What's your favorite DCS Map?

[Dex0]

Beauty or functionality? or both? Which map keeps you flying? I hope this poll can be updated with future maps. Even if you don't own them all. (Updated with latest maps)

Edited February 21 by Dex0

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

1. Syria
2. Caucasus
3. Kola
4. Sinai
5. Persian gulf
6. Nevada
7. South Atlantic
8. Marianas
9. Normandy 2.0
10. The Channel

[Hiob]

If I had to pick only one map, it would for sure be Syria. From second place onward, I'd have serious problems to put them in any order. 

If you'd put a gun to my head, I would place Caucasus (with Bartheks textures) on 2nd and Channel on 3rd.

My main problem with some of the new Maps (SA, Kola) is the blend builings and settlements. Compare that to something like Haifa or Adana on the Syria Map.

To put that into perspective - I say that from a Helicopter's cockpit. Once I get in a Jet and fly above Angels 10, I enjoy the mountain ridges on SA and Kola very much!

Edited May 21, 2024 by Hiob

[Lace]

My most used, and the one which IMHO allows the most realistic scenarios is NTTR.  I enjoy Syria and Hormuz, but still feel the lighting feel is not quite right with Syria.  I like Sinai but haven't been able to really explore it much yet.  Kola I imagine will become a favourite once it is fleshed out with a few more airbases, it is a good fit for some late cold war-ish scenarios, with sixth-fleet carrier strikes, USMC Harrier support, RNoAF F-16s and F-5s, Swedish Viggens, Finnish F/A-18s.  As long as you aren't too much of a stickler for the correct versions/types actually fielded.  It offers probably the most diverse AO in terms of air unit types.

[Ahogephilia]

We need NEVADA 2.0

Give me starwars canyon and western ocean.

 

[Dex0]

Wow Syria. I guess that's not a surprise. I expect Kola to catch up within a year. If Afganistan doesn't perform as well as expected.

Edited June 29, 2024 by Dex0

[Mike_CK]

I think Kola MIGHT take it in a year or so but not until they finish the other areas and there are some campaigns to get people on it. I think right now, Syria is so popular because it’s not just desert terrain (arid yes..but not PG/Nevada), it looks great  AND…there is a lot “there”. Not just the airbases, various cities, ruins, ports, etc…but a lot  of history.

The issue with Kola (such as it is) is maybe a lack of history (and not as much variation of terrain as Syria?); it’s a “what could have been” and maybe a “what could be”.  But it looks good when your over the right areas.

SA is a disappointment. It looks good from up high but not down low, the cool terrain is out west where there is nothing else and -except for the Falklands conflict - a lack of history.

[AndrewDCS2005]

Syria is amazing. There's so much value in the map, thank you Ugra Media!

It is beautiful for joyrides - mountain ranges, valleys, desert, sea and Cyprus with quality terrain mapping is just beautiful. Also with low latitude and sun angles at sunrise/sunset I can spend hours just flying around and enjoying the views.

There are so many scenarios possible - Turkey/Greece over Cyprus, carrier ops from the sea towards Syrian and Lebanon coast, north/south invasions, Jordan strikes, Israeli wars, desert hunts, anything. No need for crazy fantasies and make-believe here - everything can be made historically relevant and realistic.

It is rich with infra, bases, roads and settlements, nicely detailed and populated. 

[Mohamengina]

Persian Gulf, but only because it seems to have the best VR performance.

Ask me again once we get VR performance improvements and I'm sure it will change.

[Rudel_chw]

For me, my favorite is always the map I'm currently flying ... nowadays it is Kola, and I'm enjoying it a lot .. in spite of it being early access.

[Mike_CK]

3 hours ago, Mohamengina said:

Persian Gulf, but only because it seems to have the best VR performance.

Ask me again once we get VR performance improvements and I'm sure it will change.

You know…im beginning to really enjoy the PG map. Not just b/c it’s good performance-wise in VR, but because of how it looks. Some of the more Mountainous regions are really well done. I had always flown around the edges of the gulf and into Bahrain but a lot of the territory in Iran is well done. It doesn’t have the terrain variety of Syria but with a low set sun, the PG terrain looks amazing and I quite enjoy low level flight on it. Especially since trees look….well….not fantastic at low level in VR. Not surprisingly, brown desert dirt is easier to make look good at lower res.

Nevada looks great up high but I find the PG dirt to look better low. 

[Romandv]

Kola and Sinai. I find PG to be the most boring map, just seems abandoned.

Edited June 3, 2024 by Romandv

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

5 hours ago, Mike_CK said:

a lot of the territory in Iran is well done

Yes it is. Now that we have the F-4 I imagine a lot more people will get to enjoy that part of the SoH map. I hope we get an F-4 campaign from the Iranian perspective at some point

On topic: hard to say but it’s a toss-up between Caucasus with Barthek textures and Tazz trees, and Syria.

