DPTST4 Q&A

Oh ho ho! Ok I see what ya did there Ayla. I make one damn little Q&A thread on the discord, and you post every question that’s already been answered in other blog posts. Well two can play at that game. I’ll just make ANOTHER BLOG POST WITH THE ANSWERS! MWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! Anyways, here are some of the questions and answers folks have been asking about DPTST 4.

Q: Location?

Caucasus map again. We shouldn’t look at this as reusing DPTST 1 though, even though that’s what I thought I would do. DPTST4 was basically built from the ground up, and there’s going to be WAY more in the map than there was previously. One thing you’ll run into is FOB Madrid. It’s a FOB out in Abkhazia and it’s in the thick of the fighting on the west side. Constantly under threat from the nearby Soviet Airbase, it’s a staging area for US patrols in the region, usually receiving new troops either by APC or by Helicopter. I’ll talk more about Madrid later, but basically you have 2 main regional struggles, over by the capital of Tbilisi and amphibious frontline at Abkhazia. Don’t count out the Mountains though, as there’s still plenty of fighting in that region also.

Q: Factions?

Well ya got your standard US V Soviets. But we’re also adding some new folks. The British have already been announced, and I won’t go into too much detail on them. The French are new to the fray, operating primarily from land bases and adding new ground units to watch out for. Georgia is also fighting their fight. In very limited numbers, you’ll occasionally see a Georgian Air Force fighter cruising around looking to help out.

Q: Era?

Would it even be a DPTST if it wasn’t 80’s? I was shooting for something akin to 86, 87 on this one, which gives some fun new toys to play with, while also keeping firmly in the retro experience we’re all familiar with from DPTST

Q: Airframes?

Don’t say I never made a DPTST that you guys would want to play. We’ve got Strike Eagles, We’ve Got Mirage F-1Cs, We’ve got Newly Buffed F-16s that bring a BMS feel back to the game. The F-14B stays home this time as the F-14A-135-GR is out to scare the shit out of Migs and Pilots alike. Harriers and Gazelles are about to party like it’s 1982 in the Falklands. Hey did I mention the MIG-21s? Howabout we spice up this party with some F-18s and A-4s to annihilate the coastlines. The C-130 and UH-60 are gonna be workhorses for logistics. There are so many more I just do not remember if I’ve put them in or not.

Q: How has your crazy ass dynamic ai system improved?

This is kinda tricky, because there are some things I love and some things I dislike. It’s way more responsive to itself. Basically something is always happening, there will almost always be a ground push somewhere, or a supply train traveling, or a strike happening. Something will always happen SOMEWHERE. The logistics is also way more fleshed out. There’s a bunch of supply depots, that manage that crazy logistics system. The problem I run into every single time, is it’s super hard to manage. Really it’s not resiliant, because if you kill something IT STAYS DEAD. So I need to find a way around that, but it’s either a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. That more advanced logistics system, means I get to look at a return of the PAA Virtual logistics flights. Basically, you might drop off a bunch of cargo at a hub, but the AI will take it the rest of the way. It’s a cool little continuation of what used to be a big deal in DPTST2.

Q: Weekday flights with folks?

I have really gotten sucked into the whole early morning mission timing. Because I get off from work, get home and I fly for about an hour, maybe two. I’ll make sure the event Calander is up to date, basically when I decide I’ll fly, I’ll make sure there’s an event for it. Really though, the best way to know something’s going to happen, check the Calander.

Q: Why do you torture yourself with this?

God that’s a good question. I dunno what do you want me to say here? I want a 1980’s style server that isn’t painful to play but still feels fairly realistic. Let’s put it this way, would there be anything stopping you from playing BMS, if it also had all the features and graphics of DCS? Probably not. So what do you do? Well maybe make a BMS like experience, inside DCS. That’s hard but I think we’re close-ish. Fact is: I don’t like Grayflag, I don’t like ECW, and I really don’t like GS. Well I’m not going to sit here and demand that those servers do things my way, because clearly other people like them, but I will also create a server that I would enjoy. However, If you would like to further incentivize me to continue making this server, the merch tab is up there.

Q: Will I be able to control tunes on the radio through SRS.

Yeah, not really. that’s kind of a limitation of the programs we use, but trust me, you’ll hardly mind.

Q: Will there be LIFR days? static weather? Day/night?

Yep! One of the awesome advancements we got working in DPTST3 was totally random weather conditions, which meant we had days where we would be legitimately rained out. It’s either a really boring scrub to a CAS mission, or an really epic Case 3 following a CAP. We will definitely be bringing this feature back for DPTST4

I didn’t get to blab about it, but the 24/7 Arma server might be coming back. There’s some new tech that I think is worth implementing and it’s always fun to see the cooperation between 2 seemingly unrelated missions. Anyways, we’ll probably do some more of these Q&As but this will work as a good primer.