Diving back in after an important milestone To me, accomplishment feels like hydroplaning a Piper Cub into a bay. Approaching at 20 knots, just above the water surface, easing the tires into the water and shoreline. I nearly ran across the beach into the treeline if I had not cut my engine, forced the tail down onto land and rapidly pumped the wheel brakes to slow down. I last visited GroundFall in June 2022, just a few months before it released into early access on September 24th, 2022. This is why I wanted to see just what one of the few dedicated bush flight simulators was up to more than one year after the start of its public early access period. New Maps The decision of Snow Creature, the developer, to set aside multiplayer and focus on solidifying the game's core is still something I praise to this day. As fun as multiplayer was, it is clear now more than ever that it was a distraction from what the game needed to be. A new map management system now offers three levels for players to explore, with new levels in development. "Tutorial" takes the terrain and challenges from the original demo back in 2021 and 2022 and rounds them out in a 12 runway landing challenge. With each runway being relatively flat, complicated by rock formations and flooded areas, it is an easy-going introduction to the gameplay of GroundFall. The second map, GroundFall National Forest, features more diverse terrain with the type of very complicated terrain people think of when they hear the term "bush flight". Runways on the sides of steep foothills, short patches of dirt surrounded by trees one could vaguely refer to as a runway and as I mentioned, beach side landing areas. Its mountainous terrain complicates navigation during the day and makes flight during low light and bad weather outright inadvisable. Like real bush flying, there are just going to be some days when flying conditions are not cooperative and remaining on land will be better for your journey in the long run. Use that time to restock on items, try your hand at some cabin building, or explore the surrounding the area to scavenge for potentially useful items. As of the time of this writing, I have yet to make it to the third map "Big Mountains". Though there are some interesting updates coming to GroundFall in the coming weeks. These include more side missions, interactions with non player characters, complex missions, aircraft modifications and some other ideas listed by Snow Creature. Expect another article from Skyward in the future featuring the third map and some of these new features. Smooth Core Gameplay The GroundFall I remembered was functional but certainly rough around the edges in all aspects. Its survival gameplay was somewhat clunky and felt somewhat over accelerated. Constructing structures and runways felt purely optional. Randomized item drops sometimes felt a bit too convenient, with essential aircraft items being rare to find in useful numbers. Here in September 2023, its serviceable gameplay has been refined to an easy-to-understand and reliable presentation. I'd suggest reading my last article, which goes deeper into the core gameplay, as all of that is still true even now. But I'd like to highlight the survival gameplay once again. Other first-person shooter and adventure games that incorporate survival elements can over rely on them, making them cumbersome on the overall experience. Thinking of survival shooter games specifically, the time spent sorting through dozens of types of body armor or weapons, then spending an immense amount of time using five different items to heal a wound can be a turn-off for many. GroundFall continues to have a nice balance in the way it handles fatigue, hunger, injuries, health loss by exposure to harsh elements and similar conditions. The player's personal storage space and the weight of items has been balanced well. Carrying a decent amount of food, water and health items on your person to allow for long-range exploration by foot or multiple flights throughout the day is doable. Augmenting your carried supplies by forging for berries or hunting, then cooking certain wildlife when needed makes this even easier. One or two health items can be enough to heal even the most severe injuries, with building an impromptu shelter and spending a few in-game days sleeping, eating and resting being enough to fully recover. Flight Characteristics Certain aspects of operating and maintaining the player's aircraft are arguably the most important and restrictive parts of this game. This was especially true during the final phase of testing before early access release. Flight wise, the aircraft is much easier to handle in the air. Low speed maneuvering and engine off gliding approaches are more manageable. With volumetric clouds, occasional bad weather reducing visibility and runway obstructions always possible at each airstrip, being able to loiter at low speed is vital for bush flight in GroundFall. You could say that the instantaneous roll rate of the aircraft is a bit too much, but do keep in mind that this game is primarily a keyboard and mouse or game pad reliant title. Adjustments can be made in control settings if desired, but slower user inputs is the real fix here. Furthermore, the once extreme nose pitch up caused by increase engine pour has been dampened significantly. Finding the desired engine RPM setting depending on the aircraft's altitude is the easiest way to find stability in flight. Zooming around everywhere at maximum throttle is not always the best practice. The many types of runways this game now has absolutely calls for this low speed stability to make consistent safe landings. Learning how to pump the brakes to maintain stability moments after landing, navigating semi-flooded terrain, bouncing over tree branches and small rocks, and selecting alternative airfields in lieu of risking it all to avoid a potential long-walk are important to learn. Learning how to fly over the runway, visually scan for obstructions, then slowly approaching to protect both the player and their aircraft is vital for long-term operations. I've learned that patience and pacing with both landings and personal goals I have on the ground is the best practice for success. Travelling Aircraft Maintenance In my opinion, this is the most important decision in the game. I finally feel as though an agreeable balance has been made. Pre-release, damage to the aircraft would be an immediate sentence to an extended stay wherever the player was at. With repair items so rare and frequently so far away, players could find themselves backpacking through the forests more often than flying at treetop level. Each aircraft now has a twelve slot storage area. Smaller items like water bottles, leather and certain foods can be stacked in each slot in multiples of five units maximum. But most importantly, fuel cans and repair kits can now be stowed onboard the aircraft. This is a massive improvement. Because of the random item spawning locations in GroundFall, finding these items reliably is nearly impossible. So being able to take a decent supply of these items from the home airport of each map greatly extends the amount of time players can operate at long range. An aircraft maintenance system can now be accessed by interacting with the engine cowling. From here, fuel and repair kits that are in the player's inventory can be used on the aircraft. Aircraft damage can vary from minor damage along the leading edge which slightly effects aircraft stability while in air, to wing buckling damage that makes the aircraft completely unflyable. I can tell you from experience, attempting to fly with that much damage will just result in the wing snapping off anyway. Even aircraft flaps can jam in place, further complicating low speed maneuvers. Using repair tools kits can repair a certain percentage of the damage, but one kit won't give you a fresh aircraft. A truly catastrophic crash may take three or more kits to repair the aircraft completely. Flying with a partially damaged aircraft was definitely something I chose to do, just to save repair kits for terrible situations. In the worst case scenarios, where all kits are gone and players are maybe not having any luck finding more, the developer has added the option to respawn both their character and the aircraft in completely recovered condition. However, this respawn will be at a previous location and inventory may be lost. If you flip an aircraft and cannot recover it, I highly recommend offloading all of its cargo, placing it in a nearby cabin or building a storage area before respawning. Otherwise, some irreplaceable items may be lost. Players can then fly back to their original crash site and recover their items. I am genuinely pleased to see GroundFall in its current state. Its objective based system of landing at various runways with multiple optional side missions is backed up by a now functioning game saving and loading system. This allows players to construct their ideal runways, build up cabins, make a serious attempt at hiking to nearby locations and progress at their own pace. In my opinion, GroundFall feels like a complete game which is now being refinded and expanded upon. If you are interested in seeing what is going on yourself with development, do join the official Discord server and get involved. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

Our most extensive review to date Seaplanes, salty pirates, brewing experiments and business management - The Brew Barons is an indie flight game with an identity all of its own. It has been a long journey for this striking blend of entrepreneurial aviation adventure from Lifetap Studios. With two developers working on it consistently for over four years, release day is finally here! As of March 1st, 2024, The Brew Barons is finally available for public purchase on Steam. Lifetap Studios was not contacted about this review ahead of time, this is not being made using a free copy of the game and the points of view expressed here are not controlled in any way. This review does not contain major story spoilers. REVIEWER NOTE My experience with The Brew Barons starts as early as the closed alpha demo in December 2021. I chose to support the Kickstarter campaign as a mid-high level backer in February 2022 using my personal funds to support the game monetarily. Both because I was personally interested in the project and to secure a close beta copy before the game’s eventual public release for Skyward Flight Media use. While I do strongly support this project, my extended time with it does give me a realistic view of how this game has changed over time and the efforts of the development team and the testers. DEVELOPMENT Lifetap Studios, the development team behind the game, was formed by a pair of ex-developers from Relic Entertainment. Diccon Yamanaka and Rob Hartley worked at Relic from 2012 to 2019, which would see them work on titles like Age of Empires 4, Company of Heroes 2 and Dawn of War 3. During their time at Relic, Diccon and Robert had a growing desire to make their own game. Eventually, work on some side projects would lead to them taking the plunge and establishing their own studio. Of these side projects, a work in progress game called “Drytail Runners”, was briefly made known publicly in September 2018. Though, a Reddit post from Lifetap Studios does indicate that the concept has been played around with since as early as 2014. Drytail Runners would be a forerunner to The Brew Barons. The first screenshots and videos of The Brew Barons were posted to Twitter in May 2021, with more detailed discussion about how the game’s looks and flight model happening in online communities, like Reddit. From the beginning, inspirations from Porco Rosso - a movie from the well known Studio Ghibli - were touted by Lifetap Studios. Its aesthetics alone were enough to grab the attention of a wide audience outside the flight focused main demographic. The February 10th, 2022 launch of the Kickstarter campaign with a public playable demo would become a milestone for the project, with the Kickstarter campaign being fully funded by March 9th, 2022. Since then, Lifetap Studios has been heads down, focused on development and closed beta testing with their backers leading up to the release of the full game on March 1st, 2024. I’d like to take a moment and say that Lifetap Studios has been rather active with closed beta testers since at least the end of the Kickstarter campaign. Their consistency in listening to suggestions, but mainly addressing bug reports and pushing hotfixes within two days or less, is an impressive example of their willingness to act on feedback. In their Discord server, the developers remain engaged with their customers addressing questions, but most importantly the bug reports. Even now, hours after release, the developers continue to investigate potential rough spots in the game. WORLD SETTING The events of the game happen in a fictional, but familiar world. The timeline can be equated to the Earth’s 1930s, with plenty of tailoring for the sake of more engaging gameplay and interesting visual designs for vehicles and building architecture. With no paved runways in the islands, naval vessels and seaplanes are the primary means of travel and transport in the region. The story unfolds in Adly Bay, an archipelago of small islands located south of two large nations on the nearby continent that have a history of conflict with one another. Adly Bay is surrounded by the arm of one of these nations to its east and a large island to its west. The islands in Adly Bay vary in size and have unique geography. Generally, they are scenic locations in their own right. Each island is a potential host to its own unique towns, seaports, monuments from the past and of course ingredients that can be gathered to brew various types of drinks. The islands are surrounded by beautiful clear ocean. In some areas, the ocean is so clear, wrecks from long ago can be spotted from the air and be salvaged for valuables. The brew barons - the player and their patchwork crew - started a brewing company in Adly Bay, despite the presence of the brew pirates. Described as “backwater bootleggers”, these pirates operate a plethora of armed vehicles. Including dirigibles, warships, submarines, and fighter-sized armed aircraft to maintain indirect control of the islands by always presenting force, while profiting from their intimidation by forcing the inhabitants of Adly Bay to purchase their low-quality alcoholic beverages. These pirates are so well established, it would take a significant effort to dislodge them. The brew barons start their adventure with two members, a shoddy seaplane that can barely float and a multi-level headquarters building. The first level being a seaplane hangar, the second level being the brewery and the third level being a bar for direct sales to patrons. This building is the core of all player operations in the game. OPEN WORLD, OPEN STORY As a game, The Brew Barons truly is an open world experience. There is no predetermined path players must follow, unless players were to choose to play the tutorial at the start of the game. But even after that, it is up to players to define their own path. With no time limits, objectives and a blank map full of islands with no names and no information, players start their game by wandering. Technically, players can completely ignore the starting location and immediately go to the outer islands to see what is happening. The only thing that would slow them down would be the aggressive pirates and some ingredients not being harvestable because of the starter equipment, but that is a fix money can buy. Random encounters and mini-missions make up the bulk of events between ingredient gathering and delivery. These include quick air battles with pirate gunships, requests from local aviators to knock down pirate signs, save burning boats and interdict other pirate related efforts. There is a lot more than that, but those are good examples. Completing these tasks gives players parts to build more complex equipment in the future, currency and increased notoriety in the public eye. The higher the reputation of the brew barons climbs, the more business comes in and the more new bars and customers are willing to purchase your products. Though there is an end goal of removing the influence of the brew pirates and there is a presence of “boss” characters that represent different branches of the brew pirates, there is not an order they must be completed in. Players decide their own game path. Whether it is more business focused, exploration based or combat heavy, having this much freedom lets players progress at their own pace. Furthermore, with there being no multiplayer reliance, there is not a danger of the game going stale because the player population went down. Using myself as an example, my strategy is a long-term gameplay style. I spend a few sessions prioritizing contract fulfillment and aircraft upgrades, some sessions on exploring and gathering ingredients and others focused on taking the pirates head on, prepared to repair battle damage. Whether it is over the course of a week or a month, I found my own rhythm to enjoy the game over time without feeling an external pressure to finish my play through in a few days. WATER BOOST FAST TRAVEL Lifetap Studios has opted to not include traditional fast travel; the type where players select a location on the in-game map and are teleported there within a few seconds. Instead, a game mechanic called Water Boost was implemented. When the boost is activated, the player's aircraft greatly increases in speed while being propelled by a stream of water from the rear of the aircraft. Water capacity can be refilled by flying above the ocean’s surface. Water Boost is designed to be used to shorten travel times between the islands. I am someone that has very deep, mixed feelings on the concept of fast travel in open world games. I can understand wanting to maximize time in game by not being forced to travel long distances every 30 to 60 minutes. But is that not the point of playing an open world game? To enjoy the scenery and possible encounters of traveling through the world? Personally, I am supportive of this pseudo-fast travel choice as it does not break up the gameplay experience. CHARACTERS In this section, I will be less focused on the non-player characters that run the bars of Adly Bay, but more focused on the characters that can be recruited to join the brew barons. At the start of the full game’s campaign, the player can select two characters. Each character in this game has positive and negative traits while they operate the seaplane, but also have passive abilities that can be utilized in the business aspect of the game. While a character may have some decent abilities that assist in flight, they may be better suited for helping with accounting, aircraft repairs, investment, brewing or working the bar. Even the best pilots could have valuable non-combat skill sets that benefit the long-term success of the business, which further supports high paced flight operations. My favorite example of this is a military officer from a nation on the mainland using the barons’ operation as a way to gather intelligence on what is happening in Adly Bay. They take note of every customer, every conversation and every purchase as a part of their military job. But at times, reviews of their prowess as an attentive bartender appear in the local newspaper, further bolstering the good reputation of my operation. The characters that can be recruited to join the barons’ operation are met in bars spread throughout the islands in the bay. They are there as patrons for various personal reasons and can be talked to about their backstory and their interest in joining your business. Some members of the brew barons can be paired together for story based side quests. These adventures can take players into known places in the islands, secretive locations and places… you would have to experience to believe. As these characters grow closer by flying together, they can overcome some of their inherent negative traits, which are then turned into positive traits. Their side stories also break up the usual gameplay loop and have dialogue only available during those events. The characters are voice acted using a combined method of voice acted lines by humans, entirely AI voice trained and AI only lines. During my time with this game, I have yet to experience any deeply awkward or jarring conversations that are too robotic to be believable. I have heard a few iffy voice lines from time to time, but honestly nothing too bad. With a limited budget that Lifetap Studios has mentioned, this sounds like an odd approach to fill the requirement, but overall I think it works fine. THE BUSINESS LOOP The crossover of a business management game combined with a flight arcade action game still buzzes my brain a bit. The exotic seaplanes used for delivery and combat may be the lure that draws players in, but when those aircraft need fuel, repairs and upgrades, it is all about the money. If you were to break down the business game play loop to its most basic form, it would be: secure customer contracts to gain money for operations, gather ingredients, create contracted drinks, deliver product to customer, reinvest customer payment into operations, perform operations (exploration, gathering, combat, etc.), repeat. The inclusion of business management is a bit of a double-edged sword. It is both one of the more important parts of this game to help it standout from other flight arcade titles, and one of the bigger hurdles that players must adapt to early on. INGREDIENTS Ingredients can be gathered by using the aircraft itself or equipment on the aircraft. By using the onboard water cannons for example, things like apples, grapes or honey can be shot from spawn points (trees, flowers, etc) then gathered by the aircraft by flying through them or near enough to them. Some ingredients have special gathering conditions, like the ever elusive Whispy Wheat that rides wind currents or harder to gather ingredients that require upgrades to water cannons or water bombs to forcibly remove them from the soil. Remember that harvested ingredients will take time to regrow and ingredients will be used in high counts of 20 to 80 units per brewing attempt, depending on the recipe. BREWING The brewing process is most likely the most open-ended part of the business aspect. First, recipes must be created from scratch or gathered. A constant positive side to brewing is that whether it is a failed creation or a successful creation, the recipes are saved for future reference. This is an old data point from July 2023, but since then this game has “over 360 craft-able brew outcomes derived from the 34 collectible ingredients”. Recipes are vital. The discovery and refinement of recipes can be done in three ways. First, the most straightforward method is to focus on contract brewing. Potential customers give players suggested recipes with their order requests. As the orders are fulfilled, these recipes are kept in the player’s recipe book. Players can then stick to those recipes or experiment using them as a guideline. Second, the free form way (dare I say more traditional?) would be players taking guesses at recipes off of the top of their heads, brewing them up and just seeing what works through trial and error. This method requires the highest amount of ingredients available, as it is highly likely there will be many failures. Finally, it is possible to find recipes out in the world. Whether it is finding them in sunken ships, abandoned cargo or floating in bottles on the ocean surface, there is a decent chance that some of these recipes could be four star or five star quality recipes. After ingredients and their exact amounts are selected for brewing, the amount of yeast is added manually by the player. Depending on the drink contracted or desired the yeast is adjusted and the type of brewing method, distilling or fermentation, defines what type of drink the final product will become. All of this is explained by the user interface during the brewing process. Once the product is brewed, its quality, monetary value and the original name of the drink is automatically determined. From here, the decision to throw the product away or package it for sale is made. PACKAGING, SELLING Whether it is one-star slop or a five-star signature drink, the product can be packaged with a custom design and a custom name. There are a handful of bottle designs, bottle caps and labels available in different colors. There is also the ability to upload custom labels into the game to represent your 'brand'. This may seem like a minor detail, but being able to do this makes the experience more personalized. Assuming the product was brewed for a contract, this is where it should be loaded onto the seaplane and carefully delivered to the customer. Though, there is a secondary function that should be considered. There is often overstock created after brews are made. This overstock product can be sold at the player’s bar for passive incoming over time. This is something that is especially important in the beginning of a play through in this game. BAR The player’s bar has an obvious primary function and a good secondary function. By keeping the bar stocked with quality drinks, customers come in for service while the player is away flying. This passive income helps offset the need to focus on contract brewing as much. Its secondary function is patron gossip. As customers come in, information about how the customers enjoy the players bar and the happenings in Adly Bay can be learned by talking to them. Some notable customers give more detailed information on pirate operations, warnings to the players and offer money for services - like gathering ingredients and trading them for money. The bar is customizable in overall bar design, which does affect the sales of certain types of drinks. Some designs are more complimentary to certain types of drinks in the eyes of the customers. This is explained in the user interface beneath the bar design. Chairs, lights, wallpaper, floor design, metal trim and bar name are all customizable. THE FLIGHT MODEL This is something that was once a bit of a point of contention. Since my time with the 2021 demo, I have noticed a few tweaks and regular discussion about the flight model of The Brew Barons in its Discord channels. With this game both appealing to long-standing flight gaming enthusiasts and wanting to expand its reach beyond that, the flight model had to be tuned correctly. A helpful diagram from the Kickstarter campaign shows where its flight model presents itself. Aircraft in The Brew Barons use physics driven airfoils and buoyancy driven pontoons. While these are not study-level representations you would expect from a dedicated flight simulator, their characteristics are a noticeable part of the gameplay. Players familiar with flight games will notice that some modifications have been made for ease of use for less experienced players. Not a bad thing, but an observation. In my opinion, in the earlier demos, there was a time when aircraft of The Brew Barons felt slightly more flight sim-lite than arcade. Their overall weightiness was heavier and more concern about how aircraft were maneuvered was taken into account. I think this may have been more of a hurdle for newer players than I understood at the time. After a few years of feedback on Steam and more feedback directly to Lifetap Studios during the closed beta period, an interesting compromise was made. Even in the starter aircraft, control inputs are snappy, with momentum of movement in roll and pitch inputs stopped almost immediately. This makes an aircraft easier to fly for newer players. Though, mistakes can still happen if players make hard turns or dives that are too ambitious for their aircraft. One of the biggest threats in and out of combat is the aircraft stalling while maneuvering, especially when the average altitude that gameplay takes place in is so low, recovery can be difficult because of lack of altitude. Players experienced with flight can still break out all of their best moves and skill sets during combat or low-speed, low level flying regimes. Though it would be dangerous for someone new to flight to do this, I often find myself at extremely low speeds doing coordinated turns in compact areas to speed up my ingredient gathering. Rather than make multiple high speed passes where I do not collect too much, these lower speed loitering turns allow me to maximize my collection time and burn less fuel. While it is not possible to destroy the player’s seaplane to the point it will never fly again, it is possible to damage it so badly you will go into debt to repair it. In flight, specific parts of the aircraft can be damaged as well. The Brew Barons is playable with keyboard-mouse and game pad - admittedly, the game pad seems to be the best experience for me. But in an effort to further appeal to flight simmers, the game is also compatible with more advanced controllers like flight sticks, throttles and rudder pedals. This was a positive decision to keep flight simmers engaged by letting them utilize their hardware investments. COMBAT While the brew pirates are more than willing to employ machine guns, cannons and smog against the players, Lifetap Studios has maintained the unorthodox choice of having players use non-lethal means to defeat the pirates. Default “weapons” include water cannons and a water bomb, with more advanced weapons being, missiles, torpedoes and water jets - all water based in their nature. The idea is that rather than fatally harming the pirates themselves, the vehicles and their weapons would be disabled, still completing the objective of lessening their combat power. Since they are water based weapons, rather than rely on carrying live ammunition, players can simply fly above the surface of the ocean and gather water to replenish their stocks. That is an unusual choice, but it still works in gameplay. Unlike combat focused flight arcade games, weapons must be unlocked by purchasing specific equipment and installing them onto the aircraft. You are not able to carry four different weapons at a time to become the one-aircraft-air force some people may be accustomed to. Planning out efforts to combat large groups of pirates will take equipment coordination. The brew pirates have a range of vehicles they use for combat. They deploy seaplanes, warships, submarines and dirigibles from sizes that are similar to the player’s seaplane to massive vehicles that can be seen looming on the horizon. The large vehicles, which are often considered “boss fights” have unique abilities to deploy smaller enemies to defend themselves or have specific ways they must be disabled to defeat them. While spraying down a smaller seaplane will eventually be enough to disable that, it will take highly upgraded weaponry to even damage the boss vessels. In The Brew Barons, combat is not just about potential weapons used by the player. Aircraft performance and parts of the aircraft are also a factor. Via aircraft customization, there are some parts that are optimized for combat - with reduction of damage, increased weapon performance, increased armor and even more quirky options like having the aircraft absorb incoming fire reducing their impact damage while adding to the aircraft’s weight the more it is shot. Pontoons that retract do decrease the aircraft’s hit box. There are so many ways to approach making a “combat build” in this game, I’ll stop the explanation here before I get in too deep. As pirates are defeated, they drop currency and parts that can be used to construct more elaborate equipment, like heavy aircraft designs. Exploits of the brew barons’ victories are also told through Adly Bay, further increasing the player’s notoriety and driving up sales. Just remember that you may make the pirates “pay” for putting holes in your aircraft, but you will pay out of pocket to repair those holes yourself. Be careful to not remain engaged in combat so often you empty out your bank account. AIRCRAFT CUSTOMIZATION This is another subject that is easy to overview, but hard to not get lost in the weeds with. You really have to play this part of the game yourself to grasp it well. Customization of the seaplanes in this game look as simple as different wings and canopies that provide changes in aircraft performance and selecting a paint job to make it all look pretty. But, the types of modifications that can be made run deep. It is not as clear-cut as one part being better than the other. Looking at it closely, there are three levels of customization: paint schemes, aircraft parts (wings, fuselage, propellers, etc) and let’s call it aircraft ability tuning (improving the basic abilities of the aircraft). Building and installing aircraft parts can change the design of the aircraft and add weapons. They also provide highly specialized secondary functions that are useful in some situations and potentially useless in others. It is important to read their effects and plan accordingly. Tuning up basic aircraft abilities can be done without purchasing aircraft parts, but they are vital to everyday operations. These mainly focus on increasing the strength of water cannons, water bombs, propeller strength, maximum winch lift weight and similar abilities. There is not an ideal set of “the best parts” that can be applied to an airframe to ensure maximum performance in all situations. Also, these parts cost a substantial amount of money. It will take a financial and time investment to create the ideal aircraft for whatever the player’s intention is. The final layer of customization is being able to build a heavy airframe aircraft that can carry heavier weaponry, larger payloads and has higher armor sets, but those also adhere to a similar set of customizations as the starter light aircraft designs do. AIRCRAFT AS AN ASSET In this game, the player’s seaplane is not just the means to swat pirates from the sky or thwack them out of the sea. Because of the inclusion of business management, I find myself approaching the seaplane I own in a manner I usually do not; even in other flight games and simulators. It is a genuine asset. As the primary means of gathering materials, delivering products and transportation, having it frequently damaged is a financial drain. Suddenly relying on nothing but flashy, risky maneuvers and running face-first into danger for the sake of pure excitement is not as appealing as it would be in other games. Now I prioritize controlled, well-planned flying outside of combat. During combat, my attacks are more calculated to offset how much damage the seaplane may take over time. There is no type of “game over screen” that pops up when the aircraft takes too much damage. When shot down or crashed, the aircraft will be returned to the headquarters building or nearby dock needing repairs to get it flying again. Two or three consecutive crashes could be enough to set the player back financially for quite some time. Because of this, my mindset has also shifted to more sustainable pilotage instead of the hard, fast thrill seeking approach.  Even when faced with winnable battles, I frequently opt to evade combat, complete my task at hand and return another time to challenge the pirates when I am better prepared for it. This is an interesting side effect of The Brew Barons concept. PHOTO MODE This game has one of the better photo modes in a flight game in recent memory. Becoming proficient with its many options can even create faux-old time pictures with artificial aging. There are many good screenshots from the photo mode in this game circulating on social media. SOUNDTRACK The soundtrack behind the adventure was composed by Diego Zaldivar, who was worked on the music of at least 40 games. For The Brew Barons, the composer selected string instruments, brass instruments, drums and occasionally other things like chimes, bells. Overall I would describe the soundtrack as heroic and whimsical with the songs seamlessly swelling over one another as the situation in game changes. In certain situations, it does feel like a movie score being played for an audience of one. All songs on the soundtrack are around one minute long, give or take, but they loop well and transition so smoothly it is not something to consciously think about. ACKNOWLEDGING THE RISK Now that this game is out in the wild, I took time to take a hard look at it as a product. The Brew Barons is a flight game has wide appeal to people interested in aviation or its aesthetics in general, but does not fall into what one would consider a “standard” flight arcade game. You know, a familiar and proven formula. Games like Project Wingman, War Thunder or Ace Combat where victory is defined by overwhelming force. While that may sound like a pat on the back for The Brew Barons, this also means that players used to pure action focus will most likely not immediately engage with this game in the same way. While combat does happen in the game, it is not the primary focus. If anything, solely pursuing combat while neglecting things related to business management will lead to a rather unenjoyable play through. Players looking to settle everything by force as fast as possible are highly likely to find themselves up to their eyeballs in debt, barely able to keep their aircraft in combat effective condition. The concept of this game only works if players are willing to also change their play style and mindset. If not, there is a real chance of them playing The Brew Barons up to a certain point but not finishing it, since it may not be as incessantly action packed as they had hoped. Looking at it from this perspective, anything business management related - including the repair and refueling of aircraft - is a non-combat task which is not of interest. I believe that Lifetap Studios took a larger risk in incorporating the business aspect of the game than most people understand at first glance. On one hand, the developers finding a balance to make this concept work is a boon to the identity of The Brew Barons, but on the other hand, the fact that mixing this genre is not standard practice also indicates that it may not be as widely appealing as they hope it may be. Time can only tell on that front. CLOSING THOUGHTS I am genuinely happy that the developers of Lifetap Studios took such a massive risk to not only break away from familiar, established jobs in the game industry at large to pursue what was once a passion project. The Brew Barons is bound to receive a few more tweaks within the next week or two, but the release day version of the game does reflect the culmination of their years worth of dreaming and effort well. I appreciate that they focused on making an unusual concept like this work, as it has produced a flight game with such a memorable premise, I imagine years from now it will continue to be a game within the flight genre that stands on its own with few games it can be likened to. Because of my play style, I have yet to 100% complete the full version of the game, so you can be sure that I will have more to say about it in the future. Congratulations to Lifetap Studios for releasing their project! About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

DCS as a platform had been very stable the past three to four years, with constant releases and a steady stream of content both from Eagle Dynamics themselves and also from all the third parties. Anything from the unbelievable hype train behind Heatblur's F-4E Phantom II module, or the amazing excitement at the release of RAZBAM's F-15E Strike Eagle, and much more. It felt kind of like a golden era for DCS, with many new pilots coming to the platform to join in on the fun that this simulator can provide. That period is still alive, the golden era still hasn't finished, yet it feels like some of the steam behind it has disappeared and has been replaced by a haze that covers the immediate future of this simulator. I do not mean this in a demeaning way, in the slightest, but this is a feeling that seems to be more common in the community than I initially expected when I started writing this article a couple of days ago. Initially, this frustration started as a very mild and subtle feeling of unease at the sudden declarations from RAZBAM and their relationship with Eagle Dynamics. Without getting into any of the details, as this is not the focus of this article, these declarations would affect the future of all RAZBAM products currently released for DCS World and would mean that all in-development projects would come to a halt. I have no information at my disposal other than what was publicly declared by the companies themselves, so I want to emphasize how this has affected the public and not just the relationship between companies. For many people in the community, this meant: That it might be harsher for third party developers behind closed doors than we initially thought. That despite the previous track record, Eagle Dynamics might have allegedly mismanaged their professional relationship with a third party. That previously announced products by RAZBAM were now at risk of never being completed, and existing products might not receive any further content updates. As a regular user, it would only be natural to be worried about this situation. It is muddy and confusing, which has left almost everyone in a state of stress and with feelings of disappointment now being directed towards both of the parties involved in this. Since then, the situation has changed a bit and both parties have now taken this conflict behind closed doors and RAZBAM has stated that they are looking forward to solving it in the best way possible, reassuring the community that they have a commitment to them. And yet, this feeling of unease still remains, since the problem has not yet been resolved fully and the future of these products remains a mystery. The second situation that has affected how people look at DCS products has to do with the state of early access in the game, and how inconsistent it can be. Let's use two upcoming products as a comparison: Heatblur's F-4E Phantom II and ED's CH-47F Chinook. Heatblur's Phantom, while releasing in early access, seems to be very feature complete with most mission-critical systems being very much complete to ensure that the Phantom will have all of its capabilities at launch, which means that it will behave and have everything you expect it to have gameplay-wise. The radar and its capabilities, Jester 2.0, ground assets and even secondary features like dynamic writing on the canopy glass, etc. ED's Chinook, as per the information available at the time of writing, will be missing critical systems and gameplay features at launch that would have otherwise been necessary to experience this aircraft to the fullest. The most important of them all is the core game's logistics overhaul that will come at some point in the future, but it will be missing at the time of this module's launch. ED's statement on this is: We can say that we are developing a novel logistics system for the CH-47F that dynamically allows the player to determine what is loaded and unloaded from the aircraft based on weight and area. Whilst this will not be available at early access release, it is a high priority for the CH-47F and other cargo/transport aircraft. For regular users, both of these modules are still early access modules, and both are being sold with that in mind. This means that it is very hard to distinguish which level of quality and completeness at release for early access modules. Both of them are available for pre-order as well. This adds to the discomfort some people felt towards the CH-47F feature list, as it is only natural to compare feature lists and have expectations after seeing what one product offers and what another one does, when both have the same "early access" label. Third and last, which is the smallest one of them all, is the fact that Eagle Dynamics have now shelved Modern Air Combat, the game that would have been the newest entry in ED's low-fidelity line of games. The result of this is that we are now receiving an update for the Flaming Cliffs line of modules in DCS, one that will see the addition of low-fidelity variants of the F-5E, the MiG-15Bis and F-86F modules. While this by itself is not a problem, I see myself puzzled as to why they chose to add low-fidelity versions of aircraft that already were in the game. The only advantage I see is that this will allow more people to fly these aircraft, with a lower barrier of entry. That by itself is positive for the game, but I cannot help but feel confused out about it. This would be the first time that clickable/full fidelity modules have been re-added to the game as low-fidelity aircraft, but it would also be the first time that a Flaming Cliffs module releases without completely new aircraft. That in itself is not a problem, but the public does have certain expectations from new modules and adding what, at a glance, are simpler versions of pre-existing aircraft can seem to be a lazy or low effort move to monetize a product further. I am sure that it will be a successful product, and I hope it is, regardless of my personal feelings on how it should have been tackled. Before I conclude, I want to clarify that I am still an avid supporter of this simulator, its developers and all third parties. I felt the need to express my inner thoughts on this situation as I have, until now, only watched it develop from the sight lines. I have faith that, despite the way that the worries the community might have and the numerous bumps in the road, this game will prevail as an experience unlike anything else out there. About the writer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

