Griffins MP Campaign: Remastered

[Mistermann]

TLDR:  With @Dagobert666 permission, I reimagined his original Griffins Apache MP Campaign.  This post will link all 10 missions at the bottom of the post.

Overview

Back in May of 2022, Dagobert666 released an epic multiplayer Apache campaign. 

As a MP Apache pilot, If you haven’t consumed it, here’s a new chance.  Once my squadron completed it, we couldn’t stop talking about some of the individual missions.  Several were etched into our brains and remain some of the best DCS experiences to date (we’ve all played DCS since the Flanker days).  As our resident “mission guy”, I set out to "reimagine" Dagobert666’s work.  I immediately contacted him to ask his permission to do this and to his credit, Dagobert666 was “all in” on me moving this forward.  That was more than a year ago at this point and what started out as a simple voiceover replacement effort took over a large portion of my DCS mind and consumed much more time than I ever expected.  I hope you find the efforts satisfying.

So what’s different now you ask?

For the most part, the mission themes remain as they were.  I, however, fully voiced the entire campaign with AI.  I wrote a completely new story that wraps each mission into a greater narrative.  Many of the missions have different voiceovers depending on outcomes.  I personally spoke/recorded every line of dialog for this campaign, although you never hear my voice.  Using AI technology from elevinlabs, I morphed my voice into the different actors you’ll hear throughout the 10 missions.

A handful of missions were re-written entirely or refactored a bit to add replayability or some randomness.  BUT admittedly, Dagobert666’s original work already had plenty of that built in.

For the mission makers out there, I mostly rewrote all the triggers in the ME.  You’ll see I tried to document the sections of the mission with comment blocks as well as turned all the original flags from numeric into text variables.  While time consuming, it forced me to really understand what Dagobert’s original intent was and made sure I wasn’t missing key mission mechanics.  It also makes it easier for me to debug/maintain. 

The ten missions are done and have been flown by multiple MP groups – to include Dagobert666’s crew.  There’s some housekeeping that I feel compelled to complete like briefings and map images.  As the final coats of paint dry on these missions, I will post them to the ED files section of the site and update this post.

Hope you all enjoy.  Once again, thank you, Dagobert666 for making this possible.

Also, I want to recognize Dagobert666's crew for playtesting this.  I don't know their names, but they were all instrumental in bringing this to life.  Also, my flight team of @Wulf103 and @Devil 505 for their countless replays of these missions over the past year.  And also to anyone who downloads and gives this a go - thank you. 

PSA

Dagobert666's original campaign contained colorful voiceover language.  In that same spirit, I continued the NSFW language in the remastered campaign.  Consider this a heads-up to those who might be offended by adult language; the entire 10 mission campaign is littered with four-letter foulness.

Missions

Mission 00: Mayflower [v1.0 -- June 8, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3338400/

Mission 01: Snake Run [v1.0 – June 10, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3338431/]

Mission 02: Broken Wing [v1.0 – June 10, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3338433/

Mission 03: Slaughterhouse [v1.0 – June 14, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3338635/

Mission 04: Steeplechase [v1.0 – June 14, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3338642/

Mission 05: Moonlight [v1.0 – June 15, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3338650/

Mission 06: Rabbit Jump [v1.0 – June 24, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3339178/

Mission 07: Seraphim [v1.0 – June 24, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3339179/

Mission 08: Playboy [v1.0 – June 24, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3339182/

Mission 09: Daggerfall [v1.0 – June 24, 2024] - https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3339183/

Edited June 25 by Mistermann
New Mission Links

[Mistermann]

FAQ

Q: I am not a MP pilot, can I play this solo? A: Yes, most of the missions scale to the number of players.  I solo'd all the content myself during playtesting.  There are some challenging missions that will probably be hard to complete, but there are ways around that if you want to change the mission in the ME (invulnerable?) 

Q: The FCR was released after the original campaign, did you change missions to account for it?  A: I did not go back and change any of the original missions to account for the FCR.  Nothing prevents you from taking FCR in rearm/reload screens.

