Best other military simulators?

[Sneakson 1]

Hey, ARMA is a great infantry experience that blends accessibility with simulation quite well though other aspects are far from perfect.

I’ve been thinking: what other good military simulators are there? Maybe ones that are a bit more specific (ARMA “only does†infantry, vehicle, air and sea combat simultaneously after all) and more simulator-like mainly. It doesn’t matter what they simulate I suppose as long as they’re military… come to think of it I wouldn’t mind a space simulator or something not strictly military either if it’s serious.

I’ve already heard of DCS World that seems to be the king of military aircraft simulators.

[mr burns 132]

SWAT4

Still a kickass game after 12 (?) years of its release.

FSqpa30Om8k

edit: *VOLUME*

Edited March 28, 2014 by Mr Burns

[jakerod 254]

I do think that SWAT 4 is one of the best tactical shooters I have ever played. I don't think there are many people playing PvP anymore but that was an incredibly fun and unique experience. In the game mode I was playing, you get more points if you capture an enemy player than if you kill him. That seemed to encourage a lot of team work with room clearing and covering each other so that if one person got blinded another person could cover them and make sure they didn't get cuffed.

Other ones are the old Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear. Delta Force 2 and Delta Force: Blackhawk Down are also good although they are more open world shooters than tactical shooters I think.

[jeza 5416]

Tactical wise, although maybe not sim, my personal favs aside from swat 3/4 is the Original ghost recon, and ofc as mentioned briefly above rainbow six series. With R6 your good up until Raven shield, anything past that probably not. But yeah ghost recon one for me. Tactical MP I suggest looking at Project reality for bf2 and red orchestra 2 (on a good server).

[PenguinInATuxedo 18]

Full Spectrum Warrior was one I had some good times with, a bit old now days but worth a look.

The sequel Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers was pretty good too, I played them on the original Xbox so they are probably looked down upon by most on here but I think they have PC versions.

[Sneakson 1]

Actually I was looking more for simulators than tactical shooters. You know airplanes, helicopters, tanks, submarines and what have you.

I’ve played the SWAT4 demo back in the day. Definitely cool with great graphics for its time but it’s actually not that advanced when you really think about it. I heard multiplayer was great but never had a chance. It’s on my list of games to play “eventually.â€

I've already been through the original Ghost Recon on the highest difficulty setting (my first time) and that was a blast. I think the second or third mission in the game is the hardest though so I nearly quit for a little while there.

I also love the GRAW series so a few more Ghost Recons area already on my list of games that I’ll get to when I have the time and so are most of the late 90s early 2000s tactical shooters you guys mentioned already.

Anyways I'm already aware of mostly all shooters ever made since I've dug quite deep into video game history and shooters are common.

I'm searching for something with a steep learning curve that will take some learning.

One completely non-military example is the 7-day FPS programming challenge entry "Receiver".

Check this video out:

It has the most complex gun handling I've ever seen in any game. Even though the story is completely sci-fi.

You use separate buttons to shoot, aim, holster, unholster, pull back the slide (to see if chamber is loaded or not), release slide lock, toggle safety, toggle firing modes, pull back the hammer and eject/drop the magazine.

You also have separate magazine items that you have to fill with bullets manually and there's no ammo meter so you have to count your shots or eject the magazine to count bullets.

If you reload and drop your old magazine any ammo still in it is naturally dropped. Without magazines you won't be able to load your gun too so you should be careful of what you drop.

There's the 1911, the G17 I think and also a revolver that obviously works completely different.

It will completely make you think of guns differently as you struggle to remember how to properly reload a gun as an enemy drone is heading straight for you.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Sneakson

[jblackrupert 14]

SWAT was awesome.

There's also the free versions of VBS, you'll have to look around to find them.

Also this Source MOD: http://store.steampowered.com/app/17700/

and the new standalone version, getting good reviews and it's on sale.

Insurgency

http://store.steampowered.com/app/222880/

Rise of Flight has a free version on their website last I checked.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/244050/

Rise of Fight was on the Humble Bundle a few weeks ago so MP servers should be populated.

Early access WW1 infantry FPS.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/242860/

Edited March 28, 2014 by jblackrupert

[jeza 5416]

Right so a little further looking as you open it up to air land and see, my personal fav's have been the following:

B-17 Flying Fortress

Falcon 4.0 (with bms mod)

Falcon Allied Force

IL2

Lock On: Modern Air Combat/Flaming Cliffs

Silent Hunter Series

Sub Command

Dangerous Waters

688(I) Hunter/Killer

MS Flight sim with combat mods

[Tonci87 163]

Silent Hunter 5 with this mod list:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=192374

Turns it into the best U-Boat Simulation ever made (doesn´t work with the steam version of SH5)

[jblackrupert 14]

Just got an email that all the DCS stuff is on sale.

