Kola Map First Impressions

Is early access the right time to buy the new Kola Map?
/ discord

[@Plumsytheghillieone]

Swede here, the Swedish defense doctrine was, and have always been, to fight hard to the last finn :P

[@Sidekick65]

OMG that is sooooo Swedish. Just sayin'... Love it.

[@LolTollhurst]

It's the old (finnish) joke sure. The actual krigsplanläggning never operated with less assumptions than 60% losses in mobilized personnel before "free war" (guerilla, uncoordinated) would be invoked. We did plan to take losses. We never planned to stop fighting.

[@aztec0112]

I didn't know Viggens floated on a cushion of air!

[@Sidekick65]

I know what you are referring to. Surprised me as well. I thought they just walked on water ;-)

[@rwhunt99]

@@Sidekick65 😂

[@calvinmulraine736]

Your last thought summed up my thinking, I'm going to get it eventually so might as well get it now for the cheaper price. I did the same for SA.

[@ColonelAkirNakesh]

As a Soviet enjoyer, and someone who wants to reenact the NATO strikes on the Tu-22 airbases and sub battles from Red Storm Rising, it's not even on Orbx, but the lack of naval combat damage modeling and ASW in DCS really holds the map back. Murmansk looks really fun to buzz around in though. Are the submarine pens modeled?

[@Sidekick65]

There are several submarine bases scattered around. There is a little footage one in the video.

[@OliverMiles98]

"Murmansk looks really fun to buzz around in though. Are the submarine pens modeled?" If you're referring to underground submarine bases - there's one at Gadzhievo and another, significantly larger one at Guba Ara. They were constructed but not finished and weren't used operationally. As far as I know, none are present on the Kola map (Orbx talked about submarine pens at Polyarnyy - there is no such thing at Polyarnyy IRL). As for naval warfare? Definitely with you there, there's so many things as well beyond the overly simplistic damage modelling and ASW being as good as non-existent.

[@castor3020]

To me the claim that the whole of Finland would be occupied in days is quite interesting, weeks maybe but days? C'mon. - FDF was no slouch in the cold war, it was actually much better prepared than it was for Winter/Continuation war. - Soviet airmobile units had the exact same issues as modern Russian ones (Way too little infantry vs armored vehicles) On top of this Soviet union provided Finland with very advanced SAM capabilities. - Finland's Geography had not changed since Winter war, still a natural fortress so invading via land would have been just as hard if not more. - Soviet logistics would have been straining badly in northern Finland, look at a modern map of Russia, there are barely any roads in northern Russia, remember Kyiv convoy? Hell Finland built highways exclusively on North-South Axis and in the interior far from Russian border for decades due to this, roads going East-West were small roads and mostly unpaved. Same thing with railroads. - Invading via sea would have been an issue for the Finns but that is way south of this map. PS. I read the Finns post on CW Finland, that is probably accurate. Note though that only partially attacking Finland to go for Sweden and Norway would still leave Finland as a potential player in Lapland conflict.

[@mrpenguin823]

Just discovered your channel. Excellent content. Subscribed.

[@Sidekick65]

Thanks. Nice to hAve you long for the right

[@whartsell74]

spot on overview and commentary

[@yappydawg8985]

Good thoughts. I had planned on getting the map, and I still might, but the 143 GB size stopped me cold. I am going to need more storage space first. I am not sure why the map is so much bigger than any other map in DCS. While I will probably still get the map "someday", your video makes me feel okay about waiting for a bit.

[@Sidekick65]

Interesting point about size. I have recently upgraded with more storage so I did not notice that issue.

[@tomaszwota1465]

@@Sidekick65 We are in a pretty fortunate situations where we don't notice a freaking 150GB download, both with storage and with internet speeds.

[@madaxe606]

Same. I was really looking forward to Kola, but 150GB is crazy for a map that's still in a very unfinished state. Yikes. It will have to wait until a significant SSD upgrade is in the budget.

[@Sidekick65]

Very true.

[@patrikstrandquist1875]

For me this was a must have. Another thing to weigh in is performance. For me in VR i fly with 80-90 fps all the time. So performance is good for an early access map.

[@Sidekick65]

Very good to know! Thanks for that. Maybe that is a strength that OrbX brings to the project.

[@fl398motorsports3]

Another interesting video. I jumped in on the Kola map and am really enjoying it. It is definitely Early Access and Orbx was very clear about that. But a couple of things I think foreshadow this map being really, really good. The map looks “real”, sure the trees are wrong and there are a lot of little villages and populated areas missing, not to mention the airfields need to be finished, but the towns/cities look like real cities and not like a random clustering of stock buildings. Bodo in the map actually looks like Bodo. I thought Murmansk was fake and just a lazy recreation until I watched a KZbin aerial video of Murmansk… it actually looks that grim. In time, this map is going to be very good and as you said, will lend itself to some fascinating Cold War scenarios, not to mention recreation of large scale exercises like “Nordic Response”, ranges, CSAR, etc.

