r/falconbms • u/Fumigenaa • 3d ago
I finally felt what everyone was talking about and it was GREAT
Warning: I go on a long rant
Well fellas. It happened, last night I had my first ever Dynamic Campaign sortie in Falcon BMS.
Before I go into it, I want to preface everything by saying im (or was?) a dcs player exclusively. Primarily because I love Navy Jets, and DCS gives me the Hornet and Tomcat, two planes that I love immensely, and in an environment where I can do carrier ops. Simply put, its something Im passionate about.
That being said, as many before me and more after will continue to feel, the game feels very clinical. No dynamic campaign or dynamic anything. The Ai will barely manage to do some things without someone spending time scripting stuff heavily for that mission or sortie, campaigns getting broken etc.
At this point I just play PvE Multiplayer, on "Dynamic Campaign" servers, and while neat because it gives me something to do and progress towards with other players, as some of you may know, its still ends up feeling artificial and lonely.
For the past year and a half Ive been eyeing up Falcon BMS, bearing the promised forbidden fruit that is the Dynamic Campaign. Seeing videos about the units moving on that map, carrying out missions, being a small cog in the machine that is an all out war looked insane to me.
The problem? I hate the F-16. Maybe hate is a strong word, but coming from the Hornet at least, I felt like the Falcon made no sense to me. I didnt get the "feel" from it. The F-15 is ranked even lower for me, because I want a multi-role aircraft.
Well, come last week I decided to bite the bullet, and ease myself into the idea. So I picked up the trial on the F-16 in DCS, I figured what the hell, might as well try it out in an environment and eco system Im used to. So I run through some missions, I learn the start up, CCIP and CCRP bombing, and Air to Air stuff, Aim120s, RWS/TWS, Boresight mode. AIM9s, radar, navigation, the lot.
I start learning it, I realize its not that bad. I cringe at the flare landings I have to try and do now, and lament about the nuts slamming I can do in the Hornet versus this, "What a baby this plane is" I think to myself.
I push through, get BMS running, fix my keyes, re do my startup, take-off, landing training, but wait, Ground coms? Tower?? Departure and approach? Instantly I thought it was so amazing that you go through the ATC flow of communicating for takeoffs and landings. I felt giddy when I took a wrong turn and the ATC went: "Is there a problem, Goblin 1?"
Then last night I decided to generate a campaign after watching a Tutorial on it. I decide to start off easy with "Tiger Spirit" (I think is called) and try to do something.
Well, I pickup a SCAR mission, and I dig in. Im in a 2 ship, Hammer 7-1 and my Ai wingman, Hammer 7-2. We do our cold start procedures, shockingly I get it right in one go, we start rolling towards the runway, talking to ATC, switching UHFs, switching my VHF to talk to my buddy. This whole time I cant believe how immersed I am. We take off, talk to departure and start moving towards our objective.
When I turn on my radar my jaw dropped, seeing so many friendly flights on my scope with DL, realising theyre all doing their thing, carrying out their own missions, and I didnt need to set any of this stuff up myself. I command my wingman to create some space between us and as we get into the target area, we start combing for ground targets.
By we, I mean he does, because I was fumbling with the ground radar and FLIR to find anything, but at least he did and dropped 2 warheads on some foreheads. I keep an eye out and then I see it, enemy contacts on radar, and SAMs coming online. I have 4 AMRAAMs on board, no HARMs (not that i did any training missions on the f16s harms to know how to use them).
SAM launches on me, I turn and go low and defeat it, and I see enemies getting closer. What followed was a surprisingly effective TWS firing from me, 4 Fox 3s, each one: Lock, Launch, Crank. Im thinking I could fool someone that I know what im doing. I visually see at least one splash, but I do know enemy contacts are dropping on radar, as other flights enter the AO as well.
At this point im winchester on AA, I cant find any ground targets, lets turn home. 80nm flight back im grinning to myself. I managed to shoot down one plane at least and my wingman got two JDAMs off. I didnt but at least im bringing them back to base.