VSN and their Century Series have released some really neat aircraft in the past, such as the F-105, F-100 and last but not least, the F-104. Until now, their most detailed mod was the F-104 thanks to its custom cockpit and EFM. This is, as of now, about to change due to the fact the the VSN Century Series developers have decided to surprise us with a complete overhaul of their F-4B/C mod! This overhaul includes several features that distinguish it from its other VSN peers, features such as a completely custom cockpit, standalone air-intercept radar, an EFM and more! Let's now take a look at all of these quirks and features to figure out if this 'phantastic' Phantom is for you. DISCLAIMER: Everything in this article reflects only a pre-release/WIP build of the VSN F-4B/C mod that was graciously given to us for review purposes by PeeJott from the VSN team. We thank them a lot for the opportunity and the trust! EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS While some VSN mods in the past have had inconsistent artwork in this area, I am pretty happy with the work that has been done to the Phantom this time around. Externally, it is still based on the model that was used on the already public F-4B mod. I did notice the use of a new and improved normalmap that makes the panel lines and rivets pop a lot more. Aside from a couple of minor errors here and there, this is a very decent model. One very interesting feature that this mod has is the capability of swapping both nose cone and engine nozzles just by manipulating a single value in a livery. This means that, for those who care more to dress like more modern variants of the Phantom, you are now capable of removing or installing different engines to adapt a livery to a certain time period: Interior-wise, the pilot seat is the only one that has been modeled. The WSO station is not operational. This does not mean that the team didn't put any detail on the pilot cockpit, though, quite the opposite. This cockpit is quite detailed when compared to other VSN aircraft, especially the F-104. It is their most detailed work so far and I am quite happy with it, especially that accurate gunsight and pipper! It has some very minor issues which I have reported to them, so I hope that they will get resolved in due time! Here is a couple of screenshots for you to judge: Overall, this mod indicates to me the direction in which the devs working at VSN Century Series want to go. They are actively trying to improve their quality and give us better and better mods as time goes. Are any of these models official module grade? No, of course they are not and that's fine! These were never meant to be official modules. FLIGHT MODELING DISCLAIMER: This is always a tough category, as like with any other aircraft, there is a lot to take into consideration other than just the feel of the flight model. This category is the most subjective one in this article as I do not have any real world experience with this craft. I will only base my opinion on practical experience and knowledge of practical aerodynamics and the theoretical behavior that a F-4B should have under certain scenarios. With the standard disclaimer out of the way, let's get started. To me, this mod gets a lot of things right and some a bit wrong. The way that it flies can be best described as trying to tame an unruly beast, thanks to its instability under certain circumstances. Take off can be daunting if you forgot to set your trim correctly as it will violently pitch down as soon as you let go of the stick to take your gear up. The same applies for regular flight too as I have to constantly re-trim it just to keep it level. Another way to describe this is by saying that flying it is like aggressively driving a Dodge Viper. Just like the Dodge, this Phantom seems to not have any kind of stability augmentation system. You will have to hand-fly this baby all the way, with the exception of using the altitude hold to take a break while cruising towards your target. But talking about combat, that is where I think this EFM shines the most. I found myself enjoying it to the fullest while dogfighting MiG-19s and MiG-21s. The wings wobble at high AoA and it lets you know that you are pushing the limits with cockpit rattle and believe me, you will feel it departing before it does. Sometimes this can take the form of a simple stall or develop into a death spiral a-lá F-104, which makes sense as this comes from the same devs that worked on the Starfighter. One thing is certain, though: You will have to map some sort of curve to your controls. This aircraft lets you pull in ways I have not seen in other modules and I am uncertain if this is accurate to the behavior that a F-4B would have. MISSION CAPABILITIES You are the original multirole fighter, so that means that you have the capability of doing basically everything you can set your mind to. Does this mean you will be capable of one-manning an entire strike against modern enemies? No, but that will not stop you from trying. You have air to air and air to ground ordinance with the capability of always having a zero-compromise load of air to air missiles at your disposal, no matter which payload you decide to equip on your plane. Additionally, you have the capability of using air to air refueling to extend your range infinitely, so time on station is not really an issue. The B variants also have the capability of being launched from any carrier with a CATOBAR system, which means that those Navy nerds will get to live those dreams of launching off of a carrier to engage MiGs like they did back in 'Nam. ARMAMENT AN/APQ-72 RADAR This radar is one of the first publicly available standalone radars present in any DCS mod! This makes it so you no longer need to own Flaming Cliffs 3 aircraft or any other module to enjoy the thrill of Beyond Visual Range fights. That being said, this radar is very susceptible to enemy maneuvering and losing lock is common, so watch your display! AIM-7 SPARROW AND AIM-9 SIDEWINDER These are your only air to air missiles. The AIM-7 Sparrow is the one pictured above, with both its E and F variants. The AIM-9 is carried on the inner wing stations and you can equip quite a variety of models. You can choose to carry either 4 of each (4x AIM7 and 4x AIM-9) or go full "BVR" by carrying 6 Sparrows. UNGUIDED AND GUIDED BOMBS This bird can drop insane amounts of tonnage over the battlefield and it can do it in both guided and unguided methods, this also includes napalm in the form of BIN-200. Do keep in mind that even when carrying guided bombs such as the GBU-12/16/10, you depend on a buddy or a JTAC to actually guide the weapon. UNGUIDED ROCKETS If you want something dead in a general direction, then these are for you! You can choose between carrying Hydras, Zunis or FFARs. They are a lot of fun. SUU-23 GUN POD Early versions of the Phantom were not equipped with an internal gun, hence the need to carry an external gun pod. 20mm of anger at thousands of rounds per minute! RADAR WARNING RECEIVER This RWR is very simple but useful. It is also standalone and gives both visual and aural queues as to which radar emitter is and their relative strength in relation to you! THE NATURE OF MODS, THE F-4C AND MY THOUGHTS You might have noticed one small detail that I purposefully omitted from this article and that would be the lack of pictures from the F-4C side of this mod. If I can be completely honest with you, this was not for a lack of trying. In the build that I was given by the developers a couple of days ago, the F-4C was not in a playable state due to a couple major of bugs. This is not rare for WIP builds, though. I have reported all the issues I found in my time with the mod to the developers so that they can, hopefully, fix them by the time you get your hands on it. PeeJott, the developer I was in contact with, was extremely receptive to the reports. He seems to be a very honest person and he personally hooked me up with the mod just so that I could write this article for you to read. That, to me, is a sign that he cares about this project and that he will put in the effort to fix these issues. Such is the nature of mods, they are projects driven solely by the passion of a small group of people striving to bring a new aircraft for everyone to enjoy at zero cost from the user. So, please, if at launch there are any problems with the mod, rest assured that the team behind this Phantom are passionate developers that care deeply about their projects. IS THIS AIRCRAFT FOR YOU? If what you want in a module is: An early preview of what awaits us with Heatblur's Phantom. An all-weather carrier-capable fighter. A mod with some extremely unique systems. An excellent strike aircraft. If you don't mind: Not being able to use the WSO station. The small imperfections that come with mods and early access products. Getting a plane for free with no strings attached. If all or some of the above is what you want, then VSN Century Series' F-4B/C is for you! Updated link. If this link dies again, updated links are posted on the VSN Century Series discord server. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Checking in on the current state of the game as of v00.8a It has been a quite some time since our interview with At Skies' Edge developer, Mackerel Sky. Since November 2023, this still in development game had six updates available to the public to play via Itch.io. Just recently, the developer's personal X.com page has also seen a spark of activity. With so much going on, now would be a great time to check in on this project. For those that do not know, At Skies' Edge (ASE) is a game that has roots from as far back as June 2017, which then vanished for six years and reappeared with a publicly accessible demo on May 1st, 2023 without any promotion. The success of this surprise project seems to have encouraged its developer to continue learning and refining their skills since then, resulting in ASE moving ever closer to what could universally be considered a "real game". I would recommend reading all the devlogs yourself, but let's take a look at a few particular updates that highlight how ASE has been developing. Optimizations, Enhancements Keep in mind that Mackerel Sky, the developer, is not a full-time game developer and has learned how to program over the years largely on their own time. So the addition of many important changes to the core of this game, which were key for future expansion of ASE, is heartening. At Skies Edge was definitely not known for being the most computing resource efficient experience. When combat was especially dense, the former CPU-driven visual effects could impact the gameplay experience. With many of these processes now GPU-driven, efficiency has noticeably gone up. Work towards larger in-game maps and tackling Unity's inherent floating point precision limit seem to hint at a potential expansion both in terms of content and in scale. The past updates have also involved a rebuild of code related to AI units for so they can perform more intricate tasks. The introduction of a mission event and trigger systems and multi-parameter events have now made complex missions possible. As time goes on, these additions and new capabilities gradually surface in the missions players play. Missions Showing Off New Capabilities The easiest way to illustrate just how far ASE has come may be by discussing its currently available missions. It is the gradual increase in mission complexity and new AI units that appear in these missions that reflect the extensive work being done behind the scenes. Keep in mind that in the May 2023 release, ASE had two air-to-air only missions which largely played out the same way. As of the time this article has been posted, the game now has seven missions. These missions now include: a multi-aircraft escort mission that stretches the players to their limits, an assault on a fleet still stuck in port, a low altitude penetration mission to remain undetected while ambushing a weapon cache and now, even a multi-part "boss fight". As these missions are developed, so too are new enemy units added, their abilities expanded and new weapons introduced for players to use to counter them. Operation Desert Fury was formerly a relatively easy air-to-ground mission, with little pressure on players to complete it in a timely manner. The opposing force had a single forward deployed base defended by light air defenses, which players had to destroy. After this mission's rework, the player has to scramble to launch their aircraft with a small, friendly ground force guiding in artillery fire - which players can see while they taxi. The player's air base is being rushed by groups of armored vehicles, attempting to occupy it by force. During combat, these groups advance in different formations, stopping to engage in combat if necessary. If the attack is successfully repulsed, the forward operating base is unlocked as an objective with its renewed air defense. Operation Starhound, the newest mission, puts players with a small number of allies against an aerial fortress; a massive aircraft covered in turrets, containing vertical launch system missile cells and escorted by waves of fixed-wing combat aircraft. As important sub-systems of this oversized aircraft are destroyed, mission updates introduce new target sets. This is definitely one of the more complex missions in At Skies' Edge thus far. NRP-20 Highlights Flight Model The aircraft roster of ASE now sits at three airframes. The NRP-20, which closely resembles the F-20 Tigershark, is the first light fighter in the game. In my opinion, when other flight arcade games use classes like heavy, medium and light fighters, I always feel as though these designations mostly pertain to the amount of weapons they carry and little else really shows up in gameplay. However, because of how At Skies' Edge handles airspeed and throttle control, the flight characteristics of the NRP-20 do make it feel different from the other aircraft currently in the game. In ASE, airspeed defines how maneuverable an aircraft is at that moment. Much like real life. If an aircraft is travelling close to the speed of sound, there is no chance that it will be performing turns anywhere near its smallest turn radius or ideal turning rate. Next to the airspeed indicator in the At Skies' Edge heads up display, an extra bit of information defines the flight regimen the aircraft is currently in. "Cruise" is defined as high speed flght, ACM (air combat maneuvering) is the speed range for the best turn fighting performance, "Low" is defined as the aircraft flying just above stall speed and Stall being stall speed where the aircraft begins to fall out of the sky. Furthermore, the throttle input in ASE does not automatically reset to a default position when the player is no longer providing constant increases and decreases in airspeed. Players must set the throttle to a position they believe is beneficial to them while they are in combat; something that leans a bit more into flight sim-lite territory than flight arcade territory. After flying the two existing aircraft in ASE and the new NRP-20, I can say this is one of the few times when selecting a light fighter actually felt like it had a tangible effect. The NRP-20 has low weapon payload and low armor, but its engine accelerates almost on demand, the flight controls are snappy, and it has a larger ACM speed range, making close range combat much easier. The way the NRP-20 is presented in ASE further cements this particular part of the flight model as a potential "on the back of the box" feature of the game. Early World Building As early as its surprise introduction in May 2023, At Skies' Edge had traces of its fictional world's story in the descriptions of certain aircraft and weapons. Whether or not a full story was in development was a question asked in Skyward Flight Media's November 2023 interview with the developer. A part of the developer's response included: "The tone of the story will be hopeful. My vague idea is to explore the challenges and conflicts involved in rebuilding a world that was taken to the brink of mutually assured destruction." In April 2024, there is still not a clearly defined linear single player campaign. Story wise, a significant step was taken recently. In the dev blog for ASE v0.08a, the first concerted effort to tell the story of the world in At Skies' Edge as available for the public to read. Done in the style of excerpts from a fictional magazine from within the fictional world, these eye-catching pages certainly grab the player's attention. This method of describing the world the players play in is similar to the style of world setting media that Project Aces produces for the Ace Combat series. At Skies' Edge is still in early development, so it is possible that the names or information in these excerpts could change weeks or months from now. Still, this is a great first look at the setting the developer is considering (downloading these images from the dev blog post is highly recommended). The developer of At Skies' Edge may get busy and disappear for large blocks of time due to work, travel or studies, but checking in on this project from time to time shows that this game continues to trend towards becoming a decent standalone games, rather than a one and done demo. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

Increasing Mission Complexity By Using Realistic Dispersal Tactics I subscribe to the belief that Digital Combat Simulator can be a "jump scare simulator". Unexpected encounters I had with surface-to-air missiles (SAM) slamming me in the face or flying in formation with telephone pole sized missiles are flooding my mind. After months of research and testing related to these complex missile systems, I began to notice a trend with the way SAM sites appear in various multiplayer servers. Even the most popular downloadable multiplayer focused missions follow this trend. The dispersal of medium and long-range SAM sites essentially use the "out of the box" template provided in the mission editor. In this entry of our DCS Mission Editor series, I want to provide alternatives to the seemingly standard practice of deploying SAM sites in their default templates. In part one, we focus on basic applications that do no require Trigger Zones, Switched Conditions, managing Alert Levels or any moderately difficult additions. DCS Default Template When I say "default template" I mean the actual drag and drop template from the built in mission editor. Normally, multi-unit surface-to-air missile sites like the HAWK, NASAMS, Patriot, SA-2 and SA-3 come in a single group. It makes it easy to select the lead unit and drag the entire group to the desired location. That is helpful for mission building, but too often are these high value targets just left in these clusters. These groups are usually roughly 400 meters by 400 meters. Perfect for a cluster munition or a few GPS-guided weapons to disable it in a single pass. Easy to spot and counterattack. Mission editors that prefer to focus on realistic deployment of SAM batteries would argue that these sites need to operate in a small area because they require support facilities and support vehicles. While true, this is mainly a requirement for more static SAM complexes like the SA-2 Guideline or SA-3 Goa. They are, by design, not highly mobile systems and operate best as permanent fixtures in purpose built locations. Inspiration From Reality Using the same application of realism, there are plenty of documented historical cases of more mobile SAM sites in past conflicts utilizing many types of unconventional dispersal methods. During Operation Allied Force (1999), NATO air forces found the Serbian deployed SA-6 Gainful to be surprisingly resilient because of its use of "shoot and scoot" tactics. After launching their missiles at NATO combat aircraft, the SA-6 units would disperse to other pre-prepared locations, where more ammunition and support infrastructure was on standby for their arrival. The SA-6 continued to be an ongoing threat throughout the campaign, despite the launch of 743 AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles. More recently, the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War (2022) has made the dispersion of SAM sites a requirement along its vast frontline. The Patriot PAC-2 under Ukrainian control has gained notoriety for destroying multiple aircraft within minutes and intercepting hypersonic missiles. Part of its success may be hinted at in a video from a Russian reconnaissance drone assisting in the destruction of two truck mounted Patriot missile launchers near the frontline. These launchers being detached far from their radar emitters, where they are least expected, seem to imply just how the Patriot is being so effective. Basic SAM Dispersal Suggestions In Digital Combat Simulator, multi-unit surface-to-air missile sites can be spread out as far as 25 nautical miles. SAM sites like the NASAMS, Patriot, SA-6, SA-10 and SA-11 are designed for use in combat while being dispersed from traditional support facilities. Let's take a look at some examples that can be used in the DCS mission editor. Example A: Expanded Dispersion In the Mission Editor, click "Create and Modify Templates". Select the Country and type of pre-made Surface to Air Missile group of units you want. Find a place on the map of choice to click the ground and spawn the template of vehicles. Be sure to deselect "Create and Modify Templates" to avoid accidentally spawning duplicate groups. While the core of this group can remain relatively close to one another in a configuration similar to the original template, a minimal effort to slightly spread them out according to the terrain would be beneficial. Select an existing missile launcher unit from the now placed template or create a new one launcher unit. Place that unit far from the core of the SAM group, but still within 25 nautical miles of the necessary search and track radars. It is important that each launcher have a supply vehicle of some type to reload the missile launchers, as they are no longer receiving ammunition from the supply vehicles in the core of the group. In this example, a quad-mount missile launcher is now detached from the main group of the Patriot battery. As hostile aircraft attempt to attack the search and track radar at the main group, they will find themselves being engaged by this detachment that is 9.30 nautical miles to the south-west. For the attacking aircraft, suddenly having a threat from an unexpected direction and potentially from a shorter distance than expected could be fatal or at least throw off any original attack plan to disable the Patriot site. Example B: Offensive Offset If the mission editor knows the likely direction of attack players will be using, a majority of missile launchers can be separated from the search and track radars to more advantageous positions. In Example B, an SA-10 Grumble has deployed its missile launcher up to roughly 13 nautical miles to its south, in the direction of hostile forces. While looking at this layout in the map overview, the radars do seem to be defenseless. However, the effective range of the SA-10's missile launchers both easily covers the radars and is now pushed out towards the incoming hostile aircraft. Any aircraft attacking using its radar warning receiver and anti-radar weaponry will now have two options. They will either have to fly deep within the effective range of the SA-10 missile engagement envelope, or they will have to individually find each detachment of launchers and destroy them one by one. While this example only focuses on the SA-10 battery, these SAM sites are often augmented by short range air defenses like anti-aircraft guns, MANPADS or other SAMs like the HQ-7 Red Banner or SA-8 Gecko. This SA-10 has now become quite difficult to deal with. Example C: Addition of Point Defense The default AI behavior of SAMs in DCS keeps their radar emitters on at almost all times. This can make most of these SAMs somewhat easy to disable with a single anti-radiation missile from a safe distance. Without having to get involved with trigger conditions or .lua, the easiest way to make these systems more survivable is to add point defense units to protect them. In Example C, an airfield is being defended by a small SA-6 Gainful battery with two mobile missile launcher units. The SA-6 was first introduced in 1958 and even with upgrades over the decades it became rather outdated by the 1980s. Assuming there are no weapon restrictions placed on the aircraft attempting to destroy the SA-6, in Digital Combat Simulator, there are various air-to-ground munitions that could destroy this SAM site without it being able to defend itself from incoming attack. The addition of a single SA-15 Tor point defense unit can greatly extend the SA-6's lifespan. Even if attacking players are using standoff weapons like anti-radiation missiles or glide bombs, the SA-15 can launch its own missiles to intercept them at up to 14.0 nautical miles away. Now, rather than the SA-6 being soft enough to disable with a single anti-radiation missile, a concerted effort to either focus fire on the SA-15 or overwhelm the SA-15's interception abilities with a saturation attack on the SA-6. I hope this gets mission editors thinking about changing things up for their next mission file. In the next entry of this series related to Surface-to-Air Missile Improvements, we will be getting more technical by adding Trigger Zones, specific conditions and support facilities that can be targeted to degrade SAM performance. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

Stumbling upon a stylized, retro inspired World War 1 indie flight game Steam Next Fest February 2024 is on! It has been quite some time since we checked in on one of these game festivals. In the past, we had been introduced to many interesting upcoming flight game titles; many of them putting out public demos for the first time during this event. While sailing through the digital ocean of indie titles available, a video of a World War 1 era swirling air battle began to play. Blue Sky Aces by Curious Dog Games was announced to the public on August 5th, 2023. When it comes to indie flight games, I cannot say there are a steady stream of World War 1 always in development and on their way to release. While this immediately caught my attention, I can genuinely say this is a completely new title to me. A cursory search about Curious Dog Games shows that they are a hobbyist game developer that has been “tinkering with games” for over 20 years. It was not until they stumbled upon the Unity game engine a few years ago until they started to build complete games, which are available on Itch.io. Rather than dig intensively through the dev logs on YouTube and Steam, I am going to jump in blind and experience the current state of the game. Demo Overview The demo presents the British and German side as represented by their aircraft. Though each country has three aircraft in the demo only the Airco DH.2 and Fokker E.III are available. The British side has 1 training mission and 2 combat mission. The German side brings 1 training mission and 1 combat mission. The game supports keyboard and mouse (which the developer suggests), gamepads and more advanced flight controllers thanks to its ability to remap buttons and axes per controller. There are options for aim assists and lead indicators to assist players. Aircraft can be flown in third person view and first person view (cockpit view), though first person view does let players free look around the aircraft. In either view, the on-screen user interface shows gauges for airspeed, altitude, direction, engine RPM, fuel level and oil level. Curiously, oil level acts as the aircraft damage gauge; the more oil you lose indicates the more damage you have taken. Machine gun ammunition count, a proximity radar of allies and enemies, a visualization of kill score and status messages about how a target was damaged is also shown. As mentioned in the recent trailer, it provides “simple, no nonsense gameplay”. This game sets aside large, complicated briefings or trying to dive into the politics of World War 1 to simply focus on aerial combat and simple objectives. The demo has a leaderboard function built that shows the top scores of the “Highest Scoring Aces” (players that have been shot down during the mission) and “Highest Scoring Living Aces” (players that have completed the mission alive). Simple Looks, Serious Combat The first impression of this game can give off the feeling that this is a basic game with chunky hit boxes and minimal effort put into certain aspects of it. On the contrary, it took me some time to adjust to the level of difficulty of combat in this game. Each aircraft has hit boxes for certain sections of the aircraft that receive damage at different rates depending on how often they are hit and from how far away the attacking is coming - i.e. bullets losing muzzle velocity. Focusing damage near wing roots can snap them off, damage to engines can severely reduce aircraft performance, and the tell-tale sign of a small cloud of blood with a critical hit is landed on the cockpit. Of course, this goes both ways. It is possible for the player’s aircraft to be completely destroyed in a few seconds during one poorly planned strafing run or by reacting too slowly to incoming fire from another aircraft. I went down a handful of times, mainly do to me not quite taking this title seriously enough I guess. Once I started flying in a more thought out, calculated way, everything fell into place. There is now mid-mission save system in this demo, so do be sure to think long-term when in combat. You will find yourself losing your last 5 to 10 minutes of progress in the blink of an eye. Flight Physics The flight physics are simplified enough to where someone could learn how to fly the aircraft in this game within five minutes or less on a keyboard, game pad or even a flight stick. Mastering takeoff and landing can be done in a single training mission. Achieving a near maximum rate turn is as easy as rolling the wings perpendicular to the ground and pulling up without having to think about much else besides altitude and maybe engine RPM. However, there are enough details, closer to a flight sim lite that players more knowledgeable about aviation can utilize. Performing certain real world maneuvers at the right time and with the right conditions provides a noticeable edge. Alternatively, attempting them at the wrong speed and altitude has absolutely unforgiving results. More than once has the High or Low Yoyo been a go-to tactic for me in the middle of a uncoordinated "dogfight”. Coordinated turns with plenty of rudder applied significantly improved air-to-air gunnery and made it easier to evade ground fire. Performing high altitude diving attacks then transitioning into The Immelmann Turn to then regain altitude and take time to reposition for a follow-up attack. However, the WWI namesake Immelmann relentlessly punished me for Stalling at its apex. A few seconds of uncontrolled flight and loss of altitude is often a death sentence for these canvas, wire and wooden wonders. Mainly due to how low engine output was in WWI aircraft. Every well known basic fighter maneuver handles very differently than when a high output engine aircraft does them. It was nice to see Blue Sky Aces emulate the overall low output engines to see how basic fighter maneuvers were effective in a different way during this era of technology. Unexpected Ground Combat Details Within my first play through, the most surprising part about Blue Sky Aces was its portrayal of the air-to-ground combat of the era. Even in the most advanced combat flight simulators of 2024, the explosions are often clinical with the human factor on the ground removed or limited. Yet within this indie game, the most memorable aspect of strafing an airfield or trench is seeing individual human beings scrambling for cover. It made me realize that this is a detail traditionally overlooked in a majority of flight arcade or flight simulator titles for the past few decades. I fully expected a mission with the primary objective of strafing aircraft at an airfield to have a few hangars, tents and trucks gathered in one spot with static aircraft sitting on the grass airfield. But this was compounded by visible personnel on the ground running from the strafing runs. Even during the Big Battle mission, where dozens of aircraft are locked in air combat above No Man's Land, I could see individual soldiers reacting to stray bullets landing near them. Lone soldiers in sandbag bunkers manning machine guns just as deadly as those carried by aircraft. These anti-aircraft gunners are hard to ignore, as they are the only real form of land based air defense. Observant players will note the shape of their anti-aircraft positions and find blind spots in their firing arcs. Patiently maneuvering to attack these AA guns from behind, strafing the gunners directly will disable these positions and make further ground attacks easier. Beyond that, trains and trucks behind enemy lines can also be attacked and disabled. I am happy that my introduction to Blue Sky Aces was through this Steam Next Fest demo and look forward to taking time to dig a bit deeper to better understand who the developer is and how far they’ve progressed in their own time. Steam Next Fest runs from February 5th to February 12th, 2024. I do not know if the demo for Blue Sky Aces will be available after this time frame, so I do recommend giving it a download and checking it out for yourself! About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers.

If you have not been paying attention to the epic saga that is FlightSimExpo 2024, a lot of convention killing hurdles were surmounted in near record time. The sudden closure of the original hotel (Tropicana Las Vegas), a rush to find a replacement with the assistance of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and securing a new hotel (Rio Las Vegas); a lot happened in four weeks. However, after recovering from such an unexpected "crosswind", the expo continues on. The Flight Simulation Association (FSA) has shared the much-anticipated schedule for their June 21-23, 2024 convention in Las Vegas, along with 2024’s Activities. Register and find discounted travel options at flightsimexpo.com. FlightSimExpo 2024 will feature developer announcements, panel discussions, and community-inspired seminars throughout the convention’s jam-packed, three-day schedule. Additionally, this year’s show will see the return of Activities: themed group events happening before, during, and after FlightSimExpo. 2024 Seminar Schedule The event kicks off with #FSExpoFriday, a series of announcements and new product reveals on Friday, June 21. The afternoon will include more than 15 presentations from developers like BlueBird Simulations, Combat Pilot, FlyInside, Nimbus, SayIntentions . AI, SimWorks Studios, SoFly, Tobii AB, and X-Plane. The weekend seminar series will feature talks on RNAV approaches, scenery design, online networks, combat and helicopter simulation, a live PC build on stage, and more. Seminars were sourced from the community and selected by vote of FlightSimExpo attendees. Talks take place in Rio Las Vegas’ Brasilia Room and on the FSElite Stage, located in the exhibit hall. “There’s absolutely something for everyone in our 2024 seminar schedule,” says organizer Evan Reiter. “Whether you’re new to flight sim or you’re a seasoned veteran looking for the next big release, you’ll find plenty to see and do at this year’s show.” Activities Before, during, and after FlightSimExpo 2024, attendees can participate in fun Activities featuring some of the many entertainment options Las Vegas has to offer. Paid and free Activities include a tour of the Las Vegas Air Traffic Control Tower, museum visits, a night out on the town, on-site workshops, and live shows at the Rio. Information about 2024’s Activities is available at flightsimexpo.com/activities; registration will open on April 14 at 12pm PT. New Partners Since the initial reveal on March 22, FSA has confirmed 12 more exhibitors for the show: Beta Technologies, The Pilot Club, Hyperion Sim, Thrustmaster, Redbird Flight Simulations, BeyondATC, Vyral LLC, Yawman, National STOL Series, Somnium Space, Fly Virtual . net and FlyInside. Prospective exhibitors can visit flightsimexpo.com/partner for information about getting involved. “Since attending FSExpo a few years ago by myself and seeing all the amazing products that were offered, we jumped at the opportunity to come back as an organization,” said Tom Flanary, Founder of the National STOL Series. “We’re excited to bring something new to the community by introducing everyone to the world of eSTOL. We want to open everyone up to the world of bush flying and the competitive nature of STOL flying, and we are excited to do that at FSExpo 2024!” FlightSimExpo takes place on June 21-23, 2024 in Las Vegas. Registration is available online at flightsimexpo.com. Attendees are encouraged to book discounted hotel rooms before they sell out, and learn about discounts with Delta, Southwest, and United. Skyward Flight Media Registration Link For the third year, Skyward Flight Media is a media partner for FlightSimExpo. This year we have a registration link people can use to get their weekend passes for the expo. As more people use our link to register to attend the expo, we in turn get benefits as an organization for the expo. So we would appreciate your support! ### About FlightSimExpo. FlightSimExpo is one of the world’s largest flight simulation conventions. The event has welcomed more than 5,000 attendees to events in Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego, and Houston since 2018. FlightSimExpo is produced by Flight Simulation Association, a community-driven organization of developers, simmers, and real-world pilots working to make it easier to get started in home flight simulation. Join the community today—free—at flightsimassociation.com for resources, learning content, webinars, and discounts on top add-ons and simulation hardware.

We are celebrating our 4th anniversary here at Skyward Flight Media, so we are taking a look back with both co-founders to reminisce about how we started as a media organization, our goals and even a bit about where we are going. Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza A little over four years ago, I almost decided I was completely done with writing like this. After a decade of random projects and websites starting and ending in various states, I began to wonder if anything would keep me engaged in writing about flight games and sims. Truth be told, if it was not for the persistence of Skyward Flight Media co-founder Santiago Cuberos, I would have stopped all of my creative efforts after the sudden halt of our previous project in December 2019. With some serious support that renewed my drive, the initial talks about the concept of Skyward Flight Media began in January 2020. Prep work was completed within two months and the public opening of Skyward Flight Media happened on March 24th, 2020. Four years later, I find myself deeper and deeper into the content creation merry-go-round that I proudly conduct for Skyward. Even as I write this I am conducting an ongoing interview, preparing two more, looking for up and flight games. Though there is also plenty of life in games and simulators that have already been released. Even titles that are decades old, made before I was even born, are still valid pieces of media for us. When I write down every potential article idea, sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed by the number of choices. Not a bad problem to have! The variety and flexibility of content that Skyward can produce without absolutely falling off with our readership is something I will always be grateful for. During times of reflection like this, I look back at the things I’ve written and the array of flight related content is unique to say the least. From interviews with indie developers making their own marks on the flight game scene, two of my most in-depth game reviews to date for The Brew Barons and Thunder Helix, to Skyward’s first serious hardware reviews with Heads Up View and Yawman, starting a completely unplanned mission editor series for Digital Combat Simulator world with fellow staff member Caio D. "Hueman" Barreto and travelling in person for the first time to Flight Sim Expo 2023 to meet the people and companies pushing flight simulation forward. If I were to list a few personal goals this year, they would be securing more interviews with developers, content creators and companies, giving the website a massive upgrade to make it both more ‘modern’ and flashy in most places and try to reach out to some well established names in the industry to provide a new type of content. Know that while hanging out with staff and close friends in a Skyward themed virtual reality hangar, complete with an original design jet trainer, I raised a glass to you dear reader! Thank you wholeheartedly for your support thus far. Here is to another year! Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos It is sort of hard to comprehend the passing of time sometimes, isn't it? I never thought I would be writing these words to celebrate our website's fourth anniversary. When I think about it, to even think that it has already been four years since we started kind of boggles my mind and makes me feel a bit lightheaded; but let's take a step back to when I joined this crazy creative effort that I co-founded. I joined what used to be Project Lighthouse back in 2017 as a Spanish translator with no other ambitions. I got assigned a couple of projects that I completed in no time, which left me with a drive to do more. This led me to asking Ribbon-Blue if there was anything else I could do to help him out, since he was the only one in the then leadership that was actively working on the website. He told me I could write an article if I wanted, and so I did. The rest is history. When some internal issues arose and Project Lighthouse disbanded in late 2019, this left me wondering where would any of this go. I knew that Aaron was already a veteran of content creation on the internet, and at that time we were already very good friends, so I proposed a rebranding for Project Lighthouse. A fresh start is what we needed to get back into the groove, and I was right. It took us a couple of months, but after that we had Skyward Flight Media up running in March 2020. In these four years, I have done things I never thought I would have had the possibility to do. I have been able to speak with developers, connect with fellow creators, get press access to games and DCS modules, among many things. It is just unbelievable to be in the position that I am and to have this platform that Aaron, Caio and I have built together. But there is someone that I have yet to thank or mention, you. I genuinely love the community that has built around our articles and the general positivity that it has. We just broke 5,000 followers on Twitter/X and I couldn't be more grateful. Thanks for reading our articles, really, it does mean the world to me.

The time has arrived! The winners of our giveaway for the Heatblur Simulations F-4E Phantom II for Digital Combat Simulator have been announced. For those that do not know, we take the names of all contestants that applied on the website and social media, put their names into a list, randomize the order of that list and use Google Random Number Generator to select the winners for our giveaways. This is about as randomized as we can make it. The winners for this giveaway are: FighterTales webber_ita Congratulations to the winners! We will be contacting them in the next few days to get their prizes to them. As a side note, one of these two winners was someone that submitted their entry via the contact form on our website. There was also a website entry winner for our third anniversary giveaway. We are pointing this out to let people know those website entries are just as effective as the social media entries. Be sure to utilize those if you do not have an X.com account to still get in on the action!

