It’s our third weekend in a row where Eagle Dynamics’s Matt Wagner (or Wags) has taken us on a tour of the DCS: Persian Gulf map. This tour show cased some of the smaller islands in the Strait of Hormuz and gave Matt an opportunity to do some more Q&A with fans of DCS.

Live Stream Recap

As I mentioned before, this third live stream offered up another look at some of the terrain for the DCS: Persian Gulf map. Since live stream #2, the map has gone on sale for pre-order with a small discount which should be in place until May.

Q&A Notes

These are my notes highlighting the Q&A session today. There are a few acronyms that I am not familiar with so hopefully I’ve got them all right in the Q&A. Please let me know in the comments if I’m missing something!

Wags is heading to Minsk and Moscow so no new videos for about three weeks
When back, more weapon systems should be operational and he’ll be showing off more of those as time goes on
Will the new Hornet texture template be released?
- Will be when ED are sure that the model is done 100%
How often do ED taken inspiration from wishlist/threads/etc.
- Matt says quite often
- Especially for aircraft, ED uses these to gauge customer reaction towards new aircraft and what the community wants
- New features for the mission editor and AI routines
- The raindrops
- Big factor of what we do
Improve current options for spawn on a waypoint server
- The new Nimitz will be a big part of this
- First phase TACAN, catapult steam, etc.
- Second phase will include parking, ramp, and hot start on the carrier
- Third phase will be the deck crew, animated and quite accurate
Upgraded models for ships/aircraft
- Arleigh Burke-class is coming
- S-3 tanker
- SH-60/HA-60 needs an overhaul
- E-2s
- Super Hornet, if done, will need to be a really great model as there’s a lot of great
Will we see King Abdula Aziz airbase in SA
- Not currently planned
- Will need hardware tech to catch-up to make bigger maps
- The map is 350 nm on a side, anything larger and we’ll see significant performance loss
FAQ mentions CASE I, II, III operations, will the Nimitz have functional catapults, etc.
- Aircraft will have functional TACAN, IFLOSS, CASE I launch and recovery operations
- Later will implement ICLS for CASE III
ATFLIR, JDAM,
- After the early access weapons, HARM will probably be next
- ATFLIR and JDAM should be coming sometime before the end of the year
Pre-purchase map area
- What you see is what you get right now
- Potential to expand the map later on
Plans to add Iranian ships and anti-ship missiles?
- Current emphasis is on skins
- Will be moving to having shore based anti-ship missiles
MiG-29PFM
- In the queue and planned for later this year
- Full DCS: MiG-29 level aircraft? Not at this point

Rainstreaked canopies

Fans of DCS have been asking for rainstreaked canopies for the longest time and we’ve got our first look at that coming yesterday just a day before the live stream.

It’s a work in progress but if its anything like what IL-2 can do, it should be pretty impressive looking and add considerably to the immersion level while sitting in some of these aircraft.