Cutting it close || Enigma's Cold War Server: V2 - First Impressions || DCS: MiG-19

First fly out after Enigma's Cold War Server was updated to Version 2, had a pretty nice sortie and ended up cutting it ridiculously close getting home.
The video offers a run through of the dogfights as well as my thoughts on the server's new iteration.
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PC Specs:
GPU: GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GB RAM
Resolution: 2560 x 1440, 75Hz
Warthog HOTAS
TrackIR5
TFRP T.Flight pedals
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro Fight 1: MiG-19 Vs. High energy F-5
01:26 - Intro Fight 2: High energy F-5 Vs. MiG-19
03:11 - Take off & thoughts on ECW V2 #1
04:52 - On station for BARCAP
05:35 - Sabre in hot, first contact of the sortie
06:22 - Merge: F-5 - MiG-19’s Party Piece
08:05 - Merge: A-10 + Server update thoughts #2
10:21 - Merge: Tank disguised as an F-5
14:15 - RTB with literal fumes in the tank

[@Enigma89]

There is a bug in the game right now where bullets that hit the ground create impact craters and they cause permanent FPS loss to the server. It just takes one A-10 shooting at the ground to crush the server and there is nothing we can really do about it until ED makes a solve. The reason why some of the modern servers aren't feeling it as much is because they don't really use guns because their reliance on fox-3. The WWII server is like us and has been feeling it also. The reason why we got rid of road bases is because there took too much time from a community management stand point. People would AFK on them and/or someone would crash or bomb them and they were unusable then and then made flight times unmanageable for a side. In general, we thought that making airfields as targets to suppress was interesting and something not really done in any meaningful way with other servers, so we decided to do that. If people find that it is too hectic for them then they can spawn somewhere else as the entire map is in play now.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

Is that a recent bug or was it present during V1 as well? I can see the reasoning for all the other changes, and totally sympathise from a development/managerial point of view, I just preferred the more casual approach to things from before. Fortunately your server is literally the only one catering to this era with a playable player population so honestly, you could adjust just about anything for the worse and I’d still be coming back. Complete monopoly on the Cold War era right now.

[@Enigma89]

@@Bullet4MyEnemy the bug came with MT patch and we switched to V2 basically when MT came so they were hand in hand

[@TheDAWinz]

Glad to hear your thoughts on the V2 server, i read it in the community but happy to hear it elaborated here. Very valid points about travel time might end up being time wasted overall.

[@Kaneguy]

I agree with your assessment of V2. I'm not worried about the fps and other issues. They'll all get sorted out eventually. Having to take off at establish air bases can lead to some interesting challenges. On the Syria map, you can literally take off from an AB and be in the enemy's territory. P.S. My other observation is that there seems to be less RC on RC encounters due to the fact that the map is divided into rather sectors and although they are prioritized, the area is wide and spread out. It also doesn't help that RCs are increadibly slow. The active sector in V1 was linear and the width was something like 10km. You could comb the sector east to west or north to south and always encounter enemy forces.

[@jimlthor]

I first tried V2 last night and noticed this. On my second spawn, I was shot before my plane was even fully started up.

[@moldy_]

Nice sortie, nice vid

[@mockingbird0901]

Lovely =)

[@Cailean556]

Granted I don't really do multiplayer in DCS, as I don't have a reliable group of friends to fly with and most of the servers are Europe or US-based, but I think a bit of transit time is a good thing. In an objectives-based mission (as opposed to a pure "dogfight" server), this makes pilots think about how they conduct themselves (to manage their fuel and plan out their route in order to achieve their specific objective, whatever that may be) on both sides. You get a lot more flight time in, so over time you'll really get to learn the idiosyncrasies of the jet you fly (such as what thrust range it's most economical at and at what altitutude, based on your preferred style of flying). Yeah, it can get a bit long but if people co-ordinate, you have BARCAP, offensive fighter sweeps and escorts for your strikers clearing the path so that that A-10, that might take 10-20 minutes to arrive on target, is going to achieve its mission because air cover is co-ordinated. A lone A-10 doing its own thing can contribute to mission success, but it's also at significant risk - and that's on the (sim)pilot not planning or coordinating effectively. On a side note, can you imagine having a Gloster Javelin in DCS? Subsonic interceptor with 4 missiles meant for bombers going toe to toe with MiGs? Yikes. Would still be fun though.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

In a perfect world, yeah. But randoms on DCS’s largest PvP server don’t coordinate well enough for it to work, and the overlord system only tells you where one enemy unit is at a time. If it provided picture calls with the closest 5 contacts, and you could ask for a friendly picture call too, that would go some way towards justifying the transit times.

[@Gustafson182]

I have to agree with liking v1 more currently purely based on the FPS issue. V2 seems like it would be really fun but it's impossible for me to fly on and get above 30-40fps. I've only been able to fly in the evenings when it's super busy though. I deal with it for like 10 minutes, then jump off, and head into a different server. Hopefully whenever they fix that crater fps issue it will improve.

[@Enigma89]

The frames are actually better on V2. The reason why V2 may feel laggier is because of the patch. There is a bug in the game that is causing FPS loss which we can't do anything about. For context, there is 400k less lines of code in the V2 codebase. The original codebase had 5 different people all working on it and it was spaghetti, the new codebase is much more streamlined and was made by one developer. In our testing, pre-MT, we saw that V2 was getting much better frames than V1. Additionally, with the renewed interest to play the server because something new is going on, we are constantly full again and getting spammed as people try to join. This also causes lag and is also independent of the codebase. This is another code limitation we can't get around, there are just too many people spamming the server to get in.

[@Kaneguy]

@@Enigma89 You can sort of tell it runs well with MT at the start. My fps numbers are way up at the start but this quickly deteriorates over time due to the problem you mentioned. It should get sorted out by ED eventually. The only question is "when?"

[@imageeknotanerd9897]

I'm curious what you've done to achieve a stable framerate on the server? Looking at your specs I'm running a very similar system and I struggle to get even 20fps on ECW. Has the multithreading update made a significant difference for you? My CPU is close to yours but only has 8 threads, not 16.

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

1080p resolution is all I’ve done of significance, really.

[@gazgazgaz2]

how to get AWACS info on top right side? any channel to set?

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

It’s a command chain from the comms menu, you have to ask Overlord for a bogey dope.

[@coldclaws2479]

aside from the inconvienient flight times and fps, v2 is significantly buggier than v1 and the frontline mechanics need to be improved. it is almost impossible to win on caucasus because it gets harder and harder push the further you go, it is harder to push sectors in general as well because they have so many ground targets. killing infrastructure and supply seems to have minimal effect on the map. syria has the opposite problem where 9 hexes can change hands in the span of 70 minutes.

[@bigsexy8707]

Turn shadows off, easy 50fps gain

[@Joemate23]

eh? im trying it!

[@Bullet4MyEnemy]

I feel like I’d miss them… But you’ve got me intrigued

[@Joemate23]

V2.slow! Jealous of your marksmanship as always.