วีดีโอ

Since I bought the Thrustmaster MFD Cougars I absolutely love this aircraft 😍 I highly recommend them to anyone wishing they didn't have to memorize all those keyboard commands! (And yes, I know about the FC3 clicky cockpit mod🙂)

All the night scenes are for the Dynamic Campaign which is probably going to be on the free maps at first. Anyone that's been to war knows...a lot happens at night and the showcase highlights the night lighting effects which are vastly improved if anyone has been in DCS more than 5 years. Most of the video after the part about Dynamic Campaign is during the day but warfighters own the night! ~J

I've been using it and it's really an excellent piece of software, works especially well for flight simulation. A nice video as always, appreciate your content it's always top notch.

Great analysis. You make us look beyond the game and see that it is a solid marketing job and good business decision from ED part. I don't doubt that in some years we will see DCS going to Xbox. Not this version we have now, but the 3.0, with an spherical Earth and an open world, where people fly different types of aircraft in different levels of fidelity. For me, it is the Flight Simulator-ization of DCS. That's not bad, going for a larger market is something companies do earn more money. It is all good. The problem is that ED never lives up to their promises. And it is pushing a lot of people away. There's no marketing in the world that is able to disguise a bad product.

If I could go back 10 years to when I first started with DCS, purchasing almost all the modules, campaigns, and maps, along with all the hardware and HOTAS setups, I would never choose DCS again. More importantly, considering the time I have spent on scripting, creating missions, and flying with extremely hardcore simmers like the 476th, I would never choose DCS ever! DCS is a cockpit simulator at its best if-and only if-there are no bugs!!! It is not a battle, air warfare, or even a sandbox simulator. It was my biggest waste of time and investment.

Great video! Your perspective is spot on. Keep up the good work.

Thank you Sir, I've noticed over the last half of 2024, there are more reasonable voices providing sensible commentary and objective opinions rather than incoherent vitrol.

ED definitely catering for the "instant gratification" generation. Power to ED, I have no other opinion in regard to the F-35. Iain, superb video. Your comments are absolutely spot on. Thank you for voicing.

What is sad for me... Nobody even remembers about Vietnam. I mean map, of course. Everyone just stops talking about it(( We dont have even rumors about this map.

ED staff 170 more or less Active or semi (abandoned) active homing Projects: Dynamic Campaign Iraq Afghanistan Marianas WW2 ATC Apache F16 F18 F35 F15C Mosquito Huey / Mi-8 F6F Mig29A FOG/Dynamic weather Graphics / Dlss Engine upgrades Voice chat / multiplayer features / UI Combined Arms Super carrier Ground crew airfields Logistics implementation Yeah, I don’t think they are finishing anything soon

We will soon get IL-2 Korea. Microprose is about to return full of strength and new projects. Hope they are paying attention to the TH-cam DCS video comments, and taking good notes. Viper/Strike Eagle 5.0 could be being baked as we type. * Including perhaps Razbam´s: F-15 E/Mig-23/AV-8B Harrier II/Mirage-2000C/Mirage III?

I really love your analytical approach. I think I agree with 70% of your points. I think to a certain extent, they are feeding the hunger for more content, to keep anticipation and engagement high. Hell, part of their shots have to be peripheral advertisement for nVidia. As I play DCS on my current fast-in-its-day RTX 3070, my eyes glaze over the RTX-4070ti Super, the limits of my current power supply before scrapping my rig for a whole new one. That said, a Central Europe map will probably allow 30% of their market to fly over and bomb their own homes. Sick, yes, but subtly satisfying.

