Rick50

if it works for Monty Python, good enough for me!!

At first I thought I'd agree with you, but then I remembered: That's a very large screen, fixed to the cockpit frame. Not sure if they wanna vibrate the whole screen... it's not a tiny smartphone. Second, there might be times during a flight in a fighter that there's many unusual vibrations... that might cause confusion for the pilot about whether the "screen" registered the "button press". Then the pilots are usually wearing flight gloves. These might dampen any vibrations, nullifying the effect. HOWEVER... with a color screen and good GUI design choices... they could have a visual highlight indicating the button press! Like a bright outline or something, or an icon appearing right above. Also, gloves might not only be a detriment, but maybe also the solution: much like an HMD system, it would be easy-ish for a tactile vibration to be incorporated into the flight gloves themselves! All that said, I do agree that for at least a few things, a real physical switch or button, lever or toggle may be more desirable for critical functions.

So ORBX is VERY experienced at making quality high detail terrain addon products for various civilian oriented flight simulations... for decades. And they have now announced a very cool terrain add on, the Kola Peninsula, with a little bit of Russia, a tiny bit of Sweden and Finland, and the northern bit of Norway! I've been busy lately or this would have been done earlier... but I just did a rough check on the map area... and this terrain is HUGE compared to most maps. It seems to be roughly 1200 km wide! Area: 370251 sq mi (958,949 sq km) This is only a rough estimate, and may not represent the final product... but this is about twice the area of the Syria map, for reference, at roughly 450,000 sq km. Now, normally, this might be a cause for concern... but this is ORBX, they are not new to sims, nor to high quality terrain products for sims. from the earlier post

I've been busy lately or this would have been done earlier... but I just did a rough check on the map area... and this terrain is HUGE compared to most maps. It seems to be roughly 1200 km wide! Now, normally, this might be a cause for concern... but this is ORBX, they are not new to sims, nor to high quality terrain products for sims.

Nice map, as it includes important airfields! Maybe later, as it gets "finished", maybe they'll add a little bit more for that Sepp666 mentions in the bottom right corner? This would probably only happen if framerates are nice and high and stable, module optimisation is fully achieved and so on. BUUUUUT... maybe there's an issue with getting maps and Russian secrecy that could cause Orbx some headaches to include that? I dunno. For me, I'm just really glad to have a very nice map, from a VERY experienced developer, of a supremely relevant location for combat scenarios... and great playground for the Typhoon EF2000 that HB and TG are making!! Now... if someone could just develop an Israel Jordan Egypt map, to match the Syria map... maybe some Mirage 3's to go with the Mig 23's and such... Nice to have new maps like Mariannas, South Atlantic and Kola in future!!

F-35 has capabilities, no doubt. But it's expensive. And expensive to operate, maintain and so on. Not only that, but unlike every weapon before it, if you are suddenly in a conflict, America must approve... It needs a direct datalink with Lockheed's systems in USA. All ELINT EW and recon data you collect on your mission goes straight to Lockheed USA. Need spares? No spares for you... when the datalink says black box 3c is failing, Lockheed will send you a new one. The T-50 is a proven airframe. FA-50 is probably affordable. And good enough for smaller airforces with modest budgets but needing some punch. With the SAM threat in that current conflict, it might not make all that much sense to buy a giant fleet of super expensive jets when all can be vulnerable to shootdowns. Sure, F-35 is stealth and probably can sneak around better in high threat environment... but I also bet that at closer distances, at certain aspects, ( like a tail shot at shorter distances, especially as more missiles are gaining an IR seeker to aid the radar seeker/system), it's probably able to be shot down too. Lemme put it another way: if you have been using the Fulcrum as your top frontline fighter jet into 2020 despite worries about actual war... you probably don't have the money to put into big expensive American jets that even US Taxpayers are questioning. Especially when you have a long list of other items to buy, like drones, Javalins and NLAWS by the thousands, HIMARS and GMLRS... suddenly F-35's look like a Gucci handbag where an ALICE pack is what you want.

