WinterH

Realistically, 2 I would say, and it is safe to assume it will either one will abandon it, or some form of cooperation may be considered. OctopusG is one, Magnitude3 is the other, SniperSVK was working on a model, and he was hinting his work was going to be used by a 3rd party, which is almost certainly Magnitude 3. There used to be another modder working on one but that does seem like have fell by the wayside long ago already. Anyway, none of them is licensed from ED yet. Su-17M4 or Su-22M4 is the thing I am looking forward to by far the most, only equaled by F-4E for me. So I am hoping we will get the best one, and get it before the hell freezes over but we'll see.

With all due respect, reactionary comments in the thread are hillarious. Sorry to put it bluntly, but all it ever boils down to is not being able to contain personal hype and manage expectations. 1 - Things take as long as they do, and not less. It is the nature of the beast, and it is good for them to take as long as they do to arrive on our virtual hangars at least mostly properly. We've seen otherwise enough times, and I'm sure great majority of us agree we'd rather stick with this approach. 2 - Not announcing a product early on makes ZERO business sense, especially when it will take years to put it out into the market. It builds interest in the potential buyers, and it also helps avoiding conflicting efforts of multiple vendors (see recent case of Magniute 3 and OctopusG both working on a Su-17/22M4, or the L-39 many years ago) 3 - I do personally LOVE knowing that an aircraft I am very interested in is in development, and love to learn of it as early as possible. Even if I know it is many years ahead of any sort of release. I can start deepening my knowledge of the type, and think of/start working on scearios and/or even lua scripts to use with it when it comes etc. 4 - It does no real harm to anybody if we have to be honest with ourselves. Yes, I know it does get annoying if you let the hype to control the ship, if you know what I mean Hell I have been in that boat, I was screaming "GOOD FOLKS!? SEE THEE, HOW THEY MOCK US! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS I SAY!!" with pitchfork in one hand, torch in the other when waiting for MiG-21 for example and while not as sure of it, I may have done so for a few others too back in the day. But honestly... knowing something is coming WAY in advance, and learning of delays etc later on only has the side effect of disappointment on us, but it doesn't have any sort of malice or real harm behind it. If you've been in DCS for many years, but still haven't learned to adopt the rule of "take an announcement, add a year or two to the estimated release date", honestly it is on you Now, there are outliers like Kiowa and Corsair. But again... c'est la vie... I'm sure devs would want it more than any of us to be able to have it out there and sell it already yesterday, but for one reason or other, they are taking as long as they do. Still, unlike back in 2013-14, it's not like we are lacking for alternatives to keep us entertained until they get here.

39 since a few days and think that possibility of enjoying as many of my favorite aircraft as possible in DCS is an ever diminishing goal but well, things take as long as they take, not any less Looks like the number of 3rd parties is increasing exponentially these days, so hopefully we may get more and more frequent module releases in the coming years. But yeah... the Corsair is really taking its sweet time I am happy to see a lot of the aircraft I've always been interested in being announced these days. And then, there are the new wave of almost full fidelity paid level free mods from community that plug some of the gaps pretty greatly. A-1 Skyraider is one of those things I always wanted to see in a sim, so cool news for me

Right and where were the two new map makers on the forums then, which according to you seem to be a prerequisite for becoming a 3rd party? I've been following Hercules, Kfir, and Grinelli's Edge/Extra projects for more or less as long as they have existed. They weren't licensed 3rd parties, they aimed for it, convinced ED, and got it, simple as. While I also don't think MiG-17 will be among the 4 expected announcements just yet, Red Star Simulations not being an official 3rd party yet to our knowledge has no bearing in whether the module can be among the upcoming announcements or not. Great majority of the recent announcements were new 3rd parties, that we'd say "they aren't an official 3rd party yet" anyway

Neither was Grinelli Simulations, nor Airplane Simulation Company, nor Aviron until recent announcements Edit: Or indeed the company making the Sinai map, or the one making Australia map, or even Orbx themselves despite being otherwise pretty famous in sim industry.