I think ED has been pretty consistent over the years with how they've developed the game really. My expectations were set long ago. If a module gets announced being working on it usually equates to 1-3yrs before early access then 5-8yrs before being feature complete. 3rd parties simular but more unpredictable because less resources. Sometimes modules get accelerated, sometimes they stall due to priorities. Core stuff similar, if something is mentioned being worked on generally an early version gets released with final polish taking anything up to 5+ yrs. The dynamic campaign I'm fully expecting to be bare bones, with Caucasus only & no mp for another yr or 2 and not at a completed level till maybe 2030. Agree or disagree with their approach it's always been that way & slow going with people wanting things prioritised over others. Honestly I think if anything the production rate has sped up last 5yrs. And they are still well ahead of my own expectations. Some of the modules & things in game were only a pipe dream for me 10yrs ago. Let alone 25yrs when first played their products. But that's not saying they've made all the right choices either, which even themselves admit. So I totally get where the frustration can come from, and potentially valid in a lot of cases. Theres things that I wish would get a kick up the arse too. But at the end of the day they've kept themselves in business and at top of the combat sim market for 3 decades, so I'm willing to trust they know what works for the most part. Definitely don't doubt the commitment from them to make the best product.

here's my overall opinion on what the trailer has done the trailer has served as a confirmation to everybody's hopes and I do mean everybody however just because it confirms that those hopes have been heard does not mean that it confirms that those hopes will be delivered upon however I am going to take Liberty here and say if they add that Dynamic campaign and that F-35 it will genuinely benefit DCS in a way that not many updates haven top of that I think that DCS is going to continue to do what it's done for the past couple of years when it comes to World War II it will maintain a presence but it will not try to become the dominating Factor over games like IL 2 as it realizes currently there is no way for DCS to compete in the World War II space that being said I do think that this year will be the year that more work will be put into DCS as if this marketing campaign is successful for me I have always had a bit of a relationship with games like DCS or games in general I do not play them for years straight I take year-long breaks and then doing this I have maintained an ability to see any game as fresh at any time in doing so I've also been able to remove a large chunk of my own bias that I used to have for games like DCS I say this because even though I have hundreds of dollars in the game and you would think that would bias me towards hoping it succeeds it doesn't that money doesn't exist to me and it hasn't for years and while I do genuinely hope for the best for DCS it is not because of my hundreds of dollars or thousands of hours spent it is merely because I enjoy DCS and I enjoy the idea of the future of DCs however I am not one to argue plain fact DCS has its issues not little being over promising and under delivering even if what they deliver is still considered good it is nothing compared to what they promised to deliver I think this is none more prevalent the F-16 we all know the F-16 is f***** why is the F-16 f***** good question Ed I would love an answer but we know it's not what it was promised to be and while improvements have been made it is certainly not enough the truth is it will never be enough until it is what it was promised I say all of this to show that I am in no way shape or form just trying to ignore the faults of Ed I can acknowledge them while also maintaining a generally positive and optimistic view of the future of the game I genuinely do not believe there is a need for pessimism but more a shallow optimism because no matter what you want to say DCS has improved every year so I have no doubt they will continue to improve this year question should not be should it or would it improve it should be how much will it improve

100% agree. Digital Complaining Simulator had generated at least as many hours worth of pointless internet arguments as of flight time! Greatly appreciated your thoughtful and considered views here.

What is entirely dishonest on the part of ED is continuing to sell and profit off of deprecated modules that will no longer receive updates.

I dont like the F-35 addition, but i just wont buy it. Someone somewhere will want it, good for ED. But expect me to make fun of it and EDs choice to add it.

Yup. 100% agree with you. I'll speak for myself, I accept DCS for what it is. Tthere are plenty of players who are in certain era camps - Vietnam Era, WWII era, post 2000's era. Those eras are great. I myself am more in the 1980's to 1990's era (especially Desert Storm '91) as well as post 2000's era. However the majority of my DCS experiences are "what if" scenarios and complete fictional scenarios (those of which can be of real world elements or alternate universe elements). DCS of course has it limitations of course, so if it doesn't have something that I require, I'll find a mod of that particular thing that I require or make it myself. It could be an aircraft, a vehicle, specific ordinance, or even a livery for said aircraft or vehicle. I just have fun with what I have and get creative when I need to.

it is always good to hear a sound opinion, based on solid business and industry knowledge. kudos !!!

