I’m dubious we’ll get anything more cooked than the Harrier, but I’m pulling for them nonetheless.
Either way, we’re in for some prime people watching.
I updated the topic title, it was bad, sue me @Gunnyhighway. 
Hmm, I am feeling the back of my head to see where my eyebrows are for this one. It would great to see, especially a dual cockpit that did something role-based and weapony.
I’m not sure I’m ready for a 90% complete Harrier, 60% complete Hornet but then put down for a 30% Strike Eagle EA as well. RAZBAM always seemed quite productive, and they said they expanded people recently, so maybe their art/modelers are doing good things on this and that the systems guys are doing the ‘optimistic programmer estimate’ thing again.
Regardless, would be exciting to see something in a matter of months (where m < 12 because otherwise that’s a y).
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What’s it like in the future, and can I get the scores for this season’s Super Bowl?
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You can treat those as hexadecimals, but I was being a bit generous there. 
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Flanker 2/2.5 had a ground radar…that wasn’t. It was…um…a moving map in a CRT that offered targeting? That might be the best way to describe it.
It was so bad I never touched it. I stuck with ground pounding via Mk 1 eyeball and A2A sensors.
However, with carrier ops now getting some love between the Su-33 update, F/A-18, Harrier, and of course Tom’s Cat, I’ve been hoping to see the one highlight of 2.5, the 29K, come back.
Maybe a “MAC” addition at some point?
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I think you’ve described my sentiment as well. I’ve basically resided to picking up any future modules (F16/15E, Hind, Cobra) on sale. Think I’m about EA’d out. Every few months the Hornet will feel like a new module with the systems addition, and I’m anxiously awaiting to fly a fully combat operational space station… i mean harrier. Hot spot detector, TPOD that is more functional, FLIR improved, DMT tracking AIM9 seeker, AUTO bomb cues, TDC axis slewing, Tarawa updates, etc.
The major exception, and only if it is near complete, is the F-14. If that release isnt a ■■■■ show, I’ll buy it day one.
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Fixed it for ya
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It was autocorrect i swear it
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Some feature complete modules on release would be nice for a change yes, I do wonder if that’ll happen again though.
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It might be our small genre’s ‘loot boxes’, in that it becomes fashionable and accepted at first but then slowly scorches the earth enough to be ‘inverted’ - as in, ‘we have no loot boxes! / we are not EA!’ then becomes a feature that people would actively pay for, even if not overly interested before.
From a dev perspective it does make sense to gradually sell stuff from as early as possible (and probably always will be) but I think we’re in to new territory as in if there’s a market fatigue that sets in or not.
It might settle down to happy medium of ‘30% early adopters’, ‘40% wait for good enough’ and then the trailers at 30% of ‘only ever on sale, or complete my collectionists’. The small sample size of what’s EA almost makes it hard to see the best pattern as well, as in, there are some things that are ‘must buys’ in the community regardless of if it’s a bit of paper with the word ‘TBD’ written on it for $80.
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its not as if early access is anything new to the sim world. They just are called for what they are these days.
Back in the bad old days, things were shoved out of the door when the bean counters’ patience was up in whatever state the sim was in. And that was rarely bug free or even feature complete. Years of patching were often needed before a sim became as great as it promised to be at release.
So yeah, early access is not a new trend. At least not in the state in which our sims are released. It is a new trend in customer communication and customer expectation management and I for one am a happier customer for it.
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Leatherneck modules have been fairly feature complete, right? I think the Fishbed came out with everything it just needed minus some fixes and improvements. Or am I remembering wrong?
My remembrance is the MiG-21 and Viggen came out with all of the features they desired, more or less. Both went through extensive bug squashing sessions, and the Viggen is still waiting on game engine improvements for the RBS-15 and Mjonir to work entirely as intended.
I am willing to cut the Harrier some serious slack because I was happy just to be able to fly it. So for someone like me, the developer is fully justified releasing what ahould be an early alpha module. It’s not as if we make these purchases in a vacuum. I only have one regret. Everything else was either great from the beginning or at least close enough within a year.
If I remember correctly Razbam were working on the F-15E before the M2000 and Harrier but the project was put on hold due to the radar situation. I remember seeing posts from them saying it was pretty far on at one point too.
This screenshot for example is at least 5 years old:
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Having pretty 3d models of the pit and the externals is 2 thumbnail sized pieces of a room sized mosaic. The meat of every module is in the code of the countless system models and their interaction.
With that said, have a good look at this pit. Major parts of the side panels are only placeholder textures. I don’t want to come across as pessimistic, but unless they come forth with ingame videos of working switchology and FM, i resort to a healthy dose of scepticism when i hear anything resembling “soon”. It has served me well thus far (with the Hornet, e.g.).
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Devs still could release FC / MAC versions of the planes. And then, for aditional price, gradualy improve their projects to the level of full fidelity.
I know that but in addition to them developing the avionics pack for the FSX F-15E which I’ve heard good things about and the fact this has been in development for a number of years suggests they may be further along than people think.
Being new to DCS world, and hearing about issues with the Mirage, Harrier and now the Hornet, has/is this the norm for aircraft mod releases? In other words, did the Mig-21bis first come out with simplified systems? (Bad example since the Mig-21 only has simplified systems) Or the A-10C?
If so, I guess a 50% capable airplane is better than no airplane…and updates given us something to look forward to!
I like that idea…except for the"additional price" part…unless the original price is very low…at least half the price of the full up version.
Still, the an issue I see is that some folks will readily be able to afford upgrades, while others will not…leading to uneven capabilities in multiplayer. It’s a thinker. 
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