Introduction

Thank you for your purchase of DCS: Black Shark. We at The Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics are proud to bring this flight simulation game to you and it marks the first module of our new Digital Combat Simulator line of products. While we have created flight simulations games in the past, the DCS series has some important differences:

1. Rather than focus on several aircraft at a medium level of fidelity, we will release each DCS aircraft module individually and at a very high level of fidelity. Black Shark demonstrates the level of detail that will be the hallmark of the DCS series.

2. The underlying DCS program will be updated over time and each module will be compatible with DCS as it evolves. DCS is a living product.

For the DCS flagship we chose the Ka-50 “Black Shark” for several reasons:

1. It is an interesting and unique attack helicopter due to its single-pilot cockpit, co-axial rotor system, sensor system, and broad mission range.

2. We have a close relationship with Kamov and they were instrumental in providing us the data needed to create an authentic simulation of this aircraft.

3. Our terrain level of detail lends itself to an attack helicopter simulation.

4. We first wish to focus on detailed and realistic close air support operations in DCS.

While it was important to us to create a realistic simulation of the Ka-50 and the associated pilot workload, we also wanted to make the game accessible to the more casual player. As such, we also included a robust set of “game” modes such as casual avionics, flight dynamics, and difficulty settings. We hope this will shallow the learning curve to those not familiar with attack helicopter simulations. A large focus of DCS: Black Shark, compared to our earlier products, has been on providing good mission gameplay. We did this through several methods:

1. Our Mission Editor includes a powerful scripting system that allows the setting of triggers and resulting events. This allows the mission designer to create missions with more dynamic cause-and-effect situations. Such examples include activating units, displaying messages, playing audio files, and setting linked events. These can be triggered from units entering and exiting specified areas, being damaged or destroyed, or even times. In the hands of a skilled mission designer, interesting and realistic missions can be created.

2. Rather than a linear campaign that requires the player to successfully complete a mission before moving on to the next, we have included a phased-campaign system that allows a front line to move back and forth and allow a non-linear mission progression.

3. Built into the Mission Editor are functions to allow the random appearance of units based on a chance of appearing percentage.

Combined, we feel DCS: Black Shark will provide an immersive and interesting mission environment.

Because DCS: Black Shark is solely focused on the Ka-50, we do not expect a gameplay focus of the product to be head-to-head multiplayer. Rather, we believe that DCS: Black Shark will provide interesting cooperative multiplayer given the nature of attack helicopter missions and the ability of a flight of Ka-50s to exchange targeting and navigation data over the data link. With the inclusion of later DCS modules, we do however expect head-to-head multiplayer to be an important part of DCS. Please note there is a separate DCS manual that discusses the Mission Editor and other menu screens in detail. This manual is focused solely on the operation of the Ka-50 within the DCS environment. We hope you enjoy your time with DCS: Black Shark and follow the progress of DCS as we add functionality and features to the product over time and add new aircraft modules. Sincerely, The DCS: Black Shark Team

DCS: www.digitalcombatsimulator.com

Forum: http://forums.eagle.ru

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