DCS 2.9

Flight Sims
725

I’m sure they had their reasons, but, to suddenly make this map more expensive than others and market this as “giving people options” do sound a bit misleading. What is the user benefit of buying PART of a map?

I did not read ED Forums and really don’t have to, to understand there are probably a large number of uncivilized conversations about this subject. Still, I have to take the side of the players here. I can see absolutely no reason to offer partial maps, especially at the same time they had to up the prices.

BTW, aren’t they releasing 2 maps this year? And upping the price? And slicing they in parts? Honestly, I hate it. Again, There may be a number of reasons why you have to charge what you charge: Inflation, war, just be upfront about it.

But what really makes me worry… Now they found out they cannot recoup capital by releasing a half baked F16 anymore, it looks clear they are still trying to do that with terrain. All of this taking precedence over their free WW2 Marianas map is a sign… Listen, They need money, fine.

But to just keep the pattern of releasing half baked content to get some money in, increasing the amount of backlog they need to actually get all their products into a serviceable state… It feels like a developer pyramid scheme that looks unhealthy. More maps, Nothing finished, everything partial, “Early Access”. This will not end well. Supercarrier, anyone?

So in the end, a little bummed. Honestly I don’t care that much to get into a fight over a bulletin board with anyone about it, or starting a boycott. If I feel like it, I’ll buy another map or two this year, no worries. But yeah, I’m not celebrating either.

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726

But I believe that’s more than likely the reason of a partial map release….Its just not finished and instead of waiting a year or more to complete development…why not release a portion that has been developed with the new terrain tech that ED have been talking about for some time and get a feel for the product and you be the judge if it deserves your hard earned $$$$
I believe this first portion will include Kandahar and Camp Bastion…for Apache Pilots that’s worth the meager price IMHO.

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727

I’m sorry Phantom, I mean no offense, but I don’t buy it. If they had the consumer in mind they wouldn’t make this new “feature” cost twice the price. As it stands they are literally doing a preorder discount of 50% off double the price… lol.

And I mean… Fine. But if they change the business model in a way where stuff is worse for the consumers, what did they expect would happen in the forums? Applause?

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728

No offense taken…we just share different opinions…and that’s what forums are for…to discuss things in a rational manner without personal insults and bring in different ideas for us all to ponder.

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729

See this is where I see things differently. Afghanistan is going to be a huge map in incredible detail and what I have seen in the trailer looks very promising to me and absolutely worth the asking price. I can understand why people won’t get the map as it’s again another map featuring an arid landscape and for someone who isn’t interested in COIN or someone who wants naval ops it’s not going to be of interest but I know that all the rotor heads in my squadron are really looking forward to this map and I will pick up the A-10C again when it releases.

EDs last map was the free Marianas map and their last big paid map was PG IIRC (I don’t really count The Channel, despite the incredible detail it pales in comparison to the new Normandy map).

What I am getting at is that this level of detail on the scale of Afghanistan is something we haven’t seen in DCS and I would have been surprised if there wasn’t a price increase

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730

Has anyone done a cost per square kilometer analysis of the various terrains? Are these Afghan partitions each roughly equivalent to older terrains?

Whatever the answer is I don’t harbor much angst about it. They’ve updated past terrains for free, including the Caucuses which was free anyway. Yes, Nevada really needs some love, as does PG. It’s a bit of a mess but I am not sure what I would have done differently. Having said that, I will add my constant complaint that I feel obligated to raise every time this happens with ED: No gameplay content with the module; be it plane or terrain. Argentina should have included a Falklands campaign. It didn’t so I didn’t buy it. Maybe Afghanistan will be different?

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731

The Afghanistan map is the same price as the South Atlantic map (full price of $69), which is $10 more than Syria or the Channel. Even at the EA price it’s the same as Normandy, the Channel, PG, and the NTTR. For the size of the map compared to say the channel thats a crazy ammount of value. I personally have more of an issue with the SA map being $69 as it’s 2/3rds water compared to Afghanistan being all land. Syria is amazing, well worth my money. Can’t wait to check out Afghanistan myself.

