Burny>
To hopefully answer some of your questions:
- DCS does have some built in missions for a number of the aircraft and also some DLC campaigns. I personally don't fly them, but that's just not my preference. Additionally, if you want to get in and fly quickly and conduct campaigns, you might be better off with IL-2 BOS, which now also supports VR. I do have both, though frankly I'm rather underwhelmed by IL-2, which IMO is still some way adrift of feeling like you're actually flying an aircraft, unlike DCS. For all that, it really is a question of personal preferences.
- There's two versions of the DCS game engine, v1.5, which includes a free map (Caucasus), and v2.1, which only supports the two paid for maps (Normandy and NTTR). Both of the game engines are free and it's quite OK to have both installed in parallel. There is an expectation that v2.5 which continue to push forward the game engine, with it eventually also encompassing an updated Caucasus map
- With DCS you're primarily paying for the DLC aircraft and maps, and they're not cheap. For all that, the maps are big and well done and the aircraft are fabulous. There was a recent thread on the DCS forums about a review by a real Huey pilot of his experience of flying the Huey in DCS in VR. He was very positive about the degree of accuracy. Part of the implications of the pricing model is that if you want a lot of aircraft, it's NOT cheap. Making up for that, DCS regularly have sales on their aircraft with anywhere from 40-70% discounts. At the moment there's a 40% sale on most modules in Steam. More importantly, chances are that it'll take some real effort to learn to fly well, so there's a lot of depth to the effort required, meaning that you won't get bored too quickly.
For example, took me months to be semi-competent in flying the Huey.
- Once you have learned to fly, it's an awesome experience and is deeply satisfying. Just being able to deal with say the 2 min start up sequence on the Huey is fun (well at least for me).
- There's 3 key categories of aircraft in game, the jets, from Sabres to Mirages and F15s, WW2 prop aircraft (Spit, Fw190 etc) and helicopters (from Huey to the KA50). So a wide range of time periods covered.
- It's quite OK to purchase module licenses from either Steam or from ED directly. Either will work fine with the core game engines. Personally I have bought some aircraft via Steam, but run 2.1 which I downloaded from ED directly.
- All of the aircraft modules will work with either version of DCS world. Some of the campaigns are however version specific.
- DCS includes a VERY powerful in game mission editor, so if you want to say setup an night-time troop insertion to a specific map point that might have nearby defences, you can do it. DCS also has what appears to be a very switched on community, who regularly release free mods and scripts.
- I very much recommend downloading v1.5, which includes the free map and two free aircraft (P51 and Su25). That will give you an idea of the depth of the game.
So back to I guess your key point, i.e. whether to bother. If you want a fairly easy to get into flying game with some shooting, try IL-2, or Arma3 if you want nearly Elite easy to fly. If you want something seriously challenging, that will take you serious effort to learn just how to get something into the air successfully, then it's definitely DCS. Personally, I love DCS.
Update: As an example of the mission editor, I fancied trying something a little different tonight. So flew a delivery mission from a carrier to a frigate. The editor allows placement of ships, their defined waypoints and speeds, weather conditions etc. So it was a night mission, 15mph winds, 10' swells, rain, trying to land on a frigate in the dark, whilst it was cruising at 29knots. Rather challenging as the frigate flight deck is really not that much bigger than the Huey. Amazing feeling to do it well though.
he will shortly take new orders, contact him on the IL2 forum with a PM.
