Who's a Falcon user

[Eddie]

I've been a Falcon addict since '98, but as soon as I got A-10C on my hard drive I haven't flown it once. I don't even have it installed anymore.

[Krippz]

I'll still be playing Falcon to get my F-16 fix going. But ED has done an incredible job with DCS A-10C so I may forget about Falcon for quite a while =)

[mvsgas]

I think DCS A-10C can be compared to the way Falcon 4.0 was when it first came out in 98 in term of what it it did. Falcon 4.0, back then was beyond most combat sims. I remember the first time i saw the manual and the graphics, it all looked amazing and so much information seem overwhelming. I think Falcon was a grate game, but owes so many things to the community that kept it alive. I think DCS series can do many thing for combat flight sims.

[HiJack]

If Falcon, FreeFalcon or OpenFalcon is to be visited again in the future they need to come up with a 3D cockpit on all aircrafts in high resolution. If they want to upgrade the graphics to try and attract new players they need to go with DirectX 11. Any less than that I'm not returning for sure. 2D cockpit is definetly out ;)

[Neverex]

It all began with Falcon 3 and am still flying the king. Will give it a rest for a while now, at least untill the very rumored new BMS lands.

 

Am in the process of learning but, from what I've seen sofar, the A-10C qualifies for the term Simulation. If ED will decide for a dynamic theatre environment, although not like the one Falcon has, which in my opinion is very immersive but with great shortcomings, I'll be even happier.

 

Great job ED Team on this module.

[HungaroJET]

Im playing Falcon since 1985 :smilewink:

 

Im really loved @ Amiga :smartass:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_(computer_game_series)

[Zembla]

I played Falcon. Enjoyed it. But it's lack of a good clickable 3D pit makes it a bit outdated. I know there is a clickable 3D pit, but most of the times the buttons, switches, dials, don't change state after you manipulate them.

 

I did enjoy the dynamic feel of the dynamic campaign, eventhough, as Sobek describes, there were a lot of retarded missions that could never fly.

 

Anyway, compared to Falcon, DCS:A-10C goes a way further in its attention to detail in recreating avionics, flight systems and in general flight itself.

 

-Z

[vrv]

I started Falcon late but I really enjoyed it. I've been flying it for around two years but with the Hog you can't make me fly anything else. I might as well uninstall FC2 and Black Shark.

[rweaves6]

Indeed, I got back into Falcon several months ago while I was waiting for the release of the A-10C. It was a bit like meeting up with an old friend ;) FC2 just didn't cut it for me campaign-wise and I soon got bored, so it I'll be interesting to see whether the A-10C campaign has me reaching for the Falcon manual again. In terms of a study sThat'sim and quality of graphics, so far the A-10C seems to be second to none.

 

That's a very good point for us offliners. I wouldn't have been able to fly Falcon for 20 years had it not had that campaign. It's a (still) buggy campaign but boy do you feel an immersion.

This has been beaten to death though......

 

Back to the Hog!

[coolts]

I loved the F4 dynamic campaign a and, no, I’m not rose tinted about it. I’ve spent enough time deleting suicide missions from the ATO and shouting at the AI when it refused to move to forward airbases to have any illusions about the campaign AI. It was very good for its time.

 

I love the story aspect of a dynamic campaign, your imagination takes over, "if we can just retake Seoul, the eastern front will collapse". Even though none of that was actually happening, your mind did the rest.

 

Single missions though, when done properly with branching possibilities depending on your decisions, properly triggered enemy actions, etc. can really pull you in. After all, as viper pointed out, real A-10 pilots wouldn’t be assigning FRAG orders, etc. thats done at different level IRL, and if Falcon hadn’t done it………

 

Anyways, I love falcon for the avionics and having bought the Cougar MFD’s, being able to use them properly in Falcon was amazing. I am a born button twiddler and switch flipper so I love complex weapons systems and procedures. Now though, time will tell.

 

I am astounded by A-10c. It’s still a beta and I can’t even fire a maverick but it is simply leagues ahead of any other fixed wing flight model. The avionics are degree level and have raised the bar above Falcon. Finally.

 

However….

 

The ghost of Falcon will linger until;

 

· ED gives us a dynamic campaign

· ED do a Fast Jet sim

 

If what ED have done in the past tells us anything, then they won’t do a DC until they are happy they can do it properly, and to be honest, I wouldn’t want them to. A crowd pleaser would backfire if not handled right. I personally don’t mind waiting and can see the pro’s and cons of both dynamic and scripted missions, etc. so am not in either camp.

