SP Career Appreciation

[dburne]

After a bit of a long break since finishing my last Career ( not from game just from Career), I recently started a new one with my Spit over Kuban.

I am having a blast! It seems even better than the last time I flew it.

Loving the story line, and there certainly has been no lack of enemy air activity. Many missions into it now and each one has been very exciting.

Many missions our flight has been able to deal with them ok, some I have lost a wingman or two, and others we have been way outnumbered and after downing one or two have had to bug out for home base. I notice the enemy is not so determined to follow us all the way back to base now, oftentimes after crossing the front lines back into our territory the enemy gives up and turns for home which is nice.

 

Often I have had to nurse a wounded plane back home, once had to bail out of a dying plane and luckily was over my own territory and survived to fight another day,.

The AI also seems to be a little better.

My last mission was quite exciting, our flight of 6 were tasked with escorting a flight of bombers to the target and back home. We got to the target area and I did not see any enemy fighters close by, but did spot a couple of low flying HS-129's. I peeled off to take care of them.

Let me tell ya, you ain't lived till you fire a nice burst of cannons into the middle of one of those babies in VR and have it explode into a ball of fire about 230 yds in front of you.

Pucker factor man, big time lol !

 

Anyway just wanted to express my sincere appreciation for the great SP experience that we have now in this great sim.

I am having a blast and fly this sim many hours each week.

Awesome job 1CGS!

Really looking forward to the same in Bodenplatte! I will be torn between the Spit Mk IX and the P-51.

[Trooper117]

I'm flying Spit IX in a career right now mate!  

[CIA_Yankee_]

18 minutes ago, Trooper117 said:

I'm flying Spit IX in a career right now mate!  

 

How are you doing so? Using PWCG? 

 

That said, to the OP: I'm glad you're enjoying the career, it certainly is quite fun, and I do like the immersion factor.

 

Personally I prefer MP, as the challenge is much higher, but it is nice to be able to play at your leisure and not have to deal with some of the less pleasant aspects of online flying.

Edited March 12, 2019 by 71st_AH_Yankee_

[Trooper117]

Yes, great fun so far... when I meet up with E/A they are usually a mixed bunch with 2 types of 109's, and 2 types of 190's, very aggressive and it's hard holding my own against them... as it should be!

[dburne]

1 hour ago, Trooper117 said:

I'm flying Spit IX in a career right now mate!  

 

I have her polished and waxed, saving for Bodenplatte in Career Mode.

[Mac_Messer]

For a dynamic campaign type, yes, it is pretty good. There have been a number of very welcome but not so popular changes that really upgraded it. You don`t need anymore to get a direct hit with a 50kg bomb to score a kill on a soft target - which bugged me the most about strafing missions.

The AI not following the player 50km to his base is a godsent change too. I`m enjoying my Kuban career quite a bit, and the Oberkommando isn`t too stingy with giving me distinctions which makes me happy for a type of player who wants to survive the war more than anything else (poor pilot statistics).

 

The AI however is still too good of a shot in some cases and a blindman in others. I`d wish for it to be made more consistent but as of now it`s not a show stopper.

 

[dburne]

39 minutes ago, Mac_Messer said:

For a dynamic campaign type, yes, it is pretty good. There have been a number of very welcome but not so popular changes that really upgraded it. You don`t need anymore to get a direct hit with a 50kg bomb to score a kill on a soft target - which bugged me the most about strafing missions.

The AI not following the player 50km to his base is a godsent change too. I`m enjoying my Kuban career quite a bit, and the Oberkommando isn`t too stingy with giving me distinctions which makes me happy for a type of player who wants to survive the war more than anything else (poor pilot statistics).

 

The AI however is still too good of a shot in some cases and a blindman in others. I`d wish for it to be made more consistent but as of now it`s not a show stopper.

 

 

For sure, I did about 6 hours in my Kuban Career today and have had an absolute blast!

[JonRedcorn]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

 

For sure, I did about 6 hours in my Kuban Career today and have had an absolute blast!

