Spudknocker

Is there any new news on this beautiful bird?

I hope training missions are included, that would be a really big help for getting this bird up and goin thats for sure, the handbook is great but I dont think theres any substitute for hand holding training missions

Wow that makes a lot of sense! I think I recall that this issue has come up with other types of air frames in European service. European airspace is definitely a lot more confined than across the pond haha

One can only hope my new puppy will be mature enough by then to let me have at least a solid hour at a time to play with this new jet!:pilotfly:

In video games, regardless if its flight sims or FPS's or anything in between I tend to prefer snow/winter terrains to have a deep snow/lots of snow look to them to really emphasize that its winter. So I would say lots of snow please!

I have not heard that about European hornets... But could that be true due to their lower weight because of lack of certain USN specific equipment/avionics?

WOW! Thanks Razbam and ED! I can't wait to start crashing harriers all over Nellis AFB! Does anyone know if the KC-130 and Tarawa will be released with early access?

We should definitely have Mk.20 Rockeyes as AV-8's used them extensively in the 1991 Gulf War against the Iraqis, they also employed Mk.77 Firebombs on iraqi troop positions and oil traps so hopefully we will get those too

In regards to the idea of 12x GBU's I dont believe this is possible. While GBU-12's are basically modified Mk-82's they require a digital/wired connection to the aircraft, I do not think that the standard USN/USMC/USAF triple ejector racks (Forgotten the designation number) are wired to handle smart bombs. You could carry that many if you want to employ them as dumb bombs without their laser guidance seeker heads functioning properly- but I think that the DOD and lockheed martin would be a little upset that you used their high end gadgetry for such a purpose haha Mk-82's work fine.

Will we be flying against aggressor F-16's F-15's and F-5's and F-4's playing iranian aircraft or will we be flying against actual MiG's Phantoms and Sukhois?

You also have to take into account that the Nimitz class carrier we will get is a lot bigger than the good ol' Kuznetsov which means larger landing area etc. Another thing that I found really helps with the Su-33 is adding a 20% curve to the pitch and role axis, this helps with smaller control inputs on our less than perfect gaming controls and can also really help with air to air refueling

I just watched the Su-33 flanker trailer again, man is that Kuznetsov model gorgeous! I cannot wait until we get our hands on all the goodies of 2.5! Are they actually creating new things for 2.5 like these effects? Or are they done and going through optimization and polishing for release Sith?

I cant wait for this bird! Throw a South African skin on her and go skimming the trees at 50 feet hunting for terrorists! Something about a Mirage F.1 in that yellow and green camo is just too cool! Spanish mirage is still super awesome tho!

All I ask is what are the specs of the machine that created that screenshot haha!! I cannot wait for 2.5!! I personally like the deep snow look better, if its gonna be winter I want everything covered in snow! A little compromise could be snow just on mountain tops in spring?

Aggressor Skins!! Aggressor Skins!! Aggressor Skins!! i love all the USMC and USN aggressor camo's, I guess I get tired of all that Low-Viz gray! haha

Excuse me if this has already been discussed, Will we get Mk. 77 Firebombs with the hornet? I know this isn't a super common weapon, but they were used in Desert Storm (by harriers dont know about hornets), by hornets in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, and Iraqi freedom in Iraq. Maybe need to wait till 2.5 for the new explosion effects to get napalm but I figured it could be a cool niche weapon. All the old Discovery Wings documentaries that featured hornets showed them dropping 77's on ranges.

That didn't stop ED from making a late lot F/A-18C, they are still in active service and have many of the same capabilities as block 40/42 and 50/52 F-16C's, I mean we are even getting JHMCS with our DCS F/A-18. Like I described in an earlier post I think they decided to purse the Hornet first because of the carrier capability and the added gameplay it brings to the game rather than the shore only based F-16. Now the block 50/52 F-16's first were delivered starting in 1991, around the time our hornet was built and upgrades to these block 50/52's bring the systems up to pretty much parity with the Hornet we are getting for DCS world. Now the intro graphic for the hornet videos if slowed down does show an F-16. I think that once the tech is coded for creating the DCS F/A-18, the building process of a DCS F-16 would not be that big of a stretch. I think they just chose the Hornet first due to the Carrier ops gameplay it would provide.

Hey guys I know these would be light years away, but I was thinking that the Malaysian Su-30MKM could be a very cool DCS module. It has a very cool blend of Western and Russian tech and could be a cool aircraft for people to learn how to change from Eastern to western aircraft or vise versa. It has MFD's and a UFC (the only one ive seen in a russian built aircraft) in the cockpit, carries a french targeting pod, can drop GBU-12's as well as russian KFAB's. It has French, South African and Russian avionics and tech inside of it and can carry a very large variety of weapons etc. I figure there's probably not enough info out there to make a full fidelity module, but if there is I think it could be a very interesting and compelling aircraft for DCS World. I've always liked the Su-30 series of aircraft and being a westerner the blend of the Western and Eastern tech make this aircraft very cool! Any thoughts?

Well the Sidearm is also carried by the Marines' Ah-1's... So its definitely designed for more of a pop-up type of threat during battlefield interdiction, CAS and the like since Soviet tank divisions had dedicated air defense units embedded in them. In real life and DCS your AV-8's carrying AGM-122's would deal with your Pop-Up SA-8's and Shilkas while your F/A-18's go after larger SAM installations (SA-2/5/11 etc) with their AGM-88's and in the future in DCS I Guess we could also have F-4E's carrying Standard ARMS's or 88's for those bigger sams. AGM-122 is named the Sidearm because that exactly what it is a sidearm for those quick self defense snap shots at threats that come out of nowhere

I would say that an F-16 is probably in the pipeline at some point, the intro graphic on the F/A-18 videos shows a MiG-29, F/A-18 and an F-16. The F/A-18 has carrier capability and this adds a lot of varied gameplay not just land basing which the F-16 would be. I think this would give players more of a challenge and a way to extend peoples playtime with the module. I believe this is the rational that Wags laid out in the intro video. At a very very basic level the F-16 and F/A-18 in terms of systems aren't that different just look at the cockpits side by side (seat angle and sidemount sick non-withstanding). Because of the similarities in systems and what would have to be programmed into DCS I believe a F-16 could be developed relatively quickly after the Hornet lays the ground work. So in ED's mind I think they probably sat down and said, lets build a hornet first because of the more varied gameplay carrier capability brings to the table, and with all the ground work laid in terms of systems (like A2G radar) then we can build an F-16. Anyway my 2 Cents.

Well I really hope they give the F-14 some air to ground capability or add an F-14D before they move on to the next thing... Having a Bombcat in DCS would be absolutely awesome! But if they must move on an F-15E, I, S, SG, K or SA would be totally rad!

Hello! Is there anyone who can update the old Old Crow skins for the deffered shading of 2.1? I would very much appreciate that!

Wow that would be a nice treat! I was hoping this would come out before my new puppy takes all my free time haha!

Ya we are a weird bunch... it pains my soul to fly under 1000 feet or go transonic or super sonic over Vegas haha

If anything I think this would only be reproduced in DCS with instrumentation readouts and not actual variation in the fuel consumption or thrust of each engine as that would require twice the computing power (at least I would guess). While this would be kinda neat to see in DCS I would think it's rather far down on the to-do list haha.