Air combat game/mod request

[Nefaro]

Though I am tempted to download the free install of DCS from Steam to try it out.

DCS has some great flight modelling for most of it's aircraft.

The free Su-25T is a lot of ground-pounding fun.  Lots of weapons to learn, but that's part of the enjoyment (with explosions as a reward!).  Not gonna be dogfighting in it, of course, but the air superiority fighters start at $10 and there are regularly 40% off sales if you ever want to expand.

You'll definitely need to figure out which key commands to bind to your joystick buttons, and write down the other oft-used keyboard ones.  That goes for all decent flight sims, though.


DCS has a Random Mission Generator, which is quite handy.  But you can also check the ED forums for user-created mission mods that run an ongoing environment complete with unit regeneration & such; for long multi-sortie games.

After getting a passable knowledge of a DCS aircraft type, I tend to jump into multi-player, and buzz around there.  Many host long-term mod missions, as mentioned above, and keeps it more lively IMO.  Whether moving mud or participating in ongoing aerial warfare over a wide area, or a little of both. 

[Richie61]

I haven't played the series in awhile, but I liked the Yankee Air Pirate 3 games. They use the game Wings Over Vietnam by Thirdwire as their base.
http://yankeeairpirate.net/yankee-air-pirate-3/



Rising Sun series is sweet  :D
http://yankeeairpirate.net/rising-sun/

[Jarhead0331]

YAP was cool in the beginning, but there are free mods that are just as good, if not better. YAP charged way too much for their mission sets, in my opinion. You can only polish a turd so much and in the end of the day, do you really want to spend a couple hundred bucks on what at the end of the day is still just window dressing on a decades old game?

[Richie61]

Well I liked their Rising Sun combat missions. It's cool to fly a real mission like "B-29 Curtis Lemay Showa Steel Works Yawata" or Kenneth Taylor in his P-40 on December 7, 1941.  :)

What about "WINGS OVER FLANDERS FIELDS"? It's the old Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3 base program?

[Jarhead0331]

Well I liked their Rising Sun combat missions. It's cool to fly a real mission like "B-29 Curtis Lemay Showa Steel Works Yawata" or Kenneth Taylor in his P-40 on December 7, 1941.  :)

What about "WINGS OVER FLANDERS FIELDS"? It's the old Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3 base program?

In all fairness, I've never played the YAP WWII missions, so I can't really comment. They look to be of the same general quality of the Vietnam packs, though. 

I was wowed by YAP when it was released for SF1...However, when SF2 came out, I started to be underwhelmed with YAP2. It was really expensive and there were free mods that covered the entire war in Vietnam while adding just as many high quality, maps, objects, aircraft, effects, etc. The only thing YAP supposedly had going for it was that the missions were based on real events and were created with the consulting by real pilots who flew the missions. This didn't really carry over too well into the game though, because the game itself is limited and immersion can only be taken so far.  I never even bothered with YAP3, since they were still charging the same outrageous prices and the underlying SF engine had long been eclipsed.

...and for the record, much of what is used in YAP is other people's work that is actually available as freeware. I'm not suggesting that YAP took this work without asking, or permission. But I just can't justify paying a premium for stuff that is mostly available for free anyway.

[jomni]

I think what YAP offers that the mods don't are the historical missions.