No, you are thinking through the problem to find multiple solutions, that's a good thing!! I just wish your style of "over thinking" was a lot more common...

So I just now saw that ORBX is developing a new map for DCS: Kola Peninsula!!! They are new to DCS.... but they are NOT new to flight simulation terrain addons. They have been around for civilian flight sims for decades.. and now for DCS!!! The grand map includes the northern end of Norway including Bodo and Andoya, Sweden, a bit of Finland and a bit of Russia, but includes Murmansk and many of those norther military bases... this is a GREAT THING!! And whenever the Typhoon module is ready, get some 90's nostalgia too!!

I guess one issue is that the "Cold War" spans such a long time that entire aircraft service in some cases occupy a tiny sliver of that era... the B-58 Hustler was in many ways an amazing aircraft, yet served from 1960 to 1970, and by the 1980's was all but forgotten. XB-70 was forgotten so very quickly after the crash. Contrast that with the B-52, which won't just outlive the Hustler, but also the Bone (heading into retirement as we speak, jjust too expensive to keep operational), Intruders, Aardvark, Vulcans, TSR-2's, Mirage IV, Vigilante, Buckaneers and Tornadoes, Jaguars, Blinder, Badger ... current projections are that the B-52 and DC-3 / C-47 Dakota in civil aviation, will both still be doing operational flights at 100 years of age. Maybe the Badger will live on beside the BUFF and Dakota, with fresh Chinese aluminium in the form of the Xian H-6. The Cold War is much richer for game and simulation scenarios if one allows for hypothetical events... we certainly had a great many close calls, and flashpoints that could have lit a giant fuse. It's not much of a stretch to say that almost anywhere on the planet might have see a cold war gone hot.

I don't agree. I think you are VASTLY overestimating the amount of money involved in these hardcore simulations. Even industry giants in flight simulations are small compared to big tech, simulation companies are tiny slivers, while the EA's and Ubi's are giants who don't know what their various divisions are all up to. Calling people "modders" who are developing a precision product meant to meet ED and Nick's extremely high and exacting standards, is to dismiss them. And that's simply wrong. "Modders" can describe everything from the devs who made the A-4 or the UH-60, down to the guy who made a B-2 "flyable" with a million pounds of thrust, over Mach 3 flight, and everything in between. What matters not is how the project is funded, nor whether the devs are part time devs or full time employees, or contractors, subcontractors or consultants. What matters is the quality of the product, the price they offer it at, how responsive they are to patchs and bug fixes, whether it gives a real feeling of the real aircraft represented. In future, yes, maybe module makers for DCS and aircraft addons for civilian sims might be able to have hundreds of full time employees developing from 9am to 5pm, 5 days a week year round for decades... but that is a ways off. The closest might be ED itself, Asobo and a few others... but companies developing one aircraft at a time as addons? Not from what I've seen. And even past success is no guarantee of future releases, no matter how many videos, screens and discord postings are put out. ED is in fact doing as you say, developing modders into business partners. That IS the way forward. No one's thinking "hey, I've got 10 million dollars waiting for the right opportunity, I'm gonna develop a DCS module for the Blackbird, and I'll hire 20 coders experienced with DCS and I'll pay them enough to pay their mortgages, healthcare, feed their children and car purchases for years!!" Most people out in the real world have never even heard of DCS, barely even aware that you can simulate flight and combat on home computers... they're too engrossed in whatever reality show or sports series is being talked about at work. This entire genre of combat flight simulation is a niche within a niche inside of the giant world of electronic entertainment. And there's nothing wrong with that. But no one's becoming billionaires in this corner. Edit: Another thing: I'd rather that dedicated people looking to make quality product, be doing DCS modules, than people just collecting a paycheck. It's my belief that people making product for DCS, whether they are 3rd party devs, ED employees and subcontractors, or even free mod developers, are generally all on the same page: make the best that you can make, for an audience with high expectations. Even the free modder who made the AI B-2 Spirit model able to fly, was probably trying their best, experimenting with the code, unaware that the performance was, um..."wildly optimistic". That person may have learned a lot since that mod, and might end up on a team making a truly amazing full paid full realistic module. People evolve, try more difficult things, learn as they go, raise their own bar of expectations.

That's happened before. I think that actually happened to a helo sim project that was gonna have... Apache and Chinook I think? And the main guy's hard drive crashed hard. I think he tried to salvage and recover, but the project seemed to die, or be quietly abandoned months or years later. I thought the Gaz wasn't gonna be touched until the Kiowa was actually finished/released, then they would go back and tackle the Gaz flight dynamics now knowing more about simulating helos? So there wouldn't be any news until well after the Kiowa was in our grubby little paws. Well, me too. But I don't think this is a shop with 18+ programmers toiling away full time employment. It's more likely this is their "side gig", their weekend and weeknight investment, separate from their "day job". Meaning not full time simulation experts, but committed dedicated hobbyists putting in lots of efforts, unpaid, with the hopes of eventually getting some pay back in sales. Less multinational conglomerate, more cottage industry. If that's the case, it's probably not "going bankrupt", but it might be costing someone their relationship with their wife, or their kids, the time demands may not be doable after a major "day job" shift in workplace schedules and responsibilities.

HEHEHEHE!!!

Wanting to buy a hypothetical module... is NOT the same as investing real time and money to MAKE a module, with little idea of how it might or might not sell. Just because 50 people in this thread "REALLY" want to buy it, doesn't mean it'll be a business success. Only 25 people and myself participated in this thread, while 85 members voted in the poll. Despite it being an apparently crappy poll. That's... not exactly an overwhelming amount of support, if I were contemplating a 3 year investment into such a project. (no, I'm not a dev, just trying to understand what a dev might want to see before diving in) That said, maybe a better poll, a better hype campaign could generate a much better showing... but I'll leave that for others!

Huh... never would have expected that!!! Would have figured on most turning into aluminium confetti !! Do the tanks feature an internal positive pressure to maintain shape and structural integrity?? Perhaps nitrogen or a co2 cannister?

A fresh look, and alternate points of view are themselves important if anyone wants to do a proper and intellectually honest assessment of something of importance. In rare occasions, your opponent may see something about your own organisation that you don't see because you are too close to see it. When the subject is wars past present and future, national security and similar, its very important to look at as many sources and points of view... lives in future could be affected, even from lessons learned or ignored even from wars of the distant past. The equipment may be newer, but lots of soldiers will still watch "A Bridge Too Far" for the 9th time.

Pikey, thanks for posting that youtube! It encapsulates how sometimes a great dogfight can be more fun than the flying computer/ordnance trains like the modern "Swiss Army fighters", the ones that do EVERYTHING because they can carry EVERYTHING. Hornets and Vipers are cool, no doubt, but maybe sometimes the massive variety of magic ordnance that acts like it's magic... keeps the player from experiencing cool events. I'm not knocking the modern uber planes, and they certainly have their place in DCS, I'm just saying that every now and then, leave the ViperNet in the hangar and go hunt Fishbeds in Tigers, or intercept something with a Mig-19... just you, a couple crappy short range missiles that probably won't work, a few cannon rounds, and whatever skill and experience you can bring to the fight. I love the eurofighter ever since that mid-90's simulation defending Norway... but while I'll get that module, I also look forward to The Phantom, The Mirage F.1, and others that may come. I would love to see the Mirage III in future. Other future possibilities could include the F-101 Voodoo (maybe both the recon photo bird, and the twin seat interceptor that Canada used), Thunderchief, and maybe get a full fidelity Skyhawk module? How about the Mig-27 ground attack version? I've also just recently learned that the F-5 and Mig-21 modules are both getting an update or facelift, meaning I think they'll get new artwork... the Mig I know is getting a totally new 3-d model, both exterior AND the cockpit 3d model, along with textures, as they have been doing some very detailed 3d mapping of a real example. I think they might also get some new sounds too.

