DCS accessibility.

[nrosko]

So just thinking today, wouldn't it be nice if there was a really accessible version of DCS available in VR.

 

Only reason i'm talking about this is there is an awful game in the Oculus store trying to be flying in VR & its dire. Yes its arcade but still.

ED already has the base game, would it be too difficult to package a complete game based on a simplified DCS with some beginner missions.

I know there is FC but i personally would class this as intermediate.

 

I'm talking about trying to get people into flight sims who maybe wouldn't normally venture & VR being a great enabler of this.

[SharpeXB]

DCS World is free. How much more accessible can you get? The free planes have a Game Mode as well.

[nrosko]

DCS World is free. How much more accessible can you get? The free planes have a Game Mode as well.

 

I still think many would find it complicated though. If it was a standalone product in the Oculus store, that was specifically setup for very casual users. I doubt the average jo gamer even knows about a game mode in DCS.

 

That's really more my point. Like i said it's all already there, just repackaged & simplified.

Edited January 13, 2019 by nrosko

[Mars Exulte]

The whole point of DCS is the complexity. Do I care if ED make a completely separate arcade game? No, they're more than welcome to do so. But dumbing down a game to make it ''more accessible'' is just backasswards. There ARE ALREADY arcade flight games. If somebody thinks DCS is too complicated, then they should go play something else, full stop.

 

What is the actual point of even making 'dumbed down DCS'? It's not DCS at that point, it's 'random arcade game #234 now reusing DCS 3d assets'

 

I really do not fathom people who come to a game wanting to fundamentally change it when a pre-existing product can fill their needs. ''But I want to play THIS'' Obviousky not, or they wouldn't be lobbying to change core game mechanics that make it what it is @@

[msalama]

I still think many would find it complicated though.

 

Of course they'll find it complicated. That's the whole point. It's a complex sim.

 

As Zhukov said, no need to simplify this, plenty of flying games out there already. And dumbing this down would actually destroy the very allure it has over its competitors. MAC and all that stuff as modules though? Certainly. But making the main sim more "accessible"? Hell no.

[quarz]

DCS World is free. How much more accessible can you get? The free planes have a Game Mode as well.

 

- A "free & western" (clickable) aircraft, maybe even with multicrew option so the more experienced friend can show the noob how to fly the plane, how to land or how to evade a missile, how to spot enemy planes, airports and ground units and so on.

 

 

- the ability for a module owner to invite his friend to fly with him the same plane on the same server and the same map for a certain amount of time per month

 

 

- some sort of laserpointer the experienced friend/instructor can use to point towards instruments, buttons and knobs inside a cockpit, so you can show new players where to look at, which buttons you just talked about etc

 

 

Standard controls for every aircraft that make sense and are not a pain in the *** to revoke (Joystick POV buttons AND EVERY OTHER HOTAS CONTROL INPUT BUTTONS to the view left, right, up actions, multiple wrong axes defaults like rudder axis that also affects pitch and roll and vice versa) so that a noobie with his joystick system does not get p*ss*ed off the very first moment he applies any sort of controll input and the aircraft suddenly starts to wobble into all different directions.

 

Or brake axes : Some axes need to be inverted in order to work as intended. Why? Standard brakes apply 100% brake input to the wheels. Granted, a noob should then be able to see that

 

 

---> honestly, those things are such a turn-off for a new player. It is actually not a "big" deal to make these controls useable again yourself (once you know where to look for them) but it makes the whole sim appear unfinished (at best) and a new player is completely confused about what is happening and where to find a solution to the problems he encounters.

 

 

 

 

 

- a checkbox for the game to automatically delete the fxo and metashaders files from time to time - why does the game performance degrade from patch to patch, anyway? I can't remember any game EVER in my +25 years of gaming where I needed to manually delete some files here and there in order to make it work performant again

 

 

Speaking of manually deleting files : the following Scenario: Noob tries to join a a multiplayer server for his first few moments "online" with other guys in a flight sim.

 

At some point his game starts to crash for whatever reason - he restarts it and tries to join again ... but now he will always get a crash error message when trying to join the server. Nothing works anymore ... until he deletes all files stored under saved games/DCS.openbeta/Logs.

 

Why can a crashlog file prevent someone from having fun with a game?

[nrosko]

The whole point of DCS is the complexity. Do I care if ED make a completely separate arcade game? No, they're more than welcome to do so. But dumbing down a game to make it ''more accessible'' is just backasswards. There ARE ALREADY arcade flight games. If somebody thinks DCS is too complicated, then they should go play something else, full stop.

 

What is the actual point of even making 'dumbed down DCS'? It's not DCS at that point, it's 'random arcade game #234 now reusing DCS 3d assets'

 

I really do not fathom people who come to a game wanting to fundamentally change it when a pre-existing product can fill their needs. ''But I want to play THIS'' Obviousky not, or they wouldn't be lobbying to change core game mechanics that make it what it is @@

 

I guess not many here are sharing my desire to make flight sims more popular.

 

I'm not talking about fundamentally changing the game or dumbing it down those are your words not mine.

I'm talking about making it more accessible because i think if people experience flying a war plane in VR they would want to invest more into it.

 

I mean why have a game mode in DCS at all? Personally I've never used it & i would bet that it is rarely used by many at all. The tutorial missions for example are tucked away in the mission editor.

Anyway the proposal was to have a version of DCS in the Oculus store, a military flight sim no arcade, that's much easier to get into, simplified menus etc & more direct missions.

 

Just an idea NO NEED TO USE CAPs or anything.