Mission 1 - Feedback ***SPOILERS***

[Strider21]

Even from the first mission you can tell this will be a high quality campaign. The briefing material, skins, voice acting and mission are great. 

 

Spoiler

That being said, I have a problem with the way mission 1 is structured. I appreciate the intro and the time you take to go over specific points. The environment of mission 1 is not at all conducive to an introduction. Attempting to fly on an extremely black night a very specific IF procedure which for myself as hobby sim pilot is very workload intensive while trying to listen to you explain the finer points of the campaign or listen the radio, for me was not possible. Honestly, it took all my concentration just to maintain altitude and speeds. Likewise, I am not sure if it is specific to my visual setup (Reverb G2) but even with gamma jacked all the way up there is no discernable horizon nor was I able to see the tanker within 0.5nm NVGs or not. When the you are given the decision to stay in the marshal or hit the tanker I was already at 1800 lbs of fuel and ~20nm away from ARCO. With ARCO flying away at 290 KIAS and basically not being able to see the tanker even at 0.5nm again was an extremely difficult set of conditions. Was the tension up? Yes for sure but for a campaign billed as an action filled 80s fighter romp starting with a min-fuel CASE 3 didn't match my expectation. Likewise, I ended crashing into the water attempting to rejoin on the tanker. At that time I was at minute 47. The mission brief has it listed as a 30 min mission. I feel like that mission is an a hour+ long without time acceleration. I am not sure that if when you play tested the lightning was different but with the current DCS version I basically can't see anything over than the stars under NVGs. 

 

I look forward to the rest of the campaign and maybe its just me, but that mission was not an easy intro. 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Strider21

[Wolfman289]

I thought the same thing about it. I was able to do it, but felt it was a little tedious at times.

 

I got stuck on mission 3 and will have to try it again later.

Edited June 18, 2021 by Wolfman289

[Reflected]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, I know it's not an easy intro, quite challenging actually. But in every book I've read about naval aviation there is a story about a night landing with low fuel, so it HAD TO be part of the campaign  Arco sometimes has its mind on its own, but you'll get back even if you don't refuel. No need for visible horizon or NVGs for night landings though. You don't look outside the cockpit until 3/4 miles.

 

@Wolfman289 , why did you get stuck at mission 3, and what is it that makes you say you're not a huge fan? Keep in mind, it's very story driven, so think of it like a movie: don't judge based on the first 10 minutes - the events will pick up  Then again, it's a very special campaign and I understand if it's not everyone's cup of tea.

 

Cheers!

[Wolfman289]

Spoiler

 

I ended up sending you a PM, I don't want to hi-jack the thread. But I do enjoy story based campaigns and the voice acting and dialogue is pretty good. Maybe the issue I'm experiencing is a bug with mission 3, or I'm just screwing up lol.

 

**Just an edit. I made it through mission 3 and it's a blast. I think the OP will have fun with this. I know I am. Sorry for the earlier doubts.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses. Thanks for putting all the effort into it, I'm sure it was a ton.

 

Thanks!

Edited June 18, 2021 by Wolfman289

[AH_Solid_Snake]

So just to clear this up, what are the expected procedures to tank from Arco? I did the same thing on my first attempt and couldn’t find him at all, just circling with the TACAN saying 0.3nm was the best I could do. In 89 were NVG general issue for F-14s? Should the tanker have some lights on? Should I just use the radar?

[Reflected]

Use tavan, then lock when close, then nvg if needed. The lights in dcs are hard coded , I don’t have any control over them In the missiom editor. They should be way brighter imo. 

[Indianajon]

I need help from someone please. I'm really struggling with this mission. Am I missing something? Once I've taken off I have turned into the pattern keeping 10miles off the boat and it says to turn 265 (or whatever the bearing is) radial. Now my understanding of this is I set the bearing on my HSI in TACAN mode then when everything lines up I'm on the radial. I'm doing this and flying along it but not getting any more narrative. I've gone and found the tanker and filled up. I've landed back on the boat but nothing is giving me a mission complete. I feel I should be getting some sort of 'do this next' after I fly the radial. Have I done something wrong? I've tried this three times now and as it's less than relaxing a flight I'm getting frustrated. Help please.

[Reflected]

Hi,

As long as you follow the helpers you should be fine.

- Launch, then fly straight for 7 miles

- At 7 miles you'll hear a message, start turning right

- Place yourself on a 10 NM radius arc around the ship in a right hand turn

- TACAN should be tuned to the ship, the distance should show 10.0 and the bug should be pointing right. If the distance decreases, ease your turn. If it increases, tighten your right turn a bit.

- In order to depart on the 260 radial, (dunno by heart), your nose needs to be pointing 260+90 = 350 while on the 10 NM arc. be patient. You will hear a helper message to initiate your turn.

