Campaign updates

[Snappy]

Bio is recording the briefings and debriefs for the upcoming 'Zone 5' campaign in his 'home studio'. Each hop will be an extremely valuable learning experience, and you'll be hearing them in Bio's own voice. How cool is that?

 

Off-the-scale cool :) :) !

 

Am looking forward so much to this campaign. Thank you very much for making this campaign based on realistic ACM training for the F-14.

That you managed to get Bio onboard and that he is voicing it over brings it to a whole new level!

 

As for the squadrons, personally I lean towards the horsemen, as the splash of color just looks cool on the aircraft.

Maybe it would be possible to give the player the choice of his squadron at the beginning of the campaign, if you use one non-specific callsign for all of them?

 

But I also understand if its too much of a hassle.It will be fun either way!

 

One more question, with heatblur‘s recent announcement that they actually make 2 variants of the US Navy F-14A an earlier one with the old RWR and other things and a newer one, have you thought about which variant this campaign will feature?

 

Kind regards,

 

Snappy.

[Reflected]

In today's OB update you'll find some bug fixes for my campaigns, and more: I re-worked the Normandy landings. Now you should have more units AND better performance too. See for yourselves ;)

 

[Sceptre]

looks fantastic. looking forward to trying it out

[Coota0]

F-14A gets released tomorrow; any estimate of when we'll start seeing your campaigns for the A?

[Reflected]

Well, tomorrow I'll start putting the A into the missions, then some more testing, and I'm still waiting for a few voice overs. I hope I can submit 'Zone 5' to ED within a month, but that's just an estimate.

[Uxi]

ETA for Fear The Bones?

[Reflected]

ETA for Fear The Bones?

 

Only after ‘Zone 5’

 

[Reflected]

 

Asking for help!

 

Steam users - I just checked the Steam store and realized that feedback about my campaigns is quite mixed, or downright negative. While there is some constructive criticism, most negative feedback is about issues not related to the quality of my campaigns, such as installation problems, or people thought they'd get the module with it too, etc...

 

Therefore, I'd really appreciate if you could go on Steam and leave an honest review that's really about what the campaign is like. It would be a huge help.

 

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

PS: The Channel map, the P-47 and the WWII assets are on sale now, so you may want to get them now before 'Wolfpack' hits the shelves ;)

 

[Uxi]

Don't really do warbirds but anticipating leaving great reviews on Zone 5 and Fear the Bones on Steam.

[Reflected]

For my upcoming 'Wolfpack' Thunderbolt campaign, I did not only use original combat reports. I also had a couple of great books that helped me recreate the missions as accurately as possible. This one is my favorite. It's a day-to-day account of the missions flown by the 56th FG, plenty of details, a real treasure for mission makers like me. I really can't wait for its release, I assure you it's the most realistic environment you'll every fly the 47 in.

 

PS: yeah, I'm also a flying jacket nut, and those 1942 pattern flying gloves got so dirty by actually flying in them :)

 

[Dantagonistic]

I left a Big Show review on Steam to hopefully help out a bit. I think the Steam page does a terrible job at communicating what is required for the campaign to work. There is a big purple box that says you need base DCS, but there is no mention of the Spitfire or Normandy modules until your smaller description. Perhaps the store doesn't support 'DLC for DLC' so to speak as is the situation with the campaigns (I noticed most campaigns have the same review problem for the same reason). Perhaps ED can sort something with Valve to make it much clearer.

[Hummels]

Can we expect a Thunderbolt campaign "Wolfpack" before the New year?

[Reflected]

4 hours ago, Hummels said:

Can we expect a Thunderbolt campaign "Wolfpack" before the New year?

 

Nah, sorry, I don't think there will be any more updates in 2020. Wolfpack has been submitted to ED, and I think it should come right after the release of Zone 5. Possibly in February, but that's just an estimate.

[Home Fries]

On 11/23/2020 at 12:21 PM, Uxi said:

Don't really do warbirds but anticipating leaving great reviews on Zone 5 and Fear the Bones on Steam.

Not huge on the warbirds either, but I do enjoy the P-47 and I'll definitely give Wolfpack a go.  Also looking forward to Zone 5 and Fear the Bones; the Tomcat is my favorite bird in DCS by far!

Edited December 28, 2020 by Home Fries

[REDEYE_CVW-66]

I would help, but since I did not buy them on Steam I am unable to write a review sadly.

[Reflected]

Ralfidue's preview of the first mission of 'Zone 5' has reached over 17k views. Thank you for all the love and shares! I would like to address one of the recurring comments: why real bullets and kills?
 

Bio gives you the short answer: because it's a game and it's cool to blow stuff up. And he's right.
 

I'll give you a longer one: DCS doesn't register damage on units set to immortal. This means that there is no way for the mission editor to know if such a unit was hit.
 

