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Operation Snowfox - Persian Gulf PvE Playground


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Operation Snowfox is an open-world PvE playground for the Persian Gulf map. The mission will randomly choose targets throughout the map. You can fly any role you like, and if you are on your own, you can use the radio menu to request support flights of AI planes to assist you. Most modules have been included. You will be flying against Iranian forces, who are supported by the Russians. The mission utilizes Moose functions and custom scripts which have been included in the mission file.

 

Check the mission briefing for AWACS/Carrier Group/Refuelling frequencies etc.

 

Notes on requesting support flights:

- CAP/CAS/SEAD and Pinpoint Strikes are available to call in, you can choose the sector they will fly to

- Only one flight of each type can be active at any given time, so choose carefully

- AI flights will start near Khasab airfield and will await a "Push" command via radio when you are ready for them to proceed with an attack

- Pinpoint Strikes will only target specific structures in their target area, if the current target is not a building they will not target anything

- Anti-Shipping Strikes will be added later

 

Other radio options

- Check Current Objective will remind you what the current target is

- Target Report will give you coordinates and distance to the target, and if the target is a group it will tell you how many units are remaining in the group

 

You can find the mission here: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3305955/

 

I'd love to hear feedback on any bugs encountered, or suggestions you might have.


Edited by Surrexen
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Forgot to mention, I am working to release a Caucasus map version using the same setup. Might be week or two before it's ready to rock, it's about 75% done at this point. It will be loosely based on the Russo-Georgian war of 2008 to give you an idea of the operational area.

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Looking at this review:

Freakshow85

 

08/09/2019 15:46:59

 

Man... I love this mission. Just had to come back and say thanks for sharing, it's great! I've only played it solo so far but it's still been lots of fun. I haven't encountered any issues so far. Out of all the missions I've downloaded from here (hundreds), I have two favorites.

 

This one (Operation Snowfox) and Operation Alexander. These are right up my alley when I don't feel like hopping online and playing the exact same old same old stuff that's been running on servers for years.

This looks promising! I'll try and give it a go later today

 

Thanks in advance for your effort :thumbup:

 

 

Edit:

Just gave it a first look/try

Although my pc is struggling to get proper frame rates (I'll probably have to decrease my settings slightly for this one), my first impression is very positive!

Spawns seem to be working fine and the AI communication audio is a nice touch.

 

Few questions/suggestions (feel free to ignore ;)):

- Can I add a wingman in the ME? Or will this break the mission logic somehow?

- Maybe add extra slots for cold and dark startup

- Maybe nerf enemy AI just a little (my fighter and sead reinforcements got shot down 9 out of 10)


Edited by sirrah

System specs:

 

i7-8700K @stock speed - GTX 1080TI @ stock speed - AsRock Extreme4 Z370 - 32GB DDR4 @3GHz- 500GB SSD - 2TB nvme - 650W PSU

HP Reverb G1 v2 - Saitek Pro pedals - TM Warthog HOTAS - TM F/A-18 Grip - TM Cougar HOTAS (NN-Dan mod) & (throttle standalone mod) - VIRPIL VPC Rotor TCS Plus with ALPHA-L grip - Pointctrl & aux banks <-- must have for VR users!! - Andre's SimShaker Jetpad - Fully adjustable DIY playseat - VA+VAICOM

 

~ That nuke might not have been the best of ideas, Sir... the enemy is furious ~ GUMMBAH

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One question: can I add a wingman in the ME? Or will this break the mission logic somehow?

 

If you edit one of the client slots, or add new ones it won't (shouldn't) break anything.

 

Originally the mission was going to be cold starts, but it got annoying really fast during testing. Feel free to change to cold starts, but all updates I push out will be hot ramp starts for now.

 

Enemy AI, the plane templates are all set to random skill at the moment, after all the testing I've done with this I'm planning to leave it as is for the time being. The difficulty you are probably running into is that once you or the AI cross the border into Iranian airspace, the enemy will be dynamically vectored to you or the AI via the Moose air to air dispatcher. In a nutshell, if you go into Iranian airspace, expect resistance. A good tactic is to send SEAD into an area first, and escort them, or send escorts with them. Another thing to note is that if you draw a mission in the Havadarya/Bandar Abbas sectors ... you are going to really have to work for a mission success as those zones have their real-world SAM sites in place, plus the Naval Base has a couple of ships that will also give serious trouble. What can I say, It's Iran ... it's not going to be a cakewalk ;)

 

I have already found a minor placement issue with one of the AAA emplacements at the Harmood Minan Dam (Minab sector) which is fixed but I will wait to see if I notice anything else wrong before uploading a new version etc.

