My Dream - DCS Vietnam

Man, if they could do Vietnam with just a Thud for the US and an SA-2 sim for the NVA to start off with that would provide a lot for players to work with.

Realistic explosions and shrapnel would really make for an amazing ground attackin' experience

Vietnam map would be amazing, along with naval fighters!

To do Vietnam justice, you would need a very, very large map... You would need a large chunk of the Gulf of Thailand, a lot of Thailand itself, all of Cambodia and Laos, and then of course North and South Vietnam with a nice swath of the south china sea thrown in so people could do the carrier strikes. A perfectly square area would include a bit of China and the Hainan island and possibly a small slice of Burma.

Quotes from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_in_Thailand

During the Vietnam War, about 80% of all USAF air strikes over North Vietnam originated from air bases in Thailand. At its peak in 1969 more airmen were serving in Thailand than were serving in South Vietnam.

Unless air america is on campaign designers minds.

I rarely post anything here, but it seems like I post this every month or two -- DCS needs to create some kind of SDK that allows third party groups to create and populate theatres. Most of us are going to be dead and gone by the time we see anything like this come from ED itself.

Here's a starter for Vietnam/Korea Missions.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=182476

To do Vietnam justice, you would need a very, very large map... You would need a large chunk of the Gulf of Thailand, a lot of Thailand itself, all of Cambodia and Laos, and then of course North and South Vietnam with a nice swath of the south china sea thrown in so people could do the carrier strikes. A perfectly square area would include a bit of China and the Hainan island and possibly a small slice of Burma.

 

Quotes from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_in_Thailand

 

Granted most of the landscape over Thailand could be low detail except for the bases. And Laos, and Cambodia west of Vietnam's border that doesn't include the Ho Chi Minh trail is of no interest and could be low detail, but something would need to be there.

 

Unless air america is on campaign designers minds.

This is kind of what I was thinking. I'm not even really thinking about land mass. That, by my limited knowledge of scenery development, is mostly procedural. (Not scripting, but look at the data and make it happen.) The real trouble would be locating FOB's, villages, and cities and then putting the right buildings in the right places. I'm not saying that the data isn't there, but it is likely difficult to come by. A lot of data from the Vietnam conflict still requires FOIA requests to get a hold of, and some of it is still classified.

Where detail is concerned, someone is definitely going to try building Air America/MACV-SOG missions and subsequently complain about a lack of detail. And of course, there are the people like me who would start carving up the map unrealistically in order to take advantage of interesting terrain. Two final points, 1.) I'm still not exactly happy that we aren't supposed to get DON airfields like Fallon, Yuma, and Miramar which fall either near or within the borders of the current NTTR map--but I digress. And 2.) in this particular case, the accuracy of the map can have an effect on enjoyment. This effect is probably more apparent during longer flights when you start looking out the canopy and wondering if that is the exact view someone else saw in real life on the way to combat. For these reasons, I would advocate for more detail instead of less.

This is kind of what I was thinking. I'm not even really thinking about land mass. That, by my limited knowledge of scenery development, is mostly procedural. (Not scripting, but look at the data and make it happen.) The real trouble would be locating FOB's, villages, and cities and then putting the right buildings in the right places. I'm not saying that the data isn't there, but it is likely difficult to come by. A lot of data from the Vietnam conflict still requires FOIA requests to get a hold of, and some of it is still classified.

Considering how many Firebases were created and abandoned and then even re-opened. It would make for quite the challenge. Procedural generation is the future and its the only way to make large scale maps that can morph. Outside of the challenge of plopping down village/city/roads etc.

If you consider the Daisy Cutter Bomb to make an LZ or just annihilate a whole bunch of the enemy how that poses a problem, because trees need to be destructible. The way they could bald a hilltop leaving behind a mass of burnt and broken toothpick like trees sticking out of the ground with smashed twigs and shards of wood everywhere with blackened earth and dead everything. Its another problem all its own. Oh yea and GI's made LZ's by blowing trees and pushing back the Elephant Grass or cutting the shrubbery.

