maddogdrivethru.net

http://www.simhq.com/air-combat/preview-dcs-mig-21bis.html

I'm seriously looking forward to this. It'll be the first "study sim" I'm prepared to really dive into.

ZF-

I will probably wait until the inevitable sale.

They seriously need to do a lot of work on their world/environment. The extra planned maps just don't cut it, either.


I've been busy doing multi-player Co-Op missions in Steel Beasts Pro. I still consider WOFF and Falcon 4 BMS to be the best and most immersive flight sim experiences and those are my go-tos when I get the itch.

Hopefully some developers will create a proper "living" world for some future flight sim, but I see none on the horizon. The upcoming IL-2 is gonna be yet more half-assed campaign environment with canned missions and perhaps terrible 'randomized' missions with equipment lined up in perfect rows in a small player bubble with a void surrounding it.

*rant off*


The MiG-21 is probably quite fun, I'm sure. Just wish the DCS stuff was more immersive and felt less shallow and plastic.

The SimHQ preview of the Mig-21bis:

http://www.simhq.com/air-combat/preview ... 21bis.html


Looks pretty.

I would be concerned about the instrument tooltips not yet having English titles as of that review copy. Unless you know your Cyrillic and Russian, it can be more difficult to learn.

I had read on Leatherneck's page the cockpit can be set to English.

ZF-

I picked this up last night.

I'll be printing off the flight checklist. I haven't even read the manual up to the weapons/combat part yet.

I have to figure out what controls to map to my stick/throttle setup. I'm sure "pitot tube heater" won't be one of them. Apparently the pitot tube and batteries are subject to freezing over 4000m.

It's a complex "study sim", but the subject is relatively simple, though not more so than the F-86 sim which came out recently. Lots of various "do not exceed" warnings here.

ZF-

Sale is on. Everything but the F-5E Tiger II and the Gazelle attack helo is on sale, here, for 40% off right now.


Did you ever fly the MiG-21bis much? The cockpit textures, alone, look amazing. I get the impression it's getting used a good deal in multi-player now that the F-5E is out, being a better match-up than going against F-15s and Su-27s. I still want to get her, along with the F-5E and NTTR map.

I'm way beyond budget lately, however, so I limited myself to purchasing the Mirage 2000C. Even though it's still officially in beta. Love the little lightweight multi-role fighters, especially 4th Gen. Always thought the Mirages were beautiful.

The cockpit buttons/switches in the M2000C also looks simpler than many other fighter pits manufactured in the same period. Less heads-down button pushing, and less need to memorize dozens of hat switch HOTAS commands, thankfully.




Hell, I've seen some Alpha stuff about the upcoming F-18, F-14, and others. Including a Strait Of Hormuz map. Looks like their outsourcing of new aircraft is improving their glacial development schedule, which I'm thankful for.

The more I look at the other old rickety & uglier sims covering modern jet combat, the more I realize DCS is pretty much the only one using a modern engine that looks good and runs pretty well (more so after they finish the 2.0 update). Haven't been able to bring myself to learning everything in BMS just yet because I still expect to have some issue(s) with it's downright ancient core engine & past experiences with such. Though I still downloaded the 4.33 installer because: F-16 + dynamic campaign = single player dream (if everything works and isn't too fugly).

I've got the F-5 and it's a zippy little plane to fly. I've got it set up to fly which wasn't too hard, and I can get the gun going. Don't as me to drop or launch anything yet.

I did buy into the alpha, with Nellis. A little slow there, as I have to re-set all the controls for each plane individually.

Ugh.

That's what really stops me from doing flight sims more often. Setting up the hordes of key & stick buttons, writing them all down, fine tuning my TrackIR & sensitivity curves on the stick & rudder pedals for each sim. While testing them out in between.

Seems like I spend hours just doing setup crap & testing every time I start flying them again.

And then they sometimes get an update that changes the UI, or some such, and I have to redo all that shit over again. Would be nice if every vanilla sim came with preset HOTAS controls for every major make & model, for every individual aircraft.


But once all the preliminary time spent setting up and learning them is done, however, they're the most immersive games out there if you have the proper hardware.

I've done it enough where I can set something up fairly quickly. As long as it's one of the Flaming Cliffs planes. The newer super-sim stuff takes a bit longer. I've got my own standard setup which I try to force every plane into. It helps with the options on my Warthog.

I've flown just about every sim since 1990, and I like this one the best. It has an actual feeling of flight which many don't.

I still like the old IL-2 sim, too.

Have you played on any multi-player servers in recent months?

Wondering which popular persistent one(s) are ideal for a filthy casual such as myself.




Haven't played a modern jet sim, online, in many years. Since LOMAC iirc. Only done Rise Of Flight and a little IL-2:BOS in the past couple years. The persistent hardcore ROF servers were amazing fun.

Been watching some M2000 vids, to get motivated for the learning & button mapping process. Some of the multi-player vids seem to be on persistent servers, with regular mission/map resets. Maybe not as intricately designed, with varied ground, air, and recon objectives like those in the custom ROF servers, but close enough is good enough for me.