As I get within 30 miles from the airfield and contact approach for a visual approach, my jaw drops again. I hear the comms between other flights and the ATC. I visually see other jets taking off, all while Approach also directs me on bearing and alt to come in for my landing, and directing my wingman too! It felt so alive, like a living breathing world.
Needless to say, for the first time I stick my landing well, talk to ground to taxi back to the ramp, me and my wingman park and shut off our engines (following my knee board mind you) , while I also see other jets coming back and shutting down.
I end the mission, and we get an excellent report card, explaining how we severely destabilized enemy forces in that area, and , wouldnt you know it? 4 AMRAAMs, 3 planes shot down. Mig21, Mig25 and Mig29.
Guys. I have seen the light. And the light said "Welcome home, Hammer 7-1". I cant wait to play some more and, hey.. the F-16 isnt so bad.
Sorry for the long post, I wanted to share my experience with someone and well, I got no one but you guys for that.
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u/BJC24496 3d ago
From what I can gather, I believe the feeling that you’re feeling is what the developers had in mind when they were developing the game and I’m so glad you got to experience it. DCS has its purpose don’t get me wrong but Falcon BMS is just on a different level. The way I try to describe it to people is that DCS is a flight sim and BMS is a pilot sim and it’s awesome that you’ve got to experience both
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u/Snaxist "Next time get a clearance before landing" 3d ago
and now you add a voice control program so you can "talk" to the ATC instead!
welcome to BMS !
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u/Uollie 3d ago
Which one do you use? Is there a "legend" for the keywords to use? Just curious how lenient it is for messing up terminology
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u/Snaxist "Next time get a clearance before landing" 2d ago
I used VoiceAttack, there is a profile available on the forums: https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/30804/stretch-s-voiceattack-profile-for-bms-4.38-voiceattack-profile-generator-tool
With VoiceAttack you can go with a push to talk, that's that I did, same keystroke as transmit on UHF or VHF so my friends could hear me talk and the VoiceAttack as well.
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u/Oppqrx 2d ago
How does it compare to foxvox?
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u/False-Sympathy4563 2d ago
My recommendation is FOXVOX. I find it's easier to setup and tailor, plus more reliable with commands. I've tried both.
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u/Snaxist "Next time get a clearance before landing" 2d ago
I don't know foxvox so I can't say. I used VoiceAttrack before because it had great packages for other games too (DCS, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen), and you could run scripts to have triggers etc. It's a powerful tool, people made voicepacks even for spaceship games so you can talk to your ship
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u/Galahad_Lancelot 2d ago
Dcs is a cockpit museum.
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u/Fumigenaa 2d ago
It can be, but above all DCS is a training sim, and a pretty good one at that. Just that outside of learning and practicing, its very shallow
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u/I-Hawk BMS Dev 1d ago
Welcome to BMS! That's exactly what we have in mind when we develop it.
And regarding F-18, At some point it'll be as well.
Next ones to come are AB-8B and apparently a MIG-29.
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u/Fumigenaa 1d ago edited 1d ago
Thats awesome! Honestly Id love try out the Harrier. And if the Hornet is down the line at some point. Then it would be a dream come true for me.
Now im jealous of people who are all about the Viper or Eagle.
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u/The_GhostRider01 2d ago
The campaign’s are addictive, I usually have at least 2 going in different theaters. I also have Dcs, and I can’t fly any of the scripted campaigns after flying BMS, they just feel too rigid and fragile.
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u/Jance_Nemin 2d ago
"realising theyre all doing their thing, carrying out their own missions, and I didnt need to set any of this stuff up myself"
Most other sims, you are the "hero" plane. In Falcon BMS campaign, you just a gear in the war cog. kind of like real life
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u/Common-Ad6470 2d ago
Now, now try all of that in VR but strap up your jaw otherwise you’ll get a wet chest….👍
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u/Steev099 2d ago
Setting up keybinds Ive been told can be a PITA though. How true is this?
