Bay of Hogs - New Huey Campaign

[SFC Tako]

I hope you can follow these steps.

[Milopapa]

Uhm... maybe i'm missing something but where's the missions?

Can't see any attachments in the first post.

[rge75]

After a longer break I returned to DCS and the Huey and I was looking for new camapigns. Luckily I found Bay of Hogs :-) I only finished the first mission so far (took me some attempts) but I like the story driven design and the Tasks. All that unexpected stuff makes it very interesting. Thank you for your work.

 

However, I'm not sure if it's my english or something else, but I don't quit get it what I have to do in mission 2 at the airfield. I think I should fly there with quick speed above 50m but I can't see an object which my crew should take out. Or do I have to land? I suppose not because of the 60 seconds. Anyway, I fly there but I ain't quite sure where to go exactly. So I of course get shot down after a while due to the massive fire. Since I also didn't find a video on YouTube, I'm pretty lost ;-) Hopefully somebody can give me a hint in how to complete mission 2.

[LCYCowboy]

I would also love to get further in this campaign.

 

I can finish the first mission without too many problems, but when I turn up at the airfield to knock out the AAs in the second mission, I always fail.

 

I tried about 10 times before giving up.

 

Just to hard for me, pity, because the whole atmosphere of the campaign is excellent.

 

Not criticising, but I am obviously not sufficiently skilled to finish it :-),

 

Maybe you could make a slightly (not much) easier campaign for us amateur pilots

[acdelta57]

Great work!

[SFC Tako]

Sorry for not following up on this.

The airfield in mission 2...yes, it IS hard and I have been somewhat careless I suppose. The enemy AAA-sites should be marked on the map for the mission briefing. And also, even if you know exactly where to go, the time pressure is a killer and this here "poor man's gunship" maneuver is terribly hard...especially under stress ;)

 

Will give mission 2 some consideration though, it's not fun if the majority of pilots have to do this mission over and over again. This fact that the hard part is also several minutes into the mission...after some already quite hard parts. So I understand your frustrations. Considering a mission split for the moment (thus facilitating quicker replays over the airfield) and maybe not making the maneuver any easier at all.

 

Thanks for all the feedback, will keep y'all posted.

[rge75]

Thanks for your reply. Looks like I have 4 options in that case ;-)

- Waiting for an update

- Skipping mission 2 and continuing to mission 3 by doing some edit job

- Edit mission 2 (I only had a short look into it but it seems quite complicated)

- becoming a better pilot

 

However, I still don't quite understand what I exactly would have to complete the airfield part in mission 2? By looking at the mission editor, it seems like I have to land in the middle of the airfield?

[SFC Tako]

@rge75: I don't have the briefing in front of me but I recall there being info in the mission briefing (after airfield-X) about taking out first the AAA-batteries and then the aircraft spooling up. Having done that, you will recieve further orders "in the saddle". And landing in the middle of the airfield? You mean the first airfield (airfield-X), right? That's correct, land there and Tony and the boys will disembark and set some demo-charges.

Edited May 16, 2016 by SFC Tako

[SFC Tako]

FOLLOW UP:

 

The bad news first: This mission #2 is way too complicated to split up, it would take me a long time to get things working independently and quite frankly, even though it's a tough mission - you can complete it. In fact, I just tried it out and aced it on the first try. Now that doesn't mean a thing really as I've designed the damn thing myself and can probably fly it drunk as well. But consider that I haven't flown the Huey for well over six weeks and the fact that this is a long mission with several stressful situations. This might sound like a madman's defense but I seriously doubt people have to fly this mission ten times to ace it. Secondly, about the problems regarding the objectives - I've read the briefing and it's all there. For a detailed map of the AAA-sites, look at mission pic #3 in the briefing. Alright then, enough with this.

 

The good news:

If the AAA at the main airfield puts you off and you need more time to take them out, you can increase the amount of time until they are "manned". Just open mission #2 in the Mission Editor and follow my instructions in the picture enclosed.

 

End statement: There are pilots who have finished this campaign in a hurry and then there are pilots who get stuck at mission #2. My only fair solution is to let the less fortunate pilots alter the balance slightly as I pointed out in the good news above. And trust me, I have given this thought, it's not me being lazy here. My motive is to keep things hard for the hardcore pilots out there, to let them go through this ordeal without any punches pulled. And if you still think this "solution" of mine is only a half-measure, you're free to tone things down further in the mission editor. But truth be told, this mission is a mess design-wise. It was one of the first missions I ever made and it's sort of hard to comprehend every function now, even for me. Hence my stance on not splitting it.

 

Final "that's it, I've had it" solution:

Open up the campaign file in the campaign builder and rebuild the campaign yourself, excluding mission #2.

(solution provided by rge75)

 

As for the prolonged level of stress in mission #2, ask any real Huey pilot that has flown in Afghanistan or Vietnam and they will tell you about stress lasting for hours instead of minutes. This mission ain't nothing.

Edited May 16, 2016 by SFC Tako

[rge75]

Thank you very much for having a look into it and for the explanations. Your good news is fine to me :-) The screenshot helps a lot.

