My most expensive module by far... feeling bad..

First flew the original KA-50 in 2011 (Steam Version), BS2 came out, and I upgraded to that, moved out of Steam, full on DCS and created an account here 2013 (hence the discrepancy.) Now she gets a full refresh, for free and if I want a more advanced variant I can pay for it. Well, seeing as how much I have enjoyed her from early days on Steam till now, this is all I can say.

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

I am a Triathlete as my other hobby, DCS is cheap by comparison . . . here, have more money for these excellent modules!

I'd happily pay even for the cockpit/3D model upgrades. I understand all difficulties of running such business on a niche within niche market and I fully understand difficulties and complexities of flight and systems modeling, it is nothing like monogramming some FPS or RPG games. This needs engineering/scientific/programming skills of the highest level. Thank you ED for upgrading and supporting the Shark, I'll gladly buy it again, it has given me hundreds of hours of entertainment and after the upgrade many more await me.

All art assets, including fixes associated with them, such as lights will be fixed for free. Only thing paid is the new systems being added.

This is awesome news, I find it impossible to see a negative here, pay and enjoy the new systems or don't pay and get much needed free love for Ka50. I'll gladly pay for the effort on a classic module.

Thank you ED.

I'm sorry you feel that way. To update the Ka-50 (one of our earliest DCS modules) takes a lot of time, money, and opportunity lost from other projects. We do realize though that the Ka-50 needs a lot of love to bring up up to par with our more recent modules. As with any module though, we need to find a means for it to pay for itself, so we simply cannot give away the entire update for free. We have staff to pay and lights to keep on.

 

As a compromise, we are giving away the all new and greatly improved external model and cockpit for free to all Ka-50 users. However, if you want to have the additional functions, I'm sorry, but we need some compensation for the work.

 

I hope you understand.

 

Thanks

I'm actually fine with paying for different variants of a particular aircraft. I've wondered why ED and other 3rd party partners don't do it more often, it would seem to help push out more content by reusing some of your work from the previous model.

So just to clarify the "new" Ka-50 is a newer variant?

As always, I will gladly pay the small sum required to update the Black Shark.

I am sure some people here would complain to the Cinema manager when they have to pay for every movie they watch! "But I already saw Bambi, why do I have to pay extra for Pocahontas!!!"

(Please note the U rated movies - obviously the children doing the complaining couldn't get in to R rated movies).

Great stuff ED! Great to see this model being upgraded after all this time.

No issues with the 'paid for upgrade' none at all...

Love the Kamov, for the extensive hours spent in this model compared to what I paid for it, I reckon I owe you a fortune, but shsssssh don't tell anyone...!

Very happy..... :)

How do I spell yes any different ways than I already did??

Just once.

I was typing my reply during the time you answered.

Thank you for assuring me the anti-collision lights will no longer clip into the cockpit of the free upgrade as well as the paid enhanced variant.

Happy Simming,

Monnie

I'm actually fine with paying for different variants of a particular aircraft. I've wondered why ED and other 3rd party partners don't do it more often, it would seem to help push out more content by reusing some of your work from the previous model.

 

So just to clarify the "new" Ka-50 is a newer variant?

Ka 50 N25, the actual has the Ka-50 N18

http://авиару.рф/aviamuseum/aviatsiya/sssr/vertolety/vertolety-kb-kamova/mnogotselevoj-udarnyj-vertolet-ka-50-chernaya-akula/

This is some great news! :)

@Wags, any thoughts on making DLC additions for more modules?

Like the F-5E, A-10C, Mi8, Huey etc.

They have been produced in so many variants and modifications, it would be nice to be able to

buy more content and functionality for our favourite birds.

Or simply add more variants. Like F-5B, A-10A etc

If we upgrade to this new avionics package, do we get to keep the old variant also?

Some cold war mp-servers might want to restrict ka-50 to the old variant only.

Hi,

Will long time forgotten misses, like the electrical system (ultra-simplified in the current v2) and the Shkval filters be implemented?

I'm actually more interested on a well-polished Ka-50 existing version rather than new exotic systems only installed in prototypes and not very realistic from the operational point of view.

Regards

I havent been on for a good while..... and i got to find out that what made my evenings and afternoons for years real fun (apart the bike and gunrange...and yes the wife) is getting updated. Exelent... will it be the cost of a brand new module or a bit to pay to upgrade...i could not give a rats ass....

i have 2 suggetsions for the wingers... learn to code and make it happen or dont fly the module and learn one of the most unique aircraft. I think i have over 2000h in it and it sill amazes me when it all works and i get immersed on a 4h mission....

kudos for ED for it.....i hope we will see the rwr on the abris

Hi,

 

Will long time forgotten misses, like the electrical system (ultra-simplified in the current v2) and the Shkval filters be implemented?

