Campaign - PG or Syria?

[BlackRook]

As of 2.7 (May 21), I am looking to start fiddling with building a campaign for myself to learn the ME and scripting engines out there. 

 

I've been in the forums for each of the two newest maps, PG and Syria, as everyone seems to be sick and tired of Caucasus and there seems to be (?) little interest in NTTR.  What I have seen is disagreement about the state of the two major add-on maps, either from completion angle or from bugs/performance.

 

Knowing that this answer is fluid and both maps will/are undergoing updates, which map is the best to build on?  Don't give opinions, give something concrete, some sort of statistical thing that can be pointed to, if you can.

[Maduce]

I am currently working on a PG campaign (have been for several months). If this one goes well, I will do a Syria one. But updates, all though good, I worry about what it will do to the work I have done so far. That being said I will take the updates. Mine is based off of an old 80's movie that takes place in the PG so that limited me to that map. Not an answer for you just making conversation.  

[Qiou87]

Persian Gulf is finished as far as ED said. The only changes now will be bug fixes.

Syria is a work in progress. Ugra Media is still working to add airfields, the island of Cyprus and the south coast of Turkey. They are working hard and fast but I would not think it will be "feature complete" until the end of the year, optimistically.

 

If you are worried that your work would be changed or destroyed by map changes, 100% go for PG. It is the more mature environment.

 

Nevertheless, each map has different strengths. PG has skyscrapers, two very clearly defined sides and a nice chunk of water with small islands in between. Syria has a bit of water to the west but is mostly about a ground war between small neighboring nations (small compared to the size of the PG map, this is not a judgment about the real-life countries represented), as most countries on Syria map do not have 100% of their country represented - only Lebanon AFAIK.

 

For carrier ops (Hornet ou Harrier) the PG map offers much more possibilities for now (until Cyprus arrives). For helicopters and low-level aircraft, the Syria map has an unprecedented level of ground detail and terrain variety (mountains, hills, desert, flats, plateau...) that make it a lot more enjoyable to fly than the - mostly - boring PG map.

 

As for your comment regarding NTTR: it is an older map (doesn't look as good as PG or Syria), it doesn't have a sea for carrier ops, and this is only a training ground for simulated battles - no real life air war occurred in Nevada. Considering the carrier-based Hornet is the most popular module in DCS, no wonder this map is the least favorite of all. It is also extremely unbalanced with most of the interesting landmarks and cities down south and only desert and hills up north.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Qiou87