[RELEASED] New Scenario - Exercise Pitch Black 2017

[Maromak]

Hi all,

All comments welcome!

All reference material sourced from wikipedia. I have changed a few units where these are not available in the current database including F-16C Blk 32 and Su-30MK Indonesia variant)


TO: ADF Commander Joint Operations

FM: ADF Chief of Defence Force (CDF)

SUBJ: Pitch Black 2017 Exercise Orders

Location: Timor Sea

Blue forces:

RAN ships currently located in Darwin including HMAS Hobart (AWD) HMAS Canberra (LPH), HMAS Choules (LPD), and a number of ANZAC Class ships.

RAN submarines are considered out-of-exercise but may be tasked if required.

RAAF aircraft participating in the exercise include 75 Sqn and 6 Sqn F/A-18 aircraft based at RAAF Tindal. These aircraft will be supported by E-737 Wedgetail AWACS aircraft and air-to-air refuelling aircraft based at RAAF Darwin.

RAAF 1 RSU (JORN OTH Radar) is available to support the exercise.

Red forces:

TNI-AL (Indonesian Navy) ships located IVO West Timor (NTT).

TNI-AU (Indonesian Air Force) F-16C aircraft based at El Tari airport in Kupang, NTT.

Exercise Scenario Orders

Prepare and deploy Blue force air and surface assests to defend against simulated Red force air and surface attacks against Blue force platforms.

ROE: Red forces must be identified as hostile before engaging. Be aware of civilian air and surface traffic in the exercise area.

[Boltzmann]

Enjoying the scenario. Is there a way to save or review the popup special messages with the new orders?

[Maromak]

Hi Boltzman,

I'm glad you are enjoying the scenario so far. Re the messages, not that I am aware of. As you can probably now appreciate, I didn't want to include certain messages in the Side Briefing. The only sure method I can think of would be to open the scenario in the editor. Just no peeking allowed at the other stuff in there [;)]

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: Boltzmann

Enjoying the scenario. Is there a way to save or review the popup special messages with the new orders?

Undock the message log in a separate window. The message events should be listed there in full.

[Maromak]

Slightly updated version.

[jomni]

Just finished this. Great scenario by the way. Can be released with the Community Scenario Pack if you ask me.

Nice mix of air and naval units. Indonesians stand no chance but the Australians need to beef up their forces first by transferring some F-18 to the front.
I lost 6 F-18 early on. But air superiority is inevitable.

Love the fact that collateral damage is what lowers the points for Aussies.

[Maromak]

Thanks for the feedback [:)]

Would you mind PMing or posting your Expenditures and Losses? After an initial test run, I cut down the quantity of munitions available at a number of the airbases. Perhaps some more 'pruning' is in order to balance things some more?

With 'programmable' waypoints coming in the future, I'll redo the Indonesian air strikes to make things more difficult for the player side.

[MR_BURNS2]

Nice mission! I like the order of battle and those over-the-horizon radars. The scen runs a little slow though due to its size, i haven´t completed it yet.
2 things i noticed:

1. The fleet SE if the southern border post may be too close to the shore, some ships in the formation are caught on the coast and fiddle around at 1 knot.

2. The enemy sub(unless neutral) uses her radar at the beginning and gives her position away, if you have trouble getting her to obey her EMCON settings order her to dive deeper, might be more efficient anyways.

Would be nice if Recon assets could figure out what aircraft is parked on what pad on an airfield, or can they?
I think i killed an airliner during a attack on that airfield on my first try.

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: MR_BURNS2
I think i killed an airliner during a attack on that airfield on my first try.

Sorry Maromak I can't retrieve the stats anymore.

MR_BURNS2, I did shoot down some airliners myself. :/
And the Harpoons that don't find targets end up hitting some commercial shipping.
Well that's war.

[Maromak]

ORIGINAL: jomni

MR_BURNS2, I did shoot down some airliners myself. :/
And the Harpoons that don't find targets end up hitting some commercial shipping.
Well that's war.

Thanks for the feedback. By the way, there are penalties for taking out civilians!

[Maromak]

Hi Boss,

ORIGINAL: MR_BURNS2

Nice mission! I like the order of battle and those over-the-horizon radars. The scen runs a little slow though due to its size, i haven´t completed it yet.
2 things i noticed:

Following the first 'draft', I changed a lot of airfields on both side from detailed to Singe Unit Airfield which improved the speed. There are probably one or two more I could convert.

ORIGINAL: MR_BURNS2
1. The fleet SE if the southern border post may be too close to the shore, some ships in the formation are caught on the coast and fiddle around at 1 knot.

I will move them further off shore. I originally had them in the bay to the north of the town/airbase but they weren't much of a threat and didn't really provide any protection to the airbase in their original location.

ORIGINAL: MR_BURNS2
2. The enemy sub(unless neutral) uses her radar at the beginning and gives her position away, if you have trouble getting her to obey her EMCON settings order her to dive deeper, might be more efficient anyways.

The sub is enemy. During testing, I noticed that the radar came on almost immediately but decided not to change things. I'll try changing the EMCON and setting the depth. The sub has been tasked to conduct ASuW ops in a small square nearby.

ORIGINAL: MR_BURNS2
Would be nice if Recon assets could figure out what aircraft is parked on what pad on an airfield, or can they?
I think i killed an airliner during a attack on that airfield on my first try.

I agree this would be a useful feature but as far as I know it doesn't exist (yet). At least one airliner has been set to regularly visit El Tari and Dili airfields throughout the scenario. I could potentially add in a foreign national rescue mission/mission goal to the scenario..

[Jorm]

Fun scenario,

those F-18A's are much more vulnerable than i expected.
I would love to see this exact same scenario but set in 1975-80 using the equipment of the time
Were you meant to be able to transfer other planes in from RAAF Amberley etc ?
I guessed where indonesian subs would be, but even so they go the 1st shots in.


cheers

[Maromak]

Hi Jorm,

1975-80 is a great idea that I'd like to get to. I haven't started so feel free to have a go yourself. [:)]

Yes the aircraft from any other base can be assigned to a 'Ferry' mission. The ferry mission must be created after the intended destination airbase has been selected. The other F-18s will have enough 'legs' to get to Darwin/Tindal without changing to a Ferry loadout.

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: Jorm
Were you meant to be able to transfer other planes in from RAAF Amberley etc ?

Yes I transferred them to Tindal. But not all are required.

[Maromak]

Here's the latest version. Now with imagery thanks to Tomcat84's youtube demo.

Please load the images in the Overlay folder according to the labelled order.

Ex Pitch Black 2017 ver 0.3 (46MB total)

I have also attached the scenario file for those who don't want to download the images.

[sneekyzeke]

Thanks for this scenario, looking forward to playing it. I must admit I haven't been able to get overlays to work; dunno what I'm doing wrong. Could you (or anyone) give me a quick primer on how to load them in-game? For instance, where do I put the included folders? Does it matter? Thanks in advance.

[Tomcat84]

Hey Zeke. I'll write you a quick how to, gimme 5 minutes and ill post it here.

[edit]: decided a video would probably be easiest. It's uploading to youtube right now, will take a couple mins to finish but once it's done it'll be here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Fbc2Qc-cI&hd=1

[sneekyzeke]

Goodness, very kind of you! Thanks! [:)]

[Tomcat84]

No problem. Youtube is taking forever though "processing video". Will post when it's done

[sneekyzeke]

Very thorough and informative, you should do this for a living (maybe you do)! [;)] Thanks again Tomcat84.