Varis

Are you referring to a January in the past or in the future?

Impressive. I'll have to ask my Dad if he wants a go.

There are several pros and cons for both. They might be not so big concerns as would first appear - but there are more than you'd think of. It's important to notice how difficult it will be to migrate between the two. Steam lets DCS benefit from the network marketing effects that the platform generates. In other words if you choose Steam there will be more players to DCS and ED may end up with getting more money.

Nice to hear that things are moving forward. Don't hesitate to consider a different module if you at some point feel stuck with the F-18. Took the bundle myself and love the PG - the Hornet can be a great experience too, but I don't think it's the best that DCS has to offer at this point. Perhaps when it is closer to being complete - but many others have MUCH more personality.

Many players in Finland go online at this point and have a great time. The DCS learning curve can have many pitfalls and there's little to be ashamed of if some things are slow going or difficult. It all depends a lot on your environment.

Good PSU, case, silent fans are important. About SSD there are lots of interesting considerations. I think most motherboards have only 2 (or 3?) NVMe slots. If you buy 2x at the start, what is your upgrade path? IMO your system drive should be NVMe, since it's not likely you want to reinstall everything for an upgrade etc. 2 x 250GB would be tight by today's standards. SSDs are easy to add later if they are for data/games. Performance-capacity-price envelopes are improving every year. Everything depends a lot on your budget.

Migrating between Steam and ED standalone is much harder than it used to be a couple of years back, the DRM/licensing systems have changed.

Would be great if ED could create a tiered system of bases: Permanent airbases (only configurable for faction or level of upgrades/supplies and militarization) Configurable airbases (only there if the mission creator included them, but provided by ED, upgradeable) Road bases (for a limited set of aircraft) FARPs (always coming from the mission and probably with few upgrade/configuration options) This would work around the large distances between bases on some Middle-East maps and also provide for richer operational and strategic mechanics with base upgrades, along the lines of Pacific War (yes, that ancient title from Gary Grigsby).

Hawk has many issues but the aircraft is extremely capable. Harrier is better and Razbam has added resources to fix it. Viggen and Mirage would be two of the first picks. And Persian Gulf.

If you want to build/design yourself you need to do plenty of research and it's not likely you get compensated for the time. (However the learning may have much value.) When you do it again you need to do it again because technology changes constantly. It's easier the second time around. Also you need to build sources for high quality information, eg. places like DCS forums (for DCS specific questions), tomshardware, anandtech, cpupassmark etc. How long will be your system's planned lifespan? Can you tolerate near-obsolescence? Prepared to put in the effort to revise your system every year or two? It's easy to find suggested builds. Pick one that's suited to your parameters and use it as an initial reference point. (Many components you pick might end up being the same or very similar - eg. a different brand of GPU because the same model was $30 cheaper on discount or something.) There is no perfect build. The required technical parameters/performance depend on task to task. Eg. loading a DCS mission is very different from running it or recording it and editing the video. Also component prices can change every week.

Multiplayer (dedicated server probably will be a huge step forward, but not immediately apparent - by definition new software = broken)

A free helicopter would be awesome.

There have been a couple of similar threads in the last month or so - go and check those for more relevant advice/discussion. I'd keep this more specific to your situation, which was quite well detailed in the OP. A few more details: Are you OK with early access products? (extra bugs, features breaking or missing, VERY long wait times for the stuff you really want) How about Russian/vintage planes? (Eg. Mig-15 lets you go subsonic and guns only, F-5 might be interesting too and both would be easy to learn) Do you plan to buy more modules soon or are you sure you can focus on just one aircraft for months on end? FC3 could be your first option as the aircraft are quick to learn and you'd have multiple Russian designed fighters in addition to the F-15. Also the A-10A and Su-25A can be a blast to fly. MAC is supposed to come soonish (no exact release date) and was announced in July news I think. It will replace FC3 with just more aircraft but you will have an option to upgrade. Mirage 2000 obviously as well. Stable, air superiority focus, the best module from Razbam. Hornet. Very good air superiority and ground attack features, will take years before it will be really finished. There are differences between the fighters... not sure if you're aware. Hornet flies very well at low speeds, the Mirage is a supersonic delta, etc. I would suppose you'll eventually end up owning a couple of them. With the high-fidelity modules, learning is faster if you can utilize community resources like Chuck's guides or direct help from more experienced pilots.

What I understood the F/A-18 replaces A-6 and F-14.

Seems DCS has received much optimization in the last 6-7 years - for me it runs much much better than back then. What are your exact RAM specs? The CPU seems old but your single thread rating is not bad... https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-4770K-vs-Intel-i5-7600K/1919vs2919

Having a slight issue with SRS as it still refuses to work on my system. If allowed I could still join (think we could set up a relay to TS, but it's still a PAIN) or I'll happily gift my slot in case there are more sign-ups for the Gazelle. Scoop on SRS: We basically tried everything with some folks from DCS Finland, including 3 different microphones, 2 USB and one analogue. SRS can't initialize a recording device and exits. I gave the technical data to Ciribob (the SRS developer) who was just as helpless - he's using the same sound chip as me but it's an issue with Windows 10 and not SRS as such. He suggested updating the sound drivers. However they are already the latest version. Will need more extensive googling if there even is a solution... :(

Suggested airbases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasa_Airport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirjan_Airport Adding the two above could prove vital in connecting the isolated airfields inland - distances would be shortened and the Shiraz+Kerman bases would be more in touch with the coastline.

Went with just a $60 Logitech joystick for a while. Now I'm building up though... :smilewink: Welcome to the fold! You'll be learning more and more in no time.

The high fidelity Mig-21 or Mig-23 (upcoming) might be interesting?

BF or Christmas... maaybe... I could see them more likely bundling with Nevada than PG though. Would think we're going to see more aircraft in the spring, not much concrete news yet but seems many are nicely in the pipeline. Bundles would then be... in May at the earliest, more likely September? MAC in particular could be interesting to market to new customers.

What I understand there might be two reasons why inland Iran has few airbases: 1) the map was originally designed to focus on the Strait of Hormuz, a likely conflict spot 2) not many might exist in reality, and the region seems to be very arid and mostly uninhabited. It has some spectacular mountains though! I would like to start with questions to the multiplayer community: Which parts of the map will be used in MP scenarios? Will the layout of inland airbases pose an issue for MP usage and what could be possible workarounds? Is there hope of any kind of player created airbases in the next few years? Helis and VTOL craft can operate from plain old FARPs but fixed wing would at least require a suitable stretch of highway and some installations. The three inland airbases are Shiraz, Lar and Kerman, with distances between them ranging from some 272km to 427km. This could be a bit of a limiting factor considering especially how slow some CAS aircraft fly and their possibly limited range.

The same content will come to release version once it's been tested by the multiplayer community(* and the showstopper bugs are fixed. *) and anybody else opting for open beta. I guess there is a large group of willing subjects.

Would think most squadrons that weren't newbie / training friendly would go out of business.

Interesting

One aspect to be aware of is also the low / high position for the whole HUD device. Think normal navigation modes are with the HUD up while many weapon modes are with HUD down so one wouldn't expect both to work nicely at the same time.