Battle of Moscow campaign nightmare

[Trooper117]

I'm certainly not interested in unlocking skins... I have everything else unlocked due to the premium copy of the game.

 

The game is still a nightmare for me when I fly the IL2 because of the points I've already described.

 

Flying the F2 or E7, then it's challenging, but not as dangerous or lethal as flying the IL2... always getting killed just makes me not want to continue the campaign with it.

 

 

As others have stated, the pilot level system and the sniper AA make the campaign less enjoyable.

I don't mind a challenge, but if I have to resort to gaming the game, just to complete a mission, then I stop playing it I'm afraid.

 

Peoples mileage may vary of course, but I quite like doing ground attack with the old IL2, I like using the tactics of the period too, it all adds to the 'reality' I'm trying to create when playing any flight sim game

But I don't want to game the game just to get a few skins.

[TP_Silk]

As you say, having purchased the Premium copy of the game there is very little to interest you in my post. I totally get what you say about the rest of it, I was just pointing out that for those who just want to achieve a certain goal, there was a relatively easy way of getting it done with the minimum of fuss. Of course it is nowhere near as satisfying or challenging as doing it the correct way, but it can be done. I also totally agree with your assessment of the pilot level system and sniper enemies.

Anyhow, much respect to you for sticking to your guns and ploughing ahead.  

[KoN_]

So the BOM campaign is same as BOS with the awful unlocks system ...??

May be a good idea to get pats campaign PWCG to use the unlock system , i am pretty sure thats what most people want . :huh:

[seafireliv]

So the BOM campaign is same as BOS with the awful unlocks system ...??

May be a good idea to get pats campaign PWCG to use the unlock system , i am pretty sure thats what most people want . :huh:

If you buy the Premium I think the Unlock system is opened. I haven`t checked yet. I still believe no one should have to pay to have stuff available this way. I would have much preferred a realistic supply\demand command orders system instead of this `unlocking\lock` nonsense.

[Trooper117]

I've taken out the trusty IL2 series 41 yet again... anyone want to guess the result?

 

Airfield attack... would you attack a heavily defended enemy airfield with just two IL2's?

 

lol!

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

Happened, happened. In July 1941 to cover a Su-2 attack, 55 IAP was tasked with attacking and blocking a Luftwaffe airfield. They had a whooping two MiG-3s sent up for the mission - one stayed with the bombers, the second attacked the airfield.

[Napping-Man]

Took an Il-2 Series 41 up for a Train Attack.  4 Sturmoviks, 2 Cover fighters...never did see them, but the new-style briefing said they were there.  Soon after I started (Short Distance Mission), the fighters bug-out for home.  Then at the target site...no Train.  At all.  Then four bf109F-4s show up.  I proceed to shoot down two, while my wingies take the other two down.      Then hit by AAA and wounded.  Crash-land.  Mission Failed.  Very odd mission.  I must admit it was rather pleasing to saw off that 109's wing during a head-on attack.  

[Brano]

It also happened to me that train didn't appear right at action point. But I didn't panic and followed rails a bit further down the road and tadaa,there it was. After short while of bada-boom it was no more

[Trooper117]

Yes, my train missions have been the same... remember, at the action point you have to look for your target. Even on intercept missions, the enemy doesn't spawn on top of you, it enters the fray somewhere out from the action point.

The good thing about the train though is that if you fly around the local vicinity you will eventually pick up that smoke the train makes, somewhere along the track

[KoN_]

If you buy the Premium I think the Unlock system is opened. I haven`t checked yet. I still believe no one should have to pay to have stuff available this way. I would have much preferred a realistic supply\demand command orders system instead of this `unlocking\lock` nonsense.

Really Not going to buy Premium just to get unlocked .

Once bitten twice as shy .

I shall wait for the sales .

Edited April 8, 2016 by II./JG77_Con

[Brano]

Yes,train can't mask itself very well. To know where enemy planes are at action point,just unleash your wingies. They have in-built radar to know where enemy is

One tip that kind of works. When you start mission,give your wingies order to follow you/stay on mission. It's F5 or F6. Now they should not engage everything that comes around. Do the same when they eventually break formation and decide to go on their own. From my experience they return to formation....usually :D

[6./ZG26_Gielow]

I am having fun with campaign. So far I have played 88 and 110. Low level intercept with rain is quite challenging on expert.

