like it is getting close to release. Link below to the forum I posted it in if you do not follow him on discord. We will add this to Into the Jungle on its release. Also did some touch up to Antonio Airport a bit.

Anyone looking for an update on ViolentNomads Cobra, I just posted a bunch of updated photos from his discord. Sounds like he is getting close to release.

Anyone wanting to keep up more frequently, I would say track his discord. Apparently she is getting really close to release. To help VN out, I grabbed some of his latest screens from discord to put on this thread for him. @ViolentNomad Just FYI. null

Keeping the Cayuse alive and hoping that Huey above is another mod coming out!!! She will be joining forces with the Cayuse and ViolentNomads Cobra upon release.

Took the old girl out for some AAR tonight. One thing to note, you need to manually switch over to radio two on UHF to get in comms with the tanker and ensure you are on the correct channel. Also the instruction manual advises to use the PTT button, however this does not work when bound to anything. I used the comms menu button, default "/", and then called the tanker, worked fine. This was a good time this evening. Digging the AAR. Even though I set the damn tanker in an orbit around 1 waypoint.

Massun, you should team up with ViolentNomad. That dude is doing some wonders on the Cobra. I am sure the 2 of you could knock out an amazing older UH-1 variant. More Vietnam style. Maybe a slick.

@MikeNolan Dan any updates on our quite Navy Girl (A-7)? Hoping to get some teasers or something soon. I know you gents are probably busy wrapping up the B-17 for MSFS, but we are all fired up to hear some more about your DCS child.

@Polychop Simulations Team, I knew there was some drama I care to know nothing about at the start of the new year, and I also am well aware it did not involve ED. Not here to ask about that. I also saw the post for hiring new help and that the Gazelle and Kiowa would be maintained. It has been real quite since then with no real updates that I have heard of. Forgive me if I am incorrect in making that statement. I did my due diligence and searched for about an hour with no luck. Can you comment on the status of Polychop and where the company stands? Not looking for drama, just reassurance we still have a top-notch helo Dev in the sim. If not, it would be nice to maybe hear where or what the plans are going forward. Heres to hoping everything is good to go. Still love the Gazelle and Kiowa. I was just flying both last night. @BIGNEWY @Wags @Nick Grey @NineLine ED Team, not sure if you can comment either. Just curious if there has been something the community or myself might have missed. Thanks gents.

Not to kick the hornets nest here but I have been harassing Wags and Bignewy for this in VR for years and I love it. The reflections work fine for me and do not seem to exaggerated. I am running everything on high though with a PIMAX 8K. LOVE the new visor. Best one yet. @Wags @BIGNEWY Are you guys planning on bringing the same function to the Hornet and Viper?

@Kinkkujuustovoileipä This is a 3-year-old video I shot doing some AAR in your mod. Is Version 2 still capable of AAR? I have not tried it yet but I remember needing a special C-130 mod I believe.

Much appreciated my friend! 100% recorded in vr. Old school Pimax8K. I use OBS with the VR plugin. Works like a charm.

Outstanding work gents! Looking forward to more stick time later this week!

Absolutely fare enough. Appreciate the heads up. How is the 35 coming along? Hahaha. Not sure I will get a response on that one. I know the Eagle is coming first. Looking forward to it.

@BIGNEWY BigNewy, appreciate all the feedback. With the new cargo stuff starting to come online and all the high fidelity helos rolling out, does ED have any interest or plans to go back and update the Huey to todays Helo standards?

@BIGNEWY Any chance we will see a first person capable load master similar to what ASC has done with the C-130J? So we can walk around inside/outside of the CH-47?

@BIGNEWY Were you gents able to fix the cursor not working in the super carrier in VR from the Air Boss station?

Outstanding! @Eight Ball Just FYI brother, if you want to join the big leagues....lol....door might be open. I would support 100% We need some VC assets in DCS.

@BIGNEWY BigNews, you have any updates on this one? I know you were looking into it. I would agree. Cursor and ability to control in VR is still inoperable. Any suggestions or time frames on a possible fix?

