Varis

Could be the Huey for both - but each helicopter has its on personality and its own role. I have the most hours in a gazelle and ka-50. The gazelle is the most exciting to fly. (Unless you somehow think something which weighs less than 10% of almost anything else in the game shouldn't be able to pull off crazy stuff.) It's actually quite multi-role since you have several variants. The only option for light helicopter action, it's a great scout and if well used (or if you fly the gazelle mistral) the enemy will be shitting his pants. Light weaponry can be seen as an extra challenge for experienced pilots. Ka-50 is like the A-10 of helicopters. The most complicated electronics and the most powerful weaponry, hands down. The Vihkr takes skill to use but can be very devastating. The coaxial setup makes it the odd bird in the bunch. Mi-8 is the most dedicated transport helicopter. It does have multiple weapons platforms but is not really intimidating compared to the other helicopters. Flying it effectively is a very different joy from most other platforms in the game, and it could be the best pick if you are looking for a really authentic helicopter experience in DCS. Huey is a bit more of a multirole. Some effective weapons especially for easier threat environments and it's also a transport helicopter by its soul. You need to learn a few tricks to cold start it reliably. I don't think any of the helicopters is hard to fly. Each of them has some unique challenge for new pilots, and some unique quirks or special tricks you can't pull off with anything else.

Great scout helicopter. Also you're missing most of the fun if you don't do aggressive NAP of the earth maneuvering. Let somebody else to bring the heavy firepower and act as the FAC for them.

It's still a simulator. If you maneuver too hard you'll pull the rotors apart etc. Make sure to learn the Vivian! It's great and you can have a blast with it. Can't wait to have the kiowa warrior...

So, would you like to give us the short version of... What can the Mi-24 do that Mi-8 and Ka-50 can't do already?

That's a good point. When we go to multiplayer (PvP parts of it at least), DCS ceases to be a simulator since it doesn't simulate authentic real world conflicts. Instead you get military fantasy with Red vs Blue setups and gameplay that is supposedly fair to both sides. Certain tier II or III or IV militaries suddenly become very capable, the Gazelle mistral is severely limited, Gazelle scout versions gain a capability to deploy complex ground equipment, and so on.

You can get to do fox two within visual range very quickly. Though - if you're only interested in learning the basics why would you go with the hornet? It's a very modern multirole jet with tons of meticulously modelled systems. You'd expect to spend a long long time learning the aircraft and gradually adding more and more functions to your repertoaire.

You can find a deadzone in the axis tuning settings for your controller/axis in DCS settings. I usually go with a small deadzone and some curvature (up to about 20, more for old propeller birds). Depends on the joystick again.

Thanks for the perspective. What I'm starting to see the high level of ambition (fidelity, and the list of features) combined with the high cost of development may be something of a problem. It's difficult to develop and maintain (how long? 10 years or more?) the software with single-sale revenue stream.

They are basically the same as for any other aircraft. It's funny, I've heard people make the comment before that the Gazelle just needs smaller inputs but I don't really notice... I just adapted and fly it a bit more wildly (or more precisely) than the other airframes. Your joystick may make a difference - mine is a $60 quality model from Logitech from some 15 years back.

Some quality popcorn memes there son :smilewink: By now it feels like many on the DCS forums enjoy (creating) silly childish hype. Including the intentional and accidental trolls who despite comments are just patiently waiting and understand that it might still take a while :chair:

Relieved :D Looking forward to it!

Once you put it that way it's a little baffling. Wags has stated WW2 airframes sell very well compared to the effort it takes to create them - the money is there for the taking. The catch is that DCS's approach and competitive gaming are by no means mutually exclusive as we've seen in the various events. There's some additional challenge in making the mix work (eg. realism vs balance, comms infrastructure, learning curves) but there's a chance to make a very deep and competitive game which would potentially be interesting to a lot of gamers nowadays.

Yes but that's only in singleplayer* - in multiplayer the mission creator will have limited the airframes. Shooting basically defenceless trucks with A-10 or F-16 may be a good idea when you're new to the aircraft but the fun wears out quick as you progress, so many mission creators scale the challenge according to which airframes are available in the mission, or vice versa. *) Even with singleplayer you make the assumption a mission is available or can be created

Dumbfounded. So much detail. I hope my PC will still run this :shocking:

Might see this 50% off a couple times a year but yeah not very often. Maybe there were some minor issues which I can't recall now, it's very functional and you get multiple mission profiles with the one module. Go for it, it's very unique. Not sure how control settings make more of a difference than with other modules. If you use Vivian sights and auto-hover a lot there is lots of sense in making a good setup for throttle. It can be a lot of fun... also check out the heli tournament if you're into competitive multiplayer or just enjoy watching e-sports.

Gazelle. It's superb for reconnaissance and has good combat capabilities... actually the module is 4 different aircraft :lol: Very agile so it can be a blast to fly... even if the FM is not 100% spot on, it's still great fun... and will get an update soonish.

Should be fairly decent. I'm running a slightly beefier setup and very satisfied with performance. You may have to reduce settings from ultra levels but should be fine for many scenarios/multiplayer. Resolution upgrade... expect to spend more money.

High fidelity migs, helicopters, tomcat, and of course the viggen?

Seems it all depends if you want to consider DCS gameplay or how things are in reality (and often not fully modelled in the game by a long stretch). Also whether you want to play multiplayer or single player. You can refer to this classification: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=225516 In the end it becomes pretty much a moot argument when you are playing a sandbox game :music_whistling:

Then there are all the propeller planes too. Christen eagle etc.

Nobody forces you to fly the early access planes. Also I see the release version is more for the benefit of the single player community. At times when the beta was in a bad shape I was flying the release version. Often you could just switch to other aircraft when say the hornet was broken.

Easy to learn and you can participate in low intensity / COIN scenarios unlike if you buy say F-5 (trainer/ground attack). Of course the other option would be historic aircraft (Mig-15) or helicopters. Depends on what you prefer. The L-39 is a very mature module with nice features, C-101 just recently got weapons but it sounds like it will be quite nice as well. Hawk had the best performance for a "pure" trainer but the story was quite sad. Christen Eagle and P-51 anyone? :lol:

Early on I had a bit of trouble with random rudder inputs and the thing would just flip on its back now and then... Going with rudder curves and quality pedals helped with that.

Oh yes that was quite nice point-to-point info :thumbup: I'm a bit surprised if the P model in fact is so recent and still in service. (My info was sketchy at best.) Could mean there's some hope of getting a high-fidelity Mig-29A or Mig-25 in the years to come.

In case of the F-18, ED was taking all the criticism on EA from the community and they went for an overkill in that case, I agree that the pace of progress has been very rapid. I actually wish they hadn't put so many eggs in the same basket and would have worked more on the upcoming modules and getting them out in an orderly fashion. But here we are and the F-18 is going to showcase that the EA model works for ED/DCS and probably the player community's trust in the platform will, at least, be recovered. Also if ED can work out a sensible solution to the Hawk, they have a chance of showing that there is some kind of insurance even if things go haywire and your "kickstarter moneys" are, in principle, lost. This is in contrast with your regular independent EA/kickstarter project, where there is no single powerful party that has a vested interest in the platform and the public's perception of it.