Operation Bactria (MP COOP 14), Afghanistan CAS

Thank you very much for your appreciation. I think its fitting to deliver the following news. Last night I learned that I will be flying the A-10C after the longest, hardest, but most rewarding year of my life in USAF pilot training. I'm glad to hear that this mission gives others as much enjoyment and fulfillment as it has for me.

 

As promised and in celebration of the above news, expect a remastered version of Bactria taking advantage of new editor features and possibly a brand new mission once the 1.5 and 2.0 integration is complete!

 

Habu

Habu congrats on the wings brother, fellow USAF veteran here, salute!

So how about that update there flyboy? :P

In my eyes this is the definitive A-10c experience, feels about as real as you can get in a sim, twould be a great shame to not see some new life zapped into it following the 2.5 upgrade.

Congrats and many thanks for your hard work!

I still love this mission! It mostly works on 2.5 still, a few weird placement issues with the new tree coverage though... short of multiplayer with real, qualified JTACs, this is as real as it gets.

...twould be a great shame to not see some new life zapped.

Thanks to you and Sandman for the glowing endorsements. Believe it or not a major sequel to Bactria is in development that promises to be more immersive and awesome than ever before. My goal is to make it the definitive CAS experience for DCS featuring the A-10C and AV-8B or F/A-18 support on day one. Expect it to be a more focused and immersive experience rather than a sandbox.

Of course, learning to fly the hawg in real life has taken away a lot of my free time recently but rest assured it's in production and it won't disappoint! As for modifying the existing Bactria mission, that's something that I can do hopefully in short order. The major issue seems to be foliage and changes in units since it was last released back in 1.2.x.

Habu/Force

Great news !! I love PVE CAS missions.

G'day folks. Habu, I know this is probably a pipe-dream at this point, but I wonder if you had any thoughts about building a Bactria for the newly released Persian Gulf map? I think the Gulf is screaming for some A-10C missions!

I hope your IRL Hawg flying is treating you well!

Thanks to you and Sandman for the glowing endorsements. Believe it or not a major sequel to Bactria is in development that promises to be more immersive and awesome than ever before. My goal is to make it the definitive CAS experience for DCS featuring the A-10C and AV-8B or F/A-18 support on day one. Expect it to be a more focused and immersive experience rather than a sandbox.

 

Of course, learning to fly the hawg in real life has taken away a lot of my free time recently but rest assured it's in production and it won't disappoint! As for modifying the existing Bactria mission, that's something that I can do hopefully in short order. The major issue seems to be foliage and changes in units since it was last released back in 1.2.x.

 

Habu/Force

OMG I can't wait!! The choice to fly the Hawg, Harrier or F/A-18 would be amazing!

I second the request for the PG map as well, but I understand if Caucuses is chosen to better allow everyone to enjoy the mission.

Good luck with the Hawg training!

Hello all,

Just to provide an update a few months since I last posted. There are currently two missions in progress: a Georgia Bactria-esque mission with a heavy emphasis on JP 3-09.3 Close Air Support and ground integration, and a semi-randomized spec ops/conventional focused mission in Persian Gulf. The latter will likely be released first because the Georgian mission is already 10mb with only ONE tasking complete, that should give you some idea about the immersion and audio file quantity. The first mission is A-10 and Harrier, the second mission is A-10, Harrier, F-18/14 depending on which jet is a more finished product on mission release.

Regarding the existing Bactria, as far as I know it should be 100% full up with recent patches but some of the static object placements might not make sense or are nullified by the placement of trees in recent patches. Those would need to be fixed and I'll look into it.

For those that want to fly Bactria with different jets, it's very easy to do by simply replacing the jets in the editor with the type you want. The trigger structure should not change as long as you keep the original A-10 units on the map. Recognize though that the coordinate structure is still issued in MGRS, so that might complicate things. Make sure to save the mission in the editor with the latest DCS version to keep things stable.

Thanks all for the support.

Habu/Force

Hello all,

 

Just to provide an update a few months since I last posted. There are currently two missions in progress: a Georgia Bactria-esque mission with a heavy emphasis on JP 3-09.3 Close Air Support and ground integration, and a semi-randomized spec ops/conventional focused mission in Persian Gulf. The latter will likely be released first because the Georgian mission is already 10mb with only ONE tasking complete, that should give you some idea about the immersion and audio file quantity. The first mission is A-10 and Harrier, the second mission is A-10, Harrier, F-18/14 depending on which jet is a more finished product on mission release.

