Rick50

Good to hear!

nice

Awesome!!!

The other thing is that the Eagle and Vipers were considered truly amazing when first introduced, in large part due to the very high thrust they offered. Sure there was other factors, ease of flying, high outward visibility, high maneuverability, an awesome fire control computer and advanced HUD and so on. But the high thrust to it's weights were a significant reason why the world suddenly REALLY wanted to buy Eagles and Vipers when they were first shown back in the day. Obviously not everyone could afford Eagles, so when the first "Fighting Falcons" first appeared (F-16A) the rest of the airforces could now buy a similarly awesome mini-Eagle that was "right-sized" for either their budgets or national terrain size (most nations with tiny areas don't look at Eagles... ignore Israel who bought lots of both!). When they started with such power, it became easier to really develop it into a multi-role, in part because you could in fact carry lots of tanks and ordnance and safely lift off before the end of the runway thanks to high thrust giving higher acceleration to V2 speeds despite higher payload weight. I remember reading back in the day, how when the Viper first flew at the Paris Airshow... it's takeoff ALONE got sales! Buyers all saw that the previous star, the Mirage, while looking like a good performer as in previous years, looked "slow and lethargic compared to the F-16 that roared for a few seconds, LEPT off the runway and proceeded to climb like a rocket"... and suddenly everyone wanted it! (I'm paraphrasing and doing so from fuzzy old memory, but that was the spirit of what was said)

True... most people haven't a clue just how vast the arctic really is... that is, the area where NO people live for more than maybe a few weeks in tents. Yes, there are many people who live near or just around the Arctic circle, past the treeline (meaning after a certain point northwards, no trees grow), but they are still a very long distance from the pole! Doesn't help that it's all floating ice either, unlike the Antarctic where the ice is often MUCH thicker (couple of kilometers THICK in some places) and a signficant portion sits on "dry" islands.

yea, very much so. Some will settle for a bit of slapstick gags, while others strive for absolute perfection even when the weather doesn't cooperate for months at a time... even when it costs you LARGE fortunes! While some fans will complain, consider that the people who are even MORE desperate to get you your sim module into your hard drives... is the developers themselves! They want the feedback to make it perfect or close to it. They want the recognition for their efforts. They want some return on their investments in time money and hardware, and efforts and blood sweat and tears. They want you to recomend their product to others, inspire a new generation of sim-geeks like us, growing the customer base and solidifying the industry's future. The last thing they want is delays!

I hear you. But. Consider if YOU and your nation were declared "illegal group"... you might not be offended, but I bet many of your neighbors would be. "Hope" is not a great strategy for any endevour. And even if we overlook naming issues, I'll put money on such a map upsetting Taiwanese military and civilian leadership, as well as many at the Pentagon and possibly even in Langley and the White House too. Gamers and simmers don't always see what the real world political and military sees. There may even be significant pushback from other Asian nations worried about an emboldened middle kingdom, such as possibly Japan, Indonesia and Phillipines. Then again, I'm a strong advocate for a Korea map module, and that might also run into similar issues as well.

GR.1 IDS... either a pure 1980's year, or maybe a 1991 for the RAF in the sandbox. Why? Because! Precision bombing with iron, no smart seekers. Munitions pods underneath to ruin enemy runways. Sidewinders to keep agressive Mig's from getting an easy shot. Some 27mm to take out some BMP-2's. I'd wish for repaints for the RAF in both Desert Storm sand and the 80's green camo, Luftwaffe green and grey, Saudi Arabian colors, Italian Tornados too! Nice to have options: designator pod, ECR and HARM-88 for the Germans to do exciting SEAD missions... that would help with using the module with more modern aircraft like the more modern Viper and Hornet modules of the 2000's, while still being 1980's era? Add in anti-ship missiles and we can then fly missions for the German Navy (Marineflieger)!! Now... I'm not against either the GR.4 or the ADV... but whenever I think of the Tornado, I think of a treetop precision bomber for the Cold War, and that's what I'd like to fly!

I'm gonna engage in wild unsubstantiated flight of fancy... with no lift to see... What if... ED and Heatblur colaborated to bring us two Phantoms? They develop the core code together, share data and SME resources to get a working "phantom". Then they split off, ED finishes theirs as an international "E" gunfighter, and Heatblur finishes theirs as a Navy "J" ?? Unlikely. Lot of coordination required, lot of trust, lot of additional complications.... but then, making a Phantom module is complicated due to the subject itself, the variants, the details, and though its an older aircraft it's still a very complex system compared to most of it's contemporaries. Sharing resources might be the only way to get all that done in a reasonable timeline. That said, no, I don't "know" anything. Nor have I seen any such hints. I'm just talking out my buttt!

