Kola Map - what are the features that makes this map different / your favorite?

[Dangerzone]

I'm seeing a lot of enthusiasm for the Kola map - which is fantastic. 

As someone who doesn't really know that part of the world well at all I am curious - what are the features of this map that people are looking forward to that other maps don't give? Are you looking forward to it for Air to Air / Helicopter work / A combination, etc, and what are you expecting from this map that will add to your current DCS experience?

 

[MAXsenna]

I'm Norwegian and finally we get "a real" cold war map in Europe.

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[Slippa]

Two of my relatives served there. One lost two aircraft, everyone came home but some crew wounded. The other was on a carrier there on the Convoys. Be interesting to see what's made of the scenery.

[fredm2002]

I am looking forward to the SuperCarrier with the F-14 Tomcat, eventually the F-4, and A-6.

[Blinde]

Northern Finland 

[AKarhu]

One thing to make it different from the other maps is that there is no night during summer and no day during winter.

[HILOK]

reminds me the good ole days with DID's EF2000 

[VarZat]

Im from here, but the nature is very beatiful and dramatic. Different from other maps in DCS

[MAXsenna]

reminds me the good ole days with DID's EF2000 

Totally!

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I am looking forward to the SuperCarrier with the F-14 Tomcat, eventually the F-4, and A-6.

Yup! Add the A-7 and F-8 to that list!

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[Slippa]

3 hours ago, AKarhu said:

One thing to make it different from the other maps is that there is no night during summer and no day during winter.

 

Must feel good when that sunshine comes back. We’ll all have to pack some woolies and bind buttons for scarf, mitts and hot flasks.

[MadKreator]

I’m from USA but have always been fascinated with that region of the world. The Geography, Music, Culture, History, Mythology etc. DCS wise, the terrain and historical significance of course…and its not another desert map lol 

[Exorcet]

The Kola region is an excellent location because of its size, terrain, military importance, history, and layout. The landmass is fairly large which good by itself, but then when considering the vast sea around it, the map bounds could potentially be very large (I know they've given us a boundary, but if there is water beyond those bounds then the map can be considered even bigger). This will be the map for realistic carrier and naval battles since the Black Sea can't support carriers in real life and Hormuz as modeled is one sided in terms of naval warfare and wouldn't feature carriers naturally (vs Iran). Syria's waters are carrier accessible but not really the place to expect large naval battles.

The surrounding sea also means that threats can potentially be omnidirectional realistically. While there is a clear red and blue side on land, the seas could be more easily contested or used as a way around land based defenses. This is good for mission and campaign design.

The region is also a good location for historical and modern scenarios. While the Cold War did not go hot, there was a large military presence there. That is still true today and with some imagination it's easy to come up with a situation where tensions escalate into conflict. Or the map could just be used for lower intensity saber rattling, things like bomber intercepts and border intrusions.

[Larzei]

Alot of interesting scenarios can be set up in this map. Air and naval warefare with NATO and Russia, a Russian/Finnish land invasion or some sort of NATO training with USMC, British or other NATO troops in the artic -just to mention something. The Norwegian Airforce have operated Spitfire, Sabre, F-5, Huey and F-16 which are all modules in DCS. Then you have the Finnish airforce with its F-18 and Sweden with its Viggen, appropriate for a cold war scenario. I hope we can have som good multiplayer 2-5 player coop-missions on this map. I'm looking forward to do low level formation flight in between the fjords and mountains.

Something to make this map stand out as someone mentioned here is to do the lighting correctly. In the winter you have the long dark days with slight daylight for a couple of hours. In the summer the sun is up all day. I guess it is not possible to make, but can the skies be filled with some sort of northern light? That would truly be amazing. 

 

[AKarhu]

40 minutes ago, Larzei said:

[...] Finnish airforce with its F-18 MiG-21bis and Sweden with its Viggen, appropriate for a cold war scenario.

Just a slight correction for a cold war scenario. Luckily, it is also represented. Now, where's Draken...

I guess there is also some... timelessness in the context of the campaign setting of the good old Jane's F/A-18.