Q: Whenever there's spoken dialog, there's no on screen text.  Is this a bug?  A: This is a personal choice I've made.  As a VR player, I try and make missions as immersive as possible.  One of the ways I do this is by NOT displaying the dialog on screen.  This is especially important for longer dialog transmissions.  Walls of text are easily one of the things that ruins immersion for me.  If you miss a dialog, everything is captured to message history and can be reviewed via that escape menu option.  There are a few exceptions to this - most notable is JTAC coordinates.  Whenever you are given coordinates, they will appear on screen if you don't catch them in real time.

Q: I can't bring up the comms menu in the air, is this a bug?  A: Not a bug, but Easy Comms is likely off for you.  It is set this way in the ME, but not enforced.  Bind the Apache PTT command ("RALT+\" on US keyboards) to bring up comms menu in the air.  

Q: During a mission, when there's a radio call, do all players have to respond or interact with the radio?  A: No, only one of the players needs to respond to trigger events.  As soon as one player responds, the radio menu is updated accordingly.

Q: Is it possible that the voiceover triggers are bugged and not working?  A: It is DCS... any patch can break the trigger system and if you've been here long enough, you've experienced this.  For this remastered version of the campaign I added hot start "backup" birds where I felt it made sense to do so.  In the original version there were missions where player death (especially in MP) essentially removes that player from the mission because the possible long distance between death and respawn point.  I therefore introduced the "backup" concept.  This allows a player who dies an ability to get back into the action quicker presumably closer to the other players who are still alive.  Triggers, however, do not consider these backup apaches - it was just too much work to refactor the logic, so this is a known limitation of the campaign.  In the event ALL players die and ALL players respawn in backup birds, voiceovers are unlikely to trigger.  This is most definitely true for the mission ending voiceover(s).

Edited July 5 by Mistermann
Voiceover Triggers

[Wulf103]

Having been one of the lucky two who flew these missions and helped in some small way to improve them, I have a few comments I'd like to add...

1) If you're an Apache driver, solo or team, PLAY THESE MISSIONS! You won't be disappointed...I promise. The quality and complexity Mistermann built into them is outstanding without being overpowering so as to make the mission impossible to successfully complete. They're fun and instructive requiring you to develop skills as the mission's progress.

2) Part of the mission, for me, is the interaction between you (or your flight) with the controllers on the radios as well. I can guarantee that the audio portion has been greatly enhanced and represents a more "realistic and authentic" experience. Having said that, I must warn you that the dialog gets colorful at times and is definitely not NSFW. If that offends you, then you are in the wrong helicopter attack squadron. By the way, almost all the voices in the dialog are Mistermann and his Mrs. Mistermann....excellent work.

3) And lastly, there's real "fun factor" here. I can't emphasize enough that feeling when you line up and settle into the FARP after a challenging mission....and pancake that Apache so hard she flips on her side and destroys herself....been there and done that. But here's the difference. In these missions I wanted to get back into the game and do it again (but better) a second time. But the mission won't be identical. They change sometimes dramatically, and sometimes minutely. For me that made for part of the fun factor.

So give it a try....we think you'll enjoy the challenge....Three out.

[Devil 505]

Having been the third man on this team to fly with the above to wingmen, I can testify the work Mistermann has put into the original Griffins Campaign has made a second and third replay through all worthwhile.  The addition of top-notch AI generated voiceovers and hard work put into a deeper story provide a much better sense of immersion to the objective at hand. 

One thing both the original creator and Kandy have brought to the table is a complete coop campaign experience.  This is something severely lacking in the DCS campaign developer's inventory.  If you are like us, the fulfillment of completing objectives as a team and coordinating attacks together is where the real treasure lies with DCS World.  Kandy takes it up a notch by incorporating a variable system where the probably of enemies spawning in the same place can be different every time.  This makes every play through with the guys that much more enjoyable.  

