Geskes Posted October 27, 2010 Posted October 27, 2010 (edited) You've probably all heard about the Iraq War Logs posted on WikiLeaks.org. The files contain a wealth of information on operations conducted during the war in Iraq. Then there is also the Afghanistan war diaries. There are hundreds of reports on CAS operations. I had the idea to make some of them into missions for DCS: A-10C. The first issue that comes to mind is no Iraq or Afghanistan map. My opinion is that recreating the events in the sim could create just as nice an experience as if we would have such a map. True, it will kill some immersion, but you will still be going trough the same processes as the real pilots did. Second issue is that all reports are isolated events. So for a realistic scenario you'd have to comb multiple reports and mold it into a scenario. I consider this doable though it is quiet some work. I had planned to wait with making a mission like this till final release but I was building away anyways so I made a concept mission. For this concept mission I have selected the following report from the Iraq War Logs: AT 1150D, THE MEDEVAC HELICOPTER (FROM SIGACT AT 030900D) SPOTTED 3X BOATS FLEEING FROM THE IED SITE ON THE . ___ WAS OBSERVED WITH RPGE___. RW-CAS IDENTIFIED THE TARGET AND FIRED 2X TOW MISSILE INTO THE BOAT. THEY REPORTED SECONDARY EXPLOSIONS FROM THE TARGETED BOAT. ___ DETAINED 2X AIF WHO SWAM TO THE NORTH SIDE OF THE . ___ BOAT PULLED ASHORE AND 4X AIF SURRENDERED TO THE /___ QRF. THE THIRD BOAT PULLED ASHORE ONTO AN ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ___ AT (___ FU ___). ONCE ASHORE, THE OCCUPANTS THREW SUSPECTED ___ CRATES INTO THE ___ THE . ___-CAS DROPPED 1X GBU-___ AND FIRED 2X ___ DESTROY THE SUSPECTED WEAPONS CACHE ON THE ISLAND. 1X ___ A UXO, SO BOTH ___/RW-CAS CONDUCTED ___ RUNS ON THE ISLAND TO DESTROY THE MISSILE. I chose this one because I had a nice idea of how to do it in sim once I read it. As you can see, the details, like ordnance used, are blacked out. So I had to use my imagination a bit. Also for this mission, I didn't want to go as far as to search for related events. There are some skirmishes here and there and other planes doing CAS. The main "window-dressing" event though is a full-fledged airborne assault on an insurgent position complete with F16 strikes, Apaches, Blackhawks dropping infantry and Chinooks dropping some heavier stuff. I have been detached for 3 months with the dutch air mobile brigade and I tried to make it look like how they do it for real. The assault is nicely coordinated. I didn't do an effort in recreating true to life command structure. There is one commander for the entire mission and his callsign is Romeo. I chose these solutions for this concept to spare my time. If people like missions based on these war diaries, I plan on incorporating true events that happened at the same time as the mission the player is flying including real command structure and so on. As for the events described in the report, I tried to incorporate them as close as possible using my imagination where necessary. You'll have to do some observing and then drop ordnance. I did add a cold-war style surprise event when the main mission is complete. It has to do with the airborne assault, lets just say somebody got pissed off :) (be sure to check out the little details) It was hard to make a mission unfold while playing, making a detailed briefing impossible, and still giving the player necessary info. I had to use text for that and there are quiet some messages. Maybe you need to pause sometimes, its hard to guess for me. Have pen and paper handy in case you need to write some coordinates down. Because there is quiet some AI this might affect your fps negatively. Its not just random AI though, almost every unit has a purpose in the storyline. The terrain where the mission plays is not so demanding and I was able to maintain good fps troughout. On homebase fps is down but i think thats normal. Some things to know before you try the mission: Callsigns: Your callsign: Enfield1 (important!) Commander : Romeo RW-CAS from Iraq War Logs report : Uzi1 QRF from report : Quebec Alpha Frequencies: CAS aircraft : 128 AM Air Assault Op : 126 AM Everybody else : 124 AM All in all, this mission was a lot of work. You might say, how can it be? Lots of work in three weeks? But I am self-employed and I took the past weeks off to fully crash into A-10C. Please try it and leave a comment if you have one. I am curious to know how you found the mission particularly if the story was clear and if it was clear what was expected of you. Be sure to also check out the air assault, maybe on second play-trough, it looks quiet nice and I am happy with the result. Also, I am looking for any documentation on SOP's. Especially of course on air operations but also counter-insurgency. I have ordered a nice stack of books for reading already but the more the better. I hope you enjoy this concept as well as this concept mission. EDIT: Updated mission. -Tweaked the air assault. I made a last-minute move in some units which kind