Its Ready - Syrian Campaign...

[Friar]

 

[Friar]

Full Briefing - Release V1

Scenario

Red forces have pushed out of Syria from Jarabulus in the eastern side of Syria and taken control of the regional airfield of Gaziantep in Turkey. There are also signs that they are planning to push in and take the Forward Operating Base located West of Rayhanli, code named "Alpha". These actions must be countered.

Having negated these incursions Blue forces should then commence the push back into Syria and take over airfields, towns and FOBs all the way down to Damascus.

Blue forces will start their fight back from Incirlik, Hatay, Adana and Akrotiri airfields as well as a small output FOB at Nurdagi. There is also a Carrier fleet in the locality.

Game Play

Other than the Carrier, FOBs and Adana all bases will use the Dynamic Spawn capability and hot start will be an option.

These missions will track your scores and the impact from any encounters will be carried forward from mission to mission. You should make sure you land safely back at a Blue occupied base to bank your points.

The results from each session must be saved via a menu option at the end of play.

Menu options allow players to their view their own score and also the score for other players. Some of these menus are specific to certain plane types so depending on what you are flying means you may not see all the menu options.

You will also be able to get an update on the status of airfields and towns as to which side is in control via the menu options.

Once the controlling forces of an airfield or town have been negated the area can then be captured by the deployment of ground forces. Each new captured area provides the opportunity to pick-up new troops. Captured airfields will also provide new spawn points for aircraft and/or helicopters, thus assisting the move down the map. However should the red forces loose control of a base, they will probably mount an attack to recover any lost assets.

Captured airfields will have very limited air defenses and it is strongly recommended that Hercules out of Adana bring in supplies once the airfield is safe and as early as possible after capture. 

Captured bases may also have limited number of spawns per plane type available so you will need to think about not just throwing away your air frame. Home bases have unlimited spawns and resources.

Some bases once captured will not provide new spawns but will enable the option to land and repair, rearm or refuel. Some of these bases will require extra supplies to be brought in by the Hercules.

Some captured FOBS will require ground resources to be sent in after capture to provide fuel and supplies before any RRR can take place.

All captured bases will provide an opportunity to land and bank any kills you have to save your scores.

Threats - Army

The Red forces will have multiple ground units placed around the map defending key areas. You can expect to encounter many types of ground and air defenses. Some units may be held back and out of sight until required to take part in the engagement, so do not underestimate their strength.

Threats - Air Force

The Red air force is made up of an aging fleet of Migs and SU designated aircraft, but do not mistake this for being an easy fight. They will be deployed to patrol and attack where required to maximize their strengths.

Threats - Navy

There is a limited threat from the Red forces Navy. The only information we have is that there are three "Grisha" class corvettes currently located in Tartus port undergoing refits. Two of these three ships are awaiting sea trials before their weapons systems become fully operational. The other is believed to have completed the sea trials and now has all of its weapons systems functioning. 

[Friar]

Start date scheduled for Thursday 16th January.

[Friar]

Can we tempt you in FT? New Year, get back on the DCS bike so to speak?

[Crash]

will this run every Thursday?

[FoolTrottel]

4 hours ago, Friar said:

Can we tempt you in FT? New Year, get back on the DCS bike so to speak?

Hm, somehow I got Syria map, so I can try the Hercules...

 

[Friar]

I am working on ground vehicles having a role - scout with laser targeting which I thought you might enjoy

[BluBear]

Exceptional work Colin, thank you. Looking forward to this!

[Friar]

On 1/4/2025 at 12:55 PM, Crash said:

will this run every Thursday

Hi Crash, that is my intention, unless once it is released to the Dogz it collapses! Would be great if you could join us.

There are roles for all sorts. We will even have the option for a player to act as JTAC. He will be helicoptered near the front line and then position himself in line of sight to the targets and then lase for bombers / attack helicopters to use. Any player could do this and would not even need to have flight controls set up, just as long as they have Combined Arms.

[Friar]

So following a last little test last night of mission saving and restoring, thanks @fruitbat

Syria Mission Control, we are confirming go-live at 20:15 on Thursday. It will start with a small scenario and game play brief. The actual mission will then start at 20:30 for this first mission. Following missions will start probably around the same time, maybe 20:00 but obviously it will live action from the start.

I will not be running through the brief again if people join later, which there is absolutely no problem with you doing so. If you need to leave before the end, no problem, just bank your scores.

I will NOT be doing the brief multiple times as people join. Happy to answer the odd question when applicable, but that should not be a problem as there will have been lots of people attend the brief so we all know what is going on.

I will NOT be acting as a General for this campaign so will not be making tactical decisions. I will advise on potential next objectives but that is all. So please do not ask me "what should I do next Friar?" I have built quite a bit of randomisation into the campaign so even I know may not know what is going to happen next. 

The mission will also be run with "FOG OF WAR" settings. Icons in game but limited information on the F10 map.

[fruitbat]

Looking forward to this Colin, thanks for all your hard work on this👍

[BluBear]

Whoop! 