Have you flown any of the other planes? I know you fly the spit almost exclusively. Certainly have had to give a few others a shot.

[Trooper117]

I've got 3 on the go at the moment... Spit IX... Spit V in Kuban and I-16 in Moscow campaign, Operation Typhoon.

[Feathered_IV]

Some of you must have a very low threshold to excitement.  

 

All my current Kuban career consists of is escort missions that meet 109s over the exact same spot, and bomber incercepts that encounter Ju-87s overflying my home base.  There is no variation and I’m about 30 missions into it.  

 

 

[ShamrockOneFive]

53 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

Some of you must have a very low threshold to excitement.  

 

All my current Kuban career consists of is escort missions that meet 109s over the exact same spot, and bomber incercepts that encounter Ju-87s overflying my home base.  There is no variation and I’m about 30 missions into it.  

 

 

 

That's weird. I've seen a ton of variety although defend the river crossing was coming up a lot in one of my careers.

[E4GLEyE]

2 hours ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

 

That's weird. I've seen a ton of variety although defend the river crossing was coming up a lot in one of my careers.

those are my favorites... At times the flight loiters about for 20 minutes only to get told we can leave, at other times enemies just spring to action as soon as we get there or have been there for a few minutes.

[Feathered_IV]

 

I’d love to be able to end a mission by doing a sweep around enemy territory, with a chance of encountering the odd lone Ju-52 or Po-2 etc.   Something that makes it look like there is a wider world out there beyond the Action Point. 

[Trooper117]

Are we still hampered by the restrictions of if you leave the waypoint route, there is bugger all happening?

 

[Elem]

3 minutes ago, Trooper117 said:

Are we still hampered by the restrictions of if you leave the waypoint route, there is bugger all happening?

 

That's the opposite of what I find! I rarely stick to the route and mission. I just go off and find often more exciting action elsewhere. This usually results in me becoming totally outnumbered so I end up dragging back the opposition to my own team for their assistance.

[MarderIV]

26 minutes ago, Elem said:

That's the opposite of what I find! I rarely stick to the route and mission. I just go off and find often more exciting action elsewhere. This usually results in me becoming totally outnumbered so I end up dragging back the opposition to my own team for their assistance.

 

I just started to fly in Expert mode...

 

What route? ?

[Trooper117]

1 hour ago, Elem said:

That's the opposite of what I find! I rarely stick to the route and mission. I just go off and find often more exciting action elsewhere. This usually results in me becoming totally outnumbered so I end up dragging back the opposition to my own team for their assistance.

 

Good to know!

[Feathered_IV]

 

6 hours ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

 

That's weird. I've seen a ton of variety although defend the river crossing was coming up a lot in one of my careers.

 

Where are you stationed?  I'm at the airfield southeast of Novorossiysk and the game seems stuck on 109s and stukas.  If I fly behind the lines it is a wasteland outside of the immediate target and waypoint areas.  

[dburne]

13 hours ago, JonRedcorn said:

Have you flown any of the other planes? I know you fly the spit almost exclusively. Certainly have had to give a few others a shot.

 

Yes prior to Spit I was flying the Yak a lot. And back when original BoS was in Early Access I flew the Lagg quite a bit.

Really liking the Spit and will probably stick with it for a while probably till Bodenplatte is released. At which time I will likely go with the Spit Mk IX and the P-51.

Also need to learn the A-20 and give that Havoc over Kuban Campaign a go.

 

8 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

Some of you must have a very low threshold to excitement.  

 

All my current Kuban career consists of is escort missions that meet 109s over the exact same spot, and bomber incercepts that encounter Ju-87s overflying my home base.  There is no variation and I’m about 30 missions into it.  

 

 

 

Sounds like Groundhog Day...

 

I am getting more variety. Getting several ground cover missions, some intercept missions, a small handful of Free Hunt missions, some ground attack missions.

But yes I do get many Bomber Escort missions, probably more of those than any other single type. At least in this stage of my Career.

 

2 hours ago, Elem said:

That's the opposite of what I find! I rarely stick to the route and mission. I just go off and find often more exciting action elsewhere. This usually results in me becoming totally outnumbered so I end up dragging back the opposition to my own team for their assistance.

 

Yeah I have managed to do this as well, I keep an eye on the large Map and sometimes will see out toward the edge of my view of the map what appears to be a lone enemy aircraft loitering about. So with not much going on in my flight area I will head out there to check out, sometimes I run into a flight of bombers on their way back to their home airbase, sometimes a flight of 109 or 190's doing the same - or sometimes just a lone bomber on a joy ride.

Often I have had great fun with this, other times I have to hightail it back out of there, and sometimes have deeply regretted doing it lol.

Edited March 13, 2019 by dburne

[BornToBattle]

+1 to the OP for starting this topic. I think back to my old days of flying the F-18 Hornet and Fly! on my Mac and wow. How far we have come.

 

This thread has an interesting twist for me though, mentioning Pat Wilson’s Campaign Generator...hmm. I fly single player quick combat at times but most of my time is dedicated to career mode. It sounds as though PWCG provides more of a dynamic atmosphere than the standard career mode does, or no?

 

I’ve never used PWCG at all but am just now thinking about perhaps installing it. My German career in the JU-52 is, of course given the nature of the plane, quite a “yawn fest” accept for those few relatively rare occasions when I can expected to be bounced coming back from a mission. Quite often I’ll see smoke off in the distance to remind me I’m flying during a war. I had started a career in the P-40 and was shockingly doing quite well with it once I learned her engine management not to mention flying in VR has opened up a whole new way of being immersed in such an environment aka “real feel”.

 

Sorry OP, don’t mean to hijack your thread here! Was just wondering how much more dynamic and immersive is PWCG compared to the standard IL-2 career mode.

[ShamrockOneFive]

2 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

 

 

Where are you stationed?  I'm at the airfield southeast of Novorossiysk and the game seems stuck on 109s and stukas.  If I fly behind the lines it is a wasteland outside of the immediate target and waypoint areas.  

 

Depends on the Career I'm playing. North of Krasnodar for my Yak-1B career. Glendezhik for my P-39 campaign. Anapa for the FW190A-5. My Bf110 career is located somewhere to the west of Moscow. It's all quite variable.

[dburne]

1 hour ago, BornToBattle said:

+1 to the OP for starting this topic. I think back to my old days of flying the F-18 Hornet and Fly! on my Mac and wow. How far we have come.

 

This thread has an interesting twist for me though, mentioning Pat Wilson’s Campaign Generator...hmm. I fly single player quick combat at times but most of my time is dedicated to career mode. It sounds as though PWCG provides more of a dynamic atmosphere than the standard career mode does, or no?

 

I’ve never used PWCG at all but am just now thinking about perhaps installing it. My German career in the JU-52 is, of course given the nature of the plane, quite a “yawn fest” accept for those few relatively rare occasions when I can expected to be bounced coming back from a mission. Quite often I’ll see smoke off in the distance to remind me I’m flying during a war. I had started a career in the P-40 and was shockingly doing quite well with it once I learned her engine management not to mention flying in VR has opened up a whole new way of being immersed in such an environment aka “real feel”.

 

Sorry OP, don’t mean to hijack your thread here! Was just wondering how much more dynamic and immersive is PWCG compared to the standard IL-2 career mode.

 

Would prefer to stay with the IL-2 Career for this thread. The Devs have put a ton of work into this Career Mode and I encourage anyone that is enjoying it to join in, just

want to help insure they know the work they have done in this department is greatly appreciated.

 

To answer your question though, PWCG and Career are pretty similar in regards to the actual missions , flying and combat.

PWCG gives a little more flexibility "under the hood" for setting things like number of aircraft and flights, etc.. You can download and check out the Advanced Menu for PWCG to get a feel for what all you can tune and adjust.

