Multiplayer campaign missions end before they begin

[emperortomato]

Preface: my friends and I are all newbies to Falcon BMS.

I was experimenting with hosting a multiplayer server & playing co-op campaign missions with a few friends a couple of nights ago. We were really just trying to successfully join a campaign mission together, and then lose each other and most likely die. I think we only ever tried SEAD missions. So all four of us join the campaign at the default 0500, there is a SEAD scheduled to take off at 0659 with a flight of four. So we all join it.

We speed up time to 64x so that we can get closer to the take-off time. I gather that everyone needs to select 64x or the system will use the slowest selected multiplier. In any case, we get close to take-off time, slow time back down, and hit TAKEOFF. I think Runway was the default for the missions we were trying, so we’d just leave it on that (or at least… I would). If I remember correctly, the timer would count down, and I think the game would even launch and look like it was going into the mission, but then we’d get kicked back out to a Debrief screen.

I did successfully make it into a couple of missions, one was an intercept, and one was some random other mission that I tried by myself just to see if I could get into the game at all. But I don’t think we ever successfully started a campaign mission with all four of us - just kept getting kicked back out to a Debrief screen. I guessed maybe the targets were already taken out by AIs or something, but I don’t know how we would know that for sure…

I realize this is vague, and we haven’t tried playing together since then, but – anyone have any ideas what might’ve been going on?

[Dee-Jay]

What is the satus of the Airbase you were located?

[Agave_Blue]

I’d suggest that instead of speeding up the time, move the take-off time up. Or create a specific mission and set the take-off time to what you want.

Sometimes you will get the behaviour you describe (enter mission and get bounced straight to the debrief screen) if you’re airbase has been bombed or if for some other reason your flight is aborted.

[emperortomato]

Thanks – I don’t know the status of the airbase where we were located. I’ll have to pay closer attention to that next time. That’s just checked by right-clicking the airbase & choosing ‘Status,’ correct? Perhaps the fact that we were ignoring all of the intercept missions just to try to take off together caused our airbase to be destroyed.

We are all pretty new to the game so I’m afraid that any missions we created would likely be very poorly-planned…

I wasn’t aware that changing the take-off time was possible. It looks like I could go into FLIGHTPLAN for the mission, and do this, but since there will be interdependencies with other planned missions (like if we’re trying to do a SEAD Escort mission) it seems like it could be a decent amount of work to modify the take-off times for all of the related missions?

Is there a way to know why the flight was aborted on the Debrief screen? I think just knowing what’s actually going on in these cases, and thus possibly how to avoid it, would help quite a bit.

[Badger]

Try to find a mission that is about 30 minutes away from actual game time.
If not then let the host only select the mission and run the clock forward to 30 minutes prior to take off and stop the clock.
Then let the others join.

And yes, right click and status to see status of an object.

[Agave_Blue]

@emperortomato:

…. I’m afraid that any missions we created would likely be very poorly-planned…

… since there will be interdependencies with other planned missions (like if we’re trying to do a SEAD Escort mission) it seems like it could be a decent amount of work to modify the take-off times for all of the related missions?

Is there a way to know why the flight was aborted on the Debrief screen? I think just knowing what’s actually going on in these cases, and thus possibly how to avoid it, would help quite a bit.

A mission you create is not especially likely to be any worse than a system generate mission …. like flying a ‘strategic strike’ on an airbase in the middle of Pyongyang on the first day of that war that has no aircraft and has already been destroyed by another strike mission … lol.

Yes, you’d want to maintain the coordination of the package, which would take less time than building a mission from scratch … watch for locked ToT on coordinated steerpoints and ‘fix’ them to integrate with you new take off time.

I don’t think there is any indication in the debrief about why the flight aborts.

[emperortomato]

Thanks folks – I have some things to try/look for next time.

[schnidrman]

Those intercept missions you ignored were probably flights inbound to your airbase, and they likely bombed your airfield. As said above, roll back your take-off times closer to the campaign clock and it should work. I would do Taxi, rather than Take-off if not ramp starting, just to have a little time to make last minute checks. I prefer ramp starts. :razz:

Edit: If you are in fact, having the “bombed airbase” issue (I’m assuming this is a fresh KTO campaign and you are letting the AI frag missions), you may want to concentrate on air superiority for the fist day or so. Protecting your air base and striking the FLOT are Day 1 missions for a successful campaign start. Let the AI handle the suicide missions or turn off Set by HQ in your squadron page and frag your own missions and save your airframes by not letting AI fly them. HTH