I’m a bit unclear from the above relayed post on whether DC Designs plans to release their own official “restore weapons on top of the Marketplace release” mod or if they’re saying that some third party might create one at some point and that’s good enough for them?
(I don’t super care but it’s irksome to deal with the weird Microsoft restrictions on liveries and modeling for military aircraft, it all just seems like somebody made a weird decision with no justification for it and refuses to allow even very sensible changes to it, and everybody else – Asobo, 3rd-party vendors, and customers – is stuck with it.)
Dean commented about this on Discord - he says they actually get a better overall return from the Marketplace, it’s less work than preparing packages for multiple vendors, and the MP helps curb the rampant piracy going on with add-ons.
This is the activation mod from Dean. I presume it will be updated soon to include the Phantom (really thought it would coincide with release tbh):
I find the Marketplace restrictions on weapons and historical liveries to be illogical and completely unnecessary. That said, I have started to get a few “simple” civilian add-ons there, and it is quite convenient to do installs/updates right within the sim.
As long as Dean commits to keeping payloads visible on military aircraft, which he has on Discord, then I am ok with this. The announcement just should have been handled with a bit more thought.
At this point, I think I will get the Phantom from the Marketplace. I just want to see the activation mod updated before I pull the trigger. There’s no reason I can see for it not to be updated already.
Oh, I get it, it says that right above from the person who quoted the Discord.
I was just saying how I felt about the Marketplace. Dean has every right to run his business as he wants, and I’m certainly not his only customer and in the grand scheme, my feelings don’t really matter. So I’m not taking this personally in any way shape or form. Just adding a very anecdotal data point that really doesn’t matter.
They have DCS for combat but I guess you may still want weapons in a civilian sim to practice training missions, go to some remote location, fire to some targets, come back to base. No combat at all with other players but some extra realism about what things you can do with these planes.
I fly them A to B as any GA or airliner because that is what I enjoy doing but I understand not everybody has the same ideas.
Even if you’re not flying combat you may still carry ordnance (training, patrols, intercepts) that will impact your flight dynamics through weight and drag. It makes it more realistic.
I generally don’t buy many military aircraft for MSFS and mainly use DCS for that itch.
PC Customer
In response to the quoted statement from DC Designs
Although I would imagine I am in the minority, I have hit the number of files limit in MSFS 2020 (something around 1080 or so combined Official and Community Folder files). Addon linker has become a requirement for me as I own almost every airport in the Mareketplace, and I want to use and see them when I load into a region.
Although I don’t mind waiting a week or so to purchase your products, I can no longer purchase addons or download freeware indiscriminantly. I have to sacrafice some addons to be able to use others (selectively via addon linker).
Having to download and have another addon file (weapons visibility) for each of your addons reduces my number of files headroom. It isn’t only that I want to see weapons and/or historical accurracy. I support MSFS and 3rd party developers in such a way that it requires me to discriminate unnecessary files. In the case of your products, I have to choose and endure the marketing delay in order to avoid having to dowload the weapons reactivation addon file (absolutely brilliant solution for 99.9% of your PC customers).
For guns, simply having correct appearance of the aircraft is nice
For bombs/missiles as payload, some folks like to fly with a realistic payload. As noted it affects weight, CG, and drag.
Taking screenshots of the correctly appearing aircraft and posting them is fun
For WWII planes especially, many historical liveries include depictions of the human form which are also forbidden by Microsoft, and it’s nice to be able to include historically accurate liveries with the plane.
Again, in addition to looking at it yourself, posting screenshots is fun and having a greater variety of loadouts and liveries is an improvement to the experience.
Note none of these included firing weapons, something that’s not supported in MSFS anyway.
I picked this up on Xbox. Really loving this one. It sounds great and handles really well. I’ve only had one run up so far but look forward to digging in deeper with everything.
I did notice a TON of engine smoke while taxing on the ground. Excessive amounts. Anyone else?
Edit: we’ll the excessive smoke only happens during the cinematic if you take off from runway.
I did cold/dark and all was fine.
having been born on an Air Force base and growing up around military aviation, seeing military aircraft in a clean configuration looks out of place other than an airshow.
I also appreciate that the DC Designs flight models include restrictions and performance changes with load weight, so one can explore how it affects and dictactes an aircraft’s handling characteristics - specifically during approach and landing.
I don’t need to employ the weapons, but simulating how it affects my control input decisions throughout the flight envelope is appreciated.
Have you ever gone up to a WWII bomber and seen some “dummy” bombs in the bomb bay? It gives you some added perspective of what the payload actually looked like and how it fit into the bomber.
These are warplanes. They carry ordinance. It is a part of how they operate. Seeing the ordinance is more accurate to the flight profile and as a visual representation of the planes, i.e., doing what they do. And none of that needs the ordinance to be “armed.”
late in the post microsoft .3rd party development that took over FSX there was an addon called ‘TacPac’ that actually ‘weaponized’ the ordinance that could be included with any warbird that was modeled with guns or hardpoints.
With TacPac you could fire missiles, shoot the guns and cannons and drop bombs that would actually destroy or damage their target. Including any aircraft, building, vehicle - you name it.
I’m certain that Microsoft was aware of that mod and had it in mind when they decided not to include any warbirds with armaments - even inactive representations. I imagine this is also why most of the .cfg files were incripted at the start. I’m pretty sure they could see some capable and enterprising 3rd party developer coming up with a way to ‘TacPac’ MS2020 and then all you would see online is knuckleheads shooting down Airbuses and Boeing liners, strafing and bombing NYC and London - it just doesn’t fit with a Real World global simulation - not no way and not no how.
We have all seen and heard Jorge and the team at Asobo say how impressed they are with what the modding community can do and has done already within the constraints of the simulator. Can you imagine what their licensed use aircraft manufacturers would have done if that scenario had played out?
Phab release, and really enjoying phlying it so far!
My only minor criticism so far would be some of the external textures (particularly the camo ones) look a bit flat/matte - I’m not sure if that’s realistic, or whether it’s missing a bit of dirt/AO? Some of the liveries have really dark rivets too, almost like they’ve had a black ring painted around them.
Overall though, looks and sounds in the cockpit are really immersive, and it’s great fun!
I also wanted to comment on Dean’s statement as you quoted, “IF and when to bring them to other stores.”
It is clear and understandable to me that DC Designs is considering elimination of visible weapons. Either from a cost/revenue perspective (5% as someone stated) or from partnership/leverage from Microsoft/Asobo.
I suppose that since I fall in the unfortunate 5% customer base, I’ll have to be content with working external fuel tanks. I could not fault DC Designs for focusing on the gaming customers that are growing their business.
I hope DC Designs makes that business choice within a week rather than the “or so” timeframe. If it really is only 5% of their customers that are impacted, the choice is clear. I can accept it.
*** Unless they release their A-10 with a camera for the GAU-30 too - then, it will become clear that the decision isn’t from a financial standpoint, and I might stop supporting MSFS altogether. But hey, 5% … we really are insignificant.
Does anyone else feel the F-4 pulls a little too hard? When I pull back on the stick about halfway it just yanks the nose up. Even when I apply back stick slowly it’s a progressive pull and then suddenly snaps. And it feels a little bouncy when releasing the stick, almost like the elevator is pushing itself down instead of returning to level. I wonder if it’s my settings or sensitivity causing issues?