Workaround No.1 would be for me to use scripts. Scripts are complex walls of code, kind of DCS 'dark magic', functionalities beyond the stock mission editor. I'm not good at them. The problem is that the core of DCS is changing with every update. It's already hard enough to keep all my missions compatible each month. If one update breaks the script, there's no way for me to fix it. That's just too much to gamble. I can't afford the risk of the campaign becoming unplayable for a month or two. Keep in mind that as it is, each mission contains around 150-200 lines of triggers. They're that complex already.
 

Workaround No.2 would be simulated shots called by the player. That may work in a 1 v 1 guns only situation, but it would be clumsy. How do I know if you're really in a firing position? How does the mission know when your opponent is in a firing position with proper lead? There's only one 1v1 guns only mission in the campaign, and the final ones have a division of 4 Tomcats engaging half a dozen bandits or more, with all kinds of missiles. Writing a code in the mission editor that accounts for distance, radar modes, aspect, missile type, countermeasures, defensive maneuvers, etc...for all aircraft is impossible. Even if it was possible, I would end up simply rewriting ED's weapon codes. So what's the point then?
 

Long story short, you'll fire live missiles, and blow bandits out of the sky. Don't get too hung up on this. From engine start to shutdown these missions will keep you on your toes, and you'll need to give them everything you've got. An F-16 turning into a ball of flame will be the least of your worries.
 

I can't wait to show you more, stay tuned for more info and previews!

[Home Fries]

Makes perfect sense.  BD also showed how to despawn friendly/spawn enemy in Raven One, so this is both a simple and elegant way to keep the training environment.  Bullets, smoke, and explosions are bonus!

[Reflected]

In Spudknocker's recent preview video of Event 6 of the 'Zone 5' campaign you could hear the term 'wild card'. What the heck is a wild card? In the movie Top Gun, Jester and Viper call Maverick a 'wild card' because of his attitude. Well, that's not it.

When you're running an intercept in real life, not in a sterile training environment, bandits can pop up anywhere, anytime. You locate a group 40 miles ahead, and both you and your RIO are buried into the displays, trying to get as much info about them as possible, trying to set up the best intercept geometry, etc... that's exactly when an unseen bandit will jump you and kick your ass. Not keeping your scan outside of the cockpit all the time, is likely to earn you a few nights at the Hanoi Hilton, or some Middle-Eastern cave.
 

Therefore, Topgun introduced the concept of the 'wild card'. It's a bandit that is not part of the original hostile group, who is waiting for you at an unexpected location/altitude. He's there to test the fighters' lookout. If they fail to notice him in time, he calls a shot, and one of the fighters gets kill-removed as a punishment. A 1v4 is much less fun than a 2v4, believe me.
 

Likewise, in the Zone 5 campaign a wild card may or may not jump you any time from Event 5 onwards. Again, if you spot the wild card, you don't need to fight it or kill it. Just break into him and call him out immediately using the F10 radio menu. You'll get a "Good break, continue" from the Range Training Officer, and the wild card will disengage. If you fail to notice him in time, one of the fighters will be kill removed - maybe even you - and then the wild card will disengage automatically.
 

Sounds fun? It's only one of the several speedbumps Bio and I will lay in front of you. They'll make you sweat, but they're there for your own benefit. As they say: the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. Stay tuned for more info!

[Reflected]

Another expression you may have heard in Spudknocker's preview video is VID, that is, Visual IDentification. What's that, and what role does it play in the 'Zone 5' campaign?
 

When the US went to war in Vietnam, the F-4 Phantoms weren't even carrying guns. They were so sure they could splash any bandits beyond visual range using their superior radar and AIM-7 Sparrow missiles. They were right, theoretically. But besides missile reliability issues, the rules of engagements forbid them to open fire until they visually identified the bogeys as North Vietnamese MIGs. It's like you want to fight a guy with a knife, and you have a rifle. Easy? What if you can't shoot him before you touch his shoulder? You get the idea.
 

Besides the ROE in Vietnam, there are many situations where you can't be sure that the contacts ahead of you are hostile. Imagine, you're escorting a strike group, and ahead of you there's a sweep of friendlies, and maybe even a CAP. You don't want to kill them, so you must identify the contact visually to make sure it's the enemy.
 

This scenario will come up in several events of 'Zone 5'. Sometimes, you will need to VID the contacts as hostile by pressing the spacebar. Until then, they will be immortal, so shots will not be valid, and your wingman will also hold his fire. This will drastically change your gameplan and help you prepare for 'real' combat situations.

[Reflected]

Last minute addition to the ‘Zone 5’ campaign, a gorgeous Topgun F-16N skin by the master of F-16 skins: @roughmaster_liveries - check out his other works, and make sure you follow him on Instagram.