I highly encourage anyone who flies with friends and enjoys the Apache to give this a shot.  It becomes very addicting and not only provides hours of fun with the boys, also really fine tunes your skills with the Apache.  We were going for a more authentic approach so do not expect hot starts and easy days.  This is what made it so fun to fly multiple times.  I encourage everyone who flies with their friends to record their experiences and post it on this forum.  We have done so many times in the past and it never gets old with all the surprises in this campaign when flying with the team. 

Thaks to Mistermann for all the hard work and  @Dagobert666 for the OG campaign.  It has been worth every minute flown.

[Dagobert666]

As the original creator of the campaign, I feel very honored.
I have given my full consent for Mistermann to revise this. I wasn't disappointed! Seeing my missions in new splendor makes me very happy.
Mistermann not only raised the voiceovers to the next level, but as an American whose native language is English, he also made the content much more realistic and authentic than I would ever have been able to as a German.
He also fixed most of the technical shortcomings of my original missions. I'll take Sever compatibility as an example. In My OG Missions the mission starts as soon as the HOST ends the >break<. Which doesn't work that way on a server. He made every mission startable on radio command. Dozens of other Tweeks of his are added.

In short: I am absolutely thrilled with his work. He really raised the entire campaign to a PREMIUM LEVEL!


THANK YOU SO MUCH Misterman! Absolutely awesome!

[Mistermann]

Thanks for the comments, guys!  This was really done as a labor of love and test bed to improve my ME skills and see if "I could do it".  Additionally, as a way to give back to this community that has given me so much over the years.  If there's even one person outside our testing group that downloads and experiences the story start to finish, then I'll feel good about the effort.

9 hours ago, Wulf103 said:

By the way, almost all the voices in the dialog are Mistermann and his Mrs. Mistermann....excellent work.

I'll add color here because I am 100% impressed with Elevinlabs (https://elevenlabs.io/app/speech-synthesis).  While "Mrs.Mistermann" does voiceovers for some paid content creators, she didn't lend her talent to this project.  With the exception of "Honeysuckle's" voice in M02 (his was pure TTS), every voice you hear was originally recorded in my voice and then morphed in the Elevinlabs tool.  That way I had control over cadence, pronunciation and inflection.

7 hours ago, Devil 505 said:

One thing both the original creator and Kandy have brought to the table is a complete coop campaign experience.  This is something severely lacking in the DCS campaign developer's inventory.  If you are like us, the fulfillment of completing objectives as a team and coordinating attacks together is where the real treasure lies with DCS World.  

There are exactly 2 (well, with this entry 3) MP campaigns that I've ever experienced - if there are more out there, I am unaware.  These 2 Griffins entries and a 3rd entry for the Hornet from @Jenson [Note: this is a MUST play for any Hornet driver with DCS friends]

I drew inspiration from his Hormuz campaign as well and should have mentioned him in the OP.  I WISH there were more of these out there.  Essentially small MP group cooperative content with a mission based focus & feel along with a story and rich radio environment.  To anyone saying ED can't create MP Campaigns within the current ME infrastructure, I submit these three creations as evidence to the contrary.

4 hours ago, Dagobert666 said:

As the original creator of the campaign, I feel very honored.
I have given my full consent for Mistermann to revise this. I wasn't disappointed! Seeing my missions in new splendor makes me very happy.

Paying it forward, my friend.  

Two more missions added to the OP

[Gideon312]

Big thumbs up for the first mission (only flew the first so far), can’t wait to fly the rest. Impressed by the quality, and I can see that there is much love and dedication build into it.

[Devil 505]

9 hours ago, Gideon312 said:

Big thumbs up for the first mission (only flew the first so far), can’t wait to fly the rest. Impressed by the quality, and I can see that there is much love and dedication build into it.

Awesome to see others downloading it and trying it out! If you have OBS and fly with friends, we would enjoy seeing your experiences flying it.  Glad to see this getting attention.  Coop campaigns are severely underrated in DCS.  Almost every DCS video I see now days usually has 2 or more friends flying together.  Looking forward to hearing more from you as you play through it.

