Raven One Review/Wishlist/Bugs

[revzin]

Loved the campaign! In essence, a very chill Hornet showcase with a lot of care for details, rich content, accurate comms, and some surprises (some things I totally didn't expect from a DCS campaign). The level of attention and details is excellent. Probably not too action-packed or difficult, but it does its' thing very well. Would recommend for anyone wanting to test-drive the Hornet at intermediate-level (frankly, such a showcase should come packed with the module, not to disparage Baltic Dragon, they did a great job). 

RANDOM PRAISES

• Loved the attention to detail with COMM I and COMM II, seeing who transmits on what.
• Impressed with BFM training in the first missions, very immersive! (Blowing OPFOR up always bugged me in 'training' Red Flag campaigns. Were they all drones? Who exactly was I shooting at? Hopefully not some rounded-up anti-war hippies from CIA black sites... then again, it is Area 51, maybe aliens in F-5s.)
• Loved the cold war-ish things - intercepts, warning shots, etc - we do in the first third. Simultaneously provides training and story. Almost like a tutorial section in less-exotic gaming?
• A very nice choice of missions overall in the second half of the campaign, showcasing mostly everything the Hornet can. Used waypoints, offsets, TGP, ground radar, BVR, WVR, JDAMs, LGBs, bullseye references, rockets, Mavs... pretty much everything but Walleyes and SLAM-ERs. Something new to do every mission, doesn't get repetitive or dull!
• Very fun talk-ons when working with JTACs (and a very memorable JTAC in M3).
• Excellent work with wingmans-as-separate-flights, much less thinking about 'Why won't this idiot attack/RTB/stay away from SAMs'?, much more enjoyment.
• Nice to have hints of personalities behind the callsigns, adds immersion. 
• Also, very nice voice acting, actual quality work. Actually remembered who's who and doing what! 
• Personal tastes, but I liked everything being 'from cold and dark', and the dreaded AAR actually made me appreciate the FPAS page a lot (and git gud at AAR).
• In general, briefings, images, kneeboards - excellent work. Even custom paint jobs for the Hornet with everyone's names, loved it. Gives insight into how such things happen IRL.
• A lot of sunrises and sunsets, which, beside looking beautiful, adds variety and makes the player fiddle with lighting.
• Скрытый текст

  Very nice moment defending against a Fulcrum (and fuel shortage) over Iran with no ammo and creeping back to sea on drops, just made the campaign for me.

   

WISHLIST (Spoilers ahead!)

• More chatter like the soyfield airstrike, Brits in UAE M2Ks, war things happening etc on long flights between waypoints. Makes one appreciate the cold starts and long hauls much more. Seems to get much less of that in later missions.
• More difficulty! In general, the campaign isn't that challenging - I fought with bugs more than with the enemy. Juust a bit more action.
  • E. g. in M13 a Grisha class or a scrambled F-5 covering the Kilo boat would've added some instant difficulty.
  • In M9 we're - shooting almost-helpless Hips and Shilkas from angels 25. Give us a HARM, make an SA-15 suddenly become active on the island, have a Fishbed pop up from the nearby Iranian airstrips, instant fun!
  • In M11, send a Fulcrum or somebody to defend the poor Hawk!
• We're in a multirole jet, let's do something with it (within reason). I understand it might conflict with the book and/or Real World US Military Tactics somewhat, but IMO it won't take anything away, quite the opposite, if kept reasonable. So Flip and friends'll have to be a bit more badass and shoot down an extra F-5, so what?
• Failure modes! Being yelled at if I fail the mission would've been fantastic instead of nothing happening (and an indicator that I probably should restart and not wait for 10 minutes of nothing). 
• During 9-lines, keep the target coordinates on-screen in 'Press SPACE to read back" messages. Sometimes it does show them, sometimes it doesn't. Really helps in VR. Granted, I did get good enough with the UFC to punch in the digits as JTAC voices them...
• Less of 'cinematic' SAMs. AAA barrages are fun and look cool, but SAMs, especially when they're actually tracking and shooting, mess with my need to go defensive a lot. I understand it simulates EW, but it's a bit of a meh topic in DCS, probably better without them.

BUGS

Wouldn't be a DCS campaign without 'em.

• M01-02 OK
• M03 
  • After takeoff I joined up with the tanker while it was on 1/2 northbound leg. AAR being AAR, I fumbled with the basket for a while and finally made contact at about 2/3 southbound leg. My wingman radio'ed he's full and at this moment the tanker decided to leave without letting me refuel, made a hard left turn, started descending, and didn't answer the radio.  
  • On another playthrough I ordered the wingman to blow up the bad guy jeep, the one escaping, and nothing happened for 20 minutes and I restarted (wasn't able to find this jeep myself - blew up everything on SURF GMT and looked with ATFLIR, no joy).
• M04-07 OK
• M8
  • Iranian speedboats are completely invisible in NVGs in VR (HP Reverb G2 at 70% PD). I threw the NVGs overboard, tracked the boats with SEA radar and sent rockets flying at the target diamond, sank two in this manner before going after the Grisha-class. Hornet, being mutli-role, seems to offer unconventional solutions!
• M9-10 OK
• M11 
  • After JSOWing the Hawk radars I still had fuel to CAP for the AV-8B flight and told them so. Orbited the Hawk site looking down with ATFLIR. However, instead of blowing up whatever was left of Hawks, AV-8Bs overflew the site, did nothing useful, and left southeast-ish along the Iranian coast. No radio comms, nothing. I've waited a bit more and RTBd. 
  • Also seems that keyword 'Sunflower' is missing from kneeboard.
• M12 On one of the playthroughs the UAE M2K flight reported no casualties, but right when IRIAF F-14 spikes show up, the dialogue intended for both M2Ks crashing played out.
• M13 After blowing up TOPAZ I as fragged comms broke, everything and everyone was speaking at the same time, up until Flip requested permission to sink the Kilo sub.
• M14 & M15 Wasn't able to progress, actually! At this point, it's a 13-mission campaign for me  After the wing approaches the Scud factory, Iran SAMs open up. The radio chatter seems to indicate it's for 'cinematic' effect so I push on. SAMs are locking and missiles are tracking me, exploding mid-air, some very close. Bombs away, and I immediately get splashed by a missile, no chance at even lasing the target. Also, debug trigger messages ('FLAK on' etc) are visible.

