Community Scripted Campaigns - what would you like to see added to the game?

[LukeFF]

Hey all,

 

We have had a lot of great scripted campaigns made by third-party developers through the years here. Some have been added as official updates to the game, while others remain a separate download. What campaigns - that have already been made by third-party developers - would you like to see added as an official update to the game?

[JG4_Moltke1871]

Long range Bomber campaigns day/night with Heinkel‘s, Ju88 and when have some targets in the rear of both sides of the Western Front map with HP and Gotha ( also welcome in career mode ). Can create an early scenario on the Normandy map? Kuban map some raids from Kerch down to Maikop or Adler would be nice ? 

FC two seater also earn some scripted campaign love ?

Edited July 7, 2023 by JG4_Moltke1871

[Billsponge1972]

There are still a lot of aircraft that don't have their own scripted campaign. I'm working on one now for the p-39.

[sevenless]

1) P-39 campaign over Kuban. I guess BlackSix could come up with some fantastic stuff.

 

Р-39 Airacobra in the USSR (airpages.ru)

 

2) Fw 190 D9 campaign, either III./JG54 or JG26

 

3) Me-262 A2 campaign for KG51

[Canvas25]

@LukeFF, just to clarify - you're not looking for suggestions for new campaigns, just which existing third party campaigns should be incorporated into the official game?

 

[LukeFF]

36 minutes ago, Canvas25 said:

@LukeFF, just to clarify - you're not looking for suggestions for new campaigns, just which existing third party campaigns should be incorporated into the official game?

 

Yes, which is why I went back and bolded some of the text in my original message. ? This is all about doing like what was done with some of @Jaegermeister's campaigns.

[sevenless]

17 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

Yes, which is why I went back and bolded some of the text in my original message. ? This is all about doing like what was done with some of @Jaegermeister's campaigns.

 

Fw 190 A3 campaigns. All three of em. I./JG 51 over the Rzhev Salient, The Butcher and I./JG 51 over Velikie Luki

[Billsponge1972]

My bad. I get carried away. 

I love the "fall of Velikie Luki" by Jade Monkey.

"Lullaby for a dream" by Tip.

"Platzschutstaffel Pitomnik" by Juri_JS

"Greek fire" by Jagermeister.

To name a few!

To be fair I haven't played All of them all the way through but I have finished these and they were great fun and well made.

 

[migmadmarine]

Night fighters over Kuban would be great as it adds some unique combat.

[Mtnbiker1998]

I'm a huge fan of the "Lullaby For a Dream" Campaign for the P-51. Its super unique and offers a ton of replayability with its random side objectives and sorties. I'll admit I haven't finished most of the scripted campaigns I've started, but I've played through Lullaby almost 3 times now! Its just that good. Tip does some excellent work.

[Juri_JS]

4 hours ago, Billsponge1972 said:

"Platzschutstaffel Pitomnik" by Juri_JS

The Platzschutzstaffel campaign is the only I wouldn't offer for official addition to the game. There could be legal issues because it is partially based on the unpublished diaries of a real person. A German Youtuber who is making videos based on war time memories recently had such problems, that's something I like to avoid. Moreover there could be copyright issues with the photos used in the campaign menu.

 

Regarding my other campaigns I wouldn't mind to see them added to the game, although some rework might be necessary. Actually I had already offered my Kerch-Eltigen campaign to Jason in the past, but never got an answer from him.

[Sandmarken]

Hürtgen forest is a must!

There are so many good ones. Offer them all. Just imagine having all the campaigns in the list when first finding out about this best part of the game. ?

Edited July 8, 2023 by Sandmarken

[rjabe]

 SP Missions by Jade_Monkey.

I think this set of single missions would be a great addition to the game

[AEthelraedUnraed]

There's lot's of good campaigns around, but I'd be very disappointed if whatever gets added isn't a historical campaign. Not necessarily that each and every mission is based on actual mission logs, but at the very least that the overall situation, aircraft types and mission types are realistic for that time period.

