Sandman Simulations

Hi, Thank you for your message. It would naturally be possible to create the campaign in such a way that all friendly and enemy units are visible on the map. However, the difficulty level of the campaign has been carefully balanced, and changing this setting would have a significant impact. It would not only make units visible on the map, but all units set to be visible would also be listed in the briefing — and to my understanding, this cannot be disabled. That would spoil many of the intended surprises. In reality, not everything the player is led to believe is happening around them is actually taking place. For the sake of performance, units may appear and disappear in areas where the player won’t notice — actions that would look strange if shown on the map. So unfortunately the answer is no.

A month has flown by again and intense testing continues. In addition to testing the campaign progression calculations, I've been working on briefing materials, including images of the target areas. However, this work is still largely unfinished. The campaign documents will inevitably become, shall we say, extensive. Voice actors have been working on the voice-overs, and I have been editing the recordings. I've also been working on aircraft liveries. Nothing too special, but unique side numbers for the four Tomcat squadrons, since it's not possible to change them in the editor like it is with the Hornets. This only means about 50 liveries. A fair amount of time will still be spent on these tasks.

Over the past month, I have been working on calculations to determine the impact of actions of our troops on the enemy's air force, air defenses, and logistics, and consequently on the progress of ground battles. Finding the right balance in terms of difficulty requires an immense amount of testing. At the beginning of the mission, the player receives a briefing on the progress of ground battles, active enemy air forces and air defenses, available friendly aircraft, and active enemy strategic targets. Based on this information, the player sets an objective for the mission and assigns flights to accomplish it. The assigned aircraft take off from two aircraft carriers and one land base, proceeding to designated holding areas. From there, the player orders flights to push at appropriate timings. The player can choose to participate in the mission as part of any squadron. It is advisable to neutralize enemy air defenses before escort, sweep, or strike flights enter the area. However, at the same time, enemy fighters may pose a threat to SEAD flights. Destroying airfields and SAM sites directly impacts enemy strength in the next mission. Depending on the overall situation, the enemy may be able to restore some destroyed bases or air defense positions. Ground forces can be supported by providing direct close air support. Destroying enemy strategic targets affects their ground forces' combat effectiveness, air force logistics, or attack helicopter activity, depending on the target. Eliminating enemy attack aircraft, in turn, reduces nullcasualties among friendly ground troops. At the end of the mission, the player receives a debriefing on the situation's progress during the mission.

Please report if the issue still happens after the update. If it's the same problem it was with both Hornet and Tomcat and in any mission.

Just tested and I wasn't able to replicate the issue. It shouldn't be the parking position as the wingman should never taxi befor the player unless there is a bug (again) with the deck crew. Do you have the latest version? In the last version there was a taxi issue where the wingman taxied immediately when the player saluted for taxi but that was fixed by ED.

Hi, Thank you for your report. I'll take a look.

19/03/2025 update Mission 6: Fixed Syrian ships killing each other

I checked it out and this time I was able to kill the Migs with first try. Usually they have beaten me couple of times first. So I think it's not harder than before. But I found that Syrian ships are shooting each other again. It doesn't break the mission but one vo trigger fires wrong time. Tacview-20250315-190436-DCS-Mission 6.zip.acmi

Thanks for your message. It's not easy mission but shouldn't be impossible either. I'll take a look if there has been some AI changes making it even harder than before.

Thanks. I just tested and the trigger fired normally. As it's counting the bomb in the zone and the trigger is checked once in a second there might be a small change the bomb would go through the zone and explode within that one second and not be counted. Just have'nt been able to replicate it.

There seems to be a bigger problem with the deck crew. The same happens in any mission and with F14 too and depending on the parking place it also might cause AI wingman to collide with player while taxing. I'm just reporting this to ED as this is problem I can't fix. Until it's fixed you can disable the deck crew and the campaign should work normally.

Hi, Thank you for reporting. The bridge is some kind of non-destroyable object so there is an explosion set to simulate destruction when the bomb is close enough. I'll take a look if the trigger is not firing. Did you got a chatter about succesfully destroying the bridge or missing it?

Hi, Thank you for reporting. I'll take a look into it. I would be surprised if it's not all the missions as it's a DCS build-in wingman. So I have no control on taxi sequence but he's ment to taxi after the player. Sounds like a bug that needs to be reported to ED.

Thanks. Didn't notisce that. Maybe if there will be some other vo-updates.

For three weeks, I tried adjusting the code for an individual wingman. The goal was to enable issuing commands to the wingman via the F10 menu, such as bombing specific targets, engaging enemy aircraft, etc. It worked well otherwise, but unfortunately, the F10 menu doesn't seem to handle unlimited load, as repeated bugs began to occur where the menu would freeze. I found this to be too unreliable for a campaign. The menu already includes mission code input and, after that, push and RTB command options for assigned flights. I ended up continuing with the stock wingman. The AI wingman performs quite well in CAS, SEAD, and CAP missions. When commanded, it attacks the nearest enemy ground troops or air defenses and can be directed against either a specific enemy aircraft or all nearby hostile aircraft. However, it is unable to conduct bombing runs on strategic targets, as predefined parameters cannot bnulle provided due to the numerous possible target options. In these missions, the wingman primarily serves as a protective escort against enemy air threats and air defenses.

Great to hear. Have a nice flight

20/02/2025 update All missions including AAR - added safeguard to prevent AI get stuck with the tanker

Great to hear you tried it again

The AAR seems to be fixed by ED in the development version so it should be out in public in the next update.

Hi, My patch didn't made it into the latest campaign update as the deadline was already passed. ED has told that they will fix the AAR for the next update so the patch shouldn't be needed until the AAR is broken again. Unfortunately they haven't published the next update date yet.

Finally, after three months of work, I have reached the same point where the stutter issue first appeared. A lot of optimization and compromises have been necessary, but now it seems that the project can continue. Next, the plan is to make the player's wingman fully functional. Originally, I had intended to use a stock wingman, but it cannot be commanded to attack enemy airfields or strategic targets, which significantly limits its usefulness. Of course, the stock wingman is still capable of SEAD, CAS, and CAP missions. I will start exploring whether it would be practical to create a separate wingman and give the player the ability to issue commands for specific missions.

Hi, Just tested and working normally with and without the crew. You just need to taxi first.

I think the exact wording in the NATOPS is "maintain 500 feet altitude until 7 nautical miles (NM) from the carrier". Anyway there is a chance to miss the trigger. There was some good reason why it's not triggered by speed but just can't remember what it was.

05/02/2025 update M2 – Missing voice line added again