I’m talking about military planes in Microsoft Flight Simulator and what they are for. Sim Skunk Works released a new version of the F-104. “But if you can’t shoot them, what are they for?”, someone will ask. That’s a valid question. Let’s think about it.
If you consider real combat aviation, all those F-14s and other Su-27s don’t shoot that often, and in exercises most of the time is spent practicing piloting skills, navigating and stuff. And a “civilian simulator” can do just fine with that! For example, the Indiafoxtecho models have support for TACAN and VORTAC navigation, and there is support for this at the level of the flight simulator itself. Try flying a route using “military navigation” and you’ll see that it’s complicated and very interesting.
But moving on. We have Microsoft Flight Simulator and its multiplayer, albeit not with perfect network code, but not the worst, and this opens up new possibilities for the game. And we’re talking about pilot groups, which some simmers are already doing with success, and I’ll tell you honestly, when I watch their videos, I’m really interested. And I understand that you can do it in DCS World, but the only thing is that the price of entry into this simulator will be much higher than in MSFS in which the conditional F-14 from DC Designs costs about $ 30, but how much does the Heatblur model? That’s right! Almost $80! And if the goal is piloting with friends, is there any reason to overpay so much?
So, I thought, if we could get all the authors who make combat planes for MSFS together and offer them the idea of producing “lighter versions” with free distribution, then… You know what I’m talking about? Yes! This would allow for air shows with an audience who could see the planes in the right way. Show flights, canyon races and stuff like that, you can do it all with Microsoft Flight Simulator and it will be really fun!
To sum it up: combat planes in Microsoft Flight Simulator can be a very interesting option not only for “arcade” flights at high speed, but also for very exciting events.
Alexander A. Dementyev – simFlight
