We’ve got quite a bit of new information this week thanks to the combined content of a DCS World Weekend News update as well as a new Q&A from Eagle Dynamics’ Matt Wagner. We learn about Marianas WWII, core sim development features, Matt talks about references for F-35, REDFOR, Super Hornet, and mentions an unannounced helicopter in development too. Let’s have a look!

Marianas WWII update

Let’s start with Marianas WWII. This is a free, period accurate, recreation of the islands as they were during the war. It’s a counterpart to the also free modern version of the map though with some obvious differences. The screenshots released by Eagle Dynamics today do a pretty good job of illustrating how the scenery has changed over the years.

The goal of DCS: Marianas 1944 is to faithfully recreate the conditions that defined the battles of 1944. You can look forward to authentic period-based airfields, buildings, vegetation and agriculture, roads and rail lines. The 1944 version poses the unique challenges of older navigation technology, limited logistical support, and high-stakes amphibious operations. This WWII-era environment will offer an immersive glimpse into the intensity of the Pacific War.

Eagle Dynamics mention some of the history of the islands with the Battles of Saipan (June to July of 1944), Guam (July to August) and Tinian (also July to August) being stand out operations.

There’s also a breakdown offered detailing some of the differences such as Guam’s role in the modern day being a large US base while in the WWII era it was small towns, villages, and only a little infrastructure.

The rest of the breakdown is available here.

Matt Wagner answers more questions

Matt Wagner has taken the questions asked in the comments from the last Q&A and compiled that into the next Q&A.

Launching into the Q&A, Matt tackles some dynamic campaign questions and talks about their efforts to being an air tasking system to setup patrols, strike packages, and other combat formations.

He also talks about the AI and setting up strikes on targets while understanding known enemy force levels. The tasking system shouldn’t send you on a one-way mission for example. The AI should also be able to react to pop-up threats that change the threat scenario.

Matt says that they hope to have something to show, at least in single player, by the end of the year. He also said the following:

We’re doing our absolute very best. We understand that this is hugely important for you. Probably the number one item that most DCS userse want. I personally want to see in DCS as I have been for over a decade now. So trust me when I say its not for a lack of dedication, resources and work.

Matt moved on and talked about the F-35 versus Super Hornet debate (that apparently some folks have been having). Matt says right away that it is something they could do (particularly an early lot), that they have documentation, and follows that by saying that they intend to reach as close to 100% as possible on the legacy Hornet before contemplating another model. The flight model and MSI get specific mention for being finished before moving on.

We learn a little about the Hellcat. The F6F flight model is still being worked on together with mechanical systems and the damage model. Most of the other features like cockpit, pilot model, and external model are reportedly done. The Hellcat is expected to launch later this year. Matt says the Corsair is also looking really good but doesn’t want to comment more on third party development.

Matt says work is underway to improve performance in general which, in reference to some VR questions, aims to hopefully solve VR performance problems too. They are reportedly getting more VR units into developers hands so that they can test them.

Combined Arms gets talked about too! Matt says its actually quite a successful product for them and notes that it was originally developed as a tech demo for a professional customer for doing JTAC training. The requirement to enable moving the JTAC around on the map lead to development of Combined Arms as a consumer product. He says a Combined Arms 2 is more a matter of when rather than if.

Matt talks about some F-35 questions. To sum up the contents, he reports that there’s a surprising amount of public info on the F-35 which enables them to do it. A modern REDFOR type like the Su-35 or Su-57 reportedly has far less as does more modern versions of the Super Hornet (they would have to do an earlier block).

Matt also says something similar about the Blackhawk helicopter saying that they’d really like to do one but that it would probably be the UH-60L rather than a more modern option like the UH-60M due to available resources. He also says their helicopter teams are busy with the AH-64, the CH-47 and… an unannounced helicopter.

An update to the Su-25T isn’t happening just yet but will happen at some point.

Matt addresses some questions on track file replays. The current system being a debug mode with no ability to rewind for example. He says its not going to be this year but that they are actively researching technologies for a new replay system (Ed note: Please sooner than later!)

Finally, Matt answers about getting more fixed wing Russian types such as the Su-30 or Su-25SMT and says that references are the biggest challenge for them. He also reminds everyone that the Su-25 free update and DCS: MiG-29 are well underway.

There’s a bit more but that’s a summary of everything said.

MiG-29 cockpit shot

We’ve got a new MiG-29 cockpit shot as well. It doesn’t really come with much context but its nice to see it coming along. Eagle Dynamics does still appear to be targeting a Q2 launch and we’re starting to come into range of that so we’ll see how that goes.

Development progress

The latest developer report also talks about weapon system development. The summary includes information on how the team have made adjustments to how contrails from missiles appear with colder temperatures meaning that a contrail from a missile should form even at low altitudes. Kola and the -30c temperatures get specific mention.

Another update involves adding more noticeable fluctuations in the guidance of older same units like the SA-2 and SA-3 with increased errors in targeting.

Another interesting piece of the puzzle is the addition of a more realistic SAM proximity blast pattern with a “wagon wheel” shape better representing the patterns from missiles rather than a spherical projection as done before. We’ve got a visual representation shared too.

Read about all of this and more over here!