So ... anything we need additional coverage on?

Meta
1

I am still pluggin’ away on the multiplayer M2000C campaign idea. It is taking some time…

But I was wondering if there were things that needed doing: like ideas for articles that might need researching or writing. I have read a few articles here on aircraft previews (for DCS, I am thinking of the M2000C), did we want to revisit that as a review? @EinsteinEP article is pretty good as it is :slight_smile:

I did have an idea for a review of the flight chair/desk that I made but I am having issues figuring out how to format and write that. It is almost something that could be more of a Maker thing except that it is related to my (our) hobby. Not sure if that fits here or not as it is, basically, just woodworking.

2

Re: flight chair/desk - that’d be something I’d be interested in reading about.

As for reviews - it’s a battle with time moreso than interest without a doubt. I’d love to have enough time to write a proper review of something like the A-10C Operation Piercing Fury campaign DLC for DCS World, but something like that requires relearning the A-10C and the flying enough of the campaign to give a fair review. So that is probably like a full week or two for me to commit to just focusing on that. I plan to get to it…and for sure my winter simming time is more bountiful than my summer simming time.

Some articles are just waiting on completion of the module. I’ve been waiting YEARS now to write a head-to-head article on the Hawk vs. the C-101…but at their various levels of incompletion, that article has been simmering on a back burner in my head for years now.

Our biggest gap is probably land warfare - specifically Steel Beasts. While I write some fun stuff about Arma, that doesn’t require the commitment of time (there’s that word again!) that something like Steel Beasts is worthy of.

Hopefully we can continue to find the intersection of our personal interests and what members and visitors might like to read about. But I’m always up for suggestions…

3

@Tyco. I volunteer @Tyco

1 Like
4

Also I’ve noticed there tends to be a significant knowledge gap between guides on how to start and aviate planes (e.g. Chucks), and how to actually fight the plane. When we start getting aircraft with complex systems and weapons cough hornet tomcat cough, I’d like to go through and put together some guides on how to actually fire the weapons, and perhaps some best uses for how to employ them tactically. I’m sure @klarsnow would be interested in this endeavor as well. I’m talking here about your more specialized JDAM sub modes, AGM-88s, AGM-62s, stuff that is not as intuitive as what we’ve seen so far with the Tiger and Mirage.

With the Tomcat, If someone doesn’t beat me to it then I’d just like to explain the monstrosity that is the RIO position. The Tomcat is not an F-15, F-18, or F-16. The RIO has a much more hands on role in controlling the radar, much more akin to how the F-4 used to work.

Obviously this requires modules to fly so I can figure out how to describe them. In the mean time I’m working on another pet project.

1 Like
5

Its funny… too many sims, not enough time.

Personally, i too like reading stories of other peoples home computer set ups and home made pits.

Maybe on a side note for an article, we could talk about the actual hardware that run our sims. I.E. did you build it, did you buy it, cost comparison vs both vs complexity of the build. What research led you to that config etc.

Also interested in peripherals, whose using what, what snags or god things are found.

I.E. there used to be a great touch screen program years ago called touchbuddy where you culd configure any number of panels on a touchscreen peripheral (what ever happened to that)

1 Like
6

Funny, I was thinking a couple of days ago, “I wish that @BeachAV8R would divulge what he learned getting Air Hauler to work in XP10.” And bam!

Isn’t there a recently retired ground pounder around here, AKA @Magnum50?

1 Like
7

I’m going to let him relax in retirement for about a month before I hit him up to come provide some of his insights on land warfare stuff… :smiley:

8

Glad it was well timed. I’ve also got my hands on the Early Access Air Hauler 2…thus far I’m very, very impressed. It is only being developed for FSX, FSX-SE, P3D1/2/3 at the moment though. But the user interface is pretty slick and overall it is a nice improvement over Air Hauler. I really wish they could be convinced to develop it for X-Plane 10 or 11.

9

Hopefully once we get our move all squared away I will have some time to write something.

2 Likes
10

You can try online only flight sims/games like Aces High or War Thunder.

11

Here you go for warthunder:

It looks great and is fun in arcade mode. The review of the M-60 will have to wait until my grandchildren complete the grind that I started two years ago. See you all in 40 years!

2 Likes
12

Did somebody say War Thunder?

I got nearly 1300 hours in that. I guess I could say I unlocked a thing or two.

for aircraft I got things like:

  • The P-80 and F9F-2 for the US.
  • All Me-262’s, the Ho-229, the Arado 234B and the east german MiG-15BiS for the germans
  • The IL-28 for the russians
  • The Canberra for the brits

For tanks I got things like

  • The Maus and Raketenjagdpanzer for the germans
  • The IS-2 (1944) for the russians, working on the IS3.
  • for US tanks I got up the M4A2(76)W

The rest is not really worth mentioning. But I can be short about War Thunder. At its core I think it’s an incredible game, with pretty decent flight models for RB and SB, great damage models too and one of the best tank damage models with great post-penetrating effects for HEAT, AP, APHE, HESH, APCR, APDS and ADFSDS, although toned down to be more like a game than a sim.