Not to mention that some areas have huge amounts of sheer cliff walls that pose their own problem on maps with textures. They can look almost like dragons teeth sticking out of the ground. You would need really high mesh detail in those areas to make it believable. But if they could do it, it would be really beautiful... probably some of the most beautiful areas in the map.

Where detail is concerned, someone is definitely going to try building Air America/MACV-SOG missions and subsequently complain about a lack of detail. And of course, there are the people like me who would start carving up the map unrealistically in order to take advantage of interesting terrain. Two final points, 1.) I'm still not exactly happy that we aren't supposed to get DON airfields like Fallon, Yuma, and Miramar which fall either near or within the borders of the current NTTR map--but I digress. And 2.) in this particular case, the accuracy of the map can have an effect on enjoyment. This effect is probably more apparent during longer flights when you start looking out the canopy and wondering if that is the exact view someone else saw in real life on the way to combat. For these reasons, I would advocate for more detail instead of less.

Then you're right only procedural generation with some way to look through old aerial photos that can be recreated procedurally gets us there.

I know people are doing work like that... I just think Eagle Dynamics isn't in that mindset yet. I would love to see this... but considering how long people have wanted a Dynamic campaign... I'm not of the opinion this is in the realm of possibility anytime soon. *sigh*

ETA: Another thought just came to mind, if they could do this procedural updates, we might for the first time be able to leave behind the pock marks of where the bombs landed. Leaving the map to get progressively worst as time goes on as more and more bombs are dropped on the landscape. That would be unreal.

Hello all,

I was dreaming the same dream you all have.....

Since we don't have the actual Vietnam map, I recreated Vietnam in the Caucasus map.

If you have a little imagination and flip the Caucasus map 90 degrees left, there are some quite cool similarities to Vietnam.

I am working on making this a dynamic map, where also a persistent campaign would be possible.

As of now, the mission is dynamic in a sense that most units never show up in the same location at mission start.

But unfortunately, after mission restart we start from square one.

I hope to have a proper system running soonish...

Check out our briefing to see what it's about:

https://tawdcs.org/2017/12/29/rolling-thunder-cold-war/

Aren't there some reskins for caucus map for Vietnameque feel?

DCS Vietnam would be very cool! I think a Vietnam Map would be gorgeous in the DCS World engine and I know in interviews in the past Wags has said they are interested in the time period.

I think a Vietnam scenario in DCS with the assets it would take to flesh out could easily fit into another scenario i have really wanted in DCS, the Arab-Israeli Wars, Six Day War, War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War and to an extent the 1982 Lebanon War.

I really hope that one day we do get an F-4 as it will be perfect for the upcoming syria map and the current Persian Gulf map!

+1 for Vietnam server/DCS

didn't think about turning the caucasus map 90 deg left....it could/would work esp if there's a lot of jungle added, plus fixed firebases.

Hello all,

 

I was dreaming the same dream you all have.....

Since we don't have the actual Vietnam map, I recreated Vietnam in the Caucasus map.

If you have a little imagination and flip the Caucasus map 90 degrees left, there are some quite cool similarities to Vietnam.

 

I am working on making this a dynamic map, where also a persistent campaign would be possible.

As of now, the mission is dynamic in a sense that most units never show up in the same location at mission start.

But unfortunately, after mission restart we start from square one.

I hope to have a proper system running soonish...

 

Check out our briefing to see what it's about:

https://tawdcs.org/2017/12/29/rolling-thunder-cold-war/

We used to rotate chess boards 90^ and even 180^ just for the “wtf am I looking at?!” effect...the Caucuses (sp?) map would feel/be experienced as a totally different map!

Heck, the rotation + the Vietnam mod would be a huge step in the right direction! There are flyable F4 mods, A4 just around the corner, several MiG mods and at least one in the next couple years...

Woot! Is gud, ya!

To all the people strongly whishing a Vietnam theatre to happen, I invite you to come and vote on this thread :-)

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=116871&page=19