*** Official DCS World Thread ***

Never really given DCS much of a go but I did enjoy LOMAC when it came out.

My pc is a few years old so I think I’ll have to upgrade, it’s just a shame everything is so expensive now! What are people running it with? How’s the performance?

At present I’ve got an i7 4770K 8GB RAM and GTX 780, I’ve got SSD’s but thinking I’ll have to upgrade the memory and GFX, any suggestions? Just looking at 1080p and no VR Thanks!
 
Ram will be a bit tight at 8 gig, 16gb is really the min now for DCS. For the rest you might be ok-ish. I've a 670 GPU and an i5 4670K @4.3ghz and I'm happy enough to wait out the insane GPU prices with that for now.

Nate
 
Yeah I’ll do it in stages I think, hopefully the new Nvidia cards might drop the prices a tad on the older stuff. I’ll give DCS a go and see what it looks like. The new F18 package certainly looks fun!
 
The new 2.5 version runs pretty well, I played fine on a 2500k @ 4.4, 8GB and a 970 so your spec is fine.

Big missions and multiplayer do benefit greatly from 16GB though.
 
Yup, played a fair bit of MP on the Burning Skies WW2 server.

Good thing was i just blamed all my deaths on stutters not rubbish flying ;)
 
Any clue to when the Gulf map is coming to the stable version of DCS? I don't fancy finding 80 odd GB on my SSD just to install the beta version. :)
 
The Hornet has landed...then taken off, been flown around, and crashed into sea whilst failing to catch the wire on the carrier...
Clearly I need some practice.

Yep, the F18 is out, and it comes with a new carrier.
As expected:
- The F18 looks stunning
- Plenty still missing, e.g. no laser guided bombs or A2G missiles. Making up for that, the list of what it WILL be able to carry is big. It will include AIM120s, Mavericks, Harms and Harpoons
- Does have TACAN, moving map and similar enabled, so navigation is quite straightforward
- You can conduct carrier take off (catapult assisted) and landings. I can happily land anything in my hangar on a normal airfield and the F18 was dead easy to land there. I can also land the Harrier and Su33 on a carrier. The F18 is most certainly a bit more demanding on accuracy of angle of attack, landing rate of descent and speeds. Haven't been trying long, but it'll get there
- Cold start, yes it's easier than an A10C, but being fair, it's still long and convoluted (as it should be if trying to simulate a complex aircraft)

In short, looks like it will be the rather good all rounder than we've been expecting.
 
Cheers for the quick review @Mr_Sukebe,

I'll hold off for now, after you mentioned it I had a quick look at the F14B. The last time I sim flew a 14 was F14 fleet defender in 1996 and I'm now a little bit excited for it instead.

Not kidding it brought back big memories and also struck me how far we've come in the sim world in the last 20 years, cannot wait to fly that in VR
 
Muska said:
Nice write up, if you were to purchase the F18 or Harrier which would you choose?
Click to expand...

Ooooh, now you're asking, especially as neither are finished. Sure, the Harrier is further on, but there's more to come on both.

Some thoughts:
- From a flight perspective, the F18 feels more "responsive", but then I guess you'd expect that as the Harrier was never design for A2A combat. Whilst the F18 wasn't designed as pure fighter, it's very much part of it's multi-role capability and that shows.
- The Harrier can be used from a FARP, i.e. nearly anywhere. There's videos online of squadrons doing that.
- Both can conduct carrier ops. This to me is a biggy as I've really enjoyed using the Harrier from a carrier because of the additional challenge. Landing either on a carrier looks like it needs real work. Sure I can now do it at night in the Harrier. But it took some serious practice. I'm assuming that the F18 will be the same.
- From a capabilities perspective, the F18 is considerably faster, has a wider range of A2G weaponry (e.g. it will have Harms and Harpoons for sure. Not sure if they'll happen on the Harrier).
- Probably most important is the A2A capability for the F18. The Harrier has no radar, and only heat seekers. The F18 will have a full on radar and radar guided missiles. It's expected to be the most capable A2A "fully clickable" aircraft in game.

Early days on the F18, but I've enjoyed flying both.
It's how you play that's likely to define things. I've joined an online squadron that will fly both. From our initial experiences, the Harrier seems to be at a big disadvantage in A2A combats. 3 of us were owner by x4 AI Mig15s the other night.
The A2A capabilities of the F18 should allow it to compete with pretty much anything in game.
Lastly, this is a module primarily from ED themselves (if co-developed with Belsimtek). It's seen as being the current ED aircraft "showcase", just as the A10C has been for the last however many years. I'd expect that to mean that ED will treat it very nicely.

