Iraq Map First Impressions

So... should you buy the Iraq Map in early access. Well, maybe... or maybe not... its complicated.

Thanks to Eagle Dynamics for providing me with a review copy of the map.

[yappydawg]

This sounds like a fair review. I was never going to buy this map for many reasons but mainly because the main historical actions on the developed portions of this map are COIN ops and COIN is a particular weakness in the DCS sim.

[jamesmcd]

Lain, I want to take the opportunity to thank you. As a 53 year old man who has never been into any kind of video or pc games until I found DCS in 2022. I'm still learning massive amounts of information every week. Having a few sources of honest information is very valuable yet harder and harder to find.

[Sbaar]

never buy products based on their future feature promises and entirely based on what is offered at the time of purchase.

[throughtheinferno-dcsworld]

Through The Inferno (Iraq) Single Player was released just before Christmas! - Made sure it has map variations that focus on Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region. If you're not familiar with what we do (both SP and MP) and have a wide variety of dynamic missions based on the era and your aircraft of choice. Hoping to really lean into the Iraq map as it gets updated. - A lot of our community members who are single player folks sometimes only get into a map because I support it with the TTI setup. So far TTI is on all the maps except for The Chanel.

[johnwicks]

The state at which the South Atlantic, Kola and Afghanistan were released has finished it for me with maps for quite a while. I fly most of my time in helicopters and Afghanistan was supposed to be a helicopter flyer's dream. Not so much in my opinion. Kola is coming along now but it has taken the better part of a year to start looking better. The Afghanistan map is already 6 months behind as both additional parts were supposed to come in 3 month intervals and be done by end of 24. When I see a map like Kola being put on sale for less then what I paid for when it released when the map isn't released to 1.0 or even been around for a year is very frustrating. It undermines their argument that you are saving money by being an early adopter. In fact, it's much cheaper and less frustrating to just wait for the module to be more mature. I'm determined to stay purchase free for 2025 when it comes to DCS. I'm going to let things play out and see how things go for a while before I invest anymore. It's time to start learning and enjoying what I have instead of just collecting. The Razbam thing is still turning me off quite a bit.

[davidelliott]

Hi Iain 👋 First, I'd like to wish you and all here in the comments section all the best for the holiday season.

I've been away from DCS, both playing and consuming content, for about a year or so. Now that I think about it, it was always going to be this channel that would pique my interest again, at least in content consumption.

Thanks for the work you do. The attention to detail and the recognition that we have our likes and dislikes no matter how 'good' or 'bad' an aircraft or map maybe, melds into an entertaining, but accurate, conversation on whatever the topic maybe.

Keep up the great work and I wish you all the success your efforts deserve...to be clear, I mean lots of success.

Happy new year to all week it rolls around.

Cheers, Dave

[pinkfloyd]

The Iraq map was provided to me by ED as well... for $55.99 😉

[Duckfisher]

Merry Christmas man! Enjoying your content!

[TomWilson-syjo]

I remember talking to an F-16 pilot post 9/11 about operations in Iraq. He said during his tour his squadron flew racetrack patterns around Iraq and in the entire tour only dropped one piece of ordnance. This means currently it is a map without many missions(maybe some night missions over Baghdad). That being said it will likely be the map with the most playable scenarios in the future. Currently, where DCS shines is in a Army vs Army engagement between 1970-2000 in an arid or semi-arid environment, Operation Desert Shield/Storm really plays into the strengths of the game. So the question is do you buy the map now to save a few bucks even though you likely won't use it much or wait until the map is more developed to determine if it is right for you.

[kontoname]

Good thoughts. Like much of what's being offered these days this map also really needs work.
That said I do see something positive with the new approach of the maps being offered in tiers;
because like almost every map (except caucasus and syria), the biggest problem with them is they aren't being used in multiplayer.
I'm not even sure if it's only for MP but the fracturing of the community in the maps department becomes stronger and stronger.
So at least there is some hope with the tiered pricing (lowest bracket should be lowered even further imho), that we could see a higher ownership and thus chance of participation, modding, missions and so on.

[abolfazlkiyani]

I was so excited about iraq because of iran-iraq war and f4 missions but no part of iran is modelled and i don't think ED has a plan for something like that

[skiinginmt]

Players: we need a South East Asia Map
ED: best we can do is early access Iraq

[spikef]

The Iraq map looks interesting and out of the product cram by ED in the last two quarters def the product I'm the most interested in. But I think I'll wait till this time next year when it's closer to complete and hopefully...razbam has been paid

[paulstich]

Regarding Ground-AI: Did you check out Chromiums AIEN-Script? Great piece of work.

[michaeldwyer]

I bought this map over the Afghanistan map due to a few things. When I saw the area the map covered I counted up the number of conflicts I could cover. So, current war on terror, Gulf war, Iran Iraq war (which is more I time period I am interested in, and should be a real air to air challenge) and IF they do some detail with Tehran, which is on the map, Israel attacking Iranian facilities. We will have to see if they do any detail work on Iran.

[madaxe]

I bought South Atlantic, Sinai and Kola on launch. Not doing that again. Sinai was what…. a full year or more with zero updates and glitches galore? If we want ED to get off the Early Access conveyer belt it’s now clear they’re not going to do so cold turkey. We need to incentivize them by holding off purchasing maps and modules until they’re MUCH more feature complete, if not fully finished.

[johnnunez]

Unless I really, really, REALLY want a product there's zero chance I'm going to buy it in early access. There's so much in the base product that urgently needs attention and paying for unfinished tat I don't want adds insult to injury as it seems to be a disincentive for ED to work on what I DO want.

[antongrahn]

I feel like maps are always going to be a tough sell. Are your friends going to buy the map as well, are campaigns and servers going to actually use it? If those things dont happen it does not matter how high the quality.

[nibbler]

The need for better ground forces grows more urgent by every new release. Infantry especially as Islamic fighters from all factions from these areas and times are needed. And they need to act evasive and illusive . Plus there's hardly any realistic, upclose air support interaction available. Which for Afghanistan etc kinda kills its main attraction.

[dachsdk]

Well, I'd need something to do on the map, as a singleplayer.
So as with other maps, I'll be waiting for a campaign or two, to be available for my favourite aircrafts, before buying.