Trailer

Ah no worries! You can ask questions here if you want as well, I don't mind. If you have a lot of technical questions, it's probably better to ask in the mission builder's forum just for the fact that you'll get a better answer there than from me, hehe. Great Sniper, I'm glad it's working now! I was getting frustrated with it as well.

AWESOME! Doing it now. EDIT: Ok, I updated the mission trigger to NO EVENT instead of ON DESTROY. Let me know if that works.

Ok, I just tried it and it's doing the same thing with me by not giving me the mission successful message. Go into the Mission Editor and load it up as a single mission, then check out the triggers and goals and tell me if something is wrong. Maybe it's something I don't even realize is wrong.

Thanks Sniper! I'm about to run it now, but I can't see anything wrong with it. After 5 seconds into the mission, you get a score of 50. When you kill the Foxbats, you get another score of 50 as well which equals the score of 100 you need to progress to the next mission. The trigger is very simple: I've selected ON DESTROY under TYPE, then GROUP DEAD (Foxbats) under CONDITIONS, then FLAG ON (50) under ACTIONS along with the mission success message and sound to the blue coalition. I'm about to try it now.

Ha!

Ok, I adjusted some of the triggers, so things should work better now. Lemme know if I need to adjust anything else and I'll get right on it. As far as the A-10s go, they should press with the attack now, but if they go home without killing everything, it's fine because you've done your job as long as they're still alive. I've found that A-10 AI is rather finicky sometimes, but Su-25s tend to get the job done really well. However, if you think a different loadout would be better for the A-10s, check their loadouts and feel free to change it. Lemme know if you do so I can change mine as well. I had originally planned them to be more autonomous and had put in some triggered actions and forgot to take them away, so I bet that's why they didn't attack their targets. Should be working now. Cobra, I'm not sure if it works, but I've checked the mission goal definitions and the triggers, and everything should be working fine on mission 4. However, I'm gonna give it a try later this evening and see if it doesn't advance.

Thanks Cobra! I'm gonna run it in a little while and see what's going on here...something's not right. After they die, you should get the mission complete signal. BTW, I sorta developed these with Falcon 4/BMS in mind, meaning that as long as the objectives were met, you don't even have to land the jet to get a successful mission. Of course it's preferable for realism, but I left it up to each individual.

Thanks so much for all your feedback! I'm glad you liked it! I'll change the triggers in the C17 mission because I think I actually meant to do it like you said in the first place but forgot. Lemme take a look at those A-10s as well...something's not right.

Yeah, download it again because I made some changes to the file since then because I had the exact same problem you had. I had to change the trigger for Mission Complete. I bet it works now, but if it doesn't let me know. Thank YOU for helping me de-bug it! Hope it works now. If you guys really like the campaign, I can add other stages to it in the future and make it more dynamic. I will eventually add voice overs, just need a bit of time to sort it out. I'm very happy you liked it!

Ok, that's the 4th mission. It's MiG-25s that you have to kill. If you're not getting the mission complete, then the only possible explanation is that you haven't killed all the MiGs. I'll run it later this evening and try to see what's going on. Thanks again for letting me know...if it's broken, I'll fix it ASAP. EDIT: I just checked the triggers in mission 4, and they *should* be working properly, but I'll give it a try later today. Did you re-download the campaign? I've been updating it nearly daily and you may have an old copy. Re-download it and copy and paste the fourth mission into your campaign folder and let me know if that works.

As soon as you shoot down the jets, you should get a Mission Complete announcement...is that not happening? As soon as that happens, whether you're landed or not, it should advance you to the next mission. I'll take a look at it in a bit. Thanks for the input!

Yep it's up-to-date as of right now...been tweaking daily. However, I've only tweaked it through the 5th mission. If you want, do a quick run-through of missions 6-10 before you film it to be sure. It's gonna work fine, but there may be a few things we overlooked as we were wrapping up. Be sure to download it again.

This is great stuff, I'm glad you liked it! Yeah, that runway at Novo is really short...but we just end up using it early on in the campaign. As far as the Su-25s go, I'll add something in the trigger when they come off target to give people a bit more SA. The 4th mission is designed to be somewhat disorienting due to the weather and darkness. It's rather straightforward, but if you don't pay attention you can end up in the drink really fast. There's no moon and it's overcast, so the ocean is just as black as the sky. Thanks for all the feedback!

