Temphage

Not to make it sound overly simply but the US Geological Survey has done most of that work already. It's not as if you have to go gather it yourself. And not to sound snarky but regarding the buildings, I would be more impressed if being near a modest-sized Georgian village didn't demolish my framerates into a soul-sucking abyss. Will the 'new' Nevada map change that? I only ask, because with two GTX-460s and a 4.1 GHz i7, taking off from Tiblisi demolishes my framerate to single digits, and ground buildings in DCS: A-10 aren't *that* detailed to justify this incredible framerate hit. Having an entire Las Vegas would be awesome except if a tiny town in Georgia is impossible to land and take off at, what will Vegas do?

Because you can't just pull it, finish it, and release it and say 'thanks for supporting our games', especially for people like me who bought it under the assumption that the Nevada map that was advertised as being a reason to buy the game, that is featured in screenshots of the game, was going to be pulled the day the game was 'released', I now have to pay extra for. And we wonder why piracy is so commonplace on the PC platform. Let me ask you this: If the Nevada map *was* finished for release, would we be playing it now? If so, why are they charging extra because *they* ran out of time?

Why release features when you can cut them and sell them later? Because going down the path of price-gouging DLC is something we should all be defending. DCS: Horse Armor, anyone? What's next? DCS: Strike Eagle! - DLC Data Link Pod with AGM-130s - DLC JHMCS with AIM-9X support - DLC Sniper Pods - DLC WSO function This wouldn't even be that huge a deal but they advertised the Nevada map, then pulled it EXACTLY in time for the game to release.

No, what' unfair is your illogical stance on the subject. I''ll bet any amount of money that if a less likable company like Microsoft or Ubisoft or anyone with a 'low' reputation did something like this, you'd be livid. I have to agree it's bullshit that the price of the game went up $10, they advertised the Nevada map as a selling point, and then cut it from the game and are going to charge us for it. Why? Because I didn't buy the beta because I wanted a boxed copy. One of the main reasons I wanted the game was the Nevada map. Then I find out it's going to be three months or more before boxed copies come out, *and* unbeknownst to me, I get an inferior product because of it. Tell me, why shouldn't I be upset? http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/index.php?end_pos=2452 This page up until very recently advertised the Nevada map on it. Now it doesn't, and I'll have to pay presumably an extra $12 or something, making this a $72 flight sim, versus the $60 I thought it was, versus the $50 DCS Black Shark was. On top of it all, keep in mind that the theater we 'got' is still mostly just Black Shark's theater, so it's not like you can really argue we got anything new.

What he's not saying is that the F-15E NVIS mod didn't really get done until about two years ago. Yes, that's right.

At the same time, there's lots of stuff that doesn't seem like it'd have been that huge a deal to implement that is cut out. Something as simple as the NVIS position lights. I guess something like KY-58 would be a bit more advanced, but the manual says right in it that without using Secure Voice, 'enemies in multiplayer can listen in on your radios'. Then it says that the entire KY-58 panel is cosmetic and totally non-functional. Sounds like they had a cool idea but then ran out of time so gave KY-58 the axe. Someone should've gone through the CDU section with a hatchet then, because it covers all manner of screen that are irrelevant and only cosmetic. I found that section almost impossible to follow because it would divert down useless screens I don't need to know, making it harder to find information I *do* need to know.

Am I the only one who'd like to see more 'fantastic' locales? Something along the lines of the ArmA 1 theater, where you have a varied mix of things. Also I wish buildings didn't totally butcher my FPS like it does :/ Taking off from that eastern airbase (one of the three) crashes my framerate down to single digits.

Can't seem to find conclusive information on this - I only seem to get stereo sound in DCS: A-10 whereas I recall (perhaps wrongly?) getting full surround sound in KA-50... at the very least, my speakers are set up right and it works in other games. Am I missing a config option somewhere?

Is there a CDU For Dummies guide out there? The Flight Manual is clear as mud and is literally about 100 pages of nonsense (honestly if half the screens have no function in-game do we really need two whole pages dedicated to each one? I appreciate the nod to reality there but separating useful for not useful information becomes fairly difficult...). Steerpoints, markpoints, waypoints oh my! I always find it funny in flight sims that starting, taking off, landing, using weapons, and the like is always fairly straightforward, but every time navigation computers enter the mix, yeah good luck.

I'm pretty sure it's not a military nickname, or if it was it's obsolete... which to me means it doesn't really apply. Sounds more like a civilian term than anything else... Next time I see our pilots I'll ask them but this term is totally foreign to me. I guess F/A-18 ground crews actually do call it the 'Rhino', or at least they did in some places. Three bases (which means 75% of the places there are F-15Es), never once heard 'Mudhen'. <- Party pooper.

