The DCS World Weekend News update is out and it contains the usual smattering of news and information about upcoming content and features. The state saving feature sounds interesting but also maybe not what you were expecting. There’s also a sale underway!
State saving is coming but is it what we’re hoping for?
When I report the news on various flight sim features, I sometimes know immediately what the developers or PR folks are talking about and sometimes I need to look things up. This one has me scratching my head a little bit.
This DCS World Weekend News update reports that progress is being made on a new state saving feature. We’ve known about this feature for some time and the thing that made me most excited about it was the potential for doing a lengthy campaign mission, stopping, saving, and then coming back to it later when more time was available. After reading through the description of what they are building, I’m not completely sure that’s what this is.
Reportedly the feature will remember if you were in a plane, where it is, where other aircraft are, what other units are doing, what their speed and direction and locations are, if they’ve been destroyed or not, what has been stored in warehouses by logistics units, etc. That sounds like a save game system but then I read the description of what it’s intended for and we have this.
The Mission State Save feature is aimed at giving players an easier way to create new missions based on the saved events state of the played mission. New Save does not save the state of everything in a mission but rather applies the theatre of operations events to a newly generated mission. This allows you to create linked missions with persistence between them.
This almost sounds like its more aimed at creating persistent states for campaigns, the dynamic campaign system to be specific, but potentially for other scenarios too with multiplayer getting quite a bit of mention.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased to see progress towards both the dynamic campaign and other core DCS World features that hopefully will enable better and more flexible gameplay. How this works in practice I still have a lot of questions. Let me know in the comments on what your read of this is.
Air racing
I always think the sandbox elements of a combat flight sim can lead to some great non-combat experiences too and air racing is certainly one of them. This weekend there’s an upcoming DCS Mustang Air Race championship coming up hosted by the Black Angels. Real time race results on Discord and on the event homepage should make for some interesting experiences.
This weekend, make sure you tune in to an exciting new DCS Mustang Air Race Championship, hosted by our dedicated community members Black Angels. Inspired by Nick Grey’s recent feedback, they have improved their race result export system to update in near real-time, ensuring that pilots can see their lap times both on their Discord and on the event homepage. Join in for free practice sessions on the 7th and 8th of March, with the main competition taking place on the 9th of March featuring the iconic P-51 and free TF-51 Mustangs.
Spring sale underway
Spring hasn’t quite sprung where I live but it is time to start thinking about a new season and with a new season comes a new DCS World sale. The usual array of discounts are on offer with older products getting the best discounts while more recently released products remain at full price or with limited discounts.
Still, if you’re thinking of buying something to add to your DCS World hangar, this is a good time. Check out the DCS World e-Shop for the sales and visit the DCS World forums for the latest DCS World Weekend News update.
Stormbirds 
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