Regarding Early Access, I buy into these planes with the fervor and excitement of my 40 years younger self when I saved up my pocket money to go the shops with my mom in order to buy a new Airfix model. I literally can’t wait to get my virtual hands on them.
I feel so fortunate to virtually sit in the cockpit of any of these planes given it was something I never imagined possible as that young - look up to the sky every time a plane flew over - kid. What I do now is imagine I’m learning the (EA) aircraft as a trainee cadet would, taking it slow, learning flight characteristics for example, slowly introducing weapons training etc. In fact the only thing that ever ticks me off is the constant tweaking I have to do in order to get things working the way I want in VR.
Enjoy it fellas, we are after all rather fortunate.
To think that 10 years ago, we had what, a Black Shark sim and an A-10C sim,and all we had to fly over was the Black Sea region?
2019 is really the year DCS has come into it’s own: The Hornet is now more complete than not, we have a jaw dropping F-14, an acrobatic biplane because some reason, and a map of what is arguably the most politically conflicted areas on earth: Nevada.
J/k, The strait of Hormuz, of course.
On top of that, we have what appears to be a developmental “speed run” to get the Viper out to EA. There’s blanks still to be filled in, but it feels like yesterday (especially in DCS timelines) that it was announced. I’m onboard with this approach.
Based on a coupe hours flying around this weekend, I’m impressed. Not just with the Viper, but with how far we’ve come.
This. I get that there are people who will dive in and learn everything about the plane in the first five or six hours. I don’t know how the YouTubers do it…they have a video out in a day or two that dissects every system and what weapons work and which don’t. I’m like you. I crawl - walk - run with these modules. Heck…I might even say I crawl…crawl…crawl…walk…fall down…crawl…walk…haha…
I may not RTFM…OK, I like never RTFM… but I (try) to never mention something in a forum with out R’ing TFM.
Actually, for me its not a “tumbling into the stream” issue that gets me… Viggen landings notwithstanding…it is usually some minor switchology error that pops up after I have just flown for a half hour dodging SAMs and fighters, and now I can’t get the bombs off the wing. That’s what gets me.
On a related subject, is there somewhere that has a rough list of current (first release) Vioper capabilities - from what I have seen it looked like AIM-9, AIM-120 and CCIP bombs…and really, who needs anymore than that!
Color Multifunction Display (CMFD) symbology, Horizontal Situation Display (HSD) format, and Head-up Display (HUD) symbology
Digitally TACAN and Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI)
RWS, SAM, and ACM A/A radar modes
BDU-33, BDU-50LD/HD, Mk-82LDGP, Mk-82AIR, Mk-84LDGP, CBU-87 CEM, and CBU-97 SFW unguided bombs
2.75” rockets LAU-68 and LAU-131
Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS)
AIM-9L/M/P/X Sidewinder
AIM-120B/C AMRAAM
M61A1 20mm cannon
First skin will be the 55th FS at Shaw AFB.
This is the official statement on their forums from wags. The AIM-9L AIM-9P seemingly did not make it in. However the AN/AAQ-228 TGP and GBU-10 and -12 were only announced for phase II, but made it in for a day 1 release.
I spent about an hour messing around, noticing it only had 2 training missions, and finding out things like lights and jettison stores didnt work…then saw this stuff today and realized why.
Personally, I have so much to learn with the Hornet, Tomcat, Harrier, and so on that I’m happier with getting the preorder discount rather than waiting for more features at full price. I figured I wouldn’t bother with the Viper too much in 2019 and I see now I have a good reason not to.
I understand if you wanted to fly the F-16 now like you can fly the Hornet or Tomcat you may feel massively let down, but I really didn’t put that much anticipation into it. $64 instead of $80 frankly meant more to me. I will spend more time with it in months to come, not this year. So be it.
If you’ve not bought anything in DCS in forever and were ready to dive headfirst into this, I feel bad for you, but I’m not surprised. I read Wags’ comments somewhere about how they really started this in earnest only a year ago and my first thought was “how could they possibly get it that far that fast?”
Answer–they didn’t. Was it a “money grab”? I don’t think so, but instead of anger I feel a little trepidation that they did this. It implies a financial situation where taking the risk of angering people was seen as lower than waiting for it to be more complete. The idea of ED putting the skids on development is not comforting.
Thought I’d add a note for those of you using custom skins in missions already: the F-16 lacks the “revert to default” feature in skins, so it might crash if a mission is using a custom skin that the user doesn’t have.
I’m sorry to hear this @JediMaster. I’ve been having an absolute blast in the Viper. I know a ton of features are missing but the control in ground attack is so much darn fun. The training missions may be missing but there are plenty of quick-start missions to keep you occupied. The weapons systems are simple at this point so it’s a case of run, gun and try again!
