Cutter wrote on Apr 19, 2020, 15:43:
$100 plus bucks on some of those planes? Yeesh!
It's worth it. Just buy your favorite I gaurantee there is enough to learn to keep you occupied for years via user missions and the inherent complexity of any single given aircraft. Yes I'd prefer to get an awesome campaign like in Falcon 4 or Janes Apache but that is about as likely to happen as a good succesor to Total Annihilation/Supcom. I gotta let it go frozen style.
This game is very different. Every module I've tried has been worth it. The fidelity of a full, VR or TrackIR ready, clickable cockpit is stunning. The carrier landings in the F14/18 alone are worth thousands of dollars to me. No other computer experience has come close to that kind of heart stopping tension. Huey and Spitfire are also phenomenal. I assume all the other shit I havn't tried is as well, but seriosuly who has the money/time for all of it. It's not necessary. One plane/chopper would be enough. If you are lucky it's one of the two free ones! Just flying these things is rewarding. I havn't even learned the weapon systems on most of them. I don't even care to really. It's so good just flying about and landing/takeoff but way more fun than a civilian sim because unlike those planes, these ones are not optimised for that. These are high powered deathtraps and you FEEL it when you fly them. It's crazy how good it feels.
It's not for everyone, I wouldn't have the patience to learn on my own probably (I can Kerbal level normally, but not much more than that) but if you watch enough youtube or find a friend to learn with it's a real good ride. The learning experience IS the game in this situation.
Also I'm an idiot. I would never get anywhere near the navy in my or your country, but with a little effort I can fly a fake computer F-14 and catch a shitty 1 or 4 wire on a modern supercarrier and thats about as close to an actual battlemech/Valkyrie fighter game our reality can provide. It's amazing.
I started with an old Sidewinder joystick. I still don't have pedals. I inherited an old thurstmaster X52 Pro. Better gear is always better, you will dream of handmade pedals from some croatian artist genius that cost 1200 dollars a piece but you don't need any of it. Every step helps though. I spent my first few years without a trackIR but after a basic stick that would be my first suggestion if you don't have VR already.
Sims are for everybody who can suck it up and well, suck, for the first 10 hours or so. The rewards are amazing though. You convince yourself that you are proficient at something and it feels good after a while! Even though that something isn't relevent to any real life skills. Especially after what this COVID thing has done to aviation but who cares. This is PC gaming. It's all about wasting time and money and sims are the living embodiment of that philosophy.
Or just watch some trap session videos on youtube from real F-18 pilots with go-pros on their helmets, or DCS pilots for that matter! it's 1/4 the fun for none of the cost. But if you need a new hobby I couldn't recomend DCS more.