Campaign difficulty level

[Gretsch_Man]

I have recently started playing this campaign and found it to be VERY hard, at least some of the missions. There are many positive reviews here, mostly dating from last year, that make no mention of how difficult some of the missions actually are.

Are there perhaps any recent changed with the AI that could account for at least some of the trouble I’m experiencing?

Especially missions 12, 14 and 15 are given me a real headache. For example in mission 15, how am I supposed to take care of all those enemy infantry hordes storming the friendly position? (unsurprisingly to me, I got shot down on my very first attack run by some manpad. Although I was pumping out flares like no tomorrow, they got me anyway from head-on). All of these missions I tried multiple times, but still no joy.  I haven’t tried mission 16 yet, so I don’t know what that last mission has in store for me.

This campaign is probably one of the most frustrating ones I’ve played so far in DCS. It’s quite a shame, as I do consider the campaign itself to be very good indeed. If only the overall difficulty level could be turned down a notch or two. Then I think it would be almost perfect!

[ChillNG]

2 hours ago, Gretsch_Man said:

I have recently started playing this campaign and found it to be VERY hard, at least some of the missions. There are many positive reviews here, mostly dating from last year, that make no mention of how difficult some of the missions actually are.

Are there perhaps any recent changed with the AI that could account for at least some of the trouble I’m experiencing?

Especially missions 12, 14 and 15 are given me a real headache. For example in mission 15, how am I supposed to take care of all those enemy infantry hordes storming the friendly position? (unsurprisingly to me, I got shot down on my very first attack run by some manpad. Although I was pumping out flares like no tomorrow, they got me anyway from head-on). All of these missions I tried multiple times, but still no joy.  I haven’t tried mission 16 yet, so I don’t know what that last mission has in store for me.

This campaign is probably one of the most frustrating ones I’ve played so far in DCS. It’s quite a shame, as I do consider the campaign itself to be very good indeed. If only the overall difficulty level could be turned down a notch or two. Then I think it would be almost perfect!

Only change I'm aware of is MANPADS are a little more dangerous now than they where when the campaign was built, that said they're still totally defeatable with the proper maneuvers and flares.  I've not had any other reports from Persian Freedom recently about the difficulty (did have a few last year, but they were in the minority) but if there's a consensus out there that it's got more difficult I'll certainly look at the number of MANPADS, I have had to make a minor addition to Cerberus North recently for the same reason.  That should be the only difficulty change though, I had to make some changes a while back as ground AI developed a better aim but those issues don't apply or were already fixed in the missions you mentioned.

[mikeguy]

I'm not sure if it's the altitude AGL or the way they spawn in, but I'll confirm that the manpads on this mission are way trickier to defeat than any other setting I've come across in DCS.  Even with the proper break, flaring, engine to idle, I had to repeat this mission quite a few times from getting sniped by manpads.  It's especially tricky since they just spawn in after you do the second attack tasking and are ready to fire.  if you follow the given attack heading on that task, you will die 100% of the time.  But on a replay you know it is coming, so you can break off and get some distance. 

I don't know if this helps track down the problem, but I have a hunch it might be with the call out davy does of sam launch break.  Without the mws even going off Davy will do the call out and then instant explosion.  No MWS warning.  I'm not sure if there is a scripting issue there, but thought I'd bring it up as it seems unique to this mission. 

You can defeat them by just eventually memorizing where they all are and then sniping them with laser rockets from way far out, so it's not a big deal.  Manpads should be pretty lethal to a low flying a10 that only has 2000 feet AGL to work with, so this mission is probably more realistic than others where a simple break and flare defeats them 90% of the time. 

Really cool mission though!

[ChillNG]

1 hour ago, mikeguy said:

I'm not sure if it's the altitude AGL or the way they spawn in, but I'll confirm that the manpads on this mission are way trickier to defeat than any other setting I've come across in DCS.  Even with the proper break, flaring, engine to idle, I had to repeat this mission quite a few times from getting sniped by manpads.  It's especially tricky since they just spawn in after you do the second attack tasking and are ready to fire.  if you follow the given attack heading on that task, you will die 100% of the time.  But on a replay you know it is coming, so you can break off and get some distance. 

I don't know if this helps track down the problem, but I have a hunch it might be with the call out davy does of sam launch break.  Without the mws even going off Davy will do the call out and then instant explosion.  No MWS warning.  I'm not sure if there is a scripting issue there, but thought I'd bring it up as it seems unique to this mission. 

You can defeat them by just eventually memorizing where they all are and then sniping them with laser rockets from way far out, so it's not a big deal.  Manpads should be pretty lethal to a low flying a10 that only has 2000 feet AGL to work with, so this mission is probably more realistic than others where a simple break and flare defeats them 90% of the time. 

Really cool mission though!

Hey thanks for the thoughts.  Davy should call the moment the SAM is detected by the DCS engine, I guess if the MWS isn't going off it's because its not seeing the SAM based on the MWS coverage, there's no scripts covering this so we should just be dealing with stock DCS behaviour.

[largecod]

Yeah definitely the mission is way too difficult and have had around 6 attempts

It's a long hour and half to every single time get done by a manpad

I've just discovered that apparently checking the override box in gameplay will let you import your own custom settings into the campaign

It's so against my belief but had no choice and set weapons to unlimited and immortal as only having about 3000ft between ground and cloudbase and surrounded by mountains to try and sort out the manpads

I'm ashamed and feel like I've let everyone down but it worked and I will never do it again

Already put my settings back to normal 

 

 

[Gunnar81]

Just something to keep in mind, yes the difficulty is high but I did a bit of research into the GAU-8 for instance and it is effective up to 2-3nm even if you aren't getting the gunsight

''in range' queues. I can't remember which mission it was as its been awhile but I kept getting nailed by MANPADS due to entering their WEZ but once I figured out I could put a pretty tight dispersion using the GAU 8 from 2 miles away it significantly reduces your exposure to ground fire. Dip below the clouds out of range, find your targets with the TPOD and mark them and make diving attacks above the clouds with the gun. Just a suggestion.

[winz]

I'm also struggled a little bit with mission 12. The way I feel it, playing cat and mouse with MANPADs is not really fun. Getting into their WEZ on purpose and hopping flares and maneuvering will work,  is just something that imho doesn't work in a sim like DCS. If Davy was more pro-active in spotting those threats before they fire, then maybe. But if you have to react to a missile being fired on you, that means you messed up somewhere, and you're more-or-less rolling dices.

Very quickly, I, the player, start to game the mission. Learning the threats, working around them, or even changing the mission load-out, and destroying them. Threats I would have no idea exists if I didn't play the mission two time before. This quickly takes the fun out of flying those missions.

And TBH, I feel for the four man team on the ground, but no sane ROE would allow A-10s below a hard decks if manpads are expected to be in the area.

I enjoy the campaign overall a lot, and is great to fly A-10 outside of the typical COIN missions.

Edited April 16, 2023 by winz