Awesome!

Great! Thanks so much, I will use that radio beep definitely! I actually wanted to add one but didn't know how to go about finding it or even adding it...I'll work on it in a bit. Yeah, I need to eliminate WP 4 in the briefing...there used to be one but I eliminated it but forgot to update the brief. 4 calls bingo with me as well, and the only way to make him not burn all his fuel is to actually fly quite realistically towards WP1: no more than 5 degrees angle of bank and around 300 knots. Otherwise, he burns all his fuel trying to catch up with you. In fact, if we want to be really really anal about it, we should actually form up just after takeoff and fly towards WP1 as a flight, but I found that if you just take it easy towards WP1, it's not such a problem. If you have any questions on the terminology, just lemme know and I'll be happy to help! Keep it comin'! Thanks a million!

Thanks! I've been flying yours and it's nice to have a break from your own stuff, I know! I'm finding little tweaks every time I fly my campaign, so you can expect regular updates to try and improve it. I know how it is to be buried in the ME; it's a rabbit hole that's hard to get out of once you get started. Your voice-overs are really good in your campaign, even if it's more of a casual nature. It's nice to have a break from the rigidity of realism. I developed mine to be rather realistic in terms of pacing as well, so you'll find that the missions are actually rather long and even boring sometimes, with very few surprises. I wanted it to be as realistic as possible with the tools I had available and with the little knowledge I have about the ME. Like I said, it's actually more of an opportunity to get better as a mission planner and creator rather than present the community with a perfect campaign, because you'll see very quickly that it's most definitely not perfect, hehe. I'm finding certain triggers aren't working as planned in some missions; not because they don't work but because I subconsciously know what to do to make them work, and a player who is brand new to the campaign may not be able to set off the trigger. So, if you could, please let me know every time something doesn't work or needs tweaking. I've seen this campaign so many times that my objectivity has long gone.

Adjusted some triggers in the Retaliation mission.

Hope you like it!

Re-download file for up-to-date fixes.

Yeah thanks! I'm currently playing your campaign too...nice work!

