*** Official DCS World Thread ***

[lurkio]

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=225574

Flat line on the Hawk (was a piece of poop anyway)

 

[Boycey0211]

what a surprise, scumbag devs.

knew the hawk would never get fixed, its been years now with no major updates

 

[One Vision]

How do you guys become good at flying one of these planes? Tutorials?
Id like to take part...

 

[Boycey0211]

How do you guys become good at flying one of these planes? Tutorials?
Id like to take part...

For me at least, practice.

I practice the startup until I've got it memorised pretty much, usually takes an hour or so to get good.

Then I just free fly until I know how it handles and attempt landing. Repeat that bit until i can land.

After all that I'll start thinking about weapons, and concentrate on one type until I get familiar with them.

the tutorials do help but most of it I find is remembering which button on my sticks do what on each aircraft when flying, especially important in VR.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

+1 on the above.
This isn't a game where you can expect to be able to jump in day 1 and be genuinely able to fly AND fight.
Take it easy, just as a real pilot would. Get the basics down, then add to that.

On a positive note, once you've learned the ropes of how to start and aircraft, taxi one, take off, land it, use your flaps etc, most of the aircraft are fairly similar in some of the key concepts, regardless of how different they are in actual controls and feel. So if you learn one, follow on aircraft will be easier.



Looks like ED might well be pulling the plug on the Hawk being sold, as they should with it in it's current state. Personally I'd really like to have a Hawk, but only if it's actually sorted. Hoping that ED will pull it from sale, sort out it's bugs, then re-release it when it's truly ready.

 

[Borsch]

How do you guys become good at flying one of these planes? Tutorials?
Id like to take part...

I say start with DCS FC3 so you could concentrate on flying and using weapons and then try some full fat module where you also need to deal with all the systems on top of that. FC4 release is also pretty imminent from what I understand, although it will include everything in FC3 and have a discount fro existing owners.

 

[lurkio]

How do you guys become good at flying one of these planes? Tutorials?
Id like to take part...

Easiest way is to do some of the basic tutorials, start with take off and fly about for a while to get the feel of her
then do some landings
After that try some of the weapon systems stuff and learn to blow stuff up
The last thing I would learn is all the how to switch stuff on and power up the plane

 

[One Vision]

Ok guys whats one of the best planes to try first? Easy to start with

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

If you're using FC3 aircraft, try the A10A. IMO, very simple to operate.

If you're buying a full module, the simplest is probably the Sabre, which is lovely to fly, if a little niche.
After that, maybe the Harrier, which has many more options on use, but can be flown fairly easily.

 

[Borsch]

Ok guys whats one of the best planes to try first? Easy to start with

There are two types of aircraft in DCS - fully simulated and "DCS lite" FC3 ones. The easiest way is to buy the FC3 bundle and then pick one of its simplified planes - A-10A or Su-25 for ground pounding, F-15 or Su-27/33 or Mig-29 for air combat - to start learning. All of these planes are easy to operate (e.g. start the engines with two button presses) but share the same high fidelity physics as the full sim modules like the A-10C that requires 30 button presses to start the engines. I hope this made sense

 

[One Vision]

thanks man, what do you guys think of the Falcon 4 MOD BMS

 

[Boycey0211]

thanks man, what do you guys think of the Falcon 4 MOD BMS

I love the dynamic campaign, but it hasnt aged particularly well, no VR which is now a must for me in flight sims and its crashes REGULARLY. All in all though falcon 4 has been my most played sim with il2 1946 a close second so I can't have that much of an issue with it

 

[One Vision]

Cool, going back to Flaming cliffs 3, i see that it has the f15 yet DCS also sells an F15 as a standalone plane also. Whats the difference, i do like the F18 so was just thinking of getting this..

 

[traveyb]

If you want to explore the full modules, take a look at Chucks Guides: https://www.mudspike.com/chucks-guides-dcs/

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Cool, going back to Flaming cliffs 3, i see that it has the f15 yet DCS also sells an F15 as a standalone plane also. Whats the difference, i do like the F18 so was just thinking of getting this..

