Suggestion - Black Sea Ops-type pack for Su33?

[britgliderpilot]

With the upcoming release of Black Sea Ops for the F15, it's got me thinking about possibly creating a similar kind of pack for the Su33.

 

I'm not great at creating missions, but I do know a little bit about modding - and if one was to make some kind of big missionpack mod for the Su33, it could be combined with a whole heap of other stuff.

 

Examples:

 

- Modded menus a la BSO. There's enough photos of the Su33 on the Kuz to make that good fun ;)

 

- More realistic order of battle - see JJ_Alfa's mod. The MiG29K as an AI aircraft, and the additional ships, just to improve the naval aspect as possible.

 

- Following on from the above, a realistic escort/battle group for the Kuznetsov.

 

- Training flights in an modded Su25UTG at the beginning of the campaign - simulating conversion from experienced land-based pilot to naval aviator.

 

- Improved skins, aircraft numbering as per the Su33s based on the Kuznetsov, weathering.

 

- Missions employing the Su33 as intended - as a fleet defence aircraft. Definitely not saying no strike missions or Kh41 missions, but realistic taskings where possible.

 

- "Busy" missions, with additional units (e.g. AI flying in to your airfields, taxiing, parking up, choppers from the Kuznetsov group), weather, and so forth.

 

 

Does this sound fun to anyone?

 

I can do some of this on my own, but not nearly all - be asking for references and input from skinners and mission builders, JJ-Alfa for Russian naval aviation realism aspects, the Black Sea Ops crew for menu modding and mission design . . . . .

 

Videos would be great, but I'm not sure how practical it would be - it's always possible that Lomac videos could be supplemented in-campaign with videos drawn from real-world situations, of course. Works OK for F4:AF.

 

 

How about it?

[anivanov]

sounds great!!try to do it your own, then we"ll se is it good.

[MBot]

Cool idea. I realy like the puls that has come into Lock On missionbuilding lately. The shortage of missions has always been one of the biggest problems of LOMAC.

 

Personaly I am currently finishing up a Su-25 campaign that tries to make a more realistic approach on the employment of that aircraft.

[JaNk0]

sounds great!!try to do it your own, then we"ll se is it good.

 

what are u talking 'bout? o_O

[anivanov]

what are u talking 'bout? o_O

 

nothing, my english is not so good as i tought...........but we can"t know is this idea good before we play this, but in theory sounds grreaaaattt!!!!!!:D:D

[MBot]

What might be of a problem for such a Su-33 campaign is that it offers very little variety if done realistic. Basicaly you only get intercepts of martime patrol aircraft and defense against USN strike packages. This could get boring pretty soon.

 

This wouldn't be a problem for a sim like Jane's F/A-18, wich puts very much weight on carrier operations, in flight refueling, navigation, ATC and interaction with other aircraft etc. In such sims you spend much time operating the aircraft and steer it trough the mission, with the actual combat beeing only a small part of the whole expieriance. Lock On on the other hand spends most of it's attention on the combat phase with the rest of the mission being portrayed only rudimentary. This automaticaly generates a problem with aircraft that have little variety in the combat phase, like the Su-33 ( with realistic approach ).

 

The peace time operations that might spice up the Su-33's mission repertoir like intel gathering on ships and aircraft or force aircraft out of your airspace are unfortunatly not well doable with the limited editor of LOMAC.

 

 

So it might be advisable to rather make such a high-fi campaign for the Su-25 or A-10 wich have a much better base in Lock On ( altough far from being perfect ).

[anivanov]

but we can try to do something, it can"t be catastrophical or something bad.

[D-Scythe]

Well, unless you guys don't want to, maybe you guys should PM/email T-bone or something. I think he was planning to do a campaign for the Russian side, but it's hard to do with such a small team :(

 

Maybe you guys could initiate a Russian BSO spin-off? I dunno, just throwing ideas out there :)

[anivanov]

D-Scythe, maybe there is small number of us but i believe we ( or they ) can do this.it"s not hard to put some tags on the map, then organize them..........and mission description?there will always be someone who wants to write a lot.i think idea is original (or unless ED plans something simillar )!!:):)

[D-Scythe]

D-Scythe, maybe there is small number of us but i believe we ( or they ) can do this.it"s not hard to put some tags on the map, then organize them..........and mission description?there will always be someone who wants to write a lot.i think idea is original (or unless ED plans something simillar )!!:):)

 

Nah, I understand :) I was just wonderin', you know, cause T-bone was thinking of a Russian campaign, and thought that you guys might like banding together. Of course, if that's not what you want, then even better; another campaign for the community :)

[VVanks]

we're going to finish the F-15 campaign first then think about the Su campaign.

 

As long as the F-15 campaign is successful, then they're a good possibility we're making a Su version.

[britgliderpilot]

What might be of a problem for such a Su-33 campaign is that it offers very little variety if done realistic. Basicaly you only get intercepts of martime patrol aircraft and defense against USN strike packages. This could get boring pretty soon.

 

This wouldn't be a problem for a sim like Jane's F/A-18, wich puts very much weight on carrier operations, in flight refueling, navigation, ATC and interaction with other aircraft etc. In such sims you spend much time operating the aircraft and steer it trough the mission, with the actual combat beeing only a small part of the whole expieriance. Lock On on the other hand spends most of it's attention on the combat phase with the rest of the mission being portrayed only rudimentary. This automaticaly generates a problem with aircraft that have little variety in the combat phase, like the Su-33 ( with realistic approach ).

 

The peace time operations that might spice up the Su-33's mission repertoir like intel gathering on ships and aircraft or force aircraft out of your airspace are unfortunatly not well doable with the limited editor of LOMAC.

