Rick50

Typhoon is simply NOT a "simple" machine. Complex is almost an understatement. It seems to take about a year, or more, to make a WW2 Warbird... for some reason I don't get, the Corsair is taking a long time to get to the runway! But there's loads more weapons systems in the EF, each of which is more complex than it's predecessors. Then there is the complex display pages. The aerodynamics and flight model/characteristics will be at least as much a challenge as the Viper or Hornet, but with the unique canard specific flight representation to create test and validate. It's gonna take some time, probably 2-4 years since starting, to get it to an Early Access state that's got truly minimal bugs/issues. The upside is, with their partnerships, accessing data in a friendly format, sorting through how to get around "secret" systems and still represent something plausibly realistic, would seem to make the job faster, maybe a little easier as there would be less guesswork involved. Hopefully their aerospace industry partners are actually serious about giving real help and access, and not simply lip-service "why do you keep bugging us? We gave you permission and a airshow brochure, what more do you want? Go away now." It would be nice of the partners to let TG make laser scans of the exterior and interiors, give them details about all the "unclassified" display pages and generally how they work, and maybe a real but partial (omitting the classified stuff) flight envelope diagram and engine thrust performance chart... Maybe eventually someone will make a map to go with this Eurobird, maybe looking something like this, so we can sneak through the valleys and fjords, surf the glaciers:

Ah yes, the Pucara! RAZBAM is working on it. Or was. I dunno, RAZ seems to have so so many different projects on the go, and I don't think this one has had news about it for some time. It was started for RAZ's Falklands project, which includes a new map, an older British Harrier (Sea Harrier? I can't remember), Mirage III, couple of ships. Very few Pucaras were involved in that war. Only 110 Pucaras ever got made or sold. No air to air missiles. It did seem like it would have been effective for very light COIN in the 70's and 80's, but of little use for anything else... sooo... might not be the best fit for Cold War CAS. But considering RAZ is currently working on the Mirage3, Mig-23, English Electric Lightning, F-15E Strike, Super Tucano, BO-105 HOT helo, Falklands map... and more.... who knows when the Pucara will be available from the store. Edit: FMA IA 58 Pucará https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMA_IA_58_Pucará Only 110 made. One managed an A 2 A, using it's 7.62 FNH mg's to down a British helicopter. Biggest loss in combat was to SAS night raid ground commandos. Several surviving Pucaras have resided in England since the Falklands war. Again, this is not a tankbuster in any way, not at all meant for even 1960's Soviet formations.

https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack Head tracking software for MS Windows, Linux, and Apple OSX

hmm... I was just thinking, if you had external fuel tanks, still quite heavy with fuel, and suddenly had to eject/drop those tanks... would that potentially be destructive to the HIND ??? Or any helo for that matter? I mean, an instant drop of heavy weight, might do strange things to the rotor blades, the disc shape and dynamics, maybe damage the rotor hub... flap the blades as the fuselage unloads of significant weight... but I dunno, am neither a heli pilot nor an expert in rotorbirds!

CrazyGman uploaded this vid, and I had to post it here. This is a two person crew, no AI in the HIND, engaging a Western enemy column, on the Cold War server by By Alpenwolf

Wow, that's the first vid I've seen of two-human crew using the HIND, and it really looks fun!!

LOL! HAving fun are we?

Yea, something like that... might be too big for TODAY... but development isn't instantaneous anyway, so maybe 3 years from now when a map would be ready, maybe the average users' hardware could handle that size then. Personally I wish to see this map as a terrain module, eventually when hardware can handle it:

