Yep, completely agree on Iraq. Much better initial release than Afghanistan imho. The mountain ranges are gorgeous
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Really?? Okā¦Iāll have to go backā¦check my terrain settingsā¦maybe try something different weather/lighting wise?
For me my first flight[Apache quick start runway mission] was disappointing ā¦down low the ground textures seem very bad.
I know itās a EA release and will get lots more work.
I remember being somewhat disappointed with the SA and Kola map initially as wellā¦now those two along with Syria are my āGo Toā Rotory quick mission maps.
If I had any input on The release of terrain in DCS it would be to Go for more detail in smaller areas and worry less about expanse.
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I have very little knowledge about the ins and outs of open source licensing. Can someone who is offering code under the MIT/BDS license (not sure what exactly that is either), change their mind and make it under a different license essentially at a whim? Also all it takes is one set of attorneys to decide that a settlement check will be worth their billing hours to take ED or whomever to court over a possible licensing issue (even if itās most likely false) and said developer decide itās easier/cheaper to write a check than fight it in court.
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Yāall arenāt helping, I specifically decided to wait on Iraq due to Afghanistan being a bit lackluster. Though it is shaping up nicely. Decisions, decisions.
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Itās a bit spotty and ground textures do need some more work but some of the mountain passes with winding roads north of Erbil where thereās dense foliage are pretty amazing down low in a helicopter and from medium and high altitude itās honestly incredible.
Some of the Airfields still need a lot of work because they really donāt blend the infrastructure objects with the low Res satellite textures but I have no doubt it will improve a lot. Towns and villages have the same problem, especially the auto-gen stuff needs a hand to correct things but I can easily look past that. I find the mix of high resolution textures and low resolution mountains on the Afghanistan map much more jarring but then again I am mostly a jet guy. In the Apache or Chinook I can see that some of the areas in Afghanistan are more appealing. Especially the villages in the mountains look much better and less random than the auto gen stuff on Iraq.
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Might be the best summary of my overall DCS experience. 
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How to link missions between different terrains.
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so true! same here
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That was a little long to watch. I just want to know: was able to fly contiguously past the boundaries of the two maps? Or did he stitch multiple missions together?
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The Super Carrier? Yeah, as mentioned before this last update completely hozed a few weeks (depending on when you start counting, a month or three) of work there. So I hosed off the deck so to speak. Just happened at a bad time.
I expect these things. My only real concern is they encrypt this data structure. Then Iāll have to pick up my ball and bat and go home.
My hope is the part of the mission file (one HUGE lua table) where they define carrier decks ālinksā now makes more sense as I suspect (somewhere I mention this above) in doing this new, improved, deck crew they were forced to refactor what may have been a really old method.
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He stitched 3 missions together using a trigger zone and triggers to launch the next mission once one of the flightās members enters the zone.
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Yes. Perspective?
Iām amazed at the visuals we have (and VR was a dream - āimagine actually being IN the thingā¦ā) compared to back then for the price we pay.
Iām sure thereās a problem with this but āadjusted for inflationā I paid like $15 for the Phantom module, depending on how you look at it. Taken with the hardware improvements (not quite so cheap) this is all amazing. Butā¦
In the end IMO, some of the problem is āusā, the general [gaming] public. Essentially āweā want MORE, and FASTER, and CHEAPER (donāt want to pay for it). Yes, a generalization.
Iāve not touched my my graphics detail sliders (in DCS) for a few years now and, 'hey, this thing is running better than ever".
The graphics slider is the root of all [gaming] evil (c) 
But I digressā¦
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Yeah, 60 seconds crammed into what? 10 minutes? I looked at that ātrickā a ways back. No use for it as the āstateā between modules is not transferred (unless something significant has changed there) thus all the āstuffā from file A does not transfer to B, etc.
Heck, watching that this morning I had the thought, 'hey, I now have the tools to do this āautomagicallyā (in the desktop app), ie; spit out two files and a trigger. This only solves one of the problems. I shook that thought off, quick ā¦
NOTE: below will NOT work as DCS loads everything new, with no association with the previous mission file, and thus clears out everything - saving the memory within mission A is useless as itās all cleared when B is loadedā¦
BUTā¦it seems to align with my āwhole worldā population algo that is currently āin thereā; saving the state of objects as you move. I only did this cos it seems DCS has nothing of the sort - a static pile of bricks 200 miles away is still processed, to some level. Not putting too much into this as it just seems like they will have to do this for the DC. Itās not like iāve invented anything new here (this concept is at least a half-century old, and common sense).
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Granted, there are a lot of assumptions being made, like the expenditure of AGM missiles and the fuel state. But for someone who wants to fly over both terrains to simulate a long distance mission, Iām not aware of another solution. Perhaps use the F10 menu, like Reflected dose in MiG Killers to option the next mission load?
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Yeah, it kinda works for say a āferry flightā. The user could overlook the fuel inconsistency.
Damage to other objects? Or you? It wontā be saved. There is a way if you unsafe your install - by allowing access to the OS file system. But that hack gets taken away on each DCS update (I know cos my dev PC does this and I have my āroutineā to unsafe it each and every time).
This is about the āpersistenceā feature Iāve whined about for a long time. Itās a fundamental missing piece that allow creators to do cool[er] stuff.
As I mentioned I do do this (partially) but within the confines of a single mission file: You start at H3 NW and there is stuff there (SAM system, army tents, aircraft flying about). You fly away (outside the ābubbleā) and I remove them. When you return it puts them back. If I didnāt to this DCS would churn to a halt from too many objects being kept track of. There appear to be limits here stil that I havenāt had time to fully track down but within those limits you can have āstuffā at H3 NW, fly to Incirlick and see stuff to.
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Iraq is the Map ID for the terrain, regardless of what parts purchased.
Iraq North is the License/Content to Populate the Northern Section w/ Objects and Hi-res textures,
When south comes out, Iraq South is the License/Content to populate that area.
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If we purchased Iraq, do we get North and South?
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The Entire Iraq:
The North Side Only:
Regardless of which one you buy right now, both will install:
Iraq Core
Iraq North.
Iraq South will be added to your digital licenses when itās released if you bought the Entire Iraq.
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Since ED are stitching up a pretty large chunk of the planet themselves with the addition of two new maps, maybe they have some āstate import/exportā scripts in the works for this to actually be useful. I mean, itās only part of the puzzle they are creating themselves (wasnāt some talk about this being necessary in order to make the dynamic campaign work as they intend to?).
Some version of that being around the corner would actually make for an argument in favor of developing Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously, other than the financials.
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