I ordered it on June 30th from here: [url=https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/][/url]
They charged my PayPal but I have heard nothing since the order confirmation email and thier contact page just keeps kicking me back to the sign-in page.

Somebody will address you more appropriately but:

1. Full 17 days and counting for a digital order and you are still patiently waiting???
2. It's pretty safe to say that from that address you have NOT been scammed.
3. Check first your spam mail folder, before a possible mail is deleted permanently.
4. And do you log in? Keys could only be accessible once logged in and some cookie setting might prevent you to do so.

In normal circumstances, process of charging via PayPal is semi-automated, You purchase things through DCS website, You get redirected to Your PayPal (if You clicked this method of payment, of course), login over there, all the correct data for payment form gets filled automatically, click OK and You get redirected to DCS site again where You get the license key right away. Two minutes and You're done, no way You should be waiting any longer.

I think Your browser might have messed things up (and still does so). Log-in to Your DCS account on their site, click Your "profile" tab and check if FC3 order is there. After clicking it You should be able to find license key there as well. I'd try using other browser as well.

I have not had great results with large downloads so with $$ involved I always choose a CD and a box. Does DCS not ship CDs anymore?
The key is on the order page, I can hardcopy that but I'm waiting for a box in the mail.

If you're waiting for a box with a CD you'll be waiting a long time.

Just download the DCS client and download/install the modules via the in-game module manager.

log in at the website and you will find the serial numbers and download link, that is all that you need to do.

And to make things clear, since replies above might not give You precise impression - no, there are no CD/DVDs of any ED product offered anymore.

Not on the ED site at least. You can get DVD versions of the P-51, UH-1, A-10C and FC3 from retailers in germany
https://abload.de/img/mobile.207s6jnb.jpg

But then again, you will still have to update the dvd version to the actual game version.

Ah, thanks for that, it definitely wasn't made clear on the website.
I will try and DL it tonight, thanks guys!

ok, an amazingly long DL is going. Since I tend to play my games forever, how do I save this for future installs on newer machines? ( this is why I wanted a box and CD ).

Amazingly long, because the sim is amazingly big. My DCS copy, which doesn't contain any FC3 planes, but has a few others, already has ~29 GB of default content. And that's the basic 1.5.4 version only. My second install, of 2.0 version with early access Nevada map is 46+ GB big. The sizes vary depending on which aircraft and maps You've got purchased and installed and which not. But even with a couple of gigs more or less, You can see why one just cannot distribute such games on CDs/DVDs nowadays. Blue-ray, maybe, but not everyone has a BR reader, and with various game updates being published every few weeks, You would have to download crapload of data anyway.

As for transfering the sim to new PC, never have done it, but I guess You should be able to copy it on external drive to other computer and launch it using DCS_updater.exe file (located in Bin folder). You would have to activate it again though, as the license key data is stored in Windows registry.

It's running but do I HAVE to use "DCS World" to launch the game?
Also controls: I'm running a Saitek X-45, the game controls screen list "thrust" as "joy slider" wtf is that? Without a profile running the X-45 joystick controls axis's and rudder but the throttle does nothing ( the buttons don't do anything either but I expect that with no profile running ).

Seems to be a good bit of lag right here on SimHQ lol
I got it running now ( including throttle ) just have to work up some proper profiles for the X-45.
Thanks all.

I won't be able to help, as by definition I don't use any profiler software for any of my controllers (prefer to assign buttons and axes directly in game options, DCS offers a good flexibility here) and don't have any experience with X-45 & X-52. Might be worth considering, as I used to notice quite a few posts on ED forums of people having issues caused by conflicts between Saitek profiler and DCS default controls options. Maybe You'll be lucky, though.

Whichever option You choose, I can only recommend, after You're done with basic controls assignments, checking all the remaining assignments in all columns and rows and deleting duplicates (especially for axes) - DCS loves to make some duplicate assignments "out of the box", which can cause some unwanted inputs with catastrophic results in the middle of a flight.

Edit: a bonus advice, as You already seem to be thinking about moving complete install co a new PC in the future - all Your personal, customized game options (including controls) are stored in C:\Users\[Your profile name]\Saved Games\DCS\. So keep backing up content of this folder to avoid setting up everything again if reinstall / transfer is needed.

Ok this is weird.
Worked up a profile on the FC3 screen for my X-45 and the A-10A. Got it to change views, work the brakes and a few other things, HOWEVER could not fire any weapon at all! No cannon no nothing. I went as far as deleting the profile and unplugging the stick and turning off the profiler and just running it off the keyboard, still no gun or weps even after restarting. Is there some sort of "master arm" preventing the weps from firing? I never saw it in the key map screens.
I double checked and ran the stick in notepad and it was sending key commands so I don't know what's going on!

The FC3 planes don't have master arm, no. I do believe you need to select cannon mode before the cannon will fire though. Were you in the appropriate master mode eg A2A and locked on to a target first?
I don't recall if the weapons will just fire off without a valid lock in those planes, I've honestly not flown them much lately, it's been mostly A-10C and Ka-50.



The Jedi Master

I got it all going now, just had to F7/F6 to get into a non-nav mode. The C key changes the cannon mode to gun pipper or missile. Almost ready to start training missions :-)


Can the flight models be modded in this game? At first glance they ( especially the F-15 ) seem horribly wrong, will have to find a G display to confirm.

That's a bold, keyboard-warrior-style statement against probably the first combat sim, which switches from scripted, table based flight models to fully dynamic-force-calculation ones . That being said, some planes in FC3 have old, simplified FMs, some have the updated, more detailed ones, some are mix of the two and all of them are in various stages of neverending work-in-progress state, so bugs and inaccuracies do exist. I don't fly any of modern birds in DCS, so cannot comment on F-15, but if You're not against visiting ED forum once in a while (and despite what a vocal group of angry users over here say, You shouldn't be), there's already a long thread to read over there on questionable G-resistance of the F-15:
http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=170489

Flight models are hardcoded and cannot be modded easily, though I recall seeing some FM mod for one of WWII birds, so maybe it's possible to hack & crack to some extent other planes as well.

If the plane doesn't have an in-cockpit G-display, external view (F2) provides this information. Not really handy in-flight, but might be used while watching replays. Keep in mind, the replay code in DCS is somewhat broken nowadays and doesn't always play tracks properly.

Let's just say I'm rather familiar with the flight dynamics of the F-15 series. However I AM just barely starting this sim so I may have something set-up wrong or whatever causing false impressions. Off the top of my head it seems to act more like the A model than the C, we'll see.
Want to thank everyone here again for helping me get this sim going,
wanted some eye-candy and this one delivers that, fo sho

Clearly an F-15A flight model, perhaps the rooskies didn't have as much info as we thought lol.