Where do you people get the name 'mudhen' from? I work on them and have for several years and never once have I ever heard this term until I saw it on this forum. It's a Strike Eagle, nothing more. Or a 'piece of shit' as we affectionately refer to them.

Maybe not, because the F-15E in-game's texture is way wrong. Panels are missing, mislabeled, and totally out of place on it :) To the left of the base of the speedbrake should be a very large rectangular panel that houses the Band 3 forward amplifier... instead there's like seven funny-shaped panels in-game :D

The only way one could properly make an F-14 simulator is if it lets you wear aviators and spend the majority of 'stick time' mostly naked around a bunch of dudes. And maybe some volleyball.

I just think it's a really ugly aircraft, particularly the aft where the engines poke out way behind the stabs. I also can't get over the ones I saw in Afghanistan, where our F-15Es were sitting there carrying GBU-31s, -38s, and -12s, and two possibly Canadian F/A-18s that diverted taxied right through our ramp, carrying all of a single GBU-38 under each wing. Wow, way to carry some firepower.

My problem with the 'entire Black Sea' is that most of it would be, well, the 'entire Black Sea'. Lots of empty space. Something with more urban / populated locales would be nice, but given how frame-crushing the tiny hamlets in Georgia are... Something like THIS:

Given how KA-50 and A-10 are ground-attack and most of the game assets involve air-to-ground warfare, this is why I think the C-model is unlikely. The F/A-18 and F-16 can both serve in ground-attack roles, albeit they aren't nearly as dedicated to the task...

Even better, your buddy in the front over multiplayer (PS: The guy in the back is the WSO, not an RO, though it might be more accurate to call him a 'PO or Pod Operator' :)).

DCS: EA6 Prowler

The F-15E with a hot-swap function between seats wouldn't matter, seeing as how you can basically control everything from the back cockpit if you had to. You even get a HUD repeater on the MPDs so you can see out :]

When they first said it was going to be a 'fixed wing US aircraft' I actually thought it'd be funny if they came out with 'DCS: KC-135'.

F-16s been done to death though. Given the 'quality' of the computer-based trainers I've seen for the F-15E, there should be quite a market for DoD use of one :)

F-15E would be amazing and given the prevalence of air-to-ground warfare as well as the various nods towards the Strike Eagle in the game files (ridiculously detailed model, AGM-130 files)... it can also serve in the air-attack role and can utilize much of the assets already present in-game. F/A-18 wouldn't be bad I suppose, but I find the aircraft to be vomitous to look at, and it carries laughably light payloads. The only real reason to prefer the F/A-18 over the F-15E is carrier ops or you have a thing for the Navy. Generally speaking everything the F/A-18 can do, the F-15E can do better. What's more, the F/A-18 has been done before, far more recently (In fact it's an FS:X addon) and far higher quality than the F-15E which was last done in 1998 so the quality of that one goes without speaking. The F-15E also has better toys and would be way more fun to play with: ICMS TEWS suite, iDLPs, Sniper Pods, Nav Pods / TF radar, Recce pods, sniper pods... the most excitement you get out of the F/A-18 is the crappy old pod it has and it shares A/G radar mapping ability with the F-15E. I guess the downsides here is that much of the F-15s capability and toys are still highly classified and marked as NOFORN and would be a hell of a lot of work to implement the avionics of it. At the same time, I thought I heard that the F/A-18 has the same problem because the Navy is far more tight-lipped. F-15E would also be way more at home on the Nellis map :)

I wondered that myself. I can't think of any situation whatsoever that would warrant flipping the lights on and off. Typically in wartime you only use the bright exterior lights on or near the airfield, then they basically go off for the entire mission. I did mentally picture an A-10 using the landing light as a lamp to see targets though :)

I would say curves are only really mandatory for yaw. I was having huge problems on landing and takeoff when I realized that the slightest tap of my pedals would induce huge yaw. Setting up an aggressive curve lets me make minor NWS and rudder adjustments for keeping me on the runway...

External lights are on a HOTAS toggle as well (pinky switch I think?). You can set up your position and formation lights, but they won't come on until you hit the switch. Anti-Ks are only on via a solenoid that's only energized when your external lights are actually on, so you have to hit the switch and then flip the anti-Ks on manually. When you disengage the exterior lighting, the anti-K switch flips off. Also regarding roll, I don't know which way it *should* be, but the rotation of the turbine engines will / should induce roll as well.