Sandman Simulations

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.

That is true. If you use "engage bandits" command AI will engage what ever enemy it thinks is the greatest threat and might help you spontaneously. But you never know and often you end up shooting missiles against same enemy. If trying split to our forces and save some missiles I usually use "attack my enemy" command so I have some idea where my wingman is going. But then after killing enemy I have pointed wingman usually won't engage other enemies and might not save my butt.

All feedback and remarks are warmly welcome. I will put them all to my notes and if I can find I good resolution without breaking something else I'll try to fix also AI-problems if possible. About A-10s. Need to take a look to it. I had big challenges to balance A-10s not to be too efficient. Can you specify what was name of that mission and how many missions being flown before it. I tested few missions and it seems that at least there A-10s are still doing a good job. Even little bit too good

Hi, Thank you for your feedback. Flight tasked to SEAD area Bravo should attack SA-10 west from Bandar Lengeh as priority and if SA-10 is out of operation (like it is in your situation) they should attack SA-6 at Bandar Lengeh. Only after SA-6 should they attack against AAA and Rapiers on smaller islands. Just tested it and they are acting just as you said. But when I set one flight simultaneously commit OCA strike to Bandar Lengeh, SA-6 started shooting at them and at the same time SEAD-flight reacted, shot HARMs and destroyed SA-6. They of course didn't do that if they already had shot all HARMs to other targets. I'm not sure what causes it and it wasn't like this during tests. I'm not sure if SA-6 with skill level high can be using radar only when engaging threat and only then can be engaged with HARMs? Cost of dynamic features is that there is much more dependency on AI than in normal scripted campaign. And as we all know DCS AI sometimes does something very stupid. I'm sure there will be lots of AI-things I need to fix. Because in this situation flight seems to do their job in the end I will not change things at least for now. Tacview-20230529-231416-DCS-STAGE 4 90 perf.zip.acmi

Hi, Thank you for your feedback. I have already made update and included most important charts in kneeboard. I try to get it in the next DCS update. Unfortunately I can't do anything about wingman behavior. I usually use "engage my enemy" and it has worked at least until now.

At least at the moment it's not possible. You just need to start mission again if you give wrong task. I did that many many times while testing the campaign and I couldn't find easy way to give player opportunity to take one step back. When you choose task for flight a new group with that task will spawn on deck. I'm not sure would it work if I add possibility to remove already spawned flight and set new one on deck. Already there is a risk of AI colliding on deck if player starts taxiing wrong time and I'm bit scared it would mess up AI getting air even more. It was quite a job to get it work like it works now.