[[CPT]milopugdog]

Just finished the campaign. Haven't fully upgraded a single plane though.

[seafireliv]

Yes, my train missions have been the same... remember, at the action point you have to look for your target. Even on intercept missions, the enemy doesn't spawn on top of you, it enters the fray somewhere out from the action point.

The good thing about the train though is that if you fly around the local vicinity you will eventually pick up that smoke the train makes, somewhere along the track

I`d hate it if enemies spawned on top of the action point. In fact, I would`ve preferred it if the targets actually started from their own origin source and made their way to the location, but I guess the Devs thought there was too much of a chance that the Player would see nothing.

 

Also, no one should have a problem with finding trains... because railway lines  - and the massive plume of white steam.

Edited April 8, 2016 by seafireliv

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

Had a couple of interesting/frustrating ones. First, a JU-88 bomb a railyard. I was only a couple of hundred XP from unlocking the last skin. Full real/long duration so takes me a while to get to the target but I manage it and identify it and drop 2 1000KG bombs which look right on the money. Suddenly I go to external view and see a crewman jumping and the fatal damage message. (jumped by a P-40E which my 109F2 escorts couldn't manage to handle at 3500M) Mission autoends before the bombs hit the target. 0 points. After that I burned out a couple of short easy settings ones to finally get the last skin.

 

109E7, since it is a jabo I chose ground attack. Target is an airfield, what could go wrong? I get to the airfield and drop my 250KG bomb on some Pe-2s which are destroyed, mission success. I put the plane in a turn to try to throw off flak but get the bang and redout. Ugh. "fatal damage, please bail" or whatever the message is. Well, the plane has no elevator control but is in a climb, so use my rudder, pitch trim and throttle to steer it to the exit point. Salvaged 100 points, yay!

[Trooper117]

It's just getting silly now... I have been playing missions this afternoon and this evening trying to work past the pilot level system.

 

I'm halfway between pilot level 10 and 11, flying the IL2 or the Pe-2, trying missions in BoM and BoS and being killed or am unable to complete any mission.

 

Even when I have an escort flight of 4 fighters, they either bugger off after some bomber, and then I have no control system to tell them to return, or they simply get hacked out of the sky at the action point by enemy fighters... meanwhile, my 4 Pe 2's are simply killed by AA on the objective, or the fighters come to finish them off.

This has been every mission this afternoon and this evening... ground attack missions at this level are almost impossible to complete.

 

I'm not sure what the dev's are trying to accomplish with this leveling up system, but it's just suicide to attempt ground attack or bomber missions.

 

The only time I have finished any mission over this week is when I have taken up a fighter... I don't know what else to say.

I have played both of the BoS campaigns and probably got most of the awards, I know how the campaign works and I am not new to this, but it really is getting me to the point of frustration.

[[CPT]Pike*HarryM]

I'm halfway from 9 to 10. I guess I should do the Il-2 '41 and Pe-2 35 sooner than later...

[Trooper117]

I see this system becoming a major problem... If I buy the next two games from the developers, my level will continue to rise, making the campaign literally impossible to complete or enjoy, and it's bad enough now at the present level...

What on earth made them choose this method instead of allowing the user to decide what level of difficulty they can play on I'll never know 

[Jade_Monkey]

I see this system becoming a major problem... If I buy the next two games from the developers, my level will continue to rise, making the campaign literally impossible to complete or enjoy, and it's bad enough now at the present level...

What on earth made them choose this method instead of allowing the user to decide what level of difficulty they can play on I'll never know

Do you know something of the next games we dont know yet?

[pilotpierre]

I see this system becoming a major problem... If I buy the next two games from the developers, my level will continue to rise, making the campaign literally impossible to complete or enjoy, and it's bad enough now at the present level...

What on earth made them choose this method instead of allowing the user to decide what level of difficulty they can play on I'll never know 

+1

[simplyjames]

Well... I have a feeling it caps at 10 (the actual ai skill not rank.) I can't see the AI getting better than it is at 10 at least. However, I do feel it would be wise to separate AI skill from rank regardless.

[Trooper117]

Do you know something of the next games we dont know yet?

 

Of course not!

I'm pointing out that if they keep on the present leveling up system, in future products they produce the campaign system will be just about impossible to complete for any ground attack or bomber player.

 

I'm hoping to god they change it...

[=SqSq=Sulaco]

It's crazy but I've been throwing my self through the meat grinder every day.

