Okay... Where is it?

[pjdegrieck]

I'm enjoying the game quite a lot so far, but I've been looking for a particular scenario...

There just has to be a NATO vs Warsaw Pact air focused operation over Germany in the 80s!!! I downloaded the community pack, but I'm not seeing one. Most of the Cold War scenarios are smaller and naval focused. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

[Gunner98]

Fartsicle

Could be wrong but I don't think there is one. Size is the issue I think. Lots of reference out there to pin down a good representation of the Orbats but even an abstracted 'limited' scenario would involve several hundred aircraft and the potential for scenario creep is high. With airbases, targets, air defences and just the first line AAW aircraft, the scenario you describe could easily reach 2-3000 AU (active unit) or more, and the game would crawl along at a snail's pace on most machines.

I've built a couple which are pushing 16-1900 AU (Northern Fury series) and they are too big for most players.

I think that the this one is ripe for the picking. Improvements in the game have made larger scenarios more do-able, and if you can find a way of parsing out specific events, a large number of fun scenarios could be constructed. A series perhaps.

B

[pjdegrieck]

Thanks for the reply, I'm going to try your scenarios now.

[Coiler12]

Some issues with this kind of huge scenario, and likely reasons for there not being any (kinda):
1: Size. Gunner98 mentioned it already.
2: AI. In practice, with dozens of planes on each side, it would probably turn into a robotic AI contest-the computer side would obviously be the computer side, and there would be so many fighters that the player would find it hard to micro them all.
3: Objective. Air combat is just a means to an end, and including the other means (targets, ground defenses, etc...), would make it even bigger. Gunner98 pointed this out too, but it bears repeating. Anyone who just wanted a furball could make one in the editor-but a more plausible campaign is harder.

For large, primarily aviation-related scenarios you have:
-Gunner98's Northern Fury, already mentioned.
-Shamal, which is in the Gulf War but is also very large and based around airstrikes.
-A scenario here called "The Fourth of July", which has aviation and nuclear weapons.

[Gunner98]

ORIGINAL: Fartsicle

Thanks for the reply, I'm going to try your scenarios now.

I need to get my butt in gear and get some more of them online. NF 1, 2 & 4 are there now, 2 & 4 are smaller, I have another dozen in the cooker. Will get 5 & 5.5 up shortly, they are ready but I have been overtaken by life. 6 & 7 are almost ready for testing. 8 is huge, need to break it down a bit - I have broken 9 into 5 different sub scenarios. Spending quite a bit of time on 10, to work out the new re-fueling logic - that's almost ready. 11 is now in 3 different scnearios,12, 14 & 15 will be multi-carrier monsters unless I sort them out.

There are also 3 in the Carabean and a bunch in the Med at various states of undress! I need to focus...

Here is the latest scenario thread document. You may wish to update to the latest DB in the editor, it has been a while, there are no prosecution zones as they did not exist when the originals were built.

B

[Tomcat84]

It's one of the settings I'm interested in making but as the others have said, it can get really complicated really fast.

If you do like air oriented scenarios may I recommend three of my own? They are not as massive as a full out central front brawl, but they already are quite complex and illustrate just how massive such a scenario might get.

They are:
Frisian Flag (already included in community scenario pack, it features a mission in a real world air exercise in Europe)
Facing the Dragon (already included in community scenario pack, it focuses on an air to air only defense of Taiwan scenario)
Red Flag 2017 (similar to Frisian Flag, featuring a real world style air exercise, but on a much higher level of complexity and difficulty than the Frisian Flag scenario)

Hope you try them and enjoy them, and any comments are always welcome, they can help me improve (future) scenarios.

[pjdegrieck]

The first Northern Fury fits my setting quite well. It's fun playing the underdog, the situation felt desperate, and for some reason I love watching the screen fill with red bogeys [:D]

Thanks Tomcat, I really enjoyed facing the dragon, it was really fun splashing old migs with my f22s, I was getting cocky until the j20 showed up. Very impressive and good pacing.

[RoryAndersonCDT]

4th of July!

[pjdegrieck]

I try downloading 4th of July. I right click on the download link, save as. But it downloads as an XML.

[Randomizer]

ORIGINAL: Fartsicle

I try downloading 4th of July. I right click on the download link, save as. But it downloads as an XML.

Strange, since Baloogan's links are generally gold...

-C

[Coiler12]

Fourth of July scenario is here.