Chronilogical Order of BS2 Campaigns ?

[SnowTiger]

Although I started my DCS experience with the Black Shark (1) about 6 years ago, I only flew for about a month and then was away from DCS until a year ago.

I have only gotten back into BS2 over the last 2 weeks and now want to start taking on the Campaigns (including the DLC Campaign I recently purchased).

 

My question is:

In what Order should I be doing the Campaigns ?

 

I have the following Campaigns in my List but I have no idea which order they were meant to be flown in (or challenged).

 

Deployment

Georgian Oil War

Oil War - Chapters 1, 2 and 3

Operation Medvedev II and,

Republic

 

Furthermore, I don't understand why there is a Georgian Oil War and then 3 Chapters which by title alone, appear to be the same thing ??!!!

 

PS> I recall starting a Campaign (all those years ago) where the first flight was just a fly-around to become familiar with the battle area. But I have no idea which Campaign that was, nor do I know if I should have started with that Campaign or another.

Obviously, I am a newb so I don't want to get tossed into a real nightmare Campaign/Missions yet.

 

Could someone please provide me with some insight to this question ?

Thanks in Advance.

[SnowTiger]

I actually just started each Campaign and read the Campaign Description for each.

That said, I have just figured out which one I started on years ago (as mentioned above).

It is obvious to me now that it was the Campaign titled "Deployment".

 

So I'll go ahead and "take a run" at that one for now.

 

However, if anyone has any suggestions for which I ought to take on Next OR to point out that there IS a Chronological Order to the Campaigns, I'd still gladly hear those replies.

I'm sure there are others out there that would also benefit from this information.

 

Thanks again.

[mwd2]

You have miss the Vergeev Group Campaign - it plays around the Sochi-Adler area.

 

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=114267

 

Not testet in 1.5!

[dburne]

Georgian Oil War

Oil War - Chapters 1, 2 and 3

 

Furthermore, I don't understand why there is a Georgian Oil War and then 3 Chapters which by title alone, appear to be the same thing ??!!!

 

Having been learning as well and getting close to where I want to try some campaign flying, I am curious on this as well... what is the deal with the Georgian Oil War campaign and then the one showing the three chapters?

I noticed that earlier and meant to ask as well...

 

I also will likely start with Deployment.

[kilix]

I started with deployment about a month ago. The simulator is amazing and this campaign really begins slowly and gradually. So far my favourite mission was a night ambush, ending with a car chase :) perfect mission design. I am a bit late to the party I feel. I purchased BS1 when it was still new, but didn't have the PC to operate it. Now I have a PC powerful enough, but I feel I missed the peak of this game by a few years or so :( No matter, happy flying to all :thumbup:

[SnowTiger]

I would LOVE to include Vergeev Group Campaign but as I recall, it had 2 or 3 missions that failed to work in 1.2 so I never copied that Campaign over to 1.5.

Last I heard, someone had mentioned they were going to try to fix those few missions. I never heard if that had ever been done.

But from what I recall of it, it was a really well put together Campaign that I hope we can include in the list sometime soon (I think the Original Developer of that Campaign released Rights to someone else to fix/complete it or something).

I'm going on Memory and/or Rumor ... so don't take anything I say with any confidence.

[SnowTiger]

I just downloaded the updated mission files. Hopefully this WILL work in 1.5 (and 2 when it's finished).

By the time 2 is out in full version, I might have gotten around to actually flying Vergeev Group Campaign.

 

Thanks for reminding me of this Campaign.

 

But I'm still curious of the Chronological Order of the rest of the Campaigns ESPECIALLY with regards to Georgian Oil War and Chapters 1, 2 and 3 ?? What's up with that ?

[Yurgon]

Not sure what's with the multitude of Georgian Oil War campaigns. I believe the 3 chapters are more or less shortcuts to parts of the campaign one would encounter anyway when playing the full campaign.

 

Anyway, my personal rundown of the campaigns.

 

Deployment is a great, story driven campaign that starts with a nice familiarization flight (voice overs in Russian, lots of text to read if you don't know the language, so hit Pause a lot) and gradually increases in difficulty. Some of the later missions are quite hard, but overall it's a great campaign and very well suited to begin with.

 

Vergeev Group is by far the most matured campaign I've ever seen for the Black Shark. I never finished it, not even sure why, but it wasn't for a lack of fun. It tells its story well, has good briefings and great immersion. I'd fly Deployment first and Vergeev second, because this way you'll get the most out of both. :)

 

Medvedev II was added for the launch of Black Shark 2 IIRC. It is story driven as well. I played a modified co-op version that someone had uploaded, but never finished it. As far as I remember it, it's a well made campaign.

