av8orDave

Definitely the most anticipated rotary wing module. So what is everyone’s consensus? Wednesday?

They are Wednesdays in the US

I guess I’m in the camp of them not saying anything then other than their true “committed” date. I don’t think “might” is a problem necessarily, it’s the conflicting info from their sources spread across various medium combined with statements like “imminent”. Why use that word if you really mean a month away?

The regular day for patches for the open beta in the US has been Wednesday. Again, why not just announce a release date qualified with “barring any blocking bugs”? Instead, the practice seems to be some reps saying “imminent”, the module going “gold” (whatever that signals), and forum admins posting various conflicting statements on various unofficial boards (saying that the tutorials won’t hold up release, that release won’t happen this week, that they “might” be wrong, that you “might” have a great week off). Ugh.

I'd be seriously disappointed if everyone waiting for the Apache suddenly had it tied to an update for the Syria map, when many of the Apache consumers may not own or care about the Syria map.

Not to be cynical, but what exactly does the "Gold" announcement add? Does this mean it will release Friday? Next Wednesday? By March 31, which we already knew? A few weeks ago the leader of the company said release was "imminent", which in my definition of imminent means it would have already happened, Wags commented that the unreleased George AI & COld Start tutorials wouldn't hold up release of the module, and NineLine said "not coming this week" as well as "I could be wrong"... and anyone wonders why people get frustrated with ED's launch practices?

Just for those saying that we won't see it until the cold start video... from today's defensive systems vid:

Well, how did you finally get it done?

Try using CBU-105s in preplanned mode. Drop on one steerpoint, cycle to the next, drop again, and so on. If you fly at high speed and pop up they have quite the range.

Just flew a successful Liberation mission against an SA-11 site after a few unsuccessful tries. When I finally got it right, I used 4 CBU-97s, flew nap of the earth all the way in until just near the site, popped up, and dropped a pair of the 97s. I then circled back around and cleaned up the stragglers with the remaining pair of 97s. I found that HARMs were useless because the SA-11 doesn't go active until you're right on top of it, and each SA-11 is essentially its own radar site.

I just flew a DEAD mission against an SA-11 site in DCS Liberation. First time I had used the CBU-87 in a bit (same munitions as the JSOW-A), and they didn't do a thing to the vehicles despite direct hits. The CBU-87 family (CBU-103, JSOW-A) used to be completely useless for this reason, but a few months ago they "fixed" them when the CBU-103 was added to the F-16. It looks like they're back to being useless. Ugh.

I’d say next week, but lord knows some goofball will find a rivet missing on the underside of one of the access panels and be all “I ThoUgHt ED wAs aBOuT rEaLisM!!! ThIs mOdULe SuCKS!!!” and ED will have to go back and fix it, delaying it until April 2024.

I agree that the F-14 probably had more hype. I mean, Top Gun compared to Fire Birds?

Understood... but I guess the question remains... if you can "rig" it to work this way in just a couple of very short steps, why hasn't it been addressed?

Thank you for the help. It was easier than expected once I started going through the motions... nothing to it, really. There does seem to be quite a performance benefit. Makes you wonder... if a workaround for better performance is this easy, why haven't the developers worked it somehow into the stock game?

Not sure what the right place to post is, as this isn't really a multiplayer request, and not really a VR request, and not really a Liberation request, but anyway... I have no experience setting up a dedicated server and have no idea where to start. There doesn't really seem to be a step-by-step guide anywhere. I'd like to try to run Liberation on a dedicated server locally on my computer for single player use, just to see if it helps with framerates (there seems to be anecdotal evidence that it does). Is anyone willing to explain a simple step-by-step procedure on how to get liberation going on a local dedicated server? The help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Dave

While I certainly understand the intent, your example isn't very good... A more accurate representation would be paying for the dinner up front a month before the meal, confirmed with a video from the restaurant on YouTube concluding with "2021" in giant white letters with loud music playing. As the reservation date neared, they sent you a communication saying "sorry, we're behind, but we hope to get you in prior to the Christmas holidays / end of the year." As that approached, they sent you another communication stating that they'd now hope to get you in by the end of January. As that date approached, they sent you a slightly more vague communication saying they're still behind, but that they hope to get you in by the end of February, but definitely (hopefully?) by the end of Q1. At the end of February, same process, only the end of Q1 (hopefully?). You're right, it definitely doesn't call for storming the kitchen... but you'd likely be a bit annoyed.

