Hey folks, thanks for all your comments. A couple of updates: • ED has released a newsletter discussing most of the points I raised. Nice timing! www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/newsletters/80815af823dd79988484f6e9a40c9bb0/ This part about Voice Chat, "We also plan external application support and other player-requested features." sounds like an answer to what I said about SRS :) • Correction about LINK16, I mixed the refresh rate aspect with LINK4, which updates every ~2" in Tomcat, and that's due to the WCS refresh rate.
DCS reminds me of this feeling these niche racing games have where cars have unbelieveabe detail, but your environment is an empty city that you drive through and nothing else and if there is traffic its extremely backward AI. Even though DCS is not exactly like that it always gives me that feeling
DCS is nothing without being a part of a squadron or carrier air group. When I was active, we had weekly training and bi-weekly major missions as part of a campaign with between 40-60 of us active players in squadrons with awacs and following exact military protocols by referencing the NATOPS (and nearly a quarter of the guys being vets themselves) for example and etc. The training essentially involved months of learning the jet and once in a squadron, going through power points on new topics, skillsets and practicing together followed by a debrief. DCS is not a standalone sim/game, you need people to bring it to life. A basketball court is a great place to have lots of fun but if you don't have others with you give it life, you can only have so much fun shooting alone into a basket. People trying to make it anything other than this miss the point entirely.
@@alphapicturesentertainment USLANTCOM. I used to be active but I just had too much on my plate with work travel and other responsibilities. I plan to join back again at some point once I have a more balanced schedule. Wonderful guys that are all extreme military aviation enthusiasts and are there to be supportive. The group treats it seriously and follows everything by the book, but also they know it's about having fun so we'd occasionally have relaxed activities, but for the most part everyone was on the same page that the fun comes from treating it like the real thing.
Tbh the jammer part of the EW simulation could be completely erased of DCS imo, since it will be 100% guessworking (not the fundamentals of how jammer works, but specific jamming equipments). They could use the resources to improve the RWRs, a much more important part of the EW spectrum for the context of DCS. Also about the Link16, the update rate of the L16 in DCS is 12 seconds. It seems like real time because the system in the 16/18 is built to extrapolate the DL trackfiles so you have a smooth picture. Those were the jets that started to implement the sensor fusion concept (the 18 more than the 16). The Strike Eagle will be downplayed, of course, with technology comes superiority. L16 is and should be a game changer. That said, good points! Lets hope that they increase their pace in the improvements this year
Todays newsletter talked about everything you listed as upcoming new changes, pretty good. The main things they want to do have to do with performance bottlenecks that will be solved with vulkan. (maps with lots of jungle, better bombFX, napalm) all stuff that needs the performance overhead first.
AI improvements and Dynamic Campaign should definitely be packaged together or the feature will suffer in my opinion. Also, EW has been lacking for way too long. I just hope one day I can use an ECM pod on the Warthog with the assurance it's helping me rather than feeding me that placebo pill.
It’s worth pointing out the Command: Modern Operations models electronic warfare. It is not magic. It is quite possible to have a satisfactory implementation of electronic warfare in DCS.
I flew the A4 on Enigmas Cold war server yesterday. Did 3 Sorties. 1st Sortie - was shot down by a Mig 21 2nd Sortie - shot down 5 aircraft / 1xMig21, 1xMirage F1, 3x Hind Helis. Then RTB. 3rd Sortie - was shot down by SAM The second Sortie was the best most fun flight I ever had in DCS. I couldn`t believe how lucky I was shooting all these guys down in one sortie. Either way, Enigmas server by far provides the best way to fly DCS. Analog cold war planes, limited situational awareness and dynamic map settings. I really enjoy it.
Being a dedicated backseater, Enigma is a no-go for me. I've been told it is quite nice, but there are things I don't like. The best experience, imo, is a campaign in a simulative group with a PvP component that follows rules and tasks, ergo avoiding the escalation to airquake.