 

I'm actually more interested on a well-polished Ka-50 existing version rather than new exotic systems only installed in prototypes and not very realistic from the operational point of view.

 

Regards

The Ka-50 was a prototype in the first place. It was never produced in quantity so any armament was not realistic.

I'm not paying again for Ka-50 features. Used it alot in 1.5 and I havent been able to use it for more than an hour in 2.5.

Even after reading Wags and Nineline's kind explanations I keep thinking the same.

Just curious : would it be possible/worthwhile to sneak in some sort of TACAN-system into the new KA-50, for navigation to ships, airfields in NTTR..... ?

"You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!”

As a compromise, we are giving away the all new and greatly improved external model and cockpit for free to all Ka-50 users.

This is absolutely the best possible solution for everybody and more than fair. Paying for BS2 was a bit over the line back in the day but as it was reasonably priced, I didn't mind. I'm glad to pay for the awesome improvements and glad that even without it we will get free graphical upgrades.

Bug fixes though are mandatory and should never be stretched until a DLC is to be developed. My reluctance to buy new products is directly proportional to the condition of the old products I own.

This is awesome news, I find it impossible to see a negative here, pay and enjoy the new systems or don't pay and get much needed free love for Ka50. I'll gladly pay for the effort on a classic module.

 

Thank you ED.

Spot on! Thank you ED!

As a long time customer of ED not exactly thrilled by this news

Paid for original BS1 (russian version i think)

Paid for BS2 "upgrade"

Then eventually bought a standard copy of BS2, just to avoid the PITA that re-installing BS1

... then activating then installing BS2 (dont forget having to contact support about running out of keys etc)

Total cost of black shark $99

Yes I understand that you guys have to indeed "keep the lights on" ,

but after selling this module for over a decade now surely you

have got a decent amount of revenue from sales from BS1 , BS1 to BS2 upgrades and also BS2 modules

This is what looked BS1 like:

All BS2 owners will have they module updated for free to current standard, it is VR compatible, flyable with various airframes and you still keep complaining.

November 19th 2008 I first bought the Russian version of DCS: Ka-50, not even a month later on December 10th I bought the english download version then three years later on November 6th 2011 I bought the BS2 upgrade. I won't hesitate a moment to pay for BS2.5 or whatever they want to call it. Apart from a few games I helped design and create when I worked with Battlefront, I have few products in my gaming library that still give me as much joy and entertainment for the last TEN AND HALF YEARS as DCS.

Take my money Wags, and here is some more for the Hind module!

This is what looked BS1 like:

 

All BS2 owners will have they module updated for free to current standard, it is VR compatible, flyable with various airframes and you still keep complaining.

Wow a game from 10 years ago does not look at good as one today

Thanks ED for updating the interior and exterior model for free and giving people the OPTION to purchase a upgraded version.

It would most likely need to be the second variant in game, and you can buy accessibility to the second upgrade variant, but its still TBD.

 

As for how it will sell, I am sure like the original BS2 upgrade, both will be available for some time, then eventually it will just be the upgraded version you can buy... something like that, but again... TBD.

Ka 50 N25, the actual has the Ka-50 N18

http://авиару.рф/aviamuseum/aviatsiya/sssr/vertolety/vertolety-kb-kamova/mnogotselevoj-udarnyj-vertolet-ka-50-chernaya-akula/

Hmm… would it at all be possible to not make them separate variants in the game, but rather have it be determined by what the pilot is actually allowed to do? In other words, would there be any critical external differences that warrants a differentiation from the outside perspective of other players, other than that one might carry slightly different stores than the other (which is a separate matter)?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm looking at an awful lot of old missions that would require all kinds of alterations to first accommodate both variants, and then over time transition to only having one of them again. In some MP setups, it would seriously run up against limitations in available starting spots if old-variant flights had to be copy-pasted into new-variant ones, and previous experience suggests that changing aircraft — even variants of the same type — can sometimes nullify all kinds of flight data setups that you've put in. With the Ka-50, there's an awful lot of nav/target/other points that would need to be remade if you had to change from one version to another and it didn't transition properly between the two.

It would be far more future-safe (and backwards compatible) if you still only ever placed a Ka-50, and the player variant was reliant on exactly that: the player, whereas AI pilots would be essentially the same, only with different loadouts. The actual systems aren't exactly relevant to them to begin with, so it would be more the carried stores that would be the differentiating factor. I'm guessing that such a solution might require some kind of “allow version X / allow version Y” checkbox in the ME, similar to the NS430 checkboxes for the Mi-8 and L-39, in those cases when a mission maker wants to restrict what the players can actually use.

Still… please, if at all possible, make them the same from a mission-editor perspective to avoid all that translation work between old and new.