The length of the campaign missions?!

[senseispcc]

I already played the Moscow campaign on a daily base for some time, now I am at the 24 of January 1942 and my 110th mission.

But one thing I do remark is the length of the missions that increase with each day.

At the beginning of the campaign before the first and last change of airfield the missions where short: 15-20 minutes at maximum.

When the German forces where approaching Moscow the missions where shorter and shorter but still in the range of 15 to 20 minutes.

Now than the counter offensives of the Soviet forces are in full swing/force the missions are longer and longer. All this is still logical. Each mission is between 30 minutes’ defensive ones and 1 hour and 20 minutes. Note that I never use time acceleration during play.

Now the questions; 

1/ Did anyone feel this tendency also?

2/ Is there by any chance a second change of airfield to get near the front lines again?

3/ The Mig3 that I fly flight time is +- 1h30 minutes nearly the time of flight for most of the missions at this stage of the Moscow campaign, if the front goes even a little to the west it shall be out of range, is this taken into account in the mission’s creator?!

[InProgress]

10 minutes ago, Mcdaddy said:

Play multiplayer or quick mission, problem solved.

[J2_Jakob]

Flight endurance at 3000 m: 2.5 h, at 350 km/h IAS

You still seem to have 1 spare hour of flight time, so the frontline would have to move considerably. I bet the devs thought about this and you won't be given missions exceeding flight endurance of your aircraft. If you have such long missions now, I guess squadron relocation is imminent...

[Yogiflight]

12 minutes ago, LsV_Jakob said:

Flight endurance at 3000 m: 2.5 h, at 350 km/h IAS

You still seem to have 1 spare hour of flight time, so the frontline would have to move considerably. I bet the devs thought about this and you won't be given missions exceeding flight endurance of your aircraft. If you have such long missions now, I guess squadron relocation is imminent...

The problem is, in the career missions you don't fly at 350km/h IAS. From my experiences with german fighters, I would guess the cruising speed for the Mig in game will be more like 450km/h IAS, which increases the fuel consumption quite noticable.

[fiddlinjim]

Once I reach altitude and have the direction established I use time acceleration regularly along with the autopilot.

I return to normal time and turnoff autopilot when within 10KM of the my action point or when enemy fighters are spotted.

I find time acceleration eliminates the long and sometimes boring ingress or egress flights and doesn't take away from my enjoyment

of the game play. 

I'm sure all of the purists feel that it is a requirement to set for long periods in a virtual cockpit to really be there

but not me.    

[senseispcc]

Thank You for the answers? but first I never use time acceleration. Why? Because I want and do play the game at maximum realism with one big exception, the objects markers that I use because otherwise due to my bad sight. it is also why I try to synchronize the days of the game missions with the days in the real world, example 24/01/1942 is today 24/06/2018. If there are more than one mission a day I do them the same day.

And yes now at the end of the longest missions the Mig-3 is left with I guess 40 kilometers of range but in a mission with a medium long fight this is reduced to 20 minutes or even less.

I only ask if other players did have the same experience than me with the length of the missions and if it happens that missions are to long for the range of the plane they fly?! 

[InProgress]

I never play that much, but when frontline changed, I was stuck at airfield waaaaay back behind front. Kind of weird that your squad isn't send to new airfields. Maybe they are later, but did not happen to me.

[senseispcc]

5 minutes ago, InProgress said:

I never play that much, but when frontline changed, I was stuck at airfield waaaaay back behind front. Kind of weird that your squad isn't send to new airfields. Maybe they are later, but did not happen to me.

It seems that movement to new airfield is only in one direction to the back never to the front. Strange but maybe logical if you consider that the front airfields recently conquered could be destroyed by the side abandoning them… 

But annoying it is, no? Especially if you are like me a pilot of short range fighters like BF109, FW190, Mig-3, Yak’s, Lagg’s or La’s and even IL-2 of any type. 

