Criteria according to which maps for DCS should be selected

[bies]

I have some suggestion when it comes to map chose, but i would like to know community opinion.

 

It's visible there are two main criteria ED has chosen, first, dominant, is current nowadays political tensions.

- after Chechnya war the Crimea map

- after USA/Saudi - Iran tensions the Hormuz Straight map

- after USA - China tensions the Marianna map

 

Second is real life full scale military conflicts with timeframe corresponding with timeframe of DCS modules and assets, this is underrepresented but last Syrian map fits this category.

(But even in this one single case I'm really not sure if the present day Syrian totally asymmetrical war, without any air combat, just low scale bombing some helpless terrorists/insurgencies wasn't the main criterion, unfortunately.)

 

Why I think so?

 

1) DCS is about history and it has to be for obvious reasons, even the most modern modules like A-10C, F/A-18C, F-16C are around 2005 variants, yes, it's 15 years ago. Not today. Hornet i.e. is phased out from US Navy years ago.

 

2) After all, there was no full scale military operation and tensions de-escalated to some degree in Hormuz or Guam and this can make maps not aging well.

 

So maybe the best criteria would be to base the map chose on real file full scale military conflict in a timeframe corresponding with timeframe of DCS modules?

 

1) I.e. instead of Straight of Hormuz - the map of Kuwait/Southern Iraq/Iran boarder. 

 

With full scale Iraq-Iran war lasting 8 years, with our F-14A, F-5E, Gazelle, MiG-21bis,Huey,

near future Mirage F.1, MiG-23, MiG-29A, Mi-24, nearly all ground assets like MIM-23 Hawk, S-125, Kub, ZSU-23-4 etc. We could recreate the whole conflict in a reasonably full way.

 

Or full scale Desert Storm 1991, the last full scale war, with thousands of tanks, APCs, artillery pieces, and more than hundred aircraft shoot down in last dogfights in history with our F-14A, MiG-21bis, Gazelle, FC3 F-15C and A-10A,

near future A-7E, Mirage F.1, MiG-29A, MiG-23, Mi-24, Mi-8, F-15E, and most of the ground assets / AI planes of the war.

 

2) Or full scale years long Vietnam war where aircrafts were being shoot down by thousands in ground attacks and air dogfights.

 

3) Or Korean Peninsula with another real life full scale symmetrical conflict with hundreds of aircrafts, hypothetical later Cold War flashpoint and today's tensions.

 

BTW: Privately Syrian map is my favorite not only because it's great from technical point of view but first and foremost because it was a place of real life full scale wars to recreate with hundreds of aircrafts dogfighting over Israeli Syrian border in three major wars from late 1940s to 1980s, thousands of tanks, APCs, air defense - instead of hypothetical what if scenario only.

 

I also love the idea of RAZBAM's 1982 historically accurate Falkland War map, with ground, naval and air assets of this conflict.

 

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What is your opinion in this matter?

Do you prefer maps of hypothetical conflicts and today's tensions or historical full scale wars corresponding in timeframe with timeframe of DCS modules and ground assets/AI airplane of the era present in DCS?

Edited January 25 by bies

[SovietAce]

In DCS enviroment I´m more in favor of adding some rather interesting maps like for example Cold War Central Europe, Alaska and Kamchatka, Iceland, Cuba etc rather than "historical" maps. Reason for that is simply because I think than most of the post WW2 aerial conflicts are not that interesting to be "recreated." Personally I am not much fan of recreating these "100% historicaly accurate" missions, simply because I feel that It kinda kills creativity, imagination and its not that much fun. There is just much more interesting stuff to do with this kinds of maps.

[bies]

3 hours ago, SovietAce said:

In DCS enviroment I´m more in favor of adding some rather interesting maps like for example Cold War Central Europe, Alaska and Kamchatka, Iceland, Cuba etc

 

So I understand it's something in between: not today's political tension like Hormuz or Marianas, not historical real life wars like Vietnam or Korea but historical possible conflicts and political tensions. Alaska, Kamchatka, Iceland.

Something like Fulda Gap, Baltics, GIUK Gap. 

 

I guess i should add third category.

 

Even though there was no hot full scale wars in this regions there were mutual interceptions, armed intrusions, life weapon training etc. And nearly all military planes since WW2 were designed to fight in this regions.

 

I like this idea since they are historical and fits the timeframe of most of DCS modules. 

Edited January 25 by bies

[draconus]

 

My personal wishlist with real conflicts: Iraq/Kuwait (North PG), Balkans. Possible hot area: North Cape, South Baltic (Poland ).

Edited January 26 by draconus

[lmp]

Another criterion that I think should be taken into account is what kind of gameplay the map supports well. Let's consider the Caucasus map because I think it's really good in this regard. You have a nice selection of both "red" and "blue" airbases divided by a big mountain range, obvious hot spots in the form of the two breakaway regions and terrain that supports helo ops and naval warfare well. It's not hard at all to create a believable scenario that'll work well with most modern modules in DCS.

 

On the other hand we have Marianas... what kind of a believable scenario can I play out on the Marianas map?

[Northstar98]

My personal preference is always going to be maps that correspond with aircraft; i.e maps that our aircraft were historically based at or fought over, as well as maps that fit the assets.

 

What I don't like is stuff that doesn't really fit together, or maps devoid of assets (the SoH map doesn't have a single unit of the Iranian or Omani navies, which are the 2 biggest naval powers of the region, naming just one example).

 

I'm okay with what-if conflicts, but preferably those grounded in history (such as Cold War gone hot) - which is the setting of my favourite map choices: namely northern/central Germany, GIUK Gap/North Atlantic, NATO northern flank and the Baltic Sea (which would've been ranked higher but it would be a very large map, with tonnes of airbases).

Edited February 10 by Northstar98