BATTLEFIELD KERCH - SP scripted campaign [I-16 type 24]

[Vendigo]

 

 

 

DOWNLOAD CAMPAIGN (version 5.504b)

 

 

The beginning of 1942 was the time of new hope for the war-weary people of USSR - the Nazi juggernaut had been finally stopped and repelled westwards away from Moscow. Albeit the Soviet winter offensive culminated in yet another disastrous encirclement of the Red Army, an important strategic victory was nevertheless achieved – Moscow was safe; the German blitzkrieg failed. As it seemed, 1942 promised to be the year when the tide of the war would turn...

According to the Soviet High Command, the Kerch Peninsula, recently recaptured by the Red Army, would become the foothold of a determined attack against the enemy in the inner Crimea, redoubled by the troops holding out in the Sevastopol enclave.

However, on the other side of the frontline, the German adversaries were preparing the military operation codenamed «Trappenjagd». The objective – clear the Kerch Peninsula of the Red Army with the same kind of a quick and brutal onslaught that had been executed time and again in 1941.    

The decisive battle over Kerch is about to begin…  

 

This 19-mission plus 1-cutscene single player Campaign covers the events that unfolded in the Kerch Peninsula throughout May 1942.

The Player’s primary aircraft will be: I-16 type 24.

Titles required to run the Campaign: Battle of Moscow, Battle of Kuban.

Collector planes required to run the Campaign: U-2VS.

 

Lots of time and effort have been invested in building the missions; I have tried to achieve the balanced gameplay, although some bugs/errors/AI irregularities may remain undetected. Your feedback is highly appreciated and, if circumstances allow, I am intent on improving this Campaign in the future.  

Installation guide: simply unzip the Campaign file to the Game root directory (for Steam users it should be located at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad). Do not rename the folder containing the Campaign files! 

I have translated (courtesy of Google Translate) the briefings to the supported languages (except for the Chinese language as I haven’t figured out how to get it to display properly).

 

I hope you enjoy this Campaign! This Campaign is free but if you wish to support me you can do so via the details below; these days we need all support we can get:

Spoiler

My Paypal account is: dmitry.gor@gmail.com

 

 

Edited December 1, 2024 by Vendigo

[jollyjack]

thank you ..

[Billsponge1972]

Thanks for your effort in making this! It's installed and ready.

All of you campaign makers never fail to amaze me.

[Billsponge1972]

Flew the first two missions tonight and they are very well made. Love the intro!

Missions were successful but I have yet to shoot anything down (bad shot I am!)

The first mission was a little taxing on my rig but it's a bit of a dinosaur. ?️

 

[Vendigo]

Thank you Billsponge1972! 

Sorry about the first mission "rig-taxing", but as I know - the higher CPU frequency of your rig, the better the performance of the crowded missions. So I will appreciate more feedback from players with various rigs regarding this issue! 

I am going to do some more fine tuning of the missions anyway!    

[alpenspion]

4 Mission complete! I love this campaign! Very good work!

[Vendigo]

Alpenspion, thank you for your support, my friend!

 

[alpenspion]

?

[velemir56]

Thank you, Vendigo, excellent campaign

[Zeev]

On 3/28/2022 at 11:30 AM, Vendigo said:

Thank you Billsponge1972! 

Sorry about the first mission "rig-taxing", but as I know - the higher CPU frequency of your rig, the better the performance of the crowded missions. So I will appreciate more feedback from players with various rigs regarding this issue! 

I am going to do some more fine tuning of the missions anyway!    

I will try to test it this weekend on my i7-9700K CPU
This is one of my favorite planes, thanks for the campaign!
Edit: And stay safe in these difficult times, hope you are doing OK.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Zeev

[7bhp_Mk]

On 3/28/2022 at 9:30 AM, Vendigo said:

Thank you Billsponge1972! 

Sorry about the first mission "rig-taxing", but as I know - the higher CPU frequency of your rig, the better the performance of the crowded missions. So I will appreciate more feedback from players with various rigs regarding this issue! 

I am going to do some more fine tuning of the missions anyway!    

Ran the first few missions this morning and everything seemed perfectly fine on my rig. Currently running on a moderately overclocked 7700K at 4.7Ghz all-core. Looking forward to 'testing' mission 4 and beyond for you later, it should be lots of fun. All in the name of science, of course! 

[Vendigo]

Thank you Zeev, we must stay optimistic! Btw, Rata is one of my favorites as well!       

7bhp_Mk, appreciate your feedback! 

