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DCS Considerations for Map Development


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Hello,

I've been looking forward to the Kola map for quite some time as I anticipate that it will be one of the most used maps in my collection. As a long term DCS player I also have some feedback on the state and implementation of maps in DCS and I wanted to post these in the hope that it will help future map developers provide the best product possible. This was written months ago, but this forum was closed at the time:

Kola is one of the upcoming modules that I'm most excited about and I plan to spend a lot of time with it in the mission editor. As a long time DCS user I have a lot of opinions about maps and the ME and I'd like to share some with Orbx for consideration with goal of maximizing the value and usability of the map.

From the announcement, we know that the map will be highly detailed and feature important military targets. This is great to hear as it is exactly how DCS maps should be designed. However there is a bit of a disconnect with regards to the mission editor. It is usually difficult to find specific buildings and locations without knowing their approximate positions ahead of time. Please take this into considering when designing the GUI side of the map. It would be very helpful to have important/unique locations labeled from a zoomed out perspective. This way the most interest features of the map aren't hidden away, but readily visible for mission planners. I've outlined a similar idea in the following thread:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/307296-combat-oriented-display-options-for-mission-editor/#comment-5032281

An alternative to map icons could be what was done on the NTTR map where the different areas of the training range are outlined and named.

Another issue I've run into with DCS maps is the limitations that AI have in operating from certain airports. The most significant problem is with airports that don't have full runway length taxiways that reach both ends of the runway. With this type of runway, the AI will tend to enter the runway from somewhere in the middle and then slowly taxi to the end of the runway to takeoff. They will do this one at a time, and it can take many minutes to launch a full flight of 4 aircraft. Ideally this will be fixed when DCS gets improvements to ATC, but in the meantime it can be mitigated with parking spots added to the ends of runways. These spaces would get around the taxi issue and allow for rapid takeoffs of full groups of planes. They would also make very nice spots for fighters set to interceptors that need to scramble quickly. See this thread for some more discussion:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/286131-allow-entire-flight-to-line-up-on-runway-for-takeoff/#comment-4815757

A second issue with airports is parking space size. Some spots that seem large enough to hold big fighters like the Su-27 won't accept these planes on other maps. For the sake of gameplay I think it might be worth it to slightly oversize parking spaces if this is going to be an issue. It might also be helpful to including the maximum airplane size in the parking space name (ie 9S for parking space 9 small fighter maximum, 10L for parking space 10 large fighter maximum, and 11T for parking space 11 transport sized plane maximum). Examples of the parking issue here:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/295191-still-having-that-parking-problem/

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/308140-b52-has-no-parking-options-on-the-syria-map/

Finally, while Kola looks to be fairly large in size as is, it can't be understated the value that size brings to maps in DCS. Having airbases spread out across the map can really increase the replay value and can also make campaigns feel a lot more dynamic as you change locations through a conflict. Even if an airbase falls outside of the high detail area of the map I think it's worth including. Along with this, the ME GUI should be as unrestrictive as possible. Letting us zoom out far, even if it goes beyond the map image in the ME is totally fine because it makes utilizing the edges of the map easier. As much of the edges of Kola will be water, I imagine this will be very useful.

I'm sure others have ideas as well since I'm far from the only dedicated DCS player here. I don't know how early the map is in development, but I hope it's not too late to take feedback like this into account. I'm greatly looking forward to the end product.

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Awaiting: DCS F-15C

Win 10 i5-9600KF 4.6 GHz 64 GB RAM RTX2080Ti 11GB -- Win 7 64 i5-6600K 3.6 GHz 32 GB RAM GTX970 4GB -- A-10C, F-5E, Su-27, F-15C, F-14B, F-16C missions in User Files

 

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I would also encourage ORBX devs to have look at the fantastic feedback and communication between devs and users in the OnReTech forum about the Senai map.
Lots of great ideas!

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

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