Opinions on best theatre and areas for operations

[markturner1960]

As title....... following my recent dissapointment with the Afghanistan map for helo ops ( reasons being: bad textures, poor terrain mesh detail primarily)

I wondered what others may have discovered in terms of really nice scenery that looks great close up, has decent hi res textures and nicely rendered mountains and hills. The 'stan looks good from 10.000 ft and higher, even very good, but close up, it falls down. 

So, what hidden gems in the other theatres have you helo guys discovered? 

[SunDown]

Doesn't get a ton of missions built for it, but I think the Sinai map is great for low level ops. Syria is the default answer here. Good map, ton of missions built for it. Alot of multiplayer server support for it.

I don't own Normandy, but I'd like to know what others think of that map for helo ops. 

 

Edited July 14, 2024 by SunDown

[Beirut]

Normandy is great for low and slow. The scenery is pure Haagen-Dazs. Delicious! Though the context of the map might not be what you want.

 

Syria is the gold standard. It's just fantastic. Better for modern ops.

 

 

Edited July 14, 2024 by Beirut

[Floyd1212]

The island of Cyprus is a great little playground for helos. A good mix of mountains and hills, and a few flat areas, too.

There are some fortresses in a couple cities on the east coast, and some castle ruins up in the mountains in the north. Nicosia has some unique features due to how the city is split between north and south with a UN controlled “DMZ” running through the middle. If you look for them, there are a lot of little outposts and guard towers along the entire UN controlled “stripe” through the island, and there are a couple compounds on top of the tallest mountain peak in the main mountain range. 

[markturner1960]

Thanks, pretty much my thinking too......Like Floyd, I really do like Cyprus, pretty much has it all........although I did hope that maybe some of you guys had checked out some of the further flung areas. Posting this has made me realise that on pretty much every map I own, there are probaly maybe only 20% of the areas that I have been to. I think I am going to make it my mission to do some serious sightseeing and see what I can discover. May take a while though! 

[Blackhawk163]

Yeah to add on this I have Nevada which I bought primarily for A-10 training missions, the Persian Gulf and “Meh-ganistan” and I will say the Caucuses is my absolute favorite, especially with the aforementioned mods. 
Syria has my attention, guess I’ll check if they have some coin and CAS missions for the ‘64 and 10

[NeedzWD40]

If one is willing to compromise a bit, the WWII maps are excellent for up-close details, and for the most part can work within the modern eras. The Channel is probably the best as it has all seasons and good detail, making it far more ideal for helicopter focused missions. Normandy is very similar, though it only has two seasons, but it is quite a bit larger. Lastly, Marianas boasts some good visuals at the cost of performance.

[Blackhawk163]

because of this thread I accidently bought the Sinai when I really wanted Syria, a total lack of paying attention to the details  Ah well, took off from the default airfield for the Instant mission and my gosh what I pretty detailed map, so smooth on my rig. So, while initially great, I'm really not into the theater of operations there so that sucks for me I guess lol.

In the process of downloading Syria.

[Blackhawk163]

5 hours ago, Schlingel mit Kringel said:

Syria still is the best thing since sliced toast imho if you like COIN. The whole map has such a nice variety in geography from bare desert in the east to lush hills and mountains in the west and also access to naval ops. For helicopters there are so many hidden pads you can build missions around and historical events give lots and lots of opportunities for realistic missions. And, to be on topic, the textures and ground mesh are overall great from any altitude. EDIT: there is Vivid Syria too by Barthek.

I also still love Caucasus when using Bartheks texture and Taz'S tree mods. Just looks great. It is an awesome map for helis with all those urban areas broken by open ground and forests. Towns might be pretty copypasta, but from a heli's perspective i do not find this too terrible. It is more prominent when you are up high. Map is great when you want more conventional warfare vs. COIN.

Nevada might not look too good down low either, but imho still way better than Pancakestan. But the option to have that really accurately modeled training environment with the 476th NTTR mission imho makes up for this a lot (if you fly western). Still one of my most flown maps. In the past i always hoped they would give it a texture overhaul. Now, with Pancackestan in mind, i hope they don't touch it at all.

 

So, Syria...

 

 

Just taking off from the hot ramp mission in the '64 and um... 

 

My new favorite just based on the starting location. Stutters a bit for me initially which was jarring as it was the only one that I can think of that has done that. Other than that, it ran great at a DSR scaling resolution of 5461x2880 (1.78x) with DLSS and DLAA and everything set to its maximum save for the chimney smoke and preload (about 7k) between 89-115 fps on my rig.

 

It's green, its sandy colored. It's varied. I like it 

 

Sorry to hijack your thread Mark

[LuseKofte]

I startes to look om Kola map a bit more. I think that is What I am looking for egen Caucasus feel too grey. 

[admiki]

I should state that my point of view is not influenced by historical connection between regions and events that have happened. I don't really care if something that has happened in certain part of the world is flown in another part, as long as we have at least some similarity of scenery.

For me, for heli ops, Syria is the best.

Variety of terrains gives you the most regarding mission ideas. Then comes Caucasus for "green" events.

Afghanistan has even more potential, but right now ED has a huge amount of work to do before that......I can't really call it a map, is ready to be enjoyed by us.