New Server Mission Uploaded With Exciting New Features (well I think so anyway!)

Friar · March 4

UPDATE 4TH MARCH 2024 V2.10

Tweaked the way AI enemy aircraft spawn in with the delay/repeat logic.
Added 2 x SA11 sites into the random selection mix.
Increased the number of SAM sites generated to 7 out of a possible 17.
Changed F10 map setting to "Fog of War"
Created the first Map-Mission-Coop "Oil Rig Capture".

OIL RIG CAPTURE

Orders have been issued to seize control of 3 oil/gas platforms located south of Laven Island.

The rigs and surrounding air space are protected by SAM and AAA sites based on the island itself as well as a Corvette class patrol ship positioned in the locality. There are also troops believed to be based on each of the 3 rigs. The island airfield has other ground targets that are also to be hit.

All of these targets must be neutralized before Huey's flying from LHA-1 Tarawa, which has positioned itself ahead of the fleet to reduce flying time, can land on the platforms and seize control via the Marines that are already on board the waiting Helicopters. They will disembark as soon as the Huey's touch down and form a perimeter around the landing platform.

Once the platform has been secured the Marines can be cleared from the rig via the Comms menu commands.

A successful mission relies on all 3 of the rigs being captured.

Friar · March 11

UPDATE 11th March 2024 Version 2.11

Added UH60-L "Blackhawk" to the map. This mod will be required to join. You can get it from here: https://github.com/Kinkkujuustovoileipa/uh-60l/releases
Changed the structure of the Communications (F10) menu list (see below)
Troops for the Town Assault and other operations are now picked up from a base located just North West of the airfield. There are two landing zones clearly indicated and are marked "L" for left and "R" for Right. You will need to use a specific menu option to bring your troops forward to your zone and to load them. I have created my own logic for loading and unloading troops and has not been tested in full multiplayer so I hope it will be ok.
When landing at the drop-off point for the Town Assault use the menu option "Town Assault" to unload your troops. Should they reach the objective, use the same option and select the Pick-Up option.
Server Commands - Added new features to load a map with start times of 05:45 am, 10:00 am or 22:00 pm. The current running map (of what ever time) can also be re-started as before.
Spec Ops Extraction - Can be flown in either "Huey" or "Blackhawk". Selecting this option will randomly pick one of three locations (My plan is to add further locations) where Special Forces Unit requires extraction. If taking the Blackhawk you may need some support. You will also use this menu item to get options to Pick-up the units and having reached the home base, unload them, again using the Left or Right zone options.
Added a new Re-arm, Re-fuel and Repair base South of the Oil and Gas platforms to save having to fly all the way back home. No spawns. Be careful the runway is only 1200 meters long.
Corvettes protecting the rigs are now on patrol around the area and not stationed.
Moved the location for one of the random SAM sites that was too close to the home airfield.

Friar · March 14

If anyone owns a plane that I have not included in my map please let me know and I will add it.

I am considering FC3 in the sale to get a taste of some of the other planes, if I do I will add them, obviously

wingflyr · March 14

Colin if you can add the Hercules Mod for us to fly in to drop supporting paratroopers in the areas that need to build up (battle support) or aid in building up new fraps built up with Sam's, equipment, vehicles, personnel's and stores. (Good one for Sid)

Friar · March 14

@wingflyr I think most of us that were going to have a go on Greyflag have it, I know I do.

We do not want to get too bogged down with extra mods acting as a gate way to people wanting to join.

I guess It would be ok for my Persian Gulf map but not on the free Caucasus.

I will take a straw poll of the regular DCS Thursday members to see who has it and to see if there are any limitations on folks adding it.

I will definitely put it top of the "nice to have" list as I would like to introduce logistics to my missions at some point.

Friar · March 16

UPDATE 16th MARCH 2024

I have now started to work on a Syria mission and have added a "tourist" mission onto the server.

Now for the clever bit...(well I think so anyway)

I have updated the F10 Comms menu to enable you to change the missions between Persian Gulf, Syria and now Fenrir's original Caucasus map as well.

For the Persian Gulf and Syria maps you can also change the mission time to either 05:45, 10:00 or 22:00 hours.

When you change from Persian Gulf to Syria (or back the other way, the mission defaults to 10:00). Once it has loaded you can then change it to 05:45 or 22:00 if you wish.

On the new Syria map there are allied air bases in Turkey in the North and Jordan in the South, as well a single carrier.

I am working on the Air College base in Jordan to have a rating system to judge your landings (comments on hitting the right point on the runway, if you kept it straight and the distance you pulled up in etc). I am also planning to add a bombing range that will also give you feed back on your performance.

There are no enemy positions or defenses at the moment, once I have had a proper look round the map I will start to plug in some scenarios.

fruitbat · March 17

I have just tested, and the F10 map change works well,

One thing to probably note, no user should leave it on the Syria map, as you can only change if you are spawned in a plane on the server, ego if you don't have the Syria map you couldn't change it to a map you have if it is running the Syria map.

Friar · March 25

UPDATE 25th MARCH 2024

Persian Gulf and Syria

Both maps have had the troop transport completely re-worked. It is now controlled by the DML module.

This module gives the ability to load troops that are within range from anywhere on the map. When deploying troops they are given orders to go and attack the nearest enemy area. No matter where you drop them off, they will head to the nearest zone. Once they have taken control of the zone you will be able to see the area represented in blue. By default the "owned zones" are red and can be seen on the F10 map.

Troop transport is accessed via the F10 menu and selecting "Airborne Troops".

