The New Career - Wow!

[Yogiflight]

22 hours ago, Wolferl_1791 said:

1. they don't announce it in the radio and you're taken by surprise

And this is exactly how it should be. Radio was never used before enemy was recognized, because the enemy was able to aim for your radio and then knew where you were.

This was some weird stuff for gameplay in the original Il2.

[dburne]

Yes the more I fly in my Career the more I am loving it, it is fantastic!

[Legioneod]

Career is great and I can't wait too see what other careers we will get in the future. I wonder if Bodenplatte will have a career since it's only one day? Or will they extend it to include more of the Battle of the Bulge or the Western Front?

[busdriver]

3 hours ago, Jade_Monkey said:

One mission sort of played itself without me. I think I clicked on some icon on the map for that.

 

You will find that you do not fly every mission. Somedays you won't fly at all, but your squadron mates will. I had a test career where I didn't fly until the third day, then I flew my ass off.

51 minutes ago, Legioneod said:

I wonder if Bodenplatte will have a career since it's only one day? Or will they extend it to include more of the Battle of the Bulge or the Western Front?

 

I think Jason explained in his initial announcement that the title was due to the association of Bodenplatte with late 1944 (early 1945) in western europe and NOT just a one day simulation.

[US63_SpadLivesMatter]

I fly damn near every mission in my 109e7 career; due to the massive attrition my squadron is experiencing.  Flying ground attack missions, going in at 1000m with no fighter cover.  I've had to bail twice, and was forced down once.  Have only landed without damage twice.

 

I'm 8 days in, and our squadron has already been reinforced with new pilots twice, and new planes three times!

 

Playing on expert, have "only" scored six kills, two of those during an airfield attack, and two of those from ambushing an IL2 flight on the way home after we dropped our bombs.

Edited March 17, 2018 by hrafnkolbrandr

[Dakpilot]

5 hours ago, Legioneod said:

Career is great and I can't wait too see what other careers we will get in the future. I wonder if Bodenplatte will have a career since it's only one day? Or will they extend it to include more of the Battle of the Bulge or the Western Front?

 

Cheers, Dakpilot

[Legioneod]

5 hours ago, busdriver said:

 

You will find that you do not fly every mission. Somedays you won't fly at all, but your squadron mates will. I had a test career where I didn't fly until the third day, then I flew my ass off.

 

I think Jason explained in his initial announcement that the title was due to the association of Bodenplatte with late 1944 (early 1945) in western europe and NOT just a one day simulation.

Ah, cool. Thanks for the clarification.

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

I am thrilled with the new career mode. It is absolutely a piece or art. I love it.

It is a starting point that can be made bigger and bigger.

I wanna thanks the Devs for it and for listening to the virtual pilots from minor countries in the WW2 to include those squads in the Sim.

I would be great if one day anyone could create his own career using some kind of templates, that's to say, here you place the history text, the here the pic and biography of your character, and the the phases and missions types.

I wonder if I am freaking out too much or if it is feasible ...

Edited March 17, 2018 by PA_Spartan-

[dburne]

Anyone know if there is a way to check total number of kills in a Career? I am talking total cumulative, not individual mission kills. 

I had a quick look around in the tabs after last mission I flew yesterday and nothing stuck out at me, but I am sure I could easily have missed.

Edited March 17, 2018 by dburne

[Legioneod]

16 minutes ago, dburne said:

Anyone know if there is a way to check total number of kills in a Career? I am talking total cumulative, not individual mission kills. 

I had a quick look around in the tabs after last mission I flew yesterday and nothing stuck out at me, but I am sure I could easily have missed.

I think you can go to the pilot tab and it shows all your kills in your career, not sure though.

[dburne]

9 minutes ago, Legioneod said:

I think you can go to the pilot tab and it shows all your kills in your career, not sure though.

 

I had thought I checked there, but will check again when I resume flying my Career a little later this morning. I am sure I could easily have missed it.

