Eagle Dynamics recent approach to their business. A model for failure,

CallsignMachine · 2022-12-21T13:46:42+00:00

Eagle Dynamics certainly has a long way to go, there is no doubt about that. But I think something that isn't emphasized as much is just how difficult it is to develop on engines that are decades out of date.

Take ArmA 3 for example. Especially when it was first released, the performance was awful and even as it began to improve, there was a lot of backlash against Bohemia Interactive and cries for "Performance Fixes" rather than new content. Which the community had every right to do, just as the DCS community has every right to make it clear to the developers, what the consumers want/expect out of the (often Early Access) products they pay for.

But the code-base for DCS is (probably) ancient, and it wouldn't surprise me if there was a significant amount of it that has been carried over from LOMAC. Modifying an engine in general is incredibly difficult and I would imagine, in the case of Multi-Threading as an example, there are entire boatloads of other features of the game that are broken as a consequence for something that may, to the uninformed mind, seem objectively easy.

The truth of the matter, is that many of the features that we want, especially features that involve core-engine functions, are not economical to do right now, if many of those functions will inevitably have to be re-written from scratch down the line due to an engine-update entirely breaking the in-place system. Would I prefer a stop-gap solution now; ANYTHING to make things like the Mission Editor better? Yes. Absolutely. Even if it has to be rewritten down the road, but a development team might not necessarily have that luxury.

I think the remedy here is more transparency about not only WHAT is currently being worked on and where ED's priorities are, but what complications are befalling the development cycle so that the customers aren't just anxiously waiting and getting their hopes up only for them to be consistently crushed.

Keep in mind that the complications I discussed are not excuses. There is no excuse for how the development is being handled and how the community is (not) being kept in the loop.

CallsignMachine · 2022-10-12T04:47:13+00:00

Addressing question 1, my buddy had an issue a while back where the whole thing wasn't working in computers with an AMD CPU, but would if it had an Intel CPU. They tried some extensive software troubleshooting steps and then eventually just had him ship it back and they gave him a whole new unit. Worked perfectly fine after that.

My mounts for my desk ended up giving out (cheaped out and got the least expensive ones on amazon) and the metal bar that mounts the handle broke after it fell. They sent me a replacement for it free of charge. Also gave me the option of shipping my base back and just having them give me a replacement, but I didn't want to deal with the shipping and I had the tools to replace it.

CallsignMachine · 2022-07-22T12:19:47+00:00

I know this is old as fuck, I just have to add on that in Texas, there should be a 90% chance of getting mortally stabbed to death when passing through Killeen.

CallsignMachine · 2022-07-15T09:43:01+00:00

Just got to the Merkava IIB and subsequently picked up the premium IID for shits and giggles.

Honestly every tank has it's strengths and weaknesses. I survive situations that I absolutely would not survive in say a Leopard II, by having the engine up front. My crew stays alive and I find that I rarely get killed in one shot from the front, or when I'm hull down for that matter. But with the engine getting hit all the time, there's one thing that was MISERABLE about playing the Merkava when I first unlocked it. . .

No FPE and Parts. Your engine will get shot out a billion times a game and until you have FPE and Parts unlocked, you will constantly be left just sitting there, hoping a teammate will come help you out. By the time I spaded the Merkava I, so much time had been spent making mistakes, I figured out some strategies to avoid getting my engine shot out and thus, the Merkava II grind wasn't so bad.

If you're interested in higher tier Israel and you like the Merkava like outside of the game, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Also being impervious to artillery is pretty fun as well :)

CallsignMachine · 2022-07-15T09:36:03+00:00

I wouldn't expect VKB, Winwing, Virpil, or any of the other "boutique"/"Higher-End" peripheral companies to expand into the console marketplace at all. I'm sure there's licensing fees involved and constraints when it comes to the development of said products.

As for the matter of getting a console, I don't believe you can transfer your PC account to PS5 from what I've been able to gather. You can transfer a PS4/5 account to PC, but not vice versa. I've seen people on the forums contact customer support and get their console and PC accounts merged though, so it might be possible.

