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Advice: Cold War era module for online


Bozon

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Hello,

 

I am new to DCS, but a veteran of online combat sims (20 years of Aces High, dedicated Mossie pilot). I am mostly here waiting for the Mosquito and P47 modules to come out. While I wait, I think it will be fun to get into jets - early stuff, till the late 60’s, don’t want anything too complicated. If DCS had Mirage III I’d be all over that drooling, but alas the RAZBAM project seems to have been pushed beyond the horizon.

 

So, I narrowed it down to:

F-86

Mig-15

Mig-21

F-5

 

Which of the above do you think will be the best 1st module - mostly for online play. Offline campaigns content are bonus. The Mig-15 is winking at me. Should I?

“Mosquitoes fly, but flies don’t Mosquito” :pilotfly:

- Geoffrey de Havilland.

 

... well, he could have said it!

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As an owner of all 4 of those modules I would go with the F-5 first.

 

It has a wide range of capability, is easy to learn, challenging to fly and will give you the most bang for your buck.

 

The Mig21 is also very capable but slightly harder to learn.

 

The F-86 and Mig 15 are both awesome but not much to do with them. They are not even correctly matched against each other.

 

 

 

 

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Thanks.

I was more interested in the online gameplay of these models. Do they have good servers/big enough community?

 

F86 and Mig15 are basically Korea only and are the only contemporaries of each other. Is there a sufficient large community for a Korea server during Euro-evenings?

 

Mig-21bis is a 70s model (already somewhat beyond its peak by then) - who are its contemporaries? Only the Mig-19 and F-5? Is there a good server for this matchup? Do the F-5/Mig21 mix well with more modern aircraft in other servers? I suppose running the Mig21 vs the F-teen series and getting splatted BVR will get frustrating really fast.

“Mosquitoes fly, but flies don’t Mosquito” :pilotfly:

- Geoffrey de Havilland.

 

... well, he could have said it!

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Cold War Server for the F-5/Mig-21

 

Unfortunately it isn't VR friendly so I don't fly in there much

 

There are some other servers that feature cold war type matchups.

 

 

Thanks. I really wanted the Mig-21, unfortunately it is not on sale and 50$ is too much given the other stuff I need to buy as a new player in DCS.

“Mosquitoes fly, but flies don’t Mosquito” :pilotfly:

- Geoffrey de Havilland.

 

... well, he could have said it!

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Thanks. I really wanted the Mig-21, unfortunately it is not on sale and 50$ is too much given the other stuff I need to buy as a new player in DCS.

The MiG-21 is definitely the most charming of those aircraft and would have been my recommendation, unless you want to get an easy start first, where I would recommend the F-5 instead.

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Cold War Server for the F-5/Mig-21

 

Unfortunately it isn't VR friendly so I don't fly in there much

 

There are some other servers that feature cold war type matchups.

 

I fly on Cold War, in VR exclusively. It's playing on "Hard" mode.

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Cold War Server for the F-5/Mig-21

 

Unfortunately it isn't VR friendly so I don't fly in there much

 

There are some other servers that feature cold war type matchups.

What do you mean by "... it isn't VR friendly..."?

I don't own VR and no one ever told me anything so I'm in the dark here. Any options in the settings I should be checking?

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The MiG-21 is definitely the most charming of those aircraft and would have been my recommendation, unless you want to get an easy start first, where I would recommend the F-5 instead.

No easy starts for me, I like the challenge - bought the Mig-21 :thumbup:

 

See you in the unfriendly skies <S>

“Mosquitoes fly, but flies don’t Mosquito” :pilotfly:

- Geoffrey de Havilland.

 

... well, he could have said it!

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What do you mean by "... it isn't VR friendly..."?

I don't own VR and no one ever told me anything so I'm in the dark here. Any options in the settings I should be checking?

 

Visual range Air to Air in VR without a dot label of some sort is a non-starter.

 

I created my own labels file that provides dot labels for aircraft only with the color being evident only close in and no dot label when very close to other aircraft. I use it on my group server and it serves us well.

 

As seen above, others will say they fly VR with no problems and maybe they do but for the larger group of VR users, no labels flying against opponents on a flat screen is a serious handicap that removes the fun.

 

If you want the labels.lua just let me know.

 

 

 

 

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Visual range Air to Air in VR without a dot label of some sort is a non-starter.

 

I created my own labels file that provides dot labels for aircraft only with the color being evident only close in and no dot label when very close to other aircraft. I use it on my group server and it serves us well.

 

As seen above, others will say they fly VR with no problems and maybe they do but for the larger group of VR users, no labels flying against opponents on a flat screen is a serious handicap that removes the fun.

 

If you want the labels.lua just let me know.

The problem is, if I'd enable labels then all labels would be allowed. Unless there's a way to limit that to VR only?

cold war 1947 - 1991.jpg

Cold War 1947 - 1991                                       Discord
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You can help me with keeping up the server via PayPal donations: hokumyounis@yahoo.com

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The problem is, if I'd enable labels then all labels would be allowed. Unless there's a way to limit that to VR only?

