[Poll] How do you primary play DCS? (Strawpoll)

[amazingme]

MP and PvP is what I like to do in DCS. The AI seems like a retarded god... its flight model and damage model are killing the SP experience..

[philstyle]

MP and PvP is what I like to do in DCS. The AI seems like a retarded god... its flight model and damage model are killing the SP experience..

 

 

The FM and DM of the A.I. is ALSO killing the MP experience, in so far as it is not really worthwhile have any flying A.I. to add to the environment (which is necessary for an immersive MP experience, IMO)

 

 

So.. it's arguable that between your observations and mine, the AI aircraft behaviour/ modelling is killing single player AND multiplayer. This doesn't look good at all for DCS.

 

 

To be honest, I don't even think the AI needs a "fantastic" / realistic player-type DM. All it needs is some basic rules:

1. Engines to fail if pushed at max for more than a few minutes (just set an arbitrary time, like 3 minutes)

2. Damage to aircraft surface to result in, say, 50kph airspeed reduction

3. Loss of any control surface to result in 50% reduction in the relevant control authority (OK loss of rudder will still leave some yaw ability)

4. Damage to engine or radiator to result in total failure after ~2 minutes

5. A.I Pilot to bail out for any engine fire

6. Strenthen the hitboxes overall on the B17

 

 

That would be enough to at least help us supend our disbelief a little bit!

[Bogey Jammer]

just trying to gain some insight as to what the community fragmentation percentages are.

 

I don't know exactly how you will process the results but I hope that they will be considered with the current situation of DCS, and that you will not want to preserve these fragmentation figures.

 

Let me explain. I want to play in the same way real pilots do, and I suspect that most of us want that too. Depending on each people's difficulties, there are the current solutions :

– Single player for those who don't have enough time flexibility to fly among online squadrons, or are MP shy, or feeling that they are not skilled enough to engage in PvP, or simply need to train and study in a controlled environment. However the AI, ATC and CGI are far from perfect, and the player is left to his own device.

– Coop multiplayer : for those who really want at all cost to play like real pilots. The costs are strict schedule, social and personal flexibility, high motivation requirement, sticking to some military rules.

– PvP : for those who want to try their skills against other humans. Unfortunately in most of public servers, 99% is Rambo lone wolf style. Communication there is void. I'd say it's a kind of last resort to avoid AI. However the missions are simple and offer a dynamic feeling that single player mode lacks.

 

Each of these solutions have drawbacks and I think this is precisely where efforts should be made for the gameplay side. However this how me, as a consumer, see it. Real/detailed studies would be required to confirm.

[*Rage*]

Just by viewing server populations it is easy to determine that a vast majority of players are single player.

 

Poll says 50% players are MP.

[cichlidfan]

Poll says 50% players are MP.

 

The poll is badly skewed. Server populations prove that.

[NineLine]

The poll is badly skewed. Server populations prove that.

 

Most likely. Single players might be less inclined to hang out on forums as well, ED has stated before that MP is a small chunk of the pie by their numbers.

[cichlidfan]

... ED has stated before that MP is a small chunk of the pie by their numbers.

 

Yet people continue to attempt to dispute that fact. :doh:

[CoBlue]

Just by viewing server populations it is easy to determine that a vast majority of players are single player.

Server population? Open servers or closed? Also how do you keep count?

 

The poll is badly skewed. Server populations prove that.

The majority of MP's are members in Virtual Squadrons, that are closed for public.

My squad or (Wing) is doing an large MP mission with 30-40 pilots lasting 2h once a week. Then we split up for training 2-10 pilots 2 times/week on different days/times.

Then there's planning, briefing, debriefing, all related to MP.

So I do 80% of my flying in MP. I & my squad-mates seldom join public servers.

 

Other squadrons are doing similar way.

 

Just because you don't see large numbers on MP 24/7, doesn't mean they're not there! You can simply miss them due to time-zones or you're looking at public servers only & not paying attention to the closed ones.

[cichlidfan]

Just because you don't see large numbers on MP 24/7, doesn't mean they're not there! You can simply miss them due to time-zones or you're looking at public servers only & not paying attention to the closed ones.

 

Pretending that something is there doesn't make it so. ED's numbers are based on what the Master server sees, which includes everything.

[diditopgun]

PvP for A2A because AI sucks.

 

MP Coop vs AI for A2G.

 

I never play SP (because AI sucks) aside for learning/testing/mission editing.

 

 

Multiplayer forever !!! :punk:

[galevsky06]

Same here A/A=>PvP and A/G=>Coop vs AI

 

I dream about PvP-only with both A/A and A/G tasks in the same mission, but it is very hard to make it nice for strikers once the air cover is down. :bored:

[probad]

Yet people continue to attempt to dispute that fact. :doh:

not that i don't believe that pvpers constitute a minority, but how do you distinguish sp players from people who downloaded dcs or even bought a module before never playing ever again?

 

because there are an awful lot of those people too in every game.

[pimp]

Single Player for me. Although I wish I had local friends to fly with.

[Bearfoot]

not that i don't believe that pvpers constitute a minority, but how do you distinguish sp players from people who downloaded dcs or even bought a module before never playing ever again?

 

because there are an awful lot of those people too in every game.

 

This is true. And this is why only ED probably has anything close to the true numbers (not just sales, but presumably the "phone home" that DCS does on launch will give them an idea of active players, and, of course, the MP server logins will also give them an idea of MP vs SP usage). And this why when ED tells us that the number of SP players is much, much, much, much, much, much larger than the number of MP players, we have good reason to believe that they probably know what they are talking about.

