F-16 or Syria Map

[71st_AH Rob]

On 1/7/2021 at 2:23 AM, alphagamer4 said:

 

Thanks for the tip, friend. I think it's probably too late for me to leave Steam, given that I just spent $680 on Steam to acquire almost $1200 worth of DCS products (see my signature). I really do love the Steam Winter Sales.

 

I like keeping as many of my PC games in 1 place (DRM) as possible. Steam is great about refunds, especially when it comes to holding questionable game devs accountable for releasing poorly-performing products. Not too worried about Steam and VR since I'm not interested in VR at the moment (it's too blurry for my tastes).

 

Even though my PC can run the Syria map just fine (i7-8700K @5GHz CPU with 32GB RAM; EVGA RTX 3080 GPU), I still do not believe it is as optimized yet as it could be. I believe it will get better optimized in time. Maybe Steam will have it on sale at that point as well.

 

The switch from Steam to stand alone is free, so don't let that hold you back.  In fact, if you have both you can take advantage of the best of both worlds as sometimes you can get better deals on Steam and then activate it on stand alone.

 

[Peedee]

I see many recommend the Syria map. But I think it says I need DCS beta version to use it? It don't use the beta, I have the latest official release. 

 

What do I do to use the Beta version? Can I use all my other planes, terrains and  campaigns with the beta?

Do I uninstall the latest official version first? 

Any downsides to use the beta?

 

I fly in VR only    I have A10, F14, F18, Sabre. 

Edited January 11, 2021 by Peedee

[Qiou87]

12 hours ago, Peedee said:

I see many recommend the Syria map. But I think it says I need DCS beta version to use it? It don't use the beta, I have the latest official release. 

 

What do I do to use the Beta version? Can I use all my other planes, terrains and  campaigns with the beta?

Do I uninstall the latest official version first? 

Any downsides to use the beta?

 

I fly in VR only    I have A10, F14, F18, Sabre. 

 

Syria is available on the stable branch since September/october 2020. No need to use Open Beta if you do not want to use it. Beta is basically the same for one month, then gets 2-3 updates with new features (and new bugs) until everything is sorted and they update the stable again. Stable might see 3 to 4 updates per year (and they all feel like Christmas because they contain all the changes and updates from several OBs put together), when OB gets at least 12 smaller ones., and sometimes more when small hotfixes are published.

So basically: go to the open beta if you want the latest updates all the time, and do not mind some bugs sometimes. Also for multiplayer, especially PVP, it is mostly on OB. you can stay in stable if you play single player or if you don't mind waiting a little bit. There are currently no modules that require to use OB instead of stable, however everything gets released to OB first.

 

You can switch from stable to open beta with a few commands actually, and revert back if you are seeing problems, there is no need to "chose". Even if someday an update breaks everything for you, you can easily revert back to the previous version until a fix is available. Some info in this thread.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Qiou87

[Peedee]

1 hour ago, Qiou87 said:

Syria is available on the stable branch since September/october 2020. No need to use Open Beta if you do not want to use it. Beta is basically the same for one month, then gets 2-3 updates with new features (and new bugs) until everything is sorted and they update the stable again. Stable might see 3 to 4 updates per year (and they all feel like Christmas because they contain all the changes and updates from several OBs put together), when OB gets at least 12 smaller ones., and sometimes more when small hotfixes are published.

So basically: go to the open beta if you want the latest updates all the time, and do not mind some bugs sometimes. Also for multiplayer, especially PVP, it is mostly on OB. you can stay in stable if you play single player or if you don't mind waiting a little bit. There are currently no modules that require to use OB instead of stable, however everything gets released to OB first.

 

You can switch from stable to open beta with a few commands actually, and revert back if you are seeing problems, there is no need to "chose". Even if someday an update breaks everything for you, you can easily revert back to the previous version until a fix is available. Some info in this thread.

 

Thanks a lot! Great information. I will defineatly check out the info you linked to. 

 

It was just a bit puzzling that it clearly says:  "You need to have the "Open Beta" version DCS World 2.5 installed on your PC for this product." at the bottom on the E-shop page for DCS Syria. 

Guess I will go for it then  Thanks. 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Peedee

[Qiou87]

You h

5 minutes ago, Peedee said:

It was just a bit puzzling that it clearly says:  "You need to have the "Open Beta" version DCS World 2.5 installed on your PC for this product." at the bottom on the E-shop page for DCS Syria. 

 

 

You had the right reaction to ask about it here. I guess this was written on the e-Shop page around the release of the map in the summer, and they forgot to update it since then. It was true for 1-2 months as I recall. Now I actually play a lot on this map, in stable, with my friends in MP.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Qiou87

[smire666]

Viper belongs to Turkey, Greece (Cyprus in near future), USA and to Israel. Sorry, too many countries in one map without F16 makes no sense... It should be bundle

[Dragon1-1]

That'd actually be a good idea. Throw in the upcoming campaign by @baltic_dragon, and you'll have a perfect "DCS starter bundle".

[Qiou87]

Once all of them are further along, for sure. The Syria map is great as it is but will be expanded ; the F-16 is capable but missing a lot of systems... so a bundle for starters would only show what beta/early access DCS looks like. I know what some sarcastic people might reply, but there are more polished modules to get you started in DCS... in a year or two though!

 

[Dragon1-1]

Yeah, well, the campaign is also in planning stage, when it's out, both Syria and the Viper should be in a much better state.  

 

In fact, the only reason I bought the Viper this early was that it was 50% off on the pandemic sale, something we're unlikely to see in a long time. Still waiting on Syria to mature and have some SP content (like the aforementioned BD campaign) made for it.

[bomber]

I have always loved the f16! Falcon 4.

yes go for Syria map. I wasn’t going to but my mate bought it for me. It is superb but yes heavy on resources. F16, as someone said “it really grabs me”. Choice between 2 definitely Syria despite my love of the viper, get f16 at later date.

[schurem]

Pourquoi pas le deux? Why not both?

[SnakeEyes]

Personally i love the viper and i have the Syria map, f-18 and a whole bunch of other stuff. I would say go for the viper its more fun than the f-18 lol.

[Glide]

On 1/6/2021 at 11:23 PM, alphagamer4 said:

I think it's probably too late for me to leave Steam

Moving to Standalone is easy as pie.  The installer does everything for you, and all your modules come across.  The licenses you buy for Standalone don't move back to Steam, so you have to pick one to move forward with.  Just in case you change your mind.

 

Syria map is fantastic!  I could dogfight over Damascus all day.  It is resource hungry though.  Save up for more VRAM because it's not getting smaller.

[alphagamer4]

5 hours ago, glide said:

Moving to Standalone is easy as pie.  The installer does everything for you, and all your modules come across.  The licenses you buy for Standalone don't move back to Steam, so you have to pick one to move forward with.  Just in case you change your mind.

 

Syria map is fantastic!  I could dogfight over Damascus all day.  It is resource hungry though.  Save up for more VRAM because it's not getting smaller.

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

The one thing I do like about having my DCS modules on STEAM is that STEAM will refund purchases if a game dev screws up their game product or fails to support it. I know that has already happened to 1 or 2 DCS modules on STEAM.
 

I would lose that protection if I moved my DCS modules to standalone.