 

Edit: Also performance is an interesting one? Are you using VR? I don't have VR only TrackIR so I have no idea how it runs in VR.


Edited by Surrexen
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If you edit one of the client slots, or add new ones it won't (shouldn't) break anything.

 

Originally the mission was going to be cold starts, but it got annoying really fast during testing. Feel free to change to cold starts, but all updates I push out will be hot ramp starts for now.

 

Enemy AI, the plane templates are all set to random skill at the moment, after all the testing I've done with this I'm planning to leave it as is for the time being. The difficulty you are probably running into is that once you or the AI cross the border into Iranian airspace, the enemy will be dynamically vectored to you or the AI via the Moose air to air dispatcher. In a nutshell, if you go into Iranian airspace, expect resistance. A good tactic is to send SEAD into an area first, and escort them, or send escorts with them. Another thing to note is that if you draw a mission in the Havadarya/Bandar Abbas sectors ... you are going to really have to work for a mission success as those zones have their real-world SAM sites in place, plus the Naval Base has a couple of ships that will also give serious trouble. What can I say, It's Iran ... it's not going to be a cakewalk ;)

 

I have already found a minor placement issue with one of the AAA emplacements at the Harmood Minan Dam (Minab sector) which is fixed but I will wait to see if I notice anything else wrong before uploading a new version etc.

 

Edit: Also performance is an interesting one? Are you using VR? I don't have VR only TrackIR so I have no idea how it runs in VR.

Yes, I'm only playing DCS in VR (are there still people who play DCS on 2D screens? :music_whistling::P)

As a reference, the settings I was using, worked out for me in the various "Through the Inferno" missions. Which, as far as I can see, is kind of similar with your mission (and yes, that should be taken as a compliment). For your mission though, I have to lower my settings quite a bit to get decent fps. Maybe someone with a little more ME experience then me, may have some tips and tricks for performance optimization?


Edited by sirrah

System specs:

 

i7-8700K @stock speed - GTX 1080TI @ stock speed - AsRock Extreme4 Z370 - 32GB DDR4 @3GHz- 500GB SSD - 2TB nvme - 650W PSU

HP Reverb G1 v2 - Saitek Pro pedals - TM Warthog HOTAS - TM F/A-18 Grip - TM Cougar HOTAS (NN-Dan mod) & (throttle standalone mod) - VIRPIL VPC Rotor TCS Plus with ALPHA-L grip - Pointctrl & aux banks <-- must have for VR users!! - Andre's SimShaker Jetpad - Fully adjustable DIY playseat - VA+VAICOM

 

~ That nuke might not have been the best of ideas, Sir... the enemy is furious ~ GUMMBAH

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Hey man, looking forward to getting stuck into this, great to see people using MOOSE.

 

 

The one thing i have done before playing, is to add the MOOSE airboss system for the Stennis. Not sure if you didn't include airboss for a reason, but it all seems to work fine. So thought i'd just post it here, if you dont mind. I've just added the airboss as a seperate .lua for now as its pulled out of one of my missions. So i'll post both... File size for mission is slightly bigger due to Airboss sounds.

 

 

Cheers for the mission, like i said looking forward to playing it and even more so learning some more ways ppl are using MOOSE.

Operation Snowfox.miz

Airboss.lua

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Hey man, looking forward to getting stuck into this, great to see people using MOOSE.

 

 

The one thing i have done before playing, is to add the MOOSE airboss system for the Stennis. Not sure if you didn't include airboss for a reason, but it all seems to work fine. So thought i'd just post it here, if you dont mind. I've just added the airboss as a seperate .lua for now as its pulled out of one of my missions. So i'll post both... File size for mission is slightly bigger due to Airboss sounds.

 

 

Cheers for the mission, like i said looking forward to playing it and even more so learning some more ways ppl are using MOOSE.

 

I hadn't even looked into it as I was waiting to see what happens with ED's carrier module. But i'll go take a look :) How did the mission run for you?


Edited by Surrexen
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Very nice mission. Even fun in SP, flew F14 interception.

