My first Impressions

[Jazz_44]

For those who remember, I posted here a couple of days ago debating whether should I buy this Sim or not, and obviously I did.

And I am very glad that I did because so far it exceeded my expectations!

I only got a chance to "play" with it for a few hours, so this is very 'premature'.

 

Pros:

 

* Amazingly detailed cockpit - I saw many videos of game play on Youtube but when I actually saw it in motion at 1680X1050 it was simply awesome:thumbup:

 

* The flight dynamics and the overall "feel" of flying the helicopter are just superb - I know how it feels to fly a Cessna, and with all the limitations of a PC (Situational Awareness, real wind, force on the stick, etc..) this is something that the developers did very well, hats off. I don't recall a sim that has such a great feeling as this one (Maybe a few FSX payware add ons).

 

* Seems very stable and "bug free" for a vanilla release - I have seen many releases in the past years and I don't recall a good "Version 1.0" (In flight sims anyway).

 

Cons:

 

* Lack of "free flight" mode - just to practice flying the helicopter (couldn't find anything like that)

 

* Explosions and smoke effects (besides the flares) need a face lift. Currently they are not "satisfying" enough.

 

 

Of course these are just my own personal thoughts, overall this is an outstanding product, and if the future of DCS is like this one then bring on 2015 ;)

 

Last but not least - thank you to all the wonderful team at ED for bringing us a real flight sim, it's been a long wait - that paid off :thumbup:

 

Itai

[Yskonyn]

Great to see you jumped in! Welcome again! ;)

 

Actually if you want to go for some training with full realism (the training missions let you crash without damage) and damage modelling without having to do a specific mission you could load 'Shooting Range'.

It's in the mission list if you select 'Missions' from the main menu.

That's what I always do. You start with a cold and dark cockpit and you can do whatever you feel like; either go to the target area and do some weapons training or just fly around getting a feel for the helo.

[Safari Ken]

Welcome to the fun! :thumbup:

 

Your impressions are pretty much what my impressions are... The cockpit is definitely the best I've ever seen, especially with the TrackIR's 6DOF. Also I agree that it's amazingly stable; I don't think I've run into a bug yet, unless it was something inside the sim that I just didn't recognize as being a bug. That's a refreshing change from most games, and is even more amazing, considering the complexity of Black Shark.

 

Yskonyn is right about the "shooting range" mission being a good one to start with. When I was first learning, I used that one to start, but then started making my own "tester" missions (the mission editor is terrific and also easy to use), where it would be just me and some non-shooting enemies like convoys. That helped me learn how to target moving vehicles. I just kept upping the ante, until I finally felt comfortable. Did I say comfortable? I meant to say that I don't die quite as often as I used to. :P

[Lav69]

Just create a simple mission with no way points or anything and theres your free flight. Or here use this. Its off runway so you can practice the start up procedure. Thats why I created it.

myfly.miz

[Nate--IRL--]

I attached 2 simple free flight missions in this post - http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=651221&postcount=4

 

Download em and open them up in DCS. Took 30 secondsto create them in the Mission editor.

 

I use DCSmax to open them and go straight in to flight, ignoring the DCS frontend (mission editor, GUI etc., when i need to satisfy a quick DCS urge :) gets you to the cockpit in seconds.

 

Nate

[Jazz_44]

Thanks for the test missions! I will try those soon enough.

 

I know this should belong to the Mods section but do you think it's possible to modify the smoke in the game? or is it hard coded?

Would love to see longer and better "lasting" smoke trails.

 

Itai