Let's see if we can create a positive thread here....

I'm really interested to know what people's wish list is (are?) for the Hornet. The last time I flew a Hornet was Jane's F/A-18 with a Gravis joystick... around 2000 or 2001, so I'm really looking forward to the DCS Hornet. I did try to fly Jane's F/A-18 again but had graphical issues so I didn't spend too much time with that sim in recent years.

Here's what I'd like to see in the Hornet module:

• Realistic carrier ops - as a non-pilot, I'd like to know how it feels like to fly in "naval aviation" (cue Top Gun). What I really liked in Jane's was that I would be assigned a position in the stack off the carrier and I would be verbally reprimanded if I strayed too high or too low from my assigned altitude in the stack. I assume I was able to maintain my position relative to the carrier as I've never had any warning about being "left behind" as the stack moved with the carrier. I also liked the fact that I could see aircraft flying above/below me, I'd see whenever an aircraft would be cleared to land, as I fly towards the carrier, I'd see jets on the way to the stack, and if I were to bolter, I'd see jets on the way in to land as I make my way back to the stack. Even just practicing carrier traps, the local area felt alive.
• Toys - I guess it goes without saying. I look forward to the multi-role nature of the Hornet and playing with the associated toys that a multi-role fighter can play with. Bombs, missiles, LGBs, IAMs, FLIR, TGP, buddy lasing, etc.
• Towed decoy - same as above. Pity we don't have this in BMS, sounds really cool when reading about it on Dan Hampton's book.
• Meatball - would be interesting how they'd implement this. Realistic would mean the pilot would have to use a "zoom in" view in order to make out the meatball. Maybe have it pop up as a small window on the side of the cockpit... near the HUD? Have both options? Or maybe smart-scale it so it looks bigger/visible from the distance?
• Animated arrestor cables - again, one of the things I liked in Jane's was the ability to go to external view right after landing and see which wire I caught. It was like a self-appraisal of my landing. Maybe have someone on the carrier confirm which wire I caught, and tell me over the radio? Or have it part of a debrief? We know that each and every landing is graded....
• Carrier crew - I'm sure I'm not the only one with this wet dream. Have the jet spawn at one of the parking places, watch the flight deck crew go about their business as you do your startup, then have them marshall you into your position on the catapult, watch them go through the motions as you prepare for the cat lauch.... on landing, get marshalled to one of the parking places... obviously if this can be done on the carrier, then let's have it on airbases as well!!
• Parked aircraft - has anyone watched a carrier landing video with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on the carrier deck? As with the carrier crew wish list above, having aircraft on the deck means that the small landing area is even smaller and there is more pressure to land accurately and within the proper space, otherwise, kaboom! I guess this would be easier to implement as well compared to actual, interactive ground crew.
• Landing camera - or whatever that's called. The one with the crosshairs that guides the crew to tell the pilot power/left/right/less power. Would be nice to watch my AI or human wingman/wingmen come in for landing after I've parked my jet.
• Launch options - as with BMS. So the option of a cold jet, a fully operational jet on the taxiway or in the carrier parking spot, and a fully operational jet on the runway or in the catapult.
• Actual moving carrier - not just pitching up/down/left/right with the current sea conditions, but actually changing location on the map.... although I guess the current map is too small to make any "movement" a moot point?

I'd post more but then I realize some of them may be more towards DCS World rather than the Hornet module itself... things such as ATC, missile performance, AI wingmen, mission types...

So, what are things on your Hornet wish list? What would be a deal-breaker for you if ED didn't implement it or implement it in a different/wrong way?

Excellent post. I'll look for some more links when I have time. Wags or someone stated that most of this will be implemented. Not sure about the towed decoy. Not sure about animated characters on deck. I'd bet no on that one though. Fully functional for the carriers is the official word but that's a wide target at this time.

