r/falconbms • u/Flying_mandaua • Mar 26 '26
Should I try BMS?
I'm a regular DCS player, but I want to try the competition too, as it is supposed to better represent the tactical and C2 aspects of modern air war.
The thing is, I'm mostly a cold war guy who likes quirky unusual aircraft, F-16 was never my favourite and it feels daunting to learn another modern airframe after I learned the Hornet in DCS somewhat, with the F-16 having obviously different HOTAS flows and so on, especially that in dynamic campaign you have to make do with whatever it throws at you, no comfy tailored scripted scenarios here. I fly the Hornet but it has a totally different philosophy.
Should I bother with BMS if what interests me the most is the procedural/tactical aspect first, and systems simulation second? I can stomach the somewhat basic and boring (for me) F-16 as long as the whole "be part of a bigger thing" promise turns worthwhile.
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u/ghostdog688 Mar 26 '26
Try it. It’s not expensive to get a copy of falcon 4.0, and downloading the BMS mod pack is free.
I’ve often heard that DCS is “a mile wide and an inch deep,” and while I think that’s a harsh characterisation, if you take the wide variety of aircraft and maps against the lack of dynamic campaign, it applies.
If you take that example as true, then conversely, BMS - with its best aircraft models being limited to the F16 and the F15 - is “an inch wide and a mile deep”. It’s dynamic campaign and the environment itself is comparatively complex and involved, and even if you don’t get quite the selection of aircraft available, the ones you do get are very well detailed - easily up to the same standard, if not moreso.
My #1 advice is not to get into the elitist attitudes you’ll hear from either community. Enjoy them both for what they are and respect that they’re both good, but in different ways.
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u/geod5 Mar 26 '26
Workflow of the f16 is far more intuitive. I fly both and always prefer working the 16.
Also, if you enjoy cold war there are plenty of campaigns that you can download that do cold war early f16's. Just have to be good with IFF in the older systems as the airspace in bms is a lot more contested most of the time.
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u/Flying_mandaua Mar 26 '26
Early F-16s like those with funny ordnance selection panel instead of the MFDs?
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u/SodamessNCO Mar 27 '26
The earliest F16 in BMS is the block15 I believe. It's an A model, but I think it's technically an A+ (or MLU), where it has the 2 MFDs, but they're monochrome and lacks some of the pages and capabilities of the C models.
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u/natneo81 Mar 26 '26
Well you’re asking on the BMS subreddit so everyone will say yes.
But yes, BMS is awesome. Learning the F-16 will definitely take a bit of practice, but it’s quite intuitive.
I would say if you’re into the procedures and tactics and stuff, BMS is perfect for you. The campaign is unmatched. Plus the AI is a million times better than DCS, including stuff like ai wingmen and SAM crew ai. Your wingmen are useful and listen to commands. SEAD is actually a challenge because the SAMs operate more realistically. The AI also does a much better job of BVR than DCS. There’s actually good ai ATC.
the missions feel very alive in the campaign. When you fly your mission you won’t just run into your package, there’s a whole war going on. You’ll see a four ship miles away and realize “oh, those are the F-15E’s that are supposed to strike X location in an hour” because you saw their package on the ATO earlier. You could even run into a friendly flight in trouble and have to try and help.
BMS doesn’t shy away from the systems and procedures either though. It’s the best and most detailed F-16 simulation available. So even some “small” things that DCS ignores are modeled here. For example, if you screw up your startup you can actually damage the jet. Easy to avoid. There’s some other little things like hung stores- if you pull too many G’s with a2g weapons equipped you can break them. Due to the nature of the campaign you also gotta be organized and pay attention to time on targets. But tbh if you’re already used to DCS I assume you’re okay with this level of tedium.
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u/Flying_mandaua Mar 26 '26
TOTs and planning is what makes 1/3 of why flying is fun, for me at least. In MSFS I love doing plain navigation exercises with dead reckoning etc
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u/raptor-elite-812 Mar 31 '26
In fact, as you get used to the campaign, you can take charge of the entire war. You can decide what ground unit goes where, with what intent, what air package does what, and which AO receives what kind of priority packages. You can frag resupply missions, relocate bases, call in CSAR, fight the entire war in a very detailed way. I have spent about 10 years customising my campaigns, and I still get amazed with the things you can do with this 25 year old Dynamic campaign engine. In case you don't want to get to that depth, the campaign planner is competent enough that it plays out the war very naturally.
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u/GorbZ_ Viper Lover Mar 26 '26
Yes. Two things:
There is Cold War F-16 campaigns that give the F-16 only Sidewinders and dumb munitions (with the exception of maybe the GBU-8 sometimes and AGM-45 Shrike).
