"Batumi Breakdown" - A few missions...

[SNAFU]

Huh, they are pretty old but, I can fix the upload again in the evening, but I cannot tell you if they work with 1.02, cause I haven´t tested them with the last patches. ;)

[SNAFU]

So, first post edited and links fixed.

 

If you find the nerves to play the missions, please report back. I am going to plan to continue the story, even though I hoped for a mission editor not only for masochists with patch 1.0.2. ;)

 

Sorry to say that but placing units/ items for a scenary is still just pain.

Edited July 1, 2010 by SNAFU

[bigdog4215]

My dad has been playing them on 1.0.1 version and it keeps going back and forth between 2 missions,any idea why

[SNAFU]

My dad has been playing them on 1.0.1 version and it keeps going back and forth between 2 missions,any idea why

Huh, sorry no idea, have to check the campainge file. I recomment then to use the single mission files, but I will check this issues as soon as I have some time left these days.

[Achurro]

Thanks for the job!

 

The links are functionally right now ! Profite!

 

Achurro

[dsobbe]

I ran through all four missions last night. I had to shut off the weather to keep the FPS at a functional level on my system. I avoided contact with enemies and landed at the destinations just to see how the settings (flight path and terrain) worked with the story. Very nice. Many challenging situations. Good story/tactical interconnections. Having several missions located in the same area allows the player to get familiar with locals and that helps situational awareness a lot.

Going forward with the story. It would be nice to gradually move along the valley to maintain geographic relationships and introduce new settings. Nice work so far.

 

I do have a general question for you, or anyone. I'm not familiar with the minimum weather criteria used by European military flight planners. It seems highly impractical and risky to conduct escort and low level mountain flights in near 0/0 (zero visibility/zero ceiling) weather conditions without radar and at least good charts. Granted, ABRIS and the radar altimeter are minimum necessities in the simulation. But, would these instruments alone meet the minimum real world military requirements to conduct these flights?

[zdXu]

Instrument flight rules for helicopters

 

http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aviation/instrument_procedures_handbook/media/CH-07.pdf

If the above link is not working try this one (1.2MB) =>

http://rapidshare.com/files/409454667/CH-07.pdf.html

Edited July 27, 2010 by zdXu

[dsobbe]

Instrument flight rules for helicopters

 

http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aviation/instrument_procedures_handbook/media/CH-07.pdf

If the above link is not working try this one (1.2MB) =>

http://rapidshare.com/files/409454667/CH-07.pdf.html

 

Thanks for the quick reply and links. Interesting reading. But, I'd still like to know what the Russian military weather minimums are for combat helicopter operations. There has to be some cutoff point beyond which it isn't possible to achieve any benefit with a helicopter instrumented like the KA50 in this sim.

[SNAFU]

Hi dsobbe,

 

Thank you for testing and the feedback! Very appreciated! ;)

 

Honestly I don´t know the russian rules regarding flyable weather for the Ka-50, but if I would be a real Ka-50 pilot, who is ordered to fly a flight plan in this weather conditions used in the first mission, I would consider court martial and a new job as a real option. ;)

 

I myself used the mission for testing my instrumental flight capabilities and as a personal challange.

[dsobbe]

Hi dsobbe,

I myself used the mission for testing my instrumental flight capabilities and as a personal challange.

 

SNAFU,

 

I agree about the weather in the first mission. It even stretched the limits of my computer. Overcast and smoke are frame rate killers.

One thing I forgot to mention. I think your choice of enemy weapons is very appropriate for the story's history and setting. Very believable and a good balance for Ka50's operating alone. You have a great start for a great campaign. Good luck.

[zdXu]

I ran through all four missions last night. I had to shut off the weather to keep the FPS at a functional level on my system. I avoided contact with enemies and landed at the destinations just to see how the settings (flight path and terrain) worked with the story.

 

THe question was: is this campaign (build for BShark v1.00) compatible with the newest BSHark version 1.02. So you found no major (logic)problems?

 

Judging alone from the missionpictures and the background story the campaign looks promising.

 

There has to be some cutoff point beyond which it isn't possible to achieve any benefit with a helicopter instrumented like the KA50 in this sim.

