Into the Jungle - Next Gen

[Mistermann]

 

 

Overview

Several months ago, @tobi and @Eight Ball released a little gem known as the OH-6A Cayuse.  Immediately my small group of DCS friends downloaded and consumed it like someone was going to take it away.  We already had a Marianas playground mission we used for all things Vietnam era and naturally dropped this helo down and started cruising through the jungle on make believe jungle ops missions in a multi-player scenario.  It didn't take long for us to brainstorm a random environment providing unexpected encounters centered on the South portion of Guam simulating the jungles of Vietnam.  From those early ideas, the original "Into The Jungle" mission concept was born.

Since then, we've played this mission for 100's of hours and it remains fresh.  No exaggeration.  Over the past 10 months we've refined the experience and at this point, have something we're proud to share with the community.  Anyone following @Devil5O5Youtube channel knows what I mean as he often posts videos our MP Jungle experiences. 

Download

For those who want to jump right in, the TLDR experience is right here - Get the download here [https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3342301/]

Required Mods

OH-6A: by EightBall & Tobi - https://github.com/tobi-be/DCS-OH-6A
Vietnam Assets Pack:  by EightBall & Tobi - https://github.com/tobi-be/DCS-OH-6A
Seaking: by EightBall - https://forum.dcs.world/topic/346587-ai-seaking-mod-sh-3h-mk48/
A-4E-C: by Community Project - https://08jne01.github.io/community-a4e-c/#installation
OV-10A: by Split Air - https://splitair.gumroad.com/l/fwzxn
Simple Mission Restart - https://forum.dcs.world/topic/308147-simple-mission-restart-smr-server-script-to-simplify-mission-restart/ [Required for your Dedicated Server, not Client installs]
Civilian Asset Pack - Naval by 8Ball - https://forum.dcs.world/topic/270558-civilian-objects-and-vehicles/
Vietnam Boats by upaut - see this video for instructions on wh ere to download https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdqoourYGw8 Original forum post from 2014 - https://forum.dcs.world/topic/103564-addon-tents-watchtower-uh-1-cargo/

 

Details

First and foremost, this is designed for MP dedicated servers.  Yes, you can play this solo if you want and it’s pretty fun that way, but I highly recommend sharing it with friends on a local or public server.  You'll have an absolute blast.  If someone wants to toss this up on a public server, please do.  Have fun with it, make changes, let us know how its received.

From the beginning, we wanted to create a dynamic jungle environment where we could take off from a Jungle FARP and scout the surrounding area for "VC" soldiers and equipment.  8Ball's Vietnam Assets Pack (VAP) made an excellent source of period appropriate assets.  Using the Cayuse to mark and attack these random groups drove collaborative cooperation – there’s nothing better than marking targets for your buddies coming in with firepower.  Concentrating both helo and fast movers on targets in a real-time randomized environment just never gets old.  This cooperation fueled our weekly MP experiences and fed our desire to improve the mission and ultimately share with the community.

Currently, this mission supports 18 different "groups" ranging from some "VC" soldiers in the brush all the way up to village level camps.  Each group has a probability of spawning at mission start.  It is rare for back to back missions to start with same number of spawns which makes scouting an important element of this experience.  More on spawning below.

All the action is centered on the southern portion of Guam [inside the yellow box on the map below].  This box is roughly 85 square miles of territory making it large enough to require scouting, yet small enough to experience action almost immediately.  Most of the activity takes place in the general vicinity of Fena Lake which is the only significant water landmark on the island.  This results in an easy to reference directional aid for all players.  Additionally, there are two significant spawn points on the lake.  They are labeled Alpha Hill and Bunker Hill and again aide in MP coordination.  You’ll hear ejecting pilots reference these landmarks further assisting players in finding them if they’re interested in CSAR.

CSAR

The more we played, the more we longed for the ability to perform CSAR on the map.  This was mostly driven by us getting shot down and thinking it would be cool to go and rescue ourselves.  It didn't take long for us to find @Ciribob's excellent CSAR script from all the way back in 2015.  It still works brilliantly today!  Immediately on insertion, we were getting CSAR missions spawned whenever we'd crash/die making the experience comical as we'd getting missions to rescue ourselves - often over very hostile areas.  From there, we wanted the ability to ensure CSAR missions that didn't rely on us dying and creating one ourselves.  This idea fostered the concept of random CSAR events similar to the random group spawns at the beginning of the mission.  Now, along with CSAR being naturally triggered by players getting killed, we added random F4-E shootdowns occurring periodically over the first 2+ hours of gameplay.  Once we got those working, we went back in and added custom voiceovers for any random spawned CSAR event to further liven up the mission experience.  Lastly, along with the base CSAR text messages in Ciribob's script, we added pilot voiceovers for all relevant CSAR messages. 

