I loved this campaign - Blown Away

[Mistermann]

Original title of this thread - Intro Mission - Blown Away

Reflected - sir, your dream of creating a realistic and extremely engaging campaign seems to be a reality.  I sincerely hope this is a financial success for you.  That being said, I picked up the Huey over the weekend and purchased your campaign based on the "buzz" around the community.  I also was pointed your direction by fellow Campaign creator, @Badger633.

I ran the opening mission this morning and was blown away by the immersion.  I can see why people are so impressed.  If the rest of the campaign resembles the first mission, I am in for a real treat!  

Just want to say thanks for all the HARD WORK you put into this product.  

Also - I am enjoying your YouTube videos on building missions/campaigns.

You rock!

Edited April 3, 2022 by Mistermann

[Reflected]

@Mistermann Thank you so much for the kind feedback. I'm glad you like the intro, and I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the campaign just as much. Looking forward to hearing more as you progress with the campaign.

And thanks to @Badger633 for the recommendation !

[Mistermann]

I updated the title of this thread to reflect the content a bit better.  I changed it to "I loved this campaign - Blown Away"

Today I finished the campaign and have to say that the story and experience because of it will stay with me for quite some time. @Reflected has a real gem here and those reading this likely already know that.  My initial feelings after experiencing the intro, continued throughout the entire campaign.  I remain blown away by this campaign.  Experiencing it in VR was the icing on the cake.  Bravo Reflected!

I few elements of feedback – just this guy’s opinion

-          Recorded soundtracks (not Voiceovers, but music) sometimes were too soft.  I tried replacing the Armed Forces Radio tracks with moderate success, but my replacement was also soft.  I suspect this is a DCS “feature”.  For instance, I never heard the Flight of the Valkyries in the last mission at all.  I caught it in @lankypilot77 replay on YouTube.  I fear I might have missed some of the historical audio tracks upon landing as well.

-          For the record … I absolutely HATED the underpowered Huey’s performance .  For several missions, I thought the campaign had over-nerfed the engine.  Watching EGT constantly flirt with the redline became a chore.  Taking off trading speed for lift seemed overly taxing and really impacted the fun of those missions – to me.  Just before mission 11, I found this video from Reflected where he explains the historical facts around the underpowered gunships and actual pilot experiences. 

 

Having those historical details outlined in a video like this really helped me mentally “get over” my issues with performance (I wish I had known more about this underpowered Huey when receiving my assignment to Gunships).  I was able to takeoff better after watching this video.  For future versions of the campaign, I recommend a link to that video in the briefing or special kneeboard page or something.  If you already had that somewhere, I missed it.

-          LankyPilot’s YT channel was a great resource for me.

 

I’d complete the mission and then go over to his channel and check out how he approached it.  It was fun to experience the campaign through his eyes, but only after I flew it.  I definitely learned a thing or two that way.  It was also nice to see him struggle in many of the same places I did.  For instance, I had to chuckle while watching his mission 11 replay.  It took me a LONG time to find the downed Huey.  I’d fly over Dublin on a 270° heading and just look for smoke - probably took me 4 circuits to find it.  As players, we were conditioned throughout most of the campaign to look for smoke for most mission objectives.  I finally found the Huey when I stopped looking for smoke.  Lanky had a similar experience and during his video actually flew by the wreck a couple of times looking for smoke too .  Experiencing the campaign this way was very rewarding.  I highly recommend it.

 

Lastly Reflected’s research into the period paid off as the player is transported back in time and into an engaging story.  I really felt I was living out a portion of "Apocalypse Now", "Platoon" or "Full Metal Jacket" that simply never saw the big screen.  I was immersed, I cared about the characters, felt the emotion when reading letters from home, and was holistically drawn into the world Reflected created.

Great job, Reflected!  Unfortunately, for me, all future campaigns will be judged against this masterpiece.  You set the bar unbelievably high.  Future campaign creators should all play this to see how its done! 

I know you’re a warbird guy at heart.  Thanks for branching out and creating this Huey campaign for us!

 

[Reflected]

Thank you @Mistermann for the detailed review and the kind words, I really appreciate it. I'm so happy you enjoyed the campaign. I just started working on the sequel - it will use the F-4 Phantom when it's released. I hope it will pass the bar and you'll enjoy it just like the first part.

I'll try to make stuff louder in the future, but it's not easy, especially if you have 'hear like in helmet' off. All sounds need to be VERY loud to be audible in game.

As for the overloaded Hueys, in every memoir I've read it was one of the center pieces, a recurring thing. And based on the stories told, it's still much easier in the campaign than it was in real life. That makes me respect those guys even more...

[Mistermann]

7 hours ago, Reflected said:

As for the overloaded Hueys, in every memoir I've read it was one of the center pieces, a recurring thing. And based on the stories told, it's still much easier in the campaign than it was in real life. That makes me respect those guys even more...

Yeah, very impressive what those guys did.

A sequel?  Nice!  Can't wait.

BTW, how did you change the huey to behave that way?  What ME or LUA magic did you conjure?

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Mistermann