Aveare age of DCS Pilot

DCS - Digital Combat Simulator, a series of fantastic high fidelity and accurate advanced flight modelling study simulators, of the KA-50 Blackshark and the A-10C Thunderbolt II Warthog. It is the best there is available right now, of that there is no doubt. It has it's graphical glithces (particualry on the ground) that the community in general put up with because the former outweighs the later by a huge margin; that of the flight modelling to graphical anomolies. Of all the 'games' on the market, none come close.

Sadley, the DCS Series commands but a tiny proportion of the market. Tiny proportion = less revenue; it is a specialised area. The reason for this is simply the complexity of the sim and the sheer tenacity required to become 'fairly' good at it all. To become good takes days, to become a master takes weeks, to become a demigod at it all takes months, to become a Tyger at it.....................ok,ok, no hate mails please.

Fact of the matter is it requires a certain type of person to take to the DCS Series. The sort of person who isn't after a quick fix before he zipps off out to the youth club to snort bleach and shag his bird under a óne way'sign. It is a 'study sim' and as such commands that time and effort be presented to it, like some form of sacraficial presentation to maya gods on the steps of the Mayan Temple Pyramids!

Not that we're complaining. Hell no. I'm over 40 and certainly don't frequent Youth clubs anymore nor snort bleach. As for the shagging, Well, i've been married 20 years so that went out of the window in week 3!

This means that the average age of the DCS Series 'pilot' is a 'mature' age. It is also fair to assess that their lifestyle (and in most cases career) is as a professional, and is such that their time at home in the weekends and weekdays, is exactly that; at home, giving them the time they need to master the sims.

What does this all mean? It means that a really small community support ED by purchasing their products. It means that the community are mature (although you wouldnt bloody believe it sometimes by our behaviour on ED's forums - posters and moderators alike) and professional. It means that the smallest of errors or instability with the sim is exacerbated into a huge monster by virtue of the small crowd that frequent the metaphorical 'grown up club' and the almost immediate reporting (neigh, whining?) of instability or glitches that we post on ED forums. As a former Tester i can assure you that no sooner have you compartmentalised a problem to find and pinpoint a specific 'trigger' that leads to the bug, then there are 10 more reported. It's a continual battle.

When you Consider that a commercial organisation such as ED rely so heavily upon their testers to ensure that each patch released is 'the one' and that 11 patches later we have a product that is álmost' unplayable in MP and randomly CTD's in SP, and that the Testers are unpaid and selected by virtue of their ED Forum presence, content of posts made and their visibility; it is no wonder that the ever elusive stable version eludes us all.

That's not to take anything away from the Testers. I'd buy them all a beer as would any of you, they try their utmost best but sadley, and more often than not, their efforts and logical approaches to identifying and compartmentalising the bug's for the attention and subsequent actions by the dev's, are no more founded than the majority of you could do. Some of them are coding and programming experts. some. Most of them are like us. Lovers of the DCS series, who are driven to try and make the whole thing better for all of us. For that, I and you, say fairplay and thanks.

But is it enough?

Why doesn't ED go extreme left or extreme right? Why not hire a company to bug fix (they do exist) so as to reach 'the one' or release versions on Open Beta to the community?

This would raise the profile of the product by virtue of word of mouth, websites, new vfs's, youtube, etc etc and increase sales. Certainly not the case right now. Open up a donations area to help fund finding these bugs. you may well be surprised!

Some may argue that it would take far too long to sift through the niff naff and trivia and identify those reports of bugs that demanded further investigation toward resolution, by using an open beta forum system. I suggest that this is the case anyway in the closed Testers forums and on ED's own bug tracking system and was certainly the case during the initial Open Beta phase or 'pre-release' as ED referred to it. Nontheless, valid and vital bugs were identified by the community during this time, reported and then confirmed by Testers and fixed by Dev's, before the RC was released.

Where are we now?

The bottom i believe. The very Bottom. VFS's and talented pilots are leaving the scene, opting for the reliability and relative stability of CLOD and BMS above and beyond that of the DCS series and it's future offerings. They'll pop back for sure to take a look at DCS Fighter or even the P-51 (what in gods name!), but once óne' bug rears it's ugly head, they'll be off again based on their experiences with FC2 server Hack, BS2 patch cost and the ridiculous 1.1.1.1 A-10C. Whomever was responsible for releasing that should engage more with their testers. They would not have advised against it being released, of that,.......i have no doubt.

fact is, if there was somewhere else to go, most of us would.

Thankfully for ED, most of us arn't.

33 here. You should have added in an "over 60". A friend of mine flies with me daily, he's 61.

First on the under 21 section.

Hmm I fit into two categories...I'll have to wait 7 months to respond to this poll. ;)

21.

First on the under 21 section.

I am second. Ahah.

Hmm I fit into two categories...I'll have to wait 7 months to respond to this poll. ;)

Ditto - 4 months and countin'.

46

Ditto - 4 months and countin'.

How so?

Ages are inclusive

33 here. You should have added in an "over 60". A friend of mine flies with me daily, he's 61.

Yeah fair one. One of my FO's is over 60 - yikes.:doh:

If you're over 60 reply to the thread.

Ages are inclusive so fitting into 'two' categories 'should' be impossible unless your a scizophrenic.

Hmm I fit into two categories...I'll have to wait 7 months to respond to this poll. ;)

Pick the younger one... :D

How so?

 

Ages are inclusive

If you're 30, 40 or 50 then you fit in to 2 categories. Poll should be 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59. Or 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60 etc. ;)

If you're 30, 40 or 50 then you fit in to 2 categories. Poll should be 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59. Or 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60 etc. ;)

I am 40 and 1 minute old.

I therefore belong in the 40-50 year old bracket not the 30-40 year old.

It's a fairly simple principle really!:doh:

I am 40 and 1 minute old.

 

I therefore belong in the 40-50 year old bracket not the 30-40 year old.

 

 

It's a fairly simple principle really!:doh:

No T. I see what you're thinking, but it's not how you do stats.

40 and 1 minute or 40 and 364 days is not relevent, you'd still be 40. With your current poll fields, you have the age of 40 in both the 30-40 option AND the 40-50 option and therefore the ranges overlap. You shouldn't have an overlap.

//thought better of original post.

Eddie. Go find a large rock and smash your own skull in please.

save me doin' it.

bloody RAF.

;-)

Yeah fair one. One of my FO's is over 60 - yikes.:doh:

 

If you're over 60 reply to the thread.

 

Ages are inclusive so fitting into 'two' categories 'should' be impossible unless your a scizophrenic.

Yikes and another FO is close....

:cry:

OP edited

Absolutely fascinating. Not one comment on the OP itself.

No two category issue here. I fall well into the 'old enough to know better' category.;)

35 here.

Seems a bit daft that people are barking on about the specifics of the poll lol.

ED is a shining light in the sim industry and I salute them for it. I am so pleased that they are the benchmark to follow. It's just a shame that not many are following suit. :( Keep going ED!

18 here and I fly with my friend (19) but this would have to be (DCS series) the only flight sim to keep me engaged for longer periods of time. All other sims that I had tried just didn't cut it as far as..... everything goes :D.

DAMN, I must be old I forgot what the topic was:megalol::music_whistling::joystick::doh:

I'm 28, and I don't fly enough to be any good. Still love it though!

62 and counting :music_whistling:

20 here :megalol: