DCS_moldy

I actually really liked the SA-6 popup despite maybe being "unfair" because it reset the typical rules of campaigns (basically - it should always be possible to 100% a mission 100% of the time) and that put me more on my toes for the rest of the missions. And also the realism that the SEAD guys may not pick up every threat. If a SAM waits till a striker is in the WEZ to emit there's not much SEAD can do to prevent it. Yeah I realized later what went wrong with the BDC, just an error on my part. That's one of the reasons I recommended this campaign moreso for experienced players of your campaigns, since missing those small details have the potential to mess up the whole mission. Not a mission issue itself but maybe an opportunity for more clarity on the prompt.

I did not revisit any missions during my initial playthrough. I wanted to treat it more like the "real thing" and just try to improve as much as I could over the course of the exercises without taking the extra attempts. My final scores for the initial playthrough were: M01 - 80% (did not survive) M02 - No debrief (thought it was bugged at the time but I think I just missed a switch at shutoff) M03 - 40% (did not survive, did not hit TOT, missed procedures) M04 - 100% M05 - 100% M06 - 80% (violated hard deck crossing a ridge) M07 - 60% (felt extremely grateful to get out with this score) M08 - 60% (procedures - Pappy ingresses at less than 15k so I was told to check blocks while joining up. Also smoky sams killed my entire flight) M09 - 80% (missed TOT but briefing made it seem this would not be a factor) M10 - 80% (did not kiss off wingman when breaking) M11 - 80% (had a utility hydraulics failure for some reason and the slats were stuck out, preventing me from hitting TOT) While I wasn't consistently hitting 100% towards the end, I still felt like I had improved and had a better grasp of the exercise and the range. Now that I'm finished there are a few I want to go back and revisit. For instance in Mission 3: Another note on mission 6:

Finished the campaign. Overall it was an excellent experience. I thought it was very immersive and that the Red Flag setting was both done really well and was particularly suited to providing a good DCS campaign experience. The campaign is challenging, but in different ways than campaigns typically are. I think most campaigns are limited in how challenging they can make missions because having difficult combat encounters that players struggle to get past leads to a lot of repetition and frustration as you play the same mission over and over. This campaign isn't like that. For one, a lot of the challenge is not purely "combat" but is instead being in the right place at the right time with your jet properly configured. Second, immortal is on as long as you are following the rules, so you can "fail" without actually dying and having to replay anything. I thought this worked excellent for DCS, as it's immersion breaking in other campaigns to "die" and then replay the same mission again knowing everything that will happen. Instead it's a teaching moment, you continue on, and you reflect on what went wrong as you fly back to base. It made it rewarding to nail a mission and get 100% in the debrief. I can see myself actually going back and reflying some of the missions to get a better score vs feeling forced to in order to progress. The missions themselves were really well done as usual. The campaign offers a ton of variety in mission objectives and weapons, though the way out to the range and back can get repetitive and expect to spend 20 minutes sitting on the ramp before taxiing. You could fast forward through that part if you want, but whenever I had the real world time to spare I preferred to spend the waiting period reviewing the objectives, familiarizing myself with the route, and refreshing myself one last time on weapons delivery procedures. All the dialogue was great, especially between Mac and Jester. It was just enough to add some character and lighten up some dull moments without being overdone. I think this campaign is best suited to players who have solid proficiency in flying the F4 and have prior experience with Reflected's campaigns. While the fact that immortal on may make it "easier" to just fly out to a spot in the desert, drop some bombs, and head home, the real strength of this campaign (and Reflected's campaigns generally) is the immersion. There's a ton to learn within the campaign itself, and I can't see having that same immersion if you aren't proficient enough with the jet to land bombs on target or follow the various procedures. If you are proficient in the F4 and have enjoyed any of Reflected's other work, then this campaign is a must-buy. Thanks for another awesome campaign, hopefully it's not the last F4 one for a while.

