Wednesday Missions

[Trichome]

Hey guys...

Firstly, my apologies for leaving the server in a negative way. I should have just posted here vs venting my bit of frustration at the current DCS situation.... Sorry.....

I'm wondering, other than TTI and the snow fox stuff what single missions do we have in the pipeline? I think the SEAL HVT is ready to go. We tried it once and I made some fixes since. We'd need a decent turn out like yesterday.

If not, I can maybe create a mission if anyone has ideas or we can run a TTI mission for next week....

Something... Anything but snow fox - please...lol
After being on it for all summer and seeming to make zero progress I'm done with it for the foreseeable future..

Cheers and again my apologies for yesterday.

[Cr33p3r]

No need to apologize in my opinion. We all have such limited time to "play" and when things dont work right, we vent.

I'd be fine with anything that is not that Syria map haha.

[PanzerMeyer]

Yeah, same sentiment here as Cr33p3r's. I'm good with playing on the Sinai map next.

[Bones]

Last night Grifter and I played Foothold Caucasus for the 2nd time and we are getting more and more convinced that Foothold is the way to go for the next missions for RLG. There is a Foothold Syria and I believe Sinai. It may take some tweaking from people with ME experience (Trichome, Creeper, Recluse, etc).

This campaign took me, Recluse, and Wingy about 6 months to complete starting near Cyprus, taking over and going north to Turkey then east toward Syria then finally south to Lebanon. It was a long campaign but very satisfying as you can see the ground you are taking and the progress made. Missions were short flights in general so even helos can fly reasonably well.

There is a point system so that every time you kill something, or complete an objective, you are awarded points on credit. Successful return to a friendly base for more than 10 seconds allow the points to be redeemed into a pot from which you can buy AWACS, transports, etc. If you get shot down and die, all your points on credit are lost so it is a good idea to come back to base when you can. If you get shot down and successfully eject, half of your points will be redeemed into the pot. Bases you took my be taken back or SAMs you killed could be replaced or repaired if you're not on top of things. To claim a base you have to pilot a helo or a C-130 (mod preferred but not required) there to make it yours until the red team tries to take it back.

The action is great, and opposition is not too overbearing. It was a very fun campaign.

See my last post in Sorties to see what it is like, and the C-130 landing at our base piloted by one of our other players.

Grifter can tell you more...

v6,
boNes

[PanzerMeyer]

Foothold Caucasus sounds good to me!

[Bones]

We also have Foothold Syria!

v6,
boNes

[Grifter]

I will say that Foothold requires teamwork. Your best chance for survival and redeeming you points is to fly with at least one a wing man, and for the team to attack roughly the same target area. Dividing up the team to work in two different sectors is doable when necessary, but communication and teamwork is key. Bones and I flew together while Wingy and Recluse flew as their own element. When possible, we worked roughly in the same area by deciding ahead of time what to attack next. This method was very effective and fun, and gave us a legitimate chance to fly home and make progress. Best of all, the mission wasn't broken and bugged. I would definitely recommend Foothold. Another option would Liberation, but I think Foothold may actually be better. As Bones said, it may require one or two of us to do some minor work in ME.

[Grifter]

Just an additional thought, if we really like foothold after playing our first campaign in it, perhaps we can do some themed versions of it. I think it would lend itself to a true Korean or cold war campaign, ie. F-86 vs MiG 15's or Phantom 4E (soon to be released and so excited for it) vs MiG 15, 21's, and 19's. :-) Or, perhaps eventually, WWII campaign. :-)

[Recluse]

Sadly, I do not think there is a Foothold SINAI at this point. For sure Caucasus, Persian Gulf, Marianas and Syria. For Caucasus and Syria there is also a "Fork" called Foothold EXTENDED which covers a lot more territory. This is the Syria Foothold we played over ~6 months, starting with a single base (Akrotiri) on Cyprus and then expanding throughout Cyprus, Turkey and down through Syria.

The Default Foothold missions are shorter. I think we can wrap up Caucasus in another 3-4 sessions depending on how tough a nut the final major RED Airbase is to crack.

I made quite a few edits to the missions to have Hot Starts and add/change aircraft types. The scripting is very forgiving in that regard. There is also a Logistical component for capturing bases which require transports. By default there are AI helos, but we also use the UH-60L and C130 Hercules mods to do our own supply runs when the AI is too slow, or the supply base is too far away for a Helo and a C130 Airdrop is faster.

Note that the ENEMY also has this capability (helos and ground convoys) so, if you aren't quick about killing and capturing a base, the enemy will resupply and reinforce it making you start all over. For example, last night Wingy and I had to take out the SA-3 site that we had already destroyed because the REDFOR rebuilt it. That site is ALMOST totally destroyed, but we need to get another strike or two in before it is resupplied. So, it is always good to leave a CAP around to shoot down enemy supply helos.

Happy to make my various Foothold edits available to save you some modding time.

Not sure how much change to the scripting itself vs. just the Mission edits would be needed to transform into a dedicated Cold War or WWII scenario. That is outside my level of expertise.

[PanzerMeyer]

Ok so it seems settled then that we will start a Foothold Caucasus campaign on Wednesday?

[Bones]

Depends if we get a mission that has been tweaked to work on the RLG server in time...

v6,
boNes

[PanzerMeyer]

Roger that bones. If it's not ready I figure we can do some stand-alone missions.

[Bones]

Trichome has that HVT mission that was pretty good.

v6,
boNes

[Trichome]

Todays mission was good. Thanks Bones for putting in the time to try and get it sorted.

[PanzerMeyer]

Yes, thanks indeed bones for hosting. I'll be sure to put in a better performance next week. Last night was not my night!