Not sure where I saw this come up (here?) but I checked it out. The idea is sound; a “turn-based” war-game-like-thing. Has a lot of potential with one glaring issue (see below). Was released a while ago but seems someone has picked it up and improved things recently.
DCS Liberation, Release candidate 2
It’s a standalone (like Dynamic Campaign Engine) single player/coop dynamic campaign, in which you capture the land from the oppressor by conducting a series of various operations to weaken military base defenses and finally capture them, liberating the map bit by bit.
Features:
- Most of the modules and maps are already supported
- Both sides are playable, with appropriate aircraft for each other
- Supports single player and co-op multiplayer!
- Multiple aircraft with different roles participating in the fight (Escort+CAS+Ground attack units versus Interceptors+AA+Ground defenders)
- A number of missions types including Strikes, CAS, Anti-AA, CAP, ship attack, interceptions, escort and troops transport, which will be conducted by both sides of the conflict
- Carrier operations, both transport and attack helicopter operations, AWACS (251 MHz), tanker (140 MHz)
- Economy system which will reward you with money for completing operations, which you could spend to buy new planes and vehicles
- Progression in both quality and quantity - the deeper you go into enemy territory, the more advanced planes and ground units you will encounter, and in greater quantities
- Large amount of customization options (also a modding guide in which you can fine tune the campaign)
- Dynamic weather and time for every operation, visual frontlines that move closer to the base as you lower its defenses
My Take, after a few missions
The Good News: It works.
The Bad News: It’s a slide-show in VR. Unusable for me. Those of you in 2D with stout-ish rigs should be fine I think. I could get it to run in the mid-20’s if I turned off all weather and reduced the units to about 1/2 manually in the ME.
The idea of having to buy your units isn’t my favorite but it was fun. However, after few missions it seemed the Red side was funded a lot better than I was. Dilbert (my AI wingman) and I seemed to always be seriously outnumbered.
How to manual tutorial getting started
PS: I started to write something like this a year ago. Got the UI mostly working; connection to the sim; etc. I couldn’t get around the fundamental issued related to the above: there’s no idea of a “bubble” to cull (think AI LOD) out units that aren’t in immediate view or sensor range. There’s a LOT of units and DCS is trying to keep track of them all it seems.