The Enemy Within DLC

Razor18 · February 16, 2016

Hi, some feedback for mission 04 (Hammerfall part 1)

- ATC tells you to start and land with the wind and not in the opposite direction (guess its a ATC issue). That also means that WP 5 is placed "at the wrong side" of the runway when approaching. ATC will always (??) tell you to takeoff / land on runway 07 (wind heading is 069). Also not a big issue and I think its mainly due to ATC "failure". However, not sure if you want to adjust WP 5 to the "ATC expected direction" of the runway to match the ATC order even if it would be different in the real world.
Not sure if you want to consider this, but maybe you want to add a very small part of remarks for each mission to tell the player to ignore some DCS related strange behavior (like "ignore ATC command to start and land on runway 07 and do it in the opposite direction") I think as long there are no spoilers, it would be ok and sometimes less confusing to players (I always try to do what the guys are saying... :D )

I think wind heading 069 means the wind comes rather FROM 069, so taking off runway 07 is pretty much head on as it supposed to be. Considering the wind headings in different layers for bombing is another story, there you need to give in the direction the wind "goes to" for the computer to calculate the necessary corrections, as the wind "takes the bombs with him" into the direction it blows.

Sryan · February 16, 2016

you take-off and land into the wind. If you understand IAS and TAS it would make sense that flying into the wind gives "bonus" indicated speed. The faster the air blows over the wings the more lift they provide allowing you to fly! wind coming from behind doesn't help at all. you'd think it would push you but it lowers your IAS and only makes you run out of runway faster :D

So Kerlix is right that when ATC says wind 069 the wind is coming from 069 and ATC always sends you up against the wind. Anyway I think the last waypoint is just to guide you home, not line you up for the landing per sé. I typically go to NAV and then DIVERT mode on the CDU. that will put a waypoint straight on the runway and will put relevant info like ILS,TACAN and radio frequencies on the MFD.

kerlix · February 16, 2016

I agree wit Syran as well. I believe the last WP is just a "THIS IS HOME" MARKER, not necessarily a IAF (initial approach fix) like you'd see with commercial flight plans and STARS.

In the real world, ATC would be vectoring you and your flight around the airfield to avoid potential conflicts with other arrivals, departures, other aircraft in the area that could be a mid-air collision threat, etc.

Unfortunately, the DCS ATC is quite rudimentary. It gets the job done, but is doesn't come close to actually taking control and guiding you and your flight in with vectors, etc.

Just fly towards that last WP and once the airfield is in sight, drop to pattern altitude, and bring that sucker down for a nice smooth landing.

Just keep an eye out for your wingman trying to follow you down to the ground. On more than once occasion I've had him hit ~100 feet and then freak the freak out and nearly collide with me when attempting to break away. Sadly, formation landings aren't something the AI like to do. I usually just get on final, then tell him to RTB. He breaks off, circles around and usual lands right around the time I'm leaving the runway.

Ayindi · February 16, 2016

Interesting! Thanks for your input, guys! :) Would like to hear what baltic_dragon's intent on this was since I am interested to use the editor to create some missions as well! :)

Cik · February 16, 2016

Hi, some feedback for mission 04 (Hammerfall part 1)

- First Time I have flown the mission I did not destroy any escaping truck, but the Debriefing said that I did destroy them completely. I MAY have hit a truck with the gun, but I am very sure it was not destroyed. Even my wingman did not kill them. There were definitly surviving trucks, but debriefing states all of them were destroyed (however, not a big issue just want to let you know) Not sure how the triggers are setup for this

the georgian helicopters (uzi, i believe) are quite bloodthirsty and will chase after and kill the trucks, even if you do not.

setting up the trigger to recognize that you alone killed them would be nigh impossible i believe (though my knowledge of complicated scripting is lackluster) but to just check if it is dead is much easier.

if you do extremely indepth victory checks it would take longer to design than the mission itself (probably by far, actually)

it's a compromise but as far as they go it's a reasonable one.

