Campaign updates

[Reflected]

Yesterday was certainly a big day with the release of Zone 5, but the update also brought improvements to my previous campaigns. I updated ALL of my WWII missions with historically accurate flak numbers and locations, and added a few safeguards that ensure smooth mission progression.

[wowbagger]

I was slightly disappointed to not see any mention of FLAK balancing by ED in the patch. Do your updates make things manageable, or would you recommend waiting for ED to fix the FLAK itself?

 

Thanks much for the continual updates, and the new, awesome looking campaign.

 

Cheers

[unlikely_spider]

27 minutes ago, wowbagger said:

I was slightly disappointed to not see any mention of FLAK balancing by ED in the patch. Do your updates make things manageable, or would you recommend waiting for ED to fix the FLAK itself?

 

Thanks much for the continual updates, and the new, awesome looking campaign.

 

Cheers

I'm pretty sure I did see something in the patch notes about that.

 

Edit:

Bf 109 K-4 Jagdflieger, F-86F Hunters over the Yalu, DCS: Fw 190 A-8 Horrido!, P-51D: The Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney, Spitfire IX The Big Show by Reflected Simulations:

 

• More realistic flak and AAA.
• AI behavior tunings.
• Mission progression fixes.

Edited January 28, 2021 by unlikely_spider

[Reflected]

25 minutes ago, wowbagger said:

I was slightly disappointed to not see any mention of FLAK balancing by ED in the patch. Do your updates make things manageable, or would you recommend waiting for ED to fix the FLAK itself?

 

Thanks much for the continual updates, and the new, awesome looking campaign.

 

Cheers

 

ED's still working on that. I finalized flak batteries nonetheless, but I also implemented safeguards and workarounds to make sure your flight is not wiped out halfway to the target.

[wowbagger]

Sounds good. Thanks again for the continued support, updates, and workarounds.

[Reflected]

Zone5 hotfix!

 

- Accidental WWII asset unit removed from mission 4. (Sorry, my bad!)

- Player can RTB even after losing an engagement - The player is now immortal, but hits are still detected. So Showtime will call if you're dead, in which case you'll need to bug East and wait on the sidelines while the others finish the exercise. Then you fly back to Nellis together.

- QuickStart practice missions added - for some reason these were missing at release. You'll find them under mods/campaigns/F14A Zone 5

[Matthew Flies]

Just a heads up: Immortal player also means that you cant crash and cant overstress / damage the wings aka rock as hard as you like on the stick and flying a fly by wire jet without any troubles. Well - your radar and alignment will still mess up. To be honest: I liked it the other way before better.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Matthew Flies

[Reflected]

10 hours ago, Matthew Flies said:

Just a heads up: Immortal player also means that you cant crash and cant overstress / damage the wings aka rock as hard as you like on the stick and flying a fly by wire jet without any troubles. Well - your radar and alignment will still mess up. To be honest: I liked it the other way before better.

 

 

That's a good point. Actually, by the time you crash you hit the hard deck so you're out of the game anyway. I never really thought about snapping a wing either, because I rarely overstress the airframe. I usually stay within 6.5g-s. It's a "hardcore" realistic campaign and it expects the player to act like a professional who got selected for this training det. But you're right, it opened a small door for possible "cheating".

[Matthew Flies]

I can kill the AI and AI can kill me. Its a game its training and it is fair. For me there was no need to be immortal. I still would have the option to knock it off or skip the mission.

 

Just my opinion. 

[Jive]

On 1/24/2021 at 8:08 PM, Reflected said:

What does this mean? Officially, it's a single player campaign. Period. However, you can easily open the missions in the editor, change the unit to 'client' and fly with a friend. Provided, of course, that all multicrew related bugs are fixed.

 

 

 

I may be exposing myself with a stupid question here but when I try to edit the unit to client the mission will not allow saving the edit. Am I missing a step or is this just a limitation of how campain licensing works and therefore fully SP only?

Really enjoying the campaign so far btw, very impressed! 

[Reflected]

Hi Jive,

yes, it’s possibly part of the protection but I don’t really know how it works. You can’t even hit ‘fly’ without saving?

 

ps: the practice missions in the campaign folder are set as ‘client’

[Jive]

I can hit fly in the editor but as I understand that's only SP.  I'd need to save the edited mission to be able to load it into MP.

 

Still possible I'm totally missing something ofc.

 

Not a deal-breaker by any means as the campaign is great in SP, just seems a shame if unable to be shared with a RIO. 

 

edit: clutching at straws here but if edits to client units aren't able would it be possible to have a secondary version of the campaign added to the folder for those who want to take the chance of possible bugs with 'client' units in MP? Just a thought, I'm out of my depth though.

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Jive

[Reflected]

I guess you're right - possibly the best solution would be to include a 2nd version of each.

 

The problem is that currently it's not the bottleneck. Until ED irons out triggered radio messages in MP there is no point. The practice missions are great for testing, and once those work, I will add a client version of the main missions too.

[Reflected]

***2021 PLANS***

 

Dear all, Thank you for all your support in 2020. I spent most of the year in lockdown with plenty of time for DCS, so 2021 will see many of these projects come to fruition.

 

2021 started on a high note with the release of the ‘Zone 5’ F-14A campaign. It will be followed soon by ‘Wolfpack’, a P-47 campaign based on real-life combat reports of the 56th fighter group, which has already been submitted to ED.

