Rise of Flight ICE, Black Shark, A-10

[Skybird]

Does Black Shark include an option to switch the Kyrillic labels in the cockpit to English translations, or is there a mod for that?

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Does Black Shark include an option to switch the Kyrillic labels in the cockpit to English translations, or is there a mod for that?

Yes. It's in Options -> Gameplay -> Cockpit Language.

[Skybird]

Good to know!

[Oberon]

Got to concur with the AI mod in ARMA2, I don't do a lot of proper footstomping, I'm usually hovering in an Apache or staring down the gunner optics on an Abrams but the AI has definitely punished us for any stupid mistakes that we have made. Flying an Apache over the town on a Hydra run for example lead to a dead gunner and a wounded me crawling out of the wreckage.

Let us know how you get on with the Black Shark and ICE. They're both titles I have an eye on, as well as A-10, but the first paycheck, after it is dissembled and consumed by reality, will probably go towards hardware upgrades and quite possibly a TrackIR...

[Skybird]

In flightsims, I consider TrackIR to be a must now.

I'll keep you updated, but while I already have three new game boxes, I still need to wait for the hardware. The shop where I bought is waiting for a delivery of revisioned boards for the type I ordered, hopefully by the end of this week. Not before then they can assemble it for me.

I am also considering A-10, but not now (3 new titles at once already is a load), and I want it to have received one or two of the inevitable patches first before I depart with my money. It's already an expensive week right now, and additional costs for wheel and 2nd HD maybe already lurk beyond the horizon.

I look forward to do a real huge air battle for the first time in BoBII-Wings of Victory, and to boost the frames in FS9+mods, with most things maxed out. The racing sims I already have, already play fluidly right now, so probably no big difference there with improved hardware. I hope I do not get haunted by compatability issues with some of my beloved classics.

[Drewcifer]

Agreed, I always us my TrackirR 5. I mean with the detailed cockpits.. or like in Rise of Flight.. where there isn't much need for hitting buttons in the cockpit The trackiR is a lifesaver in dog fighters, jerking your head about and having completely situational awareness

[Oberon]

Hopefully with all the upgrades I'll still have enough to one side to grab a TIR. Would 4 with the vector work fine?

Meanwhile:

[Skybird]

It seems my first answer went amiss?

Again, then:

I have Track IR 4, and I never have missed anything in it, so I think TrackIR 4 works fine for you, Oberon, if oyu can get it cheaper than TrackIR 5.

I have not forgotten your request about RoF and BS, but with all the system chnage going on, I have had little to no time to already have dealt with them in depoth. All I can say is both sims run smoothly over here.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Let us know how you get on with the Black Shark and ICE. They're both titles I have an eye on, as well as A-10, but the first paycheck, after it is dissembled and consumed by reality, will probably go towards hardware upgrades and quite possibly a TrackIR...

Well, first feedback from me on Rise of Flight. It looks brilliant in graphics, and flying the planes is a challenge. So is dogfighting - I find it incredibly tough to land a well-aimed shot here. So on this aspect, thumbs up from me.

But:

It has the IL-2 disease, like I mwentioned it somewhere else. Indeed it is like IL-2 in another era, with better looks and other planes. It is optimized for pure dogfighting action - and nothing else. There is no atmosphere - or as much as you know from IL-2. There is no feeling to be there - or as much as you know from IL-2. In principle, whatever you liked and hated about IL-2, you likely will experience again here, just looking that much better (flying at sunset or dawn is fantastic, so are the clouds).

Technically, this sim is brilliant. Physically, it seems to be correct. Atmospheric - it is a looser like Flanker, Lock On, IL-2 and the many clones of it. Somehow these Eastern studios simply do not know how to get a good package together, they excel in the technical aspect, but the package they form from that feels lifeless and sterile. No match for the drama and nerve-wrecking hectic, the mounting tension and excitement of doing battle in Steel Beasts, or flying in the campaign world of Falcon 4, or the sense of doing something epic when meeting huge formations like in BoBII and EAW with hundreds of planes.

I also run into quite some bugs, mostly invisible planes of which I only be aware because of their labels chasing around in the sky - without the plane they are being attached to.

I do not doom this title, it is too well-done visually and technically. If I have to rate it like in old score system for figure skating, I would give it a very high 5.8 or 5.9 in the technical A note for difficulty, and in the B-note a high 3.x or a low 4.x score for the artistic impression - I know that I will not play this as enthusiastically as I played Longbow 2, European Air War, Falcon, not to mention Steel Beasts. It feels too sterile to really pull me into it's world, and have me immersed in it for long ongoing story-telling.

These Eastern studios for simulations really need to learn how to perform better in this regard. Technically they are beyond doubt, but the design of the package is always showing the same kind of lacking imagination - since ten years now.

For the sake of flying it - get it. But know what it is that you are getting: ^this, and not more, but also nothing less.

