MP/SP Campaign: Silent Thunder

[Mistermann]

1 hour ago, BoFrost said:

Looking forward to replay the new M2, and of course M3.

Thanks for your work and publishing for free!

New M02 posted (link in OP).

Free ... of course!!  I have benefitted for MANY years off this community and this is just a small way of giving back.  I enjoy creating missions for my group of friends and figure others could find enjoyment from them, so why not just share.  

[BoFrost]

Yeah ! Just tried the updated M2 again.

Everything is there ! Both routes to the target area and both Target Points. Super !

 

Strange thing for me. Again I did not get the confirmation at WP1 to engange with the first try. On the second attempt it worked.

On the first attempt it took a little bit longer for me to start the mission, as I had to find out where the option with waypoints was to diable it, and I added already the Target Points to the Prepoint list. Maybe this took to long ?

On the second tryout, I just rearmed the copter and took off. I added the Target Points at WP1 to the Prepoint list, and everything went well.

 

However. Looking forward to M3.   

 

Regards

Frank

[Mistermann]

Mission 03: Dawn’s Light is now linked in OP

This mission ups the difficulty a bit and can be difficult complete as a single ship.  It is intended to be a 2-Ship experience at minimum.  It can be tackled as SP as-is, but I’d recommend taking 4 hellfires (I know, not realistic) instead of the default loadout.  I have done this in SP, so it can be done (even with standard loadout).

Modification Requirement

I broke my own “no mods in public uploads” rule here.  This mission takes place in the Port of Beirut and I added some of Admiral189's excellent civilian ships to simulate a diverse set of traffic out in the harbor and in port.  You’ll need to download BOTH of his commercial mod packs. 

I used the following 3 Ships in the mission if you just want to install what’s necessary [Madrid_Maersk, Feeder_Ship, CMA_CCM_Jacques_Saade].  Below is the link to the Admiral’s download site:

https://sites.google.com/view/admiral189dcsworldmods/commercial-ships?authuser=0

If you don’t want to download the ships, you can still run the mission without.  They are eye candy only and depending on when you get to the port, it’s going to be daybreak.

If you want to remove the mod requirement from the mission, you can do so via a simple .lua file edit.  Using your favorite zip extractor, unzip the “mission” file from the Mission03 download .miz. 

Then edit the mission file using something like notepad++ and remove lines 51-53. 

Save and move back into the .miz overwriting the existing file.  That prevents DCS from requiring the mods to run the mission.

Enjoy!  Looking forward to feedback.

Edited August 13, 2024 by Mistermann
grammar

[Mistermann]

15 hours ago, BoFrost said:

Yeah ! Just tried the updated M2 again.

Everything is there ! Both routes to the target area and both Target Points. Super !

Great news.  While it took me a bit to get the ME drawing tool figured out, I am liking the results.  I've incorporated into future missions as well.

15 hours ago, BoFrost said:

Strange thing for me. Again I did not get the confirmation at WP1 to engange with the first try. On the second attempt it worked.

So you got the text message on screen, but no voiceover from condor?  Both events rely on the same variable so I am no sure how only one of those triggers actually fires.  That IS very strange.  Especially odd that is appears to work sometimes and not others.

15 hours ago, BoFrost said:

On the first attempt it took a little bit longer for me to start the mission, as I had to find out where the option with waypoints was to diable it, and I added already the Target Points to the Prepoint list. Maybe this took to long ?

On the second tryout, I just rearmed the copter and took off. I added the Target Points at WP1 to the Prepoint list, and everything went well.

Duration doesn't matter to the triggers.  Everything happens when the players enter a zone centered on WP01.  Maybe I need to expand the trigger zone a bit.  I will give that a shot just for grins.

[Mistermann]

The boys and I just reflew M03 and there's a bug in the message telling players how many remaining Kords there are.  I'll get it fixed over the weekend.  

