Operation "Blue Flag" - 24/7 PvP Campaign - ROUND 5

[Bootysweat]

Thank you for using Bootsweat Air Freight and Cargo, your base commanders will be receiving the invoice :thumbup:

 

 

It was a great time meeting and flying with you all. The spartan defense by the Magnificent 7 in the wee hours of the morning was a blast, and working together with the red horde in teamspeak was quite an experience. The fighting was incredible on both sides; I can't wait to see you all in round 6. I appreciate the chopper pilots who helped me run fuel, and who had the balls to fly 30 minutes out, braving server crashes and 104th F15's flying 50 feet off the ground, to set up deep SAMs and capture bases.

 

 

On a side note, I'm not sure if it came up yet but I had a strange clipping bug occur while trying to refuel Beslan. Pardon my language in the video; we were in the final push and I was struggling to reopen Mozdok and Beslan to keep strikers and cap flowing. These clips show the final moments of two separate 20 minute flights from Nalchik in an attempt to reopen Beslan.

 

http://www.twitch.tv/bootysweat911/v/51638592

http://www.twitch.tv/bootysweat911/v/51639445

 

*Edit: Any chance of seeing chopper stats on the amount of fuel and deployables we delivered? I need records to break for round 6 :)

Edited March 1, 2016 by Bootysweat

[gregzagk]

Thank you all for the feedback and your kind words.

 

Polls for the MVP's of round 5 will open soon in the buddyspike website.

Please, if you didn't already, register also there to have the chance to vote :)

 

Website: http://www.buddyspike.net

 

Greg

[Croncat]

Thanks Buddyspike team for that awesome event, the most fun I've had so far in DCS. So many nice people and such great fights.

 

But I also want to give some feedback.

 

- Balance

I think here shouldn't be changed anything. The numbers are really balanced, and even if not, it's all about the fun. I wanted to join bluefor for the next blueflag (and maybe do) to balance things a little bit out, but it seems that everything is so even that I'm not sure if it's needed.

 

- Squadron locked slots

Please remove them. I don't understand why this is ingame. I could understand that if there are really active squadrons that need them. But most of the slots are completly unused and even active squadrons like TAW nearly never use their slots.

 

- Player lives

Please increase them a bit, I had phases in the game were the #1 reason I lost a life were server crashes.

 

- Fuel

Feels really artifical atm (you can refuel airbases by flying fuel between them back and forth, its strange). but has imo great potential. A suggestion:

+ you can only deliver fuel from FARPs (because there is a refinery ;))

+ more FARPs

+ airfields slowly genereate fuel by themself (because fuelconvois arrive)

+ low tier aircrafts don't need fuel (like the Mig21 or MI8). Like vespene gas in starcraft it would enable you to have tech units.

 

- artifical advantages

unfortunatly there are some advantages I use:

+ message log for kills

+ lagging enemys that become visible, especially SU25s in the mountains are really good to see

+ ESC screen to see what aircrafts the enemys are using and where

I don't know if you can do anything about this.

 

Again, thank you for the great event. Thank you pilots on both sides, thanks redfor for the great communication and fun at TS. Special thanks to every CGI, I think I made more than 85% of my kills, because someone told me where I should look. Special thanks to Saburo for the by far best dogfight I've ever had.

[Ashilta]

... Holes in SAM network...

 

Our SAM network was disabled by a true gamesman. Think yourself lucky.

[Frostie]

Our SAM network was disabled by a true gamesman. Think yourself lucky.

 

To be fair the basic SAM network is pretty crap, turning them off just made it harder for Red to destroy them especially considering the amount of SEAD we had in the area. I really don't know what this guy thought he was achieving.

[IASGATG]

In regards to squadron slots, I'd like Xcom/Greg to comment the game design.

 

Is the squad locks something to try and balance the unit distribution? Have extra fighters/strikers in one PAK but only if that dedicated squadron is on? IIRC Redfor Min Vody has Flankers but were only squadron dependent, so in that PAK only Beslan and Mozdok has open fighters, thus making it easier for Bluefor to take the East when the 373 wasn't taking those fighters.

