I think that is happening though isn’t it? You have talented third party teams building campaigns that are probably better than what ED can manage given their time and resource restrictions. You have talented third party teams building modules that interest them and their fan bases as opposed to what ED might have access to or interest in. And I think there are third party teams that might be doing terrains (? - wasn’t Leatherneck doing something like that…or hoping to?). So, generally speaking, I do think ED has allowed for some external expertise to fill in some of the content.
I’m really hoping for an explosion of content from both internal and external points once 2.0 is done and we are all on the same build. I remain optimistic that they are building a sim “operating system” that will hold us over for a long time to come.
And yeah - carriers, Hornets, Hormuz, and the Harrier are things that really, really, excite me in the near term. I’m not a WW2 fan…never have been…but don’t begrudge them for getting their stuff too.
Agree with you completely Beach. ED/DCS is going right direction. Just too slow for me. They’re consumed with obligations for “professional” paying customers versus us. Just thinking out-of-the-box to make things happen faster for the “non-professional” paying customer - us.
I think you might’ve just answered your own dilemma
In my humble opinion:
Play more teamwork oriented scenarios with friends. The Mudspike Teamspeak’s a great place to start!
Pick something you’re bad at and either practice it or read a real-life manual and practice doing it the right way. If you’ve actually mastered this, do it with a new plane.
Take a break for a month or two and try another hobby. Everyone gets burned out.
So, those of us that like declaring things like “BREAK RIGHT FLARE FLARE FLARE!” and “FOX (NUMBER)” and “OH NO I’M GONNA C-FIT AGAIN!” in joy over teamspeak have kicked around the idea of doing a friendly mini weapons school session, following along some of the drills in the USAF and Navy handbooks.
Simulator Air-to-Air is pretty brutal since your options are:
A) Baptism of fire.
B) Read a real-life, dense, terse military manual, go to A, then repeat B trying to figure out what went wrong.
I can’t help but think if the concepts were introduced at a more comfortable pace (by a real human on the other end) that more people would enjoy it. Seems like every time I practice against @klarsnow I get a few more tricks up my sleeve…
Easy there tiger, your kill ratio when we practice BFM is still only about… 5:1
I rambled about this in another thread but the context granted by the dynamic campaign is what keeps me coming back to Falcon BMS over and over. DCS has a great graphics and physics engine, but the experience is pretty shallow. After you spend more than a couple hours learning how to flick the right switches, you tend want challenges that require things like a complex threat environment and dedicated mission planning capabilities…
Keep in mind that from a technical standpoint DCS is the most complex sim available. It takes years to research and model a single aircraft and that’s"if’ the data is available to them.
I came across as a total a$$ in that post. I was rushing through it so that I could play in the snow with my daughter. (It’s really rough out there! I’m saving the shoveling for tomorrow). My point was that it is true that community is the most important thing. Unless you are dedicated to single player–flying with friends is the whole point. But the developer has the biggest role to play. Huge, expensive sandboxes and exquisitely modeled vehicles aren’t enough. There must be some sort of underlying gameplay–for me anyway. I will not spend cash solely on anticipation anymore. The map must either come with a killer single player element or a massive multiplayer community where at least some won’t get a buzz mixing Gazelles with Spitfires.
You actually named three different games - Sandbox game, Singleplayer game, Massive Multiplayer game.
I think these are three separate options… decisions, decisions, decisions…
@smokinhole re the teamspeak security thing. You can manually increase your level. Search mudspike here for teamspeak and the main thread should have the info you need. When I’m off my phone I’ll find it and post if you haven’t figured it by then.
I have to humbly disagree on this point Chris. Gen 2 (at least for Oculus) is two years away. I am sure it will be fantastic and a significant step forward from what we have now… but, what we have now is pretty mindblowing. Personally I wish I had jumped aboard the VR bandwagon with the Oculus DK2 back in 2014.
If that time frame is true, and with the price falling…I’d agree with that. And there are some pretty compelling non-flight titles that have been released lately, with no doubt more in the months and years coming, that only make that more true.
So yeah - buy one. LOL (Or at the very minimum TRY one because it will forever alter your perception of what simming should look like…)
Trying one would of course be the best way to go about it, mainly because no matter how articulately you try to describe it, you really can’t do it justice. You just have to experience it for yourself. At which point you are at least $500 poorer, and you just… don’t… care…
The IL2 server Tactical Air War has been fun since I discovered it a few days ago. For the first time in my experience in multiplayer, in any IL2 derivative, I have been flying natural fights above 6000m. By “natural” I mean players choosing to go that high for reasons of personal tactical necessity. It looks amazing with contrails.
