Campaign for DCS OH-58D: "Through the desert dust"

[CHPL]

MULTIPLAYER

I haven't installed the campaign yet, but since it's free and without copy protection, I don't see any reason not to fly it in multiplayer.

How?

- Ensure that the Kiowa is set to 'Client' and not 'Player' in each mission.

- Then you should be able to start each mission individually online and allow a co-pilot to join.

 

Except that you start the missions individually, rather than via the campaign function, I don't see any disadvantage or reason why it shouldn't work.

 

With the purchased campaigns, the catch is that multiplayer is prevented by copy protection.

 

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Kingtiger45]

Im on mission 4 and having struggles with getting my AI wingman (1-2 Ethan) to take off and join me.

Is there something special I need to do to get them to take off? as it is now they start spooling up and after a while they shut down.

/KT

[MAXsenna]

21 minutes ago, CHPL said:

How?

- Ensure that the Kiowa is set to 'Client' and not 'Player' in each mission.

- Then you should be able to start each mission individually online and allow a co-pilot to join.

Sure, that's known. But how does triggers, voice overs etc. work then?

Cheers! 

Edited July 5 by MAXsenna

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

39 minutes ago, CHPL said:

I don't see any reason not to fly it in multiplayer.

Feel free to watch Reflected’s video on the subject. Things are quite a bit more complicated than you seem to think they are.

[YoYo]

3 hours ago, Kingtiger45 said:

Im on mission 4 and having struggles with getting my AI wingman (1-2 Ethan) to take off and join me.

Is there something special I need to do to get them to take off? as it is now they start spooling up and after a while they shut down.

/KT

No, it should automatically follow you. Try again. This is your pair.

[swartbyron]

11 hours ago, CHPL said:

MULTIPLAYER

I haven't installed the campaign yet, but since it's free and without copy protection, I don't see any reason not to fly it in multiplayer.

How?

- Ensure that the Kiowa is set to 'Client' and not 'Player' in each mission.

- Then you should be able to start each mission individually online and allow a co-pilot to join.

 

Except that you start the missions individually, rather than via the campaign function, I don't see any disadvantage or reason why it shouldn't work.

 

With the purchased campaigns, the catch is that multiplayer is prevented by copy protection.

 

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

You can indeed play this campaign in multiplayer, but at the risk of something breaking or not being synchronized.

You don’t need to edit anything; just launch the mission you want to fly in multiplayer, and it will automatically set the player and copilot slot to client.  

It’s very important that both the pilot and copilot slots are occupied and that you are both spawned in the cockpit with textures loaded before the host unpauses the mission!

[swartbyron]

12 hours ago, Kingtiger45 said:

Im on mission 4 and having struggles with getting my AI wingman (1-2 Ethan) to take off and join me.

Is there something special I need to do to get them to take off? as it is now they start spooling up and after a while they shut down.

/KT

I've experienced the same problem. The AI wingman doesn't like it if you hover taxi forward and decides to land and shutdown. If it happens just restart the mission and try again.

I got him to follow me by taking off vertically and doing a 180 and flying directly out from the parking spot and then picking up the route.

 

[toubey]

Did you touch the ground again after take off? AI takes this as "job done, rtb"

Same happens in my missions. I think. Make sure you don't touch the ground once you left it.

[MAXsenna]

Did you touch the ground again after take off? AI takes this as "job done, rtb"
Same happens in my missions. I think. Make sure you don't touch the ground once you left it.

Correct. Whenever you want to land, order the AI to "hold position/anchor here" or whatever the command is. Then when you're done, make AI rejoin formation. This works perfectly.

Cheers!

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[Cubcile]

Unfortunately I can't start the campaign. DCS shows it's name and status on the campaign selection menu but no description or image is shown.

My installation path is 'D:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\campaigns\OH-58D - Through the desert dust'. The DCS log contains these two errors that reference the installation folder:

2025-07-06 15:56:33.966 ALERT   Scripting (Main): loadfile: [string "./Mods/campaigns/OH-58D - Through the desert dust/entry.lua"]:1: unexpected symbol near '/'

2025-07-06 15:56:34.580 WARNING Scripting (Main): plugin: SKIPPED './Mods/campaigns/OH-58D - Through the desert dust': not supported

I'm no LUA expert but looking at the entry.lua it looks like slashes instead of -- where used to comment the first two lines. I tried to fix this but then i get the following error:

The following DLCs are not authorized and will be disabled: OH-58D - Through the desert dust

Now i'm a bit lost because it looks like the campaign is working fine for a lot of people. Perhaps someone has an idea.

Thank you.

[Brainfreeze]

Should the campaign not be installed on your dcs saved games directory rather than core?

Edited July 6 by Brainfreeze

[YoYo]

2 hours ago, Cubcile said:

Unfortunately I can't start the campaign. DCS shows it's name and status on the campaign selection menu but no description or image is shown.

