Just finished DF!! What a great campaign!

[Sulfa]

Thank you, BD for another great campaign. Your hard work is greatly appreciated!

[baltic_dragon]

Thanks Sulfa! I am very glad you liked it!

[jmarso]

I'm only through M04 but I already think this is a better campaign than the original Raven One. I think it helps that you aren't trying to script out a novel- that's a tough thing to do. With this campaign you can tailor the story to the mission-making instead of vice-versa.  Secondly, as much as I love it and am now intimately familiar with it, I'm glad to be out of the Persian Gulf for a while. I've owned the Syria map for quite some time and this campaign is the first time I've actually used it. 

Edited December 31, 2024 by jmarso

[jmarso]

Finished the campaign and enjoyed it; found a few elements of it frustrating. I wound up having to skip M14- I never could get the long or short version to work right, and the last two times I tried it the game just freeze-crashed mid playthrough. I did not experience that on any of the other missions. I play all these campaigns the way the material says I should: open beta, no mods, no voice attack, no easy comms, etc. 

The realism is certainly there- maybe too much for the casual gamer. I'm a former navy P-3 pilot so the tacair stuff and the F-18 I have to learn like everyone else, although I understand 'the lingo' (navyspeak and brevity codes, etc), and the basics like flying around on black nights on instruments and getting set up behind the boat is no trouble. There were about three missions here (the big deck strikes with the TOTs) where I felt like a 200 knot mind in a 400 knot jet, barely hanging on by the trailing edge of the flaps trying to keep up with everything. Of course, I'm notorious for accelerating time through the slow portions of the missions so part of that is self-induced. Plus, I'm a gray eagle and I'm a little slower all around these days. I managed to complete each mission with a passing score on the first try, except for one where I was shot down by a SAM. (M14, which I never did finish) 

The problem with all these campaigns overall is the three-way struggle between scripting, AI behavior, and ED updates to DCS. You can fly a mission the same way a dozen times, and sometimes triggers fire the way they are supposed to, and sometimes they just don't. Then an update comes along and borks up everything . . . it's always a gamble to fire up a campaign after an update and devote an hour or two to a single mission from a cold start, not knowing if something is going to just not work over an hour into it. Ultimately, I realize there is only so much BD or any other mission designer can do about this, and I'm consistently amazed at what he and his team are able to pull off, so kudos to them for keeping it all afloat in a tough environment. I do a fair amount of mission editing and I understand some of the frustrations involved. I also get the feeling that some of the things people people report as 'bugs' or 'problems' are in fact self-induced mistakes made in-game when they aren't familiar with the sensor or weapons system they are employing- ask me how I know. 

I give this campaign a fairly high rating. In the end, the bang for the buck (hours of entertainment per dollar spent) is definitely there. I've enjoyed all BD's campaigns that I've played, and right now I think Arctic Thunder is at the top of the list, followed by this one and then the original Raven One. I do think RO is easier than this one, though. I'll eventually go back and take another crack at M14, but for now I've lost patience with it. 

[baltic_dragon]

Thanks @jmarso - I think you hit the nail on the head with this review, especially considering the whole DCS environment.. though I guess there is nothing we can do about it just adapt and try to make things as simple as possible. After Dominant Fury I promised never to do such a big mission as M14 (or some others) as they are very prone to getting broken by updates, 3rd party mods etc - and that is perhaps why Arctic Thunder is faring so much better because I tried to avoid such scenarios at all costs, DCS is just not ready for it...

I am now working with Kevin Miller and Jell-O on a Raven One training campaign, which should be fun and not as sterile as all standard training missions included with the modules and using the real life procedures (plus characters from the novel!).