[LuftManu]

Night campaings, like the one from Jury are great! https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/42263-night-fighters-over-the-kuban-bf-110-g2-campaign/

[Juri_JS]

1 hour ago, Sandmarken said:

There are so many good ones. Offer them all. Just imagine having all the campaigns in the list when first finding out about this best part of the game. ?

I don't think this would be a good idea.

 

In my opinion a campaign should meet certain standards to get officially added to the game, similar to the standards BlackSix observes when building his campaigns.

 

- There should be waypoints on the flight map.
- Missions should be flyable fully on autopilot if the player wishes, particularly to help inexperienced players with take-off, landing and navigation.
- Mission builders shouldn't take too much artistic freedom when it comes to ground units and plane types, for example no Tiger tanks or P-51s in 1941.
- The person who build the campaign has to be  willing to keep the missions compatible with newer game versions. If adjustments to the mission logic are necessary after a game update, it's very difficult to do if you haven't build the mission yourself.

(What I wrote above would also exclude one or two of my campaigns.)
 

[sevenless]

5 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

Actually I had already offered my Kerch-Eltigen campaign to Jason in the past, but never got an answer from him.

 

Yep. Thats a very good one as well. Especially because there is no official campaign for the G6 collector plane

[Utopioneer]

The popularity of these tutorial campaigns has exceeded my expectations. Please, take them

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/58501-flight-school-campaigns-english-german-french-italian-spanish/

[Sandmarken]

3 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

I don't think this would be a good idea.

 

In my opinion a campaign should meet certain standards to get officially added to the game, similar to the standards BlackSix observes when building his campaigns.

 

- There should be waypoints on the flight map.
- Missions should be flyable fully on autopilot if the player wishes, particularly to help inexperienced players with take-off, landing and navigation.
- Mission builders shouldn't take too much artistic freedom when it comes to ground units and plane types, for example no Tiger tanks or P-51s in 1941.
- The person who build the campaign has to be  willing to keep the missions compatible with newer game versions. If adjustments to the mission logic are necessary after a game update, it's very difficult to do if you haven't build the mission yourself.

(What I wrote above would also exclude one or two of my campaigns.)
 

I woud agree to most of them, but exept maybe the waypoint one and that some has fallen out of update most campaigns iv played is of very high quality. Many as good as the officials. I think many people dont check the forum often and not realise what they are missing out on. Maybe just a link from the in game page to the forum woud be enough. Or support for steam workshop? ?

[Vendigo]

1 hour ago, Sandmarken said:

Or support for steam workshop? ?

 

Actually, steam workshop would be the best.

[Sandmarken]

3 hours ago, Vendigo said:

 

Actually, steam workshop would be the best.

Agree. Dont know what % use steam but I bet thats the same gang that dont use the forum much. Youre Fortress Stalingrad shoud be official part of the game. One of my favourits and im only half way trough it ?

Edited July 8, 2023 by Sandmarken

[Spidey002]

Lullaby for a Dream by is one of my favorites. 

After that, the Battle for Hurtgen Forest is one of the most polished I’ve seen. Made me like the P-47. 
 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Spidey002

[spreckair]

Now that we have the Normandy map, the Spitfire Mk.V, FW109A-3, and BF-109F-4, it would be great to see a post-BoB channel campaign from both sides.  Ramrods, Rodeos, and all of the other funny names.

[sevenless]

59 minutes ago, spreckair said:

Now that we have the Normandy map, the Spitfire Mk.V, FW109A-3, and BF-109F-4, it would be great to see a post-BoB channel campaign from both sides.  Ramrods, Rodeos, and all of the other funny names.

 

Agreed- They have a fantastic asset at their hands to pour in aerial warfare from 1940-1944 with planes and career modes. However I´m a little sceptic they are willing to invest development time into this.

[Sandmarken]

5 hours ago, spreckair said:

Now that we have the Normandy map, the Spitfire Mk.V, FW109A-3, and BF-109F-4, it would be great to see a post-BoB channel campaign from both sides.  Ramrods, Rodeos, and all of the other funny names.

