Why is our server as it is?

[IronMike]

It is quite normal that a lot of ppl simply don't know what has gone into keeping DCS MP alive over the past ten years. it is great and we love to see that recently more and more good servers are popping up. what a lot of ppl dont know anymore: at times it was basically only three squadrons, us, the 51st and =4C=, who did something, later we got help from the 74th. and I don't want to boast here, it is simply how it was. There were some ruff times in between FC2 and DCS World. DCS A-10C split the community in half, we had to host two servers to cater, there were times in between when pilots on the server were so new, that we literlly flew without missiles, so that they could kill us and have a success feeling and keep flying. no joking here. we did and tried everything to not let MP die, together with the 51st. hours and hours of administration, event hosting and thousands of dollars went into it, not to speak of everything else which I forgot in the meantime. And by all means, this is not a complaint, this is our pride and huge luck. We may seem sometimes a bit secluded, maybe a bit arrogant, but really the one thing that drives our squadron above all is: community service. (And really, most of our members put in too many hours to mention into that. Daily.)

That is why our server (we are working on a second more realistic one atm) is set up as brought as it is. we want it to have a certain "hardcore" entry level for new players, means diving into the world without any assists, externals, etc... but at the same time giving them a chance to fly as "safe" as they prefer. an example: one of the most suggestions we get is to put the strikers on the front line, as it seems more realistic. of course it does. now, we did that some time ago: the result: when the server was low on ppl, it is usually strikers who populate it first, and then one or two fighters join. now these fighters find all those unprotected strikers at the FEBA. Guess what happened and guess what the complaint of the very same strikers was, who requested to be put at the FEBA. Of course they were happy to be back in "safety" the next mission around. And those were very very good and experienced pilots.

The 104th server is also mainly a 24/7 server. That makes it special in regards of teamwork: it doesnt always work, because the team changes several times a day (timezones!). However that also means that no matter when you join - and that was always our top goal - there is SOMEONE for you to fly with. Always. Of course there are up and downtimes, but one thing is sure, no matter when you want to fly MP, you can, because of the 24/7 server that tries to make as many ppl happy as possible. The missions we host have been balanced out through 10 years of MP experience. And in those ten years a lot of input from the community brought us closer and closer to a middle line. That doesn't make our server super special. But it makes it reliable, it makes it most stable and it makes it most accessible. That we think is a good ground base to help the community grow.

When it comes to realism however we would be the first who would love to see something more realistic, even much more realistic than blue flag (which is a masterpiece and great fun). But even the smallest adjustments, like say crosswind above 3m/s gets heavily rejected by the community. A year ago we weren't able to host cloud covers because the eastern european part of DCS was still catching up with hardware. Now, we don't blame them, in contrary we still want to include them. ATM we are thinking of hosting an Asia 104th server, because we have to exclude so many chinese and japanese pilots due to high ping. Very sad for us. So these are the set backs when you really try to make it good for everyone - worldwide. we live in many different realities, all of which have a right to coexist in our opinion.

But realism is something we love, as long as it makes sense within the boundries of the sim. We try to show that in the way we fly, which of course also has up and downtimes, but when it comes to flying, arcadish isn't exactly what would describe us, I hope. In contrary: many of the real life tactics, that are used in DCS today have been brought to the sim by the old squadrons, like the 51st, the =RVE=, the 104th and its predecessor the 169th Panthers with the help of the 44th Vampires and others. For the F-15 the major part came from us, of course. And today more than ever we are willing to share all of these tactics which actually have been optimised for DCS with the community. We think that the better everyone flies the more fun there is to have. The standard on the 104th server was much higher some years ago. But that is because the community was so much smaller. So when you enter a balanced 24/7 server, naturally when it comes to realism, the more we grow, the more we have to balance our expectations as well.

As for the criticism: please bring it on! Please challenge us, so that we can improve for your MP experience. But if you call us a cancer, like someone did recently on facebook lol, don't forget that it is still you why we do what we do. ;-)

Thank you all and S!

[Tyger]

Well said!