I understand where you’re coming from and where DCS falls short, however, I’ve had some very good online missions where I felt like a part of an air wing. The last online mission I did was in the F-15E Strike Eagle and we did a cooperative cockpit with him in the from and I in the back. It was unbelievable how realistic it felt as we and two other F15E’s took to the air, kept our time to target correct, punched our way through the SAM threat as Wild Weasel aircraft delt with that and we continued to the target. As we got to our assigned targets the other aircraft came in as well and the carnage began on the enemy airfield. The amount of AAA and Manpad threat was done very well and it was really incredible. I was in VR and laughed at myself as I duct a couple of times as trailer fire would get close. So for me, that was the closest thing to actually being in a large scale strike group. I mean I actually was sweating by the time we cleared the threat area. So it can be done and I think ED is working hard to give us that same feeling in single flight mode as in multiplayer or at least thats what their last few newsletters made it sound they were working towards. I’ve had similar experiences flying the AH64 Apache and the Hind but these again were Online mission w flew on either private servers or a few public ones. One day if will get there and we will plop ourselves into a single player mission and feel the same as we do online. BTW if you’re ever interested in trying it out and flying online give me a shout. I can usually meet up with people if my pain levels are under control. I fly laying down on my mattress due to screws and rods in my spine from when I was a much younger man serving in the USCG and broke my back. So now I can’t sit very long and have to fly laying down. Usually it doesn’t affect anything except for if I’m not feeling well I can’t meet up with people. Other than that I’m good to go. BTW love your channel, keep up the great job you do! Thanks
I will not give another cent to ED until they overhaul wingman AI. I play exclusively SP, so the idiocy of the wingmen and the inability to get them to do tactically sound things or even direct them onto correct targets kills the immersion for me entirely. It's sad because otherwise it's not a bad game, and much has been achieved in other areas.
Many good points, but the L16 part is more nuanced I think. I've just done a test mission and can confirm that at least today, the AWACS is not all seeing, it can see some contacts, but not all, especially when a contact goes cold, behind mountain or just too far away. So I really think there's at least some kind of LOS mechanism in there. Another thing is that the L16 from the AWACS is not real time. Like @-hrp-trigger8418 said, it's 10 or 12 seconds (can't confirm the exact duration). I've only realised this recently when I'm playing the F-16C again. In RWS, it tries to extrapolate the DL to provide a smooth trajectory of the contact, but if the contact maneuver hard, the L16 track and the radar brick becomes separate from each other. This also makes it harder sometimes for me personally to lock a target, because the trackfile that combines the L16 one and the radar brick can be inaccurate (and it's in RWS), turning L16 off provides me the pure radar brick and I can instantly lock it though. The above point makes me excited about the F-15E datalink, which will only show the L16 on the SIT page and not on the radar page. The radar page will show pure radar bricks only. Regarding the "Link 16 downplay the F-15E which doesn't have it yet". I don't think this is true, to the contrary, I think it highlights why datalink and the network capability of the F-22 and F-35 is so important. It really proves that without situational awareness, a Mach 2 machine can easily fall prey to other less capable fighters. And realistically, the F-15C and the F-22 are dangerous because they are the ones that get the Link 16 the earliest (F-15C trial Link 16 in the 90s). I agree that the precision aspect of the AWACS trackfile could be decrease a notch though, since I read an interview where the pilot said that the AWACS track can be inaccurate up to 3nm. All in all, I think DCS can definitely improve and make it even more realistic. It's not all that bad.
The F15C didn't receive Link 16 until 2005 with MSIP 3 though, so a long time for development on the C model. I believe the E had it earlier but not much earlier.
@@Whiskey11Gaming thanks for correcting me. I think maybe the part where “awacs can be inaccurate up to 3nm” is also not true since I can’t remember which datalink the pilot said (or even mentioned it at all). I’ve just read a publication saying Link 4 often can’t be used to correlate track in the F-18 because it can be inaccurate around 1nm. So maybe Link 16 is better and F-18C can actually correlate them most of the time.
The hit point based ground targets, AI aircraft, and lack of any decent redfor aircraft, and mediocre damage models and visuals really holds this experience back for me. I could live with 1 of them and I realize the redfor issue may not be able to be remedied but those other points really need to step up, the instant I see a missile kill and it’s the exact same destruction visual really kills the satisfaction for me. Could be a bit picky but the environment needs to match the modules much better than currently
Spot on video - well done Note on MT.. they need to better manage the thread pool, I shouldn’t need to configure project lasso to make the game play properly .
