DD_Fenrir

Nice Post Chris. Some further elaboration here: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Ly7BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR255&lpg=PR255&dq=CESCOTTI+PEASE&source=bl&ots=zV2p4ZmIgK&sig=P-ntRnrfuAr24JZMSAwF_XonVdE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjh9LGK9J7ZAhUEasAKHX0lAZIQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=CESCOTTI PEASE&f=false

Hi chaps Bought the Epsom Campaign for DCS: Spitfire IX & DCS: Normandy in 2.1 but given my old hardware at the time it was a bit of a grind. However, with the new rig and the latest update it's running like a sewing machine and looks magnificent! Thought you might like a preview in case you were considering adding it to your own DCS collection (which if you have the Spitty and Normandy, I can heartily recommend!).

Part 2: Investigating the aileron & rudder behaviour

Got Friday and Saturday as special dispensation! Tried to swing Sunday but apparently as it's our anniversary I should want to spend it with the lady I love.

So... Thanks to a facebook post by ED we can be confident to expect the Open Beta of 2.5 to land on the 31st of January. Wh00t! However, this does not necessarily mean you will be able to access it! The 31st Update will only update the 1.5.8 Open Beta install to 2.5 Open Beta. If you have a release version of 1.5.8 - which I suspect is most of you - then you will have to wait until the open beta version of 2.5 is proved bug free (or non-critical bugs) and then it will update your 1.5.8 version automatically to 2.5 release as and when it is made available. This could be at minimum a week, probably longer. The update path is described here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=200340 The upshot of this is if you want to access 2.5 Open Beta on the 31st you will have to have installed the 1.5.8 Open Beta. There are two ways to accomplish this: 1. Download and install the Open Beta version found here: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/world/beta/ It should not take long as it will copy all of the files from your release version. You can then copy the inputs folder from your C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\DCS into the parallel DCSOpenBeta folder. The bad with this is that (i) you will require the HD space to run this as a second instance of DCS and given that predictions are putting the total size of the DCS 2.5 Open Beta install at ~100GB, that's no insignificant amount of space, particularly if you installed to a 128GB SSD and already have 80 odd GB of DCS 1.5.8 release installed! (ii) you will have to activate your modules again within the Open Beta. 2. You can force the updater to update your 1.5.8 release install and turn it into a 1.5.8 Open Beta - see instructions here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=114030 Positives are that it saves on disk space and there's no need to transfer across control input settings or reactivate modules. However, as outlined in the above post it requires experience using the command prompt and careful following of the syntax described, with a serious risk of kiboshing your DCS install if it goes wrong. Also if it goes ok you will only be able to multiplayer with others using the same version as the Open Beta - sometimes both the Release and Open Beta are on the same version, which is great. Much of the time, however, the Beta tends to be a version ahead so you woould not be able to host or join servers with other DDz who are on the Release version. Some of you might feel it best waiting it out and if I'm honest it would save some hassle. If I do it I have to take Option 1 as my new rig only has 2.2 Open Alpha installed currently. Those of you with 2.2 Open Alpha, I quote Riks here: "this branch is no longer supported. If user have only 2.2.0 Open Alpha, updater will suggest to download 2.5 installer - it will install 2.5 release and remove 2.2.0 Open Alpha" Again this means that 2.2 Open Alpha will have to await the Release version of 2.5. If you wish to access 2.5 Open Beta and do not have a 1.5.8 Open Beta version, then Option 1 is your only choice. Clear as mud?

Hello chaps and chapesses. I'm making a series of DCS Spitfire videos to highlight some of the quirks, nuances and idiosynchrasies of operating the Spitfire in an effort to help operaters refine their technique and get the most out of the old girl. In the first we look at one of the most fundamental control surfaces - the elevator. Your feedback is most apperciated chums. Let me know if my efforts have been of any assistance.

Need I say more? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42561169 Sufficed to say I just ordered my new PC... with an Intel chipset. Fuuuuuuuu......dge.

LoL, you're not alone there Mel!

Happy New Year all! Wanna see more of the upcoming re-engineered Caucasus map? What about the F/A-18? Well, volia! and:

Sold! I'm in arjen. Mainly seems to be breather fighter action there but happy to wing up and take the fight to the wily Hun!

Hi chaps! Am planning a day of DCS for Friday the 29th December, all day event. Turn up at your leisure and any agenda you have we'll look at. Look forward to seeing some of you online. Till then, a very Merry Christmas to you!

Some have traced blame for launch failure to their Anti-Virus software Snack... might be worth investigating that route.

2 weeks... The last comment by Wags 10 days ago was " coming weeks" - which has been interpreted about every which way possible. I was hoping pre-christmas but my pragmatic side thinks perhaps early next year.

