So what's new for BSD in 2023?

Thanks for asking! 😁 Well, a lot of things actually!

First, BlackSharkDen is getting into some serious business with a real professionnaly hosted dedicated server where we are able to run (at least) 4 dedicated DCS servers and the associated SRS voice servers! Big thanks to the VEAF guys for helping us setting up all this in a record time. We selected the datacenter so everyone from the EU and US regions got the best ping possible (with a nice option for an APAC region!) and got ourself a pretty beefy CPU with lots of RAM to run all this.

With 4 servers, the possibilities are really exciting. Of course, our new permanent campaign will kick off very soon on Server 1 (for our pilots only) as our previous one is ending on the legacy server. Server 2 and Server 3 will be used for Trainings and running missions. This should allow us to avoid the regular availability issues we were facing at some point in 2022. And with Server 4 we are targetting to open it to the public with chopper dedicated missions tuned by the BSD experts! Expect to be amazed and forget all the other RW public servers! 

Secondly, this has been required a lot so we are finally taking the plunge and opening an UH-60L (and MH60-R) "Raven" platoon, at the moment opened only to the UH qualified pilots! We have the structure all set up on both website and Discord and we are filling up the platoon with soon to be IPs for the rest of our BSD pilots to join and train!

Asking for more? 

Well, of course we are opening the CH-47 "Grizzly" platoon, US and EU! It is already good to go on the website and Discord! We are just missing the module now... Man, this is going to be REALLY busy in 2023! The year of UH! (after 2022 being the year of AH!)

DCS World 2023 and beyond

It's out and, well, WOW!

OK, forget about all the stuff that sucks and blows, and check out what is REALLY super exciting!

Epic intro!

58 laser pointing some targets and lighting them up with 50 cal.

AND, of course....

ED's Lunar Sale video: wth is this?

A Ka-50 with 3 pylons on each side? Hint BlackShark 3?

AH-64D Apache delayed (again)

Not really unexpected and so far only a few weeks at a time. Now expected end of February. But at least ED's communication is good and they got tons of in game to show. So slight disappointment in the community but excitement is there and BlackSharkDen is ready!

 UH-60L Mod out!

RW mods in DCS have always been really quickly set aside at BlackSharkDen after a couple of testings. Most of them were re-using the Ka-50 flight model and relied only on the visual aspect, some very rare tried to implement some elements into a custom flight model, but implementing a realistic helicopter flight model is an order of magnitude harder than any fixed wing. As a result, no mods ever managed to convinced the team. But with the recent release of the UH-60L mod, we have been really pleasantly surprised.

Of course, the mod is not there yet to become officially a BSD platoon; some aspects of the flight model are incorrect (very high speed cruise, unrealistic VRS), the damage model makes this chopper a bit too hard to damage, and the avionics systems are very incomplete. But still, it is impressive enough that the possibility of, some day, make it a new official toy for our UH company is very real. We are keeping a very eager eye on this mod. Certainly a chopper about as expected in the community than the AH-64!

ED's video 2022 and beyond.

No need to link the video posted today (Dec 24th) by ED, we suppose you guys already saw it. A little bit more rotarywing stuff this time (like about 10% of the video, yeah!) but after all it is the year of the AH-64 for ED and a possibly final version of the Mi-24 so it has to be more than usual. Anyway. Let's focus more on things that made us all say "WAIT, WHAT?"

Dynamic weather with moving cold front!

Possible updrafts and downdrafts when flying over mountains?

Something chopper pilots are not super happy to see if this thing is aiming at them!

And finaly super mysterious coordinates at the end of the video (you should have keep watching after the credits!) that are pointing right at....

...Bagram airbase in Afghanistan!!!!

If DCS Afghanistan becomes a thing, we cannot think of a more appropriate area for Apaches, Hinds, Hinds and Kiowas to fly, beside Syria! We are just going to need to use the performance charts a lot more!