Hi, that's odd. I haven't seen a DCS crash in years (besides the ones I induce). There may be something wrong with your system. Sometimes, issues are solvable by checking a couple of things. In primis, run a full DCS repair (I run a quick repair after every update). Then, open cmd as an admin ([start] type "cmd" and select "run as administrator"). Then type, one by one: "Sfc.exe /scannow Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" SFC checks the file system, DISM can also help (google them to see what else these commands do, never run commands as an admin blindly from a random guy over the internet! ). Also, double check drivers, windows updates, bios, and so on.
DCS is a great cockpit switch simulator, but a barely functional combat simulator. ED rarely listen to feedback and insist that either everything is OK or improvements are very, very difficult and everyone needs to be patient ( over a decade of being patient here and counting ). Their 'community managers' exist mainly to deflect complaints and ban people who keep pointing out inconvenient truths - they could be replaced with AI and no-one would notice, except for maybe the better spelling and grammar. I am still waiting for a modern era combat flight sim from a company who know what the hell they are doing. Still, as long as ED keeps paying for Nick Grey to buy Spitfires, then it's working out for him at least.
well we have 2 choices right now, DCS and BMS, why not just play both of them instead of waiting? In my eye, both have kind of the same "community managers" issues, so what would make a new company jumping in this space be different at all, assuming there's some company out there interested in the first place?
@@freakmusicaddict One of that pair of mental midgets was asking for proof that the F-16 has a gear limiting speed - currently it can be deployed while supersonic with no penalty. But he won't accept any evidence from a -1 flight manual because of ED's rules which allow them to pretend they don't have access to restricted documents. Either he is too stupid to realise that the gear's damage modelling is wrong or he's making the process of reporting it so difficult that people just give up.
The only aim 54 fired by america at a target was inadvertently not armed properly before takeoff so it never had a chance and was later retrieved....talk about a bad day at the office:/
@@FlyAndWire So you believe wiki that a shot was taken and missed and I watched a podcast where an f14 pilot described that shot with different details. The difference is minimal. If I can find the episode I post it for ya
Look, I'm already wasting too much time here. In primis, three AIM-54s were launched by US Navy Tomcats. Two went dumb together off the rail because the rocket motor failed to ignite due to bad maintenance. About the other (again, 2+1=3), from what I read the target went cold, then I can't say if MLC, ZDF, Saint Nicholas or something else caused it to miss. A kinematical defeat is highly probable with mid/long-range shots. A minimal offset is enough to throw it off, even before the AWG-9 can play a role in the engagement. You can find plenty of sources and interviews for both. For instance, the F-14 Tomcast Ep 22 or 23 for the first example.
FC3 /Redfor don´t get any updates from ED anymore...so the only environment where they can be on the level with bluefor is the Cold War setting...at slingly more modern settings they will be always inferior and even more when the EF2000 gets released
Without proximity fuses for missiles, the game is just a fancy showcase of computer horsepower. The fact you can drive a missile onto the ground, as if the missile worth hundreds of thousands of dollars didn't have a 1$ worth barometer that tells it what's its height, is really ridiculous. Trust me, the reality of the military is extremely different from the fancy eyecandy stuff we see in DCS but if I had to start somewhere, I would start from the missiles.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 87 วันนี้!! คู่เอก "ก้องชัย vs โชคปรีชา"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YN6e7HVnekw/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey folks, thanks for all your comments. A couple of updates:
• ED has released a newsletter discussing most of the points I raised. Nice timing! www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/newsletters/80815af823dd79988484f6e9a40c9bb0/
This part about Voice Chat, "We also plan external application support and other player-requested features." sounds like an answer to what I said about SRS :)
• Correction about LINK16, I mixed the refresh rate aspect with LINK4, which updates every ~2" in Tomcat, and that's due to the WCS refresh rate.