 

Thanks,

[Legioneod]

35 minutes ago, dburne said:

 

I had thought I checked there, but will check again when I resume flying my Career a little later this morning. I am sure I could easily have missed it.

 

Thanks,

I think its at the very bottom of the page once you scroll down.

[ATA_Vasilij]

Vasiliy Krupovic has started his career in IL2 group somewhere in the Stalingrad.

We took off in formation of 6 planes going to intercept soft columns. When we crossed Volga after 15 min of flight I had a tears in my eyes from the beauty. To dry my eyes I had to remove headset for a moment, which is weird, but when you put if off, suddenly the stalingrad world disappear!

After another few minutes of flight we reached the airport where our Yaks 69 were starting to cover us. OK, will be nice to have a cover I said to myself. But what didnt happen? Two of Yaks had collision and one of them stayed turned by 90 degrees on the runway.  Due to this, NO ONE has departed the airfield. Even the very first one which could. Tears again came to my eyes, now because of such sad bug. 

Another 15 min to the destination.  BF109 from the very first attack smashed down 1 IL2, and were still attacking, while we were still attacking ground units.  IL2 didnt make any protect circle, or try to shoot on the fighters itself...After all rockets were done, IL2 turned the way home. No matter they are under attack. approx. 30 procent of ground units remained and could be destroyed by the cannons, dont know why they didnt use them. 

On the way home I got one BF, and was shooted down by another one in very sharp turns. Elevator was hit. I crashed in the field and stayed alive.

Mission result: Vasiliy was missing from the mission. And stayed captured.

This is the end of my career, bcs Iron man.

 

Would like to know how long are you staying alive with Iron man settings? Guys?

 

[Legioneod]

I wonder if the Bodenplatte Career will be connected with all the others? That way if you fly through a german career you can transfer to the western front.

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

8 minutes ago, Legioneod said:

I wonder if the Bodenplatte Career will be connected with all the others? That way if you fly through a german career you can transfer to the western front.

It sounds like a good idea.

[dburne]

16 minutes ago, Legioneod said:

I wonder if the Bodenplatte Career will be connected with all the others? That way if you fly through a german career you can transfer to the western front.

 

Considering Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kuban are fairly connected, I would certainly think it would.

[ATA_Vasilij]

well, career nr. 2: Again IL2 now 503 group from Leninski.

mission1: Fighters again collied on their airfield and no one started. Bf are fighting till the death. They have no sense for self survival. With moderate amount of units, the game is lagging.

Mission2: I take off from the second position. My leader pulled the throttle nad totaly turned by 180 degrees and went going directly on me! Oh nooo, I screeam into the radio. Collision.

Mission 3. I take off from 5th position, and the firts two planes are doing the same as before. 

 

I give up. Closing the game and waiting for patch.

 

When I played some first missions in career, they shooted lightflares  90 degrees to the left to the ground through the airplanes  apprx. 3-5 shoots. I thought it should be so.

When I played last to missions there was only one Flare directing to the sky. as before update. Well another bug.

 

 

[keeno]

Jus tried a quick career mission,

 

looks absolutely amazing, the work that went into this is insane. Unfortunately I got killed!!!! I must get into the habit of not flying into the ground!

 

Thanks DEV's 

 

 

[dburne]

2 hours ago, Legioneod said:

I think its at the very bottom of the page once you scroll down.

 

 

You were quite right sir - thank you!

[dburne]

Continuing my new Career in the Spit of Kuban.

 

Flew a couple more missions this morning, what a great variety I am seeing. Had one escort mission, there were a group of 6 of us, we took off and met a group of about 9 ea A-20 bombers. We were to escort them to the target area, see them through it, and escort them back to their base before returning to our field to land.

 

What a long mission. We traveled a good distance, and encountered quite a number of 109 G2's trying to go after our bombers. This one was somewhat taxing on my system, due to all the aircraft and action going on. FPS was often down in the mid 40's (VR), but was still quite playable.  We made it through, I racked up 4  kills, and made it back.  The last mission was an intercept mission - another with fairly long travel, and we came upon a group of 190's. I got two of the kills, my wingmen I think got one or two, and the rest buggered out headed back to home.