Sign Up From March 18th through March 22nd, 2024 ABOUT THE GIVEAWAY As we near our fourth anniversary this weekend, we have decided to set up a giveaway for the upcoming Heatblur F-4E Phantom II for Digital Combat Simulator World. There will be two (2) winners receiving this module as a gift via Steam or the Digital Combat Simulator E-Shop. The period to sign up for the giveaway is from March 18th, 2024 to March 22nd, 2024. The winners will be announced on Saturday, March 23rd, 2024 in our fourth anniversary post. HOW TO ENTER This year, we have two ways to enter this giveaway. Follow SkywardFM on X/Twitter and like pinned giveaway post. Reposting is not required, but helping spread the word is appreciated. For those that do not have a Twitter account, they can contact us on our email: staff@skywardfm.com. Please include your Name and/or Screen Name, email address and mention that you are entering the giveaway, so we can contact you if you win. Email entries count as one (1) entry. Skyward Flight Media will announce the winner publicly in a post on X.com and blog post on this website. Thanks for joining our giveaway and supporting us.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to actively use some of the modules that I have left untouched for months and, in the process, I have asked myself one question over and over again: "Was there a reason why this aircraft didn't stick with me?" One of these aircraft is Deka Ironworks' JF-17 module, which still is one of, if not, the only modern redfor full fidelity aircraft in the simulator. I have been flying it quite a bit recently to the point that I understand why I might have stopped flying it often and, regrettably, why I shouldn't have stopped flying it at all. The first thing that jumped to my mind when I strapped into this Chinese-Pakistani aircraft was: "Wow, I actually remember all of my keybinds!" I was thrilled, so I took to the air and proceeded to do a short mission to get the rust off, primarily to allow me to see how much I would have to relearn after having not touched this module in any significant way for more than seven months. Anyone would get rusty, right? It wasn't until I tried getting my ordinance on target that I realized how unique this aircraft is, allow me to explain. During this attack, my brain started using all the muscle memory that I had built for the F-16C and the MiG-29S, at the same time. I pressed the "7" key on my keyboard to change to air to ground mode, just like I would on the FC3 modules. After dropping the Mk.82 bomb, I started dispensing my countermeasures instinctively in the same way I would while flying a Viper. That is when it all clicked. The Jeff is the perfect compliment for a person like me, someone that values simplicity and familiarity while also appreciating the unique aspects of everything I use, keeping an open mind to new things while also considering the historical context that surrounds them. This is what the JF-17 has over other aircraft in my virtual hangar. Thanks to its design, it feels like it is in that Goldilocks zone between eastern and western philosophies. It meets both in the middle and excels and integrating some of the best aspects of a design compromise like this. It has its quirks, for sure, but man does it pay off when everything works, specially that sweet sensor fusion tech that it packs along with the proper implementation of a data cartridge that I talked about quite a while ago. I look forward to flying the JF-17 much more during multiplayer sessions, and while I am at it, I'll try to get enough experience with the module to write a proper review. About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000 leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around 2010. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Wanting to shake it up a bit, I had another session of checking on various past and current indie flight games. While observing videos of deep space combat and screenshots of sleek fighter jets, a sudden psychedelic splash dazzled my eyes. Literally. I had to look away from the screen and blink a few times. What seemed to be a doomed aircraft falling into a barren terrain is met with an explosion of color and disappears into darkness. OASES was created by Armel Gibson and "Dziff" Delphine as one of twenty-five games presented during the weekend of September 4th through 6th 2015, as a part of the Now Play This 2015 Festival. This exhibition of games ran alongside various events, talks and workshops at the New Wing of Somerset House - self-described as a home of cultural innovators that connect creativity and the arts with wider society. It was also shown at Screenshake 2016. The description of the game mentions the grandfather of Gibson whose aircraft was reported as missing during the Algeria Independence War (1960). With a background like that, I'd expect some sort of historical recreation or interpretation of what may have happened. Perhaps something that showed what the grandfather was doing during that time to remember their actions. Instead, OASES is more of a fantastical well wish to someone that was never seen again. Oases is more of a flight experience than a flight game. Its somewhat abstract description as a "kaleidoscopic elegiac flyscape' is a bit hard to wrap your head around when reading it, but makes sense playing it. After starting the game and diving into a different realm, players are met with electronic music and rather complex scenery. The types of things seen in dreams. Pink forests with trees taller than mountains and towering sculptures of hands with fingertip waterfalls jutting out of rolling hills. With basic pitch and roll controls, no way to crash and a temporary engine boost, players depart on short flights taking in the scenery and music. With each session lasting only a few minutes, starting up a new session also brings in new terrain. Echoing the opinion of a commenter from a few years ago, it felt like flying through a music video. There is no exerting story to be told or lesson to be learned here. Oases is an abstract way to memorialize the unanswered questions and possibilities surrounding the disappearance of a family member that was never met. This free to download games was one of the most unexpected flight experiences I've ever tried out. If you have a few minutes and a bit of curiosity, stop by for a trip. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

No matter our passion, we like to pursue it with dedication. But there always comes a point where learning by ourselves becomes an issue, and it is in these situations where people such as RedKite come into the picture. Someone who is willing to share knowledge and spread it around, allowing others to improve faster than they would have otherwise. Our third interview for Creator Highlight Month 2022 (CHM) is with RedKite, a video creator and game dev who dedicates himself to making elaborate video tutorials, reviews and showcases mostly for DCS World. I have personally been a fan of his content for quite a while, finding it to be some of the best out there when it comes to creativity and dedication. He also dabbles into retro flight sims from time to time. We had the honor of being able to interview him and have him as a guest in our CHM. Hello there and thank you for accepting our request. Let’s start right away. Could you please tell us who you are and a brief description of what you do? Hello! I run a flight sim YouTube channel, that's generally considered by the community as the 'Gold standard' for long form DCS video tutorials, and occasional DCS science and gameplay videos. I'm also a part of a hobby indie dev team, having released 'Pipeline VR' on Steam recently (A pipe building panic/puzzle game). How did you come up with your name? Is there any story behind it? RedKite came about because of a beautiful bird by the same name. When i was young it was all but extinct, but thankfully recovered to become a fairly common sight in England. I've a couple living in a large oak tree by my home, which I see each day, to which I owe the channel's name. How did you get started with flight simulation? Was it an early childhood hobby or did you pick it up as an adult? If it was in early childhood, what is your earliest memory you have of a flight simulator? Fairly early on in childhood I was exposed to flight sims, my Grandfather served in Coastal Command with the RAF during WWII, so I've always had an interest in flight and often went to see air-shows. 'Chocks away' was the first 'flight sim', which I'd play in split screen co-op with my brother! Another strong memory, is that of the bomber attack quick start on 'MS Combat Flight Simulator' (1) which was my first experience using an analogue joystick to shoot down Ju-88s or He-111s in a spitfire and seeing the bullet marks appear on my canopy! While your primary focus is Digital Combat Simulator, you occasionally cover retro simulators. Are there any simulators from the past that you would recommend people try? F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0, which I covered recently still stands up and provides unique stealth action gameplay, if you can get past the graphics and janky controls. More recently, I'd thoroughly recommend Il-2 1946 especially if you like WW2 pacific carrier operations, something sadly not present in modern flight sims! What motivated you to start making YouTube videos about DCS: World? In particular, what motivated you to start making long-form tutorial style videos with some variety content from time to time? I heavily struggled getting into DCS and gave up a couple times initially. This was in part due to being dyslexic, which makes all the manuals a serious labour for me. Videos helped me through that, and I decided to return the favour by producing my own when I noticed a lack of videos of the quality I wanted. I started with il-2 Cliffs of Dover tutorials (although not public) My first DCS tutorial was on the Harrier's Mavericks. It received good attention, including from Matt Wagner! That encouraged me to keep on making them, and also provided me with a means to help cement my own learning. What is the process you go through when planning out one of your tutorial videos? Do you start by studying the aircraft system or do you like writing down the script first? It'll usually start out by writing condensed notes on how to work a system from the manual and getting experience using it and special use cases. Then break it down into segments for presentation. Most of the time I'll write a script, occasionally live speaking prompts. Scope is always a difficult one, a lot of viewers try to jump in the deep end and ask for absolute basics to be included (like sensor of interest (SOI), basic HOTAS and aircraft logic). So I try to cover these separately so as to not bog down an already complex topic. Shots I usually come up with on the fly listening back to the video's script, without much fore-planning. All said complex videos can take 10-20hrs or more to make. When it comes down to DCS modules, do you have any particular preferences for any aircraft? Would there be a module you would recommend to beginners? Personally I love modern western aircraft; The top spots going to the A-10C II, Hornet and probably the Apache soon! But I do have a soft spot for Cold War era analogue aircraft like the MiG-21, although I don't get on well with the heavily number based Viggen computer! I'd always recommend you buy the aircraft that interests you the most, not the one that's 'easy to learn' or the 'meta' aircraft for multiplayer. But it comes with a caveat: You need to make sure your HOTAS is up to the job, learning an A-10C on a Thrustmaster T.Flight is going to be a bad time, owing to it's meager button count. The Flaming Cliffs 3 level A-10A or full fidelity F-5E on the other hand would be perfectly manageable. You do have to do a little mental preparation and accept you won't be good at a module day one, it's a commitment to learn in DCS in-depth. Which is where people often fall down, not the aircraft itself. DCS is incredibly complex, not just the full aircraft, but navigating, communicating, fighting and surviving combat on top of that! So you've got to pace yourself to avoid frustration. When you start studying a new DCS module, how do you approach it? Do you study differently if you know the subject is going to go on a video? If I'm doing a pre-release preview I've usually only got 1 week, so I'll always learn everything I can prior to access, taking notes. Then do the startup just once, skip to air starts and learn systems people would like to see. I've found this works well for me because I've built up vast knowledge that transfers over from other aircraft. But I'd never recommend this approach to a beginner, not least because you won't have access to developers to talk you through confusion occasionally. Learning properly without time pressures I'll always work myself up doing lots of notes, learning basic flight and weapons before hitting the hard stuff. I build up 'cheat sheets' with instructions on each task condensed without explanation to reference once I'm flying. The very process of making these notes is a big part of helping you remember it. You did a great video showcasing the T-45C mod by VNAO. Have you tried any of the other high fidelity community mods? I'd meant to cover them both by now, but sadly time doesn't permit me to. I've flown the MB-339 a tiny bit, and the A-4E a fair amount. I do love the terrain avoidance mode on the A-4E, very impressed they managed to model it, although i find it rather tough to land on a carrier well! Nearly on par with the full fidelity modules you can buy. If I could afford to commit more time to YouTube I'd happily cover them, but life gets in the way! With 'review' videos being one of the most time consuming to make. Is there anything you would personally like to be added to DCS World? A lot of DCS's core is very outdated; AI 3d models, AI behavior and general quality of life features are what I'd like to see the most (such as afterburner detent setting, Radio integration, weather, interactive startup checklist kneeboards, FLIR) Outside that, an overhaul of air refueling with basket and boom physics would be great, being one of my favorite skills. That and a dynamic campaign engine because I hope it will bring in lots of AI and mission optimisations, to allow for a greater focus on player driven mission planning and co-operative play. There are many DCS World campaign previews on your YouTube channel, but Raven One seems to be the only campaign you’ve recorded from start to finish. What was it about this campaign that piqued your interest? I'd read the Raven One book prior, which had gotten me into it. I'd been meaning to start doing campaigns generally, so this was a natural progression into it. In the past I'd struggled greatly to produce worthwhile 'let's play' videos, scrapping more than a few, being unhappy with the quality of commentary and or flying. I was finally starting to get comfortable doing it by the time Raven One released. I've got my eye on more than a few campaigns I want to play through on the channel in the future! Did you have any contact with Kevin Miller, the author of the Raven One book or with Baltic Dragon while doing your Raven One series? Indeed, I have talked extensively with both. You'll also spot Kevin Miller in the comments on a number of the Raven One videos! Kevin was very kind in regards to feedback on my carrier landings and provided me with a lot of tips, critique and praise on my performance around the boat. He was very impressed with my Case 3 recoveries during the campaign, and was plenty happy to tell me off when i did something wrong! (like crossing the catapults by mistake on the clearing turn after launch) I'm very thankful he took the time to watch and talk with me. He put both me and Baltic to the test with the bonus 'Working the Wake' multiplayer mission; doing attack patterns which was a good laugh to play in multiplayer with Baltic Dragon. Kevin rather enjoyed being able to see his creation brought to life in DCS, along with the little cinematic extras I did. So much so, you might just recognise the voice of a certain British exchange pilot in the next DCS Raven One Campaign! What kind of flight sim gear do you own? Any interesting stories behind any of them? I've picked up a lot of gear over many years and reviews! My Force Feedback Microsoft Sidewinder 2 holds a special place, being a technology sadly lost to patent trolls today. It was for the longest time my go-to stick for flight sims prior to DCS. The physical feedback and variable resistance was awesome. A Viripil WarBRD, CH rudder, and Thrustmaster Stick/Throttle make up the core of my current setup. With WinWing and Total Controls providing auxiliary panels and TM MFDs on monitors. I also make use of a WW Orion with Hornet handles occasionally. My WH Throttle has the Delta-sim slew stick mod, and in general I've 3d printed realistic switch toppers for many controls. I took up 3D printing as a hobby this year, and produced my own modifications and button boxes for my flight sim setup. Including an inline button box for my Viripil desk mount, designed and made myself. Taking advantage of the empty space in their design, filling in some gaps in my controls. I intend to design and build a radio panel (like those found on the A-10c II) some time this year. My setup is a little ram-shackle with a mixture of old and new pushed together, and even a few bits of cardboard propping things up! With two 10 slot powered USB hubs hooking it all up to my PC! I'd love to build a proper sim pit one day, but my computer needs to remain suitable for office work too. Recently I've been 3D printing the freely available Authentikit Spitfire Mk. IX parts which i plan on building soon! Which is really exciting, being a scale replica of the controls set, so keep an eye out for that! We saw that in a couple of your videos you show VR footage of some modules, which headset do you have? Do you prefer flying in VR or with head tracking? I own both a HTC Vive and Valve Index. I immensely prefer VR flying, however despite owing a Nvidia 3080, DCS just doesn't run VR at an acceptable level of performance for me. So I stick to TrackIR. This works out better for videos too, as VR is not great for viewers. In IL-2 great battles I'll usually use VR instead, owing to better performance. But most of my VR use is on room scale games. I really can't wait for the coming optimisations and vulkan support, hopefully they'll make VR worthwhile in DCS for me, as the sheer immersion and extra sense you gain is not only great fun, but helps improve your flying precision greatly! Although I'm not 100% sure I'd ever fully replace TrackIR as it's just so much more convenient without the extra setup and encumbrance. We would like to thank you once again for accepting our request to interview you. Do you have any final thoughts you would like to share? YouTube has been a massive time sync over the years, I'm really proud of what I've achieved for the community, and honored to be held in high regard. The YouTube algorithm hates long form high production value content. So all the support from everyone in the DCS community, has made a huge difference to the channel's success and is the reason it continues to exist despite YouTube's demoralizing ecosystem. Thank you Everyone! About the Interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

February 24th, 2024 from 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM (UTC-7) The next Skyward Flight Media Digital Combat Simulator multiplayer event is on the way! The last two events we hosted in October and December 2023 were large scale missions against a peer adversary. Air battles with half-a-dozen aircraft, columns of hostile vehicles and coordinated surface-to-air threats were staples of those missions. Our February 2023 event changes the flow of things and brings a different type of experience compared to our missions so far: Counter Insurgency. Event Webpage Available The official webpage for this event is ready for viewing. It includes basic information like how to connect, which mods are required and wealth of extra info. Like an explanation of the story behind the mission and kneeboards for the mission that can be downloaded separately. Feel free to use the event webpage to study up before the event: https://www.skywardfm.com/syria-coin-2024 Development This is an original mission from our lead DCS World mission creator, Caio D. "Hueman" Barreto. The base version of the mission was created on January 2nd, 2023. During private playthroughs with Skyward staff and a few friends, it was gradually improved upon. When the decision was made to use this mission for a multiplayer event, the newest version was finalized on February 11th, 2024. Mission Features Low intensity, Ground Attack-focused mission, an opportunity for propeller-driven aircraft, light attackers and helicopters to shine. Defend coalition outposts surrounded by insurgent forces. Attack technical convoys, insurgent outposts, and elusive mobile mortar teams. Change the flow of battle by striking ammunition depots and other strategic targets. Player-controllable ground vehicles and CTLD allow players with Combined Arms to conduct air assault and JTAC operations. Players familiar with Forward Air Controller procedures can help guide others to target Anti-aircraft threats are limited, but watch out for MANPADS! Aircraft Mods Since we know the use of DCS mod aircraft continues to be uncommon in DCS multiplayer servers, we will continue to use them in this mission as well. The following aircraft mods will be required to join this mission: A-4E, A-29B, F-4B/C, OV-10A, UH-60L. The links to these mods are available on the event webpage. Kneeboards Four custom kneeboards for this mission have been created by the mission editor for this mission. See them here in the image gallery or download them from the event webpage. Future Updates All updates concerning this event will be made through our X.com profile or posted on the event webpage leading up to the event.

Overpowered or realistic? One of my most vivid memories of early experiences with online multiplayer gaming is a curse word laden, 16 person argument from an Ace Combat 6 game lobby. But rather than being about who was more skilled or who was "lag switching" (it was 2007), the subject was about how overpowered the aircraft cannon in this game was. Some people even stating that using it was a "crutch" and should be frowned upon since it seemed so heavily exaggerated to them. I think the reason this heated discussion is memorable to me because there was a valid point to be made. Inconsistent Presentation The 28-year strong Ace Combat series has many iterations of aircraft cannons or 'Gun' in its games. From 1995 to present day, the cannons have varied so much, you could probably have an Ace Combat fan identify which game that cannon is from just by describing its traits. High rate of fire but basically no damage? Shattered Skies. Slow rate of fire and only the tracers caused damage? The Unsung War or The Belkan War. Was the only way to make the gun hit anything reliably through the use of an auto aiming device? Probably Skies of Deception, Joint Assault or Cross Rumble. Was it a non-moving gunsight with damage so low it felt like firing paper clips? Assault Horizon. The gun's time to kill varies per game. It may take four or five seconds of sustained gunfire to down an aircraft in one game, while it may take three seconds of only tracer rounds hitting a target to destroy something in the next game. But that rate of fire being so slow, aircraft can maneuver between the tracer fire, sustaining no damage at all. This could be explained as attempts to game balance each game as it was made by the Ace Combat development team, Project Aces, but the inconsistencies do not help the overall appeal of these weapons in the series. These variances in how the aircraft cannons hit targets are compounded by the difficulties of using the gun sight each Ace Combat game provides. Speaking in broad terms, inaccuracy and slow refresh rate of the gun sight or 'pipper' players use are the two terms that I think about when thinking about gun sights of the Ace Combat series in general. On the surface, it makes using the gun on targets seem harder than it is. In the player's point of view, the gun pipper always seems a bit too slow and a bit inaccurate; especially against highly maneuverable targets. The near useless gun sight from Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere comes to mind. While taking time to let the gun sight settle onto ground and naval targets is fine, anyone trying to use the pipper in air combat would be better off remembering the general flight path of the cannon rounds and visually guiding those tracers onto the enemy aircraft. In certain games, the firing range and damage output can be augmented through aircraft parts customization. Even devices like automatic gun firing devices and radar guided aim assists that make using the gun a near thoughtless process. The newest game, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, makes extensive use of these customizations. Though, opposing players also have access to defensive customizations. In Ace Combat 7, the gun's time to kill can exceed five seconds if either player's customizations just happen to stack up a certain way. Not to mention the sheer (and hilarious) volume of fire provided by secondary weapons like Gun Pods; which are essentially two or more extra aircraft cannons with a ton of ammo and no consequences. The OP Cannon Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Xbox 360, 2007) was the first Ace Combat game that presented the largest scale battles in the series up to that point. With dozens, if not a hundred, of enemy units per mission, the selection and deployment of Standard Missiles and 'special weaponry' mattered more than ever. The cannon is always there as well, but after years of being ever-changing and somewhat unreliable, it would be Plan C at best. Right? As of the time of this writing, the internal aircraft cannons of Ace Combat 6 are still the most powerful cannons in the Ace Combat series. Specifically without any modifications via in game customizations, since that was not possible in the game. The gun pipper in Ace Combat 6 was also accurate enough to be serviceable against all targets. Even during the tightest swirling air battles. Getting cannon shells onto target was easy. At the time, just how immensely effective they were was a bit staggering. The average time to kill for targets like planes, armored vehicles, small buildings and surface-to-air missile units was just a roughly one second. Maybe a second and a half. A decent player with good rudder control could sink warships like Destroyers and Cruisers in roughly three or four seconds. A stream of cannon shells can remove every radar, vertical launch cell, air defense system and even the bridge of a warship in just a breath or two. 2 Now waves of main battle tanks could be easily shattered with a strafe, not anti-tank missiles. In multiplayer, top-tier aircraft like the F-22A and Su-47 could be shredded in a single turn. For the first time, there was even an in-game achievement for completing the single player campaign with nothing but the aircraft gun. That is a lot of confidence and a massive improvement in a somewhat overlooked weapon. Was it really bad enough to call it "overpowered" though? Closer to Reality In reality, we have to remember that since the Cold War a "small caliber gun" built into a fixed-wing combat aircraft is commonly a 20mm cannon capable of firing 50 to 100 shells in 1 second. There are a few things built well enough to take no damage from a heavy volume of fire from objects this large. Even in flight simulators that prioritize realism, an opposing aircraft rapidly breaks into pieces after a moment or two of sustained cannon fire. Real world records of aircraft using cannons in combat from the 1990s to February 2024 certainly do not match up 100% with Ace Combat 6. The common outcome of tanks, bunkers and buildings being strafed is not the targets being instantaneously vaporized. It is more likely that a target hit by aircraft cannon fire would result in a mobility kill or capability kill (knocking out optics, communications, sensors, etc). But at least using the gun in Ace Combat 6 does not feel as though the player is firing marbles. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers.

If you were to ask any teenager with even the slightest interest in military aviation, or just the military in general, if they had heard of War Thunder then you will most likely get a yes from them. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to have not heard of War Thunder or have watched/played it at least once, to the point that saying that this game is influential would be an understatement. Why we visit this title should be more than clear now. War Thunder is a very different game to others that we have covered in the past, especially considering that we have never covered exclusively-online games such as this. Some of its characteristics, such as the grind that you have to do to get aircraft, or even the nature of the national tech trees, are more than understandable once we comprehend that War Thunder is a "free" game. But today's article is not about the state of the game. Instead, I would like to talk a bit about what my experience has been for the past two to three months since I started playing War Thunder with a group of friends during our free time. My perspective comes from someone that is used to more in-depth simulation titles and that of someone that got, unwillingly, gifted a couple of premium aircraft in the US tech tree, and a couple of tanks on the US tech tree (Thanks, Riko and Kosmos!). As you would expect from us, our focus will be solely on the aviation side and not on the armored one. FIRST IMPRESSIONS As someone that is used to solely flying by holding a flight stick and a throttle, with a pair of pedals at hand, getting used to the mouse and keyboard controls of War Thunder was a bit of a struggle at first. The immediate lack of physical feedback from the mouse and the use of binary inputs on the keyboard for flight inputs was a bit off-putting. It is also important to state that War Thunder does have proper control customization, and allows the use of HOTAS and any number of peripherals. It is up to the players to decide what to do and how to do it, but I decided to follow a more conventional set-up that would be similar to those used by most players in the game. The only modifications I made were those that came with Riko's personal keybinds, which I used as a base for my set-up. Some of my first matches were on my friend's Riko account, which he lent to me, so I could get a grasp of all the basics without the commitment of building my own account from scratch. During this time, what impressed me the most was the nature of the game itself. Spawns were chaotic, with at least a dozen aircraft taking off from the same crowded runway at the same time. It was a bit overwhelming to try and evade other aircraft as you rolled on the runway, but that is a feeling that faded quickly. There were bigger things to worry about. GAMEPLAY, THE GRIND AND FRUSTRATION A surprisingly strong aspect of War Thunder is its gameplay. While a bit unintuitive at first, flying with mouse and keyboard is the best way to do so in Air Realistic Battles. The best way to understand this is by taking a closer look at the gameplay loop that reigns top-tier matches in modern War thunder as a novice in the F-4S or (INSERT PREMIUM HERE). It goes something like this: You need research points (RP) and silver lions (SL) to advance in your tech tree. You go to a match and load yourself with bombs and some missiles. You take off, call your base and fly straight to it. You fly as fast as possible to make sure you get the points and the base, not your teammates. You either get shot down before dropping your bombs, or you manage to survive long enough to drop your ordinance over a base. If you survived step 5, then you will now engage air targets. You either get a kill or two before being shot down, or just get shot down. You go back to hangar Repeat When the gameplay is that fast, and the grind is so repetitive, you don't want to spend an absurd amount of time setting up a HOTAS or anything like that. Mouse and keyboard offer maximum flexibility with the least effort, and considering that most players use it, then it is fair to say this is not an unpopular statement. They make the game accessible and easy to play, while also being precise enough to pull off some nice maneuvers. The grind will take precedence over everything in War Thunder, even fun. Will you have fun while you grind? Of course, you will. Good matches are more common than you might expect, but you will get some bad streaks of luck that will make you question yourself. This mentality can be applied to many MMOs and free to play games, which is the other aspect that makes them appealing for a certain population. The grind gives the game a purpose, but to what extent does this purpose justify the amount of money or time you will have to spend to get to where you want to go, well, that is up to you. The game is much more grind-heavy and time-consuming without premium aircraft and a premium account, both of which accelerate your progress ten-fold. Without them, the game feels like a sluggish and punitive experience, something that was made clear by the constant reminder that you could have gotten more RP and SL if you had premium. THE FUN MOMENTS MAKE IT WORTHWHILE Are you familiar with the saying that goes, "everything is better with friends"? Well, that would describe War Thunder pretty well for my point of view. What has made the game worth it hasn't been the passing moments of glory or even the victories against all odds. It has been my friends and our interactions that have made it very much worth it. Today I had an experience just like that, despite me playing alone but with my friends on an open voice chat. I was about to bomb a base with my Phantom, flying low to avoid being spotted, when I saw six different spots coming towards me as I peaked a mountain. Half the enemy team merged with me in less than two seconds. I took some damage from one of the enemy fighters, and my vertical stabilizer ripped right off. Against all odds, I managed to fly my brick for long enough to drop my bombs on target, destroying the base. My friends and I laughed, shared a moment. That made that moment special, and made the grind of going back into battle 15 seconds after being shot down a bit less frustrating. If I can take away a couple of things from my first months playing War thunder, they would be: If you want to get into War Thunder, I would recommend you get into it with friends, and be prepared to spend some money at some point, as premiums are becoming more and more of a necessity as top tier content becomes harder and harder to grind. About the author: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

An introduction to one of our favorite mission editor features Even with the 2023 advent of multithreading in Digital Combat Simulator (mark it as a holiday), mission editors with dreams of complex scenarios still need to consider the player's performance experience. I will be the first to admit that at the beginning of my mission editor journey, I heavily relied on Late Activation triggers and dozens upon dozens of active units sitting unmoving waiting to be attacked. Something I learned over time was that players, even in player vs environment scenarios, want the opposing force to feel as though they are alive. Not a cold computer that always knows exactly when to react. The next entry in our DCS World Mission Editor series is an introduction to one of our all-time favorite methods: Uncontrolled AI Aircraft. As with our previous entries in this series, it is important to have at least a basic understanding of how to use the mission editor. What Are Uncontrolled AI Aircraft When placing AI controlled aircraft group in the mission editor, do it the same way you would any normal group. Select its weapons in the Payload tab, then plan its waypoints and tasks in the Route tab. When this group is placed on airfields, heliports, naval vessels or forward arming and refueling point and set to Takeoff From Ramp with the Uncontrolled option activated, this group will appear at its assigned location in a standby state - unmoving. At this point, you may be asking if that just makes it a static unit. The answer is both yes and no. A static object in DCS World has no AI processes tied to it. You can imagine them as unmoving objects in the shapes of vehicles that do drive, fly and sail. However, even when attacked, they do not do anything. Static objects are very useful for filling out areas where combat will happen to appear densely packed with hostiles, or decorate activate airfields with trucks, aircraft, and other vehicles. And with an almost non-existent impact on the processing power DCS uses to render them, you can use about a hundred of them with little to no performance impact. You can think of an Uncontrolled AI aircraft as a fully capable unit, sitting on alert awaiting an assigned Trigger Action to start their mission. Until that action is received, they are essentially static vehicles. However, once the action is received, the aircraft comes to life. Summary of Benefits Let us summarize the benefits of utilizing this type of unit in your DCS World missions: Uncontrolled Aircraft must cold start the aircraft, taxi and take off the same way human players do. This can make tracking the activity of opposing aircraft more realistic, as they now operate more like how the human players do. A mixture of Uncontrolled Aircraft and Static Object aircraft can populate air bases in ways standard AI controlled aircraft cannot. Visually, these airfields appear more vibrant and important to players. Further making them enticing locations. Uncontrolled Aircraft also force a finite number of aircraft per airbase. Rather than an airfield having a seemingly endless amount of hostile aircraft that are guaranteed to spawn, there can only be as many Uncontrolled Aircraft as there are slots to park them. For players, this is a form of progress. Using this method, it is possible to render an air base ineffective by destroying its aircraft over time. This method creates opportunities for human players to attack Uncontrolled Aircraft while they are still on the ground. A flight of aircraft that may be a threat later in the mission can be destroyed early on, if players can successfully reach them. This makes risky attacks against defended air bases more valuable to players. Some module creators have created unique static models to show the aircraft in a ready to cold start state. With engine covers on and boarding ladders extended, they show a model not frequently seen by players. Example: Basic Combat Air Patrol Assigning one or more Airplane Groups as defenders of their own airbases is one of the easiest ways to utilize Uncontrolled Aircraft. If a large Trigger Zone is set around the home base of the Uncontrolled Aircraft, it can be used a boundary that, if crossed by the opposing force, will scramble the parked Uncontrolled Aircraft into the air. In this example, let us call the airplane groups Flight Alpha, Flight Bravo and Flight Charlie. We will also use a Trigger Zone called Base Defense Zone, which will be an important part of this setup. We will set this up in a step-by-step guide. Step One: Setting the Trigger Zone Create a Trigger Zone named Base Defense at a size of roughly, 600000 feet or 182880 meters. This will make the zone roughly 100 nautical miles or 180 kilometers in diameter. Place this zone at the center of the airfield that Flight Alpha, Bravo and Charlie will be operating from. Step Two: Setting up Flight Alpha Create Airplane Group Flight Alpha, set its weapons, waypoints and tasks. The waypoints should keep the aircraft protecting the air base by flying around it in some way. It is important that the second to last waypoint is not a "Landing" type waypoint at the home base, but a Landing Rearming and Refueling waypoint with a 15 to 30-minute timer. The last waypoint should mimic the position, speed and altitude of Waypoint 1 with the task Perform Command "Go To Waypoint 2". This will start a Repeating Patrol Route. So long as the aircraft can land at the air base, refuel and rearm, they will continuously fly this patrol route. Try to keep its tasks for this group to include Search and Engage targets within the desired distance from Flight Alpha. In this example, let's call it 35 nautical miles. Do not let this group have the task "CAP". It is very important to make sure the "CAP" tasking is deleted. By keeping this group and other groups set to Search and Engage within a certain distance, they will maintain their patrol route. Set Flight Alpha to group to Takeoff From Ramp, Uncontrolled. With Flight Alpha still selected, open its Triggered Actions. In that menu add "Start" from the Perform Command set of tasks. Label this task "Start Flight Alpha". Step Three: Preparing Flight Bravo and Flight Charlie Repeat the same process in Step Two to create Flight Bravo. However, under Triggered Actions for this group, create a Start command. Name this command "Start Flight Bravo". Repeat this process for Flight Charlie. Make sure the Start command for this group is labelled "Start Flight Charlie". At the start of the mission, both flights will now be on standby in their Uncontrolled state, awaiting a condition to be met to force them to perform the Start command. Step Four: Activating the Trigger Zone We will now make the trigger zone made in step one an important part of this example. Open the Triggers tab in the mission editor. Create a Type Once Trigger Zone with No Event. Set the Condition as Part of Coalition In Zone (Coalition: Blue, Zone: Base Defense, Type: All). Set the Action as AI Task Push, Start Flight Alpha. Now, when any Blue coalition fixed-wing aircraft enters the Base Defense trigger zone, Flight Alpha will begin their cold start procedures, taxi to the runway, then takeoff to their assigned waypoints. Flight Bravo and Flight Charlie will remain on the ground in their Uncontrolled state. Step Five: Conditions for Activating the Other Flights Create a second Trigger in the Trigger tab. Set it to Type Once, No Event. Name it Start Flight Bravo. Set the Condition as Group Dead, Flight Alpha. Under Actions, create an AI Task Push action for "Start Flight Bravo". Now, when Flight Alpha is shot down, Flight Bravo will cold start their aircraft, taxi to take off and follow their waypoints and tasks. Repeat this process, but make the Trigger name Flight Charlie. Set Group Dead as Flight Bravo and AI Task Push Start Flight Charlie. Now, when Flight Bravo is shot down, Flight Charlie will start their aircraft. Congratulations, using Uncontrolled AI, you have now created a basic layered combat air patrol that protects an airfield, while also naturally opening up the aircraft parked on the ground to attacks of opportunity. The next time we discuss Uncontrolled AI, we will be looking at medium-level applications of this method for more complex scenarios. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. [Profile]

A brief appreciation of the freedom of vision The freedom of head movement during simulated flight is something that is hard to forget once you have tried it yourself. It is why, in my opinion, the addition of head tracking support to any flight title is a major plus. When I think of head tracking and flight simulation, I think of combat and sightseeing. I think of keeping my eyes on a bandit as we enter a rolling scissors. I think of looking across the wing of a Daher TBM 930 as the sun rises across the landscape. A few recent sessions on GroundFall made me appreciate head tracking differently. Not for combat, not for cinematic views, but for survival. GroundFall is a bush flight simulation title that can be defined as a non-combat game. Though rifles and sharp tools may need to be used for hunting or defense again wildlife, that is different from an armed conflict against other human beings. Survival here is staying out of the elements, remaining fed, hydrated, rested and avoiding physical harm while still completing any tasks at hand. The aircraft is the most effective tool for exploration and survival. To protect this tool, good pilotage is key. All it takes is one or two rough landings to damage the aircraft long-term. There are only so many tool boxes / repair kits players can find and store on their person or in the aircraft. A warped wing or missing flight surfaces can result in GroundFall becoming a hiking simulator very quickly. Before the addition of support for Natural Point TrackIR head tracking, I must say that view controls were somewhat clunky in this game. Especially on a game pad controller. While in flight, it was rather inconvenient to hold a button while using a joystick to slew the view. Most of the time I found myself not bothering too much with this method. Instead, I opted for making multiple passes over a potential landing strip with the view locked in the 12 o'clock position. Head tracking in GroundFall simplifies the process. TrackIR is enabled from when the game is launched and only controls the cockpit camera. Players just need to run the TrackIR software on their end and recenter the cockpit camera in game by using the TrackIR re-center keybind. Being able to use both hands to maintain control over the aircraft while turning my head does wonders. I would even go as far as saying it changes the experience of flight in game. In a way, it was almost like I was reminded about the importance of this ability after being without it for a time. I can remember the moment this appreciation came back to me. I found myself circling above the treetops, visually reconnoitering a flat strip of dirt. My aircraft had a damaged flap, meaning I would have to land a bit faster than I would like to, to avoid fighting asymmetric lift at very low speeds. As I evaluated if the rocks dotting this potential landing site were small enough to handle on landing, I was able to spot a number of deer occupying the middle portion of the landing strip. With fuel getting low, I opted to fly back to the main airfield to land safely on a longer prepared runway. Now my strategy relies on overflying potential dirt airstrips looking for obstructions and orbiting random cabins in the woods, planning out a way to reach them. All while being safely above danger. I have not had any near-miss encounters with a family of bears toddling down the runway, so things are really looking up! About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers.