baltic_dragon · February 16, 2016

Hey guys! Thanks for the feedback & your questions, I will respond to all tomorrow!

baltic_dragon · February 17, 2016

Hi, some feedback for mission 04 (Hammerfall part 1)

- I'm missing a map of the overall flight path during the briefing. I started the mission without really knowing where the Mosque actually is. I just get a picture of the target area. I would suggest so add some proper naming of the Waypoints (I think this can be easily done in the editor) MSN03 is not really a speaking name and I think in reality I would expect that your WPs are named properly. :)

Good point, added for my "to do" list for an update. I am currently really deep into the official Mirage 2000 campaign, but as soon as I have half of it done (hopefully by the end of the week) I will get back to TEW to implement all the changes / requests.

- First Time I have flown the mission I did not destroy any escaping truck, but the Debriefing said that I did destroy them completely. I MAY have hit a truck with the gun, but I am very sure it was not destroyed. Even my wingman did not kill them. There were definitly surviving trucks, but debriefing states all of them were destroyed (however, not a big issue just want to let you know) Not sure how the triggers are setup for this

I will check, perhaps it is something with the triggers, but it is quite possible that the Georgian choppers took care of them, the AI usually does a good job. And if you were not tuned to their frequency, you wouldn't know :)

- ATC tells you to start and land with the wind and not in the opposite direction (guess its a ATC issue). That also means that WP 5 is placed "at the wrong side" of the runway when approaching. ATC will always (??) tell you to takeoff / land on runway 07 (wind heading is 069). Also not a big issue and I think its mainly due to ATC "failure". However, not sure if you want to adjust WP 5 to the "ATC expected direction" of the runway to match the ATC order even if it would be different in the real world.
Not sure if you want to consider this, but maybe you want to add a very small part of remarks for each mission to tell the player to ignore some DCS related strange behavior (like "ignore ATC command to start and land on runway 07 and do it in the opposite direction") I think as long there are no spoilers, it would be ok and sometimes less confusing to players (I always try to do what the guys are saying... :D )

Well, the ATC is something I don't want to really touch anymore, as there were lots of problems with take off / landing directions in 1.5 (I had to basically change all the missions), and we will get a new, improved one. So the less I work with that, the better - hopefully it will just work fine with the updated version. The wind directions are all fine in the mission editor and the ATC should give you the correct runway, but sometimes it just does not, I don't know why. So as general rule on return, just contact the ATC and follow its instructions (fly X heading for X miles) and land on the given runway, disregarding the last waypoint.

Also, it is true that Editor wind is opposite to the one in the mission - in editor it shows where it blows TO, and the in-game (And real life) tells you where it comes from. If you have any questions about mission building, PM me, always happy to help!

Overall, its a fantastic experience to fly these missions and for the price it is of such good value. These missions, seem to be much more realistic than the basic A-10C missions which seem to be unrealisticly difficult sometimes. Like a mission where are like 8 manpads in one area and you cant go high altitude because of clouds. Or some convoi mission where you are basically supposed to kill several Shilkas with MK-82 bombs... o_0 Maybe I'm just a bad pilot, but I cant imagine that any "real" mission would expect any A-10 pilot to go vs AAA with unguided bombs... seems like suicide to me...
However, thanks to your campaign the first time I am really "entertained" by this sim. Before I just had fun because flying and handling the weapon systems are already fun in some crude way! ;)

I am really happy you like it! A story - driven and realistic campaign was something I really missed in DCS...so I decided to make one. I hope you enjoy the rest of it, there is quite a lot ahead of you!

I agree wit Syran as well. I believe the last WP is just a "THIS IS HOME" MARKER, not necessarily a IAF (initial approach fix) like you'd see with commercial flight plans and STARS.

In the real world, ATC would be vectoring you and your flight around the airfield to avoid potential conflicts with other arrivals, departures, other aircraft in the area that could be a mid-air collision threat, etc.

Unfortunately, the DCS ATC is quite rudimentary. It gets the job done, but is doesn't come close to actually taking control and guiding you and your flight in with vectors, etc.

