Active carrier

Well being able to place static aircraft and loads on the decks is not exactly what I was hoping for but I guess it better than what we have now. I'm really looking forward to seeing what heatblur comes up with.

You do realize that what was provided in the Weekend News Update is not a complete-feature-list of the Aircraft Carrier right?

There will also be some additional features available on the paid module versus the free module that comes with DCS.

I’m assuming he doesn’t

It's not like we are still a year from the release and they are talking about work they are just starting. These are the features we will see for the carrier at the early access release of the F-18.

Is it a complete features list? No, I'm sure it's not but when have you known ED to ever portray itself or one of its products in anything other than a positive light? Do you really think if they had animated deck crews they would not have shown that to you instead of talking about being able to place static objects on the flight deck?

Forgive my disappointment but stationary non-moving objects on the flight deck are not even close to what I was hoping for. Do I think it will remain that way? No, I'm sure that at some point down the road we will see a module that will add life to the flight deck from ED. Do I think that will be in the near future? Nope, not at this point I don't and is why I'm looking forward to seeing what Heatblur comes up with.

It's not like we are still a year from the release and they are talking about work they are just starting. These are the features we will see for the carrier at the early access release of the F-18.

so it is confirmed that the carrier Module will be available togehther with the Hornet by end of May/Spring 2018 (in EA)? Or am I´m mixing things up here?

Forgive my disappointment but stationary non-moving objects on the flight deck are not even close to what I was hoping for. Do I think it will remain that way? No, I'm sure that at some point down the road we will see a module that will add life to the flight deck from ED. Do I think that will be in the near future? Nope, not at this point I don't and is why I'm looking forward to seeing what Heatblur comes up with.

Dont forget the things which were mentioned in the latest newslatter

Quote from the latest update: link

Work has started on the management of aircraft on the CVN-74 carrier deck. Departing aircraft will appear in certain parking and elevators positions and will taxi on to the catapults. Recovering aircraft will taxi to free parking spaces. Subsequent aircraft will go to the elevator and de-spawn. On the deck it will be possible to place static objects (aircraft, equipment, loads). For this purpose we'll provide some new possibilities in the mission editor. A little later, we will show you pictures and videos of this in action.

sounds all very promising

I sincerely hope that we, the mission builders, will be able to place flyable aircraft on the deck in spawn points of our choosing. That is my biggest hope for the new carrier! :thumbup:

By "spawn points of our choosing", I mean that I hope that ED provides a large number of spawn points in parking spots around the deck and allows the mission builder to choose which ones they wish to use based on the type of mission that is being built. This would not be much different than the way is is done on a land base right now. :thumbup:

I sincerely hope that we, the mission builders, will be able to place flyable aircraft on the deck in spawn points of our choosing. That is my biggest hope for the new carrier! :thumbup:

 

By "spawn points of our choosing", I mean that I hope that ED provides a large number of spawn points in parking spots around the deck and allows the mission builder to choose which ones they wish to use based on the type of mission that is being built. This would not be much different than the way is is done on a land base right now. :thumbup:

correct me if I´m wrong, but I consider the Carrier spawnpoint and map representation system similar to the other maps we have, I pretty much believe that we will be able to place Aircrafts and define their starting Positions as well as their conditions like Rampstart, Rampstart Hot, Runway/catapult etc. I also believe that we´ll have the known drop down menu to select spawn points...everythings else wouldnt make sense and also wouldnt justify the Carrier Module to be a full Prize DCS Module...my thoughts.

I hope you're right MemphisBelle :thumbup:

That sounds like a great idea MemphisBelle. I just think it will be very immersive to taxi on the carrier. I am sure that ED will get it right.

It's not like we are still a year from the release and they are talking about work they are just starting. These are the features we will see for the carrier at the early access release of the F-18.

 

Is it a complete features list? No, I'm sure it's not but when have you known ED to ever portray itself or one of its products in anything other than a positive light? Do you really think if they had animated deck crews they would not have shown that to you instead of talking about being able to place static objects on the flight deck?

 

Forgive my disappointment but stationary non-moving objects on the flight deck are not even close to what I was hoping for. Do I think it will remain that way? No, I'm sure that at some point down the road we will see a module that will add life to the flight deck from ED. Do I think that will be in the near future? Nope, not at this point I don't and is why I'm looking forward to seeing what Heatblur comes up with.

So...Maybe your not quite understanding that the Stennis module and the Hornet module are separate products with their own development times. The carrier we will be getting with the Hornet is free of charge. The stuff your wanting was never going to be included with the hornet. The rest of it such as animated deck crew, hangar decks etc, was said to be in a paid upgrade to the Stennis later down the road.

I understand that exactly.

I don't know, to me this little tidbit that ED mentioned almost sounds like they are referring to managing the AI planes for the carrier. Obviously I cant confirm that but, I highly doubt they would remove full control from player controlled aircraft as that would kind of defeat the purpose. It sounds like a pretty reasonable addition to the default carrier to me personally. Hopefully we will see the separate module less than a year after the hornet, but that is all speculation at this point.

I believe that you are exactly right Repth. My only concern is that Wags had never come out and said what he has in mind for the next generation carrier for DCS. I've never seen anything in the forums from him to indicate that carrier operations will be anything different from what we have today....until this last little note in the Weekend Update. That is the first thing that been put out in writing to indicate that they are planning on something different, if not more involved, for the future of carrier operations. I am very glad to read it and much relieved that my faith in the developer of Jane's F/A-18 Super Hornet is not in vain.

I don't know, to me this little tidbit that ED mentioned almost sounds like they are referring to managing the AI planes for the carrier. Obviously I cant confirm that but, I highly doubt they would remove full control from player controlled aircraft as that would kind of defeat the purpose. It sounds like a pretty reasonable addition to the default carrier to me personally. Hopefully we will see the separate module less than a year after the hornet, but that is all speculation at this point.

You don't taxi aircraft from the mx deck anyway. When you walk to get your jet they tell you the parking spot and your jet is there and loaded up. From parking you'd taxi to the cat, launch, and when landing you'd just taxi to a parking spot similar to the one you were in intally. The elevators and stuff are really cosmetic anyway in regards to DCS, as you wouldn't use those in game and really wouldn't even be pulled around with the tug while sitting in the cockpit, as all of that is usually taken care of before you'd even get to the flight deck.

... The elevators and stuff are really cosmetic anyway in regards to DCS, as you wouldn't use those in game...

I really hope this is not entirely true. I want to at least move up and down on the elevator. "Fingers crossed"

You don't taxi aircraft from the mx deck anyway. When you walk to get your jet they tell you the parking spot and your jet is there and loaded up. From parking you'd taxi to the cat, launch, and when landing you'd just taxi to a parking spot similar to the one you were in intally. The elevators and stuff are really cosmetic anyway in regards to DCS, as you wouldn't use those in game and really wouldn't even be pulled around with the tug while sitting in the cockpit, as all of that is usually taken care of before you'd even get to the flight deck.

I am aware ;). Even in the Air Force we never had the pilots taxi aircraft to maintenance areas. We would tow them. What I meant was, they wouldn't take control away from us to taxi to the six pack or other holding areas during recovery.

They will probably add some 'game' function..

I believe that you are exactly right Repth. My only concern is that Wags had never come out and said what he has in mind for the next generation carrier for DCS. I've never seen anything in the forums from him to indicate that carrier operations will be anything different from what we have today....until this last little note in the Weekend Update. That is the first thing that been put out in writing to indicate that they are planning on something different, if not more involved, for the future of carrier operations. I am very glad to read it and much relieved that my faith in the developer of Jane's F/A-18 Super Hornet is not in vain.

Here is some news from 2016 with carrier plans. They are a couple years late :)

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2659915&postcount=12

^^

"...modules will be incredibly detailed models with working elevators, interior hanger bays, animated ship systems, and the ability to walk around inside the ships. These will be optional modules that would replace the existing ships currently in DCS World."

Wow. I must've missed this post.

Good find Kayos! I cannot believe its been 2 years since that post.

correct me if I´m wrong, but I consider the Carrier spawnpoint and map representation system similar to the other maps we have, I pretty much believe that we will be able to place Aircrafts and define their starting Positions as well as their conditions like Rampstart, Rampstart Hot, Runway/catapult etc. I also believe that we´ll have the known drop down menu to select spawn points...everythings else wouldnt make sense and also wouldnt justify the Carrier Module to be a full Prize DCS Module...my thoughts.

The only twist I see to this is...A carrier is moving. Easy to define fixed positions on Terra Firma...Maybe not so easy on a moving boat?

(I have no inside knowledge just tossing this out for conversation sake)

Sierra brings up a good point however, ED seems to have solved that issue quite a long time ago by having the spawn points located at the catapuls or launch positions in the case of the Kuznetsov. I see no reason why it would be any more difficult to designate a spawn point elsewhere on the deck in lieu of where they are now.

The only twist I see to this is...A carrier is moving. Easy to define fixed positions on Terra Firma...Maybe not so easy on a moving boat?

 

(I have no inside knowledge just tossing this out for conversation sake)

Well, i guess they will define a certain number of spawn point relative to the aircraft carrier (not the geo position). i don't see any difficulty in this. I imagine a top down view of the carrier from the map editor where you see all available positions or something similar to this.

I hope the ground handling when taxiing on a carrier will be improved as this is terribad atm.

You don't taxi aircraft from the mx deck anyway. When you walk to get your jet they tell you the parking spot and your jet is there and loaded up. From parking you'd taxi to the cat, launch, and when landing you'd just taxi to a parking spot similar to the one you were in intally. The elevators and stuff are really cosmetic anyway in regards to DCS, as you wouldn't use those in game and really wouldn't even be pulled around with the tug while sitting in the cockpit, as all of that is usually taken care of before you'd even get to the flight deck.

Therein lies the rub so to speak. You don't exist as a pilot in DCS until you eject. So you can't limit yourself to how its done in real life. Since you spawn in as a Jet, recovering jets would need to taxi to the same spot they spawned in at while hopefully not having to transit through another person spawn position to avoid spawn collision deaths. We're basically never going to have fully realized carrier in a multiplayer environment, because this base mechanic is designed with single player in mind and multiplayer is a bit of an afterthought. Works fine on an airfield where there is a huge amount of space to go around for people (jets) to spawn in, barring the fact that you can still lag in to someone not even moving on the ground. Spawning in as a character (ARMA/FPS style) would make so much more sense on a carrier if you were account for the probability that more than 4-6 people might operate from a boat. The alternative to recoding the core concept of jet spawning is to actually have below deck spawning and being towed to and riding the elevator, since the pilot doesn't exist anyway.