I’ve been less present lately. With a new job, a new hobby (board games, gf’s idea) and the heat (too sweaty for VR) this summer, I’ve gone a while without serious flight simming.
Any tips on things to do now?
Some pointers:
DCS was always much better in VR performance for me than X-Plane 11 (i5-4XXX CPU, GTX 980Ti GPU
DCS modules I own: FC3, all helicopters, MiG-15Bis, M-2000C, some WWII planes. The first 3 paid maps: NTTR, PG, Normandy
Other sims: X-Plane 11, Elite:Dangerous
The last time I flew DCS, I tried some instant action missions and a User Files Su-25A (always liked that plane) campaign in PG, but it just didn’t click like VR flying used to do. Not sure if it was the lower graphics of FC3 cockpits, the lower framerate of PG vs Caucasus, or something else.
I was hoping you guys would have some tips on what to do with these, some cool updates that happened since last Winter or cool campaigns I should try.
I hope it’s just my computer holding me back, but am afraid I’m losing the madness we share. In which case an expensive VR capable rig would be a waste.
The new Syria map is great! It looks very good, there are plenty of tactical options and the terrain is very varied. It’s great for helicopter ops. Normandy has seen some nice campaigns added to it over the last few years. We also have the P-47D now in case you might be interested in another warbird.
Some other new releases as well. The Channel map came out, some campaigns and the super carrier (but it seems you don’t own any naval jets other than the Su-33).
Thanks for your reply!
I feel like I barely flew Persian Gulf yet, not that interested in another desert map to be honest, though it is probably (again) better than the previous maps.
I noticede some M-2000C in this year’s changelogs, is it worth re-learning yet? Seems there is a new campaign for it as well. I’ve been thinking I should re-learn it (enjoyed the Caucasus campaign a lot when it was pretty much complete the first time, before the re-vamp), is it done yet?
Syria is a much better map than PG, I had a break too for much the same reasons as yourself. Now I am really enjoying the new Syria map and learning the F14, FA18 and the F16 I have never been that keen on campaigns but the quality seems to be a lot better now especially 3rd party ones.
We also had a series of learning aircraft for a month. The Mi8 and viggen where the 2 I partook of. Something similar should be organised for another plane soon I hope. Also MS2020 is out and VR support is coming to that too.
Keep flying
I’m going to do the predictable thing (I have been quite vocal about my love for the Hip) and recommend the Mi-8 and the Oilfields campaign.
It’s a “civilian” campaign, all about navigation, heavy loads, tricky weather and sling loads etc. with pretty funny scripted voice chat by the crew. Missions range from routine cargo missions to helping out with a car accident and all sorts of other unexpected events. Quite different to “blow up x”.
I’ve been on a DCS hiatus so I’ve got one mission left - but I can confirm at least the first 15 of the 16 missions in the campaign were good fun.
Thanks for the recommendations! I used to fly the Mi-8 in a multiplayer group and that was the best time I’ve had in DCS, so I should definitely check out the Oilfield campaign.
The MiG-15Bis is a new addition, so I should check out the Museum Relic campaign too.
I suppose the new M-2000C campaign (Coup d’Etat) is as good as any Baltic Dragon product, did any of you try that yet?
I was about to buy the Oilfield campaign, when I read the text on the store page:
Meet a group of old friends: captain Jury Maksimovich Protasov and his Mi-8MTV2 crew. After the events of the “Spring Tension” conflict, they are again in business together
… and realized I had only flown the first few missions of the Spring Tension campaign, even though I enjoyed them a lot. I stopped flying them when I joined the aforementioned multiplayer group and spent all my Mi-8 flight time with them. After that came the Mirage, and I just never picked it up again.
So today I continued with the Spring Tension campaign, and it was a blast! Much smoother than the Persian Gulf, nice crew interactions and most importantly: the feeling of immersion and presence was back!
I will definitely buy the Oilfield campaign as soon as I get stuck on having to aim with this cargo chopper (I suck at aiming rockets when flying things with swirly blades on them), but for now, I’m having a blast!
Thanks everyone for your help and advice!
By the way, is anyone else on stable release?
P.S. if it stays like this, I can probably justify a new pc when all the new GPUs have hit the market.
I didn’t keep my word guys… I just flew a combat mission in Spring Tension and it was awesome.
