Shibbyland

Man, you guys weren't kidding about the lack of performance. The limited boost certainly makes things difficult air to air without an altitude advantage. The furball instant action against mustangs is a disaster. I bleed energy immediately and am shot down. I try to gain an altitude advantage but am immediately pursued by two of the AI P-51s and shot down. I try weaving low level until the P-51s tangle with my own flight. That does help me get a couple of snap shots but not enough to turn the tide. Loss of energy, shot down. Very cool module though, it's much better looking than the 109 and the Spit so from that point of view I quite like flying it. Nice and easy to take off and land. Air to ground also nice and easy. Great sounds, just enough systems for it to have a little bit to do even tho it is largely automated. Stable aircraft. Probably wonderful to fly real world. On the fence about buying tho, nothing against the module as such but I've spent A LOT since 2017 on DCS and other than Reflected's campaign, it's yet another module with very little single player content.

Yea I get that. I'm not very knowledgeable on the Focke Wulfs, or any German aircraft for that matter. It is a shame that the WW2 aircraft don't get the attention of the seemingly more popular modern jets but in any case what we have here I think is significantly better than the competitor in terms of fidelity.

Oh cool, sounds pretty good then. Like many of us, I’m a sucker for a sale when it comes to DCS (and only DCS for some reason, addicted). I’m one of the buy a module, play it for a while but soon want another one types. Absolutely hanging out for the Mossie to drop to the circa $35 range and I’ll be getting that. Been waiting months but it’s still just loitering up there at the near $50 mark. In the mean time the A8 is most definitely looking interesting. will trial it next days off and likely pick it up

Yea not fussed about boost variants either. Quality for me is no glaringly obvious bugs that regularly frustrate gameplay, an authentic "feel" to it where the aircraft feels different to others, is believable if that makes sense (for me, the Tomcat is the standard in this regard but there are many other good modules). It's got to have decent visuals and sound and a bit of single player content available (this is another thing that counts against the Dora). So if I were to say that top quality for me is the likes of the Tomcat, or in the WW2 setting, the P-47, how does it stand up against those?

As per title. Not that interested in the Dora (because it's ugly more than anything else). Yet to do a trial of this aircraft and will do so in the coming days but I've seen mixed reviews commenting on long term bugs and the aircraft not getting much fine tuning. Anybody here play it regularly over the last couple of years? How is it now? I have the Spit, Mustang, Thunderbolt and 109. How does it compare in terms of quality (not capability, i get that theyre all different), just interest in quality of the module.

Thanks for the video Lucshep, I did have a look at that one. My standoffs are all in the correct place, lined up with the correct screw holes. I've used the screws and standoffs that came with the case. I don't think I've done them up too tight, just until they stop plus a small amount. I'm less concerned about the position and more concerned that I couldn't get it to fit perfectly flat no matter what I did. I did a lot of repositioning and certainly improved it but at no point was it totally flat, there was a small amount of flex required for the motherboard to seat on about 3 of the 9 standoffs, mostly toward the bottom of the case but one at the mid point. The board is definitely compatible with the case, I've double checked that. It's in good condition, it doesn't have any particularly heavy parts on it (just a small CPU cooler). I'm reluctant to take it all apart again lest I make it worse. I'm continuing to use it while I wait to get it to a shop. So far so good other than the odd USB behavior I've noted above. Since my original post, the rear sound input has started working with absolutely no alterations from me, yesterday it wasn't working, today it is.

Definitely should've watched that video before doing the work. I ended up watching some Australian guy talking about how to do it but lots of stuff didn't quite match up. Hey one more question tho. When I seated the motherboard on the standoffs, a couple of corners just didn't quite sit flat on the standoffs. Most of the motherboard was flush but there was maybe 3mm clearance on a coupe of the holes to the standoffs. I ended up just screwing it down letting it flex slightly. I moved the motherboard around a lot and at one point there was quite a bit of a gap in places but managed to reduce it to that 3mm or so, that was the absolute best I could do. Is that acceptable?