Just fly towards that last WP and once the airfield is in sight, drop to pattern altitude, and bring that sucker down for a nice smooth landing.

Just keep an eye out for your wingman trying to follow you down to the ground. On more than once occasion I've had him hit ~100 feet and then freak the freak out and nearly collide with me when attempting to break away. Sadly, formation landings aren't something the AI like to do. I usually just get on final, then tell him to RTB. He breaks off, circles around and usual lands right around the time I'm leaving the runway.

Very valid points. Best to just tell wingman to anchor and ask him to land when you are on final.

Also, as stated before - just follow the ATC instructions and disregard the last waypoint. AI behaviour is a bit weird sometimes, and it is not something I can control.

the georgian helicopters (uzi, i believe) are quite bloodthirsty and will chase after and kill the trucks, even if you do not.

setting up the trigger to recognize that you alone killed them would be nigh impossible i believe (though my knowledge of complicated scripting is lackluster) but to just check if it is dead is much easier.

if you do extremely indepth victory checks it would take longer to design than the mission itself (probably by far, actually)

it's a compromise but as far as they go it's a reasonable one.

Exactly. Choppers are usually doing a good work, and without scripting it is difficult (if not impossible, as Cik says) to know who scored the kill. I did the debriefings to have some kind of sum up after missions without having to make two versions of the following one with different briefings (the campaign would be twice as big). Hope it works OK!:thumbup:

Cik · February 17, 2016

hey BD, i've had problems for the first time, maybe i just have no actual reading comprehension but during

wizardry: everything was going fine, i got to hotel and the initial, set up an orbit, called the JTAC and got the target handoff (man, IR pointer is so nice to have) anyway, so after calling snake to watch the beam dance for a little bit i run in and hammer the place with mk82. after 2 runs i drop all three bombs and get "no targets remaining" (from playboy, the first JTAC) i take a glance at the site to see the burning wreckage and see 2x enclosed ZU-23 still active.. weird.

i kill both with a GBU-12 no problem, scan the road up and down a little bit to confirm no more ZU-23, call in chevy to ECHO to ready for the ambush

about 5 minutes later chevy calls they are under attack from triple-A. i look down the valley and sure enough, the pitch black helicopters are under accurate fire from AAA crewed by insurgent volunteers with no night fighting equipment in the middle of the night. thanks ED.

i roll in as fast as possible and me & wingman unleash a hail of mavericks, i guess too late; overlord calls mission abort due to the insurgents evacuating the VIP on foot, which i guess means that the AAA called in that there was something going on with black helis in their favorite valley or something.

my questions are: was i supposed to get those targets from the JTAC, and he failed to do so? and if not, how am i supposed to know there are a bunch of ZU-23s directly in the path of my friends if i am not told they are there in the briefing? or were they? i read it, promise.

my second question is this: is ED ever going to fix night/poor weather visibility and the ridiculous accuracy of AAA seriously it only took me about 15 seconds to get mavericks on target and that wasn't fast enough.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Cik

baltic_dragon · February 17, 2016

OK, my answer:

Here is what I guess has happened: when you rolled in on the ZU-23 which were hidden in the mosque in the valley, your wingman when ordered to attack AAA shot a maverick on the ones near the Mosque and then another one on the ZU-23 that was part of the convoy transporting Wizard. In the briefing it is clearly said that you cannot attack the convoy before it reaches the sweet spot. When they were attacked, they just left the cars and evacuated on foot, as stated by Overlord. I would advise to take out the mosque AAA yourself, not to take any risks!

These were not in the briefing, these were a surprise by the CLA :)

And I do agree that AI is insanely accurate at night, although MANPADS are not shooting unless you have your lights on. Can't speak on ED's behalf on this. One thing I know is that in 1.5 the nights are much darker than they were in 1.2!