 

[Reflected]

'Zone 5' will come with extensive documentation and tons of briefing images and kneeboard pages. You'll need to study them in order to fly the correct procedures around the range. Let me share a fun story about making them:
 

I prepared a nice kneeboard page template in excel, that was eye-catching, well structured, it had all the information I thought was important. Then, a few days later, we were having our regular skype call with Bio, and I proudly showed it to him. He said 'OK, that looks nice, but it's nothing like the ones we used in the 80s'. I said 'Alright, can you tell me what the real ones looked like?' He stood up, walked back to one of the cabinets behind him and to my amazement, he came back with a few original kneeboard cards that he'd used on real-life missions.
 

I used these cards as the basis for the Zone 5 kneeboard pages, trying to recreate them as accurately as possible, even down to the fonts used. Here are 2 cards from Event 9 - the one in RedKite's video. One has the squadron logo on top and the training rules. (The original VF-24 logo has been replaced by our fictional VF-28 'Avengers') Bio told me these were blank 'forms' that you could just pick up before the briefing, then fill it out yourself. The other one is a more 'official' printed mission card that looks like the ones used during Operation Earnest Will. I could show you the original ones too, but you know, then I'd have to kill you

It's been a real honor to work with Bio and also to get such detailed insights into what it was like to fly Tomcats in the 80s. When he talks or writes about flying there's that unmistakable enthusiasm radiating from him, that's so contagious. I'd like to think that his enthusiasm also shows in the campaign and it will send butterflies into your stomach as you approach the range.
 

Stay tuned for more info about the upcoming 'Zone 5' campaign.

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by Reflected

[Snappy]

Reflected,

thanks for your further updates&information on the Zone 5 campaign. Its really super cool that you selected the fighter weapons training in the 80s as the background/theme for this campaign and
its just awesome that Bio and you are taking it to a very professional and authentic level down to era-typical briefing cards.

Thank you very much for that! Looking forward to this campaign!

Kind regards,

Snappy

Edited January 21, 2021 by Snappy

[Reflected]

With the upcoming 'Zone 5' campaign you're getting 16 missions in total. Let's have a look at the details:

 

The campaign itself consists of 13 missions. 11 of these are part of the training syllabus, and the 2 extras are...you will see You can see on the below card how the training will progress in terms of complexity and challenges. No 2 flights will be the same, I guarantee that.

 

On top of this you will get 3 'quick start' training missions, that start in the air, right before the fight's on call. They're also fully voiced and documented, and they're great for practicing. You'll find these under the Mods/campaigns/... folder.

 

A question that often pops up about my campaigns: what are the success criteria of the missions? How do I progress? The mission counts as successfully completed and you can progress to the next one if:

a) You land at Nellis and come to a full stop anywhere.

b) You get killed during the engagement. Yes, it's also a valid outcome, maybe an even better learning experience than 'winning'. If you got 'killed' during an engagement in real life you didn't have to refly the mission until you succeeded. During the debrief you analyzed what happened, and made sure you'd take away some learning point to ensure you wouldn't make the same mistakes again. (TacView is a great tool for this, as seen in RedKite's video)

c) You select the 'Skip mission' option under the F10 radio menu. I added this safeguard just in case.

 

Stay tuned for a special interview with Bio and I!

 

[Reflected]

Can I play 'Zone 5' with a human RIO?

 

This is probably the most frequently asked question regarding the upcoming 'Zone 5' campaign. The answer is: no, but yes.

 

Let me explain: I designed the campaign in a way that the player's aircraft was set to 'client' so you can either occupy it alone, or with a friend. Then came final testing, and it turned out that triggered radio messages didn't work in MP/ multicrew, they get into an endless loop and the subtitles just flood the screen. This is completely in ED's hands, I reported the bug to them. Maybe they already fixed it, I don't know. The next twist in the story came when I found out that official campaigns don't support missions where there is no player, because then DCS won't know what module the campaign is for. So I had to update all missions, changing the unit from 'client' to 'player'.

 

What does this mean? Officially, it's a single player campaign. Period. However, you can easily open the missions in the editor, change the unit to 'client' and fly with a friend. Provided, of course, that all multicrew related bugs are fixed.

 

I hope this cleared things up, sorry if it's not what you wanted to hear, but this is the situation. I want everyone to be aware of what they are or aren't buying, it's only fair.

 

Stay tuned!

 

[Rudel_chw]

6 minutes ago, Reflected said:

Can I play 'Zone 5' with a human RIO?

 

This is probably the most frequently asked question regarding the upcoming 'Zone 5' campaign. The answer is: no, but yes.

Let me explain: ....

 

Thanks a lot for taking the time to explain why things are the way they are, instead of going the easy route and say just "no, it's single player only" .. it makes much easier to understand what goes behind curtains.