Bay of Hogs - New Huey Campaign

[SFC Tako]

Uh...wait a second, are you flying this with civilian traffic on?! LOL, turn it off!

[rge75]

I didn't know it can be turned off. Thanks for the hint.

 

But I just checked the general settings and there's no such option.

And in your mission file, it's set to "off", so I'm just wondering if this is a bug.

Edited July 2, 2016 by rge75

[SFC Tako]

And in your mission file, it's set to "off", so I'm just wondering if this is a bug.

 

Right you are, I always turn it off. Hmmm...you're not running some beta-version of DCS? ;)

[Andrew u.k.]

I've been playing this campaign and it also has traffic on mine.

I was worried about the bridge too, but the traffic stopped for me.

[SFC Tako]

Well damn, but good info there Andrew u.k.. This IS strange. Anyone else with this anomaly?

And for the record, I made the campaign in the stable version of DCS.

[rge75]

I've been playing this campaign and it also has traffic on mine.

I was worried about the bridge too, but the traffic stopped for me.

 

Oh, they were stopping? Not in my case - they drove right through me. Maybe only the ones with collision detection are stopping and only if you already landed. I was hovering/taxi toward the bridge when the truck killed me.

 

@SFC Tako: No, I'm not running a beta. It's the latest stable version.

[Andrew u.k.]

When I say stopping, I don't mean they made room. I sort of picked a spot when it was empty and landed. Then they just bumped into me and stopped.

[rge75]

Thanks for the info. I just finished it. I also waited for a nice period of low traffic and used the gap. However, one car drove through me again when I was waiting on the bridge. But it was one with no collision detection ;-) So in the end I finally managed to finish the mission.

 

Some feedback to SFC Tako to the mission. I put it into spoiler alert because it write of parts of the mission.

 

It was once again a very cool mission. I think one reason why those missions are very enjoyable is that there are always unexpected Things happening. You blew up the bridges, fly back and think that was it....but no, you have to investigate those engine sounds. And damn, those guys were even shooting at me (I was lucky they only destroyed parts of my windshield/window). Flying in the night is completely different though. I prefer the day missions but this was a nice variety. And even something quite simply like landing on a bridge was more challenging than I expected. The other reason your mission are working that well is because of the story AND because of the main character. You simply have to like Manny ;-) It's not a no name guy. Furthermore, the mission/briefing pictures add a lot to the atmosphere.

 

One thing was tricky though. It said I have to land at the green marker on the airfield. So I was looking for the green smoke but it took me quite a while until I discovered it near the terminal, especially because it didn't look green during the night but simply dark gray.

 

 

 

Well, after finishing the 3rd mission of the campaign, the log says I flew 30 times. This means it takes me an average of 10 attempts to finish each mission. But that's ok - it a) shows that it's difficult and b) that it's fun to keep on trying and trying. DCS can't calculate though - it says that the success rate is 55% ;-)

 

Curious to see what mission 4 will be like. Once again thank you for this wonderful campaign.

 

Edit: BTW, I still didn't find the "correct" skin for this campain (as seen on the screenshots of the Bay of Hog download). Can you lead me the way?

Edited July 3, 2016 by rge75

[SFC Tako]

Thanks rge75 :)

I'm glad you liked it and you're learning the flying part the toughest way ;)

Having a story and some characters probably makes things more interesting.

About the skin, it's in the zip-file for the campaign. Just downloaded the campaign to check it and there it is(!). Are we talking about the same thing? The Huey skin for the Bay of Hogs campaign? I hate to ask this but did you read the instructions?

[rge75]

Thanks rge75 :)

I hate to ask this but did you read the instructions? QUOTE]

 

Legitimate question. Well, I probably did when I initially downloaded and installed the campaign in August 2015. But I didn't care about the skin at this time because I wanted to keep DCS "vanilla" at this time. This attitude changed over time though ;-) ( And today, when I asked for the skin, I simply didn't think of a readme or "must read.txt" anymore :doh: I now read it again and the installation worked fine - thank you.

[SFC Tako]

@rge75

:megalol:

[AstroEma]

Where can I download the campaign from? And will it work with Open Beta?

