DCS: Cold War Germany - preview

[Retnek]

4 hours ago, TheBiggerBass said:

VoKuHiLa, Schulterpolster, Karottenhose, NDW Music - it all has to be there 

Yes to all of it - a bit difficult to re-enact but omni-present: light-grey dust, smoke, tobacco smouldering anywhere! Large amounts of cigarette stubs at any place people stood still or gathered for more than a minute. Ashtrays on every table often crammed with ash and stubs. Cigarette-machines at any corner! Lot's of windows permanently tilted with the escaping smoke painting typical upward traces on the face of the buildings ... oh yes!

[Jayhawk1971]

Don't forget drunken hords of "Ausscheider" with the white sweatshirts.

[KarlRadek]

Hello everbody, dear Team Ugra,

First off: wonderful work! I had not expected to be so excited about a DCS map of the place where I live.

Looking at the Leipzig area I noticed there might be something important missing that was very, very defining for the 80s here in “Mitteldeutschland”: The open-pit lignite-mining infrastructure.

In this screenshot (which is a view roughly north-to-south I presume, from Leipzig main station with the very well modelled Völkerschlachtdenkmal south-easterly direction) there are at least two lakes visible south of the city. These are the modern Cospudener lake and Markleeberger lake. Great places to swim nowadays!

But: These lakes did not exist in the 80s. These were active open-pit lignite mines. The pits were flooded in the early 2000s. In a mid-/late 80s scenario these mines would have been running at maximum capacity to feed the Lippendorf coal-fired power plant for the city, the heavy chemical industry to the south and west as well as provide traction power for the railway. Most houses in Leipzig were heated by ovens burning lignite-“Briketts”. In GDR economic planning terms this was a most critical piece of infrastructure as “Braunkohle” was the only domestic fossil fuel the country had. Wintertime slumps in production were compensated by deploying the army to the mines to avoid blackouts. Mig21 jet engines were used to de-ice railcars, tanks were used to shift the tracks for the excavators.

Look at this map: it overlays the modern infrastructure/terrain to the south of the city with the state of the mining pits in ca. 1987:
- Orange are the “reserved zones” into which the mining operation was planned to progress, this would be woods, fields or unlucky villages J
- Grey zones are the then-current mining pits where the excavators would be active. Please note how these very much overlap with the modern lakes!
- Green zones are the “recultivated zones”, the mine dumps being slowly reconditioned to be used a farmland. 

This might be a bit nerdy but seeing the correct Trabis and Barkas on the street it would be a shame not to have this truly defining feature of the GDR society represented. The pollution coming from these ever-expanding mines, their ridiculous infrastructure (railyards!) and manpower requirements and the sheer destruction of the landscape they caused were a major factor in the protest movements of the late 1980s and in the collapse the of the GDR. There are lignite deposits under most of the southern sections of the city and it was considered to be just matter of time before the mines would swing north and literally eat the city. Just like they had eaten the villages in the south. Very hungry caterpillars.

In DCS terms, the mines would be very useful landmarks for navigation, they would be interesting places for helicopter operations and the power plants connected to them are strategic targets.
The lakes we see now are products of the deindustrialisation post-1990 and of the very sudden and radical progress of environmental protection achieved during the `89 collapse of SED governance. They are wonderful to have today but for the 80s vibe, you need pits, wastelands and cyclopean excavators (+ smog)!

 

 

PS: This also applies to the Lausitz / Hoyerswerda / Schwarze Pumpe regions in Phase 3! So these assets will be reused  Plz PM me if you need maps/data for the GDR lignite industry of the 80s.

  

[jonni_j]

а какая примерная дата выхода этого чуда-чудесного?  моды с миг-23/27 смотрелись бы тут как влитые

Edited April 2 by jonni_j

[gulredrel]

@KarlRadek Thanks for pointing this out and hopefully Ugra can use these valued input to improve the map further.

Currently living in the Phase 3 zone and being able to have three of the remaining power plant's cooling tower clouds in viewing distance.

