DCS Discussion

[Yskonyn]

It's out...look forward to trying this out tonight. Also picked up an HP Reverb on sale over the Holiday to replace my Oculus Rift-S for VR simming...big leap in resolution and clarity.

Wow! You are a true VR pioneer! Let us know what you think about the Reverb in combination with DCS after you've used it for a while. Congrats on the purchase!

[Jarhead0331]

^Yes. I just cannot go back to 2D, even with my functional MFDs that I put so much effort into nailing down so perfectly for my set up. VR flight offers such an unrivaled experience of being "there" inside the cockpit.

I only set up the Reverb yesterday. I definitely prefer the Rift-S overall as a VR platform, but the Reverb is unquestionably a leap in being able to read cockpit gauges and dials and spotting targets in the air and on the ground. I still need to tweak the settings some, but so far it is looking like it is going to be my go to headset for simming for now.

[mbar]

Seems YouTube is more excited than the DCS store page. JF-17 yet to be found.

Edit: Here is a link to purchase. Announcement forthcoming I suppose. :)
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/modules/

[Pete Dero]

Seems YouTube is more excited than the DCS store page. JF-17 yet to be found.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/modules/thunder/

[Dammit Carl!]

Props to DCS on getting some tasty jets out there!

[SirAndrewD]

I'm getting close to taking the plunge into DCS.  Now that I've got a new rig and monitor, the only piece of hardware I want to upgrade is my HOTAS with a Warthog. 

Still, DCS seems so daunting just with the selection.   I can see spending more money than I really want to on these planes.

[Jarhead0331]

^They are like potato chips. You really can't just have one.

[MengJiao]

I'm getting close to taking the plunge into DCS.  Now that I've got a new rig and monitor, the only piece of hardware I want to upgrade is my HOTAS with a Warthog. 

Still, DCS seems so daunting just with the selection.   I can see spending more money than I really want to on these planes.

  You get the FRogfoot (Su-25) and the Black Sea for free and the SU-25 is an interesting plane.  The WWII assets includes a Liberty Ship PLUS all the planes can be flown by the AI whether you buy them or not so you can set up attack runs with your SU-25 on the ship and see what will kill them quickest.
So for just 25 bucks you can have some interesting battles.

[SirAndrewD]

^They are like potato chips. You really can't just have one.

That's what I'm afraid of. 

I'm going to start with the Frogfoot as MengJiao suggested as is logical.  I imagine I'll get the itch for something sexy like a F/A-18 or F-14 pretty quickly.  The presence of Korean War birds also makes this a financially dangerous proposition for me. 

If I like it enough lets hope I still have enough to pay the power bill so I can actually play..

[mikeck]

I'm getting close to taking the plunge into DCS.  Now that I've got a new rig and monitor, the only piece of hardware I want to upgrade is my HOTAS with a Warthog. 

Still, DCS seems so daunting just with the selection.   I can see spending more money than I really want to on these planes.

I took the plunge back in May. I had never stuck with any flight sim for more than a week....and I tried a lot. I picked up the AV-8B and 7 months later, I haven't stopped playing the game. Once I got comfortable with things in the Harrier, I picked up the F-18 and dug in. I now alternate between the F-18 and the F-16 and design my own scenarios. It's amazing the kinds of things you can do in the game. I just played a scenario I made where an infantry FAC on a hillside is lazing enemy vehicles moving on a road. I had 2 F-15 (AI) take out several bridges in front of the units, then my flight of 4 F-18s came in and started picking off vehicles. I had set trigger though that as soon as we got into the area, a number of enemy aircraft and SAM systems would randomly spawn. So I had no idea where there would be SAM systems or how many enemy aircraft there would be...and from what direction. I had to rely on the E-3. I had also set up CAPs and 2 F-18 SEAD flights set to search areas if SAMS popped up. The mission was at night with light snow showers.

It's a blast, easy to do and an endless variation. One time I flew it in an F-18 dropping LGBs on tanks. Next time, I replaced them with F-16s and tried to take out the vehicle with CBU-97s. SEAD not so great again manpads and I was shot down

But I never thought I would enjoy a sim like this. Never thought I would be able to figure out how to start up a plane let alone fight it

I don't play anything else

[MengJiao]

I'm getting close to taking the plunge into DCS.  Now that I've got a new rig and monitor, the only piece of hardware I want to upgrade is my HOTAS with a Warthog. 

Still, DCS seems so daunting just with the selection.   I can see spending more money than I really want to on these planes.

I took the plunge back in May. I had never stuck with any flight sim for more than a week....and I tried a lot. I picked up the AV-8B and 7 months later, I haven't stopped playing the game. Once I got comfortable with things in the Harrier, I picked up the F-18 and dug in. I now alternate between the F-18 and the F-16 and design my own scenarios. It's amazing the kinds of things you can do in the game. I just played a scenario I made where an infantry FAC on a hillside is lazing enemy vehicles moving on a road. I had 2 F-15 (AI) take out several bridges in front of the units, then my flight of 4 F-18s came in and started picking off vehicles. I had set trigger though that as soon as we got into the area, a number of enemy aircraft and SAM systems would randomly spawn. So I had no idea where there would be SAM systems or how many enemy aircraft there would be...and from what direction. I had to rely on the E-3. I had also set up CAPs and 2 F-18 SEAD flights set to search areas if SAMS popped up. The mission was at night with light snow showers.

It's a blast, easy to do and an endless variation. One time I flew it in an F-18 dropping LGBs on tanks. Next time, I replaced them with F-16s and tried to take out the vehicle with CBU-97s. SEAD not so great again manpads and I was shot down

But I never thought I would enjoy a sim like this. Never thought I would be able to figure out how to start up a plane let alone fight it

I don't play anything else

Yes, the editor is fantastic and if not exactly easy to use, its not as bad as most editors and you can do all kinds of things with it.  PLUS you'll have the editor with the free game and an assortment of ships and the Caucasus and the Black Sea, lots of AI planes (all planes in the game can be run by the AI) and here's a Russian Frigate:

[Yskonyn]

If you're interested in mission creation might I point you to CombatFlite?

https://www.combatflite.com/

It offers a comprehensive mission planner, even with Google Earth export.

You can go at it from two ways; create the basic mission in DCS and load it into CombatFlite to quickly and accurately be able to fine tune your mission timings and routings.

Or you can start creating the mission in CF all the way.

CF offers a great 'time advancement' tool where you can view the movement of your assets over their routings and adjust timing as needed.
Highly recommended for serious mission planning.

[mikeck]

Perfect!

[Jarhead0331]

Mikeck...maybe you'd like to share some of your missions with us!? 

[Skoop]

^ I second that suggestion.