Spoiler

There's one Kord for each Kiowa player aircraft.  All must be destroyed before Pluto will extract Condor.

 

[BoFrost]

Unfortunately, or maybe luckely

I did not have had time to fly M3 yet. 

maybe during the weekend.

Frank

[Mistermann]

2 hours ago, BoFrost said:

Unfortunately, or maybe luckely

I did not have had time to fly M3 yet. 

maybe during the weekend.

Frank

The bug isn't a show stopper and doesn't impact single ship experiences.  Looking forward to your feedback.

[Mistermann]

I was able to update M03 Dawn's Light to correct the MP message outlined above.  I have NOT played this with my squadron yet, but did test it using @cfrag's excellent debug utility, so am pretty confident its going to work.

[Mistermann]

Update on upcoming missions

M04 - Uniform Justice.  My buddies and I flew this the other evening.   There were a couple of tweaks I incorporated today based on feedback.  I’d like to test it with the team this weekend before uploading.   

M05 – Name TBD.  Mission has been developed and flown a handful of times solo.  This hasn’t been tested in MP yet.  None of the voiceovers have been produced yet.  There are a number of voiceovers in this mission as well as something new I am trying out with the F10 menu (more to share in an upcoming update).  Basically I am saying it’ll probably be next weekend before my team is test flying it in MP.

M06 is a derivative of M05.  Sort of a continuation of the events with AO being one discovered in M05.  The story has been fleshed out and while not yet coded in ME, is storyboarded.

M07 might be where this campaign ends … maybe M08, we’ll have to see how things play out.

Thanks for your interest in the project.

[Ramsay]

2 hours ago, Mistermann said:

Thanks for your interest in the project.

Great to have something like this for the Kiowa so early at release.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that Mission 1 's Waypoint 1 (American University Soccer Field) is at 2000m (6000ft) rather than at ground level.

It's not a biggie and I only noticed as I used pre-point to slave the MMS to WP1 (the field) and it ended up looking at the sky.

Not a total loss as - I did learn how to edit WP altitudes in the Kiowa but I doubt using the default DCS altitude was a deliberate design decision.

[Mistermann]

18 hours ago, Ramsay said:

Great to have something like this for the Kiowa so early at release.

Thanks.  I was wrapping up the rework I did on the Apache Griffins MP campaign and knew I was going to put something together for the Kiowa since my buddies and I were all looking forward to it.  Given its somewhat unique scouting role, we felt it would make for some interesting missions that lent themselves to multi-crew/multi-player stories.  Sharing the missions before they are battletested puts them into players hands while the module is at its most popular and ends up being a win for everyone (assuming I can release without game breaking bugs).

18 hours ago, Ramsay said:

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that Mission 1 's Waypoint 1 (American University Soccer Field) is at 2000m (6000ft) rather than at ground level.

It's not a biggie and I only noticed as I used pre-point to slave the MMS to WP1 (the field) and it ended up looking at the sky.

Not a total loss as - I did learn how to edit WP altitudes in the Kiowa but I doubt using the default DCS altitude was a deliberate design decision.

Not deliberate at all.  One of those little details that slips by unintendedly.  I'll correct it, add a Target Point as well, and upload an updated version.  Thanks for the feedback.

Update

Corrected version updated.  Link in OP.

  

Edited August 18, 2024 by Mistermann

[BoFrost]

Mission 2

tried it once first.

The first easy part went well and was no problem.

For the second part, it took me some time to find out that the MG-Trucks are moving , so it took a way to long to find and kill them, as I already got Bingo fuel warning.

At least I made something dump and crashed the helo  

 

No time today for second try.

 

Frank

[Mistermann]

20 hours ago, BoFrost said:

For the second part, it took me some time to find out that the MG-Trucks are moving , so it took a way to long to find and kill them, as I already got Bingo fuel warning.

At least I made something dump and crashed the helo  

That's M03, right?

Remind me, are you soloing these?

