Finished Persian Freedom Campaign, something to say...

[lqqfrank]

It's a great campaign! Good story. Enjoy very much. And it's nice to use more F10 in radio menu to interact with wingman or lead to make the AI performance more accurate.

While one thing could be improved in the future would be the voice recording quality, most of which are obviously in a room with echoes, making it somehow deviating from battle reality.  

The missions driven by the story are pretty good. As I played with VR and don't use label in order to be as real as possible, some missions especially those jobs against small objects such as soldiers are difficult and got low score. Think I will replay some of them to achieve higher ones. 

 

[ChillNG]

1 hour ago, lqqfrank said:

It's a great campaign! Good story. Enjoy very much. And it's nice to use more F10 in radio menu to interact with wingman or lead to make the AI performance more accurate.

While one thing could be improved in the future would be the voice recording quality, most of which are obviously in a room with echoes, making it somehow deviating from battle reality.  

The missions driven by the story are pretty good. As I played with VR and don't use label in order to be as real as possible, some missions especially those jobs against small objects such as soldiers are difficult and got low score. Think I will replay some of them to achieve higher ones. 

 

Thanks for the feedback, always appreciate decent and balanced feedback.  Recording quality is a fair comment, invested in a new mike during production which hopefully has made an improvement for the bits I recorded.

 

Campaign is definitely very replayable, some missions have different ways of playing out depending on how you perform.  Mission 16 has 4 additional tasks you can locate as well if you find them on the radio.

[lqqfrank]

Sure, will replay. 

For example, I felt so sorry that in mission 15, I missed to silence the suicide truck before it hit our special force...  I think you must have several scenarios by different performance. 

Again, well designed!

[ChillNG]

On 6/19/2021 at 9:20 AM, lqqfrank said:

Sure, will replay. 

For example, I felt so sorry that in mission 15, I missed to silence the suicide truck before it hit our special force...  I think you must have several scenarios by different performance. 

Again, well designed!

Thanks, yep lots of ways things can play out in most missions...really important to me that the mission feels like it's reacting to you 

[Emanuele]

Thanks for your feedback. By the way.//Which VR are you using? 

[ChillNG]

28 minutes ago, Emanuele said:

Thanks for your feedback. By the way.//Which VR are you using? 

 

Quest 2 these days.  Went from Oculus CV1 to Rift S (which I loved) then as it aged looked to upgrade.  Got a Reverb G2 but had lots of issues with it...headset was great but WMR and SteamVR weren't playing nice with DCS...plus WMR itself was rubbish.  Sent it back and went Quest 2 and have to say I'm really impressed with visual quality.

[Fangs Out]

On 6/18/2021 at 6:21 AM, lqqfrank said:

While one thing could be improved in the future would be the voice recording quality, most of which are obviously in a room with echoes, making it somehow deviating from battle reality.  

I'll take most of the blame for that. Most of my audio in the campaign was off of a crappy mic I owned at the time. With the time between OPF and Chill's new campaign, I can say that most of the issues have been resolved

-Fangsout (VA and CB tester of OPF and CN)

[lqqfrank]

On 11/12/2021 at 8:23 AM, Fangs Out said:

I'll take most of the blame for that. Most of my audio in the campaign was off of a crappy mic I owned at the time. With the time between OPF and Chill's new campaign, I can say that most of the issues have been resolved

-Fangsout (VA and CB tester of OPF and CN)

With my respect to OPF team!

Looking forward to future ones... 

[DN308]

I am just on mission 5 (humm, not sure of the number… thé one on island at night, chasing anti navy missiles).

I just wanted to say that it is the best campaign I’ve ever flown, regardless the sim or even game. 
really well scripted, immersive with a bit of real life sense of humour in the chats inflight.

I flown two solid hours in one mission just started to be a little bored 5 mn from the landing base in the return journey when I feel bored after 20mn of mission in other single missions.

a state of the art.