We then turned around and headed home ourselves for another successful sortie.

 

Not sure how many missions I have flown so far, maybe 8-9. Have 12 kills under my belt and a few medals/awards. 7 light aircraft downed, 5 medium.

I am really loving the variety I am seeing in this Career!

[216th_Jordan]

Anton Segayev is a Mig pilot and quite fresh in the VVS. After intercepting a group of 12 He-111s with escorts inbetween beautiful clouds he gets separated from the group and gets lost in the jungle of rivers around moscow, after 5 or 10 minutes he finally makes out a landmark and sets heading back to base at Voronovo. Passing below the low clouds he dreams away a little of how beautiful the world is without war, with all the sun rays passing the clouds and lighting up the autumn forrests when he finally sees the navlights of a pair of friendly I-16s coming in to land on his home airfield. "Great, found the airfield easier than thought" he thinks and puts the Mig into a strong sideslip to bleed of speed for landing. Something is weird though, little flashes on the grass of the airfield... "oh snap!", he sees light AA opening up on a group of planes coming in. The chilled feeling turns into a very chilled feeling and the next 4 minutes Anton spends evading german F2s, striking some dangerous hits on his plane. While doging he almost loses control of his plane close to the ground but can save it in the last second. The engine is revving and smoking badly and on the final evading manouver he makes the attacker overshoot and has enough time to force the plane down to land. Wheelbrakes full applied his smoking wreck comes to a halt while the german attackers pull away to the west.

Anton wipes his forehead..

[dburne]

Anyone know if total number of missions flown is recorded anywhere? I can't seem to find it?

 

Last mission was yesterday afternoon, spent about 6 hours continuing my Career yesterday.

Mission was another bomber escort, fairly long distance. Total mission took  right at 1 hour, it was awesome!

 

As we got close to the target area, I spotted a couple of lone HS-129's down low near the coast, just above the hills of Kuban. My flight lead took no notice of them, did not have any enemy fighters in our area just yet, so thought what the heck - so down low I go approaching them from behind. I must have snuck up on them, as they seemed to not be aware I was there.

Layed a few cannon rounds on the first one, he dropped his bombs so figured that was good enough, broke off and headed to the second one. A few quick short bursts of the cannon, must have hit it just right as it exploded into a fireball right in front of me - good stuff.

I then broke off and returned to my flight formation, where we eventually took on a flight of 4 109's.

 

I ran out of ammo though pretty soon after taking down the first 109, so I just followed my flight around as they worked on the remainder, who eventually gave up.  We then followed the bombers all the way back to their base, and I landed at my airfield for a successful mission.

 

What a rush this one was, great fun!!

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by dburne

[Legioneod]

15 minutes ago, dburne said:

Anyone know if total number of missions flown is recorded anywhere? I can't seem to find it?

 

Last mission was yesterday afternoon, spent about 6 hours continuing my Career yesterday.

Mission was another bomber escort, fairly long distance. Total mission took  right at 1 hour, it was awesome!

 

As we got close to the target area, I spotted a couple of lone HS-129's down low near the coast, just above the hills of Kuban. My flight lead took no notice of them, did not have any enemy fighters in our area just yet, so thought what the heck - so down low I go approaching them from behind. I must have snuck up on them, as they seemed to not be aware I was there.

Layed a few cannon rounds on the first one, he dropped his bombs so figured that was good enough, broke off and headed to the second one. A few quick short bursts of the cannon, must have hit it just right as it exploded into a fireball right in front of me - good stuff.

I then broke off and returned to my flight formation, where we eventually took on a flight of 4 109's.

 

I ran out of ammo though pretty soon after taking down the first 109, so I just followed my flight around as they worked on the remainder, who eventually gave up.  We then followed the bombers all the way back to their base, and I landed at my airfield for a successful mission.

