Operation Cherkessk - Multiplayer (coop 8) & single player mission.

[Speed]

We flew this mission last night, and had a blast. We had, on average, five pilots in there. I decided to do something a little different in this mission... back in my Falcon days, I did alot of SEAD in the 164th squadron of the 16th. So I used the F7 external view to get the lat and longs of major SAM sites- SA-10, SA-11, and SA-15. I created custom waypoints for each. Then we set out to do SEAD! On the way there, an SA-8 was reported which we managed to find and destroy. Then another pilot and I went low. I took out the SA-15, and then we both headed for the SA-11. Unfortunately, the SA-11 is out kinda in the middle of a flat plain... so suddenly I found myself face to face with him at 5 miles. I dropped to less than 40 feet, but he still hit me... not before I got off two mavs, which hit the snow drift and a launcher. With my aircraft in flames and missing a wing, I kamikazed into a second launcher. Meanwhile, the other guy was firing off mavs and managed to take out all but one launcher. Then he spotted some KA-50s overhead. With mavericks still selected, he fired a maverick on each helo. One helo exploded into tiny pieces, but the other maverick detonated 20 meters behind the second Kamov. He then decided to attack with guns- NOT A GOOD IDEA. He was shot to pieces and ejected.

 

My shootdown/kamikaze attack and his being shot down by helos were the only losses we took doing SEAD. I found a nice litle pocket in the hills from which I popped up and fired a maverick on the SA-10 tracking radar, then dipped back down into while the maverick was in flight. It hit and destroyed the radar. We finished the site off with guns and JDAMs.

 

So perhaps limited and unrealistic (but fun) SEAD against SA-10s and SA-11s is possible in the A-10, at least if it is hilly enough. I am pretty sure you can go low enough that they can't fire on you- perhaps you need to be at 20 feet. THat might work for flatter areas...

 

Tommy, there were some former Falcon 4 jockeys (well, we are almost all former F4 jockeys) in our squad bemoaning the lack of air to air combat in DCS A-10. Do you mind if we modify this mission a little? Like put in some SU-25Ts with Archers or Aphids?

[MadTommy]

You could put tasking in a 3 minute loop which will continue until someone in the flight responds (i.e.RADIO ITEM ADD) to the tasking e.g 'Callsign COPY THAT, WILL ASSIST' or something.

 

With regard to multiplayer crashes, I have found that quite often the JTAC/FAC is the problem which is why I removed him from Op Talisker. Also activating too many units on a trigger causes momentary Lag. I also had an issue with an AI F-15e dropping guided munitions crashing the game for some reason, so he went out of the mission too.

 

Unfortunately the RADIO ITEM ADD trigger only works for the server host. another SP feature it would seem. Originally i used this to trigger the next tasking.

 

But i will make the tasking instructions repeat every 10 minutes in future, so if you do arrive late and no one knows the present tasking the mission can continue.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I think I'm missing something here, but when flying with a few other people, we use the UHF 258 channel to get targets, but there is also 255 and 251. I've tried (as host and client) to be on the other freqs, but never get anything from the AFAC... Maybe Beta 2 will be different, or maybe I will be. Otherwise, we really love flying this mission because of the randomness.

 

TBH the AFAC / JTAC is a bit crap in this version.. i'll attach one where they work better. Try this one... check attachments. (its a WIP version.. AFAC is working better)

 

Tommy, there were some former Falcon 4 jockeys (well, we are almost all former F4 jockeys) in our squad bemoaning the lack of air to air combat in DCS A-10. Do you mind if we modify this mission a little? Like put in some SU-25Ts with Archers or Aphids?

 

Yeah no worries, maybe you can post it up so we can try it as well :)

 

Glad you enjoyed it.. yeah SEAD is fun on this mission, especially as everything moves about each time you fly it! But F7.. pfft that's just cheating! ;)

Operation_Cherkessk.v2.1(wip).miz

Edited January 31, 2011 by MadTommy

[Speed]

Glad you enjoyed it.. yeah SEAD is fun on this mission, especially as everything moves about each time you fly it! But F7.. pfft that's just cheating! ;)

 

It's OK, I'm not using F7. TIR, even after I disabled its use of the keystroke, still intercepts and destroys every F7 keypress I attempt. So I didn't use F7, I used RCNTRL + NUMPAD 7 :thumbup:

 

The way I figure it, pilots would know without a doubt exactly where these SAM sites are before hand, through the oodles of electronic warfare/reconaissance aircraft the USAF possesses. F-16Cs would get them IRL, but it's more fun to kill them without super long range anti-radar missiles.

[S77th-konkussion]

Madtommy- I removed a couple of units from this mission for hosting on our server- No one could get within 20 miles of the "hangars" objective. But when I exited the editor- I got a "cannot save- invalid frequency" error on the A10's.

 

Eventually I got it to accept 255 as valid- but I was wondering if you had a better idea?

 

We flew it again last night- and it seemed to be OK. Although I thought we'd seen more targets come up before the JTACS signed off in previous sessions...

[-NFlight-]

If you can't get to the hangars, you are approaching from the wrong direction. :)

[MadTommy]

Madtommy- I removed a couple of units from this mission for hosting on our server- No one could get within 20 miles of the "hangars" objective. But when I exited the editor- I got a "cannot save- invalid frequency" error on the A10's.

 

Eventually I got it to accept 255 as valid- but I was wondering if you had a better idea?

 

We flew it again last night- and it seemed to be OK. Although I thought we'd seen more targets come up before the JTACS signed off in previous sessions...

