It seems I'd screwed up my 3DDB.. took sometime trying to fix it to no avail so I had to restore a backup.
Luckily most of the 2DDB edits can be carried over so all's not lost.
Stuff like this in modding would always happen, so there are 3 cardinal rules to follow:
1. Always backup.
2. Always backup!!
3. Follow the cycle of mod - playtest - mod. Instead of mod all in one go. This would guarantee stability.
Followed 1 and 2 but failed 3... eh. I should go do that.
The reds sent another wave of Migs to the FLOT. Time to hop into the seat. Picked an on-station FAC viper with a 4-0-2 load. The AI will never use those unless it's taken over by player.
As it's on FAC duty the altitude isn't great. Good way to negate that in bvr using WEZ-denial. Keeping the target bugged near radar gimbals while climbing striving for co-altitude with the target. Ofc, I know they're Mig-29As because I've bombed the runways of the -SMs. Otherwise, at 20nm he would've already shot an adder this way!:X
The characteristic chirp of the 29 RWR blip always makes one go uneasy but it is an uneven fight. With the help of at least 2 other pairs of AA flights (well they could originally be AG flights but with "set g_bUseAggresiveIncompleteA2G 1" mud movers will shoot AA) the fulcrums are quickly dispatched.
The FAC ride is skosh so I exit back to campaign UI and sent him home.
Apparently reinforcement 44th Squad F-15C arrived at Pyongtaek AB sometime and they've been sending out Barcaps. This is new.. taking one of those. Loadout.. 4 - 2 - 2. Interesting.
Falcon AF has very excellent sparrow FMs. And taking out a bad guy with a sparrow is extremely satisfying. And so there were no screenies in my excitement:X... I shot them at 2 of a 4 ship fishbed flight. The 1st one was hit by a slammer, and i handed off the 2nd one to my wingman. His fox3 call came promptly.
Fishbed hits and going down
After this awacs Q-Q-1 came up empty so we went turkey hunting. I am 0-0-2 skosh so wingmen did most of the shooting. First victims are a flight of su-25s, next were some an-24 transports. Finally remembered to ss one of his sparrows streaking towards an Antonov.
Right.. I remember the AIM-54 FM is even more awesome. But, what do i know... except that it does look very like one of the Fighter Fling episodes where a 4 ship cats shoot 'em in sequence. Hopefully the carrier group arrives soon.
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Came back to campaign UI again. The eagle barcap still has some missiles left so kept them on station - unlikely to hop into 3D with them again tho.
The periodic surge of red flights coming to the FLOT needs to be stopped as I'd previously planned and what just happened makes it more necessary. I don't usually have a preference for a2a or a2g but it does seem a2a gets one's adrenaline pumping hence better enjoyment. That said the ultimate purpose here is campaign victory, and so the less AA, the easier it goes.
The problem is importance vs urgency. While shutting down DPRK airbases are of utmost importance, what's happening on the FLOT on the ground is the more urgent matter atm... I've already had some helo squadrons relocate to the back due to their base being overrun. And with ground pounding taking up most sorties/airframes I still don't wanna change the pak/priority settings - CAS/Interdiction to the max. And indeed the AG flights have been pounding dprk ground forces none stop, as indicated on the 2D minimap. And ground vs ground fighting has been more sporadic of late, again indicated by the 2d minimap, which is good as I don't really want to stick the relatively feeble bluefor grunts into the meat grinder too much.
Main AG heavy hitters against opfor troops are 3 types in any Falcon4 campaign:
1. F-15E mudhens
2. A-10s
3. Helos
They each have their pros and cons, I find. The mudhens are really multirole, if things come to shove they can combat jett and go AA. They carry a heavy AG load and can deal some pretty heavy damage. Very good all-around. The hogs are the most lethal, but they require the area to be sanitized beforehand of Migs and any sort of anti-air stuff. Their cannons can whittle down a full strength battalion from full strength all the way to zero, but they require a very long on station time to work the target, increasing their vulnerability. Hence the hogs are extremely powerful late game.. ahem, campaign, but early on they are easy targets for the opfor. The helos are stealthy as they don't get easily detected by fighters, but they're very easily shot down and limited by range - their use are more limited but they can survive the "wall of Migs" onslaught even when the mudhens have a tough time. And so early game I manually frag helos to increase their sortie rate, late game manual frag hogs to increase theirs.
But atm I need to manually frag mudhens.. 333rd from Yechon. Nothing is better at taking out airbases than them at this time. Luckily with ToF pushed back 2hrs I got 2 free airframes. Rummaging thru the rest of the viper squadrons I got another 2 F-16s free. Targets: Hyon-Ni and Hwangju airbase. Nothing fancy, just because they are close and undefended by SAMs (or at least it appears, you never know if existing ones are resupplied with FCR or new reinforcements arrive..). There actually is another R-77 carrying squadron... Mig-21-93s. Yes, I had already been shot down by those once. THIS NEVER GETS OLD DOES IT. "oh mig21s.. hmmm taking it easy." "Chirp..<M>..chirp." "WTF?!...." hit! ctrl-e, Ctrl-EEE!!!......... However them bastards are all the way back at Sunch'on. Currently there isn't enough resources to reach that far yet. YET. grrr.
Next up, probing SEAD flights. 3 of them sent to the west, center and east. Just slowly expanding the zone of elimination of enemy SAMs. I'd like to send more, but no more airframes are available. Plus it can be hard to monitor the situation when many flights are sent north and I need to hop into 3D. This will have to do.
Suffice to say I'm again properly hooked. It is a bit slow to get into as this thing doesn't really look any good - altho better than the 1990s games for sure, but the smooth and enriched gameplay has been very nice... back for more later.