 

The Republic follows a very fictional conflict and is story driven as well. It's great to have it as new Ka-50 content, but my personal feelings towards the campaign are somewhat mixed, mostly because I think some of the missions put too much pressure on the pilot by using artificial time limits.

 

Georgian Oil War is all-out war between West and East. Expect to see all kinds of trouble, including enemy fighters, medium range SAMs, very angry attack helicopters, MANPADs, and so on. Your chances of survival often depend on the other units' performance, which itself is more or less based on luck. The same goes for mission results - it's possible that the player wipes out two enemy tank platoons but the mission is a bust because the overall outcome favors the enemy faction, or you could crash after 20 minutes, not having fired a shot, and win the mission.

GOW is the closest there is to a dynamic campaign, because it uses stages. In order to win the campaign, the player must win the majority of stages. The campaign can freely advance and retreat between these stages, and even if you fly the same mission several times, it should play out differently every time because of randomization.

While it's a great showcase for how the Ka-50 might have been used in a full-blown war, it's not narrated like the previous campaigns, and I still have to beat it (come to think of it, I only ever finished Deployment, but that I did twice. I blame the awesomeness of A-10C and UH-1H for not finishing the other Ka-50 campaigns. ;)).

[SnowTiger]

Thank you kindly Yurgon for that very informative and detailed description of the Campaigns.

This is exactly what I was hoping for ... and then some.

 

Cheers

[dburne]

Ditto from me as well, thanks Yurgon for that great information.

As I have been learning the KA-50 and now have successfully flown some single missions in combat, I am excited about starting to do some campaign flying, this helps me determine the order to start with as well.

[Yurgon]

Cheers guys, you're welcome. :beer:

[millenix]

Great, just picked this module up as my first fully clickable module. Also have FC3. This is very helpful as once I feel comfortable I definitely want to try the campaigns.

[SnowTiger]

I am already almost sick to death with "Deployment" Campaign.

Mission 8 "ON THE OTHER SIDE" is driving me absolutely insane. It's all I can do to keep from smashing something !!

 

I have tried this LONG mission At LEAST 12 times now. That's 4 times even after watching several different videos. I just don't get it. I even got the enemy choppers the last 4 times I flew (now that I know where they are coming from), but I get taken out by missiles or ground fire every freaking time. It is a giant piss off when you are down to the last 5 or 6 visible vehicles (of which at least 3 are soft targets).

 

I'm done with the Campaigns for now.

My recommendation to ANYONE wishing to attempt any of the Black Shark Campaigns is to make sure you are REALLY Friggin' Good with all aspects of the BS before you embark on this insanity.

[M1Combat]

MedVedev was awesome... I can tell you that. Loved it. Will do GOW next probably and then jump into the republic one.

[dburne]

I'm done with the Campaigns for now.

My recommendation to ANYONE wishing to attempt any of the Black Shark Campaigns is to make sure you are REALLY Friggin' Good with all aspects of the BS before you embark on this insanity.

 

Lol thanks for the words of encouragement!

 

I am about to the point I feel I am ready to try some campaign flying. I thought Deployment was supposed to be kind of an entry into campaign flying, sounds like it is pretty tough.

[Yurgon]

Mission 8 "ON THE OTHER SIDE" is driving me absolutely insane. It's all I can do to keep from smashing something !!

 

Yeah, that's one of the tough missions I was talking about.

 

I think after a couple of attempts I edited it so that my flight would spawn very close to the action so that I didn't have to perform the long flight over and over again. The next attempt my wingmen nailed the most dangerous enemies, and then the rest went smooth as well.

 

I am about to the point I feel I am ready to try some campaign flying. I thought Deployment was supposed to be kind of an entry into campaign flying, sounds like it is pretty tough.

 

It starts very easy. Just two or three missions are really tough, and IIRC "On the other side" is the toughest one. I'd say it's badly designed because it combines a long approach with some dangerous enemies and can easily get frustrating (not sure whether I actually destroyed a mouse when I kept failing it... :music_whistling:). But like I said, with a little bit of work in the Mission Editor, it can be changed in order to exclude the long approach.

[SnowTiger]

LOL

I'm just giving fair warning .... hehe.

 

It's a nightmare that only gets worse as you progress through the campaign.

As mentioned, there are YouTube Videos that show how some people have completed this mission (#8) but I have tried it so many times I'm fed up with it. I just don't get it !

It is an hour long mission, most of which is just flying to the Ingress Point (IP). The rest is dodging rockets and AAA and attack helicopters.