If I were to ask you, what would be the first thing that comes to you mind when I say "DCS"? For some of you it would probably be something along the lines of "in-depth simulation" or "complex", and to that I would agree. DCS is a simulator built from the ground up to be able to give its users the closest they can get to being a fighter pilot from the comfort of their chairs. Instead of talking about that side of DCS, today I wanted to talk about the other side of it. One that relies of its simplicity to thrive: non-clickable aircraft. Specifically, the only one that exists at the moment, which would be Flaming Cliffs 3 (FC3). This module, which dates back to 2013, is one of the, if not the, best starter module one can buy. It not only includes what I could consider to be the best bang for the buck experience in DCS as of today, but it also allows more casual players an entry point into the community and the simulator as a whole. Here is what it offers for those of you that do not know: A-10A WARTHOG The oldest version of the Warthog in-game. It still has the capabilities to be a fun aircraft that is also able to tear through enemy lines like they are Christmas cookies. F-15C EAGLE One of the best fighters in the game, the Eagle is able to gain air superiority for any faction that uses it. Lots of fuel, ammo and missiles that make it capable of destroying everything in the sky, but it is still unable to do any kind of air-to-ground missions. SU-33 "SEA FLANKER" The cheapest way to get a combat-capable carrier-borne fighter. It is a joy to fly and to fight on, alongside being the only red-for aircraft that has air-to-air refueling capabilities. SU-27 FLANKER AND J-11 FLANKER-D A capable interceptor and dogfighter, the Flanker is one of the only aircraft in-game that can pose a threat to American-made fighters. The J-11 is also available, with R-77 missiles at its disposal. This would make it the only Flanker variant capable of launching "FOX-3"-type missiles. MiG-29A AND MiG-29S One of the best interceptors in-game. The A variants has access to older avionics, sensors and weapons while the S has access to a better radar suite and modern weapons, such as the active-radar R-77 missile. SU-25 FROGFOOT Not to be confused with the Su-25T that comes with the base install, this Frogfoot is an older and less capable variant of the same aircraft. That does not mean it is not a bundle of fun regardless of its lack of capabilities. FC3 comes with all of these aircraft and its campaigns for far less than what it would cost to buy a single module. So, what is the catch? What makes this module so cheap with this much content? THE CATCH AND CONTENT ISSUES Coming back to my initial question, one of the proposed answers was "complex". FC3 is the ONLY module inside of DCS that does not have clickable cockpits. This is, as I am about to discuss, a double-edged sword. The fact that it does not have clickable cockpits lowers the entry bar a lot, making it easy for everyone to get into the sim as I previously discussed. By the contrary, by making these aircraft non-clickable you are also losing so much of what makes DCS special. I do not know if it is because I have almost a decade and a half of simulator experience but what makes this sim special is the fact that I can interact with almost 1:1 replicas of real fighter aircraft and touch their cockpits. Learn their cockpit flows and what makes them unique. You miss most of that with FC3. The fact that FC3 does not feel as in-tune in DCS as it could derives from the fact that the Flaming Cliffs series as a whole used to be its own franchise, one that was completely separate from DCS. In fact, this franchise dates all the way back to the early 2000's, when DCS was but a dream in someone's mind. The basis of what would become FC3 were set with the release of FC2 in 2010. Here, enjoy some nostalgia with me by watching the FC2 trailer: When everything merged into DCS:World; FC2 and by extension its upgrade, FC3, also merged with it. It was the smartest and easiest choice since including their rosters increased playability by an incredible amount. But we are now in a different DCS than we were. One that has dozens of full fidelity modules and third party add-on that greatly increase the variety of aircraft we can fly. Flaming Cliff aircraft now feel kind of like relics from the past. For better or worse. Do not get me wrong, I love them for what they are and understand that they have their purpose inside of DCS, but they are just not the same as any of the other modules. Hell, they have received visual and functional upgrades over the years: new weapons, new flight models, new PBR textures, etc. But they still feel like they would belong better on another game. Hence, my next point and the main purpose of this article. THE FUTURE OF NON-CLICKABLE AIRCRAFT: MODERN.AIR.COMBAT (MAC) It has been over 8 years since Eagle Dynamics has released any aircraft that is not full-fidelity, so they have shown that that is not their focus when it comes to DCS:World anymore. And from today's poll on our twitter, it seems like at least half of our voters (thank you all for participating, even if only over 50 of you did prior to publication) prefer only flying full-fidelity in DCS, with a certain percentage liking both FC3 and Full-fidelity aircraft. This is where Modern Air Combat enters the scene. Announced a couple years back, MAC is the true successor to LOMAC and FC3. It will be an independent AAA title developed by Eagle Dynamics that promises to deliver a similar experience that those older titles but with today's comfort and technologies. M.A.C is where these non-clickable aircraft will shine, as they do not need to be compared with full-fidelity aircraft anymore. I do not think that FC3 is going away, it has its purpose inside of DCS, but any other future non-clickable aircraft will most likely be available on MAC, not DCS. I personally can not wait for this title to come out, as the market is in dire need of more sim-lite experiences. About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Frontiers Reach has come to its next major milestone in development. With the core elements of the game now in place, it has officially left early access on March 1st, 2023. While exciting, the lead up to big dates like these usually have the developer working harder than ever to polish the product before release to the public. Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza from Skyward Flight Media was fortunate enough to slip in a release day interview with the lead developer from Blind Alien Productions. I'm sure there's a lot of last-second preparation going on, thanks so much for accepting our interview. Absolutely! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about and share the game. As for the introduction, my name is Scarlett Toney, or on the internet, you will likely see me listed as Soliloquis (Soh-lil-oh-kwis). I am the lead developer on Frontiers Reach and am personally responsible for about 80-90% of the game's artwork, code, design, and writing. But even with that kind of contribution from just myself, there have been a LOT of other supporters and contributors to the game over the past two, almost two and half years of development. It's been a wild ride, and despite all the bumps and distractions, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I've met some awesome people. Learned some great new skills. And I've managed to open up more career opportunities for myself and those who have contributed to the project, which is awesome because that was my goal from the get-go. Frontiers Reach is out of early access! Congratulations. How is the team at Blind Alien Productions feeling about this next major step after roughly two years of development? We're all pretty excited. The voice actors are keen to hear their performances laid out in their entirety. The composers are eager to hear their music in tandem with the visuals. However, I'm already planning the next steps for the further expansion of Frontiers Reach not just as a game but as a series, and the team is ready to support me where and when I need it. Is Frontiers Reach the first game the studio or any of its developers have worked on? I would classify this as our first major title. We've got another, smaller title called 109 up on Steam that is very abstract and an early concept I want to try another go at later down the line. One of the other founders has worked on other projects apart from BAP and even won an award for one of them. I myself have worked on corporate software using Unity for nearly 8 years having, deployed over 30 pieces of software across, I think, maybe 5 different countries. So certainly not my first rodeo. The story of Frontiers Reach being about escaping war rather than trying to become a war hero sticks out in my mind. How did the concept for this game start? This actually dives a bit into my family's history here in the United States. In fact, just this past week, I went and looked at the Cherokee Indian Rolls (I've done this once every few years to see if they had been effectively indexed onto the internet) and found both sides of the family have their surnames on 2 of the lists of Cherokee who (as I understand it) have their ancestry in the Trail of Tears. We know for a fact that we have Great Grandparents who were Cherokee and/or Choctaw. At this point, it's just a matter of finding out if we are actually related to anyone on the rolls. It may be the French/English side of my family is just too prominent to warrant a reconnection. Regardless of the outcome of the efforts I've stated above, the universe of Frontiers Reach is based loosely off the of the time period of the American Frontier both before and after the American Civil War. In some ways, the story of Frontiers Reach is the story of the Cherokee people and those who settled with them. But it's also the story of America as a whole. Because it wasn't just the Cherokee people who were displaced, there were many. There was even a vast number of Europeans who displaced themselves, seeking hopeful new lives on the frontier only to be met with the harsh realities of what that actually meant. Starvation. Isolation. Malnutrition. Disease. War with the Indian Nations out west. The list goes on. To be a bit more specific though, the story follows a group of people who are the descendants of the earliest days of space colonization. Some feel entitled to the old frontier. And others feel they should pursue another, new frontier. At the core there are questions about getting caught between two super powers. Being a hero not to an entire galaxy but to a small group of people who may only really matter in the context of your experience through the galaxy. And last but not least, giving the player some agency over whether they want to take their fleet into the unknown to start something new, or go headlong into a major conflict alongside a new body of governance that may or may not achieve its goals. I think this is one reason I've actually had some trouble getting people to work on this. Because for most, the old frontier ways are gone, but for the few I have found who are from the old ways and who have gained tech skills, it has been difficult because of the pain of bringing up old memories. The flight model this game uses has received some vague criticism in the past. I was surprised to find it more flight simulator-like rather than flight arcade. What are your thoughts on the flight model? So I was definitely trying to go for something a bit more simulator like. I love popular sci-fi like Star Wars and Star Trek, but Frontiers Reach is based more on my love for aviation and aerospace history than my love of science fiction. I think that might be where people are going to get hung up on it. This is sci-fi according to someone who is an aviation nerd. The design of the starfighters is undeniably a highlight—especially the cockpits. Instead of being covered in holograms or touch screen panels, I could sometimes swear I was sitting in a forgotten Earth aircraft from the late-1950s. Why was this design choice made? So yeah. Remember when I said I was an aviation nerd? So, my mother's side of the family is from southwest Ohio, which is known for a rich heritage in aviation. I even lived about 15 minutes away from where the Wright brothers built the Wright Flyer. Basically, we came out of the woods to move closer to my stepdad's family and were living so close to Wright-Patterson AFB I could walk out my front door, go about 100 meters down the street and see the perimeter fence around the base with planes landing and taking off in the distance. Additionally, my father's side of the family is from northeast Arkansas, which is rice farming country for as far as the eye can see and requires crop dusters to effectively fertilize in a timely manner. And when I served in the United States Army I spent my last 4 years in as an Infantry Scout walking, driving, and yes even flying (riding in Chinooks mostly) where ever we needed to go. So real world aviation has been a staple of my life since I can remember. And simulator aviation too, in some respects. I grew up playing Janes WW2 fighters and dabbled with Fighters Anthology a bit. I also had a copy of Mig Alley, but we rarely had a computer that could run these games effectively and money was always tight, so my experience with these titles was always limited. Do you have any recommended starfighters players should try out as soon as possible? Before getting the Condor in this last month, the Hoplite or the Atlatl would have been my recommendation. But right now, the Condor is really feeling nice and the visuals of watching it do its thing while you're flying and fighting are spot on. Has the development of additional supported controllers and software to augment the game impacted how it has been received so far? (flight sticks, Track IR, etc.) Not really. Frontiers Reach hasn't really had a big player base from the get go, and I kind of expected that. It's actually one of the reasons why I tried to keep other people's money and emotional investment out of the project as much as I have because it is a very strange combination to have in a game. So simply adding a new controller capability to the game hasn't affected much, but for the people it has brought in, I would hope they are enjoying the game. I believe this game is much larger than people think it is. With a story mode, optional side missions for the story mode, the WARMAP, recently added instant action, and even seasonal events, it does make me want to ask: is there a set list of content the team is working towards completing? So the plan was always to have a lengthy story, with side quests that could be completely skipped, and with some kind of dynamic conflict map of some sort that would have story missions sprinkled throughout and the occasional seasonal event mission. Everything would be kept to being around 20 minutes in activity time so that it would keep the workload on the team light, but more importantly, it would be something adults could engage with. We're all adults who like complex games that are challenging, but we don't always have the time to sit down and engage with a piece of content for 4 hours out of the day. I am still developing with that plan in mind and also have plans to create a mission builder into the game similar to the one in Janes WW2 fighters. With workshop integration. With a galactic conflict spanning over 40 locations, the WARMAP by itself could be a standalone game. Please discuss the development of this game mode and where it stands today. It's funny because I've had someone else say the same thing, but when you get under the hood, the reality of the matter is that the WARMAP exists because of all of the work done on the campaign. I designed a data model early on in the development that allowed for all of the exact same tools used in the first act of the campaign to be leveraged for the WARMAP. In fact, that was the intention the entire time. The missions for Act 2 in fact, are intended to be played out on the WARMAP with the player building a fleet via rescuing vessels in distress. I've still got some work to do on that front, though, so I don't want to dispense with the details too much. To get the WARMAP up and running though what I had to do was get two AI bots to roll dice over some nodes. Then I piped in my data model that I had been using to give the player access to missions all throughout the story mode. So the WARMAP system is using that exact same data model to control which missions are available based upon who owns what nodes and what the current defense condition for that node is. There are a bunch of calculations going on between the 2 AI bots rolling dice. Things like how many commanders are available. What their connection to the logistics lines looks like. The list goes on. On release day, the WARMAP will be in a sandbox-like state until Act 2 is ready to go. Despite the volume of content, the Steam page describes the overall experience as "adult accessible." Could you explain this a bit more? So when we say "adult accessible" what we mean is that the activities could be played on a lunch break once you get through the learning curve. I want to touch on what may be a delicate subject. I want to discuss this to highlight something distinctive about the team. In December 2021, significant decisions were made. Development was put on hold, the team was reformed, and the original Kickstarter was canceled. Could you describe what happened? Yes. I started the project alone in my then studio directors basement after having lost my apartment when my roommates all left to go be with family as the covid lockdowns were going into affect. During that time, I met a young programmer on reddit and we hit it off in terms of working together. Other people eventually joined the team and I was expecting, and even stated it on multiple times, that everyone was going to self-manage and get their work done. The young programmer was doing this. He even spent 6 to 8 hours on voice chat over Discord with me; teaching me and helping me integrate his work. As far I understand, he like myself was always kind of on the fence about the Kickstarter (I'll explain my hesitation on this in a moment). But we were both optimistic about the idea of doing it in the future. The problems started when I had to take a day job to legit avoid becoming homeless and could not effectively manage the team anymore. The quality of the work was never where I wanted it and I couldn't actually focus on the artwork the way that I wanted because I was having to use all of my time off from work to try and manage people who told me they were good to self manage their own work and get things done. They may hate me for it. But from my perspective, we were missing deadlines internally and quality was suffering immensely. I had no confidence in the team's ability to actually deliver on much of anything and I had no time or energy to effectively manage anyone. So the thing I started as a place to learn and grow as an artist and to serve as a sort of artistic therapy, as I am a veteran of war and do indeed have PTSD, became a consistent point of stress for me. In fact, the reason I get as much work done on Frontiers Reach is because I have PTSD induced insomnia which leaves me awake for 18 to 20 hours a day. But those hours need to be low stress or I start having serious health problems and can't actually get anything done. And if I get stressed out enough, I will completely cut off and isolate entirely. A consequence of being from 2 families who have spent almost 250 years living in relative isolation in the wilderness. When we're wounded /offended/whatever we don't attack the offender so much as we just take what is ours and we go somewhere else. In my case, that was quite literally 90% of the game. In the end I think a lot of it came down to priorities and differences in goals and life circumstances. As for the Kickstarter and my aversion to it, I've backed Kickstarter/crowd funded projects before. Star Citizen comes to mind. Not only has the development time been way longer than I expected (and I remember the rumors around Freelancer), but it's just gone in a completely different direction from what I was expecting. Long story short, I don't want to give someone that experience. I'm sure it's probably already happened though. Just sucks. Thanks for sharing such a personal aspect. I brought this up because events like these have the power to cancel games before they're out of early access. It's a formidable obstacle for any development team. I believe "tenacity" is a word that describes how your team consistently tackles any hurdle it comes across. Since the shakeup, does Frontiers Reach feels closer to what was initially envisioned? In some ways it feels very much like the core structure of what I originally laid down in the design document. But the design document was quite vague to begin with. I didn't want to lock myself into a specific set of gameplay features early on so instead, I defined the GDD in vague terms to allow for the freedom to develop in new directions along the way. The core of that document was always "launch from a carrier in a retro cool starfighter to complete story driven missions around the galaxy in a large interstellar conflict". With the game moving into its next phase of development, are there still tweaks and quality-of-life improvements to be made? Oh yes. I'm expecting to get a swarm of feedback after the release. I will have to check the number again but if I recall there are a few hundred wishlists that we're on. People literally waiting for us to give them the thumbs up that the story is good to go for them to dive into. What's the next big step for the team? Getting much more organized and legitimized. We've scattered and working remotely for some time now. But our goal is to find a house somewhere that is cheap with fiber internet and to build a home studio into. The entirety of the core team is war veterans and we've a habit of sticking together, so getting a good foundation beneath our feet to keep developing games and telling stories is our next big goal. Is there anything you'd like to express to new players interacting with Frontiers Reach for the first time? Please have fun! And try to let your mind run wild in something truly different for a change. I've done what I can to bring something of the entire worlds history into a sci-fi experience that isn't going to sugar coat the realities of hard living, but that can also serve as medium to ask some really hard questions about the expansion of civilization and how that affects the people who live on those "frontier lands" in something that resembles a neutral space where personal emotions are less likely to run high. Thanks so much for the interview! Again, congratulations on the next phase of this game's release, and good luck to the team going forward! About the Interviewer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

The beauty of indie games is their willingness to do the unexpected. To intentionally step outside of the well-worn pathways games have followed for decades. No matter how complex or short they are, they have the potential to leave a lasting impression by trying something unusual. As a fan of, let's say, "non-traditional" flight titles, it's games like this that have a special place in my mind. Created by a five-person team, Eole is a short arcade flight experience available on Itch.io - a platform for just about every type of indie game you can think of. Dubbing itself a "contemplative flight sim" I could not help but wonder what that even means. After loading up the game, I was greeted by a rather artistic main menu. Taking time to appreciate it led to a nice and neat button rebinding screen that demonstrates button inputs by moving a miniature version of the player's aircraft on screen. It was a pleasant surprise to find that keys could be set for gamepads and flight sticks. Although more advanced controllers are a bit harder to set up, using the pre-game launch Unity menu to bind keys is recommended. This game is firmly arcadey enough for anyone to pick up and enjoy. The flight controls are nowhere near flight simulation level aside from knowing how to roll, pitch, and yaw to maneuver. Going full throttle and pulling straight up is enough to get the player out of most situations, and the penalty for a fatal crash is a quick reset of aircraft position somewhat far away from the impact site. Instead of being met by a busy metropolitan airport or a burning war-torn countryside, the game opens with a Cessna-like aircraft flying towards a pair of dimly lit yellow torches. Upon passing them, they turn to a bright blue blaze. In the distance are floating islands covered in trees, waterfalls, and mysterious ruins. There are no other in-game directions. Now knowing that the torches hold some significant meaning, seeking them out appeared to be the only way forward to whatever lay in wait. What was nice about having no direction was how it let my imagination soar. Zigzagging through trees leads to finding decayed homes and a dilapidated amphitheater. Flying between the arms and legs of Titan-sized statues of two warriors in combat made me question who they were and why such massive sculptures were erected. This line of thought continued as I flew past the next set of ruins discovered, and day and night, steadily cycled on. The only companions in this airborne archeological trip are the slow music and gusting winds. The name "Eole" translates from French to English to "Aeolus," the name of the Greek divine keeper of the winds and king of the mythical floating island of Aeolia. The brief description of the game's download page mentions a confederation of kings and their marvelous power that influenced the floating islands and continents below. While roaming the skies of what I assume is all that remains of their domain, I couldn't help but try to piece together what their civilization may have looked like. Or what exactly their great power was. The title "contemplative flight sim" then became clear. In a span of fewer than 30 minutes, this game certainly had me thinking somewhat seriously about even the most minor details of terrain or crumbled man-made structures. Eole isn't a genre-redefining game, but the vein of creativity it portrays is worth noting. Games like Flower, Sky Odyssey, and SKYE come to mind as I reflect on it. For anyone that has a decent computer and is in need of a calm flight session that costs nothing but a bit of their time, this free-to-download game is well worth it. Where do those torches lead? What is the forgotten power lost somewhere within that fantastical land? Why not find it for yourself? About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

To say that I am excited for Heatblur's F-4E Phantom II module would be the understatement of the century. I am not only a fan of the Phantom as an aircraft, and quite fond of Heatblur's products, but some of my earliest memories with gaming and flight games were in front of my dad's CRT while flying a Phantom in Ace Combat 04. This aircraft means a lot to me, so naturally I have religiously kept up with all the news and updates related to the DCS F-4E. While I do know that I am not alone in this, I also know that not everyone has the time or will to stay updated, even more when most of the exciting information we have gotten about it is somewhat hidden away. Today, I want to try to collect as much official information as possible, so you can know what to expect from this module and know some of the features that will come with it. Of course, this is because the launch of this module is fast approaching. CAPABILITIES AND CONFIRMED FEATURES Before we truly start, I'd like to address that Heatblur does have their own FAQ for the module, but this one is quite old, meaning that some aspects of the module and its release have changed since its publication, but these changes have not been reflected in the page. The purpose of this article is to fill some of these holes to give you the most up-to-date picture about this module that we can, with publicly available information, that is. With that out of the way, let's start by stating some of the most obvious items: Initially, we will be getting two versions of the Phantom. One of this is an F-4E from around 1974, specifically one belonging it Blocks 36 through 45. This means that we are getting a post-Vietnam era Phantom with plenty of avionic upgrades as well as the Agile Eagle aerodynamic upgrade package! This means it will come with its leading edge slats, which, in simple terms, increase its turning capability quite a bit when compared to older Phantoms. The second one is mostly the same as the Block 36-45, but with the DMAS (Digital Modular Avionics System) package installed, which will allow this version to carry some "modern" weapons such as AGM-65 Mavericks, CCIP delivery modes for bombs, an improved navigation system and even the use of the Pave Tack targeting pod! Both versions will also use the APQ-120 Radar, an older and more primitive radar that still has some of the first iterations of features we have grown accustomed to in modern aircraft, such as CAA mode, similar to ACM on modern aircraft. The radar picture that it will provide will not be filtered, and since Heatblur is making a fully physically based radar, you will have to deal with a lot of ground clutter to spot your target. This leads me to the subject of simulation within the F-4E ecosystem. What Heatblur have shown, pre-release, is astonishing. They have reworked the way their RWR systems work and how they accurately detect radars now, depending on bands distance, emitters, etc. It is amazing to see what they have created just to give their users a realistic experience. Additionally, our Phantom will also have an amazing set of weaponry available for it, minding its timeframe and its block, some of which we have had confirmed only through images and Discord messages from Cobra847, Heatblur's Lead Developer. The most obvious are: Almost every version of the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile older than the Mike models. AIM-7E/E2/F Sparrow missiles Integrated/nose mounted M61 Vulcan cannon Almost every single Mk.80 series bomb imaginable, as well as their laser guided GBU counterparts (GBU-10/12/16) There are a couple of weapons and equipment that been spotted on videos and screenshots shared on the Heatblur Discord server, some of these include: GBU-8 & GBU-15(v) Electro-Optically Guided Bombs This is bomb is pretty similar to the AGM-62 Walleye in its function. It is an early glide bomb capable of being guided in real time through the use of a two-way datalink. It has a 2000lb warhead, so it will pack one hell of a punch. AGM-45A/B SHRIKE This anti-radiation missile will open up a new world of dedicated SEAD missions for any Cold War player, seeing as the only aircraft capable of launching this missile right now is the A-4E-C Skyhawk. Fun fact: Some of the modders that worked on the Skyhawk are now working with Heatblur on the Phantom, pretty neat! AN/ALQ-131 Jamming Pod Seeing here mounted on the on one of the recessed pylons, the AN/ALQ-131 will offer a pretty good jamming capability for the Phantom; at least as good as DCS allows. COCKPIT CUSTOMIZATION One feature we are also getting with the Phantom is going to be pilot customization! This means that we will be able to choose how our pilot looks, within the limitations of the module! As Cobra847 mentioned this about the system in their Discord: more info soon of course; but expect to be able to interchange gloves, suit/main equipment, mask, helmet interchangeably, etc. Additionally, it seems that different regional/export variants will also get their own custom cockpits. Since the F-14 uses the FORGE system, I would also expect that system to be a part of the Phantom, but that is just a personal theory without any base at all. THE HYPE IS REAL I'd expect the Phantom to release in this last quarter (2023), especially since the artist that made the OST for the module, Meteor, announced just a couple of days ago that he had to push his new album "Prophets" earlier than expected to avoid it conflicting with the album that he is making for the module itself. Here is the post. With this last piece of news, let's wait and see if we get our phantastic Phantom this year! About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

Lessons Learned, Ideas Reaffirmed, Future Events Happy New Year! As Skyward Flight Media enters 2024, I start the year by reviewing our recent community event on Digital Combat Simulator World. This event ran for three weekends in December 2023, totaling at least nine days of operations where players could jump in and jump out at anytime. Something important to note is that for our December 2024 event, we used a modified version of the Pretense Dynamic Campaign by Dzsek. This mission editor is known for incorporating complex aspects to missions like logistics, supporting ground forces, capturing territory and holding territory. Their missions automatically save progress in short intervals, meaning they can be played, rotated out, then played again later without losing progress - a rarity in DCS multiplayer focused missions. Skyward and the Black Aces made edits to weapons carried by aircraft, added the A-4E, C-130, and UH-60L mods and expanded the number of player slots in certain locations. All other credit for the mission goes to the hard work of Dszek. THE PILOT EXPERIENCE We had over a dozen pilots active in the server multiple times throughout the event weekends. They hailed from Skyward Flight Media, the Black Aces VRC aviation group and anyone else that got the password from our public posts about it. Whether they were talking in Discord channels, SRS, or elsewhere, players eventually coordinated their efforts to take and hold objectives. The scale of this mission was massive, taking up roughly 65% of the Caucasus map with over 40 locations to defend or capture. With progress being saved, running this mission for multiple three-day weekends was really the only way to have a chance at completing this mission in its entirety. The magic of multiplayer missions that are a bit more of a sandbox experience is that they incorporate just about every fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft in the DCS roster. Players can go from flying an advanced multirole fighter to a transport helicopter to a lightweight fighter, with each aircraft being viable in the scenario. It is somewhat hard to find such a balanced experience. The average session included far off surface-to-air missile sites were suppressed by Hornets and Vipers, while attack helicopters thoroughly destroyed land forces holding key areas. While brave pilots took less technologically advanced aircraft like the F-5E and MB-339 to interdict enemy convoys, waves of enemy aircraft performed ground attack and fighter sweep missions across the entire frontline. It was genuinely fun working with other players to coordinate aircraft capabilities, agree to focus on certain objectives, and manage the chaos that ensued. There was constantly so much going on across hundreds of nautical miles, it would have been difficult for BLUFOR players to react to each possible threat at once. This forced players to pick and choose where they would concentrate their efforts. Some players would dedicate themselves to specific roles, like suppression of enemy air defenses or combat air patrol, while patrolling the length of the always moving frontline or waiting at forward deployed air bases while monitoring the battle space. This was an interesting turn in player behavior, as it did take them some time and some serious air-to-air losses to adjust their overall strategy. More on this later. Fortunately, BLUFOR AI units had their own missions in the air and on the ground to push into REDFOR territory. They did this without any planned player controlled assistance. This really gave the feeling of an armed conflict unfolding in which players were just a part of the event, rather than the "stars of the show", if you will. BLUFOR human players fought alongside their AI counterparts to achieve victory. EMBRACING LOGISTICS The Pretense mission design incorporates a genuine logistics economy that effects both BLUFOR and REDFOR. Though, it primarily affects the AI war effort. The AI manages these logistics across every controlled territory to create defenses, rebuild damaged combat units, send armored vehicle attacks at enemy positions, launch air missions into enemy territory and launch support aircraft like AWACS and aerial refuelers. On the F10 Map, each BLUFOR location shows how many units of supplies it has available and if it is attempting to build something or launch a mission. As long as these areas had a sufficient amount of supplies, they were able to get these tasks done. Something that was wholly unexpected is that REDFOR, thanks to the limited inclusion of human controlled REDFOR aircraft, was able to heavily deplete BLUFOR supplies. To the point that logistics hit a critical state at BLUFOR airfields. One REDFOR pilot in particular, "Riko", took advantage of the poor coordination between human BLUFOR players during the first weekend of the event. He launched multiple interception missions deep into BLUFOR territory, destroying AWACS and tanker aircraft with little resistance. While this was an attempt on their part to blind BLUFOR aircraft, making them easier to attack on the frontline, this caused a massive drain on the supplies needed to replace these aircraft when destroyed. To the point that some of these airfields temporarily dipped into triple digit numbers, meaning they could almost no longer sustain air operations or even repair their own defenses. This caused a second unexpected reaction. While Skyward did add the C-130 mod and UH-60L mod to this mission, we genuinely thought they would not be used extensively. With the AI managing logistics, there technically is not a need to assist them. But when supplies were depleted this badly, a handful of BLUFOR pilots did step up. Using helicopters and the C-130, they moved supplies from other areas back to the airfields. During that first weekend, two players, "Cbanz" and "Mozz", flew the C-130 mod extensively to undo the deficit. As BLUFOR combat pilots learned a hard lesson that first weekend and changed strategy to prevent high value assets from being easily destroyed, "Cbanz" continued to fly the C-130. Even landing the hulking aircraft in narrow grass fields at frontline areas to move supplies where needed. This resulted in him becoming the top ranked player in the entire event by multiple ranks. To think that it would be a transport pilot who was at the top of the scoreboard... EFFECTIVE ROTARY-WING OPS This was briefly mentioned, but eventually there were multiple player controlled attack and transport helicopters active in certain areas of the frontline. They became so effective, they could fly into an area together, clear REDFOR from it and deliver squads of infantry to capture the territory they attacked just minutes ago. They accomplished what could take BLUFOR AI hours to do in just 30 minutes. This sped up progress significantly in certain areas of the frontline. If ground strikes could be coordinated with fixed-wing combat aircraft, helicopters could be en route as attackers and multirole fighters destroyed REDFOR in the area and kept the area clear until the helicopters arrived to complete the capture. It was a great sight to see. FEEDBACK, LESSONS LEARNED Overall, we were happy to hear that the December 2023 event was received well by those that participated. Listening to feedback, there were some things to learn on our end. There is a short list of changes that need to be considered in future events. Many of them were minor and easy enough to correct. Two of them did standout. First, the management of player controlled REDFOR aircraft. If an event is presented as a player vs environment scenario, the frequency of use and amount of these slots needs to be managed better. We intended these slots to be used to occasionally complicate things for BLUFOR, but it did hit a point to where it was nearly a full on player vs player scenario. The same happened to our October 2023 event in the last third of that mission. In the next original Skyward mission, if these slots are included, we must find a way to solve this problem. Second, unusual weapon restrictions. There was genuine confusion as to why the weapon restrictions were so oddly specific. One of the big things requested for this event was an emphasis on within visual range combat. Fox Three missiles were denied and eventually air launched cruise missiles and glide bombs were denied. Though GPS guided bombs were perfectly fine. All aircraft in the roster were made available for the sake of access but flew with these restrictions. Some aircraft, like the F-16CM and JF-17 only had close range infrared missiles to rely on. This became an odd stand between closer to a Cold War scenario. Players expressed that in the future, if these restrictions are to be in place, it would be better to just have it be a full on cold war scenario. Though, constantly restricting aircraft and weapon access can be grating. Rotating restrictions between events rather than making them universal would be best. Perhaps even "Cold War" and "Modern" versions for the same mission would be needed. PREMADE MISSIONS VS ORIGINAL MISSIONS While our October 2023 event was a completely original mission that took roughly four weeks to create and test, using a pre-made mission for December 2023 was certainly easier to set up. It took about two weeks to do the basic additions and changes that were mentioned earlier. All the heavy lifting was done by the mission editor that has the mission file posted for free use. The most we had to worry about was making sure any changes we made did not disrupt the more complex system Dzsek put in place. There were not glaring technical issues throughout the three weekends of our December 2023 event, everything ran smoothly. Comparing both events, the complete freedom of making an original mission from scratch does lend itself to more event specific goals. With no preexisting structure, things can be designed as needed. So long as the mission editor has the know-how, patience and will to design and test in private relentlessly. Though, that in itself can be immensely time-consuming. It can take weeks or months to design a solid multiplayer mission that can be used by large groups of people. Going forward, Skyward may need to be more focused on creating original missions for future large-scale public events, while including occasional playthroughs of lightly modified missions designed by other mission editors. THE NEXT EVENT? While there are no confirmed dates at this time, a pair of Skyward mission editors are discussing what the next potential event could be. What is certain is that an original mission, designed from the ground up by Skyward staff, is to be used for the next event. There is an alternate version of the mission used for the October 2023 event and an original mission on the Syria map that is fully functional, but has not been used for any public events. A third mission set on the Persian Gulf map has been in development for the past two weeks, but is still in design and AI only testing phase. It will most likely not be ready for use by human players until February 2024. Keep an eye out for future announcements for events happening with our DCS server provided by Fox 3 Managed Solutions. Thanks again to every that participated in our last event. It was great to see you! About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers.

