So, I was playing around with the Su-33 last night and I got to thinking that since we’re going to have an F-14, an F-15E, an A-6E KA-6D future carrier aircraft, coupled with what we already have in the bug, Harrier, M2k, etc., and before long it would seem that there’s not going to be a whole lot of modern Russian or non-US designs in DCS. There’s supposedly a MiG-23MLA in the pipe, but by and large most of the aircraft available to the Russian side of the house are either going to be older designs like the Farmer and Fishbed, with anything more recent being vastly simplified in comparison.
I know that the simplified modules tend to be better income earners, but I have to wonder if it only takes 1-2 minutes to fire up a Su-33 and get it going vs 10-12 minutes for a bug, whether or not we’re seeing a capabilities gap plus or minus for either side. I know I can fly the Su-33 vastly easier in an aerial engagement than the bug simply because of how much things are simplified and how lighter the workload is in comparison, coupled with the simplified radar and IRST of the Su-33 that gives it a massive advantage. In the PvP arena, is this going to force people into using simplified aircraft to be competitive, or can we expect changes to the overall systems so simplified aircraft aren’t essentially cheats?
I might be thinking on this too hard, but the way I’ve seen some people play online makes me wonder just how realistic it would be to run around on the deck, not use radar, and rely entirely on IR systems to fight. I can’t deny that it works well in the environment, but it seems odd in comparison to my experience in old IL2 where the goal was to get as fast as possible and as high as possible for maximum advantage. Perhaps it’s just more of a case of poor scenario design instead of a capabilities gap?
Thoughts?