DCS World may appeal to more of you - IF THEY FIX IT!!

[J0hn]

with the number of classic British aircraft being developed increasing by the month!

Today's announcement:

Vampire
The Dehavilland Vampire is a classic British jet which actually made its first flight in 1943, The variant we will be focusing on initially is the Fb5, a single seat fighter bomber which served with the RAF and a variety of other countries. Capable of carrying a variety of bombs or rockets or being equipped with fuel tanks for extra range, this twin boom fighter was utilised in the Royal Air Force for over a decade in a variety of roles including being the first jet powered aircraft to complete a carrier landing!

The Vampire saw combat in Malaya with the RAF as well as many smaller conflicts around the world with other air forces.

With a range of over 1200 miles the Vampire was a versatile and capable aircraft and we look forward to being able to present her to you in 2015!

Meteor
The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter. Taking its first flight in 1943 the Meteor saw combat in World War 2 firstly with 616 Squadron. With nearly 4000 produced the affectionately nicknamed "Meatbox" due to its interesting aerodynamic behaviour was a favourite amongst fighter pilots for years.
Commonly mistaken for an Me262 in flight, the Meteor claimed over 40 confirmed kills during the war so can you survive the gauntlet of being the first to engage the enemy successfully in combat?

We will be focussing on the F3 Variant of the Meteor, armed with 4 x 20mm cannons and a variety of bombs and rockets the Meteor is capable of completing a variety of missions.

Give yourself the chance to fly the first operational Allied Jet aircraft. We look forward to bringing the Gloster Meteor to DCS in 2015!

The Vampire and Meteor will both be fully interactive Advanced Systems Modelled (ASM) cockpits and External Flight Models (EFM) to Professional level.

Not sure about the "40 confirmed kills" part - I always heard it was only used in combat in an air to ground role before the war ran out.

[Techy111]

In March, the entire squadron was moved to Gilze-Rijen and then in April, to Nijmegen. The Meteors flew armed reconnaissance and ground attack operations without encountering any German jet fighters. By late April, the squadron was based at Faßberg, Germany and suffered its first losses when two aircraft collided in poor visibility. The war ended with the Meteors having destroyed 46 German aircraft through ground attack.
Meteors were forbidden to go over Germany for fear of getting shot down and secrets stolen.
The only air to air kills were 14 V1 flying bombs shot down

Hope this helps amazing what you read when bored at work lol

Tony

[J0hn]

Thanks for that, Tony - I'll repost it over at the VEAO section and see what they have to say about it!

I'm pretty sure some of the guys here are either on their team, or helping on the hush-hush, though

[J0hn]

Well, their response has been to ignore my post and just respond to the gossip comments!

Looks like they're taking after Eagle Dynamics! They did the same with the contact info. No response.

Looks like I won't be trying to help them any more.

[J0hn]

I take back my opinion in the title of this thread!

ED have yet again caused grief with their latest patch! Not only that, but yet again, much of it could have been avoided by a) proper beta testing and b) letting us know before patching, that directory name changes were being implemented!

To be brutally honest, the only times I have flown this year was when they released new modules (or I bought one). Test flight or two - then do something else.

Now I have my MiG-21bis that I paid for in March 2012, finally, over two years late and supposedly a heck of a simulation, and it sits uninstalled on my hard drive as it needs the latest patch to work.

I'm bloody sick of it. Sort yourselves out, Eagle Dynamics!

[DaveG]

I remember when I first got DCS A10, back when it first came out as a stand-alone sim before splitting off into DCS World + modules, I played it quite a lot and was happy with it. Then it got "patched" and some things were fixed and others broken so I thought I'll wait for the next patch. Next patch comes along and the same thing happens, and so on. In the end although it's installed and up to date, it's never actually used.
Tried it last night as I thought I'd take another crack at getting the Hunter gauges working, only to find it had vanished from the list of available aircraft. Got that sorted but still can't figure out the gauges

[Paul K]

Oh blimey, and there was me about to buy the Mig 21. I'll leave it till Christmas.

[J0hn]

The thing that is so disappointing is that, in principle, it's a really excellent simulator, with very well modelled aircraft. The problem is the company - they seem incapable of running a smooth ship, one way or another.

They have many years of experience, so not understanding is not an excuse for them. I really don't understand their way of thinking - nor do countless others whose comments you read around the internet, it's a crying shame.

The Hawk is due out, well, now - but that doesn't seem to be happening (I read on their forum that they have found a bug they are having issues with) so that means yet another delay. Very reminiscent of the MiG-21 fiasco. The problem being I find myself repeatedly wondering if it's really worth the bother.

Dave, I also have the standalone A-10C, in a separate install to DCS World (I think the last version was 1.1.1.1) and I will be flying that soon, rather than all the hassle involved with DCSW, and wondering if they'll break it before you've either learned to fly it properly, or whilst you're in the middle of a campaign, as happened to me with both Black Shark 2 and then the Su-25 "Revanche" campaign.

Fortunately, I also have the standalone Black Shark (original), which was actually a more stable flight model than the second edition, again in a separate install - and I have bought a payware campaign for it, which is said to be very good. So that could keep me busy, too.

Sorry, I can't help with the gauges. Have you thought about asking one of the 3rd party devs or the freeware modellers?

Paul, I'm pretty sure the problem doesn't affect the MiG-21bis module itself - but it does break the others. Apparently, any FFB is broken for the MiG, though.

[J0hn]

This time the devs have made a statement:

Dear all,

We deeply apologize about the problems you are encountering with the new update; it certainly should not have been released in its current state. We did however learn a few valuable lessons that will benefit future releases and our staff is hard a work on a solution.

Which makes a nice change - although it's only on their forum, not the DCS website, where people actually buy it.

I'm quite disappointed by Leatherneck Sims, who made the MiG-21. They say they have found the issue with force-feedback joysticks (continually buzzing/rattling) but they will wait until they have fixed the common severe performance issues in the VC, before they release it.

So if, like me, your HOTAS is tosh without the FFB (a G940) then you're lumped, even though they have found the fix, and won't know how long you will have to wait to be able to use it. Hmmmm. DCSW has an auto-update system, where all you do is give it the nod and it will download and install the update - surely a priority for a control issue? Oh well, ours is not to reason why etc. Might have to drag out my TM Warthog HOTAS - though I don't like using it for whirlybirds.

Paul, you would, imho, be better off waiting until near Christmas to buy. When a new module is released, it is almost always preceded by a sale - and there are at least 3 more due out before the end of the year (Hawk, P-40F and Straits of Hormuz map). One of them must make it (please! ) so you would not only get your Lancer at a good price, but version 2 of DCS World is also due out by Christmas - and that will be a very big change and may well break or at least change, an awful lot more in the sim. My 2p

[Paul K]

Thanks for that info and advice, John.

Yes, I'll wait till the Christmas sale before buying the Mig-21. But buy it I most certainly will, and I'll keep a close eye on developments and fixes between now and then. I'm wondering what might be in the pipeline as a suitable adversary for the Mig-21...heard or read anything, John ? Straits of Hormuz map sounds excellent - a real global flashpoint there.