Right, so at the very least some of these announcements may possibly be modules known/hinted/teased to be worked on by existing 3rd parties but weren't licensed from ED and hence officially announced yet. These would include, from the top of my head: - Pucara (Razbam) - Mirage III (Razbam) - Su-17M4 or Su-22M4 (Magnitude 3 or OctopusG) - La-7 (OctopusG, though their more recent Su-22M4 tease leaves this in doubt) - English Electric Lightning (Razbam, but this one was far down the pipeline and seems to be backburnered, so not too likely) - A6M, likely A6M5 Zero (Magnitude 3? Unlikely for now, considering they have Corsair, F-8, possibly Su-17, and some sort of MiG rework on their plate) - Razbam has at least one secret helicopter in addition to the collaboration with Miltech5 for Bo-105. Still, while their helicopter team is almost entirely a separate entity, even them themselves are occupied with the Bo for now, thus this isn't super likely either at this point imo. - Other assorted things in works by devs, but don't have forum sections yet like Super Tucano from Razbam, F-8 from Magnitude 3, G.91 Gina from IFE, but I don't know if these would/should count as new announcements. - We know that there most likely is an Afghanistan map being worked on from 2022 and beyond teaser. We don't know if it is ED or 3rd party, as the other big tease at the end of same video was the 3rd party F-4E from Heatblur. Then, there are things that were known to be under work, aiming to be 3rd party devs (like C-130 team and Kfir team just did recently), or mods that may have decided to go that way - MiG-17F from Red Star Simulations - A-4E team deciding to go 3rd party, but I find this highly unlikely, they've said no to this time and again, and frankly they already have the mod(ule) more or less fully implemented without the need for further SDK access for the simulated type. - Bronco, which is 3 days away from release, so doesn't seem likely unless the same team have another aircraft in mind for going 3rd party with - VNAO has another one of the "full fidelity mods" in shape of T-45 Goshawk, they may want to turn it into a module, but I don't think that is the case. Rather, what intrigues me is that there is a secret project listed on their web site, and perhaps they'll go 3rd party with that one. - There was also a team aiming to make a full fidelity Avro Lancaster mod. - There is of course the UH-60L mod too. - Yak-38 from Cubanace - Similarly, there is a full fidelity mod of SAAB 105 but that one seems near a release already, so I don't know if they're looking into going 3rd party with that one. However, one can still hope they may give us a J35 Draken From the above, I only find Yak and the MiG-17 to be at least somewhat likely, but my gut feeling says that one is probably some time ahead in future yet as well. As for the maps, I have no idea, apart from most likely ED made A'stan anyway, and I am not that much into maps anyway, so moving on... Finally, Deka may have decided their next module, and maybe even started working on it, who knows, perhaps one of the announcements is from them. So the may, or may not be among the upcoming announcements. As for the merry wishlisting we all do and love? I do so hope it will include 80s to early 90s AH-1W or F, and most definitely wouldn't say no to a Jaguar, F-111, or Tornado, or a J-7G from Deka, or a Q-5, or a good Su-30 from anyone, or a Mi-2, or some more cool warbirds, especially an Emil and/or early Spitfires.

FWIW, I'd have much, MUCH preferred to see more infantry types added with the level of current infantry models rather than giving us more basic riflemen with fancy models and animations. But I hope new infantry will include more than just fancier looking riflemen hopefully. And by current models I obviously don't mean ancient relics from 90s-2000s like some of the insurgents, VDV, and US GI models. But I'd be happy to see more varied infantry armament at the visual levels of units like Georgian M-4 soldier, that later insurgent model, Russian troops with AK-74Ms etc. And I'd be happy to see them like yesterday Although to be fair to ED I guess it's understandable, coming up with new models and skeletally animated infantry CA open up more and more easily developed variety in the future. With that said though, my wish for more infantry comes from a mission building capacity point of view. Which, while does include an element of immersion, I also think having every kind of infantry weapon and uniform for the sake of immersion is a bit much. For example I don't think sniper/DMR/anti-materiel armed riflemen means much in DCS other than cool looks, while AT soldiers do give infantry squads some semblance of capability vs armor to make them a factor in missions. ATGM soldiers would really be great to have too from a mission design point of view. Even better if they can actually move with the weapon system packed, and take some time to deploy it and fire statically then. But I can see that being somewhat problematic with the way ground units move/shoot currently. If though they could be ordered to deploy and stay or pack up and move through Combined Arms as well as Lua scripts, that'd be cool. But I'm already flying off on new tangents so I'll cut it here