This was from last year on DCS main website.
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/2016-01-29_DCS_World_Future/

Some of the other stuff has been mentioned in the official video.
https://www.facebook.com/eagle.dynamics/videos/10159004303245341/

This is a mod video but it has a download link for the files.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LevKEgWTQVU

I know that this has already been posted but this is a good spot to keep a running archive.

ED has talked about a Carrier ops module, and I imagine most of this would be fleshed out in that. There has been no official announcement of a carrier module; just a concept where the module would provide all of the extras. This might not be such a bad idea, because the other requirement would be to likely expand the scope of the F/A-18 module to include changes to the engine. Considering the DCS ATC has been behind for a few years, that's not a delay I'm hoping for in order to stack a marshal radial. Whatever they do will need to be implemented across the board for the Tomcat, A-7, F-4 (if BST decides to add a B/N/S variant to the mix), and any other carrier birds that come down the pipe.

Regarding the meatball, I'm also hoping for a zoomed view like Janes. I suppose with today's resolutions and graphics cards they could use light bloom to a similar effect, but I would still like the superimposed zoom.

Right now, carriers can move and variable starts are available (though more than 4 birds on the Kuz gets buggy). I haven't tried parking static aircraft on the deck in the mission editor, but that shouldn't be too difficult. More interesting would be moving aircraft on the deck, but that might be a performance hit.

*Striker*, let's keep this as a customer-focused discussion. While it would be fun to chronicle what has or has not been said by certain individuals connected to the development of the Hornet, you can see how things can quickly go down the drain with the ED policy of "everything is subject to change".... also thereby rendering the list of "promises" literally useless. I would, instead, suggest that we put up our wishlist and compare it with what actually comes out once the Hornet module is released. Proof is in in the pudding, so to speak.

HomeFries, I've not kept a close eye on discussion regarding this one.... how certain is that carrier module? Is it going to be like Normandy Asset Pack? Would be a bummer to have the Hornet then just have the current aircraft carrier.... but then again, I've only landed on the Russian carrier and not the American one. Getting the carrier right would lay down the groundwork for future naval combat aircraft though, so it is an important foundation to get right..... and the more awesome it is (flight deck crew, parked aircraft, marshall stack, ATC, etc), the more awesome it brings for other aircraft!

How can you say moving aircraft will be a performance hit? Do we not already have moving aircraft in airbases? I would also assume that moving aircraft in airbases would consist of MUCH more aircraft due to much more space available.... in the carrier, you'd probably have 2-3 aircraft (aside from player) moving and that should be enough...

Understood.

My wish list would be more smart ammunition like JSOW or the flyable Jammer decoy you could carry in Janes.
I would also like to see another European theater like the Balkans in F4, Norway in Eurofighter or Janes Northcape again.
Towed Decoy.
Carrier landing ratings.
LSO position.
IFLOS.
Pretty much everything else you mentioned except the animated carrier crews, I think that's overkill.

If they actually delivered on your wish-list Ice,hell,I'd re-install DCS and purchase the Hornet module without haste. Something however tells me my money is safe.

Right now, DCS Carrier falls into the infamous EISTC category, and who knows what will be part of the module and what will be included in the engine, especially following the backlash from the WW2 Assets pack. It could go either way, because had ED abandoned the ala carte option and just charged $50 for Normandy and included the WW2 assets, they would have caught a lot less heat for "splitting the community." I'll put the Asset Pack into the "no good deed goes unpunished" category, and they may decide that full carrier ops will cost. Who knows? Semper EISTC.

Regarding objects, DCS doesn't use a bubble system like F4, and they have no intent to do so because it's a feature that is considered a liability to their military customers. This means that every object (even those that are not visible) contributes to the overhead of a mission. Maybe things will improve once the graphics engine is finalized and most of it is pushed to the GPU, freeing up the CPU to handle CPU stuff, but the increased detail of the theaters and cockpits may offset that performance benefit. We'll have to wait and see.

A lot of excitement over parking lot operations. How about AI which knows how to maximize Ps in a climb or decides intelligently when to fly tactical or best enduro or best range airspeed.