 

I'm sure there are many skilled pilots here who can finish it as it is and therefore it's for sure good to leave it the way it is for all the other people.

 

And once again a big thank you for creating the whole campaign.

[SFC Tako]

No worries and THANKS, rge75 :)

Contemplating a new campaign soon, a new campaign yes, not another port of Outremer or Hogs. Will take difficulty levels a bit more seriously, perhaps making two separate versions from the get go (with proper design planning so I'll know what values to edit for the corresponding levels of difficulty). This has been a good talk and if I can't listen to people, I'll never grow up. But Hogs is just a nightmare to customize. Perhaps a campaign for the Gazelle is something to think about? Or the F-5! Or the Mirage!!! Whichever comes out first at Steam ;)

[rge75]

You can't make it right for everybody ;-) I'm sure the skils vary simply too much. But it's great that some people are creating campaigns because this is simply what I'm missing with the DCS modules. At least Nevada is a nice playground to practice landing on different spots with the Huey for a non pro like me. I read that the Gazelle is even more difficult to fly which means I'll stay with the Huey for a while.

 

Glad to read about a new campaign coming soon :-)

[SFC Tako]

OK, here's the full Mission #2. Having flown it a few times lately, it dawns upon me what a long and tedious mission it is. So I fully understand those who are frustrated by it. But war is hell ;)

 

[Andrew u.k.]

Nice one.

 

I haven't played DCS for a few months but had an itch.

I thought Bay of Hogs was the best Campaign. But I was stuck on Mission 2 also. I could get the first AA but the second always shot me down.

I'm updating DCS and then I'm looking forward to nailing it after adjusting the time parameter a little.

Cheers

Andrew

[SFC Tako]

Thanks Andrew and you go ahead and do that. I bet a lot of pilots will adjust that parameter. Ain't nothing wrong with that, it's a killjoy for most pilots in it's current state.

[rge75]

Your video helped a lot. I finally managed the 2nd mission and I think it really improved my landing abilities.

 

I adjusted the time of the 2nd AAA though as proposed. In some attempts, I maybe even was within the limit, but not with my last, successful attempt. I even missed one of the 4 migs but luckily it looks like it didn't have an affect to the success of the mission :)

 

Anyway, once again thanks for this really cool mission :thumbup:

[SFC Tako]

GREAT WORK, rge75!!!

I'm happy when I see how some people never give up. You pulled through and that's all that matters. Oh and as you said, you might have improved your flying as well :)

 

Thanks for flyin' it and thanks for your feedback.

[trippylummox]

Awesome work Tako! I'm loving it man! I wish I had the patience to set up missions half as well as you.

[SFC Tako]

Awesome work Tako! I'm loving it man! I wish I had the patience to set up missions half as well as you.

 

LOL, thanks man :)

The patience comes with age. Oh, and a serious (borderline) case of...ahem...what shall we call it? A sense of not issuing malfunctioning stuff ;)

(I've worked with software packaging earlier...came across a LOT of things that never worked, so many shabby characters that never delivered anything proper...hence my frustration)

[rge75]

BTW, how do you properly navigate with the map? I think it's hard to navigate on sight only because many roads and maps are not on the map. IMO the map is not detailed enough and I often need to "cheat" by pressing ctrl-k to get my current position. It's even worse with mission 3 at night ;-) I'd be lost without ctrl-k or without F10... but as I mentioned, it feels like cheating.

[SFC Tako]

If I fly a mission totally new to me and there's no good landmarks, I DO use the ctrl-k and I don't consider it cheating. On missions I've created myself however, what can I say? I've flown them so much I pretty much know every waypoint/turn by heart. So yes and no ;)

 

As for navigation in general, I think it's the co-pilot's job. I'll try to give the co-pilot more input in my upcoming campaign.

[rge75]

Ok, good to know it's not just me using ctrl-k. I only thought because you can't press ctrl-k in a real Huey ;-) I suppose it would be easier with the Nevada map because it has more unique locations. But with Kaukasus, everything looks similiar.

[SFC Tako]

No ctrl-k in a Huey?! Well damn! ;)

But anyways (and this is my personal take on things), I believe most Huey pilots in Nam never had to bother with map reading. I mean after a couple of weeks in-country I bet they knew their AO pretty well, considering they mainly flew 30 minutes tops in one direction and then back. But this is just me guessing here. Well, sort of guessing - when I was in Macedonia I asked the Huey pilots about GPS and such (that was brand new back then) but they just laughed and told me they knew their AO pretty well (the northern part of Macedonia, all along the border with Kosovo).

[rge75]

Reality also has more different landmarks ;-) However, nice story.

BTW, I just saw your new mission/thread - I'll give it a try next week, so you'll have the opinion of a casual gamer as well.

[rge75]

Question about mission 3...may it be that some cars have collision detection and some not? On bridge 4 is heavy traffic and I first thought, how can I land there. But the cars drove through me...most of the time. Not today though, a truck hit me from the front and my Huey went up in a "nice" fireball :-/ This was quite a frustrating moment.

 

I suppose if Kaukasus will once be transformed to DCS 2 with collision detection, then this mission will become impossible - the cars most probably won't stop when you're on the bridge.