homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation DCS World Wishlist

My wishlist is a bit weird, but bear with me

- New flyer improved experience stuff:
- Mouse/yoke support
- Console controller better support (default bindings, animations to show what to press and where)
- Intro missions and training improvements. An explanation of the various systems like a flight school.
- Flyer badges/accomplishments/medals within the flight school / training
- Dual seat training modes, with VOIP

- Workshop support
- Missions, mods, maps, even free modules, in a central in-game place to look-up, rate and subscribe to.
- ^ I mean Steam Workshop not to be subtle, as the one 'asset' that flight sim fans do have is putting in effort and we need better ways to harness that work with no barriers.

- Inbuilt voice comms, groups/squadrons with a possible single/multiplayer drop in/out ideally (though not easy I know).

Just to be really clear, I *do not* want any of these features to 'dumb down' DCS World or take away any detail, but I do think that there are barriers to getting people into the genre today. Ease of use is hard stuff to get right, and onboarding new players ain't easy but it's vital in today's market. DCS as a platform could potentially grow enormously if done right, as I think a lot of people are looking for a sim like this.

Just my 2 cents.

This is my list too.

Yeah, really. Finding good missions to play is like finding the proverbial hot but sane redhead.



The Jedi Master

- Flyer badges/accomplishments/medals within the flight school / training


Most games that do in-game voice chat are inferior to TeamSpeak, Ventrillo, Mumble, etc. VC integrated into DCS would be wonderful but if it doesn't surpass TS+TARS for example in terms of features and performance it's a waste of time. ArmA 3 VON for example is totally inflexible and can't be sidelined to another server. It's a great idea that won't gain traction done halfway.

A new terrain. For the love of god.

I'd like to see a realistic electronic warfare environment where aircraft like the RC-137, EC-130, EF111, EA-6B, EA-18G, etc. could play an important role in mission planning. I understand that it nearly impossible to realistically model those aircraft as flyables, but IMHO they could even enrich the sim as AI.

Also, I have a fascination for AFSOC, especially the helo aspect. And, while I'd love (LOVE!) a flyable UH-60 (the possibilities! Navy, Army, Af(soc), coastguard...) it will probably be a long time before that would see the light of day. So I rather wish for it's little brother, the OH/MH/AH-6 Poach/Little bird.
Admitted, I don't have very good understanding what it takes to develop an aircraft for DCS, but it seems to me the OH/MH/AH-6 platform isn't too complicated, systemwise. And it would make a nice beginner helo, at home in any conflict from Vietnam to today.

Rick

My dream sheet?
1 More maps, especially larger ones. (my choices of aircraft will need the space)
2 F/A18E
3 B1-B
4 F15C (dcs level)
5 F15E (with 2 man operation capability)
6 Much improved ATC
7 Carrier ops
8 Player controlled jammer aircraft (EA6B or EA18G)

It would be pretty simple to model them as aircraft. To model realistic EW, however, is pretty much impossible. Classification makes it so that all you could do is a bunch of guesswork and it would be little related to the real thing.

I mean, we've been using towed decoys on jets for over a decade and STILL no sim models it aside from what some modders did for SF2. Did someone do it for BMS? I don't even know. Anyway, it's a pretty simple idea and shouldn't be hard to implement in a sim, yet no one has done it commercially.



The Jedi Master

I think they might have done that in BMS, but yeah, nothing is as classified as EW stuff (other than stealth probably?).

Not done in BMS yet.

An older FA-18 sim might have done that?

SAMsim simulates the ALE-50 and white noise jamming. But of course it's not a flightsim.

What Beach said, plus F15E and F4 Phantom. I really don't care if they are modeled to DCS Level. I'll take the FC3 level with AFM for both of these.

Correct me if I'm wrong - but didn't Jane's F-18 have a towed decoy? Or am I remembering wrong?

I think:

THIS



BeachAV8R

I'd take Beach's list plus:

Shared cockpit, pilot/WSO and other variations to support aircraft such as... Tornado, F-15E, F-14 and support for student/IP to break in newbies

Intelligent AI for multi-crew aircraft that takes over, intelligently, if the player jumps seats

Real and fictional hotspots (read a book years ago about potential combat zones ...lots of interesting scenarios)

ROE (anyone remember Falcon 3's Kurile campaign? The restricted ROE missions were my favorites)

That's my partial wishlist.

--T

Wow. I guess Combat Sim.com is paranoid? I didn't think that linking to a screenshot was considered image theft.

Well, considering I linked to the article that it came from too, it might have sent reading eyes that way..but now I'll just link the picture, and not link the article. LOL..losing proposition for them...

BeachAV8R

I enjoy missions with those type of restrictions as well. One of my favorite missions was one of the opening missions in one of the Jane's F-18 campaigns that had you fly along the enemy coast or something and you were basically just assessing the enemy air defenses but weren't allowed to engage them (IIRC).

Another thing that you don't often see in stock or user created missions is aircraft systems failures that force you to get creative. Obviously, in the real world, you'd abort a mission with a critical component failure. But for simming purposes, it would be cool to see some mission designers fail the TGP or script an engine failure upon returning to the carrier or develop a slow fuel leak to complicate a mission.

I still think that the F/A-18C will be the ultimate in immersion because the carrier landing is always the cherry on top to any mission. Do all that combat stuff, survive the mission (success or not), and then you have the challenge of the carrier landing to contend with. The mission isn't over until the hook gets retracted so to speak. I also really miss the fuel monitoring and use requirements that Jane's F-15 and Jane's F-18 had. Particularly those ultra long JF-15 missions where you had to tank coming and going or there was no way you'd have enough fuel for the entire mission. And with the F-18, having enough to make a few passes to the boat at the end of the mission.

BeachAV8R

Ironically, one of the games I best remember having ROE was the X Wing series. Flying a mission and suddenly the truce dissolves or you get betrayed and sides change...

However, when it comes to flight sims it had to be F-19. Cold War was the hardest there was--destroy your target but ONLY yours. DO NOT get detected. DO NOT shoot back in self defense.





The Jedi Master

it did.

Janes F-18 was ahead of everyone. Too Bad the Janes/EA relationship deteriorated.

Jane's F-15 and Jane's F-18 CDs are sitting in a wallet doing nothing.

While IAF/FA was Fun. the Study Sims were amazing for 1999

Oh wow! I had forgotton about F19 until you said something. Maybe not the most realistic sim in the world but the scenarios and gameplay is still hard to beat. They did a good job of making you feel all alone behind enemy lines with everyone looking for you. Penetrate the coast undetected, take out multiple targets and once feet we take out a oil rig or boat all while avoiding detection...Awesome!

OB