Manny in Vietnam (combat tryout)

[SFC Tako]

I need to bug you one more time, this time about the level of trickyness in combat. Mission is called Manny in Vietnam (combat tryout) and can be found in user downloads.

"Trickyness"?!?! Yes, this will be a fast paced mission with a bit of stress baked into it. I'd say this is not regular combat, hence the trickyness label.

All feedback is good feedback.

Edited June 22, 2016 by SFC Tako

[FastForward]

First try : My co-pilot got shot and died in the first run and my left gunner went out of ammo, my bird took serious hits, but I managed to get back to repair and rearm...No new copilot though :music_whistling: Second run, it was my turn to die :cry:

I played with the default textures and the vehicles were almost invisible, I took down one but I almost stumbled on it, let's call it luck. Maybe green tracers are the key to spot them ?

 

Second try : the Vietnam textures are almost mandatory for this mission. I could see the vehicles, but I couldn't even shot and I didn't make it, and died in a crash rather quickly.....

 

Yes it's hard, but it's Nam, man :smilewink:

 

Don't change a thing, I really love it, and I'm going for a third/fourth/fifth....try, until I succeed.....or not ! :thumbup:

[FastForward]

Third try : I won't even mention it.....:music_whistling:

 

Fourth try : it's still running, I paused the mission to give you a direct feedback ;)

I finally got the two vehicles, and I was heading home when I got the message....Despite the very bad condition of my chopper (I lost the airspeed indicator, the radio compass...and my left gunner, my bird is a total wreck), I flew back and made a close pass on the tank, got the red smoke and even managed to shoot it....I'm now on the pad, waiting for repair and rearm, and I'm going back to finish the job...I hope :)

 

For this try, I flew very low past the hill , then came back to avoid being blinded by the rising sun...

 

The more I try it the more I love this mission :thumbup: You could call it "Fly low and dodge the bullets" :lol:

 

Thanks for your work, it's really immersive :thumbup:

[FastForward]

I couldn't finish the job :(

 

 

I went back, had to make again a close and low pass to have the ORANGE smoke, and wasted my rockets...:cry:

 

 

Back home to rearm, I went back, got a BLUE smoke this time, fired all my rockets, I was pretty sure I destoyed it, but without any message, I went again for a new pass after rearming, and.....nothing :( Only infantry shots, no new smoke despite all the low passes, no shots from a tank....

 

I saw a wreck in the haze, hovered a few feet over it under the vietnamese bullets to make sure, and finally went back home, almost lost in the haze, radio compass broken... but when I had a look at the mission debriefing, I saw I just shot it, but not destroyed it. Where did it go ?

 

 

However, I had a really great time, I'll fly this mission over and over, I LOVE it !:thumbup:

 

 

I saved my track, I think it's worth a look, and wanted to attach it, but it's much too big, almost 22Mo, sorry :(

[SFC Tako]

@FastForward: Sounds like you got the right spirit. I never thought anyone be seeing blue smoke but I put it there just in case. So I was wrong but it turned out right ;)

Love your feedback, it's just perfect! Maybe I've created a mission that's almost impossible but in the fun way that people come back for more...

Keep blasting them!

[FastForward]

Here's the link to my track :

 

http://dl.free.fr/mfbvkZPXp

 

I'm looking forward for the next round ! ;)

[SFC Tako]

Tracks are usually corrupt. Or rather, they've been corrupt for more than a year. But I'll give it a watch tonite anyway. Sometimes a track works OK right until the action starts ;)

[FastForward]

I just watched it and you're right, only the first minutes are ok...too bad :(

[rge75]

I still can't do the vote because I did't manage to finish it yet. IMO it's hard but not unfair which means I keep trying. So far, I managed to take out the two tanks and to mark the 3rd one. But then, I always had to went back to the base for re-ammo. And when I went back to the hot spot, I was shot down ;-)

 

The really bad thing is when you fly around that long that the tanks run out of ammo and doesn't fire on you anymore. This makes it almost impossible to find it anymore.

