DCS Battlefield

[Bushmanni]

I finally got this mission into betatest condition. It takes the basic gameplay idea of BF but changes it quite a lot to fit in the DCS universe. The main differences are longer distances to drive and fly (although very short for DCS mission) and much more aircrafts and helicopters to use. It will take about 5min for aircrafts to get to battle area from their start location. This time only CA, A-10C and Ka-50 are included but I'm planning to add other modules later. All ground units will re-spawn indefinitely and instantly and can be controlled by pilots.

 

I will put up a server for betatest today (June 10th 2013) and it will be up from 19 to 23 (GMT+2 +1 (summer time)). There will be 64 slots open initially. If my connection (100/40 measured) or computer can't handle it, then I will lower the player limit. Unfortunately I can't provide Teamspeak server. Welcome everyone.

 

I would appreciate bug reports and feedback about game balance and other issues.

 

EDIT: I'm going to attach the latest version of the mission to the first post from now on.

DCS Battlefield beta 7.miz

Edited October 13, 2013 by Bushmanni
updated mission file

[Bushmanni]

Thanks for everyone who participated. I hope to hear your comments on the mission. For me fps was down to 15-30 when ground units started to slug it out en masse and I'd like to know if it was only a server problem or if clients suffered from it also. When there wasn't too much going on I had 40-50fps. The first thing I'm going to do is reduce the number of ground units as there was more than enough available so it shouldn't affect the feel of the mission much.

 

I also had some lua errors with respawn script. It was every time with a different unit and the errors always happened when there was lots of stuff going on. Unfortunately I didn't have time to read what it exactly said in the heat of the battle.

[Juuba]

Woot,

 

Sounds nice, any pictures or videos available?

Missed the "window" myself :(

[Rivvern]

I joined for a quick flight in the A-10c. I think this mission got lots of potential. With more people on the server and with good cooperation this could be a really intense and fun struggle for domination.

[Wolfie]

This is what DCS needs and what 99% of gamers want. We want a realistic BATTLEFIELD! Its why no one wants to buy these sims and why no one plays online. There are plenty of FPS gamers who would LOVE to learn to fly real aircraft, but the lack of any realistic vehicle and infantry modules, no enter-able buildings, and the lack of any good terrain/graphics totally TURNS THEM OFF! Back they go to BF3/BF4! DCS needs to be the new EVOLUTION in FPS/Flight Sim, not just a better 90's flight simulator. We need to be the new step-up from the old, tired ARMA. I am putting a lot of hope in what abilities EDGE might bring. I hope its good enough.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Wolfie

[Bushmanni]

I will put up the server again next Saturday 19-23 as before with an updated version of the mission. I'd like to hear comments about hot/cold startup. Right now with the hot start it takes about 5min to get back to action. The problem is that there's really no point to fly back for rearm or repair as it's lot quicker to just eject and respawn. With cold start it would be as fast to fly back for rearm but then it would take about 10min to get into action. I'm wondering if it's too much as one round will typically take about 50min. Then again it might give the ground pounder some break. I will host versions with hot and cold start and see what people think.

[IADC]

What a great concept to apply to DCS. never though of this but with CA of course its possible. Look forward to getting in and having a go with some of the ground vehicles. Yes I also have hopes for edge but nothing like the present to get practicing.

[IADC]

Could you pop a few hueys in there as well? What are you using as MCOM stations or capture flags?

[Bushmanni]

I have been trying to figure out some useful role for the Hueys but haven't figured out anything adequate yet. As a gunship the Shark is much more useful and deadly so Hueys role would have to involve troop transport in some way. That means that infantry would need to have some important role in the gameplay. One meaningful role would be to transport MANPADS and deploy them to where ever the pilot manages to sneak into. Other thing might be to force the flag capture involve infantry in some role. Currently infantry in DCS is pretty much cannon fodder so this is a bit complicated.

 

Currently the capture zone is marked by two TV-towers, the zone being a trigger zone between them. I'm using two towers so that one is on blue side and other on red side so that one of them will show on the map for both sides.

[daribouca]

Some feedback: this is __ awesome __ !

