Essential skills to play the Campaign.
-
Hi,
first post here, I recently discovered Falcon BMS and I have a blast with it ! I’m used to play other military and civilian flightsims, but I find it a bit more difficult in BMS. For example, time on station, planning, synchronisation with other flights seems to be more critical in this sim.
I just finished all the F16 training missions (appart from the Refuelling mission, I can’t get it right), and I would like to dive in a dynamic campaign (AI for now).What are the essential skills required to survive in a campaign ?
I watched this execellent video from Krause
where he explains how to plan a package for a ground attack mission. How do you flight something like this ? Do you just “do your thing” based on time on target ?Thanks, and great work developpers !
Yann
-
Hi,
Here is an elaborate discussion you might find interesting: https://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?17711-When-is-one-ready-to-start-the-campaign
Cheers,
Eggs -
Thanks !
Very interesting read, I think the first killer is the lack of situational awarenness.
I will give a shot at the campaign and review my flights with tacview, to understand the many times I will get shot
-
I would recommend you “work” the same area of the map and build a good SA there, remembering where the AAA/Sam threats are and where you friendlies are on the ground and protect them.
Resist being all over the map. And find a buddy to fly with.
Have fun…Shad
-
No. 1 skill is mastery of the avionics. Pilots must know how to locate and neutralize threats without hesitation. Close second is situational awareness. A Pilot must know in advance what threats to expect to avoid surprises. Of course, the enemy may attempt to spring a surprise, so……
-
No.1 skill is mastery of the plane. Next is situational awareness - which is built up by all the information coming in, from radios, from sensors, from your mk.1 eyeballs…
Avionics is important, but nowhere near as important as basic flying skills.
-
No.1 is skill to master pak’s and mission types etc…
-
IMHO all the needed technical skills are covered by the training TEs and manuals. You need to be able to employ your weapons, find the way to the target and back to homplate and you need to be able to land.
The critical part is mission selection and mindset. There campaign engine is planning quite a lot of suicide missions. Avoid those. It is also perfectly fine to go gone with 1 or 2 kills and doing just 1 a2g pass. Avoild playing it like a computer game. Do not try to maximize your score but try to do your virtual duty and survive.
Lastly, and here opinions differ, play it as a captain not as a general (Meaning fly the missions but do not spent to much time running the war, planning other packages or mess around with PAKs etc).
The exception is that you select missions that seem doable (see above) and that you can and should plan your own package.Some peope disagree here but I think that the F4 campaign engine is a lousy wargame. It is a great random mission generator, that creates a living world, some consistency and the feeling that it matters what you do. Still quite bad as a strategic war-game.
-
Thanks for all the infos and opinions ! It helps me a lot.
I like to consider flightsim as “How would I do it in real life ?”.
I don’t care about the number of kills or score. Even flying the plane from point A to point B is a joy by itself (well, even managing to start the damn thing :D). -
Adjust PAK’s your self and no more suicide missions
And saying that its just random mission generator tells that you dont know nothing of campaing and how it works
-
- Pick missions that don’t get you into the thick of it just yet. BARCAPs are okay to start with. You’ll be mostly flying back and forth and your wingman and other flights in the area can do most of the work for you. Also great for training situational awareness by communicating with AWACS.
- Plan well. Check your ingress and egress routes and the target area for air-to-air threats. Put threat circles on the map and mark the front line so that you know where your safe spaces are.
- Stay above FL200 and out of SAM engagement zones. Also watch Krause’s tutorial on handling threats as it will help you save your arse:
- Always enable datalink to check your wingie’s positions.
Some peope disagree here but I think that the F4 campaign engine is a lousy wargame. It is a great random mission generator, that creates a living world, some consistency and the feeling that it matters what you do. Still quite bad as a strategic war-game.
Lousy wargame or not, it’s the best campaign that a flightsim ever had. And unless the DCS team coughs up a better one, it will always be the best.
I don’t care about the number of kills or score. Even flying the plane from point A to point B is a joy by itself (well, even managing to start the damn thing :D).
Same here. I also don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything if I’m just doing BARCAPs.
-
Lousy wargame or not, it’s the best campaign that a flightsim ever had. And unless the DCS team coughs up a better one, it will always be the best.
Never said anything else. Still I stand by my assessment that the campaign should be played as a captain, not as a general.
If you look really close into the details of the campaign you´ll notice many things that make no sense so do not to that and just enjoy the world that it creates (which is pretty believable if you look at it from the pit)
-
Same here. I also don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything if I’m just doing BARCAPs.
Ditto, never liked them at first but now I think their ok, I’m actually enjoying doing more Air to Air missions lately, oh! and PATROL mission wow!, with the low altitude camera, single ship mission, what a fantastic mission that was!, shot down three, got some good film but had to run for my life in the end, was like start of ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ movie only I made in back….just!.
-
No.1 is skill to master pak’s and mission types etc…
+1 to this and to Bluewolf’s comments. Unlike many other sims, DCS included, you can’t jump in without doing some pre-mission homework. This is hardcore simulation, closest to real thing, not a dumb-fun-shoot-em-all game.
-
If your totally new to BMS then read all the manuals, especially the training and dash 1, also fly and master all the training TE’s, then you should be good to go!, And for mastering the aircraft just get out there and fly the F-16 to its limits, eventually it will become an extension of your body, the FM rocks, its fun just flying the thing!.:)
-
At campaign start set the PAKS to only cover the FLOT with BARCAPs only and task yourself solo missions to take down the sams that cover your flot. After a few hours or so you can gain air superiority and task numerous CAS missions destroying the red horde. Once night comes task your stealth aircraft to strike red airbases that launch the bulk of your red fighters you encounter and the game is over if you continue to hit the red airbases every 2+ hours. Look for red reinforcements arriving and keep hitting them with CAS missions.
-
Thanks to all of you for the insight.
And thanks ph34rb0t for the link, Krause’s video rocks ! -
Never said anything else. Still I stand by my assessment that the campaign should be played as a captain, not as a general.
If you look really close into the details of the campaign you´ll notice many things that make no sense so do not to that and just enjoy the world that it creates (which is pretty believable if you look at it from the pit)
I’d never try to play the campaign as a general because from what I’ve seen so far, it’s a bit awkward to control. Best to stick to dedicated “NATO symbols on 2D world maps” games for that kind of stuff.
And thanks ph34rb0t for the link, Krause’s video rocks !
You’re welcome. I consider this video one of his best because it covers the whole subject and is fairly straight to the point at the same time.