 

I would ideally want both but I am aware of the difficulties of strategic to tactical AI planning. I play Total War and Civ games but even their AI constantly gets slated. It is a very difficult thing to get right.

 

There is also the question of focus. With DCS, ED set out to give us faithful and functional replications of a single aircraft with each module. They already have 'The Fighter Collection Simulation Engine' (TFCSE), which lends itself to tactical battlefield operation, not strategic level ATM, (and AFAIK). They also are creating modules based on aircraft that they have in depth systems data access to from their military work. This is a very shrewd financial model to follow as it means you are sharing assets and working very efficiently, (kind of a reverse duke nukem;). Now unless you are aware of any major air forces worldwide who are in the market for a F-16 trainer system that ED would do AND that would negotiate with ED for the leisure software rights to publish……….

 

As for a fast jet sim as the next DCS, bloody hell, I haven’t even got to the point of doing a mission in A-10 yet. I am a happy customer right now and am loving the whole beta thing. Being part of something like this as it evolves.

 

Study sims live again and they bloody well rock!

Edited October 8, 2010 by coolts

[designoner01]

Hey.. those of you who are on FALCON...do you prefer Free Falcon, or Falcon4AF??? which??

[BoneDust]

Hey.. those of you who are on FALCON...do you prefer Free Falcon, or Falcon4AF??? which??

 

Never ask that question if you're a Falcon flyer bud...LOL

 

Anyway, I was just curious how many Falconite have A10 and what they think of it :)

[Steel Jaw]

Hey.. those of you who are on FALCON...do you prefer Free Falcon, or Falcon4AF??? which??

 

Open Falcon 4.7.

 

Maybe even a BMS in time.

Edited October 8, 2010 by Mower

[sobek]

The others are just for pretenders.

 

It gets kinda old by now ;)

[Steel Jaw]

It gets kinda old by now ;)

 

Fixed. :smilewink:

[sobek]

Fixed. :smilewink:

 

No worries m8, i know you're experiencing frugals-withdrawal symptoms :D

[CrashEd]

I loved the F4 dynamic campaign a and, no, I’m not rose tinted about it. I’ve spent enough time deleting suicide missions from the ATO and shouting at the AI when it refused to move to forward airbases to have any illusions about the campaign AI. It was very good for its time.

 

I love the story aspect of a dynamic campaign, your imagination takes over, "if we can just retake Seoul, the eastern front will collapse". Even though none of that was actually happening, your mind did the rest.

 

Single missions though, when done properly with branching possibilities depending on your decisions, properly triggered enemy actions, etc. can really pull you in. After all, as viper pointed out, real A-10 pilots wouldn’t be assigning FRAG orders, etc. thats done at different level IRL, and if Falcon hadn’t done it………

 

Anyways, I love falcon for the avionics and having bought the Cougar MFD’s, being able to use them properly in Falcon was amazing. I am a born button twiddler and switch flipper so I love complex weapons systems and procedures. Now though, time will tell.

 

I am astounded by A-10c. It’s still a beta and I can’t even fire a maverick but it is simply leagues ahead of any other fixed wing flight model. The avionics are degree level and have raised the bar above Falcon. Finally.

 

However….

 

The ghost of Falcon will linger until;

 

· ED gives us a dynamic campaign

· ED do a Fast Jet sim

 

If what ED have done in the past tells us anything, then they won’t do a DC until they are happy they can do it properly, and to be honest, I wouldn’t want them to. A crowd pleaser would backfire if not handled right. I personally don’t mind waiting and can see the pro’s and cons of both dynamic and scripted missions, etc. so am not in either camp.

 

I would ideally want both but I am aware of the difficulties of strategic to tactical AI planning. I play Total War and Civ games but even their AI constantly gets slated. It is a very difficult thing to get right.

 

There is also the question of focus. With DCS, ED set out to give us faithful and functional replications of a single aircraft with each module. They already have 'The Fighter Collection Simulation Engine' (TFCSE), which lends itself to tactical battlefield operation, not strategic level ATM, (and AFAIK). They also are creating modules based on aircraft that they have in depth systems data access to from their military work. This is a very shrewd financial model to follow as it means you are sharing assets and working very efficiently, (kind of a reverse duke nukem;). Now unless you are aware of any major air forces worldwide who are in the market for a F-16 trainer system that ED would do AND that would negotiate with ED for the leisure software rights to publish……….

