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Overall if you pick one aircraft and just have someone show you the mechanical inputs( argument sake- you need a 7 button sequence to fire a rocket) then it can be done with a solid 2 weeks of learning everyday.
The more knowledgeable you are the better you will do. This is the last pick up and play type of game so it behooves you to learn all the info that is pertinent to the aircraft and the server.
Out of curiosity which aircraft are you interested in and lastly why don't you just fly the frog foot which is free to play to get a better understanding of the game.
If you focus on a single module you love and learn the systems in phases, you're at least 'in the air' and using guns/sidewinders in no time.
Stuff like carrier landings and (effective) BVR will come after the two weeks mark.
Depending on the modual you fly and how much experience you have with modern sims, it can be overwhelming.
Old school stuff like F86, F5 have low complexity are relatively easy to fly.
While the modern stuff is easy to fly but can have overwhelming system management.
The hardest aircraft are probably the late 50s to early 70s. Stuff like mig 21, Mirage F1. That have quite a bit of operational complexity but also are quite hard to fly with odd quirks like engine stopping if going to slow or to fast etc. And generally don't like hard turns.
You can do exactly what you want to do. You wanna spend 5 hours to master take of any landing you can do that. Wanna do quick 1 v 1 dogfights you can do that.
To dogfight in the F16, you just need 5 button to remember.
Dogfight mod
TMS up
Trigger
Uncage
Weapons release
Start in the air. Hit dogfight mode, hit TMS up.
You can now lock on to enemies.
Once enemy is locked you use trigger to fire guns.
Or uncage to uncage the sidewinder and once you get tone press Weapons release (hold it in) and the sidewinders flies towards the missile.
Start with easy enemies like F5, MiG21, F1, then try on harder stuff like F15C. Or even harder MIG29, Su27, F18 or Mirage 2000. You can also do guns only to really practice flying.
Knowing the basics of flight will help you, if you just want to tool around and have fun.
If you actually want to learn then you will need to apply yourself, make the effort to learn. You do not have to read a 900 page manual in one go, read the parts you need to learn.
Lots of people willing to teach in our community, and joining a squadron is a good idea, but no one wants to spoon feed basic stuff, so making the effort will help.
If you are in to combat flight sims the effort is worth it.
I know how to land (I have absorbed the learning material), but I have not mastered it in practice. I can land on a carrier in a Case 1 scenario, but I won't always nail it, especially not on the 1st attempt.
Then there are things like, I theoretically know how to pick up a target of opportunity for say, a Maverick strike (could include laser guided bombs)... but I'M still on the process of developing a muscle memory for it. And yes at times I struggle to "select target area" then manually redirect the the FLIR to a specific target then cage the missile to the laser designator... by struggling I mean I am extremely clumsy at doing it.
DCS requires a lot of patience. But a couple of days ago I joined one of my national Dynamic Campaign server, where for me the AI is still extremely hard / difficult (although I noticed that my warnings were entirely muted automatically somehow, so I couldn't hear a thing, which then someone on Discord helped me fix), and I managed to practice things I wanted to practice (HARM Hand-off targeting) and now I'm going to practice the above mentioned FLIR targeting.
Advice:
1.) Be patient with yourself and the game. Things take time. But when you finally manage to do it - you'll have a very nice dopamine jump. The game doesn't have unlockables that you grind for to keep your dopamine levels in the positive. Nobody in the world is rushing you, you set your own pace. The game is naturally one of the most rewarding experiences I have had.
2.) Dedicate time for practicing a certain set of skills. I'm a hands-on experience learner, I have rarely read the guides (The F/A-18 is outstanding in this part, that it has I think some of the best tutorial missions). Under the "Missions" it has a TON more "Mission Practice" where you can practice a certain set of skills / capabilties, but without the occassional pause that happens in tutorial missions. Not sure about other modules, maybe those are there two.
3.) Once you feel comfortable with something... say you feel like you can at least land 6 / 10 times perfectly, and those few times you don't just crash but rather can reattempt landing, try to shake up your mission set. Fly a "Strike Ground targets" kind of mission, then fly back and land. Don't burn yourself out.
4,) Challenge yourself. The training missions are good at handing you basic information or helping you grow a muscle memory, but IMHO not the best at providing you true experience. Try those missions that come with the aircraft.
