DCS Discussion

Jarhead0331 · July 22, 2026, 08:04:15 AM

OK...today is the day. F-14B(U). Very much looking forward to this one.

Tripoli · July 22, 2026, 11:12:24 AM

I would like to see a review from you when you get a chance.

Redwolf · July 22, 2026, 12:05:42 PM

I didn't fly the original Tomcat much. Too much other stuff to do. So I'm not currently on a trajectory to spend the $50 on the upgrade. But very curious to hear what you think.

Jarhead0331 · July 22, 2026, 12:29:49 PM

Quote from: Redwolf on July 22, 2026, 12:05:42 PMI didn't fly the original Tomcat much. Too much other stuff to do. So I'm not currently on a trajectory to spend the $50 on the upgrade. But very curious to hear what you think.

The original Tomcat release was pretty close to a dream come true for me. When the launch trailer was released it damn near brought me to tears. Unquestionably, my favorite jet of all time and so many powerful memories of it from my childhood. This was the closest I would come to ever flying one.

However, I'll be honest... Transitioning to it from the Hornet wasn't easy. The analog cockpit and pitiful HUD was jarring. Additionally, with no FBW or other advanced avionics, I actually had to really fly the thing and use crazy inputs like yaw with a rudder! The fourth Gen aircraft definitely spoiled me...

In any event, Jester was a revolution and in time I learned to be a pretty good cold war pilot.

I'll definitely post some thoughts on the upgrade ASAP.

Jarhead0331 · July 22, 2026, 02:09:58 PM

Destraex · July 23, 2026, 01:43:12 AM

It feels like years since I played DCS and like you, the tomcat was a dream come true. Top Gun was one of my fav movies as a youngster. The tomcat is my fav aircraft of all time I would say from an emotional standpoint at least.
I own the module and paddled around in it a little, did some carrier stuff and put it down before learning too much in the way of dogfighting. She is an long range stand off interceptor primarily, unlike in top gun, where they use it as a pure dogfighter. I like you, found the hornet to be the most attractive aircraft to fly, simply because it is full fidelity as well as being modern enough to compete with the other full fidelety aircraft. The F16 is also grouse for the non carrier stuff.
The bombcat? Does this bring the tomcat up to F18 cockpit instrumentation and digitisation?

I think the whole cold war and DCS thing and the advent of drones recently as a major player on the battlefield has kinda put me off realistic flight sims. Like tanks, fighters in their dogfighting form vs other humans now seem like an anachronism and the cold war never went hot (thank goodness) so we never got to see how equals in a conventional conflict would play out. We don't have anywhere to research historically like we do with ww1, ww2 etc. No precidents except for a few lopsided wars and engagements.

Jarhead0331 · July 23, 2026, 06:26:54 AM

The HUD in the B(U) model is amazing. I did the familiarization flight last night and was amazed. It makes such an amazing difference. The upgrade model in the game is 2004 era technology so it's for all intents and purposes light years ahead of the original f-14A or even B model from the original module.

Interesting point about the impact modern war has had on your gaming preference. I think this has happened to me too, but mostly when it comes to fighting Russians as a peer on peer adversary. The war in Ukraine exposed the Russian military for what it really is, so in order to now fight them as a dangerous, conventional opponent, I'm forced to suspend disbelief.

In any event, DCS is so beautiful to behold, I just enjoy flying around and looking at the views, even if a shot is never fired in anger.

Destraex · July 25, 2026, 07:13:37 PM

Funnily enough the friend I played Star Citizen with last night mentioned we should load DCS up again. Then we got to talking about the mudhen which he owns and whether it is ever coming back.
Some of my cold war hesitation comes from my understanding of history. There are so many periods of peace in history where not much happened and we therefore do not study the equipment of battles and therefore do not really wargame them in any real sense. The real incentive for us with the cold war was that at the time it was what we were living and needed to know just in case it went hot. We don't need to know anymore. In fact some of those anachronistic lessons could be dangerous now, just in case either of us ever make general :P haha.
I actually think that cold war gaming will probably die out all together with our generation. It will be very niche.
I think ww1 and ww2 as well as earlier periods of actual warfare will remain.

I don't hate the cold war and it does have a certain nostalgic vibe to it. I do enjoy learning about the tech side. But I don't know how much can be learned from trying to determine what it would have been like if it went hot now. What the air war would have been like. Because we are not going back there and it never happened.

I remembered watching this video with leaked footage of a conference call between razbam and dcs. Can anybody tell why people use "not" in front of things to indicate a negative? (timestamp 00:30) At the start of this video the gentleman says "appeared to look not stupid".

Skoop · July 27, 2026, 02:42:19 PM

Really depends on what era of cold war, 60s and 70s, soviets had the upper hand. 80s is where we turned it around, all the tech investments came to fruition and we politically got our act together. Desert Storm showed what 1989 fulda gap would have looked like for the soviets had they attacked. We learned the hard way from the Vietnam air war how to deal with soviet sam networks.