Questions from the Community for Nick Grey - Answers!

Q. NineLine, could you give some background regarding Nick himself and his position at ED/TFC? – Yurgon

A. I met Igor in 1989 in Moscow. We became friends pretty quickly and started ED in 1991 with a variety of software ventures beyond simulation, including Computational Flow Dynamics & CAD CAM. He was my 20% partner in all those ventures and one of the nicest people I have ever known. He ran the show and we spoke nearly every day about stuff. Great dancer, great partner, great sense of humour, what a gem…

Q. I’m guessing he has his heart in the warbirds and Spits, but apart from those, I’d like to hear a wish list from Mr. Grey on what plane that we don’t have in DCSW that he’d like to fly and where would it be. – Pikey

A. Types flown: Interesting ones  Gladiator, Hawker Hurricane IV & XII, Nimrod, Sea Fury, Hunter, Supermarine Spitfire Mk I, V, IX, XIV, XIX, Republic P47D, North American T6 Harvard II, Mustang P51C, P51D, B25 Mitchel, Grumman FM2 Wildcat, F5F-3 Hellcat, F8F-2P Bearcat, Boeing PT17, B17, FG1D Corsair, Curtis P36, Hawk 75, P40B, P40C P40M, P40F, Bell P39 Airacobra, P63 Kingcobra, Yak 11, Bucker Jungmann, Jungmeister, Fiesler Storch, Nieuport 17, Beech 17 Staggerwing, Pilatus P2, Mig29 2, Su 27…
I would like to see them all in DCS and more…

Q. We’ll see a bomber on DCS World with multcrew someday? Which one would you like to fly in the simulator? – Overvolt

A. Yes, we are considering the Mosquito very actively and have gathered a very substantial amount of data. Dima (Yo-Yo) will travel to UK in July prior to Flying Legends and finish all his research and then we can get cracking.

Q. Do you ever fly Multiplayer on public servers? And what is the most exciting non aircraft feature you can’t wait to tell us about, in the not so near future of this SIM. - winchesterdelta1

A. No public server activity really. Much better ground warfare, game engine and campaign engine…

Q. Will we see some 4gen Russian fighters? Is there a way to get the ok from the Russian government? And why do they actually care? – TomCatMucDe

A. Too delicate…

Q. Will we see survey modules again like FC3 for the casual simmer and especially ‘The Century Series’ Surely classic air frames are a market seller :wink: – Mizzy

A. FC4 with four more aircraft
Flying Legends pack with 8 -12 aircraft …. ?
Century fighters are a big deal and a period I absolutely love, but not priority no.1 at the moment.

Q. I have a few questions… you can pick and choose which you might want to use, if any:

  1. Has anyone tried / would it be beneficial to use 3D scanning tech to get 1:1 scale models of the Fighter Collection’s air-frames that could form the basis for importing into DCS (either as flyables, or even AI models)?
  2. Have you considered bundling, in some way, memberships of/ subs to the “Friends of the Fighter Collection” (or merchandise from the online shop) with specific DCS warbird modules? – Philstyle

A. Good idea…

Q. Maybe this page on the TFC website needs a bit of a gloss-up too: https://foftfc.com/product/dcs-world…-sim-products/
3. As far as I can see, TFC doesn’t have a flyable twin-engine warbird right now (I see a Beau in restoration…) does this impact on the likelihood that we will ever see a twinnie flyble in DCS? (maybe Avspecs in New Zealand can throw a Mossie our way … ) – Philstyle

A. Must have a Mossie (Mosquito) in the future… we sold ours to Seattle and it’s flying in the most capable hands of Steven Hinton. Wow, what a great aircraft.

