Mission 13: Lack of mission progression - how long to wait?

[Martyn]

I just flew mission 13 for the first time. I didn't expect any instant drama due to the comments about reserving fuel, but...

 

Spoiler

After following out the 4x Su-25s and climbing to 27,000ft, we had some radio discussions. They told me their ToT would be 20:12. After this nothing happened. I patrolled over Gori/Bullseye until it was completely dark, and only at 20:50, over 30 mins later, did I get another radio call from an Su-25 to say he was 3 minutes out from the target. Yet he was out of ordnance at this point.

 

I watched what they were doing from time to time. Most of them had spent their bombs fairly early (after the initial radio call), and I presume they were shot down (didn't review the Tacview track yet). The one that was left flew back to base before turning back towards the target area, then turning home before reaching it and landing. Using F2 camera, there was a Backfire circling and occasionally a pair of MiG-29s popping up on the RWR.

 

Seems a trigger didn't fire somewhere? Maybe I was too high or low at times, my altitude tended to drift between 26,000 and 28,000ft, as the F-15 doesn't seem to like attitude or altitude hold in a continuous gentle turn! But hasn't been an issue until now.

 

Eventually, I flew back and landed about an hour after I took off. Still got a score of 50 but I chose not to continue as I think I missed some interesting events (even though I always enjoy non-combat missions as I don't get usually die halfway through!)

 

I am on 2.5.6.59625. Will try again soon.

 

I've recently starting flying some DCS missions in VR and enjoyed my first sunset and seeing the nighttime cockpit come to life, so it wasn't all bad.

 

Thanks.

[feefifofum]

Hi Martyn, could you provide a .trk or .acmi files for us to view?

 

Definitely some funny business, the Frogfoots should have been much chattier and some things should have happened as you arrived on station.

[Martyn]

Of course, here's a link to the ACMI file

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vlWaqlTV3pZtPnyszWbpQuxeT9Jqin_c/view?usp=sharing

 

Perhaps I strayed too far from the trigger point and in orbiting the area I didn't pass into it for a while. After a short time I starting doing a rough racetrack orbit and then kept overflying WP2 (Gori) each time.

 

If you can find something amiss, that's great; if not I'll try it again at some point in the coming days and report back. Thanks!

[feefifofum]

Perfect, thanks! I'll take a look ASAP and see if I can find where the issue occured. From your description, it sounds like you did everything properly.  I don't want to spoil things for you but "stuff" should happen when you reach your anchor point.

 

EDIT:

After taking a look in the mission and your track file, I'm not entirely certain what went wrong. It appears you flew the flight plan as briefed. I'll give it a test run myself when time permits but for the time being, I would suggest simply trying again, being sure to hit CRP East when leaving Kutaisi and your anchor point when arriving on station. This may have been a weird fluke!

 

If the issue occurs again, I would love to take a look at a .TRK file and see exactly which dialogue is and isn't playing if you think to save one. This is a bit of a head scratcher!

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by feefifofum

[Martyn]

OK, thanks for the response and looking into it. I'll be sure to save the .TRK file next time, if it happens again. It's hard to stay focussed on one campaign/aircraft when ED keep doing these free-to-play events!

[feefifofum]

Hi Martyn,

 

I had an opportunity to run the mission this evening and didn't encounter any issues with events failing to progress. Make sure you hit your waypoints (especially WP1, CRP East) and everything should be good to go! I think the events you encountered were a random fluke.

[Martyn]

A few months on from my last attempt, I flew this mission again tonight. I can be like that with DCS when I hit a hurdle in a campaign - it takes me a while to feel like repeating the mission again. But I've just been away from DCS a while. Still on 2.5.6 - I didn't try the OB despite the enticing clouds!

 

This time the mission ran a little better - up to a point...

 

The Georgian Su-25s did their attack run as soon as I neared WP2, then a pair of MiG-29s came in from the north which I downed. Then we had some jumbled up voiceovers about letting a bandit go and "too late, missiles in the air", even though we hadn't fired anything. I think this related to a nearby Tu-22, looking at the Tacview. Hopefully the DCS track will have caught that.

 

Next up, we were directed westwards towards some Su-24s which I caught up to nearing Zugdidi. Rogue 4 said to engage as long as they were over TCT (Tbilisi Controlled Territory), but as they were running away and nearing the Abkhazian border, I elected to save my missiles since the brief implied it would be a long flight. Unsure if I needed to shoot these down to progerss the mission, I followed them for a while, then eventually instructed by wingman to attack and he hit one, but it got away (I told him to rejoin).