Haha yea I wasn't seriously going to suggest I bend pins to make it fit. Maybe my motherboard doesnt support all those fancy colours my new fans have? It's an MSI z390 plus (model MS-7C22). I've lost the manual. I think I'm going to need to take the machine in to get somebody to look it over tho as I've done something wrong. My rear headphone jack won't work which is odd as it worked fine before. My front headphone jack on the new case does work (which is odd as it DIDNT work on the old case). That tolerable but what's really irritating me is I plugged the USB 3.0 cable into a lot that looked the right size and said USB (even tho my motherboard isnt capable of USB 3.0). It's working as I can use the front USBs on the case but one of them keeps disconnecting. So if I've got my wifi adapter plugged in, it works for a while then suddenly stops but how long it works for varies. II've tried swapping out my wifi adapter for my rudder pedals and same issue, the rudder pedals work for awhile but then stop until I unplug and plug them back in so it's an issue with the USB on the case rather than the thing I'm plugging in. On my old case the USBs were plugged in at the bottom of the motherboard using a couple of 4 pins but the new case doesn't have those USB cables available so I've had to use the USB 3.0 cable it came with. I'm so confused. Surely if I'd just outright done it wrong, they wouldn't work at all rather than working sometimes but not others. Any ideas?

Well, for anybody interested I went ahead and bought a Phanteks G360A. I've never "built" a PC myself before but decided to try save $80 and give it a go. Convinced myself if I could save that money then I could justify buying the FW190-A8 on sale. 6 hours and a bit of frustration later, I appear to have it up and running. It wasn't without the odd comical moment. For example, I took a heap of photos so I knew where all the cables went back together. That didn't really help me a whole lot as the cables that came with the case were a bit different to my 11 year old case (I can't get the RGB working as the header on my motherboard is 4 pins long while the cable is 3 pin albeit is the same size so I'd have to crush two pins to get it on. Turns out cable management isn't my thing. I've gone with the jam it all in with the case and close it like an overpacked suitcase approach. Went to turn it on. Push button....nothing, dead, total darkness. Had the wee power switch cable on wrong. So now I turn it on. Hard drive is missing. Windows has created a page file (32GB). Switch some sata cables around. Cool now I have my HDD back but the page file advisory won't go away on startup. Set page file to automatic. Still won't go away then a few restarts later it suddenly decides it's happy again. I'm somewhat disconcerted tho as with everything back together and seeming to work alright, I've still got a couple of SATA cables left over (a red one and black one). My old case was like spaghetti so my pictures really don't show me where they went. I'm hoping they were just sitting in my old case not plugged into anything. Anyway, cheers for the advice. I have enough space in this tower now (at least on the side you can see into) that I could rent it out to family of 3 to live in and I have 5 fans and much cooler running.

Thanks for all the answers chaps. Going to buy a Phanteks Eclipse G360A, like the look of it. I'm hoping I'll get another year or so out of the z390 board before I change it again for yet another processor. I might get an i9 next time tho. So I'm looking at about $1000 USD (give or take as I'm not in US currency where I am) for parts then whatever it costs to have everything moved to the new case. Everything is that much more expensive where I live. Even RAM is expensive.

Haha yea well the case is the most boring part for me. It's tucked away in the corner and I never look at it. At least it came with 3 additional USBs, I use every single one available for all my sim stuff. The new sleek ones seem to lack USBs other than on the back. Reckon I'll go with a new case and an RTX 4070 (or second hand if I dare risk it). At least that way I'm not shelling out for a new power supply too. I dread upgrade time. I alternate CPU and GPU/RAM every 2-3 years normally. However, I've left it way too long this time due to covid and the prices and now it's become a headache.

Yea, I've put it off for a long time haha. Doubly embarrassing, I don't really know to to transfer everything over to a new case as that's something I can probably safely buy second hand. Is it just a matter of unscrewing everything and screwing it into a new case?

