what are your thoughts so far?

[Nightstalker]

20 hours ago, evilnate said:

Ah, damn.

After some testing, it seems that my performance problems are only happening on the Syria map.  If I load up in any of the other maps the AH performs like my other modules but each time I return to a instant action mission in Syria everything goes to crap.

[Beirut]

12 hours ago, toutenglisse said:

Much thanks ED team for the Apache ! Thanks to all people involded in this module, you are delivering an awesome masterpiece of simulation. I use VR and every aspect of flying and fighting in the Apache in DCS feels like a privilege. My expectations are highly overshot.

 

I put on on Dark Side of the Moon and have been staring at your avatar for an hour... 

 

One of the main reasons I bought the Apache was for the fancy night vision eye-candy and I'm not disappointed at all. This thing is gorgeous at night. The NVGs are crystal clear and the monocle FLIR is beautiful. What a great machine for night flying. And blowing **** up at night looks great too. 

[VDV]

Can 30mm hedp round destroy a tank??

[Ramstein]

On 3/17/2022 at 10:45 PM, BeastyBaiter said:

First impressions: It's simple to start and fairly straight forwards to operate once you learn where some of the stuff is. The chopper itself is a bit wobbly at low speed, much worse than Ka-50 with all AP channels off (my normal way of flying it). I'd say it's the most unstable chopper in game. VRS is a real danger with it, very Mi-8 like. It has some "interesting" handling characteristics that I'm still getting used to. I will say the AP is absolutely useless as is the trimmer. Not sure if realistic or not, but they are truly awful. Maybe I'm missing something though. It is pretty hilarious flying around with the AP button forward held, though.

In terms of weaponry, 16 hellfires and FLIR making it a hell of a ATGM spammer. I think we have something to finally dethrone the Ka-50 as the best tank buster in the game, though the Ka-50 still has some advantages. I haven't messed with the front seat yet (not even mapped controls), will be interesting to see just how far it can be pushed with a human gunner. I did notice the gun shoots a bit high when using the helmet sight. I've tried aligning it by the book and deliberately trying to skew it, haven't been able to get it to shoot straight yet. Maybe I'm missing something. It does have a nice RWR but the lack of a laser detector is problematic. Got nailed a few times by the T-80's missiles. It does seem the AI CPG doesn't want to shoot beyond 5km for some reason. Hence the tank return fire issue I ran into.

In terms of performance, I get roughly half the FPS I do with the Ka-50 in the exact same mission (about 30 fps instead of 60). I flew the Ka-50 after messing with the Apache to confirm. This is in VR with a 2080 Super, rest of specs in signature. The GPU is completely maxed out. I've also had 1 CTD in about 4 hours of play and the helmet sight alignment rings thingy refused to turn on after a few sorties. Had to restart DCS in order to get them to show again. Minor bug, but annoying.

Overall it's about what I expected. Pretty good missile spammer with good sensors. Flight performance is poor compared to both the Ka-50 and Hind, but that's to be expected. I expect it will be a favorite among chopper flyers, certainly a very capable aircraft and so far the release seems solid despite a few little bugs.

I too get some pretty bad FPS, and have Win11, Nvidia 2080-ti video, 4.2 ghz cpu, etc..etc... I bumped my anti-aliasing down to off... helped a bit.. dumbed down some other setting a bit, I hate to really removed the good graphics...

[Raven434th]

On 3/18/2022 at 3:10 PM, Raven434th said:

IMO its the same issue as with the Hind...the first rendition was too twitchy for the average worn out user's HOTAS...the FM is too tight and unforgiving for most average setups...it needs a "forgiving" tweak same as the hind. Multiplayer will be even worse in this case due to obvious reasons. A little less twitchyness would make it enjoyable as opposed to a frustrating experience(I say this as someone who flies all helo's in DCS and not as a beginner) the beginner will struggle  needlessly and be "put off" IMO. Not everyone, but I believe a lot will be. With that said its all dependent on type and quality of HOTAS .

 

Well I guess now we know HOW they can improve the FM in regards to the "twitchyness"...fix the trim method to stop the "trim jump" for a start. Although in all fairness I have no idea HOW they would do it.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Raven434th

[elchacal]

IMHO it´s a solid realease, in the context of this Open Beta release. There are things to polish, for example the adition of a center trim option, wich I think it´s on its way, other things are going to adress according as the development progress towards the stable version. In my case there´s a long way in order to learn all the systems and stuff that has come with this bird.

Edited March 25, 2022 by elchacal

[ams999]

"what are your thoughts so far?"

Loving it. I really do. It was a first day buy for me and it's great. Now I just have to catch up to it but I'm getting there.

