With Cold War Germany, being able to disable JHMCS, Link16, and other features is even more important. We need to have those options in ME.

[Vähäkylä]

Our planes can do much more cold war if we just take functions away from them. 

Helmet sights, Link16, various datalink options, et cetera. Those are just some of the features that would allow us to make these planes fit in better for earlier time periods. Right now we have so little control over any of it, it is immensely frustrating. 

I would otherwise have a decent F-16C Block 25 in late 80s Germany fighting against East Germans with AIM-9L missiles and mostly dumb bombs, but I can't take its Link 16 or helmet sight away, which just completely break the whole idea. 

 

[PawlaczGMD]

Definitely for the HMCS, since it's an item the pilot can have equipped or not. Link16 is a little more tricky, since our model just has it. Not sure if it  requires external support to work, but if not, I can see how they would not give us the arbitrary power to switch off a system.  This is also important for MP in general where players can just ask ground crew to put on the HMCS, but mission date is such that it shouldn't be equipped.

[Whiskey11]

Link can be disabled in the ME... the HMCS can be removed and NVG's equipped by default, but I think it can be added by units on the ground.

As for the Link stuff, the biggest issue with disabling it in the ME is it ALSO disables the F-14's Link4... which isn't realistic.

[Lace]

DL can be disabled in the ME, but needs to be set per unit.

I guess tying these things into the historical date (like with the weapons & GPS) would work nicely.

Edited March 16 by Lace

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, Lace said:

I guess tying these things into the historical date (like with the weapons & GPS) would work nicely.

That would be very useful.

[bies]

Yes, earler A-10A, F-15C, F-16, F/A-18 variants would be crucial for the map.

 

 

[Vähäkylä]

Obviously getting the actual variants would be cooler, but there's already so much potential in being able to limit features that would help with that. 

[upyr1]

This is why I have suggested a 3-way historic mode.

Off

loose - This would differ based on the aircraft for example if there is only one variant in DCS let's say the F/A-18 as long as it is after 1983 you can use it as long as the nation is the United States however non-period weapons will be removed so we could get as close to an A model as possible. While on the other hand the F-14 if we have anything after 1975 we can get the A and 1987 we can get the B just neither of them can get targeting pods and bombs until the late 1990s

strict- 

 

 

[Pronin]

Getting older variants of each aircraft isn't realistically going to happen, but giving mission makers these options feels like a relatively simple option that would enhance experience greatly.

You can already disable JHMCS but can not stop players from requesting ground crew to put it back on.
As for datalinks, a ghetto solution could be just simply making the switch that turns them on not functional, ideally based on mission date even.

The F-16 we have and F-15 we are getting are not radically different from the 80's variants, so the ability to limit JHMCS/DL in combination with weapons restrictions can provide a close enough experience to the planes that would have actually been there in the 80's.

[Why485]

With the Germany 80s map, if we are going to run 80s themed missions, these options are going to be more important than ever. While not perfect, disabling JHMCS and datalink can be used to emulate earlier versions of the jets for a more 80s flavor.

[upyr1]

12 hours ago, Pronin said:

Getting older variants of each aircraft isn't realistically going to happen, but giving mission makers these options feels like a relatively simple option that would enhance experience greatly.

You can already disable JHMCS but can not stop players from requesting ground crew to put it back on.
As for datalinks, a ghetto solution could be just simply making the switch that turns them on not functional, ideally based on mission date even.

The F-16 we have and F-15 we are getting are not radically different from the 80's variants, so the ability to limit JHMCS/DL in combination with weapons restrictions can provide a close enough experience to the planes that would have actually been there in the 80's.

This is why I say the answer is a semi-historic mode, which will try to limit us to the most period correct version possible, which could be the existing model without things like the JMHC    

 

 

[Vähäkylä]

Yep, it isn't a perfect solution, but much better than what we have now!

[itn]

+1 yes please. Give the mission makers options to restrict some of these capabilities. It would enable historical and otherwise restricted environments.

[Bigity]

Sparrows on F-16 would be nice as well.