Thoughts on the campaign

[baltic_dragon]

@Gilligan thanks for taking the type to share your thoughts. Happy to see so many positive moments and unhappy to see that most of the negative ones were caused by the AI issues and not the campaign design, but this is where we are with DCS and I don't think it will change in the foreseeable future. The campaign is on rails for this exact reason: to limit the potential AI bugs to minimum. As for it not being SEAD - oriented or being boring: the kind of missions the Gamblers flew were really not SEAD. The only SEAD mission was actually a bit of a liberty from my side, because in real life during the strike on Syrian airport there were no F-16s involved. Likewise, some people complain there is no air to air action. The simple reason is that there were none - and we wanted to stay true to what was really happening. Cheers!

[Gilligan]

7 hours ago, baltic_dragon said:

@Gilligan thanks for taking the type to share your thoughts. Happy to see so many positive moments and unhappy to see that most of the negative ones were caused by the AI issues and not the campaign design, but this is where we are with DCS and I don't think it will change in the foreseeable future. The campaign is on rails for this exact reason: to limit the potential AI bugs to minimum. As for it not being SEAD - oriented or being boring: the kind of missions the Gamblers flew were really not SEAD. The only SEAD mission was actually a bit of a liberty from my side, because in real life during the strike on Syrian airport there were no F-16s involved. Likewise, some people complain there is no air to air action. The simple reason is that there were none - and we wanted to stay true to what was really happening. Cheers!

DCS is DCS, love it but at the same time there are definitely limitations and shortcomings that show up when trying to make something as detailed as your campaign. I totally understand the reason's behind a lot of the design choices. It's unfortunate the game doesn't allow more creative freedom, but I know we all have to work with constrains sometimes.

If It wasn't clear, I absolutely respect the dedication to realism and trying to accurately depict what the Gamblers actual deployment looked and felt like and trying to provide that experience to us (The Less Exciting moments included!). I don't view that as a negative at all, just pointing out that I did enjoy the liberty taken with the included SEAD mission, so thank you for including that.

 

[gonvise]

Although I understand that other users may like this type of campaign, and I appreciate the dedication that Baltic has had in adapting real missions, for me it has been the most boring and maddening campaign I have ever flown. Very, very long missions... I have a job, a family, and spending two hours on a mission seems endless; if ED is ever capable of implementing the mid-mission save, it would be different, but it is what it is. This, together with the bugs, which is true that it is ED's fault, and it is regrettable on their part, but in the end we are the ones who suffer for it, but it would have been nice to have a closer follow-up by Baltic this last days... they will be very busy preparing the Kola campaign... and by the way, the last mission is insane.

[baltic_dragon]

On 11/16/2024 at 5:52 PM, gonvise said:

Although I understand that other users may like this type of campaign, and I appreciate the dedication that Baltic has had in adapting real missions, for me it has been the most boring and maddening campaign I have ever flown. Very, very long missions... I have a job, a family, and spending two hours on a mission seems endless; if ED is ever capable of implementing the mid-mission save, it would be different, but it is what it is. This, together with the bugs, which is true that it is ED's fault, and it is regrettable on their part, but in the end we are the ones who suffer for it, but it would have been nice to have a closer follow-up by Baltic this last days... they will be very busy preparing the Kola campaign... and by the way, the last mission is insane.

Thanks. Yes, the SAVE function would be amazing to have.. but there is no way to make a complex and realistic mission that would last 30 minutes... As for the follow-up, I did what I could - I immediately fixed all the missions and as everyone else have been waiting for the patch to release them. Not much more I could do, unfortunately...

[gonvise]

On 11/20/2024 at 10:20 AM, baltic_dragon said:

Thanks. Yes, the SAVE function would be amazing to have.. but there is no way to make a complex and realistic mission that would last 30 minutes... As for the follow-up, I did what I could - I immediately fixed all the missions and as everyone else have been waiting for the patch to release them. Not much more I could do, unfortunately...

No 30 min., but perhaps divide one long missions into two, 1.1 cold start and travel to zone, 1.2 attack and RTB. Up to 1 hour seems normal to me, but 2h...

[Gilligan]

You can speed up time on the ingress/egress portions of the mission by hitting L.Cntrl + Z.

Return to normal speed with L.Shift + Z. 

This can significantly cut down on the transit times and makes the longer missions a lot more reasonable. 

[baltic_dragon]

@gonvise moreover, the campaign will reset time to 1x whenever something important happens, so you won't miss anything while accelerating.