Sandman Simulations

Hi, New version 1.04 can be downloaded from DCS user files. Unfortunately it will reset your old campaign but you can skip previous missions. Because there is no good debriefing option in DCS there is not very much to see after the point freezing happened so you have pretty much passed the campaign already. I think problem was too many aircrafts in vicinity of the player. Because it is training campaign no one will die and killed aircrafts from both sides would fly back to Nellis after being hit. Unfortunately Nellis approach is not so efficient so those returning aircrafts were stacked at holding. I'm pretty sure freezing occurred when player got to point were aircrafts in holding should become visible. That problem was not there few months ago so I don't know what has changed and why it is happening. Or I can be totally wrong and problem comes back next time I test it

Training Campaign now updated. At least for me freezing not happening anymore after I fixed end of mission 4 bit more performance friendly.

You are right. Mission is freezing while on way back to Nellis. Almost at same point twice but not exactly. I haven't yet found reason for this problem I have never seen before after testing this mission about dozens of times. Have to continue searching what could cause the problem.

Hi, Thank your for your feedback. There has been quite a many core updates since I last tested this Campaign. I will check if I can find reason for freezing. There has been some freeze reports lately about DLC campaign and I haven't been able to find any other reason but possibly bit too many aircrafts nearby at same time. I'm not sure if it is performance problem but it is one possibility. For those who haven't been playing my free training mini-campaign it can be found from user-files. Sandstrom Training Camp mini campaign 1.03 by Sandman Simulations (digitalcombatsimulator.com)

Hi, There might be some elements not so important for the mission that could be excluded to ease a bit with system requirements. I'll check that. Game freezing at the end is very annoying. Unfortunately I still can't give you reason why you have this problem. It could be mission being too massive but @JupiterJoe had that problem with earlier missions too with much less units in air. Overlord not being available via communication menu is deliberate choice I had to made in this and actually in quite many missions. Reason is when there more things going on at same time channel would be filled with AWACS calls about distant enemies not being important to player at the time.

Hi, Thanks for feedback.

25/5/2022 update All missions "Press spacebar" message did stay too long - fixed Improved landing checklist Landing checklist message sometimes fired too early - fixed List is not challenge type list anymore but pilot monologi - except if item is missing Jester will remind to check the item Player aircraft number corrected to match with side number Some typos corrected Jester talks less over VOs (even if someone might like Jester voice more) Mission 2 Tanker callsign fixed to match briefing/kneeboard

Actually now that I finally got to check ICLS channel is on kneeboard as it should be or did you mean something else?

Hi, There has been some discussion about the topic earlier. In preview video you can take a look to mission 5. Video has been made long time a go so it is not release version. Better kneeboards and so on are included in release. But voices are same so have a look

Hi, Sorry to hear VOs are broking your ears. Here has been some conversation about the topic. https://forum.dcs.world/topic/299771-bugs-issues/?do=findComment&comment=4961127

Thanks you for your notice. It's really important indeed. Fortunately channel 11 is preset for ICLS but it really is ment to be in kneeboard too!

You are right about that. As a recreational general aviation pilot my opinion is bit biased... I love just flying these planes. But in DCS these aircrafts are quite complex and well modelled. I think (and hope) that someone who has interest and patience to use hours after hours to learn how to operate and fly F-14 will have patience to fly missions where timeline is even bit realistic, enemy is not waiting within 30 miles from carrier and just flying your aircraft right is important part of the mission.

Thank you again for your comments. That mission has been quite a pain in my a**. During making of the campaign there has been changes in AI fighting capability and missile behavior both affecting difficulty level of the mission. Mission that was perfectly playable was way too difficult in next test. So it's nice to hear you found it enjoyable.

Good you made it. In what situtation freezing happened?

Hi and thanks for the file. And nice to hear you have finally been able to pass the mission. Unfortunately I have no competence to interpret log-file to find the reason for freezing. I think there is list of units in the mission... It's possible that AI stucking can cause problems but there must be something else too. I have seen AI stucking on cat, on deck, on elevator, colliding in hangars and tell me what but never that has caused freezing.

I still haven't found anything from mission what could be reason for this behavior. This particular mission should not be very demanding for hardware and there is no complicated scripting. Only pure mission editor based stuff. But I'll keep searching

I will run more tests about this but at the moment I have no idea what could cause this.

I have not been able to reduplicate this crash problem. Does this happen to you with other missions or some other campaigns? Is it mission 2 or Night Requalification mission 3? If anyone else is having same problem pleas report.

Hi, And thank you for feedback. Nice to hear you have enjoyed missions even with those pilot voices. To get side numbers match with ATC is on fixing list, but as you said it would need custom skins to get variations for numbers. At leas at this point I have no resources for custom skins. But never say never.

Thank you for your feedback. Nice to hear you have enjoyed the campaign. It was quite a workfull year and of course work continues with some found bugs. But maybe at some point I'll find time for something new.

Good to know. I must do some testing. But it's true that A-A tcn hasn't been working normally lately

Damn but thanks for telling. Unfortunately if I change starting position of player it will change some AI starting positions too. I found current configuration most reliable to get the whole squadron launched. It's again balancing for playability and realism. Only way to be sure AI won't mess things up is to set AI start from air but it's not good for immersion. I took risk of constantly changing AI behavior in couple of missions where there are multiple flights participating same mission. I really don't like empty deck as you may have noticed. About SA. As you said in Mission 4 feedback you hate using F10 map as it is not realistic to see units on map. I agree it's far from realism. There is also some compromise made with that. In some missions (like mission 4 boats) there are units that are very difficult to find. Unfortunately it's quite difficult to get any dynamic bearing information for the player so I have set those units visible on F10 map. In real life there could be a possibility to get better SA by asking certain information from AWACS or like asking your wingman where the hell he is. At the moment there is very limited options for this.

Tanker name was wrong but TCN was set to 22Y as it was supposed. No idea how it could have shown something else.

Thanks for the report. First time might have been some random AI flight crash. During campaign testing there has been no CTDs so I can't have no idea what could cause that.

Thanks again for comments. I'll check things in your list when I get back to DCS from worktrip in few days.