 

However, we might be able to take forum membership/activity as a rough proxy of all active players? This is probably a major underestimate, given that the number of active players who are not active forum participants probably far outnumber the number of active forum participants who are not active players. But this will give a reasonable idea of at least the lower bound of the total community size, maybe? And this number is in the 50-60K range, IIRC?

[rickberry49]

I guess I must be the odd man out. I enjoy flying single player and have created several missions of my own in addition to find missions that I purchased or available online. I have recently started flying multiplayer on the internal server. My level of a tactical awareness systems operation and just overall enjoyment has increased dramatically. The recent update with the new Integrity checks has really put a damper on several things. As a senior citizen trying to fly and see the Hud with the ugly green color is nearly impossible in light situations. A simple modification to change the color of the hood to Black for daylight and light orange for night totally negates using the multiplayer server. This is quite unfortunate. I totally understand Ed wanting to maintain Integrity in the software when inexperienced users make modifications and then call support when things don't go right. What I don't understand is I can make these simple and harmless changes in single player but not with multiplayer. If someone is cheating in a multiplayer environment I should think it would be the job of the server administrator to either deny or kick them off. But then again that's just my humble and novice opinion.

[Johnny_Rico]

Server population? Open servers or closed? Also how do you keep count?

 

 

The majority of MP's are members in Virtual Squadrons, that are closed for public.

My squad or (Wing) is doing an large MP mission with 30-40 pilots lasting 2h once a week. Then we split up for training 2-10 pilots 2 times/week on different days/times.

Then there's planning, briefing, debriefing, all related to MP.

So I do 80% of my flying in MP. I & my squad-mates seldom join public servers.

 

Other squadrons are doing similar way.

 

Just because you don't see large numbers on MP 24/7, doesn't mean they're not there! You can simply miss them due to time-zones or you're looking at public servers only & not paying attention to the closed ones.

 

CoBlue, you make some good points

 

For example, it is possible to host a server not ticking public box so it does not show in list but have your clan mates be able to connect to it by using Direct IP connect (which remembers last server you connected to.

 

These would not show up in what the master server sees and any players also would not be counted

 

 

I guess I must be the odd man out. I enjoy flying single player and have created several missions of my own in addition to find missions that I purchased or available online. I have recently started flying multiplayer on the internal server. My level of a tactical awareness systems operation and just overall enjoyment has increased dramatically. The recent update with the new Integrity checks has really put a damper on several things. As a senior citizen trying to fly and see the Hud with the ugly green color is nearly impossible in light situations. A simple modification to change the color of the hood to Black for daylight and light orange for night totally negates using the multiplayer server. This is quite unfortunate. I totally understand Ed wanting to maintain Integrity in the software when inexperienced users make modifications and then call support when things don't go right. What I don't understand is I can make these simple and harmless changes in single player but not with multiplayer. If someone is cheating in a multiplayer environment I should think it would be the job of the server administrator to either deny or kick them off. But then again that's just my humble and novice opinion.

 

You could just connect to multiplayer servers that do not to integrity check on your game (no green shield in list)

[kunterbunt]

However, we might be able to take forum membership/activity as a rough proxy of all active players? This is probably a major underestimate, given that the number of active players who are not active forum participants probably far outnumber the number of active forum participants who are not active players. But this will give a reasonable idea of at least the lower bound of the total community size, maybe? And this number is in the 50-60K range, IIRC?

 

Well, maybe not that bad an idea. I guess it is difficult to enjoy dcs without participating in this forum. The beast is too much to handle alone. So many tips and hints and so much outdated manual and information. Yes YouTube helps a lot, but you need to know what to look for. I look into the forum and learn so many things I never new existed.

I do not visit forums in the internet usually. Actually this is the only one.

[amazingme]

That's why we want to keep this forum as clean as possible..

 

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Cotoi]

I voted single player because I don't have anyone to play with. I don't like PvP, it takes away from the SIM part, and none of my friends want to play co-op. I am a new pilot but I look for all aspects of flying, but that's not a popular view i guess

[Kippy]

The group of people, myself included, who fly single player because they have nobody else to fly with is surprisingly large.

 

Perhaps the DCS community should take more initiative in organizing itself. But there are already fantastic squadrons out there like the 476th and the 355th vfs. What gives?

[Angus]

99% multiplayer , fly in virtual squadron . most of the time in coop vs AI , sometimes in PvP .

 

1%single player To test the missions I created.

I think ,Solo flying can be fun when playing a campaign, but it's missing out on the potential and fun of multi-cooperation with other types of aircraft (Vs AI or PVP).

[probad]

What gives?

people can be especially risk-averse when their pride is on the line

[VZ_342]

I'm still learning. I can avoid "controlled flight into terrain" but having a hexk of a time with guns and bombs.

 

Practice*3

 

Aerobatics is a close second, I like sightseeing and pushing the a/c to its limits. (Currently using SU-25 and -25T, and L-39)

[Coxy_99]

I just do Aerobatics, Well them guys require multi-player. You cant fly with A.I

 

V red arrows

V Thunderbirds

V Horseman

V black diamond team

 

All need multiplayer ;)

Edited July 21, 2017 by Coxy_99

[Raz_Specter]

Multiplayer all the way - missions with the squadron against AI.