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What Sort Of Missions Do You Design For Yourself?


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Be interesting to hear about what people look for in a mission.

 

I very, very occasionally put up a miz file if someone asked me to, but design missions for myself without much thought to what others want.

 

I use VR exclusively and am in it mainly for the flight, not the fight; therefore my missions tend to be long full fuel types, usually at night because I think the terrain just looks better and more realistic in moonlight. I do usually put some bandits in to give a reason for watching the radar and rwr, but often my missions, which I change the timings of by altering waypoints, mean I can fly a couple of hours without getting an enemy return.

 

I tend to spend far more time on eye candy, I never start up and take off from a base that is not populated with ground equipment and aircraft for instance, and I usually have other flights taxying and taking off to add to the immersion.

The combat aspect, being a secondary consideration is rather simple.

 

Most people would consider my missions a boring grind. Who would want to fly at 40,000ft to extend endurance as far as possible when you will be doing nothing but flying along, looking over the side, picking ones nose?

 

When asked to put up a mission, I tend to alter things slightly to make it a little more in your face, for the sake of the prospective user, but my personal thoughts are it ruins the immersion and makes it unrealistic.

 

Generally though, my missions evolve over a few months, with constant alterations until a bad save breaks something I consider essential, then it gets scrapped and another put in build

 

So what do you think when designing a mission?


Edited by Tinkickef

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So what do you think when designing a mission?

 

Seems we are from the same club ... as I also like the airbases populated, but without going overboard as it can hurt DCS' performance, and make use of Random Air Traffic so as to not feel like I'm the only aircraft on the sky :)

 

I enjoy the pleasure of learning an aircraft systems and weaponry, but I dont like to fly at night as I find it too stressful and I mostly fly for pleasure.

 

I've tried Multiplayer, but find that I actually enjoy this hobby more when I fly by myself, at my own pace.

 

On my recent missions I try to use the Results field to award points as I meet certain goals; this way I can know if I'm flying better or not, like this:

 

eKOoqI8.jpg

 

For learning the A-G weaponry I like to make use of Weapon Ranges, using Ciribob's range script to gauge my accuracy:

 

fKNZ9eC.jpg

 

Air-Air is harder, as the AI isnt really a good opponent, often cheating .. so I haven't yet found a satisfying way for this kind of missions.

 

I'm currently enjoying the MiG-29, and have edited a series of Missions to practice it on the Persian Gulf Map, when I finish them all I will probably share them.

 

Best regards

 

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A variety:

- I have a primary single mission with all of my aircraft available, such that o can quickly switch to practice the basics, ie starts, take off, landings nav and simple A2G

- for activities that I want to repeatedly practice from an air start (eg how to avoid SAM, AI A2A) I’ll setup specific engagement only missions

- currently developing a couple of ideas to fly with my squadron

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I definitely like the decoration and frippery. Environmental, random traffic, etc. all give the mission some life and make me more invested in the entire process from startup to shut down.

 

I'm currently starting a very ambitious project that is well outside my abilities. I want a WWII mission template using MOOSE scripting to create a continuous ground and air war, with a relatively stable front line. Then, additional script sets will be generated to activate targets and units depending on a user selected option for which mission he wants to complete. Essentially a template to provide the main scenario, with customized mission sets running on top, so that I don't have to build a brand new mission for each type of mission I want to run.

 

Example, strike mission involves destroying an enemy fuel depot. Additional enemy fighters spawn to fly CAP. Destruction of fuel depot reduces continuous spawn of enemy tanks to allow friendly ground forces to push the front.

 

Or recon mission, drop smoke markers on enemy positions for artillery bombardment. Activate friendly artillery assets and enemy strategic target zones for interaction.

 

Etc. Etc.

 

 

Btw, as a plug, check out MOOSE. It adds so much capability. I just discovered how to use their ARTY class, and that alone adds entirely new dimensions for gameplay. Learning curve is a bit steep if you have no experience with Lua, but the video tutorials are excellent. I cannot recommend the MOOSE framework enough.


Edited by Dino Might
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I really enjoy making missions and campaigns myself.

I usually finish one campaign a week. They are improving each time.

 

This week was a mix of ground targets and bandits as well as bomber escort and defense of Nellis from incoming bombers. I am just learning to dogfight at this point.

 

I have done a ton of high altitude max range missions although nowadays I prefer shorter missions with action almost immediately.

 

This week It's basically a "clear the bandits and attack the bridge" type of thing.

Last week it was racing through Dubai with ground targets and bandits.

 

I prefer landscape with mountains or buildings these days for my missions. The eye candy is nice.

I also make a "friends are coming over" mission weekly which takes into account that friend's skill levels are low and the time for allotted flights is about 20 minutes (during the break between hockey periods).

 

In short they need to be fast (Air start) easy (I set up one switch as my buddy's switch to turn on everything required) and it must be fun.

I am gradually learning to dogfight better. I am early on in that learning curve.