[rge75]

It can be found in the user files section of the dcs site:

 

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/?arrFilter_pf%5Bfiletype%5D=3&arrFilter_pf%5Bgameversion%5D=89&arrFilter_pf%5Bfilelang%5D=&arrFilter_pf%5Baircraft%5D=&arrFilter_DATE_CREATE_1_DAYS_TO_BACK=&CREATED_BY=&sort_by_order=TIMESTAMP_X_DESC&set_filter=Filter

 

Edit: I don't know if it will work with the open beta. It works fine with the latest stable build.

[SFC Tako]

I don't know if it will work with the open beta. It works fine with the latest stable build.

 

:thumbup:

[rge75]

It still seems to work with 1.5.4 ;-)

 

Some feedback on mission 4.

 

 

I have mixed feelings about this one simply because the first 3 missions set the bar that high ;-) One one side, it was interesting to fly under these ugly conditions. On the other hand, it was "only" flying quite a long distance. Landing on the hill was a challenge with that wind but also sort of frustrating when I had to start over after the first crash *g* Luckily I managed to land on the 2nd attempt. Of course landing at the airfield was the next problem with that wind and I almost threw it away one step before the finish line. But I managed to catch it in the last moment and I savely landed.

 

Story driven, it was still nice, especially when flying back. But I was quite surprised that "nothing else" happened. Don't get me wrong, it was good and I'm glad you're doing all those missions and campaigns. But mission 4 didn't have the same appeal to me like the previous 3. So it's constructive critism on a high Level :pilotfly:Having a long flight before a challenging task can become frustrating for average pilotes if they have to redo it over and over again. With collision detection on the trees, I would have failed this time...

 

 

Edit: and feedback on mission 5

 

 

Short but cool :-) It took me a few attempts to understand what exactly to do / to find the AAA. I did the U-turn and was at that enemy camp and I didn't notice that I have to move on to find the AAA. It was a language problem though because I didn't look for a tall but a low building. Highlight of course was the Magnum theme song when flying back :thumbup: Missions like this are great fun (even though I also like longer ones). It doesn't matter if you fail because you're right in the action again when you have to do it over

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by rge75

[rge75]

I noticed a slight Problem in mission 6. When you land and disembark the troops, it sometimes happen that one of the soldiers run into the Huey, forcing quite some damage. Well, best thing is to land and start immediately again (not waiting for any message).

 

Beside that small problem, it's a very cool mission. But I wonder if I was shot down by an own mortar in my last attempt? At least, the cam switched to the mortar after I crashed. And also the mission log lists the mortar as last device that fired (no other troop firing according to the log).

 

Or did I simply stress the Huey too much with the dodging? But I don't think so because I didn't raise the collective too much. Well, looks like I have to do it over again.

[Razor18]

Hi Tako,

 

Mission #2. AAA's gone, hovering near to the first taxiing MiG within req'd parameters, below 50 km/h, between 10 and 100 m altitude. Nobody shoots at it from my guys in the back. What do I do wrong? Do they need more time to reload maybe?

[rge75]

Mission #2. AAA's gone, hovering near to the first taxiing MiG within req'd parameters, below 50 km/h, between 10 and 100 m altitude. Nobody shoots at it from my guys in the back. What do I do wrong? Do they need more time to reload maybe?

 

No, there should be no reloading time afair. Just wondering if you've seen the video in this thread. Just in case, here's the direct link - it shows that they should "explode" immediately (watch at 21:40).

 

[ame]

[/ame]

 

Maybe you missed something else before and it therefore won't be triggered?

[Razor18]

Thanks, I made it. Two MiG's survived and took off. One of them made a low pass near me while I was circling over the field (being probably within req'd shooting parameters reg. both altitude and speed) and with my side doors still open, someone from the poor man's gunship guys in the back shot it with the M79, just like clay pigeon shooting!!! It just blew up mid air! I wish I would have recorded it on video! :lol::megalol:

After some pointless chasing, the P-51-s caught up with and shot the last MiG while preparing for landing to the next airfield North...

 

Very nice campaign, really hope you will make some more soon...

[rge75]

Finally finished mission 6...this took me quite a while. While it almost became frutrating being shot off that many time by the first AAA, the satisfaction of completing it is even bigger. As usual, great script/story with this one. I like those twists in the story. And at least the 3rd AAA was no big problem because you could easily hide in the little gorge.

 

@Razor18, too bad you didn't record it ;-)

 

Edit: So much about finishing mission 7.