It appears you need outboard wing tank transfer on for the checklist to progress. The checklist only says "check quantity" so I found this unintuitive. It may be worth adding the switch requirement to the kneeboard checklist.

nullEncountered what seems to be a bug in the Taxi checklist. I hit the arming area during the checklist and that seemed to prevent it from progressing after "fuel." I had everything set so there were no delays, and I was just taxiing as normal behind the rest of the flight, didn't cut out ahead or anything. Attached message log for reference. Also another minor thing for M01 - the Squadron Briefing calls out the wrong Marshal location. It says Maine at 21 to 24 but that appears to be where Rattler flight is supposed to be.null

Finished the campaign and wanted to share my thoughts. Overall, a really fun campaign and I think both this and FIWOS are must-haves for Viper pilots interested in single player campaigns. Missions in LOWOS are consistently fun and intense. I did find flight times could be long, but optional conversations help pass some of the time and if it's something that bothers you, you can always fast forward through these sections. The "Weasel System" helps make gameplay dynamic, moreso than most singleplayer experiences, and works really well combined with the ability to have your wingman engage targets. I found missions to have good variety, with a change of pace mission popping up every time things were in danger of becoming stale. I would definitely recommend picking up FIWOS first, as it has a good ramp up to introduce you to fighting SAMs. If you've already played FIWOS then you should know what to expect and should have a good idea of if you'll like the campaign.

I saw your YouTube post about Red Flag 81-2 going to ED, very excited to put my A2G skills to the test. Not to brag, but I did get a "shack" on the loft portion of the A2G hop (got a very angry reaction from Jester after direct bombing, but to be fair I use DT 95% of the time). If you don't mind, can you explain the differences between Debden Eagles and BNBB? I saw a comment on a video that one of the main differences is more formation flying in Debden Eagles, but that's not an issue for me. Also curious as to average mission lengths between the two of them.

Finished the campaign, really well done! It was a really great opportunity to dive deeper into the F-4. As usual the voice acting, immersion, mission design, materials, etc were all excellent. I'd say the campaign is a must-have for anyone who owns the F-4 module, and the value you get from the campaign goes up the more you're willing to embrace all the real life procedures. What you are able to get out of the AI is pretty miraculous, although it did have its fair share of mishaps and would have had the program shut down. During the 4vUnk one of the F-4s smacked into the ground. I sort of hoped that the mission could have recognized that and had voice lines reacting to it before restarting the event. That would've added to the immersion (and some amusement), although I could also see some people thinking it was intentional if the mission reacted that way. Speed and Angels is the obvious comparison for this campaign. I think both are excellent, but I did enjoy how Speed and Angels gave you the opportunity to put your skills to the test in a ""real world"" scenario. I suppose I'll just have to sub in the provided Paradise Lost missions for now. I do think the multi-part missions are really great for these training campaigns. The ability to load the exercise files separately adds a lot of value to the package. Unfortunately I'm beginning to run out of your campaigns to play for the jets I have, so I may need to bite the bullet and dip my toes into WWII. I've been eyeing Debden Eagles once all the required modules go on sale. For now I think I'll have to pick up Zone 5 and round out your Tomcat trilogy. Thanks for all the work that goes into these campaigns. While I'd had some fun in the F-4 before this, it's a completely different experience to immerse yourself in the real procedures used to operate these aircraft. Really looking forward to your upcoming Red Flag campaign.

