Vergeev Campaign - Mission 01/20

[BeachAV8R]

 

I'd been planning to play this payware campaign for a long time, but never got around to it. The Vergeev Group campaign was originally slated to contain 100 missions. As far as I'm aware, the only phase released was Vergreev Group 1/10 representing the first 20 missions of the planned 100 mission campaign. I'm not sure why the project was discontinued, if it will ever be revived, or any future plans. The website is still up and the first set of missions can still be purchased ($4.57) here: Vergeev Group

 

I have no idea if this campaign will work with DCS World BS2, but I am attempting it. I know a lot of changes have been made to the DCS World mission editor over the years and perhaps some of the Vergreev Group missions will be broken. For that reason - unless there is a clarification from the developer, I'd urge caution before purchasing the product with unrealistic expectations. (You could always run it with BS1 ver 1.0.2 as it was originally written for..)

 

 

I've started a new pilot for the Vergeev Campaign, although I don't know if the campaign will play out properly (I may have to play it as a series of individual missions).

 

 

Our first mission is a local area familiarization flight in the area around Sochi-Adler airfield. The instructions are in English, but the grammar is a bit shaky. One could imagine perhaps being a foreign exchange pilot trying to fit into a Russian helicopter unit.

 

The familirization flight is explicit in the requirement to hit all of the waypoints and extreme care must be taken not to wander across the border into Georgia.

 

 

Once again, back in the Black Shark. I was a bit rusty at first, but after a bit I began to get comfortable with her once again. I've mentioned it before that flying and fighting the Ka-50 is about as rewarding an experience as you can have in a sim.

 

 

After receiving permission to depart I start out on the flight plan.

 

 

The text messages are supplemented with extensive recorded radio messages. The composition of the messages and feeling of getting a real tour are quite good indeed.

 

 

I faintly recalled the ability to slave the autopilot to the PVI-800. I've never understood why you couldn't also slave the autopilot to the ABRIS - that would be a welcomed "upgrade" to the Black Shark! I keep my altitude around 100 meters and speed at around 150 kph.

 

 

As we tick off the waypoints the narrative continues, giving me some background on the recent history of the border area.

 

 

Approaching the border I slow a bit so as to not have such a large radius of turn - but I make a crucial mistake that almost ruins the mission. I forgot that the PVI-800 only stores a maximum of six waypoints. Upon reaching the border, the ROUTE mode of the autopilot just wanted to continue forging ahead! A quick snatch of the controls was necessary to keep from violating Georgian airspace.

 

 

On the border, a Russian checkpoint looks over the river toward the Georgian side.

 

 

Paralleling the border we fly back to the west and continue the tour.

 

 

We cross a valley that descends from the mountains into Sochi-Adler. It is apparently a frequent target of attacks by the enemy.

 

 

 

After a few more waypoints with descriptions we are dumped out on a final waypoint on the downwind leg.

 

 

 

The Vergeev Campaign developer mentions that the philosophy of the campaign is to work into progressively more challenging missions. The local area tour is a perfect beginning to the campaign.

 

 

After the first mission, I am suitably impressed with the radio messages and the start of the campaign storyline. I'm sure a LOT of work had to go into the radio messages - which may be an indicator of why the project was halted. I'll be anxious to see how the rest of the missions play out and whether they maintained their integrity even though they are being flown in a highly updated DCS World environment.

 

Stay tuned...

 

BeachAV8R

[Yurgon]

Great read as always! Keep'em coming! :)

[Griffin]

Thanks for sharing! Everything from the campaign to your screenshots looks great! Keep us informed about the compatibility at least. I will be more than happy to pay only 4.57 $ for a quality campaign! It's a shame that simming is such a niche market (let alone only BS2) that it's probably not worth it for them to continue making this campaign. Maintaining compatibility between all the DCSW version change must be hell and constant work.

 

The only way to get more customers and spread the risk, I would assume, is to make a short 20 mission campaign for each DCS module, price them 5-10 $ and if on some module the sales are beyond expectations, they should do maybe some sequel for that particular module.

[alexej21]

Great pictures :thumbup:

 

Thank you for this thread. Please keep posting...

[Madman777]

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing. I didn't even know there was a campaign you pay for! And 20 missions long! That's excellent.

 

I love long campaigns. I've flown Georgian Oil War several times, so I could use a change.