Q. 4. Battle of Britain… any thoughts?
(Ok, this one was silly, but I’d pay 150EUR (now + annual inlfation) for a fully complete BoB DCS, even if it only had 2 flyables for each side, so long as the rest was there in A.I. form and the map extended from Colchester to Dorset, Cherbourg to Bruges) – Philstyle

A. Battle of Britain is a personal dream of mine too….

Q. The Good old Question, what he thinks in Pro and Contra about the old reviles 109 and Spit, was these adversary over Time equal? What did he enjoy on flying each of the Warbirds what not? – MAD-MM

A. Spit would eat the Me109 of same era for breakfast in a turning fight but not in zoom energy fight. Know your tactics, keep out of the wrong game and you can’t lose in a spit. Spit XIV was total king of the hill….

Q. Is good info and documentation on P-47 Available? If not,Why? Thank You – Phantom88

A. We are hunting hard to find stuff… we know a lot but real polars, etc. are helpful and save us time and £/$

Q. 1. How important is it to have access to real aircraft when working together with ED on developing new WWII modules?¬ – xvii-Dietrich

A. Very. Sadly if you haven’t flown them, guess what….

Q. 2. As an owner of real WWII aircraft, does this ever give Nick Grey the privilege to interact/inspect the aircraft of other WWII collections? ¬ – xvii-Dietrich

A. All the time. Very small world, we are mostly all friends

Q. It sounds like aircraft is his interests. I’m wondering what he thinks of the AI system and the lack of ability to create real training missions that follow the four basic phases of training explanation, demonstration, famialiarization, and evaluation. Does he expect that the AI will be able to use it to train new pilots. – BlacleyCole

A. Our AI in general is poor and we will improve it. We haven’t placed enough energy in this area. 100%
With regards to training AI we have much to learn.

Q. Will there ever be a save game option midflight? This will be a game changer for me… I have 2 kids and i really need to get away from pc during long flights. – Hreich

A. Technically tricky but let’s see.

Q. This is a great idea 9_, I’m interested in sounds. Sometimes our DCS warbirds give me the feel of a new car. Not a lot of rattles, or squeaks. – Paganus

A. Indeed. You are right. We are working to improve these somewhat. NB with power up you hear no detail at all. It’s absolutely deafening so forget squeaks etc. It’s just roar….

Q. In the real thing, do you hear much external noise or are the engines so load you cant? - Paganus

A. Zero. Occasionally if you are in tight formation you can hear the rumble of the other engine (s)

Q. Like when you approach the edge of the flight envelope and you pickup vibrations, do you hear rattles pings, pops? - Paganus

A. Nope except if power low or off

Q. What is the scariest sound he’s heard while operating a warbird? - Paganus

A. The sound of silence….

Q. 1)rudder forces and effects of the 109.
are you really of the opinion that the 109 pilots in dcs should be restricted in rudder deflection already during the takeoff run? the way it is now in dcs, full deflection is only possible at really really slow speeds, and already during the later parts of the take off run, the pilot will not be able to give full rudder deflection due to the forces. – Birdstrike

A. Yes it’s correct. Too much power or too little and you are done. Either too much torque or too little wind over the tail. Fine balance.
At high speeds it’s impossible to put full deflection on any fighter. Too much pressure on pedal

Q. The same is true for the stick forces acting upon our 109 pilot. at speeds way below 300kph IAS he will not be able to pull the stick completely back… – Birdstrike

A. Correct

Q. And what makes me personally really sceptical that the stickforces are implemented correctly, is the fact, that once you lose 1 elevator, you all of a sudden can turn much tighter at higher speeds, which for me at least doesnt make any sense. – Birdstrike

A. If you lose an elevator then less resistance, 50% to be exact means full deflection becomes possible.

Q. What’s your opinion about the matter? – Birdstrike

A. It’s Correct!

Q. 2) Ground physics outside of airfields and runways.
Please try some take offs and landings with unlocked tailwheel in the 109 somewhere in the grass fields on either of the maps in DCS, away from airfields and runways. I would be interested whether you think this is implemented correctly… – Birdstrike

A. OK, improving things like this are always being looked at, but remember the Bf-109 has approximately 50% of all losses during takeoff and landing accidents on the eastern front. This was partially due to inexperienced pilots but also to poor grass strips.