Cik · February 17, 2016

ah, makes sense. AI omniscience is sometimes a huge downside i guess.

i actually did get hit by a MANPAD while in a dive for the first mk82 run (confirmed in the AAR as igla) but it must have hit a nonessential section of the aircraft because it didn't actually seem to do much (unlike what it usually does, IE mangles you)

Shez · February 18, 2016

Loving this Campain so far! Thanks for all the effort, baltic dragon!

Razor18 · February 19, 2016

Hi baltic dragon,

after failing No men left behind, NMLB2 came up to my surprise. Is it because #1 is by default nearly impossible to succeed? Or had I succeed #1, campaign would have skipped NMLB#2?

baltic_dragon · February 19, 2016

Hey Razor!

But there is... no... Leave No Man Behind #2 in the DLC! It was in the free version before, but I removed it in the DLC and changed it into Wizardry, adding some stuff (thinking that in a story driven campaign like this it is better not to branch it, but give more missions to the players). So after Leave No Man Behind you have Operation Thunderstorm...

Razor18 · February 19, 2016

Hey Razor!

But there is... no... Leave No Man Behind #2 in the DLC! It was in the free version before, but I removed it in the DLC and changed it into Wizardry, adding some stuff (thinking that in a story driven campaign like this it is better not to branch it, but give more missions to the players). So after Leave No Man Behind you have Operation Thunderstorm...

Well... I'm still on that campaign, so answer would interest me anyway... :D To be honest I refused to upgrade to 1.5 'till FLIR issue gets overhauled (and I don't like any workaround either). :)

baltic_dragon · February 19, 2016

Ah, OK! LOL :)

Yeah, if you fail LNMB1 you go to LNMB2.

If you succeed, you move to OP Thunderstorm.

AFAIK FLIR will be looking better soon - TEW under 1.5 is almost entirely different campaign!

Razor18 · February 19, 2016

Ah, OK! LOL :)
Yeah, if you fail LNMB1 you go to LNMB2.
If you succeed, you move to OP Thunderstorm.
AFAIK FLIR will be looking better soon - TEW under 1.5 is almost entirely different campaign!

I will be sure to buy it, no doubt! But in the meantime I go into Missions then to fly LNMB1 again till I succeed. And as soon as FLIR gets fixed, I'll convert to 1.5, no doubt either! :thumbup:

Ayindi · February 26, 2016

One question about the second Hammerfall mission. (Patrol) I think its the fifth overall mission. Is it intended that the ECHO Outposts all have an EL of 10000? I would suppose that it should point at the outpost and not above it?! The reason I am askin is because I have some problems finding appropriate targets. My intention is to select the attacked ECHO outpost and "start from there to find my targets with the TGP". However since the actual WP is above it and there are mountains it is quite difficult to find the street and go to the appropriate direction from there (dont want to spoil too much... ;) ) It always seem that I have a mountain in my face before I can actually find something... ;)

Razor18 · February 26, 2016

One question about the second Hammerfall mission. (Patrol) I think its the fifth overall mission. Is it intended that the ECHO Outposts all have an EL of 10000? I would suppose that it should point at the outpost and not above it?! The reason I am askin is because I have some problems finding appropriate targets. My intention is to select the attacked ECHO outpost and "start from there to find my targets with the TGP". However since the actual WP is above it and there are mountains it is quite difficult to find the street and go to the appropriate direction from there (dont want to spoil too much... ;) ) It always seem that I have a mountain in my face before I can actually find something... ;)

Just from my memory: is there any word about a JTAC in the mission briefing? :music_whistling:

Gliptal · February 26, 2016

One question about the second Hammerfall mission. (Patrol) I think its the fifth overall mission. Is it intended that the ECHO Outposts all have an EL of 10000? I would suppose that it should point at the outpost and not above it?! The reason I am askin is because I have some problems finding appropriate targets. My intention is to select the attacked ECHO outpost and "start from there to find my targets with the TGP". However since the actual WP is above it and there are mountains it is quite difficult to find the street and go to the appropriate direction from there (dont want to spoil too much... ;) ) It always seem that I have a mountain in my face before I can actually find something... ;)

Just create a new waypoint at ground height, or drop a markpoint.

