Campaign updates

[Reflected]

Horrido! - The last pieces of the jigsaw are slowly getting into place, as my FW-190A-8 campaign is nearing completion. I wanted it to be slightly different from my previous WW2 campaigns. I didn't want to simply give you a dozen of generic WW2 missions, so I focused more on the storyline this time. You'll still have the typical bomber intercepts, scrambles, and patrols, but you'll also have some more interesting, story-driven sorties, full of surprises. Stay tuned!

 

[Reflected]

I'm in the middle of final ttesting 'Horrido!', my new FW-190A-8 campaign. According to the result of my recent poll, the voice overs will be in German, with English subtitles. You guys were right, it's much more immersive this way.

 

I know there are lots of people - like me - who don't speak German, and reading every subtitle, especially in combat, can be a pain. Therefore, I included on-screen instructions to highlight any crucial information that was passed on the radio. I think it's a good compromise: it's more authentic, yet you won't miss anything just because you don't understand the language, or failed to read the subtitles.

 

[Reflected]

MAJOR UPDATE COMING TO ALL OF MY CAMPAIGNS!

 

My first campaigns are soon going to turn 2 years old. Since then, I learned so much about the ME. New tricks, better, more interesting ways to set things up, etc... Being older is not an excuse for any campaign to be second tier. I want to be equally proud of all of them. I want the first one to offer the same level of quality as the latest one. It's only fair, isn't it? So what's included in this face lift?

 

1) Interactive triggers. Until now, most triggers were timer/ location/ distance based. Where applicable, I changed some of them to user input based. This way the missions will feel less scripted and more immersive. Like it's really you in the cockpit, living through the events.

 

2) I added more user guidance. I used to assume that it's enough if I put all information needed to complete the missions in the briefing text, or kneeboard cards. These missions are often complex, however, and crucial information can go unnoticed easily. So I added some in-game guidance to make sure nobody misses anything important, that would break the mission.

 

3) Revised campaign progression. Until now, it was enough to survive 10 minutes for a mission to be successful. Now you need to meet the following criteria:

- take off (duh)

- finish the mission with your pilot being alive (the pilot, not the plane)

- finish the mission over friendly territory (before or after entering enemy territory, it doesn't matter)

- some missions involve flying across water, like when your base is in England and you fly back from France. If Air Sea Rescue is available, and you call them and they reply, then finishing the mission over the water (with your pilot being alive) ***may*** result in success. It's never certain, so it's best to make it to the coastline, but you'll have a chance of being rescued.

 

4) I added a safeguard to prevent the campaign to progress backward.

 

5) With all the little AI behavior changes over time, missions that used to work can break easily. I spotted some of these while testing, and fixed the problems.

 

Please note that we're talking about 50 missions here. I tried to test as many as possible, especially the ones that had more complex changes, but I couldn't test them all. As always, I'm relying on you too. If you spot something weird, just give me a shout on Facebook or the ED forums, and I'll try and fix it ASAP.

 

Thanks and happy landings!

 

 

[MADLOU1]

Cool beans on the updates!

[Sceptre]

Ever since I played BNBOB campaign I thought damn I hope he makes one for the Fw190. Really looking forward to this

[Reflected]

Horrdio! - preview by Philstyle

 

 

[Reflected]

Horrido! update:

 

In some of the missions you will lead your squadron to intercept massive Allied bomber formations. You'll control your own flight using the built-in radio menu, but you'll also need to give orders to the other schwarms using the F10 radio menu, otherwise they'll just follow you around passively.

 

Keeping performance in mind, and also to balance the overly accurate gunners, I set these missions up in a way that not every bomber's gunners will open fire. This will save serious frame rates, and it will give you a chance to get near the four-motors without the instant death by laser beam effect. Be careful though, you will still be shot to pieces if you try to sit on their 6.

 

Another performance saver is the option to remove some of the bombers, and face only 24 of them, in case you are playing in VR on an older PC. You can only do this before taxiing, otherwise the option will be removed and you will face the whole armada of 72 bombers. Which doesn't run bad at all either. Quite smooth on my laptop actually.

 

Really looking forward to reading your first impressions.

 

S!

 

[btaft]

Great idea to "neuter" some of the bombers do to their flawless markmanship. Any chance that will get added to your other campaigns that use bomber formations?

[Reflected]

Great idea to "neuter" some of the bombers do to their flawless markmanship. Any chance that will get added to your other campaigns that use bomber formations?

 

It's already been added a few updates ago ;)

[btaft]

Great, I started the Blue Nose one again but I guess I didn't pay that much attention to what the bombers were doing. I was too busy chasing fighters :-)

[Reflected]

'Horrido!' is going to be my first campaign to start with an intro mission, rather than a normal sortie. There will be no flying involved, you'll just sit back and watch the events unfold. I thought it sets the mood nicely, and it's much more immersive than jumping straight into the cockpit. I can't wait for you to see it!

 

[unlikely_spider]

'Horrido!' is going to be my first campaign to start with an intro mission, rather than a normal sortie. There will be no flying involved, you'll just sit back and watch the events unfold. I thought it sets the mood nicely, and it's much more immersive than jumping straight into the cockpit. I can't wait for you to see it!

