WHY NO COOP

[fastfed]

It boggles my mind, with such a great foundation like DCS, we get almost no coop missions made.

 

So many make great campaigns and missions, with tons of scripts, yet they can't just leave one spot empty for a coop mission?

 

Every multiplayer game/mission is just that, multiplayer. don't you all have like 1 or 2 buddies that you love to fly with?

 

AI can only do so much, having a real wingman is game changing. I can add a client spot for my buddy but with tons of scripts it messes it up.

 

Again, mission makers, please for the love of god, make a campaign with a coop slot, charge as much as you want and I will pay.

 

Actually I think many will, there has to be others like me lol

[Adam]

Co-op's have always been my most preferred game modes. I'd definitely like to see mission makers add a spot (or option) for a co-op wingman.

[QuiGon]

Absolutly right! There is way too few coop content in DCS, especially in regards to the high quality payware campaigns! See also this wishlist thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=241117

[Mr_sukebe]

I also love coop. A few thoughts

- If you were making a campaign for coop, how would you cater for the potential for it to be used by 2, 4, 10, 20 different players? The reality is that if you tried to make it for say 4, then someone is going to say that it's not optimised for you and that it fails to be a coop mission

- If you want coop, just join a squadron. I've flown in several now and without fail, the chaps I've flown with have pretty much all been really nice people. Do remember that they all share the same passion

- If it's just yourself and your close friends, the mission editor is your friend. Bearing in mind that it's as easy to build a mission for multi-players as one and onto which you can then have a friend in an F18 who's taken out the SAM defences, one friend spotting for you in a harrier, whilst another is providing top cover in an F14, and you're dumping a laser guided GBU from a Mirage. No mission planner is going to dream that up for you as there's simply too many variables.

[QuiGon]

- If it's just yourself and your close friends, the mission editor is your friend. Bearing in mind that it's as easy to build a mission for multi-players as one and onto which you can then have a friend in an F18 who's taken out the SAM defences, one friend spotting for you in a harrier, whilst another is providing top cover in an F14, and you're dumping a laser guided GBU from a Mirage. No mission planner is going to dream that up for you as there's simply too many variables.

This applies to me (flying coop with friends) and we do create our own missions, but we neither have the time nor the skills to create missions that are on the same level as the payware campaigns that are available for DCS, with immersive voice overs and stuff like that. I would love to fly them in coop!

[VpR81]

You should realy give the Mission Editor a try (or multiple, as you'll need to get into it if you're new to mission crafting). I also prefer coop missions together with one of my RL friends, not only in DCS, and started to craft my own missions long ago. My DCS missions are far from the professional ones (i.e. text messages instead of voice over) but meanwhile they got more and more complex, in terms of unit numbers and mission itself as well as in terms of triggers/flags, and work pretty good. I've also started to create a coop campaign by using the "load mission" trigger option in order to jump to different missions depending on reached mission points after landing. Sure, workarounds for the core problem of missing professional coop content. But for free and you can be creative in your missions.

 

The only problem with the ME solution is time. The Hornet was my first study lvl DCS aircraft and i started to craft missions when it entered EA. I crafted more than 100 ArmA 3 missions and both mission editors share some similarities, so combinded with reading guides i got pretty fast into it (but far from mastering the ME). Still, because of daily live, i have crafted only 9-12 rather complex missions in DCS my buddy called "awesome". And even these are still not prefectly shaped (i.e. briefing) and get adjusted regulary. It takes time to get into the mission editor (read the guides, they realy help) and it needs even more time to craft the missions. Everytime i learned something new, i implemented that into my existing missions if it made sense. Aso some DCS updates demand adjustments to the missions. All this took a lot of time as well (as i said, far from beeing professional here). But in the end, this is without any doubt the most fun and most exciting part of DCS for both of us and it is well worth spending the time (if you have it) in the editor.

 

Cheers

Edited June 8, 2020 by VpR81

[fastfed]

I also love coop. A few thoughts

- If you were making a campaign for coop, how would you cater for the potential for it to be used by 2, 4, 10, 20 different players? The reality is that if you tried to make it for say 4, then someone is going to say that it's not optimised for you and that it fails to be a coop mission

- If you want coop, just join a squadron. I've flown in several now and without fail, the chaps I've flown with have pretty much all been really nice people. Do remember that they all share the same passion

- If it's just yourself and your close friends, the mission editor is your friend. Bearing in mind that it's as easy to build a mission for multi-players as one and onto which you can then have a friend in an F18 who's taken out the SAM defences, one friend spotting for you in a harrier, whilst another is providing top cover in an F14, and you're dumping a laser guided GBU from a Mirage. No mission planner is going to dream that up for you as there's simply too many variables.

 

 

 

don't want it for 2,4,10 or 20 people.

 

there are plenty of single player missions and campaigns, guess what they almost ALL have with those missions.

 

A wingman!

 

simple make that 1 wigman.. playable!

 

Multiplayer is great, but I would bet anything its less than 20% of the people that play this game, yep I think 80% or more play this singeplayer, same goes for IL2 and other simulation games.

 

The multiplayer in DCS isn't all that great, because they are designed for multiple people even the hoggit server, you never feel like you're accomplishing anything.

 

The single player missions and camapigns on the other hand are amazing, so a simple 2 player option would be awesome!

[Sedlo]

Some points from a mission maker.

 

1. Testing. The single player missions I make require anywhere from dozens to hundreds of hours of testing and tuning. Hard to test functions in multiplayer with multiple players on a timeline that suits me (that's not just AI tuning, lots of other stuff involved). I couldn't possibly put out a product that I would be proud of if I couldn't test it to the degree that I want.

 

2. Lots of advanced mission editor tools that I use to make my missions realistic are single player only (cockpit parameters, cockpit indication = to, etc.). It's not as simple as just adding a client slot. If it was, you could be there would be more content out there.

 

3. I fly mostly single player, so I make the types of missions that I like to fly.

 

There are a lot of online squadrons and discord groups that put out some fun multiplayer experiences, I'd say give them a go. You can find some great two player content with those guys, too.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Sedlo

[QuiGon]

2. Lots of advanced mission editor tools that I use to make my missions realistic are single player only (cockpit parameters, cockpit indication = to, etc.). It's not as simple as just adding a client slot. If it was, you could be there would be more content out there.

Interesting, because I played some of your missions/campaigns in two player coop by doing exactly that: adding a client slot. Didn't notice any issues with that.

 

 

There are a lot of online squadrons and discord groups that put out some fun multiplayer experiences, I'd say give them a go. You can find some great two player content with those guys, too.

But that's exactly what I don't want. I want to have some fun private sessions with some close friends, where we would like to get immersed in the mission, but all the immersive missions out there (mostly the payware campaigns) are SP only, which is really frustrating.

[Sedlo]

The mission breaks if the lead gets shot down, voiceovers that should play if a member of the flight strays and to restricted airspace space won’t play, things based on weapons being fired by particular people won’t happen.

 

AI interactions in they way I design are based on the single player, too.

 

Somewhat playable isn’t fully playable for me, and if I can’t extensively test on my own time, I won’t do it.

[Sedlo]

But I would encourage you to try and design your own missions in the editor. If you go into the mission intending to make a multiplayer co-op from the beginning, it would work better.

 

Until some of the advanced mission editor functions are available for client aircraft, I can’t even begin to consider building them. I know that many people do, and many of them are quite good. But it doesn’t work with the style of mission or workflow that I do. Not to mention I do not want to rely on others for the amount of testing that i do.