Attack On Krasnodar, FC2/DCS

[Speed]

I think I have just completed the first version of my latest mission, Attack On Krasnodar, testing within the 16th has gone well so I think I am ready to release it to you guys. The mission has 4 slots for F-15s, 2 slots of A-10As, and 8 Ka-50 slots. The mission is pretty much time limited to 2.5 hours. This mission utlizes 607 triggers including triggers that implement a binary counter. With the binary counter, the mission counts how many human pilots are flying the Ka-50s and F-15s. At two very important times in the mission, it will spawn additional AI helos to help out the Ka-50s, with the exact number of AI helos being spawned determined by the number of humans flying. Additionally, it tries to maintain six F-15s CAPing over the battlefield by counting the number of human F-15s and AI F-15s inside the CAP zone every 20 minutes, and if needed, will spawn the additional number of F-15s needed to make six. The binary counter is used in other ways as well, not really worth it to go into it right now. The mission also contains a large assortment of sounds from Jane's Fleet Command. Advancing friendly ground armor, periodic incoming enemy air attacks, and lots of radio and audio messages I hope help to give the feeling of a live and dynamic battlefield, they do for me at least.

 

Here is the briefing in the current version. I wrote it late last night while I was slightly inebriated, so please forgive any errors :)

 

We are now in control of the Black Sea coast from Gelendzhik all the way south to Georgia. If we can take Krasnodar, we can cut off and trap Russian forces to the west.

 

Battle Plan:

At 16:40 local, friendly ground forces began moving from our base near Defanovka to the north towards Krasnodar. Friendly forces are divided into three groups: Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie groups, each with 12 M1s, 3 M2s, and 2 Avengers. Our ground forces are to split up and advance across the FLOT (Forward Line Of Troops) in three places. Arrayed against us are multiple Russian Army tank platoons. These are marked on the briefing map and on Abris. Note that these locations merely represent the latest intelligence we have.

 

The first major objective our ground forces are to capture is Objective Kilo, the town of Kaluzhskaya. At Kaluzhskaya is a FARP we will attempt to capture and use for the rest of our offensive.

 

Once Objective Kilo is taken, ground forces (callsign Alpha 11) will contact the ABCCC, callsign Moonbeam, for further orders. It is expected that the offensive will continue towards Krasnodar, with the final objective being the Krasnodar-Center airfield, but the offensive could be called off should too many casulties have been sustained capturing Objective Kilo.

Only two bridges into Krasnodar are stout enough to take the 68 tons our M1 tanks weigh- the highway M-4 bridge near the resevoir, and the highway A-146 bridge to the west across the Kuban river. Once reaching objective Kilo, Moonbeam will assess current battlefield conditions and intelligence to decide which bridge will be crossed.

An E-3A AWACs aircraft, callsign Crystal Palace, will provide AEW and alert friendly forces of any incoming Russian aircraft.

NOTE: BECAUSE WE HAVE AWACS, ALL ENEMY AIRCRAFT WILL APPEAR ON THE F10 MAP. ADDITIONALLY, ALPHA, BRAVO, AND CHARLIE GROUPS WILL ALSO APPEAR ON THE F10 MAP.

 

INDIVIDUAL BRIEFINGS:

 

Ka-50s (simulated AH-64s)- Proceed north the the FLOT and engage Russian tank platoons prior to our ground forces coming into contact with them. Continue eliminating Russian forces up to objective Kilo. Once objective Kilo is taken, Moonbeam will contact you with further orders; feel free to engage any Russian targets you can find in the meantime. The FARP at objective Kilo is expected to become operational around 18:00 local, and should be able to provide reaming, refueling, and repairing.

The enemy is known to be operating Mi-28Ns, be on the lookout for enemy helicopters. Crystal Palace will advise if any are in the area (YOU CAN USE THE F10 MAP TO SEE THE LOCATIONS OF ENEMY AIRCRAFT!)

