New DCS interview with Wags is out

Listening to it now…

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The important bits I pulled out for those without the time to watch:

  • The whole voiced command system is up for a rewrite. Wags will likely still voice the player pilot, while a lot of other elements will be voiced by others.
  • Wags let slip there will be numerous new call-signs, brevity calls and both fixed- and rotary wing related communication
  • Wags admitted that the team doesn’t have the time anymore to make many campaigns, and he feels that some of the 3rd party guys surpassed his skills in the editor.
  • The dynamic campaign has been in the works for years. There’s one engineer working on it. The hardest part was finding a guy that had the skill-set to do it. Rather than chaining a bunch of missions one after the other, the idea is that factors like economy, supply and morale also come in to play as actors. What we heard before as the “strategy game” behind the dynamic campaign.
  • There will be a UI with settings so we can tune the campaign to our liking. Areas, playable slots etc.
  • There are multiple teams working on AI. BFM, BVR, ATC etc. The brunt of the current work is being put into the supercarrier related AI things right now. Next on the list is BFM AI as well as dynamic campaign related work for the AI.
  • Wags agreed to call 2021 the year of the helicopter for DCS.
  • Wags can’t talk about any helicopters coming after the currently announced set. But others are planned and even in the work.
  • Wags explained the details of the Mi-24P early-access. Things coming late include door gunners, improved AI pilot and AI gunner, different warhead types for ATGMs, R60’s with AA and AG capability.
  • The F-16 release was criticized. Nick, Kate and Wags agree that they did stump on that. They felt bad about things like the non-functional damage model. They say the cause was due to its rather exact deadline to not interfere with other releases.
  • COVID-19 did affect ED. Some productivity was lost for sure but nothing too problematic.
  • ED’s deciding factor for if a product is ready for early access is if it is fun to play or fly. They want to communicate clearly what is ready for the initial release and what is not
  • Wags says ED thinks it’s an advantage that under the early-access model, modules fund their own development rather than having to take the proceeds from one module and use it to fund the next.
  • ED recognized that customers want the workflow for early-access to be faster and wished for this to be true itself, but we have to respect and understand the complexity of jets like the Hornet and the Viper.
  • While Wags did not say it explicitly, he hinted at some sort of voice attack systems to communicate with others and command AI that would be integrated with real communication systems in our modules rather than using keyboard commands we are using now.
  • The goal is to implement multi-crew for the Mi-24 and AH-64 before the early-access release.
  • AH-64 early-access before the end of year. That is what is planned currently.
  • SME’s help to get the AH-64 right, especially since so many aspects of it are classified.
  • Finding AH-64 SME’s was much harder than finding those for F-16’s and F/A-18’s. But now they are happy with the people they got.
  • Improvements to the terrain development kit over the years is why Syria is so much better than say, the Persian Gulf map. Ugra Media is also getting better and better. Syria will keep getting improved.
  • We will see the fruits of these improvements in the free Marianas map. Wags expects people to be impressed by its detail.
  • The mesh for the modern Marianas map will be reused for the WW2 version. The challenging part will be to develop appropiate assets for the time-frame and combatants. The modern version is planned for 2021.
  • Wags mentions Combined Arms. There are planned updates. Wags feels Combined Arms has been held back by things like its simplified damage model and the terrain detail. The damage model will be revisited once aircraft (currently WIP already on WW2 birds) has been completed. Ships are also slated for a damage model revisit.
  • They want to finish the Hornet this year and pour themselves into the Viper after that.
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@Sryan, do you do that professionally? That was an excellent breakdown.

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Thanks a million @Sryan

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Agree, that was very helpful Sryan. Thank you.

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Thank @Sryan that was great!

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Thank You for Sharing.

When I heard this I perked up; did he mean Voice Recognition - you send commands using your voice? I’ve used VAICOMM Pro for so long…did I miss something - does DCS have this functionality natively (and their going to improve it)?

It took it to mean speech output though. I’m doing something similar right now and it’s labor intensive for sure.

Thank you everyone for the kind words! I’m happy it was useful to you guys :slight_smile:

It does not right now. Wags hinted at something like that from 18:30 or so onwards. He never explicitly said voice commands or anything like that but a hands-free method of comminication that is integrated with other radio infrastructure.

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Knew it. I’ve got a system, using VAICOM Pro, that does this but of course it is limited since it’s just “me” doing it. But hey, IMO it’s a very immersive systems and adds a lot to it. Of course the VAICOM Pro/Voice Attack people might not be as happy.

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I definitely felt it was a strong hint.