I think somewhere in the last (at least) 4 years (since I flew the UH-1 and Mi-8 campaigns) the AI helicopter flying has improved greatly, it was a lot of fun.
I also flew the Gazelle for a bit (must have been almost 2 years since I flew that one) and boy is the handling of that tiny hot French girl improved! Feels much more organic!
I did the flying practice and the weapons practice mission and had a blast blowing up SUVs in Nevada, flying below power and phone lines and noticing how difficult it is to hover with a tail wind.
I already know why I was feeling out of it: I had been flying too much jets with a mediocre VR rig. Flying helicopters is so much more fun, especially in VR and especially if you don’t have the highest specs.
Huh, I should give the gazelle another go. Hot little french ditz sounds like a good time I wanted to add a pic of a hot little french lady, but the search engine did not come up with anything fit for posting. I mean they were fit, just you know, not quite, je ne sais quoi.
So I spent an evening getting to know la Gazelle. Ooh, does she dance! Squirrely thing tho. I haven’t yet learned how to hover with it. Did blast hinds pretty good tho, with the -L and -mistral version! That big gun is sweet. Gonna be even sweeter to have a bigger one in the hind
I watched that Casmo vid. Am I a grumpy old man to find it irritatingly obtuse to put “pitch: 0 curve, 30 sat, roll: 0 curve, 25 sat” in a 15 minute video. Text bishes, because it works!
I thought he did have it displayed on the screen? Regardless, the trick to hovering the Gaz is to get it slowed down in the first place. When the SAS kicks off below 120 kph she starts moving all kinds of directions that she wasn’t just a second before. I basically treat going for the hover as similar to landing I just aim to come to a stop about 5’ off the ground. Also don’t be afraid to use the auto hover it’s there for a reason, and I certainly take advantage of it.
Nice! Could you share that .miz with me?
I tried to blast a Hind with the gun version too, but got blasted to pieces when I let the Hind fly too high and gave it too much time to aim its gun at me. Then I replaced it with an Mi-8 and made it fly lower.
Then I had a wild idea: could I put a HOT3 through the bridge of the ship they came from? Perhaps if I put a Neustrashimy in the harbor, I could sneak up on it and get behind cover after shooting?
So far I got 2 deaths, 1 kill.
This mission is the result of all that fooling around: SA342_vs_Mi8_&_ship.miz (10.8 KB)
And after that, I really wanted to learn the nav systems to get better at sneaking around threats. So I did the training missions, NADIR waypoint manipulation, ADF.
Then I practiced autorotations. I ended up with about 90% crew survival rate, 50% tail rotor survival rate.
Did I tell you yet that I flew the first campaign mission this weekend? The campaign has you fly with a lovely British Apache, whose pilot has a marvelous accent.
Maybe I will write a review on the Gazelle. Aside from a lot of (p)reviews when she was first released into early access, there hasn’t been much in the way of publications on the module. And I really like her now, while I used to hate the flight model. Suddenly there’s so many fun things to do now that the flight model is believable and fun!
Auto-hover is quite picky, make sure to fly low (<20 m, ideally about 10) and watch the ground that you have zero movement, then press the auto-hover. It helps to have the controls indicator to see when it kicks in. I still ‘miss’ a lot too, so I also tend to move the stick after clicking to see if it’s engaged.
I just had a pretty awesome mission in Spring Tension - starting to like that campaign!
These insurgents shot down a helicopter - we had to go pick up the downed crew and got under under fire by the same guys. I got cocky and got a bit close for a good spray-up of the edge of the forest where the enemy was hiding. Killed most of them but the engine got shot up completely and I lost most of my systems, AP dampers etc.
Next step in the mission…pick up more downed crew members! Oh.
Had to do a running landing and takeoff on the sloping ground because the single engine performance with the loadout didn’t like hovering much. I hobbled home in the valleys with the remaining engine on emergency power…had to go around even the smallest of hills because I couldn’t get high enough to go around them, even in ground effect.
I was sure the remaining engine would pack up…but nope, she took me home. Amazing. The torque display was well above the top red triangle for a good 20-30 minutes at least. She is such a trooper, that Hip…she tries her very best to take you home every time, no matter what.
I have never been that keen on campaigns but the quality seems to be a lot better now especially 3rd party ones.