I'm also jumping back into the Anton in anticipation for this. Do you expect release soon?

[Reflected]

Yeah, fingers crossed!

[Reflected]

The 'Zone 5' project is moving again! The F-14 ACM training campaign I'm working on with former Topgun instructor Dave 'Bio' Baranek was halted in July. We had to submit an application to the Navy's Licensing Office in order to legally be able to use the word 'Topgun', as well as some of the squadron insignia.

 

To this day they still haven't given us a response, so we decided to go with our plan B: that is, to circumvent the licensing obligation by leaving out the word 'Topgun' and using fictional squadron liveries instead of real life ones. This will not substract anything from the value of the campaign, it's still the most epic project I've ever had the chance to work on.

To give you a taste of what's to come, here are some screenshots of the fictional squadrons taking part in this det. They're complete with custom helmets and even flight suit patches.

 

VF-4 Horsemen / VF-28 Avengers / VF-65 Buzzards / VF-221 Galactics.

Which one do you like best?

 

Now let's all keep our fingers crossed that Heatblur releases the "A" model with the next update ;)

 

 

 

 

[Fangs Out]

Depends on what year you want this campaign to be, if it's in the 80s then the Horsemen livery you made would fit best. However, if it's in the 90s the grey then I would go with the Galatics.

[Fangs Out]

Also, Fear the bones and Zone V are first buys for me so.:)

[Reflected]

Depends on what year you want this campaign to be, if it's in the 80s then the Horsemen livery you made would fit best. However, if it's in the 90s the grey then I would go with the Galatics.

 

1987 :) By then you had approx 1/3rd TPS and 2/3rd hi-viz gull grey. Because Fear the Bones will be full of hi-viz skins, I felt inclined to use more lo-viz TPS in this one. They just look cool over the desert :)

[Fangs Out]

Ok, cool. Again I'm excited for both as I'm a fan of historical and fictional campaigns. When I think of good campaigns, I always think of yours. Fear the Bones seems like a mix of Top gun and Hot shots which I like. However, a DACT campaign for the F-14 that's historical would be really cool.

[Fangs Out]

Actually, imo the avengers Skin would be really cool to fight with

[Reflected]

Ok, cool. Again I'm excited for both as I'm a fan of historical and fictional campaigns. When I think of good campaigns, I always think of yours. Fear the Bones seems like a mix of Top gun and Hot shots which I like. However, a DACT campaign for the F-14 that's historical would be really cool.

 

Yeah, you got it right, those will be at the 2 far ends of the spectrum: Fear the Bones, light, entertaining, lots of 80s vibes, pop culture references, all the Tomcat clichés you know you secretly want, unexpected twists of events, like a great new Netflix series set in the 80s.

 

Zone 5 on the other hand will be absolutely no BS, a 100% realistic representation of ACM training in the 80s - thanks to Bio. It's going to be a real learning curve with a lot of new information. Meeting new, increasingly difficult challenges while following all the procedures is going to make your head spin. And of course, your teacher will be no other than Bio, a former Topgun instructor, talking to you in his own voice.

[Reflected]

'Wolfpack' update:

 

I can't wait for you guys to be able to experience the thrill of being part of a 36 - and sometimes 48 ship formation of the 56th Fighter group. 48 Thunderbolts, 96,000 horse powers, 384 .50 cal machine guns, climbing into the cold blue with a roar that shakes the earth.

 

These historical missions will not be centered around you. Forget individualism. You'll be but a single rivet in a giant machine. That's why it's of paramount importance that you know how you fit in, and where your place is. I included a diagram with each mission to help visualize your position in the formation.

 

The group has a callsign, then each squadron has their own separate callsigns. Then there's A and B groups with different callsigns. Oh, and at the end of April 1944 all groups of the 8th AF got their callsigns changed. It's not going to be easy, you'll need to know who you are supposed to follow, and which radio transmissions are meant for you, and which ones aren't.

 

All I can say is, my upcoming 'Wolfpack' campaign is going to be as close to the experience of being a young WWII fighter jock as it gets in a virtual simulation.

 

[Reflected]

The long awaited X-Ray damage model has made it into today's update. It will bring a fundamental change to DCS WWII. The patch also contains some other great changes, such as more realistic AI gunners, new assets, etc...what a great day for WWII enthusiasts!

 

I updated all my WWII campaigns accordingly. They now feature the newly released assets, including but not limited to...

 

[wowbagger]

Haha, very nice.

 

I just picked up Yalu and Big Show this week, so I'll be on the look out for these fast moovers.

 

cheers

[Reflected]

Bio is recording the briefings and debriefs for the upcoming 'Zone 5' campaign in his 'home studio'. Each hop will be an extremely valuable learning experience, and you'll be hearing them in Bio's own voice. How cool is that?

 

[TLTeo]

That's awesome!

 

Also, I'm a bit late to the party but being an astronomer, I need to pick VF-221 Galactics. A high vis livery of that would be welcome :)