 

BTW, doesn't repairing work, is it disabled, did I miss someting or am I not patient enough? Re-ammo works fine, but when I tell the ground crew to repair the chopper, nothing seems to happen.

 

Anyway, to come back to the topic, I'd say the difficulty is good/challenging, BUT I wouldn't mind if the campaign would also have some easier missions between the hard ones. Actually I'd vote for "It's messy but I DID finish it after a few tries. It was fun!" but I didn't finish it yet.

 

Edit: Just another question...will the side gunners ever hit something (I set them either on free fire or returing fire on short distacne)? You can be sure they run out of ammo but all enemy soldiers are still alive. Obviously I'm doing something wrong?

Edited June 26, 2016 by rge75

[SFC Tako]

rge75:

-Repair works on my part, have you shut down everything before asking for a repair? If not, you can't get any repair.

-Gunners, yes they are totally useless right now. I think they've managed to kill ONE VietCong so far when I've flown this mission. AND I have them set to 100% accuracy. Anyways, it's a known bug if I understand things correctly.

-Running out of ammo?! Well well, you've been at them for a while then. I've not come that far ;)

Conclusion: I'm beginning to think this mission is borderline impossible for some, but I won't change it unless the votes point me to it. And I promise some "breather" missions as well :)

[rge75]

Thanks for the info. I thought, if they can re-ammo it while running, then they can also repair it while running. I'll shut it down next time in that case.

 

Well, give me some more weeks to find out if it's impossile for me or not ;-) I still think it's doable, especially if repairing will work. Sure, it might be boring to fly back too often, but it's the nam, man.

[SFC Tako]

rge75, if you've NEVER repaired before, no wonder you gotz problems. That first attack really gets the Huey mauled. Repair, repair, repair...and go get some :)

[rge75]

Repairing now works ;-) However, my main problem still isn't that I can't hit the target but that I can't find it anymore once the tank doesn't shoot at me anymore. I don't know how to overcome this problem (maybe buying a bigger screen and running the sim in a higher res, haha. I'm playing at 1680x1050 only). Taking out the first tank most of the time isn't a problem.

 

But if the mission really tought me something so far, then it's landing w/o any instruments *g* They always fail when being hit.

[Andrew u.k.]

Well I sorted out headtracking before attempting this mission, I alos went back to gunnery school.

 

Played it twice so far and killed the BTR1, I didn't see it just fired at the tracers, I'd imagine that's quite realistic. I'll have another go tonight, and thanks for the tip about repairing, I've never done it before.

[SFC Tako]

Repairing now works ;-) However, my main problem still isn't that I can't hit the target but that I can't find it anymore once the tank doesn't shoot at me anymore. I don't know how to overcome this problem (maybe buying a bigger screen and running the sim in a higher res, haha. I'm playing at 1680x1050 only). Taking out the first tank most of the time isn't a problem.

 

But if the mission really tought me something so far, then it's landing w/o any instruments *g* They always fail when being hit.

 

There are two APCs that needs to get cleaned out first.

After that, a tank "suddenly" emerges and if you fly close to it, your gunner Chuck will mark it. He will actually mark it on three separate occasions so you should be able to do two repair/reloads after intial battle.

 

So am I right in assuming you've knocked out one APC so far and the other one has no more ammo?

[SFC Tako]

Played it twice so far and killed the BTR1, I didn't see it just fired at the tracers, I'd imagine that's quite realistic.

 

Now that's what I'm talking about! :thumbup:

This ain't some fire range in Las Vegas ;)

[rge75]

So am I right in assuming you've knocked out one APC so far and the other one has no more ammo?

 

Yes, that's exactly the situation. In theory, you would think this is great because he can't fire at you anymore. But this also makes it almost impossible to find it in the jungle. Sometimes I manage to take out both and the 3rd one to mark appears. Then, I need to fly back to the base to get some ammo again and when flying back...shot down (but that was before I knew about repairing). Anyway, long story short - if you don't take out both tanks quick enough, then it becomes very, very difficult to find 'em.