Just finished the campaign. Definitely one of the best campaigns I've played. Of your campaigns, I've finished Speed and Angels, Fear the Bones, and now Paradise Lost. For me, Paradise Lost sits at a perfect balance point between fun and realism. Mission design was excellent as usual, as was the voice acting. I'm always impressed with both the technical aspects of the missions as well as the creativity in how you use the assets available to you (the mission with Naked-9 being a good example). The world building was also great. The letters from home were a nice touch, and they were infrequent enough that they didn't detract from immersion. I also really appreciate the effort you put into cutscenes, they do a great job framing the story. To me the limitation of setting the campaign on Guam rather than Vietnam actually lent itself to the campaign's favor, as flight times were very reasonable and the smaller scale of the island made me very familiar with the AO by the end of the 12 missions in a way that a larger map may not. I think the tongue in cheek and less serious moments also worked better with it being a fictional conflict. It still did a great job of giving that glimpse of what it may have really been like to fly in Vietnam. Being in the cockpit over the jungle in VR helped contextualize things I'd read in books like Chickenhawk and gave me even more appreciation and respect for the people who did this for real, so I thank you for that. I'm probably going to fly Mig Killers next, and while I'm excited for the extra levels of realism in that campaign, I also am going to miss the pick-up and play nature of this campaign. As someone with a pretty packed schedule, it was really nice having missions I could comfortably fly on a weeknight without having to resort to time acceleration or dedicating time to reading through extensive briefings or other materials. At the same time, I also enjoy your study level campaigns when I have the time for them. If you could clone yourself so one of you could make the hyper realistic campaigns and the other could make ones on the slightly more casual side, that would be great.

Finished the campaign, what an awesome experience! Really enjoyed the structure of it, learning the various skills and then having the opportunity to put them to the test in the same campaign. Missions were well designed, well documented, and basically bug free (ran into occasional DCS issues but not the fault of the campaign). The only constructive feedback I have is that some of the background radio transmissions were a bit repetitive (you think they heard us?) but that's really it. Thanks for all the work you and Paco put in on this! Also, light spoilers for maybe my favorite mission, mission 15:

Having the same issue with the Jeep not moving. Also, for some reason I could not pick up Texaco's TACAN until Jester called out that we were within two miles.

Having this same issue today. Bombs went way long of CCIP marker in FF mode. Tested it and switching between FF and RET showed no change on the HUD. -Edited to include track F18 82SE.trk

Here's my one sentence review after beating the campaign: FIWOS is a very good campaign, and if you own the Viper module then it is an experience well worth your time and money. Full Review: For me what makes FIWOS so good is that it sticks to an area of DCS that already provides engaging gameplay, fighting enemy air defense systems, but it builds upon that gameplay with its own Weasel System to create something that feels like DCS 3.0. The Weasel System will have SAMS limit their emissions, similar to the SkyNet IADS system, but it also adds in AI attack options through the F10 menu, as well as jamming effects. These combine to create a very dynamic environment where you play cat and mouse with SAMS, baiting out their shots to allow you to locate and destroy them. The Weasel system on its own is very impressive, but it really shines when it is combined with FIWOS's well designed missions. These missions are built to be flexible and react to the players actions. Out of bombs and you missed a SAM before the strikers arrived? Get in there and bait the SAM, drawing its shots so the package can get through. Get hit by flack attacking your target and have to RTB? Well you might get chewed out, but if you did enough and get back to base and land, then the campaign is 100% ok with that result and you might even finish with a good score. It's impressive that the campaign can react so well to the various things the player might do. I didn't go out of my way to push it, but I never had some of the typical DCS experiences of thinking "Uh oh, did this trigger not fire? Will I still be able to complete the mission?" There were nearly always radio comms at key points to reassure me I was on track. On the topic of radio comms, while these weren't always the most realistic, they did a good job of fleshing out the world and making the characters you fly with more memorable. The more chit-chatty conversations were generally optional and are the sorts of conversations you could see happening back at base. I would personally rather hear these during a long ingress to the target than read them in a briefing or listen to them in a cutscene before a mission, so I was happy they were there. These conversations do a lot to flesh out the setting of FIWOS, a Syrian Civil War in an alternate history resulting from the events in GPS's other campaigns but close enough to our own to feel believable. The Intelligence Assessment provided in the campaign documents gives good background to the various factions, and the briefing documents before each mission do a good job of placing each mission in the wider context of the conflict. Missions tended to be clustered together around a specific area or series of objectives. These sets of missions within themselves would feel very satisfying as you became familiar with fighting in a certain area or against a specific faction, but it didn't always feel like you were making progress in a wider campaign. For me this was not a significant issue, but it is something that Operation Cerberus North did very well, so in that regard I felt it was a slight step down. There were only two other issues I had with the campaign. Avoiding spoilers, in one mission a voiceline seems to give an order to handle an engagement a certain way, but it seems like it's intended that you adjust this approach if needed. In another mission a change in AI behavior in a recent update made the mission much more difficult than intended, but the campaign author has said he intends to correct that. Beyond these two issues, one thing I feel would be a great addition to the Weasel System is the ability to direct your wingman to distract a SAM. It would open up so many opportunities in how you can deal with various threats, especially if your wingman is winchester, but I imagine this behavior would be very difficult to add. Overall, the couple issues I have don't detract from a great experience. This campaign really lets you get the most out of the Viper in a mission set that the Viper does better than any other jet in DCS. A must have for anyone remotely interested in the F16 in a singleplayer environment.