[roob]

I have a question.

 

I downloaded the demo campaign and when I fly it I just get a missing texture skin on my chopper. Did you download that skin? I've also noticed that I get a missing texture a lot when I play online as Russia and I can't understand why. I went through the russian skins, all works and I don't seem to have the one you're using.

[Gunnergolly]

roob....

 

I believe it's this skin he uses:-

 

Available from here :-

 

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/216944/

 

I might have to install it myself as it looks nice :)...

[BeachAV8R]

Gunner has it right. And the default skin for the whole Vergeev campaign appears to be missing (or renamed?) in BS2 - so all I do is simply go into the Mission Planner (not editor!) while briefing (you should be doing this anyway..to double check the flight plan and loadout) and change the skin there.

 

Regards..

BeachAV8R

[roob]

Thank you guys! :) Will give it another go and see if it works.

[Yurgon]

Check out Vergeev Group Campaign UPDATED!!

 

Apparently BBQ reworked the entire campaign for DCS 1.2.6 compatibility! :thumbup:

[dsobbe]

I am still using Black Shark 1. Is the original Vergeev Group that runs in that version still available. If so, where can I obtain a copy? Is it available in English? And, if payware, who accepts PayPal?

 

Thanks

[the_soupdragon]

you can get it here

 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/1074179/

 

I am not sure how it plays in the latest versions of DCS but it is a great campaign. If it works you will really enjoy it.

 

SD

[Johnny Dioxin]

The version you have linked to is for BS2 - OP said he is using BS1. Might be problems.

 

Try looking or asking here:

 

http://vergeev-campaign.blogspot.co.uk/

 

The original site seems to be no longer running - but as the blog is still up, you might be able to ask leroni. I do believe he is a member here, too.

 

PS - the demo is still downloadable from that blog ;)

 

PPS - yes, you can seemingly still purchase the original BS1 campaign (this from the link on that blog):

 

http://www.oplata.info/asp2/pay_wm.asp?id_d=999130

Edited March 12, 2017 by Brixmis

[the_soupdragon]

Ah! missed that.

I actually purchased teh original files for BS1 but have lost them along the way.

Sorry

 

SD

[dsobbe]

Downloading now. Thanks for help guys.

 

Well, not quite. The above links are either no longer working or don't accept PayPal. Anyone have another suggestion?

Edited March 12, 2017 by dsobbe
Update

[Johnny Dioxin]

You could always try sending the dev a pm ;)

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/member.php?u=7834

 

btw I still have my original campaign files (I bought it on release, too) - if Leroni says it's okay, I can send you them. He made it free for the later modded version that SD linked to, so he might let you have the original for free, too.

Edited March 12, 2017 by Brixmis

[metzger]

I wonder if its gonna work on 1.5?

 

Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk

[dsobbe]

You could always try sending the dev a pm ;)

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/member.php?u=7834

 

btw I still have my original campaign files (I bought it on release, too) - if Leroni says it's okay, I can send you them. He made it free for the later modded version that SD linked to, so he might let you have the original for free, too.

 

Thanks for the link. I sent Leroni a post asking if Vergeev Group would work with Black Shark 1.01. Don't have an answer yet. But, I seem to recall that the first "version" did. At least the demo files worked. So it's likely that your copy would. I haven't seen a source for the original files. I would greatly appreciate it if you can send a copy to me.

[Johnny Dioxin]

Still using 1.0.1? Did you not want to patch to 1.0.2? I think it was a good patch, iirc, though I know a lot of people had problems (including myself) installing it.

 

That turned out to be due to anti-malware progs stepping in and messing it up.

 

Or do you think 1.0.1 is better than 1.0.2?

 

pm sent btw

[dsobbe]

Still using 1.0.1? Did you not want to patch to 1.0.2? I think it was a good patch, iirc, though I know a lot of people had problems (including myself) installing it.

 

That turned out to be due to anti-malware progs stepping in and messing it up.

 

Or do you think 1.0.1 is better than 1.0.2?

 

pm sent btw

 

I too had a lot of trouble with 1.0.2, unrelated to other programs. And considering DCS's history of patches and fixes for all of the follow-on versions with the only real improvement being graphics, decided to stick with 1.01. It just works.

[Johnny Dioxin]

Ah, that's fair enough.