I tend to agree. In my opinion we need at least: - 1 AT soldier per side, better yet multiple according to different eras - 1 LMG or SAW would be neat, if not obligatory - HMG emplacements, ATGM soldiers, at least 1 per side - Many more kinds of MANPADS, especially OLDER ones This would be a start. Right now, we can't have blue infantry squad with any kind of AT rockets for example, unless we include either insurgent or (super old and low poly) VDV soldier with RPG-7. Edit: a dream would have been infantry that can have loadouts like aircraft, thus able to be armed with different weapons on the editor.

Belsimtek still had their own module development plans aside from ED, and was developing them until they were basically gobbled up by ED in 2018, postponing, and at some cases effectively cancelling projects like F-4E (thankfully Heatblur eventually decided to pick it up themselves from scratch), Mi-24P (which we eventually got last year thankfully), and AH-1, their workforce at the time were used for helping with (at the time) rather slowly progressing developing of modern aircraft like F/A-18C and then F-16C. Belsimtek also chose their modules in nice pairings, even with a 3rd party module in case of F-5/MiG-21 pairing.

Belsimtek did them to be fair. Thus, I believe ED being uninterested in making Cold War aircraft is a very much accurate observation, sadly.

Not necessarily, I'd prefer a late J-7 myself, literally the most unique, and arguably the peak of MiG-21 lineage with double delta wings, high lift devices, a semi useful radar, single piece windshield, and an overall decent canopy for visibility. JH-7 is very cool as well, but it wouldn't provide any of the J-7 experience, and is an attack specialist, which is great too, but neither of the two would replace the other in DCS imo. And I say this as a mostly A/G player. Thanks to modern missiles it can arguably even be better in air to air, but it'd do so in the most boring way possible

I would definitely have no problem with neither an at least semi advanced Flanker, nor with a J-7G. In fact the latter is my preferred module to come from Deka by far. J-8 is meh for me personally. Q-5, JH-7 would also be great. J-10 isn't my first choice, but it would at least be something interesting. With all that said, if we sift them through the filter of likelihood of happening, Flankers were sadly still no go last time Deka said anything about them, despite them making a tech demo of sorts with it. J-10 seems way too new as well. If anything, China may still consider things like JH-7 to be no-go. So among the things I like/want J-7G and Q-5 may be the most likely to happen. But that doesn't mean they'll happen either of course.

So basically, F-13 is the gloriobvious choice! 60 round of proper 30 mil, proper fixed warbird sight! It's not like gunsight we have on Bis right now does anything of consequence for lead computation anyway Any slight capability benefit from PFM is far outweighed by the fact that it's PFM

Meh, I for one really dislike that "ugly middle child" generation of MiG-21. Gimme the F-13 and a late J-7/or even a very late upgrade for novelty. But mostly the F-13 first They'd be the right version for DCS Vietnam, yes. But then, I'm also staunchly against the idea of DCS Vietnam anyway At least for now. Yes, they've served in Vietnam, many of the Middle Eastern wars etc. But no matter from where I look at it, their characteristics and/or capabilities etc don't seem interesting enough to me compared either to MiG-21F generation or the Bis we have. And personally I'm in DCS more for the individual aircraft itself rather than history of conflicts it may have been in. But that's just me I guess F-13 tho: sleekest to look at, allegedly among the nicest to fly, still served in 'Nam anyway, still has limitations of two pylons with crap missiles to challenge oneself with, but at least has an internal glorious 30mm gun too, just not with with a meaningful amount of ammo but hey, challenge! Besides it has that glorious (by MiG-21 standards anyway) canopy to see around, including to the back, unlike later ones. Best of aaaallll the worlds!