 

After that, I flew back towards the Bullseye but nothing else happened. I got standard AWACS calls about aircraft in the area but no official instructions about what to do next. After a while I flew back to Kutaisi to land. Just as I was about to come over the threshold, my wingman gave a "bandit down" call (mission voiceover) then Rogue 4 asked us to return to our hold point. (Looking in Tacview, the timing coincides with the Su-24s landing at Nalchik). So I aborted the landing, and headed back to WP2 at 28,000ft. Again, nothing else happened! I flew several orbits with time acceleration as I was a little bored by this point.

 

Using F2 view I could see three Su-24s which appeared to be near the edge of the map. It was very dark and I was in VR (with short-range terrain rendering) but I could just make out some snow-capped mountains and lots of empty/flat terrain. Using the default AWACS calls I headed over - they were in the far east of the map. Shot them down, then 4 more bombers appeared, headed directly at Rogue 4. I was very close (probably because I was not where I was meant to be - voiceovers said we'd never get there in time) so attacked those but only had one missile left. Soon after, some Flankers appeared and chased me down. (I'd taken damage from an Su24 as I was careless after running out of missiles, then the Flankers finished me off.)

 

So not a very successful run once again. I got a result of 90 so could have continued, but as I don't consider it a completed mission I ended without continuing and will try it again at some point.

 

I'd appreciate it if you can do a bit more bug-hunting on this one, thanks. The Tacview and DCS tracks are both here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fG4RVaPsCS66Cn9MFzvFjcvpGWU4PvLx?usp=sharing

 

 

[Martyn]

I flew the mission again this morning, as it's a UK holiday today. This time it ran better - almost as intended I think. I didn't do anything differently, but perhaps I was in a different position and the triggers fired differently.

• Attacked the 2x MiG-29s, shot down one, got into a furball with the other. Eventually it bugged out and we headed back to our anchor point.
• Shortly after, the call came in for the Tu-22 which we pursued to the east for a while, until it turned back (so far already better than the above runthrough)
• Then we had a long flight west to chase down the 3x Su-24s headed to Kutaisi. As we got with 10-20 miles, and very close to Kutaisi, the three-ship turned for home, and at that moment a voiceover came in from my wingman to say "all bandits destroyed", to which Rogue 4 replied with "good job, return to anchor point". Then I got the speech about the bandits wanting to stay out of our WEZ, and Rogue 4 asking us to continue to push these targets while over the TCT. So the voiceovers were confusing because the mission seemed to think the 3x Su-24s were both destroyed AND going home   But either way, the trigger fired to signal the end of that task and the start of the next one...
• After the above, the call came in about the 4x Su24s approaching Rogue 4 and we headed east again, destined not to get there in time.
• As we closed in on this group, some of the voiceovers 'overlapped' (cut-off by a subsequent voiceover before the previous one had finished), or came in a somewhat jumbled sequence. Maybe I was unlucky with the timing and separate triggers firing near simultaneously. Didn't help that the in-game Overlord calls were coming in thick and fast, so I was mostly reading the subtitles. I didn't hear the audio with the "mother******s... they're doomed" for example - just saw it in the subtitles.
• The rest of the mission seemed to play out OK (instruction from Wizard to RTB, Dodge 7 scrambled)

Mission complete, but only a result of '50' so not sure what counts as a full pass on that one (not that I'm concerned about score or kills; I just want a good experience).

 

I've uploaded the track & Tacview files to the same folder linked above in case you want to analyse them

 

Flying in VR is taking some getting used to, and I spend a lot of time fumbling around for keyboard keys   I need to look at setting up VoiceAttack at last, as the overall experience is amazing.

[baltic_dragon]

Hey Martyn, thanks for the report. Did the campaign advance after completing this mission? Result 50 means that you'd need to refly it, and in that case something was wrong. Score of 50 is something completely different and is based on your A-A kills... @feefifofum tagging you here in case you didn't see it!

[Martyn]

Hi @baltic_dragon, thanks for the question. I had taken a screenshot of the results page and you're right:

• Score = 50
• Result = 85

I misremembered it, and believed the '50' was the minimum pass mark for a campaign mission, based on something I read a long time ago. My mistake, it's good that you queried it!

 

I'm just about to fly the next one...