Idea/Request for Campaign: WW2 BFM/ACM Training

[dsc106]

There are all sorts of training campaigns for Cold War and modern aircraft, and Reflected - you have two great ones for the F4E now - but nothing for WWII. This is a shame because I am not great at understanding WWII tactics and would prefer to learn BFM/ACM and dogfighting on prop aircrafts before moving on through history into cold war era and beyond. A WWII training campaign would be a great way to teach all sorts of basic combat airmanship (and increase interest and value in all your other campaigns)

Because techniques continued to change through WWII and certain aircraft may not fit perfectly into the timeline, and because of some location limitations on maps (ie there was no training in Nevada at the time), and because the best way to do this may involve a variety of aircraft, I can see some potential challenges. But I think they are easy enough to solve.

What about a 1944-ish historical fiction composite training campaign set in Normandy with either the P-51 or Spitfire, and/or P-47 as the aircraft. This could be done in several ways:

1. Giving the user a choice of which to fly on a per mission basis. Upside is users could have either module, downside is specific instructions would be less customized to the specific airframe
2. Requiring all of these modules for the campaign to work. Upside would be a great campaign touring you through techniques, downside would be limiting the campaign to users with several modules. But then again, the WW2 modules are pretty cheap these days and many people interested will own all of these as they are some of the most common
3. A Campaign with several missions for each, IE 5-6 training missions per, but all in one campaign. The upside would be the more modules you own, the more value you get, but you could still access a good value even with one.

Training items would include:

• Basic dogfighting skills: barrel rolls, scissors, yo-yos, and high/low yo-yos.
• Offensive and Defensive maneuvers
• Energy fighting, boom and zoom tactics
• Dive attacks
• Fighter-Bomber coordination
• ACM and techniques to coordinate with wingman

Etc.

I mean, you know the drill.

Basically, I think it would be so great to get a good basic combat training - dogfighting, bombing and rocket ground attacks, escorts, etc. crafted for when it all began. Setting things later in WWII allows for the more advanced teaching of different tactics.

I also know you prioritize pinpoint precision, but I feel there would be a lot of value in a campaign like this which takes some liberties to craft a sort of historical fiction composite and helps on-road new players to your other campaigns - people like me, who really don't know the proper tactics and resort to IL-2 videos or other descriptions online, or have to work in reverse and learn techniques used in more modern combat and apply them backwards.

Hope you will consider something like what you've done for other cold war era training modules for the WWII timeframe!

[Reflected]

I thought about that. Like a basic training campaign. The problem is that I can't make the module optional and selectable, they're all so different. Otherwise I'd have to keep it at such high level that there would be little added value from buying the campaign. Having multiple required modules is a no go as well. Especially combat/ tactical trainings are really hard to do within DCS because the AI is hard coded to perform these in a given way.

[dsc106]

11 hours ago, Reflected said:

Having multiple required modules is a no go as well.

In that case, what about just focusing on a Spitfire training campaign on the Normandy map, since arguably the dogfighting techniques with the spitfire would be the most interesting as a turn fighter? Many of the ideas and concepts would still translate for those of us who are starved for any sort of "original" or "classic" dogfighting training on prop aircraft.

If not, the other alternative idea would be 2-3 totally separate mini campaigns (not sure if ED allows shorter/cheaper campaigns like that) for each aircraft type, where P-51 focuses on its energy management techniques and boom and zoom. Finally, just wanted to rearticulate my point "3" from original post: a single campaign with 18 missions that only requires any one module. But if you have 1 module, 6 missions show up. If you have 2 modules, 12, and 3 modules 18 missions show up. Basically, it's three mini campaigns sold bundled as one campaign.

But all that aside, I think many of us would be content to see anything - and if I had to choose one, it would probably be the spitfire and RAF training just based on the fact that it would teach us traditional dogfighting the best!