u/MaximumSeats

Anyone got any user files for Mission recommendations for scenarios that are relatively straightforward but utilize either actual radio communication recordings or good voice acting that set of tone you can just fly to and feel in the zone? Simple bombing missions without much flair, but let you just sit back and fly to. Could also just be non combat flights.

I'm playing The Rampagers in the F-18 right now and it's honestly exactly what I'm looking for with the sole exception of the main voice actor is the cringiest cringelord sounding 12-year-old I have ever heard and it physically hurts me to hear them interact with any of the other pilots or JTACs in the missions. The missions are otherwise perfect, very straightforward and procedural with simple mission.

See I basically does anyone have The Rampagers but with an actually competent voice actor for the main character.

Hello everyone! A little bit ago I set out on what might be the most 'normal popular stuff' thing you can do, which is buying the most popular module and most popular/recommended campaign while they were on sale with incredibly little knowledge about either except a desire to get into DCS and flight sims generally. Since over the course of this journey all of the information I tended to run into was 4+ years old, I wanted to walk through how this went for anyone who's inevitably curious about these modules coming to DCS very late to the game, like me.

I had these simple goals going into DCS: Learn a fun plane and complete one of the well reviewed campaigns.

My Background / Experience going in:

I am generally curious about flight sims. I maybe have 30 hours messing around in Microsoft Flight Sim because it's been free on game pass. I flew some helicopters frequently in Arma 2 like 15 years ago. That to say: I was basically a complete beginner going into this.

Picking the F/A-18 and Raven One Campaign:

I did not have an attachment to a specific plane going into DCS. I picked the F/A-18 because it was described as the most versatile plane and I wanted a fairly modern airframe. The Raven One campaign (and everything by Baltic Dragon) are frequently described as the most immersive and technically challenging things you can do in single player, so that seemed like a great first goal. Added them all to my wishlist (including Supercarrier and the Persian Gulf), and they went on a sale about a month later.

My Equipment (HOTAS):

Over my time doing this, i progressed through the following hotas setup:

1. I started with only Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, using it's small paddle for thrust and the twist for rudder. This was perfect for starting out and learning the basics of the plane, no notes.
2. About 80 or so hours in I bought a Thrustmaster TWCS throttle to go along with the Extreme 3D, which I felt was limiting me due to the lack of controls/buttons at this point. This was a great addition, and at this point I felt i had enough controls to smoothly operate the plane for most circumstances.
3. About 1/2 of the way through Raven One i purchased a WINCTRL Orion 2 Throttle, Orion 2 Carrier Ace Joystick, and the take-off panel. The jump in quality from the Logi and Thrust was incredible and I'm very happy with all of these purchases, but I don't think this was strictly necessary if you didn't want to drop that cash. (It did make A/A refueling noticeably easier though).

Additionally I got a track-ir headset about 1.5 weeks in. This made such a huge difference that I consider it basically required to get a good experience out of the game (Track ir or equivalent head tracking software. I went straight to track IR so have no insight to alternatives.)

Learning the F/A-18

I enjoyed the F/A-18 and the experience of learning it, and felt that it nailed a good balance of technically challenging without being frustrating or un-intuitive. The F/A-18 has a wealth of resources available (I'm assuming due to its popularity). Youtubers, PDFs, actual military manuals, reddit guides, and all sorts of custom training missions. Additionally flying a modern airframe gives you many upgrades in user interface and design compared to older models, making information easier to parse.

All the buttons, switches, and displays are just cool. I was worried it might end up feeling shallow once I got used to it and it absolutely does not. 10/10.

My goal was to learn enough about the plane to feel comfortable with the Raven One campaign which was universally reviewed online as very difficult technically. Here's what I did to get there, roughly in order I did them.

