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Review of the Oilfield Campaign and Interview of the Developer


Simicro

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Hi all,

 

Since my arrival in the DCS community I received great support and enjoyed quality material (and more particularly Devrim’s Mi-8 english cockpit and Chuck’s guides). So in return I wanted to make a small contribution. Please find below my review of the Oilfield Campaign.

 

It features an interview of the developer, in which you will find out the genesis of the addon, the roles of the many team members and contributors, and what was going on behind the scene during the development stage.

 

Thanks to :

  • Laivynas for responding positively to an interview request coming from an unknown guy (me)
  • Cibit for his kind and valuable copy proof reading and thanks to

 

Disclaimer: I did my best to avoid spoilers. However, be advised that depending on your own definition of "spoiler", you might find some.

 

Click on the yellow button below to read the full review.

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=248059&stc=1&d=1600806976

Oilfield_Review.thumb.jpg.31f141d9ebf137da7b9ea81c4ec5d3a4.jpg


Edited by Simicro
  • Thanks 1

- Tony -

. My Reviews: Oilfield Campaign - Argo Campaign l My Mission: Huey Ramp Start Voice-Over New!

. Microsoft Force Feedback 2 base modded with a CH Fighterstick - VKB Sim T-Rudder Mk.IV Pedals

. Intel i5 4670K @4.3 GHz - 32 Gb DDR3 - MSI GTX 1080 - ASUS PG278QR 27" 2K @165 Hz G-Sync

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  • ED Team

Enjoyed reading, thanks for posting and giving us voice actors a mention :)

  • Like 2

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Very interesting reading .. I liked the interview with the author, it gives users a glimpse of what it takes to create a Campaign ... hard work indeed, and so many people involved :)

 

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i have been playing this campaign and enjoying it.

really high quality campaign. and i agree with your wish "Animated scenery".

and also agrre on , radio chatter feature is great!. this is a highly needed feature for all planes/ helicopters for providing flihgt atmosphere.

 

my other wish for all campaigns that , there is a "mission status" feature in argo campaign which is also great one. so we can use radio menu to see what our current mission is. for example "land to batumi hospital" or "set radio to 126.00" etc.

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Hey Tony, great review :)

I am looking forward to grabbing the campaign myself. I look forward to actually flying a campaign where I know the systems and so forth before I fly it instead of using a campaign to learn a module.

Tres Bien my French friend and good work Laivynas I am pleased to see some civilian content and will be flying your campaign when time permits:thumbup:

  • Like 1

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Un grand merci à toi Simon pour le copy proof reading :thumbup:

- Tony -

. My Reviews: Oilfield Campaign - Argo Campaign l My Mission: Huey Ramp Start Voice-Over New!

. Microsoft Force Feedback 2 base modded with a CH Fighterstick - VKB Sim T-Rudder Mk.IV Pedals

. Intel i5 4670K @4.3 GHz - 32 Gb DDR3 - MSI GTX 1080 - ASUS PG278QR 27" 2K @165 Hz G-Sync

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  • 5 weeks later...

If some people are still undecided whether to get the DLC or not... just get it ;-)

 

Seriously, since there aren't that many videos of the campaigns around, I decided to upload one from mission 5. The first 12 minutes show the mentioned ritual (if you've read Simicro's excellent review). The remaining 13 minutes are mission 5 related and may contain spoilers.

 

 

Keep in mind that "just watching a video" often is less interesting that actually playing the game. Or in other words, just "flying straight" in the sim still means checking the instruments and stuff like this.

 

 

The video might not be that interesting for people who already played the campaign. On the other hand, it may give you an impression of how I play the sim. And well, you should at least check out the "how to not do a landing part" at 19:09 till 19:52.... that was close.

 

 

 

 

Another thing that was not mentioned - don't play those missions if you're in a hurry. Take your time. The nice thing is that the mission briefing tells you the estimated time it will take to complete the mission (without using time compression).

 

 

And like with the Argo campaign, flying this campaign for sure improved some of my skills (I'm getting better and better at sling load with the Mi-8).

 

 

Enough said...I have to prepare for mission 7 ;-)

 

 

Edit: Video should work now (it was set to private instead of public, sorry)


Edited by rge75
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How else could it have been....you're talking of routine and repeating tasks and then you play mission 7 which is different (I liked it btw). I'm curious too start mission 8 because it said 80 minutes or up to 2.5h if you do all the transportation tasks :-o This might be a challenge...

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  • ED Team

IMHO, if everything would be covered in an article, it wold be a total spoiler. Would it be interesting to complete missions and move on with the story line? :)

 

it said 80 minutes or up to 2.5h

If You won't run out of fuel for that time. :)

Best Regards, Dmitry.

