Missions "Failed" Even Tho Technically Successful

[artao]

I just wanted to ask if it might be possible to alter the game's judgement of what counts as a successful mission. It's something I've noticed in the past too, but the other day I was flying an hour long escort mission in a Flying Circus career. I was extremely tired and just wanted to go to bed, but it was a very long trip back to base, even at 8x time. So as soon as all the attack aircraft and other escorts were back across no man's land and safe, I landed near a town to finish the mission and go to bed. I'd had one kill in the mission.

Well, part of the requirements is to escort the attack planes back to their base. Okay, I personally didn't, but the rest of the flight did. Technically the mission was a success, as all planes minus one escort came back safe, and the ground attack itself went well. Being an hour long I very much didn't want to refly it just to get a "success."
So also then, say my engine gets shot and goes out on the way home and I'm a glider and can't make it all the way. That mission would then also be failed even tho it had technically succeeded.

Any chance of changing this please?

Edited April 11 by artao

[jollyjack]

LoL, that happens a lot. Just depends on the programming. Play Jaegermeister's stuff .. you'll probably even be successful after a lawn dart.

[kraut1]

2 hours ago, artao said:

I just wanted to ask if it might be possible to alter the game's judgement of what counts as a successful mission. It's something I've noticed in the past too, but the other day I was flying an hour long escort mission in a Flying Circus career. I was extremely tired and just wanted to go to bed, but it was a very long trip back to base, even at 8x time. So as soon as all the attack aircraft and other escorts were back across no man's land and safe, I landed near a town to finish the mission and go to bed. I'd had one kill in the mission.

Well, part of the requirements is to escort the attack planes back to their base. Okay, I personally didn't, but the rest of the flight did. Technically the mission was a success, as all planes minus one escort came back safe, and the ground attack itself went well. Being an hour long I very much didn't want to refly it just to get a "success."
So also then, say my engine gets shot and goes out on the way home and I'm a glider and can't make it all the way. That mission would then also be failed even tho it had technically succeeded.

Any chance of changing this please?

Excuse me, do you mean that you have to refly (repeat) the exact same mission at the same date / time?

Or do you mean that you have to fly a very similar mission at another day?

[Jaegermeister]

2 hours ago, jollyjack said:

LoL, that happens a lot. Just depends on the programming. Play Jaegermeister's stuff .. you'll probably even be successful after a lawn dart.

 

I only grant mission success for just taking off because I don't want to endlessly debate what qualifies as success. Other missions designers do it different ways, and the Campaign templates have their own requirements.

 

In my opinion, if you are alive the next day then the mission was successful. Also if you "lawn dart" you will in fact fail... you do have to be alive at least.  

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 4/11/2025 at 7:24 PM, artao said:

I just wanted to ask if it might be possible to alter the game's judgement of what counts as a successful mission. It's something I've noticed in the past too, but the other day I was flying an hour long escort mission in a Flying Circus career. I was extremely tired and just wanted to go to bed, but it was a very long trip back to base, even at 8x time. So as soon as all the attack aircraft and other escorts were back across no man's land and safe, I landed near a town to finish the mission and go to bed. I'd had one kill in the mission.

Well, part of the requirements is to escort the attack planes back to their base. Okay, I personally didn't, but the rest of the flight did. Technically the mission was a success, as all planes minus one escort came back safe, and the ground attack itself went well. Being an hour long I very much didn't want to refly it just to get a "success."
So also then, say my engine gets shot and goes out on the way home and I'm a glider and can't make it all the way. That mission would then also be failed even tho it had technically succeeded.

Any chance of changing this please?

Even if a career mission is not successful, you should be able to continue as long as you're over friendly territory. I'm not sure what bonuses you get from flying successful missions as opposed to unsuccessful ones, but it can't be much.

 

On 4/11/2025 at 10:29 PM, Jaegermeister said:

In my opinion, if you are alive the next day then the mission was successful.

I kind of agree, although I usually tend to force the player to put in at least a little effort. In Hürtgenwald you generally need to either:

• successfully complete the mission objective (e.g. destroy X amount of vehicles) and be above friendly territory (can be flying),
• reach the target area, not complete the objective but land on your home airfield afterwards,
• be heavily damaged and land/ditch anywhere within friendly territory.

So you can just fly to the target and back and you're still able to proceed if your aim is off, but you do need to reach the target.

[LukeFF]

3 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Even if a career mission is not successful, you should be able to continue as long as you're over friendly territory. I'm not sure what bonuses you get from flying successful missions as opposed to unsuccessful ones, but it can't be much.

 

It's mainly tied to awards and promotions in rank. For instance, the German front flying clasps are all based on successful mission completion. 

[Jaegermeister]

5 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Even if a career mission is not successful, you should be able to continue as long as you're over friendly territory. I'm not sure what bonuses you get from flying successful missions as opposed to unsuccessful ones, but it can't be much.

 

I kind of agree, although I usually tend to force the player to put in at least a little effort. In Hürtgenwald you generally need to either:

• successfully complete the mission objective (e.g. destroy X amount of vehicles) and be above friendly territory (can be flying),
• reach the target area, not complete the objective but land on your home airfield afterwards,
• be heavily damaged and land/ditch anywhere within friendly territory.

So you can just fly to the target and back and you're still able to proceed if your aim is off, but you do need to reach the target.

 

There are some caveats built into the game that can be used, for example if you crash and die there is a mission fail goal that overrides the success goal. Also if you crash land or bail out in enemy territory you are listed as captured instead of landing successfully on the scoreboard.

 

I have also done mission goals where you have a 50/50 chance of being captured or escaping and a message is displayed from a random timer generator saying whether you got away or not.

[ShamrockOneFive]

On 4/11/2025 at 1:24 PM, artao said:

So also then, say my engine gets shot and goes out on the way home and I'm a glider and can't make it all the way. That mission would then also be failed even tho it had technically succeeded.

Two ways to look at this:

1) Practically: The programming only works while you're playing so if you end the mission early, even though we can presume they made it back, its a failure.

2) Individually: The mission may have gone on to succeed but you got shot down so your mission was a failure.

 

There's always going to be a bit of artifice in flight simming. Fortunately, failed missions in IL-2 don't often mean too much. We've all done it

[Cardolan]

Not able to play right now so can't test myself but have a question related with this topic.

 

In a BoX career - I am still "graduating" in quick missions and standard static missions, thus the doubt - suppose I am able to complete the objectives, return to base with everyone intact and then, instead of landing I just quit the mission in the air above my airbase. Does the game considers the mission a success because the objectives were completed or a failure because I didn't finish landing?

[Ghost666]

In career, the game will count that as a successful mission. As long as the objective is complete and you are over friendly territory when you quit. 

[Vishnu]

On 4/11/2025 at 10:41 AM, jollyjack said:

LoL, that happens a lot. Just depends on the programming. Play Jaegermeister's stuff .. you'll probably even be successful after a lawn dart.

I'm going to hell....I just laughed out loud!

[jollyjack]