rkk01

Only if you want to be simplistic

OK, somewhat tongue in cheek, and there is no denying the eye candy… Do you need to spend a stack of time in the ME just to get a nice looking mobile runway to fly to / from??

Great little helo… very much needed for all those lovely ships Raz are making for South Atlantic Very distinctive sound - always sounded “wound up” / angry. One of the updated Wildcats flew low over the house last week, still an unmistakable sounding aircraft would be great to fly one in DCS

That’s kind of why I skipped… we’re missing the map and a few key aircraft - Panther, Sea Fury, B-29 amongst others, but so much focus has been around the planes we already have

I toyed with the idea of including Korea as an era

There is an Ark Royal mod under way… looks very good so far

OK, so always lots of aircraft and map module wish lists… often with general reflection on the absence of coherent plane sets and complimentary ground and naval assets Coming at this from a slightly different angle - what about a series of “eras” to focus on? 1942-1943: seems like a much more interesting WW2 timeframe than 44-45. Lots of very finely balanced engagements across the Channel, Med, North Africa, Eastern Front incl Caucuses and of course in the Pacific 1965-1972: SE Asia of course, but also a series of Arab-Israeli conflicts as well. 1980s: Classic NATO v WARPAC standoff in Europe, N Atlantic /GIUK, Falklands, lots of opportunities for existing / proposed modules for the Iran / Iraq war, and of course the Cold War bogeyman of Hind v mujahideen in Afghanistan (plus PAF F-16s on border skirmishes) Each of the above offer fascinating plane sets, territories and engagements and would give some focus around module selection and development (which I’m sure is there anyway…!)

Nobody seen today’s Sunday Supplement…? CVN-65, A-6E, F-14A… mention of A-7 and F-4

Undoubtedly a tricky map to execute… a fair few trees, and given the skill of the Viet Minh, Viet Cong and NVA for hiding stuff, most targets are going to require more effort than “place industrial block A” or “dock complex b” etc which could see benefit from incremental development. Start off with Hanoi, Thud Ridge and the north end of the Gulf of Tonkin, then extend the map southwards down the Ho Chi Minh trail

Or, any roadmap could give away the identity of a future unannounced module…???

Yep - fully aware… pretty imperfect, but a possible fallback for Falklands

Yes, but no, but…. Razbam’s position on the Shar is deeply frustrating and to say the least pretty muddle-headed…. The map, the naval assets all cry out for a FRS.1 but Raz have shown a few renders but then indicated that’s it’s down the running order after the F-15E, MiG-23, (Pucara ??) and possibly the Super Tucano As for the AV-8B, I had wondered whether some fictional RN skins and 9L sidewinders might pass muster… No radar, but the 9L would be for WVR combat anyway - but the AV-8B doesn’t carry the 9L anyway

It all good stuff from where I am will look forward to these

A couple of points on the models / images shown above with Sea Wolf: F28, Cleopatra was Exocet / SeaCat, not Sea Wolf F69, Bacchante kept her twin 4.5” guns throughout - no Sea Wolf At least some of the Batch 3s had towed array - certainly Charybdis and Hermione were fitted (eta - looks like all Sea Wolf Leanders had towed array)

Looks lovely - my father worked on most of these… Ikara conversions, Exocet, Sea Wolf and towed array (a quick search suggests 13 Exocet boats…) As for the boot topping line - the strongly visible black line between the hull red and North Atlantic Grey - just get rid… The Navy painted them out during the Falklands conflict. Not sure whether it was real or perceived, but the gen at the time was that the black line was too strong a targeting and range cue for the low flying Argentine pilots… Fantastic boats though - I still hear comments that they were some of the quietest ASW platforms that we’ve ever had ETA image showing painted out boot topping Note the very, very light weight main mast and lighter funnel on the Batch 3 (Sea Wolf) conversions. My father worked on several of these conversions including Charybdis (above) and Hermione

Yes, looked into this a year or so ago… I think some of the Soviet weapons??? part of the problem is the inability (my inability?) to get a comprehensive “armoury” of weapons in the game… I guess a feature of the weapons modelling being for each available module

WW2 was 6 years (ok, less for some ) of constant evolution, development and obsolescence - and in an era with multiple design and construction organisations for each combatant nation… It is completely inconceivable that a coherent plane set could be achieved, unless limited to one theatre at one very limited period. Better to embrace the ED philosophy of study level sim for interesting aircraft

Thanks @Raz_Specter… any further teases that can be shared??? this map is very highly anticipated, as it brings something truly different to DCS

Sorry - complete mis-read there… an no need to be rude (understandable given my brevity…) ”me neither” was me “not caring” about the prior comment regarding the Bearcat never seeing action over Marianas or with US forces / WW2 in general ”I don’t care” as I fully agree with ED’s stated position - DCS is a flight simulator, bringing interesting aircraft to the world of combat flight simming. If Caucasus or Channel, or NTTR were the only maps, I’d still want the Bearcat…

Having just checked the Heatblur Trello roadmap, there is one “unannounced” module, slated for 2022. As well as the announced Typhoon and A-6, which are both undated I was looking at the roadmap to check for the next HB CV… Given that HB state that Saratoga will follow Forrestal (Ranger & Independence likely much later), I’d easily be persuaded that the unannounced 2022 Heatblur module is a Navy Phantom - F-4J or F-4S… makes perfect sense with the F-14, A-6 and pair of CVs

Maybe ED will dust off the previous Belsimtek F-4E… And then Heatblur to pitch in with the Navy version for their Forrestal…??? The HB Trello roadmap still has 3 future modules showing - the A-6 and Typhoon are undated, but the “unannounced” module has a 2022 date slot They also have USS Saratoga slated as the next CV to launch - there are a few photos online of USN and RN Phantoms exercising together off Saratoga - mid 70s I’d guess as Ark had gone by the end of 78

Agreed that ED needs to work on those aspects - but you can’t switch all your workforce onto non-revenue earning work and expect to be around in a year, two years or whatever timescale… nobody outside of ED knows what the day to day sales are for existing modules, but the buzz around a new product??? You’ve got to bet that that’s what they need…!

That would be a major surprise… … and very worrying (a business with no new products to bring in the revenue will soon be on its @ rse )

Phantom, Tornado, Jaguar, F-104? maybe earlier versions of F-15 and F-16… MiG-25, MiG-29, Su-17 or 24 ohh, and a reminder to Raz on that Sea Harrier…! early to mid 80s would be a natural time slot to consolidate around for DCS Cold War, especially with Raz’s South Atlantic map and basically a GIUK Naval asset set