The Battle For A Raqqa Campaign - DCS F-16C

[Florence201]

The Battle for Ar Raqqa, is the fifth and final phase of the Raqqa Campaign, launched in conjunction with the Syrian Democratic Forces against the Islamic State In the Levant. Ar Raqqa remains the only Syrian city under full ISIL control and is thought to be its Centre of Operations.

Operations around the city began in November 2016. The intention was to proceed in 2 phases, first seizing areas around Raqqa and isolating the city, advancing on 3 fronts, then to take control of the city itself. The SDF General has reported that so far, operations have resulted in the SDF capturing large amounts of ISIL held territory.

Whilst the Syrian regime has been supported by the Russians, both are classed as non-combatants and WILL NOT BE ENGAGED. A No-Fly zone exists, extending from 15nm NW of Aleppo and runs South to the Jordanian border. DO NOT CROSS WEST OF THAT LINE

You are an English RAF pilot, on exchange with the USAF 55th Sqn.  They and you, have been deployed to Incirlik AFB in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.

 

Involves custom voice overs and triggered actions. MDCs and Overview documents provided.

 

12 mission campaign, with mission requiring munition selection, along with pre-planned weapons. Knowledge of LGB delivery, Mavericks and TGP usage.

 

A massive thank you to the following people for lending their voice to this campaign:

ChillNG - Uzi 8-1
Capt Tangerine - Playboy
Amy - Blackbeard 1
Raptor - Razor 2-5
Roamin - Hitman
Zilch - Blackbeard 2
Strix - Jackal 9-1
S3TUP - Syrian Military

 

Requires F-16C and Syria Map

MODS Required:

Frenchpack 3.5 or newer: 

 

476th Range Targets: https://www.476vfightergroup.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=287

VPC Objects: 

 

User File link: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3315280/

 

Please feedback any comments for improvements/changes

Edited February 28, 2021 by Florence201
User Files link added

[thrston]

Hi Florence,

 

so after flying the first mission, I can't get mission succes state and move to another one. I have followed the flight path, timings, comms, destroyed both ammo crates and tents on WP7, on my way back to base looked at score table with around 600 score, but after landing and exiting the mission I get score about 60 and mission succes 0.

 

At first I thought it has something with my problematic landing (got aircraft damaged), so I gave at another try and the same happened again.

Do you have an idea what can be the problem please?

 

Otherwise the first mission looks great and it was fun to fly. Beautiful morning scenery

[Florence201]

15 hours ago, thrston said:

Hi Florence,

 

so after flying the first mission, I can't get mission succes state and move to another one. I have followed the flight path, timings, comms, destroyed both ammo crates and tents on WP7, on my way back to base looked at score table with around 600 score, but after landing and exiting the mission I get score about 60 and mission succes 0.

 

At first I thought it has something with my problematic landing (got aircraft damaged), so I gave at another try and the same happened again.

Do you have an idea what can be the problem please?

 

Otherwise the first mission looks great and it was fun to fly. Beautiful morning scenery

I’ll check the mission success score, but destroying 4xAmmo dumps and 4xHQ tents should give you mission score of 100 and ability to progress. Did your wingman not strike any targets?

[thrston]

1 hour ago, Florence201 said:

I’ll check the mission success score, but destroying 4xAmmo dumps and 4xHQ tents should give you mission score of 100 and ability to progress. Did your wingman not strike any targets?

Thank you. Wingman did some damage, but used only ccip bombs from angels 15 and he missed a lot with those. I will try to replay it today and I will send you mission debrief.

[Florence201]

6 minutes ago, thrston said:

Thank you. Wingman did some damage, but used only ccip bombs from angels 15 and he missed a lot with those. I will try to replay it today and I will send you mission debrief.

 

OK thanks. In testing wingman hit targets and if you strike as outlined above, then you should be good. It's a wise move to strike from height due to the ISIL MANPAD threat!

[thrston]

2 minutes ago, Florence201 said:

 

OK thanks. In testing wingman hit targets and if you strike as outlined above, then you should be good. It's a wise move to strike from height due to the ISIL MANPAD threat!

Just a quick check - I have installed it into Saved Games/DCS/Missions/Campaigns/EN and I am running the campaign from Campaigns / My Campaigns, right?

