Campaign missions rework?

[ralfidude]

First off, hello! Apologies if this has been posted before.

 

I have bough FC1, FC2, DCS balck shark and Warthog and enjoyed all those games immensly. However there is one thing that I have had a gripe with for the longest time regarding the DCS series. Which would be the campaign.

 

From all the people I have spoken to, including all of those friends that I made them buy this game, that love this game to death, they all agree that the campaign is lacking severely.

 

I have now played through a ton of these campaign missions for the DCS a10 and i came to realization that I am confused.

 

I will try to point a few things out, and I would like to see if anybody else here agrees with me about these points or at least some of them, in hopes that the DCS team can get the right feedback to perhaps design a much better system for their next DCS series, that I hear they are already working on (some fixed wing aircraft, i would love to know what it is).

 

 

The one biggest complaint I have been hearing is about the mission end. It seems that when you complete the mission, there is a messege at the top right corner that comes on very briefly and inconspicuously that lets you know you have done your job. This is a biggy, since half the time we get this messege, we are in a serious situation doing 15 things at once, and can and very frequently do miss that little text. Unknowingly that we have done our mission, we continue to engage targets and sometimes die as a result which is never fun, even though you move on to our next mission, it's still quite a big gripe on our part.

 

That also brings about issue, that it brings on absolutely no incentive to continue the campaign. When you see the mission is complete, all you do is press escape and exit, though the ones that love this game for it's complexity go all the way home and finish it to the end like I do, just because I like landing the aircraft as I do here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LN9N8S7yfg

 

I always have a bad feeling when pressing escape and quitting the game like that. It makes me feel that I have quit the game without finishing it. I just do not get a satisfaction out of completing a level at all. It's missing that component that makes it a single player mission campaign. There are numerous ways of fixing that, like making an audio tone to let you know you are done with perhaps text in the middle of the screen? Additionally you can grade the player at the end of the mission for the level of completion, such as completing the mission, and killing an additional number of units, and landing the aircraft back at main. Also to include a mission complete button to exit, so that you know you have completed the mission and are good to go.

 

Another point to bring up is the JTAC. There are missions that are extremely vague. Those missions are the ones where you essentially escort friendly armor units that are supposed to move through one or two checkpoints. Such a mission is so ambiguous that you are flying in blind to whatever is there. However, we are fine with that because we think the Jtac will help. JTAC though seems to want to fixate on targets that are not part of your mission at all. They fail to essentially help you out in completing what you are tasked to do 90% of the time.

 

There are a few night missions that consists of taking out some arbitrary target in the middle of an AA ridded territory, but instead of the JTAC spotting out any AA targets along the way, though they do mention if there is AA present, they will spot out some armor target that is completely not part of your mission plan in the middle of an AA warzone right next to the actual targets you are supposed to hit.

 

I am not sure if this is part of how you meant to create the game, and if it is, then I apologize, however from a players stand point of view, we often like to seek additional targets on occasion, hence why we call JTAC. However we like to seek JTACs help in finding high priority targets that are part of our missions as well. Would be amazing if we could ask the JTAC to prioritize targets such as perhaps long range AA, or any AA of any sort that might be in the area, instead of that idle tank in the middle of nowhere, that is not part of anybody's plan, that is posing absolutely no danger to anybody at the moment.

 

We also do not have the capability of being able to replay a mission over if we are not satisfied with how we performed, which is understandable to a degree, but perhaps a lighter mode might be available to a player (like enabling recover if you die) that allows you to replay a certain mission if you would like.

 

In the end, I do not mind the complexity of the missions they are fun, even if there are a million units doing a battle in 14 differnt places at once, bruning my processor for no apparent reason even though my only mission is to blow up a bridge and rtb, but some people like that and I guess its for the best. However these missions lack a level of ranking up or progressing in skill as you go through.

 

I went on with some missions that seemed to get tough, and tougher, just how it should be, until a point where I keep dying over and over due to an AA ridded location on a target zone, then all of a sudden, I am tasked with a mission right after that one, that is easier than the first mission of the campaign, with no AA, and only to blow up 4 targets then rtb. There seems to be no flow to the type of missions that were designed, and it is sadly quite depressing. After doing such a mission, i feel a sense of being let down by the game. Had i known it would have been this easy, I would have done this or that differenly, or SOMETHING in order to spice it up or make it fun. I just thought, that based on that last mission, it would be at least a little bit more of a challenge...

 

Do not get me wrong, i LOVE this game, I would just like to see the DCS crew grow in designing these campaigns to the players expectations in their future builds.

Edited October 11, 2011 by ralfidude

[711Hancer]

just one point regarding JTAC;

 

in campaign missions there are generally two JTACs and one Predator (in Georgian Hammer example) and if your mission is to escort M1 and M2s to specific locations, you have to talk with specific JTACs at specific times.

 

For example:

 

Im sure that you know sending SEADs and CAPS in campaign. But what is essential is to use the remaining CAS (again using Georgian Hammer example) and the JTACs

 

First of all you have to contact the correct JTAC which is closest to the checkpoints. after you completed your attacks (and so does your wingman) you call the remaining CAS and give the move order to the tank only. After couple of minutes you order the bradleys to move out

 

then you contact the predator and/or the same JTAC. If all is OK, you can check the other JTAC for avaiable targets since there might be some reinforcements coming if you are late.

 

Im sure that you are familiar with all these stuff but I just wanted to point them again.

 

I liked the Georgian Hammer campaign. A bit repatetive on the missions but it was fun and you can always check your mission status by pressing " key. If its 100 then its completed.

 

Generally the airfields you have to land after completing the mission are no more than 40nm in distance and the landing procedure takes approximately 15 mins. Spending 30-45 mins on a mission and generally a campaing mission takes approx 1 hour. Like you, Im against quitting before landing.

 

But the thing I do not like about the campaign is that it has 2 different missions. Taking out a bridge or static, killing tanks, BMP or arty (&75 of the time).

 

What I would like to see is specific covert ops missions like the HIDEOUT single mission or CSARS or defending a base.

 

we need more variety of missions in campaign.

[ralfidude]

Yep, i like that too. One server brought a game mode from FC2.0

 

The terrorist hunt map. Where big red trucks that are suicide vehicles, are driving down a road, and supposed to blow up an airport.

 

You need to individually find them all but along the route, there are massive emplacements of long range and short range AAs that prevent you from getting too close.

 

The best part is blowing up one of those trucks. MASSIVE explosion. I literally sit on the edge of my seat the whole game.