Meet a BSD Pilot (Feb 2020)

This month Black Wolf interviewed a relatively new member of the community, Alligator from Brazil! Alligator has been very active in taking part in the trainings and missions. He made very quickly his way to a fully operational BSD pilot. Read the full article here : Meet Alligator (you need to be logged in the website).

DCS Huey Multicrew: Flying with the Pros:

BO-105 Screenshots

Miltech and Razbam are starting to build the hype on their module with a few screenshots.

BO-105 back on track

Miltech-5 has been quiet on the BO-105 module for a very long time. At some point, we really thought this module will just join the list of the other aborted DCS projects. Turns out that this chopper still has a pulse. The confirmation came with a tweet from them today (1/24):

That's a beginning. Let's not hold our breath for 2020 though (that's a personal opinion), but a new chopper in DCS is always a great event!

Coming up in 2020 for DCS!

Of course, we always need to take everything with a pinch of salt here but if it made it into the ED January Newsletter, then things are most likely going the right way. ED's latest newsletter was actually the most RW oriented newsletter ever since a very long time, so it got us all extremely excited.

First, the new free map is confirmed to be in the Pacific, and it will be the Mariana islands. We don't know exactly what to think about this area. Sure it is great for WWII and for Carrier operations, but we are not sure if missions there in choppers will really keep us interested for long. Time will tell. At least, we got some beautiful shots of this new map which will feature the latest and greatest in ED's map technology:

Next is about the upcoming refresh of the Ka50 BlackShark module, a.k.a BlackShark 3. This includes a free graphic overhaul of the cockpit and the exterior model and a paid add on offering:

• Ability to carry up to four Igla air-to-air missiles.
• Integrated Missile Launch Warning System (MLWS) system with display system.
• Integrated Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) system with integrated display system

Next, the Mi-24P module is announced for 2020. Still no shots in game but a 3D cockpit that takes shape and a multicrew capability (understand 2 players per aircraft).

 Last but not least, the multicrew capability for the UH-1H Huey is currently being internally tested by ED and of course the OH-58 Kiowa also inbound.

Black Shark Den S.O.P Rev 5 Available

Eagle Rising, our favorite Black Hawk pilot, has been digging deep into his training manuals to provide us with this MASSIVE update of the Black Shark Den Standard Operating Procedures, spending a lot of time to customize the contents in order to make it relevant for DCS. The result is a really amazing 131 pages manual with absolutely everything you will need to know for our future combat missions, and the best reference available for UH and AH virtual operations. Download it here and make sure you are familiar with it.

New Black Shark Den video 2019

The new BSD video 2019 is now online. Check out our YT channel and subscribe if you didn't already. Needless to say the team has ton of fun doing the shots for this year! We hope you enjoy this short video, and if you do, we might create  the extended version!

What's cooking for 2019 on DCS side?

Despite the fact that ED is putting a lot of effort on the much more profitable fixed wing market, rotorheads have still some hope for some nice additions or updates to their hangar in 2019. First, the Mi24P is still in development and the pictures shown lately do no reveal a lot. There is also nothing about a release date, but this year might see this awesome helicopter taking the DCS skies with, according to ED (fingers crossed) a multi seat capability that, we guess, will derive from the last netcode improvements that the F-14 will benefit from.

The last screen released by ED on the Mi-24P cockpit

On the KA-50 side, ED is saying they are working on an update on the cockpit for this year also. Hopefully, the external lights bleeding into the cockpit as well as the SAS lights issue will be fixed, but the overhaul will also be on the panel and instruments graphics according to them.

On the Polychop-Simulations side, the OH-58 is still showing on their FB page and their latest communication is letting us know that they established a 'good and close' relationship with 2 US helicopters manufacturers without more details. Regarding the Gazelle, a re-code of the flight model is apparently on going with re-work of LTE, transient torque effect and other aerodynamics effects with the help of US Army and French army helicopters experts. Hopefully, we will see something this year again.

Regarding the BO-105, Miltech 5 recently posted some new pictures of their 3D model and are apparently working hard on it but no more info.

The day is now! DCS 2.5 OB OUT!

