bfr

Does anyone know where the circular solar farm is on the map? Some reviews said it was in the southern desert region but I could do with something a little more precise.

Given every big release seems to cause something to creak or break for a bit in the infrastructure then I agree that releasing 2 major modules simultaneously would probably be a very bad idea. That doesn't infer though that the SE would've necessarily gone out yesterday had Sinai not been released.

Why? What's the dependency for one to have to go out before the other?

I suspect ED might need to do a post-mortem and remedial work on back-end infrastructure scaling and resilience before releasing whatever is the next module to go out.

I was able to force offline mode to work by disabling all network connections to my PC when starting up DCS. You're right though, it should work better than it does if the servers are just a bit screwy like they are right now.

If you're happy with single player and whatever you already had installed for the time being then disable your network connection before starting DCS and it'll force it into offline mode.

The .1 hotfix fleetingly gave me temporary authorisation to everything again (including Sinai) but next restart its removed authorisation from every single module. EDIT: OK, this is interesting. I just disabled my network connection completely and started DCS and it fell back onto using existing time-limited authorisation and I can access everything in single player again. I wonder if the fallback logic can't handle that things are partly broken on the servers and assumes you are not authenticated rather than cannot authenticate? Obviously this won't help people wanting to play multiplayer but at least lets you back into anything that was already authorised on single player.

I think the .1 release just relaxes the module authorisation rules temporarily or something to lighten the load on the servers a smidge. I managed to buy and download the map earlier but for whatever reason it didn't cache the authorisation for it or any other module (I initially lost authorisation on everything when the servers were fully screwed, even though I was using DCS less than 24 hours ago). Since applying the .1 release then everything came back (with a couple of days worth of expiry date) despite still not being able to hit the auth servers properly. EDIT: Then had to come out of DCS and went back in and every module is no longer authorised again (despite having spent a decent stint touring around Sinai in an F18). Weird. EDIT2: disabling network connection during start-up seemed to force it into offline mode correctly and i've got single player + modules back again.

I thought the ones in that menu section were all VR-specific? Or has that changed now?

Yes, i'm pretty sure it was. It'd be interesting to know what has changed in the builds since in order to invalidate it. The existing limitations he mentioned didn't seem weird/unreasonable ones and I think I only spotted one glitch/bug as such (I can't check now but I swear one of the MFD labels seemed to have a minor typo in it). Either that or there is some directive about what functionality the people with early access are supposed to preview when and he's jumped the gun on it?

As others have said, spend time learning the mission editor if you want to create some bespoke challenges. As with others, its stuff i've knocked up myself where the majority of my flying time has been spent. As campaigns go, the first bought one I tried was Operation Cerberus North that i'm part way through. It took me a bit out of my previous comfort zones and made me learn even more (e.g. forced me to use the proper radio mode and also improve my situational awareness skills as you can't just use the map to see where other things in the missions are) and also ramps up the challenge nicely (early missions are more like training scenarios before you start engaging stuff for real in later missions). All the missions i've done so far don't require refuelling either if you're still trying to master that skill. The only downside is the missions are quite long and all require cold starts so you need to put an hour or two aside for a session really.

Yes I think you're right. I watched it in its entirety yesterday but its now strangely absent from my youtube viewing history.

I said: - they've not teased any release date for it - its not available for pre-order Which of those two statements is incorrect?

Sinai is a WIP (albeit clearly well advanced) that they've shown some previews of. AFAIK they've never teased a release date for it, nor is it available for pre-order. No doubt you would've complained instead about the 'hype train' had either the SE or Sinai featured in this week's update but not been made available for sale.

If my memory serves it sort-of worked like that for a while (might've been per station rather than per individual weapon) originally in DCS and then it was changed to the current behaviour because that is how it works in real life and the original behaviour was wrong. So in answer to your question, it'll stay like this unless someone provides conflicting proof that it works differently in real life.

That'll help the time pass whilst the INS alignment does it thing I suppose.

I suppose it might come eventually like it did on the F-18 and the pods added to the F-16? IIRC then the jammer used on Strike Eagles is an internal thing and not a pod?

Quite happy to be corrected but I can't think of another map that has the same issue where the moving map is only at one scale in the HSI.

If that were the motivation then the logical thing to do would be to release it ASAP (the price usually goes up from the pre-order mark slightly as soon as its available)

Mid-August it is then

You're making quite big assumptions there though about the stability/state of the release the "freeloading Youtube DH's" have. There's a reasonable case to be made that they're peaking a little too soon with the hype train if it is still 5-9 weeks out (preview builds could still be issued to third parties and content could still be made under embargo that it isn't released until 2-3 weeks out from a committed-to date). Otherwise though, 'its ready when its ready' and there's no logical reason they'd sit on it if it had already been through QA and was genuinely fit for release right now. Maybe they're applying the Star Trek 'Scotty Principle of Estimation' where you overestimate time needed and then appear to overdeliver when you smash that deadline

To be 'fully released' it'd have to be feature complete. Considering what we already know won't be in the first EA release then not a cat in hell's chance that prediction is correct.

Probably two main reasons to give it out early: 1. To test it in a slightly wider pool than in-house testers and get feedback 2. To get those people to make content and put it out there for marketing and instructional purposes. Also some of them will be making content for the module itself (missions, the manual and so on) To turn your questions slightly on their head, if the module currently circulating with YT content makers is sufficiently featured and stable for initial public release, what possible benefit would Razbam or ED have in not getting it out ASAP? After all, there will be a decent chunk of people who will probably end up buying it who are holding off until a date is set in stone or just after release (to gauge initial public feedback). Just sitting on it would be deferring revenue for no good reason that they could have much sooner.

That assumes the version the previewers are getting is release-ready and doesn't come with many 'try this, but whatever you do then don't press x or try to do y' caveats. The first start-up video that was then rapidly pulled because it was done using the wrong version suggests the current builds are still quite frequent and fluid. As someone else alluded to in an earlier post, tech demos like that can be made to hide all sorts. We don't know if a 5 minute video took several hours to compile because some bug they're still working on crashed DCS several times along the way of making it and they had to keep starting over.

If they're planning to upgrade the jet in terms of the updates it received in real life then I guess you'd have to find out how those suite updates tie in for when GPS weapons were added in real life to get a clue when they may arrive. Although setting up a full of JDAMs for a Strike Eagle (assuming there's an equivalent to PP mode on the F-18) is going to be potentially brutal if there isn't something like a mission cartridge capability!