 

There is problem with Airboss version. First time you select slot and spawn in cockpit Airboss is not correctly initialized. F10 Airboss menu is empty. To fix this I had to reselect different slot and back.

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I played it SP and hosted for some of the BuDs group to play. I really enjoyed it. The comments from the others were to lose the center tank of the F15 loadout. And I’m not sure how you are getting the carrier spawns to auto launch but I don't really like that (I do like the hot starts though, I often don’t have time to do the whole startup. Have to quick hit U so I can take a moment to change my load out and figure out where I’m going before I launch. Maybe add some additional ground based F14’s F18’s. I also moved the time back a few hours so we had more time to fly before it got dark. Anyway fun mission thanks !

PC

i7 7700k

Gigabyte Z270

MSI GTX 1070

32gb DDR4

500gb EVO 850 SSD DCS

500gb EVO 960 NVMe SSD Windows

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Willing to give this a go over the next few days. Do I need to add those scripts mentioned in above posts or are they already included in the User Files download?

 

Cheers!

 

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

W10 Home 64Bit, Intel Skylake I5 6600K 3.50GHz, ASUS ROG Stryx Z270F MoBo, 32GB G.Skill RipJaws V DDR4 3200 RAM, Samsung 960 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD (OS), Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD, 2TB Seagate SDHD, 2TB WD Green HDD, GALAX GTX GeForce 1070 EXOC Sniper White 8GB VRAM

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My personal observations after playing 3 different scenarios:

 

A very challenging mission for purely single player in the F/A-18 in air-to-ground. Extremely difficult to penetrate air defenses even with SEAD support. HARMs get knocked out of the sky pretty easily by the network. Even on some of the missions outside of the concentrated MR/LR SAM networks(Bandar-e-Jask, for example), SA-15 TOR's defend the primary assets and SEAD support doesn't engage them effectively, often turning and burning before being shot down.

 

Without a TGP(running stable release) to identify targets, JDAM's and JSOWS can't be utilized here as there is no target location/elevation data for the individual assets. Only a grid reference and an AO LAT/LONG (no elevation) is provided.

 

Single player limitations aside, a very well designed mission and much fun to play. Very skillful use of MOOSE in combination with the advanced functions of the Mission Editor. It's a mission definitely more conducive to cooperative play with a mix of aircraft each performing different roles(maybe an A-10C performing FAC and passing coordinates to Hornets for JSOWs), yet still engaging for solo romps. Looking forward to playing this more with the Hornet when the TGP hits stable.

 

 

Also, Warthog pilots would appreciate the A-10's starting from Khasab instead of Ras Al Khaimah further south. Don't make the slowest plane fly the longest distance. First thing I changed in the ME.


Edited by IlludiumQ36
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Some good feedback here guys thanks!

 

I will see what I can do about adding target elevation data to the target report. I will also see what I can do about moving the A-10's to Khasab. I will remove the centreline fuel tank from the F-15's loadout.

 

Yes I'm aware the AI flights are not Top Gun graduates. They seem to do fine under most circumstances, but when being sent into Havadarya/Bandar Abbas they do struggle a bit. That said I've had times where they do manage to knock out the SAM radars and open up those sectors ... sometimes it takes them a couple of SEAD flights into those sectors to get the job done.

 

 

Edit: Target Elevation has been added to the Target Report and will be in the next version


Edited by Surrexen
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Willing to give this a go over the next few days. Do I need to add those scripts mentioned in above posts or are they already included in the User Files download?

 

Cheers!

 

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

You don't need to add anything. I will look into adding the Airboss in a later version when I can test it properly. I'd suggest using the 'real' version.

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Version 101 is now up.

 

Changes:

 

- Minab Dam - One of the AAA emplacements was under a tree. Fixed.

- Target Elevation added to the Target Report

- F-15C Sharjah Centreline fuel tank removed from loadouts

- F-15C CAP AI flights Centreline fuel tank removed from loadouts

- RTB on Bingo Fuel added to all AI support flight paths

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There is problem with Airboss version. First time you select slot and spawn in cockpit Airboss is not correctly initialized. F10 Airboss menu is empty. To fix this I had to reselect different slot and back.

 

 

Indeed this is a DCS limitation, if playing in SP, the mission needs to start before you select a slot. Its to do with the way DCS handles client menus and hasnt been fixed for years.