Q. I always wondered about the Origins of the relationship between TFC and ED. How did it come about, and what exactly is the relationship? – Nate–IRL–

A. Friendship, Ownership, Publishing. Knowhow and persistence is our story

Q. What is the highest boost and rpm settings he has ever flown a Spitfire and what type? – 56RAF_Talisman

A. +14 MK XIV

Q. P.S. What was it like to fly at high settings and fast speed in terms of feedback from the engine and airframe and maneuvering. – 56RAF_Talisman

A. It’s the mutts nuts… just keep your eye on stuff

Q. Given the access that Nick has, I am curious about what aircraft he chooses, whether it be a warbird or not, when he just wants to enjoy flying. – Cichlidfan

A. Good question, depends on the mood…

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Whoa, what? I’m I reading this part correctly?

FC4…?

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Yes, and a similar WWII pack as well.

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:scream:

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That’s all very exciting news! I would buy a new FC package, especially if the aircraft chosen are both interesting and unlikely to get their own full blown module, ie the detailed information just isn’t availabe for whatever reason. FC with a clickable (albeit simplified) pit would be awesome.

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What would that entail? Professional flight models with simplified avionics, similar to what we have for the F-15 and Su-27?

What sort of aircraft is ED thinking about?

My opposition to more FC3 was it was potential development effort that could have otherwise gone towards full systems aircraft. If ED has the bandwidth for more FC, all the power to them. Wonder which targets aircraft they’ll choose :thinking:

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Dont really have any specifics on what aircraft or anything, but I think they feel they need more variety out there, and faster as full modules take so much time. As well there are some aircraft ED just cant do full blown, so the FC thing makes it more feasible.

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Well, there it is… I thought the idea of more FC style aircraft were abandoned.

Impressive loggbook! But no Dash8. Well, nobody’s perfect. :wink:

My question would’ve been if he would trade jobs, for a day. :slight_smile:

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Yeah, I think they see that they just lag behind in their aircraft set, so this is a way to get more out there. They will still have their high fidelity stuff, but now we can see more options.

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So this would be more of a “filling in the gaps” kind of thing? That’d be pretty cool and would neatly solve a few problems. I’ll take my FC3 Foxbat/Foxhound since those design documents are more likely to be burnt/shredded than ever released.

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I think so, I think filling in the gaps is a good term. Also the FC3 aircraft are pretty popular as well, so not like they dont get people playing.

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We need a Mudspike development studio. the Dash 8 can be project one. DCS-something-that-rhymes-with-meth-fun-eleven can be project two.

Not to smother the nascent project with questions. Is ED intending to go straight to PFM with these, or do the SFM → PFM two step again?

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Does ED have a stance on what to do if a 3rd party developer thinks they have the talent and resources to make a full-systems-depth module of an airframe previously released at the FC3/FC4 level?

Say we get an FC4 Tornado IDS and a year or two later a group wants to attempt a FSD model. What happens?

It would all be dependent on available information I would think, but I really don’t have an answer at this point, all very early.

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I dont have a real answer, my thought would be it wouldnt be an issue if ED didnt have designs on doing it themselves, its possible they could even team up on it. But again, just my guesses.

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Last question, I swear-

With the news they might release a “Warbirds pack”, does Eagle Dynamics plan on personally traveling to throw the gauntlet at the doorstep of 1C Studios, or do they intend on hiring some kind of intermediary? :grin: :

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Great interview!

Before we get ahead of ourselves, are we sure he wasn’t just musing on the subject of FC4 and aircraft packs? I took the “…. ?” as him thinking out loud and not as an expression of a plan. I would love to be wrong.

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It may evolve, but the intent is there.

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Let the wild speculation on “which 4 modern aircraft?” and “which 8 warbirds?” begin!!!

I predict someone(s) proposes a pack with a certain USN 2 seat, low-level attack plane and a certain USAF 2 seat, low-level attack plane in 5, 4, 3, 2…

:grin:

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