With all these gameplay elements we've managed to create a darn compelling Jungle experience that hasn't gotten old – at least for us it hasn’t.  We've had so much fun with this mission we felt obligated to share with you.  But before doing so, we wanted to put a little more icing on the cake.  That icing comes by way of assets.  From our original hidden jungle FARP we expanded gameplay into 4 jungle FARPS, a militarized airstrip, a carrier strike group and Andersen AFB.  Each is a spawn point and each is as authentic as we could go without overtaxing our PCs.  With the exception of the VAP, all  assets are base DCS.

Lastly, with recent announcement on immersive weather and fog coming to DCS, we tested the legacy fog option and were pleasantly surprised/pleased with the results and included that as a final piece of eye candy for you.

I sincerely hope you get many hours of fun out of this mission.  My only ask, in return for this, is your feedback in this thread.  We plan on building on this experience and would love to hear thoughts from folks who've played.

Additional Details

Performance

The guys in our small group all play exclusively in VR (Pimax 8K, 8KX, Crystal) and are lucky to have fairly beefy machines including RTX4090s.  We have not experienced any issues playing this mission (I host on a private dedicated server).  If you experience performance issues, we'd appreciate hearing about it, so we can adjust accordingly for future updates. 

Supported Aircraft

- A-4E-C Skyhawk
- OV-10A Bronco
- F-4E45MC Phantom II
- F-5E-3 Tiger II
- OH-58D Kiowa
- OH-6A Cayuse
- UH-1H Huey

Contributors

A huge thanks to my partners in crime here Devil505 and @Wulf103.  This creation is the result of many different play sessions over many months.  Couldn’t have happened without the three of us.

Known Issues

There are a handful of known “issues” or limitations in the mission.  None are show stoppers.

- Some [N.Jungle] spawns are blocked due to static placement.  This happened late in the development and we've opted to leave it "as-is" until we get the ME grouping features in the next patch enabling a cleaner debugging environment.  Hopefully this won't be too difficult to correct.  Corrected.

- Not an issue per se, but something players should be aware of.  Whenever a random CSAR spawn happens, I block future random CSAR events from triggering so we don't oversaturate the AO with downed pilots.  When players return CSAR pilots to MASH locations, the mission resets the trigger allowing new random CSAR events.  [see F10 Radio options]

- A4 Tacan needs LUA update to work - https://forum.dcs.world/topic/290302-community-a-4e-c-v22-october-2023/page/41/#findComment-5556247

- OH-58D in state of limbo due to "half patch" release by ED.  Should be fixed whenever official patch from PC released properly. ED corrected.

MASH locations

There are two MASH locations on the map.  When rescuing downed CSAR pilots (random spawns or fellow players), the CSAR helo player must deliver the rescued pilot to one of these two locations to get credit for rescue (and resetting the CSAR trigger flag).  After playing the mission a bit, you'll know exactly where these locations are on the map.  Until then, use the map below for guidance (the 2 locations have ** after the name).  Note:  the MASH tents are identified by the + marking on the tent and is easily identified from the air.

F10 Radio Menu

There are a handful of player options available via the F10 radio menu. 

- Restart Mission:  Using a handy script from @cfrag, this menu option restarts this mission on the server.  This ONLY works in a dedicated server environment and requires his script on the server itself.  See [Required Mods].

- How many groups:  This is a handy way to see how many active groups exist on the map.  This number is the real time count of groups remaining on the map.  Once all originally spawned groups are eliminated from the map, all remaining groups spawn.

- Spawn all groups:  The number of groups that spawn at the beginning of the mission is based on a probability calculation made for each group (18 total) in the mission.  If, at any time, players want all possible groups on the map, this option brings them all in.

- Reset CSAR spawns:  As described in the Known Issues section, random CSAR spawning is turned off until a rescued pilot is returned to MASH.  If, for any reason, a player can't return a pilot to MASH (most often due to death), this option resets the trigger and enables a new CSAR spawn chance

- CSAR:  This is the base CSAR menu from Ciribob

Random Spawning

All random spawn are handled in ME triggers (not LUA code).  Within the mission itself, there are 2 types of spawns, enemy ground units and friendly ejecting pilots.

