Flying out of Fliegerhorst Hopsten in a JG 72 “Westfalen” Phantom
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I know it’s a bit late, but now I need to make a batch.
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Still downloading…looks like a all night event for me…Ah Well…Really Pleasantly Surprised it released this early
I’m thinking hovering around Frankfurt in the Chinook and sightseeing a bit.
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Yep it was the same here, left it downloading and just checked …all done will be flying when I get in from work 
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Bah… The Kola updates, for the map that really matters didn’t make it, it seems.
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They’ll be in soon. I’d expect next week.
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Probably a hot fix for them fairly soon
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3hrs for Germany for me. I wish I could get more than 10~11MB/s out of the DCS downloader.
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I am really disappointed with how little the Kola map has progressed in the last year. The fumbling up with this patch aside, after one year they are still struggling with adding all the airfields (and there are not that many in that region to begin with). Compare that with the absolutely flabbergasting number of airfields that Ugra is doing for Germany on their first pass. And while the newer air bases on the Kola map look decent (for example Bardufoss), the initial ones are pretty poorly done (for example Severomorsk-1).
Then only very small areas of the map have cities and villages added, large parts of the map are empty. And I am not talking about the North being generally sparsely populated. What there should be was simply not added. And the villages that were added are again very generic and pretty poorly done.
On the military points of interest side, the map is still missing about half of the Russian submarine bases. And those that exists look again poorly done. Also you can’t place any submarines in these bases. And the “SAM sites” that they have added are a bad joke…
And let’s talk about the coastlines. This map has thousands of km of coastline, which all are nothing more than a simple line dividing water and land. Compare this with for example the Marianas or Syria maps, which feature cliffs, rocks, riffs and beaches.
The map actually looks beautiful from higher up, mostly due to the breathtaking scenery of the north. This isn’t much of a surprise with the satellite technologies available nowadays. I often cruise around on the map enjoying the Norwegian fjords and mountains. Especially with the winter textures and broken clouds painting light and shadows on the landscape. But as soon as you dive into the fjords (which you naturally want to do) and go bellow 3-5’000 ft, the map starts to fall apart.
Sorry for the rant. I expected that Kola would be my favorite map because of the Cold War history of the area and my love for the North. But with Ugra showing what is possible in DCS map making, it really becomes apparent what a substandard effort Kola has been by Orbix. It seems to have been created with a lot of autogeneration and with little attention to detail.
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Kola is my favourite map, but I have a personal preference for the region 
I’d also like to see a faster development pace, but it’s OrbX’s first DCS map, while Ugra is basically the default map maker these days.
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When Kiowa go on sale?
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Did my first flight with the Huey on the Germany map now. First Ramstein to Sembach, then Bingen to Koblenz along the Rhine valley.
As can be expected of Early Access the terrain is not quite finished yet. On my trip from Ramstein to Sembach I found the most disturbing visual the oversized churches. They seem to be out of scale with the rest of the buildings. Also the back in the Eighties non existing A-63 Autobahn is present, does not really do much harm though.
The romantic middle Rhine valley is simply not done. Instead of villages, castles and lots of vineyards, woods and empty space dominate. However, the shape of the Rhine valley seems to me all good. Clearly some area that will be improved later.
Here some screens:
Ramstein, Kaiserslautern, Sembach:
Bingen (missing), Middle Rhine Valley, Ehrenbreitstein in Koblenz, deutsches Eck in Koblenz
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Silly question… If someone has Black Shark 3, is it of any help to also own Black Shark 2?
Like, is it like with the different versions of the Warthog or the latest Ka-50 is effectively making the earlier redundant? I tried to Google it but my research was inconclusive
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You’re not wrong, but it is an interesting point to compare Ugra (who have done large scale maps for two different flight sims) to Orbx, who have really been doing very detailed small scale areas (such as individual cities or airports) rather than something that is all tied together, and mainly in the MSFS/FSX franchise.
I think Orbx will get there in time (assuming they don’t just give up), but there’s a lot of work in these maps!!
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No, just get BS3 
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Thanks man. Not really for me, I was asked this by a colleague at work.
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I’m disappointed with Kola’s lack of progression as well, but at the same time it seems these days that the only two maps I ever fly are either Kola or Afghanistan. And now probably Germany…good god how many heliports are there on this map?
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As far as I am aware the only difference I have noted is the updated exterior model and the addition of an extra pylon on each wing for a couple of igla’s… but as the ka50 never went into serial production I think they only built a handful and each was silghly different.
If you already have the ka50 then it’s just an upgrade to the new version … I am not sure if they are now selling the older version as a standalone …if it’s like the f5 you can now only buy the new one
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Yes, it will be in a Hotfix.
No date yet.
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Eh, drying loundry isn’t flapping in the downwash… completely unplayable
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