The early access for DCS: Kola is now out! It is one of the most anticipated map releases in years and there’s been quite a bit excitement, interest, and, of course, a little concern and controversy too. This map brings with it a ton of potential but does it live up to that potential or will it need some time in the oven before its really ready for the limelight? There’s quite a lot to dig into so let’s have a look!

Map area and details

DCS: Kola is a big map area to work with. This isn’t a small postage stamp of a map with a limited play area. The large area means plenty of potential for big and complex missions is undoubtedly present. Eagle Dynamics and Orbx report that the map is roughly 1,400 km wide and 1,000 km tall and there’s 575,000 sq km of land on the map.

The area is bounded mostly by water with the Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea and White Sea along the western, northern and parts of the eastern side of the map. The Gulf of Bothnia is found on the southern edge. This gives us the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and a good chunk of Russia’s Murmansk Oblast.

To reiterate the announcement articles, the map currently has the following airports:

• EFRO (Rovaniemi Airport)
• EFKE (Kemi-Tornio Airport)
• XLMV (Severomorsk-3 Naval Air Base)
• ULAK (Severomorsk-1 Naval Air Base)
• RU-1110 (Monchegorsk Air Base)
• RU-4464 (Olenya Air Base)
• ULMM (Emperor Nicholas II Murmansk Airport)

Most of these are a mix of military and civilian operations all-in-one. You’ll note both a civilian side with airliner and GA operational areas as well as a military side sometimes offering hardened bunkers, dispersal areas and/or larger scale conventional hangars for transport aircraft.

There’s also a pair of designated road bases with their own largely hidden infrastructure and widened road areas ideal for austere combat operations. The areas are large enough that you can land most kinds of combat jets there but hidden enough that they aren’t as obvious as a conventional airstrip.

The map gives us a ton of room to operate and in its early access state has just enough airports for some interesting operations in plenty of Cold War or modern era hypothetical scenarios.

The map is roughly 150 GB in size. Smaller than some of Orbx’s TrueEarth scenery packs for X-Plane (which is the closest comparison I can think of) but quite a bit bigger than most DCS World maps.

Visuals and performance

One of the most important bits for a DCS map are the visuals and DCS: Kola certainly has attracted a lot of attention because of its setting. Why is that? Mostly because its “not another desert map.” While I’ve generally appreciated the interesting differences between the maps that we’ve seen so far (DCS: Syria is quite unlike DCS: Persian Gulf for example), DCS: Kola takes us away from that and up into the arctic circle.

The map is based primarily on satellite ortho imagery. This is something that Orbx is typically quite good at especially in X-Plane where their TrueEarth series of scenery packages have really impressed over the years. DCS World has some apparent limitations when it comes to this kind of imagery, however, and so the quality of it is a bit of a mixed experience depending on where you’re flying and what you’re looking at.

The map looks very good at high altitudes and at medium altitudes but get down into the weeds or fly close to a mountain and it looses a bit of its shine.

It’s actually remarkably similar to DCS: South Atlantic from RAZBAM. I was a bit surprised about that until I learned that the same freelancer team that did that map did this map too. I think it generally presents better than DCS: South Atlantic does but also has the same core issues with low level details not quite overcoming the satellite imagery.

Meanwhile, most of the assets that I’ve seen are of really good quality. Kola has a great selection of buildings that help fill out the the towns and cities – the ones that have been worked on. There’s a good variety, good detailing, and they really fit the theme of the map. You’ll also note that the buildings in the different countries have a slightly different flavour with the Russian cities and towns generally being filled with grey apartment blocks while the other three countries are somewhat more colorful and offer a greater variety of housing.

There are also a number of points of interest, key landmarks, scattered around the map too. The ski jump at Rovaniemi has even been the subject of some entertainment as folks have been skiing airplanes down the jump too!

There are some issues at the edges of urban and small town areas where there’s an abrupt shift in the texture. This is not the only map to feature such an issue, even Eagle Dynamics highly detailed Marianas map has a bit of an issue here but for some reason it seems even more abrupt.

Similarly, edges to many bodies of water are quite sharp and don’t seem to be using the same water depth technology that we see on other maps such as Syria.

Airports are also a bit of a mixed bag. There’s an early access element here which I’ll get to a bit later on but specifically what we see of the airports is a little less detailed than were shown in some of the work in progress screenshots.

It’s mostly the taxiways, runways and a few of the airport markings that are surprisingly low in texture detail. In contrast, the airport buildings and some of the miscellany scattered around them are quite good looking. Orbx’s team have made some great airport scenery packages in the past for X-Plane and MSFS so the parts that are great are not surprising but the parts that aren’t are.

Something else that’s noteworthy is that there are an awful lot of deciduous trees and fewer conifers than you’d expect. Orbx did respond to a question on their Discord on that, saying that they had to incorporate fewer conifers than originally planned as you need more of them to cover an area and the performance hit is too great. I wouldn’t mind them mixing in more conifers in certain areas that see more often to help with the flavour.

They seem upbeat about maybe changing to a more realistic mix in the future which is good but we’re looking at the map as it is today.

I’ve done a lot of complaining here but I don’t want to take away from the fact that the map is generally quite visually impressive at times too. Even in June at the solstice where the sun is at its highest point (which is not all that high given the extreme latitude) the map does generally present well. Buildings seem well integrated into the landscape most of the time and the mountains, fjords, islands and lakes are good looking too.

The night lighting on the map is also generally good. It uses the latest DCS World lighting technology which means that point lights such as runway lights and street lights can be seen for quite a distance away. This is a still relatively recent addition to the sim where prior versions of the tech faded out rather quickly. This map makes good use of the technology to be sure.