 

 

So it might be advisable to rather make such a high-fi campaign for the Su-25 or A-10 wich have a much better base in Lock On ( altough far from being perfect ).

 

Entirely agreed - but I like me my naval combat, so was thinking more of an enjoyable campaign, based around the realistic order of battle, with the occasional realistic mission.

 

Not saying they should ALL be realistic missions . . . . just some. Don't see many.

 

 

 

About the BSO thing - as I understand it, they're planning it to be 100 missions long in the end?

 

This may take a while, and I tend to be impatient ;)

In any case, I'd prefer to see a campaign for the Su33, rather than the Su27 . . . it's just a preference.

 

 

PM sent to T-Bone for some guidance as regards the menu modding.

 

 

MBot, I'm interested to hear about this Su25 campaign . . . how long, based where . . . . tell us more!

[MBot]

MBot, I'm interested to hear about this Su25 campaign . . . how long, based where . . . . tell us more!

 

The campaign is set on the Crimea, featuring a classic armoured war between Russia and NATO. The players Su-25 squadron is forward deployed to Kerch AB in support of the russian ground offensive, attacking various troop concentrations and command positions. The campaign is roughly orienting around the classic central european scenarion, altough disregarding the air-air aspect. As usual in my missions there will be "living" airbases, detailed sitreps/briefings and I spend much attention in setting up the targets. I tried to keep all missions realistic in regard to target selection, amounth of targets and weapon loadout to my best knowledge.

 

The campaign will be about 10 missions long and I hope to finish it in the next couple of days, then you can check it out yourselfe :)

[anivanov]

The campaign is set on the Crimea, featuring a classic armoured war between Russia and NATO. The players Su-25 squadron is forward deployed to Kerch AB in support of the russian ground offensive, attacking various troop concentrations and command positions. The campaign is roughly orienting around the classic central european scenarion, altough disregarding the air-air aspect. As usual in my missions there will be "living" airbases, detailed sitreps/briefings and I spend much attention in setting up the targets. I tried to keep all missions realistic in regard to target selection, amounth of targets and weapon loadout to my best knowledge.

 

The campaign will be about 10 missions long and I hope to finish it in the next couple of days, then you can check it out yourselfe :)

 

Is it gonna be for LOMAC?

[MBot]

Is it gonna be for LOMAC?

 

Sure :)

[T-Bone]

The plan is to use the same campaign storyline and expand it to allow the player to witness the story through the eyes of various pilots from other nations.

 

Some ideas we've tossed around:

1- Russian Su-33 campaign in 2007 Operation Anatolian Hawk which will be a prequel leading up to the current F-15 campaign

2- Ukrainian Su-27 campaign to parallel F-15 campaign

3- USAF A-10 campaign

4- Georgian Su-25T campaign

 

 

T-Bone

[britgliderpilot]

First (wobbly) steps for menu screens and order of battle.

 

The main loading screen is actually taken from Flanker2 - I'm not sure if it was ever actually used in that product, but for a naval expansion it works OK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone's got any REALLY clean logos to paste over the top of new backgrounds, that'd be kind of handy ;)

[Witchking]

looks amazing bgp.

 

The screen was used in flanker 2 for the options menu.

[Witchking]

First (wobbly) steps for menu screens and order of battle.

 

The main loading screen is actually taken from Flanker2 - I'm not sure if it was ever actually used in that product, but for a naval expansion it works OK.

 

 

 

wow...I can dream of LOMAC 2 looking really like that

[britgliderpilot]

wow...I can dream of LOMAC 2 looking really like that

 

To be honest, I think the only thing that's really impressive is the smoke and the water - think they're either rendered, or photos. Everything else is about the level we have at the moment.

 

We can dream, eh? ;)

 

 

After further fiddling, have another aim for Naval Uberpack - I've discovered how to fiddle with the in-game training menu, so I want to consolidate the Su25 and Su25T training into one category, and use the extra slot for Su25UTG and Su33 voiceover training tracks.

 

[Glowing_Amraam]

If such a campaign would become a reality, and you want in-game movies to further immerse the player, i'll gladly have a go at it.

 

But for now, BSO is the target. :cool:

[britgliderpilot]

If such a campaign would become a reality, and you want in-game movies to further immerse the player, i'll gladly have a go at it.

 

But for now, BSO is the target. :cool:

 

I'd very much like a 30-missions-plus Su33 campaign with videos ;)

 

 

However, for now I'm focussing on the modding side of it - would like to have it all there before I begin building missions.

 

I have vague ideas about what to do with storylines and live missions, so I'll start throwing those together in a little while . . . . will see how it goes, no major rush.

[anivanov]

First (wobbly) steps for menu screens and order of battle.

 

The main loading screen is actually taken from Flanker2 - I'm not sure if it was ever actually used in that product, but for a naval expansion it works OK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

how do you can manage this screens?

[britgliderpilot]

how do you can manage this screens?

 

Um, I'm not sure I understand the question.

 

 

Are you asking how I edited them, how I took the picture, or where I got the pictures from?

[britgliderpilot]

Fiddling with the tracks and voiceover at the moment - I didn't realise how much work Ironhand must put in to all his tutorials until I tried to do something similar!

 

Two reasonable tracks awaiting voiceover at the moment, anyway - next task on the list is adding JJ-Alfa's ships, then delving into SwingKid's Merzifon mod and seeing if I can incorporate that as well.

 

Campaign building will come when I've got the order of battle, menus, training, and pretty much the rest of the mod sorted. It'll probably take me that long to write a half-decent campaign plan anyway . . . . input from the BSO guys as to how they'd like a potential Su33 campaign to run would be greatly appreciated, too. See if they can indeed run side-by-side.