 

However if it isn't the case and it's to give a dedicated area slots for a squad to be able to all LFE out of together, then I'd say keep them in but each squad needs to sign up each round and if the team feels they aren't getting used enough, they can ask the admins to change those slots to open positions asap.

 

Thoughts?

[blkspade]

Both the life and fuel systems are broken if they can't account for client and sever side crashes. For the lives, something like 1 roll back per 1-3 hour(s) when a player doesn't land but is not killed, would cover a player against a client crash without making it exploitable. Conversely, no limit on roll backs under the same conditions if the mission doesn't complete its 3 hour run. Similar logic could be applied to how fuel is subtracted from (and added to) airfields.

[Bushmanni]

Squadron slots seem to me a historical feature from Summer Rain and maybe previous campaigns where each squad was operating from their own base. As this campaign was flown only on certain dates with all participants present and with finite airframes available for each squad it was a necessary system. It has been ported to the Blue Flag with the addition of squad spawn lock script.

 

As the gameplay is fundamentally different in Blue Flag due to way more squads, 24/7 server and more dynamic strategic situation that can't be adapted to between mission like in Summer Rain the squad slot system is more of a hindrance than an asset. I never really needed my SF squadron slots to fly but used them when I had to spawn on my home airfield anyway.

 

I don't mind 373 and IAF having slots for themselves (but not whole airbases) as it's their server and campaign but for the rest of us it would be probably better to just have general slots open for everyone.

[gregzagk]

In regards to squadron slots, I'd like Xcom/Greg to comment the game design.

 

Is the squad locks something to try and balance the unit distribution? Have extra fighters/strikers in one PAK but only if that dedicated squadron is on? IIRC Redfor Min Vody has Flankers but were only squadron dependent, so in that PAK only Beslan and Mozdok has open fighters, thus making it easier for Bluefor to take the East when the 373 wasn't taking those fighters.

 

However if it isn't the case and it's to give a dedicated area slots for a squad to be able to all LFE out of together, then I'd say keep them in but each squad needs to sign up each round and if the team feels they aren't getting used enough, they can ask the admins to change those slots to open positions asap.

 

Thoughts?

 

Blue Flag's needs, change through the rounds so we try to adapt each time.

In the first round, especially during testing, we had many squadrons registered that were already familiar to us due to their participation in our previous campaigns. We were flying with these guys nearly every week so we knew the active pilot numbers etc.

 

Providing squadron slots gave the feeling of being responsible of their own squadron airbase and it helped a lot in the coordination as most of the squadrons knew were to operate from the start.

 

This feature brought a lot of other squadrons also in as it was a priority to their list.

But even if there were squadron slots in airbases, there were enough general slots also.

 

As Blue Flag became more popular we reached at a point were we needed to free more slots for general usage. That was due to the number of lonewolves that increased but also cause some squadrons had to fly less often than before due to various of issues. Also new squadrons joined which had to share airbases with each other and that caused more issues in the availability of slots.

 

During round 5 there were no squadron slots except 3-4 squadrons which were more active and were operating from airbases that had enough parking slots available. There were 2 only 373 fighter dedicated slots for example in Vody. It's highly possible no squadron slots will be used in the next round but they weren't reflecting too much in this particular round.

 

Greg

 

*LOL sniped by Bushmanni :) Exactly this.

[xcom]

Squadron slots seem to me a historical feature from Summer Rain and maybe previous campaigns where each squad was operating from their own base. As this campaign was flown only on certain dates with all participants present and with finite airframes available for each squad it was a necessary system. It has been ported to the Blue Flag with the addition of squad spawn lock script.

 

As the gameplay is fundamentally different in Blue Flag due to way more squads, 24/7 server and more dynamic strategic situation that can't be adapted to between mission like in Summer Rain the squad slot system is more of a hindrance than an asset. I never really needed my SF squadron slots to fly but used them when I had to spawn on my home airfield anyway.

 

I don't mind 373 and IAF having slots for themselves (but not whole airbases) as it's their server and campaign but for the rest of us it would be probably better to just have general slots open for everyone.

 

 

OHH Summer Rain, the horror!

http://89.163.173.82/DCS/Default.html

[gregzagk]

A small video showing the progress of each day during the 5th round.