My installation path is 'D:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\campaigns\OH-58D - Through the desert dust'. The DCS log contains these two errors that reference the installation folder:

2025-07-06 15:56:33.966 ALERT   Scripting (Main): loadfile: [string "./Mods/campaigns/OH-58D - Through the desert dust/entry.lua"]:1: unexpected symbol near '/'

2025-07-06 15:56:34.580 WARNING Scripting (Main): plugin: SKIPPED './Mods/campaigns/OH-58D - Through the desert dust': not supported

I'm no LUA expert but looking at the entry.lua it looks like slashes instead of -- where used to comment the first two lines. I tried to fix this but then i get the following error:

The following DLCs are not authorized and will be disabled: OH-58D - Through the desert dust

Now i'm a bit lost because it looks like the campaign is working fine for a lot of people. Perhaps someone has an idea.

Thank you.

Mods\campaigns your path is good, the question is do you actually have a folder there OH-58D - Through the desert dust and next Doc ect. folders. The entry.lua dont touch, you can optionally delete the entire file if by some miracle you have a problem with it and see if the campaign appears. The third option is the Saved games folder.

Edited July 6 by YoYo

[Cubcile]

@YoYo, the full path to the Doc folder is "D:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\campaigns\OH-58D - Through the desert dust\Doc". I also tried placing it in "C:\Users\Cubicle\Saved Games\DCS\Mods\campaigns" but this did not change anything. At least, with the fixed entry.lua, the authorisation error message is gone.

When I place the campaign folder in "C:\Users\Cubicle\Saved Games\DCS\Missions\Campaigns\en", I can see the campaign description and image. But clicking OK doesn't start the campaign. I can see the throbber for a short amount of time and then nothing. 

EDIT: @YoYo, I found the issue. The first mission requires the Marianas map to be installed. Without the map you get no clear error message. It's just not working. Perhaps you can update the manual or the description to let people know.

Edited July 6 by Cubcile

[YoYo]

53 minutes ago, Cubcile said:

The first mission requires ...

Wow! How is it possible that you don't have free maps for DCS?

 

[Cubcile]

vor 5 Minuten schrieb YoYo:

Wow! How is it possible that you don't have free maps for DCS?

Why should i install stuff that i normally don't use? It takes up space and each installed module may increase patch times. Wouldn't be an issue if DCS would clearly state that a required map is missing. 

[coyote79]

Wonderful I'm ready for Part 2

Edited July 7 by coyote79

[YoYo]

4 hours ago, coyote79 said:

Wonderful I'm ready for Part 2

Great news, congratulations!

[Critter]

First thank you for making this campaign and a free one at that. 

I flew mission one (don't want to give out any spoilers) I did the requirement, landed back where I started, got the option to auto shutdown (which I did) I got the "mission accomplished" exited out to start the next mission and then upon exit got "mission failed" and had to start the campaign over. Not sure what I did wrong? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[YoYo]

26 minutes ago, Critter said:

First thank you for making this campaign and a free one at that. 

I flew mission one (don't want to give out any spoilers) I did the requirement, landed back where I started, got the option to auto shutdown (which I did) I got the "mission accomplished" exited out to start the next mission and then upon exit got "mission failed" and had to start the campaign over. Not sure what I did wrong? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

It's hard to say. Generally, try again; nothing like that happens. The exception could be a wrong installation (which I doubt if you followed the manual). Alternatively, if you were just trying to check mission 2, you might have pressed "End mission" instead of "Cancel," thus overwriting the state. Even in that case, the campaign doesn't end, but the mission itself does, and the "Skip" (mission) option appears, and the mission itself is considered failed.

[Critter]

16 minutes ago, YoYo said:

It's hard to say. Generally, try again; nothing like that happens. The exception could be a wrong installation (which I doubt if you followed the manual). Alternatively, if you were just trying to check mission 2, you might have pressed "End mission" instead of "Cancel," thus overwriting the state. Even in that case, the campaign doesn't end, but the mission itself does, and the "Skip" (mission) option appears, and the mission itself is considered failed.

Thank you for the response. I might have screwed up some files thinking that I could print the kneeboards. I just did a clean install and will fly it again. 

[Zarma]

On 7/11/2025 at 2:47 PM, Critter said:

Thank you for the response. I might have screwed up some files thinking that I could print the kneeboards. I just did a clean install and will fly it again. 

If the mission result is below 50 then it falls back 1 mission. Maybe that ?

[TokenJester]

MIssion 4 went great until Ethan ran in with rockets on the convoy after we had expended our 2x Hellfire on the HMMV and the BIG AAA , fired a rocket and promptly turned into a hill..

insta-fail... poop

[Vital061270]

https://rutube.ru/video/76220004eaf5b1a9b0edef160e781c34/?r=a

[YoYo]

3 hours ago, Vital061270 said:

https://rutube.ru/video/76220004eaf5b1a9b0edef160e781c34/?r=a

Wow! Cool stuff, thanks!(Will there be a little more?)

9 hours ago, TokenJester said:

MIssion 4 went great until Ethan ran in with rockets on the convoy after we had expended our 2x Hellfire on the HMMV and the BIG AAA , fired a rocket and promptly turned into a hill..

insta-fail... poop

This is your wingman, characters essential to the plot cannot die. Unfortunately, the AI can pull off surprises, although I've never experienced one or another AI crashing during this campaign. Bad luck.

[Vital061270]

Today I'll figure out the editor and fly a mission of my choice. Probably mission number 11. I liked it