[@ysiadpir1423]

CommantT has had the best first impressions review so far. Let see how Sidekick does...... Thanks. 12 min later. Fair review. My feeling is Kola was a premature birth and needs 3 months in the incubator. More reasons to look forward to the next DCS Patch and the plethora of KOLA updates that “should“ be included. Dejavu of the South Atlantic map... Lol

[@Sidekick65]

Hope you enjoy it. Happy if it's useful - whether its "the best" is not a big deal for me. There are lots better reviewers out there.

[@ysiadpir1423]

I updated my comment... ​@@Sidekick65

[@sundog8775]

CommandT has probably the worst review I've watched yet... He doesn't even mention the map is in early access. And he complains about the license plates on static vehicles, good grief

[@RossOneEyed]

My reasons for buying the map were the same as yours. I was going to get it eventually, so might as well get it now when it's got the discount....

[@sigurdolaisen8389]

Winter textures is listed as the first thing that will be added. Planned for june update.

[@Sidekick65]

Good news. Nice to know it's a priority. Colour me skeptical about anything ED says about a "planned release" though.

[@Patrik.Pereira]

Keyword planned

[@pinkfloyd7572]

Great music! I'm enjoying the map.

[@Sidekick65]

Thanks. I appreciate it.

[@bread8176]

I'm loving this map! Northern Norway and Sweden have some stunning terrain to fly in

[@wormthatturned8737]

😅 The RAF Harriers GR3/5/7/9 would operate every winter from Tromso and Bardufoss. Amazingexercises to be part of. Only about 2 to 4 hours of daylight. The hardened inside the mountain hangers at Bardufoss I would buy the map just for those. When we first took the GR5 there and turned on the Zeus system for the first time it frightened the bejesus out of the neighbouring countries ATC!

[@Sidekick65]

Fun! Thanks for leeting me know!

[@michaeldwyer3466]

Do I want to buy the Kola map? Too late to ask that question, besides I have the Viggen and this is my era, late cold war.

[@0Ignition0]

I was expecting a first impression of the map in DCS.

[@GoldenGnu]

While it’s not the correct model in DCS both Denmark and Norway got F-16 in 1980 (according to Wikipedia), so that is another Cold War scenario you could play as well, as long as you put some limitations on what you use.

[@sageg58]

They said alot of the norweigan airbases+high res textures are voming in the june update

[@franciscoborges9591]

wiggen is happy nice video❤and info

[@Sidekick65]

Thanks. I am glad you enjoyed it!

[@abbyabz6940]

Too early for me I will wait for missions to be released and a detailed map.

[@Patrik.Pereira]

I wouldn't pay more than 25 30 bux a half map.... Gives them an incentive to keep working on it....

[@KrustentierBarbier]

Fun fact is that, in their release statement, Orbx announced the map might even go up in price while more features are coming in 😄 Kola is a scam. You now pay full price of a DCS module for a 30% "done" map. Or later even more for... a 50% "done" map? All this is becoming more and more absurd.

[@bladerunner9995]

Thabks for this video...has proved somewhat xhallenging to find an honest review and you have mirrored my initial thoughts... Thanks

[@Sidekick65]

Glad you found it helpful

[@cowansimstudio]

Really seems like there's such a gap between I love it and I hate it lol. All the youtubers are "loving it" = will never play on it once but saying its great to stay in a job. Or players are hating it due to the overpromised, underdelivered and unpolished mess we have. The fact they used a different build or MSFS to advertise this and then swap out / release for DCS is such a kick in the teeth I don't know how they will recover

[@Sidekick65]

Well, they seem to have recovered every other time they have over-promised and under delivered, so I suspect it will pay off for them. They have a well developed strategy of over-hyping to get the "FOMO" crowd in early and then waiting until the more discerning buyers are left with little other choice so they hold the noses and take the plunge. It seems to be working for them. Unfortunately.

[@Sidekick65]

BTW - if you would like to stop "You Tubers" from engaging in that behaviour - the best way to do it is not to watch the content. I am a little sad to say, that - even though I didn't endorse the map - this video is doing roughly 3X as well (in terms of views) as a regular video does. Don't get me wrong, I don't do this for the money. But there is no point in making content no one watches. Not sure how to solve the issue of the "attention economy" and the fact that most folks are not that discerning in how they spend their attention...