Enemy Ground

The probabilities of each group's spawn are handled in the initialization trigger in the ME.  For example the probability of Group 1 [RANDO1] spawning is 50%.  At the beginning of the mission each random unit is assigned a random number between 1-100.  The group will spawn if that random number is greater than the probability percentage number.  If you wish to change the probability of spawning, you simply have to change the spawn percentage number.  Whenever an entire spawn group is destroyed the mission creates an explosion and smoke marker over the main unit of the group.  This is an easy indication that the group is dead and to move onto other areas of the map.

Ejecting Pilots

Whenever a pilot survives an ejection, the CSAR script creates an event.  Unlike the random ground units, this mission always spawns at least one downed pilot.  This event always happens 25 minutes after the mission begins.  There are 4 total downed pilot events that can trigger during gameplay but come with a degree of randomness to minimize redundancy.  During play testing there were times when we had far too many pilots raining down on us and I added a governor to the trigger system to reduce the number of CSAR missions.  Some features of the governor are:

-  Scripted downed pilots are paused until a pilot is rescued and delivered to MASH. 

- If players decide to leave downed pilots in the field and forego rescuing, the mission ceases generating downed pilots.  Should players get shot down, the CSAR script will generate a rescue event regardless. 

- If a player dies while carrying a rescue pilot to the MASH and the death doesn’t trigger a CSAR event, there’s a chance the governor logic never triggers another random CSAR.  There’s an F10 radio option allowing players to re-start CSAR events to cover this condition.

Scripts included in mission

- Splash Damage 2.0 by Grimm from Dec 2022 + small power nerf by me
- MIST v.5.126
- CSAR v1.9.2 plus some changes by me.  All my changes are mod marked and commented
- Simple Mission Restart:  a tiny server script that allows any mission to restart when they set flag "simpleMissionRestart" to 1 by Cfrag

Installation

Run it on a dedicated server like any other mission.  You can also play solo by running this like any other mission.  Recommend you play the mission as a multiplayer option, however.  

Future expansion(s)

We have lots of ideas for future expansion which may or may not see the light of day.  We’ll see where this goes and what type of feedback we receive.  Below are some ideas we’ve discussed.

-New Fog:  When this is released, I want to revisit the fog settings and have the fog dissipate as the sun comes up.  We can definitely make this happen along with re-appearing sometime in pre-dawn for those that keep the server up and running.  Released

-CAS on my location:  We’ve kicked around this concept a time or two.  When no one wants to hop into a fast mover and perform CAS, we imagine it’d be nice to spawn in an AI CAS flight to attack units near the helo that called for CAS on the F10 radio menu.  I am no scripting guru, so this may be something beyond my skills and/or not worth the time and effort.

-Logistics:  If/When ED gets this into the base game, there might be value in resupplying weapons to FARPs.  We’re thinking we could limit weapons stores at FARPs and require replenishment from Chinhooks from time to time.  Might be an interesting gameplay element.

- Further CSAR randomness + voiceovers:  Depending on staying power of this mission, the spawned downed pilots might become redundant and while there is randomness to them, there’s only 12 possible outcomes.  I may opt to add additional planes and appropriate voiceovers to expand replayability.

- SEAD:  We do have 2 SA-2 batteries up at Tinian if anyone wants to venture up there with Phantoms or Skyhawks.  You can spawn up on Saipan if you want to engage via helo’s.  There’s really nothing else up there which makes the experience pretty light.  We’re considering expanding gameplay to those northern islands and may focus on SEAD for that expansion.

 

Have fun!!

Edited February 15 by Mistermann
General cleanup, update

[Mistermann]

FAQ

Q: Is this a public server announcement? A: No.  We are not hosting this mission publicly.  However, anyone who wants to host for their friends is more than welcome to do so.  This mission is not designed or intended to support large scale multi-player events.

Edited November 27, 2024 by Mistermann

[352ndOscar]

Congrats on the release of this mission!  I’m hoping that this will be a shove in the right direction for other great mission builders to explore the Vietnam Era.

Edited November 27, 2024 by 352ndOscar

[Wulf103]

I can not emphasize enough how much fun this mission is flying around in the Cayuse, Huey gunships trolling the area and Charlie pumping tracers in your direction. We have spent hours and hours tweaking this CSAR/Jungle Attack setup and enjoyed every minute of it. So turn up your favorite Stones, Doors, or Hendrix and ride your best Vietnam era aircraft into a genuine step back in time.....Have A Blast! Thank you  Mister Mann [Kandy] and Devil505 [Mongo] for all of your hard work.

[Mistermann]

Give the download link in OP a try.  The file hasn't been "approved" yet, but it appears to allow me to download using this link.  YMMV on this one as it may only work for me as the author.  I've had approvals take up to 5 days in the past, so hopefully this will work in the meantime.

