DCS Normandy 2 announced, MB-339 update, plus a few more F-15E updates

2–3 minutes

This week’s DCS World Weekend News update is out and we’ve learned some new things about Ugra Media’s update to the Normandy map with a formal announcement of Normandy 2. There’s a significant update on the MB-339 from IndiaFoxtEcho. In other community news we’ve seen even more content come out for DCS: F-15E so let’s have a look at that too!

Normandy 2

The lead story here is the formal announcement that Ugra Media is re-releasing DCS: Normandy with a significant update. According to the announcement, the new map will be 400 x 600 km in size and will include London, Paris, and the surrounding regions. There will be 130 original map objects and a detailed area that is six times larger than DCS: Normandy 1944.

Unlike the current iteration, the England part of the map will be fully detailed while the France side of the map will see further details too.

This map was teased in the DCS World 2022 and beyond trailer and confirmed early in the year but hadn’t received the formal announcement.

ED did have something interesting to say regarding backwards compatibility:

DCS: Normandy 2 will benefit from new technology that allows existing maps to be extended with low-detailed areas. If you wish to pass on the upgrade, you may still join multiplayer servers and compatibility with campaigns will remain. Please note that the Normandy 2 upgrade is required to experience a much higher level of detail. 

The map will go on sale for $59.99 USD. If you own either Normandy 1944 or The Channel, you’ll be able to purchase Normandy with an upgrade price of $14.99 USD. If you own both of those prior products the price will be just $9.99 USD.

Normandy 2 does seem like it will be the primary DCS WWII map going forward when its complete encompassing both Normandy and The Channel areas. For owners of both, $9.99 might be an easy upgrade price to swallow. For new players coming in (after this is released), it looks like this may be the only European based DCS WWII map that they will need.

MB-339 dev report

For those wondering right off the bat, no, the MB-339 has not yet released. It does sound like we’re nearly there with this project and this latest development update comes at us with a lot of details. There’s talk about the electrical system modeling, hydraulic system, anti-ice system (which will have visual graphics), pressurization system, nav system, communications and on the list goes.

IndiaFoxtEcho look to be aiming at very high standards for modeling this airplane which is probably why crossing the finish line is taking such a long time.

More F-15E!

After my last update this week, RAZBAM released even more F-15E content. We start with part 2 of the DCS: F-15E tutorial series on the PACS system. It’s 34 minutes so get your notebook and popcorn ready!

Then we have Ron Zambrano, RAZBAM CEO posting a couple more in-development videos showing off target designation logic.

Finally, we have a nice image of an F-15E in a reasonably tight turn complete with vapour effects in evidence.

20 responses to “DCS Normandy 2 announced, MB-339 update, plus a few more F-15E updates”

  1. CanadaOne Avatar
    CanadaOne

    Now that is some solid map news. Really looking forward to the upgrade, and the low price. Going to be interesting to see how it runs. My 32GB of RAM might be feeling thin soon. As for the F-15E – bring it on! These are some modules I’ll be very happy to have.

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  2. kallem Avatar
    kallem

    i don’t understand this. does this replace the existing normandy map? is it like the a10c-ii upgrade?

    and wasn’t the normandy fixes supposed to be a free upgrade. now it looks like they are charging for it.

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      I’d look at it being similar to A-10C II, yes, with an older version that still exists but is no long being sold and with an upgrade pathway for existing owners.

      I’m not aware of any statement saying that this would be free. This is the formal announcement of the Normandy 2 map project. NineLine confirmed that there was a project underway in the article that I linked to from December 2021. No statement was made regarding pricing at the time.

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      1. t5s_blanco Avatar
        t5s_blanco

        True – they didn’t announce anything, it was really just teased. I think a lot of chatter on the boards and forums in the ether here concluded/assumed it would be a free upgrade. If I am being honest, I had that expectation/hope myself. I own both maps. But I also have already paid out about $60 for both maps (combined, on sale in past times), so to spend another bit of coin is annoying when someone that never bought either will be able to get all of it for less than I’d have paid, and eventually get it on a 30% and later 50% off sale presumably for $30 at some point. So at the end of the day, the benefit to prior owners is not as fair in my opinion. I don’t think I’d pay for it without more significant enhancements to the WW2 ecosystem anyway, and that’s the core issue with DCS:WW2. Just not enough assets, and not enough players. I don’t mean flyable. I mean the ecosystem of AI assets – ground and air.

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      2. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        I see where you’re coming from but I don’t completely agree. I think, if you own both, that a $9.99 USD price to do an upgrade is really quite a bargain considering the dramatically expanded area and the huge number of points of interest that are being added.

        If you’re like me, you probably have owned Normandy for a quite a while (years even) and maybe even taken advantage of not one but two significant makeovers that were offered for free. The Channel is newer of course. Now, if you bought them both yesterday then maybe a bit of buyers remorse is to be expected but even then this is likely to be a release that is still many many months away.