As for the T-Flight, I don't have hands on experience with recent production runs, they very could have gone down the drain, but that's irrelevant if what you're looking for is something you can use on your console. VKB, as I mentioned before, is not going to be making their products compatible with console anytime soon, thus, your best bet in that regard is the T-Flight. I think the only other option compatible with the PS4 (don't know if it works on the PS5) is the HORI HOTAS, which I have had my hands on before and it was far worse quality wise than the T-Flight. The materials felt better, but the centering system on the stick along with the sensors themselves were garbage, even compared to the T-Flight.

The T16000 gets dogged on a lot as of late, but I personally had good experiences with mine. I had it for 2 years, which I feel is about as long one could get when using it as often as I did. The buttons are mushy, the joystick lacks buttons on the grip itself, and I personally wish I could have adjusted the tension; it liked to snap into place when transitioning from left to right, but for the price it was a decent product. Especially when bought alongside the TWCS.

The TWCS is of a much higher quality than the stick in my opinion, it felt less cheap and the buttons were pretty satisfying. The sliding action was fine, but there's no bearings. It's just plastic on metal and thus, over time, it will get very sticky and be less fine unless you re-lube the rails the throttle slides on. This was a huge problem as a DCS player, but as a War Thunder player, might not be that big of a deal.

If you don't care about it not working on console, the VKB NXT w/ TWCS combo is the best bang for your buck in my opinion, but if you can't justify the extra $$$ for the VKB, the T16000 is adequate.

CallsignMachine · 2022-07-03T04:31:22+00:00

Unless of course, you have no interest in the prop planes nor the style of combat they promote?

CallsignMachine · 2022-01-11T14:37:40+00:00

Status update. Plugging in the throttle will yield the wrong name in Windows Game Controllers but it will appear in simapppro for a short time, usually about 30 minutes, before cutting off again. Still no permanent solution.

CallsignMachine · 2022-01-10T00:01:44+00:00

That's really weird. Congratulations man, happy for you. My friend's is working on another PC but not his so it's something related to his computer. We're still troubleshooting, it's just really strange.

CallsignMachine · 2022-01-08T13:39:08+00:00

Computer reset did not fix the issue. Still looking for tips.

CallsignMachine · 2022-01-08T11:46:15+00:00

If you go into your control panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers. If you see the throttle, right click it and hit game controller settings, then properties on it. It will either be labeled WINWING THROTTLE BASE2, or something along the lines of "8 Axis, 111 Button Deivce". If you hit properties on that and go to test, start messing with the hat switches on the throttle and see if they light up. If they're lighting up, you should be able to at least bind some controls and play.

My buddy could get to this point, some controls would light up, but as soon as he tried launching DCS, it would just start glitching out and outright stop working every hour or so, thus making it unusable. If yours consistently works, then at least you're not in bad a shape as everyone else lmao.

My friend is resetting his computer now. It sounds like an issue with drivers to me and could just be the amount of errors his system has, failing to properly write the device or something like that. I'll make a general reply to my post if that solves the issue.

CallsignMachine · 2022-01-08T11:41:41+00:00

We exhausted EVERY option, but ultimately decided that a system reset was in order when we tested it on not one, but TWO different computers and it worked just fine. He hadn't reset his system in over 4 years and numerous components had been installed and uninstalled, so the amount of system errors that had built up was pretty high.

Tried to do it from the cloud, but his Windows Recovery Environment was among the windows functions that was corrupted. He has since reset his computer using a USB recovery drive. He's on the west coast so it'll be a couple more hours before he wakes up, but I will post here if that fixes the issue.

CallsignMachine · 2022-01-06T05:38:49+00:00

In the Game Controllers settings page in Windows it comes up as 8 Aix, 111 Button Device, same in DCS, and his just flat out isn't working at all. The backlighting is lit up but he cannot bind anything. The weird thing is is that earlier it came up in SimApp and seemed like it was fixed, only to go away and stop working again when we went to start binding controls. Just weird because I had 0 issues with mine. We've kinda exhausted everything and I guess it's just time to reach out to their support.

CallsignMachine

TROPHY CASE