ATTENTION: SPOILERS! - F-14B CAMPAIGN REFORGER PART I+II FEEDBACK THREAD - Read at your own discretion.

[ebabil]

Despite doing nothing in terms of fighting in the first 4 mission, this campaign is great. 

we already start shooting 2 mins after take off until we get shot down on the multiplater servers. this campaign feels much realistic

[Largeheadsmallbrain]

stuck on 5, killed everything then "back to CAP", then nothing happens, back to carrier when fuel low, but incomplete mission

 

[JupiterJoe]

No spoilers:

 

I see some have complained about the lack of 'action' in the first couple of missions.  I loved the first mission.  It sets an amazing tone and brings a sense of realism. In reality Tomcat missions were often long, boring and most pilots never saw any action.  Personally I need all the carrier landing and mid-air refuelling practice I can get.  If you're bored bring along your own music for the Walkman, slip a couple of Playboy centrefolds into your kneepad, or a crossword puzzle if you're married    I love the balance of reality and action in this campaign and it's the best one I've played yet.

 

In terms of overall polish, I think a couple of missions are missing Marshall info regarding what altitude to join the stack.  Some missions have a lot of planes trying to land on the carrier and yet you're almost immediately being given the Charlie signal.  It adds gameplay (and realism) to have to conserve fuel in the stack, or face another visit to the tanker.  Thanks Heatblur.

Edited December 29, 2020 by JupiterJoe

[DarkStar]

No spoiler:

 

Mission 1

 

Departing on the briefed BRC 056 takes you away from the 7nm DME trigger to continue the mission. In reality, the BRC is a couple degrees off, and flying straight and level following the actual BRC triggers Jester at 7nm DME just fine. Had to fly the mission thrice and deviate from the brief to get succcess. 

 

Hotfix: remove 056 from the brief, or extend the trigger to 7DME regardless of heading (?).

 

Best,

 

DS

[turkeydriver]

Verify your loadouts for your mission support aircraft.  The F-18s in mission 5 have 4 GBU-12 and 4 JSOW- doesnt fit the year of the campaign.  Thats minor.  They could launch SLAM in the place of the AGM-154s or have a seperate low section of AGM-65 and cluster bomb strikers and a high section with GBU-12s and GBU-16s.  Your A-6 would be available at this time to carry the heavy stuff.  

In mission 5 I noticed for air to air armament the Hornets only have one AIM-9, no radar weapons, and an ACMI/TACTs pod on the other wingtip.   During this time period it would be 2 AIM-9M and 2 AIM-7M or AIM-120A/B.

Additionally 3-4 of the tomcats do not launch their TALDs and take them back to the boat.  I'd put the second flight of 4 TALD tomcats 30-45 seconds behind the first and launch theirs after the SAMs start getting the first flights TALDs.  

Finally- in mission 2-5 many of the enemy aircraft have no weapons.  This may be because shooting hasnt started but Id imagine they would be ready to shoot back.  Despite these minor details.  The immersion and scripting are excellent.  Easily the best DCS campaign yet.

Edited December 30, 2020 by turkeydriver

[IronMike]

On 12/27/2020 at 6:22 AM, ustio said:

I was looking forward for your campaign. however after the first 5th mission, sorry to say i wasn't really to pleased with it

 

the first 4th mission are basically doing nothing so that's 50% of the whole campaign doing nothing. its not really something that you wanna do after a long day at work. currently i'm stuck on mission 5. i've destroyed every enemy and told they me to return to cap position. i've waited minutes on station until i got bored and quit. but after reading his thread i think it's bugged.

 

but again, i download this campaign using the link you share meaning, if i want to play the campaign again with the fixes i have to use the official one from the game and start all over again. i just don't want to go through the whole first 4 mission again.

 

i was expecting the whole campaign to be something like watching over devildog mission. 

 

in other word i really like the jester own dialog its really cool.

 

i know this wont be your last campaign you make, so i'm really looking forward for the next one

 

Regards

 

 

Hi Ustio, my apologies, in mission 5 was a bug, I published a hotfix right after release, which you likely missed. You dont need to replay missions 1 to 4, simply download the mission 5 from the link below and replace the one you have, and you can continue. Additionally the link contains some frequency hotfixes. My apologies for the inconvience.
 

 

On 12/27/2020 at 11:43 PM, Largeheadsmallbrain said:

stuck on 5, killed everything then "back to CAP", then nothing happens, back to carrier when fuel low, but incomplete mission

 

 

See above pls. Also to you my apologies, I was hoping everyone would see the hotfix before coming to mission 5. In the version included with the module last patch, it is fixed.