I should say as well that this is an area of the world that is generally sparsely populated and dominated by mountain ranges and fjords as well as tundra. These is a dry and cold region of the world so even though some details are missing, this is an area that lends itself to big scenic vistas and on that it and DCS World’s lighting engine and the visuals of the map execute brilliantly.

Another win for the map is performance. Though a few city scenes do seem to hit FPS a bit (and need some optimization in the same vein that Syria needed some optimization), the overall experience I’ve had is of high frame rates and smooth performance.

The pitfalls of early access

The thing that DCS: Kola is going to have to confront now that its out is the fact that its not done yet.

There are obviously a few issues and some areas that are not yet finished. We’ve mostly gone into that wide eyed with good communication on both what is and isn’t done as well as a roadmap from Orbx and Eagle Dynamics on what they plan to do next. Though I would like to hear a bit more from Orbx on the decisions made to lower some texture quality. Was it an engine issue? Storage concerns (the map is already 150 GB in size)? Something else?

If you do buy this map and find yourself flying along in various areas you are going to eventually find a spot where details are missing. In one instance I was flying along the coast of Norway and spotted a road and rail coming into what is presumably a port city or town along the coast. Its marked by a name but it has no buildings or other infrastructure. It’s not a game breaker but it is, on the other hand, a reminder of the early access nature.

Winter textures is one of the next planned updates which they say may arrive as early as June. As for the others, the timeline is a bit more vague.

Orbx have obviously got more work ahead of them and they will undoubtedly be filling out these other areas with all of the details that you’d expect to see in them. I’m not sure how long that will take but we do know that additional airports, cities, towns, and other points of interest will be added before the project is considered complete.

DCS: Syria came to us a few years ago with performance challenges and a relatively small area to fly over and since then has expanded literally and figuratively into one of DCS World’s best maps. DCS: Kola feels somewhat less finished than that one did but if development remains highly active then it may eventually reach up to a higher level.

Potential

Early access issues aside, DCS: Kola has tons of potential in the ability to use the map for scenarios in single player and multiplayer. I have a bit of a nostalgic feel for this area as it reminds me of the Kola campaign in F-14 Fleet Defender. Others who flew DID’s EF2000 will probably also feel a similar nostalgia as that sim’s campaign covered some of the same turf.

We also know that Baltic Dragon and Reflected are working on a joint F-16C and F/A-18C campaign series with a shared narrative making full use of the available map. That will ensure that we have immersive and exciting scenarios to take on with two of DCS most popular jets over some unique terrain and scenery. That’s going to boost the value of DCS: Kola quite a bit and the map makers perspective on the possibilities here is something I’m also pretty excited about.

Multiplayer servers are the other side of the equation and its unclear how that will shake out. We’ve seen multiplayer server operators jump onto new maps quickly in the past, however, it usually takes months before a consistent and dedicated audience begin frequenting a map based server long enough to really get the full value out of it.

The other point I want to make is that DCS: Kola, while extremely functional already, could benefit from some added support and development elsewhere in the sim. Eagle Dynamics would be smart to bring in some added AI aircraft that might help support the region.

With no DCS: JAS-39 Gripen on the radar (and if one was it’s likely to be many years out), an AI model of this key Swedish fighter would be good to see. So would a more European focused A330 MRTT tanker and transport with a civilian A330 to help fill in civilian traffic. Or if they really want to go above and beyond then a 737, A320, Dash 8 or even a Beechcraft King Air (missionized variants do exist) could help fill out the scenarios and benefit this map even more. We do have a few civilian types already in the sim suitable for the Caucasus region so adding a few more that would suit this (and other regions) would be beneficial in the same way.

Do I think all of that is likely? No, but I want to put it out there that DCS: Kola has potential to be the proving grounds for some seriously cool new DCS scenarios. Immersion and content work hand in hand to deliver it.

Community reaction

I’ve seen community reaction vary quite a bit on this map release. There are a lot of positive comments out there and in the comments section here on Stormbirds. There are also some legitimate complaints from folks as well.

The aforementioned texture quality issues has been a hot topic of debate. The comments section for one YouTuber was so negative that they ultimately decided to pull their DCS: Kola video altogether. Meanwhile, other folks are having some fun such as going down the ramp at Roveniemi. There’s positive comments and reviews coming in from other folks too.

See it in motion

I’ve put together a short cinematic featuring some of the sights of DCS: Kola as seen from the cockpit of the MiG-29, AJS-37, F/A-18 and F-16C.

Final thoughts

DCS: Kola is not a slam dunk best new map for DCS World. Not yet anyway. But it is easily one of the most interesting new maps in a long time thanks to its combination of interesting scenery and terrain, the setting offering up real world geopolitical possibilities that feed the narrative for missions and campaigns, and even a bit of nostalgia for veteran simmers. Bring that together and there’s strong potential here.

Orbx does need to solve some of the maps issues and fill out some of the less detailed areas. We knew about most of them going in but some of the lower detail texture work versus what we saw in earlier parts of development was a bit of a surprise. It may simply be that this is how things have to be to keep frame rates high, and high they are, but it was unexpected. Expectations were set very high and then not fully met which is less than ideal.

If you do buy in, and a lot of you have already, go in knowing that this is something that’s very playable, looks really good, and should prove to be the setting for a good number of interesting missions and campaigns. But also go in knowing that there’s some areas that are less detailed or not yet detailed and that it will take some time for the rest of that to materialize. We’re pretty used to early access around here these days so little here is unexpected but its always worth bearing in mind.

The long and short of DCS: Kola is that this is a map that is already quite interesting, with some missing pieces, that hopefully when implemented make it into one of the series’ most unique and interesting maps yet. I remain extremely hopeful that it will reach that potential!