Uh..I'm a little late to the party on these campaigns. I have DCS World installed with the A-10C. Am I correct that there is only one campaign for the A-10 (and one with the free Su-25T)? I think it is Georgian Hammer correct?

My gripe with this campaign is that it starts you out on mission #1 with (in my case anyway) a strike on enemy artillery located just north of the home airbase. No build up. No familiarization with the AO. Just dive in and you are blazing away. Am I missing a lead-up to the campaign or something?

I seem to recall more depth to the Black Shark campaign phases.

Just wondering before I start the campaign..

Also - are there any old campaigns for A-10C that are being ported over to DCS World A-10 campaigns?

BeachAV8R

Also - is Georgian Hammer a re-do or update of the FC2 campaign "The Valley"? The starting position seems very familiar..

The Valley Campaign



BeachAV8R

And my point is this.. Here is the tasking for the very first mission in Georgian Hammer. If someone just completed the basic and advanced training modules, I think this is a pretty hefty curveball to throw them right out of the gate on their first DCS campaign mission. I'm thinking from the standpoint of attracting and keeping new simmers...



It seems like an awful lot is going on for a first mission. AWACS, JTAC, other flights, etc.. Remember Jane's F-18 campaigns where you got eased in to the action a bit?



Just pitching the idea that campaigns might need to ramp up a bit. And there should probably be three campaigns at least for beginner, advanced, and veteran levels or something.

I know, I know..get off my ass and write one. Would love to..but I know my limitations..

BeachAV8R

Hello
I have two campaigns, the shore and devil's cross from the original A10 , which you can find here. Don't know if it works on DCS World, afaik it should.
Download here: DCS User files
Gabu

Devils Cross jumps off the deep end of things rather quickly, but its great fun if you are an experienced pilot. For some reason or another the Shore has a rather long and difficult first mission followed by missions that are pretty easy and gradually working up in complexity. Georgian Hammer has somewhat easy missions if you know what your actual target is, but can't have a FAM flight due to your forces being pushed back as far as they are.

Good point, and the campaigns are defnitely the weakest point for the DCS series. However, Falcon 4.0 (generally considered the gold standard for campaigns) was not much better.

I remember the first time I completed all the training missions, familiarised myself with the avionics and weapons systems and then jumped into the campaign. Woah the amount of radar contacts, the lethality of the SAM launches. It was overwhelming with no introduction.

However, since DCS do not have dynamic campaigns, I agree with you that they could put a bit more thought into building up the missions a developing an interesting "story" throughout the campaign.

Some games probably ease the player into a campaign - but Falcon campaigns simulate wars where day 1 is a total nightmare - and you are expected to know it from your vast training - thats the beauty of it

Yeah that's the thing. After flying several SEAD sorties and a few CAPs by day 2 or 3 of the campaign the missions became much easier. Amazing experience though!

I've had A-10 since beta and remember going through the training and getting somewhat comfortable then tried the first campaign and got my but kicked several times. I went back to training and then RL took over and now I'm back to noob............ darn campaign!

The first few missions of Georgian Hammer are cake-walks. After this, it ramps up a lot.

Hmmm..I wonder if they would work in DCS World? Anyone know?



Cake walks huh? Maybe for someone experienced, but for someone who just completed the in-game training, there is a lot happening very quickly. I mean, it is literally a 3 minute flight to the battlefield and there is tons of radio chatter.

My personal opinion is that the first mission or two should be battlefield familiarization missions. Then maybe a very light strike mission.

I think the DCS "old hands" have maybe forgotten how daunting the whole aircraft/battle/strategy management can be for newbs.

And I'm not exactly new to flying combat flight sims overall...

BeachAV8R

I've been playing missions from both 'the shore' and 'devil's cross' in DCS World and they've been working well for me, there are some fun missions in there. I don't fare very well in most of them, so I've just been opening them up individually and playing them that way.

I wish there was a little more 'ramp up' too. Also a little more info, backstory, flavor, etc. in the briefings for the Warthog. Some of the BS2 campaigns, and even some FC2 campaigns do that really well.

I mean, even if they couldn't do voice-over work like they did for some of the BS2/FC2 campaigns, you can always do some more writing in the briefings.

While I'm wishing, I'd also pay good money for a campaign/theater add-on pack, or even just a new campaign in the (growing tiresome) Georgian theater. I'd be more excited by that than most the newly announced aircraft.

Even old Longbow 2 had you choosing between four recon flights for the campaign kickoff:













BeachAV8R

Black Shark's "Deployment" campaign did a great job of getting you into the theater and wrapping your mind around the AO..



Nice job on that..

Agree 100%. Some of the best user created missions are ones with a very thorough briefing with maps, diagrams, "intel" photos, etc.. It really does set the scene. There were quite a few great ones for Black Shark that had some great music triggers, voice triggers, etc...

I'd also pay money for well constructed campaigns and missions. Wasn't there some group (Vergeev Group?) making some pay to play campaigns. I could see a system like Yankee Air Pirate being very successful with hand crafted missions that follow a story. Perhaps if we get some new campaign areas things will open up a bit. I think the Black Sea area is getting a bit tired if I'm to be honest.

Thanks for the comments..

BeachAV8R

oh man now you're going to make me try and reinstall Longbow 2!

If you have FC2, one of the campaigns (can't remember the name right now, you're flying the su-25) does a great job of 'setting you in the scene', too, so to speak. Good briefings, a few missions where you go out to the range, then voice-over work while you're en-route to objectives, that kind of thing. Can't remember the name of it right now, but I think it's the only su-25 campaign so I'm sure you can find it.

Also, if you try any of 'the shore' or 'devil's cross' campaigns, be sure to check your loadout before you fly - sometimes you'll be without a targeting pod, which might be nice for people looking for a challenge, but was no fun for me on some of those missions!

Another pet peeve. The first mission in Georgian Hammer starts with you on the runway. Again, looking at it from a beginner's stand-point, I think learning the basics of the ramp start are important (it actually helps you learn a lot about the rest of the systems). Also - short of looking at the editor waypoint data, I don't see where it is mentioned whether you are starting on the ramp or on the runway. So when I first ran the mission I assumed it would be a ramp start and instead I was on the runway. But of course my throttles and everything were off and when it synched the engines shut off. So I had to exit out, it counted the campaign mission against me, so I had to restart the campaign, clear out my pilot, and restart the campaign.

Just suggestions on how to improve the user experience..

BeachAV8R

Damn Beach, you make me want to write a decent beginner's campaign for A-10C, sort of in the style of JF-18's grand campaign. :p

Agreed, the Deployment campaign is fantastic. I must agree that I'm this close to breaking out the mission editor. Maybe it would be good if SimHQ made a campaign where each mission was done by one person. Doing 10-20 missions can be a lot of work.