 

Regarding the existing Bactria, as far as I know it should be 100% full up with recent patches but some of the static object placements might not make sense or are nullified by the placement of trees in recent patches. Those would need to be fixed and I'll look into it.

 

For those that want to fly Bactria with different jets, it's very easy to do by simply replacing the jets in the editor with the type you want. The trigger structure should not change as long as you keep the original A-10 units on the map. Recognize though that the coordinate structure is still issued in MGRS, so that might complicate things. Make sure to save the mission in the editor with the latest DCS version to keep things stable.

 

Thanks all for the support.

 

Habu/Force

I think my squadronmates and I flew the very first Op Bactria mission by summer of 2012. We all have great memories of those days, including the audio files of ground troops asking for support with a sense of urging. Intense comms.

So thank you for your work, and looking forward to future iterations.

Thank you.

Thanks for the update. This was and still is one of the most immersive and worthwhile missions from the community.

There are currently two missions in progress: a Georgia Bactria-esque mission with a heavy emphasis on JP 3-09.3 Close Air Support and ground integration, [...]

Sounds awesome!

Will this be SP, MP or both?

In any case, can't wait! :thumbup:

Thanks for the update Habu. :thumbup:

Definitely keeping an ear to the ground for your new ops!

Thx Habu!

I’ve already replaced a few of the A10s with Hornets, and all works nicely. I still play this mission regularly. The trees do hide the targets in some of the missions, but it is ultimately still very playable.

Looking forward to the new missions! Thanks for the hard work.

I have a copy of Bactria that works just fine with 4x A-10cs, 2x AV8Bs, 2x Hornets, and naval tankers- the naval assets being in the same flight but departing from Stennis (Thought the Tarawa was screwing up the ICLS so dropped it from the CAG).

The caveat is that it's only Pig flight (now a flight of six). I wanted US skins for US aircraft and Pig had the largest flight already, so I could more easily add 2 more rather than 4. Oh, and I was probably VERY sloppy moving the 1.5 version's targets out of 2.5's new tree areas, which means it needs more work, but the brunt of changing groups and countries has been completed.

If you're interested in a copy the easiest was is to hit me up PM with a discord name I guess. I have adored the mission for years, excited a new one is in the works.

So guess then it is possible to replace the A-10C's with other planes?

We mostly use M2000C, F/A-18, Harrier and Viggen.

It's been quite a while since I have played that mission. Probably 2 years ago.

I will try to adjust it to our needs.

I have a copy of Bactria that works just fine with 4x A-10cs, 2x AV8Bs, 2x Hornets, and naval tankers- the naval assets being in the same flight but departing from Stennis (Thought the Tarawa was screwing up the ICLS so dropped it from the CAG).

 

 

 

The caveat is that it's only Pig flight (now a flight of six). I wanted US skins for US aircraft and Pig had the largest flight already, so I could more easily add 2 more rather than 4. Oh, and I was probably VERY sloppy moving the 1.5 version's targets out of 2.5's new tree areas, which means it needs more work, but the brunt of changing groups and countries has been completed.

 

 

 

If you're interested in a copy the easiest was is to hit me up PM with a discord name I guess. I have adored the mission for years, excited a new one is in the works.

like making a clearing in the woods.

So guess then it is possible to replace the A-10C's with other planes?

 

We mostly use M2000C, F/A-18, Harrier and Viggen.

It's been quite a while since I have played that mission. Probably 2 years ago.

 

I will try to adjust it to our needs.

Yes. You can replace the Hogs with whatever you want (and can move them from taking off out of Senaki to departing from the CAG) The biggest pain is not changing AC but rather changing the coalition and the associated triggers/comms to that coalition (and recognizing additional aircraft).

I.e., the original triggers look for Pig Flight 1 through 4 as individual groups (Each Pig is a group unto itself), and assumes they are all four from the UK. Going through and adding more "groups" (of one) and transferring the coalition to the US is the brunt of the work I have already done. Apologies to the original authors, of course- but it was closest to the sea for naval stuff and had the largest "groups" so adding more was easier.

