Capt Sim weapons add-on

[JD_LincsUK 0]

I guess you've all heard of this by now. I got an e-mail from CS and went and after a short read-up and watching the videos, bought it immediately.

At the intro price of just £12.66, this offers quite a bit.

http://www.captainsim.com/products/w001/

videos:

http://www.captainsim.com/products/w001/video.html

They've had a compo on over at Capt Sim, offering software giveaways to the first ten people who guessed what their upcoming release would be. Unfortunately my two guesses of airborne radar (as in AWACS) and air to air refuelling were far of the mark, but this add-on is very welcome and very interesting.

Unfortunately I've not had chance to try it myself, yet, as I have just reinstalled Win7 yesterday and am still installing and setting up FSX and controllers etc etc - usually takes 3 or 4 days

But I am very much looking forward to learning and trying out the targeting software (we already have that in the Iris A-10A, of course) and also checking out the add-on 'enemy' AI aircraft in their relative wartime scenarios and eras, around the world.

I really hope that it can be used onlie as it could be fun getting together with some mates and going on a raid together.

Just Flight are one of the publishers who advocate reliving wartime raids in their aircraft such as the Mossie and P-38 (and FCS, with their Wellington). Well, now you can go through the whole shebang and drop the bombs, too, and see if you can get them on target. Best of all - no-one is shooting at you! :biggrin:

Actually you can't, yet, because it is a WiP which will be 'developed according to customer feedback' and the bombs aren't done yet - 'just' cannon, missiles and rockets. Large list can be seen at the above linked web page.

It would be really great if CS (or anyone) did develop a working airborne radar, though - I could use it in my CS Boeing 767 AWACS. Just think of the fun online. Get one guy to go hide, say around Icelend (to keep the area within reason) then get a bunch of other guys to try and find him, with AWACS cover.

His job is to a) remain elusive and b) render your home base runway unusable.

That would be fun.

Well, to me it would - FSX aircraft fly better than any of those in the many combat sims I've flown.

JD

[ddavid 149]

Looks good, J.D. - thanks for the HU!

Cheers - Dai.

[mutley 4,498]

Looks good, J.D. - thanks for the HU!

Cheers - Dai.

Hi JD, it was in our press releases the other day :001_th_smiles89:

Let us know how you get on.

[JD_LincsUK 0]

Okay, today I finally had time to get some gun time in and check this add-on out.

I've still only had a really quick test - I'm doing some more fiddling later.

Firstly, the things that I wasn't so happy about.

1)You can't see the ordnance from external views - only from inside the cockpit. Okay, I don't find that so bad, but it would be nice.

2)There are no bombs - only guns, rockets or missiles. This makes using any kind of bomber or CAS aircraft less realistic and less fun. You still can't emulate famous missions of past eras.

3)Due to point 1 - you can't see any of the weapons in any replay. That sux. It means you can't make any cool videos from outside the aircraft (or screenshots, for that matter).

Hopefully these will be fixed/added soon - but considering that CS have said that this is all until they get decent feedback and know it's worthwhile continuing, I'm not holding my breath. That's a shame, though, because the things that are available now are fun to use.

The VC HUD can only be used for weapons if you have the F/A-18 - either default or XLoad from CS - I have both and have tested both out. Otherwise, it's 2D HUD only, unless you do some fiddling with the SDK provided. People are trying to do this, but so far it isn't looking easy (by the posts in the CS Weapons forum).

I will be looking at that at the weekend, as it looks like I'll have to wait until next week for my new PC bits.

People have moaned about the fact that the weapons control panel is 2D only - but as it can be used with any FSX aircraft, there really was no other way that they could have done it.

Personally, I think it looks quite okay:

Theses screenies have been resized to 1024 res - hope they are clear enough.

I loaded up the FSX default flight - the Trike at Friday Harbour? - and swapped Trike for CS F-18. Here, I'm testing out the rockets for accuracy on a short strip:

Once you've set up the weapons control how you want it for a particular action, you can just as well turn it off, though there are keyboard commands for the necessary functions.

It was nice to see that gravitational physics have been built into the rocket trajectories.

Anyways, this was the result of my quick rocket-strafe of the local strip, where a Cessna 172 was sat peacefully on the pan:

I then turned my attention to a cruiser out in the bay. A cannon strafing run was the way to go here:

However, due to lack of an external model, the replay looks like a normal 'flypast'. In fact, at this point I was blasting away at the side of the ship.

This evening I'll be checking out air to air combat and the AI military aircraft included in the pack.

So, mixed results at the moment. I'll be happier when I've seen what can be done with the SDK. I wish my panel config knowledge was better than it is, so I could jump in with confidence and use the already available weapons pack for FSX to add good effects to my favourite military aircraft - or just add the VC HUD without all the dramas and frustration that the CS forum guys seem to be experiencing.

Still, we'll see. For £12.66, I guess one shouldn't expect too much - and it is most definitely fun - and that is what matters! :icon_thumbup:

JD

[mutley 4,498]

Thanks for sharing JD, a nice mini-review

[JD_LincsUK 0]

Joe, the more I use this add-on, the more bugs I find.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone to buy in its present condition - not unless they wanted to play with the SDK.

It's alright for a laugh, for those who jumped in and bought it - like me (not that I regret that), but anyone who expects a finished or hassle-free add on will be disappointed.

JD

[mutley 4,498]

Thanks, that's good to know, perhaps the Virtual Reality Simulations TAC Pack prompted them to get theirs released double quick.

I had been tracking the VRS version before the CS was released.

Cheers

[Aidan 1]

Cs a no, no. VRS a yes, yes

[JD_LincsUK 0]

That's very presumptive, considering it hasn't even been released yet, and not only could it end up being full of bugs, it will only initially be released for their own Hornet.

I already have two, why would I want another one?

Yes, it can be integrated into other add-on aircraft if the relevant developers or publishers decide they want to use it, but that will also take some time, and Flight is just around the corner, as are a number of other combat sim releases.

I don't mind people expressing opinions on what they have tried and tested - as I have done here - but I won't go recommending something that hasn't seen the public light of day yet.

And VRS have already p'd me off by slating Capt Sim in public forums and advertising and pushing their own product on said forums for free.

Smacks of dodgey used car salesman tactics to me. I can't abide (business-) people who slate the fair opposition. It stinks.

/rant

JD

[mutley 4,498]

Hi JD

I agree with you about the dislike of negative advertising and dodgy practices especially when products cannot be fairly compared.

I reserve my judgement for now until I have had a chance to either try them or see fair comparisons from sources I trust.

However, I am more than interested in your future appraisal of the product as I respect your opinion :001_th_smiles89:

Cheers,

Joe