 

Almost level 12, have only a few fighters worth of skins left to unlock which unfortunately includes the P-40, every mission's a nightmare but fingers crossed it will be over soon and I'll be back on the multiplayer servers in no time.

 

On the plus side my dogfighting has progressed by necessity, too bad my virtual wingmen can't say the same.

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

I found a lot of fun flying MiG-3. Only thing that can can fight like even with Luftwaffe. One complain that I could raise would be too often encountering 109 F-4. I know that they were present at Moscow campaign but still it would be nice to more often fight F-2s or especially E-7s. The only time I meet 109 E-7 is when they operate as ground attackers, and hunting ground attackers is the least enjoyable type of mission for me. 

[YoYo]

Well... I have a feeling it caps at 10 (the actual ai skill not rank.) I can't see the AI getting better than it is at 10 at least. However, I do feel it would be wise to separate AI skill from rank regardless.

AI of enemy plane and AAA leveling up with our level so on the higher rank You have near 100% super sniper AI ( level more than 10th).

You are lucky man ; ).

[Quax]

This has been every mission this afternoon and this evening... ground attack missions at this level are almost impossible to complete.

 

The only missions I play SP are ground attack missions for training, as I prefer MP. I think as well, that the system needs some change. I would like to move the difficulty slider myself, and I am not interested in the achieved level of my virtual pilot. 

[Trooper117]

Reading from some of Han's latest replies when asked about the ability to let the user adjust the difficulty setting, this was his answer...       

 

''Actualy, if you use tactic - it's not so hard and much fun. If you're on level 10 - this mean that you have much experience for this.''   

 

 

When you are in a fighter, perhaps his singular vision is plausible.

It seems as ever, the SP leveling up system may stay as it is, for the rest of us mere mortals it's only going to get worse... I don't hold out much hope. 

[LLv24_Zami]

Campaign missions are not impossible IMO. Sometimes you just have to hit and run when doing ground attack, if you stay on target too long you will die. Like in real life. If you don`t destroy targets on that first attack, mission is destined to fail. It happens in war but most of the missions can be done.

 

I have looked at the mission files and it seems that air AI settings are high or ace at pilot level 10. There are no variation inside the flight. Whole formation uses the same AI setting. Enemy AA AI seems to be at normal. To me this looks ok but more variety could be done with air AI especially. Don`t know if it is possible but it would be cool if a flight leader is an ace and others are normal/high, for example.

 

But I would like to have some kind of difficulty setting because people are different. Some like to have 100% success rate and that should be given to them. More options is always good!

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

 

 

 Don`t know if it is possible but it would be cool if a flight leader is an ace and others are normal/high, for example.

Dunno, I never see the difference. Most of the time they just make supertight turns to the right and continuously drop the altitude, regardless of the level. Nothing hard with it for that matter, just turn tighter

More annoying are gunnery skills, either bomber gunners or fighter ai open fire from range far beyond any average player would. And they are damn accurate, no moves like ones you could use against other player work, since Ai does not need eyes to see you. It always knows where you are.  

[LLv24_Zami]

Dunno, I never see the difference. Most of the time they just make supertight turns to the right and continuously drop the altitude, regardless of the level. Nothing hard with it for that matter, just turn tighter

More annoying are gunnery skills, either bomber gunners or fighter ai open fire from range far beyond any average player would. And they are damn accurate, no moves like ones you could use against other player work, since Ai does not need eyes to see you. It always knows where you are.  

AI needs constant work from the devs, that is for sure.

 

But I see differences between normal and ace AI, at least with the shooting accuracy you mentioned. But as I stated, campaign uses only high and ace AI. Not much difference between them. PWCG uses more variety in AI levels, which is nice feature.

Edited April 10, 2016 by Zami

[Trooper117]

Yet again, spent the morning flying the IL2 41... even if I kill all the mission targets (last mission, I nailed all 8 howitzers, not just the 4 required,) and in only 2 short passes, but as usual my escort is destroyed in short order by F2's and E7's, then they chase me all of the way out of the area, and its only a matter of time before I'm nailed... I managed to make an emergency landing and survive...

 

As usual, failed mission, even though I achieved more than my objective... and again as usual, I haven't managed to complete a single mission this morning with the IL2.

 

FRUSTRATING...

 

edit: would you believe it, I have just done an evening/night mission and no enemy fighters showed up over the target!