 

But please let's not turn this into a PWCG versus IL-2 Career thing. Both are quite good for what they offer, and both worth trying...

Let's keep this one on the Career Mode.

Edited March 13, 2019 by dburne

[BornToBattle]

Didn’t mean to turn the tide against Career mode as it exist with this post, nor hijack the OP’s thread, as this was not my intention. Will post elsewhere.

 

[dburne]

18 minutes ago, BornToBattle said:

Didn’t mean to turn the tide against Career mode as it exist with this post, nor hijack the OP’s thread, as this was not my intention. Will post elsewhere.

 

 

No worries, PWCG has a nice forum also:
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/forum/99-pwcg-for-bos/

[MarderIV]

I just find the Career's leniency with regards to reinforcement very entertaining. I'm sure this might not be realistic; but if I can zerg rush Russian half-wooden wonders like the MiG-3 and the Yaks I'd be very happy. Really lends credence to the whole "we always have reserves" notion; and the results are almost always spectacular. Seeing five MiGs harrassing a single 109 is always going to be hilarious. Benny Hill theme every single time. 

 

Though for all the stuff there is (or isn't) in the Career, the only thing I'm really grateful for is the fact that it allows me to avoid having to build missions on my own. God knows I've spent a thousand hours in DCS and I'm sure half that was spent on the editor. 

 

I'm just happy I can log in and fly nigh instantaneously. Hardly any time to play these days, really. Growing old and all.

[Cpt_Cool]

The types of missions I regularly was getting has evolved over the course of my careers. Flying the P-40 in moscow, for instance, it was a lot of interception missions early on. Now toward the end of Moscow, i seem to be getting mostly soft column attacks and river crossing defense. Surprisingly, i don't think i've gotten a single escort mission which is just fiiiine with me. Also I definitely encounter other aircraft performing separate missions from my own on a regular basis.

[SovietAce]

I think that variety of missions is quite good now, and its going to be better since more mission types are in development?. Just yesterday I was leading my flight of La 5s for patrol mission, but right after takeoff we were attacked by group of Bf 109s. I managed do destroy one but then I saw one of my wingman exploded after being attacked by 109. Since I lost all of my ammo I had to land asap while being chased by rest of enemy fighters. I think that career is now quite good and enjoyable, but there are still things to improve.

[Cpt_Cool]

I was on the way to attack a river crossing with 6 other P-40s when i noticed 2 110s coming dead 12 o'clock low. I broke formation to go a quick attack. I figured i would take a shot, rejoin formation and continue with the mission. However, the 110s, dropped their ordinance and attacked our flight. Then 109s joined the party (idk if they were escorts or not). So our P-40s dropped ordinance and a furball ensued. The whole time, I was kind of upset with myself for spoiling the mission and dragging our whole flight into this dogfight. When all of a sudden, the mission accomplished notification popped. The flight lead was the only one who did not drop his bombs and engage. He flew on to the OBJ solo and completed the mission while the rest of us mopped up the 110s and bagged a couple 109s. Unfortunately, he did not make it back to base. Of course not all missions are this hectic or random, but it is a good example of what can happen or go wrong in a mission, which can be very immersive when it works well.

[dburne]

1 hour ago, Cpt_Cool said:

The types of missions I regularly was getting has evolved over the course of my careers. Flying the P-40 in moscow, for instance, it was a lot of interception missions early on. Now toward the end of Moscow, i seem to be getting mostly soft column attacks and river crossing defense. Surprisingly, i don't think i've gotten a single escort mission which is just fiiiine with me. Also I definitely encounter other aircraft performing separate missions from my own on a regular basis.

 

Yes I too run across that quite regularly. I get tempted at times to join in the foray, but keep telling myself " stay on the mission, stay on the mission".

Now on the way back though, if I still have some ammo, all bets are off lol.