I've just now realised an issue I never even thought of because I've never bought really high end cards. I'm using a cooler master elite 431 case. It's pretty old (circa 2011) and is about the only original thing my PC has from when I bought it (except the almost never used DVD drive). Anyway max card size is pretty limiting. The one I have in there now is 268mm long and with the wiring pushed up against it, I reckon I'll struggle to fit anything much longer than that so that rules out the 3080, 4080 and all cards above them unless I spend a couple hundred local dollars on an upgrade. Long story short, unless I buy one of the 268mm length 4070s, I'm unable to upgrade. For me, the cost would be about $2000 USD I think by the time I've got what I'm after. As Lucshep said, just getting priced out of the hobby.

Hi All, Current system specs i7 9700k, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD solely for DCS, RTX 2060 Super on an MSI z390 motherboard. The RTX 2060 is really holding me back, it's become painfully obvious over Paris on Normandy 2. We all know how GPU prices are at the moment so I'm having to stretch a bit. My price range seems to leave me with one option, the MSI RTX 4070 gaming X trio at 12GB. Does anybody have an experience with this card and using DCS (I'm playing at 1080p, never use VR)? Ideally, I would've gone for an RTX 3080ti but these aren't available anymore where I am and the only second hand ones available are being sold by people selling LOTS of GPUs. That suggests to me that no matter what they say, they're probably ex mining cards and so I'm steering clear. I'm looking at roughly $1500 USD for an RTX 4080 which is just too much for me. Sucks that the 4070 is getting such bad reviews, it seems like the only way to upgrade from what I've got within my price point.

Maybe it is just me then or maybe I've gotten used to other aircraft and coming back to this one feels weird. I don't think my settings have changed but I decided to increase the Y axis curve yesterday to 20 and that's made it feel a bit more predictable. It just seems to hit really high angle of attack so quickly but looks like I'll just have to get used to it again. While we're here tho, do you guys use manual RPM for dogfighting? The combat manifold pressure (I think its 1.35 ATA) seems to coincide with an automatic RPM below that which can be used for 30mins in combat. Paris and London blitz my poor old RTX 2060. I'm finally going to have to bite the bullet and shell out on a new card.

Maybe it was a few patches ago but I've just downloaded Normandy 2 and doing a bit of 109 flying. It's awful now. Terrible roll rate but much worse is the elevator authority. The entire aircraft feels "mushy". It's angle of attack spikes to 20+ degrees with minimal elevator input over a very large speed range both fast and slow. It wallows through the sky. I'm sure it didn't used to be like that

Yea I thought that would be the case. I'm aware it's their intent to do their version of AI (TALON) but I expected it would be a way off. That's a deal breaker for me as I'm mainly single player focused and even in multiplayer, I don't tend to pair up for multi crew stuff. It's the exact reason I haven't bought the Mosquito yet either. How straightforward is it likely to be to run ground attacks from the pilot position only? Are we likely to find ourselves doing WSO stuff at a distance, jump into front seat to start the attack run then jump back into the WSO seat to drop the bomb, then jump back into the pilot seat to evade? I guess time will tell. In terms of RAZBAM modules, I've got the M2000c, the Harrier and the MiG 19. I bought the M2000c a while after it's release and its really good but as I understand, it took a long time to get to that point. I can't comment much on the Harrier as I've barely used it. The MiG 19 is the only module I've bought that I really regretted buying but I'm more than happy with it now. It just seemed so half baked and it stayed that way for a while. Again, it's good now but it took so long to get that way. For me, Heatblurs F-14 is the standard for multi-crew aircraft in DCS (JUST MY OPINION). The F-15E has a whole lot more systems than the Tomcat and I don't doubt that RAZBAM are up to the challenge but my previous experience with their products suggests it's going to be a long haul. I'll put the usual forum disclaimer here though: If you pre-ordered the module, I'm not critisising your purchase. This is only a discussion, don't go getting hurt feelings. With a bit of luck, developers peruse discussions like this and it gives some meaningful feedback of where some customers are at.

I suspect the recent post about it being ready soon is more a marketing tactic to boost a few more pre-orders from those who might be on the fence. I'm trying to be a bit more discerning with my DCS purchases now that I own most modules. I will definitely be buying the F-15E at some point but as I posted above, I've got reservations when it comes to RAZBAM. It's true the 30% off is great at pre-order but I just have this feeling the early access release will be a bit more turbulent than we're used to. It's not clear to me what weapons will be available at release or what state the back seat AI will be in. If RAZBAM were to release more meaningful and reliable information, then I'll probably change my mind. As it stands, I prefer to use the money elsewhere and buy it closer to Christmas or spring next year when It'll likely have some sort of sale.