I had my first two test sessions in the Black Shark cockpit also. No flying, just looking. The cockpit is brilliant. And it easily offers the most realistically looking HUD I have seen so far. I will be happy to just learn to fly and discover the world with it. Once I haver learned how to unlock the collective, that is. It indeed reminds me of the complex cockpit modules for FS - there the major pleasure is to read and to study and to learn them. It feels the same with Black Shark. From what I read, it seems to be the same with A-10 (670 pages manual).

[msalama]

Both DCS sims are works of art. I personally consider them the best sims ever made for ANY genre whatsoever

[Skybird]

After having commented on RoF, I still owe Oberon my set of thoughts about Black Shark.

My interest in RoF has fallen very rapidly. Despite the looks, there is not much that keeps me interested. And some of the flight models are - well, terrible to fly. Maybe realistic or not (they have debates about that in their forums, some seem to be simply buggy), but dogfighting in this sim is something I do not enjoy at all. And beside dogfighting - there is nothing in this package. It's Il2 with different planes that move like a bronco on hot coals, and with better looks - not more than this RoF is.

Test before you buy, I only recommend.

Black Shark now has gotten me to invest quite some time into it now. That is due to the very high complexity of the cockpit functions. It reminds me much of a complex module for FS9 or FSX. Seen that way, I like it, I also like the challenging but managable flight characteristics. It feels good to sit in this cockpit with TrackIR and trying to stay in command of what is going on.

The package as a whole is very sterile, however, and ergonomic interfaces is nothing they will ever learn to do right, I think. There is no campagin atmosphere and no immersion on an emotional, personalised level. The AI is weak, simply that. You need at least a good AI to compensate weaklnesses in mission desiogns or lacking campaigns, or you need to have a good camoaign mode in order to attract you despite weak AI. If both things are weak, than thius is not good. They were too focussed on the helicpoter exclusively, I think. That leaves you with a formidably modelled flight-and-hover war machine - and with little argument to use it and get it started. "Same procedure as every year", one may quote the movie, when considering their record of titles from Flanker over Flanker 2 and 2.5 to LOMAC and now BS. They all suffer from the same disease: sterility, lacking atmosphere. For this simple reason I will think twice and three times before buying A10 now. By their record, I expect great flying-the-machine - and not much more. And that is not enough for a good sim.

So Msalama has it right and wrong, I think. The helicpoter itself seems to be simulated quite realistically, and complex, and so far that is a great sim. But simulation also includes the environment and interaction with it, the drama of being part of a mission, feeling as part of a team with an enemy going after me. But here, once again they do not deliver at all. Seen this way, this is a weak simulation. It does not compare in these regards to SBP, F4, or SH3.

I fly Black Shark to become better in flying the helicopter, it is the same motivation I have for flying a complex airliner in FS. But I see my interest ending in that.

And that's why I do not forsee this to become a lontime love affair of mine, like other simulations out there. If you like this kind of study sims, get it, it is great. If you look for a good combat and interactive warfare simulation with longtime appeal, look somewhere else.

Some Wetsern studios can learn from these Eastern one regarding simulation precision of the technical models. But the Eastern ones need tol learn from their Western counterparts regarding immersion, longterm motivation, atmosphere. They are simply too sterile - since so many years now.

I wouldn't buy RoF again (also because of their business model which I do not like one bit). BS I would buy again, but never for full price, only for smile price packages.

My personal benchmarks for simulation immersion and atmosphere are SBP, F4 and SH3. RoF snd BS in no way play in that league. In technical accuratesse, they are on par indeed, with RoF really mlooking fantastic. But technciual accuracy alone is not all what makes a great simulation package.

My great hope for the old Longbow2-kind of mission feeling is Combat Helo whose progress I follow since months now.

All my comments on both sims from SP perspective.

[Skybird]

BTW, about A10, DCS writes on it'S website:

THE ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS FOR INSTALLATION AND GAME RUN, LAN AND INTERNET PLAY REQUIRE INTERNET CONNECTION

Does this mean people need constant internet connection for running it in singleplayer/offline mode, like the UBI-disease in SH5, and the early RoF ?

[msalama]

So Msalama has it right and wrong, I think.

No, I meant "the best" as in comprehensively simulating the machines they model, because solely by that criteria that is indeed what they are. But when it comes to the syntethic world where those simulated machines fly and fight... well, I agree, not so much

Bah, y'all jes' gotta be a nerd like myself.

[Skybird]

I can't believe what my new rig is doing with FS9 - it's killing it byte by byte! Plenty of mods installed, busy airport scenery and AI traffic, all sliders maxed out - and the frames race down the screen at 60.

RoF and BS also run perfectly and with totally fluid frames - again with everything maxed out.

[Schroeder]

@Obi

I have a Track IR 3 with vector expansion and it leaves nothing to be desired. But as Sky said, go for the vector stuff, Track IR is a PITA without it (you might remember me becoming frequently loud on TS when I still hadn't had the vector expansion).