Duckman

Part of the problem is that DCS is the only combat sim in town when it comes to modern aircraft. Something like Strike Fighters would be more suitable for a guesstimate model of the F-35, but unfortunately only DCS is still alive. This one failed miserably (one percent funded) but that was way back in 2012: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wildbillstealey/f-35-lightning-ii-modern-combat-flying-simulation?ref=discovery But maybe there was another one aimed at DCS that failed for a different reason? I think an AI F-35 (and F-22) would be a good place to start. Surely the amount of data required for that must be lower, and there must be more available than in 2012 or 2015? Games like Command: Modern Operations feature the F-35 (very different genre. I know) and they are certainly serious in their approach.

With a thousand built as of January 2024 and thousands more on order the F-35 is looking like the successor to the F-16 as the mainstay of Western air forces. However its status in DCS is a bit of a mystery to me. I get the fact that it's still super secret and hard to model for a study sim. But in the long run a sim that makes a serious claim to model modern air combat needs a F-35 (and a F-22). Besides, there are lots of still super secret systems on not so secret airframes so the problem is not unique. What say ye? My feeling is that there is enough data out there now to simulate a more than decent F-35.

Maybe slap some Turkish and Soviet skins on the aircraft and call it Flaming Cliffs 1955? :-) Seriously, a Korean map seems like a no brainer given all the possiblities but I guess there are technical and economic issues as usual.

Just wondering if anyone else would like a lowly Cessna in there with all the gazillion dollar jets? It's an iconic aircraft both in real life and flight sims (being the MSFS aircraft), and heavily used by the military as well for both training and combat. In today's wars they are actually becoming more and more common, with several weaponized versions. It could serve as a trainer in the sim too, which is always a good thing and could even bring in some civvie simmers, and on top of that it could fly combat missions. Anyone else like the idea?

The classic ones: Phantom and Mirage III.

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the replies. I see in the projetcts thread that a coupe of map/theater projects have been cancelled before, so it seems there has been developer interest at least. I think the best would be some good dual use maps, e.g. Korea which can be used for historical as well as hypothetical conflicts from the 1950s onwards or a Central Europe map that can be used for WWII as well as cold war hypotheticals. We'll see, I guess.

I know about those two, but one is a training range and the other won't really fit anything except a subset of WWII or fairly weird hypothetical scenarios (Sabres over Normandy?). What I'm wondering is where aircraft like the P-40, Meteor, MiG-15, Skyhawk, Bearcat, and A-7 will fit in. Or perhaps don't they have to fit in somewhere?

This may be a stupid question, and apologies in that case, but I can't find much information about new maps in development. There are tons of good looking aircraft from different periods, but there seems to be no overarching theme. Is the plan to make maps (and AI objects etc) for various historical and current scenarios, or are the P-40, F-86 and the like intended for free flight à la MSFS over Normandy and the Crimea?