The F15C is an FC3 aircraft. The implications being that:
- Can happily still fly with any other aircraft, and shares the same kind of realistic flight dynamics.
- The F15C is an air superiority only fighter. It simply doesn't carry any form of ground attack ordnance
- It's not a "high def" model. Doesn't make any difference to the visuals, but it means that the controls are vastly simplified (e.g. turning it on is basically 3 buttons, i.e. electrics, left engine, right engine and you're done) and you cannot use your mouse to click on buttons in the cockpit
- It's very cheap to buy. The best way being to purchase FC3, which gives you 7 different aircraft, including the F15C, A10A, Su25, Su27, Mig29, J11, Su33

The F18c is a high definition model.
- It's more expensive on it's own than FC3
- Shares the same quality of flight model and external visuals
- You can click on buttons, knobs and dials in aircraft. You'd be surprised at just how much more satisfying that feels when in cockpit. IL2 uses the same type of controls as FC3 aircraft, and I simply can't bring myself to play IL2, mainly because of that
- The F18c is a multi-role aircraft. So it shares the same type of air to air missiles as the F15c, then adds a host (and it's a big list) of ground attack ordnance, including free fall bombs, rockets, air to ground missiles, guided bombs and in the future, anti-radiation missiles and anti-ship missiles.
- It's a LOT more complex to learn and use. Getting it fully ready for flight takes a good 3-4 mins. From "cold", my startup is: battery on, APU on, oxygen on, apply APU to right engine, turn on the MFDs, HUD, lights, crank right engine, turn on INS and radar, flaps to auto, APU to left engine, conduct flight control system test, crank left engine, canopy down, request re-arming for the mission, request removal of chocks, flaps to auto, reset FCS system, set flaps to correct angle for take off, turn on radar altimeter, zero altimeter, change MFD visuals to preferred views, un-cage artificial horizon, set bingo fuel level, set TACAN and ILS for return flight, set course for return landing, request taxiing. Don't get me wrong, looks like a pain, but is quite satisfying once you've got it nailed. Additionally, in the mission editor, you can avoid almost all of the above by setting the aircraft as "hot", in which case it will be warmed up
- The F18c is NOT yet finished. So some things are either missing (e.g. some of the missiles, the ground facing radar) and being so complex, it'll probably take another year to finish it.

Probably worth adding that I have both FC3 and the F18c. On sale, FC3 is a good buy. The F15c, Mig29s and Su27 are probably still the most effective fighters in game. The Su33 can conduct carrier landings, to give you a feel for that, and it's very easy to get into.
For all that, I very rarely fly FC3 aircraft nowadays, and the F18c, despite not being finished, is currently my primary airframe as it is still highly effective, adds the challenge of carrier landing (which really is NOT easy to do well), and will at some point be probably the most complete aircraft in game.

 

[Borsch]

thanks man, what do you guys think of the Falcon 4 MOD BMS

Every bit as amazing to fly as anything in DCS. Awesome dynamic campaign with tonnes of units in the air and on the ground.
But, very dated terrain graphics and (may not be relevant to all) no VR. No cinematic replays too.

 

[One Vision]

Thankyou all great info here, much appreciated, Is falcon BMS harder than DCS?

 

[[Death]]

go F18, defo one of the best modules at the moment, great to learn and very stable to fly. Im always about on DCS if you have questions, callsign Casper

 

[muttclugg]

Is the a10c meant to be very twitchy? Seems so sensitive in flight, especially at altitude

 

[Borsch]

Thankyou all great info here, much appreciated, Is falcon BMS harder than DCS?

Define DCS Some DCS modules (and their real life counterparts) are easier, some harder. DCS A-10C/F/A-18 are very similar difficulty wise due to similar avionics and weapon systems. DCS Ka-50/Mirage-2000/F-5 and so on are easier than Falcon's F-16 due to simpler avionics - same as real life. The Harrier is somewhere in between.

But the biggest problem with Falcon is the very dated graphics engine, its massive square terrain tiles look subpar even compared to its 1990s contemporary IL2:1946. If you can get past that (and the lack of VR and replays), Falcon is very tough to beat.

Is the a10c meant to be very twitchy? Seems so sensitive in flight, especially at altitude

It's been a while since i've flown the A-10, but twitchy is not how I remember it. Although much depends on its weapons load, speed, alt and what you mean by twitchy Air refuelling may seem twitchy, but that is just the nature of the beast.
Otherwise the answer may be in joystick curves. Mine are set to around 15-20, with a tiny deadzone in the middle (all real aircraft have deadzones apparently).