 

The mission needs updating, there have been some changes to the radios frequencies allowed by flights. The threats are independent of the targets, and yes sometime it can be very difficult to get close enough to the hangers.. however i'd suggest you persist as whie it may be tough it is very possible. But you can edit it as you want, i don't care. If you use teamwork it is more than possible.. flying as solos might make it near impossible if you get the worst possible threat configuration.

 

If you can't get to the hangars, you are approaching from the wrong direction. :)

 

^^ This and teamwork are what's needed...basically you might need to 'distract & deplete' the threats OR fly LOOOW. Its not always easy.. but that is what i like about it myself.

 

But when i have time i'll post up a new version....

 

PS i did post up a low threat version.

Edited March 4, 2011 by MadTommy

[S77th-konkussion]

It's fine- but one other question: We all got stumped by the roadblock target. Looked like total destruction- but mission never did move on to next one. What could we have missed? About 8 bombs were dropped on the site.

[MadTommy]

^^ that was a problem on an early version, there is an error with a trigger. Either download it again or if you want use this version attached.. It has some new tasks.

 

The trigger pointed to the road block static.. which appears to be indestructible, as you have found out, rather than the group that it should have been set to.

 

The link on the 1st post should not have the problem with the road block.

Operation_Cherkessk.v2.2(wip).miz

[S77th-konkussion]

Ahh nice. I will thanks. That roadblock piece was my primary suspect. I hit that sucka DEAD on with a LGB- AI laughter ensued.

 

I didn't gut the older one- not even close. The units were just slightly moved. It's still nearly impossible to get near those hangars by yourself. Basically- the "no fly zone" went from a radius of about 20 miles to about 14 lol...

[Speed]

Ahh nice. I will thanks. That roadblock piece was my primary suspect. I hit that sucka DEAD on with a LGB- AI laughter ensued.

 

I didn't gut the older one- not even close. The units were just slightly moved. It's still nearly impossible to get near those hangars by yourself. Basically- the "no fly zone" went from a radius of about 20 miles to about 14 lol...

 

Well, if you are up for a good challenge, use the F7 view, get the coordinates for the various SAM sites, and have one or two guys do SEAD for the rest of the people flying the regular mission objectives. IRL, the pilots would know exactly where those SAMs are, as they make no attempt to hide, so it's not unrealisitic to have their coordinates. It IS unrealistic to attack SA-11 or SA-10 with A-10s (IRL you would of course use something like an F-18 or F-16), but that can be overlooked due to the fun factor :) You gotta fly very low, and pop up on those SAM sites at around 7 miles, and fire a Maverick (Ds are best), and get the hell down while it's in flight. After you kill the Gauntlets, Grumbles and Gadflies, then there if no reason you should be shot down the whole rest of the mission if you just maintain the simple discipline of staying above angels twenty-four. Geckos can shoot up to angels 22 I think, so you'll want to eliminate them too. Certainly, if you're crusing around at 24 and you see one pop up, either get to 26 or fly around it.

Edited March 4, 2011 by Speed

[MadTommy]

Ahh nice. I will thanks. That roadblock piece was my primary suspect. I hit that sucka DEAD on with a LGB- AI laughter ensued.

 

I didn't gut the older one- not even close. The units were just slightly moved. It's still nearly impossible to get near those hangars by yourself. Basically- the "no fly zone" went from a radius of about 20 miles to about 14 lol...

 

There are 4 different threat layouts... sometimes the hanger mission is a bitch other times easy...

[xepoti]

Hi,

 

I like the idea of a SEAD strike on the SAM sites before going in on the tasks.

 

Are the sam sites generated at random location each time, or can I use the same coords for the sites each time i fly the mission?

 

Thanks,

 

Xepoti.

[MadTommy]

Hi,

 

I like the idea of a SEAD strike on the SAM sites before going in on the tasks.

 

Are the sam sites generated at random location each time, or can I use the same coords for the sites each time i fly the mission?

 

Thanks,

 

Xepoti.

 

There are 4 separate 'environment' layouts, these are independent of the tasks. The environment is made up of SAMs, AAA, convoys, and fluff. One of the four 'environments' is activated at the mission start. Lets call these A, B, C & D. There are also four sets of tasks, each containing four individual tasks, say E, F, G & H

 

So one time you might get environment B with task G. The next time you play the mission you might get environment A with task H. So there are a fair few different scenarios possible. So its not random in the true meaning of the word, but it is variable. So yes the SAMs move around.

 

I had planned to use the Add Radio Item to allow clients to call on SEAD help when they wanted it.. but unfortunately this trigger does not work in multiplayer. But i'll think about other ways to do this for a future version.

[xepoti]

Thanks for the quick reply.

so too many combinations, to just write the sam locations before launching the missions.

How many sam sites more or less spawn each mission?

[MadTommy]

Below is an extract from the excel sheet i used to make the mission:

 

Flags 50, 60, 70 & 80 represent the threat environments. (Not all but the important parts)

 

So for example there are 4 Shilka groups in each environment; Flag 50 has Shilka group 1, 5, 9, & 13. etc etc.

 

[TABLE]DEFENCE Flag

Type 50 60 70 80

Shilka grp 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

 

12

13

14

1

2

 

Tunguska 1

2

3

 

4

5

6

7

8

 

SA-10 S-300PS 1

2

1

2

 

SA-11 Buk 1

2

3

4

 

Sm Arm Convoy 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

 

51 61 71 81

SAM SA-15 Tor 1

2

3

4

 

SAM SA-8 Osa 1

2

3

4

 

Mixed Sam 1

2

3

4

[/TABLE]