This mission is a lot smoother when you have a CPG as it reduces the pilot workload a lot.  The KORDS shoot green tracers, BTW.

Also when there are 3 or 4 helos in game there are both static and mobile KORDS.

I debated with @Devil 505 on the fuel topic.  Originally I had a fatcow come into Beirut airport to offer refueling only.  After our tests it didn't seem necessary, but then again I knew where the KORDS were.

Based on your experience it may make sense to put it back in...

Keep at it.  The last 25% of the mission over Beirut is worth it.  My guys were pretty excited to experience the climax.

Edited August 19, 2024 by Mistermann

[BoFrost]

@Mistermann

Yes M3, was a misstyping. And yes again, I am flying solo in a one ship configuration.

As there is not much action on the first Part and easy flying, I will just try to overload the Copter with max fuel at startup. 

Refueling at the airport is maybe also an idea.

How many targets are there? Is it even possible with two APKWS pods, to eliminate all targets?

Frank

[Mistermann]

56 minutes ago, BoFrost said:

How many targets are there? Is it even possible with two APKWS pods, to eliminate all targets?

Just keep in mind the goal of a mission isn't always to eliminate all the targets .

You only need to eliminate the Air Defense units (KORDS) and the mission continues to play itself out.  You can certainly try and John Wayne (John Wick to today's more hip crowd) it and go in guns a blazin'.  Just know, that's not how I intended it to be played for my group.  The QRF strength is estimated at 2 squads plus 2 KORDS.  Keep in mind that estimate is just that - an estimate from a hastily egressing team.  The QRF represents a formidable foe for single and even 2-ship teams.  I've seen one of my mates go down a handful of times because they overflew the wrong patch of land in M03 ... and that was with 3 Kiowas.  

As players destroy Air Defense units, the mission tells them how many remain.  The number varies with number of Helos in the mission.

As for APKWS pods.  It's completely up to you of course.  When we first sat down to create this campaign there was talk of not allowing them as optional ordinance given their scarcity in theater, cost to deploy and lack of use according to real Kiowa drivers.  I chose not to go there, however, and allow people to play however they wanted.  My guess is you'd be challenged in a single ship scenario to wipe out all enemy activity with 2 APKWS pods.  

Maybe try the 4 hellfire loadout approach and consider a strategy of getting cover and letting the enemy come to you.  

[Devil 505]

6 hours ago, BoFrost said:

How many targets are there? Is it even possible with two APKWS pods, to eliminate all targets?

Hey there BoFrost,

Super fired up to see you flying the campaign.  I will tag onto what Mistermann said above as I am typically his wingman or copilot when flying these campaigns.  Our aim of the campaign is to really bring the scout/recon experience to DCS and drive home the Coop mind set with 2 or more players.  That being said, we wanted to also make it available to anyone's play style to include single player, allowing for a more unrealistic load out scenario to compensate for the lack of a second or third player.

After listening to and reading books from former Kiowa pilots and even OH-6 crews, we discovered these aircraft were going into combat with limited ammo and were strongly focused on their role as scouts.  This was to include objectives such as close air support, searching for high value targets, intel gathering flights, and assisting gunships such as Apache's or Cobras (Cayuse days) in Hunter Killer missions.  We wanted the Kiowa to feel like it has a more role/platform specific objective with these mission's driving the pilots to make critical decisions to engage or avoid certain combat scenarios based on the limited ammo they are carrying.

 In M03, we wanted to simulate a QRF (Quick Reaction Force) responding to and attacking our SF team as they were trying to bug out.  While under fire, in a situation like this, the Kiowa's objective would be to provide CAS if in the area so the SF team could get to the extract point.  Eliminate every insurgent would be a risk to your aircraft and running out of ammo.  In a real-world scenario, AAA (Kords in the Mission) would be a major concern to any extract helo coming in to pull the boys out.  To keep the player on their toes, we made the AAA mobile, forcing the recon aspect of searching for and eliminating the AAA while still being able to knock down some of the QRF and forcing the pilot to maintain situational awareness. 