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      3. CanadaOne Avatar
        CanadaOne

        I think $10 for a good upgrade is very reasonable. And even if newcomers get some kind of price advantage, those of us who have had both the maps have been able to enjoy them for quite a while. I’m not a big fan of the existing Normandy map, but the Channel map is great. Really looking forward to Paris and London. I hope there is night lighting and it’s not just a blackout map.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        Now I want configurable night lighting. 🙂

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  3. Skycat Avatar
    Skycat

    I own both maps and I’m torn between “$10 isn’t very much” and “if I had never bought the Channel Map I could be soon getting it and Paris and London for just $15.” That’s if I understand this correctly. I dunno, sometimes I feel like DCS WWII is a never-ending cycle of being promised the moon and then getting kicked in the teeth.

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    1. CanadaOne Avatar
      CanadaOne

      I’m missing a few teeth, so I hear ya. But I bought the Channel Map in June 2020, so I’ve had 2+ years to enjoy it. I don’t regret buying it at all. I’ve had many a great flight marveling at the quality of the terrain. Often as not in my Ka-50, but that’s just me.

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      1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        I think that’s a healthy perspective. I tend not to worry too much about how much I’ve spent on modules that are now heavily discounted when I’ve had several years in some cases to enjoy them. Getting in earlier usually means paying a bit more. For $9.99 USD to get a pretty substantial increase in the available area is pretty reasonable. I might even be able to do it for free with saved up ED points/bucks/whatever they are called.

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    2. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      I get what you mean there. It’s tough. DCS WWII has promise, has had promise, and I get the feeling that it just hasn’t quite reached the tipping point where it “has arrived.” I thought maybe it had a few times but its not quite there yet. I do hope that they continue to make investments in the core elements that can make it come alive… and offer some more airplanes that can fill it out.

      The Allies have the Mosquito. How about a Me410 Eagle Dynamics? 🙂

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    3. t5s_blanco Avatar
      t5s_blanco

      Couldn’t reply to the reply above… but in my case I bought Normany about 14 months ago and Channel last fall at the November sale. Then they teased the new map at year end and the server I liked shut down. I have flown on channel less than 5 times. Seriously. So that is where my frustration comes from. This comment from skycat encapsulates my thoughts perfectly.

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      1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        This will take a while to come out. Lots of time to extract some enjoyment out of it before this even comes up.

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  4. I ./JG1_Baron Avatar
    I ./JG1_Baron

    New map looks good. I see here the consequence of the release of the great Normandy map in IL2. Good for us, isn’t it. On the other hand – in DCS we will need a LOT of aircraft from the period 1940-44. But so far it looks pretty poor in this direction I would say. To be honest, we only have Spitfire, Mustang, Thunderbolt, Mosquito and Fw-190A (P-47 and Mustang with some caveats, the versions that are in DCS were seen in small numbers over Normandy. But thank God we have them there ). Well, hopefully the situation will improve.

    P.S. We also have Fw-190D-9 and Bf-109K-4. However, these machines do not belong to the battles over Normandy. (We have I-16 as well – but the I-16 does not belong to Normandy at all)

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    1. Blue 5 Avatar
      Blue 5

      Careful, that NineLines guy will shortly show up to argue that you are entirety incorrect and we should all be grateful for the opportunity to pay for more disconnected content.

      Speaking of ‘disconnected’, LoL Kerch Bridge.

      Sorry, Shamrock, couldn’t resist…

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      1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        Bridge… what bridge? 😉

        (And now we’ll get back on topic….)

        DCS WWII still needs to hit some sort of breakthrough point and, as I said in another reply, it just hasn’t quite made it yet. I really think its the content and the need for some more flyable types and probably a better mission generation system. We have options but IL-2 really nails it with things like the AQMB missions which are just about perfect for a quick sortie in my favourite warbird.

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    2. Redglyph Avatar
      Redglyph

      At first sight, it’s a strange decision by Ugra Media indeed.

      They have probably capitalized on the previous map in the hope to easily gain more money, and hopefully to address the performance issues now that they have more experience – I believe the Syria map wasn’t as harsh on the system as Normandy? Though with the description I’m sceptical it has any chance to run smoothly, even on recent systems except high-end cards with lot of memory, (so I will observe this from a distance and not commit to any pre-order or early access).

      And as you said there aren’t many WWII aircraft to justify a new map in that theatre, so it may be a better decision than making a whole new map, like what 1C did for Kuban and Bodenplatte.

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    3. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      We really need to add a Bf109G-6 to the mix at a minimum. The K-4 as a sub-in doesn’t really cut it for me.

      Liked by 1 person

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  5. ALA22_JuCa Avatar
    ALA22_JuCa

    Looks very good but Channell Map is obsalete now?

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      I suspect both it and the original Normandy map will largely be obsolete, yes. Thus the discount for both!

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