Official Free Historical Campaign "Sea Dragons"

[Chief_Mouser]

Just finished this campaign by BlackSix and it's excellent!

Every mission was enjoyable, with a terrific use of the Kuban map and great mission descriptions that fill out your pilot's story.

I made it home from the final mission with at least 90 bullet-holes and an injured gunner but at least I got back. Mission 7 was the hardest for me; I had to repeat it several times. First attempt - blown to bits by flak I hadn't seen. 2nd attempt - shot down by the same flak while I was looking for it. 3rd attempt - hit a tree while trying to avoid the flak. 4th attempt - shot down by the flak while trying to take it out. Etc, etc. I think there were a few more attempts before I got through that one, but most of the missions I was able to accomplish first go.

The AI Sturmoviks are quite reliable and get on with the job, but the dynamic changes slightly when you get to lead a flight. They don't always do exactly what you want, especially when your pilot gives them orders and you didn't. (Note to Devs - the pilot communications and commands need an update as soon as possible. )

There is a lot of action going on in the missions, not all of it close to your aircraft, but I didn't have any problems with FPS or anything else. Each mission was atmospheric because of it, you aren't just flying in your own bubble.

 

All in all, absolutely terrific.

If you like the Il-2 then get on and fly it.

If you've never tried the Il-2 then get on and try it - she's a stable old bird without many vices, so you'll be able to enjoy the campaign even if you're a noob with her.

 

Verdict: highly recommended, BlackSix's best so far.

Cheers.

[BlackSix]

Hello, thanks!
I thought it would be the most boring campaign of all my four works at present.

[THERION]

No, this campaign is anything else but boring - very immersive experience to me. At the moment the scripted

campaigns are more enjoyable than the dynamic campaign system so far. Thank you.

 

Cheers

[SCG_motoadve]

On ‎4‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 1:17 AM, EAF_T_Therion said:

No, this campaign is anything else but boring - very immersive experience to me. At the moment the scripted

campaigns are more enjoyable than the dynamic campaign system so far. Thank you.

 

Cheers

 Agree with this,  scripted campaigns are more enjoyable.

My only complain is that being alive over friendly territory should be enough to continue to the next one.(Dynamic campaign is good in that way)

For example, bail out, crash land, or land your damaged airplane at an airbase close to you.

[ShamrockOneFive]

Funny you should post on this because I've been playing Sea Dragons a lot recently and I've only got a few missions left. I decided I should write about it and I put an article up only a few hours ago. Great timing!

 

https://stormbirds.blog/2018/05/06/flying-with-the-sea-dragons/

 

On 4/27/2018 at 4:09 AM, BlackSix said:

Hello, thanks!
I thought it would be the most boring campaign of all my four works at present.

 

Not at all. It is perhaps not quite as "edge of my seat" as Ten Days of Autumn was with the front line literally on take-off but its still very entertaining. IL-2 strikes can turn crazy in a heartbeat!

[BlackSix]

6 hours ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

Funny you should post on this because I've been playing Sea Dragons a lot recently and I've only got a few missions left. I decided I should write about it and I put an article up only a few hours ago. Great timing!

https://stormbirds.blog/2018/05/06/flying-with-the-sea-dragons/

Thanks for the preview

 

On 05.05.2018 at 12:04 AM, II./JG77_motoadve said:

My only complain is that being alive over friendly territory should be enough to continue to the next one.(Dynamic campaign is good in that way)

For example, bail out, crash land, or land your damaged airplane at an airbase close to you.

Dynamic career doesn't narrate any consistent story in the briefings. You can do anything and quit the mission as you like.

In the meantime, I must be sure that you have landed at your airfield so that in the subsequent text there is no misunderstanding and divergence of situations.

[Chief_Mouser]

Good stuff Shamrock.

Your site is always worth a read.

Cheers.

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

As soon as I finish my career, I'll check it out! I love BlackSix's Scripted Campaign!

 

However, I have a question. Are the Scripted campaigns and the new career mode in some way similar? Are they overlapping a bit?

Please, do not take me wrong. I love both! 

Edited May 7, 2018 by PA_Spartan-

[BlackSix]

7 hours ago, PA_Spartan- said:

However, I have a question. Are the Scripted campaigns and the new career mode in some way similar? Are they overlapping a bit?

They use the same map tactical overlays and frontlines, it's all

[Jade_Monkey]

Really enjoying the campaign so far!!

