Bunyap

Thanks @LordOrion. Steerpoint 8 and 9 were added to allow engagement of the two known SAM sites in the AGM-88 'Known Location' mode if the player chooses. I will make sure that is clarified in the briefing. I didn't intend for the player to do anything other than pop the SAMs from long range if they go active and maybe help out with the air threat. I definitely didn't intend that to be flown as part of the route, especially considering the location of that extra HQ-7. Thanks for pointing it out.

Ah, got it. Thanks a lot.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. I totally agree about the F10 mission loading. Splitting the missions up was the most heartbreaking and demoralizing thing I have had to do in DCS, and that is saying a lot. In finalizing the design, I had to keep the tasks that were described by the Constant Peg pilots like the BFM setups as authentic as possible while ensuring they work 100% of the time, without fail. That meant sacrificing authenticity in other areas like fuel management and navigation. There are many points where things break down when they are flown as one continuous mission. Taking the idea of spawning new F-15s as an example, to have them engage the player immediately would result in head-on engagement after head-on engagement. That would not be at all what they did in Constant Peg. To go with that would defeat the purpose of consulting with the real participants. To have the newly spawned F-15 form up on the player in the correct position for BFM could take a minute or two, or it could never happen. It all depends on the player's location, altitude, airspeed and other actions taken after the F-15 spawns. There is just no way to ensure things happen correctly 100% of the time while accounting for player actions, AI behavior and changes to the way things work in DCS from update to update. The campaign was full of problems like these to solve. I hate it. I tried for almost four years to find a way to make these work well as one mission. In the end, this was the only way and I think it works pretty well. I was surprised to find they did not do that for FWIC sorties. According to our sources, those were always one engagement then RTB. The exception was the final Red Flag arrival show in 1988 that is replicated here in mission 10. They received special permission to regenerate at Tonopah that one time. I strongly suspect they did it other times, but not during the period our sources were part of the program, or at least not that they recall.

Thanks, I really appreciate that.

Thanks so much for the great suggestions, and thanks especially for understanding the challenges involved. When deciding to leave the F-15s immortal, I asked myself if there was any situation where the 'dead' aircraft would cause problems before the engagement terminates. If you noticed it, then the answer is probably 'yes'. This only comes up one other time in mission 9. I will consider alternatives and tighten that aspect up if possible. Your idea about splitting the F-15s up into two groups would absolutely work. I think there was a bug for a long time that prevented 'hits' from being detected on immortal aircraft. (That is one of the many reasons I delayed submitting the campaign since 2018.) If you try it again, I think you will find the 'UNIT HITS' trigger actually does act as 'unit takes a hit'. The more reliable solution would be to have the F-15s destroyed like on a normal mission. Until recently, the mission flowed from startup to shutdown without the need for new missions to be loaded. The aircraft had to stay immortal or the mission would be over after the first engagement. So many things change or stop working from DCS update to DCS update, I had so split the missions up like they are now to keep them working 100% of the time. In hindsight, the need for the blue aircraft to be immortal is not as urgent now. I'll put some more thought into it and see if there is anything I can do to keep the situation you describe from coming up again. Thanks again!

Corrected in latest update. Hi all, I have noticed that the latest version of the mission files did not make it into the campaign release. To make a long story short, leave the radio on the default channel (Channel 0) for wingman and GCI controller comms if the mission includes them, and not Channel 1 as listed in the briefing documents. This should be corrected in the next DCS update, where either channel will work. I intentionally avoided reliance on radio communication using the DCS systems so, even if you use CH 1 as briefed, the impact will be minimal. Sorry for any confusion.

Hi everybody, thanks a lot for your interest in this campaign. The nature of the Constant Peg operations make them a challenge to replicate as standard DCS: World missions, so I have prepared a short video to show what you can expect. I want to make it perfectly clear what this is and what this isn't, so you can make an informed decision on whether to purchase it or not. The subject matter was not picked for its wide appeal, but rather as a passion project for Steve Davies and myself. Steve, of course, literally wrote the book on Constant Peg and was a great help in preparing the campaign. Definitely check out his 10 Percent True: Tales from the Cockpit podcast when you get a chance. My own interest stems from brief encounters with the people, places and aircraft over the years. I had no idea at the time, but a few of my earliest mentors were aircraft maintainers who had worked on the Constant Peg MiGs. These were the most hard working, knowledgeable, inventive, but passionately 'by the book' people you would ever meet, mostly because they wrote the procedures in the first place. Their lessons continue to have a profound effect on me to this day. To carry what is essentially a product trailer on my own personal Youtube gaming channel would be out of the question, so I have left the video unlisted. However, feel free to share the link elsewhere if you see any merit in it. Thanks again for your interest and we hope you enjoy the campaign.

Thanks all, I really appreciate that.

Thanks for letting me know! There was a change to F-16C steerpoints recently so they are no longer automatically at ground level. I submitted new files and this should be resolved in the next update. I believe it only affected mission 1 and 9. Oops, I must have mis-clicked while moving static objects around recently. I will get that squared away. For now, this shouldn't affect the mission outcome at all other than looking bad.

Thanks, I really appreciate that.

Yes indeed. I tried to plan ahead and include coordinates in the correct format in the briefings. I'll need to verify that though. One pass on all four DMPIs should be fun. I am wrapping up another project for the next few weeks but I can't wait to return to this and try it.

Thanks @draconus. The weather will not be drastically different but there are a lot of details added to make the missions more user friendly. You can skip to mission 5 by exiting the first four missions after mission start if you would like. You will get credit for completing them and be able to move on no matter what.

I am so sorry about that. Here are the files: F-15C Red Flag 16-2 Documents It looks like this happened on the original release as well. The cause has been identified and fixed so all should be well in the next update.

Hi LordOrion, I agree, that is a little too tough. Mission 7 is the only one that did not do well with the new weather. I have submitted updated files for all missions so hopefully it will be available in the next update after today's. When we get JDAMs with INS/GPS guidance, that would be an interesting mission though. The most game-changing aspect of the new clouds isn't necessarily the visuals, it is that they extend over the entire map. The targets in all but the shortest 'instant action' style missions always had clear skies because no clouds were rendered that far away from the starting point. It is great that cloud cover set by the designer matters now.

Thanks DS, these are all great points. I am constantly making tweaks to the missions and documents so I will see what I can do. I put a lot of thought into how to handle it and, if anything, I would have deactivated all AI flights as they approach Nellis. I think though, if you saw the amount of work that went into getting the AI flights to that point in the first place without flying into terrain, running out of fuel, aborting their attack, shooting themselves down, etc you would, a. question my sanity and b. understand why I said 'enough is enough - no more work-arounds' at this point in the mission. I know fixes are coming eventually so I do not want to spend a lot of time on custom ATC or anything like that. I am far more concerned with how well things go for both the player and strike package in the target area , and I hope it shows. I know recovery is a weak point in these missions (all DCS missions actually), but I have to take the developers at their word that AI improvements and the new ATC are coming. These are very long-standing and long-reported problems. I am the eternal optimist.