Marianas islands Map

We will share more details as we progress, it is going to be a great map :)

The WW2 map will be a very nice addition, specially as it will be free. Does that WW2 version means that we will see some WW2 Pacific ground assets?

Can't wait to see some pics of the WW2 version and some more of the modern one.

Some good news :)

That's great to hear!

It makes me wonder though why ED didn't put this quite important piece of information into the Mariana map announcement in the newsletter. It would have prevented a lot of the user complaints here in the first place.

Or was this a decision that ED made after the announcement in reaction to all the complaints for a missing WW2 setting of the map?

Anyways, I'm very happy about this! Thanks a lot ED! :thumbup:

That's great to hear!

It makes me wonder though why ED didn't put this quite important piece of information into the Mariana map announcement in the newsletter. It would have prevented a lot of the user complaints here in the first place.

Or was this a decision that ED made after the announcement in reaction to all the complaints for a missing WW2 setting of the map?

 

Anyways, I'm very happy about this! Thanks a lot ED! :thumbup:

I'm sure that they already knew it was coming. The new map was always rumored to have WWII capabilities and after the announcements all mods would reliably dodge my questions about a WWII set.

I guess that they were simply not ready to show anything WWII related and wanted to announce it later with some pictures to back it up. Since Nick Grey is probably not involved in the finer details of marketing and announcments, he may have blatted it out a bit prematurely...

Very good to hear that it will be free also. I just hope, we'll get at least a minimal set of japanese assets with it: A handful of japanese ground units, one or two japanese AI aircraft, some unit reskins of US army to US marines...

Don't kid yourself, Nick Grey knowns what he is doing when it comes to this stuff, he is very aware of community concerns, both by his own following of the community, and me and others bugging all the time with community concerns. Most likely he 'blatted it out' because he was aware the community needed to hear it, as I am aware, not much besides research has really been done on the WWII part of the map, the modern side will come first and WWII after if I understand correctly.

i did not want to sound disrespectful. i just assumed mr. grey would mostly be involved with the strategic business side.

So I'm guessing here, but this appears to have been on the cards all along. I do wonder if there is something about "new technology" that has been either quite cutting edge or a bit scary to commit to saying in terms of either "dual purpose" or coexisting two different things into one, like replacing assets dynamically. Probably not, Its massively exaggerated thinking but the concept of having a date setting and assets update/change with date has been talked about ever since Normandy's very precise point in time was discussed.

So I'm guessing here, but this appears to have been on the cards all along. I do wonder if there is something about "new technology" that has been either quite cutting edge or a bit scary to commit to saying in terms of either "dual purpose" or coexisting two different things into one, like replacing assets dynamically. Probably not, Its massively exaggerated thinking but the concept of having a date setting and assets update/change with date has been talked about ever since Normandy's very precise point in time was discussed.

I suppose the modern Marianas and the WW2 Marianas will be two seperate maps.

i did not want to sound disrespectful. i just assumed mr. grey would mostly be involved with the strategic business side.

Remember Mr Grey has very involved on Fighter Collection on Duxford to preserve WW2 aircrafts and your history.

I suppose the modern Marianas and the WW2 Marianas will be two seperate maps.

S!

Why?? I suppose it'll be same map with time switching feature.[...]

Firstly many players would not even realize, that they could change the timeframe.

Secondly it would still be two maps technically, because from a technical point of view there would be no reason to dynamically repopulate the map. Seperate maps would be simpler and easier to maintain, with no disadvantage in doing so. Normal playsessions simply don't last for 50 years...

Also consider that topology will be different, not only objects and textures.

Yeah, my personal hope is it will be based on time setting in the ME, but as this would be a new feature, I am not sure how it will work right now.

S!

Exactly, new feature developed so other maps can take advantage of it afterwards. It's the only way that makes sense to me, "technically two maps" or not.[...]

It would not make sense, as it would require you to load in one version of the map, just to change the timeframe, resulting in reloading a big chunk of data (mesh, textures, objects) and potentially messing up your current mission, because airports and objects change. Sound like an UX nightmare to me.

I can see the point of changing the season with the time setting on the fly, because you may want to change seasons on an existing mission or just toy around with it, but i can't see the benefit of switching between WWII and modern age on the fly.

Additionaly be very aware of DCS memory allocation and how it handles seasons (seasonal texture swap) at the moment (hint: extremely badly). To be fair, i hope memory allocation will be improved with vulkan, but i'll also only believe it, when i see it.

One thing to check is the island topography. I'd be surprised if coastline didnt change at all and some parts of island weren't "reshaped" throughout past 60 - 70 years. Two separate maps, although mostly similar, but with differing shapes, objects and facilities would make sense to me.

I'm sure that they already knew it was coming. The new map was always rumored to have WWII capabilities and after the announcements all mods would reliably dodge my questions about a WWII set.

I guess that they were simply not ready to show anything WWII related and wanted to announce it later with some pictures to back it up. Since Nick Grey is probably not involved in the finer details of marketing and announcments, he may have blatted it out a bit prematurely...