After a few months of learning the sim and learning the campaign and mission builder, I think I'm ready to release A Bitter Pill to the public. A huge amount of thanks goes to Bel Geode for helping me learn the trigger system, the mission editor, and for helping me with testing. I really couldn't have done it without him. The campaign is finished, but it's still an ongoing project, so if you have any ideas or additions you would like to add, please let me know. Also, definitely let me know if you find any bugs or mistakes that I may have overlooked; it's difficult to be objective when I've run the campaign umpteen times and know everything that happens. Please, PLEASE do not hesitate to point out bugs or problems...I've been working on it for so long that I just can't look at it anymore. My original aim was for it to be a learning project for me, but then it just kept getting bigger and bigger as I discovered more and more things about the mission builder. The campaign is ten missions, aimed at novice pilots or pilots new to DCS, but only because the missions are made rather straight-forward, and the employment of forces is tilted in the favor of the Blue side. I designed the campaign to ease the new player into the sim, but by no means is every mission going to be a walk in the park. There is a 3 mission Su-27 parallel put into the storyline, which I've done on purpose to introduce both airframes to new players. I've also tried to add as much atmosphere as possible, so there will be other AI on their own simultaneous missions. Some will be on your freq and some won't. This campaign is trigger-heavy, and I've also added AWACS comm, which your flight will respond to. Think The Ultimate Argument without voice-overs. Unfortunately there aren't any voice-overs, but I'd like to add them soon. The AWACS controlling comm is realistic (I'm a former GCI controller), so if there are some terms you aren't familiar with, please ask and I'll explain it. It shouldn't be very difficult to understand, though. You won't find, however, ridiculous, cartoon-y comm between flights like, "So, what did you have for lunch today?". The scenario is what I would call realistic but very improbable. I wanted to really use my imagination but keep it feasible, and I think I've found a good balance. Like I said, it's feasible but highly improbable, so just keep that in mind. It's quite long and detailed, so get ready for a wall of text: A BITTER PILL Introduction: After two years of conflict with Ukraine, Russian-backed separatists were able to take over the Crimean Peninsula and eastern Ukrainian provinces, effectively creating a buffer zone between Russia and the West. Emboldened by such a relatively painless victory and a seemingly impotent NATO reluctant to accept Ukraine's bid for NATO membership, a new Georgian conflict began to rear its ugly head for a second time soon after. This time, however, Russian-backed forces pushed past South Ossetia and further into Georgia, effectively reclaiming it entirely under the Russian banner. The cat was out of the bag at this point and there was no doubting that the invasions into Ukraine and Georgia were orchestrated by the Kremlin, who now freely acknowledges their involvement. While NATO partners may have been asleep at the wheel for the Ukrainian crisis, the second move into Georgia was a clear shot across the bow, and one they would not let go unpunished. After severely ratcheting up economic sanctions on Russia, Ukraine was given carte blanche by the US Department of Defense and other EU Ministries of Defense for arms agreements as well as full NATO membership. With the full backing of the western world including arms, support, as well as being a full member of NATO, Ukraine sprang into action, determined to take back what they saw was rightfully theirs. They took it all back and then some. For Russia, severely crippling economic sanctions combined with the strain of two simultaneous conflicts was more than the rouble and the Russian people could bear. Determined to prove to the world that they, like the US, could successfully sustain two simultaneous conflicts, Russian leaders overreached and overspent while ignoring their own quickly dwindling forces and logistics required to supply said forces in both Ukraine and Georgia. It is at this time that an emboldened and western-backed Ukraine makes its move, catching Russian forces in Crimea and in the eastern provinces completely by suprise and utterly decimating them before Russia even has a chance to respond. With NATO at the helm this time, Ukrainian and NATO forces continue to push past the Crimean Peninsula into Russia, effectively overtaking the area all the way from Anapa to Sochi, where they were finally stopped by Russian forces along the coast. As of right now there is a push eastward to overtake Mineralnye Vody and Mozdok in an effort to cut off and corner Russian forces in the southeast. At this point both sides are dug in and at a standoff. Afraid of escalating an unpopular war that an already economically crippled Russia is losing, both NATO and Russian governments agree to not commit any more regular forces to the conflict in an effort to defuse the situation as much as they can, impossible as it may be to do so. However, there has not been a cease-fire, much less any sort of peace agreement. NATO is, in fact, at war with Russia. Currently, NATO forces are not to encroach from the south upon the border stretching north from Anapa to just north of Mineralnya Vody. Russia, in turn, has agreed not to encroach upon the same border from the north. However, there have already been numerous violations, and one can only assume there will be more. While Russia doesn't want to lose face on the world stage, neither does it want to lose territory to Western adversaries. If Russia cannot win this war, then it will have to balance losing it quickly enough to appease NATO into relinquishing lost territory in the post-war accords and at the same time not lose face. In other words, NATO may have the upper hand but Russia is not about to make it easy for them. I hope you enjoy it and if you'd like to add to it, feel free! I know the campaign is quite bare-bones and spartan, but I hope you still enjoy it. UPDATED WITH FIXES 28/11/2015 A Bitter Pill 1.5.rar

If he shot at you, he's not a bogey anymore. :P Sorry, I'm such a circle-jerking, annoying stickler for comm accuracy. :D Or did you call him a bogey BECAUSE of the Holllywood-esque ridiculousness where they don't understand the word? Because that would be genius.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get out of the upside-down shuttlecock of death; sometimes I manage it but most of the time I burn through 2k meters of altitude in about 30 seconds and do a faceplant in the dirt.

At 0:30 in that vid he is in a serious departure. Like I said, he probably did it intentionally just because he's a damn good pilot and knows the jet so well and is able to right it with ease, same with the first video. Maybe, maybe not, but I'd wager yes. A bit off topic: I still don't see what the big deal is about the Cobra maneuver. I see how impressive it is in terms of physics, but employment-wise it just seems like a gee-whiz ability more than anything else. The fact that you lose so much energy doing and it takes so long to recover that lost energy just doesn't make any sense to me as to why anyone would use it for anything but an airshow. "But what about the doppler notch?" What about a four-ship wall of Eagles bearing down on you with missiles already in the air? MAYBE you broke a lock or two, MAYBE, but now you've gotta get yourself right and go through the sorting and targeting phase all over again because your SA has just evaporated, so you just shot yourself in the foot.

Might not have been a mistake, may have just been him showing how easily recoverable it can be in a stall with vectored thrust. The upside-down shuttlecock tendency of the 27 wouldn't be so drastic if it had vectored thrust as well.