Spotted by Eagle this morning, the day we were all waiting for is now. DCS 2.5 Open Beta is out and available for download from the 1.5 Open Beta! Check out the thread on ED forum.

Some crazy stuff happens on BSD YT Channel

I hope everyone here subscribed to our YouTube channel because there are some really impressive videos to watch and remember that any BSD pilot can upload their videos on this channel (just ask Bad or Eagle). The latest one demonstrates some crazy skills. Have a look!

Some crazy stuff happens on BSD YT Channel

I hope everyone here subscribed to our YouTube channel because there are some really impressive videos to watch and remember that any BSD pilot can upload their videos on this channel (just ask Bad or Eagle). The latest one demonstrates some crazy skills. Have a look!

DCS 2.5 official announcement

Yesterday ED put out that the OB will be available on January 31st. They released this news alongside an awesome video showing off the four seasons of the new map and WOW! does it look good. The Download will come out on the open beta branch first and 2.2 and 1.58 release will follow in one to two weeks according to ED. So make sure that you guys have the 1.58OB downloaded now so that you can get the update quicker. 

Getting rid of BSD TS Server and switch to Discord?

So Discord made its debut at BSD only a few days ago and we can all say that the possibilities offered (for free) are pretty amazing so far. Voice (with PTT in the app version), multi platform, screen sharing, structured chat, multimedia, storage, widget showing who is online and in game,... This is basically everything we need. So the question is, do we need to keep the (paid) TS server? Not to mention that we are moving from UR to SR, hence removing the need for a TS server? BSD members, let's hear your voice! You have until the end of this week (Jan 28th).

Some fun with the Huey in DCS 2.5

Spotted by Eagle. Wags is having fun with a Huey above the brand new Caucasus 2.5. Finaly a closer look at this awesome map after all those 30,000 ft / 600 kt flights that barely let us enjoy the details and the new trees. Get ready guys! 2 weeks left.

HTC introduces the Vive Pro

Since 90% of BSD pilots are facehuggers, here is an exciting info coming from HTC at the CES 2018. The HTC Vive Pro introduces 78% more pixels for a definition of 1440x1600 per eye or 2880x1600 total with OLED displays. We will also have new lenses, new headphones, double mic with noise reduction and double front cameras (to be able to look for our HOTAS and mouse without removing the helmet?).

Another awesome new peripheral, the HTC Vive wireless adapter, allowing us pilots to get rid of all the cables. Using the 60 Ghz frequency, there is enough bandwidth to push pretty much anything including video, audio and positional info. I just hope we won't fry our brain with a 60 Ghz source so close to the head.

Eagle's latest addition on BlackSharkDen's Pinterest board really cracks me up so I thought this deserves a front page. Hey, did you know that, as a BSD member, you can get access rights to the BSD board in Pinterest and share your best pictures found on the net? These are actually what you see scrolling on the right. Don't hesitate to let me know your Pinterest username so I can share this board with you too! And don't forget that you can also write and submit any article you would like to share with the community and display it on the main website page. Go to the Pilots menu then click on "Submit Article".

A quiet time...

It is pretty quiet for some weeks on the news side. There's not much happening on the patches side regarding DCS and the choppers modules. Sure, the 1.5.6 came out yesterday, but for the open beta only. Wandering to the mods side, I found this pretty neat one that was hiding on the Russian part of the ED forum and that our pilot Hawkeye60 brought to the english one: here is "VP Airfields Equipment" by Solway from Virpil.com.

This mod just adds some nice eye candy on the airports, so no big game changer, but still a nice touch in the missions at start up. What do you guys think? Would you like to use it in our missions?

New DLC Campaign coming for UH-1H in the works

Ggregzagk is a fellow Greek DCS Huey pilot who is currently working on the next DLC campaign for the great DCS UH-1H Huey module. This campaign will offer 15 single player missions and a pretty interesting plot. No coop mission for the moment. This DLC is apparently in the final testing stage and should be available momentarily (2 more weeks?).