Is DCS membership growing or shrinking?

Do you think DCS's community membership is growing or shrinking? I see lots of sales all the time but not too many updates anymore, makes me think things are quieting down.

With a nickname like that! What do you think? :D

2627 new members since 2015-01-01

I would bank on growing! :thumbup:

:)

It will be interesting to see the growth rate after 2.0 is released.

Well, in my experience a lot of my friends told me that they started flying DCS after I showed them how awesome it could be. So... I think it's fair to say that it's growing.

Once DCS 2.0 comes up, I think the multiplayer scene is gonna EXPLODE! Better performance, better visibility, no framerate issues when guns are firing... I can't wait.

It will be interesting to see the growth rate after 2.0 is released.

i wish there was a persistent stat system in DCS.

i think that will drive alot more new people to play.

although i think dedicated DCS players dont care for it.

shoot, all the effort to take off and manage to get kills, i would like to see my track record kept online!

i think thats what makes warthunder appealing.

Cliffs of dover doesnt have persistent stats. it is a popular sim shooter but it also lacks players, whom of which go in and out like DCS players

I wish I found DCS earlier and in the same time I am happy I have not been waiting so many years on DCS World 2 beause it looks to be last argument in the sales deal. Goodbye sun, goodbye tan. I am ready.

o7

i wish there was a persistent stat system in DCS.

i think that will drive alot more new people to play.

although i think dedicated DCS players dont care for it.

 

shoot, all the effort to take off and manage to get kills, i would like to see my track record kept online!

 

i think thats what makes warthunder appealing.

Cliffs of dover doesnt have persistent stats. it is a popular sim shooter but it also lacks players, whom of which go in and out like DCS players

To be honest a global statistics system could do as much harm as good. I personally don't want to deal with all of the "stat padders".

Think you'll see an increase when EDGE 2.0 comes out

Agree with edge 2.0, as long as it has a good advertising run. Most people do not know about DCS to be fair.

I have very limited online time and when I am I cannot use voice comms as it is late. This has kinda put a nail in the coffin for me as I was really getting into F15C as well. Flying without a wingman is suicide!

I have also grown bored of single player....so until my situation changes it's Elite Dangerous for me!

I think the number of DCS modules being sold is increasing, although I have no scientific reason to back that up.

A lot of us who have been flying it a long time however don't spend as much time in multiplayer as we used to, and even then a lot spend it in closed servers. The reasons for this are many, and have been talked about a lot in these forums.

I'm really looking forward to DCS 2.0, and especially the multicrew possibilities that have been talked about.

Ideally though there needs (in my opinion) to be some changes in the way multiplayer works to really get the online community going. Primarily the ability to setup your own flight and waypoints, returning to the pilots the ability to come up with a flight plan and stick to it.

I know this can be done now - but it isn't as straightforward as it could be, and it relies on players to work together. (and it relies on a lot of assumptions about the mission if you fly on a public server)

I also think that the game needs built in comms. I know we can use teamspeak, and that there are radio mods out there but these rely on adding in extra software and come with no guarantee that players will use them. Planes have radios, and we should be able to use them!

As it stands, I believe a lot of players are simply biding their time and hoping that the sim matures into the product it could be. I say that with the best of intentions BTW, it's simply how I (and the guys I fly with) feel at the moment.

After over 15 years experience with almost every flight sim available throughout I saw the A-10C and knew immediately that it was what I had been hoping for all that time. I entered the community in 2012 at a time when enthusiasm for multiplayer activity with the A-10C and KA-50 was high and there was a close bond among community members. As things evolved and a long list of modules were introduced the community became fragmented as expected and it seems that the A-10C segment has become a minority in the multiplayer community. Although I am sure the community has expanded and contracted over time, from my point of view the end result has been quite depressing. I am hoping that when DCS2 arrives there will be a revival of the hawg drivers but that remains to be seen.

Once the Hornet is released I suspect one third the population of Canada to sign up. ☺

Once the Hornet is released I suspect one third the population of Canada to sign up. ☺

It will get loads of people flying again, but without changes to multiplayer, it will be back again to where we are now IMO.

It takes a load of work to make a mission - you can fly it 2-3 times probably before players start to know where all the targets are, and then it becomes stale. Patches break missions (I understand why!), but it gets quite frustrating from the perspective of the mission builder.

Missions are better if you can keep it simple and concentrate on training/"proper flying" etc - but that doesn't work for open public servers.

Some sort of automated briefing and flight planning by pilots would change the first thing a great deal.

Again - just to stress, this is an AWESOME sim - but it's not yet setup for multiplayer longevity (at least for ground pounders). It's the work of a precious few to keep the missions coming and it's very hard work.

Just keeping the thing going for the few guys in our squad has been a lot of work.:)

I'm really looking forward to DCS2.0 - and multicrew:joystick:

according to steam charts the player base has been steadily decreasing:

http://steamcharts.com/app/223750

according to steam charts the player base has been steadily decreasing:

http://steamcharts.com/app/223750

That's just steam though... that doesn't necessarily mean anything. For all we know people just moved from steam to the standalone.

I'm not saying you're wrong but take it with a grain of salt.

To be honest a global statistics system could do as much harm as good. I personally don't want to deal with all of the "stat padders".

why Dedicated DCS flyers dont care for it.

no one says we have to play with stat padders, why we have passworded servers

I think we're seeing a more dispersed player count with the addition of so many modules. I imagine the player count overall is increased, or at least as high as it's been, but less people are flying one platform together.

As a result we're probably seeing less people in any given mission/server.

according to steam charts the player base has been steadily decreasing:

http://steamcharts.com/app/223750

Data from steam is not an accurate representation. As already mentioned not everyone uses DCS with steam, but far more importantly steam doesn't fully track players that DO launch through steam. Basically because the game is 2 exes steam often no longer sees you as playing the game whenever you switch between the simulator and mission editor/GUI.

well im pretty new here and more friends bought the a few modules ! guessing with the future community will keep growing ... especially with the new coming dcs world 2 whenever its out !

Server population is no gauge for DCS popularity. DCS is not just about multiplayer in fact it is probably much more popular with offline pilots.

Most popular games rely on mp and are huge in that respect because these games are purely focused on competition, that is not an issue with DCS or other sims of this irk we do this to be a step closer to the real thing not to score points over your mates in a game.

A competitive element is there in mp if you want it and at varying levels thanks to a hell of a lot of work by many under appreciated people in the multiplayer world, but when it boils down to it a lot of people buy DCS to fly aircraft not play games.

And keep in mind that all testers are now flying DCS World 2 :thumbup: I suspect this also have a impact on the forum activity her :) They just can't let go of their stick anymore :megalol:

Very interesting reading, thank you all for your points of view.

I wonder... for how many hundreds of people that buy a DCS module during a sale, how many of them continue to play once they find out it's a lot more expensive than just buying the game, more complicated, and a lot more work than war thunder or world of tanks...

it really does take a special kind of person to get into flight sims, not everyone, even if they love flying, and have the money to, can do it well... in the same way not everyone can sing well, no matter how much they practice.