of broke it and I am sure if anyone that has ever participated in such an assault saw this and knew i had created it, he would come to my door knock me out and burry me under 6ft of concrete. So now the assault is as it should be. Fast, furious, no remorse, firepower, kill, -More events relayed to the player. Now you get messages when critical events occur. I think this has increased immersion tapping more potential of the events I scripted in the mission. -Briefing has been hugely expanded listing more callsigns so you can keep track of each of them on radio. Briefing now also include an intel briefing by the gorgeous Sarah O'hare :) -Dedicated invisible JTAC introduced in final part in case the other JTAC does get finished because the Apaches are having a bad day. They seem to be very inconsistent with Hellfires in current code. Not a problem it makes my mission dynamic :D EDIT: added light version with reduced AI EDIT: added link to documentary (pretty leftist) : http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/iraq-secret-war-files-wikileaks-special/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+TopDocumentaryFilms+(Top+Documentary+Films+-+Watch+Free+Documentaries+Online). I do not endorse this doc whatsoever, just thought I'd put it up for anyone who's interested in some backgrounds on the wikileaks files. No hatemail please or posts about the doc here :) EDIT: Note to anyone who wants to try mission with BETA 2: It works, but the AI battles in the mission need rebalancing since they perform quiet differently now. The yankees get hosed now! Also blackhawks are invisible but I think that is known issue. EDIT: Uploaded v1.3! Changes: -Mission is now take-off from runway with a 4 minute intro window giving you opportunity to look around the AI units. It was the easiest way considering increased startup times due to aligning. -Speedboats popping flares due to LOD issue -Tweaked Messages -Tweaked AI -Randomized AI skill -Ending stage changed (now no crashes!) -changed default loadoutIraqWarDiary1_v_1_3.mizCo2.IraqWarDiary.mizCo2.IraqWarDiary_night.miz Edited March 1, 2011 by Geskes 6 I7920/12GBDDR3/ASUS P6T DELUXE V2/MSI GTX 960 GAMING 4G /WIN 10 Ultimate/TM HOTAS WARTHOG
power5 Posted October 27, 2010 Posted October 27, 2010 Damn wish this was posted earlier. Reading from bed on iPhone and really feel like firing the sim back up. Going to make work tomorrow drag on for ever. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Aaron i7 2600k@4.4ghz, GTX1060-6gb, 16gb DDR3, T16000m, Track IR5 BS2-A10C-UH1-FC3-M2000-F18C-A4E-F14B-BF109
Spectre_USA Posted October 27, 2010 Posted October 27, 2010 (edited) You might just have to get up an hour earlier! Could be a good `wake-up' mission. Myself, I still have 3 hours to go until i get off, and hope to fire it up then. It sounds like a little bit of heart and soul went into it, so it should be good... Edited October 27, 2010 by Spectre_USA [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] A tale of 2 hogs
Zenra Posted October 27, 2010 Posted October 27, 2010 I think this is a great idea, Geskes, and I see nothing in your post that compromises the security of military (or any other) personnel. As I 've posted elsewhere, getting missions simulating actual, real world and contemporary employment of the A-10C adds to the realism and immersion I get from DCS - the perfect compliment to the detail and realism ED has put into the sim itself. I look forward to trying your mission. Zenra Intel i7 930 2.8GHz; ATI HD5850 1GB; 1TB Serial ATA-II; 12GB DDR3-1333; 24 x DL DVD+/-RW Drive; 800W PSU; Win7-64; TM Warthog HOTAS
nomdeplume Posted October 27, 2010 Posted October 27, 2010 Hi Geskes, thanks for the mission. Only had a chance to play it once, but it was enjoyable. I like these 'low-key' type of scenarios rather than all-out you vs. a tank battalion swarming with air defences. Edit: most of this post is spoilers about the mission, so skip it if you'd rather try the mission without knowing anything more about it. I would suggest putting the information that appears in the first message dialog in the briefing. i.e. player's callsign and takeoff time. I like to copy important things from the briefing into a notepad window on my second monitor, but I can't do that after the sim's started. I took off a bit late because I forgot about the take-off time. Maybe some extra messages would be helpful here - I think it might add to the immersion if the flights that are departing were 'introduced' in some way so that later on you know who's being referred to (e.g. radio messages clearing them for takeoff just before they're spawned - maybe in later versions that will be in-game already). Also, a reminder shortly before you ought to start taxiing would be helpful. Or, I could just keep better track of time. :D I think it would also be nice to list the other callsigns in use, or at least the generalisations. I think Quebec callsigns were referring to various land units? And of course, a map in the briefing showing the flight plan and friendly positions. But I know they're a bit of