Over the years I’ve read predictions here that DCS is so good that it will eventually morph away from pure combat to a more general simulation. To which I called “bs!" (not “Black Shark”). Oh me of little faith. See the “Search and Rescue” server. I don’t recall its exact name but just type “search” in search and the server in question will be (as of this post) the only hit. The server takes the existing set of multiplayer cargo scripts and mods them to create an environment where guns and bombs don’t exist yet somehow misfortune still does. We helicopters are left picking up the pieces by picking up the people, as well as fighting fires and resupplying hospitals.
For firefighting, one must hover low over a body of water and watch as the retardant load increases. As it does, the helicopter becomes noticeably heavier. Fires are fought by saturating their edges and depriving them of fuel to perpetuate the burn. The SAR missions are about as challenging as anything I’ve done in DCS. They are quite a bit harder than slingloading because 1) the Caucus terrain where the victims are located is often steep and wooded and 2) the tolerances for a successful snag are tighter. Cable length selection is important. Too short and you eat trees. Too long and you are too far away from your target to properly see and hold position. You have to stay within 5m laterally while keeping a suitable vertical range based on your cable length. You must then hold this position for 10 seconds. The server keeps a running record of your saves and losses. It’s a bit like the crop-dusting plugin in X-Plane: You probably won’t play for hours and hours. But as a 30 minute relaxing time-sink it serves as a welcome break from R-77s at 50 paces.
Yes, i already know that one, sadly i’m spending years waiting for a dynamic generation random SAR and Medvac simulator. In DCS and Arma 3 existed many tries but nothing consistent and that works with current sims versions.
Thats sad because in these sims everyone want to shoot something…
Existed some old sims on the genre but nowadays they are too old and some times not much compatible with modern hardware.
I really would like to have something that not depends on external servers.
The one that +/- match close is using the default side missions on Take On Helis, but sadly its pure random and side without any track or stats and also no global world like in xp11/p3d and no good flight model helis like in dcs world huey and mi8.
Definitely dated, but the Search and Rescue, is about the only pure SAR title I know of. The original was actually pretty full featured, with decent flight modeling of the HH-65, and included the SAR autohover autopilot the real one is equipped with (though speaking to my brother who flew them for a living, it was notoriously unstable and rarely used). I think a modern version that was still less fidelity than a full one PFM DCS module would do reasonably well, but sadly I doubt that will occur anytime soon.
SAR is fun!
I’d love to see some CSAR missions for the DCS Huey too… @jenrick, I too played the SAR series. The last one (was it no. 4?) was really nice!
I loved the SAR series…though not technically part of that series, this title was the first review I wrote for Mudspike I think…over 6 years ago! (gulp)
As mentioned in the other topic, I’ve been enjoying this one. There is something super chill over flying over the Syria map at dawn, so even the distances don’t really bother me.
The hoist within 5m and 10 seconds I am finding really hard, but fair. I don’t think I’ve ever bothered trimming the Huey so much for a stable hover and it’s been fun to try to get better at it. I would appreciate if that stupid solider would just crawl 10m to the left so I can see him sometimes though - often they are right under those tree trunks! Also a voice cue on the winch would be ideal, in VR I don’t like having to flick my eyes off my reference point to see the text prompts.
Really nice idea for DCS, so thanks for pointing it out.