All good brother. No offense taken at all!!!! I don't think you are tracking here Sierra Delta. ASC asked the community for suggestions. My comments were not unsolicited suggestions or a forced wish list of expectations. I respect your reasons not to listen to Enigmas interview, but ASC made the call to interview with him and ASC requested feedback from the community so that is what I provided. The comment above is a bit unjustified when a 3rd party dev is asking for that exact information. You said it yourself, 17 years of tracking ED's roadmaps and setting expectations, and I have been there for all 17. I have seen all the promises from the kick starter WW2 inheritance changing over time to many others. I am not knocking ED or their crew at all, but 17 years is a long time to learn to walk. We have come leaps and bounds from where it all started and I am no knocking ANY of the progress that has been made, I am simply stating if we wait for ED to do it all, it will be another 17 years. My suggestion to allow ASC to help develop some of the core simulation in DCS is not unrealistic. I can tell you from experience in the industry, all major government contractors that develop these aircraft in real life, are not the sole developers or proprietary owners of every system or software in those aircraft. There are many hands that own proprietary information to each platform. Those major contractors that build these aircraft require the assistance and contribution of those sub tiers, or we do not continue to develop the most lethal platforms in aviation history. I think ED could inherit the same concept. It would require the correct contractual language to allow it to happen, but it is nothing new that does not happen daily in the defense industry. Again, look at what is in the pipeline currently from ED and what they are still working on finishing alongside developing the F-15C and F-35A. We have been crawling for a long time, and I would say we have already started walking. I feel it's time to pick up the pace with additions to DCS that fill in some of these voids with empty maps and no period specific units to populate said environments. I won't go off in the weeds on this subject, but I feel myself and the community have a right to suggest these options to a third-party dev if in your words, ED is still learning how to crawl and walk.

Objectively, I do not disagree with anything you said. Fare enough. But clarification, are you saying Enigma has said some things in the past or Matt from ASC?

You know what I think is really frustrating about the forums and making videos is, as passionate as this community is about this sim, as soon as they see something they disagree with, they cherry pick the sh*t out of your comment or video without reading or listening to the entire thing. I did not ask for an FPS (First person shooter) nor did I state or insinuate the loadmaster was an FPS. I suggested creating a JTAC role for designating targets would be a great option, since we already have an AI version in game now. It is not a stretch to ask if a third party can make a first-person JTAC experience before ED makes their own. ED is CLEARLY selling this product and labeling it as first-person capable loadmaster role and a first for DCS. You say, "as far as we know, a third party doesn't have access to that type of code ect...." yet you have not listened to the interview from ASC with Enigma. They discuss this and how ED gave them the ability to create the cargo system, a new logistics system to include loading and unloading individual crates and their contents within those crates, the first-person experience and several other firsts for DCS and why. They explain how ED did not have the bandwidth to make these things for them because of the ongoing work with Eagle. F-35, and all the other stuff they have in work. If ASC wanted all the aforementioned in the C-130J, they must develop it themselves and have ED approve it. ASC went onto say they were happy ED released the new cargo management system at the bases with the release of the Chinook because had they not done that; ASC would have had to create/develop it for the C-130J. Sounds to me like ED is absolutely letting third parties assist with core development. If all we are getting is a floating camera we move around in the plane and NOT a true first-person experience, I would be very disappointed with ED their PR for this module to say the least. That would be extremely misleading as you stated above. I have asked ASC to clarify on their discord. The only concrete thing I can confirm is we can only walk as far as the wing tip, which tells me the loadmaster is definitely attached in some form or fashion to the aircraft. ASC stated this on discord. And last but not least, I am asking for functionality that ED could absolutely approve a third party to do and to a degree, sounds like what they have already done with the C-130J per the developers own words. You name me one person who would not take a functional JTAC team they could use and control in game in first person over anything in Combined Arms right now. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see CA as it should be, but ED has made it clear that ground stuff is on the back burner for a long time. You don't win war by fighting it by yourself. Clearly these devs are talented and have the ability to create "firsts" for DCS, so not really huge ask to see if they were interested in tackling another first for DCS. All I ask SD is you actually read the entire posts or listen to the entire video before commenting. If I am to long winded in my videos (I talk a lot), sweet, watch it in doses or ask me where I got the information before making assumptions. Your first post to me was LITERALLY posted in 4 other places outside my posts and video. It was talked about in the interview with ASC, multiple answers have been posted on their discord, ED posted it on the early release video, and it was listed in the pre-release notes when you purchase the aircraft. It's not productive to start a debate before you have all the facts. All I have stated above about the C-130J module is FACT per ED and the Developers own words and press release, minus the additions I was suggesting in my previous posts and my video. I would like to add that the main reason I made this video, was because in the interview ASC owner asked the community for further suggestions in case they may have missed something or could possibly incorporate features further down the line.