DCS reminds me of this feeling these niche racing games have where cars have unbelieveabe detail, but your environment is an empty city that you drive through and nothing else and if there is traffic its extremely backward AI. Even though DCS is not exactly like that it always gives me that feeling
tbh DCS compares pretty well to iRacing, they even have similar owners
i think the only meaningful way to play dcs is online multiplayer, which is not exactly an option for every dcs player
DCS is nothing without being a part of a squadron or carrier air group. When I was active, we had weekly training and bi-weekly major missions as part of a campaign with between 40-60 of us active players in squadrons with awacs and following exact military protocols by referencing the NATOPS (and nearly a quarter of the guys being vets themselves) for example and etc. The training essentially involved months of learning the jet and once in a squadron, going through power points on new topics, skillsets and practicing together followed by a debrief. DCS is not a standalone sim/game, you need people to bring it to life. A basketball court is a great place to have lots of fun but if you don't have others with you give it life, you can only have so much fun shooting alone into a basket. People trying to make it anything other than this miss the point entirely.
No lol, you hop on growling sidewinder and spamraam all the little dots on the radar 😅
Which squadron.were you part of?
100% true...
@@alphapicturesentertainment USLANTCOM. I used to be active but I just had too much on my plate with work travel and other responsibilities. I plan to join back again at some point once I have a more balanced schedule. Wonderful guys that are all extreme military aviation enthusiasts and are there to be supportive. The group treats it seriously and follows everything by the book, but also they know it's about having fun so we'd occasionally have relaxed activities, but for the most part everyone was on the same page that the fun comes from treating it like the real thing.
OK pylote ☝️🤓
You might want to try BMS
Tbh the jammer part of the EW simulation could be completely erased of DCS imo, since it will be 100% guessworking (not the fundamentals of how jammer works, but specific jamming equipments). They could use the resources to improve the RWRs, a much more important part of the EW spectrum for the context of DCS.
Also about the Link16, the update rate of the L16 in DCS is 12 seconds. It seems like real time because the system in the 16/18 is built to extrapolate the DL trackfiles so you have a smooth picture. Those were the jets that started to implement the sensor fusion concept (the 18 more than the 16). The Strike Eagle will be downplayed, of course, with technology comes superiority. L16 is and should be a game changer.
That said, good points! Lets hope that they increase their pace in the improvements this year
Well as Karon also stated in this video ED might use HBs RWR technology which would be a marked improvement!
Agree
Todays newsletter talked about everything you listed as upcoming new changes, pretty good.
The main things they want to do have to do with performance bottlenecks that will be solved with vulkan. (maps with lots of jungle, better bombFX, napalm) all stuff that needs the performance overhead first.
AI improvements and Dynamic Campaign should definitely be packaged together or the feature will suffer in my opinion. Also, EW has been lacking for way too long. I just hope one day I can use
an ECM pod on the Warthog with the assurance it's helping me rather than feeding me that placebo pill.
It’s worth pointing out the Command: Modern Operations models electronic warfare. It is not magic. It is quite possible to have a satisfactory implementation of electronic warfare in DCS.
I flew the A4 on Enigmas Cold war server yesterday. Did 3 Sorties.
1st Sortie - was shot down by a Mig 21
2nd Sortie - shot down 5 aircraft / 1xMig21, 1xMirage F1, 3x Hind Helis. Then RTB.
3rd Sortie - was shot down by SAM
The second Sortie was the best most fun flight I ever had in DCS. I couldn`t believe how lucky I was shooting all these guys down in one sortie.
Either way, Enigmas server by far provides the best way to fly DCS. Analog cold war planes, limited situational awareness and dynamic map settings. I really enjoy it.
Being a dedicated backseater, Enigma is a no-go for me. I've been told it is quite nice, but there are things I don't like.
The best experience, imo, is a campaign in a simulative group with a PvP component that follows rules and tasks, ergo avoiding the escalation to airquake.