Agree, this is also a time when forces was more balanced. Im looking forward to @ThunderBatreleasing his spitfire mkv campaign ? you can also check out my Hurricane campaign it takes place in 1941. Hope someone do a good axis campaign aswel. The closest is the photo recon from @Juri_JS witch is very good and has some interesting mechanics like actually taking pictures! ?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

21 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

In my opinion a campaign should meet certain standards to get officially added to the game, similar to the standards BlackSix observes when building his campaigns.

 

- There should be waypoints on the flight map.
- Missions should be flyable fully on autopilot if the player wishes, particularly to help inexperienced players with take-off, landing and navigation.
- Mission builders shouldn't take too much artistic freedom when it comes to ground units and plane types, for example no Tiger tanks or P-51s in 1941.
- The person who build the campaign has to be  willing to keep the missions compatible with newer game versions. If adjustments to the mission logic are necessary after a game update, it's very difficult to do if you haven't build the mission yourself.

Very good points. I'd like to add a few more:

- Some rudimentary map markings (at least the front line, unless that's very obvious; e.g. pre-D-Day Normandy doesn't really require them).

- I'd expect the briefing to be of a certain minimum quality. Ideally it shouldn't have just the mission briefing itself, but either some kind of "story" that the pilot progresses through, or some kind of background info on the battle like I've done for Hürtgenwald.

- The campaign should bring something new: either an aircraft for which no other official campaigns already exist, or a battle or mission types which markedly differ from the other ones.

 

7 hours ago, spreckair said:

Now that we have the Normandy map, the Spitfire Mk.V, FW109A-3, and BF-109F-4, it would be great to see a post-BoB channel campaign from both sides.  Ramrods, Rodeos, and all of the other funny names.

I've got a Hurricane campaign in development that should be to your liking then: besides three Operation Jubilee (Dieppe) missions, it has two Circus, two Ramrods and a Roadstead ? I'm looking for testers, if you'd like to help feel free to drop me a message :)

[PhilthySpud]

AEthelread’s Battle of the Hurtgen Forest, for one. The additional scenery that comes with it takes this campaign to another level.

[Sandmarken]

7 minutes ago, PhilthySpud said:

AEthelread’s Battle of the Hurtgen Forest, for one. The additional scenery that comes with it takes this campaign to another level.

I agree, but I think official campaigns dont allow custom scenery. Thats what happend with wild mustang campaign? 

[Vishnu]

I would love to see a Stuka campaign based on Hans Rudel and his squadron.   He has quite a story and his exploits fit really well into the current maps.  

Edited July 9, 2023 by Vishnu

[Mtnbiker1998]

2 hours ago, Sandmarken said:

I agree, but I think official campaigns dont allow custom scenery. Thats what happend with wild mustang campaign? 

This would be my fear aswell. Hurtgen Forest is one of the best campaigns out here, but it would probably suffer a bit  without the added ground details.

 

That being said, supposedly there was a community sourced project to officially update the Rhineland map? So maybe those two could tie in together as one big update. We can only dream.

[Sandmarken]

3 minutes ago, Mtnbiker1998 said:

This would be my fear aswell. Hurtgen Forest is one of the best campaigns out here, but it would probably suffer a bit  without the added ground details.

 

That being said, supposedly there was a community sourced project to officially update the Rhineland map? So maybe those two could tie in together as one big update. We can only dream.

Yes I have seen the project it looks great! ?

[Jaegermeister]

3 hours ago, Sandmarken said:

I agree, but I think official campaigns dont allow custom scenery. Thats what happend with wild mustang campaign? 

 

Yes, that's correct. For a scripted campaign to be included in the game, it would have to use all the stock ground textures. Adding objects is great, but having to include custom textures would not work with the file structure.

 

My Greek Fire campaign would not be appropriate to include, because it uses part of Kuban as a stand in map for the Island of Kos. Although the missions do not have to be 100% historically accurate it is generally agreed that they need to be plausible and all the vehicles and objects should fit into historical timeframes and locations where they were utilized.

 

Anyone who would wish to have their campaigns added to the game would probably have to agree to keep them current and updated in the future, so be aware that there is work involved with that commitment. Sometimes updates change how things work and new features are added to the game that are expected to be included.