a pain to make, so I understand why you haven't yet. :) Only real period of confusion I had during the mission was when Romeo announced the boat had reached the island even when I was a long way off - started doubting I was following the right boat. I think that trigger zone should be a lot smaller, so you don't get that message until the boat is near the shore. When that message arrived I thought I should start my attack, so I started scanning the island - kind of defeating the purpose of following the boat to shore so you can see where the target buildings are. After the main mission, the JTAC never appeared - is this not implemented yet or did I miss something? Overall, nice atmosphere - I liked feeling like a minor actor in a larger action, with most of the radio messages not directed at me. Looking forward to playing around with the mission more to see everything's that going on outside the cockpit. 1
Geskes Posted October 27, 2010 Author Posted October 27, 2010 Thanks a lot nomdeplume for you comment. It is a relief that you found it enjoyable. Your comments hit exactly the things I was concerned about. The take-off time yes. Of course I should have done a trigger that sets events in motion after player takes off but I was too far into building the mission when I realised it. Have to update the briefing. Good idea of introducing some extra messages for introducing AI flights. Regarding the boat... yes it is an issue. but the boat will not go close to the island because of "boat AI". In fact it s quiet hard to have boats go close to the shore, he will stop when he is way off even if you set the waypoint closer. So i will change the wording in those messages a bit to make it clearer. The JTAC - it should show up, one of the units involved in the airborne assault is functioning as JTAC. The enemy is approaching from a flanking position so the whole airborne formation turns 90 degrees, then he will turn on his JTAC radio. Maybe he was killed somehow.. It will take some time before the menu option shows... Should have mentioned that.. Thanks for the feedback! I7920/12GBDDR3/ASUS P6T DELUXE V2/MSI GTX 960 GAMING 4G /WIN 10 Ultimate/TM HOTAS WARTHOG
159th_Viper Posted October 27, 2010 Posted October 27, 2010 Thread cleaned up. Let's keep all feedback constructive and related to the Mission-Content only. Ta Novice or Veteran looking for an alternative MP career? Click me to commence your Journey of Pillage and Plunder! [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] '....And when I get to Heaven, to St Peter I will tell.... One more Soldier reporting Sir, I've served my time in Hell......'
power5 Posted October 27, 2010 Posted October 27, 2010 I was able to get the battleship to run into shore in my mission. The island in your mission may have a bigger force field or something. Or maybe speed boats stay farther away? I have placed boats at docks so it should be possible to get pretty close to shore. Will have to wait till I download your mission tonight to experience it. Could you have the boat reach a waypoint, then disappear and a static boat object be placed in the correct location on shore? [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Aaron i7 2600k@4.4ghz, GTX1060-6gb, 16gb DDR3, T16000m, Track IR5 BS2-A10C-UH1-FC3-M2000-F18C-A4E-F14B-BF109
Divinity10 Posted October 27, 2010 Posted October 27, 2010 (edited) Awesome mission. That one alone had more realism and pulled me in more than the entire LOMAC campaign combined lol. I hope the campaign on release is more like this than the usual "dive head first into 5 SAM's". Sadly I got to the JTAC moment, requested targets and the my game crashed. I LOVED how Enfield got told to stand down and watch the boats for a while, that was great. I got a little bit confused though when the coordinates came up but I presumed that was just the next waypoint. Just as a personal opinion, maybe put: "Enfield 1 go to coordinates [iNSERT COORDINATES HERE]" and then just after put in brackets (Waypoint 3). Other than that, I loved the mission as a whole. Like someone before said, I much prefer playing as an asset in a mission rather than the feeling of fighting the entire war by yourself that the LOMAC campaign gave. Hopefully we'll see a campaign from ya? ;D Edited October 27, 2010 by Divinity10 [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Geskes Posted October 28, 2010 Author Posted October 28, 2010 (edited) Thanks for cleaning up the thread, it was a bit messy... :noexpression: I spent today hugely improving on the mission and have posted the result in the original post. I think the mission is now much better to comprehend. You will get introduced to AI flights by them reporting events. Any event mentioned in the messages is occuring at that moment in the game world. I have majorly tweaked the air assault which was pretty fail on second tought in the first attempt because I last-minute tweaked it which caused the firebase of M249's to get hozed and that in turn caused no JTAC in the end in some play-troughs when the Apaches were not performing well. Of course I didn't