We want to be flexible for single players while still trying to keep the recon feel, which can be difficult at times.  Flying 2 man is blast and really does change the tempo and increase the fun factor in my opinion.  We have taken your feedback (appreciated) and will be making some modifications to add a "fat Cow" at the airport for refueling.  I really look forward to your continued feedback on the campaign.  I think you are going to dig the missions coming up.  

 

[BoFrost]

@Mistermann,@Devil 505,

thanks for your feedback.

You are totally right, the Kiowa is more a scout than an attack helicopter. 

Yeah I guess it is more fun with 2 or more Kiowas, even having a CPG on board would change the gameplay. 

In my next attempt I will try something different.

1. I will overload the Kiowa. Even this is not realistic.

2. In the first part I hovered a long time at the harbour, which I think used a lot of fuel. Instead I will fly orbits and see if this has any change of fuel consumption.

3. I will maybe first search for the CORDS and store them as Target Points (the fixed ones) and then attack them from the distance. Luckely you can fly the Kiowa from the left side and use the MMS at the same time.

Will report how it works.

 

Frank

 

[Devil 505]

15 hours ago, BoFrost said:

1. I will overload the Kiowa. Even this is not realistic.

I think this is a solid plan.  4 Hellfire's would absolutely do the trick.  I think you could get away with the fuel state. Let us know how it goes!

[Mistermann]

Mission 04: Uniform Justice is now linked in OP

Leaving the Tarawa for inland operations as you hunt down Elsayed further East of Beirut.  As with the other missions, this has been playtested in both SP and MP.  This mission is not as difficult to complete as previous ones if you're flying solo.

Enjoy.

[BoFrost]

M3

Finally I could make it. Costs me 3 more tries, but it was fun anyway.

I loaded 2 APKWS Pod (no need for Hellfires) and max. allowed fuel. I Got Bingo Fuel first as I was short to land this bird.

With setup of 2 APKWS Pods and max. Fuel with overloading the bird, it was much more difficult to fly and I got once in an vortex state and crashed. It was not possible to recover the Helo and it fellt down to earth as an stone. 

Yeah, I need to get an CPG. Can asume that this mission must be fun with more Kiowas and CPG in the air.

 

Regards

Frank

[Mistermann]

Right on, Frank!  Perseverance!  Way to go. 

Our group is testing out M05 tonight and loading up with APKWS.  

The key is having fun, right?  

M04 should be a walk in the park after M03.  

Looking forward to your feedback.

As for fun with MP, I'll post a video from tonight's shenanigans so people get a sense of how it plays with multiple players and helo's.

Edited August 22, 2024 by Mistermann

[BoFrost]

@Mistermann

M4 first issue 

When in SP and choosing Slot 1, the Kiowa spawns right in front of the Blackhawk and half on the ground vehicle.

Slot 2 is fine. Flying through the riverbed is fun. Unfortunately I made an mistake halfway through and over torqued the bird and brushed against a tree  HeHe not a good idea to fly there if you are not fully concentrated .

 

Yeah and you are right ! It has to be fun. Locking forward to your Video.

 

Frank

[Mistermann]

Run it as a MP mission, Frank.  None of these are meant to execute under a SP environment.  Let me know if you need assistance with this.

[Mistermann]

17 hours ago, BoFrost said:

Yeah and you are right ! It has to be fun. Locking forward to your Video.

Video posted below.  No real spoilers for the Mission itself.  Gives a sense of the cooperation going on and point of view from the CPG.  Thanks to @Devil 505 and @Wulf103 for being alongside!

 

Edited August 23, 2024 by Mistermann

[Devil 505]

M03 A week back when Wulf103, Mistermann, and myself had an outstanding run.  The boys were in one helo and I was solo.  Good times! I added some old 80's music because that is exactly what was going through my head when we were flying this.