I understand where you’re coming from and where DCS falls short, however, I’ve had some very good online missions where I felt like a part of an air wing. The last online mission I did was in the F-15E Strike Eagle and we did a cooperative cockpit with him in the from and I in the back. It was unbelievable how realistic it felt as we and two other F15E’s took to the air, kept our time to target correct, punched our way through the SAM threat as Wild Weasel aircraft delt with that and we continued to the target. As we got to our assigned targets the other aircraft came in as well and the carnage began on the enemy airfield. The amount of AAA and Manpad threat was done very well and it was really incredible. I was in VR and laughed at myself as I duct a couple of times as trailer fire would get close. So for me, that was the closest thing to actually being in a large scale strike group. I mean I actually was sweating by the time we cleared the threat area. So it can be done and I think ED is working hard to give us that same feeling in single flight mode as in multiplayer or at least thats what their last few newsletters made it sound they were working towards. I’ve had similar experiences flying the AH64 Apache and the Hind but these again were Online mission w flew on either private servers or a few public ones. One day if will get there and we will plop ourselves into a single player mission and feel the same as we do online. BTW if you’re ever interested in trying it out and flying online give me a shout. I can usually meet up with people if my pain levels are under control. I fly laying down on my mattress due to screws and rods in my spine from when I was a much younger man serving in the USCG and broke my back. So now I can’t sit very long and have to fly laying down. Usually it doesn’t affect anything except for if I’m not feeling well I can’t meet up with people. Other than that I’m good to go. BTW love your channel, keep up the great job you do! Thanks
I wouldn't mind a more fleshed out modeling of EW
there are books written
ED could make "guesstimates"
that would be better than what we have now
I will not give another cent to ED until they overhaul wingman AI. I play exclusively SP, so the idiocy of the wingmen and the inability to get them to do tactically sound things or even direct them onto correct targets kills the immersion for me entirely.
It's sad because otherwise it's not a bad game, and much has been achieved in other areas.
Two's ejecting !
@@kzrlgo because I work with people. After speaking with a couple dozen clients at work, I want to be left alone.
@@colderwar2, unable!
Many good points, but the L16 part is more nuanced I think. I've just done a test mission and can confirm that at least today, the AWACS is not all seeing, it can see some contacts, but not all, especially when a contact goes cold, behind mountain or just too far away. So I really think there's at least some kind of LOS mechanism in there.
Another thing is that the L16 from the AWACS is not real time. Like @-hrp-trigger8418 said, it's 10 or 12 seconds (can't confirm the exact duration). I've only realised this recently when I'm playing the F-16C again. In RWS, it tries to extrapolate the DL to provide a smooth trajectory of the contact, but if the contact maneuver hard, the L16 track and the radar brick becomes separate from each other. This also makes it harder sometimes for me personally to lock a target, because the trackfile that combines the L16 one and the radar brick can be inaccurate (and it's in RWS), turning L16 off provides me the pure radar brick and I can instantly lock it though.
The above point makes me excited about the F-15E datalink, which will only show the L16 on the SIT page and not on the radar page. The radar page will show pure radar bricks only.
Regarding the "Link 16 downplay the F-15E which doesn't have it yet". I don't think this is true, to the contrary, I think it highlights why datalink and the network capability of the F-22 and F-35 is so important. It really proves that without situational awareness, a Mach 2 machine can easily fall prey to other less capable fighters. And realistically, the F-15C and the F-22 are dangerous because they are the ones that get the Link 16 the earliest (F-15C trial Link 16 in the 90s).
I agree that the precision aspect of the AWACS trackfile could be decrease a notch though, since I read an interview where the pilot said that the AWACS track can be inaccurate up to 3nm.
All in all, I think DCS can definitely improve and make it even more realistic. It's not all that bad.
The F15C didn't receive Link 16 until 2005 with MSIP 3 though, so a long time for development on the C model. I believe the E had it earlier but not much earlier.
@@Whiskey11Gaming thanks for correcting me.
I think maybe the part where “awacs can be inaccurate up to 3nm” is also not true since I can’t remember which datalink the pilot said (or even mentioned it at all). I’ve just read a publication saying Link 4 often can’t be used to correlate track in the F-18 because it can be inaccurate around 1nm. So maybe Link 16 is better and F-18C can actually correlate them most of the time.
The hit point based ground targets, AI aircraft, and lack of any decent redfor aircraft, and mediocre damage models and visuals really holds this experience back for me.
I could live with 1 of them and I realize the redfor issue may not be able to be remedied but those other points really need to step up, the instant I see a missile kill and it’s the exact same destruction visual really kills the satisfaction for me.
Could be a bit picky but the environment needs to match the modules much better than currently
Spot on video - well done
Note on MT.. they need to better manage the thread pool, I shouldn’t need to configure project lasso to make the game play properly .