Yeah, MF2000 is about the same thing to Mirage F1 as Peace Ikarus and 2020 Terminator are to F-4E, or Bison and LanceR are to MiG-21. In fact, being from 2005ish I think, it's arguably the most modern of them all. It's actually more modern than the Mirage 2000 we have in any way other than the flight performance.

Actually, while I'm not %100 sure, I believe that's the N-156 prototype that was F-5A's forerunner. It's also only place I've seen MER 6s on F-5 (not saying that means it's the only place it existed though, I don't know whether it was a possibility or not IRL on operational birds)

Well honestly, to each their own but, voiceovers for Petrovich being exciting and F-100D being not just doesn't compute for me personally. And I'm a huge fan of Hind.

One more bird that I always wanted to see in DCS!

Always wanted a Mi-2 in DCS for pure curiosity if nothing else. But it'd also be a nice red side light helo, and as original poster said, some variants offer a quite varied ordnance to shoot too. So +1 from me!

And I don't see the point in reading things into being more than what devs say, just because it aligns with what one wants to see. Likewise.

You are literally re-linking the same image you've shared above, which actually worked against your claim anyway. It has just a blurb by developer saying "we'll update as we go", and not necessarily saying "every bit of it will be high detail in future", thus, we shall see Besides, regardless, that map has a fraction of the land area Vietnam would have, and again it still wouldn't be as dense with objects even if we take both at the highest detail level possible in every inch (which isn't feasible anyway, but let's not let that get in the way make-believe shall we?)

That we shall see

Yes? Of it being mostly water, and not being as forested and urban, as well as great majority of it not being high detail?

Latest announced Sinai map is to have a 700x700 km DETAILED area, and about twice that undetailed, and that is mostly just desert. Razbam's recent South Atlantic is the largest map currently, and great majority of it is ocean, with relatively little detailed regions afaik, but I may be wrong. Only heavily urbanized AND jungle map right now is Marianas, and it is similar to what Vietnam would be in that respect, except, unlike Vietnam, it is TINY and it performs absolutely horribly despite that. The only way we'll get a Vietnam map with current tech is if it's limited in size to only a certain region, people need to already forget about an expanded map of whole theater, and possibly also also a lot of the detail abstracted/omitted. Latter scenario doesn't seem like something great majority of the community care for. From what I can see, DCS: Vietnam is not fesaible as a map right now, nor do we have many relevant aircraft, majority of the touted aircraft are wrong versions that are significantly more capable then variants served in war, and in ways you can't disable with mission editing, altering the experience. Right now, I personally much, much prefer us keep getting later 70s-80s versions of aircraft, as that fits beautifully into an existing niche in DCS, as well as being frankly the more interesting versions imo. Once those are done, and map/rendering/performance tech is way ahead of where it is now, then, and only then I wouldn't be hostile to the DCS: Vietnam idea. Right now, while I do VERY MUCH understand the desire for it, it is neither really feasible, nor desirable imo. The upcoming A-6 and A-7 are almost certainly going to be 80s, perhaps even early 90s birds. Two versions of F-4E will be one just past Vietnam, but can be reasonably roleplayed as a late war bird, and another that is from 80s with vastly different systems. F-5 and MiG-21 both are wrong versions that are considerably better than those served in the conflict. I can count more, but I see no point. If you are happy with making do with these, then I suppose more power to you. It wouldn't really be anything like the realities and unique challenges of that war, but if that isn't what you are looking for, then I suppose, yes, there is enough in sim to do a pretend 'Nam theater.

We forgot mentioning one important piece left: an 80s or at most earlyish 90s AH-1 to go with Hind we have, and to represent its service in many countries on these maps we have. Single engine F or double W is what I can't quite choose one from, but would be happy with either.