Screenshots were taken every 4 hours. (Total 16 days)

 

I think we can clearly see the dedication of both sides :thumbup:

 

 

 

Greg

[Beeroshima]

Can I be the gazzillionth person to start harassing you guys about rd. 6?

 

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

[IASGATG]

Thanks Greg, this really highlights how the difference in player count effects things.

[Sierra99]

Sooooo...

 

I'm gonna ask a question...Not throwing stones...just asking.

 

With regard to the warping and lag which seem to be vexing people so...is it possible...could it be connected...to dozens and dozens of people recording and streaming their Blueflag to the Internet?

 

Looking back through the posts it seems like everyone was streaming video and had video "Proof" of the problems...could the streaming be inducing the problems?

[0xDEADBEEF]

Sooooo...

 

I'm gonna ask a question...Not throwing stones...just asking.

 

With regard to the warping and lag which seem to be vexing people so...is it possible...could it be connected...to dozens and dozens of people recording and streaming their Blueflag to the Internet?

 

Looking back through the posts it seems like everyone was streaming video and had video "Proof" of the problems...could the streaming be inducing the problems?

 

while it may be a contributing factor I'm afraid it is not the source of the problems. The Buddyspike team is doing everything they can think of containing it. We will need to be patient until ED fixes this.

[Oznerol256]

Sooooo...

 

I'm gonna ask a question...Not throwing stones...just asking.

 

With regard to the warping and lag which seem to be vexing people so...is it possible...could it be connected...to dozens and dozens of people recording and streaming their Blueflag to the Internet?

 

Looking back through the posts it seems like everyone was streaming video and had video "Proof" of the problems...could the streaming be inducing the problems?

 

Video recording on the end users is usually done with Shadowplay or FRAPS. Shadowplay has virtually no performance hit at all since it uses the hardware encoder of the GPU. FRAPS does have a performance hit, but it shouldnt affect network speed much. A slow internet connection over a long distance has much bigger impact than 10fps less framerate on a users machine since ping (round trip time) and packet loss are directly affected.

 

Streaming does have a significant effect on network perfomance since it uses a large chunk of the available upload bandwith for most users. In fact, the required bandwith is so big that only people with decent internet connections can afford to stream at all. I think most streamers are aware of the issue since slow connection speeds cause frame drops in the stream. Every useful streaming software alerts the streamer if frame drops occur.

[Pikey]

There's two types of warping and you get used to seeing which is which. The client side ones you dont see that much anymore, but these are folk with bad performance their end and things like tabbing out. Actually dont see that much in 1.5+, it was more a 1.2 thing. The other is the warp we all get at the same time in pulses.

[madyogi]

Is it just my case or is this the biggest cheating server ever? During last weekend and up till today I've counted like 8 cases where i had a clean mi8 flight to take over RED guys town/farp, each time ive ended up with CTD, server reboot or being kicked to MP wait room... So f...g annoying!

[gregzagk]

Is it just my case or is this the biggest cheating server ever? During last weekend and up till today I've counted like 8 cases where i had a clean mi8 flight to take over RED guys town/farp, each time ive ended up with CTD, server reboot or being kicked to MP wait room... So f...g annoying!

 

Of course it is. We kept watching and rebooting the server during the week to rest until next round :D

[Chrinik]

Is it just my case or is this the biggest cheating server ever? During last weekend and up till today I've counted like 8 cases where i had a clean mi8 flight to take over RED guys town/farp, each time ive ended up with CTD, server reboot or being kicked to MP wait room... So f...g annoying!

 

Well...the campaign is over...the server is still running for funsies and to test stuff.

[D4n]

Testing round 6 it says, but no SAMs yet, Greg?

[xcom]

Testing for next round has not started yet.

Currently the server is running round 5's blue flag variant.

[Pikey]

Are there any definite changes for next round or is the change list still in discussion?

[gregzagk]

Are there any definite changes for next round or is the change list still in discussion?

 

We still finalise things and we plan to have a twitch session in which we will talk about these changes.

 

Greg

[QuiGon]

Wasn't the next round supposed to be WW2?

(http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2688832&postcount=581)