 

Another F-14A project is nearing completion after over a year’s work: ‘Fear the Bones!’ will be a much lighter, more story driven and fun campaign than my first one. If you think of 'Zone 5' as an awesome documentary, think of 'Fear the Bones!' as a corny 1980s action movie - the kind we all secretly love

 

Going forward, I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the Mosquito and the F4U Corsair. I’ve already conducted some extensive research, and I can’t wait to start working on those campaigns. You can also see my work once the Corsair is released, as I’m the one making the official quick start, single and training missions for the module.

 

Apart from all these I may have a few more irons in the fire, but more news about those later. And of course, I'll keep updating my older campaigns to make sure they're up to the latest standards of DCS.

 

Stay tuned!

 

[Castor Troy]

So, I guess I will be buying the Channel Map and P-47 while it is on sale....

[Rudel_chw]

29 minutes ago, Castor Troy said:

So, I guess I will be buying the Channel Map and P-47 while it is on sale....

 

You won't regret those purchases, the P-47 is the WW2 aircraft that I've enjoyed the most learning ...  and you will get a higher discount than the one given to the early adopters (which was only a 20%) 

[Reflected]

 

[wowbagger]

Sounds awesome! Champing at the bit, can't wait for this one.

[Coota0]

I'm really enjoying Zone 5, any idea when Fear the Bones will coming? Will it have the real world procedural elements that Zone 5 does?

Edited March 4, 2021 by Coota0

[unlikely_spider]

36 minutes ago, Coota0 said:

I'm really enjoying Zone 5, any idea when Fear the Bones will coming? Will it have the real world procedural elements that Zone 5 does?

 

Which map is that campaign supposed to be for?

[Reflected]

1 hour ago, Coota0 said:

I'm really enjoying Zone 5, any idea when Fear the Bones will coming? Will it have the real world procedural elements that Zone 5 does?

 

 

Fear the Bones is coming later this Spring. It will use the Caucasus map. While it will have many of the real world procedural elements that Zone 5 does (checklists, use of channels, etc...) , it will also be very different. Much more relaxed, fun, with a lot of 80s cheese. Kind of like the mixture of DCS and a corny 1980s action movie - in a good way.

[Coota0]

Sounds fun, thanks.

[Reflected]

Wolfpack - what performance can I expect?

 

'Wolfpack' is going to be my most historically accurate WWII campaign to date. You'll be part of a formation of 24/36/48 P-47s, just like in real life. Many of the missions are escorts, where you'll protect either 72 or 24 bombers (you can select the formation size depending on your PC), and meet anywhere between 2 and 40 enemy aircraft - as per original combat reports.

 

Sounds like a lot? Yes, and no. On one hand, I think campaigns are supposed to offer the ultimate experience. You can't create a dozen 8 v 8 instant actions and call it a campaign. On the other hand I used every trick I had up my sleeve to optimize it. I made sure that units that are out of your sight should deactivate automatically to give you as many FPS as possible. I made and tested it on a laptop that just meets the new minimum system requirements posted by ED (MSI GP65), and got 50-60 FPS when escorting a large (72) formation. If my laptop can run it, most players should be fine as long as you have reasonable settings.

 

This being said, it WILL be quite demanding on your PC. If you have an outdated rig, and/or play in VR be prepared to select the smaller bomber formation, and make some compromises in terms of GFX settings. (I'd be happy to help with that) Then again, DCS is constantly being optimized. I used to get the same performance over Normandy in heavy missions, nowadays I get 80-90 FPS. I'm sure the Channel will get some love too and the new DM is constantly being fine tuned as well.

 

Bottom line is, be prepared for the most epic and immersive WWII USAAF experience!

[Reflected]

Campaign MEGA-Update!

 

With the coming of 2.7 there's a massive update arriving to all my campaigns too.

 

I'm currently setting up the new clouds and re-testing most of the missions to make sure they work. I'm not allowed to show it to you, but let me tell ya, 2.7 is a whole new game...it's breathtaking.

 

I'm also fine-tuning some triggers to make sure they work no matter what, anticipating more 'user-errors' to ensure a smoother flow and also to optimize performance.

 

By popular request, I'm adding a COOP version of 2 missions in each WWII and Korea campaign so you can play them with up to 4 of your friends. I'm not much of a MP guy, so I'm counting on you guys to test and provide feedback.

 

I updated all my Spitfire skins to make them blend in perfectly with the scenery, they look as realistic now as they come.

 

What's more, I'm introducing a free Channel map alternate update to The Big Show. I selected 5 of the missions where both the historical home base and the target area can be found on the DCS Channel map, and recreated them from scratch. If you don't have the Channel map, you can still play the campaign over Normandy. If you do have it, you'll have the option to choose which version you want to fly.

 

Here's a screenshot taken still in 2.6, Spitfires vs Focke Wulfs over France. A real 'furball'.

 

[Reflected]

I just finished final testing 'Wolfpack' in 2.7 with the new clouds and everything. (No I cannot show you those

 

I'm very happy with the result, but I think it will be quite different from what most people expect, given that it recreates real life events as they happened.

 

Those who want quick action will be disappointed. Those who define fun as shooting other aircraft will be bored. Those who want to get as many kills as possible will be dead. Those, however, who approach it with an open mind, and are willing to invest the time and energy to fly it like they would have in real life are in for a really educational experience, an unprecedented peek into the life of a young fighter pilot of the 8th Air Force.

 

You will learn all the lessons those folks learned the hard way back then. You'll learn never to leave your leader, never to wander off alone chasing an enemy. You'll learn formation flying, proper engine management. You'll learn to fear and respect flak, and you'll never want to end up low and slow - and alone. You'll learn to appreciate landing after a long escort without a single kill, but alive.

 

I can't wait to show you (I don't know when it will be released)