A flight sim vet encounters DCS :)

[tonyswash]

I got into flight sims back in the early 1990s, playing first Hellcats Over the Pacific and then the follow up Missions at Leyte Gulf, both from Parsoft on the Mac. I loved those flight sims and bought my first joystick to play them. Soon I graduated to F/A-18 Hornet which seemed a huge step up in complexity. In 1996 I flew A-10 Attack! followed by A-10 Cuba. Loved both games but was frustrated by the small number of missions, their scripted predictability and the lack of any add ons or follow ups.

 

Then came the beast that was Falcon 4.0. I actually bought a Windows PC just to play that game and in between the system crashes and the often slideshow like frame rate I was utterly enthralled by the complexity of the simulation and by the massive dynamic campaigns. I stuck with Falcon 4 for several years but eventually abandoned it for the joys of multiplayer shooters (Call of Duty, Battlefield, etc) and my flight sim career seemed to be over. I also moved on to the Infiltration modding team on the Unreal Engine (I was Old Geezer a level designer) and that took a lot of my time.

 

Recently I was looking for something other than a multiplayer shooter and tried the recent Rome II which turned out to be a huge disappointment (I had played the series from the beginning starting with Shogun 1) so I wondered about a trying a flight sim again. I knew it was a commitment, I needed a good joystick and any simulation worth it’s while would require a lot of study and practice. A month ago, having reviewed the flight sim titles available, I downloaded DCS World, bought a joystick and took the SU25T for a spin (literally at first - what a pig of a plane to fly).

 

And now once again I am enthralled. The DCS series seems exactly what I have always wanted from a flight sim, great depth, great graphics, a graduated ladder of authenticity that you can climb at your own pace, endless possibilities for expansion and new experiences, maybe moving onto multiplayer eventually (when I get a lot better). I decided to invest in a proper control system as fiddling about with multiple key commands on a keyboard is an immersion killer so I bought a couple of Cherry point of sales programmable keypads and they make a nice virtual cockpit control panel to supplement my Thrustmaster Hotas X

 

I have been flying most days for about a month now and having grown tired of wrestling with the SU25T handling I bought Flaming Cliffs 3 and settled on the A10A as my initial plane of choice - I do so love moving mud and blowing things up. All DCS seems to lack at the moment (other than some in depth training modules ) is an F16 module, add that and I would be in heaven.

 

Two weeks ago I decided to dip into the Mission Editor and I have written two missions that I think are playable, the download link from my server is here:

 

http://tonyswash.com/Missions.zip

 

Both missions are for single player A10a pilots and both have elements of randomness and unpredictability that I hope will make them repayable. Feed back on the missions would be appreciated - just bear in mind these are my first efforts after only a few days of learning the editor. Can anybody point me to better place to post these missions?

 

Anyway, it’s sure is good to be back in the skies again :)

[FLANKERATOR]

Welcome mate. You're right, DCS is hands down, the best combat flight sim out there. Here is where all missions and campaigns are: http://forums.eagle.ru/forumdisplay.php?f=165

[bigcountry]

Welcome. If you ever get online head to the 104th server. Lots of good guys in there that can give you some good tips. The A10c has a pretty good training module in it.

[AtaliaA1]

I agree they are well detailed.

 

As your "First Plane of choice" as you say. when you tire of it hop into the A10c and you will not be disappointed in the least.

[tonyswash]

Thanks for the welcome guys - these forums seem a very friendly and supportive community. As you have suggested I have posted the two missions in the appropriate FC missions thread.