Rick50

I'm really looking forward to this mod!!! Being able to do heli air to air refueling should be a new challenge that would be difficult at best!! Kiowa, Apache-D, Hind, Chinook mod, AH-6 mod... Gazelle Huey Hip and Shark... We SOOO need a Black Hawk in DCS...

Uh... well, I don't want to doubt ED's abilities... but what MS did pushed boundaries for MS, one of the largest richest companies in the world, with access to tens of thousands of experienced coders (not saying they used them all for FS, just that if they had a specialised problem/issue they could sift through those many thousands to find someone who could give a fast solution)... ... yet they still enlisted multiple outside contractors/partners to make it happen, AND drew HEAVILY on their absolutely giant cloud server network... ...and after all that, they are full of issues problems and bugs, and whenever 5 things get fixed, 5 more things break. It's not been perfected yet. It'll come, but it's not there yet. ED, to make something like this, would likely have to partner with other companies. Like a mapping/GIS company. And maybe share dev costs with another company that would love/need a fantastic global model. Perhaps Laminar Research ? and/or Bohemia Interactive and or it's VBS offshoot?

Think that needs the actual model, or at least a template. Usually the template gets made after the product is completed or offered up for sale. However, since this interests you, this is the time to accumulate the data, picture resources, diagrams, paint identifyer numbers, what unit designations for the various squadrons, the CAG's paint job. Accumulate now to help ease the task of whomever will actually paint the in-game airframe!

I'm not opposed to a C.... or any other... I just want an E and B (edit from A) first to cover the most scenarios and history, and when C appears then the party really kicks off! If eventually we see all the later models, whether British or Royal Navy variants or a HARM Weasel or LGB pod variant, that's ok too, but it's the early ones that most interest me, back when the Phantom was new and shiny!! (Ok maybe not shiny, as that might only be Japanese Phantoms!)

My desired Phantoms would be: 1960's era as top priority both Navy and Air Force and export variants, 1970's as next priority, and all other later Phantoms are to me a lower priority to me. Because by the 1980's it was not the tip of the spear anymore, the Eagles Tomcats and Falcons were top dog by then. No shade to the Phantoms of the day, still very capable jets, but there you have it! I understand mine might not be the most popular opinion, but that's ok. I want an Export variant, one that many nations used for a long time. I also want a USN carrier capable Phantom as well. And that's why I want the E (International Jet of Mystery Have Gun Will Travel) ... and a crash-landing B for Carrier ops!

A team of two. This explains some things. Bell providing a high level of support. This is great news. Focused and ready to go for the big push. Out freakin standing@

True, but great for all the scenarios really... 1950's Korean War, African and South American conflicts, WW2 full blown campaigns for every theatre of war, from Operation Barbarossa to the Solomons, from Afrika to the North Atlantic convoy hunting/protection. Then there is how this would help to make heavy bombers and long range transports, and their logistics, really stretch their legs. B-24, B-17, Lancaster, B-29, HE-111, Junkers 88, B-52's, C-130's, C-5's, IL-76, TU-22M3, TU-95... maybe even the B-1B and AN-124 Ruslan! I see this as being awesome for future campaigns, whether dynamic or not, whether multiplayer with AI assist or single player.

Well... Microsoft has HUGE reserves of money, and huge reserves of talent, and dramatic amounts of ndustry support. And... if you look at some forums, it seems they have not actually perfected it either, problems here, problems there. But it IS impressive, and they will soon perfect it, I'm certain. And it also does prove it can be done. ED's plan is to attempt to make a "global map" for DCS or it's successor, but they aren't certain if it will work, or how much time it will take. Nor do we really know any other real details. I just know I'm wishing both companies great success!

Few aircraft look as sleek or as fast as a Mirage even when they have their park brakes set and wheel chalks!

So is this AI or will it be flyable? Does it have a "stolen" cockpit, or a unique cockpit just like a Mirage 3 ought to have?

The long term eventual plan is for ED to somehow offer a global map, the whole world. But that would be likely around 5 to 10 years away, don't hold your breath waiting! And even in that time it might not happen for reasons. But it seems they have been quietly running small tests for the last year or so, to see if it's possible, and are comfortable enough to mention that they want to do this for the long term. I'm not sure where this leaves 3rd party map makers like Ugra Media, maybe they would still be needed to make super-detailed map areas for conflict zones?

Looks nice!!!

Sure, that's fair. It's worth considering they've been at it for 1.5 years so far, although that might be limited to tiny tests. That said, I think Wags was saying this was years away, if at all. So no "comming soon" previews, just an indication of what they'd like to acheive sometime in future.

Awesome!

Eh... I hope it's soon too, as does everyone including the dev team members I'm sure! But more than that I want it to be FINISHED and GOOD out of the box, not a half-baked "product" that needs endless patches to work halfways ok. So I'm willing to wait until it's properly ready, not "early". As for marketing... we fans worry too much about this. Far too much IMO. Why? Because when it's about to drop, and available for sale/download, we shall see the same things as I posted in the Kiowa Warrior thread: Same for the F4U Corsair.

How about this instead? See this thread:

There is a Seafire at my local military museum in Calgary Canada. Supermarine 377 Seafire Mk. XV (Serial No. PR451), TG-B. Naval Museum of Alberta, the Military Museums, Calgary, Alberta. https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/canadian-warplanes-5-supermarine-seafire

I put a link to a thread that dives into this new news... it's on this very page! Go to the link and then look up a post by Northstar98 Posted November 7 in that thread

I always thought the Hurricane warbird was a mono-wing aircraft, but I recently discovered there was a biplane variant... ok variant is maybe not the word I'm looking for, maybe "prototype"? Anyway, here's an interesting bit of history I knew nothing about until the other day!

And even some switch between civil and military and back... an example is Russia's Khemim Airbase on the coast of Syria, which used to be civilian, and may well revert to civilian use when Russia decides to leave, if/when that happens.

I'm not sure about the true edges of the map, they might actually need to be rectangular... but the "real useable map", the area that people actually use, can be any shape really. It's more about the amount of detail and how much that will impact framerates or not.

Whenever the Kiowa is ready, you won't need to be watching this forum every day... you'll see a spike in post activity, you'll see youtube videos showing the launch trailer, you'll see youtubes from DCS based influencers showing off the near-final product, you'll see it pop up in the DCS store, you'll see "OMG Kiowa !!!1!" posts... ... it won't be a secret. I'm frustrated too, I thought it would appear last winter. Ah well, these things take time, moreso on a tiny production budget with just a handful of devs. Just the way it goes....

The cliffnotes version Posted November 7 by Northstar98 in that thread. Read the quote. Also on Hoggit apparently

Last night I watched cockpit footage of a recent flight in a B-29 (!!! had no idea there was still one flying today!), and got to thinking about a global map along with DCS multiplayer with dynamic campaigns... ... and it suddenly dawned on me that... in theory at least... it might be possible to create a full WW2 historic recreation. Which campaign specifically? Well, ALL of them. In chronological order. Maybe a few missions per campaign, and from the first of the month being the war's start, to the end of the month being the end of the Pacific war. Or maybe a full year might be better, starting with the invasion of Manchuria, then war in Europe, Battle of Britain, the Afrika dustup, Pearl and Doolittle, ending with B-29 raids, and everything in between. Or how about one server that spans the conflict in real time.... 6 years of missions, digging up historical missions actually flown and assigning them to virtual pilots to carry out. Maybe it's a little loopy, but some might enjoy that if it's technically possible! That might be entirely WAY too much work to create missions for, too much units for a server to track for months or years on end, server stability would likely need fancy coding... but...