 

What a rush this one was, great fun!!

 

Should be in the same spot as your kills. It will tell you ho many sorties you've flown and how many were successful.

Also, very cool story.

 

Probably not for everyone but I think it would be cool to have a journal in-game where you can record the days events etc.

Edited March 18, 2018 by Legioneod

[dburne]

4 minutes ago, Legioneod said:

Should be in the same spot as your kills. It will tell you ho many sorties you've flown and how many were successful.

Also, very cool story.

 

Probably not for everyone but I think it would be cool to have a journal in-game where you can record the days events etc.

 

Could have swore I looked there for it , guess I must have missed it.

Will check again, thanks.

[Legioneod]

Just now, dburne said:

 

Could have swore I looked there for it , guess I must have missed it.

Will check again, thanks.

Nvm, its in the unit hq tab, all the ay at the bottom.

[dburne]

1 minute ago, Legioneod said:

Nvm, its in the unit hq tab, all the ay at the bottom.

 

Great thanks!

[Legioneod]

Igor Petrenko June 21, 1912 - October 12, 1941. 

 

Aircraft was damaged and pilot wounded by enemy 109, managed to coax my I-16  near the front but was shot down by aa fire, didn't bail in time and was killed in the crash. Had only been in the squadron 5 days.

 

Surviving in Ironman mode all the way to Kuban is looking more difficult each day.

[Herne]

I messed up my second career. My pilot survived through the moscow campaign flying I16's and migs, though some of it he had to sit out due to injury. 

 

I selected LA5's for stalingrad, not long into the stalingrad campaign I was on a bomber escort mission. We had to spring into action before the bombers reached their target, I got one or two kills, but was now separated from the rest of my flight. A radio message came in from the leader saying RTB. Now this is where I really messed up. I hoped to intercept my flight who I believed were somewhere between me and the bombers target, deeper into enemy territory. So off I went on my own towards the bomber target. I saw some tracer up ahead, and figured that my flight was in trouble and I would try to help out. By the time I was on the scene, there were four 109's and no LA5's to be seen. I engaged, it wasn't long though before I was in deep trouble, trying to nurse a damaged engine, 20km's behind the lines, while evading four 109's. It wasn't long before I had lost a wing, and was forced to bail. 

My new career is as a HE111 pilot. I enjoy staying in formation, its quite relaxing, but then when the enemy attacks you have a few moments of terror.

 

I did try JU88 but the leader wouldn't take off for some reason ? has that happened to anyone else ?

Edited March 19, 2018 by =FEW=Herne

[Legioneod]

Do we get rewards for being wounded in combat? I've been wounded a few times but I haven't noticed any medal for it. Not sure if the Russians or Germans did this but I know Americans get the Purple Heart.

[J2_Jakob]

The Career is great, feels like a good old RoF.

 

Two things that are not that great:

- The mini map - it's only available in the Normal mode. Once I go for Expert, there's only the big full-screen map. Why is the mini map not available in the Expert mode?

- The "GPS" - setting the Expert difficulty is not enough to get rid of this. Needed to go for Custom and uncheck everything except Warmed up engine. Why is the GPS available in the Expert mode?

 

These two problems combined create an absurd situation (on Expert setting):

"No, you can't have the mini-map at hand all the time, buddy. Finding your way would be too easy, like cheating! But don't worry, buddy. Once you hit O, we'll give you your exact location. That's not cheating."  

 

And one more annoying thing in general - awfully jaggy planes when flying through/very close to a cloud. Otherwise I'm very happy with the Career as it is... 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2018 by LsV_Jakob

[Cpt_Cool]

Poor Stanislav got lost when his compass was jammed by enemy fire and ditched in enemy territory. For him, the war is over. Seeing the flight path on the debriefing was tragic because he could have made it with better directional skills. Oh well it was still a good weekend.

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

1 hour ago, Legioneod said:

Do we get rewards for being wounded in combat? I've been wounded a few times but I haven't noticed any medal for it. Not sure if the Russians or Germans did this but I know Americans get the Purple Heart.

