DCS World- An Overview

[Toonces]

On a separate note, I found a link to this video over at SimHQ.  While the world of Freefalcon seems to be over, DCS is going strong, and stands poised to capture the modern flight sim market.

I love where they're going with this sim.  The idea of a full-on electronic battlefield with human-controllable jets, helos, tanks, SAMs, etc is very intriguing.  DCS isn't quite there yet, but the potential...this could be the sim we all dreamed of.

If there's a problem it's that the flight sim community in and of itself is small, and we are further splintered by a handful of really remarkable sims to fly nowadays.  On the modern front you have DCS, BMS, and don't forget the dark horse of VRS with its recently released Tacpac, taking FSX into the combat flight sim realm.  But you also have Rise of Flight and, to some extent Over Flanders Fields as definitive WW1 flight sims.  The WW2 market is still alive and kicking with IL-2 continuing to dominate, some hardcore CloD fans, and BoB2.12 recently released.

I really haven't spent much time with DCS.  The single-player experience is just crap compared to Falcon, but multiplayer is a whole other animal.  Is there enough market to make multiplayer viable?  I don't know.  I mean, you have all this...stuff...sitting there in DCS ready to be used, but if you have 5 guys playing what's the point?  What DCS needs is a world full of players like Aces High...a true MMO in modern combat.  Again, the potential is there but I just don't know if there are enough of us at this point.

At any rate, it might be time for me to take a closer look at DCS.  It seems like the ultimate sandbox to someone like me who dreams up scenarios all the time.  Maybe it's time to dig into that editor and see if I can make it sing and dance.

It starts getting pretty interesting at around 11 minutes or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBGLb98zkFQ&feature=player_embedded

[jomni]

Don't forget, you can also play the ground war using the combined arms module. I doubt that it will be as detailed as Steel Beasts.  But streamlined gameplay sound good as well. Imagine the thought of a ground pounder requesting for CAS then an A-10 or black shark player responds.

[Yskonyn]

Unlike massive MP games like Battlefield 3, I like my flightsimming be done on a smaller scale.
I fly with the 476th Virtual Fighter Group (callsign Yassy), which is a rather small group of dedicated guys flying DCS A-10C. They also had the Black Shark for a while, but decided against scattering the little group and focus on the A-10C.
We create missions, run a dedicated server and have a solid training system aided by knowledge of real life servicemen and the 'Boss' even works with A-10C's in real life! Lots of knowledge here!
There's always the idea of joining on events with other squadrons to make bigger events, but I am not too sure how well DCS will hold up. It still has some serious multiplayer issues where servers need to be reset frequently, disconnects and unable to connect to a server in the first place. They really need to fix this before a large scale MP community can begin to blossom.
As it is now, the small squads have enough trouble getting their own events run properly as it is with all these bugs and crashes.
This here might have been put on 'paper' too strongly, because you may get the impression that MP is severely broken, it is not. And the goings on of the squad are handled quite well without too much trouble MP wise, but still there are enough little bugs or situations as described above to make bigger events too big a gamble at this time.
There is nothing worse than to have created and organised a big event with many people only to have the MP side of things unwilling to cooperate on a technical level. :S

Another beef I have with Eagle Dynamics at the moment is their seeminly weird allocation of priorities.
There has been a period where new projects were announced left and right (P-51D, CA, FC3 and some military stuff) while there were still glaring issues with the released products (mainly A-10C) and the promised Nevada theatre was nowhere to be seen either.
Then a post was put online with apologies about Nevada and that they admitted work had been pretty much non existant on it for the last couple of months.
I am sure the new EDGE terrain engine will be fantastic once it hits release (probably within a module), but ED is always very silent about the why and what and status of things.
It has caused some grumbling in the community.

Nevertheless, the A-10C is a superbly done simulator and my first choice! Now with DCS World integration things have become much easier to maintain and update and the unified mission editor is getting better with each update (but for God's sake PLEASE add a 3D preview mode for placing units!!). :D

[Rayfer]

Flight Sims have always intriqued me but their complexity can be overwhelming.  I bought A-10C Warthog for $9.99 on  Steam during the holiday sale but find myself struggling in 'game' mode, no less even attempting the full sim mode.  I can see that to master this sort of sim I would have to pretty much dedicate myself to this and only this for quite a long time.  Its complexity is both its strength and weakness.  I watched Toonces' video...what an awesome concept, thanks for sharing.  I just wish I could be a part of it but I'm not sure I am ready to dedicate the time and effort needed to compete at that level. 

[DoctorQuest]

What sort of DRM are they using?

[MengJiao]

It starts getting pretty interesting at around 11 minutes or so.

Pretty fantastic.  Setting up the weather in the mission editor -- I mean with the weather varying by systems over the whole map -- seems so unbelievably cool.

I'm sure I'll get to DCS sooner or later.  I have Lock-on.

[Nefaro]

What sort of DRM are they using?

It was Online Activation stuff when I purchased the Black Shark 2 upgrade to the original BS.   :-\   I'm not sure if that's changed since they've added the new DCS world system, but I'd be surprised if it had.

I've wanted to get their A-10 title but I don't plan on delving into it before getting a new HOTAS system.  I'm not afraid of learning the button pushing, especially in a more familiar American cockpit layout, and don't have to get used to flying with the computer-controlled trim system that doesn't account for your deadzone setting in BS2.  :-[

[Greybriar]

For those who don't know, DCS = Digital Combat Simulator.

[jomni]

Yes. I think I also need a new HOTAS. I've been playing A-10 for quite some time but if I stop for a while or play Falcon, I forget the keys.  With HOTAS there's less memorizing.  and DCS has a  clickable cockpitt. not a lot keys to remember unlike Lock-On

[Toonces]

I spent about 1.5 hours configuring the controls for the SU-25T in DCS.  They could not have made it more non-intuitive.  BoB2 might be the only sim with a worse interface.

I still can't get it to do what I want it to do.  I'm sorry but making a modern flight sim without a clickable cockpit is just not acceptable in 2012.

[Yskonyn]

I spent about 1.5 hours configuring the controls for the SU-25T in DCS.  They could not have made it more non-intuitive.  BoB2 might be the only sim with a worse interface.

I still can't get it to do what I want it to do.  I'm sorry but making a modern flight sim without a clickable cockpit is just not acceptable in 2012.

That's because the SU-25T is still the same as the one from Lock On. Just like Flaming Cliffs 3 hasn't got clickable cockpits. In fact they are not sims from 2012. They are just flight dynamics and graphical upgrades of old sims. ;)

Their newer offerings like A-10C, Black Shark and P-51D all have clickable cockpits.

It's becoming a bit like what Steel Beasts is for Armor simming; it too has some fully realised player controlled vehicles complete with interiors and weapons systems, while others are controllable, but have no interiors modelled.

What exactly is bothering you with the control options menu? I always found it rather intuitive? The only thing that got my time and again was trying to find the menu to assign the Axis. :D

[Nefaro]

Yeah, the nearly hidden Axis menus were what stumped me, momentarily.  I didn't find it to be terribly intuitive, doing anything past basic key binding.  The nearly hidden Axis menu is an example.

[jomni]

Yep DCS World's Flaming Cliffs module is just a Lock On port.  So I avoid it for the same reasons as you (Toonces) stated above.
The free Su is also not at par with the full-blown DCS offerings.

[Rekim]

I spent about 1.5 hours configuring the controls for the SU-25T in DCS.  They could not have made it more non-intuitive.  BoB2 might be the only sim with a worse interface.

I'm glad you mentioned BOB2 as I picked it up over xmas and have made near zero progress with the configuration of my warthog/saitek rudder/IR5. I've found surprisingly few resources on this topic considering the reputation you mentioned. Any pointers you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

[Pinetree]

I spent about 1.5 hours configuring the controls for the SU-25T in DCS.  They could not have made it more non-intuitive.  BoB2 might be the only sim with a worse interface.

I'm glad you mentioned BOB2 as I picked it up over xmas and have made near zero progress with the configuration of my warthog/saitek rudder/IR5. I've found surprisingly few resources on this topic considering the reputation you mentioned. Any pointers you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Have you tried the manual? I was the editor for 2.08 and I'm pretty sure there was a section on options and keybindings. Also a lot of options are in BDG.txt so look at that section too.