There’s some new DCS World info trickling out this week with a new update on the JF-17’s exterior textures, news on what Eagle Dynamics is doing (or not doing) with the F-4E and AH-1 as well as a new look at the M-2000C’s revised pilot model. Here’s the latest!
New M-2000C pilot
RAZBAM’s efforts to upgrade the M-2000C are still on-going and while we’ve seen the cockpit already, we’re now seeing their efforts to bring a new 3D model of the pilot back into the cockpit seat. This is still early but it’s just the start as their Facebook page also says that they are working on the pilot for the AV-8B after.
The F-4 and AH-1 are not on the roadmap
We’ve learned that Eagle Dynamics is not currently planning to work on the F-4E or the AH-1. Here’s the statement from Matt Wagner:
While we hope to simulate the Cobra someday (as well as the F-4E), it’s not on our immediate production plan. Our current production for new aircraft is the P-47D, Mi-24, and Mosquito. Between these and supporting exiting aircraft, we are already very, very, very busy. When the guys at BST were moved back to the mothership, former BST project plans had to be revaluated. Sorry for any confusion.
Matt Wagner on the DCS World forums
To understand this in better context, we have to go back to plans that Belsimtek made prior to being reabsorbed back into Eagle Dynamics. The third party group had mentioned efforts to build the F-4E Phantom and had talked about a couple of different variants of the AH-1.
This is both disappointing and simultaneously reassuring depending on how you look at it. Eagle Dynamics already has a full slate of modules underway and for all of the excitement that the F-4 Phantom has elicited, there’s also plenty of calls to finish what is currently being worked on. The P-47, Mosquito, Mi-24, F-16 and F/A-18 are all in various stages of development and it’s probably a good thing not to add one or two more to the list right now.
Does this mean that the hopes that they will work on the F-4 later are completely dashed? No. But at this point they aren’t working on them.
JF-17 texturing update
Deka Ironwork Simulations is showing off the hard work their team is doing to get the JF-17 ready for release. Texturing is now well underway for the exterior model to follow up from the interior shots we’ve seen.
Have a look!
Stormbirds 
I think that if Eagle Dynamics takes the time to do things right, even if it means stopping some new modules (which is always a HUGE temptation, any successful company experiences very similar situations), it will truly be a mark of greatness. Most companies, when reaching their goals and having success, start to lose it and make mistakes. More often than not, they arrogantly march on to their inevitable downfall. I hope the people at ED are coming to their senses and will try to avoid making such a mistake.
That being said, the F-4 and F-15 fill the 2 highest spots on my wish list (don’t think we are ever going to see an SR-71 around here…).
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Indeed, that’s a pattern we often see, and that we have seen for a while with ED, a constant “flee forward” to new modules on an overall base that dearly needs stabilizing.
There’s as much content vertically, in depth of the DCS world and modules, than horizontally, in the sheer number of available aircraft. What’s the point of study-level system modelling if you can’t even get the ATC to dialog realistically? Or if the missions are so limited by the tools? I remember how I had to struggle for every single action when creating them, and how unstable it would get after a few updates. It’s better than IL-2, but it’s still very amateurish.
I don’t know if that’s what they have in mind, though. But at this point I’d be much more excited by new mission features like persistence, a dev-friendly ME, dynamic campaigns, working ATC, or more ground interaction/animation (it’s a sterile world down there), than yet another aircraft, even if that’s a Phantom or a Cobra.
They looking at the weather and atmosphere is great news, however. Love a good-looking cloud! 🙂
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Oh gosh AH-1 (yes please!) and F-4 surely must trigger a Vietnam map to fit in and make the UH-1 more thematic. Fingers crossed anyway. I wonder if there will be any improvements to infantry.
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I’m glad to see tangible work on the P-47 to honor their promise of the original content of the WWII fighter plane kick-starter package. But I have seen nothing on the Me-262 to date. I can’t get behind any excitement over new planes or maps until they either deliver what they promised to get my money. If there are no plans to complete the 262 then offer a refund or extend a rain check for any other module to compensate those who supported them when they needed it. I have not and will not buy another module from them until their conscience gets the better of them or they realize their business ethics are bad.
M.
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I’m also excited that there is progress on the P-47 — THE aircraft I got excited for and contributed to the Kickstarter campaign years ago to encourage development. I wasn’t even a DCS user back then, and I didn’t bother to download DCS World until last year to collect the Normandy map and my one reward aircraft (I chose the P-51D). Anyhow, I understand your sentiments about honoring an agreement but as I recall the Kickstarter campaign was by Ilya ‘Luthier’ Shevchenko for his pie-in-the-sky WWII project he was developing third-party to deliver to Eagle Dynamics for insertion into DCS World, much like his earlier Normandy map project for “IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles.” ED inherited a post-Kickstarter mess and I don’t think they were obligated to bring to market any of the promised WWII content Ilya promised. Fortunately some great modules have come out of that fiasco. But… DCS is still half-baked as a WWII simulator. I’d like to see, at the very least, an instant mission generator that can filter out the modern assets when using the Normandy map. That said, I just purchased the F-86 and the Nevada Test Range map on sale and I’m looking forward to learning the Sabre.
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lol that headless pilot! Man, the JF17 looks gorgeous!
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