[FlyingH]

Where can I find this "Sea Dragon" campaign?

[E69_julian57]

 

 

 

 

Quote

 

 

15 minutes ago, FlyingH said:

Where can I find this "Sea Dragon" campaign?

You have it in the BOX already installed

[FlyingH]

Hmmmmmm, should use my eyes better then?!

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

Ok, you've made me try right away. I've flown 3 missions and extremely immersive. I love it.

The bad side is that I suck with rockets. I hope Requiem make a tutorial video in the future. 

 

https://youtu.be/3VGkKQh0zBk

Edited May 16, 2018 by PA_Spartan-

[Gambit21]

On 5/4/2018 at 2:04 PM, II./JG77_motoadve said:

 Agree with this,  scripted campaigns are more enjoyable.

My only complain is that being alive over friendly territory should be enough to continue to the next one.(Dynamic campaign is good in that way)

For example, bail out, crash land, or land your damaged airplane at an airbase close to you.

 

Scripted campaigns will always be better...always been that way for reasons that are easy to point out.

Generators offer a user interface overlay that portrays some semblance of continuity, squadron life, etc and offer far more missions...at the expense of mission quality.

Not that the missions are poor quality, they can be quite good.

That said scripted campaigns offer consistent, superior mission quality hands down, but you don't get that user interface aspect with named squadron members, newspapers etc, and you get fewer missions.

I know Black Six would love to give you 30 missions as would I, but it's just not plausible given the workload of even a single mission.

 

So both compliment each other and it's good we have a choice.

As far as mission objective/friendly territory...well that's something we wrestle with as designers. What should the minimum requirement be?

I think making home is reasonable, (I set my triggers over the home base, but don't require the player to land)

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2018 by Gambit21

[=gRiJ=Roman-]

In Misiion 5, In a wasp nest. I attacked in Anapka some Fuel Tanks with rocket and machine guns and they did NOT explode. Is it modeled that way  so that they cannot be destroyed?

Thanks,

I am really enjoying this Scripted Campaign 

Minute 11:45 to 12:00

Attack to Fuel Tanks

 

 

Edited May 20, 2018 by PA_Spartan-

[Juri_JS]

On 17.5.2018 at 2:13 AM, Gambit21 said:

 

Scripted campaigns will always be better...

That's certainly true for the missions themselves, but what's somewhat lacking at the moment in scripted campaign mode is the overall presentation. That's why I expect, that a sizeable number of single players will exclusively fly in career mode in the future, like it happened in RoF.

 

I would love to see some features from career mode ported over into scripted campaigns. My first choice would be awards and promotions together with an option for the campaign builder to determine when a certain promotion/award happens. For example after a certain number of missions and/or kills.

An option that allows showing videos and images before and after a mission in the campaign menu, for example reconnaissance photos, would also be nice. Currentlyt this can only be done inside the missions.

[Redglyph]

2 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

I would love to see some features from career mode ported over into scripted campaigns. My first choice would be awards and promotions together with an option for the campaign builder to determine when a certain promotion/award happens. For example after a certain number of missions and/or kills.

An option that allows showing videos and images before and after a mission in the campaign menu, for example reconnaissance photos, would also be nice. Currentlyt this can only be done inside the missions.

 

You could have pdf documents, which have the advantage of being more readable than instructions with a probable restriction in size when presented in the campaign canevas. They often do that in DCS campaigns, and it's very handy because you can have a look at those anytime, even during the mission. Or a website.

 

A kneeboard would be immersive and helpful, but perhaps not historically correct.

 

The missing feature in IL2 and DCS is persistence, each mission is independant (I know that in DCS you can branch depending on the outcome of a mission, but that's very limitating). When I see Patrick's PWCG, I'm thinking it could be possible to have a platform shared between campaign makers that maintains the history through the campaign and hands out awards, or even manages the roaster as it does now (would only be background to the campaign). I'm not sure it's possible to analyze the logs and make sure the "success rate" can easily be transmitted, but I suppose so, the scripted part determines the success/failure outcome (is there a numerical 0-100 result in IL2? I guess not, it's 0 or 1 probably, but good enough), and if the external tool can read this outcome, it can manage the rest.

 

It could even throw in extra generated missions to lenghthen the campaign for those who need more, or for extra training. That would certainly give a "diluted" effect to the scripted part, but could perhaps give a good result if not overused.

