Raven One feedback and some fantasy

[Jenson]

(Warning: Spoilers)

 

First of all, thanks for this excellent campaign. I enjoyed it so much and also learned a lot. 

From a player's perspective, I have some ideas/suggestions I would like to share with the developers. I understand that these are only my own preference while others might not agree, yet just hope some of these comments might be helpful (if the campaign still have future updates).

 

Generally speaking, I would love to see/hear more radio chats with my wingman when situation allows, (such as in the soyfield banter). Especially in some long flight.

 

Specifically:
Mission 05:
A) I think it’s better to add some context why Prince took off his mask, otherwise the plot seems a little obscure, (maybe like a radio chat from Prince before he went unconscious, mentioning he is going to enable autopilot as he need to check something).
B) I feel weird that a single Su-33 appeared and shot down Prince, then the bandit refrained from using any AA missiles at Flip. Shouldn’t the single Su-33 be replaced by a  two unit group? And some model actually owned by Iranian Air Force? Also I think it’s unwise to enter a dogfight at such a low fuel state. I wonder if the plot can be revised as: After entering Iranian airspace, Flip and Prince were intercepted by two F14, they were later locked and fired upon, with Prince being shot down while Flip evade the missile and turned back. Strike ordered Flip to get out as fast as he can, while sent two F18 to engage the two F14. Upon reaching the coastline, two Iranian F14 retrieved as the two friendly F18 get closer. (Which IMO is more reasonable but open for debate)

 

Mission 08: I couldn’t see any speedboats with or without my NVG on, is it possible to add some lights on them or use some bigger boats? Or maybe change the loadout with 4*AGM65 so I could at least get two boats, which could scare away other boats.

 

Mission 09: This is one of my favorite mission in the campaign, yet I wonder if the default loadout can be changed to (s2: rocket, s3: 2*GBU-12, s4: ATFLIR, s5: Tank, s6: AIM-7, s7: AGM65, s8: rocket), which (again just IMO) fits the mission better, as we could use rocket at the Sniper and the Outpost. A single C-tank also force the use to do AAR after completed the CAS duty.

 

Mission 10: A huge package which make the mission very impressive. However, it’s just weird that only Flip’s JDAM are functional when fence in. I didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the Hammer flight during the attack, but did they all run in with CCIP mode? Which caused the shootdown of Cajun? The probability of 3 aircrafts encountering a weapon issue at the same time seems very odd. Maybe adjust it as only Cajun encountered the weapon problem? Or one other member had the issue so Cajun had to back up his target?  

 

 

Again, it's a wonderful campaign and I would definitely recommend it to my friends, thank you Baltic Dragon.  

[baltic_dragon]

Hey dude! Thanks for this, will reply ASAP when I have a moment!

[Colonel Akir Nakesh]

Hey Jenson! Have you read the book? The campaign is a tie-in to the book and assumes you've read or will be reading along with it. If you don't want it spoiled, I suggest reading or listening to it, but if you don't care let me know and I'll do my best to answer best to my recollection

[Jenson]

4 hours ago, Colonel Akir Nakesh said:

Hey Jenson! Have you read the book? The campaign is a tie-in to the book and assumes you've read or will be reading along with it. If you don't want it spoiled, I suggest reading or listening to it, but if you don't care let me know and I'll do my best to answer best to my recollection

 

Hi Col. Nakesh, thanks for letting me know.

 

No I haven't read the book yet. I understand that I must be ignorant to suggest this suggest that before reading the book. Maybe I should find some time to read it. 

 

Yet I just couldn't help to post some feedback about this campaign, most of them are purely personal preference indeed. I didn't mean to ask the developer to revise it, but just wanna brainstorm some ideas, cheers! 

[SorelRo]

You should, Kevin Miller is a brilliant author when it comes to aviation. All 3 books from the Raven One series are really nice and for the WWII folks I could recommend The Silver Waterfall: A Novel of the Battle of Midway. I just finished it and I'm amazed by the amount of research that went into that book and how it's all stitched together. Anyway, read the book, all the answers are there. Awesome campaign and it's hard not to enjoy it.

[baltic_dragon]

Sorry, I still didn't have time to do anything DCS-related, spent last w 3 weeks between Greenland, Iceland, France and Georgia working. Hope to get back on track as of tomorrow and then I will reply, promise!

[joerockstar]

Prince took off his mask to drink water. The su33 had a weapons malfunction. 

[baltic_dragon]

@Jensenit took me much longer than I thought to finally get back to you. Apologies!

 

First of all, thank you for your feedback. It is always appreciated, even the critical one (and there is not too much of this in your post). 

 

As for M05: everything is explained in the novel and this sortie is just a recreation of things that were described there. Due to close tie-in with the book, I did not explain many things on purpose, hoping that players will grab it - it makes the experience so much better!

M08 - the poor visibility is on DCS and when I was designing the campaign it was much better. The loadout is realistic for Alert 7, as you would not know what to expect, so nobody would arm the jet with four Mavs. 

M09 - again, you don’t know what to expect so you have what is loaded on the jet. The main goal of the campaign is realism, and I didn’t do any shortcuts or nods towards the player on purpose (unless absolutely necessary for gameplay). 

M10 - everything is explained in the book and the bombs are DCS limitation. There is no way to have the malfunction of the JDAM, and loading player with Mk82s would be even more weird. In the novel all jets had problems (likely to some kind of Iranian electronic warfare)  

I feel that most of the questions you have would go away if you read the novel, which I wholeheartedly recommend!

Cheers,

BD

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by baltic_dragon