DCS Hawk available for Pre-Sale

[RyanE]

Isn't that what DCS Combined Arms is supposed to be?  An open modern battlefield for all the planes.  I don't own it and was just assuming that is what it was.

I like Flaming Cliffs but don't understand all the hoopla over the WW2 and helos around DCS.  If I just want to tool around in a plane, I use X-Plane.

[JudgeDredd]

I'm not entirely sure what Combined Arms is. I thought it was an addon where you could mess around in the ground units, shooting down A-10's and Warthogs.

If I find out it's something else (i.e. a dynamic campaign for any of the aircraft you want to fly) then I'll be picking it up...but I really didn't think it was that.

I shall report back when I've investigated. I have to be honest I didn't even give it a remote glance even when it was on sale because I thought it was an single player/online ground part of the game.

[Yskonyn]

Combined Arms is light weight.
It enables you to control ground units. On the map as well as in the 3D world.
But the Controls are pretty basic and arcade, nothing close to something like steelbeasts for example.

The module doesnt change anything to the way the campaign system works. It just adds the possibility for a player controlled JTAC (which is pretty awesome admittedly), control the ground war or an individual vehicle. But this has only basic functionality.

The new newsletter presents another dissapointment.
DCS World v2 is not ready and probably will not make a winter 2014 release afterall.

Nevada will come late december.

No news on F/A-18.

No timeframe for Strait of Hormuz.

DCS WW2 seems to be exactly as I thought it would be: modules for DCS World. Dora will come out of beta soon, Bf109 current project, Spitfire next. No mention of maps yet.

On the other hand, we will get retooled aircraft fairly soon; SU-27 with a fidelity in between A-10 and FC3.

[Toonces]

I have a thread in the main DCS forum on SimHQ that discusses this thought in more detail, but in short DCS is a fantastic sandbox simulator.  The tools you have and the high-fidelity modules provided allow a home user to get a very authentic military-sim experience.

DCS fails on the game aspect.  There just isn't a game there.  But it's a great simulator. 

If you can get online with a bunch of like-minded, serious folks, you can do some very cool training.  But if you're looking to have a virtual pilot career, DCS is the wrong sim for you.

With Nevada it will be possible for the home user to have a very close representation of real-world Red Flag...in some ways better than real-world.  But it will take work to create the missions that flesh the world out like that.

[jomni]

Combined Arms is an Arcade version  of Steel Beasts. Big disappointment and not worthy to be in DCS world.

[Yskonyn]

Combined Arms is an Arcade version  of Steel Beasts. Big disappointment and not worthy to be in DCS world.

That depends on how you approach it. The manual JTAC feature is DCS worthy and works very well. Also the funtionality of directing a ground offensive as a Commander (from the map rather than in the 3D world) opens up a lot of interesting scenarios too.
It only falls short in the individual vehicle controls department.
But then again it had been fairly unrealistic to think the module would give us fully featured units to begin with. There are many different platforms.

[Nefaro]

Combined Arms is an Arcade version  of Steel Beasts. Big disappointment and not worthy to be in DCS world.

That depends on how you approach it. The manual JTAC feature is DCS worthy and works very well. Also the funtionality of directing a ground offensive as a Commander (from the map rather than in the 3D world) opens up a lot of interesting scenarios too.
It only falls short in the individual vehicle controls department.
But then again it had been fairly unrealistic to think the module would give us fully featured units to begin with. There are many different platforms.

I picked it up for the possibility of running air defenses in multi-player. 

Haven't even used anything in the Combined Arms pack yet, nor have I done Multi-player in DCS "World".


The SAMs are probably as Arcade as the rest.  :-\