Ah yes, the elusive "Lifting Body" !!! Reminds me of the F-15 Eagle that lost an entire wing, after an air to air collision, pilot knew something was wrong, trimmed it out, and returned to base and landed. No one could believe what just happened, including the pilot. McDonal Douglas sent some people to Israel to see for themselves and debrief the pilot... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Negev_mid-air_collision

Retail simulation "games" are notoriously difficult to complete. And bring to market. Back in the late 1990's and early 2000's, I'd venture a guess that at least HALF of all "simulation game" products announced, and with screenshots, video and features described... NEVER got offered for sale. Just too many things get in the way. Ran out of money. Couldn't find a publisher at terms they could agree on. Technically too complex or not enough programming skills to actually deliver. Limits in PC hardware processing. Programmer's hard drive gave up and all work lost instantly (an Apache and Chinook project had this happen). These days, projects are much more likely to finish, albeit at significant delays. A delay of a year or two is... well it's the norm in retail sims, really. Much better that, than not getting anything more than screenshots to mourn over! It's WAY easier to knock out a smart device game app that people play on their phones... make big bucks sometimes, way less effort than this simulations stuff. I used to know a guy who was hardcore into sims. Decided to become a dev. Aimed to make sims. Made a game app instead and got results. I don't know if he ever did sims anything more than a small mod or two, but I don't think he opened a simulations studio like his original plan. Keep in mind, we are an insanely demanding bunch... most of game purchasers, those who play on their phones or tablets, don't know a PBR texture, what a tail hook does, think "flaps" belong on large trucks, and AI is the movie with the creepy robot kid. Patience is needed among simulations enthusiasts.

Have you looked at the A-29 Super Tucano mod? IT's a very similar plane to the T-6 TexanII, and Tucanos are always being used for flight training... although the Super is also used for attack as well. Only has a working front seat. But the systems are growing, the HUD works, more ordnance being made for it, has .50cals and Sidewinders, lots of repaints, being developed rapidly...

I think you did miss something. Go back to the first post, and look at the second picture image the one that says "Heatblur PUBLIC ROADMAP", it's a link. And the link takes you to more info: https://trello.com/b/HsMiJggJ/heatblur-public-roadmap

Sure, they don't feature a twisting grip, but some prefer to not have that anyway. They are well made, they typically last a long time. The switches and hats are really superb IMO. They are not as "awesome" as the much more expensive Virps VK's Wings and Warts, but they are darn good by any measurement. I can't give you an idea of pricing, but don't price it real low, that's just cheating yourself out of money. I can't give a solid confirmation, but my guess is that you might be able to ask the full price you paid, especially considering they are unused. That said, are you sure you don't want to try out a few simple free mods? You don't NEED to buy the Hornet and it's PHD in fire control systems management... the A-4 Skyhawk is free and not especially complex to learn, and does carrier operations. The A-29 Super Tucano, also free and not super complex. The new T-45 Goshawk trainer is also not a super complex plane, but it's free and can land and take off from the carrier, let's you shoot rockets and training smoke bombs. The AH-6 Littlebird is a light freeware attack heli with rockets and miniguns. The C-130J Super Hercules by Annubis... a nice tactical cargo plane with a long history of success and lives saved. Just an idea you could consider.

LOL!!!