 

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Jaegermeister

[Sandmarken]

27 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

 

Yes, that's correct. For a scripted campaign to be included in the game, it would have to use all the stock ground textures. Adding objects is great, but having to include custom textures would not work with the file structure.

 

My Greek Fire campaign would not be appropriate to include, because it uses part of Kuban as a stand in map for the Island of Kos. Although the missions do not have to be 100% historically accurate it is generally agreed that they need to be plausible and all the vehicles and objects should fit into historical timeframes and locations where they were utilized.

 

Anyone who would wish to have their campaigns added to the game would probably have to agree to keep them current and updated in the future, so be aware that there is work involved with that commitment. Sometimes updates change how things work and new features are added to the game that are expected to be included.

 

 

I understand why it woud need to be this way. If the devs goal behind this is to get more people to buy the game by offering a wider range of different campaigns then I woud instead try making all the comunity campaigns easier to access instead by something like steam workshop. I bet many pilots never visit the forum and dont even realise you can download all this great campaigns. 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Sandmarken

[AEthelraedUnraed]

3 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

Yes, that's correct. For a scripted campaign to be included in the game, it would have to use all the stock ground textures. Adding objects is great, but having to include custom textures would not work with the file structure.

Hmm, not sure why that would be. In fact, the way the .mission (.msnbin) structure works allows for files to be placed pretty much anywhere you like. The mission files explicitly reference which Surface.dat file is used, so as long as you've included a different "Surface_whatever.dat" file, you can just reference it and that's that. I don't really see how this would not work with the file structure.

 

Is this something the Devs themselves told you? If so, I'd appreciate if a Dev would weigh in; I really think custom surfaces can be the icing on the cake for many campaigns so it'd come in handy if we knew what the exact problem is so we either know how far we can go or perhaps come up with a workaround

[alpenspion]

I would like to see Netscape's "Fire and Ice" campaign. Great story and unfortunately only one of two Bf-110 campaigns for the game. Unfortunately, it urgently needs to be revised...

[Jaegermeister]

19 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Is this something the Devs themselves told you? 

 

I never asked, that is just my interpretation of the editing involved when the missions are localized to other languages. If translators do not need to edit the .mis files and they are localized automatically it should work. I also assumed that the producers would not want unofficial altered ground textures in official content, otherwise, why not just update the maps and add the new textures instead of keeping separate surface.dat and texture.tini files for each campaign?

 

I have asked the question, I will share the answer when I have one.

[Youtch]

I personally love the Dora campaign Last Stand, it transmits very well the feeling of despair, and has the nicest weather conditions I have encountered.

[Sandmarken]

1 hour ago, Youtch said:

I personally love the Dora campaign Last Stand, it transmits very well the feeling of despair, and has the nicest weather conditions I have encountered.

Thank you! ?

[Spidey002]

On 7/9/2023 at 3:51 AM, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I've got a Hurricane campaign in development that should be to your liking then: besides three Operation Jubilee (Dieppe) missions, it has two Circus, two Ramrods and a Roadstead ? I'm looking for testers, if you'd like to help feel free to drop me a message

 

Oooh, oooh, pick me!

[Jaegermeister]

On 7/9/2023 at 5:01 PM, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Hmm, not sure why that would be. In fact, the way the .mission (.msnbin) structure works allows for files to be placed pretty much anywhere you like. The mission files explicitly reference which Surface.dat file is used, so as long as you've included a different "Surface_whatever.dat" file, you can just reference it and that's that. I don't really see how this would not work with the file structure.

 

Is this something the Devs themselves told you? If so, I'd appreciate if a Dev would weigh in; I really think custom surfaces can be the icing on the cake for many campaigns so it'd come in handy if we knew what the exact problem is so we either know how far we can go or perhaps come up with a workaround

 

I have been informed that there is no built in functionality for the campaigns to reference more than one texture file for a given map. Using a separate texture file would be considered a mod.

 

If the community can come up with an enhanced map texture file that will meet the needs of the scripted campaigns on the Rhineland map, that individual or group can submit that file for consideration to add to the official map.