Close third would be NTTR since I revisit that every time a new module lands for believable training. It may not look the best (unsurprisingly the sand has room for improvement) but I’m very happy we got it.

I haven’t really used Sinai all that much yet, mostly just for free flights and enjoying the scenery.

Kola has huge potential but for now that’s all it is as far as I’m concerned: potential.

[cfrag]

To me it's a toss-up between Caucasus and Syria...

Caucasus is my go-to map (as mission creator) if everyone should have it, and performance is a must (high "VR quotient" of players).

Syria currently is my favorite for sheer beauty and diversity of the regions, with an island full of fun. Sinai was a close second, but IMHO the kind people at ORT dropped the ball so heartbreakingly on the updates front that I've relegated it to 'suspended' status.

[buceador]

1. Syria
2. PG
3. Caucasus
4. Kola
5. Nevada
6. Marianas
7. Sinai
(I have been so disappointed with SA that I uninstalled 4 months ago)

21 minutes ago, cfrag said:

but IMHO the kind people at ORT dropped the ball so heartbreakingly on the updates front that I've relegated it to 'suspended' status.

This!

[Raisuli]

Syria or Sinai, but lately I've done a lot of training in Kola.  The problem with Kola are the distances.  Since geopolitics doesn't exist on my maps that shouldn't be a problem, but that western coast is so pretty I don't want to blow things up there!  I run into the same problem with SA.  Kola also has a metric boatload of unimplemented towns and villages, and while it's tempting to use the streets to lay out a custom BadGuy base eventually I expect buildings to appear and mess that up.

With the S maps I just put the BadGuys out in the desert, and since Massun was added I can build an entire base from scratch on a blank piece of sand.  F10 menu to add threats as needed depending on what I want to play with; at some point I should start to use AI wingthings, but for now I just fly single jet and manage the targets as appropriate.

[BigMotor]

Syria, although my Phantom seems to like Marianas best.

[Kang]

Interesting question, really. I like Syria a lot, but when push comes to shove, I really spend most of my time on the Caucasus map anyway.

Frankly, that's the reason I'm not jumping excitedly at Kola so far.

[Marcq]

Kola, after trying it, lots of potential 

Marc..

[Rex]

Whoa, with 10 choices, I didn't think one map would get over 50%.  That's decisive.

I like Syria too.  I think it's a great map.  I like pretty much all of them, though. 

What is it about Syria that makes it so many people's favorite?

[Qiou87]

37 minutes ago, Rex said:

Whoa, with 10 choices, I didn't think one map would get over 50%.  That's decisive.

I like Syria too.  I think it's a great map.  I like pretty much all of them, though. 

What is it about Syria that makes it so many people's favorite?

I also voted for Syria. In MP I prefer to fly on it, my mates too. Why? It is big, it has a huge terrain variety (mountains, open desert, coastline, island...), the level of detail is very high (great for helo ops) and it is extremely relevant in terms of scenarios both cold war and modern. I feel like you get multiple maps in one, it never gets boring to me because of the size and different types of terrain.

[Rex]

On 5/21/2024 at 5:03 AM, VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants said:

1. Syria
2. Caucasus
3. Kola
4. Sinai
5. Persian gulf
6. Nevada
7. South Atlantic
8. Marianas
9. Normandy 2.0
10. The Channel

It's almost impossible to pick favorites because I love each map for different reasons.  There isn't one I could put at the bottom of a list.

With that being said, I'm surprised to see Normandy near the bottom of yours. Especially with Normandy 2.0 having been released.   It has both London and Paris, as well as the Eifel Tower, Arc Du Triumph, Mont St Michael, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Omaha Beach, to name just a few + tons of airfields, including dozens of temporary airfields.  It's a spectacular map.  And I can still max out the frames in VR.  If you haven't flown it in awhile, I'd invite you to revisit it and see what they've done with it in the last couple of years.

Edited November 1, 2024 by Rex

[metzger]

Caucasus
Nttr
Syria
PG

I have high hopes for Afghanistan.

The rest I don't own or use at all.
Caucasus remains the most versatile terrain with fields, forrests, mountains, 4 seasons, populated and not populated areas and also have this soviet vibes.

Sent from my SM-G985F using Tapatalk

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

3 hours ago, Rex said:

With that being said, I'm surprised to see Normandy near the bottom of yours. Especially with Normandy 2.0 having been released.   It has both London and Paris, as well as the Eifel Tower, Arc Du Triumph, Mont St Michael, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Omaha Beach, to name just a few + tons of airfields, including dozens of temporary airfields.  It's a spectacular map.  And I can still max out the frames in VR.  If you haven't flown it in awhile, I'd invite you to revisit it and see what they've done with it in the last couple of years.

My problem is it was far from optimised. I have made a video above London lately.  It had little update until recent. Hope for the best!