I've lived in Vancouver for 30 years, and traveled quite a bit around the rest of Washington State, the lower half of BC and a modest bit of Oregon too. Spent a bit of time in Seattle, Yakima, Kelowna, Victoria, Nanaimo and others... These days I'm in Calgary. It's true I'd agree there's not a MASSIVE population in this region, if comparing to say SoCal, or South Korea, Mexico City or Chong Quing. But... a map for DCS doesn't just deal with population density. The geography is itself a whole lot of data, more so than normal, probably something like 50 to 100 times as much geographical data as the Persian Gulf map. The trees would be far more numerous than the Caucasus map, and the other maps have few trees. One thing to consider is that the Caucasus map would not measure up if released today, say compared to the Syria map, which has far less trees but a lot more detail and population density. To represent the West Coast properly would probably be something like double the data of the Syria map, in large part because of the much higher tree density needed for much of it. Also, while "barren" might sound like low requirements, there's a lot of shrubs and rock formations, and that means data to create store crunch and render. It's neither the NTTR or Persian Gulf map, much more to design and render. The biggest stumbling block to the map you propose is it's total size. Your proposed map of all of Washington, northern bit of Oregon and southern BC... is large, roughly about double the height and width of the Syria map, so just in terms of square KM's probably about 4 times the map data for a dev team to create and then have us render at 60 fps. Not insurmountable, but it's a challenge to overcome. By the time such a map were finished development, our PC's might be able to render it well. All that said, it WOULD be a cool map for DCS! I wish for a terrain map of the Norway Sweden and Finland, with a few bits of Russia, like an old DOS sim of a typhoon from the 1990s did... but that's a HUGE area and would be an even bigger challenge to developers and our hardware to run it... but I can dream!

In a general sense I agree partially with what you are saying, but I'm not talking about teams that are busy with projects now. I'm talking about say three guys who have done mods individually, but are now looking for a more ambitious project to work together as a team, and maybe they have an idea but are maybe lukewarm about the specific topic... they see this thread and think "hey, that could be cool, gonna mention it to Mark and Vlad, see if they like this too". Similarly, say someone made a big mod 5 years ago, got burned out, and even maybe left sims for a year or two. But now they are back in, and are jonesing for a new mod to make, but are short of specific ideas... they see this thread and are inspired, and decide to run with one of those ideas. Yea, it's rose tinted sunglasses, but sometimes people really do get inspired. Once we get enough suggestions, maybe I'll turn this into a vote, so many can choose the project idea they like the best.

First off, I don't want this to be seen as some kind of burden. It's simply a list of "hmm, this might be cool!" ideas. It should not be a list of demands, but rather, if a mod team finds itself waiting around wanting to do a project, but isn't very certain of a topic to chose, they might draw inspiration from something posted this thread. Mirage III Why? Because the Mirage 3 was the peak of French fighter planes and dominated the Middle East of the 1960's and 70's. Somewhat simple aircraft compared to say a Hornet or Longbow, but it's got cannons and simple heaters, so get good with dogfighting skils. Sure, you have a radar, but there's not a BVR missile. It would be a great opponent for the F-5E, the Mig-19 and Mig-15 too I guess. Israel used these in air combat over Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and probably Jordan. The Syrian and Persian Gulf maps would be good for this aircraft, though really could be used on any map with a little imagination. It might be worth using the M2000 as the basis, maybe with less thrust and no BVR, but of course starting from scratch would make it so people who don't have RAz' 2000 could still fly it. F-104 Starfighter Why? Because fast. Because beauty. Because many airforces. Because cool. It seems as if a full flyable mod is in development, so this is about support for that flyable mod! I believe it's the VSN people who are making a cockpit for the Starfighter. UH-60 Why? Because we have the Mi-8 but no modern Western equivalent. The Huey is nice, but it's much smaller, and older too. It would be good for CSAR rescue of downed aircrews. And for forward deployments of ground teams and equipment. Could drop off a few MANPADS teams near an enemy base. Or a forward observer to help guide us onto targets and lase for us! Maybe it has a DAP option for armaments, turning it into a gunship of sorts! What do you think of my suggestions? What are your suggestions and inspirations?

Nice screens!!

I don't think the Yak has any weapons either, a trainer only for flying. As for bus simulators, I myself would like to see taxis. Battle taxis in Combined Arms The SEquel: This time it's PERSONAL!! That way I've got trupes for my M-113 APC's!

LOL, no doubt!

Nice!! Is it controlled by AI ?

Nah... The clouds are just the most obvious and most easily visual item. There's PLENTY of small changes under the hood. And while I have no proof, I think there are even good decent changes that aren't even documented yet. Its about more than white whisps in the skies, as much as we appreciate them (or curse them if using VR at this time!) The thing is, there's a LOT of projects that are waiting to see if 2.7 affects their mod or module's functions, affecting possibly their radar module, the flight dynamics, how this and that interact with each other... so while the clouds are noticeable, all the dev teams want to see what changes and tweeks will be needed.

Just saw this, pretty good short doc about the Comache:

thank you sir! No wonder I didn't see it, I didnt figure it for being hidden inside DCS 2.7 subforums! Eh, it's all good!