I meant that since it's been used in some older real aircraft in the past, this would be a great way for a module developer to have switches in other languages, but still look 100% realistic and not "fictional" switch labels for languages never used by real airforces with that aircraft. Meaning, for people who want Swedish switches, they select such, and you get labels that look just like these Dymo labels in Swedish. In the virtual cockpit made by Aerges... so that even VR and AR users see the labels in the language of their choices. Same thing for other languages. Yes. If you read the first post in the thread I identify the brand and where you can buy them even today.

Although I would agree that a full fidellity B-52 is "unlikely"... the fact that ED made a full-on Longbow gives me a glimmer of hope that maybe "impossible module ideas" might not be so "impossible" after all! Also, after looking at all the issues and struggles facing anyone doing a Phantom module... then we suddenly get word that Heatblur is doing one, and possibly additional variants later on. Still unlikely though.

Recently I saw a headline about a nation giving up on the NH-90 and ordering... UH-60 variants https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/norway-is-done-with-its-unreliable-nh90-helicopters-wants-500m-back That's... disappointing. I thought it was basically a proven item... complex systems don't always live up to their own hype. Or own specs. Or owner/operator expectations. Then again, in the real world, behind the scenes could be coruption motivations... buying a small fleet of helicopters is a LOT of money, and there are margins for significant bribes/kickbacks for a handful of people. Not saying that's what's going on here, but having seen so many examples of aircraft purchases, big govt purchases that resulted from kickbacks being uncovered, it makes me ask questions. As for DCS modules, there's no doubt that we can use a medium/heavy lift heli, more utility helos, more Euro helos. Maybe EH-101 Merlin?

Well that's good to hear! I guess we'll just have to be patient and not expect any news. One day sometime in future, maybe we'll suddenly hear the Kiowa Warrior is about to be released... a youtube trailer, influencers doing tutorials and demo missions... I mean, given the choice, I'd rather eventually get a good working module to fly, than get a bunch of screenshots and vids that never result in a module release. I personally don't see ANY advantage for a dev to tell the public about a module subject more than 3 months before release. Well maybe except getting good and enough SME's, sure. But screenshots, details of scope, updates, I just don't see any upside to the dev team. Maybe instead we should make a database of SME's for dev teams to refer to?

The enemy is clearly Palpatine's Empire, Terran Garrison... the scout force before invasion... I mean, why else fly through the canyon, to manually hit a 2 meter exhaust port? "Use Force, Mav" - Goose ghost

Dunno about pure size, but it'd be a few green pixels and all blue for the rest!

Far from an expert in Phantoms or British variants, but from what I've learned on this forum, there was some deep differences. The nose gear on Royal Navy Phantoms extended WAY higher than USN models, almost to the point of looking comical. Some Brit Phantoms were basically nearly USAF models. But others featured a totally different engine, that produced a different power curve, so a lower top speed, but greater power at useable dogfighting speeds, better acceleration. That different engine needed substantial changes in size and geometry to the fuselage. Many Brit Phantoms featured a rectangular EW fairing on top of the tail, never seen in any other country. Think some had a different radar set and different radio too. Basically, it was still a Phantom... but a unique "cousin from across the pond" that spoke the same language but with a different accent and weird slang we'd never heard before! The same but different. Edited due to mistake on my part.

Sometimes life takes a bad turn, sometimes permanently. Perhaps maybe this is an example of that. Nowadays with instant communication and soc med, it seems that as a society we are getting much poorer at dealing wth ambiguity... and waiting patiently too it seems!! Which is made funnier since more than a decade ago, we wouldn't have any of these reactions, because we probably wouldn't even know of a project being in dev in the first place!

Might be a little early for that, considering that new map is not finished. I'm sure when it's done or close to done someone will figure this out for this thread topic, but it might be a bit of a wait!!