 

Waypoints:

2- FLOT

3- Objective Kilo

4- Kuban river on south edge of Krasnodar

5- Krasnodar-Center airfield

 

 

A-10As: You are based out of the recently captured Gelendzhik airfield. Engage enemy ground forces ahead of the friendly advance (USE THE F10 MAP TO KEEP TRACK OF FRIENDLY GROUND FORCES). Because the enemy is using alot of IR SAMs, it is NOT recommended that you use your gun- try to stay above 10,000 feet if at all possible. Utilize your Mavericks at stand-off range!

Waypoints:

2- FLOT

3- Objective Kilo

4- Kuban river on south edge of Krasnodar

5- Krasnodar-Center airfield

6- FLOT

 

 

F-15s:

You are based out of Sochi-Adler. Provide constant CAP over the battlefield to prevent the enemy from engaging our ground forces from the air. The enemy is known to be operating MiG-29A, MiG-29s, Su-27, Su-25T, and Mi-28N aircraft. An E-3A, callsign Crystal Palace, is airborne to the south over the Black Sea to provide AEW. For rearming and refueling, Gelendzhik airfield can be used- just be careful not the stray too far to the west or the north while landing, Gelendzhik is very near the FLOT! (BECAUSE WE HAVE AWACS, ALL ENEMY AIRCRAFT WILL APPEAR ON THE F10 MAP!)

Attack on Krasnodar v1.3.miz

Edited July 21, 2010 by Speed

[fangav]

This looks very intriguing.

Do the 16th have any plans of putting it up on their server.

I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

[Speed]

Do the 16th have any plans of putting it up on their server.

 

Yes, it's already been up there a few times.

Edited July 4, 2010 by Speed

[Speed]

Note that because this mission fills in for missing humans with AI piloted aircraft, you can actually get pretty far and possibly beat it by yourself Fang, but of course, things are much more fun when you have other humans to fly with.

[Haukka81]

Nice mission, but it's very heavy ( in my system ) when things go hot,even when i'm far away form action ;)

 

Specs: Core 2 Duo E8400 (3,6gzh) , 4g DDR800 , Radeon 5770 1GB

 

 

 

-haukka81

[Speed]

Nice mission, but it's very heavy ( in my system ) when things go hot,even when i'm far away form action ;)

 

Specs: Core 2 Duo E8400 (3,6gzh) , 4g DDR800 , Radeon 5770 1GB

 

 

 

-haukka81

 

Interesting. If you had a problem running it, you could have tried turning down the scenes to medium, and of course, setting your water graphics to the lowest possible setting. It should have run on your machine OK- my laptop can run this mission at medium scenes with water turned down. My laptop's specs are:

 

Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz. 4G RAM (DDR2 667MHz), GeForce 8700M GT

 

 

I AM in need of testers for this mission. While my laptop (see it's not so optimal specs) hosts this mission just fine in multiplayer, and I can even fly with it, I had another person who reported that the mission "locks up" his 3.2GHz, 8G RAM, GTX250 computer, but only when he tries to host it over multiplayer. He can fly it just fine as client. I would like to see how widespread the problems are. So if anyone trys the mission and it works just fine, or tries it and it locks up, please let me know!

 

Haukka81, when in the mission did it get slow for you, and did you run it on medium scenes and low water?

 

Also, I am uploading a new version of the mission, v1.2. In v1.3, I plan to have AWACs warnings to individual client helicopters for when enemy helicopters come within 9km of them- just like in Longbow 2 :)

Edited July 7, 2010 by Speed

[zdXu]

Have done a 3-ship-flight. Its unplayable for me because of constantly low frames. IMO the hugh amount of units are the problem not the quantity of 600 or more triggers. The details and the mission itsself is realy good.

[Speed]

Have done a 3-ship-flight. Its unplayable for me because of constantly low frames. IMO the hugh amount of units are the problem not the quantity of 600 or more triggers. The details and the mission itsself is realy good.

 

What are your computer's specifications, and when did it get framey? It hasn't been a problem for anyone in our squad, even the guy with a pentium 4 was able to handle the beginning of this mission, he quit before the busier parts (not because it had low frame rates but because he had to go to sleep). Did the other two persons who flew it have any problems?

 

Thanks for the feedback, BTW.

Edited July 10, 2010 by Speed

[Skoop]

I just played this in single player.....It was a blast! I enjoyed it because of the constant spawning of enemy fighters trying to challenge me for air supremacy over the battle field while the war goes on down below.