- The slower you fly the easier it all is.

 

Good luck!

[Arbitrary]

After getting clearance to land, it told me to talk to the ship via the normal comms menu. The ship never responded on the preset, nor didn't respond to the frequency listed in the kneeboard.

 

Also I couldn't hide the stick. I guess I can deal with that if those are the rules, but it was a small disappointment.

[Reflected]

I just replayed the mission and recorded a video. Will upload soon.

 

The stick has nothing to do with the mission  You can reach the ship on the given presets as specified in your kneeboard. Make sure you use the appropriate radio button, and you don't set one radio to Marshal then press the button of the other one.

[Arbitrary]

I'm not sure what you mean. I opened the comms menu. Is this some silly secret, indiscernible yet different comms menu?

[Reflected]

There are 2 buttons. One operates one of the radios, the other the second radio. You need to use the radio button of the radio on which you selected the preset. Not the comms menu button. But this is not campaign specific.

[Reflected]

http://heatblur.se/F-14Manual/cockpit.html#throttle-quadrant

 

Switch allowing pilot to key one or both radios and intercommunication to RIO.

 

ICS - Keys intercommunication to RIO.

 

BOTH - Keys both UHF 1 and V/UHF 2 for transmission.

 

UHF1 - Keys UHF 1 for transmission.

 

UHF2 - Keys V/UHF 2 for transmission.

 

[Arbitrary]

Ah, the ones that I don't use because I primarily play multiplayer.

 

[DerBayer]

4 hours ago, Arbitrary said:

... 

 

Also I couldn't hide the stick. I guess I can deal with that if those are the rules, but it was a small disappointment.

 

I had the same problem. After I bind the hide stick command to another key (return), it worked again. 

Maybe a Tomcat Bug? 

[Andrei]

I've been looking forward to this campaign, but have to admit that mission one is complete and utter madness. 

 

Spoiler

 

First of all the bug - Marshal reports that Arco is orbiting Angels 5. In reality it's at Angels 3. Usually recovery tankers are flying at Angels 6 if memory serves me well. Another one relates to expected approach time. Marshal says 10 when you are already around that mark and signal "Charlie" (which is not used in Case 3 IIRC) comes much later.

 

Secondly - fuel states. Right from the start I noted that the amount of fuel is ridiculously low for a Case 3 approach. We have 5000 at start which is already a tanking state for a Hornet during Case 3 operations. If you takeoff with the Tomcat with this fuel state, you should be immediately sent to the tanker or divert. I understand it's for the gameplay reasons, but this is not even remotely realistic in my opinion  

 

Secondly, the tanker visibility is... Pretty bad, you cannot see it within one mile. And once the "issue" happened my first thought was - hit that Tanker now. Which ended up being pretty unusable. 

 

So yeah, the concept is nice, but in normal operations and quals no one should be expected to "be a hero" like that.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by Andrei

[Reflected]

 

[unlikely_spider]

Just my two cents for Reflected - I was able to complete Mission 1 my first try (very proud of myself though I did practice Case 3 landings a lot earlier this year)

I didn't hit the tanker, and still landed with 1100 lbs fuel, so it's perfectly doable. For anyone starting this, you really need to know how to do IFR with Tacan, and also it really helps if you use the ICLS to help you line up to the carrier.

 

Really looking forward to the rest of the campaign!!

Edited August 7, 2021 by unlikely_spider

[sam_]

I just skipped the mission, not worth it flying blind with my limited time to practice.

[sLYFa]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents since I started this today too (only mission 1 and 2 so far).

I really liked it so far, despite being a casual campaign (at least thats how I understood the advertising), its pretty procedure focused. A few notes though on mission1:

- There are no clearing turns during CaseIII departures

- There is a bug with the Tomcat's TACAN in that the magnetic error caused by the ship affects tacan radial and bearing indication. You therefore need to either resync your AHRS once airborne (rather tricky since this can be only done in unaccelerated level flight) or go into DG mode and manually align the AHRS to the correct course while starting up on the boat (you can get the heading from the F10 map or use BRC+90). If you dont do any of the above, chances are high that you will fly a completely different radial as well as have a lot of trouble maintaining the 10nm arc. Maybe thats the reason why some people have trouble with the mission.

-Departure should tell you to climb to your assigned angels right after you leave the deck. IRL you set mil power and keep climbing at 300kts until you hit your altitude (which is either pre-briefed or assigned through DEP). If you get that altitude only after flying 7nm out (like it is now) you will be well above angels 10 and need to descend again.

- The tanker is a little too far out IMO. The point of the bolter-tanker is to fuel up aircraft as quickly as possible, being 30nm away from the boat at an offset to the holding radials doesn't help that.

- Terminator 2 was released after 1989

Looking forward to the next missions!