[7bhp_Mk]

Another 3 missions now completed with no apparent issues. Took a few attempts to clear the 6th mission, but that's more to do with my (lack of) skill as a pilot than any other potential cause... Thank you very much to @Vendigofor putting this fantastic campaign together for all of the community to enjoy. So far it has been an absolute blast!

[Spikos]

On 3/28/2022 at 10:30 AM, Vendigo said:

Thank you Billsponge1972! 

Sorry about the first mission "rig-taxing", but as I know - the higher CPU frequency of your rig, the better the performance of the crowded missions. So I will appreciate more feedback from players with various rigs regarding this issue! 

I am going to do some more fine tuning of the missions anyway!    

So i have a 2080rtx and a Ryzen 2600x. The Frist Mission went down to 35fps for a few minutes but i was abel to fly. I´ve completed Mission 5 and now performace Issues so far. Its a great campaign so far and the GoogleTranslation is okay for me. (german)

Edited June 5, 2022 by Spikos

[Vendigo]

On 6/5/2022 at 8:33 PM, Spikos said:

So i have a 2080rtx and a Ryzen 2600x. The Frist Mission went down to 35fps for a few minutes but i was abel to fly. I´ve completed Mission 5 and now performace Issues so far. Its a great campaign so far and the GoogleTranslation is okay for me. (german)

 

As I know, mainly the problem is not the actual FPS drop but general "slowing down" of the game in action-packed missions...

I am going to refine the first mission, delete some unnecessary entities (although I don't think there are many of them) and the overall experience should improve. 

Thanks for posting! 

 

 

[Spikos]

10 hours ago, Vendigo said:

 

As I know, mainly the problem is not the actual FPS drop but general "slowing down" of the game in action-packed missions...

I am going to refine the first mission, delete some unnecessary entities (although I don't think there are many of them) and the overall experience should improve. 

Thanks for posting! 

 

 

I finised the campaign today and it was a great one. It´s exactly like you say. I also encountered those slowdowns in Mission 18 and a bit in 20.

[Skrimps]

Started this campaign yesterday. Although my skills with the I-16 are lacking (fairly new to IL-2 overall) this campaign so far has been very fun, as the I-16 is a blast to fly. I like being able to start the aircraft and taxi to the runway with a wingman as well, and the on screen text is a nice addition. Looking forward to progressing further.

[justin_z3r0]

Just finished the final mission. 

 

Great work here. What an immersive campaign. Especially the last 4 or so missions!

Great atmosphere. Feels like a war is actually going on. 

 

The I 16 is fun to fly. But holy cow you are outmatched. You need to consider different tactics. Get your enemy low. Up high .... You're done for. 

 

I hope you consider making more campaigns as this one was great. I hope others notice it, And give it a try!

 

Thanks a lot!!!

[HotPursuit]

Thanks Vendigo.

 

This is one of the best scripted campaigns I've flown. A lot of fun and challenging at times.

 

The briefings are well written. It's obvious a lot of work has gone in to creating this.

 

I would like to see it made an Official campaign.

 

[alpenspion]

Great campaigns. Just finished! I hope you do one with the Moscow map?

[Vendigo]

6 hours ago, alpenspion said:

Great campaigns. Just finished! I hope you do one with the Moscow map?

 

Thank you! Actually, I was thinking about making a Moscow campaign but my aircraft of choice would have been Stuka - alas, we have no Ju-87B-2! 

 

I have made several missions with the cannon modification Ju-87G in the Kuban map (thinking of it as the first chapter of the future Kursk campaign), but maybe I will just incorporate them into a mini-campaign limited to May 1943..

 

What I am looking at is a Stalingrad campaign of Sd.Kfz.10/5 Flak, maybe try to recreate urban battles around the grain elevator, tractor factory etc. But again, that's still just a maybe..

  

[alpenspion]

A Stuka G campaign would be great! A Stalingrad campaign with flak would also be great. I love the "Hunter in the Snow" campaign.

Edited July 31, 2023 by alpenspion

[Vendigo]

2 hours ago, alpenspion said:

A Stuka G campaign would be great! 

 

Yeah and it has been my dream to make one, although it's not that exciting because of the little ammo plus Ju-87G is very slow...

Kuban mini-campaign will be focused on hunting the small enemy boats in the lakes northeast of Temruk (as described in Rudel's memoir). If it was the prologue to the (probable) Kursk campaign, it would be sort of a training ground before the Player takes on the enemy tanks. Indeed, it's very difficult to destroy a tank with Ju-87G!    

