Ornithopter

Is Mr. Polychop a real tough boss to work for or something? I don't have these helicopters, so I'm not out time or money, but I too would like to know what's going on. We've known about this for a while, but there really hasn't been a lot of discussion about it, so I assumed it was no big deal. On second thought, it seems like a majorly big deal. Could this be the first contractual test where ED would even consider taking on these 2 modules?

I don't really want a Flanker. I mean, yes, I do, but not right now. I want something that is appropriate to fight my Phantom II or my Mirage F1 in the 1970s or early 80s (obviously they can fight each other). There is the MiG-21, but that is so out of date, I almost don't consider it viable anymore. The MiG-19 is never going to be updated and will probably break. Was looking forward to a MiG-23, but we know what happened with that. Maybe someday we will have a MiG-17.

Well, you know what they say: "Get Good!" FWIW, I used to feel I was pretty skilled in DCS, but that was a long time ago. Nowadays, I don't think I would be worth a damn. It would take a lot of work for me to get back to the level where I think Multiplayer would be a possibilty. Maybe I still have enough in me to be the guy that flies a boring racetrack pattern in a C-130 tanker someday, on autopilot of course. There are options.

Many of you are talking about the chaos of "open" servers, and you make fair points. In the groups I am familiar with in DCS, they were the mostly the opposite, but with small groups including people like myself sometimes taking off the uniform of the squad to dabble on the open servers. The squad nights themselves were closed members-only servers with missions and scenarios designed by veritable expert Mission Makers. During "mission nights", the paradigm was definitely Dead Is Dead. So you get shot down, and well, goodnight guys, see you next week. These were very hardcore groups that made such an effort to do things "realistically" that, for a computer game, it could border on the absurd at times. I wanted realism to a point, but it's not a second career. For some people, I suspect that's exactly what they want. While boring as hell at times, honestly, that is the environment where you really learn your stuff, and hence why I went the Milsim route in the first place...to get better. The good news, at least I think, is there are much more casual groups out there. As far as open servers, if you get a group of half a dozen people together that know what they're doing, including an organic GCI person, you can just go in there and kick the living daylights out of the whole lot of them. It's very fun. As an independent operator though, I wouldn't have a clue how to get on an Open server and find wingmen or crewmembers. Maybe that just comes down to extroverts vs introverts but thats one reason why it can be really beneficial joining a familiar squad vs just showing up and trying to find friends for a session. Your choices are generally Larry, Curly, or Moe. There are a lot of different possibilities in MP.

Yes, all of the above. We all know that in a workplace, or in any social club, there are going to be people who grate on you. That's just life. Generally its the founders of the Cult Squad will set the tone for the experience that follows. I've been a member a few squads over the years and it was always a mixed bag. I'm not currently in any squad or doing any MP. Inevitably, the time comes when I'm no longer willing to tolerate certain nonsense: For example, there will always be the guy who interjects religion into every conversation; Or Politics. It's inevitable that I'll come to resent the "CO" who reminds me of Colonel Lard, or his XO, Barney Fife. I'm no longer willing to tolerate a RIO that giggles like Rosco P. Coltrane or have Frank Burns as my wingman; There will inevitably be the conspiracy theorist (such as Flouride, Elvis, Pandemic, etc), or the ideological nutcase. I kid you not, in one group I had to sit through a "moment of silence" for Manfred Von Richtofen, only to realize that I hadn't muted my microphone and they all heard me laughing my butt off at such ridiculous BS. This is a game, and I couldn't believe they were serious. I've encountered every type of meme warrior, troll, simpleton, knuckdragging, mouth-breathing fool that never matured past the 7th grade. I've sat through 2 hour long "Milsim" briefings that by the time it came around to actually flying I was already on my 6th beer, and to my amusement performed quite well. Oh, and I should add that racism was and is an immediate deal-breaker for me, but I've unfortunately seen far too many willing to go down that path. I've been told that I'm "too sensitive", but I don't think so. I don't miss any of this. So that's the downside. On the positive side, I have learned so much from others and become such a better virtual pilot than I could have managed all by myself. My very best times in flight sims and other games were in Multiplayer. I would join a squad in a heartbeat if I could find the right group of people. I doubt that's likely at this point, but I keep my eyes open for opportunities and an open mind. If someone is new to DCS, or any other complicated simulation, I would highly reccomend joining a squad. They show you the ropes. There is nothing quite as rewarding as flying with and against real people. If you are with the right group (or even a bunch of jerks who know what they're doing) you might be surprised at how skilled you can actually become. It's worth experiencing and if you reach the point where you don't like it any more, you can always tell them to FO and just quit.