 

BTW, just wondering how you guys attack the tanks (how many rockets at once). I'm using the 3x setting but I often shoot two or even 3 salvos when I notice that I didn't hit the Thing.

[Andrew u.k.]

Well I'm struggling with this one. Plenty of hits on the tanks but no kills apart from that first time.

They hit me more than I hit them. And I've never seen them in flight, only when I've crashed close. I think they need to be a little more out in the open.

[rge75]

It's always a question of the balance between realism and gameplay.

 

Did you ever try to zoom in the view once you spotted the trails? This helps IMO to aim better. I fire pretty late and don't fire before I see them. As mentioned above, I set the rockets to 3x (but I'm not yet sure if this is the "best" ratio). It also seems best to attack from the east IMO, but it's just my personal feeling. Anyway, I also didn't manage to completely finish the mission (and today, I felt like I should continue the Bay of Hogs campaign *g*)

[SFC Tako]

I'll fly the mission tonite for second impressions. Maybe it's bonkers or maybe it's just right. Armor out in the open might help but then again, no sane APC/tank commander would park himself in the middle of a clearing.

But like rge75 says: "It's always a question of the balance between realism and gameplay".

Edited June 29, 2016 by SFC Tako

[rge75]

Maybe it would help to have it close to the clearing, almost at the edge of the forest border. This way, the APC would be covered, but you could more easy find it even if it doesn't shot anymore - simply because you could remember the location. Personally I also wouldn't like to see it completely in the clearing. If so, you could rather reduce the amount of APC from 2 to 1. But then again, some other people may find it too easy. You'll never manage to make it right for everybody due to the different skills.

[SFC Tako]

You'll never manage to make it right for everybody due to the different skills.

 

Can never be said too often ;)

[rge75]

Just did another attempt today. I changed my strategy and set the rockets to 6x. Arrived from the east as usual, sent two salvo and the first tank was gone. Same with the 2nd one. Then set the mark and returned to base for repairing (and re-ammo).

 

Back to the battlefield, I thought I'll set the rockets to 4x to give me more attempts of getting the 3rd one. Shouldn't be that hard because you easily find it due to the smoke. However, the smoke makes it harder to see the tank itself. Long story short - I spent all my 36 rockets and the tank was still alive. Back to base, repeating the whole procedure. I was slightly surprised that the smoke now was blue, but it looks like you mark the tank again when leaving and arriving again. But it doesn't matter - I set the rockets back to 6x and giving two salvo...no hit, sharp turn, another 12 rockets and so on.. well, you can imagine - I didn't hit the thing and ran out of ammo yet again.

 

I told myself to not get into a hurry, to stay calm. Patience is the key (except for the first two tanks *g*). However, when flying back to base, the Huey suddenly denied it's service - looks like it was hit too heavy with the 3rd rush (I may also have touched the bottom while going into a hard dive and going close for the tank - sort of a desperate deed).

 

Anyway, it could be done as long as you destroy the two tanks fast enough. I won't give up ;-) However, don't make all missions that difficult *g* (but you already confirmed that there will also be easier ones). Overall, I look at it as a good challenge.

Edited June 29, 2016 by rge75

[FastForward]

I wanted to give a new try tonight, but I saw right away something was wrong : almost night, blinding red sun just rising behind the horizon, I could not see a thing, I couldn't even see the dashboard even with the lights on, and I had the default textures, not the Vietnam ones (summer).

 

The mission starts on April 02/2012....obviously not summer ;) Did you set it like this in the first place ?

 

Did the last update corrupt the .miz file ? The "LandTexturesSummerOther" is still in place where I put it, what's wrong ?

 

The default trees are way to dense to let a chance to see the vehicles, but nevertheless, I go back to combat right now ! Wish me good luck ! :thumbup:

[rge75]

The default trees are way to dense to let a chance to see the vehicles, but nevertheless, I go back to combat right now ! Wish me good luck ! :thumbup:

 

The sight isn't any better with the jungle trees IMO, but it at least feels more like the nam with those ;-)

 

Can't help you about the other problem (runs without problems on my system).

 

Good luck ;-)