     

[Sandmarken]

1 hour ago, Vendigo said:

 

Yeah and it has been my dream to make one, although it's not that exciting because of the little ammo plus Ju-87G is very slow...

Kuban mini-campaign will be focused on hunting the small enemy boats in the lakes northeast of Temruk (as described in Rudel's memoir). If it was the prologue to the (probable) Kursk campaign, it would be sort of a training ground before the Player takes on the enemy tanks. Indeed, it's very difficult to destroy a tank with Ju-87G!    

     

A kursk campaign woud be very intresting, but I dont have  the map as i get seasick from driving the tanks in VR. Wish i coud buy the map without the tanks when you release this  ?

Edited July 31, 2023 by Sandmarken

[Vendigo]

I think, Ju-87G Kursk campaign absolutely requires the extensive trenches and other defensive networks, which alone is an immense amount of work to recreate.. But also every mission will have to be built around the big groups of ground units - moving, attacking, defending, retreating etc. This makes the job of campaign building even more complex than any other campaigns I have made. 

On the other hand, flying a Ju-87G is not so much fun as, for example, IL-2 or Hs-129... 

But still I hope I will be able to do it eventually!     

 

     

[Sandmarken]

1 hour ago, Vendigo said:

I think, Ju-87G Kursk campaign absolutely requires the extensive trenches and other defensive networks, which alone is an immense amount of work to recreate.. But also every mission will have to be built around the big groups of ground units - moving, attacking, defending, retreating etc. This makes the job of campaign building even more complex than any other campaigns I have made. 

On the other hand, flying a Ju-87G is not so much fun as, for example, IL-2 or Hs-129... 

But still I hope I will be able to do it eventually!     

 

     

Making a detaild frontline to give the impression that a war is actually going on makes the campaigns so mutch better. I dont like the ones where you fly over what woud be the frontline and nothing says "a war is happening here". Its alot of work but i bet you can make a really good one. The Stalingrad campaign you made is super impressive! 

I think flying the ju 87 wil be very intresting. Flying the fastest and most modern isnt the most interesting to me atleast ?

Edited July 31, 2023 by Sandmarken

[KodiakJac]

@Vendigo  "Do not rename the folder containing the Campaign files!"

 

Why?

 

I've just returned to IL-2 Great Battles after a 2 year absence due to health reasons.  And I know not to rename campaign folders in IL-2 Great Battles, but I can't remember why.  I know renaming a campaign folder breaks hardcoded file path calls, but which ones?

 

So, I'm asking for my own re-education on the way campaigns run in Great Battles.  What instructions/files are using a hardcoded file path?

 

Thanks!

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by KodiakJac

[Vendigo]

On 12/5/2023 at 3:08 AM, KodiakJac said:

@Vendigo  "Do not rename the folder containing the Campaign files!"

 

Why?

 

 

This campaign has cutscenes and custom radio messages, which will not play properly if the folder is renamed. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Vendigo

[Vendigo]

Campaign updated to 5.504b!

 

Actually, the entire Campaign has been thoroughly reworked.  Many aspects improved - including tactical numbers, 4K skins, AI-logic, custom radio messages, some missions rearranged, quantity of the AI entities tweaked etc. etc. etc. 

In mission "Sky Crawler" I have moved the U-2 takeoff to Kerch-2 airfield so the whole mission can be completed in a little shorter time.                

 

Tips will be shown during mission to help the player, so the HUD must be on. 

 

Maybe some bugs persist, maybe I forgot to delete a rouge "testing" subtitle - in this case you can let me know.   

 

Download the full campaign from the first post in this thread.

It also includes the skinpack, thank you @jollyjack for creating most of the skins! 

 

Hope you enjoy the campaign! 

 

Edited December 4, 2024 by Vendigo

[Sandmarken]

This campaign is very well made! I think I like this even more than Fortress Stalingrad. The Il-16 is hopelessly outperformed by most opponents, and without the 20mm, even when I'm engaging in any 6s, it's usually only to damage and not destroy them. I feel hopeless outperformed and doomed in every dogfight, and that is more real than any campaign where you can score multiple kills every mission. 

 

When I took off in that first mission and saw the life in the sea in the Kerch Strait! That is some good scenery, which I really like about your campaigns. A lot of details on the ground make the map more alive. This campaign could easily be official. The only mission I did not like was the escort of U-2Vs because it got shot down even if I managed to intercept the 109s. They did not fall to my 7.7mm guns.