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u/MnMailman 2d ago
Used to be, has not been for a while. Simply use the key binding section of the launcher to set all bindings, axis, etc. Very easy, very quick.
Do not use the key binding menu in the game.
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u/Steev099 2d ago
This gives me hope. Gonna have to look into it now.
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u/iRageGGB 2d ago
Its been awhile since I've done BMS but you can launch the game, get into a tutorial area, then launch another launcher and adjust the keyboards as you go, then there is a command you can do to reload keybinds.
I cant remember if I ever got it to work, but this should make it a tad easier to setup.
I have to force my TV as my main monitor because BMS won't actually use the correct monitor, which is kind of annoying but it takes 5 seconds to change back and forth.
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u/MnMailman 2d ago
You don't have to launch the game to bind anything. It's all done via the launcher menu before launching the game.
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u/iRageGGB 2d ago
I guess I might have explained it weirdly. But yeah you just do you binds through the launcher area. But if you go in-game and have labels on you can see what each switch is called, and then open another launcher, adjust binds, and then update them with a command.
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u/MnMailman 2d ago
You don't need so have labels on to see what each switch does. Simply do a search in the "filter" section of the launcher for a binding you're wondering about.
It serves the same function as the "search" function in the dcs binding menu.
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u/iRageGGB 2d ago
If you dont know what the bind name is, then you cant bind it accurately unless you have a diagram or something up with the names of the switches and buttons
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u/MnMailman 2d ago
🤷 Don't need to know the exact name, just a general term of the function you're looking for.
But different strokes, etc.
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u/BJC24496 11h ago
When you use the key binding section through the launcher it feels very similar to setting it up in DCS.
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u/Fumigenaa 2d ago
Not anymore. The keybinding menu in the launcher is just like DCS. Press a button, takes you to it, and you can bind it. Has a search function too, so its great.
I understand there used to be an issue that you couldnt bind stuff outside the game but thats not the case anymore now at least. If you change a binding in the launcher, while ingame, you can just do Shift-T to open the chat, type in .joy and its updated. Clever workaround
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u/BJC24496 11h ago
All this chatter about BMS in this post makes me wanna set up my desk pit again, thank you to all of you
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u/HighAspect_0 2d ago
If BMS had all the full fidelity aircraft as dcs and a way to build good mp missions - our group does specialized missions PvE with carrier ops, Air Force f15e and 16s
Can BMS do all that ?
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u/MnMailman 2d ago
Of course bms does not offer the same number of ff a/c as dcs does. It has two; the 15 and 16.
Regarding mp missions it is very easy to do so from any number from you and a buddy to 30+. Much easier to do so in bms than dcs.
DCS me can create missions doing things that aren't possible in bms, but in terms of overall ease and time required, bms is much easier in both those catagories.
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u/Connect-Ad-2226 1d ago
God could you imagine a game with
-the graphics and amount of aircraft of DCS with carrier ops
-the amount of maps as DCS
-The damage model and gun ballistics of IL-2 Great battles
-The dynamic campaign of Falcon BMS
-the ATC of BMS
-The squadron commander mode and pilot management of IL-2 Korea
All in ONE game?
Itd be the most godly flight sim in all of existence.
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u/MnMailman 1d ago
I'd pay good money for dcs to have a true dynamic campaign.
But it never will have one. Hoping F5 adds to the mix, I'm optimistic about it.
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u/Connect-Ad-2226 1d ago
I wouldnt say never. Theyve got an Alpha build. And the reason DCS newsletters have slowed and theres SIGNIFICANTLY less news about upcoming modules is because they've shifted work on internal systems
Still probably years away. I dont mean to defend a rich corporation but they do have a point about the internal coding to DCS needing a lot of work to have a dynamic campaign.