The only real negative is the number of missing bits (e.g. guided weaponry). We know they'll come, but don't know when.

Long term, and based on the above, probably the F18.
For something right now, then probably the Harrier.
From a monetary perspective, probably the F18. The Harrier has been out for longer and is far more likely to be on sale than the F18 in the near future.

Sorry, sprawling answer, but you did ask.
 
Boycey0211 said:
Cheers for the quick review @Mr_Sukebe,

I'll hold off for now, after you mentioned it I had a quick look at the F14B. The last time I sim flew a 14 was F14 fleet defender in 1996 and I'm now a little bit excited for it instead.

Not kidding it brought back big memories and also struck me how far we've come in the sim world in the last 20 years, cannot wait to fly that in VR
Click to expand...

Ref VR, the F18 really does look fabulous inside, even better than the Harrier. Love the various banks of switches. The more I get used to clickable cockpits, the more I prefer to use them to having everything mapped to my HOTAS.
So for example, in the F18, the parking brake is a twist handle to your lower left, the hook for the launch catapult just to the left of that. The flaps are above that. On the opposite side is this huge arrestor hook handle and to the right of that the handle for the folding wings.
Don't ask me why I find them so endearing, but I do.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Ooooh, now you're asking, especially as neither are finished. Sure, the Harrier is further on, but there's more to come on both.

Some thoughts:
- From a flight perspective, the F18 feels more "responsive", but then I guess you'd expect that as the Harrier was never design for A2A combat. Whilst the F18 wasn't designed as pure fighter, it's very much part of it's multi-role capability and that shows.
- The Harrier can be used from a FARP, i.e. nearly anywhere. There's videos online of squadrons doing that.
- Both can conduct carrier ops. This to me is a biggy as I've really enjoyed using the Harrier from a carrier because of the additional challenge. Landing either on a carrier looks like it needs real work. Sure I can now do it at night in the Harrier. But it took some serious practice. I'm assuming that the F18 will be the same.
- From a capabilities perspective, the F18 is considerably faster, has a wider range of A2G weaponry (e.g. it will have Harms and Harpoons for sure. Not sure if they'll happen on the Harrier).
- Probably most important is the A2A capability for the F18. The Harrier has no radar, and only heat seekers. The F18 will have a full on radar and radar guided missiles. It's expected to be the most capable A2A "fully clickable" aircraft in game.

Early days on the F18, but I've enjoyed flying both.
It's how you play that's likely to define things. I've joined an online squadron that will fly both. From our initial experiences, the Harrier seems to be at a big disadvantage in A2A combats. 3 of us were owner by x4 AI Mig15s the other night.
The A2A capabilities of the F18 should allow it to compete with pretty much anything in game.
Lastly, this is a module primarily from ED themselves (if co-developed with Belsimtek). It's seen as being the current ED aircraft "showcase", just as the A10C has been for the last however many years. I'd expect that to mean that ED will treat it very nicely.

The only real negative is the number of missing bits (e.g. guided weaponry). We know they'll come, but don't know when.

Long term, and based on the above, probably the F18.
For something right now, then probably the Harrier.
From a monetary perspective, probably the F18. The Harrier has been out for longer and is far more likely to be on sale than the F18 in the near future.

Sorry, sprawling answer, but you did ask.
Click to expand...

Thanks again for the detailed reply, I know I'll end up with both at some point but you've helped me make my mind up on purchasing the F18 for now and keeping an eye out for the Harrier in a future sale. Thanks again!
 
BelSimTek and Eagle Dynamics Merge....

We would like to announce a promising change in our internal structure. Over the years, Belsimtek has been working hand in hand with Eagle Dynamics, and together we have succeded in creating a number of complex modules for DCS World, which we hope you enjoyed. We wish to further develop this success, and as such we have decided to focus on strengthening the unified brand, Eagle Dynamics. The Belsimtek team will remain unchanged, with the same leadership, the same approach to development, and the same quality which have made our success. We are confident that the future will hold big surprises, notably with The F-16C Block 50, Mi-24P, AH-1S Huey Cobra and F-4E Phantom II in the development pipeline, which are sure to make DCS World grow even more. Together, we will continue to bring DCS World and Eagle Dynamics to new heights. Thank You.
Click to expand...

Nate
 
The DCS 50% summer sale has just started. Doesn't include the F18, Gulf Map and a campaign, otherwise, looks good.
Just bagged a Gazelle.
 
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