 

I am not sure why you need to limit labels to VR only, especially if the label system is crafted to only make up for the difference is visual performance. If someone flying in glorious 4K flat screen wants a little black dot also, why limit them?

 

To encourage VR flyers, the labels should mimic what the flat screen player can see without providing anything extra.

 

So a neutral color dot that appears at the range a flat screen can see the dot. A slow color shift to red or blue at the range a flat screen can reliably see a silhouette and then labels off at the range where VR performance is adequate to maintain tally.

 

Cold War Server may not even need the color shift to ID friend or foe since it is a limited planeset.

 

So a system does not provide an advantage to either the VR pilot or the non-VR pilot.

 

If a non-VR player doesn't want labels to spoil the scenery, they can be turned off.

 

The only serious issue with labels is visibility through the airframe, something I wish would be fixed. However using black or dark grey labels almost totally eliminates this failure.

 

 

 

 

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Hello,

 

I am new to DCS, but a veteran of online combat sims (20 years of Aces High, dedicated Mossie pilot). I am mostly here waiting for the Mosquito and P47 modules to come out. While I wait, I think it will be fun to get into jets - early stuff, till the late 60’s, don’t want anything too complicated. If DCS had Mirage III I’d be all over that drooling, but alas the RAZBAM project seems to have been pushed beyond the horizon.

 

So, I narrowed it down to:

F-86

Mig-15

Mig-21

F-5

 

Which of the above do you think will be the best 1st module - mostly for online play. Offline campaigns content are bonus. The Mig-15 is winking at me. Should I?

 

I would say that Cold War didn't end in the 60'.

 

If you stay away from fancy stuff like AIM-120, AIM-9X, JHMCS, GPS bombs and maybe even laser guided bombs you can expand into the 80'.

- M-2000C

- F/A-18

- F-15

- Tomcat

- MiG-29A

- Su-27

- Su-25

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I would say that Cold War didn't end in the 60'.

 

If you stay away from fancy stuff like AIM-120, AIM-9X, JHMCS, GPS bombs and maybe even laser guided bombs you can expand into the 80'.

- M-2000C

- F/A-18

- F-15

- Tomcat

- MiG-29A

- Su-27

- Su-25

 

Yeh, technically the cold war lasted till the end of the 80s, but the cool cold war (excuse the pun) was in the 50s and 60s :)

 

I limited my selection based on technology since I am not very interested in “modern” fighters. Radar and BVR missiles ruined A2A combat for me. Out of the list above I would only consider buying the Mirage2K, but that is just because it is a Mirage and I will pretend that it is a Mirage IIIc gone mad...

 

Anyway, I went with the Mig21 since the classic cold war era’s future looks a bit more promising with the F-8 coming to the Western side, A-6 is rumored, the F-4 just has to be in DCS at some point in the future as well. The community A-4E mod is magnificent and I hope it becomes “common” enough to be included in more online servers. The soviet side is missing the Mig17.

“Mosquitoes fly, but flies don’t Mosquito” :pilotfly:

- Geoffrey de Havilland.

 

... well, he could have said it!

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Yeh, technically the cold war lasted till the end of the 80s, but the cool cold war (excuse the pun) was in the 50s and 60s :)

 

I limited my selection based on technology since I am not very interested in “modern” fighters. Radar and BVR missiles ruined A2A combat for me. Out of the list above I would only consider buying the Mirage2K, but that is just because it is a Mirage and I will pretend that it is a Mirage IIIc gone mad...

 

Anyway, I went with the Mig21 since the classic cold war era’s future looks a bit more promising with the F-8 coming to the Western side, A-6 is rumored, the F-4 just has to be in DCS at some point in the future as well. The community A-4E mod is magnificent and I hope it becomes “common” enough to be included in more online servers. The soviet side is missing the Mig17.

 

I would even argue that before the advent of all-aspect IR missiles in combat (IIRC 1979), the Cold War saw much more mature and reliable tech but combat was not yet dependent on missiles. The 1960's saw a bunch of planes without guns, armed with terrible missiles try to fight each other. All aspect IR's changed everything. Before then, you could fight like in WW2 albeit with longer ranged weapons.

 

Enter the early 1970's and you've got the best balance! The F-4E (which Belsimtek/ED announced forever ago and hopefully comes back after the Mosquito which I also will be buying) had much more reliable, albeit very short-legged AIM-9J missiles, the USN had the AIM-9H. Both are fast and maneuverable rear-aspect only IR's. The AIM-7 was around, yes but would have been little problem trashing in ground clutter, chaff or notching for early PD radars.

 

This was when all the Vietnam War aircraft were mature, but new tech that we know so well from the 1980's had not come out into combat yet. Can you tell I'm yearning for the F-4E?? :D

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