The only downside is that for a french speaker, some important instructions come too fast and without been repeated sometimes. I have to pause, check the messages history to be sure to have understood well.

and my wingman fool enough to fly on the sams all the time without taking out anything

 

[ChillNG]

5 hours ago, DN308 said:

I am just on mission 5 (humm, not sure of the number… thé one on island at night, chasing anti navy missiles).

I just wanted to say that it is the best campaign I’ve ever flown, regardless the sim or even game. 
really well scripted, immersive with a bit of real life sense of humour in the chats inflight.

I flown two solid hours in one mission just started to be a little bored 5 mn from the landing base in the return journey when I feel bored after 20mn of mission in other single missions.

a state of the art.

The only downside is that for a french speaker, some important instructions come too fast and without been repeated sometimes. I have to pause, check the messages history to be sure to have understood well.

and my wingman fool enough to fly on the sams all the time without taking out anything

 

Thanks for the kind words!  Wingman behaviour does get a little more reliable as the campaign goes on, as I started to change the way I used them in the editor.

[Fiztex]

@ChillNG Thank you very much for such an amazing campaign! I must say it picks up a challenge quite a bit (VR, no labels + bugged night FLIR which ED promises to fix for months already), and this is really nice IMO, full immersion guaranteed.

I just finished M11 (SCUD hunting) and oh boy I was almost crying when I've realized that I won't be able to complete it perfectly as I basically run out of everything and Gunman 1-3 (or 3-1, my head is spinning) was nowhere near to assist even though I've asked him. Please when you have a chance check the AI behavior in this mission - in the logs I don't see any other aircraft killing anything, they are just crashing and dying (e.g. all F18 died) and 1-3 doesn't come to help. I've killed over 60 units myself in this mission and still failed to get a 100 because of this last surprise (no spoilers, but I think you know what I'm talking about), and this is after like 2.5 hours of flying. Just didn't risk going naked into manpads with 30 flares and 100 rounds of gun, but maybe I'm just a coward who wanted to live

[ChillNG]

18 hours ago, Fiztex said:

@ChillNG Thank you very much for such an amazing campaign! I must say it picks up a challenge quite a bit (VR, no labels + bugged night FLIR which ED promises to fix for months already), and this is really nice IMO, full immersion guaranteed.

I just finished M11 (SCUD hunting) and oh boy I was almost crying when I've realized that I won't be able to complete it perfectly as I basically run out of everything and Gunman 1-3 (or 3-1, my head is spinning) was nowhere near to assist even though I've asked him. Please when you have a chance check the AI behavior in this mission - in the logs I don't see any other aircraft killing anything, they are just crashing and dying (e.g. all F18 died) and 1-3 doesn't come to help. I've killed over 60 units myself in this mission and still failed to get a 100 because of this last surprise (no spoilers, but I think you know what I'm talking about), and this is after like 2.5 hours of flying. Just didn't risk going naked into manpads with 30 flares and 100 rounds of gun, but maybe I'm just a coward who wanted to live

Thanks for the kind words!  I've modified Ronnie's attack waypoints, they'll hopefully work better now - I've developed a more robust way of doing things on my last campaign so fingers crossed it will help here as well.  This is a tough one to get 100 on thats for sure!

[Fiztex]

42 минуты назад, ChillNG сказал:

Thanks for the kind words!  I've modified Ronnie's attack waypoints, they'll hopefully work better now - I've developed a more robust way of doing things on my last campaign so fingers crossed it will help here as well.  This is a tough one to get 100 on thats for sure!

