Cool cool, no fixes for bombing in the Viper…
Hey speaking of things years old and freshly broken, did the Carrier landing lights ever get fixed or do they still only work when the carrier is sailing north?
Haven’t tested, but I thought it was this one?
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In the case of Joe’s Stone Crab on Miami Beach, the chef went out back to take a siesta on a sack of potatoes and - never woke up. When the restaurant learned that he took his world famous Key lime pie recipe with him, they had to do what I expect DCS will do with the F-35. That is, reconstruct the recipe based on those in comparable pies and past observations. However accurate, the results are sure to be debated.
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I nominate that for the best analogy of 2025. A good Key Lime pie is hard to find. An ‘authentic’ one that is 
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I looked it up and because there is a bit of info out there I will now say this here, the key to the F-35 is IMD - Intelligence Mission Data.
A good friend of mine was the team leader of the guys crunching parametric data (which is just one of the many IMD buckets). His description of the F-35 was “Without IMD it is just a stealthy F-16”.
I’m sure that it will be a fun DCS module, but I have no idea how they are going to get even close to modeling IMD?
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Probably not. The mission planning element of DCS has always been a clunky version of the mission builder. It lacks built in structural elements to incorporate (imperfect) intelligence into the mission planning. It would need a lot of work beyond a DTC to come close to what real life F-35 operators get. Stealthy viper with awesome sensors and networking it is then.
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fortunately there is F-104 comin
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IMD only applies to the mission builder in DCS as far as it is relevant for all the objects that you place in the mission builder (aircraft, vehicles, SAMs and ships; etc). It includes more than their location… accurate RCS, EW emissions, and a lot of other details about the object, at (I’m guessing) a much higher fidelity that is currently modeled.
It is the data that essentially gives the platform and pilot the unprecedented situational awareness they have. To say any more than that I would be straying outside what is already available online.
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Considering how many missions I have played in DCS that I consider fundamentally “unrealistic”, I’m not sure it matters.
What I mean is missions where you are flying as the member of whatever force but the mission does not mirror any of the tactics or procedures used by that force, or possibly any other.
So you’re saying Iran has literally dozen of double digit SAMs placed up and down the coast, inland, and on islands, with a larger active air force than Russia had in the 1990s, and I’m flying as one of 4 Hornets with a couple of 15C’s as cover? Would never happen.
Now a smart mission builder would remove the SAM coverage in a couple of areas at the start, simulating a pre-sortie strike by cruise missiles, stealth bombers, whatever, before the Hornets entered hostile airspace (not put them actually in the mission so you watch the defenses knock down everything and almost nothing is eliminated), and wouldn’t rely on 6 plane’s worth of missiles to defend against a dozen Flankers each with 10 missiles in just the first wave and SAM cover while the Hornets have a couple of lackluster Avenger HMMVs on the coast in the rear.
Might as well simulate Norway’s Special Forces fighting the Empire on Hoth and trying to figure out how to trip an AT-AT. Fantastical scenarios cannot realistically be fought with realistic equipment.
“Khaleesi coming in bearing 045 at angels 1!”
“Do Stingers lock onto dragons, sir?”
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Link for the steam page to wishlist?
I’m already buying it, you don’t need to convince me anymore!
OK. I am a bit gobsmacked that document is (U).
A lot more about IMD in there, even without reading between the lines, than I would have been prepared to say. I guess it just goes to prove - Want to know about something? Follow the money.
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I’ve only been able to get around this, albeit taking a broad approach, using external code and scripting. With triggers, over a long period of time (say a 6 weeks or 6 months long campaign)? No thanks. The ‘tree’ structure is, er, explosive in nature. One reason it’s taking so long to test.
I’m really interested how ED is going to model the DAS.
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Truth be told, it’s probably a walk in the park compared to the real thing.
In a simulator you know everything that’s in the air, or land or sea.
What you need is to know the symbology, and create a rendering of the visual that resembles accurately what the pilot sees.
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Yeah, for a sim it’s just “make plane transparent” while the thing is switched on and it’s like Superman looking for the detonator in Luthor’s lair.
The real plane I know that system must have been difficult to sync up with multiple cameras aligned properly so you can actually make out what you’re looking at without double vision or whatever.
