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Operation Coherent Force - simple campaign concept for F-18


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https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3306562/

 

Sharing a “campaign”, really a loose collection of missions I made for the F/A-18:

 

A fictional history where Abkhazia and South Ossetia aligned after the 2008 war and staged an invasion of Georgia.

 

This is a faux-dynamic campaign consisting of mostly CAS/BAI over the battlefield interspersed with strikes against fixed targets.

 

How it works: each “stage” consists of either CAS/BAI or various strike missions with different time of day. For each CAS/BAI there is a 30% chance of moving on to strike stage otherwise you roll another CAS/BAI. After a strike you are punted back to the CAS/BAI stage. If you’re sick of CAS missions there’s a debug skip to strike F10 option. This will add 10pts to your mission score and bump you to a strike stage.

 

Strikes will repeat if you play long enough (or even if you play a short time), this is part of how I tried to randomize missions. Hopefully if they do repeat it's at a different time of day.

 

Don't pay attention to scoring, that's how I preserved mission advancement in a way I wanted to.

 

This concept grew out of playing Operation Titan Angel over and over and tailoring it to my own single player preferences. Combined with reading the AAR on Deliberate Force, this campaign started to take shape. Mission structure is heavily based on Deliberate Force tasking - round the clock CAP and SEAD, on-call CAS/BAI, occasional strikes against military logistics targets. Building the missions borrowed from a different 3 letter sim where AI CAP and SEAD flights will be in the air, doing their own thing while you carry out your tasks. All missions use the same framework, all that changes is time of day and player flight tasking.

 

Finally some notes:

1. Put one of your radios on GRCV, this way you can hear AWACS calls without being on their channel (you obviously have to change back to talk to them)

2. Your wingman can attack and lase. For CAS, use the scripted attack found in F10 radio menu, for strike you can use "Engage target and rejoin". Lasing is good if you’re struggling to find targets... still waiting on a TPOD slave function. I meant to get it working on strike packages too. Maybe next version. If you want to approach the carrier at night you can request a straight in approach from Alerax’s script, before doing so anchor your wingman 40nm away from the boat so you don’t get a signal delta. For Case I you can enter the pattern even if he’s in mother’s airspace.

3. There are no scripted events other than spawning units. No scripted objectives to follow, no radio messages guiding you to what to do next. These are simple missions, but designed to exist in a realistic framework. If you want to know if you completed the mission, compare recon photos from the briefing to BDA done through TPOD. That said, I’m not sadistic. You’ll get a radio message when you destroy all of a CAS/BAI spawn so you’re not circling the target wondering if someone is hiding. If you’re Winchester before they’re all destroyed - go home. You did what you could.

4 . Read the briefings. I made recon photos and mission data cards for you. Put them to use. (Data cards are available on your kneeboard as well). And use the mission planner to scope out where strike targets are located. Will help to have that geographical reference when looking through the TPOD. Check loadout too. On CAS/BAI, you’re carrying an asymmetric load, don’t get caught off guard by not trimming before cat launch.

5 . Do whatever you want to these missions. Want to sub out for an A-10? Go for it, if you dig through the files you may discover that I originally built that possibility in... Feel free to convert these to client flights and use this online. They would make for fun 2 player Co-ops. Someone smarter than me can open them up for even larger groups.

 

Huge thanks to:

1) EasyEB - this all started from me trying to build on Titan Angel (you may recognize some script variables)

2) Alerax - LSO script

3) The M00SE

 

 

 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3306562/

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Thank you for sharing Subferro :thumbup:

 

Just flown mission 1 and so far I like it :pilotfly:. Not sure if ED changed something in the latest OB patch, or that it is the position of the moon in this mission, but I was pretty amazed by the lighting! I was actually able to see the ground while it was dark. I noticed that I could also see city lights and even aircraft lights at very long range, even though I fly in VR with a Rift CV1

 

Anyway.. Back to your campaign.. Not much to add so far (only did mission 1), but as for some feedback:

  • Not really necessary, but it would be nice to get some sort of message when/if main targets are destroyed.
  • AI were functioning really well (even my wingman survived!)

 

One question:

I'd rather start my missions cold and dark, to add to immersion. Can I just change this in ME? Or would that break some sort of trigger or script?