properly test it after the tweak before posting. Its fixed now! :D I think I have also improved on the tasking towards the player by changing the wording in some of the messages. Probably lot of you played it by know but I promise you its worth to play it again with this new version if you liked the first one and maybe even if you didn't like it :P. Must be much better experience, when for the first time I had entered all the new communications and played it myself, I was having the hairs on my own neck stand up when the air assault reached its climax and I was reading the comms and watching the aircraft at the same time. (Could also have been from the music I was listening :P). With this engine you can program alot of stuff quiet easily but it will look amazing thanks to ED. This simulator engine is so magnificent, the options with the mission editor are endless. I remember when I was much younger and playing the original Falcon on monochrome screen, I was always fantasizing how it would be if you could fly something like that in believable engine with graphics that looked like real. I think it has finally arrived. :pilotfly: I have some ideas for other missions that do not require as much time to make but give a realistic perspective of modern conventional combat. Since the infantry is kind of broken in current code (insurgents cant move right, russians kill framerate) scenarios in the middle-east are hard to model for now since it involves counter-insurgency ops with lots of infantry. I was thinking of creating a set of battalion sized scenarios where each of the classic operations of mechanized units in modern warfare is highlighted in a single scenario. For example, you would have a flanking assault, a frontal assault, a static defence, a rolling defence, a move to contact and there are some more. Both sides equally forced with player flight tasked to make the difference and have the good guys win. I think it would be a nice addition since it shows the A-10C in its traditional role. If I feel crazy enough I could script up to section level :P. With the JTAC module it must be possible to make it very true to real! Power5, yes the boats go closer to the coast of mainland, but not to the coast of this particular island. Believe me, I've tried! Enough for now, off to the bomb arena for some CCIP practice! Edited October 28, 2010 by Geskes I7920/12GBDDR3/ASUS P6T DELUXE V2/MSI GTX 960 GAMING 4G /WIN 10 Ultimate/TM HOTAS WARTHOG
dane48 Posted October 28, 2010 Posted October 28, 2010 I enjoyed it the first time, though I had trouble taking out the buildings on the island and was shot down. I'll be giving this another try and want to say thanks "To most people, the sky is the limit. To those who love aviation, the sky is home."-----anonymous
Geskes Posted October 28, 2010 Author Posted October 28, 2010 I enjoyed it the first time, though I had trouble taking out the buildings on the island and was shot down. I'll be giving this another try and want to say thanks Stay above 10,000 feet as ordered pilot! :P Glad you liked it. Be sure to use the new version when you give it another try. I7920/12GBDDR3/ASUS P6T DELUXE V2/MSI GTX 960 GAMING 4G /WIN 10 Ultimate/TM HOTAS WARTHOG
Divinity10 Posted October 28, 2010 Posted October 28, 2010 I enjoyed it the first time, though I had trouble taking out the buildings on the island and was shot down. I'll be giving this another try and want to say thanks Just do like Geskes said (10K height) and kill the buildings with CCRP + bombs. I personally mooch around at 12,000+ but tbh...it's just as easy dropping from a safer height like 20K. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
kylania Posted October 28, 2010 Posted October 28, 2010 I tried the new version tonight. SUPER immersive, I loved it! I was a minute late for my take off. Managed to get on station just as the action was starting. I got a little close though, I was doing a lazy circle around the boat but only from 3-7nm out. So I never really had the chance to get the TGP on target since I was so close and could never tell where it was pointing. heh Eventually I decided to dip down a bit to try a gun run on the boat. You are NOT kidding about staying above 10k! I got down to 7k and lost my right engine. At that point I limped my way back home. Had to jettison my stores (which remained on the plane in F2 view :() to keep speed up to make it back. Then I crashed just before the runway since I hadn't seen a helicopter trying to land at the same time. Is there a way to declare an emergency landing? I tried radioing the airport that I was inbound, but I'm not sure how to properly use the radios yet. heh Really fun mission though, I enjoyed it a lot even though I basically just failed horribly! [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Christmas Cheer - A Landing Practice Mission : Beta Paint Schemes : HOTAS Keyboard Map : Bingo Fuel - A DCS A-10C Movie