SETTING A NEW STANDARD What does usually go through your mind when you think about VRChat? Is it those social clubs with way too many people to hold an active conversation? Or is it those experiences that feel like they don't belong in this predominately chill and social platform? For us, it is the latter, and we have a treat for you if you think like us. I'm no stranger to the aviation side of VRChat, a sub-culture that started thanks to Sacchan's SaccFlight prefab. With this system, a world opened up for creators that wanted to make aircraft and vehicles in the game, without having in-depth knowledge about the physics that govern flight. But that does not mean some creators didn't take this prefab and made it their own, customizing it to the point that it becomes unrecognizable. That would be the case of VTail, an experienced world creator and member of the VRC Black Aces, and their latest project: Tomcat F-14A "Naval Interceptor". THE EXPERIENCE When joining the world, you will be presented with something I wish more worlds had: a hub. This hub comes in the form of a highly detailed Ready Room, just like the ones you would find on real aircraft carriers! This was modeled by Sagi-chan for this world, and it is based on the ready room that was used by the VFA-41 "Black Aces" squadron! You can use the menu that is over the whiteboard to customize your experience to your liking, that includes graphical and gameplay settings! After you are done with that, do step into your flight suit and get ready for some flying action. The deck of the carrier is populated with 8 F-14A Tomcats, all ready for you to use. Once you approach your aircraft, remember to choose your skin with the livery selection system; that way your Tomcat will always feel a bit more personalized! With all pre-flight checks now ready, let's step into your new office! VTail's Tomcat is one that not only looks the part, but also feels great to fly. With its completely populated and highly detailed cockpit, one that has all instruments functioning and calibrated for accurate readings; this bird feels alive. Its flight model was carefully tuned to be a compromise between realism and accessibility, allowing even the rookies to get a grasp of just how fun flying it can be. The cockpit also has an accurate HUD and lighting system, which means that if you are familiar with this design from other games such as War Thunder or even DCS World, you will have no issues feeling right at home in the cockpit. Be it day or night, thanks to the day and night cycle that has been implemented in the world, you will always be able to get your bird up in the air and have fun. ATTENTION TO DETAIL If there is one thing that distinguishes VTail as a creator, it is his attention to detail over everything. This world wasn't in the works for 13 months for no reason, some of these systems had to be developed from scratch or highly customized to fit SaccFlight's needs. This can be seen on both minor and big features, such as the auto-kneeling on catapult connect and the LSO station respectively! I personally love the ability of being able to sit down and help people land while looking at them through the LSO camera. This LSO station is also connected to the fully modeled OLS (Optical Landing System), with the ability to tell people to wave off if their approach is too steep or unsafe! If you liked what you read here, then head out to VTail's Tomcat F-14A world today! It is free to access, all you need is to boot up VRChat to have some great fun with friends while flying the legendary F-14, of Top Gun fame. This world will be updated with a lot more goodies as time passes, so check up on it from time to time. You never know what you might find! About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

Frontiers Reach Christmas Giveaway Winners The winners of the giveaway are here! The winners will receive their prizes via direct message on X. Thank you for participating! @ChanSelig @ClickToZoom @firebuster334 @Isida_VRC @JackWoods3681 @joejunior3d @kailuluv @leokozm @ODOBR194921 @robert_hiltz Final Weekend of the Skyward x Black Aces DCS Event Starting on December 22nd @ 06:00 PM MST (UTC−07:00), the final weekend of our December 2023 event for Digital Combat Simulator World begins. For the past six days, different players of different skill levels have worked together to progress across the Caucasus map. Engaging in air combat, denying resupply convoys, capturing locations and providing logistics support, the final push to complete the mission is here! In the event that the mission in not completed this weekend, it will be left up through the last week of December until it is complete. We plan on writing an article in review of the event which talks about how the event went, interesting happenings, and things we have learned. Skyward Holiday Break Our stall will be taking a holiday break from writing content between December 24th and December 31st, 2023. Our content will resume on January 3rd, 2024. Enjoy your holidays and New Year! See you in 2024!

FRONTIERS REACH GIVEAWAY! From December 18th, 2023 to December 22nd, 2023 we are hosting a Frontiers Reach giveaway thanks to Blind Alien Productions. We have a maximum of ten (10) keys to give away on the Steam. The winners will be contacted on December 22nd, 2023. HOW TO ENTER This year, we have two ways to enter this giveaway. Follow SkywardFM on X/Twitter and like pinned giveaway tweet. Retweeting is not required, but helping spread the word is appreciated. For those that do not have a Twitter account, they can contact us on our email: staff@skywardfm.com. Please include your Name and/or Screen Name, email address and mention that you are entering the giveaway, so we can contact you if you win. Email entries count as one (1) entry. Skyward Flight Media will announce the winner publicly in a tweet and blog post on December 22nd, 2023. Thanks for joining our giveaway and supporting us. -Skyward Flight Media Staff

Is a scout that cannot scout still technically a scout? The Sikorsky S-97 Raider continues to be one of the most eye-catching rotary-wing prototype designs to come out in a long time. Speaking specifically about helicopter flight shooters, you don't often see prototype and experimental designs in their rosters. Most of these games use well-known airframes like the Mi-28 Havoc, AH-64 Apache, Mi-24 Hind, and UH-60 Blackhawk, for example. Even the long-canceled RAH-66 Comanche continues to be presented as a type of super attack helicopter, even though it has been well over 15 years since it last flew or was seriously considered for production. This is why I am so excited to see the S-97, a contemporary prototype for a next-generation helicopter, appear in a game. Heliborne: Enhanced Edition is a combat-focused helicopter flight game that features dozens of Russian, American, and Chinese combat helicopters. The entire roster of helicopters is separated into three distinct classes: Attack, Transport, and Scout helicopters. Each class has their own strengths and weaknesses. Their traits are especially prevalent in player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) game modes. While transport helicopters can carry large amounts of troops and attack helicopters can employ large volumes of firepower, scout helicopters specialize in more of a support role. In the real world, the S-97 Raider was created to meet and exceed the requirements of the U.S. Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) competition. As an armed reconnaissance or "scout" helicopter that can be reconfigured for other roles, its design utilizes coaxial rotors and a variable-pitch pusher prop to cruise at high-speeds in excess of 200 KTS (220 KTS according to official material). This translates to Heliborne well, with the Raider capable of reaching and maintaining at least 170 KTS in level flight. This makes it one of the fastest - if not the fastest - helicopters in the game. Its high speed is ideal for traversing even the largest maps Heliborne has to offer. In Heliborne, scout helicopters are the eyes of the attack force. Able to spot enemies for all allies to see while being an indirect fire coordinator. They are in no way designed to be slinging rockets and bullets while soaking up direct enemy fire for extended periods of time. With their Mortar Observer equipment, the scout helicopters can identify targets from safe distances, making medium and long-range strikes against enemies by allied transport and attack helicopters easier. The Mortar Observer's primary use is to call in indirect fire from mortar teams that can be deployed by player-controlled transport helicopters. It's possible for a single scout helicopter to destroy entire formations of ground forces and entrenched positions on its own with enough mortar teams at its disposal. This is where the Heliborne version of the S-97 has an awkward problem. This next-generation scout helicopter does not have Mortar Observer equipment. In fact, it's not even a scout. It is instead designated as an attack helicopter with three weapons configurations that are weak in comparison to other helicopters in its assumed class. There are also other scout helicopters that have more effective weapons configurations while retaining their Mortar Observer equipment. It feels as though the Raider is still abiding by scout class weapons restrictions for game balancing, while not gaining the benefit of actually being a scout helicopter. Heliborne: Enhanced Edition was released on August 20th, 2020 with the S-97 Raider being part of the new content introduced. Around a dozen major and minor patches have come out since then, and it is still in this unusual state of being. It definitely does not feel like an oversight at this point but more like an intentional design decision. This puts the S-97 in a weird spot on the game's overall roster. Being at the very end of the American-European branch of research, the path to unlock the Raider gives players access to helicopters that have better weapon options and great flight characteristics at lower research costs. This makes the Raider somewhat of a trophy that's flown more for the sake of being cool than useful. With Klabater continuing updates to both stabilize Heliborne Enhanced Edition and prepare it for a game console release, there's still a chance for changes to be made. Hopefully the day will soon come when we can see the Raider flying to its fullest potential. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

FlightSimExpo Attendee Registration to Open December 17 FlightSimExpo is headed to Las Vegas on June 21-23, 2024! Event registration is now open , starting at just $50. In-person registration for FlightSimExpo includes access to the show, all seminars, a free drink at the Welcome Reception on Friday evening, and post-event seminar recordings. The discounted $50 rate is available to the first 200 Flight Simulation Association (FSA) members to register. If you’re not yet a member, join for free to take advantage of the savings at flightsimassociation.com. Non-member pricing for Friday-Sunday access begins at $80, with Weekend or Online-Only options available too. “We anticipate the $50 FSA member registration will sell out within 24-48 hours—so be on it!” says conference co-founder Evan Reiter. “For those who can, we encourage you to plan travel now. Our discounted room rate at the Tropicana is more than 60% sold out and prices may increase when the block fills.” Details about travel, including airfare and rental car discounts, are available at flightsimexpo.com/travel. Skyward Flight Media Registration Link For the third year, Skyward Flight Media is a media partner for FlightSimExpo. This year we have a registration link people can use to get their weekend passes for the expo. As more people use our link to register to attend the expo, we in turn get benefits as an organization for the expo. So we would appreciate your support! Sponsor and Exhibitor Pre-Registration is Open FlightSimExpo welcomes software developers, hardware vendors, communities, and other flight simulation organizations to participate as sponsors, exhibitors, and speakers. All exhibit booths include furnishings, internet, electricity, and event passes. Speaking opportunities are available at no charge. Prospective sponsors and exhibitors can find more details at flightsimexpo.com/partner. Speakers can submit their topic for review and community voting at flightsimexpo.com/speakers. Schedule, Exhibitor Updates Expected Next Year Held at the iconic Tropicana Las Vegas, FlightSimExpo 2024 will feature product reveals, exhibits, VR and training demonstrations, and how-to seminars from some of the biggest names in the home flight simulation community. An initial list of sponsors and exhibitors will be shared in March 2024.

Think B-1, Not B-2 After multiple failed sorties and head scratching frustration, I asked myself aloud, "how am I messing this up?" If there is one thing I have heard about Nuclear Option from Shockfront Studios, it is how easy it is to pick up and play. The gameplay loop, flight sim lite features and easy to learn combat aircraft have made this title a bit of a must-have in the past few weeks. As a part of its play testing player base, I only recently had time to start some multi-hour play sessions with this title. Though there are many parts that intrigue me, there is a specific aircraft I am after. Strike Bomber Interest Looking at the limited, but capable aircraft roster, the SFB-81 "Darkreach" strike bomber grabbed my initial interest. You may be wondering why the slowest, lumbering aircraft available would be more attention grabbing for me compared to the other aircraft. In both action focused flight arcade games and realism focused combat flight simulators, the ability to fly strategic bombers is rather uncommon. With Nuclear Option being a flight sim lite, I wanted to know how they would approach incorporating a potentially vulnerable, slower platform into the high speed combat environment of fixed wing fighters. And, yes, for those wondering, the Darkreach does come with an ample supply of tactical nuclear weapons. At a glance, the SFB-81 looks like the type of current generation stealth bomber you would see performing an elephant walk down a United States Air Force runway. It has an obvious low observable design with interesting inward canted vertical stabilizers attached to the fuselage near the engine exhaust nozzles. In this configuration, they remind me of thrust vectoring paddles. Change in Mindset In retrospect, the problems I was having with the Darkreach were completely of my own fault. After flying other combat aircraft and reevaluating how I was approaching things, the problem was with my mindset and an assumption related to the strike bomber. After a dozen failed attempts during a highly contested airstrike against a vehicle depot, it dawned on me that the SFB-81, despite its design, is not a stealth aircraft in the slightest. There are currently not any stealth aircraft in Nuclear Option and may not ever be, for all we know. This is not a fault of the game, but it was a problem for the way I was approaching my sorties with this aircraft. I summarized my realization by changing my flying style from slow and stealth B-2 tactics, to low and fast B-1 tactics. Suddenly, success was more obtainable. Everything fell into place. A Calculated Hammer The Darkreach can achieve pretty impressive airspeeds for its size. Enough speed to even damaged itself if a high G maneuver is attempted while near its top speed. More than once have I been greeted with rather loud popping of metal and structural damage during a panicked high speed dive. Rather than being forced to remain a freefall bomb dedicated platform, the SFB-81 can deploy long-range and short-range air-to-ground missiles. The short range AGMs combined with the radar jammer provide a limited ability to suppress enemy air defenses on its own. A single strike bomber will not be destroying an entire integrated air defense system on its own, but it is able to knock out one or two pesky SAM sites during its sortie. The short-range missiles are also great for interdicting convoys of enemy vehicles before they reach the frontline. At more reasonable speeds, it can provide enough maneuverability to allow for low altitude ingress through rough terrain, pop up attacks and brief periods of dipping into enemy air defenses. In lieu of stealth, its onboard radar jammer is best for reducing the effectiveness of surface-to-air missile threats and radars that monitor the movement of aircraft. Combined with terrain masking and flares for close range threats, it can genuinely be hard to the Darkreach in its low altitude regime. Long-range cruise missiles are great for saturating target rich, high value areas like air bases, highway bases, mountain top radar complexes and similar facilities. Even when they are far out of reach of a majority of allied forces, the Darkreach can threaten them. This aircraft is the primary nuclear weapon delivery platform of the game, but, well... there is not much to say beyond its ability to completely wipe out massive swathes of land. It is very straightforward. The SFB-81 Darkreach cannot defend itself against air threats beyond flying fast and using its radar jammer and flares to buy enough time for allies to appear or dash back to the nearest friendly airfield. But this is where mission planning and good decision-making comes in. If there are multiple bandits in the air with little fighter escort available, utilizing cruise missiles while remaining within friendly air defenses is recommended. Furthermore, patiently monitoring the actions of allies from a standoff distance then dashing in when an opportunity arises is easy to do for this strike bomber thanks to its massive fuel capacity. After wrapping my head around this strike bomber, I can say that the Darkreach will most likely be my go-to aircraft in Nuclear Option thanks to its approachable and reward implementation of such a large aircraft while not relegating it to being combat ineffective 90% of the time because of the assumed low performance specifications and lack of self-defense options that often come with this class of aircraft. Bases beware! About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers.

After months of teasing, the long-awaited South Atlantic map by RAZBAM Simulations has released in early access for Digital Combat Simulator World. Our first impression of this new terrain mainly comes from a mission editor’s point of view. The fanfare surrounding this new terrain is a combination of a much needed addition of places to fly and the historic significance of the Falklands War of 1982. While DCS is well known for containing many high fidelity aircraft modules, it has always had a distinct lack of locations to fly. Unlike Microsoft Flight Simulator that can provide an entire planet to traverse, DCS mainly offers specific regions for players to fly, train and fight in. Though DCS was released on October 17th, 2008, there are still only seven terrains (aka maps, regions) to utilize. Now that the South Atlantic has been released, the number has risen to eight. THE VIEW: HIGH ALTITUDE VS LOW ALTITUDE Though this is not mission editor related, the overall look of the map being a consistent point of attention is something that should be addressed. In promotional content leading up to the release of the South Atlantic the beauty of the terrain has been shown in both videos from content creators with early access or promotional screenshots from its developer. This map does in fact look great from the high altitudes that fixed-wing aircraft normally operate at. However, flying closer to the earth reveals a noticeable decrease in the image resolution of the land. This is unlike the Syria map created by Ugra Media which launched in early access with an overall higher quality which was well known for being difficult to run on lower-end personal computers. While Syria was developed to be better optimized with many additions to the map over time, the early access South Atlantic map has launched with an overall lower quality in textures. There is time for improvement, of course, as this is an early access release, but that is the current state of things. GEOGRAPHY AND MISSION CREATION The first thing players will notice upon looking at the map is the pretty small number of airfields. While a handful of airfields in the region are indeed missing in this early access release (like for instance, the airstrip at San Julián), it's not too far off from reality. The area portrayed on the map is very sparsely populated, consisting mostly of cold, windy, arid Patagonian steppes and deserts to the east in Argentina and complex, fjord-like terrain and temperate forests to the west in Chile divided by the Andes. Most of Chile's and Argentina's population lives further up north, in regions with more hospitable geography and climate. As a result, the area covered by the map is populated mostly by relatively small cities and scattered towns, lacking huge international airports and the main Chilean and Argentinian military airbases around Santiago and Buenos Aires. Instead, the only two truly large airfields available to players are Carlos Ibáñez International Airport (otherwise known as Punta Arenas Airbase) on the south of Chile, and RAF Mount Pleasant on the eastern side of the Falklands islands, with a handful of smaller airports and airstrips scattered around. Combined with the fairly long distances involved for some mission profiles - particularly the over 300 nautical mile journey between the Falklands and mainland South America - this means fuel management will be much more critical than in maps with closer and more plentiful airfields, such as the Caucasus, Persian Gulf or Syria. Players will have to know their aircraft's capabilities with different loadouts, watch their fuel consumption and brush up on their navigation and in-flight refueling skills. The reward for doing so is being able to explore the many different possibilities this map offers in terms of mission scenarios. Do not be fooled by the low population density - the geography and history of this region opens up many doors for mission creators. But just what sort of scenarios can we get out of a bunch of cold rocks in South America, I hear you ask? In the following segment, we would like to discuss just a few of the possibilities. THE OBVIOUS: FALKLANDS WAR OF 1982 Naturally, the main historical scenario and raison d'être of this map is the Falklands War of 1982. Though the islands are presented in their modern status, with a large airbase at Mount Pleasant, the forward operating base built during the British landings in San Carlos bay for Harrier GR.3 operations is also modeled. Together with the airfield at Port Stanley, used by Argentina (as Puerto Argentino) during the war to launch Pucará and MB 339 sorties, this allows mission creators to recreate missions from all phases of the war. The greatest limitation here will be available player aircraft - RAZBAM plans to release an asset pack with British naval assets, but in terms of playable aircraft, the AV-8B lacks much of the air-to-air capability of the Sea Harriers used in the conflict (And crucially, it is essentially impossible to get AI Harriers to engage air targets - it’s hard to stress just how terrible the Harrier’s AI is) and the Mirage 2000C is far too capable to be an adequate stand-in for Argentine Mirage IIIs and Daggers. The upcoming Mirage F1 might be able to better fill that role, as well as the role of Argentine Super Étendards armed with Exocet missiles. No aircraft similar to the Pucará are in DCS yet (apart from mods), with the Mosquito being the most likely stand-in for that particular aircraft.. That is not to say there are no aircraft which fit in perfectly, though. The South Atlantic map will make a nice home for the upcoming MB 339 module, as well as the community A-4E mod. These two aircraft were used by Argentina in daring anti-ship missions and flying them in this role will no doubt be an interesting challenge for players, both in terms of combat and navigation. FALKLANDS WAR 2.0 After the war, the British were understandably concerned with strengthening their defenses on the Falklands, a concern which to a certain extent still exists to this day. RAF Mount Pleasant, the largest and most well-equipped airbase on the map, was built in 1985 to provide the islands with permanent air cover and is home to No. 1435 Flight, a RAF unit equipped with four Typhoon fighters. Fictional and alternate history scenarios in the Falklands will be right at home for Heatblur's and TrueGrit's upcoming Typhoon module, perhaps being put up against a JF-17 equipped Argentina. Modern scenarios are not the only ones on the table, though. Before the Typhoons, Mount Pleasant was guarded by Phantom and Tornado aircraft. As such, this map is also a historical home for the much anticipated F-4 module, and Cold War scenarios in the region could be interesting. Perhaps we could see Britain and Argentina teaming up against a Soviet amphibious assault, for instance. FLAMES IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO Old rivalries and border disputes between countries exist in South America just as much as in Europe. In fact, shortly before the Falklands War, tensions were high between Chile and Argentina over the disputed and strategically important Tierra del Fuego, the archipelago at the southernmost tip of South America. Having the two opposing sides in a mission separated by the Andes could be an interesting proposition. Similar mission layouts are already used by some mission creators with the Caucasus map, with both sides being separated by the Caucasus mountains. In the South Atlantic map, there are less airbases to go around and the mountain range is less deep across the frontline but more complex in shape. MAGELLAN STRAITS CROSSING American Nimitz-class supercarriers are too large to pass through the Panama canal - whenever one gets their home port changed from the East to the West Coast or vice-versa, they must traverse between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans the old school way: going the long way around South America. On their long journey, they'll usually take the opportunity to conduct training exercises with Brazilian, Uruguayan, Argentine and Chilean navies and air forces. Because the waters around Cape Horn are treacherous and the weather usually bad, most skippers will instead choose to go through the Straits of Magellan, a strait in southern Chile which separates the Latin American mainland from the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. It is a historically important sea route, and also a major chokepoint - a scenario in which players must defend a carrier battle group ambushed on the straits and ensure their safe passage is a unique possibility offered by this map. DYNAMIC MULTIPLAYER MISSIONS Most likely, the majority of multiplayer servers which choose to host this map are going to run missions with completely custom scenarios just like we see on other maps, with mission creators striving to create a framework which will allow for interesting gameplay within the geographical constraints of the map. PvE and PvP missions where airfields can be captured are of particular interest for this map. Because there are only two large airbases in the entire map, the importance of controlling them skyrockets. The low number of airfields and the large average distance between them means that careful mission planning is suddenly a lot more important. Much of the map is vast open ocean, which opens up a lot of space for naval operations while still offering much more land mass than Marianas, for instance - but also means players will often find themselves navigating over hundreds of miles of featureless terrain with no possibility of terrain masking. Likewise, most terrain in the map is very flat, making it difficult for people to sneak around - in complete contrast, the region around the Andes is extremely mountainous and full of complex valleys perfect for hiding from pesky enemy radars. Players will no doubt seek to use this highly contrasting terrain to their advantage, and mission creators will need to plan around this unique geography. CONCLUSION South Atlantic is the first DCS map located in the southern hemisphere (players will finally be able to use the “S” button when punching in coordinates!), and it covers an area which saw one of the most important - if often forgotten - aerial battles in recent history, opening up previously unexplored historical scenarios for combat flight simulation enthusiasts. Whether you are the type of person that prioritizes aircraft simulation or cares for the finer details of the terrain you’re flying over, the South Atlantic map is overall a welcome addition to Digital Combat Simulator World. It has a lot of room for improvement at this stage, primarily when it comes down to the low-level textures and terrain mesh; but the opportunities for new missions, scenarios and online multiplayer servers centered around the map are a benefit to DCS as a whole. About the Writer Caio "Hueman" Barreto An incurable aviation fanatic since childhood, fascinated by the design and history of practically anything that flies. A long-time fan of flight games, he currently studies aeronautical engineering and pursues his hobbies of drawing, writing and flight simulation on his spare time. See Staff Profile.

What do you imagine when you think about helicopter gameplay in DCS World? Most people would think about AH-64Ds using Hellfire missiles at insane ranges to destroy tanks, or maybe Mi-24Ps sneaking at low level to engage an enemy emplacement. Some would immediately think of UH-1Hs and Mi-8s transporting troops into battle. While those are all true, there is a particular role that only helicopters can fill: Combat Search And Rescue, or CSAR for short. It is this role that has proven to not only be fun, but extremely fulfilling for me lately. I am sure you have been in this situation before: you and your friends are flying a combat mission on a fixed wing aircraft, then suddenly you get hit by a missile you didn't even see coming and are forced to eject. After ejecting, you go back to spectators and grab a new aircraft, but your ejected pilot still stays there where you got shot down. As the night goes on, more and more of these pilots start piling up in the map. This, to me, is a failure in mission design, especially considering that the DCS sandbox has everything mission creators need to fix this issue. CSAR is a crucial part of any combat operation, including virtual ones, but why would people even care enough to rescue downed pilots if there is no benefit from it? This is where some amazing mission editors and script developers have stepped in and implemented a positive gameplay loop for CSAR pilots. This is the case for Pretense, the mission we are currently using for our December multiplayer event. Just like Through the Inferno, Enigma's Cold War, and many others; Pretense offers experience points and palpable rewards for those interested in rescuing their comrades in danger from behind enemy lines with UH-60L Black Hawks or any capable helicopters. It incentivizes cooperation between CSAR units and CAP, SEAD or even other attack helicopters to provide cover and clear a path for the rescue aircraft to land quickly and efficiently pick up any allied pilots downed during an engagement. Should you be a helicopter fanatic like me, I would highly encourage you to try out CSAR missions in DCS World. They are fantastic and offer something else than just being a combat taxi for troops or a direct attack platform to engage the enemy. CSAR benefits the team and gives you an excuse to cruise around, from spot to spot, to rescue your friendlies. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

Begin planning early for next year's community driven flight simulation expo The time is here. Once again, as we travel for holidays and round out the year 2023, planning and booking for Flight Sim Expo 2024 is already underway. In fact, we recently secured our hotel reservations for the event, and it is not even 2024 yet! Now that is good planning. For those that do not know, FlightSimExpo is one of the world’s largest dedicated flight simulation conferences and tradeshows. The event has welcomed more than 5,000 attendees to events in Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego, and Houston since 2018. FlightSimExpo is produced by Flight Simulation Association, a community-driven organization of developers, simmers, and real-world pilots working to make it easier to get started in home flight simulation. Join the community today—free—at flightsimassociation.com for resources, learning content, webinars, and discounts on top add-ons and simulation hardware. 2024 Schedule & Call for Speakers The 2024 event kicks off on Friday, June 21, 2024, with an expanded series of seminars and announcements from some of simulation’s biggest developers. On Friday night, registered attendees are invited to join a welcome reception and social event featuring light fare and a free drink. On Saturday and Sunday, attendees get access to a 40,000+ square foot exhibit hall for hands-on exhibits of flight simulation hardware and software. This year’s show will feature the return of the VR Experience Center, where participants can try a variety of virtual reality devices in various popular flight simulator configurations. Speaker stages will feature how-to seminars and educational discussions throughout the weekend. Organizers are now inviting community members, content creators, and developers to apply to host a seminar or panel discussion at this year’s show. Prospective speakers can apply at flightsimexpo.com/speak. Seminars at FlightSimExpo will be informed by a community survey in early 2024. Activities On the Thursday, Friday, and Monday surrounding FlightSimExpo, attendees will have access to Activities: add-on experiences like air traffic control facility tours, planespotting trips, and more. “At our Houston event, attendees enjoyed a behind the scenes tour of IAH airport, a night out at Topgolf, visits to air traffic control facilities, a group trip to Space Center Houston, and plenty of other aviation-themed outings,” says conference organizer Evan Reiter. “We’re working on even more fun, group-oriented experiences in Las Vegas now, and look forward to revealing those details in the spring of 2024.” Travel Details FlightSimExpo has negotiated significantly discounted hotel rooms for attendees who wish to stay on-property at Tropicana Las Vegas. The FlightSimExpo room rates in 2024 are $75 for Thursday and Sunday nights, and $155 for Friday and Saturday, plus taxes and resort fee. The all-in price for a 3-night Thursday to Sunday stay averages $188/night. Bookings made at these special FlightSimExpo rates also include in-room bottled water, wireless internet for up to 5 devices, and free parking in designated areas. To book, visit flightsimexpo.com/travel. “Room rates are subject to availability, so please book early,” says Phil Coyle, co-founder of FSA. “The discounted rates offer more than $200 in nightly savings from public hotel rates – and once they’re gone, they’re gone!” In addition, FlightSimExpo has negotiated special rates on flights from Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and codeshare partners. Using a link or booking code from the FlightSimExpo website, savings of 2-10% are available on hundreds of domestic and international flights. Event Registration Opens in December Attendee registration for FlightSimExpo opens this December. A 3-day event registration will again be just $50, available for a limited time and exclusively to Flight Simulation Association members. Anyone can become a member—free—at flightsimassociation.com/membership.

