Which DCS Module Should You Buy?

[Music] foreign [Music] which dcs module should you buy welcome to my channel and i am not going to answer that question directly because the only person who can actually answer that question directly is you um and for a long time i have not really thought that answering those questions was valuable those types of questions every time i see a video about the best dcs module or the easiest one to buy uh or to learn or the one that you should buy those kinds of things um i think that it's i just assume that it's a click bait kind of a video i don't really see a lot of value in those but i do see these questions a lot on various forums and so i started thinking about why i'm seeing those questions and and why people are asking those questions and and so i think that maybe there is some value there and i would like to try to help um in in ways that may seem like they're not that helpful at first but hopefully they will turn out to be helpful in the end so i think the real question is which module do you want to buy and whichever one you want is the answer but how do we get to that and and ultimately when i when i look at this question on the forums and i see the different responses i'm seeing a lot of responses that are not very helpful because they will single out one particular module and and i think people sometimes think that the module they like the best is the module that everybody should like the best and that's just simply not the case we all have different opinions we have different thoughts we have different experiences and so we ultimately have to sort out the data for ourselves um regarding what is best for us to spend our money and time on um and so ultimately what i think people are doing when they ask these types of questions is they're just trying to get as much data on every single module from the community as possible they want all the data so they can make an informed decision and that's where i hope to help because i can't tell you what module to buy and nobody else can either and and so if you see a response like well they have 14 it's the best that's not a helpful response because it's the best for that person it may not be for you or when you see uh i've seen this one a lot where it says well if you're new to simming then you need to get a trainer first and i completely disagree with that premise i think that it's wrong i would probably have given up on dcs if i would have started off with a trainer the the sim is a trainer so in my opinion you don't need a trainer if you want an l-39 or you want a c-101 because you like that aircraft then uh then awesome maybe that's the aircraft for you but but maybe it's not and so when i see responses like that i just don't think they're helpful you have to take those people's data and have some sort of a context to put it in because they might be telling you what their favorite aircraft is and then you need to understand what parameters they used uh to determine what their favorite aircraft is so just be my first piece of advice is be careful when you see somebody say you should buy x aircraft or you should buy x type of aircraft or whatever the case may be um just be careful because um be wary of those types of answers and try to look for the data behind that answer so that that would be my first tip so the next tip that i'd like to give is just familiarizing yourself with dcs world and what the different modules are like and this can be a little bit tricky if you're new to dcs world it's probably quite confusing and to be very honest i've been playing for nearly a decade and i still get a little bit confused but essentially we've got all these different types of aircraft and and for this video i'm only talking about aircraft there are campaigns there are terrains there are other modules out there but i'm only talking about aircraft so you've got you know you know you've got your helicopters you've got your fixed-wing prop planes you've got your fixed wing jet aircraft you've got spanning different eras and and things like that so we need to kind of sort out um what we're talking about here okay and and so i've developed or i've not developed i've i've put together this chart using data i think this chart is accurate there may be some some things wrong with it if there are you know feel free to point them out but i think that this is this is basically correct here so let's look at this chart really quickly and it might help new dcs users with sorting out what modules are of the different types okay so in this chart going from left to right we've got the module we've got the developer who made the module we've got the flight model the systems model the type of aircraft if it's a helicopter fixed wing prop or fixed-wing jet then we've got the roll which this is really just kind of primary role and also that's what the color codings are for is so that your eye can hopefully easily see which ones are are which different roles for comparison's sake and then the year plus or minus a little bit that that real aircraft entered real service and i tried to get very specific to the version of that aircraft but in some cases i had to make some judgment calls or or use the the the basic aircraft designation instead of that specific uh model of the aircraft um so uh and of course these are ordered from oldest to newest so if there's an error that you're looking for uh there you you can sort that out and make comparisons a little bit easier hopefully because they're in order of how old or new they are so now let's go back to the flight model in the systems model because this is one thing that i think is very important um and and you need to at least have a basic understanding of this before you make a decision on a module because uh the the way you're gonna have to go about learning this module changes based on the type of model it is now the flight model is pretty easy we you've got an advanced flight model an external flight model and a professional flight model there used to be a simple or maybe maybe it was standard flight model but but i don't believe any of these aircraft have them used to be that the flaming cliffs three aircraft had a simple flight model now just for curiosity's sake somebody might be curious of this but my understanding is that most of the ai aircraft use the simple flight model but as far as the modules you can buy and how you'll fly them there's advanced which is is and i won't go into the details but it's obviously better than a simple or a standard kind of a flight model instead of using uh it relies less on scripted action and more on actual dynamics um if that makes sense your professional flight model is the highest level you know it uses a lot more dynamic forces and physics to determine what the aircraft is doing at any given time and and this is what we all really want ultimately is we want as realistic of a flight model as possible and that's what the professional flight model is the external flight model is part of the professional flight model it's given to third party developers and then they do other things with it based on how they want things to behave so it doesn't mean that it's any worse or better than the professional flight model it's just a little bit different okay so ultimately these don't necessarily affect your learning curve so much uh in most cases you could make an argument that that they do because it behaves more realistically and it takes a little bit more getting used to than if it's less realistic that may be true but ultimately the flight model is you you just want the best flight model you can get ultimately i think the systems model is really where some differences start popping out so there's the standard systems model and the advanced systems model and i have afm there unfortunately i i didn't