Oh, and I'm a masochist so I made it night, snowy, and overcast to require teamwork. :pilotfly:

Since a while there is a triggerzone that removes scenery objects. You could leave everything in place and just "delete" the trees...

like making a clearing in the woods.

Unfortunately this is not functional for MP clients at the moment. The host/server PC will see the objects as removed but anyone who joins will still see everything.

Unfortunately this is not functional for MP clients at the moment. The host/server PC will see the objects as removed but anyone who joins will still see everything.

Thanks for the info.

Unfortunately this is not functional for MP clients at the moment. The host/server PC will see the objects as removed but anyone who joins will still see everything.

I tested this feature about a month ago with some buddies, hosting a testing mission on my machine, and it worked fine (they commented on the odd shape of the removed trees when seen from higher altitudes). Maybe it's just broken temporarily?

The feature as such is pretty amazing!

What I really hate about mission building for MP, is that you can't test this without having a server and a client PC available or a buddy to join and test with you.

True. But the good old days when there were separate .exe for MP and SP, which allowed for self-hosting and then joining as an actual MP client... I'm kinda glad those days are gone. :D

Hello all,

 

Just to provide an update a few months since I last posted. There are currently two missions in progress: a Georgia Bactria-esque mission with a heavy emphasis on JP 3-09.3 Close Air Support and ground integration, and a semi-randomized spec ops/conventional focused mission in Persian Gulf. The latter will likely be released first because the Georgian mission is already 10mb with only ONE tasking complete, that should give you some idea about the immersion and audio file quantity. The first mission is A-10 and Harrier, the second mission is A-10, Harrier, F-18/14 depending on which jet is a more finished product on mission release.

 

Regarding the existing Bactria, as far as I know it should be 100% full up with recent patches but some of the static object placements might not make sense or are nullified by the placement of trees in recent patches. Those would need to be fixed and I'll look into it.

 

For those that want to fly Bactria with different jets, it's very easy to do by simply replacing the jets in the editor with the type you want. The trigger structure should not change as long as you keep the original A-10 units on the map. Recognize though that the coordinate structure is still issued in MGRS, so that might complicate things. Make sure to save the mission in the editor with the latest DCS version to keep things stable.

 

Thanks all for the support.

 

Habu/Force

Great news, you're a legend

Has anyone played this recently on the latest Open Beta?

For some reason, the sound for the voiceovers does not play for me anymore. The message pops up, and the mission activates, but no sound. I've tried both the A10 and the Hornet (which I put into the ME myself some time ago, it used to work). I've also downloaded a completely "clean" version off the user files to make sure it wasn't any of my modifications, and surely enough that doesn't work either.

The mission entirely uses the vanilla editor and triggers, so no scripting at all. I'm pretty good with triggers, and I've analyzed them, and from what I can tell if the message is appearing the sound also should work as they are off the same trigger.

I've tried opening and re-saving the mission with the latest version of DCS, as sometimes this fixes compatibility of older missions, but no dice.

Is anyone else having this problem too? I find myself constantly coming back to this mission, the design and quality just hasn't been matched in the many years that have gone by since it was created. I really hope I can get his working again!

There is a bug with SOUND TO COUNTRY, which is how Habu has separated the flights in Bactria..nothing on your end you can do. You'd have to extract all the audio files, then re-build every sound trigger using SOUND TO GROUP or SOUND TO ALL.

Oh, so it’s an ME bug, perfect. I’m sure it will get fixed down the road. Thx!

Hey guys,

Since the “sound to country” bug doesn’t seem to be a high priority to fix, I have gone in and changed all triggers to “sound to all.” The mission now works.

For several of the tasks, I’ve also moved the target points out of the trees to better align with the 2.5 map. There are still a couple tasks where this is a factor, but most work well.

Finally, I’ve replaced some of the A10C with F/A-18C and added a probe/drogue tanker to allow for its use in the mission. With the TGP coming very soon to the Hornet, this mission will be very playable in the Hornet.

All credit still to Habu23 for making this excellent mission, 7 years ago! Long live Operation Bactria!

File located here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3305634/?sphrase_id=18226713