I've got reservations about pre-ordering this one. The way the pre-order went, the sale price errors, opting out of the miles program, the South Atlantic map not being part of the free trial program. For me, it just doesn't inspire confidence in the product. I own a number of RAZBAM modules and they're all very good but at least for me, unless I've bought them a long time after release, it's usually a bit shaky. For example, I regretted buying the MiG 19 initially. It's good now but getting to that point, I spent a long time just not using it. I get the feeling when it comes to the F-15, early access is going to protracted beyond the typically lengthy process it already is for most modules. I'm sure it'll be another great module in the fullness of time but I'm not feeling the hype this time.

It's pretty typical De Havilland I think haha. The Chipmunk (although not all have the same panel) has it's RPM gauge and altimeter right next to each other and if it's the original instrumentation they look very similar with the white and green numbering. Cruising at 2000ft with 2100rpm set it's easy to mix them up sometimes and find yourself pitching down on the RPM gauge.

Thanks Newy, There's no mention of AI on the module early access page but it does come up in the FAQ. Is this something that will be done or is it more of a nice to have? It feels like the Mosquito is on the backburner a bit but it's arguably the best WW2 module we have (or the P-47, it's a hard choice). Would just be really good to have an idea of where it's sitting in the priority list.

I wasn't aware DCS had such things as exclusively single player or multiplayer modules. As I understand, all modules are suitable for single or multiplayer. The AH-64 does have AI piloting control. It's reasonably good for keeping the aircraft in one place or steering it while you're doing other things from the front seat. Conversely, the gunner AI isn't too bad either if you just want to change weapon selection, burst mode or engage a target. Given the AH-64, Mi-24 and F-14 (which as we know has a really good AI functionality) feature AI, it seems reasonable to expect the Mosquito will as well, particularly as it has been mentioned by developers as a feature to be added in the later stages of early access. I don't expect much from the Mosquito AI if it ever does come. It needs to be able to hold level flight on a constant heading, hold level flight onto a heading, and orbit. For navigator AI, it seems reasonable to expect it will be able to tune a frequency. I'm not sure what the navigators other roles were on the Mosquito but it would be usual in a multi crew aircraft for the extra crew member to handle feathering of the engines and fire extinguishing. However I recognise this is normally a function of a co-pilot/pilot monitoring rather than a navigator. I would very much like to buy the Mosquito, I think it's a really cool module but the stagnation in it's development doesn't fill me with confidence that these features will be implemented. Given I'm almost exclusively single player, that makes it a no go for me at it's current price. For $30 USD, I'd buy it as is.

No, I'm asking for an idea of when the single player features previously mentioned will be implemented. If you either have incomplete information, or nothing to contribute, please kindly refrain from commenting.

I've trialed the aircraft twice, it's great but I'm holding off purchase as it's development appears to have stagnated. Can somebody point me to a roadmap or recent dev update, preferably with a timeline of some description please. I've seen others make similar posts but as yet haven't seen much info that addresses what they've raised. For me the primary stuff remaining is: -Some means of pilot controlling the aircraft while player is in navigators seat tuning radios/navaids. -Some means of directing the navigator to tune radios/navaids without me having to change the seat. Is this happening?

My current specs are i7 9700k, RTX 2060 super, 32Gb RAM, DCS on its own 1TB nvme. 750watt power supply. I have an MSI Z390 motherboard. At the moment, DCS is the only game I play that I’m not getting the performance I want in single player. I’d prefer not to upgrade the CPU for another year or two but I think it’s about time I upgraded GPU. Heres my two options for the money I have where I live. I can buy a second hand RTX 3090 or I can buy a new RTX 4070ti. Can I even run a 4070 with my z390 board? I understand I’d need to upgrade to a 850 watt power supply. When I do finally upgrade my CPU I’ll need to stick with whatever GPU I have for at least another year due to lack of $$$. Any advice would be appreciated