 

Less convenient than having real support within the sim, but worth considering because that probably won't happen soon.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Redglyph

[FoxbatRU]

Good ideas. But it seems to me that if the released scripted campaigns remain at least at the same level of quality and quantity, it will be a victory! Because of the laboriousness of the campaign, and so are issued slowly. If you add all Wishlist, I'm afraid we generally will not get them in the foreseeable future.

[Redglyph]

Most of those elements already exist, they mainly need an interface. And that bit of wishlist is under the control of people who have more time than 1CS, busy as hell with the current developments, it has more chance to be done than a wishlist in IL2 product

[sevenless]

On ‎4‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 10:09 AM, BlackSix said:

Hello, thanks!
I thought it would be the most boring campaign of all my four works at present.

 

Since you mentioned FOUR, you made me curious. I only know three and I like all of them: Seadragons, Blazing Steppes and Ten days of autumn. Which is the fourth campaign? And where can I get it?

Edited June 3, 2018 by sevenless

[BlackSix]

OMG, did I say FOUR? 

Ok, there is something new in the development

[Lusekofte]

I have recommended this campaign on other forums, because it gave me warm feelings of old IL 2 wonderful Dynamic campaign. I can honestly say that this is the best campaign I have been fortunate to fly in a long while. IL 2 got not enough love concerning things like this.

Thank you very much

[Diggun]

6 hours ago, BlackSix said:

Ok, there is something new in the development

Oh, you big TEASE!

[sevenless]

6 hours ago, BlackSix said:

OMG, did I say FOUR? 

Ok, there is something new in the development

 

I should have asked WHEN can I get it ? Good to hear you´ve got something in the pipeline. Is it for BOBP or BOK/S/M ?

[BlackSix]

1 hour ago, LuseKofte said:

I have recommended this campaign on other forums, because it gave me warm feelings of old IL 2 wonderful Dynamic campaign. I can honestly say that this is the best campaign I have been fortunate to fly in a long while. IL 2 got not enough love concerning things like this.

Thank you very much

To be honest, I'm surprised... I thought it would be very boring

 

20 minutes ago, sevenless said:

I should have asked WHEN can I get it ? Good to hear you´ve got something in the pipeline. Is it for BOBP or BOK/S/M ?

Stalingrad, autumn. But I've no ETA at present...

[Skipper-]

EDIT - post moved

 

Edited July 19, 2018 by Skipper-

[Skipper-]

Is there any reason why I can't see the bombs mounted on my aircraft in the Sea Dragons campaign?

Not sure if it's always been like this, I only just noticed after mission 3. Now on mission 5 and I can still only see the rockets.
If I create a custom mission with bombs, I can see them on the aircraft.

Thanks

 

 

 

[czech693]

Four FAB-100M will fit inside the internal Bombay.  Select six and you'll see the two additional bombs attached to shackles below the fuselage.

[Skipper-]

Thank you, I didn't know that the Il-2 had a bomb bay but after your tip, I found this article about the Il-2.. what an amazing truly multi-role aircraft she was!

[Skipper-]

Hey @BlackSix, just wanted to say thanks for creating the Sea Dragons Campaign. Very immersive, a great sense of progression and being a small part of a great effort to push the enemy back. I really enjoyed the missions but towards the end I had to use autopilot to fly to the action area, as I was dying so much and the journey was too long to fly solo every time. I guess a lot of people like that but I enjoy missions that last around 20-30 minutes.

 

Can't wait to see what you have planned for your next campaign.

[BlackSix]

On 7/23/2018 at 1:27 AM, Skipper- said:

Hey @BlackSix, just wanted to say thanks for creating the Sea Dragons Campaign. Very immersive, a great sense of progression and being a small part of a great effort to push the enemy back. I really enjoyed the missions but towards the end I had to use autopilot to fly to the action area, as I was dying so much and the journey was too long to fly solo every time. I guess a lot of people like that but I enjoy missions that last around 20-30 minutes.

Thanks! This is why I like the fighter campaigns only)

[=SFG=capt_nasties]

I am new to BOS and this was my first experience with any type of campaign .  I had a blast coming to grips with BOS here and was very surprised how well the IL-2 handled even with a novice at the controls.   I binged through the 15 missions in 3 days?.  Excited to start career!  

[hobotango]

Sea Dragons campaign IS THE BEST of all IL-2 BoS franchise. To be fair, I haven't played much of the others, but I just really hate playing as Fighter plane since the AI will simply go around in circles "ad vitam aeternam". 