Geskes Posted October 28, 2010 Author Posted October 28, 2010 Thanks for your comments Kylania, glad you had fun with the mission. I have added a light version today, in which I have removed some of the AI not playing a role in the messages or significant events. Also I tuned down the final stage a bit. I did this because I realized I had introduced even more AI with the update and the mission became unstable sometimes on my machine and would crash, especially before or during the armor busting in the last part. It has better overall fps as well. The main aspect of the mission has not been changed and should give the same experience. Everything from the messages is still happening in the game world. I7920/12GBDDR3/ASUS P6T DELUXE V2/MSI GTX 960 GAMING 4G /WIN 10 Ultimate/TM HOTAS WARTHOG
Geskes Posted October 29, 2010 Author Posted October 29, 2010 wow only had it crash at the end, never at the beginning.. In any case, changing the start time for the mission doesnt help because it changes everything else that is based on time as well. The best you can do if you cannot make it to the runway in time is start yourself from the runway at 11:44:30. you can find your plane easy in the unit list tooltip, group name is "player". The mission will still start at 11:38 but as soon as your time for take-off is up it will change view to your cockpit. 1 I7920/12GBDDR3/ASUS P6T DELUXE V2/MSI GTX 960 GAMING 4G /WIN 10 Ultimate/TM HOTAS WARTHOG
MadDogMcQ Posted October 29, 2010 Posted October 29, 2010 GREAT MISSION (though I got killed through flying too low)!!! I hadn't realised that I was going to need a startup, so I was late departing (couldn't find my startup-procedures quickly enough) LOL. I could do with writing a macro that will complete the SU at the touch of a button :-)) PC SPECS : * Intel i7 920 @ 4Ghz | P6T Deluxe V2 | 32Gb DDR RAM | GTX 1070i OC 8 Gb | H50 Water Cooler | Velociraptor 150Gb | Samsung SATA II 1Tb and Samsung 860PRO 512| Prolite 1080p 24" | Logitech G-19 | TM Twin MFD's | TM Warthog | TIR 5 (soon) | Windows 7/64 | My PC | My Blog | My Bikes
kylania Posted October 29, 2010 Posted October 29, 2010 I could do with writing a macro that will complete the SU at the touch of a button :-)) There will be a key combo that does automatic startup from ramp for you. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Christmas Cheer - A Landing Practice Mission : Beta Paint Schemes : HOTAS Keyboard Map : Bingo Fuel - A DCS A-10C Movie
deltatango Posted October 29, 2010 Posted October 29, 2010 The first issue that comes to mind is no Iraq or Afghanistan map. Oh I dunno about that..... Bagram Nellis Get it? Great mission BTW. Appeciate your effort! Cheers, DT Junior Member for over 6 years. Difference between Ordinance and Ordnance. My X-52 Pro Profile. My Nevada training mission
Geskes Posted October 29, 2010 Author Posted October 29, 2010 haha yes, both look kinda sandy.. didnt use that map because on my machine it becomes glitched, (missing model parts) and then everything turns blue and blackish and the only thing I see is water.. I can prevent it from happening by tuning down settings but then the map looks like Flight Unlimited did :huh: So maybe next time. :) Oh I dunno about that..... Bagram Nellis Get it? Great mission BTW. Appeciate your effort! I7920/12GBDDR3/ASUS P6T DELUXE V2/MSI GTX 960 GAMING 4G /WIN 10 Ultimate/TM HOTAS WARTHOG
winznut Posted October 30, 2010 Posted October 30, 2010 Very nice mission, thanks! I only played it once yet, but managed to reach the first mission goal. Is the boat that "reaches" the island supposted to disapear? I couldn't get a lock with the mavs and when I flew a circle, it was gone. I also had the problem that my game crash, when I asked JTAC for targets... :( Now I'm off to play it a 2nd time.
Geskes Posted October 30, 2010 Author Posted October 30, 2010 Thanks winznut, I've also had that issue with JTAC causing crash at end of mission. You can choose to not contact JTAC, works better. Boat shouldnt disappear BTW. (but it's not needed to destroy it for mission complete either) I7920/12GBDDR3/ASUS P6T DELUXE V2/MSI GTX 960 GAMING 4G /WIN 10 Ultimate/TM HOTAS WARTHOG
JHepburn Posted October 30, 2010 Posted October 30, 2010 Hey guys, so first let me thank Geskes for creating a realistic mission. Really enjoy watching the events unfold. I'm struggling with one thing though (for now anyways)... What is the most efficient way to locate the coordinates called in by Romeo for the IED attack. I've gotten pretty good at weapons employment and pod utilization, but I'm not so great at getting around the CDU. Any help is greatly appreciated! (for reference, the coordinates are CL30321242) Ideally I'd like to add these as at least a hookable point that i can set as SPI.
kylania Posted October 30, 2010 Posted October 30, 2010 What is the most efficient way to locate the coordinates called in by Romeo for the IED attack. ... (for reference, the coordinates are CL30321242) http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=60239 [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Christmas Cheer - A Landing Practice Mission : Beta Paint Schemes : HOTAS Keyboard Map : Bingo Fuel - A DCS A-10C Movie
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