 

Germans get the Wound Badge in different grades (Black, Silver, Gold, etc.)

[CIA_Yankee_]

1 hour ago, Space_Ghost said:

 

Germans get the Wound Badge in different grades (Black, Silver, Gold, etc.)

 

Russians get red and yellow stripes.

[dburne]

Well it is a sad morning.

Miran Yakolov, my first Career pilot, met his fate this morning in Mission 18.

 

It was a ground attack mission in my Spit, had a bad feeling when we lost our leader crossing the front lines from AAA fire. We got to the target area and I was lining up for a run on the vehicles. Saw a group of 109's heading our way but wanted to get this first run in. Lined up for the strafing run, and took out 3 vehicles with my cannons.  Started pulling up to peel off and see where those 109's were and then blammo, one had apparently got on my six and nailed me. Too close to the ground no time to bail out , crashing and killing my virtual pilot.

 

Time to regroup and gather myself, and then begin a new Career. Loving it.

 

 

Edited March 20, 2018 by dburne

[Legioneod]

5 minutes ago, dburne said:

Well it is a sad morning.

Miran Yakolov, my first Career pilot, met his fate this morning in Mission 18.

 

It was a ground attack mission in my Spit, we got to the target area and I was lining up for a run on the vehicles. Saw a group of 109's heading our way but wanted to get this first run in. Lined up for the strafing run, and took out 3 vehicles with my cannons.  Started pulling up to peel off and see where those 109's were and then blammo, one had apparently got on my six and nailed me. Too close to the ground no time to bail out , crashing and killing my virtual pilot.

 

Time to regroup and gather myself, and then begin a new Career. Loving it.

 

 

It's always sad to lose a pilot you worked hard on. I was devastated just losing a pilot 5 days into his career lol.

I'm doing better now though. I had a close call the other day, was doing an escort mission deep in enemy territory and got jumped by a 109 or more. They wounded my and shot my engine up pretty good, I managed to nurse it back over Russian lines and set her down in a field. I think only one other squad mate survived that mission. Probably the most scared I've been in this game in a while lol.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Legioneod

[216th_Jordan]

I stopped using realistic career speed and moved to medium. Otherwise I wouldn't see how I could go all the way from moscow to kuban in less than a year of real time

Right now I'm 4 weeks into the battle with quite good results. I guess that I'm going to lower difficulty level from high to moderate though as on high the AI is super aggressive sometimes and does not really care for its own well-being, also sniper shots when they pull lead and normally would not know my position under their nose.

 

But I love the missions so far although its just half of what is planned for when the career is to be finished in a few months. Also, when the AI gets a major rework (I hope it will happen) then the campaign can become the jewel everybody dreamt of. Right now I think its too easy to get kills in too many cases, AI is not covering its wingmen sufficently or denying shots, so I can always pick fighters off. I'd like to have it hard while not being instakilled by snipers, therefore tactical intelligence of the AI needs to become better. This is a big task but if they give it resources it could turn out as one of the best and lasting investements for this sim.

 

And while AI lacks it doesn't affect enjoyment of the career too much. Normally I'm an MP guy but right now I find it so nice to be ale to fly coordinated with my wing in the career and to read the world news every week, it really gives a sense of the time that this was happening.

 

Question: Is it possible to escape a capture when going down in enemy territory?

[Legioneod]

5 minutes ago, 216th_Jordan said:

Question: Is it possible to escape a capture when going down in enemy territory?

Unfortunately no. It would be nice to have something like the wounded system, if you get captured you are out of action for some time and get a %chance to escape or evade capture.

[Herne]

 

8 minutes ago, 216th_Jordan said:

I stopped using realistic career speed and moved to medium. Otherwise I wouldn't see how I could go all the way from moscow to kuban in less than a year of real time

Right now I'm 4 weeks into the battle with quite good results. I guess that I'm going to lower difficulty level from high to moderate though as on high the AI is super aggressive sometimes and does not really care for its own well-being, also sniper shots when they pull lead and normally would not know my position under their nose.

