Raven One: upcoming DLC campaign for F/A-18 Hornet

[Razor18]

Great link, thanks. Then I guess, in the game I should have changed the format the other way around, from HH MM.MM format back to HH.MM.SS, if I would've recognized from the 9-line, that it was told in HH.MM.SS, right?

 

Thanks for helping out !

[Razor18]

Mission 5 Briefing pdf page 5, Prince says Joker will be 6k, at the end of the pdf Designer Notes #5 says: "Remember to use F10 radio menu to declare JOKER when you reach 7000 pounds !"

 

Probably a simple typo, just saying.

 

Oh, and then in the Mission 5 early BFM training, after the second merge for Fox-2, Prince lawndarted vertically into the water, probably because we began at around Angels 8 anyways. Maybe after the first missile shot, they should gain altitude back again.

[Cal1664]

Same thing happened to me last night. 

[Razor18]

Unfortunately AI tends to dive to regain speed I guess. You can avoid this, if you always try to climb rather during the dogfight and after any simulated kills, because AI will try to go follow you and level with you.

[Razor18]

Boy, am I the only one who can't see s**t from the fastmovers even with NVG in Mission 8? I'm flying Oculus Rift, and NVG picture is so blurry, I can't see anything smaller than the friendly ship...

[Sharkku]

On 12/3/2020 at 10:53 PM, Razor18 said:

Boy, am I the only one who can't see s**t from the fastmovers even with NVG in Mission 8? I'm flying Oculus Rift, and NVG picture is so blurry, I can't see anything smaller than the friendly ship...

I have an Index, and I have the same problem...

[Brass2-1]

Hey Baltic, just wanted to drop a thank you. I’m really enjoying this campaign-Hozer’s books are what finally got me motivated to purchase a setup to play DCS, and the news of your campaign pushed me over the edge. Much appreciated sir. 

[Steel Jaw]

Is it realistic to operate with NO A2A weapons in an potentially hostile zone with these training hops?

[Bunny Clark]

4 hours ago, Mower said:

Is it realistic to operate with NO A2A weapons in an potentially hostile zone with these training hops?

It's portrayed that way in the book too, and Kevin Miller is a former Hornet pilot and squadron commander. It's certainly possible he fudged reality for dramatic effect, but I'd guess he wouldn't have written it that way if it were totally unrealistic. But I'm not a military pilot and can't speak on that with any authority. 

 

It also wouldn't surprise me if no live weapons were carried very specially for training, to avoid the potential of an accidental live missile shot. Feels like that'd be a lot like carrying a real handgun on you while doing firearm simmunition force-on-force training. 

[Brass2-1]

4 hours ago, Bunny Clark said:

It's portrayed that way in the book too, and Kevin Miller is a former Hornet pilot and squadron commander. It's certainly possible he fudged reality for dramatic effect, but I'd guess he wouldn't have written it that way if it were totally unrealistic. But I'm not a military pilot and can't speak on that with any authority. 

 

It also wouldn't surprise me if no live weapons were carried very specially for training, to avoid the potential of an accidental live missile shot. Feels like that'd be a lot like carrying a real handgun on you while doing firearm simmunition force-on-force training. 

I would think that not carrying live weapons even in such an area would be correct-there can be and have been accidents with US and other forces accidentally attacking their mates while training because of live weapon load outs. Rather my guess would be that the mission planning would steer as far clear of hostile territory as possible. 

[mongo52]

On 12/13/2020 at 5:57 PM, Mower said:

Is it realistic to operate with NO A2A weapons in an potentially hostile zone with these training hops?

Not a pilot, but did a few deployments as a troubleshooter/final checker. It is normal to launch training hops with no live weapons in the gulf.

[Razor18]

Hay Baltic,

 

in Mission 9 maybe there should be an intermittent refuel option too. There is definitely a lot of things to do. When I saw we are low on fuel, and wingman obviously even more so, I stole some time between two attacks, and headed out to Texaco, but didn't have any command for wingman to go and drink. Then I reached Texaco on fumes, wingman in trail, but he gave me only I guess 4k, after that bugged out and actually disappeared from the game for good, or at least didn't reply to my request, only a metallic click in the radio. Obviously, wingmen couldn't make it and ditched. Found out from later voiceovers, Texaco was there only for pre-RTB AAR if necessary.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Razor18

[Razor18]

In Mission 10, does Cajun's transmission change anything from the very detailed original target briefing? Kinda confusing, its like re-assigning target... or just summarizing without changing?