Enigma just put up an interesting video going over the community uproar over the F-35, because he pretty much nailed the main focus of the discontent.
DCS is a fantasy game masquerading as a milsim. In it, you are living out the fantasy that if you put enough time and effort into these systems, one day if 2/3 of the military’s pilots are down you could get That Phone Call where you are asked to save the day and fly that bird to defend your country.
The certainty that the F-35 cannot be modeled like that bursts the bubble.
How can it be realistic? It can’t. So if it’s not, does that mean the rest is not either? That’s right, it was always a compromise between realism, authenticity, available data, and gameplay. But I’m good enough that I could jump in the real plane, start it up, take off, and attack enemies! Yeah, sure you are.
People hate having their illusions shattered because they don’t want to admit it was an illusion in the first place.
Of course the complaints about balance in player-on-player engagements are dumb. Don’t fly on a server if they have them available if you are concerned. The fact the F-35 is only hard to spot on a radar but not an accomplished dogfighter, and only has the same missiles as the other Western birds, apparently doesn’t matter?
It’s not going to be an F-22, it will be like the Hornet with more difficulty to use radar missiles against. If it lobs a 120 at you, it’s no more difficult to defeat than if it’s from a 15, 16, or 18. If you get close enough to use IR, even your radar missiles will likely do well at that range.
It will simply be able to get closer to radar SAMs before getting shot at, and it will have an easier time spoofing them from air or ground. Why aren’t people screaming about the F-14 and the Phoenix? Oh right, it wasn’t the long range sniper with godlike powers everyone worried it would be.
Now as Enigma also mentioned, this announcement means two things:
One, ED will sell a lot of these globally and make a good amount of money off it which is good for them and the community.
Two, all their previous hand-waving away requests for this plane or that weapon to be integrated or whatever was far less about any reason other than their lack of desire/resources to do it. Either they used it as a crutch (we’d like to, but we just can’t…or it’s outside the dates we want to cover with this plane) or they have in the last few months had a shift in their outlook and will start to embrace these things.
I hope it’s the latter, and we will start to see weapons and planes in the future that previously they said they weren’t going to do.
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And people have no idea of the physical demands. Flying a ‘fast jet’ - BFM stuff - is strenuous; my very limited exposure (and I was young-ish) can best summed up with, “imagine you’re trying to ‘pass’ a soccer ball”, multiple times, with a sweaty hippopotamus sitting on you. I’ve heard these guys have hemorrhoid issues?
I suspect I am in the group that wants an authentic experience, with all the processes represented - more mission oriented. Don’t think many fall into this, which is why I’m glad the ability to do so is in there.
In the recent ‘Mover & Gonky’ episode they both expressed that, essentially, they wanted to have ‘fun’, not do work. I get that: there have been a few ‘simulations’ of my previous life - the last thing I wanted to do was come home after work and pretend to be working again.
The only time I did this was when I had to transition to a new area with a completely different and/or more complex traffic flow. I’d fire up…I forget the name of the game as it was 25+ years ago…put it on Crazy Mode and exercise my ‘speed scanning’ . A mental workout sort of thing. People would be surprised, perhaps, at how taxing that can get.
I fully understand why real pilots aren’t interested in all the details. I am not and never was one, thus I find it satisfying.
Scratched me head on that one too. “Balanced” to me means a style of play. Like handicapped races maybe?
A handicap race in horse racing is a race in which horses carry different weights, allocated by the handicapper. A better horse will carry a heavier weight, to give it a disadvantage when racing against slower horses.
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I’m sure a guns-only or IR-missile only dogfight against an F-35 would be fairly even, but even then it depends against what bird and things like fuel load come into play.
According to Engima, the most common H2H pairing on DCS servers is…F-16 vs F-15! So yeah, nothing realistic about that whatsoever unless the scenario is ANG F-15Cs against Venezuelan F-16s, and they didn’t have the C but the A IIRC.
Basically these players don’t trust the server admins to make the limitations they want, so they’re relying on ED to do it by default.
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…and remember,The Mighty Viper can beat the JSF in a Dogfight 7 days a weak,and twice on Sunday!! 
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A Spitfire can beat them both if we limit it to a turnfight at 250 knots or less 
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