 

For some crazy reason, I enjoy the problem solving, controller profile creation and mission making as much as the flying.

 

It lets the imagination soar.

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"Everyone should fly a Spitfire at least once" John S. Blyth

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I'm currently starting a very ambitious project that is well outside my abilities. I want a WWII mission template using MOOSE scripting to create a continuous ground and air war, with a relatively stable front line.

 

I tried to create missions on Normandy, but the big problem is the shortage of period units .. so I embraced the Persian Gulf map instead and will return to WW2 in the future, when hopefully there are more assets to use.

 

Btw, as a plug, check out MOOSE.

 

I did, I'm a big fan of the RAT component of Moose :)

 

For some crazy reason, I enjoy the problem solving, controller profile creation and mission making as much as the flying.

 

Exactly, I feel the same, some times editing a mission is almost as much fun as flying it, not to mention that the mission testing forces you to fly it a lot :D

 

Best regards

 

For work: iMac mid-2010 of 27" - Core i7 870 - 6 GB DDR3 1333 MHz - ATI HD5670 - SSD 256 GB - HDD 2 TB - macOS High Sierra

For Gaming: 34" Monitor - Ryzen 3600X - 32 GB DDR4 2400 - nVidia GTX1070ti - SSD 1.25 TB - HDD 10 TB - Win10 Pro - TM HOTAS Cougar - Oculus Rift CV1

Mobile: iPad Pro 12.9" of 256 GB

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I tried to create missions on Normandy, but the big problem is the shortage of period units .. so I embraced the Persian Gulf map instead and will return to WW2 in the future, when hopefully there are more assets to use.

 

 

 

I did, I'm a big fan of the RAT component of Moose :)

 

 

 

Exactly, I feel the same, some times editing a mission is almost as much fun as flying it, not to mention that the mission testing forces you to fly it a lot :D

 

Best regards

 

I made a bunch of crossings in Normandy and am currently enjoying a "Big Show Campaign" mission from time to time.

 

 

For my tastes in order from most favourite to date are:

 

Persian Gulf

Caucus

Nellis

Normandy

 

I could never limit my Spitfire to Normandy. I mostly fly the Spit although I keep buying aircraft for some reason.

I think it would be nice to not populate the maps with period correct items but instead allow the Mission creators to populate the map with whatever is available to the developers and us paying customers.

I.E. take out Jets parked at Airports when props are the thing.

Let us park our own background static aircraft only.

 

Limiting the maps to the default to be period correct parked aircraft only is a mistake.

We should be able to create our own flight age anywhere in the world eventually.

 

That would be the real icing on my cake.

 

Delivering supplies over the Canadian Rockies in a C-47 heading for Alaska and then hopping in Aircraft heading into battle around Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Isle would be amazing. Someday...

 

I looked at Moose. Very interesting. I can see that project being looked at in my future. Thanks for the idea.

 

Indeed, making missions forces an awful lot of flight time, a bit of pulling out hair, a touch of neglecting household chores with small periods of great satisfaction.

Often heard: "I just have to test this first". ;)

Win 10 pro 64 bit. Intel i7 4790 4 Ghz running at 4.6. Asus z97 pro wifi main board, 32 gig 2400 ddr3 gold ram, 50 inch 4K UHD and HDR TV for monitor. H80 cpu cooler. 8 other cooling fans in full tower server case. Soundblaster ZX sound card. EVGA 1080 TI FTW3. TM Hotas Wartog. TM T.16000M MFG Crosswinds Pedals. Trackir 5.

"Everyone should fly a Spitfire at least once" John S. Blyth

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I think you identified a weakness in that folks have an idea what they want and it may not suit all of the audience. In fact, it's summarised as the

'You can please some of the people some of the time', adage.

 

 

Many of the folks that get quite a long way into it are driven through the complexity to find something they want, and it's important to recognise there are people (including myself) that just like playing around and seeing what you can do.

 

 

Some people like tools, like range targets, Carrier landing assessments for offline play, hot air starts with random spawns, ie not a scenario so much as a training tool.

Some people want PvP in anyone of a multitude of preferences, limitations etc.

Others like the "single sortie" especially ED and DLC since this is what the DCSW is built around doing better (no landing then taking off again, limited replay-ability, strictly planned TOT)

 

Some people want persistent dynamic Campaign experience, not from the sequential mission variety, but from the other game. Ie something resource based that is continuous, with flights all knitting together and doign something important.

Some people like the DLC style of "next level, next mission" as it's more quantifiable and results driven.

There are some people who like setting fire to the world and kill counts.

The rotary folks love cargo and transportation, perhaps different uses like forest fires, medical and CSAR type missions.

 

 

In each one, people have varying degrees of immersion spoilers. Some like to know that that flight next to them is their SEAD escort, even if they never see them again. Others, refuse to be stunned by visual passers-by and want to know the ultimate purpose of everything at a deep level (I suffer that illness).

 

 

Then when moods take them, people want to try something different, just because.