Does this mean these fixes will come with the next update of DCS? In this case I'd probably wait for them before continuing the campaign, as ED also promises fixes to TGP with the next update. TGP night fix is kind of crucial for spotting things at night in this campaign, and currently it's a global DCS pain. I'm in a hurry each time to get things done before the sunset as otherwise I won't be seeing much through my TGP in VR

Another small thing, in the kill box mission I've also noticed an f18 flying low towards SA6 after I've asked the SEAD flight to kill it and then it just crashed in the mountain (didn't see how, but saw a smoke later on and saw it crashing in the log after mission, and it was not shot down according to the log). Apparently you've implemented a failsafe against this behavior as SA6 was still destroyed after some time, and mission played fine. No HARM was fired in the log. So, I'm just saying probably this waypoint issue is not only limited to mission 11. I saw a HARM bug with another campaign reported here on the forums, so maybe something was changed in how AI does SEAD or other ground targets, and it could be worth to have a look.

BTW, would it be possible to add GROUP ID/ OWN ID in the briefings and put the wing in one group? Very convenient for SA and saves time finding them manually on TAD. I've seen this done in the Red Flag campaign, so it should be doable, I think. Right now I'm looking for Hogs around WP1 and checking their IDs through TAD, but they are all kind of random and never in one group, so best I can do is get myself on the same group as my wingman and fly like this to keep track on him.

Thank you again for all the efforts to keep it running.. Especially now when ED is making their goal to improve the AI, this must be a pain for a SP content developers. I think this one will be even bigger pain than the new clouds some time ago were.

[ChillNG]

41 minutes ago, Fiztex said:

Does this mean these fixes will come with the next update of DCS? In this case I'd probably wait for them before continuing the campaign, as ED also promises fixes to TGP with the next update. TGP night fix is kind of crucial for spotting things at night in this campaign, and currently it's a global DCS pain. I'm in a hurry each time to get things done before the sunset as otherwise I won't be seeing much through my TGP in VR

Another small thing, in the kill box mission I've also noticed an f18 flying low towards SA6 after I've asked the SEAD flight to kill it and then it just crashed in the mountain (didn't see how, but saw a smoke later on and saw it crashing in the log after mission, and it was not shot down according to the log). Apparently you've implemented a failsafe against this behavior as SA6 was still destroyed after some time, and mission played fine. No HARM was fired in the log. So, I'm just saying probably this waypoint issue is not only limited to mission 11. I saw a HARM bug with another campaign reported here on the forums, so maybe something was changed in how AI does SEAD or other ground targets, and it could be worth to have a look.

BTW, would it be possible to add GROUP ID/ OWN ID in the briefings and put the wing in one group? Very convenient for SA and saves time finding them manually on TAD. I've seen this done in the Red Flag campaign, so it should be doable, I think. Right now I'm looking for Hogs around WP1 and checking their IDs through TAD, but they are all kind of random and never in one group, so best I can do is get myself on the same group as my wingman and fly like this to keep track on him.

Thank you again for all the efforts to keep it running.. Especially now when ED is making their goal to improve the AI, this must be a pain for a SP content developers. I think this one will be even bigger pain than the new clouds some time ago were.

Hopefully in the next update, although depends on the timing of when this is so can't promise it.  F-18 crashing will be a current Hornet specific bug, they can currently stall and crash quite easily unless you design their flight paths with this in mind - which for Persian Freedom they weren't - but as you said there are fail safes in place to mitigate for this.

Your flight not being in your group is an unfortunate by-product of using the F10 menu to control your wingman.  They have to be a separate group in the editor to use this method.  The plus side...the AI works pretty reliably most of the time and is far superior to the stock AI control methods. 

[Fiztex]

1 час назад, ChillNG сказал:

Hopefully in the next update, although depends on the timing of when this is so can't promise it.  F-18 crashing will be a current Hornet specific bug, they can currently stall and crash quite easily unless you design their flight paths with this in mind - which for Persian Freedom they weren't - but as you said there are fail safes in place to mitigate for this.

Your flight not being in your group is an unfortunate by-product of using the F10 menu to control your wingman.  They have to be a separate group in the editor to use this method.  The plus side...the AI works pretty reliably most of the time and is far superior to the stock AI control methods. 

