Hello everyone

It has dawned on my recently that there is a significant section of our community that play flight sims on a regular basis. Despite this, there has not been a concentrated effort to bring us together thus far - which has led to the birth of this particular thread here.

 

There is a great variety of flight sims out there: from civilian flight sims such as FSX and X-Plane, to various combat flight simulators ranging from WW2 (IL-2, War Thunder) all the way to the modern era (DCS World, Falcon BMS). This is a double edged sword: although providing a large amount of variety, it also increases the challenge of bringing people together on one platform. This is perhaps the largest stumbling block in setting up any flight sim group within a larger gaming community.

 

Due to my personal investment in modern day flight simulators, my heart is set on two games in particular: DCS World and Falcon BMS. Having flown both for many hours, they each have their pros & cons, which I will try to outline below:

 

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DCS World

Pros:

• Free to play (for Su-25T at least)
  
• Many planes to choose from (but cost money)
  
• Good graphics, well optimized
  
• Simple to set up & get working
  

 

Cons:

• No Dynamic Campaign - each mission has to be created beforehand by hand, or downloaded.
  
• Only one theater of operation - Black Sea (Georgia & surrounding areas)
  
• Free Su-25T is a dedicated CAS plane - lack of multirole without purchasing additional planes.
  

 

Neutrals:

• Lower learning curve for the Su-25T as it does not have a clickable cockpit.
  

 

Trailer/gameplay/etc:

See Steam Page.

 

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Falcon BMS

Pros:

• Low Cost (only requires a Falcon 4.0 installation, $8.59 NZ on Steam)
  
• Best F-16 Simulator on consumer market. F-16s can tackle a variety of missions (escort/bombing/air interdiction/etc) bringing a wider variety of missions that any single DCS World plane.
  
• Dynamic campaign, simulating logistics, objectives, ground warfare & troop movement, persistent effects (bomb and destroy a particular radar site once, it will be broken for the rest of the campaign). Objectives are dynamically generated.
  
• Multiple Theaters (Korea, Balkans, Israel & surrounding areas, and an upcoming Hellenic theater).
  
• VOIP modelling distortion, radio channels, and so forth. Great ATC communication.
  

 

Cons:

• Less graphically beautiful in comparison to DCS World
  
• Set up more difficult and time consuming. Setting up keybindings for joysticks can be difficult.
  

 

Neutrals:

• (Near) fully clickable cockpit. More challenging to learn in comparison to the Su-25T.
  

 

Trailer/gameplay footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=QcMOOOulhME;t=53

 

 

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Where to from here?

Now, with the stage set, the way we go forward will be determined by the interest of the community. In the poll, please select which Flight Simulator(s) you would like to play in a community setting. Multiple choices are allowed.

Additionally, please include a post in the following format:

 

Flight Simulators I would prefer to fly: (Note, if this includes WW2 era/civi sims, include whether you would be interested in developing this section of our community).

Days I would like to fly: (To determine ideal time for running events/group flights)

Level of Experience: (Newbies welcome - more or less to determine how to handle any possible training if needed )

Any comments/suggestions/etc: (This is a fledgling project, any input is more than welcome )

 

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Last Words

 

As my heart firmly lies with modern day combat flight simulators, I will be focusing on DCS and Falcon BMS only. I do not have the personal interest to run WW2 era events; as such, if there is any member in our community that would like to organize grouping/events for this era of flight sims, please mention it in a comment. Ideally, I would like to have both the past and the contemporary era of flight sims represented in our community

 

Yoyo out.

Edited February 3, 20179 yr by Aarnoman (Yoyo)

I know it's not a sim but Arma 3 helicopter/jet scenarios would be my pick. I've got FSX as well and all the equipment (HOTAS, rudder pedals, yoke, separate throttle, trackIR) but I'm not that big into flight sims. Hit me up if you're ever keen for some Arma - there's a simple Helicopter Training multiplayer scenario that's a bit of fun (it's just flying from one LZ to another, sometimes under fire, sometimes clear. Not much to it but it's fun).

I have DCS world, wouldn't mind learning how to play.

I personally prefer DCS but I'm open to falcon bms and IL-2 as well.

I've been meaning to invest in a flight stick, if this gets off the ground (ha) I'll definitely pick one up. I'm open to most of them, including Flanders' A3 suggestion. The BMS dynamic campaign sounds pretty damn sweet. War Thunder's good for a pick-up game every now and then but f2p grind really kills late starters. Only IL-2 game I own is Cliffs of Dover.

Thanks everyone for your replies As it stands, DCS will be the easiest platform the get this started with. I'm in the process of creating a mission for us to run now. Additionally, I'll host a bit of a training session for any newbies to get you flying, navigating and dropping bombs in no time in the Su-25T If you are interested in a training session please let me know ASAP in this thread

Yeah ill do training mate!