A major announcement by Polychop Simulations today has indicated that not only have they signed an agreement with Bell Textron to license the work on the OH-58D but also have signed an agreement with Eagle Dynamics to develop the Kiowa Warrior scout helicopter for DCS World!
Three party agreements
Today’s announcement makes clear that their earlier statement on the OH-58D was with permission of Eagle Dynamics and that there were fine details for all three parties to work out before the final agreement could be signed. Now it appears, based on the announcement, that such an agreement has been reached meaning that Polychop, Eagle Dynamics and licensee Bell Textron have all agreed to their roles in this project.
Beyond the legalese of the announcement we have news on how the project is progressing as well as some broad details on what kinds of features the DCS: OH-58D will have. Here are some of the key highlights:
- Polychop have spent two years reworking their flight modeling with the intention of making this helicopter a much more accurate and authentic release than their previous effort (the Gazelle should also be receiving an update)
- This will be a full fidelity module with all systems modeled except those that don’t apply to DCS World or are otherwise classified
- The M3P machine gun, Hydra rockets (with multiple types), ATAS (Block 1 Stinger), APKWS laser guided Hydra, and AGM-114 Hellfire will all be available
- Currently awaiting Eagle Dynamics release of the UH-1 multi-crew update to evaluate if multi-crew is possible with their project
This all sounds promising! While I know that there are some serious reasons for skepticism given some of the issues with Polychop’s first release, it also seems that this partnership and added developer time is driving the potential for a high quality module up as well as attempts at righting past wrongs.
Time of course will tell but I suspect that the Kiowa will be an interesting helicopter to many DCS World helicopter pilots and that it will be a module to watch closely for. Polychop is aiming for a 2020 release but have provided no other release details at this point aside from a note that they do intend to release videos and live streams in the future.
For now there’s this short video that came out a couple of months ago that you might find interesting.
Since flightsims are still a niche product I tend to buy new offerings regardless of my interest. Just to support be there genre. Some planes like the MiG-19 I have flown once, others I have bought multiple licenses for like the Tomcat. Sometimes you get bitten like with the Hawk, and to a lesser extend the Gazelle. Having said that, I will hold off on the Kiowa depending on the support the Gazelle will receive. There are more and more new modules popping up, it’s time to start choosing.
Nice to see the development though 👍
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Absolutely! And specializing on a few modules that you want to fly the most isn’t a bad thing at all.
The new modules we’ve had a steady diet of in the last few years just make sure that there’s a variety of aircraft flying around both in single player and multiplayer.
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Great news! And here is a BIG preview from twitch
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/515949667?t=3h45m
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