Looking forward to recreate this incident due to my lack of flying skills concerning the MiG-21:

http://www.lausitz-bild.de/cottbus/panoramen/flugzeugabsturz1985/flugzeugabsturz1985.html

https://www.zdf.de/play/dokus/vor-50-jahren-flugzeugabsturz-in-cottbus-movie-100/jubilaeum-militaerflugzeug-absturz-cottbus-100

Edited April 2 by gulredrel
added video link

[MAESTR0]

Hi Thanks guys! Lots of useful information. Here you go
When creating the Cold War Germany map, we also paid attention to the industrial infrastructure, which will be the key to your campaigns! They are always good landmarks and important targets.

The Port of Hamburg is the largest trade hub in Northern Europe. In wartime, it becomes a point for unloading NATO reinforcements or a target for logistics strikes.

Power plants - can be seen from very far away, you won't get lost. / Destroy the power grid to weaken the enemy industry.

Car factories - in wartime, they can switch to the production of military equipment - accordingly, these are your targets, and it looks like this is a place for the challenge

Quarries are good landmarks.

Mines

 

 

Edited April 2 by MAESTR0

[gulredrel]

15 minutes ago, MAESTR0 said:

Matches perfect with KarlRadek's post above. Thanks for showing more and more details.

Let's drain the lakes around Leipzig and make the open-pit mines they were in the 80s.

[ThorBrasil]

I am impressed with the quality of this map. I am really concerned about the quality of the Afghanistan and Iraq maps. Ugra is becoming the Heatblur of maps.

[cfrag]

31 minutes ago, MAESTR0 said:

The Port of Hamburg

I have to ask: In 1974 the Köhlbrandbrücke (Köhlbrand Brdige) opened (my granddad took me to the opening) to the public, and became one of Hamburg's easily recognizable landmarks, and it's smack dab inside Hamburg's port. 

Will it be in there? Please? Please?

[WolfCat]

@MAESTR0 You wrote "which will be the key to your campaigns!"
"Destroy the power grid to weaken the enemy industry" etc etc.
This really jumpstarts one's imagination to start running. In a dynamic way, so to speak. Sorry, i will show myself out.

[sirrah]

1 hour ago, MAESTR0 said:

Hi Thanks guys! Lots of useful information. Here you go
When creating the Cold War Germany map, we also paid attention to the industrial infrastructure, which will be the key to your campaigns! They are always good landmarks and important targets.

The Port of Hamburg is the largest trade hub in Northern Europe. In wartime, it becomes a point for unloading NATO reinforcements or a target for logistics strikes.

Power plants - can be seen from very far away, you won't get lost. / Destroy the power grid to weaken the enemy industry.

Car factories - in wartime, they can switch to the production of military equipment - accordingly, these are your targets, and it looks like this is a place for the challenge

Quarries are good landmarks.

Mines

 

 

Very impressive amount of details!

As someone actively working in the industrial sector (plant design), I love destroying factories in my spare time in DCS 

 

One minor thing though... I hope ED will work on their "smoke" system, because a cooling tower creates proper clouds

 

 

 

 

[skywalker22]

Will all the human made objects be destructible?

[Weta43]

Stunning all-round.

 

One small thing though:

In the Hamburg vid there's some odd clipping of the container cranes that have their arms up at about 10-12 seconds in (the ones down are ok).

At about 80 degrees to the aircraft, they just disappear...

[zsoltfireman]

Hello,

When is the release planned?

 

[draconus]

1 minute ago, zsoltfireman said:

When is the release planned?

2025

[zsoltfireman]

4 minutes ago, draconus said:

2025

[MAXsenna]

Stunning all-round.
 
One small thing though:
In the Hamburg vid there's some odd clipping of the container cranes that have their arms up at about 10-12 seconds in (the ones down are ok).
At about 80 degrees to the aircraft, they just disappear...

Noticed that too!

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[Hiob]

17 hours ago, ThorBrasil said:

I am impressed with the quality of this map. I am really concerned about the quality of the Afghanistan and Iraq maps. Ugra is becoming the Heatblur of maps.

Always was..... (imho). Syria tops all other current maps by far.

[MAESTR0]

Hi fighters!
Today we are going to Hamburg — the second-largest city in Germany, is one of the largest port cities in Europe, located at the mouth of the Elbe River into the North Sea. 