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by revzin

[Phantom1012]

Hi,

 

As for now (Beta version 2.7.3.8494) I can confirm that in M03 wingman is not performing any task given. I also spent ~20 minutes when I gave him order to do first show of force and he did nothing, just anchoring nearby. On the second attempt I did everything myself except I gave my wingmen order to gun strafe escaping truck. Agian, he did nothing and I had to perform this task. Then I did AAR, came back and landed on aircraft carrier while wingman was stuck all the time on tanker trying to do a refuel.

[baltic_dragon]

Thanks for this in-depth review and feedback! I’ll take some time later to reply more in-depth and I am sure I will use some of the pointers fot the second part of the campaign that is in the making. 

 

For this campaign it was based on a novel, so to some extent we had our hands tied. But with the upcoming prequel there should be more things happening!

8 hours ago, Phantom1012 said:

Hi,

 

As for now (Beta version 2.7.3.8494) I can confirm that in M03 wingman is not performing any task given. I also spent ~20 minutes when I gave him order to do first show of force and he did nothing, just anchoring nearby. On the second attempt I did everything myself except I gave my wingmen order to gun strafe escaping truck. Agian, he did nothing and I had to perform this task. Then I did AAR, came back and landed on aircraft carrier while wingman was stuck all the time on tanker trying to do a refuel.

I think the AAR bug was reintroduced

for the AI but should soon be fixed. In any case, I’ll have a look at all the reported bugs and will try to fix’em all until some new ones are introduced in future patches

[Jettax]

I have a problem with mission 11. Every time when I try to complete it, a different problem occurs. There is also the one that revzin mentioned. I encountered a few problems in this mission:

- first problem: right after take-off, the first pair was circling aimlessly over wpt 2, the leader was issuing commands correctly but was spinning in a circle;

- second problem: after engaging the enemy's F-4, I get info from the leader to fly directly to wpt 3, which I also do, but STRIKE doesn't speak at all and doesn't talk about the new task, which at this point forces the mission to restart;

- third problem: the wingman practically does not perform the task at all because for some strange reason he runs out of fuel too quickly and falls. The first target was attacked by me, the second by my wingman. But unfortunately he did not have time to fire JSOW because he decided to fly to the tanker. he did not reach it and fell into the sea. I took over his target and when I dropped JSOW, the wingman replied "Pigs away".

The first situation happened to me only once, the second and the third almost every time. Additionally, the timing of this mission is very unfortunate - using Litening or ATFLIR during dusk makes the target virtually impossible to locate on the TGP. You have to get very tired to see anything. And I also play with the HP Reverb G2 headset.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Jettax

[baltic_dragon]

I have a feeling most of the problems are connected with the AI takeoff bug that currently ruins most of Hornet campaigns. The AI struggles to survive after what seems to be a cold cat launch and flies in AB forever, after which they do not have any fuel left for the mission... that is why everyone is at the tanker so quickly. ED says this is internally fixed, I will check in closed OB once it is merged and report back. 

[Jettax]

Also all (AI) Hornet's seems to forget set a proper trim. They almost fall into the see. Fortunately they don't but you had to see it. 

[Jenson]

I struggled to get out of Iran and get the emergency air refueling in time in mission 05. I tried 8 times and passed the mission. What I did was dropped fuel tank before entering Iran, full AB flee to coast immediately after Prince was shot down, then reduce throttle to mil when hitting 2000 lbs, reduce to idle when hitting 1000 lbs, then it’s about to trigger the refueling request radio. Must maneuver precisely without much adjustment/deviation to get behind the tanker so I could get refuel timely before gas ran out. Man this is hard!

[baltic_dragon]

On 8/17/2021 at 5:21 AM, Jenson said:

I struggled to get out of Iran and get the emergency air refueling in time in mission 05. I tried 8 times and passed the mission. What I did was dropped fuel tank before entering Iran, full AB flee to coast immediately after Prince was shot down, then reduce throttle to mil when hitting 2000 lbs, reduce to idle when hitting 1000 lbs, then it’s about to trigger the refueling request radio. Must maneuver precisely without much adjustment/deviation to get behind the tanker so I could get refuel timely before gas ran out. Man this is hard!

 

I spent A LOT of time to make it difficult but doable, just like in a book. And I think I managed to find a sweet spot there... sorry to hear it took so many tries though!