Hi there,

I have been a follower of the forums for a while however, this as you can proberlly tell is one of my first posts, I am looking to grab one (if not both in future) the DCS games between black shark and a - 10.

I was just wondering if there are any of you out there who could perhaps give a reccomendation of which to get as a new comer to the series (Most flight sim experience is with microsoft flight sim 3 years ago, and the il2 series including clod).

I do not seek a "which is better" response in all honesty and do not wish to seem ignorant with this, it is literally down to a indecisive fact of "which one".

I am mainly intending to play the one i buy online after learning the ropes via the training and single player - so another question i put forward i suppose is what is there a lack of - the a 10s or the sharks? - and from my understanding both a-10 and black shark are compatible with each other online so you can play cross client?

Many thanks for reading this,

Bigfoot89

It literally comes down to what do you want to fly? Fixed wing or Rotary?





Pay close attention to versions:

There's 2 Black Sharks
DCS:Black Shark
DCS:Black Shark 2

Only Black Shark 2 is compatible with the A-10.

Rotary or fixed wing, both hold my interest and i suppose thats where the hard decision comes from eh <.<, however say if there's a need of more black shark or a 10 pilots active online, i'd gladly try fill the ranks of one or the other.

Thanks for the reply.

Basically, a monkey could FLY the A-10C in a straight line but Einstein would have trouble with the Black Shark in straight and level flight.

Ok, maybe I have over simplified. The BS is a b!tch to fly and fight in and requires you to learn the BASICS before you can even take off. The weapons systems sometimes don't make sense and you wonder what they were thinking when they designed them.

The A-10 is a straight forward fixed wing aircraft to fly ie. if you have flown an aircraft before it's the same as that, but there are a lot of systems to learn and master but will be similar to ones say in F4 AF or BMS. There is a lot to learn here but that's why we do this, right?

My vote would be for DCS A-10C as it is the best sim I have flown and yes it is compatible with Black Shark 2, not with the original Black Shark as there was a pay-for update released recently to update it.

indeed!, the learning side of things that is, wanna get me hands on a in depth sim basically, and thanks Mace, so long as there's the compatibilty, i suppose there's a sense of experiencing one or the other by engaing/ flying with em aswell anyway eh,

Bigfoot89

If you like flying and blowing things up and getting technical with the systems, then I would recommend DCS A10. It has better (interactive) tutorials too.

If you REALLY like flying rotaries (and I thought I did) and want to study how to fly the aircraft more, then Black Shark 2 would be for you.

Basically, the A-10 is a lot easier to fly than the Shark, but with it's weapons, there's a lot to learn. The Shark is hard to fly, but once you learn how to control it and park it on a safe spot, the weapons are rather easy to learn and employ.

And don't mind "what the community needs more pilots of," fly what you like and not what the community wants you to fly. Plus the lack of direct interaction between the Shark's ABRIS and the A-10's Data Link means that whatever "co-op" you do, the A-10 will need to talk the BS to the target and vice versa, unlike JTAC being able to "give" the A-10 targets.

Welcome to the community!

hehe, i notice you replied to both my posts there ice!, many thanks for that, i guess i'll pick up the a-10 to begin with then as the shark seems to have a steeper learning curve from initial response!

Shall hopefully see some of you in the skys ...from my burning wreckage on the ground at some point,

Thanks again for the replys everyone!

Bigfoot89

No, the idea is the learning curves are in different places for the two sims. The A-10 is easier to fly and thus the learning curve is more towards using the systems to deploy the weapons... so if you like learning about weapons and tactics, this is for you. The Ka-50 is harder to fly and thus the learning curve is more towards actually "tuning in" to the helicopter and getting it to do what you want it to do, the weapon system themselves are fairly easy to understand and use... so if you like flying around and learning about co-axial helicopter intricacies, then BS2 is for you.

Just hope I clarified that point. Glad to see you're getting the A-10.

ah im just being nit picky anyway i guess, too much for my own sake - and the games at that, either way, if i enjoy a 10 i'll prob grab BS2 at some point also, thanks again Ice.

Bigfoot89

I think I do pretty good at it, actually.

This may sound like an odd question, but what stick(s) do you use? Some suit each aircraft more than the other.

Yes, you'll want to at least try the Ka-50 at a later date, however, I feel it is important that you have FUN first rather than be frustrated at buying something you'd not enjoy.

Paid £300 for WH so I use it for everything

Lol, I didn't even think that when I typed it

bigfoot -
For me it was seeing the combination of the DCS A-10C and the Thrustmaster Warthog. I was smitten. I doubt I would have purchased A-10C to use with my old Cougar or any other HOTAS.

When I saw both I had to have *it*.

Wrecking Crew


PS - And a Track IR and rudders with toe brakes. And a mic for Teamspeak. And MFCDs. And biker gloves w/o the fingers.

And piddle packs.

Pfft, lightweight! Where are your Nomex gloves?

Ahha! sorry, feel ignorant now for not replying to the stream of replys this topic has seem to of gotten, to answer the question about the stick, at the moment i am just using a saitek cyborg fly 5, simply cause my last stick broke - just wanted to get something cheap to get started again!, although i gotta say for the price i am quite impressed with it so im currently here with alot of keyboard commands and mouse movements at the moment.

Bigfoot89

Well there you have it. It's a match made in heaven for DCS: A10. You won't have to configure controls apart from setting the POV hat to trim and the friction slider to zoom if you want it. BS/BS2 take a little more tweaking, but are still good.

Overall I'd say to go for A10 given your hardware.

ahh - thanks for that input, and everyone else on this page also!, tis alot of help, just got the a-10 installed, think its bout time i go throw it around a bit then get confused on what direction i'm going

Bigfoot89

Have a go at it, try to test things out. With your stick, you will have to use the keyboard -- A LOT. Don't blame us for wanting a TM Warthog later on

Might I suggest looking at page 38 of the DCS A-10C QuickStart Guide EN on your /install/Doc folder... that will show you what's mapped to the actual Warthog stick and the relevant keyboard commands. Might be a good idea to print it out too.

Then start tackling the tutorials, and refer to the FAQ and Training sub-forums here on DCS A10 for some newbie-friendly guides.

Good luck!