A humble request for campaign creators: expected mission duration

[snodipous]

It would be really helpful for me if the people who create campaigns could include an expected-time-to-finish stat for each mission in the documentation. I just finished a mission that took 2.5 hours in the air to wrap up. If we could save our place and come back to it later it wouldn't be an issue, but I don't always have that much time in one block to dedicate to playing DCS. It would be nice to know in advance how much of my evening or weekend I should budget for campaign missions.

[Sedlo]

Good point! I'll take this into consideration with my upcoming campaign, Bold Cheetah.

[Blackjack_UK]

I can do that in the campaign I'm currently developing for the Ka-50.

 

It's a good idea. :thumbup:

[draconus]

It's not always that easy. It can depend on your actions or random triggers. Some simple looking missions may turn into longer due to change of the orders during mission, so if ex. easy short escort turn into battle, estimated flight time would be kind of spoiler here.

[Sedlo]

This is true... I'm thinking maybe a < or > 1hr type of thing.

[DutchJackal]

It would be really helpful for me if the people who create campaigns could include an expected-time-to-finish stat for each mission in the documentation. I just finished a mission that took 2.5 hours in the air to wrap up. If we could save our place and come back to it later it wouldn't be an issue, but I don't always have that much time in one block to dedicate to playing DCS. It would be nice to know in advance how much of my evening or weekend I should budget for campaign missions.

+1 would be very welcome indeed! Or at least a minimum time to complete.

[Kang]

Just a rough estimate would be great. 'Takes about one to two hours' or somesuch.

[Reflected]

Good point! Would the documentation be the best place to put this info? In my experience people tend not to read them. What about the briefing text?

 

Sometimes it's not easy to predict the length of the mission. My new campaign will be full of player choices, all of them having an impact on the total duration of the mission, but I can certanily give an estimate.

[animaal]

On a practical level, I'd agree. It would make it possible to decide whether or not I have time for "one more mission".

 

 

However, just to be devil's advocate... for me the main strength of a scripted campaign (versus a dynamic campaign) is the story-telling. When I watch a movie, I can sometimes tell that although the story appears to be ending, there's a twist coming - we're not yet near 1:30. Telling me the expected duration of a mission may also prepare me for an upcoming twist.

 

 

An element of uncertainty might sometimes be best...?

[snodipous]

I think a rough estimate, put into the documentation, would be fine. The people who want that information can go find it. There are ways to spoiler-proof text info like that (put black text on a black background so it's only visible if you highlight it with the cursor).

 

Even just an indication of if a mission is likely to be short, medium, or long would be a big help to me. The borders between the categories can be as fuzzy as you like. I would just like to know, after I have come home from work and finished making and eating dinner etc. if the next mission in the campaign is slated to be 'long', so I can save it for the weekend.

 

I'm not personally concerned about having mission twists spoiled for me, and even if I was, the benefit of knowing if I will have time to play through a mission would be worth much more than any spoiler.