[NinpoFox]

Just spent an hour flying close air support in the Bronco. Absolutely loved it. Thanks.

[Mistermann]

1 hour ago, NinpoFox said:

Just spent an hour flying close air support in the Bronco. Absolutely loved it. Thanks.

Isn't that fun?  The Bronco is a blast.  Great to hear from you, NinpoFox.

[Mistermann]

Official download link updated in OP

[Devil 505]

On 11/27/2024 at 9:51 AM, 352ndOscar said:

Congrats on the release of this mission!  I’m hoping that this will be a shove in the right direction for other great mission builders to explore the Vietnam Era.

Really appreciate the feedback! This has been a blast for us to play and make.  Looking forward to continuing this project for us all.

[Devil 505]

OV-10 BRONCO MOD DOWNLOAD

Looks like we forgot to add the link to download the OV-10.  Please see below. I believe you can still donate if you choose to, otherwise, type in 0 and it will allow you to download the latest version.  To avoid a lot of questions, the OV-10 has not been updated in sometime.  I have spoke to the OV-10 creator on his forum (also linked below) and there are intentions to work on it again, but it is a ways out.  For the time being, there have been no issues that we have encountered with the mod through all the most recent ED updates.  It still continues to fly fine for the three of us. 

 

Download Link

BRONCO OV-10A

[Mistermann]

17 hours ago, Devil 505 said:

Looks like we forgot to add the link to download the OV-10.  

Thanks!!  I updated the OP and file download.

[LazyLightning91]

Absolutely love what your group has done here. Great stuff all around. Maybe you could send a message over to Sedlo simulations for scripting tips. He's known for making free missions and campaigns and I have seen him referenced for assistance/tips&tricks by other mission/campaign makers, including the paid ones.

[Devil 505]

1 hour ago, LazyLightning91 said:

Absolutely love what your group has done here. Great stuff all around. Maybe you could send a message over to Sedlo simulations for scripting tips. He's known for making free missions and campaigns and I have seen him referenced for assistance/tips&tricks by other mission/campaign makers, including the paid ones.

@Mistermann Kandy, might be worth looking into! 

[Mistermann]

Why?  Is something not working?

[Devil 505]

9 hours ago, Mistermann said:

Why?  Is something not working?

No, everything is working fine.  Just another tool in the toolbox if we need advice on something down the road maybe.

[352ndOscar]

I’ve flown this multiple times now and I’m having a blast!

Possible suggestions: 

The Supercarrier is great and all, but, I’d rather see TETET’s VWV ships or, at the maximum, the SCB-125 carriers, being used for period correctness.

Some added USMC A-4 slots at Andersen, at least for the heavier stores loadouts not compatible with carrier takeoffs.

I know, I can make these changes myself (…and have), but others may be interested in them as well.  I will not distribute my copy as this is your (excellent) project.

[Mistermann]

18 minutes ago, 352ndOscar said:

The Supercarrier is great and all, but, I’d rather see TETET’s VWV ships or, at the maximum, the SCB-125 carriers, being used for period correctness.

We actually started out with those mods in place and opted to remove for a variety of reasons - mostly reducing barrier of entry for people and mods.  Our group prefers the supercarrier but recognizes it isn't "period appropriate".  

18 minutes ago, 352ndOscar said:

Some added USMC A-4 slots at Andersen, at least for the heavier stores loadouts not compatible with carrier takeoffs.

Good idea!  @Devil 505 is our resident A4 jock and always uses the carrier.  Never even thought of putting A4s over at Andersen.  I'll update the mission with some A4 client slots per your suggestion.

18 minutes ago, 352ndOscar said:

I know, I can make these changes myself (…and have), but others may be interested in them as well.  I will not distribute my copy as this is your (excellent) project.

Appreciate that, thanks.  

Edited December 5, 2024 by Mistermann

[LazyLightning91]

On 12/3/2024 at 4:06 PM, Devil 505 said:

No, everything is working fine.  Just another tool in the toolbox if we need advice on something down the road maybe.

 

On 11/27/2024 at 7:40 AM, Mistermann said:

-CAS on my location:  We’ve kicked around this concept a time or two.  When no one wants to hop into a fast mover and perform CAS, we imagine it’d be nice to spawn in an AI CAS flight to attack units near the helo that called for CAS on the F10 radio menu.  I am no scripting guru, so this may be something beyond my skills and/or not worth the time and effort.

@Mistermann @Devil 505 I was more thinking about things like this. Sedlo would likely be able to help you with things like this and a lot more. He helped Reflected Simulations with some scripting magic in the past, and Sedlo is known for his free contributions to the community.