1. Played every training mission included with the F-18 module. These were universally terrible and mostly useless or broken, and I VERY STRONGLY encourage you to skip them. It honestly made me incredibly frustrated how terrible these are for such an expensive and otherwise excellent module.
2. RTFM - Read The Fucking Manual - Just opening up the included early access guide or the popular user created "Chuck's Guide" available online was clear enough to load up a basic mission and practice getting a targeting pod on target or missile launched.
3. Youtube - I didn't have any particular youtuber that I gravitated towards, just searched what I needed to know and watched the first result, though I found u/SpudSpike's videos the most helpful (which made him being a voice actor in the campaign super cool).
4. Custom Training Missions: I downloaded Bankler's Case 1 Recovery Trainer and just ran through recoveries over and and over. Probably hundreds. This one was super great especially since it only really takes like 5min for an attempt, making it something you can just knock out a few reps of before bed. Did the same for air to air refueling (which i'm still mediocre at, but I can pull off eventually).

Timeline: From first downloading to feeling comfortable enough to start the campaign was about 6 weeks. This was with me having usually 1-2 weekdays where I could spending a few hours in the evening, and most weekends I'd have a day I could basically spend the entire day flying. Overall probably 50 or so hours of actual 'flying' time to get a basic comfort level.

Review: The Raven One Campaign

I started the Raven One campaign at around 6 weeks of playing. Throughout the campaign the only thing that felt 'difficult' compared to what I had prepared was just general situational awareness, because there's a lot of things going on around you to keep up with. From a technical 'flying and using the plane' perspective I only found it moderately difficult. I definitely felt prepared after the above mentioned trainings.

Turn off easy comms because it messes up the radio functions in the campaign.

So the entire reason I was doing all of this was to get a fun immersive fighter pilot experience, did I manage to achieve that? Well:

6.8/10 - Mostly

Overall being a complete outsider to DCS and sims generally, I expected a slightly more polished and complete experience out of the campaigns associated with it. For something that (all modules included) retails at 183$, the entire experience is absolutely a lot of fun and super cool when it has it's moments, but it's so incredibly unpolished and rough around the technical edges that it's hard to really say that I ever got lost in the immersion moments like I wanted to. I don't think this is the fault of the campaign or its creators... but it's not really what I expected. Maybe that's a me problem though.

A good example is there's multiple times in the game where flight deck personnel or other pilots in cockpits make gestures to you... none of these are animated. They are all communicated to you through a text box that says "The flight chief waves his hands and gives a thumbs up". Again I'm a total newbie, but I'd expect (very simple) stuff like that to at least have some sort of animation... But maybe that's an expectations problem.

Some notes, in no particular order:

The lingo is incredibly 'immersive' (i spent a lot of time googling brevity codes i didn't understand)

A distressing amount of your brain power will be dedicated to making sure you perform the correct 'triggers' to move the game along to the next beat, and these triggers are not always very clear.

Some of the voice actors are great, but some sound like unenthused teenagers, and audio-quality was mixed. Generally the acting was "community theater performance" grade.

I had 3 missions (out of 14) fail due to a glitch on the first run through, all of these were at the +40min point which was.... frustrating. Two apparently are the fault of the base DCS engine, one was a scripting failure in the mission.

The mission briefings being written in the style of a book chapter was cool..... but it was incredibly annoying going back through later and trying to parse out the actually relevant details out of the dramatic dialogue. Just give me a summary at the end please.

I listened the companion audiobook (the novel) that the campaign is based off of. It's fun to have some background 'lore' on everything but the book is incredibly average outside of being some good ole classic military competency porn. 5/10 book.

I do have to emphasize, the missions that just went well and had clear instructions without needing to worry to much about missing a cue or trigger were A LOT OF FUN. It's just that those moments didn't occur as often as I was hoping.

The campaign is an incredibly slow burn (which I enjoy). It is awhile before you really "do" anything, and "doing" something is usually dropping like 2 bombs after flying for 30min.

Case 3 recovery in bad weather was fucking sick, loved it.

Summary

I have had a lot of fun with DCS and the campaign, even if Raven One felt more "really high quality mod" than it did "finished studio project". Overall I do intend to proceed with u/baltic_dragon's other campaigns, and to other F/A-18 campaigns. I think that speaks enough that I'm having fun and want more experience.

If you're reading this and thinking: Should I get into DCS and nerd out with a hotas setup playing single player content and never touching multiplayer? As a brand new newbie turned medium-skill enjoyer I would say: Yes