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Allowing MODs ( visibility at least ), F10 and even F5...


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Posted

During the last few days I had a great time at a few servers I had never been at. Yesterday it culminated at Gavagai's new dogfight server, but the day before there was another great ww2 dogfight server up, and I also had a great time there.

 

Why? Simple!

 

Most of the time at the DoW or AGC servers I can't really happen to find any aircraft around me, even with the visibility MOD! It's the most frustrating experience I ever had on a Combat flight simulator, and for me it ruins any positive experience that ww2 dogfight in DCS could give me...

 

But, at these last servers the admins decided to make available either the F5 view, which actually allowed me to make a first contact with "other aircraft". Since icons were not ON, I could see the dots, but then I had to fly towards it and identify if friend or foe. This could be complemented with the F10 view showing, or not, other aircraft icons.

 

At gavagai's server he even allowed, last night, for icons - even better.

 

Is this unrealistic? I don't think so... What is unrealistic for me is the way DCS has visibility of other aircraft around you modeled presently, and while we wait for whatever EDGE may bring of positive in this area, I would really like to see more Servers adhere to this tactic os making the life a bit easier for those of us who do not own 27" HDR monitors...

Flight Simulation is the Virtual Materialization of a Dream...

Posted

jcomm,

Firstly and most importantly, I'm happy to hear you found servers that suit you and that you are enjoying your time flying.

 

Since many are not aware of the history enjoyed by some the more persistent servers within our awesome DCS community I will give some background to explain why some are the way they are.

 

The DoW server has been in service full-time since 06-23-2013 in some form or another and has gone through many many adaptations, modifications and changes. We did, in fact, start out with an environment very similar to what you are describing here. At that time it helped us become familiar with the aircraft and surrounding world while honing some of our skills. Along the way we worked toward molding the experience into what WE thought was the most realistic thing we could accomplish within DCS:World as it has progressed toward this current point. Of course, there are those who will debate that to no end. Ultimately, DoW is a squadron-run server and will reflect what DoW collectively chooses. In my personal opinion, if you enjoy such things as vis mods, map assists, labels, etc then go ahead and use them but just know that all of those elements have been used and evaluated by many of us and at some point we outgrew many of them and changed the missions accordingly when considering what experience we were looking for. There are several of us that don't require constant dogfighting to enjoy a flight and we may even claim that it makes the experience more authentic.

 

Last evening, [DoW]dOoOm and I flew a sortie on the server as a wing-pair that was incredibly rewarding and was at no point "boring." There were just two human red pilots but we had no problem finding a good fight, accomplishing our objective and then returning home to laugh about the harrowing adventure.

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

[Dogs of War] WWII COMBAT SERVER | P-51D - FW190-D9 - Me109-K4

Visit Our Website & Forum to Get More Info & Team Speak Access

Posted

Glad you had fun Jcomm. To be honest, I don't like the labels much because they obscure the aircraft, but it was a worthwhile experiment. I'll probably go back to having F10 fog of war enabled with the F5 "ace" view. Either way, you can count on there being a work-around for spotting contacts when I host.

 

Anyway, my take on the issue is this:

 

Regardless of anyone's ability level or preference for action, spotting aircraft in DCS is the lowest point in the simulation,:badmood: and that's coming from someone who loves DCS.:wub: There is no other combat flight sim on the market where you can easily lose sight of an aircraft a mere 1500m away, whether it be jets, warbirds, or WW1 flying machines.