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Ok so version 102 is now up. I found a big problem with the pinpoint strike missions where after their bomb run the planes would totally forget their flight plan and crash into the ground. This has been corrected. Larak Island has been added as a sector for AI support call-ins.

 

Anti-Shipping strikes will be next.

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Version 103 is now up, which should be it for a while.

 

- Anti-Shipping Strikes have been added, Viggens only at this point due to some issues with AI using Harpoons.

- Adjustments to AI flight paths so they don't 'over fly' the target as much

- Fixed Radio Menus


Edited by Surrexen
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Hey Surrexen.

 

I am really enjoying your mission. I love the dynamics of it, and the variety of mission types. Good job!

 

I was wondering; I find it very difficult to succeed with a mission in SP, depending on the target area, the amount of AA/enemy aircraft, and the way friendly aircraft behave.

 

-I've noticed that the spawned CAP are rather passive. I'm struggling to get support from them, atleast outside of a mission target area. They seem to not be "online" until reaching the target area. This is also a "problem" if the mission is a success and a new one is spawned. It takes a long time until new CAP is ready, and they refuse to engage enemy aircraft on their way home.

 

-I'm experiencing som difficulty in regards to the effectiveness of the SEAD aircraft. In some heavier defended areas (Quesm island and Havardaya), it's very difficult to penetrate and complete the mission.

 

-Would it be possible to select primary missions, deselecting the automatically spawned one if the target area is too challenging for singleplayers?

 

-Would it be possible to spawn more units of the desired spawnable friendlies, depending on the current mission difficulty? (Say 4 SEAD, instead of 2 in AA intense area, 4 CAP instead of 2 where there is a lot of enemy aircraft present, and so on)

 

-Would it also be possible to "kill" spawned friendly units, making them available for new missions?

 

Again. I'm enjoying your mission very much. It's a great addition to the simulator. Keep up the good work!

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Do you mean the auto-spawned CAP planes around Khasab or the CAP flights from the radio call in? They operate very differently. The CAP planes from radio call in will search and engage in the zone that you are sending them into once the push command gets sent. They will defend themselves along the way. The auto-spawned F-16's only protect a small zone around the Khasab airbase and use Moose AI A2A dispatcher.

 

Air defences will attempt to shoot down incoming air to surface missiles. Because of this, it may take a couple of attempts to break into the Havadarya/Bandar Abbas areas. If you are having trouble with that zone, I recommend calling in absolutely everything into that zone at the same time, plus flying in it yourself as a distraction. With the addition of the anti-shipping planes, you should be able to break down most of the defences in one or two waves.

 

With my not so great coding skills i'm having some trouble working out the best way to get the planes to immediately RTB on a radio call. As soon as I work that out I will add it.

 

Meanwhile, I've decided not to go down the Moose Airboss path. I'm just going to wait for the Supercarrier module. During the week I will hopefully find a solution to my RTB problems ... I don't want to just 'delete' them out of the air mid-mission.

 

I could add in a 'skip mission' function if you think that would be helpful.

 

I am very happy you are enjoying it!

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Thanks for your quick reply.

 

Regarding the CAP aircraft, I am referring to the player spawned CAP planes. What you are describing is what I experience:

The issue with this behaviour presents itself especially in the easternmost target area. The approach to this location is basically the same for both friendly and enemy aircraft, mainly from the west, northwest/north, meaning I've seen both sides basically "following" eachother in to the target area before engaging. Say theres' already a couple of A10s engaging targets, and I've sent in two CAPs for protection but they are further behind, they will not engage enemy threats, even though they are able to, and "should" do so to protect the A10s. The result is that the A10s will get shot down before the CAP engages the enemy considering they are not inside the target area, and has not gone active. Basically; Is there a way to make the CAP go active earlier, especially in the more isolated parts of the Gulf?

 

Great tip on the Havadarya/Bandar Abbas area. A "Skip mission" function would be useful also if theres been a repeat of the same mission after several restarts.

 

Thanks again for a great mission!

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Also: Have you made any restriction to F18 picking up radar sites in the SA page?

 

The EWR radars are set to immortal/invisible so they don't get destroyed (which would break the way that the AI A2A Dispatcher works). That is only for EWR radars, SAM sites are all standard stuff, like being on alert and weapons free, and they are set to engage air weapons if they can.

 

I will take a look at whether I can extend the CAP engagement zones without completely breaking things.

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