[Reflected]

2 minutes ago, sLYFa said:

Just wanted to add my 2 cents since I started this today too (only mission 1 and 2 so far).

I really liked it so far, despite being a casual campaign (at least thats how I understood the advertising), its pretty procedure focused. A few notes though on mission1:

- There are no clearing turns during CaseIII departures

- There is a bug with the Tomcat's TACAN in that the magnetic error caused by the ship affects tacan radial and bearing indication. You therefore need to either resync your AHRS once airborne (rather tricky since this can be only done in unaccelerated level flight) or go into DG mode and manually align the AHRS to the correct course while starting up on the boat (you can get the heading from the F10 map or use BRC+90). If you dont do any of the above, chances are high that you will fly a completely different radial as well as have a lot of trouble maintaining the 10nm arc. Maybe thats the reason why some people have trouble with the mission.

-Departure should tell you to climb to your assigned angels right after you leave the deck. IRL you set mil power and keep climbing at 300kts until you hit your altitude (which is either pre-briefed or assigned through DEP). If you get that altitude only after flying 7nm out (like it is now) you will be well above angels 10 and need to descend again.

- The tanker is a little too far out IMO. The point of the bolter-tanker is to fuel up aircraft as quickly as possible, being 30nm away from the boat at an offset to the holding radials doesn't help that.

- Terminator 2 was released after 1989

Looking forward to the next missions!

thanks a lot, that’s really helpful, interesting info. I’ll try and see how I can implement these without having to completely rework the mission. 

[sLYFa]

you are welcome and thanks for the campaign (I actually bought it only for the skins but then I though I might as well play it :D)

The tacan bug thing is really hard to work around, maybe just mention it in the briefing.

Btw, I made a custom late 80s VFA-87 skin off of photos from that time. Nothing fancy but looks a lot more accurate for that time than the default one. If you want I can send you the files.

[unlikely_spider]

I typically just subtract six or seven from their stated carrier brc due to magnetic variation, and I think it works out ok that way? Is that not how it's supposed to work?

Either way during landing I use tacan to get myself like 90% there, then ICLS needles and the carrier green/red lights to line myself up perfectly, so I'm not sure if tacan needs to be 100% accurate at that stage. I didn't have any issues hitting the triggers during this mission while getting on the right radial, but I'm not sure how much buffer Reflected gives the player.

Edited August 10, 2021 by unlikely_spider

[sLYFa]

The 6-7 degrees is the magnetic variation (i.e. the difference between magnetic and true north) in the caucasus region. This is not an issue since all charts and ATC instructions will be in magnetic heading which is also what your flight instruments should show. What I mean is the distortion of the magnetic field caused by the carrier. This causes your heading gyro to misalign during startup (the INS is unaffected, its only the AHRS which happens to be the primary source of heading information). AFAIK only Heatblur models this and the effect is somewhat random. Sometimes its only 10° but I've had errors of up to 40°.

This is only an issue during take-off/departure since the error will eventually go away in flight as the AHRS re-aligns itself over time.

[War_Pig]

I want to post a respectful counter argument to some of the earlier posters.

 

For me, Mission 1 was an awesome wake-up call, telling me that I better put some focus into learning the procedures, flying the airplane, navigating and trimming to keep altitude and airspeed.  I haven’t flown a real DME arc since instrument primary, and only a handful of times hand-flown since.  Being forced to fly one at night, hand flying (hadn’t bound any AFCS switches) and working things the old fashioned way (no real hud, instrument scan, time & turn) was not something I would have done by choice, much less thought would be fun.  It was a blast!!  Being challenged in that way, and then getting into the focused mindset to pull it off made the next several missions seem much easier, and set the tone for the rest of the campaign.

 

I chose not to tanker at night (didn’t realize I had NVGs) but to continue holding at max conserve.  I shot the Case III and boltered x3 (rusty on carrier stuff, and no experience with the F-14A, again I would never have chosen the A over the B on my own.  Now I Love it, it’s got a lot more personality, but if flown right it’s a beautiful jet!) but still managed to land with 1200 IIRC.

 

Flying the F-14 has actually improved my instrument scan and hand flying skills IRL.  A few days ago we had to MEL the AP on our CE560XL and wound up flying two legs (about 3 hours altogether) by hand at FL270.  I thought I would be wore out by the time I was done, but it was actually easy and pretty fun.  I give a lot of credit to Reflected for putting me through some refresher training in the sim, lol!

 

I think the first mission is perfect, and it makes later missions come much easier.  Not every mission IRL involves shooting at bandits and dodging SAMs; flying proper procedures and airspeeds/altitudes is absolutely crucial, and operating at night in poor Wx is required.  I’m glad the first time we have to launch in those conditions isn’t in wartime.