[IronMike]

On 12/28/2020 at 8:07 PM, DarkStar said:

No spoiler:

 

Mission 1

 

Departing on the briefed BRC 056 takes you away from the 7nm DME trigger to continue the mission. In reality, the BRC is a couple degrees off, and flying straight and level following the actual BRC triggers Jester at 7nm DME just fine. Had to fly the mission thrice and deviate from the brief to get succcess. 

 

Hotfix: remove 056 from the brief, or extend the trigger to 7DME regardless of heading (?).

 

Best,

 

DS

 

 

One must not forget to account for the magvar around the carrier, but yes, basically you fly straight. I shall add that to the briefing. Thank you! (The course straight should be 056, however it will show deviation on your hud tape, BDHI, etc..) 

 

5 hours ago, turkeydriver said:

Verify your loadouts for your mission support aircraft.  The F-18s in mission 5 have 4 GBU-12 and 4 JSOW- doesnt fit the year of the campaign.  Thats minor.  They could launch SLAM in the place of the AGM-154s or have a seperate low section of AGM-65 and cluster bomb strikers and a high section with GBU-12s and GBU-16s.  Your A-6 would be available at this time to carry the heavy stuff.  

In mission 5 I noticed for air to air armament the Hornets only have one AIM-9, no radar weapons, and an ACMI/TACTs pod on the other wingtip.   During this time period it would be 2 AIM-9M and 2 AIM-7M or AIM-120A/B.

Additionally 3-4 of the tomcats do not launch their TALDs and take them back to the boat.  I'd put the second flight of 4 TALD tomcats 30-45 seconds behind the first and launch theirs after the SAMs start getting the first flights TALDs.  

Finally- in mission 2-5 many of the enemy aircraft have no weapons.  This may be because shooting hasnt started but Id imagine they would be ready to shoot back.  Despite these minor details.  The immersion and scripting are excellent.  Easily the best DCS campaign yet.

 

 

Thanks! I have no idea how JSOWs and tact pods made it lmao, cause I never (consciously) put them there, but in general AI loadouts are still WIP and likely I used some presets or missed some, etc. I'll double check them for the next patch. If you find anything else, please let me know.

 

EDIT: forgot to mention that the TALDs is just an AI thing.. Even if you delay them, etc. they will still not all launch their TALDs, for whatever reason. I can't tell you how long I spent to even get them to launch like that, or launch at all, heh..

[IronMike]

On 12/28/2020 at 3:17 PM, JupiterJoe said:

No spoilers:

 

I see some have complained about the lack of 'action' in the first couple of missions.  I loved the first mission.  It sets an amazing tone and brings a sense of realism. In reality Tomcat missions were often long, boring and most pilots never saw any action.  Personally I need all the carrier landing and mid-air refuelling practice I can get.  If you're bored bring along your own music for the Walkman, slip a couple of Playboy centrefolds into your kneepad, or a crossword puzzle if you're married    I love the balance of reality and action in this campaign and it's the best one I've played yet.

 

In terms of overall polish, I think a couple of missions are missing Marshall info regarding what altitude to join the stack.  Some missions have a lot of planes trying to land on the carrier and yet you're almost immediately being given the Charlie signal.  It adds gameplay (and realism) to have to conserve fuel in the stack, or face another visit to the tanker.  Thanks Heatblur.

 

 

Thanks for the very kind words. As for the marshall: unfortunately the AI/ATC is a bit lacking in this regard, I am not sure if on the SC version the charlie time will be more considerate of the stack, but it's not something I can influence. In general the best is to accept the charlie time and then fall into the pattern traffic, I wish marshalling was done a bit better in general, too. The next campaign will be more about procedures, too, in this one I did not want to make landings mandatory, hence everything after the RTB message is left to ATC and the RNG gods of the DCS AI. The next one will put more emphasis on these things, and I'll see if I cant trick around a bit to improve the marshalling experience.

[SignorMagnifico]

This sounds like a great campaign! Will there be a supercarrier version of this campaign, or can we get by via editing the mission files and replacing the stock carrier with the supercarrier of our choice?

[IronMike]

4 hours ago, SignorMagnifico said:

This sounds like a great campaign! Will there be a supercarrier version of this campaign, or can we get by via editing the mission files and replacing the stock carrier with the supercarrier of our choice?