A long-awaited modern flight sim lite The gulf between flight arcade and flight simulation has been a wide one for decades. It is one thing for an arcade game to maybe include some extra aircraft functions like retractable landing gear, and it is another thing that a full-fledged simulator may allow you to use infinite missiles or similar things within its extra option. However, finding the happy medium between the two is hard to do and still uncommon. I have been wanting to write this piece for some time now. Flight sim lite games are something that is badly needed in my opinion. I'll do my best to not absolutely gush about Nuclear Option from Shockfront Studios and give it a fair first impression. While this game has officially entered early access on October 16th, 2023, its first public posts go as far back as November 2021. Its earliest semi-private play tests started in November 2021. They were shared by its developer under the username "B25Mitch" in the official Discord server via Google Drive links. Later on November 7th, 2022, the higher profile public play test on Steam was released. My experience with Nuclear Option starts during the last three to four months of the public play test specifically. This article will discuss Nuclear Option as it launched on October 16th, 2023. Flight Model and Controls Arguably, the part of Nuclear Option that I did not specifically come in for but now happily stay for. It touts realistic flight physics simulated along many aerodynamic surfaces per aircraft. Its detailed damage model isn't just for show either. As flight surface are damaged or parts of the aircraft itself are blown off, the effect of their altered status is apparent during all regimes of flight. The damage model has between 30 to 50 detachable parts, depending on the aircraft. The damage also extends to the cockpit with flight instruments able to be knocked out, including the all important camera on the internal targeting pod which gives players a massive boost in situational awareness against targets in the land, sea and air. Though this game can easily be played with a game pad, the October early access release has overhauled control inputs to increase compatibility for even more controllers; like hands on throttle and stick, rudder pedals, etc. I have yet to try more advanced controllers, because the previous public play test mainly relied on using the game pad or keyboard mouse controls. But even with a game pad, I find myself still using skills and tactics I would need to use in full fidelity flight simulators. Nursing a damaged aircraft with low thrust back to base by finding the ideal power setting, flap position and somewhat gliding to the runway. Maintaining maximum rate speed in a lightweight counter insurgency aircraft as the only means to survive an engagement with high performance fighters. Gaining speed and altitude to extend the range of munitions at the expense of opening yourself up to long-range air defenses. As I learned the hard way in the strike bomber, even overspeeding and turning just a bit too hard will result in pieces of the aircraft being torn off the airframe. Effectively disabling your own aircraft without enemy action. The flight model being so detailed further adds to the unique feel of each player controlled aircraft. I believe that if Nuclear Option did not have such a detailed flight model, the aircraft would not be as engaging as they are now. Original Models Due to recent experiences on a completely different platform, my gratitude for original models and original designs has exponentially increased. Nuclear Option has an entire roster of original designs that are both completely fictional or based on recognizable real world vehicles and weapon systems in varying degrees. There are also plenty of buildings, transports, trucks, infantry fighting vehicles, main battle tanks, air defense units and other structures that are modeled. Fortunately, these models are also fully available in the mission editor mode of the game. I do not have much experience with the mission editor, so I will not go into it deeply, but it is exactly what you would expect it to be. Comparable to mission editors in games like VTOL VR or even Digital Combat Simulator. For me, it is something worth looking into at a later date. Single Map As of its early access release, Nuclear Option has only one map. However, this 100km-wide map can easily be used to create multiple campaigns and one-off missions. This map features varying biomes (forests, deserts, snow, etc) and terrain (mountains, hills, ocean, lakes, etc). However, much like the large maps in Digital Combat Simulator World, a time will come when more maps will be needed before players burn out. There is only so much you can do even with this much space available. Nuclear Weapons The nuclear weapons in this game are touted as accurately simulated with shockwave propagation which really drives the awe and terror of seeing these weapons on the battlefield. You would think that any game that includes weapons of mass destruction, with a relatively low cost to access them, would be completely unbalanced. In player vs player and player vs enviornment missions, these weapons can be toggled on or off by mission creators and hosts. In single player, these weapons are eventually unlocked as large scale battles progress in one sides favor. When nuclear weapons are enabled a general warning across the battlefield is given. All units on all sides are notified. The general blast zone of these weapons is shown on map when they are launched, giving players a further warning. But just knowing where the weapons may land can often be too little too late. It is up to the player in game to monitor the movements of nuclear capable aircraft and interdict them before they can deliver a payload. When in an especially perlious situation, it is possible to try and destroy these weapons while they are sailing through the air towards their target, but this brings player closer to the blast zone of the munition. Thus far I am surprised to say this is working out well for the game. Its limits are sure to be continually tested in multiplayer envorinments, as players are always pushing to be as effective as they can be. It will be up to the developer to constantly monitor how players use or abuse these weapons to protect the overall user experience. Player Controlled Aircraft Of course, the highlight of the game are its five player controlled aircraft. Though without the game's flight model, I doubt they would be as distinct from one another. These aircraft represent different capabilities of aircraft seen in air forces around the world. There are some interesting things going on between aircraft handling, combat capabilities and weapon commonality. Aircraft like the CI-22 and SAH-46 can easily operate from forward deployed road bases, because of their ability to lift off vertically or in short distances. Their payloads primarily consist of short-range air-to-ground missiles (AGM), gun pods, rocket pods and infrared air-to-air missiles. Their relatively lightweight payloads make them quite valuable in maintaining ongoing support for ground forces. They are especially good at going toe-to-toe with ground forces for long periods of time. The CI-22 is surprisingly capable despite being a "starter" aircraft. It can survive air-to-air combat in the hands of a capable pilot, while still being able to perform pop up attacks on even the most dangerous ground vehicles. The T/A-30 is arguably the most well-balanced aircraft in the game, still capable of operating from certain forward bases while carrying more capable weapons like medium-range AGMs and unguided bombs in medium quantities. It can even carry a single 1.5 kiloton nuclear bomb internally. All while introducing the speed, altitude and acceleration of a fixed wing jet fighter. The FS-12 is more than capable than sweeping a flight of opposing aircraft with up to six infrared missiles and newly introduced medium range Fox Three missiles. Its high speed and unmatched maneuverability - sometimes unbelievable maneuverability - do make it a genuine menace even in small numbers. Though, its air to ground capabilities are very minimal. In a way, the SFB-81 is the titular aircraft for Nuclear Option, as it is the primary delivery platform for nuclear weapons. These include nuclear tipped free fall bombs and cruise missiles. Its conventional weapons include unguided bombs, short-range AGMs and standard cruise missiles. Cruise missiles in particular can be launched in large volleys deep into the rear support areas, potentially overwhelming local air defenses. While the SFB-81 is by far the largest aircraft in the game, it remains decently maneuverable considering its size. It also benefits from an onboard self-protection ECM jammer as a part of its countermeasures. Nuclear Option's damage models and flight model heavily influences players to fly their aircraft of choice to its strengths. In a heavily contested environment, you won't be pulling off unbelievable deep strike missions every sortie. You will be fortunate to survive a handful of missions back to back, if anything else. Within Visual Range Combat Emphasis It would be technically correct to say that this game favors within visual range (WVR) combat. Though at least a third of the weapons available can strike targets just at the edge of the human eye's range, the inclusion of a targeting camera with a great camera zoom keeps the player visually engaged. There are also many optically guided AGMs that require players to focus on the targets they fire upon, keeping them within the gimbal limit of their camera. It should be noted that AGMs can be launched at air-targets. They are not great in that role, but I have landed a few lucky shots on non-maneuvering aircraft in a pinch. While WVR is the primary focus, the inclusion of more beyond visual range weaponry may be something that upsets the balance of gameplay - it is hard to say. The Dynamic Battlefield While there is a bit of an implied story between the two factions at war in Nuclear Option, there is not a single player campaign with the base game. There are a handful of one-off missions that have players try each aircraft as an introduction to their capabilities. These are short to medium length missions with players focused on a single aircraft. Besides that, there are three tutorial missions, though these are focused on things like taxi and takeoff, targeting and weapons and countermeasures. The mission called "Escalation" is by far the best way to experience Nuclear Option in my opinion. It provides a large scale dynamic battlefield with each faction combining the efforts of land and air forces to capture bases, disable airfields, destroy factories and other objectives. With this game mode not easily won in just thirty minutes, players gradually gain points for destroying hostiles and returning back to base successfully. As points are gathered, the player's rank increases and further aircraft are unlocked to fly. This encourages players to get creative to tackle hard objectives and reward them for making progress. Depending on how advanced the target destroyed is, more points are given. My proudest moment is still taking down a stealthy strategic bomber with a twin turboprop light attack aircraft; that immediately unlocked every available aircraft for me. However, I can recognize that with only about 11 missions - most of them being on the short side, there is a real chance gameplay may become stale. Shockfront Studios' decision to open up to Steam Workshop support may be the long-term compensating feature that keeps this game going while further core content is created by the developer. This type of approach can work; VTOL VR comes to mind. Relying on the quality and steady stream of missions created by the community does have its risks. It will be interesting to see how it holds up over the next three months. I am pleased with the initial early access state of Nuclear Option, but I do acknowledge that its initial limited content will seem like its greatest drawback. I do believe there is enough here for players to jump in and immediatelly get a feel for what this title is. In my opinion, its greatest strength will most likely be its Steam Workshop support in the next few months, though further content like maps and single player campaigns will be needed or else the core gameplay may not be enough to entertain players over time. My next piece about Nuclear Option will be focused on using advanced controllers and the PVP/PVE gameplay experience, which is something I believe this game will be known for in the long-term. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

Skyward Flight Media is presenting a December 2023 event on our Fox 3 Managed Solutions Digital Combat Simulator server. A set of custom edits to the existing mission have been done in cooperation with The Black Aces VRChat aviation community, whom we often fly various flight games and simulators with in our private time. This will be the largest and longest public event we have run on our server thus far, running for three weekends in December 2023. HOW TO JOIN Please see this webpage for more information if you are interested in joining in on this event: If the above button does not work: https://www.skywardfm.com/2023-december-dcs-event About Pretense The base version of this mission is from one of Skyward’s favorite mission editors, Dzsek. They are the creator of the Foothold mission format we have written articles about in the past. Pretense can be considered the successor of Foothold. Here are words from Dzsek about this mission from the official Github user manual: “Pretense is my second attempt at a dynamic campaign in DCS. This mission came from all the things that Foothold failed to live up to in my mind. I wanted the focus to be on you, the player, as a mercenary pilot in the middle of this war unfolding around you. Your job is to choose from the available missions and complete them, while earning experience and climbing through the ranks. “In this mission, bases need resources to upgrade themselves and deploy defenses. Resources that they will now attempt to share with each other and push towards the frontline where they are needed. This time AI groups are truly dynamic, each base deciding what to build and where to send it. No waypoints for any of the AI are predetermined in the mission editor. Everything is decided in the moment. This time, the campaign was built with performance in mind. Activity is concentrated on the frontline, bases farther away will operate in a less active mode, but will still be there as functional parts of the economy.” “It took more than a year to make this. Burned myself out trying to balance it. I'm still not sure if it works exactly the way I wish it did. But here it is. Enjoy.” Our Thoughts on Pretense in General For this event, we are using the Caucasus version of Pretense to ensure player accessibility. Pretense is a rather astonishing example of a mission that somehow balances gameplay between all types of air units available to players, while adding extended options for mid-mission sub-missions. These sub-mission include performing suppression of enemy air defenses at specific locations, flying combat air patrols, flying recon missions, bombing runways, deep strikes against far away targets, combat search and rescue, etc. Finishing these missions grant players experience and promotions in rank. As ranks climb higher, they are able to call in off-map assets or other options that can assist BLUFOR. All progress in Pretense is saved as .json files, meaning players can jump into the mission at any time and have their progress reloaded. The gains in conquering the map and capturing enemy territory is also saved. The mission can be taken offline, then put back online days or weeks later with all progress retained, so long as the .json file is not deleted. This is an amazing option for long-term play sessions with large groups of players. Fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft are equally effective in combat. Their strengths can be utilized to their fullest without having to compromise the core gameplay of the mission. In fact, one could argue that helicopters have a larger role to play than meets the eye at first glance. It is hard to find a free to download mission that is this well-thought-out with a user manual to help mission editors understand how it works and how to further modify it if needed. Once again, our hat is off to Dzsek. Custom Edit Overview While the mission used in the October 2023 community event was an original mission from Skyward staff, our edits to Pretense are not meant to change the format of the mission. They are being made to augment the user experience to fit our needs. Here is a brief overview of edits made: Forcing Close Range Combat: At the request of The Black Aces, active homing radar missiles or “Fox Threes” have been removed from the mission to encourage more within visual range combat. The Skyward staff has taken this request to the next level and also removed air-to-ground glide weapons and air launched cruise missiles. So even combat against ground targets is done at a closer distance. Though, anti-radiation missiles are still allowed, as there are some far-reaching surface-to-air missile batteries that cannot realistically be destroyed by flying a few hundred nautical miles and dumb bombing them. Limited REDFOR PVP: A limited number of human players will have access to player vs player slots on the REDFOR side. The point of this mission is to be a player vs environment experience, but as we learned in the October 2023 event a certain amount of REDFOR PVP spices up the mission, but allowing too many players from BLUFOR to be REDFOR in a mission like this could grind progress in capturing territory to a halt. Potentially devolving the scenario into pure air-to-air PVP combat. This is outside the scope of the Pretense format. A balance is needed. Adding Mod Aircraft: Adding player controlled aircraft mods to this mission is easy enough, as they are simply client slots. The following mod aircraft are being added to the mission: A-4E Skyhawk, C-130 Hercules, UH-60L Blackhawk. Players will not be forced to fly these aircraft, however, Digital Combat Simulator servers require that all players download these aircraft on their PCs or else they cannot join the mission. Information on where to download these mods and how to install them is available here. Logistics One aspect of this mission that distinguishes it from the majority of sandbox missions is the importance of logistics in the mission. Both AI and players have the capability to affect the battlefield through sheer logistical prowess, enabling those that want to stay behind the enemy lines helping the team out. All transport-capable helicopters can work as logistical aircraft, which includes the UH-60L mod that can carry 12 troops into battle or a medium amount of supplies. There will be a single player-usable, fixed-wing logistics aircraft available for the mission: the C-130J mod. With the Hercules, you will be able to deploy up to 92 troops as paratroopers, as well as an insane amount of supplies. We hope to see some players use this feature to aid the team!

Usually when you think about the Dassault Mirage, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Delta wings? Beautiful curved fuselages? or just cool jets? In this case, this is still a Mirage but not a regular one as this is not a delta. After years of waiting we finally have our hands on the Mirage F1 module by Aerges Engineering. Consisting of several variants of this aircraft, all with different roles and purposes, this is one of the most complete modules to date. In this review we will be taking a look into several different parts of the module and evaluating if this cold war warrior is a fit for you. These points will be divided into several sections: External and internal 3D models Visual and sound effects Flight modelling Mission capability Armament Ease of use and learning curve Variants and Early Access Is this aircraft for you? This review will be constantly updated with the module, meaning that it will be updated with each major addition to it. This includes system changes, weapon additions and new variants. Whenever a new variant releases, it will get added as a new section. This is an Early Access module as of 7/23/2022. Review updated: 10/25/2023 EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS Externally, this model is pretty good overall. The developers, Aerges, payed a lot of attention to detail when it comes down to certain aspects of this aircraft. From the complex gear and control surface animations to the internals of the engine, it is evident that they wanted to depict this aircraft as faithfully as possible. There are also some pretty neat details such as the fact that the pilot lays his helmet to the side of the canopy frame border when the canopy is open and the engine is off. At the same time, there are a couple of parts of the model that could use more love. This includes the big seam between the main gear doors and the fuselage. This seam does seem to have been present in the real airframes to a certain degree but the way that lighting works in DCS makes it look very unnatural. The other aspect that could be improved at some point are the textures. When compared to other modules around the same base price point (without any discount, this would be US$ 80) it does seem to be a bit behind when it comes down to weathering quality and the texel density of the model itself. The reflectivity does seem to be a bit too high, or maybe too metallic, which leads to some weird reflections sometimes. Added with the release of DCS 2.9, the Mirage F1BE variant is also now available as a flyable aircraft! With this addition, we went back to this bird and took a very close look at it, both externally and internally. Let's start with the external first, as this model was already available in-game as a non-flyable AI-only aircraft. It looks as accurate as the CE or EE models, and that includes both negatives and positives. but here, have a look! On the other hand, the cockpit model is absolutely brilliant. There are basically no flaws to speak of. From the way that light reflects on the bumpy texture of the dash to the absolutely impressive angle of attack (indicator) and its animations. To me, it is clear that Aerges had the piloting experience as a priority for this module, and it shows. Below are some pictures both in daytime and nighttime conditions, with and without the glare shield, so see it for yourself! This feeling of immersion extends to the new cockpit model made for the two-seater F1BE version of the Mirage. One aspect I particularly loved about it was the HUD repeater that is available for the backseater/instructor. It seems to render like a HUD in itself, but it emulates video feed from the front seat's HUD/gunsight. It works perfectly during the day, but it is practically unusable at night. Here are some shots of this new cockpit included with DCS 2.9: VISUAL AND SOUND EFFECTS Visually, it doesn't have any particularly unique effects, but overall it is a very pretty module. The afterburner effect is great and, on top of that, the over wing vapor when pulling high alpha maneuvers at high speed is present. For me, that is more than good enough. Additionally, the lighting seems to have been done pretty well, with the exception the the bleed-through that some of the lights have on the fuselage. My only complaint here would be that there are some annunciator and panel lights that are extremely bright, even during daytime. The weapon select buttons are the most evident example of this issue. It would be good if their brightness could be lowered somewhat, unless they can be, but I did not find an intuitive way to lower down their brightness by using the brightness knobs inside the cockpit. Sound-wise is where this module knew how to surprise me. Every button and switch in the cockpit resonates with a very realistic "clack" or "thonk". These sounds do seem to give some physicality to the virtual nature of a simulation, which is exactly why I am more than surprised by how well they were handled. All the alerts are, let's say, realistic. They will give you a slight heart attack if they catch you off guard. The engine sounds are excellent as well, specially the sound that it makes whenever the afterburner kicks in. There is also some high AoA rattling that can be heard whenever you pull high AoA maneuvers. Pretty neat! EXAMPLES: (General volume warning, you have been warned!) Engine start and canopy closing sequence: Full take-off roll: Starting with Idle --> Full Power --> Afterburner then rotation. (Volume warning due to Limits alarm) High AoA sounds and rattling (Volume warning due to high AoA alarm) Fly-by at 400kts, full afterburner: (Volume warning) FLIGHT MODELING DISCLAIMER: This is always a tough category, as like with any other aircraft, there is a lot to take into consideration other than just the feel of the flight model. This category is the most subjective one in this article as I do not have any real world experience with this craft. I will only base my opinion on practical experience and knowledge of practical aerodynamics and the theoretical behavior that a Mirage F1 should have under certain scenarios. That being said, I can now see why some people where really excited for this module. Aerges did an excellent job when it comes down to its flight model. It feels "alive", if you will. The best way I have to describe its behavior is as a more forgiving Tomcat. It will fight back when you push it beyond its limits, but I have found that at high speeds I could hold a higher AoA than I initially expected. As you lose speed, naturally, it will be harder for you to pull that nose up. It feels like a non-flight-by-wire (FBW) F-16, with less maneuverability and high alpha potential. It is not hard to fly, quite the opposite. It is an easy plane to fly, one that will not be hard to get used to but one that leaves room for you to master it. That will not stop it from being a worthy opponent to the aircraft of its era, and a relatively even match for all the soviet contemporaries that it would fight against. Personally, I enjoy it quite a bit. MISSION CAPABILITIES: MIRAGE F1CE This is the least capable variant of the entire roster. It is technically a multirole platform but, practically, it is best if you commit to either an air to ground loadout or an air to air one. Its avionics are simple yet very interesting for the time. Specifically the "HUD", which acts more like a very advanced sight rather than fully-fledged HUD. It does have some pretty neat features, such as a flight director mode for air to air intercepts and a basic velocity vector/flight path indicator when set to landing mode. Additionally, the aircraft lacks any kind of CCIP for bomb or rocket delivery, or even a radar adjusted gunsight for dogfighting. Its radar, the Cyrano IV, is not the best one. While it is more capable than the suite installed on F-5E-3s, including its ability to do some basic air to ground work, it is still a monopulse radar. This means that it is not really capable of reliable look-down-shoot-down capabilities. This variant is best used as an interceptor, an air to air fighter or a bomb truck against static targets, with the exception of attacks against lightly-armored targets. A perfect starting point for beginners or people used to contemporary aircraft (F-5E, MiG-21, etc). MIRAGE F1EE A direct upgrade from the CE, the Mirage F1EE offers and much more usable experience when compared with its predecesor. This includes both its new missiles and its upgraded avionics package, both of which make it a lethal aircraft in the right hands. The EE includes a new RWR with a western-style display. This means that you will be able to pick out individual emmitters by their type and direction, which will certainly boast your situational awareness quite a lot. It makes the old RWR look kind of Soviet as it works with the same way as those equipped on the MiG-21 and MiG-19. The easiest way to distinguish between the CE and the EE is by looking for the refueling probe as this is only present in the EE. With this refueling probe the EE can stay in the air almost indefinitely, as long as you have a tanker operatating near your area. Lastly, the main difference between these two variants is that the EE comes with a proper INS suite that will allow you to properly navigate with the use of waypoints! This, alongside the RWR, truly elevates the experience flying the EE to something that I would consider to be superior to even a couple of the early US fighters such as the F-5E MIRAGE F1BE This two-seater version of the Mirage F1CE lacks any of the "modern" amenties of the EE, but what it allows is for this bird to become a solid supersonic trainer that does not compromise its combat capabilities. In this category, it stands as the only aircraft capable of functioning like a proper trainer for an existing single-seat module. As any good trainer made from a single seat platform, the front seat is identical to that of the single seat variants. This facilitates transition to the single seat version once training is over, a feature that will make the BE variant quite the useful one for groups running the module or for those that want to introduce their friends to it without overwhelming them with a solo flight as soon as they purchase the aircraft. I personally love the fact that they went out of their way to offer a training platform for their own module, one that allows more players to put their hands on the control stick and have more fun, without compromising on its combat capabilities over the single-seat version. ARMAMENT TWIN DEFA 30mm CANNONS Good ol' DEFA cannons. It fires heavy-hitting but slower 30mm rounds which will wreck an enemy aircraft if contact is achieved. You have a total of 300 rounds, 150 per cannon. MATRA 550 "MAGIC 1" AND AIM-9 "SIDEWINDER" MISSILES These are your heat seeker missiles, the ones you will always have on your wingtips. Both the Matra 550 and most versions of the Sidewinder that you can carry are rear-aspect only, with the exception of the AIM-9JULI. This peculiar variant has the seeker and control units of a much more capable AIM-9L, which means that it is the only all-aspect IR missile in your inventory. All sidewinder variants available: AIM-9B (earliest model, least capable) AIM-9J (much more capable rear-aspect-only missile) AIM-9JULI (The most capable variant) MATRA R.530 This is, currently, your only "long range missile". Its performance is quite poor and the range is not long enough for BVR combat, which means you will have to get close and, usually, inside of the enemy's range to fire it. It is best used against bigger, less maneuverable aircraft. You have two versions: R.530EM (Semi-active radar guided variant) R.530IR (IR guided variant capable of self homing if lock is lost) SUPER 530F Included with the EE update, this missile is quite the upgrade from the old Matra 530 missiles. It is much faster, longer ranged and much more maneuverable than its predecesors. This, in my eyes, makes the radar-guided Matra 530 completely obsolete. The only reason why you would use the older missile would be to emulate certain historical events or timeframes. ROCKETS Fast and heavy hitting, these are the types of rockets that I like. They are absolutely devastating and easy to aim, the best combination! You can carry up to four pods of two sizes, with a plethora of warheads to choose for your 68mm rockets: MATRA F1: 36 Rockets MATRA F4: 18 Rockets UNGUIDED BOMBS There is quite a selection when it comes down to iron bombs. I don't have to explain what these do, don't I? SAMP series (400, 250 and 125Kg) BR series (500 and 250Kg) Mk.82 bombs (500lbs) Belouga (Cluster bomb with 151 submunitions) GUIDED BOMBS While you are unable to lase these weapons for yourself, you do have access to GBU-12, GBU-16 and GBU-10 laser guided bombs. You can carry a maximum of three of these, one per pylon (inner wings and fuselage) DURANDAL PENETRATOR BOMBS Rocket penetrators, what else can I say. You drop them like high-drag bombs, let them fall over a runway. They will rocket themselves and penetrate the runway, cratering it! You can carry a maximum of 8: 4 under the wings and 4 on the fuselage pylon. EASE OF USE AND LEARNING CURVE It is as easy as any other 3rd generation fighter. Its systems are not complex and lend themselves to a very straight-forward learning experience. You do not need to worry about any modern avionics, at least not for three of the variants that this model will bring. The only challenges of flying it are when it comes down to learning how to properly employ its weapons since you do not have any CCIP or computer aid for their delivery. It will require some getting used to if you come from modern aircraft where you do not need to worry about anything when it comes down to bombing or rocket delivery. Overall, it is a beginner friendly aircraft and one that, thanks to its simple systems, lends itself to be a wonderful starter aircraft for anyone interested in this era of combat. VARIANTS AND EARLY ACCESS This module uses the same approach that the C-101 did, which is only natural seeing as this is another project by the same devs which have found a home at Aerges. That means that we get different variants of the Mirage F1. This time, we will get 4 flyable variants (3 available as of time of writing) and way too many AI variants. I will patiently await for the rest of the flyable variants, as each of them will offer a unique experience separate from what other modules offer for this price. With the initial release they included 1 flyable variant and 21 AI-only units. While technically all of them are different "variants", the large majority of these are derived from the C. I do appreciate the though of having all of them be separate, but as a mission creator I see no point in including all these variants when functionally they are all the same with the exception of the ones that have the laser designator and the two seaters. I would have preferred to have all of the variants be assignable to a single unit, the flyable CE, since they are functionally the same. It would be less confusing for mission creators. IS THIS AIRCRAFT FOR YOU? If what you want in a module is: An amazing cold war experience. An excellent flight model that will fight back. A module that will include the equivalent of 4 modules down the road. A period-accurate flying experience that will have you at the center of the fight. If you don't mind: Not having advanced avionics (yet). The small imperfections of the external model. Having to adapt to a more analog experience. Not being able to fight well in BVR engagements. If all or some of the above is what you want, then Aerges Engineering's Mirage F1 is for you. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

It is clear that DCS brings together people of all places, and of all ages. You can be on a server with a 15-year-old that's trying to understand how to start their F-15C at the same time that a 55-year-old Navy veteran with 200 carrier landings is reliving his past by flying a Legacy Hornet or even the A-4E. With such a diverse audience and wide age group, DCS stands in a place where not many games of its genre have stood before. The devs need to accommodate all age groups, both accessibility and gameplay-wise. This divide between eras can also be seen on the aircraft roster, as there are both ancient aircraft in the game (WW2-era) and very modern designs (JF-17 and newer) that have to live in the same platform, but aside from the WW2 aircraft they usually tend to be grouped under two categories: Cold War aircraft and Modern aircraft. I have been around long enough to witness the divide that exists between those that primarily fly Cold War and those that prefer modern aircraft, and I have always found it amusing. There have even been arguments where some players have demanded that the opposing side's aircraft development be ceased to focus on more modules for their side. This kind of behavior is typical of online discourse, especially when it comes to gaming-related topics, but there is a certain animosity present here that I find not only amusing, but also extremely unreasonable. DCS World is a sandbox, one in which nothing is forced upon you, and you have the freedom to choose the aircraft that you fly and where you fly them. I understand where this argument comes from, especially from the Cold War side. One proposition that I have heard is that of the perception that in the time to make one modern module, it would be possible to make two or more Cold War ones. Those that state this are unaware of the complexities of developing for DCS World and the work that goes into making a module for it. It is unbelievably hard to get anything done in DCS, even more when you want to recreate a real aircraft or system to perfection. Despite all that, I just do not understand how these two sides not comprehend that each era brings unique aspects to DCS, but also that they do not need to be exclusive to each other. They are extremely fun experiences that focus on different historical periods, periods in which pilots had different roles in combat. In a Cold War setting, pilots were more involved flying the aircraft themselves, as systems were either simpler to operate or were operated by a dedicated back seater that did most of the work that was not related to flying directly. Navigation was harder, and HUDs were either nonexistent or very limited in functionality, so pilots had to rely on their instruments and looking out the window to navigate. In a modern setting, pilots are less involved in flying, and they have become more of a systems operator than anything else. They have all the information they need at the tips of their fingers, be it on the HUD, screens or HMDs. Datalink also makes sure that what one pilot sees, the entire faction does as well. Coordination is key in this era, and navigating is much easier thanks to GPS and INS systems being installed on aircraft. There is a big overlap of these two eras thanks to the unique roster that DCS has, which includes "modern" aircraft like a relatively early F-15C, some pretty late versions of the upcoming F-4E Phantom module or even a late 90s version of the F-14B. Some of these aircraft used the same airbases for a short time, and flew in the same skies; which means that this line between "modern" and "Cold War" is pretty blurry. Now that you can see how these eras differ, I will pose you a question: Where do you fall on the compass? Do you prefer one era over the other, or do you just like these planes regardless of how old or new they are? About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

Feeling out the flight model in the Kickstarter Backer Beta The story of a band of seaplane delivery pilots has finally begun! Spreading their brews across the archipelago using brewing wit, business skill and a healthy amount of water gun combat, The Brew Barons has entered its Kickstarter backer beta. I have written a few pieces about it since I stumbled upon the game back in late 2021. The Brew Barons has been one of my most highly anticipated flight games in years. Something the developers of Lifetap Studios, Diccon Yamanaka and Rob Hartley, have almost constantly adjusted is the flight model this game uses. My time with its various demos has given me experience with past iterations. This in turn has given me enough insight, as a long-term tester, to discuss this in a bit more detail. Of course what I write here is based on the flight model that is still being adjusted during the Kickstarter beta, so it is possible what I write here now could be inaccurate in a few months. Mastering Low-Speed, Low Altitude The business management aspect of the game requires ingredients to be discovered, harvested, returned to the brewery, brewed, bottled and stocked for sale or flown for delivery to customers. The flight regime for these operations mainly happens at low airspeeds. Roaring along at over 100 knots while harvesting apples from trees or wheat from fields makes the time window to do this effectively very small. To maintain high speeds, vertical maneuvers at maximum engine power are the only reliable way to avoid obstacles and dive back down to harvest ingredients. But a series of Immelmann Turns, Split S maneuvers and similar aerobatics are rather risky for picking up some non-combat maneuvering potatoes. Flying between 60 and 80 knots while coordinating pitch, roll and yaw to make coordinated turns lessens the overall space needed to gather ingredients. This range of speed allows players to comfortably skim along treetops and rooftops with plenty of time to plan ingress and egress routes, using safe, controlled turns. Even with upgrades to engine output and overall maneuverability, becoming comfortable flying aircraft at low altitude and low speed is a vital skill for this game. Learning how the aircraft naturally regains airspeed at certain throttle settings and pitch attitudes, when rudder should be applied to avoid slipping into a stall while tightening a low speed turn and avoiding banking too much in a turn which results in the loss of altitude. Long Distance Travel There are many islands to travel to. In a propeller driven aircraft, it does take time to reach even the medium range islands, even at full throttle. Water Boost equipment attached to the aircraft utilizes water in the aircraft's storage bladders to provide sustained bursts of speed. Lifetap Studios designed the Water Boost specifically to avoid adding fast travel functions that would pull players out of the game. Instead, long range flying is encouraged. Fortunately, the most basic version of the Water Boost has a large capacity and can be used over extended periods of time. Refilling it is as easy as flying above the ocean's surface, making it an infinite resource that is always available. The aircraft buffets at high speeds, and some pilots do not handle long-term use of boosting well. Flying straight and level while at a safe altitude is recommended for traversing between islands. While flying at low level will allow for rapidly rotating between refilling water levels and immediately going back into boosting, low altitude flight greatly increases the chances for a catastrophic accident. Resource management and a bit of flight planning is needed to explore the outer islands. Even heavy use of Water Boost will not completely offset fuel use. The islands are not guaranteed to have any support facilities like shipyards to repair and refuel aircraft, the type of ingredients on the island may not be what you were hoping for or the presence of pirates in the airspace can lead to confrontation. Attempting to travel through the outer islands with half fuel and a moderately damaged aircraft can lead to disaster and loss of cargo. It is best to travel with purpose and choose your fights wisely. Upgrades More Impactful Compared to the previous demos, the upgrades that can be purchased in the hangar are noticeably more impactful. Of the dozens of aircraft parts and levels of upgrades they can receive, some may increase engine power, roll rate or augment other functions not related to how the aircraft flies, but stacking a certain set of upgrades could make aircraft harder to handle in unexpected ways. Each piece of equipment has pros and cons. Say, for example, a newly upgraded Supercharged engine increases overall engine power but loses boost near land masses, at the expense of increased fuel consumption. Pair this with maybe a different type of wings that focus on increased lift but reduced overall air speed. Flight characteristics may change in a way players were not expecting. This makes combining parts to see what the changes in aircraft handling are an interesting part of trying out new aircraft builds. I appreciate that it is not just as simple as buying the most expensive upgrades and winning just by having a large stack of money on hand. Water Landing and Takeoff This is one of the most important and somewhat touchy aspects of the game. Flying a seaplane, being able to consistently land and takeoff from the ocean is a vital skill. Besides pulling into bars and shipyards for business, landing in the ocean far from your headquarters is good for switching pilots, resting to recover from fatigue and other things. Takeoff from the ocean is pretty straight forward with little that can go wrong beyond pilots inputting too much rudder while at high speed on the water's surface or attempting to zoom climb right after takeoff causing a potential stall at low altitude. Landing on the ocean is a different beast. Landing incorrectly in this game has substantial punishments. The aircraft can be severely damaged resulting in repair costs and cargo in the aircraft can be damaged. Glassware full of product that needs to be delivered to customers can shatter, completely ruining the day's order. Even a landing that may barely cause damage to the fuselage could shatter some cargo onboard. That delivery of an exact quantity of whiskey or beer you just brewed could be ruined with the loss of two or three bottles, depending on how much of it the aircraft's inventory was stocked with. Meaning that you will need to fly the entire delivery route once again, or potentially brew the entire order over again. The most dangerous point of landing is during the last few seconds above the ocean's surface. Sustaining about a quarter throttle and descending onto the ocean with a stable rate of descent sounds easy enough, but the urge to do last second corrections can cause a dangerous event to occur. At low speeds, before landing, a sudden change in aircraft pitch and power can get the aircraft stuck in ground effect and transition into a stall. This brings the aircraft's nose upwards just a few meters above the water. The tail strike that occurs as the stall worsens can cause moderate to severe damage, costing large amounts of money to repair the aircraft, with all cargo lost. All of this can happen in 10 seconds or less, with just a small window of a few seconds for the pilot to possibly recover. The aircraft's pontoons are actually rather sturdy and can handle landing at speeds above minimum airspeed before stall. Rather than attempting to land at a steep rate of descent within a small patch of ocean, a shallow descent rate across a large strip of ocean while remaining above stall speed is the safest practice. Of course, in the event of emergency, attempting to power out of a stall during landing using Water Boost is possible, but this must be done before the aircraft's nose pitch up beyond 70 degrees or before the aircraft rolls, rotating the aircraft, so its wings strike the ocean. The last ditch zoom climb with Water Boost has absolutely saved my aircraft during my worst landings. Overall Thoughts I was concerned that feedback would cause the flight model to change so much the way aircraft are flown by players would matter less. Like the experience would be so overwhelmingly arcadey, it would be easy to throw the aircraft through the sky without a care in the world for weight, engine output and the like. However, it continues to be just realistic enough to make flight interesting, even when not in combat with the local pirates. With the aircraft somewhat harder to fly and its related maintenance and repair costs also being decided by the skill of their pilot(s), it does make the aircraft feel like an asset in a business rather than a vehicle purely made for fun. It lines up with the business management aspect of the game well. I sincerely hope that the flight model does not change too much from its current state, as I do think it will be one of The Brew Barons primary strengths in the long-term. Even with players that are more used to simulator like flight experiences. My next article about The Brew Barons will be something like a flight journal, describing my experience playing an early version of the full game experience. Look forward to it! About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

