How "scaleable" is it?

[+malibu43 142]

Well, for the first time in my life I may be getting a computer that is capable of playing the latest and greatest games out there, and I'm excited about it. Unitl now, I have never bought a desktop/laptop with gaming in mind, and, as a result, have always found myself limited to playing games that are 5-10 years old.

 

So of course, the first thing on my list to get after my new laptop arrives is DCS A-10C. What better way to enjoy my sweet new laptop than with the latest and greatest flight sim out there. But there's a catch (there always is, right?). The drawback to being able to afford my new laptop is that I am now a "grown up" and, while I have $$$ for lot's of fun toys, I don't really have as much time to play with them anymore. I'm also going to become a dad in June, so take whatever time I did have available and subtract 99.99%. That's the time I'll have left to do any flight simming on my new laptop.

 

I would love nothing more to learn what every little button and switch do on the A-10C and learn how to press a million different buttons to deploy a GBU on target, but I just don't know if I'll have time.

 

So, how scalable are the avionics? Is there just a "Sim" mode and "Easy" mode, or can I adjust each option individually? I've seen some images of DCS Black Shark with "Easy" avionics and it looked like an arcade game. I don't want that. I'm just interested in maybe some simplified aviionics and systems; I don't want a bunch of icons and labels all over the screen and a super omnicient top down radar in the corner of the screen. I'd just like a few less buttons to push and procedures to learn.

 

Is that possible? Or if not, how detailed is? Something along the lines of F4AF I could make time for if it was the only option...

 

And, the reason I ask is because if I really am not going to be able get what I need out of DCS A-10, I can always get FC2 for 1/2 the price. Based on what I've seen/heard, I think the avionics in FC2 might be suitable to my time constraints. But FC2 isn't the latest and greatest. And like I said, I'm ready for the latest and greatest.

Edited March 3, 2011 by malibu43

[JediMaster 451]

FC2 is the same level engine-wise as Black Shark. A-10C is slightly updated from that, but it is basically the same.

 

As for A-10's level of difficulty, I'm not sure as I have yet to get it. However, I do have a lot of time in Black Shark and I can tell you this--the scaling is a bit of a cliff. It pretty much offers "console-like ease" or "full on realism." That middle road is pretty much nonexistent, which also means if you learn the easy and want to "graduate" to the hard you have to spend just as much time unlearning the old ways as learning the new.

 

So I took the step of just plunging into BS at full real (with the exception of labels because quite frankly every enemy out there seems to have a radar and you're more likely dead than lucky when it comes to evading fire from forces you never saw) and while it took several months I did get into the groove. I still don't understand most of the avionics, though, because I found I really didn't need to learn them! I learned to take off, land, fly the waypoints manually (since the autopilot is hard to learn), and fire the weapons. The Ka-50 has only limited weapons (Vikhrs, unguided rockets, laser-guided rockets, guns, free fall bombs) that are pretty easy to use, the only difficulty being to target the enemy accurately and kill them in less time than it takes them to lock onto you and knock you from the sky!

 

The A-10C has more advanced avionics (although still no radar), so I'm not sure how hard that will be to learn. FC2 has the A-10A with a moderate FM and I can own the battlefield with that thing. If I want a challenge in the A2G role, I take the Su-25 or 25T because I find the A-10A so easy to use (almost as easy as TW's A-10 after all these years of flying it in LOMAC/FC/FC2).

 

BTW, as for free time when the baby comes, believe me--you'll have a lot more free time those first few months than you will once they can walk and talk! When all they do is eat and sleep, it's easy street by comparison.

[+malibu43 142]

 

...

 

BTW, as for free time when the baby comes, believe me--you'll have a lot more free time those first few months than you will once they can walk and talk! When all they do is eat and sleep, it's easy street by comparison.

 

Well, if that is the case, then maybe I should just stick with SF2 in all its simplistic glory and use my new laptop to crank the graphics up!

 

And, from what I've heard, there is a lot of pooping in addition to the eating and sleeping the first few months!

[JediMaster 451]

Well...there is some pooping...

 

Anyway, I would recommend FC2 because it pretty much looks like A-10C but isn't as difficult to pick up (aside from the Su-25T which is almost at DCS levels). You'll also get to fly the F-15C, Su-27, 33, MiG-29, and Su-25.

It's a great game and it's like half the price of A-10C I think.

 

 

The Jedi Master