[Frederf]

It's very nice. There is much to learn.

[TobiasA]

It'll be my first aircraft to really hook me after the Viper, I think. And the one helicopter that I will fly most.

[Guest]

Smooth fps in vr, well all my modules run smooth on my system. Dont understand many of the systems yet. Looking forward to when Chuck makes a manual

[Wychmaster]

Waited over 20 years since Janes Longbow 2. Totally worth it. This is my new DCS aircraft of choice. It has so many cool features.

RWS+CMWS really help to stay alive. PNVS makes night ops really interesting. Shooting rockets and the gun is really nice in VR... and so much more.

Great piece of art by ED and it will only get better if all those little bugs get busted.

[poochies]

I can just sit in the CPG seat and blow up tanks all day long it never gets old !!! Waiting for my friends to get up to speed with it so we can do coop but as usual it will take them forever to learn it .....

[Feuerfalke]

I just love the Apache. Her handling is very intuitive and the already integrated systems give you a ton of tactical choices and situational awareness. 

I had high hopes, but I was actually very positively surprised.
Really well done, ED & SMEs.

[Guest]

On 3/18/2022 at 12:56 PM, Tepnox said:

The KA-50 will always be my one-seat favorite of all times. Hoping for a good BS3-release in the near future.

But right now I am riding on the Apache hype train and give this module a chance. Let's see how well it gets supported and fixed by ED the next months.

Yeah I like the KA-50 better, that thing is a flying sniper rifle. But the radar on the longbow will change alot when it becomes active.

[Niehorst]

...thoughts so far?

where is the covid infection when you need one..?

[lorddenny]

Absolutely love it …. Now the dynamic campaign to use it with !!!!

[MichaelJWP15]

I've bought the module, which is my first helicopter in DCS, and initial impressions are it's really good, very immersive and great in VR.

However, after my initial tryout learning to taxi, takeoff, hover and navigate, I think I will shelve it for now.

I don't have a great deal of spare time so will wait for better optimisation (a bit choppy), more content, updates, training missions, control profiles, campaigns etc. etc. Lazy I know but I need to spend my limited free time on more polished modules like the A-10C Tank Killer and the F/A-18.

It will be fun though in a few months!

[BigBANGtheory]

Really happy with the Apache module, amazing work.

Disappointed about VR performance atm but if we can get that sorted (appreciate there is probably a much wider DCS World issue going on there), absolutely this has the potential to be one of the best heli sims of all time. I think the Apache performance in VR feels worse than other modules I've tried possibly because of the early release could just be the high quality visuals of the cockpit.

[Mr_sukebe]

Thoughts:

- dead easy to start up

- more difficult to fly than say the Huey because of its VRS, which I assume is because of it’s mass

- took a number of days to optimally map my rig and get used to the systems.  I think that I’ve got them now, just need to speed up my processes

- visuals, as per normal in DCS, awesome

- incredibly immersive.  I fly in VR with a jetseat.  For me, probably the most immersive I’ve had in an flight sim

Great job by ED!  My thanks to all the devs and testers.

If you’re unsure, just do it

 

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by Mr_sukebe

[Supmua]

For the first iteration of an early access release, I can’t really complain. There’re some minor QOL issues, bugs, missing features, etc. but in a year it should be great like the Hornet and the Viper.  MP with a copilot is a lot of fun. 

[Steel Jaw]

On my brothers rig trying to use the FLIR from the front seat TANKS FPS to a stutter fest.  His sytem is better than mine.

[SchwappingMags]

I'm really loving the apache, I feel like this is a very good release for EA.

I can do basically everything I want with it, and it feels very polished, a lot of fun also. I have not encountered any bugs so far.

 

Now I'm just waiting for them to add 1200 rounds of gun ammo and the auto track function with TADS

[Chefen41]

I really like the Apache, it is smooth flying and the release was amazing. I don't find it "twitchy" at all - can be flown with no curves and no extension.

What I think is really great, is the massive coverage and help provided by the many real pilots. 

 

Next level for me is trying the multicrew feature, never really bothered before but this module seems to shine in that regard.

[Beirut]

On 3/26/2022 at 1:36 AM, Niehorst said:

...thoughts so far?

where is the covid infection when you need one..?

 

Right here, brother. Positive as of Saturday. Feeling pretty decent - looks up and gives thanks   - but it does mean I have some time to fly. 

 

As far as the Apache goes, the biggest thing with me is still the night vision. It's a work of art. At least 50% of the reason I bought the module was for the cutting edge eye candy and I'm impressed from stem to stern.

[DmitriKozlowsky]

Well, don't keep to yourself. Tell us what its like. How is it?