As an individual you have the option of making YOUR settings to say if you want to;

automatically pick-up troops on landing or need to request / load them (default)
automatically deploy troops on landing or need to tell them unload (default)

Helicopters may only carry 1 loadout per trip (pickup/deploy, pickup/deploy etc) That will either be a group of 12 soldiers (intended for the Blackhawk) or a group of 6 (intended for the Huey.) You can of course take 6 in the Blackhawk or 12 in the Huey (but they will have to sit on each others laps!)

At the start of a mission troops must be picked up from the satellite base. But after deploying them they can be picked up from anywhere and deployed anywhere. There are multiple "owned zones" that could be captured in this way.

In order to pick up troops in areas of operation you must be with 50 meters of them. When deploying, they can be dropped off anywhere. If they do not see any local "owned zones" they will adopt a "guard" formation at the point they were deployed. (I may have got this not quite right so in early play we will have to look for troops setting out on a "yomp".) If it looks like they are - you can load them back up before they get out of range.

Syria

There are 3 main targets at the moment. There are two hydro electric dams/installations and a railway station. All are protected by air defenses. I will add to these in further updates.

There are also a maximum of 8 random SAM sites deployed at mission start. These are selected from 10 SA8's and 10 SA13's.

There is also a base in Israel with just F16's and F15's

In writing this update I have just realized that there is no AWAC or Air to Air refuel available.

Friar · March 28

UPDATE 28th March 2024

Persian Gulf and Syria

Following some testing on Monday (thank you Fruitbat and Wingflyr) I have decided to remove the "Owned Zones". They did not react as expected so will look into this a bit more.
We can still take either 6 or 12 troops and drop them within 1km of the nearest enemy and they will make their way towards them. After engaging the enemy they will stay at that point.
Added ability to deploy JTAC unit. JTAC unit can be picked up from FARP and taken to a location and deployed. He will then provide "lazering" to nearest target on 1688 which planes should then be able to drop on. There is a new option on the F10 comms menu to interact with this, where you can check in with the unit for details of their target. This feature needs fully multiplayer testing

Syria

Added AWACS
Added tankers
Added ability to activate enemy fighters. 8 different types are fed in randomly once the trigger has been pulled, just as per the Persian Gulf map.
Added extra ground targets

Friar · March 29

UPDATE 29th March 2024

Persian Gulf and Syria

Updated range for ground soldiers and JTAC to 3km for them to see enemy units and engage / laze.
Added extra air frames as cold starts.
Re-located Huey's with more space between them for multiple spawn-ins at the same time.
Added marker and ground crew in yellow top to the right-hand side in the FARP landing zone for troop pickup to indicate safe position for tail to be clear of pipes marking landing zone. Place nose of helicopter at or just forward of position.

Persian Gulf

Found bug causing mission map not to roll over to Syria. School boy coding error, name of flag being triggered had got changed from the name of flag being tested to force the mission roll.

Friar · April 8

UPDATE 7TH APRIL 2024

Persian Gulf and Syria

Updated all time-slot maps (05:45, 10:00 and 22:00) to have different lighting effects.

05:45 - Sunrise is now later meaning that the map will stay darker for a bit longer.

10:00 - Changed the date to make the sun a bit lower in the sky.

22:00 - Changed the date to have the moon in a different phase and not cast so much moon light.

Friar · April 21

UPDATE 21ST APRIL 2024

Persian Gulf

Deployed troops from helicopter will now head off in Echelon Right formation rather than one behind the other. This means they now will all engage the enemy, rather than just the man at the front. I will update the Syria map to match in due course.
Corrected bug with Southern approach suicide bomber truck not working correctly. If it gets through it will now take out our southern SAM defenses.

Friar · April 26

UPDATE 26TH APRIL 2024

Persian Gulf and Syria

Added selection of player flyable Russian helicopters and planes. If you have one that I have not included, please let me know and I will add it.
Added extra helicopter sling loads and removed the pipes as available options. (Just realised they are for allies only, I will add some for the Russians later if they can sling load)

Friar · May 4

UPDATE 4TH MAY 2024

Persian Gulf

Added ability to load troops (units from 81st Airborne) and JTAC from the Valley FARP (located closer to the hostage town).
Added insurgent ground troops attack.
Re-instated "boom" retribution but for 3 or more blue on blue kills.

Friar · May 16

UPDATE 16th May 2024

Persian Gulf and Syria 10:00 Maps Only

Added new function (ready for next week ), Air to Air Training, or any other plane that wants to use it.

I have added two new options to the F10 "other" menu. These are for air to air training and give the player the option of shooting at both unarmed or armed Mig-21's

Both options will spawn in a set of 4 Mig-21's at 3000m, unlimited fuel and instructions to evade fire.

One option has the 4 unarmed, the other has them armed for air to air engagement.

Each set of 4 is generated by use of the menu option, so once all of the targets have been eliminated, you can, when ready, hit the option again to start another set of 4. This also means of course that if two players are in the air together, they can, if they wish both trigger a set of 4, or work together against 1, 2 or multiple sets of 4.

Both flights (unarmed or armed) will operate in the same air space so if you have armed and unarmed both triggered, make sure you know what you are up against!

On the Persian Gulf map they are heading 176 deg (north to south towards the training area north of the airfield and taking up a race track orbit)

On the Syria map they are heading East to West heading 253 deg and again taking up a race track orbit north of Incirlik Airbase.

Friar · May 22

UPDATE 22nd May 2024

Syria Map 10:00 Only

Added F4-E (Phantom) to main base plus also Cyprus
Added 3 new zones that can be captured with ground troops. AI will try and re-capture them. (ground work for my own dynamic campaign)

Friar · May 23

UPDATE 23RD MAY 2024