Beware! Beware! Spitfire Mk.IX campaign info

[Reflected]

During the winter of 1942-43, the air battle raging in the skies over Europe was at its fiercest. The Focke Wulfs and Messerschmitts flown by the Luftwaffe’s ’experten’ proved to be more than a worthy foe for the RAF’s new Spitfire Mk.IX-s. The air supremacy of the Allies was still just a distant dream. In the thickest of this battle stood the Biggin Hill Wing with 611 (West Lancashire) and 340 (Ile de France) Squadrons. As a result of thorough research in the national archives, squadron records and combat reports, Reflected Simulations managed to recreate 14 of these sorties down to the smallest details. Come, join 611 Squadron at the height of the air war over Europe, and experience what it was like to be a fighter pilot in the RAF in the most realistic way that it’s ever been possible in a simulator.

Key Features:

- 14 historical historical missions based on extensive research - 7 further missions and cut-scenes

- Detailed campaign documentation

- Realistic briefings and briefing images, including separate PDF mission files

- Unique kneeboard cards and checklists for each mission

- Maps, official forms and pilots notes

- Nearly a thousand specially recorded voice-over messages and radio broadcasts

- Historically accurate custom skins

- A wide array of missions including rodeos, circus, practice flights and scrambles

 

Required modules:

- DCS Spitfire Mk.IXc

- WWII Asset Pack

- Channel map

 

Thank you for your interest in ‘Beware! Beware!’ my second campaign for the Spitfire IX after ‘The Big Show’ that was released in 2018. In many ways it’s quite similar to ‘Wolfpack’ my P-47 campaign, as it also recreates original combat reports and squadron records down to the smallest details. I really enjoy working on such campaigns. On one hand they are easy; they require no creativity from the mission designer. It’s all replaced by extensive research. I didn’t have to come up with characters, a variety of missions, targets, random events, weather and so on to keep the player entertained. Every detail was written down somewhere and my only job was to find them. On the other hand, such campaigns are very difficult to create, because once I had all the information, I had to muster all my mission editor skills to make sure events play out like they did in real life, accounting for the random behavior of the player and the unreliability of the DCS AI. At the end of the day, such campaigns are utterly rewarding. All that data and old typewritten text comes alive in a virtual reality, where us players can re-live and experience those events just like those young fighter pilots did 80 years ago. Such campaigns are eye-opening. They destroy all the romantic ideas we entertain in our heads about what it must have been like, and force us to face reality. You find the radio silence boring? You feel lonely in that cramped cockpit? You find the missions too long? You struggle managing your fuel and making it back to base? You’re fed up with the same route on your 5^th Rodeo to St Omer? You find some missions too difficult to survive? You find some others too uneventful? Welcome to the reality of an RAF fighter pilot in 1943. I did not come up with any of it. This is how these events happened in real life.

The campaign recreates 16 combat sorties between October 1942 and April 1943, and several non-combat sorties and cut-scenes that are equally based on real life events. Of course, in real life more sorties were flown during this period, but I left all the uneventful patrols out of the campaign. Some of you may say: hey, but we only have late war 190s and 109s, and a later Spitfire IX. Yes. True. And in a 1v1 fight in multiplayer, you may feel the difference. However, these engagements will be very, very far from a 1v1. When 24 Spits at angels 22 bounce 16 190s at angels 15, do you really think it matters if it’s a 190 A-8 or an A-4? Sometimes you’ll outnumber the Germans, sometimes they’ll outnumber you, but in any case, there will be dozens and dozens of aircraft in the sky, and relative performance will matter very little. It’s all about situational awareness. If you latch on to a Jerry for more than 10 seconds, you’re a dead duck.

If you’re interested in seeing action, shooting down dozens of enemy planes and becoming an ace in a few missions - well, then it will not be for you. Even though you’ll see plenty of action, I guarantee. If, however, you’re interested in reenacting historical missions down to the smallest details, more accurately than it’s even been possible in a flight sim, then you’re in for a treat. I’ll respect you more if you complete the campaign without a single kill but also without ever dying or getting captured, than if you score 20 kills but have to restart a few missions. The former is way more challenging.

[Reflected]

Some preview videos for you:
 

 

 

 

[Brazo]

Will this be available on Steam?

 

Thanks

[Reflected]

11 minutes ago, Brazo said:

Will this be available on Steam?

 

Thanks

Yes, it's up to ED but the Steam release follows soon after the standalone usually.

[lax22]

5 hours ago, Brazo said:

Will this be available on Steam?

 

Thanks

It’s up on Steam now

[Brazo]

Thanks to both. Really want to try this one

Edited June 25, 2022 by Brazo

[hinapilot]

Hey Reflected!

 

I've flown the first few missions. On the first sortie I've noticed a massive drop in performance when we are being joined by the bombers.

Any advice on how to mitigate that?

 

I'm running an i7-11700k, 64bg of ram, 3070, on an SSD

 

Cheers and thanks for such a quality campaign!

 

Hina

Edited June 25, 2022 by hinapilot

[Reflected]

Hey thanks, I’m happy you like it. Not sure about the performance, I’ve had no issues on a much worse rig than yours. Make sure you have wake turbulence turned off that helps for sure. 

[hinapilot]

Could you share your graphics settings? Your videos on youtube the graphics are good enough for me I'd rather have the same settings! Thanks for the wake turbulence advice!

[hinapilot]

Alright, wake turbulance AND SSLR off did the trick for me, lemme enjoy that masterpiece now!