 

My system handled it fine with all settings on high, but I was flying in F-15Cs the whole time. I notice game slows down for me in CAS aircraft like the Su-25T or the A-10A.

 

The action for me was non stop, If I got shot down, I would jump into another aircraft and keep fighting....great mission for aircombat practice.

 

Some things that could make this even better for continued single player use:

 

More A-10As to fly, during my play, the A-10A trigger never went off so I never got to fly A-10s in the mission. This was crucial, half way through I achieved control of the air and it seemed more beneficial to switch over to ground attack and help the guys on the ground....cuz they are the ones who will advance and take Krasnograd to win the mission.

 

You could add more Su-25s to the red side, this will make the CAP missions more crucial. Twice the reds briefly gained control of the air, but it did nothing with no ground attack assets to take advantage. The Migs and Su27s just flew around until I came back with more F-15s and shot them all down.

 

I failed the mission because just before the blue army reaches the bridge over the kuban, a huge wall of red armor spawns (I'm talking 50 to 60 tanks) and wipes out my whole ground force.....I then get a mission failed.

You can see why it is critical to switch over to CAS aircraft to put some holes in this huge red horde at the river.

 

I'd like to see strike missions on the airfields to shut them down for good.

 

I could only imagine how fun this would be with people manning some of these flights.

You could set it up where the player could fly and manage a 4 ship flight.

 

This mission has some good potential, good dynamic feel to it. I love the idea of a war going on around me. I used the F10 map many times to zoom around the map to check out all the action in the air and on the ground.

 

Is this able to play as the red side ?

 

I only played in FC2 but next I'm going to play it in blackshark to see how it does in the Ka-50.

 

I may fiddle with it my self to see if I can get more A-10s to spawn.

 

To bad you cannot jump into Ka-50s while running the game in FC2, that would be sweet for this mission. jumpin to an A-10, use up all your weapons, then jumpinto a Ka-50 to fly CAS as a helo.

Edited July 10, 2010 by Skoop

[Speed]

Well, Skoop, the A-10s did not spawn because they do not spawn. I never really considered them a vital asset, and I only added them because I know that people like to fly them. They can't kill very many enemy units with a full load of weapons, and they are very vulnerable to ground fire. Meanwhile, a attack helo can just sit there at stand off range and pick off tank after tank after tank.

 

I feel you on the red side needing to be able to capitalize more during situations when they get air superiority. I agree, I think some more Su-25s would be good. The enemy fighters won't even attack helicopters, and I can't get them to attack helos without putting them dangerously low to the ground (wjere they get shot down by stingers). Yes, they are SUPPOSED to attack helos, I have it the target types set as "planes" and "helicopters" under their attack targets type box, but they do not do so. However, the Su-25s, which get lower, HAVE shot me down before, and the enemy helicopters will engage helos as well.

 

It is possible the mission could be won single player if you fly the Ka-50, but not likely. I am pretty sure just two Ka-50s can win it though. It's pretty hard scaling missions so that they scale evenly with the number of people flying, heck this is the only mission I am aware of that has ever attempted it. I hosted it online just today, and we actually lost it with 5 ka-50s flying, because several of the ka-50 pilots were screwing up badly or had hardware issues.

 

Anyway, I will take your ideas into consideration, especially having A-10s spawn. I think I can manage that pretty easily. That said, remember, it's not supposed to be played single player, even though if you fly it single player you can get pretty far.

Edited July 11, 2010 by Speed

[Skoop]

I'll have to try this out in multiplayer. I haven't flown the Ka-50 in a while, but I might be revisiting it in a week after I wrap up all the FC2 campaign missions. If I get too impatient I might try this out in the Ka-50 with easy flight and hard avionics.

[Speed]

v1.3 finished. Major changes include AI A-10s and all friendly fixed wing aircraft now spawn in the air over their airbases (just like enemy fixed wing do). This prevents someone from fouling up the runways and preventing vital AI fixed wing assets from taking off, which was a huge and unanticipated problem with v1.2. It seems that when this is run on a public server, I get alot of people who can't even take an aircraft off the runway properly :doh:

 

v1.4 should be out in another week or two. I'm planning on making a small 5-10 mission LOFC2/DCS multiplayer campaign with this mission being the finale; that could take quite a while to complete though.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Speed

[DTWD]

This looks interesting, might have to download this and give it a go.