In BShark fog, night and bad weather does not restrict the capabilities of ground units but it restricts the capabilities of the player.

In real life a KA-50 would be never sent into a combat mission at night. That is what i have read from EvilBivol-1.

 

To avoid midair-collision with other aircrafts i would say 800 m visibility is the minimum visiblity for helis without radar. In BShark fog = 1 is visiblity = 1000m, fog = 2 is visibility = 500m.

Edited July 28, 2010 by zdXu

[dsobbe]

zdXu,

I'm running patch 1.0.1 and everything worked properly as far as I could tell. I haven't installed 1.0.2 yet, so can't comment.

Thanks for the Wx info. I suspect that the operating limits of most combat aircraft are classified, so I doubt I'll ever really find the answer. Yours sounds practical. At least it will serve as a good rule of thumb for mission editing.

 

SNAFU,

Upon replaying your four missions under Patch 1.0.1 I've noticed that whenever fire and smoke from surface hits displays during combat the frame rate slows to the point where the sim is unplayable, even with visual weather effects shut off. I've also seen this happen occasionally in missions written by others. While still others are not effected or frame rates are only slightly lowered by these effects. I don't know enough about how the patches and graphics work in BS to comment. Perhaps you can ask someone here about it.

Edited July 28, 2010 by dsobbe

[SNAFU]

Hi dsobbe,

 

Well, the FPS count dropped down to my personal limit already in some scenes, but I thinned out some battles not to have less than 20 FPS (In my personal opinion fighting with 15 FPS is possible for a limited time, but not that nice. In nomal flight I have around 40-50FPS, considering my rig is not the best, I thought others usually have better performance) In my tests I usually had around 25-40 FPS in smal battles, but scenes, especially mission 4, were close to the limit.

 

I think the patches will not have improved the performance in a way, rather made them worse due to new effects etc. Therefore I might have to thin out the missions further more, if I find some time, someday... :cry:

 

Thanks for the comments :)

Cheerio

SNAFU

[dsobbe]

SNAFU,

 

I can't find it now, but either Panzertard or Evilbevol commented (I'm paraphrasing here) that FPS display numbers are effected by hardware, their settings and drivers. One machine may display 60 FPS in Black Shark, while another may only display 15. I'm at the 15 FPS end. And, variances of human visual perception will result in some people detecting fluid video motion at lower FPS than others. So, it seems that the FPS display is a variable relative value and not linear.

Probably the best use of the FPS display in mission editing/creation would be to use it as a speedometer to indicate how mission complexity effects system load. I've found that too much smoke, weather and/or too many combat elements will eventually slow the FPS. But, I don't know if that result transfers directly from one system to another in any particular mission. Probably not.

But, that use helped me to discover something about my own preferences in mission editing/creation. When I'm faced with 50 Stingers, 200 mobile SAM's and a battalion of tanks a mission takes on a hectic arcade shoot-em-up quality. I personally find it much more realistic and interesting to deal with fewer well positioned enemy elements that present tactical problems due to obstructions like terrain and/or their own defenses. Your third mission, with mobile enemy elements in deep winding gorges, is a good example.

Anyway, those are my brain droppings on the subject. Hope it's useful.

[zdXu]

Just read the briefing of the first mission.

Because of the fact that the mulitplayer-version has four ka-50 slots i am thinking: is the single-player-version with only one ka-50 not underpowered?

Is the first mission doable for only one ka-50? Want no spoilers though.

Edited September 20, 2010 by zdXu

[SNAFU]

It is doable, the most challangeing part of that mission is the weather and to stay near the Mi-8s. Generally the missions are more "Story-based", straight-forward but developing during the flight. Well, they were actually made for single-player, just additionally made them playable for Coop-Sessions, to play them with some squadmates.

 

I set some triggers for random action in the later missions, but the random triggers didn´t work in the 1.0 patch system. So in the later missions the challanges due to threads might rise, especially the 4th missions might cause some headache, but after a little trying it is possible, even for an average BS jockey like me. ;)

 

PS: Sorry for the late answer, just saw ur question today.

Edited September 28, 2010 by SNAFU