Ayindi · February 26, 2016

Yes I know that I can create a waypoint and/or markpoint and did this. (after some tries... -.-) :) However, this is just some feedback to make the missions "better" or to iron out some things that have not been realized so far. I think in reality I would expect that the waypoints are directly at the outposts and not above them? Not sure though...

Ah and by the way there is not JTAC in this mission! :)

baltic_dragon · February 26, 2016

One question about the second Hammerfall mission. (Patrol) I think its the fifth overall mission. Is it intended that the ECHO Outposts all have an EL of 10000? I would suppose that it should point at the outpost and not above it?! The reason I am askin is because I have some problems finding appropriate targets. My intention is to select the attacked ECHO outpost and "start from there to find my targets with the TGP". However since the actual WP is above it and there are mountains it is quite difficult to find the street and go to the appropriate direction from there (dont want to spoil too much... ;) ) It always seem that I have a mountain in my face before I can actually find something... ;)

Hey!

Yes, the waypoints are placed like this on purpose - after all the flight plan is a 3D thing and since you are required to fly at certain altitude, the WPs are also at that altitude.

But if you look at your map with flight plan on it, you will see MGRS coordinates given next to position of each Echo checkpoint. I would strongly recommend to program these into your CDU as separate waypoints before take off - these are spot on and also give you exact altitude of Echo so all you need to do is slew your TGP.

So your concern has been already taken care of, albeit in a bit different manner :)

Unless I am mistaken and there are no coordinates but I am pretty sure I put those in the mission plan!

PB0KGM_Foxy · April 28, 2016

Unless I am mistaken and there are no coordinates but I am pretty sure I put those in the mission plan!

I've flown this mission few days ago and I can confirm that you gave us the checkpoints coordinates in the mission briefing.

By the way excellent job on this campaign !

(I'm currently at mission 10)

baltic_dragon · April 29, 2016

Thanks! I am glad you are enjoying it! If you have any questions, shoot!

splash · April 30, 2016

Hi, I'm new to A-10C and wonder if could play your campaign or will need a deeper knowledge of avionics. Thanks.

Yurgon · April 30, 2016

Hi, I'm new to A-10C and wonder if could play your campaign or will need a deeper knowledge of avionics. Thanks.

You'll definitely need to know how to do the essentials and some advanced tasks.

The good thing is that you can use this knowledge for all A-10C missions.

Off the top of my head, a few things you'll need to be able to do:

Following a flight plan
Switching waypoints
Creating waypoints from MGRS coordinates
Creating waypoints from Lat/Long coordinates
Creating waypoints from Bullseye offset
Using AGM-65, GBU-12, GBU-38, the cannon, Mk-82, rockets
Maintaining situational awareness in stressful situations
Radio comms with all three radios, tuning frequencies
Contacting in-game JTAC for target assignment
Night flights, including combat employment
Managing wingmen
Reading briefings and reacting to in-flight instructions

IMO the campaign is very fair - it never spawns unbeatable enemies right on top of your head or hides a single mission critical vehicle in a forest, but it is definitely challenging even for experienced players. Then again, I can practically guarantee that you will learn a whole lot while flying the campaign (or suffer a series of devastating failures :D).

I think the Instant Action mission "Easy - Summer" (or something like it; the first one for the A-10C in the Georgia/Black Sea map) makes use of most of the required skills (except the whole waypoint creation thing). If you can beat it easily without rearming or getting shot down, you should be able to handle the campaign as far as weapons are concerned.

Edited April 30, 2016 by Yurgon
Added radio comms requirement

Sign In

The Enemy Within DLC

Recommended Posts

Razor18

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Sryan

kerlix

Ayindi

Cik

baltic_dragon

baltic_dragon

Cik

baltic_dragon

Cik

Shez

Razor18

baltic_dragon

Razor18

baltic_dragon

Razor18

Ayindi

Razor18

Gliptal

Ayindi

baltic_dragon

PB0KGM_Foxy

baltic_dragon

splash

Yurgon

Recently Browsing 0 members