5.) Be patient with the aircraft. It took me a while to start discovering of what a certain aircraft is truly capable of. And then I was overtaken by childish joy of "Wow, it can do that!". Some aircraft are relatively simplistic in what they are capable of, while some are a maze in the initial stages of "learning".
6.) Use manuals as guide points. Normally they give you a nice view of what an aircraft is capable of, or required to do, should you play a certain mission, campaign or should you play with others. Get ready to supplement those guides with youtube videos.
The combination of guides, youtube videos, and practice missions (with occassional flying together) should be able to "prepare you", but after a point, its up to you.
As for which aircraft, that really is up to you. But be prepared to get surprised by a completely different aircraft than what you first intended to fly. I have seen the Mig-29A teaser in the DCS 2024 and Beyond video, and that was the moment I started playing the game (although say model is not yet available in the fully-clickable cockpit version). So I bought the Hornet for fun, to test the enjoyment level of a fully clickable cockpit, and I was captivated by it so much, that I am now considering it my main interest. Make sure to try out aircraft (Someone else might know better how to do it), as you can "trial" an aircraft for 2 weeks.
Alternatively, try to get a (re)view of the aircraft. THere are tons of youtube videos about what they can do, and what they can't do. I have seen those videos with Hornet Night missions, which are my presonal interest which gravitated me towards the module.
If you decide to fly the Hornet, I'd be happy to fly with you. But mind you I'm new to the game as well. I have ~24 hours of flight time with the hornet, and share what I know, learn together with you. But as an indication, even though I've got the basics of flying the module, I still feel like I'M going to spend another 100 hours just to drill my muscle memory and brain memory to the many utilities the Hornet has. I'm relatively confident that other modern jets in the fully clickable cockpit cateogry fall into this category where you need lots of hours to get a grasp of the module.
Sure, you'll find tryhards who will maintain that <insert airframe here> is very hard to manage, but they're claiming that because they want to feel special for using that.
Successful combat aircraft need to be easy to fly since you'll be asking a 20 something with an otherwise inapplicable degree to throw it around the sky without much regard for anything else. Sure, with the 3rd gen fighters, there are quirks but provided you respect those characteristics? They aren't difficult.
So, really, if you want to get started? You just need to pick an aircraft that interests you. You don't need a trainer, I don't care what anyone says. Trainers exist because we don't have the benefit of being able to restart a flight with a newly intact airframe and a non-spattered flight crew. Just lawn dart a few times, it's cool. But, picking an aircraft you find interest in will make learning it a lot easier.
If you're like me and you like those weird counter-insurgency light attackers, then yeah pick up a trainer. Other than that or having real world flight experience in one of the trainers (again, like I do), then go hog wild. Get whatever caught your fancy as a kid or something.
Watch docus on its combat employment, get a feel for what it can do. Have fun with it, you don't need to sit down and just read the manual. In fact, in real world flight training, we avoid telling students to just read the manual. We're going to do it piece meal. We'll take you up, do maneuvers, then reference the manual as needed. We'll have ground school time where we go into greater detail about various topics, but we always break it up so you fly, read, fly, read, fly, read. It's way easier to learn that way.
So, pick a fighter you've had an interest in, learn how to start it up, learn take off and landing speeds, learn your maneuvering speeds, then learn the simplest weapons. Employ them a few times, then move up to more complex ones. If you've picked one with a fancy HUD? Learn the symbology. Once you get what it all means, it's stupid easy to understand.
As some others have already said earlier in the thread, DCS isn't really "hard" to get into. Perhaps it is better to say that it requires the development of a skillset that you won't already have from gaming in general. This probably trips a lot of prospective players up since so many game genres rely on the same basic skills from the player. Even games that are considered "very complex" like Counter-Strike are still shooters at their core so anyone who understands shooters can play it (even if not at a "competitively viable" level).
Even a title like War Thunder isn't really going to push you (at least not too hard) to develop specialized flight sim skills. It is pretty forgiving and its goal isn't so much to get you immersed in a specific airplane but rather to get you to spend a lot of money and get so emotionally invested/addicted that you continue to do so.