[Florence201]

Yup that's right

If you want to check the mission score calculator, open M1 in the ME and click the mission goals tab on the left hand side. You will see what is needed to complete the mission

[Florence201]

7 hours ago, thrston said:

Thank you. Wingman did some damage, but used only ccip bombs from angels 15 and he missed a lot with those. I will try to replay it today and I will send you mission debrief.

everything checks out mission scoring. 4 Ammo dumps and 4 HQ tents. Then land back at base 

[thrston]

Hello Florence, again - same results. Destroyed primary targets, landed back to full stop with my wingman and the results are mission failed. 
I am attaching you the debrief log, and some photos of ingame debrief after landing and after mission end. I also saved track and I can send it to you if you want to check it out.

 

f16_syr_m01.log

[Florence201]

I’ll look into the log, but from your screenshots it appears you only hit the 4 Tents with ammo dumps still alive. All 8 need to be hit to progress. 

[thrston]

Check the log. Also the ammo dumps were destroyed. I went three passes - pair of GBU 12 on those ammo dumps, 1 GBU 12 on the tents and 1 GBU 12 on some trucks. Wingman did some damage as well. 

[Florence201]

Looking at the log it looks like whilst DCS is registering DEAD for the Ammo Dump statics, it's not registering DEAD for the Tents for some reason. I would post this on discord and ask if this is normal behaviour. Meanwhile, i'll amend the mission goal and remove the need for Tents as a progression and release an updated version. Appreciate teh feedback on this.

[thrston]

Happy to help! Big Thanks for the campaign - the F16 and Syria definitely deserves more love

[Florence201]

5 hours ago, thrston said:

Happy to help! Big Thanks for the campaign - the F16 and Syria definitely deserves more love

 

I just run a test mission and scored 100 with 4xTents and 4xAmmo dumps destroyed

 

Edit

On looking at mission goals, FARP stuff was set to ALIVE <75 and they are DEAD when hit by bombs. I'll release an update now

Edited March 4, 2021 by Florence201

[Florence201]

UPDATES:
V1.1 4th March 2021
MISSION1: Update to mission goals. Changed from ALIVE < to DEAD for primary targets. Feel free to just overwrite with new M1 or change in ME Mission Goal to GROUP DEAD for 4x FARP Tents and 4x FARP Ammo Storage units

V1.2 6 March 2021
MISSIONS 1-12: Fixed - Taxiing aircraft ATC transmission trigger/Added - Where applicable, target destroyed messages/Fixed - Landing aircraft parking confliction
MISSION 11: Fixed - Incorrect player inbound ATC transmission/Fixed - Truck park targets

Edited March 6, 2021 by Florence201

[Sydy]

Hi Florence,

 

Just to thank you. I started the campaign today and flew two missions. The departure sunrise on the first mission is amazing.

 

Tks a lot!

 

Sydy

[Florence201]

12 hours ago, Sydy said:

Hi Florence,

 

Just to thank you. I started the campaign today and flew two missions. The departure sunrise on the first mission is amazing.

 

Tks a lot!

 

Sydy

Thanks for the comments mate.

 

Yeah, Syria Map at dawn/dusk is stunning!

[Col. Kernel]

Just flew the first two missions and had a blast. Thanks for creating and sharing this campaign. It's evident that a lot of hard work went into creating it and I look forward to flying the remaining missions.

 

A few observations from mission 2 (I'm flying version 1.2 of the campaign):

• Mission 2 requires the Civil Aircraft Mod (but neither mission 1 nor mission 3 do). You might want to include a link to that mod in your description - or modify whatever modded unit is in the mission, if this wasn't planned.
• During my attack run I got a lua script error about a CASEngagementZone. See the image below.

Thanks again!

Edited March 14, 2021 by Col. Kernel
I listed the wrong campaign number

[Florence201]

1 hour ago, Col. Kernel said:

Just flew the first two missions and had a blast. Thanks for creating and sharing this campaign. It's evident that a lot of hard work went into creating it and I look forward to flying the remaining missions.

 

A few observations from mission 2 (I'm flying version 1.2 of the campaign):

• Mission 2 requires the Civil Aircraft Mod (but neither mission 1 nor mission 3 do). You might want to include a link to that mod in your description - or modify whatever modded unit is in the mission, if this wasn't planned.
• During my attack run I got a lua script error about a CASEngagementZone. See the image below.

Thanks again!

 

thanks for the feedback. I’ll sort both issues and release a new version. Looks like the Moose.lua is missing 

[Florence201]

New verion released.

 

V1.3 15 March 2021
Multiple Missions: Fixed CASEngagement Issue
MISSION 2: Fixed rogue Static unit
Copy/Paste over files if already downloaded

[Col. Kernel]

Thanks for the updated version @Florence201.

Have tried out mission 3 and hit a few bumps on the road.

