Sandman Simulations

I sent ED a patch to fix this SAM/SEAD issue 9th of January but for some reason it wasn't released in todays update. I'm very sorry about that and I'm trying to make them release it asap. Patch will make SEAD flights prioritize SA-10 and SA-6 over Rapiers. They should have done it in first place but AI just ignores those commands. Now Rapiers of each SEAD area will be visible for AI only after SA-10 and SA-6 sites of the area are destroyed.

22/02/2024 update DCS: F-14B Operation Sandworm Campaign by Sandman Simulations All missions – Some adjustments made to prevent premature landing list activation

I'm trying to balance between playability and challenge so that the campaign wouldn't be too complicated to play. However, this kind of campaign is still aimed at players who are willing to put in some effort into planning tasks before diving in. I'll report here on progress from time to time.

I've been working on a new dynamic campaign for about a month now. It's still uncertain whether it will ever see the light of day. Still some progress though. Hundreds of lines of triggers and an F10 menu structure for inputting an eight-character mission code. This gives around 24 billion different scenarios, so it should be enough. The plan is to create a campaign where the player acts as an Air Wing commander and aims to advance goals by assigning tasks to four F-14 and six F/A-18 squadrons. The squadrons operate from two aircraft carriers and one land base. The player can personally fly missions they design as part of either the Tomcat or Hornet squadrons. Probably within a year, we'll see if it's possible to make such a campaign performance-friendly enough and if ED even approves this type of campaign.

I have done that same mistake so many times

Tested it now and it seems to me working like it should. I can given commands to AI wingman and he's completing given tasks. Right frequency of course needs to be used.

Hi, Thank you for your report. I can't make any tests for few days but you should be able to command your wingman to attack enemy aircraft (attack my target command or engage bandits command), air defense and ground targets. At least wingman should give you "negative" answer if he's not going to do it. Are you giving orders on right frequency 305.0?

Great to hear. Thanks for the report.

Hi, Thank you for your feedback. Could you specify the problem a bit. What tasks you gave to flights of your squadron and what exactly happened? If you have a Tacview file of the mission it would be very helpful. In mission 2 enemy has air superiority and full air defense capabilities. A careful planning is needed. One SEAD flight might do it with SA-10 but it's not certain at all. There are no F-14s in the campaign and F-18s are not unbeatable against MIG-29s. So it's definitely possible to get beaten by the enemy. Tacview-20240129-184535-DCS-STAGE 2 80 perf.zip.acmi

Thanks for reply. All suggestions are welcome no matter how impossible they are. Some players have asked multiple modules to fly in same campaign.. I think it's not totally impossible, at least if there are two or three. Need to think about it. In Flaming Sunrise campaign there is freedom to choose tasks to AI and for yourself but all AI tasks need to be preplanned. Otherwice they won't do what you want. Tacview is a quite good application to check afterwards what happened in detail. In dynamic campaign there is a big performance problem if all units are visible. In Flaming Sunrise air defense units only appear when enemy gets close enough and front line battles only happen for certain time period or if some of the good guys is close enough. If they are fighting all the time mission would be unplayable due to low fps.

Hi, I might be loosing my mind but I have thought about possibility to start building a new dynamic campaign next year. I'm not sure I'll do it but in case it happens I would like to hear your opinions about what kind of features players would like to be included? I have no idea how I would implement the dynamicity this time but certainly it won't be the way it was made in Flaming Sunrise Campaign. You can think out of the box and shoot with any suggestion. No problem if it's not even possible to be made. I just would like to hear what you think about. Thank you.

I found that making all Rapiers and AAA invisible for each SEAD area until SA-10 and SA-6 radars of that area are destroyed makes AI SEAD flights behave better. They target higher threats first and only then the Rapiers (because they can't see them). Because there is 49 missions to repair it will take a huge amount of time. But I think this is quite important problem and I wouldn't count on that ED will change the AI to follow given orders so I will make it when I find the time to do it.

I made some tests. Track 1: For some reason today SEAD flights tasked for area Bravo did attack first against SA-10 (as they should do) and even managed to take it out. Track 2: On lower AD-levels they went for Rapiers even if SA-6 was there. Track 3: Third record is after changing order to attack SA-6 from wp 3 to wp 2. They shot one HARM to SA-6 and then went for Rapiers. This time it was enough to take SA-6 out Track 4: Even after the change above if SA-10 is there, SEAD doesn't attack SA-6 after taking out SA-10 and Strike flight is in trouble. It seems that there are no dead proof ways to get AI SEAD to attack the most dangerous targets first. I will next check if making Rapiers invisible until SA-10 and SA-6 are down would help. I'm not sure I can make it work but lets have a look. Track 1.acmi Track 2.acmi Track 3.acmi Track 4.acmi

You certainly know more about air defense systems than most campaign makers. I will test tomorrow if it would be possible to do something to prevent AI attacking Rapiers first. And Happy Holidays too

I don't think they activate it. It is any blue aircraft inside about 40 miles when it should activate so still out of their firing range. The reason for late activation is first of all performance issue but also in real life professional SAM crew would keep radar down as long as possible.

If SA-unit will be active, it should be when any off blue aircraft approaces. It doesn't need to be you. So it should work like you tried. I will take a look and try to find if there is some way around this SEAD problem.

Hi again, Thanks for your report. Ground group (usually 6 units) needs to be destroyed below 25% to be counted destroyed. That means one unit can survive. One group must be destroyed to show "minor loses" in debriefing. It could be more realistic to count group destroyed earlier. Because same rules apply for both sides it possibly would not change the balance as ground war situation is calculated by balance of destroyed troops from both sides. I tested early stage mission couple of times with two CAS flights. Together with ground troops they managed to destroy one or two enemy groups. It depends on stage of ground battle does this make a difference. I wouldn't say it's useless to fly CAS missions. Actually later in later stages I think it is impossible to progress without CAS by your squadron or Air Force Warthogs. The SEAD issue is frustrating. AI is told to attack long range SAMs first. Still it doesn't always do that. In which SEAD area/areas you had that problem? It maybe could be possible to make Rapiers invisible until long range SAMs are destroyed. It just would need quite a large amount of script lines. But maybe I'll try if it would work.

Hi, Thank you for your report. Do you have Supercarrier module installed?

Sorry about delay. I finally got the update released. ED already had it for November update but it for some reason wasn't included. JTACs should now be operative also in Bandar Abbas area during later parts of the campaign.

Change log for 19/12/2023 update All missions – JTAC frequencies fixed. Frequency information in kneeboards and charts updated.

Thanks to your report I found some other missions too where it was possible to get landing list activate too early by maneuvering on the deck. I will make a patch fixing the problem. Probably won't make it into December DCS update.

Hi, Thanks again. Landing list should fire only when returning so some trigger must be missing. I will check and fix.

A good point. Thank you.

Hi, I tested it and for me it seems that there is normal load for gun. Also settings seems to be 100% ammunition as it should be. How did this problem showed up? Did you set the round counter during pre-flight checks? If you didn't it will show zero bullets in the HUD but gun should still fire.

Hi, Thank you for your report. There definetely should be gun ammo and I'm pretty sure there has been. I will check today.