[Rodeo]

I found this report "A10 Operations and the Battle for North Norway 1988" a few years ago so naturally I am excited by the release of this map.  Yes it is specific for the A10's deployment  in the Kola region but a lot of useful information for other aircrafts/helos and the Soviet doctrine for the Kola in 1988.  Hopefully some of the campaign developers have read this report as well.

Enjoy 

 

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2009/R3439.pdf

Edited May 30, 2023 by Rodeo

[Dangerzone]

17 hours ago, AKarhu said:

One thing to make it different from the other maps is that there is no night during summer and no day during winter.

Oooh - this has peaked my interest. Does that mean there's certain days of a year that can be programmed in where the sun will be 'setting' on the horizon for a 24hr period.

I ask because one thing I've always wanted in DCS was to be able to freeze the time of day to make things easier for videoing / cinematics - to give all the time in the world to get angles, and pictures, etc. 

This may be one way that this could be achieved - by using this map instead.

[AKarhu]

5 hours ago, Dangerzone said:

Oooh - this has peaked my interest. Does that mean there's certain days of a year that can be programmed in where the sun will be 'setting' on the horizon for a 24hr period.

Well, not really. Except technically at the pole, twice a year on equinoxes.

In fact, I hope DCS renders the summer nights somewhat more decently than it is usually done. Even where/when the Sun does go below the horizon, there still is a kind of daylight quality in the lightning as the sky remains rather lit. Very little of that yellow sunset palette, unlike the way it is usually rendered as a tropical sunset feel.

[VarZat]

Living at 67 degress north, its daylight all the time now.

[VarZat]

And for sure, the sky cant just be normal blue when the sun just barely tips under the horizon. It usually creates a pink sort of colour

[Northstar98]

• It's our first proper Cold War theatre between NATO and the USSR (even as a modern day map - owing to how sparsely populated the area is, meaning changes are going to be relatively insignificant), no other map comes close.
• The area is a pretty strategic one (namely due to the Soviet/Russian Northern Fleet and its sizeable SSBN force) and has a very large military presence.
• It's perfect for NATO carrier operations and had the Cold War gone hot, it would most likely be the place the F-14, A-6 and A-7 would've fought over (among others).
• Several of our assets and modules were/are based here, especially for REDFOR.
• It's a major setting in Red Storm Rising and it features in several other titles.
• The map's geography is fairly unique compared to other maps (closest one is South America on the South Atlantic map).

If anyone is interested, I am currently in the process of making a .kmz showing numerous locations (airbases, naval bases, SAM sites, munitions depots and other military and civilian points of interest), with the goal of trying to produce a realistic order of battle for the region.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Northstar98

[VarZat]

1 hour ago, Northstar98 said:

• It's our first proper Cold War theatre between NATO and the USSR (even as a modern day map - owing to how sparsely populated the area is), no other map comes close.
• The area is a pretty strategic one (namely due to the Soviet/Russian Northern Fleet and its sizeable SSBN force) and has a very large military presence.
• It's perfect for NATO carrier operations and had the Cold War gone hot, it would most likely be the place the F-14, A-6 and A-7 would've fought fought over among others.
• Several of our assets and modules were based on here, especially for REDFOR.
• It's a major setting in Red Storm Rising and several titles feature this theatre.
• The map's geography is fairly unique compared to other maps (closest one is South America on the South Atlantic map).

If anyone is interested, I am currently in the process of making a .kmz showing numerous locations (airbases, naval bases, SAM sites, munitions depots and other military and civilian points of interests), with the goal of trying to produce a realistic order of battle for the region.

I think i saw a reddit post on that a while back, looked really good!

[Mik75]

I'm definitely looking forward to flying over this beautiful region of the world. One question though. Has there been some sort of update about the status of this map? It's been very quiet on that subject here, until now 

[LordOrion]

On 5/30/2023 at 9:17 AM, HILOK said:

reminds me the good ole days with DID's EF2000 

frackin THIS !

Eager to fly the EF-2000 there.

[HILOK]

17 hours ago, LordOrion said:

frackin THIS !

Eager to fly the EF-2000 there.

that's the idea

btw DID nicely catched the lighting and atmosphere over there, including scandinavian accents of ATC...

[Volator]

I am looking forward to the map because it's the only map where a Viggen is not totally out of place, and because it covers parts of Sweden