LOL!! It's nice to see people having fun joking and in good spirits about this! It's nice to "feature creep" an imagined module into the most amazing product ever in all history... but it's sometimes good also to manage your expectations. You and I may want every Phantom variant out there, but the EXTRA time and effort required for the devs to do that, would be monumental. At this point it's NOT certain that: Boeing would award licencing rights to depict the Phantom (since Boeing bought McDonald Douglas). It's NOT certain that there is enough legally ok documents, available for purchase, to cover the most popular Phantom variant that a dev might want to module. It's also not certain if any dev teams would actually decide to green-light it, even with the Phantom's history and significance. I'm not wanting to project doom, but if this doesn't happen, please see that life goes on! By then there will be other amazing modules to fly! That said, an E and a J would do very nicely on the Syria map, as USN and IDF, Turkish AF, USAF, and even pretend Iranians figured out air to air refueling to make a long distance visit! A Vietnam map would be amazing though IMO!

Hmm. So if someone's parent is dying, in pain, you don't care? "Get back in the cellar, get some work done"?? Or marriage falling appart? Or loss of career? stress at a tough university program? These things are HUGE in someone's life... just overpowers things like side projects, careers, and even one's health. Don't underestimate the power of "personal life", it can often claim another life through self-harm, self-deletion. But I'm sure community reluctance to support PC will inspire them to push through and finish the Kiowa. {/SARC} I'm sure that community toxic behavior towards dev teams couldn't possibly have unintended consequences!

the Petrovich AI might not be 100% finished yet. Or finished, tested extensively for quality, signed off and checked as "complete". If that's the case, Wags might not even have it to show it to us. Besides, these vids aren't for show, but for instruction, and many won't use the AI but choose to manipulate EVERY button. These vids are for all to learn. I wouldn't worry about the AI just yet, first they need to finish the aircraft, it's systems, do bug testing, then add the AI, bug test and so on.

pew pew PEW! Sweet!!!

Long time ago I had a conversation with a friend about simulation games vs actual results in afteraction reports. I think he was confused about how he had beaten every ace of WW2 in a single flight, in... uh, I think it was EAW or something. I pointed out a few differences just for starters. First, real bullets cause very REAL fear. Fear that just simply doesn't exist in any game or sim. It's just non-existant when "restart mission" is 30 seconds away. The one time I actually got shot at, the trace probably went 100ft (or more) over my head, no chance of hitting me, but even then I ducked down into the APC, just in case the next burst was bang-on. I know my pucker factor would have shot up to 23 had rounds bounced off our armor! The point being, when the bullets are real, and dying instantly is actually probable, you behave different than when it's "just a game". Maybe you keep pressing the target instead of diving and extending away, to fly another day. Maybe you keep a third of your belts in reserve, in case you get bounced on the way home... while in a game maybe you go for the glory of racking multiple wins. Movement and G's. It's easy lining up a shot when the reticle doesn't move on you. Just figure out what the enemy plane is doing, put the cross on the wings and pull. But in real life, the sudden G's will pull your head down a bit, and now the reticle seems to have moved a bit. Roll hard and you might need a moment before you can get that deflection shot. If you have played more than 100 hours of any flight sim, you are an expert compared to the very low hours of flight that most WW2 pilots got, before being thrown to the wolves of battle. They barely knew how to fly "ok" and were now fighting for their lives. 5000 hours of simulated combat? Unimaginable to the real aces. And all that is with truly simple warbirds, for the flying CRAY platforms carrying everything including a few kitchen sinks, there will be SOOO many more factors between what is real and what gets simulated, what gets played in a retail-home sim-game. No matter how "real it feels".

Any news of this proposed module?? I'ma leave this here:

That must have been it then! It had wing mounted external tanks (have no idea if they are "drop tanks" on a trainer!). I work near the north west corner of the CLAWR range at Cold Lake, and see jets training for this and that from time to time. Most often Hornets (most likely Canadian CF-18's), but other jets too, as Cold Lake is a popular training destination for many airforces! The range is larger than some nations...

Nah, he was an old man by Top Gun! Check "Risky Business" and "All the right moves" for young Cruise. Oddly enough he doesn't seem to have aged at all since the first Mission Impossible... in 1996... At some point I fully expect him to reverse, and get younger, like Benjamin Button.

