PS: And I think I’m going to have a ‘moment’ the first time I saddle this thing up; no more holding up a plastic model to my face, making jet noises with my mouth, imagining the Fresco hanging from my ceiling is about to become a smoking hole…probably lost some brain cells from all glue inhaled in the late 60’s building Phantom models (and Thud’s and Crusaders…). Ahhhh.
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Some News in Stormbirds Article
Phantom in progress
For some DCS World fans, the F-4 Phantom has long been on the wishlist and the news that Heatblur was doing it was an instant hit for nearly everyone. Their excellent work on the AJS-37 and F-14 Tomcat have put Heatblur up at the forefront of DCS World module development. With very little news on the development to go by, any news is big news for this module and we do have some.
Responding to a question on the r/Hoggit Reddit group, Cobra 8472 had quite a bit to say about how the project has been going and some of the unexpected challenges that have impacted the team over the last several months.
Here’s what was said:
Release dates and our timelines are frequently memed here; sometimes for good reason, but we made our 2022 announcement with extreme confidence at the start of the year. This was based in having already spent a year developing the Phantom and growing our team into a full-time, professional outfit. We’re spending a lot of money developing our DCS modules, past and present currently and no-one wants to release our next flagship earlier than me, trust me on that.
No measure of good planning could have predicted a huge chunk of our art production manpower to disappear overnight due to Russia invading Ukraine, and that I would be out of action for two months due to a family tragedy. To say it’s been a tough and outright chaotic year is an understatement and a half. We’ve increased spending significantly and hired more people than planned this year to make up for lost time, but even at a full sprint and standing on the gaspedal only gets you so far. A benefit to this is of course that we’ll be better equipped to tackle future challenges.
Apologies for the “non-answer” as to a specific timeline update, the situation remains dynamic enough for me to avoid offering a public committal. We’re burning the candle at both ends to revert to the intended timeline. The power grid situation in Ukraine just this week is yet another factor that just popped up, uncertainty is ever-present currently.
To offer some detail on the Phantom itself- it’s that we are working to make DCS: F-4E a step up in every way. We’re going deeper and more detailed than we have ever done before, across both core and base systems (hyd, electrical, etc.) all the way to the frontend (Radar, JESTER v2, etc.). For our next slew of aircraft we’ve developed our “NextGen” core- which completely revamped every single part of our codebase and we’re developing to a diligence and detail that is quite novel. We want to go beyond the F-14 and further ourselves and our products as much as economically feasible.
Overall, and most importantly, thank you for the interest and being excited though.
No matter how tough this year has been- getting a legendary module of a legendary aircraft in your hands is all the motivation we need to power through.
At the moment, if you go on the Heatblur Public Roadmap Trello page, DCS: F-4E is still listed under 2022 so its a possibility but with just eight weeks to go, it does feel like a stretch to me. That may be overly pessimistic but after years of watching DCS module releases and paying close attention to groups like Heatblur, this is a project that probably won’t see a release until it’s feeling good. DCS: F-14 saw lots of post release development but it was already feeling really good even on day one which was impressive to say the least.
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Hope they don’t rush the release. It also sounds like they got a bright future.
I say let Razbam release the 15E and then Heatblur can give us the F-4 early next year…One can wish. lol
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Dear Heatblur,
Based on your past performance - I’m buying everything you release. And don’t mind waiting (the Tomcat will keep me purring for many, many months, still).
Sincerely,
Combat Flight Sim Aficionado
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Ah yes, ShamrockOneFIve’s site. He used to go by Icefire and made several mission for the original IL-2 series. Glad to see he is still around. 
Wheels
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I’m totally onboard with you guys…I was super excited to get my hands on it this yr but these Developers are Real People with Real Problems.
When I think of The Members of Heatblur working in Ukraine worrying about how to provide safety and shelter for loved ones during bombing raids….Well let’s just say it puts things in perspective and makes me feel a little angry at myself for being selfish to want a favorite aircraft this year.
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Add me as a +1 to that.
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I’m not that bothered about the phantom, personally. But i will be buying it because of heatblur. The consistent quality and ethics of releasing the way they do, mean i am buying to support them
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I feel the same. And for me the Phantom is a hotly anticipated module, more so than the strike eagle or the eurofighter. Only thing that excites me more is the MiG-23.
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For me its the herc. Then the 23. Then the f15e
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And a buggy, snake-infested, jungle map to go along with it 
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F-15E, Spad then Phantom for me.
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F15E, F4, Herc, Typhoon, 23
The Herc moves to 2nd if it becomes an AC-130…
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If that happens it is a No1 for me The Mudhen and Spad are interchangable as far as order of priority goes… but it isn’t really all that relevant, I will be getting them all (depending on reviews) and priority will be dictated by date of release.
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I will say one thing that puzzles me is why there are so many Ukrainian members of flight sim dev teams. It’s impacted Il-2 and DCS.
Is the interest in flight sims higher there than average? Is the interest in working on them in other countries artificially low? Is it a pay thing, where what can be offered is a good wage in Ukraine but lower than prevailing wages in other countries?
It’s like 10% of the software engineers in Ukraine work on one flight sim or another while in other countries it’s like 0.0001%. Meanwhile I’ve not seen announcements from MS or Oracle or Adobe or what have you that they have been impacted by having team members in the conflict zone. Nor for that matter any racing sims or FPS or MMO or whatever.
It just seems really curious.
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I wonder if it has to do with the overlap with aeronautical engineering - something Ukrainian universities are very, very strong in. Perhaps it’s also just an area of focus for their comp sci departments, unlike ours here in the States that feel increasingly geared towards analytic business tools, consumer applications, and whatever “next big thing” Silicon Valley is pitching to beg for VC and government grant money.
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I had not heard that about Ukraine and aero engineering, but if so that would indeed be a strong link.
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I was about to say that. In addition, the former Soviet states universities are generally really good at mathematics, physics and computer science.
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