 

"Чтобы дойти до цели, надо прежде всего идти." © О. Бальзак


 
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You're right, but saying that missions vary or are similiar isn't a big spoiler. Of course it's cooler when you don't know the story yet, but if it's good, then you'll anyway replay it. It's like with a movie. Some movies, you can watch several times.

 

 

Thanks for the hint about the fuel (I only check it when starting and then always think that it will be enough for the mission). However, I'm pretty sure I could simply land at the airport and ask for refueling, but I guess I'll figure it out. Actually I'm not yet sure if I'll have the endurance to complete all the tasks. Well, maybe with some time compression between the flights...

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Nice article, thanks! :)

 

"I can remember that in the default Spring Tension campaign soldiers boarding the helos were animated." :huh:

 

I've never seen this in DCS, with the Huey or the Mi-8... was it long ago? I've not owned the Mi-8 for a long time, so I suppose it's a DCS feature that was removed. I've always felt those missions were breaking out of immersion when troops or people were supposedly coming aboard the helicopter but couldn't be seen.

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Hello Redglyph,

 

Thanks for your feedback :)

 

I played Spring Tension in 2015 and there were animated soldiers boarding the helicopter.

 

Maybe rge75 can give an up to date observation since he played Spring Tension recently.

- Tony -

. My Reviews: Oilfield Campaign - Argo Campaign l My Mission: Huey Ramp Start Voice-Over New!

. Microsoft Force Feedback 2 base modded with a CH Fighterstick - VKB Sim T-Rudder Mk.IV Pedals

. Intel i5 4670K @4.3 GHz - 32 Gb DDR3 - MSI GTX 1080 - ASUS PG278QR 27" 2K @165 Hz G-Sync

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The solder simply were walking around (toward the helo or somehwere else). No matter if Huey or Mi-8. I remember it in the Huey campaign "Bay of Hogs" because sometimes the solders ran into the chopper and demolished it....

 

 

There was no "boarding animation" though.

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When I said "boarding" I meant: soldiers running towards the helicopter (and vanishing 1 or 2 meters from the aircraft).

 

I read that in DCS 2.5 a new "skeleton animation" technology will allow a better rendition for that sort of things.

- Tony -

. My Reviews: Oilfield Campaign - Argo Campaign l My Mission: Huey Ramp Start Voice-Over New!

. Microsoft Force Feedback 2 base modded with a CH Fighterstick - VKB Sim T-Rudder Mk.IV Pedals

. Intel i5 4670K @4.3 GHz - 32 Gb DDR3 - MSI GTX 1080 - ASUS PG278QR 27" 2K @165 Hz G-Sync

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  • 3 months later...

The review has moved to a new URL:

 

https://www.desktopsimulators.com/dcs/oilfield/review.html

 

Updated in my original post.

- Tony -

. My Reviews: Oilfield Campaign - Argo Campaign l My Mission: Huey Ramp Start Voice-Over New!

. Microsoft Force Feedback 2 base modded with a CH Fighterstick - VKB Sim T-Rudder Mk.IV Pedals

. Intel i5 4670K @4.3 GHz - 32 Gb DDR3 - MSI GTX 1080 - ASUS PG278QR 27" 2K @165 Hz G-Sync

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  • 2 years later...

Hi Layvinas,

 

I've made a 2 years pause and I'm now back on DCS.

 

I don't have webhosting anymore.

 

So here is a temporary link for the Oilfield review : https://we.tl/t-x88igpQtDw

 

For souvenir or whatever purpose.

 

The zip contains:

- html file

- images files

- stylesheet file

- Tony -

. My Reviews: Oilfield Campaign - Argo Campaign l My Mission: Huey Ramp Start Voice-Over New!

. Microsoft Force Feedback 2 base modded with a CH Fighterstick - VKB Sim T-Rudder Mk.IV Pedals

. Intel i5 4670K @4.3 GHz - 32 Gb DDR3 - MSI GTX 1080 - ASUS PG278QR 27" 2K @165 Hz G-Sync

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If something is wrong with the files, just let me know.

- Tony -

. My Reviews: Oilfield Campaign - Argo Campaign l My Mission: Huey Ramp Start Voice-Over New!

. Microsoft Force Feedback 2 base modded with a CH Fighterstick - VKB Sim T-Rudder Mk.IV Pedals

. Intel i5 4670K @4.3 GHz - 32 Gb DDR3 - MSI GTX 1080 - ASUS PG278QR 27" 2K @165 Hz G-Sync

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I edited my initial post and included the review under the form of an image.

- Tony -

. My Reviews: Oilfield Campaign - Argo Campaign l My Mission: Huey Ramp Start Voice-Over New!

. Microsoft Force Feedback 2 base modded with a CH Fighterstick - VKB Sim T-Rudder Mk.IV Pedals

. Intel i5 4670K @4.3 GHz - 32 Gb DDR3 - MSI GTX 1080 - ASUS PG278QR 27" 2K @165 Hz G-Sync

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