Edited June 24, 2018 by senseispcc

[InProgress]

4 minutes ago, senseispcc said:

It seems that movement to new airfield is only in one direction to the back never to the front. Strange but maybe logical if you consider that the front airfields recently conquered could be destroyed by the side abandoning them… 

You can start career in different days, and still be able to choose these airfields in front, so they are working. I don't know if they did it historical but I have doubts that after front moved so much they did not transfer at least fighters much closer. 

[senseispcc]

2 minutes ago, InProgress said:

You can start career in different days, and still be able to choose these airfields in front, so they are working. I don't know if they did it historical but I have doubts that after front moved so much they did not transfer at least fighters much closer. 

 

True. In reality they did in all nations. But maybe in the game it is to complex to make it work correctly. 

[dburne]

In the Spit Kuban Career, if you start from the beginning the missions are quite long  but eventually the squadron gets moved to an airfield closer to the front and they get a little shorter.

[RedKestrel]

I'm pretty sure that the transfers between airfields are based on actual deployment times of the squadrons, same as when a squadron leaves a theatre of operations.

Its pretty difficult to move an entire squadron and its supplies forward, and in the middle of a counteroffensive, the transport and the room on the roads might just not be available to do it. As long as the fighters are still in range of the front, I can see them not moving unless absolutely necessary

The other thing you can do is look at the map and see if there are any squadrons flying the same plane as you closer to the front. Then request a transfer to them.

[ShamrockOneFive]

1 hour ago, RedKestrel said:

I'm pretty sure that the transfers between airfields are based on actual deployment times of the squadrons, same as when a squadron leaves a theatre of operations.

Its pretty difficult to move an entire squadron and its supplies forward, and in the middle of a counteroffensive, the transport and the room on the roads might just not be available to do it. As long as the fighters are still in range of the front, I can see them not moving unless absolutely necessary

The other thing you can do is look at the map and see if there are any squadrons flying the same plane as you closer to the front. Then request a transfer to them.

 

My understanding from what BlackSix has talked about in the past is the same. Positions for the bases are all based on historical movements. Your virtual unit moves when the unit moved in real life according to the documentation that they have.

[LukeFF]

7 hours ago, senseispcc said:

True. In reality they did in all nations. But maybe in the game it is to complex to make it work correctly. 

 

? That feature has been there since ROF. It's nothing new at all.

[Feathered_IV]

There does seem to be an awful lot of airfields standing idle, much closer to the frontlines when the player only has some of the rearmost bases to choose from.  

[LLv24_SukkaVR]

1 hour ago, Feathered_IV said:

There does seem to be an awful lot of airfields standing idle, much closer to the frontlines when the player only has some of the rearmost bases to choose from.  

 

If those fields are in range of enemy artillery it does make sense that they are empty.

[Herne]

14 hours ago, dburne said:

In the Spit Kuban Career, if you start from the beginning the missions are quite long  but eventually the squadron gets moved to an airfield closer to the front and they get a little shorter.

 

I never survived or failed to be captured for that long 

[J2_Jakob]

18 hours ago, Yogiflight said:

The problem is, in the career missions you don't fly at 350km/h IAS. From my experiences with german fighters, I would guess the cruising speed for the Mig in game will be more like 450km/h IAS, which increases the fuel consumption quite noticable.

 

Coincidentally, when escorting bombers, I've been cruising at 300km/h to stay with them (last cca ten escort sorties). Could cruise at 350km/h, but then I'd need to fly the S pattern like the rest of the flight. And this is dangerous, as the AI is prone to collisions in this flight regime. When on Intercept or JaBo mission, it is true that the cruising speed is closer to 450km/h.

[dburne]

29 minutes ago, =FEW=Herne said:

 

I never survived or failed to be captured for that long 

 

Yeah it took me like 5 different Careers to finally make it through it. 

Working on my second try to get through it again now. ( I so love the Spit).

[PatrickAWlson]

10 hours ago, NahkaSukka said:

 

If those fields are in range of enemy artillery it does make sense that they are empty.

 

it is also not good to be jumped when you are on the runway.  Granted that can happen anywhere, but I found that when squadrons are placed near the front they almost never have time to get to altitude.