I really want to thankyou for the recent set of videos you have put out. It has changed my perspective about ED and DCS. As of a couple months ago I stopped trying to look at DCS as what I want it to be and instead I look at it for what it is and where ED is going with it.

Spot on analysis! Your dog is remarkably smart (and you're no slouch either). Thanks!

Ok, message received. Can we get back to Iron Bombing now?

What if bitchin' about DCS is a significant portion of what I enjoy about DCS?

"Stop complaining, it won't get you what you want _unless what you want is an argument_" - Wise words, although for some of these complainers that argument is EXACTLY what they want. My two cents addendum to that advice, do not feed the trolls.

Great break down Ian. I don’t expect the F-35 to be released any more than I’ve seen the Mig-29 teased both in the 2024 and 2025 and beyond video. No love lost there.

The reply to my comment on Wags QA video is a good example of what you are saying about ED.

If I'm not mistaken, none of the current maps have Berlin. Thus I think they're hinting at an eventual Germany map, whether for WWII or Cold War. I'm fine with a lot of these taking time because they end up very good.

The last question in the Q&A video proves your point. It also should focus people on reality.

long story short the problem with DCS as a whole is in my opinion threefold number one the module Fidelity required for the community that Ed is actually trying to sell to number two the fact that in that Fidelity comes astonishing development time and costs because a lot of the time Ed's teams have to go out and actually get their hands on some of these aircraft to be able to take pictures of the inside of them to model them which drives development costs of every single module probably through the roof probably more money than we could stomach thinking and this is even more the case with ex-soviet jets because I don't know if you know this but it's really difficult to get your hands on a Soviet jet in the United States of America and that leads into problem number 3 the fact that Soviet Jets even though there are a s*** ton and a very large group of people who want to fly them I don't think that group of people is as large as the cost of development would currently be for a large majority of the Jets that they are asking for at least this has been the consensus I have reached in my 10 year of playing DCs because most of the time when I ask somebody what they want to see in game it's not a Russian jet I'd say roughly 35% of the time I ask somebody what module would you like to see added next in DCS they give me a Russian jet however the rest of but the rest of the time it's usually either American or european jets like I remember before the F-14 was introduced to the game the question would usually be filled with I want an F-14 I want to fly the plane in Top Gun and even before that before the F-18 was introduced to the game when I asked people the question a lot of the time that was the answer because the F-18 was a majorly Popular airframe by most of the US and Canadian military same thing with the Viggen I heard the Viggen from a lot from a lot of the Swedish players and European players which are a surprisingly large amount and then after all of this the F-15 became the new plane that everybody wanted and of course Eagle Dynamics has now not only announced a full Fidelity f-15c but before that razbam rip introduced the f-15e because again people just wanted a full Fidelity F15 I say all of this because I rarely have ever seen anybody actually give me the answer of like I want a mig-25 and there's a reason for that because in the west at the very least most Russian jets that you saw were either early early Cold War era jets or they were helicopters because in Western media very rarely is the at least during the Cold War adversarial jet actually the actual jet because they were impossible to get your hands on during the Cold War and because of this a lot of media that actually came out from the Cold War either was actual footage of different militaries using things like the mig-19 and jets like that like the mig-21 so of course the most popular jets are going to be the mig-21 and the mig-19 and just by complete and utter coincidence we have full Fidelity models of both but we don't have a full Fidelity model of the 25 I wonder what reason that is it's maybe because it's not as known by the public and because DCS makes its money entirely off of module sales whether it was map terrains airplanes helicopters or things like the supercarrier if it's not going to make money because it's a niche within a niche within a niche then why in the world would they fulfill that Niche the only reason they could do that is if there would be competition who had yet to fulfill that Niche so that then they could bring those players into the DCS ecosystem so that then they could sell them on some of the things that they might not have been otherwise interested in but because of DCs not having any competition they have no reason to fight for these people

I uninstalled DCS because I wasn’t have a good time. I check back in on it from time to time but I come to the conclusion that I still don’t want to play it. So I don’t and I am happy.