I've been keeping my eye on this thread, and was suprised there was no discussion about it. I am a novice at the CH-47, but I've noticed this as well. And I'm thinking, "wait, the Chinook shoud be much faster than this!" The LCT becomes saturated at around 140 Knots. Now, it's not like I'm Mr. Helicopter here or anything, but my guess is that once the fuselage starts to pitch down, it becomes a bit unstable. 140 knots is like 260 kph. The Hind, the Hip and the Hokum are also considered fast helicopters, and they are rattling your teeth out at that speed. It would be interesting to hear what somebody that actually knows what they're talking about weigh in on this.

It would have been so much cooler if they had named him "Bob" instead of "George".

Okay, in fairness, because I don't have the Kiowa and Gazelle, my perceptions of the workload were gleaned from a small number of reviews and some videos. Years ago, I demoed the Gazelle, before certain FM improvements were made, and I decided it was a firm no. If the Kiowa and Gazelle are more single-player friendly than I think, then perhaps I've used a bad example, especially since I don't own them. The currently unknown fate of Polychop though, doesn't help me change my mind. That about a third party aside, I really do mean what I say about Multicrew aircraft having good AI helpers for use in single-player, and the Mosquito, which I do have, is a prime example--I really just don't want to be fiddling around with 1940's radios anyway, not to mention the idea that I feel like I'm playing with a handicap having to do the work of more than one person. I didn't know that you could do local multi-player on a single computer. Interesting. I used to do some amount of Multiplayer gaming back in the day, but currently, I'm not sure I want to be a part of a "squad" and have to deal with all the people and their opinions, memes, wacky conspiracy theories about everything one could imagine, and interminably boring "milsim" type briefings, etc. Maybe someday I'll do it again, but until then, Single player functionality and immersion has taken on a greater importance than it used to.

Honestly, I'm not all that interested in WWII aircraft as much as some, so the fate of the Mosquito isn't something that I think about very often aside from when it comes up in threads like these. If I want to go for a flight in a piston warbird, I normally do it in the Bf-109. But the reatlity is if I'm flying an aircraft with multiple crew, I want to be but one of them, most likely aircraft commander, and I don't want to have to do a lot of seat switching in any DCS aircraft. The UH-1 is designed so that either crewmember can work the radios, so in that case a simple level autopilot is ok. Plus, the guy in the left seat can operate the swiveling forward-facing miniguns on his own, if I'm not in that seat. That's a big deal. The George and Petrovich AI that exist on Apache and Hind can also work the weapons while I fly and I don't need them to tune radios or navigate anyway. It's my understanding that the third party Kiowa and Gazelle, while excellent technical renditions, require a lot of seat switching, and that's a major reason I decided to pass on them. Multicrew AI that can actually do something other than temporarily fly straight and level is something I've come to expect from DCS aircraft these last few years, and to do otherwise, annoys me. Again, I'm not going to revolt against ED because of the Mosquito, but imho, I think this aircraft needs a lot more than "auto-level". It's a pleasure (and easy) to fly, but as of now, it's a hangar queen that occasionally gets to fly a pattern around the airfield. I guess I could just use the NS-430 popup like I typically do in the Mi-8, or be lazy and just use the F-10 map, but whatever...It's an awesome simulation of the aircraft thus far, so yeah, finish the darned thing off!

I meant to be a little snarky, and maybe even a little self-deprecating as well, but it wasn't my intention to be an outright dick or make fun of you. My apologies for that. I thought only the French get offended when you don't speak their language? While I find it slightly inconvenient when I need a translator, I wasn't "offended" in any real sense of that word, nor did I view it as any breach of respect. I'm pretty sure the guy wasn't writing in Spanish to be a troll or piss anyone off, and he apologized for the inconvenience. It isn't a big deal, and everything is fine.

No mas español por favor!

This Sokół looks like a beautiful helicopter, but we already have an Mi-24 and Mi-8, and I don't know that it would fulfill a niche that hasn't already been filled as far as Warsaw Pact forces are concerned. I'll admit I had never heard of it outside of this thread.