fix that so but that's asm and what that means on the on the surface is non-clickable cockpit is standard and clickable cockpit is advanced that's the main difference between your flaming cliff's three aircraft and the other aircraft ultimately um there's more to it than that because it also means that there are less systems actually implemented in the standard model in the advanced model there are a lot of different systems not necessarily every system in the aircraft some things are are not something that really works in the game or we're not allowed to utilize them in the game eagle dynamics isn't allowed to model those in the game um things like that so so it doesn't mean everything is modeled but there are a lot of other systems modeled a good example of this would be the f-15 engine start sequence compared to say the f-16 engine start sequence so in the f-15 there's no clickable cockpit and those systems aren't fully modeled so you just have a keyboard shortcut to start your engines in the f-16 or the a-10 or the f-18 or you know f-14 all those other clickable cockpit advanced systems model aircrafts there are sequences of buttons and and switches and things that you have to manipulate and work with interact with and then you're monitoring gauges and things like that to make sure that everything starts up correctly and that you're running through your checks and things like that so much more complicated weapons employment is more complicated again i'll use the f15 versus the f16 in the f-15 you're still working with your radar um but instead of you know clicking buttons around your display and and working with weapons that way you're just using but um hotkeys and hotas controls and things like that so you're still working with the radar you still need to understand how that system operates so it's not like a simple arcade type system or or game but it's much simpler than the f-16 where you're actually having to hit buttons and flip switches and things like that and of course you can have a lot of these things mapped to keyboard shortcuts and hotes uh controls also um but it's it's different okay now typically we think of the standard models as easier and they are i would say that in general they are easier to learn easier to get into but since you don't have anything that you can click or work with in the cockpit in some cases once you understand the logical procedures for employing weapons or for starting the aircraft up or whatever it is once you understand those i find the the advanced models to be easier to remember than the standard models because i don't remember all my keyboard shortcuts in the f-15 when i'm flying that um so there's less to remember but it's harder for me to remember if i jump in the a-10 there's a lot of stuff that i don't necessarily remember but i remember the logical progression of the way the system works and so i can find the button or the switch inside the cockpit and and get to where i need to go and so for me personally the advanced systems model i find to be easier in the long run because you have actual things you can interact with you don't have to remember keyboard shortcuts so um early on i think that the standard model is easier to pick up and learn but long term i think you're better off with an advanced model now on the other hand long term the advanced model is more rewarding for sure and that's i think that's indisputable so it's not that you're not going to feel some level of fulfillment out of a standard model out of learning a flaming cliffs three aircraft because i think you will i think that they're challenging enough and they're fun enough that you will find some reward from that but but ultimately if you jump in an advanced model and you spend the time learning that um then you're gonna be very rewarded for it so those are the basics um and now we're going to come back to the first question which is which module should you buy which module do you want to buy and and like you can you know as you can see it's not an easy question to answer necessarily for me personally i look at aircraft that i like in real life aircraft that i'm interested in in real in real life and then i put emphasis on the systems model the era and then the flight model and that's kind of the order i go in and that's those aren't the only variables to consider but i want a clickable cockpit if possible it's not that i don't enjoy the fc3 aircraft but i prefer clickable cockpits that i can interact with and then i'm looking for airplanes that i like in real life and the different eras of aircraft that i'm most interested in which is hard to nail down because i love i love world war one airplanes i love world war ii airplanes i love the inner war periods i just think that the development of aircraft is pretty awesome but i do tend to put emphasis on the more modern aircraft because in my opinion they're more complicated to learn but they're also easier to learn for me they're a little bit easier to employ weapons with i think and things like that and then i look at flight model i do want the best flight model possible but it's not a deal breaker for me and then other variables you know might be um how complex is the engine management or how complex is the uh is the flight management or the weapons employment or um how much performance how much of a performance hit do the details uh create so the f14 is considered to be one of the highest detailed modules in dcs and i think that that's probably fair the little bit that i've flown it there's just a ton of really tiny details and really big details just all over that module and it's a really immersive module that i think is is really cool it also performs on my system a lot worse than the f-18 or the f-16 so i prefer to fly the f-18 or the f-16 because they load faster they don't i don't get as many frame stutters and things like that so it depends on your priorities and what you put the most emphasis on and that's why nobody can answer this question but you so uh just to wrap this up i would encourage anybody and everybody looking for a new module looking for some advice on a new module go ahead and ask the question it is not a worthless question like i once upon a time thought and then try to get as much context for the answers you're getting as you possibly can so that you can understand what that person's priorities were that caused them to choose that module and then that can help you make a decision be wary of anybody who's saying you have to get a trainer first be wary of anyone who's saying um that one particular module is the one that you need to go with um and again just try to get the context for why they're saying that it's not that they're necessarily wrong i think that in some cases you know they're they're truly trying to be helpful and i think in some cases they think that they're giving you the correct answer but without knowing why they chose that module you simply can't can't know for sure if what they're telling you is true or not for you so i hope that that makes sense and i hope that this is helpful um feel free to ask questions um in the comments and all that and i will try to be as helpful as possible i apologize if you don't find this helpful but again ultimately you have to make that decision and i can tell you my favorite module and i can tell you why but that's not necessarily going to be your favorite module because we're different and we like different things and with that thank you for watching as always have a great day and happy flying you

Channel: 311Gryphon

Views: 7,760

Rating: 4.9196787 out of 5

Keywords: DCS Modules, Which Module To buy, DCS Purchase Guide, DCS Module Guide, DCS Tutorial, Digital Combat Simulator Help

Id: M-s_JRpb8Ns

Length: 17min 7sec (1027 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 12 2021