[Gideon312]

Tried the second mission. The radio stopped working after WP02. Can't reach the convoy. Both in MP as SP. (For sure it's gonna be an awesome mission.)

[Dagobert666]

3 hours ago, Gideon312 said:

Tried the second mission. The radio stopped working after WP02. Can't reach the convoy. Both in MP as SP. (For sure it's gonna be an awesome mission.)

 

We had the same problem...
as soon as you're in the air the only thing you can do is:

Right-CTRL + #         
[German keyboard layout]

This is the keyboard shortcut for the main radio when the Complex Radio difficulty setting is on.

Edited June 13 by Dagobert666

[Mistermann]

Maybe open the mission and update to use simple radio?  IDK I've never used that setting ever.  

Whatever is going on, I've not experienced misbehaving radios in this campaign.  

@Gideon312please let me know if that solves your issue.

@Dagobert666 did you guys have that issue throughout the entire campaign or just M01?

I'm currently at work.  I'll see what settings are on the mission when I get a chance later today.

 

Edited June 13 by Mistermann

[Dagobert666]

7 minutes ago, Mistermann said:

Maybe open the mission and update to use simple radio?  IDK I've never used that setting ever.  

Whatever is going on, I've not experienced misbehaving radios in this campaign.  

@Gideon312please let me know if that solves your issue.

@Dagobert666 did you guys have that issue throughout the entire campaign or just M01?

I'm currently at work.  I'll see what settings are on the mission when I get a chance later today.

 

 

- YES
- Only in this mission.
- The entire mission once you are in the air.
- It's not due to the difficulty settings in the ME.


I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THAT IS. Some crazy bug or conflict with a script. In my original mission it's not like that.

[Mistermann]

10 minutes ago, Dagobert666 said:

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THAT IS. Some crazy bug or conflict with a script. In my original mission it's not like that.

Absolutely Bizarre.  At least it's just this mission.  I'll see what scripts I've got in there.  Outside the splash damage script I don't think there's anything else.  Maybe I can find the issue.  

Sounds like a repeatable defect.

 

[Mistermann]

Taking a shot in the dark here.  Below are my Gameplay options

I suspect since I have Easy Comms OFF and No Force from mission, use mine enabled, my comms work just fine.  My comms bind is below.  This is the only button I use to open the radio dialog when in the apache regardless of what I am doing (in air or on ground).

 

@Gideon312, see if you can bind the comms button as I have done above and see if that works.  @Dagobert666, is that bind above what you guys used too?

[Floyd1212]

That is likely the problem.

If the player is used to Easy Comms being enabled, “\“ by itself works on the ground, and in the air.

When Easy Comms is off, either in the player’s local settings, or if the setting is enforced in ME for the mission, then “\” only works on the ground, and “RALT+\” is needed in the air. 

[Gideon312]

Tested it again. I had those settings except for the tickmark on the presets. It worked, but weird thing is that using my HOTAS with the right key combination didn’t work, but directly on the keyboard did work. Double checked it while flying, same keystroke, different outcome. Anyway we flew it with comms now, and again had a blast flying it.

[Mistermann]

Glad you got it mostly sorted out @Gideon312.  That convoy mission is one of my favorites.  

I dug into the mission settings from the original campaign as well as the remastered and they are both set the same way.  Easy comms is OFF, but not enforced in the mission.  If people have their gameplay Presets set as you see below, they are going to inherit the comms setting from the mission.  In this case, easy comms will be disabled and you'll need to use RAlt+\ to bring up comms in the air.

Personally, my recommendation is simply to bind the Apache PTT for comms and forget about using the \ key completely. 

This is how I have had the Apache setup for ages and why I never encountered this anomaly during testing.  I do believe the radio has to be powered for it to work, however.  So power it on before talking to ground crew.

I will update the FAQ and add a note to all mission downloads in an effort to avoid this confusion in the future. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Edited June 14 by Mistermann

[Mistermann]

Mission03: Slaughterhouse is now available in the OP. 

