Sandman Simulations

It's true that in early phase of the campaign tankers may get in a bit dangerous situation but it will be more safe for them when you get air superiority level bit higher. You are right that lost aircraft doesn't affect your aircraft count in the next mission. Ratio between killed own / enemy aircrafts determines the air superiority level for the next mission and that determines active enemy airbases and number of enemy air units. Bingo call could be a good idea. Option to get information about AI fuel level was introduced by ED so late during developing of this campaign that I decided not to include it. But it could be one feature to be added. I'll put it on my list. One reason I'm not very eager to develop another dynamic campaign is that at least build in the way this one is build updating the campaign is an absolutely massive task. There is about 250 different F/A-18s in each mission and about 50 different missions so it makes more than 12000 lines of triggers and voice overs to be fed in just to add something like that quite simple bingo call. To be honest I would build it in a different way if I would start now.

During development process of this campaign I have told to myself about once a week to remember that never again make a dynamic campaign. Maybe it wouldn't be as laborious next time... never say never After takeoff you may land anywhere and debriefing will be available. Maybe not so realistic to but there should be no problem to end every mission by landing on ground.

Hi, Thank you for your message. Unfortunately the campaign is not designed to be played without flying. You can do it but as you said it needs you to takeoff and land or eject to get the debriefing and information for the next mission. As you said if you don't take off so won't Devil 4 or your wingman. Other problem is the AI deck behavior. Unfortunately there is no option for mission designer to set certain aircraft to spawn on certain spot on the deck. They will spawn on next empty parking place. Only way to "select" spawning place is to make aircraft to spawn in certain order. In this campaign you squadron mates need to spawn after you because you first need to select tasking for them. There was also lots of problems with AI crashing each other on the deck and that is why Devil 4 is set to start up only after player starts taxiing. I agree that it would be interesting just to send your squadron for mission and watch the results.

Change log for July update 2023 All missions – AI voice overs replaced by human actors

24/7/2023 update All missions – AI voice overs replaced by human actors All missions – AI aircrafts chatter when not supposed - FIXED Mission 3 – Interceptors not reacting as supposed - FIXED

I'm then pretty sure that it explains why SA-10 wasn't active anymore. I need to do something for the calculation so that killing another SAM won't have effect during current mission and so won't prevent other one from activating if it should be there.

I mean did your squadron kill SAMs in the mission before going to search that one in Jask?

Thanks. At least triggers seems to be right. Need to test it anyway. Did you or anyone of your squadron kill any enemy air defense before going to Bandar-e-Jask?

Hi, Thank you for your message and nice to hear you have enjoyed the campaign. With Enemy Air Defense Level 50-60% there should be SA-10 and also SA-6 at Bandar-e-Jask. I'll check if I can find reason why it wasn't there. If you can please count how many dynamic missions you have played after the first non-dynamic mission and what was name of that mission. One reason can be the way the Air Defense Level is calculated also during the mission. If your side has destroyed some other SAM site before approaching SA-10 at Jask, Air Defense Level might have been dropped just enough so that site is not anymore active but still not enough to lower the level for the next mission. This is not optimal way but decided to do the calculation like that to avoid some other problems. There might be some better ways it could be done but it would need the whole calcultion process to be rescripted. Maybe some day...

Hi, Thank you for your message. Not stupid question at all because this campaign is not what DCS is designed for. It is why there is lots of limitations for this kind of campaign. You unfortunately can't change your and your wingmans tasking like from CAP to CAS. But in mission planner view you can select suitable CAS or SEAD loadout for your wingman and then during mission you can task him to attack ground targets or air defense. Unfortunately if you want to commit some more complicated task (like OCA strike) with your wingman you need to do it by yourself and wingman is pretty much there to protect you from enemy air units.

Hi, Sorry I had totally missed this topic. There is pdf manual included and should be found behind path Program files/Eagle Dynamics/DCS World (or DCS World OpenBeta)/Mods/campaigns/FA-18C Flaming Sunrise/Doc.

Hi, Just working on it. I'm doing my best to get it into next DCS update.

Hi, Thank you for your message. And congratulations for completing the campaign! Actual campaign ending debriefing is at the end of the last dynamic mission. "End mission" is there just to make sure that player understands that campaign really has been succesfully completed. There is nothing else than carrier battle group sailing in sunset, background music and text after 30 seconds telling about victory. Problem is that DCS campaign engine doesn't undrestand that kind of situation where campaign ends even if there is still missions left. That is why there is no normal generic campaign ending text and you will be offered a next mission after "End mission". Because of dynamic nature of this campaign if you would have failed to support your ground troops one way or other in the last mission, campaign would have continued.

