Red shack - Flight aviation combat sim podcast

Where did all the DCS World players go? Did Eagle Dynamics miss its biggest opportunity to build a thriving multiplayer community?

In Red Shack Podcast Episode 6, Plazma1945 and Resin tackle one of the most uncomfortable questions facing DCS World: has Eagle Dynamics spent so much time developing realistic aircraft and expensive maps that it forgot about the pilots flying them?

DCS World has incredible aircraft simulation, dedicated squadrons and passionate players. But where are the basic multiplayer social features? No proper friends list, no easy way to reconnect with other pilots, limited persistent career progression, and community servers increasingly struggling to keep people engaged.

We discuss whether Eagle Dynamics squandered the COVID-era flight simulation boom, how the end of regular Open Beta updates affected community excitement, and why buying another aircraft doesn't necessarily give existing players a reason to keep flying.

You spend months learning the AIM-120, Phoenix or another DCS weapon — then an update changes the rules. Plazma and Resin dig into missile buffs, nerfs, module updates and the uncomfortable question of how much developers should be able to change after players have invested hundreds of hours learning a weapon system.

Everyone says DCS World has a brutal learning curve, but what if the real problem isn’t difficulty — it’s time? Plazma and Resin ask whether DCS gives new players enough fun before throwing them into keybinds, manuals, procedures and hours of aircraft training.