Where I get a bit of frustration with ED date management / communication is that by this point, good project management practices would tell you that if the product is in a "launch-ready" state, that gives you about 10 days to test for issues and still make the end of Feb, so if it isn't "launch-ready" by now, it ain't happening in Feb and you could safely communicate to everyone that February isn't going to happen, or if it is ready you could announce "we're launching on Feb XX unless there is a big issue in the next week of testing". Instead, the message will continue to be "we're aiming for Feb but saying Q1" right up until February 28th, much like happened with the last delay. Like Vonnegut said, "so it goes."

These are truly exceptional skins! Incredible work and thank you. Can’t wait to see the 77th!

Can I ask why there seems to be so much optimism around F-15E this year? It's a super cool aircraft, one that I think fits the bill for a great aircraft to simulate in DCS, and I'd love to see it in '22. Having said that, all I've really seen has been a nicely detailed external model and some pretty well done cockpit texturing. I don't think I've seen anything that shows it anywhere near early access, specifically stuff like the flight model, weapons systems, etc that are probably the real work to building an aircraft in DCS. Am I missing something?

Performance optimization, particularly for VR. I don't care if it is Vulcan, or multi-threading, or whatever, but performance in DCS is absolutely abysmal, to the point that I believe this is a "blocker" to getting to what is my second biggest desire, which is a dynamic campaign. I don't think the engine will run any kind of serious dynamic campaign without some serious optimization for most systems.

I'm not complaining... the delays & wait is what it is. Nothing will change it other than the team building it getting it done, and I agree that if they feel they can't release it yet, it isn't ready. I however take issue with the perspective around here that goes something like "they never committed to anything, they never give dates, they haven't promised anything, the nerve of some people to be annoyed about a delay!", etc... That, factually, isn't what happened. The release video concluded with a giant "2021" in bold white on a black screen. I'd say that what we were paying for, back in October, was an AH-64 module in 2021, originally pushed back to late December. This became late Jan, and now Q1. When we paid the pre-order, it was reasonable to assume that between the videos being shown of the module, the statement that it was at an advanced stage of development, and the giant "2021" in the launch video, that we knew what we were signing up for, which wasn't "sometime whenever it's ready because software development is hard". Again, not complaining, it's a great game and I'm a wholehearted supporter of the design team, ED, and the hobby, but the idea that floats around here that "release dates are never given" is just not quite playing with all the facts.

Whoa, man, you're quite the optimist. Of the OP's list, we ought to get Apache (because it has been supposedly nearly done for three months) and the F-4 (because it is from a developer that has already demonstrated the ability to release a couple of quality modules, and because it appears that they've wisely waited until they were well underway to even announce the module). I don't have any expectation to see the F-15E, Mig-23, Vulcan, etc. for quite some time. I hope I'm wrong, as I'm a VR player and the engine badly needs updated to accomodate VR. I guess time will tell. I'm enjoying seeing everyone's guess as to what is coming and when.

A very good suggestion.

I’m just a lowly private pilot, but a good analogy is that you could jump in a perfect “by the numbers” simulation of a Cessna Cardinal or any other GA plane and take off and land it with absolutely no problem. Without actual flying experience, you’d likely have some problems in real life due to the jarring experience of task saturation and the seat-of-the-pants feelings of acceleration, g-forces, turbulence, etc. I often think that one of the things DCS doesn’t do so well is simulate environmental effects… a couple examples: - turbulence in DCS doesn’t have nearly the effect that it does in real life. A day with challenging conditions can make flying quite the experience, and I’m not sure it can be simulated. - ever climb in a plane in the summer? One of the things simulators don’t capture that is a real, meaningful thing is the heat, sweat, the smell, etc of flying a real plane. In real life you’re often tired and frazzled by the time you even start the plane up. I guess the simple way to say it is that simulators capture the experience of working the stick, rudder, throttle, and systems. It’s not that the simulation isn’t good or accurate… it’s that there is way more to it than that IRL.