 

I will add a SC version for the next patch, in the meantime you can also grab one made by  @Dave317, which is available in the file section. Check it out here.
 

 

[ebabil]

In the mission 7, i was told to kill a hind. i shot him with a aim9, he took a hit and forced to land. but nothing happened. then i thought i have to destroy it completely, so i shot him with guns many times but it didin't explode.. I had to re play the mission and use 2 sidewinders to kill it completely

[IronMike]

14 hours ago, ebabil said:

In the mission 7, i was told to kill a hind. i shot him with a aim9, he took a hit and forced to land. but nothing happened. then i thought i have to destroy it completely, so i shot him with guns many times but it didin't explode.. I had to re play the mission and use 2 sidewinders to kill it completely

 

Thank you for letting me know. In my tests I had no issues killing it with 1 aim9, but the DM of the AI might be a bit unreliable here. I will think of something that will assure progress even if he only has to crash-land, like below a certain percent of damage etc.. Thanks again!

[ebabil]

In the same mission,  after I got rtb clearance, my wingman didn't follow me and didn't obey my orders. 

I saw him flying to north, I gave him rtb order and he replied "copy" so I thought he was coming to the boat, but when I checked him on f10 map, he was going north. I gave same order two times more and he replied copy. But kept going north.  Then he said bingo fuel. So I told him to go tanker and he replied copy but kept going north. Eventually he ran out of fuel and ejected. I turned back to the boat alone. 

[IronMike]

10 hours ago, ebabil said:

In the same mission,  after I got rtb clearance, my wingman didn't follow me and didn't obey my orders. 

I saw him flying to north, I gave him rtb order and he replied "copy" so I thought he was coming to the boat, but when I checked him on f10 map, he was going north. I gave same order two times more and he replied copy. But kept going north.  Then he said bingo fuel. So I told him to go tanker and he replied copy but kept going north. Eventually he ran out of fuel and ejected. I turned back to the boat alone. 

 

Thanks. That's also an AI issue I would say, there is nothing that would tell him to fly north in any kind of way, in fact that isn't even possible to order as an action for wingmen (I wish it was) - unless the player orders them to a specific waypoint. Unfortunately the AI will always be a bit of a limiting factor in campaigns, I tried to work around AI issues as much as possible, but things like this surprise even the most seasoned of us.. Thanks again for reporting it.

[Alphabet_Ghost]

IN mission 07 some hornet is set to landing on LHA-1...LoL. just a tiny bug.

[draconus]

 !!! Possible SPOILERS !!!

Here are some errors I found.

All missions: briefing images contain illegible city names (even at max zoom). [screen]

 

On Alert 5: "15nm" message overlapped with "Mayday" message for me - I believe one is time triggered and the other is zone triggered so it can happen. [screen]

 

 

MigCAP: At the end of the mission the Russian ships probably collide. [screen]

 

#5: Briefing says "anchorman" is to be exactly 09:18. When we get the "archorman" message the Tomcat clock is 09:14. [screen]

I had some weird "you were late" messages like others reported.

This mission is very heavy on my PC. Apogee at TALDs launch is less than 10fps.

I had once both MigSukhumi crashed on their own. [screen]

After landing on Stennis I found a ground crew car stuck in the air above the lowered bow elevator. [screen]

 

#6 is year 2018!

Briefing contains "broughter base of operations" - not sure if meant or misspell.
Briefing at point 5. misspell "porviding".

#7 is year 2016!

 

I'll report if found anything more. Not done yet but having great time so far - thx! I actually appreciate all the "no-action" parts.

Edited January 5, 2021 by draconus

[ebabil]

I didin't understand the mission 9.

We hit all bandits but we were told that our ship is hit. Then nothing happened.

Is mission failed, If the carrier is hit?

[Gun Jam]

I enjoyed the campaign quite a bit. Here are my thoughts on a few things

 

1) I liked the way it started out the first 4 missions made a lot of sense to me and where building up the plot and you were never sure if you were seconds away from starting a war. Each side provoking the other trying to get someone to slip up. one of the most memorable moments was passing the mig head on ROE weapons hold not sure if hes going to fire and passing just a few feet away his frozen contrails right off the canopy and jester not sure if we just got shot at. I though that was really cool and helped build the suspense. It might have been the mission before when jester was all excited about seeing a mig up close that was cool too. All that set the stage.