[@sloppydog4831]

@@Sidekick65 yep, ED uses and abuses the Product Launch Formula roadmap. I took the plunge on it, it is a beautiful map but now I'm left wth buyers remorse. Thinking of uninstalling it ang going back to it if, and when, it receives more upgrades.

[@cowansimstudio]

@@Sidekick65 Thanks for the info, I will do just that :)

[@kzrlgo]

Agreed

[@jrgenkauling8269]

in reality there are only pinetrees.......where are they

[@jamesmcd71]

I dont understand why people are disappointed that the map is unfinished. They made it very clear the map wasn't finished and its called an early release. It seemd likes we must find something to complain about.

[@jrgenkauling8269]

But where are The pine trees?

[@sundog8775]

I watched one youtube reviewer clutching his pearls over a license plate on a static vehicle that wasn't Russian... This is the best map to ever come to DCS, hands down. No contest Yes, they need to add some pine, spruce, birch trees... But I'm not that concerned about it lol

[@kzrlgo]

Because of the price for such an unfinished product… weird choice of airports few airports… weird terrain blending… weird trees… massive 150gb with probably more to come… not great performance which will like get worse as it gets finished… I think most people would say Syria is by far the best DCS map… each to their own.

[@sundog8775]

@@kzrlgo Hey, you made a good point! The hard drive space needed is an actual barrier for people getting this map. Everything else you said i disagree with. DCS as a product is a niche within a niche. We are very lucky to be even playing it. Nothing else comes close. That's why people spend thousands on their rigs and hundreds on the software. I'm not batting an eyelash at $55 for a gorgeous, well performing, huge terrain that is in early access.

[@startrekmike]

@@sundog8775 Seems a bit premature to call it the "best map ever to come to DCS" when only a fraction of it is actually finished and the developers have been more than open about its issues. Maybe it is a map you care deeply about because you like the region or maybe the novelty of it is a big deal for you but if we really, really want to get technical and look at each map, the Syria map is the best on both a visual and technical level. It might not be your favorite region and you might not enjoy it on a personal level but objectively speaking, it is the map to beat and as of right now, the Kola map isn't going to beat it.

[@generic_luke]

Overall Im super happy with it. I bought in understanding that its early access, and that we've got to wait for the rest to come. It has a way to go, but its got a solid foundation. Crazy to see people calling it "SA 2.0".

[@Sidekick65]

Interesting. It does share similar terrain with SA. But that seems like a pretty superficial comparison.

[@d_b_7819]

@@Sidekick65 It is noteworthy, and I think not particularly well publicized, but I heard the developers from Razbam who made SA map are the same people who were hired by Orbx to lead this project. If people had a problem with SA map it's not necessarily clear that its the same people behind both.

[@generic_luke]

@@Sidekick65 SA was pretty poorly recieved, mainly regarding the ground textures. I think thats what people are referring to, making the comparison between the low detail areas of Kola with the ground textures of SA.

[@Gerdam]

Really honest and informative first impressions. Getting tired of the DCS shillers. Keep up,the great work.

[@Sidekick65]

Much appreciated. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@johnwicks4936]

These maps are becoming silly with their high prices and little finished content. Almost 80 dollars Canadian for E/A discount….ouch!

[@Sidekick65]

Yup. You better have decided you are really going get some use out of it in order to invest

[@mro9466]

Making maps without making AI assets 💀 At 50 bucks, i would have been onboard if they gave us a bunch of new Russian/Soviet/Finnish aircrafts/bombers

[@Sidekick65]

Understood. FWIW, I just think it's part of the business strategy in this business. It's a fine line. Releasing an unfinished product generates some much needed cash flow to complete the project. If you can manage NOT to alienate the eventual user base that buy it when it's more mature - then it works. It must be working because they keep doing it.

[@rwhunt99]

I can't believe you would be disappointed when there was no snow? It was clearly indicated there would be no snow upon release. so? Don't feel bad, many other "reviewers" said the same thing, so there must be a huge communication gap, somewhere. I myself; I'm on the fence, I will probably buy it somewhere down the line when it's on sale, (they seem to be threatening to increase the price for added details), so that thought might not hold.

[@Sidekick65]

Yes. I re-read the release notes and found the note saying there were no winter textures. I was Warnes. Still, I think if I was the devs, I would have done winter first!

[@rwhunt99]

@@Sidekick65 Yeah, not sure they didn't because the map is so large and they had to focus somewhere to get details in and give a reason to play there. I don't know tat company but they claim it is experienced in the flight sim genre, not sure how hard it is in MSFS to do a map, compared to DCS.

[@Sidekick65]

OrbX has a better track record than most of EDs third party devs. They've been around for quite a while.

[@ExploringSitkaAlaskausin-wj4wu]

Pretty worthless for anything WWII.