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/

[Sneakson 1]

Just got an email that all the DCS stuff is on sale.

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/

Oh, I noticed that too. $30 for the Warthog :)

[[evo] dan 79]

Just got an email that all the DCS stuff is on sale.

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/

Thanks for this, I just bought FC3 and Huey on Steam since they were on sale. Still undecided on combined arms as it only has a 20% discount so is as expensive as the 2 I just bought put together.

[jeza 5416]

Not played the series since LOMAC, someone gifted me FC3 today, looking forward to getting back into it :)

[[evo] dan 79]

Not played the series since LOMAC

Ditto

[Tonci87 163]

I´m out of that series. They keep adding "Modules" for ridiculous prices (full game prices in fact) but don´t bother to actually fix some of the core issues. It amazes me that trees still aren´t solid objects and that AI can look through forests.

[Sneakson 1]

Hah... tried some DCS AC-10.

Tried my first landing today... damn tutorial missions doesn't tell you anything when you do anything wrong so there was a lot of guesswork. It also doesn't give you detailed landing instructions until you are on the damn asphalt...

First try I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t align at all. Checked my fuel and there seemed to be enough for three tries which was surprisingly accurate.

Second try I didn’t get instructions until I was close to touching down but I wasn’t aligned well and as someone suddenly told me I couldn’t land I went up again.

Third try I aligned well, messed around a lot with alignment, altitude and speed and managed to take her down… bump, then up in the air again, then another bump down on the ground.

Didn’t manage to break so well though so I ended up at the end of the runway and eventually got stuck in the mud trying to taxi. THAT’S when I learned X is right rudder and not C. I thought it was broken or something.

So, stuck in the mud. Couldn’t do shit other than wait for my fuel to run out then all of a sudden I fly loose, manage to steer onto a road, clip straight through a careless school bus (in reality: decapitated children)…

Unfortunately the road didn’t connect with the runway so I couldn’t get back on it and taxi into a hangar or whatever you’re supposed to do…

Ended up bumping into a building trying to squeeze onto the runway using the hard ground surrounding the hangar buildings, spun around…

So everything goes black, I’m lying upside down… still alive. Waited 170 seconds for “repairsâ€â€¦ what do the repairs do? They flip me over and I explode in the process.

So close yet so far.

[[evo] dan 79]

^took me 20 minutes how to turn the SU25T on, then tried to take off and promptly crashed on take off.

[Sneakson 1]

My biggest problem in DCS is turning. It's very slow. I also have to carefully tap the roll buttons at a certain frequency for the plane to turn smoothly since it levels out but if I hold roll it turns too steeply.

Oh and I also can’t figure out the compass… or where I can see my roll angle. I guess that’s all somewhere in the 300 page manual lol.

Nice game. Ejecting is so boring compared to ARMA though.

Edit: I was going to do a graphics comparison screenshot then I realized I was at 5700 meters in DCS and if you go that high in ARMA3 all you see is blue sky even on max view distance :p

Edited March 31, 2014 by Sneakson

[WhoCares 0]

Another mil sim worth mentioning is SteelBeasts Pro Personal Edition (SBProPE), basically the tank sim equivalent to VBS2 with a version for governmental organisations and the PE for the public. For 9.50$ you can get a monthly license, for 115$ a perpetual license (with USB dongle).

I am just testing it based on the monthly license since last weekend and while just scratching the surface I can already say that it has a lot of depth. Offline and multiplayer, it covers small skirmishes with a single tank up to ~battalion size engagements. For that purpose it also models a lot of other units, IFVs, APCs, infantry, helicopters, artillery, recon, ... apparently most also providing different levels of player control (but I haven't touched that aspect yet).

You can have some quick 5min action, but even basic platoon level missions often last more than 30mins and there are many youtube videos of battles that last well above 1h, in rotarenegs youtube channel is a good range of different missions.

The graphics are not ArmA3 standard, but as a battlefield simulation that focussed on vehicle combat it seems to be very good.

But as I am just testing it about a week, I 'd better leave it to somebody else to praise its merrits...

[Tonci87 163]

Well in my opinion STeelBeasts is waay to expensive for what you actually get, especially considering that you have to pay again for upgrades.

[WhoCares 0]

I don't know about the financial possibilities of the OP, and how he would rate the value he gets for his money with the various high end simulations. And whether he is interested in deep and serious but rather expensive simulators, or still looking more for high fidelity entertainment in the sim genre. And neither for others that may read this thread with a similar interest.

