[INT. FIXED] Mission 6 Missing Man formation seems broken/ Plus Some Feedback

[CommandT]

I've just flown mission 6 "Missing Man Formation" and it seems broken for me.

 

Firstly, I taxied to CAT3 which always seems to be an issue on the SC and the ground crew don't seem to register my existence. So I immediately taxied to CAT2 before wingman 3 & 4 started moving. Then Number 2 took off from CAT4 and before I made it off the deck some wird glitch happened where the carrier and everything disappeared for a couple of seconds, then reappeared with one of the remaining planes already hooked up to CAT1 next to me. Decided to restart the whole thing from scratch and taxi to CAT2 and take off before anyone else made it into the air - great, so far so good. Upon turning to waypoint 2 I got winman 2 and 3 join up. Number 4 nowhere to be seen (not even if you cycle through F2 views). After turning from waypoint 2 to waypoint 3, one of the two remaining wingmen disappeared - he was still alive but somewhere in a totally different place. Anyway me and my only remaining wingman pushed on time and made it over the boat at exactly 0800L/ 0400Z as briefed. The other 2 planes were nowhere to be seen. Maybe the latest DCS patch ruined it, I dunno. Shame anyway.

 

And as regards the campaign on the whole - I very much appreciate the hard work that has went into this and the fact that missions are very unique and try to recreate realistic ops which are not just all about shooting stuff. That's great BUT, I have some big criticisms. Given that I have paid money for this campaign I think it's only fair I can criticise some aspects which IMO have really killed the experience a few times. Firstly, mission 3 CAS near Basra. On the whole just as a mission idea - great, love it. However, basing the AO in a location on the map that has basically no mesh, ground texture, 3d models or buildings of any sort, absolutely kills all the atmosphere. I mean even pssing buy Kuwait and seeing nothing but flat boring terrain was buzz kill. I mean I could be flying Janes F-16 from 1998 really. So that kills all sense of immersion. I get that the campaign is focusing on operations around Iraq but IMO this mission was really best avoided, or the location changed. Secondly, this missing man formation seems broken and really just felt like I was trying to figure out how to get AI to not mess up. The idea was excellent though.

 

Also I felt a couple of times the briefs didn't really explain things - perhaps you are supposed to get those details from reading the book, but lets face it - this is not realistic for most people who just want to have a good experience flying the F-18 off a carrier.

 

Anyway, I'm hoping the rest of the missions in the campaign bring me more joy. And very much looking forward to the AV-8B ottoman campaign.

 

Cheers

Edited November 12, 2020 by baltic_dragon

[baltic_dragon]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Yes, M6 seems to be broken since the last patch and I am trying to fix it. This happens every now

and then and I guess this will keep happening. When I was submitting the campaign this mission worked as it should.

 

Now as for the criticism - for M3 I had huge doubts myself, but I really wanted to have this mission in and there just was no place in the developer part of the map to place it. I checked with all the beta testers and everyone said to

go for it - as the mission climate outweights the lack of proper map. Still, I see your point of course and I will refrain from using undeveloped parts of the map in the future.

 

As for the briefs - I did my best to make them clear and they go hand in hand with the charts you can view in briefing screen as well as kneeboards included in the missions. But it is difficult to satisfy everyone’s tastes and I am aware of that. Hope that remaining missions did deliver some fun :)

[sirrah]

Funny.. I did mission 6 on Saturday and didn't encounter any issues..

 

Well... that said... during the missing man formation, the most right wingman broke formation, instead of wingman number 3.. but I can't really call that a bug

 

Really strange how some experience these bugs whilst others don't :joystick:

[CommandT]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Yes, M6 seems to be broken since the last patch and I am trying to fix it. This happens every now

and then and I guess this will keep happening. When I was submitting the campaign this mission worked as it should.

 

Now as for the criticism - for M3 I had huge doubts myself, but I really wanted to have this mission in and there just was no place in the developer part of the map to place it. I checked with all the beta testers and everyone said to

go for it - as the mission climate outweights the lack of proper map. Still, I see your point of course and I will refrain from using undeveloped parts of the map in the future.

 

As for the briefs - I did my best to make them clear and they go hand in hand with the charts you can view in briefing screen as well as kneeboards included in the missions. But it is difficult to satisfy everyone’s tastes and I am aware of that. Hope that remaining missions did deliver some fun :)

 

Hi BD, thank you for taking my feedback into account. With regards to the mission briefs - there were a few terms used here and there that were not explained in the "guide" - like "X-CAS". No idea what "X" means in that. Either way none of those were a big deal, so I'm not really complaining. It's just a minor thing. The kneeboards are very good. It's a shame we can't have the waypoint maps from the brief in the kneeboard as well, but this is not a big deal at ll :)

 

Also I see there was for some a reason an army UH-60 acting as a SAR chopper for the carrier instead of a SH-60. Again, no big deal, just a minor point. Unless there was a reason for that I didn't pick up on from the book or something.

[baltic_dragon]

The only reason was that the UH-60 looks much better than FC-3 times SH-60. So I just added a skin and used it - especially that I don’t need it on deck anywhere with folder blades :) that’s the whole story behind this.

[Sedlo]

The story of mission 3 in the book is such an important one, I think not to include it would have been a bad idea. After all, the campaign is supposed to revolve around the missions in the novel. And as a beta tester, I voted to keep it in for that reason.

 

I do understand the OP's concern about lack of detail in that part of the map, but I think the immersion may have been killed in another way if the action had been based at a UAE city, for example (not situationally, politically realistic). I think BD was in one of those catch-22 situations on this one.

 

I am hopeful that, maybe, in the future, the Persian Gulf map may get extended up to Kuwait and at least Southern Iraq :-)

 

I think you'll very much enjoy the rest of the campaign, the missions become more and more immersive (for me, stressful in a fun way!)

 

 

[baltic_dragon]

Mission updated, now #3 leaves the formation as should be. Also updated taxi instructions and added extra time before #3 and #4 starts taxiing.

[CommandT]

Mission updated, now #3 leaves the formation as should be. Also updated taxi instructions and added extra time before #3 and #4 starts taxiing.

 

Wow that's a quick response to feedback! I suppose this will be updated with the next official patch? Is there a way to go back a mission and re-fly it in the campaign or you have to find it via the mission editor?

[baltic_dragon]

You could edit the LUA file to revert the campaign to M06. But it is easier to just run it from ME level. And yeah, updated missions are submitted to ED, so should be out with next patch.

[CommandT]

Great, cheers!