[CrazyDuck]

Yep, careers in IL-2 are one of the (many to be frank) pearls of this sim for me. I'm currently flying IL-2 in Battle of Moscow and Fw 190 at Stalingrad. Setting "frontline activity" at "dense" is a must (albeit it eats up some CPU power I hear).

 

The other day I was hauling a full load of presents in form of rockets and bombs towards enemy lines in my trustworthy IL-2. Just as I was crossing friendly lines, I noticed 4 Bf 109E JABOs just starting their attack on our ground forces, passing below me. I went after them - my altitude advantage was enough for me to catch one of them moments after he blew up one of our T-34s with his bombs. Poor 109 didn't have time to celebrate as my aim seemed to be accurate for a change and a burst from twin VYa cannons simply disintegrated him. 

[4driano]

I am flying a Sturmovik in Kuban in career mode and it is so good that seems like scripted campaigns.

[LukeFF]

15 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

Some of you must have a very low threshold to excitement.  

 

All my current Kuban career consists of is escort missions that meet 109s over the exact same spot, and bomber incercepts that encounter Ju-87s overflying my home base.  There is no variation and I’m about 30 missions into it. 

 

You must be playing some other game, because my mission variety and locations where the enemy is encountered is entirely different. 

 

9 hours ago, Trooper117 said:

Are we still hampered by the restrictions of if you leave the waypoint route, there is bugger all happening?

 

Not hardly. 

Edited March 13, 2019 by LukeFF

[RedKestrel]

47 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

You must be playing some other game, because my mission variety and locations where the enemy is encountered is entirely different. 

 

 

Not hardly. 

After spending some time on the forum, I've come to the conclusion that many people must, in fact, be playing a different game than I am. 

To anyone struggling with mission sameness: I'm not a hundred percent sure how the particular mission probabilities work, but I believe they are heavily influenced both by the date you're at in the campaign and your position on the map. Mission types seem more likely to be offensively oriented (escorts, attacks, etc.) when your side is on the offensive, and if your squadron is in the right area of the front line. I found I almost never escorted attackers until my squadron was based near enough the front line and close enough to a base of Il-2s. But I had a lot of long-range bomber escorts and a lot of bridge cover assignments. The devs have stated that the mission types you encounter are based on what was going on during the air battle in certain timeframes, so there's probably a probability of certain mission types that can change significantly between campaign phases and for certain squadrons/aircraft types.

So if you're running into the exact same (or nearly the exact same) mission every time, rotate squadrons. Or just accelerate the time so that you only fly one mission a week and power through for a few weeks. 

As for activity outside the action point - a higher frontline activity setting will produce random enemy and friendly activity at various points on the map (though I think its usually close to where your mission route/action point is). Often when I go to cover a river crossing there are other fighters covering a troop concentration en-route, and on escort duty I often run into enemy attackers and their escort. This results in an odd escort-on-escort furball that I'm sure both sides would like to avoid! I've also caught enemy planes returning to their airfield when I'm providing cover for attackers. My setting for frontline activity is medium and my difficulty setting is moderate. 

[dburne]

I just finished a most exciting mission in my Spit.

We were tasked to protect a river crossing. The enemy had destroyed our bridge, and our guys had erected a temporary one.

We were to take off immediately and fly out to give them cover as there were reports of some enemy aircraft inbound.

 

We got there just in nick of time. A flight of 109's and a flight of JU-87's were on the way there. It was only about 12 miles from our home base.

We took care of them after some intense fighting, I got two of the 109's and one of the JU-87's. Either my wingmen got the rest or the remaining had bugged out for home.

 

Usually after a successful sortie I will land on my runway, shut the plane down and exit the mission. There are times when I have what I consider a spectacular one, that I then after landing taxi to parking and shut her down. This was one of those times. Even got to see a soldier walking along the hangars as I was parked and shutting down.

 

Good stuff!

Maybe someday in the future they might give us a third option on how to start the mission - from cold and parked, would be neat to do on occasion anyway. I don't always taxi to parking, but there are some times it just feels good to do.