I am not really the right person to speak for SBProPE or compare it with VBS2 or DCS, as I have very little experience with the first, and none with the others. I think the price tag on VBS2 is ~500$, and when it upgrades to VBS3 owners of VBS2 will not get it for free either, I guess. Same as we had to pay for OFP, Resistance, ArmA1/2/3, Arrowhead and the other expansions.

And when I look at the DCS price tags I will also quickly reach 100$.

What I actually get and whether SBProPE is worth the 100$ for me, well, I am currently evaluating just that for 9$.

But I think the fact that it is "derived" from a professional simulator that is used by defense agencies around the world qualifies SBProPE for an entry to the list of the best other mil sims, next to others like VBS and DCS.

Hey, ARMA is a great infantry experience that blends accessibility with simulation quite well though other aspects are far from perfect.

I’ve been thinking: what other good military simulators are there? Maybe ones that are a bit more specific (ARMA “only does†infantry, vehicle, air and sea combat simultaneously after all) and more simulator-like mainly. It doesn’t matter what they simulate I suppose as long as they’re military… come to think of it I wouldn’t mind a space simulator or something not strictly military either if it’s serious.

I’ve already heard of DCS World that seems to be the king of military aircraft simulators.

Oh, and I just remembered a very special mil sim, and very different from all the other stuff that has been mentioned here before:

SAM Simulator

A "realistic to the switch" simulation of russian SAM system from the cold war era. Photorealistic graphics ;), historical missions, 3D AARs via Google Earth, ...

And the best: It is for free! Costs nothing!

It helps if you can read russian in cyrillic letters, but I can't and still managed to be successful... well, sometimes, ... a little bit, ......

Just yesterday an interview with the creator has been released: Hpasp interview

Last but not least, I already linked to it above: if you want to have a look on different military simulators, the SimHQ forum is a good address to get an overview. Its primary focus is on flight sims, but it also covers other (military and civilian) areas as well.

And a very last (I hope): as the OP also opened the door for space sims, Kerbal Space Program deserves to be mentioned. While maybe not that serious on the surface (the Kerbals), with the underlying mechanics it is still a fairly accurate simulation, ...

... or so they say, as this is the third simulator I am talking about, but that I have never touched myself. But I guess that's the level of expertise that you have to expect on an internet forum :cool:

[Sneakson 1]

Okay wait... "Steelbeasts"... the screenshots on their website look like an early 90s tank simulator... googling gives something a bit more late 90s early 2000s. Is that more accurate?

A tank simulator to go with the pretty big availability of flight sims would be nice.

Basically I'd like to try a bit of everything that ARMA doesn't simulate too accurately. See what it's like in an aircraft, tank, sub and so on.

DCS has sort of caught my attention. However without a joystick it is terrible (turning, at least, since it requires smooth movement) and I don't want to bring out my ol' sloppy-sticked Trustmaster.

Maybe I'll buy a HOTAS and play it some more in summer.

[Derbysieger 11]

DCS has sort of caught my attention. However without a joystick it is terrible (turning, at least, since it requires smooth movement) and I don't want to bring out my ol' sloppy-sticked Trustmaster.

Maybe I'll buy a HOTAS and play it some more in summer.

You really need a joystick for that one! The Thrustmaster T.16000M is probably the best in the <$50 category. I'd never recommend DCS to anyone who doesn't have at least a basic stick or isn't willing to invest in one.

Beware though, once you get into it DCS tends to be a huge drain on your wallet :D

I probably spend ~650€ on Hardware alone, just for DCS. Doesn't include DCS modules I purchased or my new GPU or my new RAM, It's just stuff like Rudder Pedals, TIR, HOTAS, Joystick ... My favourite module is probably the Mustang (pedals very much recommended but also works with twist rudder on a stick) but I also love my A-10C. Huey is fantastic too but I highly recommend rudder pedals for that one.

Edit: The next Patch brings a Free TF-51D which is the two seater trainer version of the P-51D. It has no guns, can't carry weopons, no fuselage tank and no Radios but otherwise it's the P-51.Still has the clickable cockpit and everything. Enough to get familiar with WWII fighters. You can already try it if you load the DCS World Beta

Edit²: If you get a stick you should also try Falcon BMS which is a mod based on the old Falcon 4.0. I have never seen anything like the dynamic campaigns in Falcon BMS - it's amazing and doesn't even look too bad for a game that old (especially with texture mods).

Edited April 9, 2014 by Derbysieger