 

Thanks a lot for your time, much appreciated :thumbup:

[RagnarDa]

I have been trying to figure out some useful role for the Hueys but haven't figured out anything adequate yet.

I like the idea of your mission, and I had a quick look but haven't had a chance to play it in mp yet. About Hueys usefulness, I had an idea a while ago about extending my Medevac/SAR-script so that if the player brings home wounded, he is "rewarded" through new units get spawned in. It is already a working system like this in the script but it only spawns in clones of the units you brought back (if you brought back wounded from a group of 4 hummers, 4 hummers get spawned in with the exact same waypoints as the last one). I was thinking about adding a feature so that a mission-designer could choose specific units that would be spawned in. You would just list groups that you already put into the mission but deactivated and then the script will chose one of them to spawn a copy of. In your case it might be something more decisive to the battlefield, like fighters, bombers, high-capable air defences, or even landmines. How do that sound?

[IADC]

Yes Hueys dropping off manpads, could this be implimented using the F10 command once your in an area that a manpad can be dropped off in?

[Derk]

Great initiative!

 

For the huey part: Wolle wrote dynamic CSAR and infantry re-inforcement scripts that you might want to add into your mission. What it does is generate pick-up and insertion missions based on when a pilot ejects or an infantry group gets x casualties respectively. Ceck out the belsimtek/uh-1h forum or contact him through pm if you're interested.

 

Love the manpad insertion idea btw!

[Bushmanni]

Thanks for the ideas. I think I try the pilot rescue thing if I can make it work but it might take some time. Here's the current version for those who want to recon the battle area beforehand.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Bushmanni

[S77th-ReOrdain]

Thanks for the effort put into this. I think the concept is great and hope to have enough time to join into the battle at some point.

 

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the triggers you used to set up the scoring and noticed that the first two triggers don't have start conditions. Is this intentional? If so, how are you actually getting Mist and sct2 to run?

[VTJS17_Fire]

Good idea - had the same some time ago. But I'm not sure, if there are enough CA players here. :(

[Bushmanni]

If you don't provide any condition, it's assumed to be true.

 

Fortunately one ground commander can command all the ground units himself if needed or some of the pilots can do it also. In this mission the ground commanders won't have to sit idle as nothing is happening. During transit you can watch dogfights above you and it doesn't take long to get in to the battle yourself.

[S77th-ReOrdain]

If you don't provide any condition, it's assumed to be true.

 

Ahhh, I see. Thanks for this helpful info and the mission.

[Bushmanni]

Thanks for all who participated, comments are welcome as always. Next time will be monday night 19-22.

[Bushmanni]

Found and fixed a bug related to updating the ticket count. The updated mission file is attached to the first post.

[DieHard]

I finally got this mission into betatest condition. It takes the basic gameplay idea of BF but changes it quite a lot to fit in the DCS universe. The main differences are longer distances to drive and fly (although very short for DCS mission) and much more aircrafts and helicopters to use. It will take about 5min for aircrafts to get to battle area from their start location. This time only CA, A-10C and Ka-50 are included but I'm planning to add other modules later. All ground units will re-spawn indefinitely and instantly and can be controlled by pilots.

 

I will put up a server for betatest today (June 10th 2013) and it will be up from 19 to 23 (GMT+2 +1 (summer time)). There will be 64 slots open initially. If my connection (100/40 measured) or computer can't handle it, then I will lower the player limit. Unfortunately I can't provide Teamspeak server. Welcome everyone.

 

I would appreciate bug reports and feedback about game balance and other issues.

 

EDIT: I'm going to attach the latest version of the mission to the first post from now on.

 

I bought Arma 3 Alpha about 2 weeks ago and play a few servers in Multiplayer on GameSpy. Other than the simplistic helicopters, the infantry game play is fun as the hot-place-down-below. Bring DCS to this level of play and graphics card use and DCS will have a second to none gaming immersion. My single 4GB Asus GTX680 runs almost wide open.

 

The Ka-60 and the unarmed AH-9 bring the grunts to the fight, and usually under fire, landing in hot zones.

