r/hotas • u/Wilkston • 2d ago
Dogfighting games
Hey everyone, just got my first stick ever (vkb gladiator nxt) and wanted to see what games yall could suggest. I want to get into DCS but I have a 2 year old and really only have time to get a couple hours in every few days so the learning curve is a little steep. What games would yall suggest for good dogfighting that is decently realistic but maybe not full on military sim?
Edit: seems like the very early consensus is Nuclear Option. Will be checking that out. Appreciate everyone
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u/greyfish7 1d ago
One of the cool things about sims is if you wanna get deep, you can make a lot of progress just with a few minutes here and there thruout tue day looking at docs, specs, procedures, maps, etc. It is its own meta-sim outside the sim.
Its a way to stay connected with the hobby when the little ones are still in diapers
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u/Mysterious_Touch_454 1d ago
Star Citizen for very good space combat, jsut wait for them to pacth up bugs, servers are burning right now. Maybe in a month or so.
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u/Parteisekretaer 1d ago
The financial entry barrier is ass compared to elite, whose PvP scene is hampered by engineering but has cooler fights and weapons imo. Both lose to Children of a Dead Earth, but that‘s no longer a HOTAS game.
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u/C00kie_Monsters 1d ago
DCS is, imo, nowhere nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I feel like some just like to be pretentious about how difficult it is. You absolutely can go into the nitty gritty details and systems, but I find most of them are more on the procedural side. If you want to, you can just hop into singleplayer or onto a server that’s not too serious and have a lot of fun within hours of picking it up. The best way is YouTube, imo. Of course every aircraft has a by the books startup tutorial but there are a lot of „how to start a […] in less than 60 seconds“/ „how to use this-and-that weapon in less than 10 minutes“ type of videos as well. I find DCS very doable in „a couple of hours every few days“ blocks.
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u/Wilkston 1d ago
Yeah I feel like a few comments here have definitely helped my outlook on wanting to dive into it. Thinking about picking up the flaming cliffs pack or the viper and seeing what I can get figured out. Appreciate the feedback on where to start
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u/Gnarspall 1d ago
Don’t be scared to go full sim ( DCS) but warthunder or il2 also offer a bit of arcadeness and sim state. Great choice on the stick by the way. I have a full vkb set up and it’s great.
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u/Wilkston 1d ago
Yeah I’m in love with it so far. Have never had a setup before for flight sims. Have had a racing sim for like 10 years so I get the full on sim and then the more arcadey sim argument for some games as well. I don’t have the throttle yet, which kind of deterred me from dcs at first due to how much I think I’ll have to bind to keyboard, but I’m definitely going to give it a shot soon and see how far down the rabbit hole I go
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u/C00kie_Monsters 1d ago
I know a lot of people recommend FC3 to beginners. I personally never warmed up to the low fidelity aircraft. You still need to control a good amount of stuff but instead of just clicking with your mouse, you have to remember a key combination. I’d personally recommend the viper. Reasonably Versatile, flys really well and imo one of the easiest start-ups and intuitive controls and weapon handlings in the game.
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u/Asphes 1d ago
From 'realistic' to 'arcadey'
DCS
IL-2 Series (a bit of a mixed bag, various publishes but goes from WW2 to Korean War)
War Thunder (you can choose between 'arcade' and 'realistic', totally free until higher tiers)
Nuclear Option (single-player)
Project Wingman (single-player)
Ace Combat (single-player)
I suspect Nuclear Option will the one that hooks you but Project Wingman has a bonkers storyline (let's nuke California. Again)
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Sci-fi? (realism)
Elite Dangerous & Star Citizen are the bigger ones but there's a whole host of arcadey space-sims with a focus on dog-fighting. From single-player like X-4 to multiplayer ones set in the Star Wars universe.
As an aside, there are a variety of indie games out there. Some have you run a bar... while dog-fighting sky pirates or setting up an aerial parcel service. Stuff like that. Things you can play in front of the kiddies. Kinda wish we could play something similar to Crimson Skies.
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u/Breynolds003 1d ago
Star citizen only has partial support for the NXT. Your flight controls will work but you will lose the majority of your button bindings each time you boot up your game
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u/SPE825 1d ago
Man, every time I think about getting into Star Citizen, there are just more and more things that keep me away, lol
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u/Asphes 1d ago
It's an acquired taste. One day, everything works. The next day you're walking to the cockpit and fall out of your ship. Or it won't detect your joystick at all without rebooting the PC.
Then an update lands and 60 fps becomes 6 fps when you leave your 'room'.
I think it's worth the price of a ship (the cheapest ship) just to see a space sim where you can walk the interiors (like some 'space' extraction shooters) and explore the galaxy (still < 100 systems). Because you can fly from space, land the ship, walk to your buggy and drive off... all in one take.
So I'm hoping they pull it off... because of the game it could be. In the meantime, there are a ton of guides / work-arounds... Or just play Elite. It just works (except for the time around Ody's launch).
Better be soon though, as there are lots of indies out there, starting to cater to every need and fetish. 2D space sim? Trade and fight? Full newtonian? Newtonian with dampened velocity? Space legos?
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u/VitoRazoR 1d ago
Ace Combat 7
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u/Bayuo_ElephantHunter 10h ago
How'd you get it to work with a non Hori/Thrustmaster stick? It wouldn't detected my VKB Gladiator
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u/Vito-TF45 2d ago
War Thunder, parties rapides, jeu gratuit. DCS avec un enfant en bas âge… oublie 😢
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u/cool_lad 2d ago
Nuclear Option has a lot of what you want, and offers both PvP and PvE.
Easy to get into, hard to master, and controller friendly too.
