A-10C (not "10A") has the best value for the money. You won't get Nevada map for free. It was for beta purchasers

Ka-50 is awesome, but it won't give you experience of flying a classic helicopter (coaxial rotors), and It's supposed to fly itself, so the pilot has the time to manage weapon systems. It requires some learning about autopilot and trimming.

The best choice to start with choppers is Huey. Nimble iconic chopper. Easy to learn and has very good campaign. Recently they implemented sling load operations, but it's still WIP

Yeah, I guess that's one of the issues regarding a complex sim of this nature.  You have to invest the time to learn things properly and most of us just dont have the time to learn how to operate these flying weapon systems the way they should be.    But it's fun trying.

 

It's always a question of focus of attention. I spent "years" learning how to fly more complex stuff, starting with Air Transport Pilot Rev D, then.... PS1 and ELITE, some great add-ons for MSFS (NGX, 747 and 777, plus a few buses...) and the An-24 for X-Plane 10.  I am sure the weapon systems of a modern fighter could easily have been learned, should I ever have found any interest in that, but I really couldn't care less about it - military flight simulation was not my choice, with the exception of ww1 and ww2 ...

 

Now that I settled for the combat flightsims, I started eating ww2 and ww1 aircraft and combat tactics documents, and I believe that I will probably even dedicate some time to the A10C. The Mig-15 and the Sabre would also be great to have, specially because the Portuguese Airforce had the Sabres, and I really loved to see them flying :-) The G91 would be also great to have, for the same reasons :-)

If I buy now any module will it be compatible with the new engine that is coming in 2014?

the new engine, no affect to the module previous release. All modules can working on EDGE.

How exactly is EDGE going to work, exactly?   On my latest flight sim computer, I haven't reinstalled DCS and several airplanes because I've been holding out for EDGE.  I don't want to spend time setting things up again from scratch and then have to redo it all when Edge comes out.  I'm assuming that once EDGE comes out, everything then becomes DX11 and full SLI support?  Or is that only going to work with the Nevada map, and everything else stays the same?  Please explain how this "system" will work.

How exactly is EDGE going to work, exactly?   On my latest flight sim computer, I haven't reinstalled DCS and several airplanes because I've been holding out for EDGE.  I don't want to spend time setting things up again from scratch and then have to redo it all when Edge comes out.  I'm assuming that once EDGE comes out, everything then becomes DX11 and full SLI support?  Or is that only going to work with the Nevada map, and everything else stays the same?  Please explain how this "system" will work.

 

I thought SLI worked, just Crossfire didn't. I maybe wrong though. 

 

What they said is, features that have to do with the terrain, for example clip mapping, will be exclusive to new maps created with EDGE tools. Other features that have to do with the renderer, DX11, and the engine, SLI support, should work with the old map.

Again, it's for me a more or less useless model since I didn't yet even try to learn it's sophisticated weapon systems, and even less tried to fly a combat mission - too complex for me :-/, but again, flight and systems modeling wise, is way ahead of any similar offer for either MSFS / P3D or X-Plane!

 

I'm starting to find DCS not for me either, Not really interested in learning about all the weapon stuff. Even more not interested in trying to memorize all the key board controls. I also miss the whole Earth for scenery.

 

It's free and a fun diversion but I'm keeping FSX as my main flyer for now.

FSX is still the regression line of  flight simulation :-)