 

null

Edited June 25, 2022 by hinapilot

[Shepski]

Spoiler Alert!!!

 

What happedned on the 3rd sortie???

I was in formation coming back across the channel with a kill and another damaged.  There were a whack of Spits behind us as we were the lead formation and the next thing I know I'm being shot up from close range and had to ditch.  It's like a 190 spawned right behind me.

It was much easier to stay with the flight on this hop compared to the first escort mission as the AI kept proper speeds this time.

Nice work and looking forward to seeing what the other missions have in store.

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Shepski

[Reflected]

That's exactly what happened in real life Read the operations record book in the briefing pdf in the doc folder.

4 minutes ago, Shepski said:

It was much easier to stay with the flight on this hop compared to the first escort mission as the AI kept proper speeds this time.

 

Interesting, because I give the AI the same commands. How they perform them is up to ED's AI programmer. Interestingly enough sometimes they behave more nicely, sometimes they go berserk.

[Shepski]

Went to bed after the sortie but I'll check it out!

In the first hop across the channel the AI rapidly slowed to about 140 when making level turns on the flight plan then sped up after the turn. It was quite shocking when sitting in formation with them. .

Cheers!

 

[Reflected]

DCS AI  

[horstweihrauch]

I bought ii on steam although not flying the spitfire:D Supporting reflected simulations 

[Terry Dactil]

Had several tries with mission 1 with no success yet .. 

• It was a waste of time getting into formation  over the airfield as at set-course time  everything disintegrated with aircraft doing S-turns everywhere. I found it better to fly around by myself and join up over the small lake when everything had settled down.
• I managed the climb phase by following your instructions.
• Once with the bombers, it became impossible to maintain position as my group was varying speed +/- about 20 mph. Even massive power changes from max power to idle and back could not keep position.

Sorry to report that for me, all your good work is completely ruined by ED's AI erratic behavior.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Terry Dactil

[Reflected]

2 hours ago, Terry Dactil said:

Had several tries with mission 1 with no success yet .. 

• It was a waste of time getting into formation  over the airfield as at set-course time  everything disintegrated with aircraft doing S-turns everywhere. I found it better to fly around by myself and join up over the small lake when everything had settled down.
• I managed the climb phase by following your instructions.
• Once with the bombers, it became impossible to maintain position as my group was varying speed +/- about 20 mph. Even massive power changes from max power to idle and back could not keep position.

Sorry to report that for me, all your good work is completely ruined by ED's AI erratic behavior.

 

@[ED]Obi@NineLine this is what I meant  

 

@Terry Dactilsorry to hear that. These are bugs that ED is aware of and will hopefully correct soon. Also, the new AI FM they recently announced should make things much smoother too. until then, believe me, you’ll get used to the ‘AIsms’ after a few missions, and you’ll be prepared for these strange behaviors. 

[Terry Dactil]

6 hours ago, Reflected said:

@Terry Dactilsorry to hear that. These are bugs that ED is aware of and will hopefully correct soon. Also, the new AI FM they recently announced should make things much smoother too. until then, believe me, you’ll get used to the ‘AIsms’ after a few missions, and you’ll be prepared for these strange behaviors. 

Yes. I'll keep trying, as there is so much good stuff here. 

If necessary, I'll try just tag along as an individual flight of one, and let the AI do their own thing without affecting me. That has already worked with the set course shambles.

[Reflected]

Yes, that’s the smartest approach to start with.  Then once you know what you can expect from the ai you can gradually get closer. 

[Nemoyo]

Really enjoying your campaign, great work as usual Reflected. I ran into a couple of DCS rather than campaign based issues, one if the erratic AI as mentioned above, but the other was a weird visual bug where the AI Spitfires looked like they were pitching down but were flying straight and level. I took a quick screenshot with my plane in the foreground. It did not occur for the whole mission just one section over France. The screen shot was taken in VR so it will look a bit weird.

[Reflected]

@Nemoyo thanks for the report. I’ve seen that too, but not only in this campaign but with Hornets and Tomcats as well. Super weird. 

[Basdebree]

Hi Reflected,

Loving your campaigns, also this new one for the spit! It's very immersive..

One question, what is exactly the trigger for the group to set course? I am flying mission two, starting on the airfield, sadling up on my position in the air once taken offm, all before the appropriate time the misssion suggests but the group just never sets course....They swarm like bees but not starting to fly the route.

Any tips, Am I missing something? Starting on the airfield is so immersive just to run into this and it really takes you out of the immersion leaving me very frustrated....

Isn't there an option you can set this to a spacebar command (press spacebar to set course)?

Thnx for the tips!

BR, Bas

[Reflected]

Hey, which mission is this?

the only trigger is a timer. Do they just keep circling or do crazy s-turns instead of flying straight? If it’s the latter it’s a known DCS AI bug that I’ve reported already  

if they just keep circling undisturbed, then I’ll have to take a look at it. 

[cocoNUTSnz]

15 hours ago, Reflected said:

Hey, which mission is this?

the only trigger is a timer. Do they just keep circling or do crazy s-turns instead of flying straight? If it’s the latter it’s a known DCS AI bug that I’ve reported already  

if they just keep circling undisturbed, then I’ll have to take a look at it. 

In mission 2 I get the same results. Aircraft doing S turns over the airfield and not setting course at the correct / or any time. Look forward to the Day we get some big AI updates

[Basdebree]

It’s mission 2, they keep doing crazy-s turns not setting course….

hope they can sort this out at ED it kinda ruins the hard work you have put into this! 
 

Keep up the goow work!

BR, Bas