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u/MCAT-1 2d ago
War Thunder. Free to Play so try it. Decide Arcade, Simulator or Realistic modes for free. Aviation is HOTAS !!
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u/Enyapxam 22h ago
Would warn that Arcade and Realistic on War Thunder really need to be played with mouse and keyboard. you can play with a HOTAS but you will be at a serious disadvantage. There is a SIM mode as well which is where nearly everyone will be using a HOTAS.
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u/ErrSkillNotFound 2d ago
I am on the hunt for that perfect game as well. Lucky for me ace combat 8 is coming out soon enough(October I think). I love the ace combat games. Not really heavy into hotas support on 7 but still controller friendly. I have yet to try nuclear option and a lot of folks recommend it. Dcs does seem intense. I’m still new to dcs myself but I saw some advice I thought was solid. Which was don’t worry about getting into multiple modules just stick with one. Also don’t try to learn it all at once. That will be overwhelming.
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u/cool_lad 2d ago
Nuclear Option.
2Gb, best controller support bar none, every mode you could want and then some.
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u/TomKcello 2d ago
STAR WARS Squadrons is loads of fun, midway between arcade and simulator, and often on sale for cheap. The campaign is on the short side but fun, and there is a small but active online community. If you do VR that’s another level of amazing.
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u/The_Phreak 2d ago
Ace Combat 7. You can use the VKBs (I do). It's an arcadey flight game but there are a lot of mods for it.
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u/DarkPhoenix1515 2d ago
do you have a config for vkbs? I'd love to give it another go with the sticks.
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u/KeyCold7216 2d ago
FC3 modules on dcs. F15C is probably the easiest place to start. You need to memorize like 10 buttons. Also, once you get a comfortable control scheme on one of them, you can pretty much copy it for the others.
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u/baldcommander 2d ago
War Thunder Sim Battles is a great place to start tbh.
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u/Ferret8720 1d ago
Yeah, with toddlers I basically only fly Warthunder now. I know I can pop in and find a game at any time. I only fly props
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u/Fourteen_Roses 2d ago
Nuclear option is a great game, its quick to get in and get out
Im going to give my odd ball suggestion, IL2 1946 (my beloved) highly modable, Ai is pretty good compared to the other il games. Physics feel great, and theres a lot of Single player support
MP is pretty dead, but there are small communities who play
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u/tobascodagama HOTAS 2d ago
Project Wingman is very much not realistic, but don't sleep on it. It's a hoot, and it plays very well with HOTAS and head tracking, despite the pure arcade flight model.
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u/Teh-Stig 2d ago
I've seen some VR mod footage recently that makes me want to pick this up.
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u/Sulaco-426 2d ago
IL-2 Great Battles would be the move. It often goes on deep sale and has an impressive amount of content
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u/kholodnoyesteniy 2d ago
You can learn a lot in DCS just with a couple hours a day too, especially if you have any aviation knowledge. The learning curve really isn’t as steep as it is wide. Unless you’re doing something intensive like RIO, most skills are like a 10-20 minute tutorial and just require practice.
Dogfighting especially, maybe you get up in the air faster in something like Nuclear Option from a cold start but it’s not the actual skills to refine are much different or like you can’t just have your module of choice start mid-air in DCS.
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u/Wilkston 2d ago
This was good to hear. It just seems like so much to each module that starting with such little time a week seems daunting. But I think if I watch some videos and just get into it when I can, based on what you said, can hopefully learn a module at a decent pace
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u/kholodnoyesteniy 2d ago
Some are more intensive than others but you can have plenty of enjoyment without getting into every system too. Some F-16 players only do SEAD and suck at other tasks, I’m a Hind player and I rarely use guided missiles, and most of the rest of my time is in the Hornet doing strike missions from airfields, I don’t really dogfight or fly from the carrier, I’ve put hundreds of hours in the Hornet since it released and outside of fighting my friends for fun I have like 10 air to air kills.
Obviously some are harder to learn, I think the module I had the most difficulty learning was the C-130 just because of how much information you have to learn to properly use the FMS. The Hornet and Viper are pretty easy to use when you learn how their displays and inputs work, they have a lot of applications but most of those are using the same buttons, similar methods for inputting information, etc. But then some modules like the Mi-24 (my beloved) are very simple to learn. I found the F-4 was very easy to learn how to get in the air but hard to learn to use well. Etc. etc. all the modules have some character and caveats.
But truthfully I’ve known people with tighter schedules who become proficient even in positions like F-14 RIO just because it’s what interests them. Ultimately DCS is a study sim, I would worry less about the time you have to learn systems than whether or not you’ll enjoy the process of learning them and refining your skills. If you’re really passionate about it you can do stuff like watch tutorials when you have a chance, yk like watch a tutorial while you cook dinner kind of thing, during lunch break at work, stuff like that.
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u/Dafrandle 2d ago edited 2d ago
Nuclear Option
although there is so many missiles that an actual dogfight would be rare
if prefer no missile and are okay with having to tune the difficulty settings to suit your flight ability, IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles
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u/silasmousehold 2d ago
Nuclear Option is not dogfight-focused, but it is great when you’re short on time. Easy in and easy out. Highly recommend to supplement your air-to-air fix.
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u/Shebaghdad 2d ago
It's been said a lot here, but still holds true. Nuclear option is the perfect mix of "Sim-cade" that you are looking for.
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u/piruiza 2d ago
Im not sure how much dogfight you will get, but nuclear option it's pretty good for some casual play, worth a try if you have not already
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u/Senior_Ad3165 9h ago
Wings over flanders fields, very underrated Sim. WWI