[baltic_dragon]

Nope he doesn’t change the target. And the wording is taken directly from the book

[Razor18]

Thanks!

 

Shame on me, I didn't buy the book to be honest. I understand it's from the book, but those sentences were probably for some theatrical effect for the rather average readers, I'm not sure they would be said in real life just minutes before drop, if everything was pre-briefed extensively.

 

Maybe it is just me, but I found it rather confusing, than clarifying, as by the time they've been said, every flight member should have tediously entered all the coordinates manually. And then, where is the brevity? It should never sound like a boyscout campfire speech on the radio. But, it's just my 2 cents, and enough of nitpicking.

 

Still the best F-18 campaign ever. Anything more up to your sleeve maybe?...

[baltic_dragon]

I think if you look at the whole situation and the problem they were facing (Flip's bombs should also go Tango Uniform, but there is no way to do it in DCS), brevity sometimes can be forgotten for the sake of better comms - though I understand in this case for you it wasn't ;) 

 

And yes, there is something up my sleeve for the Hornet, but too early to say more :)

[Razor18]

Uhmmm... wait a minute, if the bombs go TU in the mission, how am I (or other pilots for that matter) supposed to drop them at all?

Edited December 18, 2020 by Razor18

[Bunny Clark]

On 12/18/2020 at 1:06 AM, baltic_dragon said:

Nope he doesn’t change the target. And the wording is taken directly from the book

I thought in the book they abandoned their briefed aim points in favor of a visual delivery on a related but easier identify target. At least, that was my reading of it. I was confused what I was supposed to do in the mission as well, but since I happened to still have functional JDAMs I just dropped on my briefed target and everything worked out. 

[sammich318]

Mission 8... cant see nothing!

[marbessi]

13 hours ago, sammich318 said:

Mission 8... cant see nothing!

Yup. Played mission last night and i think it’s correlated with new spotting introduced by ED in last OB patch. NVG’s are pretty unuseful, everything is greenish, and speedboat are too small to be spotted. For the Iranian corvette tgp with ground radar can help you to lock Mav. Returning to base i asked for a drink but for some reason Texaco don’t allow my Pre-contact while wing man, with F10 orders, takes it. I think this mission need some rework as for visibility because, especially in VR, is almost unplayable. @baltic_dragon

[baltic_dragon]

I would need to completely remove it, which I don’t want to do. Since I started working on it visibility of targets changed at least three times, and you can finish the mission even if you don’t see them  so hoping ED will change it again soon. 

[Razor18]

Hay BD,

 

question to Mission 10 again: on the last page of the briefing there are some blue handwritten informations about how each groups will appear on SA page ("on SA page: P11-P14"). Can I make sense of it in the sim too by some SA function I'm not aware of, or is it yet another reference to the book content, that I did not read?

Edited December 20, 2020 by Razor18

[Bunny Clark]

3 hours ago, Razor18 said:

on the last page of the briefing there are some blue handwritten informations about how each groups will appear on SA page ("on SA page: P11-P14"). 

 

On the SA page, if you slew the cursor over a friendly datalink contact, you can see their callsign in the info block at the bottom right corner of the display. For brevity, that callsign is displayed as the first and last letter of the word and the two digit number. 

 

Now, the problem is that DCS only allows a very limited set of callsigns, none of which line up very well with the callsigns used in the book. So, Baltic Dragon needed to assign DCS callsigns to the flights, which in turn sets the callsign codes on the SA page. So for example, in Mission 10, Iron 21 is identified as PC11 on the SA Page, that's because in DCS his callsign is set to Pontiac 11. In real life you'd see IN21 on the SA page.

 

(An aside to BD, I see the briefing image shows Hammer flight IDing as "CY11" - I'm guessing this is a typo and should be CT11 for Colt? I'm looking on Stable, so maybe you've already fixed it.)

[Razor18]

Thank You very much, Sir !

[marbessi]

15 hours ago, baltic_dragon said:

I would need to completely remove it, which I don’t want to do. Since I started working on it visibility of targets changed at least three times, and you can finish the mission even if you don’t see them  so hoping ED will change it again soon. 

Maybe reconsidering start time mission could be an option. What about dusk time for speedboat contact?