I'm playing in VR, on a Reverb G2 which admittedly has better clarity than a lot of headsets. But for most targets I don't search for them out of the canopy, I use the TGP or HTS. I couldn't even remotely distinguish between target types just by looking out the cockpit. Sometimes I can see concentrations or spots where AAA is coming up, and I'll use the JHMCS to cue the pod over to it to check it out. If dots work for you and you are enjoying the campaign then don't let me ruin it for you. My comment was worded a bit rude but I do think people should be able to play in a way that works for them.

I do not understand wanting to just point mavericks at red dots and pickle. Completely defeats the purpose of the campaign IMO. Seems like watching a scary movie in the middle of the day with the sound off. But it doesn't really hurt me at all for those options to be available for the people who want them. For the ones that won't mechanically break the campaign it probably makes sense to let people pick.

Really enjoying this campaign. I appreciate the focus on authenticity and immersion rather than strict "realism." The scoring system provides incentive to really push for extra objectives, and I love the balance of risk vs reward. I like that I get to make the call on whether or not to go on that last gun run, it isn't a mission fail if I don't, and there are missions I've scored less on but still feel good about because I feel like I made the smart decision. I've only completed 7 missions, a little over half the campaign, but so far the scripting of the AI has worked really well, and the AI wingman is actually useful. Mission variety has been good so far. I enjoy the missions that give you flexibility in how you complete the objectives, but it is also satisfying to be part of a well coordinated strike. And even though I don't plan on using it, I appreciate the option to set yourself as immortal in the campaign. Just another example of how this campaign is much less restrictive than others. One issue I've had in other campaigns is the worry that I've missed a trigger or done something wrong to break the mission, but this campaign has done a great job of not only not breaking, but also semi-regularly giving you updates which reassures you that everything is still working properly. Only "bug" I've had so far is that when my radio got knocked out by AAA in a mission, my pilot kept saying things on the radio and responding to people despite the fact that I couldn't hear them. It was only some of the radio chatter, I could still hear Sentinel and H4. But accounting for every possible way your jet can be damaged is probably a bit much to ask for. I'm not a huge fan of some of the voice acting, but I get it isn't a AAA game. I've seen other people praise the voice acting, so maybe it's just my personal preference. But overall the experience has been great. Knew this would be a day one buy, and so far it has not disappointed!

DCS does not show up at all. I'm using a Reverb G2. Edit: I did try running OpenComposite not as admin with no result.

Nope, I've got both installed in a separate folder that is in the root of C:\

I ended up just doing a fresh reinstall of everything again, and this time I've got OpenComposite in a separate folder. I did have it in program files before, so that was probably the issue. I've still been unable to get it working. Everything works fine with SteamVR, but when I switch to OpenComposite DCS just loads on the desktop not in VR and nothing shows up in the App Configuration page. I've checked all my settings and done a repair/cleaning of DCS, but I can't seem to get any apps to show on that App Configuration page.

I'm getting this error when I try to start DCS: I'm running OpenComposite as an administrator, and I've given it full control in the security tab in properties. Does anyone know what would be causing this? Fully willing to accept that I've done something dumb with the install, but I did do a fresh install of Windows and DCS and followed the instructions as far as I can tell. Thanks