VWJII

Not sure what is wrong with HOTAS, but guess what? I did not fly helis until I got rudder pedals, because I just could not fly them with joystick twist. Did I come here and cried that the game needs to meet my setup or make it easy enough for me? No, I made the effort because I want to LEARN. And yes, buying those rudder pedals or HOTAS ment I did not buy other stuff. Because I uderstand I'm here to fly a simulator, which requires both hardware and above all time. Duh.

Well this is where you are wrong. It will take a lot of effort to implenent the feature and maintain it. That alone has major impact on all of us, because we want new planes, fixes, features etc.. This isn't about purism. Better tutorials and guides is what will benefit all, instead of making it easy for people who cannot be bothered to spend a few hours to learn something. I don't want to deny people, I want to change their mindset. Honestly I don't understand why people will spend the time needed to setup DCS and then expect everything will be push of a button.

I spent years having fun in DCS without AAR or anything. Often I just fly around, not even fire weapons. Learn how to start up a bird and fly. If you cannot be bothered with the basics, this is not a product for you, no matter how much it simplifies things. The underlying realism will always manifest in one way or another and you need to spend the time learning.

That however does not mean that every single plane and every single activity in DCS has scale. Did you notice that Tomcat for example does not have "game mode" bindings? There is no single button to land you either. Regardless of how much help you setup in P-51 it will still be challenging to takeoff and land. If you want easy, you fly FC3 aircrafts and you are definitely not forced to AAR. You can have just as much fun without it. And of you want easy in all activities then maybe, just maybe a simulator is not the product you're looking for. You must be able to learn, rinse and repeat. How do you think that anyone made it this far in DCS?

Do you have the Tomcat? There is an option for assisted startup with Jester. Now, that is what I call easy and accessible. It is practically the startup tutorial, Jester tells you what to do and gives you all the visual cues. It is flawless, I learned how to startup the plane without using autostart. Do you see the substantial difference between autostart and this? This assisted approach is what keeps realism, while enabling the pilot to learn and eventually perform the tasks on their own. This is what is needed for the sake of accessibility and easing the players into the complex environment of a sim. Cheats and autostarts do not teach you anything. If you really want to make things easy for players, then think in perspective of educating them better, rather than simplifying things for them. What is needed, is exactly some sort of assisted AAR, which would give me all the visual queues and instructions. Not a button that refuels for you.

Because if you wish to retain realism then easy AAR is not the option. Plan around it, land and refuel on the ground. That is the easy option if you must refuel during a mission. Very realistic and already implemented.

You will have to read again. I went for years without AAR with normal fuel. You don't need AAR to fly.

This is a sim and the learning curve is there for a reason. There some accessibility options and "cheats" to get you going. But please, do not make arguments how AAR is the breaking point of accessibility for those who do not have the time or skill etc.. First of all, there is the option for unlimited fuel. More importantly, I went for YEARS without AAR and only recently started training, because I started flying mission which require it with my group. But I never needed it for casual training, flying or fooling around. Not once. Not mastering AAR does not prohibit you from anything. Same as landing on a carrier.

Oh I'm aware that the fully digital cockpit is the newest version and a different airframe. I'm more refering to this. This should be a modernized MITV1.

I'd like to know if there is a possibility to have a more "modern" cockpit for the Mi-8? I have the NS430 but that is a standalone unit, not integrated with radios etc. I would not mind the new cockpit to be an addon.

Warthog is Coming.