New rendition of the default caucasus map coming free to all with the imminent merge to 2.5:

It's like you read my mind Mick. My tinfoil hat must be slipping!

+1,000,000,000 We needed to take a purview on the future for the Dangerdogz and a discussion of what the combat flightsim genre is looking like and where it is headed is irrevocably tied into that vision. No-one, least of all I, was talking about binning 1946 anytime soon but we needed to acknowledge it's successor(s) and where we would likely end up looking in the future. From all the discussion here the trend looks towards Il-2:BoX, though I wouldn't write CloD off yet, especilaly with v5.0 on the horizon. There is justifiable and entirely practicable argument for allocating future facilities for both. The issues with BoX will come in who owns what map. CloD v5 looks like it will be a straight expansion of the existing game.

Just for info, there is no dedicated DCS hosting on the DDz server or any particular evening dedicated to DCS - any hosting is done ad hoc by DCS owners generally after a primary event (Il-2/CloD), or on pre-arranged events, generally on unallocated nights. I would agree with the general sentiment that DCS - as much as I love it - is not for everyone and that a more accessible sim in the vein of CloD or BoX would be more appropriate for the Dogz. Regards attracting BoX or CloD players - the fact is we have never really made a recruitment drive in either area. There will still be a wide array of new and even existing players unaffiliated who could be persuaded to join us. The group was running for many years under Il-2:1946 and it's predecessors and the DangerDogz more relaxed approach to flight simming was fairly unique; no training regimens, no attendance related membership, etc. These casual flyer attractions brought a regular influx of new members even when the game was 10-12 years old. I feel that the same would be true nowadays.

One aspect not yet addressed is the sea change in the way we purchase sims: the days where we got 100 airplanes with 10 or so flyables for £35/$50 are gone; the fidelity of 3D modelling alone demanded by the community these days - let alone the FM and DM demands - requires a quantum increase in level of skills and time invested when compared to a similar output for something along il-2 lines. Ergo, we will get less airframes per buck so to speak. This means that the modern trend is to break down game content into individually purchased modules. Whilst this is great in that people only purchase what they want it can cause issues. For example, an aircraft set written into a custom hosted coop mission might contain only flyable airframes that are further purchase modules; a member that has not purchased that or those modules is by default excluded from that event. An extreme case I grant you but when applied to maps - as the trend these days is to make additional map content payware - the issue becomes more of an issue. DCS suffers particularly in this latter regard; I suspect BoX too. CloD doesn't yet but with v5.0 on the horizon it could well enter this category. The way we deal with issues of this nature will require consideration. The infrequent paid upgrades to Il-2 presented similar issues back in the day but with a greater number arriving in shorter intervals the issues could be more profound. The last thing any of us would want to do would be to exclude, alienate or offend our squad mates by using or creating content that they cannot access on a given flight night; but at the same time having to limit the content available for use on the grounds of lowest common denominator is also creating potential for discord. Again care and thought should be given to these aspects of modern flight simming in the multiplayer squad arena.

... about the future. The future of flight simming in general and the Dogz place within the idiom and the community. Now let's be clear, I have not started this discussion with the aim of having reached some definitive agenda or decree about how the Dogz will move forward from hereon in. Think of this as a brainstorming effort. I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts, conjectures, opinions and even crystal ball consultations on the genre flight sim and what we think the Dogz will look like in the future. The first point of discussion will be the state of the sims we currently fly (if I miss any candidates please let me know). So in that vein let's look at our primary - Il-2 1946: Il-2 is a grand old lady, with a breadth of content unrivalled by any subsequent simulator offering. And it does not skimp on depth - it strikes a fantastic balance between simming enough realism to be satisfying without becoming inaccessible or tedious. In short, it's fun. With mod support we have unparalleled access to theatres and even eras. However there are issues technically and community wise that I suspect will come to make 1946 less and less viable as our primary sim in the future. It could be argued that perhaps some of these issues already are snapping at our collective heels. 1) 32-bit Program Support - we have to acknowledge the possibility that at some point in the future, windows support for 32-bit programs will disappear - this means no more Il-2:1946! There are of course ways around these things but this is an important aspect that must be recognised. 2) Player Base - the Il-2 community is dwindling. As people dedicate more time to more modern offerings or move squads wholesale to the next big thing the community around Il-2 contracts. Those still persevering end up in ever smaller and less relevant squads or go offline only. Newer entrants to the genre will generally want the newest, best looking and higher fidelity sims, and whilst some could be brought round to the delights of 1946, they will be a minority. We could perhaps pick up some these and also target the veteran disaffected types whose squads moved on to newer things against their opinion, both of which could boost our attendance in the near term but these cannot but delay the inevitable - that being that Il-2:1946 will eventually become a anachronism of the flight sim genre. If the Dogz stay with it then it is likely our fate will be similar. Pause cos babies making noise. To be continued...