I also remember paying $60-$100 for FSX photoscenery of a state or 2, which wasn’t near the level of detail or landcalls depth that DCS maps. Airports could range from a couple bucks to $20-$30 for just
1 airport. So maybe that’s part of why I find it a completely reasonable price.

On having multiple map options, totally good with it. If I don’t want to shell out $70 for all of Afghanistan, I can spend $30 and get the part I want. Also it’s going take less HDD space, which honestly isn’t a bad reason to do it if you’re storage limited. I’d actually love to have the option to “enable/disable” areas on maps to free up space instead of loosing the entire map if I need space. I really don’t see anything nefarious or “pyramid scheme” about it. If you read the FAQ, the sections will still include basic landclass data and terrain, but they won’t be in as high a detail or feature the airbases. You still get the whole of Afghanistan, you’re just only doing parts in high def. Realistically that’s basically what the Persian Gulf map is right now, we all paid full price for a high def straits of Hormuz.

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732

Dear God, give me something different (map) please!!! Sell the Kola map in three parts, I’ll buy them all.

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733

I bought the Afghanistan map …mmmm I buy all the maps :thinking:
Kola can’t get here soon enough.

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734

If they stick with the info in the FAQ, ED will release each part of the map in a finished state. No early access. Each part is done and put up for sale. But, if you already know you want it all, you will get the map in 3 finished portions, for the price of 2 (more or less).

Those who don’t want to buy unfinished DLC won’t have to. Those who don’t mind the wait can get the 3 for 2 deal.

How is this a bad thing, for anyone…?

ED could’ve done it the old way and just sell the entire map as one, in early access, and people would complain that it wasn’t finished when released and that it takes waaay to long to finish, etc.

Sure, they could’ve waited with putting the entire map up for sale, when it was finished, but they seem to prefer a steady revenue and start selling during development, like they always do. One can of course take issue with this, but with the Afghanistan map they are selling finished products, albeit in smaller portions.

I still can’t see the problem here… :thinking:

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735

“It’s too expensive and they’re hiding (or distracting from) the price hike by splitting the map.”

Is what I get from it. Personally I don’t know what to think of it yet, will wait for release before I judge it. If it does indeed have much more high detail area of higher quality than previous maps, it’s a fair price.

3 Likes
736

If we consider the final price, it’s the same as the South Atlantic map.
The parts price is higher, but you get more than 1/3 of the final product as you get the entire map in low detail and a third of the map in high detail.
Considering the quality of modern maps and how they continue to evolve, we should expect the price to increase though…

Seems to me that ED would be blamed for something no matter what they do. :grin:

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737

Now how about a new patch version. Preferably one containg a phantom, a kiowa and a corsair… :wink:

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738

I agree with the assessment, but I’m actually OK with paying more for a good map than an aircraft module (I guess my instinct is I’ll use all my aircraft on the map?)

Not sure about paying for each of three parts, but we’ll see how it goes I guess!

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739

The internet would explode…! :exploding_head:

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740

could this be the internet explosion you predicted :rofl:

DCS Patch status

Current versions: https://updates.digitalcombatsimulator.com/

Stable Version

Current version number: 2.9.3.51704

Next planned update: 3rd April 2024 ( subject to change )

thank you

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741

Happy Chris Pratt GIF

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742

I need to take a few days off when the phantom releases. Also I only have 12 work days in May :sunglasses::ok_hand:

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743

I Soo want to get my Hopes up for a Phantom Release!!! :smiley:…If we see a Heatblur F4E Weapons Deployment Video before The 3rd I’ll get my hopes up.

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744

Isn’t the cold start video the code for imminent release?

Tbh, the lack of videos doesn’t make me very optimistic that this will be the one patch

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