u/RickMcB

So after getting my first HOTAS and trying many different sims, I find myself a little frustrated with most of the flight sims on the market today. While they're incredibly detailed, I feel like almost all of them lack a proper gameplay loop and "stuff to do".

• DCS
  • Many of the singleplayer campaigns are buggy / outdated
  • Multiplayer feels cumbersome. Every server works differently and they feel pretty static
  • I know a lot of people enjoy flying in squadrons, but I don't have the time to commit to something like that
• BMS
  • Actually really enjoy the dynamic campaign aspect, but the Viper / F15 aren't quite to my taste.
• MSFS 2024
  • Buggy singleplayer
  • I do prefer combat flight sims
• VTOL VR
  • Lots of fun user made missions / campaigns
  • Lacks HOTAS support
• Nuclear Option
  • Very fun gameplay loop
  • Decent flight model
  • A little too much towards the arcade side for me

At this point I feel like I'm looking for a game that doesn't exist till DCS comes out with the dynamic campaign.

What are your favorite flight sims that have good gameplay loops?

I'm able to run DCS in VR quite nicely at Ultra resolution in Virtual Desktop, so with BMS being an older game I expected it to run even better. I was surprised to find out I can barely run it at 60fps with medium graphics and anti-aliasing. I've already tweaked a lot of the user config, which did make things better, but it just seems odd to me that DCS looks a lot better while also running smoothly at 72fps with medium-high settings.

• 3080 10gb
• 12700k
• 32gb RAM
• Version 4.38 without the 16k textures.

Is BMS just more demanding than DCS now with the latest patch?

Get 40fps on a 3080, can't lower graphics settings because of overlapping UI elements, game crashes, get forced into a full game file verification.

I've been following this game loosely since the first announcement and knew development was rough, but I was keen to finally give it a go and see for myself during this free flight. I expected to encounter some bugs and unpolished aspects, but this is just ridiculous.

Edit: rebooted the game, tutorial didn't give tooltips or keybinds, and crashed again. I'm out!