But while the actual game is brilliant it’s being gutted by its own metagame, its matchmaker to be exact. I used to remember it back when it was about good fights. Now it feels like it’s only about killing and dieing. some games you get “uptiered” Say you are in Tiger I Ausf. H1 and have to face the IS-2 (1944) or a super pershing. Other games you are downtiered and you’re perhaps playing in a King Tiger (H) facing off against IS-1’s or Jumbo shermans. The problem is less pronounced in aviation, as being the better pilot is a large factor in coming home victorious from a dogfight. But you get the feeling that something is afoot when your Me262C2 has to face off against the MiG-17, MiG-15, Hawker hunters and the F86 sabre. This is also another peeve of mine with this game. I understand they can’t perfectly split WW2 and the cold war as some vehicles might be to powerful in one or to weak in the other regardless of historical accuracy. But the mid-late to late tiers have become such a blend that i do not know what conflict we’re supposed to represent. So as you can imagine, dieing to a more powerful vehicle is frustrating. Killing another player does not feel very good if you’re in a batantly more powerful ride. Good fights can be had but they’re few and far between that I don’t really feel it’s worth it anymore. The last issue I have is with the BR (battlerating, this number decides what other vehicles you can face) compression. Let’s take a look at upgrading from your panzer IV F1 to a Panzer IV F2. All you upgrade is the gun, from a KwK 37 to a KwK 40. It’s actually a big upgrade, since you’ll go from one of those short stumpy guns to a beautiful long barreled tank gun. But for the rest the tank is the same. You’ll rise 1.4BR for this exchange. But for the mid-late tiers, let’s take a look at the panther. The first panther that you can get is the panther ausf. D. You can then progress through 4 different panthers untill you finally get the panther II wich is superior the D in every way imaginable. For this rise in power you rise only 1.0 in BR wich means you can end up in battle with the other.

anyway I think I’ve rambled on for long enough now :slight_smile:

I’d hope we could see some more reviews on mudspike! I’m working on something for the F-15 again on mudspike, and hope to soon undust a project I’ve been working on before the summer. I understand it might take a long time to master an aircraft to the point you can review it or a campaign for it. Do I remember it wrong that beach said the Ka-50 was his favorite DCS module? So why not write a little something about the republic campaign? Oh and while it didn’t really look like you mastered the Su-27 back then, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading your The Ultimate Argument review on simHQ and ended up buying it because of it, even though you critisised some things about it. It’s hard to find info on some campaigns wich makes me hesistant to buy them.

And we need more fly-ins :stuck_out_tongue: It’s been to long since we last tried to escort and bomb stuff with the Mirage 2000. It must have been about half a year ago now?

1 Like
13

AARs, AARs, AARs! More reports and discussion of the games we love, games maybe other folks haven’t seen yet, and definitely multiplayer events, even if they are just of you and a buddy or two goofing around. I’d love hear more about folks’ War Thunder experiences, or World of Warships stories. Tell us your story! I love reading those and I’d like to see that section continue to grow.

We have at least one more community event planned before the end of the year (the trick is just settling on a date!), so we’ll have more Mudspike events to talk about, but I know you guys are playing out there - let’s hear about it!

As for writing articles, we would love to see more content going into our article page. There’s a challenge in getting a good topic and the right timing, but there’s also a lot more work involved in creating a web article than just typing up some thoughts. I tend to put between 20-40 hours of effort into each article I write, although it’ll vary greatly depending on the topic and the author’s skill level, and I’m sure most of you out there have better writing skills than me! (I? me? thee?).

That said, if anybody feels like committing to helping create more web article content for us, please contact me or any of the @staff and we’ll help guide you through the process.

2 Likes
14

oh yeah AARs! I love reading them and enjoyed writing a few too! Maybe we should hold a competition (most likes or something?) who can write the best AARs for a small prize? Maybe that would persuade people to write more of them :slight_smile:

1 Like
15

booooooo! I hate writing those. You have to find something decent to play, have a notable experience in it. Remember to document the experience. Rewatch the experience to figure out what happens, write and edit what you have and then @beachav8r does a better job anyhow.

2 Likes
16

On the other side of the spectrum there’s me, who loves writing AARs but has literally zero time to do so. :frowning:
Someone needs to invent a way to share free time between those who have too much and those who have none.

If they could also invent a way to take a picture of smell (to keep with you that freshly baked pizza) it would just be great.

1 Like
17

The trick is not let the AAR explode into something more than they need to be. You can knock out an AAR post in 10 minutes - a couple screenshots, a couple sentences about what happened, and the report is made. If you’ve got time to do something deep and detailed, go for it, but those quick n dirties (QnD) make for good reading too!

For me, the challenge is remembering to take screenshots during the mission. Instead, I’ve gotten into the habit of using the record function of nVidia’s ShadowPlay to capture notable moments, then use a videoplayer to capture screen shots after the fact. And nobody takes screenshots like @BeachAV8R, so I’ve given up even trying to come close to that bar.

18

Yeah…I tend to go overboard. But it is something I really enjoy doing. A sick thrill. LOL…

1 Like
19

@EinsteinEP you’re not wrong. But beyond the AAR there’s actually the game to play. I specifically intend Hearts of Iron III here. Accruing enough material to put together an AAR post takes several hours now, at the mid-to-late stage I’m in.
:slight_smile:

Other games are actually easier I give you that…

1 Like
20

The AAR doesn’t have to be of a complete fight, start to finish. A discussion of where you started your gameplay for the session, a blow-by-blow description of a couple hours of gameplay, with some screenshots to fill in the whitespace: “I began maneuvering my forces for a feint to my enemy’s flank, hoping that they’d thin their frontline so I could unleash a devastating frontal assault [pic], but those dirty Huns called my bluff and attacked me in the middle of the redeployment [pic], so I had to regroup to prevent losing more territory [pic]”. This would be a great AAR post. Especially for those of us who aren’t familiar with the game.

If you picked this game back up a few days later and wanted to continue the story, that’d be awesome, but just the starting conversation would really add a lot to the forums.

1 Like