I am throughout my first game right now, I think Im at mission 7 ? ( We just finished moving to Anapa airfield and Im at the next mission ).   I am doing those as the pilot, next, I will do it as the rear gunner !  

So yeah, what I love is that we are an attack airplane, hence we dont have to actually go around circles chasing other planes.  Big Thanks to Blacksix for those, I wish I had the patience and skills to create such missions. I tried once and I know how hard it is. 

Playing as a IL-2 Sturmovik is so much fun. Flying trough Flak and trying to search for Artillery to destroy, while trying to keep my squad alive.  I hope to see more from Blacksix, especially in the Bodenplatte that is coming, nothing like pursuing a retreating axis forces with IL-2s and recreating scenes that you read in "The Forgotten Soldier" ( German divisions being constantly assaulted by IL-2s with rarely any axis air forces present )  

Anyway I could go on and on, but I believe the future of IL-2 Sturmovik single player experience lies in those missions where you dont have to attack a mindless AI plane. 
Im very excited for the future as well, maybe one day we can participate in huge B-17 formations en-route to Berlin ?! 

Edit : Worth taking note that I have been enjoying that campaign in full VR ( rift). And while I dont have the nice graphic card to support it ( GTX 980), its still working, Im having 30 FPS at the lowest settings, and the view is a bit blurry , but hell its still a blast !! I really feel Im in the action.  Will definitly re-visit the other campaigns. 

Also as a side note, I wish those were co-op able. Would be awesome to have 1 to 4 players play as the same squadron.

 

Edited January 11, 2019 by hobotango

[LukeFF]

@hobotango, I'm with you: I'm a ground-attack pilot at heart, so flying the Il-2 is perfect for me. The sweet sound of those cannons opening up and tearing into ground targets is just so sweet.  

[NormandieNiemen]

IL-2 is one of my fav plane, didn't finished the campaign yet but damn ! Nice job on it !

[BlackSix]

"Blazing Steppe" and "Sea Dragons" campaigns are now available in French thanks to Dominique Girouard

[LP1888]

On 4/27/2018 at 9:09 AM, BlackSix said:

Hello, thanks!
I thought it would be the most boring campaign of all my four works at present.

Far from it Blacksix it’s GREAT!!!!!!!

[Jaegermeister]

On 5/16/2018 at 8:13 PM, Gambit21 said:

On 5/4/2018 at 5:04 PM, II./JG77_motoadve said:

 

My only complain is that being alive over friendly territory should be enough to continue to the next one.(Dynamic campaign is good in that way)

For example, bail out, crash land, or land your damaged airplane at an airbase close to you.

 

On 5/16/2018 at 8:13 PM, Gambit21 said:

 

As far as mission objective/friendly territory...well that's something we wrestle with as designers. What should the minimum requirement be?

I think making home is reasonable, (I set my triggers over the home base, but don't require the player to land)

 

 

I agree that making it back to base alive should always be your primary goal. It is possible to set up alternate landing areas but it definitely can mess up a story line to land somewhere else. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much.

 

It’s possible to set crash landings to equal mission success but it does not always work correctly in my experience. Setting a random chance of success if you crash is tricky because the program has varying definitions of crash, emergency landing or forced landing. Sometimes you crash and survive but it seems like if you are severely injured, but not outright killed, it will not allow the mission success goal to activate.

 

I have not found a way to prevent bailing out from triggering mission failure. Maybe someone else has.

[Gambit21]

6 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

 

I have not found a way to prevent bailing out from triggering mission failure. Maybe someone else has.

 

Well we'd need a bail out event trigger which we don't have.

Since writing that other post I've arrived a different conclusion for mission success.

 

I now trigger the primary objective as soon as the player takes off, or a minute or two after.

This way if the player encounters a problem with a certain mission, say a crash for unknown reasons, (as has happened recently)  he can move on with the campaign until

the issue is fixed, and fly that mission at a later time. It's not ideal in all ways, but I've found it to be necessary since I cant' foresee all problems that might occur.

 

Also some a player might fly most of a long mission, then who knows the wife comes home and distracts him, or his computer crashes. Maybe he doesn't want to fly an hour long

mission over again and would rather move on. The success trigger after take-off takes care of this.

 

We can always add other "SUCCESS!" triggers in the mission for other events if desired.