System specs:

 

i7-8700K @stock speed - GTX 1080TI @ stock speed - AsRock Extreme4 Z370 - 32GB DDR4 @3GHz- 500GB SSD - 2TB nvme - 650W PSU

HP Reverb G1 v2 - Saitek Pro pedals - TM Warthog HOTAS - TM F/A-18 Grip - TM Cougar HOTAS (NN-Dan mod) & (throttle standalone mod) - VIRPIL VPC Rotor TCS Plus with ALPHA-L grip - Pointctrl & aux banks <-- must have for VR users!! - Andre's SimShaker Jetpad - Fully adjustable DIY playseat - VA+VAICOM

 

~ That nuke might not have been the best of ideas, Sir... the enemy is furious ~ GUMMBAH

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Thanks for the feedback! I considered a target destroyed message but felt that I get more enjoyment with a little ‘fog of war’. Plus the way I’ve randomized missions means you may get talked against the same target. It’s easier in my head cannon to accept imperfect BDA as a reason for that;). I’m not against changing that if people prefer. You do get a message on the CAS/BAI missions so you’re not hunting down a mystery tank.

 

To your question - absolutely feel free to start cold and dark. I struggled taxiing with the AI wingman so scrapped it out of frustration, but if you want to do that it won’t break anything.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I like the campaign but moving on is bugged. I've flown literally about 50 of the CAS/BAI support missions, get confirmed kills, land and re-arm then come back for another pass just to be sure, and still it won't move on to the next mission.

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry I haven’t been really active on this. Regarding questions:

 

I recently purchased the PG map. Would love to convert this to that setting. No idea on ETA though, probably not soon.

 

Cerulean - I’m not sure what the issue is. Are you ending the mission and then it sends you on another CAS/BAI from the campaign screen or are you doing this all within one mission. If it’s the latter, just end the mission after you land. If you flew to your holding point and back you have a 30% chance of getting a strike, regardless of what damage you did to targets. If you’ve gotten 50 different CAS/BAI missions from the campaign screen... then that’s a bug. I flew the campaign recently and didn’t have that issue, but if it’s persisting just use the F10 menu, there should be a DEBUG - request strike option. If you choose that and exit the mission, it should bump you into the “Strike” block when you hit next mission

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Hey Subferro!

 

Thank you for this campaign, it's a really nice concept and it spawned new similar campaign (gwdope's Integral Resolve).

 

One question for you: is there an end to the campaign, or does it simply goes on forever?

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Thanks for the kind comments. As of now the campaign goes on forever.

 

I’ve been toying with revisiting this and may do so when the super carrier drops. I structured it the way it is to add some randomness to the order of strikes, but with only ~10 different targets if you keep playing it will repeat. Maybe better to sacrifice some random order to have a more linear campaign that ends eventually. I also need to update loadouts now that the LITENING can go on the side hardpoints, and maybe move AWACS to the tactical channel instead of guard, with the caveat that you won’t get calls when on carrier or tanker frequency.

 

EDIT: Also due to popular demand I may add some type of debriefing message to indicate successful strike on the target. But only after you land! Still not going to add a “Mission Complete, RTB” to the strikes. I want to preserve some fog of war;)


Edited by Subferro
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Thanks for the kind comments. As of now the campaign goes on forever.

 

I’ve been toying with revisiting this and may do so when the super carrier drops. I structured it the way it is to add some randomness to the order of strikes, but with only ~10 different targets if you keep playing it will repeat. Maybe better to sacrifice some random order to have a more linear campaign that ends eventually. I also need to update loadouts now that the LITENING can go on the side hardpoints, and maybe move AWACS to the tactical channel instead of guard, with the caveat that you won’t get calls when on carrier or tanker frequency.

 

EDIT: Also due to popular demand I may add some type of debriefing message to indicate successful strike on the target. But only after you land! Still not going to add a “Mission Complete, RTB” to the strikes. I want to preserve some fog of war;)

 

Thanks for the answer, Subferro!

 

As for the other points you touched, great to see that you're going to add a "mission successful" message at the end of the flight, the campaign really needs it. With the random alternation of CAS/BAI and Strike missions and the lack of significance for score, it wasn't easy to understand if I had accomplished my mission and was moving to a next stage, or just being dropped back to a previous one.

 

As for adding an ending, I think it would be great, aside from the fact that after a while the repetion of CAS/BAI and strike missions becomes boring, it lacks a sense of purpose. Having a "storyline" that evolves would keep the player engaged.

 

New loadouts aren't maybe that necessary, I always modified the default ones and brought with me what I wanted, and I'd keep the AWACS on guard, as a matter of fact I think you had a great idea there, to give the Hornet three radios (well, two and half actually!). As a matter of fact, I started monitoring guard even in other campaigns, where there are no transmissions on it! :D

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