The Heinrich Hertz Tower (German: Heinrich-Hertz-Turm) is a landmark radio telecommunication tower in the city of Hamburg. Its height is 279.2 meters and it is the tallest building in the city. Heinrich Hertz is a native of Hamburg, who made an important contribution to the development of electrodynamics / Yes, the unit is named after him - Hz.
 

St. Michael's Church is one of the most significant architectural structures in Northern Germany, which is the "calling card" of the city (132-meter baroque tower)

Hamburg City Hall (Hamburger Rathaus) is the seat of the local government (senate) and parliament of the city of Hamburg.

St. Nicholas Church (German: ehemalige Hauptkirche St. Nikolai - "former main church of St. Nicholas", also German: Mahnmal St. Nikolai - "Memorial of St. Nicholas") is a neo-Gothic church. The second tallest building in Hamburg (147.3 m) and one of the tallest churches in the world - ranks 5th.

Hamburg Airport (ICAO: EDDH / IATA: HAM) - everything about this city reminds me of food )
The airport opened in January 1911, making it the oldest international airport in the world that is still in operation.

And now we'll move to  East Germany  The capitalists will be watching this place, finishing their  and looking for communist blips on their radars, and the communists will be watching the capitalists. One mistake and in a moment a group of MiGs will be in the air.

Garz (The callsign was GESETZ)
Airfield of the East German Air Force. It was used for the temporary deployment of wings with construction measures at the home airfields. It was also used by the East German Interflug airlines as "Heringsdorf" A beautiful takeoff/landing over the sea is guaranteed.

 

 

 

 

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

[Beirut]

Looks fantastic! 

 

The only issue will be what to fly first after loading it up. 

[RVT2403]

47 minutes ago, MAESTR0 said:

Hi fighters!
Today we are going to Hamburg — the second-largest city in Germany, is one of the largest port cities in Europe, located at the mouth of the Elbe River into the North Sea. 

The Heinrich Hertz Tower (German: Heinrich-Hertz-Turm) is a landmark radio telecommunication tower in the city of Hamburg. Its height is 279.2 meters and it is the tallest building in the city. Heinrich Hertz is a native of Hamburg, who made an important contribution to the development of electrodynamics / Yes, the unit is named after him - Hz.
 

St. Michael's Church is one of the most significant architectural structures in Northern Germany, which is the "calling card" of the city (132-meter baroque tower)

Hamburg City Hall (Hamburger Rathaus) is the seat of the local government (senate) and parliament of the city of Hamburg.

St. Nicholas Church (German: ehemalige Hauptkirche St. Nikolai - "former main church of St. Nicholas", also German: Mahnmal St. Nikolai - "Memorial of St. Nicholas") is a neo-Gothic church. The second tallest building in Hamburg (147.3 m) and one of the tallest churches in the world - ranks 5th.

Hamburg Airport (ICAO: EDDH / IATA: HAM) - everything about this city reminds me of food )
The airport opened in January 1911, making it the oldest international airport in the world that is still in operation.

And now we'll move to  East Germany  The capitalists will be watching this place, finishing their  and looking for communist blips on their radars, and the communists will be watching the capitalists. One mistake and in a moment a group of MiGs will be in the air.

Garz (The callsign was GESETZ)
Airfield of the East German Air Force. It was used for the temporary deployment of wings with construction measures at the home airfields. It was also used by the East German Interflug airlines as "Heringsdorf" A beautiful takeoff/landing over the sea is guaranteed.

 

 

 

 

I just can't wait to drop bombs on that

[sirrah]

Yup, Matthew may now officially be used in this thread:

[MiGCap1]

Hamburg in the 1980s ... before the big train stations were built ... like Dammtor at the base of the TV tower ...   

The tour through the city looks really great!   But the train stuff could be a little bit improved in future updates. Trains and their lines and stations were and are always infrastructure targets and - also very important - the big stations are recognizable landmarks for setting up initial points for air strikes.

Don't get me wrong, the town is impressive.

Thank You and Your team for this great work, @MAESTR0!

 

Edited April 4 by MiGCap1

[corbu1]

What are you doing with me? The map looks so beautiful!

I want it! I want it! I need it!