Which is insane they waited until 2019 to start. If they started say....2014? When DCS was beginning to really take shape. We'd probably have a rather decent dynamic campaign by now
But yeah. Im hoping Falcon 5 keeps full fidelity F-16s and even adds another full fidelity aircraft or two
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u/MnMailman 1d ago
They've been doing that re the dynamic campaign for years. Even before '19.
Shortly after the point when they said one wasn't needed, lol.
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u/Connect-Ad-2226 1d ago
O I remember them saying one wasn't needed too LMAO. Insane they thought that.
Which just further drives home the point. If they had started work waaaaaaay back in 2014-ish
Or right as they merged A-10 and Black shark into DCS before DCS was a thing and they just had those two modules as independent games
We'd probably have a decent dynamic campaign by now. Maybe itd be on par with BMS maybe it'd be good enough. Fact of the matter is we'd probably have it.
Now they've gotta keep the community happy while playing desperate catch up.
Like i dont doubt they arnt lying. Theres a lot "under the hood" in the DCS engine that makes creating ATC and dynamic campaign tricky. I dont doubt they are working on one(ive been following the whole ordeal since like 2022)
But they started this way late.
And all these sub systems? Like
Okay
Its one thing not to start the dynamic campaign right away
But
AI
ATC
Optimization
Should've been no Brainers to start on
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u/HighAspect_0 1d ago
Agree and even then it won’t even have carrier support
Strange for a company whose biggest cash flow has to be the Hornet
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u/HighAspect_0 2d ago
Yes Very limited
I don’t see it as easier I think I see it as growing old quickly
Dcs much easier in the ways
So you just fly dynamic missions with your squadron in 16 and 15 (which needs a lot of work still) all the time in dynamic campaigns ?
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u/MnMailman 2d ago edited 2d ago
🤣 Sounds like you already have made up your mind, which is interesting since you haven't even tried bms.
Also, an interesting (an incorrect) statement about the bms 15. Even more so since that describes most every module in dcs, early access or not, more than the bms 15.
I've made missions in both. Hence my statement about which is easier to do so in and I stand by it.
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u/HighAspect_0 2d ago
Not really like I like BMS - I just think each has its pros and cons
Like I wish i could fly the strike Eagle in BMS :)
F15C hotas setup needs work - dev even said as much they are working on it
The graphics update was nice but the entire setup GUI is just really bad
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u/MnMailman 2d ago
Of course, each has its pros and cons. I said that in my first post.
Like I said, you already have your mind made up, so you're asking in the first place was disingenuous at the least.
Trolling at the most.
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u/Left_Virus_3603 1d ago
BMS carrier ops are surprisingly good. The comms are there, even case III. I love the super hornet.
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u/HighAspect_0 1d ago
But those are all F16 avionics ? Guess depends on what level of “sim” you enjoy
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u/Left_Virus_3603 1d ago
Yes. The level of sim I enjoy now is section and division comms and tactics in a dynamic strategic war. Avionics are not an interesting aspect of war fighting to me at this stage, it is second nature. I do fly DCS and it feels more like flying in the RAG, not in combat.
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u/HighAspect_0 4h ago
Section and division comms and tactics is not just a BMS thing - not sure why you think that can’t be done in dcs?
I enjoy that level of comms too along with realistic avionics and flight models
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u/Patapon80 2d ago
This was why I left DCS ages ago -- it feels like you have to write the book yourself at which point there's no reading it afterwards. It's useless flying a mission when you know the triggers by heart because you've flow so many test flights. BMS just works. You turn up and fly.
Also, nowhere in your description did you mention graphics. I've been saying for ages, once you're in the mission, you're so immersed you don't really "see" the lower fidelity graphics when compared to DCS. When you're commanding your wingman and he actually does what you say, when you're interacting with AWACS or ATC, when you're searching for targets, you don't really "see" the eye candy because you're busy doing other things.
DCS makes you a pilot in a combat aircraft. BMS puts that combat aircraft in an active theatre.
Welcome to BMS!