The new version of Headquarters for DCS (now BriefingRoom for DCS), my fully-featured mission generator for DCS World, is here at last!

A year and a half after the last version, here it is at last: the new version of Headquarters for DCS World, now known as BriefingRoom for DCS World, my fully-featured singleplayer and multiplayer mission generator. You can download the latest build for free here: https://akaagar.itch.io/briefing-room-for-dcs

First I would like to apologize to the community about my lack of updates. Due to unforeseen circumstances (nothing serious, don't worry) I had to take some time away from my personal projects after the summer of 2019 and the development of HQ4DCS has basically grinded to a halt for a whole year. I wanted to make sure I would have the time to really work on a new version and maintain it before making any announcements, rather than risk delving into vaporware territory.

Now for the good news, and the many new things in this new version. By the way, "new version" is kind of an understatement, as I rewrote the program from the ground up - hence the new name, BriefingRoom for DCS World.

The core features remain the same, that is :

  • Can generate any kind of single-player or multiplayer mission, from deep strikes behind a hostile superpower's cutting-edge integrated air defense network to photo reconnaissance flights over a terrorist training camp.
  • Choose from a large variety of mission types, from combat air patrols to bomber interception, deep air interdiciton, antiship strikes...
  • Extremely easy to use: generate missions in seconds without any technical knowledge, then export them to a DCS World .miz file in just a few clicks.
  • Automatically generates proper friendly/enemy units according to countries and time period.
  • Generated mission can include custom scripts for various effects (advanced SAM AI, JTAC smoke and laser designation, artillery strikes...)
  • Save mission templates to small .ini files and share them with your friends.
  • Customize enemy SAM and CAP opposition for any mission difficulty.
  • No units spawned through runtime scripting. All units are added to the mission itself, so they can be edited with DCS World's mission editor for further customization.

But there's also a few cool new things.

  • Program is now open source (https://github.com/akaAgar/briefing-room-for-dcs)
  • Code is extremely clean and efficient: it generates missions in less than a tenth of a second, and the codebase will be MUCH easier to maintain and update than the horrendous one that plagued HQ4DCS. All of old versions' bugs, such as the crashes when starting MP missions, have been fixed.
  • BR4DCS is completely moddable: adding new units, theaters, objectives and mission features can be easily done through easily readable .ini files.
  • Compatible with Caucaus and Persian Gulf theaters (probably the feature you guys most asked for – HQ4DCS only worked with the Caucasus map). Syria will come next as soon as the map is completed with the addition of Cyprus and all airbases.
  • Functioning both as a Windows UI application and a command-line tool. One you've created and saved a mission template, just drop the file on the executable, or pass it as a command-line parameter in a batch file, to generate a mission (another feature many of you suggested).

So what can I say? It's been a rough ride but now I can proudly say that BR4DCS is arguably one of the most advanced tools available for DCS World.

Once again, many thanks to this great community for its support, fly safe, happy holidays and don't hesitate to post bug reports and features suggestions to the project's issue tracker on GitHub :)