So, consider this a rant, but it’s coming from a place of confusion, possibly ignorance.
DCS Afghanistan.
I’m not one to claim that more content is a bad thing. I welcome it, not because I care to fly for hours on end to drop an LGB on a cave entrance in GWOT. That’s not my jam. I’d rather fly MiG-21 or Mi-24 ops during the Soviet involvement. So, era isn’t my issue.
My issue is the piece meal option and, really, it’s the same issue I had with chopping up and selling FC3 aircraft individually. It feels exploitative.
$24 in pre-order and then $30 for the smaller options while the full option is less than all 3 combined? As the experienced DCS player, there’s no value for me in the smaller offerings in the same way there’s no value in buying the MiG-29 or F-15 individually. But, for new players? They may not know. I’ve had to tell a number of newer players who wanted to buy an FC3 aircraft to just get FC3, it’s a better value and I think I’m going to feel the same way here. This is why it feels that way to me; because new players could part with money they don’t need to because they aren’t a grognard like I am.
In the end it’s not huge sums. The difference comes to fifteen bucks I think? Maybe less?
On the other band the lower priced items allow for easier sales, lower threshold. More clients mean more potential follow up sales.
Looking at it from a business perspective it makes sense. If ED makes money I’m happy because then the chimney keeps smoking and the updates keep rolling.
Tbh I think ED are being quite nice about it. They could have gone way predatory with their marketing and monetization like gajin or wargaming.
I don’t see the problem with them chopping up the content and selling it this way as long as there is an option to buy all of it at lower price which there is. They just added more options.
Depends on how you look at it.
You could turn it around and say that new users may buy just one part of the piece and discover that it isn’t their cup of tea, nor their biscuit, and save themselves the cost of buying the whole deal.
The way I see it is that those of us who know we want the whole map can get it at a 3 for 2 deal, and those who are unsure can get just one part.
Or, they can even try out one part in trial mode, later on, and see if they want just that part, or the whole map.
Are there going to be stupid users who only want to buy each part as they come out and then complain that they’re paying more that way? Yes.
But if they only ever plan on flying in Kabul area or Kandahar area and ignoring the rest, they have the option to do that for only $30. As Matt said, they will still get the whole map anyway, it will just be lower detail/missing details in the areas they didn’t pay for.
Been three or four years since I made the mistake but I learned the hard way that you could buy an individual FC3 aircraft and then buy the entire FC3 module. Did not know that the A-10A was an FC3 aircraft before I bought it. You do not end up with two valid versions of the aircraft though. The orphan aircraft gets absorbed into the FC3 module.
Can I Fly with Friends or on Servers if We Have Mismatching Regions of DCS: Afghanistan?
Yes, you are all flying the same map and will be able to fly together without issue but the detail that each of you sees will differ. Remember that by purchasing individual regions you are curating the areas of the map that you wish to see in high detail. Those who purchase the whole map will see the whole map in high detail as and when each region becomes available and receives updates during the Early Access phase.
or is it going to be end of may in the next scheduled patch 