Meaning... a sound pack for individual AI planes?? Interesting... I suppose one could theoretically maybe start with a freeware sound pack for old FS addons, some are quite small but sitll sound good.

Does there exist any Mirage F.1 operators out of CFB Cold Lake, Canada ? I ask because I swear I thought I saw one of these a few days ago, it was doing about 400 knots, 500 ft above treetops, doing a banking turn... It might have been an Alphajet, but didn't really get a good look. But it was high wing fighter jet for sure. Guaranteed not a Tornado either.

Yea, it's been so long since Afghanistan map module was discussed, that I don't think we can be certain its in development, or even got started. Last I heard of it, was when the Syria map was first announced... that's a long time ago now in "DCS years"!

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Hind module may end up one of the most popular, someplace in the top 5. Assuming no show-stoppers of course. But I think the last problem we'll have is missions and campaigns, as I think we'll end up with lots of those just out of popularity. From both user made missions, but also professional campaigns too.

I think the item in the video was not working as the real one does, I think it was a placeholder item that might be taking more programming to finish. They'd have to somehow figure out how to get a targeting pod working on the Tucano mod. OR... maybe figure out how to get an AI JTAC to buddy-lase designate for you.

Well consider that in the last 20 years helo defenses are significantly better than the Soviets suffered through in the 1980's. Also consider that supplies of MANPADS were likely significantly more in the mid-late '80's than in the last 20 years, as in the 80's saw really significant funding and supplies from at least one superpower ('Murica), and an oil-power (Saudia Arabia), both being somewhat allied in wanting to stop the Soviets. I seem to recall the Soviet rotors very often came under fire from 12.7, 14.5 and 23mm ground fire too... and while thousands of rounds were fired, it really only took one nasty hit to make your day from "not bad" to "Oh NO..."

Hmmm. I feel that the G not being in service anymore, won't have a signficant effect on whether a module gets made. I think it would be other factors, including how much it would COST to make a full module, and then compared to the revenue predictions... I think that calculation would have a significant factor. The G might be out of service, but getting enough documentation could still be a significant barrier... it just might no longer be available in enough quantity (meaning ALL the manuals, not just one or two maintenance manuals). Then there is ED. Now, AFAIK, they themselves need to approve of such a module. Maybe they'd oppose it, figuring on it not fitting in their business model. Unlikely, but still possible. And then Boeing. It's Boeing's IP, and they might be fine licensing airliners for other products, and clearly someone got permission somehow to do the Legacy Hornet... but their corporate high offices might not be OK with the nuclear strike vaporizer being in a game. So no guarantees there either. Variants. It sorta appears that of those who want a BUFF module, everyone wants a different variant. Or wants ALL the variants like I do. This splitting of variants among potential customers, could sink the entire idea, just like wishlists for the F-4 Phantom. Developers are much less likely to be doing multi-variants, and if they do, they would probably offer 1 variant, then dev the 2nd variant for release two years later, and so on. But, they could see that if support for 1st variant is mild, lukewarm... development on future variants could hit a brick wall. Time. Back in the 1950's through 70's the BUFF was a very big deal. It was still a leading platform. Feared greatly. The best. Today, not so much: small numbers in service, yes it's still important, but the Bone is spectacular, and the Spirit is the recent past present and the future (as the similar B-21 Raider). How old are these fans of the BUFF now? How old will they be when a module is finished, for sale in 5 years? Will the youngins, the ones in their teens and 20's today, will they even know what a BUFF is? Maybe enough will.

I was under the strong impression that the F-22 stealth coating is a bit like that of the B-2, and that neither is anything like the F-117 stealth coating at all. But hey, if alienz endorse dis paint, then it must be aaaawesome! Say, can Mork sent me some of that alienz cryptocurrency of his? I have some old hockey cards to trade, and want to hedge my 'vestments.