I Want to be Excited About the DCS Cold War Germany Map

Flight simulators are nothing without good terrain to accompany them, after all, of what use is having wonderful flight models, amazing 3D models and weapon systems when we are flying over flat, boring terrain?

That's why I was initially excited about every single map that was released for DCS World. The South Atlantic is stunning, the Sinai is sublime and Syria is unbeaten in its flexibility, a title it shares with the Persian Gulf. So, knowing all of this, why am I not excited about the Fulda Gap?

For all intents and purposes, I should be excited and happy that we are finally getting a map that I have always wanted. It is a very interesting geopolitical region that would have been the center of conflict if the Cold War had gone hot, there is absolutely nothing I don't like about it. From the beautiful historical recreations of Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig and many other cities, this map is the furthest away I would like to be from what has kind of plagued DCS for years: sand and desert.

I think that there are only two main reasons as to why I am not as excited as I could be for this release: Map Release Burnout and Lack of Community Support.

MAP RELEASE BURNOUT

In the past two years, DCS has seen an explosion of terrain support from first and third party developers. It used to be a rarity to see a new terrain, and now it felt like we were getting a new map every other week, and initially I was happy about this change.

But as time passed and some decisions were made by certain parties, I started to feel a bit of unease. All of these early access products being released one after the other, while several of these hadn't even finished delivering their initial release phases or were missing crucial aspects of these geographical areas; that just felt off to me.

All of these amazing maps made by talented artists were just being shoehorned to us at a pace that the community just could not manage. These are good products, for sure, but the way these releases were paced just felt off.

I understand that these are being developed by independent teams, but wouldn't it be better to grab a fraction of these resources and spend them on core features of the game, or even better, a much-needed refresh of Caucasus, the most popular map in the simulator?

LACK OF COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Speaking of Caucasus, that map grabs a big percentage of the population because of its role as DCS' default map.

Most missions are made for or around Caucasus, with the Persian Gulf and Syria trailing behind by a considerable margin. This leads me to one of my main grievances and one that I feel very connected to: none of the new maps have been welcomed by the community.

These terrains are expensive, and having these many has divided the population, making it so that community creators have to focus on the maps that the majority of the community own to make their missions or run their servers.

There are almost no servers running Iraq and Afghanistan, even less running South Atlantic. Why would I buy any of these terrains if there is no one to play them with, or no servers running them?

CONCLUSION

I really want to be excited about the Cold War Germany map, but I just cannot justify spending another 55 dollars on another terrain just to fly on it for a couple of hours in single player, to just set it to the side and go back to the sandbox with my boys.

About the Author

Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos

Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy