Jump to content

DCS: F/A-18C Operation Pontus Campaign - Reviews. Is it good?


Recommended Posts

Hey folks, 

 

I see I'm creating the first topic. Since I saw the trailer and description for this campaign, it caught my attention! So could someone who was brave enough to purchase and give it a go, respond here with their verdict? 

I'm curious about how this is done as it seems a little different to the normal scripted campaigns? What aspects are dynamics and how is the mission editor involved in the whole thing? I wish we could try one mission for free to see what it's like 😞

Cheers! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To help you out on if you should buy it, one its made by BD, Greg and Petritis . The former makes the best fixed wing campaigns around and the latter made the best Rotary wing campiagn imo. Second ,the dynamic aspects are how you make your wingman do their missions (CAP,CAS,SEAD) and how the campaign progress (you can control how it goes for better or for worse). Finally , its one of the most fun campaigns you could buy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Bravelink03 said:

To help you out on if you should buy it, one its made by BD, Greg and Petritis . The former makes the best fixed wing campaigns around and the latter made the best Rotary wing campiagn imo. Second ,the dynamic aspects are how you make your wingman do their missions (CAP,CAS,SEAD) and how the campaign progress (you can control how it goes for better or for worse). Finally , its one of the most fun campaigns you could buy.

Thanks for your input. I've completed most missions in Raven One and all 5 missions of the free Ottoman campaign for the Av-8B by BD. Whilst I in no way mean any disrespect to BD, and I think what he does is very good, there were a number of aspects in those campaigns I did not enjoy - one is that everything feels extremely scripted and you always feel like you are moving through a pre-determined corridor ( a scripted movie) where the outcome is always the same and you cannot deviate from course.  Whilst I do think scripting can be a great thing, I believe you never have dynamic open-ended situations in his missions that you would in real life. In other words I feel like you should be able to determine what and how you will do stuff as opposed to always being told what to do. Again, I want to stress this is just my own personal critique and I applaud BD for his efforts! 

Secondly, there were various bits which I thought lacked some attention to detail - just as a random example the Georgian AF used Su-25Ts (they never had those) or landing on an aircraft carrier after a mission and it's deck would be totally empty - no planes, no equipment, cranes, tugs or personnel (except the launch crews). I know BD explained this is done to prevent AI from screwing up on landing and blocking stuff but IMO it doesn't explain why you can't have a crane, some tugs and personnel, plus one or two aircraft at least to create some feeling of a realistic environment. Maybe I'm just being overly critical here and most people just don't care about this but for me, there's been a number of times where the immersion was broken as a result of being over-scripted or some lack of attention to detail. I don't mind that some missions are super-scripted like the missing man formation flyover the carrier deck - obviously that is impossible to do otherwise. But when it comes to combat, it would be nice to have a more open-ended experience where you had more choice about going about your business. 

Hence why I would like to know what this campaign is like. It does sound extremely promising. When you say ",the dynamic aspects are how you make your wingman do their missions (CAP,CAS,SEAD)" - does this mean you can give normal commands to your AI wingman about what to do? In the 2 campaigns I mentioned above your wingman really felt scripted to the point of where you just waited for him to follow a certain script rather than decide yourself what he should do. Even stuff like constantly being in close formation was a bit frustrating at times as you had no option to tell him to spread out the formation. 

For reference - there was a Red Flag 16-2 F-15C campaign from 4-5 years ago. It wasn't very scripted yet it was brilliant in putting you in the middle of a realistic scenario. There were a few things that were a bit off in that, but overall that felt brilliant in terms of immersion despite the lack of specific micro-scripting. If this campaign is more like that or a combination of both elements, I would be happy to buy it! 

(sorry about the essay 😕 )

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@CommandT thanks for this feedback. I don't want to stray off topic here, as this is about OP Pontus - and I hear what you are saying about R1 being scripted. This is mostly due to the nature of the campaign following the book - and to achieve what I wanted, I had to do it that way in most missions. In some you had a bit more of freedom (like in M3 where you could choose who attacks what etc), but I do agree it still is pretty limited compared to, say, The Enemy Within 3.0. 

 

In the new campaigns I am working on I am planning on giving players more freedom (to certain extent - to be able to still keep it manageable). That will be the case for both F-16 The Gamblers campaign and the sequel (or: prequel) of Raven One.

 

And Pontus - this is a completely different story 🙂

ce535d_9d347b62819c4372b3c485a4f95d2004~mv2.png
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Bravelink03 said:

And there's a new Flag campaign, Red flag 21-1

But thats off topic

 

Yep, it looks amazing, but unfortunately it's for the F-16 which I don't have and don't plan to 😞 

 

11 hours ago, baltic_dragon said:

@CommandT thanks for this feedback. I don't want to stray off topic here, as this is about OP Pontus - and I hear what you are saying about R1 being scripted. This is mostly due to the nature of the campaign following the book - and to achieve what I wanted, I had to do it that way in most missions. In some you had a bit more of freedom (like in M3 where you could choose who attacks what etc), but I do agree it still is pretty limited compared to, say, The Enemy Within 3.0. 

 

In the new campaigns I am working on I am planning on giving players more freedom (to certain extent - to be able to still keep it manageable). That will be the case for both F-16 The Gamblers campaign and the sequel (or: prequel) of Raven One.

 

And Pontus - this is a completely different story 🙂

 Hi BD, thanks for taking into account my feedback. 

With regards to Pontus, what exactly does the following entail? - "you will have to plan, design and execute various demanding missions for your squadron" 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, CommandT said:

Yep, it looks amazing, but unfortunately it's for the F-16 which I don't have and don't plan to 😞 

 

 Hi BD, thanks for taking into account my feedback. 

With regards to Pontus, what exactly does the following entail? - "you will have to plan, design and execute various demanding missions for your squadron" 

 

Hey, after the 1st mission which is fixed, you will receive intel each time about the campaign status. Additionally your virtual XO will provide suggestions on how to manage your squadron.

As a squadron leader, you have the ability to set the roles of your squadron AI packages and change their payload through the Mission Planner. During the missions you can also provide them various orders (RTB etc). For your package, you can edit your waypoints and design your missions accordingly.

 

As a result, the player can decide, plan sorties based on the given intel.

 

There is currently an issue that is blocking the task assignment to your squadron packages but ED is aware of it. 

We shall have updates for this soon.

 

Greg

  • Like 2

"ARGO" DCS UH-1H DLC SP Campaign

373vFS DCS World squadron (Greece) - www.buddyspike.net

"ARGO 2.0 Project Phoenix" UH-1H DLC Campaign - WIP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, gregzagk said:

 

Hey, after the 1st mission which is fixed, you will receive intel each time about the campaign status. Additionally your virtual XO will provide suggestions on how to manage your squadron.

As a squadron leader, you have the ability to set the roles of your squadron AI packages and change their payload through the Mission Planner. During the missions you can also provide them various orders (RTB etc). For your package, you can edit your waypoints and design your missions accordingly.

 

As a result, the player can decide, plan sorties based on the given intel.

 

There is currently an issue that is blocking the task assignment to your squadron packages but ED is aware of it. 

We shall have updates for this soon.

 

Greg

Sounds very interesting. Thank you! So is it using some sort of external UI like the Liberation Campaign or is all of this somehow done within the mission editor? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, CommandT said:

Sounds very interesting. Thank you! So is it using some sort of external UI like the Liberation Campaign or is all of this somehow done within the mission editor? 

No, it uses only default DCS World functionalities to qualify as an official DLC Product.

So everything is managed through the Mission Planner and the normal Campaign engine. 🙂 

 

This way you don't need to modify files or so.

 

Greg

"ARGO" DCS UH-1H DLC SP Campaign

373vFS DCS World squadron (Greece) - www.buddyspike.net

"ARGO 2.0 Project Phoenix" UH-1H DLC Campaign - WIP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/29/2021 at 12:08 PM, gregzagk said:

No, it uses only default DCS World functionalities to qualify as an official DLC Product.

So everything is managed through the Mission Planner and the normal Campaign engine. 🙂 

 

This way you don't need to modify files or so.

 

Greg

Purchased yesterday and really excited to try it! Thanks, Greg.

i7 8700K @ Stock - Win10 64 - 32 RAM - RTX 3080 12gb OC - 55 inch 4k Display

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, nazradu said:

I would like to know how long the sorties are round about. If they are rather short, I would give it a go for sure, but If the average exceeds 1 hour by far I would stay away from it. Thanks for any feedback on this.

It actually depends on your plan. The campaign gives you the opportunity to take decisions and plan your strategy. 

So apart from Mission no 1 that is fixed (I would say it can take up to 30mins), from Mission no 2 and onwards, there is a planning time that you would need to spend before jumping into the cockpit (5-10mins). 

 

Then it could be from 20 mins up to 60 (in case you would like to refuel for example and stay longer in the area). 

I would say that during the tests, the average was close to 45 minutes including the planning - procedures that needed before starting your engines.

You can decrease the time as you get used of the process and become familiar with the area of operations.

 

Hope that helps

 

Greg

  • Thanks 2

"ARGO" DCS UH-1H DLC SP Campaign

373vFS DCS World squadron (Greece) - www.buddyspike.net

"ARGO 2.0 Project Phoenix" UH-1H DLC Campaign - WIP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I purchased it and being a newbie I struggled with it at the beginning especially the mission planner. But once you get a system going it is a real fun campaign. For newbies who are having trouble with mission planner you can do what I did. I only use the mission planner to set up the payloads. I gave up setting up the way points and trying to find specific targets on the planner map. Once I set up the payloads I jump into the cockpit assign the tasks to my wingmen enter the mission codes and then go to the F-10 map pick a targets marked in red. get their coordinates from the f-10 map and set up my waypoints in the onboard computer. the coordinates we get at the end of each mission make no sense to me. First they are not in the correct format for the f-18. Second you are given no elevation that I could see and after trying to estimate the location of the target in the mission planner and bombing civilian apartment buildings I gave up on the mission planner. Honestly I cannot believe in reality that pilots would have to go through this kind of work to set up their targets. The chance of mistake and collateral damage is to great. I am sure they receive  exact coordinates and elevation of their targets in the correct format. In my opinion I think it would really improve the gameplay if we did not have to spend a lot of time in the mission planner trying to estimate where the target is. If you are an expert and and know how latitudes and longitudes work it probably is a breeze but for us newbie it is pretty cumbersome and quite inaccurate and chance mistake is quite great. But once I got all this figured out the campaign is excellent a lot of fun to play. Probably the best I have ever played.  This is my opinion. 


Edited by Orestd
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Orestd said:

I purchased it and being a newbie I struggled with it at the beginning especially the mission planner. But once you get a system going it is a real fun campaign. For newbies who are having trouble with mission planner you can do what I did. I only use the mission planner to set up the payloads. I gave up setting up the way points and trying to find specific targets on the planner map. Once I set up the payloads I jump into the cockpit assign the tasks to my wingmen enter the mission codes and then go to the F-10 map pick a targets marked in red. get their coordinates from the f-10 map and set up my waypoints in the onboard computer. the coordinates we get at the end of each mission make no sense to me. First they are not in the correct format for the f-18. Second you are given no elevation that I could see and after trying to estimate the location of the target in the mission planner and bombing civilian apartment buildings I gave up on the mission planner. Honestly I cannot believe in reality that pilots would have to go through this kind of work to set up their targets. The chance of mistake and collateral damage is to great. I am sure they receive  exact coordinates and elevation of their targets in the correct format. In my opinion I think it would really improve the gameplay if we did not have to spend a lot of time in the mission planner trying to estimate where the target is. If you are an expert and and know how latitudes and longitudes work it probably is a breeze but for us newbie it is pretty cumbersome and quite inaccurate and chance mistake is quite great. But once I got all this figured out the campaign is excellent a lot of fun to play. Probably the best I have ever played.  This is my opinion. 

 

Hey, thank you for your purchase,  we are really glad that you enjoying the campaign. 🙂

About coordinates, once you finish the mission, your XO will give your the coordinates both in Lat Long and Grid format. You can then use the F10 map zoom in and find the target marked with the red circle. Then in mission planner you can use the coordinates to the locate the target, then assign the waypoint and input the elevation.

You can check here for more details. 😉

 



In real life targets are ple-planed before the mission, something like the mission planner. Of course there is the case that they manually input coordinates they receive on route, for example from ground forces located few hundred meters from the enemy, 😉

 

 

"ARGO 2.0 Project Phoenix" UH-1H DLC Campaign - WIP

"ARGO" DCS UH-1H DLC SP Campaign

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi it is a great campaign. I watched the video and I tried doing it that way in the planner but I never got on target. I was supposed to bomb a warehouse and instead bombed a apartment building. i tried it in the MGRS also and didn't even come close. And I know it is not the fault of the game. I just don't know what I am doing. Not enough experience I guess. In lat long coordinates all those extra digitsin he the seconds confuse me. Now I went to Gi surfer where they have the MGRS system I was able to do it there but when I transferred over to the mission planner I got all confused. In the LAT Long system My problem is I find the LAT coordinates but then when moving to the long coordinates I get lost. I guess I have to practice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Orestd said:

Hi it is a great campaign. I watched the video and I tried doing it that way in the planner but I never got on target. I was supposed to bomb a warehouse and instead bombed a apartment building. i tried it in the MGRS also and didn't even come close. And I know it is not the fault of the game. I just don't know what I am doing. Not enough experience I guess. In lat long coordinates all those extra digitsin he the seconds confuse me. Now I went to Gi surfer where they have the MGRS system I was able to do it there but when I transferred over to the mission planner I got all confused. In the LAT Long system My problem is I find the LAT coordinates but then when moving to the long coordinates I get lost. I guess I have to practice.

Hey 🙂, the most accurate and easy way in order to find the target is though the mission planner. Once your XO gives you the coordinates of the target use F10 map in order to locate the red circle. Zoom in and you will see the target building. The in the next mission, through mission planner locate that building and put on top of it the waypoint. 

 

Don't forget to change the elevation of the target!!!!😉

Also have a look at this. 

 

"ARGO 2.0 Project Phoenix" UH-1H DLC Campaign - WIP

"ARGO" DCS UH-1H DLC SP Campaign

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
19 hours ago, 31st ff iceman said:

where can i find the Storyboard Dokumentaion 

 

Hey do you mean the campaign pdf files? 

If so they are located in "C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\campaigns\FA-18C Operation Pontus\Doc"

 

Greg

"ARGO" DCS UH-1H DLC SP Campaign

373vFS DCS World squadron (Greece) - www.buddyspike.net

"ARGO 2.0 Project Phoenix" UH-1H DLC Campaign - WIP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

I'm on mission 4 and can't "End Mission", even though the debrief data and audio have finished (see screenshot)Screen_210424_094339.png.  The "Close" option works, but warns that I will lose all progress.  No way to progress, so this campaign is broken for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, cgrxman said:

I'm on mission 4 and can't "End Mission", even though the debrief data and audio have finished (see screenshot)Screen_210424_094339.png.  The "Close" option works, but warns that I will lose all progress.  No way to progress, so this campaign is broken for me.

Hi, this is unfortunately a DCS update that ED is investigating to fix. However the campaign is not broken for you 🙂

 

Due to the campaign progress code, your progress is not lost. There are 2 temporary solutions until ED provides the fix.

 

1) Either you can fly again using your new code (this way you will fly with the new status but time and weather will unfortunately be the same)

 

2)Either you can get inside your current mission, input your new code, takeoff and return to your carrier. This way the end mission works all the time. It's some events that cause this random failure of ending a mission sometimes. Once you exit the mission use the same code you have in the screenshot and not the one that it provided it while landing. This way you can fly the given task in new time and weather conditions too.

 

hope that helps till the issue is gone.

 

Greg

 

 

"ARGO" DCS UH-1H DLC SP Campaign

373vFS DCS World squadron (Greece) - www.buddyspike.net

"ARGO 2.0 Project Phoenix" UH-1H DLC Campaign - WIP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...