 

[Mac_Messer]

9 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

 

 

Where are you stationed?  I'm at the airfield southeast of Novorossiysk and the game seems stuck on 109s and stukas.  If I fly behind the lines it is a wasteland outside of the immediate target and waypoint areas.  

JG52 based in Anapa airfield. The missions are constant cycle of : covering river crossing, intercepting red groundattackers, escorting blue bombers, escorting blue groundattackers, intercepting red recon plane, free hunt, attacking red river crossing, attacking red supply column, attacking red artillery site.

 

Most of my flights` mission routes exchange with enemy mission routes, and during free hunt missions enemy activity is heightened.

 

At the start I think I chose which mission type % I wanted the most.

[CrazyDuck]

In my humble opinion this is the best non-scripted career in flight sims, but one thing that I do miss however is that the sim forgets very quickly what you already destroyed. For example, in my IL-2 career there were two ground attack missions in the same day (as usual), with targets nearby. So after successful morning mission, during which my comrades and me annihilated an entire Wehrmacht artillery formation, we've flown another mission in the afternoon. Out of curiosity I've flown to the location of the first mission only to find the artillery very much alive and kicking. 

[ShamrockOneFive]

1 hour ago, CrazyDuck said:

In my humble opinion this is the best non-scripted career in flight sims, but one thing that I do miss however is that the sim forgets very quickly what you already destroyed. For example, in my IL-2 career there were two ground attack missions in the same day (as usual), with targets nearby. So after successful morning mission, during which my comrades and me annihilated an entire Wehrmacht artillery formation, we've flown another mission in the afternoon. Out of curiosity I've flown to the location of the first mission only to find the artillery very much alive and kicking.  

 

And that'll be the easiest way to illustrate the difference between something not using or using a dynamic campaign. If it were dynamic then the front line, the stuff you destroy, the other stuff destroyed by other flights, would all be tracked. That's another level of difficulty, however, and I don't think we'll see that. Falcon 4 was the last to really do that well and they bankrupted themselves building it.

[RedKestrel]

14 minutes ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

 

And that'll be the easiest way to illustrate the difference between something not using or using a dynamic campaign. If it were dynamic then the front line, the stuff you destroy, the other stuff destroyed by other flights, would all be tracked. That's another level of difficulty, however, and I don't think we'll see that. Falcon 4 was the last to really do that well and they bankrupted themselves building it.

There was the il2 DCG mod for 1946 that made a dynamic war possible, much like some current multiplayer servers. It was pretty cool but the campaigns sometimes had very odd results. It also didn’t produce the same feeling as the career mode does. If the two I prefer the career mode here because it  actual battle.

 

i didn’t know that the dynamic cAmpaign in falcon 4 caused so much trouble. Was it just too costly to develop?

[MarderIV]

5 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

i didn’t know that the dynamic cAmpaign in falcon 4 caused so much trouble. Was it just too costly to develop?

 

There was an interview where the developer detailed just how difficult and costly it was. Not sure if I can post links here; but the gist of it was apparently there was only one guy building the campaign and the effort was his first job in the industry. I think he went something along the lines of "I'm never doing this again" or thereabouts. 

 

In any case I don't think Microprose had the last 'modern' dynamic campaign included in a commercial release. I believe Battle of Britain also had it (the A2A one). Though I never got my hands on it; apparently it was marketed as something that could be played both as a simulator and as a strategy game much along the lines of Falcon 4.0. Though looking at the videos on Youtube regarding BoB, it looked like the FMs of the planes took a bit of a hit as a result. 

 

[Feathered_IV]

A dynamic aspect to a career would be nice I'm sure, but I've never thought it in any way essential.

 

Usually when I'm flying the career I have much more immediate wants.  When I've just bombed the target and seen it burn out and vanish in less than 30 seconds, then I'm following a 109 in circles for 20 minutes as my wingman shouts "Its close!" more than a hundred times -  the last thing I think is: Gee, you know what would fix this? A Dynamic Campaign!