 

I have received a variety of setup advice for improving spotting in DCS. So far nothing has helped. A few people seem to spot OK, but there is a large population for whom it does not work: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=101143

 

When less than 10% of the users think it's OK, something has to give or we will ruin the chances of growing the WW2 community in DCS.:doh:

P-51D | Fw 190D-9 | Bf 109K-4 | Spitfire Mk IX | P-47D | WW2 assets pack | F-86 | Mig-15 | Mig-21 | Mirage 2000C | A-10C II | F-5E | F-16 | F/A-18 | Ka-50 | Combined Arms | FC3 | Nevada | Normandy | Straight of Hormuz | Syria

Posted (edited)

Merlin,

 

I can perfectly understand your arguments, and I do like and continue to use the DoW servers, but I know that most of the time, I takeoff, fly, rtb, without even being able to glimpse my team mates :-(

 

Mostly because of this, I tended to almost adopt il-2 BoS as my only ww2 sim, and even tried CloD. Both, even in "Expert mode" allowed for what I consider way much more realistic identification of other aircraft around... But I had to make a choice - a final one - and elect a single platform to use as a ww2 / general Air Combat simulation... DCS World was converging towards it, and the release of the remarkable Me109 K4 plus the experience during the last week at some MP servers has finally made my mind :-)

 

I fly gliders for more than 34 yrs, and identifying other gliders and GA aircraft is very important, specially during competitions... Although I agree that identifying other aircraft is also sometimes difficult IRL, it is by no means the way it's modeled in DCS right now....

 

I believe this may be linked to the fact that DCS's main purpose was to model modern fighters, with their sophisticated war systems, where contact with the enemy, in the air, seas or ground is made easy and you never even reach visual contact, or you do at the last stages of approaching it through your avionics...

 

I wonder if it would be possible to reach a compromise, such as making the icons look like dot's even of a single color - all the same color, requiring positive identification of friend or foe. Is this possible to model in a Server? ( I guess I already asked this in the past... )

 

Ok, so, now I know - Fog of War - means having those scud-like icons visible in Map ( F10 ) view, and F5 is "Ace" view ;-)

Edited by jcomm

Flight Simulation is the Virtual Materialization of a Dream...

Posted

I wonder if it would be possible to reach a compromise, such as making the icons look like dot's even of a single color - all the same color, requiring positive identification of friend or foe. Is this possible to model in a Server? ( I guess I already asked this in the past... )

 

A mod for that already exists, but there is no way for the host to enforce it. Anyone who doesn't install it will see the normal red/blue icon.

P-51D | Fw 190D-9 | Bf 109K-4 | Spitfire Mk IX | P-47D | WW2 assets pack | F-86 | Mig-15 | Mig-21 | Mirage 2000C | A-10C II | F-5E | F-16 | F/A-18 | Ka-50 | Combined Arms | FC3 | Nevada | Normandy | Straight of Hormuz | Syria

Posted
A mod for that already exists, but there is no way for the host to enforce it. Anyone who doesn't install it will see the normal red/blue icon.

 

 

Ok, now that I read your answer I recall someone already having told me so... Maybe some feature to ask for for future DCS updates ?

Flight Simulation is the Virtual Materialization of a Dream...

Posted

Roger, jcomm. Like I said, I'm happy you found something you can enjoy. That's why we are here. I do agree that spotting is difficult within DCS, the only thing that differs is how people choose to deal with it until the situation improves.

 

Modding the labels is pretty easy. We used to use a "." at distance to help with ranged contacts. As gavagai stated, I don't think you can enforce its use once enabled but if some people are using B-52 LODs there is no need to worry about it anyways. I just hope this stuff gets regulated better down the road.

 

Cheers!

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

[Dogs of War] WWII COMBAT SERVER | P-51D - FW190-D9 - Me109-K4

Visit Our Website & Forum to Get More Info & Team Speak Access

Posted

Eventually there should be a permanent fix for this by ED, otherwise a significant proportion of the newly arrived ww2 community members will be very disappointed.

 

Like you, i find the spotting issue the most unimmersive feature in online play, along with the lag when people fire (i 'm not referring to the absence of a proper map, because this is in the makings).

 

I read a post that ED are already working on the "green box" glitch. Hopefully this will improve somewhat the current spotting problem, and will be combined with a reappraisal of the entire LODs modelling/scaling system.

The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good bowel movement. The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life to experience all three at the same time.

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