 

But then even the 2nd mission was challenging enough I thought. And it's not like I'm a complete newb in the BS .... but my results aren't any better.

 

Good luck with it friend.

Let us know how you make out. I'll be interested to see if it's just ME (and others who have complained about this and other missions in ED Forums) OR is this in fact, simply too hard for amateurs.

[SnowTiger]

@Yurgon Does editing the Start Point as you have suggested not affect the Mission Triggers with regards to moving on to the Next Mission ?

[dburne]

Good luck with it friend.

Let us know how you make out. I'll be interested to see if it's just ME (and others who have complained about this and other missions in ED Forums) OR is this in fact, simply too hard for amateurs.

 

Lol well I do not consider myself an amateur flight simmer, as I have been doing it way more years than I care to remember - but learning to fly, navigate, and deploy weapons in the KA-50 has certainly humbled me and I feel very much like an amateur!

 

Perhaps I should get some more seat time in the single missions first, I am starting to somewhat hold my own in some of them but could use some more seat time.

[Yurgon]

@Yurgon Does editing the Start Point as you have suggested not affect the Mission Triggers with regards to moving on to the Next Mission ?

 

In this mission I think all should be well.

 

I would first create a backup of the mission file:

 

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Missions\EN\Campaigns\Deployment08_eng.miz

 

You probably won't be allowed to edit the file in that location, so I'd copy it to "Saved Games", edit it there, and then after editing is done, just copy it back. You'll probably have to confirm that you really want to overwrite a file in your Windows' Program Files folder, which is okay.

 

The editing itself should be very simple: Open the mission in the Mission Editor, locate the player flight, change the first waypoint from "Takeoff from runway" to "Fly over point", move the first waypoint to where you want it, and delete the now obsolete ingress waypoints.

 

 

Campaign progress depends on mission results, and as far as I can tell this mission doesn't require the whole ingress, it just requires the destruction of some (or all) targets, which is why setting the player flight to spawn near the action at an appropriate altitude doesn't affect the mission results.

 

(On a side note, mission results are different from mission score. AFAIK, mission score is awarded for destroying enemy units, whereas mission results are awarded for completing goals set by the mission designer. Such goals could be the destruction of an entire group of enemies, or the destruction of just one particular enemy unit, or could be as simple as reaching a waypoint or flying through a trigger zone.)

[MadDog-IC]

I am already almost sick to death with "Deployment" Campaign.

Mission 8 "ON THE OTHER SIDE" is driving me absolutely insane. It's all I can do to keep from smashing something !!

 

Lmao, I remember that mission with utter distain, and yes I think I smashed something also:(, even playing in CoOP mode with a friend we couldn't do it.

 

I did the same as yurgon in the end to shorten the flight time to targets.

 

With a lot of experience in the mission editor and looking at a wide range of the default missions, I would have to say that it is most likely faulty in some way or another.

 

Regards, Ian.

[SnowTiger]

It's a good think I have lots of hair because I'm ready to start pulling.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't see your post explaining how to Edit and Save the Mission File.

I did change it and flew it another 4 friggin' times before actually Winning. But then I was Unable to Save anything I changed and I even Deleted a long string of armor because I don't think there is enough ammo in a 4 ship flight to kill everything. At least not with the Intelligence (or lack thereof) that the Wingy's have !!!

 

SO .. Now I have to do it all over AGAIN. Oh if only the Mission Creator could hear me swearing right now !!

If I had my way, I'd ask ED/DCS to Re-Write this mission and send us a revised Campaign because this is absolutely RIDICULOUS. I have NEVER done anything so frustrating in my entire life.

[M1Combat]

I gotta try this mission...

[kilix]

oh man, I'm at fourth try on this mission. Even flying over the hills was a challenge in itself, I crashed twice. Looking forward to getting owned.

[SnowTiger]

Here is my advice for all it's worth (which really isn't much !) if you want to have success in any multi-ship flight/mission.

 

That Advice is to STUDY the following graphically detailed explanation of how to utilize Ka-50 AI's by "Erforce".

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=101175

 

"IF" and when you have a Clear Understanding of how to properly utilize the AI's, then this and other missions probably are "almost" a breeze.

 

PS> I highly recommend all Ka-50 (sim) pilots save that link and commit it's information to memory.

However, I admit that while I have had this link for a couple years, I "STILL" haven't got this information to sink in fully yet (or even partially). But I'm thoroughly convinced this is the secret.

So it's obvious, I give good advice but fail to practice it myself .... YET !