A reminder to check AI skill levels of older downloaded missions Over the past two and a half years, Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS) has received - for the lack of a better term - game changing updates. The additions of volumetric clouds, dynamic weather and the recent open beta testing of central processing unit multithreading have been huge draws for new players to give DCS a try, while improvements to specific aircraft, flight modeling and announcements for upcoming modules and maps continue to keep the current player base engaged. For many years, the within visual range (WVR) combat or "dogfighting" AI aircraft in DCS had been a known point of contention. Hostile aircraft set at low to medium skill settings were often underwhelming in close range combat. Their awkward, sluggish and sometimes ill-advised maneuvers could result in them giving up any advantage they had in a dogfight at the drop of a hat. Observant players could even spot a certain pattern in their maneuvers, making their actions somewhat predictable, which in turn could let savvy players take advantage of the AI's own predetermined actions. It wasn't exactly a "win button" but it was a way to take advantage of the AI to increase the likelihood of defeating them. As reflected by many user created and shared missions available in the User Files, a solution for years was setting the difficulty to "Ace", the highest skill level available for AI aircraft. It was one of the few consistent ways to get a challenge out of WVR combat against an AI. Aircraft set to anything besides Ace were decent at beyond visual range combat, but even semi-experienced DCS players could easily handle them in within visual range combat. This is why a trend in both user created single player missions and online player vs environment missions in the User Files can be seen. The volume of Ace pilots is high for the sake of more challenging dogfights. Though, those same enemies are known to abuse the flight model in ways human players cannot. Stories of Ace MiG-21s consistently out climbing and out turning F-15Cs to the point the superior thrust F-15C stalled first are common place. This is just a familiar example of the AI able to retain energy, pull unbelievable Gs and use a thrust to weight ratio human players simply cannot match. Even when flying the same aircraft with the same loadouts and fuel states. Despite this, the overall experience of dogfighting the more active, albeit sometimes broken, Ace level aircraft was a favorable improvement. Unexpectedly, it is the steady march to refine DCS itself that has now flipped this decent workaround on its head. The General Flight Model improvement in 2021 and the DCS AI BFM upgrade in 2022 have made meaningful changes to DCS world's AI in the air combat arena. It's something I noticed almost immediately. They're genuinely good more often than not. That's not to say it's ideal yet, but the quality of WVR combat against AI controlled aircraft has notably increased, even without them being set to Ace skill level. That being said, Ace level AI aircraft are even more formidable than before, with a bit less "questionable" abuse of certain flight physics. This is where the unintended problem comes in. User created missions from before these pivotal updates, often still have many, if not dozens of Ace pilots within the enemy roster. While some mission editors that upload these files have taken time to adjust their missions as needed, a majority of available missions do not receive the same treatment. When faced with entire flights of maximum difficulty aircraft for every sortie, the mission itself may be near impossible to complete. To be completely transparent, this article was inspired by a recent test of a mission file not flown in many months, which had a similar problem appear. This prompted me to revisit missions I had downloaded throughout my time with Digital Combat Simulator and laugh out loud at the sheer amount of Ace pilots large-scale missions from the User Files had. It wasn't a great time, to say the least. Mission editing can be time-consuming depending on how deeply involved you become, but changing difficultly of AI units is as easy as a few mouse clicks and saving the mission file when you're done. The updates have made the use of lower AI skill levels worthwhile, as the overall quality of their dogfighting ability has improved. Returning to a mix of skill levels that include Ace pilots is something I'd recommend to preserve a challenging but manageable gameplay, rather than a potentially overwhelming experience. Take this as a reminder to check those older missions before running them again in 2023! About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

Proactive changes to secure the future of this aviation platform While I haven't mentioned it here on Skyward Flight Media in quite some time, VRChat Aviation (VRCA) continues forward. Some of the highlights since we last discussed VRCA are worthy of their own article, suitable for a third year of VRCA overview article in the near future. Now, three years after the release of the universal Sacc Flight System, the landscape of this international community of flight enthusiasts continues to ebb and flow. Recently, a group of close friends and I visited Virtual Market 2023 Summer, a seasonal event that features both user created media and prominent real world brand presence from highly recognizable companies. Even at this event, VRCA was present to a certain degree. The Virtual Sky Service, an organization that offers a realistic aviation experience focusing mainly on commercial aircraft, had a commercial playing on a billboard in the market's Connect hub. The latest upcoming product from Shimotsuki Heavy Industries was on display with a cockpit attendees could sit in to preview their upcoming aircraft model based on the Northrop YF-23A. Seeing VRChat aviation at such an event compounded with a recent change that is occurring in a large part of the community right now is what inspired me to discuss today's topic. Non-Commercial Status Quo Since its launch on January 16th, 2014, VRChat has operated as an open-ended, easy to access, relatively easy to create for platform that has allowed users to utilize content from wherever they choose to import it from for personal use. The average social experience includes trips to worlds based on established intellectual properties (IP), users donning avatars of their favorite personalities and so on - for the sake of just having a good time. No form of currency is required. It is very no harm, no foul. This norm applies to all communities on the platform, including the VRCA community. A quick trip to a handful of worlds over the years show world creators utilizing aircraft models from known IPs with hands on work done to animate them and adjust their flight characteristics to match that aircraft's real world performance to varying degrees. As this has all been done in a noncommercial manner, it aligned with the status quo of this virtual social platform as a whole. Proactive Changes In the last week of June 2023, the VRC Black Aces - the most prominent community of VRChat aviation - announced that it would address the use of aircraft models from established IPs featured in worlds that creators affiliated with them have produced. Taking any potential claim of copyright or license infringement seriously, they have launched a large scale effort to ensure the stable future of VRChat aviation. As an example of how serious they are taking the situation, some of the most well known flight worlds were promptly made unavailable or updated with more appropriate aircraft models. Being that they are the leading organization within this genre of VRChat over time their actions will set a trend that naturally others will follow. In this case, emulation of their actions is a very positive thing. Within the past three weeks, many solutions have been found. They can be categorized into three avenues of approach. Securing Licensing A majority of the most beloved flight worlds use existing or retired military and civilian aircraft. Grumman F-14 Tomcats blasting off an aircraft carrier into sunset soaked skies, SAAB Drakens and Viggens darting at low altitudes across vast forests and well known fourth generation fighters in swirling air combat above the searing desert. While these models were often sourced from various IPs, many are now undergoing a two-step replacement process. First, comparable aircraft models are being secured from 3D asset stores, like Sketchfab or Booth. This purchase both supports creators outputting these models and secures proper licensing for legal protection in the future, rather than just relying on understanding and good will. Second, the creators still need to prepare the asset. Depending on the quality of asset purchased, there is still plenty of work to do before it, it is ready for public use. Flight surfaces will need to be animated, cockpit interiors remodeled or modified in some way to support SaccFlight standard control displays, flight values will need to be applied to the model then flight tested before use. There is a certain level of quality these creators hold themselves to, especially since their names are on this project and any user on VRChat can access their profile, see the worlds they've created and go there to see their work in action for themselves. It is good to know that the people that have taken up the mantle of supporting and expanding VRCA hold themselves to a certain level of quality, even after the conscious decision to now invest more time in creating aircraft models rather than focus on the volume of aircraft that could be produced in a certain time span. Existing VRCA Asset Manufacturers Contrary to the current situation, VRCA started with original aircraft designs. Even during the early testing phases in 2020. The now community iconic SF-1 fighter was followed by other original designs created by a designer using the umbrella name of Sagi Aerospace. Since then, there have been many solo designers and teams of designers creating all manner of assets specifically for VRChat aviation. The most prolific asset are of course aircraft of varying levels of sci-fi inspiration, Cold War inspiration and just recreation of existing aircraft for the sake of not using a model owned by a different IP. However, it is also possible to buy civilian aircraft, ground crew uniforms, helmets, aircraft carriers, flight instruments, missiles, etc. The names of these pseudo manufacturers include Eriohs Electric Industrial, Tububam Technologies, A-TEC Corp, Esnya Arsenal and Aircraft Laboratory, Laplus AAMTC, Studio Symphony, Nameko Heavy Industries, Akagu Heavy Industries and many others. Our own original aircarft design, The Dragonfly, being among them. These creators are now well ahead of the curve with this current situation. Reinvigorated Designers In a way, this need to now source or create aircraft models has also applied pressure to the now well established VRCA developers to use their skill sets to build aircraft in 3D computer software manipulation programs like Blender externally and internally, then animate them in Unity. While it is surely inconvinent for them in the short term, it is not as though they do not have the skill sets to surmount this hurdle. Rather, there has just not been a pressing need to do so because of the pre-established culture of the platform, as mentioned earlier in this article. I myself have seen creators that have modeled aircraft from scratch over a year ago but haven't done so since then, suddenly spend hours in Blender preparing entirely new designs or working on any of the aforementioned assets in reasonably short amounts of time to not delay upcoming events and keep VRCA worlds available for the general public. With their creativity now stoked back to 100% effort, it is possible that even more unique designs or recreations of unusual real world aircraft could appear by the end of the year. It is an interesting prospect. Seeing the VRChat aviation community now address what could potentially be a massive legal problem in the future is, in my eyes, a heartening event. Of course, I say this as an observer who does not need to put in hours of work myself, but I felt as though their new effort needed to be discussed as my own way to show support for their latest endeavor. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers.

A foray into a genre I hardly know A long time ago, in the ancient time known as the mid-2000s, I recall becoming amazingly burnt out on games in World War settings. That feeling seems to have stuck with me for quite a long time. Rarely do I find myself even trying a first-person shooter with a setting during those times in history. Only recently has my mind gradually changed. Partially because of my fiancée. She occasionally expresses to me how the "zero generation of aircraft" (World War I combat aircraft) deserve more recognition in the current era of aviation. That same sentiment extending to games and simulators. Just last week I decided to jump into my first virtual reality World War I flight combat experience knowing little to nothing about the title. None of my usual research into the game or developer. Not even viewing promotional video. Just jumping straight in! With barely over one hour of time with this game, I hesitate to call this a true first impression or review. So instead this is just a standard article about my experience so far. Warplanes: WW1 Fighters from Home Net Games is the first title I have tried from this developer. I have seen some random screenshots of their other titles. This purpose built virtual reality title strikes a good balance between the assumed World War I experience and enough arcade flight characteristics to ensure the whole thing works well with just a virtual reality headset and its touch controllers. Its five difficulty levels range from Leisure, which features auto aiming and a very simplified flight model to Real War which offers an advanced flight model, real engine power for the era, aircraft stalling, takeoff, landing and no heads up display user interface elements. Though even in the most realistic settings, the arcade controls are still mostly noticeable in takeoff and landing. This article was written using Simulation mode. It has all the features of Real War, but still maintains a bit of the UI. I wanted to get my footing a bit before going all in. While flying for either the Central Powers or Triple Entente, pilots are given a pretty impressive amount of customizations while at their home airfields. Upgrades include increasing aircraft performance, unlocking new aircraft and setting them as reserve aircraft or aircraft for wingmen. The color editor is rather detailed, with four locations for emblems and two slots for aircraft colors and paint patterns with different types of paint gloss. I spent way too much time with this feature. I thank the devs for letting me run circles around my customized aircraft for an hour or so. Haha! Besides gawking, squadron assignments, aircraft management, settings adjustments and mission selection are handled at the airfield. Even the between mission UI keeps players moving their hands and interacting with objects. Flight and combat is where I was pleasantly surprised. I knew things were going to be interesting when even the throw of the floor mounted flight stick was modeled well enough to force me to change the way I normally handle aircraft in virtual reality. Attempting to fly it as though it was a side stick aircraft for the sake of comfort was detrimental. With aircraft engine power of the late 1910s represented somewhat accurately, turning rate fights and vertical rate fights are less common. I did not have the benefit of jet engines that produce thousands of pounds of thrust to easily sustain prolonged turning fights. There were times when I simply could not maintain an ideal position to hunt down a 'bandit' because of low engine power. My options were to perform an energy beneficial maneuver or break off from pursuit to defend against lurking enemies. More often than not, snapshots at passing aircraft, well-timed maneuvers to catch enemies while they are at low energy states and knowing when to daringly cash in all airspeed for a momentary engagement window are the common ways aerial victory is achieved. In an odd way, I appreciated the feeling of vulnerability that could only be made up for with pure pilotage. I am not often in these situations. The damage model is not so detailed every part of an aircraft can be blown off, but accumulated damage in specific areas can affect flight performance. Rudders can be damaged to the point they are almost uncontrollable, fuel leaks can reduce flight time, shot up wings will reduce maneuverability - it is enough to make the game mechanic functional. Closing distance with the target before firing increases machine gun effectiveness, though long distance shots can be equally effective with good aim and patience. I ran a few tests where I intentionally flew very sloppy and uncoordinated to see what would happen. It often resulted in me getting shot down within a few seconds of a dogfight starting. The AI enemies do capitalize on mistakes in varying degrees. In the middle of a six aircraft dogfight, I was surprised when I suddenly exploded without warning. My attacker being far below me, but they chose to zoom climb and stall out just to put a long burst into me. This was not a cunning human player, this was the single player AI. While the aircraft can be flown with the thumbsticks and face buttons of VR touch controllers, the basic cockpit has enough interactive elements to make using your hands well worth it. The stick and throttle controls are presented well enough that even small adjustments are immediately evident. Letting the throttle go will have it return to its idle position, allow the player's free hand to interact with the cockpit, while their other hand continues to control the flight stick. There are some specific things with cockpit interaction I'd like to do a deeper dive into, but it may be too much to get into this early in. There is more to talk about, but I have yet to finish a full campaign, haven't tried a secondary game mode nor PVP, only have two aircraft unlocked... there is much more to do. Though I can say that I'm having a genuinely good time with this flight-sim lite and plan on writing more about it soon. This may be one of the games that helps me break through my log jam of World War setting games. Who knows? Maybe there is hope for me yet. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

I have been slowly getting back into playing DCS more regularly with my friends as of late, and I cannot deny that VSN's latest mod, the F-4B/C Phantom II, has been the reason why. The Phantom is one of my favorite aircraft, so I wondered: What kind of effort did the developers had to put in to deliver this aircraft free for everyone to use? We asked PeeJott, one of VSN's main developers, some question about the VSN as an organization, the effort it took to make it a reality and some details about their future plans! We sincerely thank him for letting us have this interview with us and for giving us pre-release access to the mod! So without further ado, let's get this one rolling. INITIALLY POSTED: 02/07/2023 MINOR ADJUSTMENTS: 11/11/2023 Q. Hello and thank you a lot for agreeing to have this interview with us! Let’s start with a simple one, could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about what you do? A. Hi and thanks for this possibility. I go by the nickname of PeeJott and I am one of those guys that find pleasure in looking at formulas all day (well in my free time at least) since I do the systems-coding and EFM-coding for some VSN-Mods. I started this DCS-Modding journey just in the fall of 2020 with zero lua or C++ coding experience, so a lot of learning was involved . My first project with VSN was the F-104, where I made the SFM, SFM-engine model and EFM. Q. What is VSN and for how long has the team been active? What does this group do and who is part of it at the moment? A. Well, VSN is a group of guys who like to spend their time “enhancing” DCS World in different parts. The most obvious is flyable mods. I guess it is safe to say that CDPKobra is the main guy behind this branch. There are a lot of other guys [have been] with VSN [for a long time] or just joined recently. The good thing is, everybody is interested in different parts of modding. The other good thing is that you are not being looked at suspiciously when real life comes in the way and you need to take a break. Real life always comes first, but I think I can say that we really like to get the job at hand done in a certain amount of time. So those projects which seemingly last “forever” [are not that common]. That is one reason why VSN has a lot of FC3 mods, since you do not need to code stuff like an electric system which is neither fun nor will somebody flying the plane say: ”Holy molly, this electric system is really a work of art.” The F-4B is the exemption to that rule, I guess. Q. How did the Century Series came to be ? A. Well, honestly, I wanted to fly a F-104 in DCS. That was my goal when I set out to learn this stuff. There just was no [other Starfighter mods] except the VSN F-104, so I started with it. Since I wanted to help make it fly like a real F-104, it began the journey of learning, searching, extracting data and what else [it would take to] get a decent flight-model. Once we kind of finished the first version of the F-104, CDPKobra asked: And what do you want to do next? I said: well, I guess after 104 comes 105, and so we started that project. The Century-Series just has such cool planes. Real milestones of aviation, if you compare them e.g. to a F-84 or F-86. They are [a] totally different kind of planes and quite a “leap” in innovation for their time. That is a very big factor, they do look sexy and have that kind of “Why not?” attitude. After the 104 and 105 it felt kind of right to go down that road a bit more, so there are some “Century-Fighters” still to be made. Q. The F-4 Phantom has been a long-awaited aircraft by people who enjoy DCS world. Was the team keenly aware of some of the public pressure to represent the Phantom mod well? A. I don’t know if we were thinking a mod, let alone a mod that was made by VSN, would get such an audience. Of course, since we, by luck crossed our ways with J.P.Ferré while working on the 104 (cheers to you JP) we had a bit of an edge in the “Trailer and movie”-department. But we started out making the F-4B [as a] FC3 mod with an EFM and borrowed F-15C cockpit, since we initially did not have a custom 3d-cockpit. We wanted to go down the same road we already went down with the 104, but since I was working on the 104 standalone ;-) and had help from a few really fantastic guys, I thought I could try to make it our first standalone. [Two and a half] months after we started our F-4B project, Heatblur Simulations (HB) announced they were making one too, [so our attitude it was more of a] “well, we already got this far, we could as well go the rest of the way too.” Once it was clear that one of the best third-party devs for DCS was making a Phantom-II as well, we kind of said to ourselves that our mod will most probably not get such a hype and will not have to be the long awaited Phantom by everybody, since that one is right around the corner and delivered in the form of the F-4E by HB. That does not mean we took it as [an opportunity] to be lazy, but we gave ourselves the freedom to make it feel good but in the [sense] that we do not need to get everything 100% perfect and on the spot. Even cooler, that it came out like it did and we got a lot positive feedback. Q. How difficult was it working on such an early variant of the Phantom? A. Well, the good thing with less capability is, that it has less capability. Less capability means less coding work. So on that front the century-series is a lot more “coder-friendly” as an early F-16 or something like that. Astonishingly, the AeroData was already gathered in the NASA CR-2144 (Aircraft Handling Qualities Data) and delivered in a form we just needed to extract and could use in the EFM-Template made for the 104. Engines were almost the same (J79 as well, a later variant with more thrust) so we were pretty safe there as well. And regarding sources, we did find a lot of freely downloadable manuals and data-sheets, so that was not the big problem. And we got the help from the community, once the first F-4 did a good job regarding external model and EFM. So we got the rest we needed from those guys already interested in the Phantom. Q. How difficult was it working on the EFM for the Phantom? A. As I said above, we used the aero-data from the CR-2144. It had all the data I could wish for, so I just needed to extract it. Of course, that is just the beginning, since DCS simulates the world, but does behave differently here and there and there are 1000 ways to code an EFM, and the one way we went down might have some difficulties here and there. But in the end, it looked not too bad. Of course, since we are using a more simple approach to EFM-construction than others, a lot of special behaviours needed extra coding time. E.g. the wing-rock in pre-stall-flight-regime was a nightmare. Post-stall still is a “work-in-progress” since it is really hard to model uncontrolled flight correctly, so that it feels right, not to fast, not too slow. Then the F-4 had those “fuel-tank”-issues, that the CG really moved a lot from full-tanks to empty tanks. We could work on all that only thanks to our main test-pilot (shout out to Toby) who knew what he was talking about. So after the initial data-extraction and placement in our EFM-Template there was a lot of testing and tuning and retesting going on. Of course, sometimes you do hit a pretty hard spot and don’t really know how to get past that. For us that was a mix of 3d- and coding-problem. Our planes tended to fall through the cracks of the back-blast-walls of the supercarrier. Why? We really have no idea. So that took an extra amount of time to get to a “decent” level. It would be a bit, well weird, if our fleet-defender would not be able to safely take off from a carrier. Q. Were there any problems that you and the team faced while working on the clickable side of the cockpit? A. Well, we had not done clickables before, because we mainly used FC-3. So it was another journey to get that stuff done. Big Thank you’s are in order to all the guys in the DCS ModdingHubDiscord since they really helped a lot. Of course, the clickables held problems as well, since our switches and buttons refused to move, so we had to get creative again and kind of just played around that problem. Of course, more coding work if it had worked the right way around, but sometimes you can get so frustrated that you just say: “Well scr** it, I’ll make it the way I know it works, even if I have to code x-amount of functions more than I would need to.” Of course, making a two-seater plane opperatable by just one pilot was another “problem” so we could not get every switch and lever we would need for Radar operation, since we just wanted to make the front-seat cockpit. Multi-Crew really is a mystery to us and so everything needs to be manageable by just one person. So it is a clickable cockpit (or partly clickable) for the pilot, and he has to flick some switches via Key-Commands since there are just not the buttons to press in the front-cockpit. Q. Napalm is a weapon that does not appear on other aircraft in the simulator. How did the BIN-200 perform during internal testing? A. Well, we just got informed, that there was this BIN-200 available in DCS. Originally it came with one of those mainly “Trainer”-Planes, I do not know which one that was. But suddenly somebody in our discord wanted to make a NAPALM-custom weapon and somebody else said, wait a minute, it is already here, take this one. The Bin-200 is especially interesting with the “Fireball-Script” since without it, it will just act like a cluster-bomb. So for visuals you will need that fireball-script. The name does not disappoint. Q. Creating the AN/APQ-72 as a standalone radar for DCS is quite an accomplishment. How does the team feel about achieving this? Is the method used to create this radar now available for future aircraft mod projects to utilize? A. Well, honestly, it was not us who made that radar, it was NERO from the ModdingHubDiscord who made a Radar and RWR-Example which is usable by everyone, as long as it is used for a free mod, if I remember that right. That radar-example is pretty basic, but once you get to know how it works or at least manipulate the right variables, you can make it simulate a lot of different performing radars. The only thing is, that I think it can’t do TWS-locks, only single target track. That was no problem for us, since the F-4B only had the possibility to track one target at a time. Of course, as always with modding, you do need to take the time to understand the code to get an idea where you need to start tuning to get it to a state that is usable for your own project. But yes, it can be used for further projects as well, as far as I know. Q. How was modeling and texturing the aircraft like? How many people worked on it? A. Well, since we do not have that many Texture or 3D artists (the one really good 3d-Artist we’ve got now, only joined recently, the other one was pretty busy real life) we bought a license for the 3d-model, since F-4’s get modeled pretty often. The work on the liveries was in the hands of Urbi, who just always does a great job and has an eye for details.The cockpit we needed to order from an outside 3d-Artist as well, since at the time we just had nobody who could have made a full functional 3d-cockpit with good looking textures. So yes, we do spend our money and our time to release mods everybody can enjoy for free, since it gives us joy to work on the mods, make them better, develop them further and may be find a bit of time in between all that 3d-ing, coding, animating to fly a few sorties with those planes we just made. So, if you count everything together, the external 3d-model + textures was one guy, the cockpit + textures another one, skins another one and fitting everything together was another one. So basically 4 different people were working on the external and internal model of the F-4B. Q. With Heatblur’s F-4E on the horizon, what do you think this mod’s place in the game will be? A. I guess it will get good use as long as HB’s F-4E is not here. Once the F-4E enters the “DCS-Scene” it will be “second-fiddle” to it, which we are totally cool with. We do “know”, that the F-4E will be another remarkable Aircraft from HB with a depth that will just be pretty hard to beat. So I guess, since F-4E is not carrier capable, as long as HB does not deliver an F-4J, our mod will still have a place in the hearts of Phantom-Enthusiasts. Once that F-4J comes out, well I guess those guys who have to look onto the euro will still enjoy flying our mod and would not have bought the F-4E anyway, so it should not be in the way for HB’s F-4E. And may-be our F-4B will give HB the possibility to deliver another almost feature complete module, since the urge to “release it now” is not as big as without it. Who knows…. Q. Which other aircraft will VSN work on for the Century series after the Phantom is out? A. Ohhh, we do have some really nice aircrafts in store for the community and cold-war-airplane enthusiasts. If you take a look at the Century-Series fighters, there is still the 105 that needs a custom cockpit and an EFM. The 102/106 is still there to make and the 101. I guess you can expect at least one of those planes from us in the nearer future. The 104 will get a big update in the even nearer future and later on will get standalone-status with, I might add, really, really good looking systems. Everybody who says now, the F-15C-Style-Radar is to easy will bite his tongue once he sees our version of the NASARR-F15C radar…it is very interesting to operate…very, very interesting. There are some more planes that will get fixes, updates or overhauls, but I do not want to give away too much. Q. All VSN mods will be freely available for anyone, correct? A. Yes. Everybody can download them for free. The only downside is, that for the majority of planes the FC-3-Pack from ED is needed, since we just can’t make custom systems for every plane. That would just take too long. Q. That will be it, thank you a lot for answering our interview! Is there anything else you would like to add before we conclude? A. Thank you for finding an interest in those pretty cool cold-war-style-planes and having me answer your questions. I hope everybody can enjoy our mods and if she/he finds something that is not 100% as it is in reality, well, may be it can be generously overlooked with a little smile on the face knowing that there are people making those mods that do have a normal day-job which work during evenings or weekends to get you the possibility to fly those planes. And as much as we want to get everybody the best experience, we might and will fall short if measured against third-party devs or the reality. About the Interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy#9034

A hands-on experience with a pioneering era For someone that is comfortable flying a fourth generation all-weather naval strike fighter, it is amusing how a simple cockpit and reliance on eyesight can complicate things. Riding a wave of encouragement from my fiancée to continue talking about these foundational combat aircraft, I return to discuss Warplanes: WW1 Fighters (2021) by Home Net Games. In my previous article, I touched on how this virtual reality title handled the experience of flying these wooden wonders with your "own hands". It is time to delve deeper. You would assume a literal wooden crate with canvas wings would not have too much going for it. You would be surprised! Note that this article was primarily written flying the Fokker D.III and Fokker E.III in Simulation difficulty. The Notebook The notebook mounted above the left knee of the pilot is a rather sleek addition to the cockpit. I enjoy this method of combining multiple pieces of information into something that can be accessed without having to pause the action. When fully collapsed to a single page, the notebook only shows the cover page. This page has the objectives of the mission or instructions for the task at hand. Below it, a diagram of the aircraft shows where the player has taken battle damage and the status of the damaged areas. Certain parts that receive too much damage, like the engine or the wings, will have noticeably decreased performance. Flipping through the pages, players can find instructions for how to control the aircraft in various ways and using other interactive elements of the cockpit. Players flying in Simulation or Total War game modes have an added benefit of reading through the manual as needed before takeoff. Squadron Aircraft Selection An unusual function is above the pilot's right knee. This set of photos is a part of the squadron management system. While on the ground at the airfield, aircraft can be unlocked, upgraded, customized, assigned to squadron mates or set as the player's primary aircraft. While airborne, players can reach out and touch these photos, hotswapping from one aircraft in the flight to another. Early on in the game this function has somewhat limited use, but when a wider variety of aircraft are available it gets interesting. Starting off in a lightweight fighter then transitioning to a heavier hitting bomber to complete a ground attack mission is possible. Seeing a wing mate in danger could be solved by taking the controls of their aircraft yourself. Machine Gun Management For these rudimentary aircraft, their primary weapon system is machine guns. Either attached to swiveling mounts that players pivot towards their targets, mounted over the wing to avoid damaging the aircraft propeller or firing through the propeller utilizing synchronization gear. Besides squeezing the touch controller triggers to make their machine guns fire, players can use their hands to manually reload the machine guns mid-flight. Manually reloading them during lulls between the action is helpful in maintaining readiness. But expect to run out of ammo during a twisting and winding air battle at some point. I cannot tell you how many times the loud clack of an empty ammo belt has ruined the precious few seconds I needed to finish off a skilled foe. A reward for manually reloading is a temporarily increased rate of fire. Just for a few seconds. I feel as though they should have included a gun jam function for the machine guns in this game, but I admit it would somewhat endanger the gameplay. So long as it would be a jam that the pilot could reliably fix, it would work fine. But more serious mechanical failures that could only be repaired by the ground crew would be unreasonable. Takeoff and landing sequences are only available at the two highest difficulty levels. These also only occur at the start and end of each sortie. With no sensible way to address a severe gun jam mid-mission, it is understandable With takeoff and landing at airfields only done at the beginning and end of missions, it would be somewhat unreasonable for a mission to be failed because of a random equipment failure. Especially with no sensible way to address the jam mid-mission. Bombing By Hand An aspect of aerial warfare in World War 1 that I feel like is overlooked. Air-to-ground combat during this time has been defined by the strategic bombing campaigns by Zepplin airships and the first multi-engine heavy bombers. But what is somewhat forgotten, or hardly mentioned, is the initial tactical bombing efforts by smaller one-man or two-man aircraft. Ranging from standard infantry hand grenades to more purpose built 20 pound bombs with metal fins that attempt to stabilize these bombs as they fall through the air. With no dedicated bomb sights or devices used to compute impact areas, much of this done just by getting a rough idea of wind direction, taking a guess at an ideal bomb altitude and physically throwing bombs over the side of an aircraft toward ground targets. In Warplanes: WW1 Fighters, players can also deploy handheld explosive charges against ground forces. Depending on which aircraft they are flying, players reach into a bag full of explosives installed within the cockpit. Like the actual conflict, deploying these bombs is done purely by eyesight and taking a best guess. This can be made easier depending on the difficulty setting. At lower difficulties, a visual cue appears on the ground showing a general blast radius. While flying at low altitude makes this bomb delivery method easier to perform, it does expose the pilot to more danger. Flare Gun Flare Pistols or Flare Guns were prolific in the air, on the ground and at sea during World War 1. They were primarily used for illumination and communication between forces with specific patterns and colors. In this game, they have a more action movie approved use. The flare pistol is immensely useful against airships and barrage balloons. Able to set them ablaze with one or two direct hits. It usually takes dozens of bullets to destroy these resulting in multiple strafing passes needed to destroy them. As effective as these are, the player has very few of them available. Expect to have to still have to strafe some lighter-than-air objects to get the job done. The level of cockpit interaction is not to the same level of complexity of VTOL VR - which has become a standard measurement for virtual reality flight arcades or sim lites - though its unique offerings do make it memorable. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