 

2) then the next mission felt like we missed a bunch of stuff and were right in the midst of a massive combat zone... so much for all that suspense. That was a bit disappointing it felt like a main piece was missing. weapons hold passing a single mig no shots fired then an ace in a day shit storm with not even any dialog to fill the gap. Also this first weapons hot mission had a lot of stuff going on and I did have to play it twice because the first time everything was dead but didnt get success... maybe I needed a few more cap passes...not clear on the issue?

 

3) The voice acting was good and most of the story was good!

 

4) I really only felt cheated on one mission where you fly cap  in the mountain range for a while then a mig apparently shows up right under you. I get what the dev was going for but it felt contrived like yeah that totally just spawned there...there's 45 min ill never get back.

 

5) other than those small issues Nice Job!

 

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Gun Jam

[draconus]

9 hours ago, Gun Jam said:

maybe I needed a few more cap passes...not clear on the issue

If you fly CAP you always stay on station until relieved - so it's not like you fly though the waypoints 1, 2, 3 and RTB.

[eatthis]

whats the campaign called? and if you fail a mission due to procedure/comms will it tell you what you did wrong?

[draconus]

7 hours ago, eatthis said:

whats the campaign called? and if you fail a mission due to procedure/comms will it tell you what you did wrong?

It's for the Operation Reforger - The Iron Heel campaign as explained in the OP. Missions in DCS rely on player's and enemies' actions and time triggers therefore the most common outcome for missing a trigger is silence and no progress as a result. It depends on the mission if the author thaught about every possible outcome and made additional triggers though. Depending on what is implemented the mission can tell you what you did wrong. Hint: here are dumbed down instructions for every order in subtitles like [FLY 090 FOR 30NM NOW].

Edited January 8, 2021 by draconus

[eatthis]

42 minutes ago, draconus said:

It's for the Operation Reforger - The Iron Heel campaign as explained in the OP. Missions in DCS rely on player's and enemies' actions and time triggers therefore the most common outcome for missing a trigger is silence and no progress as a result. It depends on the mission if the author thaught about every possible outcome and made additional triggers though. Depending on what is implemented the mission can tell you what you did wrong. Hint: here are dumbed down instructions for every order in subtitles like [FLY 090 FOR 30NM NOW].

 

the 1 i stuffed up was mission 1, cant remember what campaign but its escort a tanker or awacs into nellis then land and park. i managed to fail it without any idea what i did wrong. obviously i stuffed up a procedure or a radio call but i have no idea what, the follow me truck took me to thr wrong parking spot so i went into the breifing and went to the correct 1, mission fail. meh

 

[draconus]

On 1/8/2021 at 3:28 PM, eatthis said:

the 1 i stuffed up was mission 1, cant remember what campaign but its escort a tanker or awacs into nellis then land and park. i managed to fail it without any idea what i did wrong. obviously i stuffed up a procedure or a radio call but i have no idea what, the follow me truck took me to thr wrong parking spot so i went into the breifing and went to the correct 1, mission fail. meh

First, find the campaign name. Second, find the right thread and ask there.

The only NTTR campaign I remember is this: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3304391/

Is it this one?

Day 1 - Night formation flying
Escort tanker during night time until bingo fuel or scheduled guests are done refueling

Thread is here:

https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/212007-red-flag-training-missions-campaign-v10-f-14b/

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by draconus

[sourisher]

I enjoyed this campaign very much!

 

here my 5 cents on it:

- I really liked the first few missions with ROE weapons hold and topping off at the tanker. Seems realistic to me to go on a CAP like this.

- Voice acting was very good. I really liked the air marshall calls before launch. Nice attention to detail.

- For me the switch from ROE Weapons hold missions to those "Master arm on, let's blast them out of the sky" missions came to quickly as well. Kinda lost the connection to the story there.

- Missions were really entertaining and the number of friendlies in the sky in some missions really added to this big campaign atmosphere.

 

In the last mission i would have really enjoyed getting the bird to Turkey after an intense fight. Maybe with refueling once more along the way.

 

Other than that a really good campaign! So far the best i've flown in DCS

Edited January 11, 2021 by sourisher

[nillefix]

Finally finished the campaign.

 

After playing Raven One by Baltic Dragon this felt a bit meh in the beginning  but it really grew by the mission. 

Would have liked more cold start missions instead of just shot off the cat, better and more info on the kneeboard.

 

The voice overs were really cool, had a bit of trouble hearing who's who but that might just be me.

 

All in all, a great campaign!

 

Spoiler

Heading south over Turkey:

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by nillefix