And don't worry Colin, I won't need to run through any briefs, I prefer my own, ideally secured around my waist.

[FoolTrottel]

"what should I do first Friar?"

 

My debrief: only one thing to mention: at the end, the captured base at Giantizep, I deployed the NASAM cargo, but it did not show up. 

Menu was changed correctly, as the option to deploy was removed, but the three vehicles did not show up as they did earlier on base in BA52.

 

Good show Colin, good fun. Thanks!!

 

[Friar]

Salute Chaps

I am afraid I have had to do a bit of a "re-set" on the Campaign. Due to some issues I was having with the saved data being reloaded after I had made some changes to the mission file (adding planes and clearing the carrier decks).

Last night (Monday) we started the mission again and re-saved after about a 2 hours of play. We can pick this up on Thursday. It does mean that the scores started again. Sorry about that.

We still have captured Gazintep so that airfield could be used for rearm and refuel (no spawn). Some of the towns will need to be attacked again.

On the plus side, it did give the opportunity to change the way the enemy AI is generated. Hopefully now the air to air element should be constant through out the duration of the mission.

 

[BluBear]

Wahhhhhhhhhhhh points points points points points!

 

 

 

Seriously though, fair enough, thanks Col.

[Friar]

I have this morning resolved the issue of AI spawning after another quiet night on the air to air front (still at least it gave Blubear time to play with his new toy  )

 

 

[BluBear]

That's two Hornets and two Vipers available at Hatay for next week 

[Friar]

I have made the decision to make some environment changes.

I have now added some wind at 4m/s blowing to heading 259 in order to give the sea a little bit of definition. This happens to match the airfields of Incirlik and Hatay.

I have also removed the new carrier crew direction feature. With the possibility of more people using carrier based planes I thought it make it easier to get off the deck quicker.

[Friar]

Bad news I am afraid chaps. Following tests over the weekend I have encountered more issues with running the next chapter in the campaign. The mission is failing to load and causes the game to hang.

After making some changes, I have removed the Hercules and placed NASAMS at Hatay so they do not have to be brought in, clutching at straws really, but these are the only two things which are non standard.

I would like to try on Monday and run a session like we did last week, save it and then restore it to see what happens.

The issue of player scores being retained when killed should also now be fixed (sorry!). I have added the logic to the Persian Gulf map which is live on the server and just needs to be confirmed it is ok.

I am really sorry for these issues guys, I know how much we were looking forward to this concept, but if it fails again I am not sure what to do with it as I do not want to waste any more of your time.

[BluBear]

No time wasted Colin, it's all enjoyable, don't apologise! Appreciate all that you're trying to do, to pull together something more than the ordinary. 

I wish I had the time and knowledge to help. If you can't get it quite how you want it right now, are there further levels of complexity you can roll back on?

 

 

[FoolTrottel]

Quote

 I have removed the Hercules and placed NASAMS at Hatay so they do not have to be brought in,

Haha, you removed the stuff I was focusing on!    

No worries though - it's all good.

 

Thanks for making this Colin!

[Friar]

@FoolTrottel, I am really sorry about hat FT. As I said, I think I am clutching at straws a bit but I am trying to make the mission as vanilla as possible to see what the problem is.  I have added some tanks if you want to take one of them in to battle. I would come with you if you wanted. I have also worked out now how to ride and drive as the Commander like in IL2.

Once near the enemy you could then also act as a JTAC and laze targets.

[Friar]

So, this is where I am at with the Campaign.

It really is funny how the mind works. I have been asking questions of Cfrag (coder of DML)  just recently about generated units being killed and then not re-spawned when the next mission is loaded using the rolling persistence saved data. My sole focus was making sure that any ground units we take out that are protecting towns and airfields would not come back when the next mission is loaded.

Mind Blown this morning, out of no where came the realisation that I believe that this will apply to AI flights as well so if we take out the flights that are put up against us in one mission they will not reappear in the next nor for the rest of the campaign.

At the moment I have a pulse that is set for every 5-10 minutes which goes to a randomizer that picks an airfield from one of six available. That airfield then picks a flight from maybe 5 or 6 flights.

I am now faced with having to come up with a solution that will provide enough air interest to keep the air to air jockeys happy over what could be a 6-10 session campaign. I get there is the argument that a side needs to gain air superiority before a ground war can commence but for game-play I need stuff in the air each mission.

Gulp!

I now need to think up a way of being to provide continuous air activity so will have to pause the Campaign until I get a spark of inspiration. Happy to listen to any ideas / suggestions BTW.

[FoolTrottel]

AI-on-a-slider(tm)?

Meaning: menu option to increase/decrease AI air activity? Depending on how many of our air to air fighters are active? For sure, someone needs to operate that slider... 

[Friar]

@FoolTrottel I did think of something sort of similar, I thought about a menu option for selection the current mission number, that would then be perhaps used against a flag so that number sequence AI would be used, early days on the thought process that one.

@Everyone

1. Would it matter if AI flights were air started? Might be easier for me replicate the flights?

2. Do you want constant enemy AI in the air or should we be able to eliminate the air threat each mission?