Current Status of DCS WWII

[IronJockel]

1 DMs (at least in my opinion) are horrible in Clod aswell, but devs are aware of that and already stated that they are working on it.
2 Already stated that they are working on it (numerous times).
3 What are you talking about? Do you want to read what code line they are working on? Everytime they had something to show they did, so what kind of communication do you want? Plus name me one other game where the FM lead dev is actively answering questions by the community in the forms.
4. Ai is bad, but so it is in every other sim. Is this really a DCS WW2 only issue?
5 Spotting improved a lot since 1.5. however, it still needs some work on it.

@Goat, the game can handle around 100 players, as long as the pings are fine. There are servers with these numbers.
@Redeye "9. The possibility of making flights of 12+ aircraft to fly together" Our server has at peak time around 25 players on it and if nobody joins with a network connection from the 1940, there aren't any laggs or whatsoever.
Their new netcode is still not released so there will be improvements aswell.

If you can accept the lack of a appropriate map, the game works fine for Airquake/atag style gameplay.

Plus as soon as they got their new Map into full release new content will probably roll out faster. After all they are patching the game almost every week, unlike others.....

[Shadepiece]

1 DMs (at least in my opinion) are horrible in Clod aswell, but devs are aware of that and already stated that they are working on it.
2 Already stated that they are working on it (numerous times).
3 What are you talking about? Do you want to read what code line they are working on? Everytime they had something to show they did, so what kind of communication do you want? Plus name me one other game where the FM lead dev is actively answering questions by the community in the forms.
4. Ai is bad, but so it is in every other sim. Is this really a DCS WW2 only issue?
5 Spotting improved a lot since 1.5. however, it still needs some work on it.

@Goat, the game can handle around 100 players, as long as the pings are fine. There are servers with these numbers.
@Redeye "9. The possibility of making flights of 12+ aircraft to fly together" Our server has at peak time around 25 players on it and if nobody joins with a network connection from the 1940, there aren't any laggs or whatsoever.
Their new netcode is still not released so there will be improvements aswell.

If you can accept the lack of a appropriate map, the game works fine for Airquake/atag style gameplay.

Plus as soon as they got their new Map into full release new content will probably roll out faster. After all they are patching the game almost every week, unlike others.....

I agree that the DM in CloD isn't the absolute best either, but I really don't know of another sim that does it better except maybe Rise of Flight. I really would like to have someone break down how the damage model for each game works. I do not know if every individual round is modeled, and it is tracked as going through multiple parts of a plane, or does it just hit, and the game measures how fast it hit, and what type of round, and calculates the damage to whatever model was hit. I really don't understand how it all works behind the scenes. What it does seem like though is that you actually have to aim for certain spots on the planes in Cliffs, and you start knocking out systems one by one. Where-as in DCS it seems like it's a random chance of any one system getting knocked out regardless of where the plane was struck. I remember getting hit in the tail section, but I lost my prop governor. This is the most annoying part for me, because it seems like such a waste to have such expertly modeled aircraft, but such poor damage modeling.

As far as communication goes, I haven't heard anything from the devs about anything WWII in their weekly updates in what seems like months. If they are working on it it'd be nice for them to at least mention it in passing, because as it stands it feels like WWII is on the back burner, and I suspect it is if I'm honest. i would just like them to mention what's going on with the modules, and the status of their development. It seems as if WWII disappeared since they have been pushing out 1.5 and 2.0, which is somewhat understandable, but still leaves me hanging. *Although I did just check today's update, and they did mention the Spit, and put a gorgeous screen of it up. They put a timeline down for the Spit, and the P-47, mid 2016 and end 2016 respectively, but I would still like an update on the WWII map, and a possible time table for that as well.*

The biggest issue with the AI in DCS is the simplified DM for the AI aircraft. It's strange they do not react to damage what-so-ever, or at least seems to affect them none until they are destroyed.

Don't get me wrong, I have all three of the WWII birds, and I'm still excited for what is to come in DCS, but as it stands it's frustrating because it IS so good, but there is just too much that keeps me from really getting into it. I can't wait for more modules, and the map, but until then I will look forward to TF 5.0.

[Sprite]

I don't understand why Leatherneck is making the Pacific map Iwo Jima. It should be Rabaul, the largest and (arguably) most important Japanese airbase in the South Pacific. In fact, most historians argue that once Rabaul fell in 1944, the air war became entirely one-sided (in the South Pacific theater* although it did have implications in the grand scheme of PTO as well). That p-40 in development could accurately have RAAF and RNZF paint schemes as well.

I know the counter-argument is the large size of New Guinea and the Solomon's, but I'm sure they could find a balance.

[IronJockel]

I don't understand why Leatherneck is making the Pacific map Iwo Jima. It should be Rabaul, the largest and (arguably) most important Japanese airbase in the South Pacific. In fact, most historians argue that once Rabaul fell in 1944, the air war became entirely one-sided (in the South Pacific theater* although it did have implications in the grand scheme of PTO as well). That p-40 in development could accurately have RAAF and RNZF paint schemes as well.

I know the counter-argument is the large size of New Guinea and the Solomon's, but I'm sure they could find a balance.

Iwo jima is a location everybody knows. Kind of every type of combat took place on and around that island. I still remember glorious 1942 times there.^^

[Vanguard]

Small unimportant thing I noticed; the 485th Fighter Squadron skin has the distinctive blue-nosed markings of the 352nd Fighter Group but weren't actually part of that Fighter Group. Is it a typo or just my ignorance coming through?

http://www.352ndfightergroup.com/assoc/main.html

[Stig]

Must be a typo for 486th.

485th = 370th FG, 9th USAAF. They flew P-47's and later converted to P-38's.

[IronJockel]

Some Info about so far included Airfields on the Normandy Map

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=176916

[Broadsword]

Can't help thinking it looks a little crowded. Loads of airfields along the landing beaches, but pretty much nothing East or South of Caen. It's almost like the actual map will be smaller than the picture, only covering the area from Cherbourg to Caen. But that one outlier at Evreux (which is south of Rouen) seems to belie that. That region should contain at least Rouen, Le Havre, Deauville and Dieppe, and given how heavily they've populated the middle part of the map it seems odd to miss those out. Maybe they don't trust their playerbase to want to fly for twenty minutes before the dogfight? Maybe they've got more to add...

[Maltloaf]

And I notice the Channel Islands have sunk without trace! Highly authentic detailed map (with exception of Maltloaf's home, we thought we would just leave that as sea). Gits.

[IronJockel]

This a work in progress an since we have one lonely airfield at the west you can be sure more airfield will come.
It has already stated that southern England will not be part of the map in a fully detailed landscape, as they wanted to focus on the post Normandy landing operations. We will however be able to place airfields ourself with the mission editor anywhere we like, including south England, even if it wont look as pretty as Normandy itself.
The map will probably be smaller than Caucasus but there are plans that this map will be extended over time.