Pretty much EVERY nail on it's respective head there, my fine fellow!! Cheers 👍👍👍

Oh you’re a paranoid schizophrenic got it

"Stop complaining! It won't get you anything" - Sidekick Apathy is death, Iain. The day people stop caring is the day the wheels come off the bus. Careful what you ask for.

I've been looking forward to your take on this, you didn't disappoint!

I have been waiting for your take on the 2025 video and you did not disappoint.

Yes, you hit nail on the head. Great summary of what ED's intentions are. I don't even think it's open to interpretation, they are telling us these things through their promo and the 2025 vid. You are putting this all into clean and concise language. I think ED wants to make the sim/game for everyone but their main priorities RIGHT NOW, are garnering a larger audience. Which I believe is only a good thing.

The fact they are willing to tackle a project like the f35 gives me a lot of optimism an hope for the game. Negative comments just get ignored by our community

Brilliant analysis 🙏🏻. Many thanks and kind regards, Nick

My take on the F35 is that ED knows they need to move forward with the simulation of a more complicated radar modelling incorporating a global model, stealth and the natural progression of JHMCS and super maneuverable planes etc. The best way to do this is to just model a plane that has these features regardless of the information being entirely correct. By doing this is moves the entire simulation forward by proxy and expands the SDK tool set for 3rd parties. Projects like the Mig29 and Typhoon, while really awesome, don't move DCS forwards. It's not like the more complex radar simulation that takes into account the curvature of the earth won't benefit the entire sim. That all said, i'm still most excited about the Mig 29 and the F14B (U) because that sort of era is most fun for me.

Bingo! Thanks for your MBA/University course in business marketing.

You are probably right about attracting a younger crowd, however the assumption that the "younger crowd" will be less critical than the "grognards" is wrong as a perusal of the War Thunder forums with their endless Byzantine arguments about the workings of sensors and radar (including from 3rd and 4th gen jets) would show.

Persistent Campaign would be interesting too.

Definitely an interesting video from ED. Thanks for providing your opinions. Always informative. The F-35 leaves many questions. I don't see the point personally, and liken it to the Chinook and C-130. No modern opfor nor any aircraft capable of competing. The dynamic campaign peaked my interest and I hope the footage is actual working gameplay. But we don't know that. The q&a on the other hand leads me to believe that they are trying to appease their long term customers by being more transparent. I don't think new players watch Q&As. At least we know they are aware of community concerns, at best they are taking our concerns on core gameplay into account for further development.

Agreed on all points. The game now straddles a wide number of eras, so in theory there's something for everyone and the announcement plants a boot on the ground in the modern era signaling the evolutionary direction of the franchise.

I found the combination of the 2025 and Beyond video along with Wags’ Q&A very refreshing. It answered a lot of questions I had about the direction of DCS. Ive been critical of DCS development in some aspects. Mainly because the lack of info coming from ED on many things. Wags’ video got me to a happy spot as he addressed many if not all of my concerns. I’m quite pleased with where it all is right now. Happy days.

Exactly! Well said, and I will continue to enjoy DCS despite being so bad according to the high expectations of some. No matter what they do, there will always be criticism and as wags said, that doesn't really help anyone any time. I will say, there was a lot left out and it was very silent. perhaps that's an indication of the frustration they have for all the bad mouthing. I also believe the F-15c is an indication RAZBAM is not coming back to the sand box. I don't know if we need to wait and get information from every third party developer or just relax and enjoy and what ever comes around, well, comes around.

its just a highly technical subject and resources are limited decisions have to be made hard decisions and changes / improvements take time to implement hopefully dcs will rise to the level of our hopes and expectations in our children's lives 🤷‍♂️

Be black pilled? Nah. Fight!

I would say be glad it didn't get dropped like a hot potato as Kerbal 2 did. Or the long long long long development of Star Citizen that hasn't even left Alpha yet.

Amen Mr Christie!!! Accept it for what it is!!! Thank you!!!