A few comments on this mission.

Pack a lunch and some piddle packs cuz it’s a long one.   My buddy @Devil 505 and I flew it the other night as a final test before posting and it took us a little over 2 hours to complete it.  Did we have fun?  Absolutely.  Of course, we’d have fun flying through a rainstorm, so our experience may not be, shall we say … “normal”.

I won’t spoil the story, but this mission requires the Griffins to fly out to a target deep in Iranian territory.  You are required to stop at a FARP along the way. 

Once you are told to RTB, you can opt to exit the mission.  I will post a video showing the Lt. Bottoms dialog for anyone who wants to know what she says at the end.  There is no LTC Nolan dialog wrapping up this particular mission.

This is BY FAR the longest mission of the 10.  Dagobert and I discussed this and both agreed the mission probably needs to be shortened.  The original was really long, and my version did nothing to shorten it.  From a designer’s perspective the “juice wasn’t worth the squeeze” as I evaluated what/how to change the mission.  So, it remains long.

If you decide to end the mission when hearing to RTB, you can shave off about 30 minutes of flight time as you travel back to base.

Below is the ending voiceover experience for anyone interested.

 

[Mistermann]

Mission04: Steeplechase is now available in the OP. 

Mission05: Moonlight is now available in the OP. 

While I really enjoyed M02 (Broken Wing), M05 is my favorite mission of the campaign.  Dagobert really captured the spirit of a Jack Ryan or Jack Reacher episode with his original vision.  I am especially satisfied with the voiceovers in this mission that bring his original idea to life.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Also, for those that recall the original, I did completely rewrite this mission.  While the objectives remain the same, the action takes place in a brand new location.  I wanted a very dark locale for this nighttime mission and the original setting was still quite bright. 

For those that play these missions, constructive feedback is always welcome.

 

[Mistermann]

Mission06: Rabbit Jump is now available in the OP. 

Mission07: Seraphim is now available in the OP. 

Mission08: Playboy is now available in the OP. 

Mission09: Daggerfall is now available in the OP. 

 That’s the entire collection.  Hope people enjoy the experience.

I noticed there were a couple comments in the files section.  It’s unfortunate the files software doesn’t notify the author when someone leaves a comment.  Please consider commenting here instead of on the files themselves so I can get notified when there’s something posted.  Thanks!

[Devil 505]

13 hours ago, Mistermann said:

Mission06: Rabbit Jump is now available in the OP. 

Mission07: Seraphim is now available in the OP. 

Mission08: Playboy is now available in the OP. 

Mission09: Daggerfall is now available in the OP. 

 That’s the entire collection.  Hope people enjoy the experience.

I noticed there were a couple comments in the files section.  It’s unfortunate the files software doesn’t notify the author when someone leaves a comment.  Please consider commenting here instead of on the files themselves so I can get notified when there’s something posted.  Thanks!

Outstanding!!!!

[bgrade]

I played the original and it was definitely one of the best freeware campaigns out there. Will definitely give this new one a go thanks!

With the old version I had to go in the mission editor and do something to be able to play single player. Do I need to do this as well or can I just jump in and go? 

[Mistermann]

You can jump in and go.  If you want to enable wingmen, you'll have to turn the client slots into AI, however.

[UncleStains]

Looking forward to trying this out with my squadron! I've never tried a multiplayer campaign, so I have a question: for missions where you have to make a radio call to trigger something, does each player have to make a call or just one?

[Devil 505]

41 minutes ago, UncleStains said:

Looking forward to trying this out with my squadron! I've never tried a multiplayer campaign, so I have a question: for missions where you have to make a radio call to trigger something, does each player have to make a call or just one?

Only one person has to make the call.  I am Mistermann's wingman that flew this with him.  I must say, and not out of loyalty, you and your crew will not be disappointed with the campaign.  It is a blast.  We have flown it several times.  You learn a lot about each other and how each one of you flies.  It also helps you communicate better and build tactics as a team.  Looking forward to hearing how you guys like it.