This is a topic that has been living in my mind for quite a while now, ever since the Typhoon module was confirmed to be a collaboration between Heatblur and TrueGrit. That announcement meant that not only were we going to get a full-fidelity Typhoon; but that, somehow, the module I considered an impossibility for years was going to be a reality. As it stands now with what we as the public know, Heatblur's Typhoon and Razbam's F-15E Strike Eagle are the only two modern 4th Gen fighters that are currently being developed. The future of DCS modules seems to have gone in a very different direction, one that seems to be embracing a completely different era of historical warfare: the Cold War. This article was heavily inspired by Enigma's "Why Cold War is the Future of DCS" video, I highly suggest giving it a look as he goes into several other aspects that will not be talked about in my article. COLD WAR'S DEVELOPER-FRIENDLY ROSTER One of the biggest hurdles that developers have when it comes down to modeling aircraft, as far as I am aware, is acquiring documentation about an aircraft's systems. With modern aircraft, this issue is a lot more prevalent. The confidential nature of many of the systems used in modern day frontline fighters could prevent modern modules from being made or certain systems from being modeled, which has been the case already for certain systems that should be present in a couple of already developed modules. Modules more modern than the ones we currently have would require a significant release of system and flight data documentation would need to be released to the public, which is extremely unlikely in a world with rising tensions between countries. Other games, such as War Thunder, have had very severe issues with some of their users releasing confidential data about certain vehicles for have them implemented in-game. This is a problem that DCS does not need, seeing as we already have relatively modern versions of frontline fighters in-game. One way to avoid these issues is by developing aircraft which are no longer in service. This way there will be little to no problems with confidentiality, with the exception of some systems which some countries might still consider to be classified. But, even taking all those possibilities in consideration, aircraft from the Cold War (1946-1992 but specifically ones from the mid Cold-War period) have an advantage in this regard. One proof of this is the Community A-4E, a community project that has the same level of fidelity as an official module. It was created using publicly available information by extremely dedicated individuals, proofing that with the knowledge and proper documentation. MORE TO BE EXCITED FOR: UPCOMING DCS COLD WAR MODULES It seems like this tendency is not something only being talked about by the more enthusiast-side of the community, but also something that first and third party developers have been keeping their eyes on. There are two upcoming modules, soon to be released, that are from the Cold War: Aerges' Mirage F1 series (CE,EE,BB and M) and IndiaFoxtEcho's MB-339A/PAN. Expect our first impressions of the Mirage F1 next week, as that is when it will be released! Heatblur are famous for delivering quality modules that deliver unique experiences, it just so happens to be that all of their current projects (with the exception of the Typhoon) are also Cold War modules. I, for one, feel like their upcoming F-4E is going to bring us a great BLURFOR aircraft, and one that will be the perfect rival for RAZBAM's MiG-23MLA once that one gets released. Other developers such as Magnitude 3 and FlyingIron are also working on earlier cold war projects, with the F-8E and A-7E respectively. There is a lot to be excited about in the Cold War scene and I, for one, am excited to see whether all this hype will pay off. I sure hope it will as that would mean that my personal favorite side of DCS would be its more fleshed out for years to come. A BRIGHT FUTURE IN THE PAST AND PRESENT I love my modern modules. I am fond of the feeling of being in complete control over every system in my cockpit and the ability of, after trial and error, being able to become one with the systems. What was complex becomes simple and what was simple becomes second nature. That is the appeal of modern aircraft to me and there is nothing like it. At the same time, most of the fondest experiences that I have had in DCS World have been in Cold War servers. Flying low to try and avoid detection with my dear friend Hueman as my wingman going against enemy players. The feeling of having to get close to your target, that intimate level of combat, is what makes Cold War aircraft something unique. As Enigma put it in his video: "...with less emphasis on the systems, it puts more emphasis in a need to be proficient in flying and combat maneuvering" I share this point of view, particularly seeing as both eras complement each other. The modern era provides experiences that the other cannot. To enjoy DCS at its fullest, one will need to dip one's toes in both eras and learn how to balance this. Now, from an upcoming module perspective, DCS will be dominated by Cold Ware releases for a while. Which is a trend that I see no signs of stopping. About the author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Just a few days before the beginning of Steam Next Fest 2023 (February 6th to February 13th, 2023), fans of the flight game genre have been given early access to the first demo for Nova Squadron. As someone who continuously checks in on this online indie gaming festival, there are usually very few flight games available per event. Seeing six demos in one festival could be considered a "big turnout" for the genre. After just a few days with this demo, it's safe to say that the genre will be well represented this time around. Nova Squadron has actually been in development since May 2020 by its developer Clara Gale. From its initial tweet that joked about planes "being complicated" to the release of alpha demo 0.1.0 on January 26th, 2023, Nova Squadron has covered a lot of ground in roughly over two years and eight months. After eagerly waiting for a chance to try it finally, I spent some quality time with the demo. Introduction For those that don't know, Nova Squadron is a still-in-development single-player arcade flight simulator. It utilizes a rougelite system as a part of its core gameplay. As players start new "Runs" (a.k.a. campaigns), their progress yields two types of currency that are used for temporary upgrades that reset after each Run is over or can be used for more permanent upgrades over time. The story so far takes place in the atmosphere of Jupiter in the year 2283. As a pilot of the overwhelmed Interplanetary Nations Defense Force, players lead Nova Squadron against a coalition of galactic nations and city-states attempting to invade Mars. Utilizing a map of Jupiter to show the order of battle between each side, Nova Squadron embarks on offensive and defensive missions to win the war. The enemies include frigate-class space warships, levitating military bases, and swarms of high-performance fighters. Here are a few things that jumped out on the initial playthroughs: User Interface (UI) This is something I want to highlight briefly. Not flight related, but this game easily has one of the cleanest user interfaces I've seen in a while. Even for more complicated functions related to customization and upgrades, the UI remains consistent and smooth. The tactical map shown before and after each sortie is fantastic. It is simple enough to understand at a glance, with clearly shown directions indicating what friendly and enemy forces are doing—enough info to inform but not overwhelm players. No Nonsense Tutorial Nova Squadron starts with the player flat spinning out of a high-altitude battle, needing to perform a flight system and weapon system check before re-engaging in combat. What made this tutorial stick out was how no-nonsense it was regarding what controls players could and could not use as the tutorial moved on. If the next maneuver was a standard roll, then pitch turn, the developer made it so focusing on that maneuver was the only thing you could do. There was no question as to whether or not it was the correct maneuver. There was only one option! It sounds restrictive, but it made the tutorial more concise. Flight Model and The Phoenix Just hearing this setup, I fully expected the flight model to be "cracked." That is to say, nearly unmanageable. With aircraft responsiveness being so sensitive, keeping track of close-range dogfights and making small control inputs would be almost impossible. I was fully prepared to start setting axis curves to dampen control inputs. I was completely wrong. The player-controlled fighter known as the Phoenix is not only easy to fly but is probably underperforming compared to expectations. That's not a complaint. The Phoenix can handle anything thrown at it from the beginning. Its speed, roll, pitch, and yaw rates are what you'd expect from the "starter" aircraft in a flight arcade game. The default controls are tuned enough to even allow for the precision firing of unguided ordinance. Alongside its onboard laser cannons, it can equip primary and secondary weapons. These include proximity fused cannons, various types of laser cannons, two types of homing missiles, a tesla coil type weapon (a personal favorite), and other futuristic options. Its initial stats favor speed more than anything else, with mobility being the second highest stat. From the start, it doesn't have the ability to perform wild airshow-style maneuvers while flying at high Mach speeds. At lower speeds, its reaction control system can temporarily boost its pitch rate, but it's not enough to wildly boost its maneuverability. However, the Phoenix's baseline performance being at this level further emphasizes all aspects of customization and upgrades possible in this game. Even the most minor performance change is noticeable, making any unlocked upgrade appreciated. After putting in some concentrated time to see how far I could improve the Phoenix, I found myself caring much more about every possible upgrade. It made me care more about what exactly I was trying to accomplish rather than haphazardly attaching parts just because they were available. I sincerely hope its baseline performance doesn't change much in the coming months or by the game's release in 2024. The way the Phoenix is presented in this game right now is a smart move. Customizations and Upgrades Nova Squadron has three layers of customization. At the squadron level, players can edit just about every aspect of their flight of five aircraft. The player can change the primary and secondary weapon systems per aircraft, change three layers of paint customization, and even the engine plume color. Players can customize the Nova Squadron to their preference in every mission if desired. While an option to apply a paint scheme to all aircraft in the flight would help reduce editing time and make it easier to coordinate liveries, there is little else a player could ask for. With a full-color palette available, this game is sure to have some eclectic screenshots in the near future. During a Run players receive Credits (CR) and Renown points after each mission. It's important to know when to spend and when to save for more successful future runs. Upgrades that are purchased with Credits are only in effect during the active run. These minor performance upgrades reset at the start of each run. So hoarding credits long-term doesn't have much value. New parts are unlocked after each mission in a Run, but they, too, are reset when a Run is over. Renown points are used for more permanent upgrades that carry over to all new Runs once they are bought and equipped to an aircraft. Parts unlocked with Renown points remain unlocked, giving players an immediate edge early in the game. General upgrades to aircraft speed, mobility, defense, and internal cannon are done with the Research Point option. These effectively act as building blocks for accessing more advanced builds faster in later playthroughs. Mission Restrictions In the demo, there are four types of missions available. They include dogfights, interception missions, and ground attack missions. Well, "ground". The focus in those missions is destroying bases levitating in the atmosphere. I mean, it's Jupiter. There's no land; what do you want? I liked that some of the mission restrictions varied between either destroying enough enemies to exceed a certain amount of points or destroying specific targets while still leaving time for players to rack up extra credits by shooting down other targets at will. Planned Updates to the Demo According to the demo's announcement post on Steam, it will receive updates over the next few months. These include new mission types, new enemies, a new ground attack focused aircraft for players to fly, and other features. With the demo being available long-term, it's a good chance for players to see how their developer will continue refining the game as a whole while updating a demo new and old players can refer to at any time. Recently, I've noticed a few still-in-development flight games taking this same path, and you can't help but appreciate how available these developers make themselves for suggestions, interactions, and edits directly from players. It's commendable. Nova Squadron alpha demo 0.1.0 is a strong, positive step forward for this indie game. I think it will perform well at Steam Next Fest, even with players brand new to the franchise, because of how approachable, easy to understand, and how rewarding time put into the game can be when the result is a custom aircraft tailored for their own use. I'll be sure to let everyone know when my peak high-speed interceptor build is complete! Be sure to check out the demo for yourselves during next week's Steam Next Fest. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

It has been quite a while since we last talked about the Falcon BMS Series, and since then a lot of changes and updates have been dropped, some of which have elevated the simulator to levels that I never thought possible. Let's take a look at the latest update, BMS 4.37! Initially released late last year, Falcon 4.37 provides an overwhelming amount of features and fixes that make 4.36 look like a small incremental update by comparison. Of all these, two stand out above the rest, so let's take a look at them! VR SUPPORT FOR FALCON BMS This is something I never in my life thought would happen, to the point that I did not believe it until I saw it in front of me. Somehow, the magician developers and coders that work in this project managed, in some unbelievable way, to add VR support to a game that has its roots in 1998, which means that it is as old as me! VR headsets and stereo rendering were not even a proper, tangible reality at the time of Falcon's initial release 24 years ago. It is impressive that they have managed to not only add support for this feature, but also that it has a much better integration with Steam VR than I thought it would have. Let me be clear, though: It is not a perfect implementation. It still lacks proper controller support, meaning that you will have to use your mouse to interact with the menus, cockpit and radios. This is less than desirable, but the developers are aware; which can only mean that they are actively working on improving this feature. The stereo rendering also does leave something to be desired. I do not know how to explain it in technical terms, but when you are in VR you do feel as if the image's distortion is not being properly set for the headset's optics, specially when it comes down to your peripheral vision. This expresses itself in the form of a somewhat flatter picture that does not convey proper depth in certain scenarios. Does this means that this feature is useless? No, absolutely not! Quite the opposite, it is the best addition that 4.37 brought to the simulator. I tested it in several scenarios, but the one that made me realize how much of a game changer VR is for BMS was during an AAR sortie (above picture) and it was an excellent experience! NEW UI, NEW STYLE AND THE F-15C EAGLE It might sound small or, but the second-biggest change for me in this update was the implementation of the new UI for the simulator. It made me feel as if I was playing a modern game with a more minimalistic and readable design, which is something that I had never felt while playing Falcon BMS in any of its previous iterations. These changes also extend to other submenus such as the campaign setup, the radio menus and other smaller elements that might seem inconsequential, but they add to the experience in a way that I never thought would amount to anything, but it did! Aside from these changes, the other major addition to the sim is the flyable F-15C Eagle! It is in its early stages of development and not WIP, but it is good enough to be used. Its avionics are mostly functional, and the flight model is fun; which to me are two of the essentials that any aircraft should have. It has many, many bugs, but I am sure that most of these will be addressed with the full release of this aircraft sometime in the future. The cockpit 3D model is at the same level as the Vipers, which is unexpected coming from the game that has the F-16 as its namesake. The external model is good as well, but it has some minor inaccuracies that, while not game breaking, are noticeable. That being said, it is evident that the team spent a considerable amount of time adding this aircraft to the game and I applaud them for the effort, even more when you consider that it came at the same price as Falcon BMS: completely FREE. THE FUTURE OF FALCON BMS AND THE FRANCHISE The Falcon franchise is now back in Microprose's hands, which means that the original publishers of the title can now work on new entries to the franchise. This opens a world of possibilities and, excitedly, makes my imagination go wild with ideas as to what could be done to bring Falcon back with a completely new title. The developers of BMS did share a sneak peek into what awaits us in Falcon BMS 4.3X, and it looks like we are getting a major graphics overhaul. It will come in the form of proper support for Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials and textures, as well as a new terrain engine and many more features that will give this game a much-needed uplift. I am excited for BMS, for more dogfights, for more operational theaters, for better features and for a possible new entry to the Falcon franchise. Here's for Falcon 5.0! About the author: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

In the past couple of days, we got a couple of surprises in regard to additions for VTOL VR, the VR-only flight simulator. The main one, aside from a pretty sizeable update, was the release of the T-55 Tyro, the first trainer and multicrew-capable fighter available for this game. Today we will take a look at some of the features that this small plane can offer and if it is a good fit for you and your play style! EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS The modeling work is very much in line with the rest of models already present in VTOL VR. It looks sleek, yet the textures are very simple. This certainly aids in keeping the VRAM footprint low and the frames high, a crucial aspect for any VR game. This doesn't mean that the models are bad, quite the contrary. The T-55 is a very well-designed aircraft that, while being fictional, manages to keep a certain sense of realism and structure that only VTOL VR has. The cockpit feels believable, and its layout flows naturally, even in the heat of combat. Props to the devs for managing to keep this trainer classy. That being said, the T-55 does seem to be heavily inspired by the Korean FA-50 "Golden Eagle" supersonic trainer and light attack aircraft. Quite the choice, considering that this aircraft is very capable of performing both training and combat duties. ITS PLACE IN THE GAME: A TRAINER AND A FIGHTER In the VTOL VR "meta", the Tyro fills in a role that has not been filled yet either by a mod or any of the official aircraft: training. It excels greatly at allowing you, and your friends, to share a cockpit and delegate duties while in combat or in more relaxed scenarios. The concept of having a pilot and an instructor is nothing new, but in a game like VTOL VR, this concept shines in a different light. I flew with my friend Golfie for a while, accompanying him in the instructor seat. To say that we had a blast would be an understatement, it was some of the best fun I've had in a VR flight sim in quite a while. It was extremely refreshing to get on the backseat and manage the systems as a team instead of being task-saturated. Golfie focused on flying while I managed all the systems, meaning that we could both focus on our tasks a lot more as we just trusted each other. This allowed us to accomplish objectives meant for more capable aircraft in the T-55, which was something that took me by surprise. It is impressive to see how much teamwork can affect the experience in this game, something that we had already gotten a glimpse of last year with the AH-94 add-on. A COMPLETE PACKAGE While it really doesn't bring anything new to the table, it is fair to say that the Tyro is a very complete add-on. Aside from the aircraft, you also get access to a voice-acted campaign where you play the role of a rookie pilot flying for a small air force. You will face against a more capable adversary that will challenge you in every single way possible. This campaign's purpose is to show you what is capable with the T-55 and that, despite being a less maneuverable and capable than the rest of the aircraft in the game, it is still an extremely versatile and unique machine that could serve as your point of entry to VTOL VR and even combat flight sims as a whole! The aircraft also has an instructor controls override system that allows the backseater to take the controls from the "trainee" at the front, a feature that is extremely useful for training scenarios where the pilot does something that puts the aircraft in danger. In such cases, the instructor can forcefully take control away from the pilot to save the aircraft. I'll admit that I used this feature to have some fun. I took the controls away from Golfie to, well, have some fun. Not only that, but I would recommend just trusting your backseater. This aircraft is a fit for almost everyone that could be interested in VR flying, a fact that is only enhanced by its very competitive pricing and accessibility. About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000 leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Last night (10/13/2023) we hosted our first DCS World event, which we had been preparing for quite a while. I am happy to report that it was a resounding success, specially since we also did it in collaboration with the VRC Black Aces community! In terms of hosting missions on our own server, we have always used publicly-available community-made sandbox missions. These were mostly for our own private use with our password locked server; so yesterday's event was not only our first public event, but also an awesome way for us to test our mission creation skills. This event allowed Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza and Caio "Hueman" Barreto to create a very specialized mission, one that had to be both reliable and entertaining. Usually, these two concepts don't get along, as what makes a mission entertaining and dynamic usually makes it more unreliable. It was a challenge that I never expected Ribbon-Blue to take, but I can say that not only did he manage to achieve his goals but also surpassed my expectations in the process. Before the event, we had only tested the mission a couple of times and with a limited amount of players. This meant that, even though we had proved that the mission was stable in a multiplayer environment, we never stress tested it. Time was up, so we started the mission. EVENT DAY! When the event started, both Blue and I just kind of stood there watching it unfold before us. We opened the F10 tactical map and watched how more than 30 people immediately joined the mission and got their jets started. Watching that wall of aircraft fly right towards the frontline was a sight to behold for both of us. The initial stages of the missions were, understandably, chaotic. Everyone was still trying to figure out what the enemy composition was and how they would tackle different tasks. From those, it was clear that one task was very well covered: CAP. Constant CAP was established as soon as the first aircraft got in the air, with dogfights and engagements occurring soon after they got into their positions. One early engagement stood out from the rest, one between four pilots and a JF-17. These pilots not only struggled to engage the Jeff, but also managed to get two of the four pilots shot down in the process. This elusive JF-17, which was part of a 4-ship formation, managed to evade several missiles while establishing enough dominance to turn tighter than every other fighter in that furball. That one engagement lasted over 7 minutes, and ended with a single missile shot that came from a plane that wasn't even in the air by the time the dogfight started! SURPRISING ORGANIZATION One aspect that surprised me a lot was the amount of sporadic collaboration that happened during the event. People were self-assigning tasks and organizing waves of attacks to defeat the enemy. SEAD and DEAD missions, as well as preemptive strikes, were planned and sorties were made. This was extremely important because the mission has some deadly air defenses in place, as well as an established EWR network that feeds the AD units and interceptors alike. Fog of war is also a factor, which limits the amount of intel you can get from the tactical map. Seeing players use pre-planned weapons such as SLAM-ER and HARM was a sight to behold, I was not expecting to see anything but constant air-to-air for five hours straight. Instead, air to ground became a focus in the middle of the session, once air superiority was sort of established through their sheer amount of allied fighters running CAP. WE WILL RUN MORE EVENTS! What we learned yesterday, primarily, was that we now want to run even more events. Last night was an awesome experience. Seeing people having fun with the mission Blue spent countless hours creating was great, specially considering that this event was kind of improvised to begin with. We'll notify both on our and the Black Aces' discord servers, and Twitter/X pages, whenever we host another event. Be it a multi-day mission or a DCS night, stay tuned for those. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy

When most people think of DCS World they usually have in mind aircraft like the mighty Hornet or the Mi-24P Hind. But there is one aircraft out there that not only satisfies every single criteria to be considered an excellent module but also one that has been built over the years by a group of passionate developers whose sole purpose is giving the community a full-fidelity module for free: the A-4E-C Skyhawk! Today, we will be taking a look at the "Scooter" to see if it is a fit for you. As always, our review will be separated in several sections for ease of reading: External and internal 3D models Visual and sound effects Flight modelling Mission capability Armament Ease of use and learning curve By and for the Community Is this aircraft for you? OF NOTE: This is a free community-made mod. Not an official product. This review was prevoiusly made with 2.0, but we have now verified everything said applies to the most recent version (2.1.1), so we have renamed the article and updated certain parts to adjust. ORIGINALLY POSTED: 07/10/2021 EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS The Skyhawk, despite having been made by a very small group of people, has nothing to envy from official modules as the external model has received quite the uplift from the previous versions. It now has normalmaps and improved roughmets. Both of these have made the model look as sharp as it has ever looked. Does this mean it is perfect? No, of course not. If one wants to be nitpicky you could point out at the unwrapping in the nose and on other surfaces, but this has not once detracted from how 99% of the model looks. Here, have a look for yourself! To me, the biggest difference between versions would be the look of the cockpit and the internal 3D model as a whole. Just like the external model, the cockpit has also received updated textures, normalmaps and roughmets. The changes might look subtle at first, but they start coming into their own when you spend time in the cockpit. From the wear on the throttle and stick to the stitches on the cockpit walls and the amazing-looking gunsight, Plusline's attention to detail has made the Scooter's office into a pleasant one! Once again, have a look! I have included day and night pictures as well as some other examples: VISUAL AND SOUND EFFECTS One of the most noticeable changes that v2.0 brings to the mod is its audio in addition to some very welcome visual effects. There might be some slight changes here and there between now and the final release, but let's have a look at the almost finished product. Under high and sustained G scenarios, visible vapor can be seen over the wings. This is an effect which is impressive, even on official modules. This, to me, is one of the best implementations of wing vapor on a community-made mod. It looks really good. Other noteworthy visual effects would be the cockpit shake when the aircraft is under stress and the navigation lights at night! When it comes to sound, the mod has received a complete overhaul of both external and internal sounds. Which means that you will no longer hear the very noticeable Su-25T sounds (or at least you will not under most circumstances). Everything from start-up to the haunting noises of your old radar warning receiver, the noise of passing wind, airframe stress and even pneumatic actuator sounds. The best part, to me, is that now the aircraft has the most crucial part of a module: auditory feedback for engine and maneuvering. When you start pulling Gs, you can hear the aircraft react to it. You hear your slats deploying with a very noticeable "THUMP" noise that helps in understanding in which part of the envelope you are. Saying that what the audio and 2D artist, plusline, has made is great would be an understatement. Here are some extracts from the mod so you can hear it and judge it for yourself: EXAMPLES: Full start-up sequence sounds. Notice the turbine spooling up, then the ignition sparks go and after that, the full spool-up to idle. Amazing detail. Aborted take-off. Engine spools up to 100%, then the slats come up with their thump sound, after that the wind noise starts ramping up. Then, engine goes back to idle. Fly-by at 360kts. Engine was at 100%. Notice how the engine changes from front to back. VOLUME WARNING. FLIGHT MODELING Just like with any of my reviews, I will disclaim here that I will not judge realism or accuracy as I have never piloted a real A-4, so my opinion does not hold any value in that regard. But with that being said, this has got to be one of the most realistic-feeling flight models on any mod I have ever tried. It is also one of the most accurate, if one guides itself with performance charts. I have had the privilege of being one of the dedicated quality assurance (QA) testers for the EFM for almost a year now. While I will go over a bit more detail of my experience as a tester later, I will say that the EFM has come a long way ever since I first tested it. From being able to go over Mach 3 when I first flew it to it being recognized as an excellent recreation by an ex-Argentinian Air Force A-4M pilot who helped the project as a subject matter expert (SME). This aircraft feels good and grounded, from the first moment you take it into the air to the heat of dogfighting. It is easy to fly but hard to master, as your AFCS (Automatic Flight Control System) is very rudimentary and basic. It still aids a lot in flight stability, primarily with the Stability Augmentation (STAB AUG) switch on, which will dampen down your flight controls and apply necessary corrections to increase stability. JNelson and Farlander, the developers responsible for the EFM (External Flight Model), have done a fantastic job in bringing the A-4E-C to new heights. The slats now react accordingly, changing the way the aircraft behaves as they deploy. You can feel them deploying and sense how they modify the way the air interacts with the wing. Slats also deploy realistically, this means that it is the force of the wind that keeps them in the wings, only deploying when the force from the slats themselves overcomes the wind force. She can also defend herself pretty well in a dogfight, but you will have to manage your energy very well so that you do not lose it all by trying to pilot her as you would a F-86 Sabre or a F-5E Tiger II. She requires that you fly her with attention, and that your are hands on the stick at all times. Overall, I think that this mod has one of the best-feeling FMs in the sim. MISSION CAPABILITIES If you set your mind to it, this aircraft can do pretty much about anything. You will need to plan your attacks accordingly but, if you plan well, you could destroy an entire fleet with Skyhawks. It can carry an absurd amount of weaponry for its size, as well as some pretty unique weapons that allow for some very interesting scenarios. Additionally, this mod is one of the only ones in which air to air refueling is possible! Thanks to a couple of discoveries which we will discuss with JNelson in our upcoming interview with him, radio communications are now a part of the Skyhawk. This means that you will be able to communicate with tankers, AWACS and any other support unit. Pretty damn neat! Remember, you are a ground pounder by nature but that does not mean that you do not have fangs to attack and defend yourself from enemy aircraft. You are also able to do SEAD missions thanks to the AGM-45 Shrike, a missile that is unique to the A-4E in the simulator as of the time of writing this review. I will go more in-depth into weaponry on the next section. You also have your ground radar, which is due to receive an update on v2.1 of the mod. It is a rather simple radar that is mostly used for navigation purposes and for terrain avoidance at low altitude under low visibility conditions. Last but not least, you have the CP-741/A Bombing Computer. This radar-based computer calculates the ballistics of your drop when a point is designated with the radar with it enabled. After designation, you will have to pull up gently and steadily until you hear a release tone. If everything went well, your bombs should be on target! With all of these tools at your disposal, you have a very capable 3rd Gen fighter bomber! ARMAMENT COLT MK.12 CANNONS Your internal cannons. These 20mm cannons can be pretty effective, providing that your aim is true. Thankfully, you will not suffer from the defects for which this cannon was infamous, like stoppages and jams after hard maneuvering. MK.4 HIGH PERFORMACE EXTERNAL GUN (HIPEG) PODS I would not suggest that you carry more than one of these, or that you be like me and equip all three because "It would look cool". These puppies pack as much recoil as you think a external 20mm cannon would. They are a lot of fun, though. AIM-9 SIDEWINDER The well known IR seeking missile. You can carry up to four of these. The most modern variant of this missile that you can carry is the AIM-9P-5. UNGUIDED ROCKETS You have two varieties to choose from. Either you go with ZUNI rockets or FFAR rockets; with their respective pods, of course. They can be really effective or very disappointing, but I blame that on the DCS damage model. UNGUIDED BOMBS AND CLUSTER MUNITIONS You have all the unguided bombs that you want, your limit is your maximum take-off weight. Seriously, check out the weapon list: Mk.81, 82, 83 and 84. Basically, the entire Mk.80 series with all the variants. AN-M30, AN-M57, AN-M64 and AN-M65. WWII munitions, they still go boom. CBU-1 and CBU-2 Bomblet Dispensers. Mk.20 Rockeyes. Using Mk.82s as our example: MER racks up to six bombs on the centerline. MER racks up to two on the inner pylons. And one bomb on the outers. That would be over 6,000lbs worth of Mk.82 bombs. Impressive for such a tiny bird. AGM-45 SHRIKE This missile is quite impressive. It is an early anti-radiation missile, which makes its operation surprisingly easy. You can imagine it a a gigantic sidewinder that searches for radar emitters instead of heat. Launching it is as simple as pointing it to target, waiting for tone and letting it fly! But here is where its age catches up with it, as it is quite inaccurate. The devs have taken care into making it realistically inaccurate, so good luck! COUNTERMEASURES AND RADAR WARNING RECEIVER Normally, I would not talk about systems like these. But seeing as they are a bit interesting in their implementation for the Skyhawk, I felt that they deserved attention. For decoys, you have 30 chaff and 30 flares. They are separated in buckets which salvos can only be programmed on the ground by groundcrew. They are not automatic and you will have to have your Mk.1 Eyeballs out and pay attention to your RWR to know when to deploy them. The AN/APR-23 Radar Warning Receiver. It is audio-only so here is how it is interpreted: 0-5 secs is how it sounds when nothing is happening 5-10 secs is how it sounds when something is searching 10-15 secs is how it sounds when you are locked 15-20 secs is how it sounds when you are being fired upon Pretty neat, huh! I love this archaic system to bits. It is unique and it has been implemented wonderfully. You can imagine the terror of the pilots over Vietnam having this piece of junk as their only way to tell if they were being shot at by a SA-2! EASE OF USE AND LEARNING CURVE This aircraft is just good. It has a relatively shallow learning curve, if I am being honest. It is easy to learn all of its systems, despite how analog some of them can be. I think that it is an excellent aircraft if you want to learn how to fly an aircraft that lacks fly-by-wire (FBW). You will be able to get a sense for manual trim, unassisted flight controls, with the exception of the STAB AUG and hands-on landing and approaches. With v2.0, the nose wheel steering system has be removed as it was found to be anachronistic to the A-4E variant. Now, ground steering will be done through differential braking which can be a bit daunting for newcomers. In practice, I have found that, after some tweaks were made to the way the nose wheel casters, differential braking is neither hard nor complex. It is just a matter of getting used to it. Additionally, the devs have implemented an assisted mod that uses an axis, usually the rotary Z axis on a stick, to determine steering direction to apply breaks accordingly. It is still a beginner friendly aircraft, one that I recommend to everyone looking for some excitement or for those searching to learn how to properly fly an aircraft of this era. BY AND FOR THE COMMUNITY Sometimes it is hard for me to believe that such a good module is available for everyone to enjoy, for free. And even more surprisingly, it is also one that has kept its source code open for everyone to see and learn from it. But one has to understand where and how this project started to comprehend the purpose of it. It was always meant to be volunteer-made, money was never on the table. Plenty of people have contributed to the module over the years in different levels. Coders, modelers, texture artists, testers, etc. It was a project that was born out of the DCS Community. And one of the only one that has delivered and thrived like no others have done before. I am glad that I have been able to do a very small part in helping the project grow by being a dedicated QA tester for the EFM. Even if all I did was through rocks at the cockpit until something broke or fly the aircraft around like a manic so that I could find holes on the flight envelope. It is very rare to see a project like this, but when it happens, it leaves a mark. IS THIS AIRCRAFT FOR YOU? If what you want in a module is: An amazing combat experience. An excellent flight model made by dedicated developers. To be able to do carrier operations like back in 'Nam. To carry as many bombs as a heavy bomber from WW2. A lovingly crafted community creation. If you don't mind: The fact that you are not spending ANY money. The lack of modern systems. If you are a technowizard, this one will matter. The fact that it not officially supported by ED, not like that matters. Having your eyes on the pit all the time, as you do. If all or some of the above is what you want, then the Community A-4E is for you! About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

The perspective of a creator and a pilot for one of the largest consecutive airshow events in VRChat Aviation The World Creator Perspective Written by Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos To say that September Showcase is stressful for everyone involved would be an understatement, but it is the world creators who suffer the most. Not only does everything need to be ready with very tight deadlines, but also optimized for two different platforms with very different requirements and limitations. That being said, I suffered from a very particular set of challenges due to what I wanted to showcase for the audience. Currently, I am one of the few world creators in the Black Aces that makes their own aircraft models from scratch. This meant that not only did I have to polish a world, but make a realistic-looking, game-ready aircraft in a short amount of time. This year's original plane was the SW-210 "Colibrí", a two seat trainer designed by our very own Caio D. "Hueman" Barreto. We also had another creator with us during my week, Reason2Die4, who designed a heavy fighter, the F/A-27G "So-Ur", which I also textured. This made my world itself quite challenging, as it was also a collaborative effort. Working on the Colibrí was some of the most challenging 3D work I've done so far, mainly because there were parts I had to design myself. The best example of this independent design work was the landing gear. This was one of the few parts where I had no references other than the placement of the wheels when deployed, so I busted out my 3D skills and went to work making one in around than two day, with animations included. UV unwrapping was an absolute nightmare, as always. Getting the textures compacted and done in such short notice made me worry about the quality I would be able to deliver, but I managed to muster every ounce of effort I had in my soul to finish it on time and even make two separate liveries for the showcase! Working with Unity was relatively easy, thanks to all the other world creators such as VTail being there to help answer any doubts that could arise. It took me quite a bit to get my world done. Getting all the systems working was a bit difficult, but at the end of the day it was the Quest version which gave me the most issues. Meta's Quest 2 platform makes creating worlds an unbelievable hassle. Worlds need to be below 100MB, with a reduced number of assets and limited use of shaders due to the lack of shadows and a depth buffer. Thankfully, I had prepared everything in advanced to be as easy to port as possible, so I had a bit of an easier time with it as I would have otherwise. The world needed to be up one week before the show because the pilots needed that time to figure out the aircraft, their physics and which maneuvers they would do. This was achieved with my planes, both the Dragonfly and the Colibrí, but the So-Ur got delayed by a couple of days due to some issues we were having with its integration. We solved said issues, and we were able to mount one hell of a show. For world creators, September Showcase is the most stressing event one can participate in. It feels sort of like a gamejam, an effort against the clock. This year, we had to create 5 different showcase worlds and around 17 new aircraft. It is incredible to see that we are able to pull something like that off, specially when you consider that some world creators hadn't even touched Unity in months; and one, Pilot, had never touched it as his showcase world was his first one ever. I love this event, but I am glad I will have my free time back now that it is over. I will get to work on the Colibrí's world at my own pace now, see you there! The Pilot Perspective Written by Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza This is something that was mentioned in a past interview with leadership of The Black Aces Stunt Team, but it is hard to not overstate it. As someone that has experience with various types of flight games and simulators, what keeps me coming back to these showcase events is the unique and challenging type of flying it is. It is not something that can be replicated on platforms outside VRChat's aviation community. Even high level Digital Combat Simulator virtual flight teams do not deal with this type of situation. Let me put it in perspective using September Showcase 2023. This year, five world creators affiliated with the Black Aces VRChat aviation group designed a set of aircraft to be shown off in front of live VR crowds. Normally these showcases - airshows that unveil new aircraft to be released for the public to enjoy - are a bi-monthly events. The pilots that fly these aircraft have weeks to learn their intricacies, spread out their practice sessions and get new routines ready. With there usually being two or more types of aircraft available, transitions between each routine also include deciding on directions of departure and approach and timing between music. For each aircraft, they must learn a degree of control from the edge of stall through consecutive aerobatic maneuvers; well enough to consistently perform those maneuvers before the public sees them. However, during September Showcase, the time to prepare and get everything right is reduced to less than six days per week. For five weeks straight. For the pilots, this time crunch presents a real challenge. Even for a group of 13 pilots of varying levels of readiness. Even rotating teams of pilots per showcase only lessens the workload somewhat. This year, they were tasked with mastering an array of aircraft from radial piston legends to fictional, but believable designs all flew with varying degrees of realism depending on the intention of the world creator. We flew the following aircraft: A7M2 Reppu Dassault Mirage 2000 Dassault Rafale-M B-17 Flying Fortress B-24 Liberator B-29A Super Fortress F-14A Tomcat F-84F Thunderstreak F-86F Sabre F/A-27G So-UR JAS-39C Gripen MiG-15Bis Fagot MiG-23MLA Flogger P-47D-22 Thunderbolt SW-201 Dragonfly SW-210 Colibrí The nerves and stress can run high during this time, with a lot of "try it and see what happens" maneuvers during practice. Many of them result in spectacular explosions and laughter. But even after the hardest performance in front of crowds so large, pilots lose frames per second while flying formation, the immediate feedback from a live audience is such a rush. Leaving the cockpit of an aircraft then being met by dozens of spectators and an almost guaranteed after party, it reinforces the feeling of it truly being a live event. During these times, the mixture of relief that everything went well, comments from the audience and comradery from fellow pilots really wraps up the experience. It has been well over one year since I started airshow flying with the Black Aces stunt team, and the allure of high-flying performances in front of a "live" virtual audience continues to dazzle me to this day... I just thank goodness every month isn't September. Haha!