 

As for a fast jet sim as the next DCS, bloody hell, I haven’t even got to the point of doing a mission in A-10 yet. I am a happy customer right now and am loving the whole beta thing. Being part of something like this as it evolves.

 

Study sims live again and they bloody well rock!

 

 

Excellent post.

[asparagin]

I'm just curious how many F4 fans have actually pre-purchased the A10 and what you think of it?

cheers

 

Who put you up to this, was it Wags? :D

 

Hey.. those of you who are on FALCON...do you prefer Free Falcon, or Falcon4AF??? which??

 

Who put you up to this was it LP? :D

[JG27_Arklight]

If Falcon, FreeFalcon or OpenFalcon is to be visited again in the future they need to come up with a 3D cockpit on all aircrafts in high resolution. If they want to upgrade the graphics to try and attract new players they need to go with DirectX 11. Any less than that I'm not returning for sure. 2D cockpit is definetly out ;)

 

You do know that DCS A-10 doesn't use DX11, right?

 

With regards to attracting new players, I disagree. I don't think a new Falcon needs to utilize DX11 to attract new players at all. All they really need is DX9 support. Many people don't even own DX11 cards, and the ones that do, probably couldn't tell you what is so great about DX11. Folks who bring up tessellation should take a few minutes to actually think about all the games that currently use it. It won't take long.

 

Case in point. Some people were disappointed when they found out that DSC A-10 would not be utilizing DX11 after seeing all the screenshots. Later, people realized that the screenshots they saw of DCS A-10 weren't even of the product in DX11. lol

 

I don't forsee DX11 being utilized all that much for at least another 1-2 years. Even then, it could end up being another DX10 flop.

 

My .02c :)

[ziozeus]

I'm flying FC2.

And I think I'm flying suicide static campaign missions in that.

Repeating them tons of times.

Getting to know each position of each vehicle and aircraft and what is going to happen... and waiting 20 minutes to get to the front with my su25 with 8x time acceleration.

Knowing I have to run in fast, trying to kill that armour vehicle (why fack wants me to kill that one, behind the front and near that dangerous sam?)

Not even time of day or wheater changin from one mission reply to the other keeps me away for boredom.

I'm loosing faith.

I'm sorry but I start to miss FF5.52 (whose dynamic campaign and AI has come to be really smart at these days).

 

One more thing. While I'm flying to bomb, I would like to be able to hear what my support fighters are telling each others (engaging this or that, being hit, escaping, anything... and again this is another good point to achive from ED, but I heard A-10 has something more on this right?). And if I'm flying to protect, I would like to hear from bombers... something more than in FC2 at least...

 

Sorry for talking about dynamic campaign, but I think today more than before this is definitely the point.

 

Thanks all for discussing

Edited October 28, 2010 by ziozeus

[Zaltys]

I’ve been flying Falcon for 5 years and going to stick with it. I got DCS A-10C but lack of DC and many other things mean that it’s not “all-in-one” substitution of Falcon.

I also fly VRS F-18E, so don’t call me not hardcore vpilot. J

Here you can find excellent thoughts on what modern COMBAT sim has to be:

http://www.cleared-to-engage.com/2010/10/24/lets_give_a_stage_to_our_actors/

[Steel Jaw]

I also fly VRS F-18E, so don’t call me not hardcore vpilot.

 

When you can fly it in a tactical combat environment it'll be worth something. Not until.

 

Been flying Falcon in one form or another since 1988. Nothing has ever replaced it for me until the DCS A10C.

[RIPTIDE]

 

Been flying Falcon in one form or another since 1988. Nothing has ever replaced it for me until the DCS A10C.

Never touched any of the Falcons myself. Never really could build up the love for that single engined thing.

[Steel Jaw]

Never touched any of the Falcons myself. Never really could build up the love for that single engined thing.

 

I seek hardcore realism and high fidelity so for a long time Falcon was the only sim for me.

[RIPTIDE]

I seek hardcore realism and high fidelity so for a long time Falcon was the only sim for me.

Hmmm. I heard a rumour once that all Falconeers were virgins. That's not true is it?