 

The MH-9 attack helicopter is fun with chain gun and rockets. What ArmA 3 calls a MH-9, I think is really a MH-6. Fun little critter. DCS needs one of these! :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD_Helicopters_MH-6_Little_Bird

 

 

ArmA 3 is in 32-bit.

 

If DCS refuses to give me what I want, I will just go elsewhere, and do.

Edited June 17, 2013 by DieHard

[Bushmanni]

I tweaked the capture zones positions for better gameplay and more intense ground battles. Also as a precursor for adding Huey, I gave each unit certain ticket value you will lose when it gets destroyed. For aircrafts you will also lose tickets if the pilot gets killed or ejects. Getting both plane and pilot blown to pieces will cost your side considerable amount of tickets as will quitting or switching planes in mid flight. If you get damaged but can bring the aircraft down safely and only then eject, you will lose less tickets than if you eject and let the aircraft crash. You won't lose any tickets if you can bring the airplane home in repairable condition. Of course it's also beneficial to eject closer to home base than behind enemy lines as it's faster to pick up the pilot and get him home for the tickets reward.

 

The next step will be adding ejected pilots on the ground that can be transported back to home base for getting back the lost tickets from ejection. With this I will also add the transportable MANPADS.

[Bushmanni]

The Huey transport script is ready and working and it's pretty cool. As I previously said now all the playable units will reduce your tickets when they get killed and aircraft will be much more expensive than ground units. With aircraft the ticket penalty is divided between aircraft and pilot, with the pilot being much more valuable. If aircraft crashes you will lose some tickets and if pilot dies or ejects you will lose some tickets. Ejection will now spawn a "pilot" (thanks to Wolle for an example script) and if you manage to bring him back to base you will get back the ticket penalty associated with the pilot, ie. about 70% of the initial loss. You can either order the pilot to walk home (using CA) or bring him home with a Huey.

 

With this in mind it's most favorable to bring the aircraft back home and repair it. If you can't land back to base the second most favorable option is to land safely somewhere and then eject and then get the pilot back to base. The third most favorable option is to eject over friendly territory and then get the pilot back to base. The least favorable option is to destroy the aircraft and get the pilot killed in the process or have him eject somewhere (like behind enemy lines besides AAA site) where he can't be brought back to base.

 

Huey is able to transport both ejected pilots and MANPADS. The cargo unit is loaded with radio trigger and this will generate another trigger for unloading him. You can have 9 units aboard before running out of room for triggers in the menu. The load trigger will search if there's transportable units within reach (<20m) and load the closest one if found.

 

If the Huey crashes while transporting cargo, the cargo units will die also and you will get the associated ticket penalty. If you crashland and survive, you can eject and the cargo units will also safely eject and can then be transported home or somewhere else with another Huey. For some reason you can eject Huey while in midflight but this will not spawn rescuable pilot and the cargo units will also die.

 

I will polish the mission a bit more by adding smoke markers for downed pilots and some voice messages about the game situation. I have also some other things planned but don't know if I have time to implement them.

 

I'm considering to make the Battlefield script so that anyone can build their own DCS Battlefield missions by simply placing units and trigger zones and then naming them correctly so that the script recognizes them. I might do it anyway as building more missions myself would be much more easier and faster that way. But does anyone else have interest in building this kind of missions?

 

The latest version of the mission is in the first post. I will put up my server possibly next Saturday at the usual time. I will confirm this later.

 

EDIT: I haven't been able to test this mission in multiplayer and there might be issues. If anyone can try it out and report I would appreciate it.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Bushmanni
not multiplayer tested

[Bushmanni]

Next Saturday is confirmed, 19-22, timezone GMT+2(+1 for summertime).

[Bushmanni]

I managed to get the smoke system working, ie. Huey pilot can request the downed pilots to throw a smoke grenade and every pilot within 1.5km will do so, unless they are clumped together in which case only one of them will. I also built a message system, so now it's possible to show messages to players along with the info screen. When pilot ejects, he's LL coordinates and beacon frequency is shown in a message for the pilots coalition. Updated mission file in the first post.