What CPU and what steps do you need to do in process lasso?
i hope this comment can boost this video to be more popular and so other people can see
Good job as always!
Very well articulated video
For me I still experimenting a lot af crash (DX12 crash). I cannot fly a complete mission without system crash
Hi, that's odd. I haven't seen a DCS crash in years (besides the ones I induce). There may be something wrong with your system. Sometimes, issues are solvable by checking a couple of things. In primis, run a full DCS repair (I run a quick repair after every update). Then, open cmd as an admin ([start] type "cmd" and select "run as administrator"). Then type, one by one:
"Sfc.exe /scannow
Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth"
SFC checks the file system, DISM can also help (google them to see what else these commands do, never run commands as an admin blindly from a random guy over the internet! ).
Also, double check drivers, windows updates, bios, and so on.
Fantastic stuff!!!
Todays newsletter has what your stating. DCS is the best and nothing can come close.
you need to join up one of our squads or flights with actual pilots who like to work together.. and you will feel like you are part of a sortie.
DCS is a great cockpit switch simulator, but a barely functional combat simulator. ED rarely listen to feedback and insist that either everything is OK or improvements are very, very difficult and everyone needs to be patient ( over a decade of being patient here and counting ). Their 'community managers' exist mainly to deflect complaints and ban people who keep pointing out inconvenient truths - they could be replaced with AI and no-one would notice, except for maybe the better spelling and grammar.
I am still waiting for a modern era combat flight sim from a company who know what the hell they are doing.
Still, as long as ED keeps paying for Nick Grey to buy Spitfires, then it's working out for him at least.
right? oh wait you have no track file so your point is not valid.
well we have 2 choices right now, DCS and BMS, why not just play both of them instead of waiting? In my eye, both have kind of the same "community managers" issues, so what would make a new company jumping in this space be different at all, assuming there's some company out there interested in the first place?
@@freakmusicaddict One of that pair of mental midgets was asking for proof that the F-16 has a gear limiting speed - currently it can be deployed while supersonic with no penalty.
But he won't accept any evidence from a -1 flight manual because of ED's rules which allow them to pretend they don't have access to restricted documents.
Either he is too stupid to realise that the gear's damage modelling is wrong or he's making the process of reporting it so difficult that people just give up.
@@leminh111a I'm waiting for BMS to stop looking like Minecraft
@@colderwar lol good point, looking forward to its next patch
i just want the typhoon😢
The only aim 54 fired by america at a target was inadvertently not armed properly before takeoff so it never had a chance and was later retrieved....talk about a bad day at the office:/
Where did you find this information? It is not correct.
@@FlyAndWire an f14 pilot on the Tomcast.
Stop making things up, please.
@@FlyAndWire So you believe wiki that a shot was taken and missed and I watched a podcast where an f14 pilot described that shot with different details. The difference is minimal. If I can find the episode I post it for ya
Look, I'm already wasting too much time here. In primis, three AIM-54s were launched by US Navy Tomcats. Two went dumb together off the rail because the rocket motor failed to ignite due to bad maintenance.
About the other (again, 2+1=3), from what I read the target went cold, then I can't say if MLC, ZDF, Saint Nicholas or something else caused it to miss. A kinematical defeat is highly probable with mid/long-range shots. A minimal offset is enough to throw it off, even before the AWG-9 can play a role in the engagement.
You can find plenty of sources and interviews for both. For instance, the F-14 Tomcast Ep 22 or 23 for the first example.
FC3 /Redfor don´t get any updates from ED anymore...so the only environment where they can be on the level with bluefor is the Cold War setting...at slingly more modern settings they will be always inferior and even more when the EF2000 gets released
Without proximity fuses for missiles, the game is just a fancy showcase of computer horsepower. The fact you can drive a missile onto the ground, as if the missile worth hundreds of thousands of dollars didn't have a 1$ worth barometer that tells it what's its height, is really ridiculous.
Trust me, the reality of the military is extremely different from the fancy eyecandy stuff we see in DCS but if I had to start somewhere, I would start from the missiles.
I suggest you get the best Flight sim out there, if it isn't DCS, that's fine, simply move on.