Also, Lain Christie, aka, "Sidekick" on YouTube has made missions in the past involving AI CAS/FAC on your smoke placement. I would imagine he would be delighted to offer advice as well. Here is a video of him demonstrating the mission.

 

Edited December 5, 2024 by LazyLightning91

[Tonker]

Just here from a couple days and several hours in Into The Jungle (solo OH6 and OV10) having had an absolute ball and left burning wreckage of my airframes liberally scattered over the map...but at least most of the pilots made it back to a MASH unit  It's a great playground, super evocative (the voiceovers are awesome) and a great platform for some of the best aircraft in DCS. Well done all.

5 hours ago, 352ndOscar said:

Some added USMC A-4 slots at Andersen

I had the same thought...not least 'cos I don't have the Super Carrier, so my Scooter starts in the air and winchester. Happy to see that it's in the works @Mistermann, speedy!

More left-field, but in the same spirit, I also wondered if it might be possible/worth adding one or two Gazelle slots (Olf Orote and S Jungle maybe?). I appreciate it didn't serve in reality, but it's pretty era-appropriate, a plausible 'what-if' for Viet-Guam, and makes the mission easily accessible to another group of mission-starved pilots. Just a thought.

Otherwise, I'd be happy to see a little more AI around, and any development of the scripts (FAC, logistics etc) would be very cool...but that's cos I'm largely a solo player, not the target audience...until someone pops this bad boy on a public server!

But mostly: Seriously good job gents, congrats to the team and thanks for sharing with the community

[TeTeT]

18 hours ago, 352ndOscar said:

The Supercarrier is great and all, but, I’d rather see TETET’s VWV ships or, at the maximum, the SCB-125 carriers, being used for period correctness.

Always wanted to adjust the mission for just that, but never found the time. Mind you, in Vietnam War Vessels we're still very busy adding assets, so it's a rather thankless task to base a mission on a mod that updates every month or so. Nevertheless if I ever get to add VWV assets to this mission, I'll post here

 

Edited December 6, 2024 by TeTeT
typo

[Devil 505]

Back in the mission after the update flying the F-5.  Everything is working great, especially the new fog.

 

[Mistermann]

January 10, 2025:  Small update coming

Happy New Year everyone!  After one heck of a Jungle battle last night with the team, I finally got around to updating this mission with a couple of tweaks.

1)  Per @352nd_Oscar suggestion, I dropped in some USMC client A4s out at Andersen

2) I went in and updated the fog settings so the fog dissipates as the sun comes up.  The mission now starts at 0615LT at dawn.  The fog will gradually reduce over the first couple of hours of gameplay.  By 0900LT, the fog will be completely gone.  Below is a quick 20 second video showing this using time compression to show the entire duration to dissipate.

I'll update this thread when I get the file uploaded.

File uploaded to ED Files (https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/upload/userfiles/84b/l8zh91o50hfkkwl2cadgf4fljkc622vn/Into_the_Jungle_v2_002.miz)

Edited January 10 by Mistermann

[Devil 505]

First flight of the new year with the boys using the new fog.  Kady updated the burn off effect after this flight so expect to see another video soon with that in full force.  

 

[Mistermann]

19 hours ago, Devil 505 said:

Kandy updated the burn off effect after this flight so expect to see another video soon with that in full force.  

Interested in feedback from others who have played with the latest version of this mission.  The fog dissipation effect seems to cause VR artifacts whenever switching between fog settings.  Anyone else experiencing momentary graphic glitching we can attribute to the fog dissipation logic?

Personally, I really like the fog and how it goes away over time.  I could do without the glitchiness, however.  

[Devil 505]

9 hours ago, Mistermann said:

Interested in feedback from others who have played with the latest version of this mission.  The fog dissipation effect seems to cause VR artifacts whenever switching between fog settings.  Anyone else experiencing momentary graphic glitching we can attribute to the fog dissipation logic?

Personally, I really like the fog and how it goes away over time.  I could do without the glitchiness, however.  

Kandy, Just to back you up on this one, I am also seeing the glitches in the fog.  It seems to have increased, albeit not terribly, after we changed the fog to dynamic.  That being said, I say we leave the fog as is in ITJ.  The immersion level is greatly enhanced with it and even with the minor glitches, it is worth flying in.  Also makes navigation more challenging and increases the teamwork when scouting.  I really need you or Zipper marking with smoke when I am overhead in the Skyhawk or F-5 because the fog makes very hard to locate targets.  Digging the new effects for sure!