I see, I thought these a10c own/group IDs are not related to the flight IDs in the editor, but you know better for sure. Strange that ED doesn't give a way to change them separately in the editor.. I suppose custom made JTAC being unable to send data to your jet through datalink has the same roots? It's just a bit sad that such a complete module as a10c doesn't get utilized 100% in SP because ED can't add a few parameters for an a10c in the editor/scripts. Imagine your wingman orbiting scouting and lasing for you while you engage everything and then switching sides..

Looking forward to finish this story and then continue it in the Hornet in Operation Cerberus North. Just bought it recently, basically as soon as I started playing this one and realized how well it's done. If the new one on the same level then it's great, but from what I understand it's even more developed than this one.

[ChillNG]

1 hour ago, Fiztex said:

I see, I thought these a10c own/group IDs are not related to the flight IDs in the editor, but you know better for sure. Strange that ED doesn't give a way to change them separately in the editor.. I suppose custom made JTAC being unable to send data to your jet through datalink has the same roots? It's just a bit sad that such a complete module as a10c doesn't get utilized 100% in SP because ED can't add a few parameters for an a10c in the editor/scripts. Imagine your wingman orbiting scouting and lasing for you while you engage everything and then switching sides..

Looking forward to finish this story and then continue it in the Hornet in Operation Cerberus North. Just bought it recently, basically as soon as I started playing this one and realized how well it's done. If the new one on the same level then it's great, but from what I understand it's even more developed than this one.

Yeah there might be away of doing it with scripting, but it's beyond my understanding, and as far as I now there's no way in the editor of doing it...and yep it's the same for transmitting JTAC info through data link.  I can live without all that but I'd really love an editor based lasing option for AI units, again this is relatively simple with scripting and I've got it working with scripts others have supplied but as I don't fully understand the script myself and thus cannot fix it myself if it breaks I'm reluctant to put it into paid DLC.

And thanks for the second purchase as well .  I'm really pleased with OCN, Persian Freedom is a lot of fun, but for me there's still a few rough edges (being my first attempt at a campaign and all), OCN is just better polished and better put together all round.  It's still really hard to score 100 though .

[AMEDooley]

There is away to do this with the menus in the A-10 cockpit. It has been a long time since I’ve flown her so I can’t remember. You just need to know what the other A-10 is using. I’ve been in the 476th for almost a decade and all flights were single ships in the ME but we would enter in group ID/own ID to form the flight in game. I would get with Stuka, Snoopy, or any of the other A-10 guys in the 476th to show you what I mean.

[Fiztex]

@ChillNG Hi, I've got a question regarding mission 14 - is the weather chosen like that intentionally? Specifically the clouds. Thing is, that you carry lots of laser weapons in that mission, and the bottom cloud layer is kind of low and dense clouds are right above the AO. As result the attacking and communications seem quite strange, like the flight lead has no idea that there are low clouds and give you the worst IPs, attack heading and other instructions possible, while somehow seeing through the clouds. I suppose this was not fixed since the clouds updates, or did you up the challenge in this mission intentionally?

Edited June 17, 2022 by Fiztex

[ChillNG]

13 minutes ago, Fiztex said:

@ChillNG Hi, I've got a question regarding mission 14 - is the weather chosen like that intentionally? Specifically the clouds. Thing is, that you carry lots of laser weapons in that mission, and the bottom cloud layer is kind of low and dense clouds are right above the AO. As result the attacking and communications seem quite strange, like the flight lead has no idea that there are low clouds and give you the worst IPs, attack heading and other instructions possible, while somehow seeing through the clouds. I suppose this was not fixed since the clouds updates, or did you up the challenge in this mission intentionally?

 

A bit of both, the clouds were always there as a challenge, but the mission was built pre clouds update, so it wasn't built with those exact clouds in mind.  Last time I flew it though I was happy with the difficulty balance, as a late stage mission it was definitely designed to push you.

[lqqfrank]

Finished replay as planned. Beautiful! refreshed my A10 skills. 

This time, enjoyed the story and maneuvering more than just hurrying to finish it. 

"Cerberus North" is already in schedule.