Hahaha!! Look at that! We can agree on something! Shock! Horror!


LSO... is that the landing officer? As for carrier crews... I remember in the training mission of DCS A10C, there was a part where there are soldiers running across the tarmac and IIRC, there was even a jeep driving around. While they had absolutely nothing to do with my mission, it was nice not to feel so "alone" in the airfield. We really, REALLY need something to take the sterility off the game and if it's even useful (aircraft marshals), win-win!



I'm trying to keep this a positive thread, Chucky!! You poking my demons isn't helping!! Hehehehe....
Seriously though, I am most likely going to get the Hornet module and that's even considering the current state of DCS World....



God!! Took me a full minute of hard thinking to figure out what "EISTC" means.... good one! And totally agree with you on the asset pack there.


Hmmm... my knowledge of this is muddled over the years.... so a unit that is moving on a carrier can affect guys who are on a mission 50 miles away?

Haha! So true, Frederf! However, I've never really cared for the wingman AI. Annoyed the hell out of me in DCS A10C when they'd call out targets from 10nm away (damn good eyesight!!) but then there's no way for me to ask them to pinpoint it for me. As with BMS, I'd wager most of my serious flights will be with human wingmen and I'd just learn the basics of babysitting the AI so I do all the tactical flying or enduro/range flying.

I also suspect that the majority of my time in the Hornet will be spent knowing the aircraft and the systems.... I suspect that the changes to DCS World that are required to make it interesting for me won't be coming for a long time, so that means most of my time will be "parking lot operations." Hence the nature of my wishlist

Animated arrestor cables are already implemented, at least they were when I recently landed the Su-33 on Kuznetsov.



Yeah, PLAT camera would be cool idea. Seven-G had it implemented, with all the LSO grading system. Too bad that sim didn't took off yet...



Isn't this already available? You can plan a route for the carrier and even in the Black Sea region available in game it would took several hours @30kts for it to traverse that distance.


As for me I'm just hoping for full blown carrier with working elevators, crew doing their business on the deck etc. Remember Digital Integration's F/A-18 Super Hornet? The game wasn't stellar, but the carrier ops were really impresive at the time.

Moving carriers are currently implemented. Set waypoints and speed and off they go. However, they dont automatically turn into the wind. You control direction.

My wish might not be a big hit around here...but I wish they would not release it until A/G radar and carrier ops are ready.

Carrier Ops might be a stretch to be ready soon...but at the very least I think they should wait for A/G radar to be ready before release. If they are stating that A/G radar will be ready a few months later...then they should wait until then.

The F/A18 will be an important release for ED...it could bring a lot of players back that have given up or moved on. It's important to make a good first impression IMO.

I seem to remember that they weren't as well-animated as the Jane's ones... I think that's why I still remember Jane's as opposed to any LOMAC or FC3 Su-33 experience.


Cool! I've not really played with controlling carriers in DCS, so I wasn't aware of it.


Sweet video! If that was possible in 2009, then it should be easy to do in 2017! That guy guiding the jet onto the catapult, then another guy launching the jet... would be so cool to give the deck a little more life.



I thought that went without saying.... but yeah. I'd buy Hornet on pre-release if A/G radar was on, otherwise, I'd wait until it's implemented. Do you think ED realizes how important the Hornet is for them? How it's an opportunity for them to save face?

Exportable HUD recording view would be nice.

Ice, the game was released in 2000, that's right - 17 years ago. We should have proper carrier ops by now

Wow, interesting! So I guess any excuse for ground crew is just that... an excuse!

Very true. Even the win they got (and desperately needed) with a good Nevada release has effectively been squandered with the delays to 2.5. While I love the sim, ED's business credibility is on the line. A smooth 2.5 release and a good F/A-18 can help regain a lot of trust.

God, I sure hope they can manage that!

There's more chance of flying pigs, leprechauns, and a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.