 

 

Second guessing your audience relies on knowing them well and how they can handle compromises. It also means deviation from very specific airframes and missions, and being able to cater for, "trying this now as an AV-8B rather than an A-10C", or worse, wanting to do a different role.

 

 

If you attempt to get everything in there to satisfy all, it ends with looking at how you can manipulate DCS to do what you want and the path leads to scripting in order to automate vast complexity (setting up a CAP defence with interceptors, setting up randomisation with spawning units, cargo and so on.)

 

 

To answer the question; I create things that I can partake in more than one role in and reuse constantly with no idea of what is going to happen on the micro level, because it's pretty boring writing for yourself without scripting. So they are usually vast scenarios with some persistence in them and touch on the edge of what DCS can do. That also means it deviates from the single sortie experience of one player, many AI, and is usually for multiplayer with AI being used where I have to. Pretty much, the slice out of an entire conflict. Elsewise I do some training tools like air to air random spawns and usually have a couple of single sortie types in my backpocket I will crank out from time to time.

 

Be interesting to hear about what people look for in a mission.

 

I very, very occasionally put up a miz file if someone asked me to, but design missions for myself without much thought to what others want.

 

I use VR exclusively and am in it mainly for the flight, not the fight; therefore my missions tend to be long full fuel types, usually at night because I think the terrain just looks better and more realistic in moonlight. I do usually put some bandits in to give a reason for watching the radar and rwr, but often my missions, which I change the timings of by altering waypoints, mean I can fly a couple of hours without getting an enemy return.

 

I tend to spend far more time on eye candy, I never start up and take off from a base that is not populated with ground equipment and aircraft for instance, and I usually have other flights taxying and taking off to add to the immersion.

The combat aspect, being a secondary consideration is rather simple.

 

Most people would consider my missions a boring grind. Who would want to fly at 40,000ft to extend endurance as far as possible when you will be doing nothing but flying along, looking over the side, picking ones nose?

 

When asked to put up a mission, I tend to alter things slightly to make it a little more in your face, for the sake of the prospective user, but my personal thoughts are it ruins the immersion and makes it unrealistic.

 

Generally though, my missions evolve over a few months, with constant alterations until a bad save breaks something I consider essential, then it gets scrapped and another put in build

 

So what do you think when designing a mission?

___________________________________________________________________________

SIMPLE SCENERY SAVING * SIMPLE GROUP SAVING * SIMPLE STATIC SAVING *

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I am not a great combat pilot and still kinda new to DCS. I like to put together missions that let me learn the latest thing that I was looking at in the specific plane / helo but how I see it working in RL. As with the OP and some others, it is not all about combat and I am sure most times in RL when a Jet goes up, they don't get to jump right into any action if any at all.

 

My missions must follow on, like a campaign I suppose although I have never put them together as one. You must achieve an objective so the next mission can take place.

 

Eye candy is super important and spend many hours setting up the airport, traffic and area around the target. Sometimes it is almost zen like placing and moving units around.

 

I am a software developer by trade and I find Mission Building like developing with pictures almost. I really need to take the time to look into scripting my missions, but I still need to fly and have not reached the right balance between flying and designing.

 

I try to think what other pilots would like to do and if the mission would interest people, and then never have the guts to publish them, even after spending hours on the back story, intel, mission cards etc.

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hrm...i have not even scrached proper mission making just yet. I simply set up things in a quick way for training certain things on NTTR. What i miss is a proper sandbox type of mission as a base template. Sort of a base mission that makes Nevada a lively place, with properly populated airfields, and various flights coming and going, helos, big and small aircraft flying around, taxing, taking of and landing. Best would be trigger based so stuff is not happening up at Tonopah while you stay around Vegas.

 

Is there a thread that contains such missions? I didn't find a proper ''immersive stuff is going on'' mission template in the user downloads section.

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hrm...i have not even scrached proper mission making just yet. I simply set up things in a quick way for training certain things on NTTR. What i miss is a proper sandbox type of mission as a base template. Sort of a base mission that makes Nevada a lively place, with properly populated airfields, and various flights coming and going, helos, big and small aircraft flying around, taxing, taking of and landing.

 

You can create a Static Template for each airfield, using the objects from the VPC Airfield Mod ... and random air traffic can be added using the RAT component of the Moose scripting framework, like I did for Caucasus:

 

HY6ejvE.jpg

 

Someday I will make Templates for

Nevada, but right now Iˋm enjoying Persian Gulf so much that I havent flown on Nevada for quite sometime :)

 

Best regards

 

For work: iMac mid-2010 of 27" - Core i7 870 - 6 GB DDR3 1333 MHz - ATI HD5670 - SSD 256 GB - HDD 2 TB - macOS High Sierra

For Gaming: 34" Monitor - Ryzen 3600X - 32 GB DDR4 2400 - nVidia GTX1070ti - SSD 1.25 TB - HDD 10 TB - Win10 Pro - TM HOTAS Cougar - Oculus Rift CV1

Mobile: iPad Pro 12.9" of 256 GB

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