 

It was great fun, but the Huey wasn't very stable after a being hit by the infantry. The landing itself was smooth, but the back shortly touched the ground. However, the mission counted as completed :music_whistling:

Edited July 31, 2016 by rge75

[Peet]

This is such a brilliant campaign, thank you so much SFC Tako!

 

I really enjoyed the story and only having to worry about the flying bits is fantastic. Some very funny touches too, I particularly liked the comments on the guys dancing. There were a few game engine wibbles I had to work around (squad running through the tail and destroying the chopper, etc) but once I knew to look out for them it was great.

 

The variety of times of day and weather conditions were really well chosen too, making for some really interesting flying. I loved flying in the storm and felt it a really nice change in pace to keep the story interesting.

 

I came across a bit of a bug with the penultimate mission:

 

 

After dropping off the RPG guys by the oil containers they just sat there on the roof watching the tank while the APCs rolled on by (luckily the tank just watched the APCs so it was all a little bit voyeuristic) and I didn't get the all clear from them until well after the AAA at the airfield was gone and I'd destroyed the aircraft. I've come across similar scripting bugs before in other missions where it seems like the troops don't say they've finished moving and are in position for ages.

 

 

Also:

 

 

It may be worth checking the aircraft is still on the ground and in position until all the guys are on board. Mission 5 took me quite a few attempts and I ended up getting a bit frustrated and lifting straight off the pad and was half way to the sea by the time with doors closed and the extra weight kicked in.

 

 

I just finished the campaign today and am really sad it's over. I might have to go back and play it again.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to make the campaign and share it with us.

[SFC Tako]

Hey all and sorry for not checking in. As I understand it, we have this "troops breaking the tail"-bug right now. That must be sorted by the devs, otherwise all future chooper operations are canned.

 

@Peet

Glad you liked it! :) And good info on those RPG-guys. Wonder what it is, will check it out.

About mission 5: didn't you get the "Cleared for takeoff"? It's supposed to work like that but as we have infantry problems (again)...it might be that they don't reach their trigger zone.

 

To summarize: I test everything like three times before release and I try to make things as waterproof as possible. But as you can all see, nothing is guaranteed to work after every update. I know, I don't want to sound like a sad complainer but sometimes I get the impression the updates we get aren't really checked in advance. It's like they don't know exactly what they update. Shitty old scripts gets revived, loose ends this, more old code that...anything goes.

 

Hey devs, check the consequences of your updates - BEFORE releasing them.

I've worked in software packaging/testing myself and I would have been warned for real if I made a mistake (every patch/update I released got installed on 70k computers worldwide). And I'd for damn sure be fired if I made a second mistake. Yeah, that's how things run out there.

Edited August 16, 2016 by SFC Tako

[SFC Tako]

Thanks, I made it. Two MiG's survived and took off. One of them made a low pass near me while I was circling over the field (being probably within req'd shooting parameters reg. both altitude and speed) and with my side doors still open, someone from the poor man's gunship guys in the back shot it with the M79, just like clay pigeon shooting!!! It just blew up mid air! I wish I would have recorded it on video! :lol::megalol:

After some pointless chasing, the P-51-s caught up with and shot the last MiG while preparing for landing to the next airfield North...

 

Very nice campaign, really hope you will make some more soon...

 

DAMN, that must have been a sight :)

[TwoLate]

Tako thanks for the time you do to make DCS more fun. With the F-5 out have you been thinking of doing one with the Huey and F-5? I am sure that would be a big hit. I wish I had the creativity you have to make missions.

[SFC Tako]

Tako thanks for the time you do to make DCS more fun. With the F-5 out have you been thinking of doing one with the Huey and F-5? I am sure that would be a big hit. I wish I had the creativity you have to make missions.

 

Thanks, man :)

I'm semi-working on a Vietnam campaign with the Huey. But as I've tried out the F-5 now, maybe there's a way to make a smart combo with it? I mean the F-5 just screams VIETNAM!

But combos are hard, in fact I get a headache already ;)

Creativity?! I don't "get" it all the time, it sort of comes and goes. Right now I'm hard pressed with everything going on: The F-5, the Mirage2000, the release of Battle of Moscow on Steam. There's so much to try out! But once things settle, I'll get back to the drawing board.