 

But I love the missions so far although its just half of what is planned for when the career is to be finished in a few months. Also, when the AI gets a major rework (I hope it will happen) then the campaign can become the jewel everybody dreamt of. Right now I think its too easy to get kills in too many cases, AI is not covering its wingmen sufficently or denying shots, so I can always pick fighters off. I'd like to have it hard while not being instakilled by snipers, therefore tactical intelligence of the AI needs to become better. This is a big task but if they give it resources it could turn out as one of the best and lasting investements for this sim.

 

And while AI lacks it doesn't affect enjoyment of the career too much. Normally I'm an MP guy but right now I find it so nice to be ale to fly coordinated with my wing in the career and to read the world news every week, it really gives a sense of the time that this was happening.

 

Question: Is it possible to escape a capture when going down in enemy territory?

Injury sometimes helps the time pass pretty quick. sometimes its just a few days, but can be weeks

[JG4_Sputnik]

The career is very good, unfortunately it is lacking two mayor things:

 

- Let me ADD waypoints : more often than not the default waypoints are very badly placed.

Through lots of AA and through the most obvious routes. If it is not possible to "add" new waypoints (because of technical reasons or whatever) just make 8 WPs as default, even in a straight line. Then you could drag them the way you want them. I think 8-12 would be enough for everything. 

The problem is that your guys don't follow you but follow the flight plan (only 3 follow you, the rest not) so you can not fly a different path unless you want to fly alone, which is very annoying (and cost me 5 casualties the last sortie I made...).

 

- Teach the AI to fly in formation : If I'm the leader, they always stay way behind, even if I wait for them. If I'm not the leader they fly way too fast. You almost every time end up alone at the ground target which is not good for your health.

 

Not quite sure about this yet, but it has been already like that in PWCG, so:

- Teach the AI that enough is enough: When they attack an airfield for example, they circle for way too long above the target (or as I assume, until they have no ammunition left). If they are enemies you can shoot them one by one and if they are yours you have to wait way too long for them to finish the job (or they get ripped apart by the AA).

 

I hope those things could be done. All the rest is very well done and satisfying which makes the above hurt even more.

 

[Herne]

5 minutes ago, JG4_Sputnik said:

The career is very good, unfortunately it is lacking two mayor things:

 

- Let me ADD waypoints : more often than not the default waypoints are very badly placed.

Through lots of AA and through the most obvious routes. If it is not possible to "add" new waypoints (because of technical reasons or whatever) just make 8 WPs as default, even in a straight line. Then you could drag them the way you want them. I think 8-12 would be enough for everything. 

The problem is that your guys don't follow you but follow the flight plan (only 3 follow you, the rest not) so you can not fly a different path unless you want to fly alone, which is very annoying (and cost me 5 casualties the last sortie I made...).

 

- Teach the AI to fly in formation : If I'm the leader, they always stay way behind, even if I wait for them. If I'm not the leader they fly way too fast. You almost every time end up alone at the ground target which is not good for your health.

 

Not quite sure about this yet, but it has been already like that in PWCG, so:

- Teach the AI that enough is enough: When they attack an airfield for example, they circle for way too long above the target (or as I assume, until they have no ammunition left). If they are enemies you can shoot them one by one and if they are yours you have to wait way too long for them to finish the job (or they get ripped apart by the AA).

 

I hope those things could be done. All the rest is very well done and satisfying which makes the above hurt even more.

 

•  

 

I seem to remember one of Jasons posts in some thread saying that the career would improve over time, just like it did with RoF. I didn't get into RoF until relatively late though so no idea what was added after the initial implementation. 

For a first pass though, retroactively integrated into the previous games I think they did an outstanding job with the resources they have. there's a few little details that need fixing here and there but overall I think it gives everyone an engaging and very re-playable single player experience.