 

Drop me a PM if you need any sound help, I do that kind of thing as a hobby (and a bit in my job) so I might be able to spruce things up a bit for you.

[Skoop]

I still haven't played this in multiplayer, but I did play it again in v1.2 singleplayer flying the Ka 50. It definately had more lag in the shark because of the shkval and operating close to the ground. I was playing on all settings maxed though, I could tune it down and eliminate some stutters. Still wasn't able to win the mission in singleplayer.

 

This mission is on my list to player in multiplayer.

I will have to check out v1.3.

Will your campaign have support for singleplayer? I know you said it's coop, but would it be hard to tweak it for a singleplayer version?

 

This mission really makes me wish FC2 and Blackshark had 1 user interface. I hate having to close FC2 then start DCS to switch to the ka50.

[Speed]

I still haven't played this in multiplayer, but I did play it again in v1.2 singleplayer flying the Ka 50. It definately had more lag in the shark because of the shkval and operating close to the ground. I was playing on all settings maxed though, I could tune it down and eliminate some stutters. Still wasn't able to win the mission in singleplayer.

 

This mission is on my list to player in multiplayer.

I will have to check out v1.3.

Will your campaign have support for singleplayer? I know you said it's coop, but would it be hard to tweak it for a singleplayer version?

 

This mission really makes me wish FC2 and Blackshark had 1 user interface. I hate having to close FC2 then start DCS to switch to the ka50.

 

Well, 1.3 is a lot easier to win single player because of the addition of AI A-10s. Even with no one flying the entire time, friendly ground troops will occasionally manage to capture the M4 bridge across the Kuban.

 

As far as developing it to a single player version as well, that can take a bit of work, and I've never had much interest in flying or making single player missions and campaigns. Once you fly multiplayer, you wonder why anyone bothers flying single player at all, different strokes for different folks I guess... Anyway, to convert, triggers have to be changed/deleted/added, AI aircraft have to be added and tested, and it needs to have a mission score system implemented and be put into a campaign. A multiplayer campaign works more simply by just using the "Load Mission" trigger action.

 

As far as playing with all settings maxed, there are indeed many settings that you can reduce and not notice any difference in graphics except for much higher frame rates...

Edited July 26, 2010 by Speed

[Skoop]

I've been flying alot more multiplayer lately and I see your point. I fly alot of single player because of the campaign storyline / part of a major engagement simulation. I'm a big Falcon 4.0 AF fan so thats why I like this mission cuz it kinda reminds me of a massive battle going on around you like falcon.

 

I haven't seen this mission hosted anywhere online yet, so I've played it in singleplayer only.

 

When you finish the campaign, I'd love to try it out.

[Slayer]

Any chance you can make this a modman pack? Much easier to remove/reinstall when you release newer versions.

[swtx]

Any chance you can make this a modman pack? Much easier to remove/reinstall when you release newer versions.

 

 

 

Plus 1

 

It would be a tremendous help ! :joystick:

[hachiman]

I have downloaded this, but not sure how to install. Any pointers?

Thanx

[Scooternutz]

Well, 1.3 is a lot easier to win single player because of the addition of AI A-10s. Even with no one flying the entire time, friendly ground troops will occasionally manage to capture the M4 bridge across the Kuban.

 

As far as developing it to a single player version as well, that can take a bit of work, and I've never had much interest in flying or making single player missions and campaigns. Once you fly multiplayer, you wonder why anyone bothers flying single player at all, different strokes for different folks I guess... Anyway, to convert, triggers have to be changed/deleted/added, AI aircraft have to be added and tested, and it needs to have a mission score system implemented and be put into a campaign. A multiplayer campaign works more simply by just using the "Load Mission" trigger action.

 

As far as playing with all settings maxed, there are indeed many settings that you can reduce and not notice any difference in graphics except for much higher frame rates...

 

The only single player flying I do is touch and gos and that is on our server. Multiplayer combat is where it is at!