DCS is pretty different. It is very much about learning the aircraft and it rewards players who really engage with that learning process and don't automatically equate learning with "not having fun". I would even argue that the learning process is where the bulk of DCS's fun is found.
First and foremost, we need to talk about the manuals. It is true that DCS's modules come with lengthy manuals but they are not really something you should be trying to read huge chunks of at a time. They are not something you need to cram for some kind of test. Anyone who tries to characterize using DCS manuals as "reading instead of playing" is misinformed. In reality. The manuals that come with DCS modules are best used as a collection of procedures and checklists that you reference as you play. If you are working on learning a specific weapon or sensor, you turn to the section that covers its usage and follow the steps listed. These manuals are written with players and not real pilots in mind so you will have no trouble understanding them as you go along.
One more thing about the learning resources. There are a lot of Youtube tutorials out there and while there is certainly quite a bit of value in some of them, it is always going to be a clumsier place to get info. The video format lends itself to more theoretical concepts but when it comes to actually teaching you a procedure, it becomes clumsy, slow, and often the content creators spend thirty minutes or more to cover a procedure that would take you five minutes using the manual yourself. If anything. I don't think Youtube replaces the manual but can accompany it pretty well. When you are actually playing DCS and need to learn how to do something quickly, the manual is going to be the quickest way.
Now let's talk a bit about the learning experience in general. As said before, it isn't really "hard" in terms of overall complexity. When it comes to running the various systems, it will look a lot harder than it actually is. In this case, there is a lot of truth to the notion that things look really hard to learn until you actually start putting effort into learning them.
Where you will encounter some friction is just learning how to handle the controls. I am not talking about memorizing bindings but instead just learning how to control how much force you apply on the stick, throttle, and rudder. Learning how to get rid of the "heavy hands" issue that every new player has to grapple with. This is where a lot of the real difficulty will be found. You will actually need to practice and put some effort into just flying smoothly.
As an aside to this. One thing that often snags new players is the notion that things like take-offs, landings, and the like are done "by the seat of your pants" where you just kinda develop this magical instinct to do it properly. The reality is that every aircraft has specific procedures (listed clearly and conveniently in the manual) that will set you up to do this things without mishap. Practice will be required but if you can get to the point where you can hit the specified numbers (speed, angle of attack, vertical speed, etc), you will find landings, take-offs, and the like rather easy.
New players often also talk about getting "overwhelmed". This is understandable since it can seem like you have to learn everything at once. You don't. In fact. I would say that trying to learn everything at once is a great way to never learn anything at all. The line "slow and steady wins the race" may seem cliche but it works well here. Those who try to just cram everything in as fast as possible are likely to not learn much beyond the most basic of basics. In contrast. If you just go through stuff one procedure at a time, it will actually go surprisingly quickly and you will be orders of magnitude more capable than those who don't. You will be able to do stuff that a good chunk of players don't even know about and it will seem easy to you.
I am making this seem a lot more academic than it really is. As I said before. The manuals are written with a player in mind, not a real pilot. They are set up to be accessible and relatively readable. Some will (for some reason) actively try to steer you away from them in favor of supporting their favorite Youtuber or they will even push you to fill a slot on a public server before you are ready to even have fun in that kind of thing just because they want slots filled. Take things at your own pace and realize that DCS is a hobby in itself. Like any hobby, it requires some investment of your time and effort but it will give you a lot of enjoyment if you really engage with that learning process and don't try to avoid it.
For an impatient arcade gamer: YES
DCS is not for everyone because is more a simulator than a game:
You need to study, practice, study again, practice again - rinse and repeat.
Take off? easy.
Fly around? easy.
Landing: not easy - you must follow proper procedures and have acquire motor skills to not end crashing and/or damaging the plane.
Gun dogfight? You not only need to learn energy managing but also fighting maneuvers else you simply will be take down even by inferior planes.
BVR?
Well, you get the idea.
You do this at your own pace, with plenty of resources.
It grows on you.
You don't have to become an expert, nor feel embarrassed by your lack of skills. You can play by yourself and learn or just have fun at your own pace.
There are accessibility options like Invulnerable, Infinite fuel, Unlimited ammo, Auto startup and start in the air missions to get straight to the fun bits or bits you want to enjoy, fast.
The community is supportive and there are lots of great learning resources from books to videos.