DCS (Digital Combat Simulator) Catch-All

Rat Boy wrote:

There's a reason why not everyone in the Navy has the callsign "Ice Man."

And that reason is that unlike the Air Force, we don't get to choose our own callsigns. Haha!

I'm slightly regretting not getting the Hornet when it was $20 off. Slightly. I've been doing a lot of flying in the A-10C in VR, and it's just difficult enough to manage all the avionics that it becomes more work than fun at times. I suspect the F/A-18 would be similar, but it does look really good. And carrier ops in VR would be super fun.

Maybe in 6 months when there's some mission/campaign content for it.

Yeah, I pondered waiting too but the cheap bastard in me went with the discount (Was still 80 bucks Canadian with exchange!)

I feel like the workload in the Hornet is less than in the Hog. Then again, not all the system are implemented yet.

If anyone is still playing DCS, they are having a free weekend where you can fly the new F/A-18C Hornet, the Su-33, and try out the Persian Gulf map. Now until Oct 1st.

Holy crap...

Aw hell yes.

Subscribing

Looks pretty great, I still have F/A-18 sitting here unplayed and due to chaos of life don't see that changing anytime soon. With the crappy exchange rate, it costs almost $100 CAD, so for me I'm out for now.

Some of the AI stuff sounds cool, like a fully functioning RIO.

Also for those interested there is a 2-pack for a bit cheaper I think: https://store.heatblur.com/products/...

The crew chief is going to being pulling bird nests and rat droppings out of my Hornet's intakes before I get time to learn it properly.

Quick pop in to say that the recently released A-10C campaign The Enemy Within 3.0 is just phenomenal. And it's only $8! The missions are interesting, the voice acting and sense of immersion is outstanding, and there's easily 30+ hours of content in the 21 missions. You have to learn to use your radios, and using the CDU to enter new target coordinates is critical, but the whole thing is just a ton of fun.

The one downside I will mention is that most of the missions give you a wingman, and you really need the ordnance they are carrying as well. There are physically too many targets for one plane to handle, especially air to air threats like SAMs and AAA. The problem is that, at times, your wingman is as dumb as a bag of rocks. I've had more than one mission where my wingman is calling out targets to me with urgency, I'm radioing back "YES I SEE THEM, PLEASE ATTACK NOW" and his response is "Roger!", followed by endless circling. Thankfully, a lot of the missions let you RTB and progress the campaign even if you technically failed. Frustrating, but not the campaign designer's fault. There are apparently a lot of issues with DCS wingman AI.

Overall, highly recommended. Probably one of the best single player flight sim experiences I've ever had.

So I bought something today:

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Having not touched a flight sim until I messed around with the free DCS World aircraft, I was afraid I'd stink up the joint, but thankfully I'm not as bad as I thought I was. Not Top Gun material yet, but I'm getting there.

I'm probably going to hold off until either a) it finally goes on sale, or b) some good campaigns or missions come out for it. I haven't looked to see if there's a stock campaign with the module, and if so whether it's any good. I still have the AJS37 Viggen Red Flag Campaign, the F-15C Georgian Campaign, the M2000C Red Flag Campaign, and all four helicopters that I've barely touched. I...probably don't need to spend $70 or whatever on the Tomcat yet.

I should have added the caveat that it's in early access, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Rat Boy wrote:

Not Top Gun material yet, but I'm getting there.

Don't worry. I'm sure your on a veritable highway to the danger zone.

Okay, seeing the catapult crew do the final song and dance before launch looks cool.

Edit: DCS is having a sale ending on April 3rd with modules up to 50% off, like the F/A-18.

I caved:

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I also preordered the Super Carrier module and somehow got the Su-33 for free. Nearly panicked when Steam showed the Flanker module in the DLC window instead of the carrier.

Rat Boy wrote:

Okay, seeing the catapult crew do the final song and dance before launch looks cool.

So having launched in real life in Hornets and Growlers a fair number of times from the deck of a mighty Nimitz carrier, I'd say that's pretty damned good. They're missing some plane director guys, the dudes who hold up weight signs to verify the cat-shot strength, and there are a few niggles (who the hell parks an E-2 Hawkeye there?), but it's a really solid effort. He mentioned that he was launching heavy (based on the ordinance he was carrying, presumably), but it didn't look like a combat shot. I wonder if they have the "raise-the-roof" signal programmed in for when the shooter wants you to light the burners.