 

Very good to hear that it will be free also. I just hope, we'll get at least a minimal set of japanese assets with it: A handful of japanese ground units, one or two japanese AI aircraft, some unit reskins of US army to US marines...

It's not so easy. Marianas defense in 1944 was a top priority so you would see both Japanese Army and Navy involved - not only in typical split, as Army would focuse on ground defense and Navy aerial and naval operations. In this case I believe IJN also deployed some coastal defense units and most importantly Yokosuka SNLF (sort of Japanese Marines) defending Navy sector of the Saipan, near Tanapag Harbor. For the defense of Saipan and Tinian you could ask for assets in form of artillery, tanks (on Saipan there were 48 Japanese tanks), various types of infantry.

Then you have the IJN, which saw a much greater variety of ships than USN at that point. Getting into assets details is tricky :thumbup:

[...]Getting into assets details is tricky :thumbup:

It would not make sense, as it would require you to load in one version of the map, just to change the timeframe, resulting in reloading a big chunk of data (mesh, textures, objects) and potentially messing up your current mission, because airports and objects change. Sound like an UX nightmare to me.

I can see the point of changing the season with the time setting on the fly, because you may want to change seasons on an existing mission or just toy around with it, but i can't see the benefit of switching between WWII and modern age on the fly.

 

Additionaly be very aware of DCS memory allocation and how it handles seasons (seasonal texture swap) at the moment (hint: extremely badly). To be fair, i hope memory allocation will be improved with vulkan, but i'll also only believe it, when i see it.

I'm not saying it's an easy task, I'm not saying I've the faintest about how ED will tackle with it which I don't, I'm not saying all the problems you point out wouldn't be there. Still what doesn't make sense at all is making two different maps of the same area for different dates. I only know ED's goal in the future is to model the whole Earth integrating all the map in one which makes sense would be date dependant so we only pick up where and when we want to fly. For technical problems and decisions I rely on ED's criteria, we'll see what they come up with :smilewink: .

S!

One thing to check is the island topography. I'd be surprised if coastline didnt change at all and some parts of island weren't "reshaped" throughout past 60 - 70 years. Two separate maps, although mostly similar, but with differing shapes, objects and facilities would make sense to me.

It would be nice if the modeled changes in topography but I'll give ED a pass on that. I doubt the changes would have any significant affect on any scenarios.

It would be nice if the modeled changes in topography but I'll give ED a pass on that. I doubt the changes would have any significant affect on any scenarios.

I would guess the big changes would be "flattening" for urban areas, airports etc. And changes in harbours.

Do you own a mountain bike ??

 

:D

DCS: Mountain Bike :lol:

I’m really looking forward to it.

I really do struggle with the logic of some.

It’s free and it’s what some of us have wanted for a long time, ie a big space to naval operations.

 

The argument about bug fixes is an interesting one.

If you were to take it to the extreme, ED would still be only selling the KA50 and would have spent the last 10 years just honing that, as anything else would have introduced bugs. It’s just a ridiculous train of thought once you really analyse it.

So please, less of the negativity for something that will cost us nothing.

 

If you really can’t be at least a little constructive, just go play the game.

I say this - Guam/Marianas is a stop for any carrier strike group on a WESTPAC deployment. When I was there, I saw USS Carl Vinson stop in Guam and one of its escorting Ticonderoga-class cruisers stop in Saipan.

Use it as a training ground.

Its not that its "Fictional" scenarios...after all UAE/US vs Iran is a Fictional Scenario...NATO involvement in Causacus conflicts is a "Fictional Scenario"

 

 

Its just that its "Far-fetched" Fictional Scenarios isn't it? USN/USMC vs a Marianas occupied by the Chinese? How did that happen? A Chinese task force attacking US bases in the Marianas? Where are the Naval/Amphibious assets available to make that work...ignoring the fact that there's no "Redfor" plane to fly and the idea that a Chinese Task Force could even get to the Marianas without being destroyed...

Yes, a predominantly Ocean map can be used for Carrier Ops and for Single Player there are enough Assets to support a Russia vs US scenario...but you'd essentially be ignoring the Islands in that Scenario...so why not make an all-water map in 5 minutes and release it free with the F/A18 months ago?

Re-skinned its usable for WW2 Scenarios - but there isn't a single plane or asset available to fit that scenario yet...(I know F4U is under development) but you're essentially talking about starting from scratch - currently there is no opposition, no ground assets and no playable planes to support that.

 

 

Far more realistic Conflict Scenarios with mainly water maps could have included (as mentioned above) Kurils, Sakhalin/Kamchatka (A Great choice...1980's Lehman doctrine USN & USMC vs Full strength Russian land-based Aviation), Indian Ocean Fifth Fleet US vs Russia or US vs India Scenarios (perhaps based around the Chagos Islands) Iceland & North Cape as outside choices (maybe more relevent for paid DLC because of Terrain complexity)

I totally get what you're saying.

That said, use Guam/Marianas as a map for a war game, perhaps between two U.S. carrier strike groups. Similar to a RIMPAC. Not everything has to be Blue-on-Red.

The shots of the map from the 2020 video are looking beautiful. Can't wait for this one.

Any news on when this map will be out?