But they did show up as I approached the exit point, managed to just stay far enough ahead to reach it and then quit out to finish the mission without being hacked from the sky... which is sad, as I would never have made it to the airfield to land

Edited April 14, 2016 by Trooper117

[Brano]

I started Zerstoerer career few days ago with 110. On one of the missions I encountered lonely ilyusha which was blind and didn't see me approaching from slightly down low angle. I shot it up without any trouble from not more then 100m. I also ran into flight of 4 MiGs ready to land on their home AF. Originaly I was trying to chase peshkas that I miss at actionpoint. It was a surprise when those dots turned out to be MiGs. After first pass I smoked one with gear down,the remaining trio switched off their landing lights,raised gear and started to give me one hell of a ride. They didn't only turn in tight manner,one of them climbed up and started fighting on vertical. Other 2 migs luckily lost me over the clouds,so it was 1 on 1 fight on vertical. With my crate at emergency power I managed to find a good firing solution at one of the peaks of our vertical chase. Short burst from all guns was enough to set MiG on fire. I managed to return back to base with only one engine running. Second died shortly before landing,probably from damage and consequent overheating. Damn good mission with lots of thrill

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

Not Moscow but still relevant: flew a Pe-2 escort over Stalingrad with three LaGG-3s. Two Macchis showed up to intercept, I got one in a neat dive attack and the other disengaged.

 

After the Peshkas crossed the Volga, I retreated too with only one wingman (the second went home before). As I approached the Volga I saw eight contacts, six with bombs, below me. I was happy - Stukas with only two escorts! Again I dived and it suddenly hit me that those were Emils and they had just dropped their effin' bombs. I was surrounded by eight fighters!

 

Being no coward I took the fight and managed to engage them on a decent level, getting a Macchi to smoke. After a while however this was getting tiring, I was getting close to having no ammunition, fuel was in the low 1/4 and my engine was starting to overheat from all the climbing and diving. After shaking off a Macchi I entered a steep climb and took heading East, a bit cross because the Emils were strafing our positions and I couldn't do much about it. My wingman was damaged and bailed safely over friendly territory.

 

I made it home, tired as a dog but very happy about the exciting mission.

[Brano]

Hey Trooper,I can feel your pain. Maybe I describe my missions as a piece of cake but I had my share of failed missions as well. I'll try to start ilyusha career and will see how I can handle it. Tough ride flying low and slow

BTW is there a difference in AI level in normal and expert mode? I fly only expert.

[=FEW=Hauggy]

Well the thing at least for me is getting everything or nothing, either you have one single enemy plane and your AI wingmans destroy it in 3 seconds or either enemy AI outnumbers you, in any case it's a lot of frustration for a couple of skins.

Yesterday i tried to unlock some more skins and ended up getting 0 xp from 3 kills because one of the AI jumped in front of me as i fired at a BF-110...

Edited April 14, 2016 by Hauggy

[LLv24_Zami]

Hey Trooper,I can feel your pain. Maybe I describe my missions as a piece of cake but I

had my share of failed missions as well. I'll try to start ilyusha career and will see how I can handle it. Tough ride flying low and slow

BTW is there a difference in AI level in normal and expert mode? I fly only expert.

No difference in AI level.

[Fern]

AI Wingmen are some kill stealing bastards. I'll never unlock any skins at this rate.

[Brano]

...but they also saved my arse on many occasions. And I'm guilty myself to steal som of their kills as well :D

[Trooper117]

No difference in ai as far as I know... the problem is in the leveling up method of progressing through the campaign.

 

For those of us that are at the higher levels (mine is almost at level 11 now) it is possible to complete missions in a fighter, although the opposition is very stiff.

However, try carrying out ground attack in an IL2 or doing bomber missions, I'm finding it exceedingly difficult to complete any mission at that level.

 

I have to admit, flying the IL2 when I was only on level 5 or 6 was a breeze compared to what I'm facing now, and far more enjoyable it has to be said.

 

I have even flown missions on the BoS campaign at this high level, just to see if there are any differences between BoS and BoM, but the results are the same... it's the leveling up that is causing the problems.

[pilotpierre]

I too am almost at level 11 and flying ground attack missions in the G2, I16 and P40 are virtually impossible to survive.

 

Devs, the campaigns would be so much more enjoyable if we could set our own pilot levels.