Overall, I'm very impressed. I can see some of the guys in the training pipeline using this to practice their launch sequence prior to heading out to the boat for real.

Rat Boy wrote:

Okay, seeing the catapult crew do the final song and dance before launch looks cool.

Edit: DCS is having a sale ending on April 3rd with modules up to 50% off, like the F/A-18.

They are also doing free trials of aircraft modules now through April 15th. About 15 different aircraft, 2 days each. The only reason this isn't hitting my wallet harder is because I've already bought almost everything I'm interested in.

I think I'm better at the Hornet than the Tomcat:

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One of the one-off missions involves loading up with Sidewinders and going after four Mig-29s. Nailed the first three on my first pass, but got into a protracted dogfight with the fourth. Got the last one with a split second snapshot. There were times I realized that if I tried pulling the same hard turns in the F-14, I would've lost control and ended up on the ground.

Must resist, too much time investment. Must resist.

Glad I didn't try practicing take-offs and landings today:

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As an April Fool's joke, the F/A-18 and the F-16 comes with a slight modification. The landing gear lever now activates a slot machine. Match three symbols and the aircraft does what the symbols depict. Pictured above: the landing gear. It can also extend and retract the flaps and speed brake. It can also trigger an engine fire, which is only half as bad on the Hornet than the Viper. But the best is getting three ejection seat symbols.

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Eight times I tried to hit the screenshot button to catch the bomb just a split second before impact and that's the best I could do. Then pod goes crazy and I have to abort just as I hit bingo fuel.

Turns out figuring out to use the radio to call the air field so they turn the lights on for you makes night landings so much easier:

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Also, I'd hate to be living in one of those buildings in Tblisi below the approach to runway 13.

Found me a spot in the mall parking lot:

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So, apparently the Supercarrier module early access (which was supposed to come out today) has been postponed to whenever they can solve a show-stopping bug that cropped up over the weekend. But, since I set aside time today to fly, I flew a couple missions, one in the 'Cat and one in the Hornet, both essentially a dry run for CAP missions from a carrier. By the program's count, I logged about 3 and a half hours in the air today.

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I think that means I flew the equivalent of a trip to Denver. As much as I enjoy the challenge of mastering the F-14's old school handling, in comparison to the Hornet, flying it alone or without swapping seats makes it cumbersome to fight with except in close-range dogfighting. Obviously, the Hornet's limitations in the same mission I created was the lack of speed, lower fuel capacity, and fewer stations for weapons made even fewer because of the need to attach fuel tanks.

It was multiplayer bugs, but not show-stopping ones. I think they just want to make sure Multiplayer works well right off the bat since that seems to be where the most vociferous criticism comes from.

Eagle Dynamics wrote:

The main “no-go” for me and I am sure for you too, is Multiplayer behavior which still suffers from certain non-game breaker bugs which were confirmed on Saturday, April 11th. Today we have a new plan and will be working overtime to bring you this long-awaited product. I actively follow the threads, in particular “April 15th 2020” and I understand how disappointed you are, but I am confident you will agree that Multiplayer needs a bit more love.

I don't know if I care about multiplayer, but I'm glad to see them taking the time to fix things before release. The response of the various online DCS communities really drives me up the wall though. They lambast ED for releasing things in a half-finished state (even when clearly labeled "early access"), but when ED decides to wait and slide a release date to fix bugs they whine and Female Doggo about that too. I guess they're just normal entitled internet people?

You know how some people can get with carrier performance these days.

Also:

DCS beta patch notes specific to the F-14B wrote:

Disabled AI kneeling (for supercarrier)
Added holdback bar (for supercarrier)
Added salute command (for supercarrier)
Supercarrier compatibility added for client/player
WIP: F-14B AI compatibility for supercarrier

I had been anticipating using the Hornet exclusively for a while, but oh well. Guess I'll be arguing with Jester some more.

And everything* is free for a month starting on April 19th.

* = Except things such as the Tomcat. Jester's too cool to go F2P.