Hi, Thank you for you message. According to the story-line the aircraft carrier stays at a safe distance outside the range of Iranian anti-ship missiles and it won't move closer. True reason is of course that because of dynamicity of the campaign air superiority and air defense level is not known before player feeds them in at begining of the mission. And it wouldn't be very realistic to drive the carrier close to active enemy airbase or air defense sites. It's true that flights will be longer at the end part of the campaign. Usually still not more than hour unless you attack against most northern air bases. Missions are still just a minor part of real world missions lasting hours with multiple AARs.

Hi, Being new in DCS is not a problem. This campaign just differs quite a lot from normal scripted campaign. Here you are not flying preplanned missions. Instead you need to act as squadron CO and according to goals given to your squadron plan missions to reach those goals. First of all you need to read the campaign manual. When installing campaign, documentations goes to somewhat challenging place. It should be found behind following path: Program files/Eagle Dynamics/DCS World (or DCS World OpenBeta)/Mods/campaigns/FA-18C Flaming Sunrise/Doc. Manual does not give you instructions how to win the war but it will guide you how to plan a single mission. First mission is like intro and doesn't need planning. Before second mission you should read the briefing and find out what goals are given to your squadron. For the first dynamic mission it is something like this: "Primary mission to gain air superiority in Emirates and northern parts of Oman airspace. Secondary mission to support Emirate’s ground forces defending city of Dubai." Now you need to decide how to reach those goals with 10 Hornets of your squadron. When you start this mission, there is also tutorial telling you how to task your squadron and so on. At the end of the missions you will get debriefing about what happened during the mission and what is situation on ground. After landing you need to press spacebar to start the debriefing. After crashing or ejecting it starts automatically. In debriefing you will get Air Superiority Level and Enemy Air Defense level for the next mission. Those numbers and charts you will need when planning next mission. Active air bases for the next mission can be found from Air Superiority Level chart during the debriefing. Charts can be found from documentation also. Don't hesitate to ask if still confused.

I tested attack against Bandar Abbas international airport. There is active military base only when air superiority level is 10-20 % or less. When active, AI bombed runways and infrastructure as supposed and it was noted in debriefing. Please report if you still get into this problem even if air base should be active.

If you have achieved air superiority level of 70-80% those air bases are not active anymore. So you can't destroy them. They will become active again if enemy gets your air superiority level back to lower level. You need to check active air bases from planning charts of current air superiority level before tasking your flights. Unfortunately AI may sometimes get back home via very interesting routes and altitudes. No matter what altitude is set for the unit.

Thanks for report. I will check. What was air superiority level for missions? Damage is only counted for active airbases.

In first few tests I wasn't able to get the problem to happen and all flights launched normally. Still it is not first time AI does something stupid on deck. Usually it is when there are F-14s involved but in this campaign that doesn't explain. Could you please tell me also what tasks had you assigned for other flights (D2-D4)? And if you could try again after downloading todays update and report did it change anything?

Hi, Thank you for report. I'll check when able to get DCS started. At the moment seems to be quite crowded due to update. It needs some magic to get all AI aircraft to launch without crashing each other or to get stuck anywhere. Did you wait until D5 was behind cat or had you already taxied? And which task was assigned to D5?

Change log for June update 2023 Documentation – typos fixed All missions – typos fixed All missions – planning charts included in in-game kneeboard All missions – sidenumbers changed to be more realistic

Everything what happens after mission start and before (actually during) debriefing will affect. Point of the campaign is not what you do as a single pilot but what your decisions are. So you you can stay on the deck during whole mission but because of AI restrictions D4 won't launch if you won't.

Tested it and it seems to be like that old problem is still there but fortunately not as bad as year ago. Still if F-18 has to make a steep turn to catch the tanker it may stall until hit the ground. I tried with three two ship flights simultaneusly at tanker station and lost usually one F-18. That sucks but won't ruin the mission. I will report the problem to ED but can't promise they will make it better.

Hi, It was year ago when there was a huge AI Hornet AAR problem. If F-18 had to make too steep turn when meeting the tanker they lost their airspeed and stalled all the way to the ground. ED mostly fixed that so it only happened sometimes. I don't think you are doing anything wrong. Just hope that bug is not coming back. I will check that. https://forum.dcs.world/topic/300277-question-mission-10-waypoint-2-rendezvous/?do=findComment&comment=4989904

I couldn't find the A-10 suicide site but there are lots of things that may affect. Like is that certain AAA alive. Anyway it's just like you said. As told in mission briefing, if you take care of air superiority, Air Force will provide some CAS power so you may use your squadron somewhere else. You may land anywhere you want. Of course in real life it would be good to return to the carrier but in emergency you may use any available place. Actually for campaign progression it doesn't matter if you land or get shot down. Campaign will progress to the next stage anyway. You will return to the same mission only if you end the mission without going through the debriefing part. Losing your aircraft will of course have an affect on air superiority calculation as losing any of you squadron aircrafts.