• There seems to be an AI/ATC conflict at Incirlik between the landing C-17 Globemaster and my wingman. If the Globemaster lands, my wingman only starts taxiing once the Globemaster has reached the parking position after a few minutes. Which means I'll have to wait for my wingman to taxi to the runway. One the other hand, if I start taxiing early, the Globemaster aborts landing and circles the runway instead. I've flown the mission a few times and on one occasion, the Globemaster got stuck on the runway, which meant that my wingman got stuck in the hangar and refused to taxi. While AI traffic adds to the atmosphere, it's apparently a bit too much to handle for the DCS ATC. Perhaps  consider skipping the landing Globemaster. Don't know if and how it's connected to the changes regarding ATC and taxiing aircraft that you mention above under version 1.2
• I was very pleased that you added the option to repeat the JTAC 9-line, since there's a lot of information to cope with. However, it is only possible to repeat it once and the second time the text only shows for 10 seconds (compared to 35 seconds the first time). Since it takes a while to type in the coordinates in Long/Lat (at least for my fat fingers), it would be helpful to add the option to repeat indefinitely and also have the text show for a bit longer.

[Florence201]

1 hour ago, Col. Kernel said:

Thanks for the updated version @Florence201.

Have tried out mission 3 and hit a few bumps on the road.

• There seems to be an AI/ATC conflict at Incirlik between the landing C-17 Globemaster and my wingman. If the Globemaster lands, my wingman only starts taxiing once the Globemaster has reached the parking position after a few minutes. Which means I'll have to wait for my wingman to taxi to the runway. One the other hand, if I start taxiing early, the Globemaster aborts landing and circles the runway instead. I've flown the mission a few times and on one occasion, the Globemaster got stuck on the runway, which meant that my wingman got stuck in the hangar and refused to taxi. While AI traffic adds to the atmosphere, it's apparently a bit too much to handle for the DCS ATC. Perhaps  consider skipping the landing Globemaster. Don't know if and how it's connected to the changes regarding ATC and taxiing aircraft that you mention above under version 1.2
• I was very pleased that you added the option to repeat the JTAC 9-line, since there's a lot of information to cope with. However, it is only possible to repeat it once and the second time the text only shows for 10 seconds (compared to 35 seconds the first time). Since it takes a while to type in the coordinates in Long/Lat (at least for my fat fingers), it would be helpful to add the option to repeat indefinitely and also have the text show for a bit longer.

Thanks for the feedback

 

point1. Wholly on DCS that the AI won’t taxi if another is on the runway, despite ATC clearing you to taxi??? 
 

point2. To have the 9line indefinitely available would mean having the F10 menu option constantly there. Happy to increase text time to 45 seconds on both showings if that would help?

 

I could probably get a release out this week with the text time increase. 

[Florence201]

Released

 

V1.4 17 March 2021
Increased text time for any positional data displays (ie, JTAC 9Line)
MISSION 3: Moved C-17 so landing does not conflict with taxi

 

Copy/paste new files if campaign already started

[Col. Kernel]

Thanks for your quick response Florence. There's no need to rush with a new release for my sake. I managed to get the right coordinates in the end. So just a suggestion in case you at some point make a new release. Rather than indefinitely, perhaps the option to repeat could be there until you ask the JTAC for the remarks.

Regarding the taxi issue, I was cleared to taxi by the ATC, but my wingman refused to move until the Globemaster had parked. Still not quite sure what was happening with the AI, but it happened consistently each time I flew the mission. Of course there's only so much that you as a mission designer can do with the DCS AI, but I just wanted to let you know that it is a bit quirky in that mission.

 

Now I'm looking forward to flying mission 4.

Edit: Oh wow, you're quick. Thanks for the update!

Edited March 17, 2021 by Col. Kernel

[Florence201]

6 minutes ago, Col. Kernel said:

Thanks for your quick response Florence. There's no need to rush with a new release for my sake. I managed to get the right coordinates in the end. So just a suggestion in case you at some point make a new release. Rather than indefinitely, perhaps the option to repeat could be there until you ask the JTAC for the remarks.

Regarding the taxi issue, I was cleared to taxi by the ATC, but my wingman refused to move until the Globemaster had parked. Still not quite sure what was happening with the AI, but it happened consistently each time I flew the mission. Of course there's only so much that you as a mission designer can do with the DCS AI, but I just wanted to let you know that it is a bit quirky in that mission.

 

Now I'm looking forward to flying mission 4.

Edit: Oh wow, you're quick. Thanks for the update!

 

 

No problem at all. Should have 45 seconds per JTAC message now