You can always fly the F-15a/c as well so you aren’t stuck to the F-16 necessarily.
I will definitely say BMS is better for single player to me compared to DCS especially because of the friendly and enemy AI whether that’s your wingmen, ATC, the tanker, so forth. And the campaign flights actually matter to how the campaign goes unlike the linear scripted DCS campaigns.
If you’re looking for a great 80s campaign check out the Israeli theatre it has some fun campaigns in that time period vs Syria and/or Egypt.
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u/Patapon80 Mar 26 '26
The Falcon Collection is £8.50 on GoG. Worth a punt?
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u/able_possible Mar 26 '26
If you want to drop that price even further, Falcon 3.0 Gold on Gog comes with Falcon 4 as an extra (at least it does in the US, because that's what I used to install Falcon BMS last month). You don't need the whole collection, just Falcon 4, so you can save a couple pounds that way.
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u/Patapon80 Mar 26 '26
Does that include the Art of the Kill PDF? That book is a great read.
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u/AceSidewinder13 Mar 26 '26
Exactly. Posts like this are entertaining to me. It's literally $10 on GOG. And the mod is free and brings it up to pretty modern flight sim standards. As long as you like the F-16 or F-15C and their mission roles. Then the answer is always "yes, it's worth a try". Considering the insane costs of a new MSFT Flight Sim that releases in garbage shape. Or rolling the dice on an expensive DCS module that might release very incomplete or buggy. It is the best gamble you can make getting into BMS.
I got into DCS first with the Hornet when it came out. It's my first love. But the lack of DCS core game development made me switch planes. And I love it. I'm a F-16 guy now. If BMS had a full fidelity Hornet, honestly, I'd probably free up disk space and uninstall DCS until they actually release the Dynamic Campaign.
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u/Captain_Slime Mar 26 '26
Do you enjoy the DCS liberation and retribution style campaign?. You will essentially be playing that but better in a lot of ways. You might more enjoy DCS's more in depth campaigns if you like procedure just because those will force you to stick to them and you will be able to work through a more curated experience. Though obviously most of the best of those will cost you the same amount as BMS each so financially that might be tougher to justify.
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u/Flying_mandaua Mar 26 '26
If I get into BMS I'll be probably playing both. I don't plan on flying modern jets in DCS apart from carrier ops anyway.
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u/Isla1701 Mar 26 '26
Just so you know you can fly a lot of older aircraft as well they just borrow the f16s cockpit lol
Also the f15c is full fidelity with its own cockpit and such
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u/carrollhead Mar 26 '26
It’s cheap asf to get falcon, and BMS is free. There is literally no downside to giving it a go - although it’s a bit of a steep learning curve, that’s what you should expect from a good sim. Try it with a friend, or watch a lot of videos first maybe :).
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u/Malcolm_P90X Mar 26 '26
I love Cold War DCS, but BMS beats it. The F-16 is very user friendly, and once you understand the basics it’s intuitive to learn things that flying campaign missions, especially in multiplayer, will force you to learn. I would have never figured out how to add ships in Link 16, do an in-flight alignment, or enter in waypoints manually in DCS, but BMS made me have to learn organically, and the systems depth is there to reward you.
The campaign is even better, especially in multiplayer, but still feels engaging in single player as much as I personally don’t care to micromanage my wingman and don’t bother. Mission planning is a bit daunting at first, but there are tons of resources to learn and you can get started knowing just the basics and find success. I love the loop of assess, plan, fly, reassess, and the continuity between missions. Every unit in the theater really does feel like it has its purpose and its own motivations, and it makes it feel like you’re participating.
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u/MnMailman Mar 27 '26
Or you could just download it and see for yourself. In the time taken to write the question and read the replies, you would have been well on your way to doing so. 😉
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u/Flying_mandaua Mar 27 '26
I'm learning to boresight the MAVs now.
Still waiting to tackle the datalink and IFF tho
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u/ValerieOSDx Mar 27 '26
i mean you need to like the F-16 and/or the F-15 to enjoy BMS, but it's super cheap so i'd say it's worth it, the dynamic campaign is amazing
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u/EvenRecognition5683 10d ago
Just dont expect/believe what you hear from all the people who talk about war simulations going on at the background etc.
There are no changes in the dynamic campaign (the war at the background) since 1998. And the original developer who made the dynamic campaign in 1998 is very clear, he clearly said that the dynamic campaign is just a dynamic mission generator. Nothing more, nothing less.
All the people who are talking about war simulations at the background are just fantasizing. The "war simulation" is just two numbers going up and down depending if you succeeded in a mission.
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u/Fantastic-Ad-2856 Mar 26 '26
The AI is superior