I was just in the middle of making a dickish reply to grim_reaper, but you have invoked the better angels of my nature! Ooops. I guess I posted that just a little while before you actually inspired me, but cheers! I guess I could run it through a translator, but I didn't, so I don't know what that guy said in Spanish.

I don't know. I was laying in bed the other night after drinking 2 pints and smoking the days last cigarette-shaped thing but greener, and while hearing the train in the distance, I think I looked up something on the Internet like "Aerges", and I saw their homepage, and the rest is just a blur because I fell asleep at that point. I vaguely remember seeing a box about the size of a VW Beetle. Look it up.

I think I'll be dissapointed if the mystery helicopter is some modern year 2000 plus model of anything We have a beautiful map of West and East Germany with Volkswagen Beetles and Busses and I want a copter to match the David Bowie era, not the smartphone era.

I read Aerges actually has a real F1M simulator formerly used by the Spanish Air Force. Thats quite a thing to have for reference purposes! I'd like to think that the perceived delays have more to do with the thoroughness and care being put into the accuracy of the simulation. Well, we can hope. In the meantime, we still have 3 out of the 4 variants promised, and they are excellent. I hope it's released soon, but in the meantime, there are so many modules I already have that I could be flying and learning. Even so, a few words about what's going on would be welcomed.

I find it more "unrealistic" and slightly immersion breaking to have to switch seats to tune radios in the first place. I would really like to see some simple AI for the right hand seat to tune the radios or give a rough nav heading, controlled by something similar to the "Jester Wheel". The Mosquito feels very lonely.

It has to be pretty light to begin with to do a 7G turnfight on the deck, with full afterburner. Not a lot of time before running out of gas.

"I'll believe it when I see it" PAH would be great, it would be appropriate, and I very much wish to see it in DCS. But I've literally been reading about the very same project for over a decade, starting around the time I was just taking my first tentative baby steps into DCS. Still no Bo-105.

In other words, it's pretty important stuff to work out and get right in a world of Jills, Avengers, and Catalinas.

Question. Can the DCS engine already handle Torpedoes, or is that something awaiting implementation?

If the third-party MiG-17 and an updated MiG-21 are actually in the works, I'll bet ED would hit a home run by making a MiG-23. As some of the comments show, it seems to be in very high demand.

I vote for the Cobra also.. And not a modern one. We all know that the most common criticism heard regarding DCS World is the sometimes iffy correlation between maps, historical theaters, and period-appropriate flyable aircraft. There are a lot of maps now, and a lot of airplanes, so its better than it used to be, but still some real gaps. For example, strictly speaking of helicopters, I simply don't feel very Cold War-ish, flying around West Germany in a Longbow Apache, late Kiowa, or a glass cockpit Chinook. The Soviets have the Hind-F and the Hip, appropriate for the map, so the --only-- next Helicopter I want to see is an 80s version of the Cobra, with the TOW missiles. Start fleshing out the period maps with the period aircraft!!

In addition to how Petrovich already works, why not allow a mode in which the pilot dictate the priorities with direct commands, such as "Attack AAA", or "Attack Armor", etc (similar to how we command AI wingmen) and then Petro will automatically select a "default" target based on that. That way you don't have to be scrolling down the list of targets to find the most threatening target while it is already chewing you up with incoming fire. Wouldn't that be what the Copilot/Gunner would be doing in real life?

Well, you seem to be fixated on whether there is a "need" for such an aircraft, not whether there is a desire or want for such an aircraft. Frankly, there is no Need for a game like DCS at all, we could all just watch television for several hours each night, like the era of our parents. My guess is that the L-39 has sold a lot of copies for ED. Aerges has a topnotch Mirage, but I'll bet they also have a good customer base with their Aviojet. There is a Macchi too, which was once freeware, but by popular demand is now payware. As I said, I don't agree with the OP's premise that something like a Texan II would be a smart choice of Freeware for ED, because of it's assumed development costs. Of course a Trainer is not going to generate the buzz of such an iconic aircraft like the F-4. I'll bet the F-4 sold very well. I'll also bet that, due to it's complexity, it is also a very common Queen of many virtual hangars. I love the Phantom, but I also struggle to find the time or motivation to really get good at it. I enjoy simpler aircraft in addition to the complex ones. Certainly that can't be so uncommon?