How to Build a DCS Campaign? - Behind the Scenes
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- I thought I'd make a video about what it takes to build a DCS campaign, what kind of work it involves, and what challenges you may face while making it. I hope you'll find it interesting.
I knew building campaigns would be hard but I had no idea. This video made me appreciate your campaigns more.
Thank you!
Thanks so much for making this video - can't wait for the next installment! I wish there were more content out there about how to best go about creating good campaigns - it's quite a daunting idea to someone who's never done it before! (Also, I have to mention that I chuckled at your photo of the "house on a rock that will stand there for centuries" - the photo is of a building from my city which burned to the ground only 11 years after it was built!)
Haha, a more appropriate picture than I thought :D
Damn, that's commitment and dedication to a result. We're lucky to have you in the DCS community. Looking forward to flying Wolfpack and Horrido once I have a PC capable of larger missions.
Thank you for the support!
This was very cool to see your process for making a campaign. Truly impressive!
Thanks mate! :)
We should sit down for an interview one of these days, mate!
Great effort. This will help enormously for future stuff, well done bud.
Greetings RS! Old-time mission maker here, brand new at campaign building. Just finishing up a 15 mission campaign for the AH-64D Apache (title of the campaign: "Apache Dawn"). Son of an Army helicopter pilot (Vietnam era), and just retired after 37 years flying for a major US airline. My campaign consists of 6 mission training in the Mojave Desert (Nevada map), and 9 in the southern Lebanon, eastern Israel (to include the Golan Heights), and a little in Syria itself. Would love to bounce ideas and/or questions off of you (you are, in fact, THE MAN when it comes to this type of stuff) if you're OK with that. If this works for you (promised to NOT be a pest....lol), I would do it through emails (or what would work best on your end). THANKS AGAIN! Love your "Paradise Lost" masterpiece!
BBall757A
Thanks for the insight ... and kudos for this and your other campaigns. Playing through 'The Big Show' while reading Clostermann's memoirs was one of the most engaging experiences I've had in decades of gaming of various kinds. Now l need to delve in to 'Chickenhawk'...
Thank you! That's the way it's meant to be played :)
Wow.... words fail me, except two.
Thank you!
Спасибо 🤝! Огромное Вам спасибо 🙋💥💯🔥
Guts N Gunships was great! So glad you read it for the campaign, makes me more excited to fly it. Id recommend Low Level Hell as well!
Your Blue nosed campaign is so iconic! Thanks for all the hard work you put in, it is very much noticed
Thank you!
Thanks for this, I've always been curious how you go about it and I'm impressed, as DCS is a moving target and it's difficult to not only build a campaign, but to continue to support it afterwards. My question is - How much do you simply fly and enjoy DCS without the worry and stress that goes into your campaign building?
'Moving target' is a good way to describe it. After release I put them on the shelf - except for the bug fixing - but after a while I tend to forget where all the triggers are, and then I attempt to fly them from an 'outsider's' point of view. When I'm not too busy building new stuff or fixing old missions, I just pick a mission from a campaign and fly it.
Great video mate. I was considering something similar as a "grass roots progress" series for my first foray into DCS campaign development and creation but, to be brutally honest, your video is way better than what I would be/am able to make with the programs and knowledge I currently have. Kudos to you brother.
I can only assume this is seventeen minutes about the frustration about struggling with executive disfunction; hyperactivity, having ideas that does not work out, spending four hours to fix a bug nobody else is going to notice and the like. Also glad to see that I am not alone in having what I call the Foundation Map (4:55). Saves so much time!
Oh well, misery loves company. *pushes play button*
Hey Greg. Great video. I knew there was a LOTTA work involved in building a campaign, but what you just described was CRAZY. Regardless, thanks for all your hard work and attention to detail. I'll keep buying your campaigns (if I have the aircraft :-) ).
Thanks Eran! :)
I own the F-14 and P-51 modules and love your campaigns. They really help bring DCS to life. Thank you for all your hard work. I hope this video inspires others to give it a try. Perhaps a nice way to help fund your projects would be to auction off auditions for voice actor roles in forthcoming campaigns. Who doesn't want the chance to be immortalised? Just a thought.
Thanks for the support. I would never even think about auctioning voice actor roles. I mean people sit down and record hundreds of lines for me in their free time, that's a insanely huge help, and I already feel kinda bad that all I can offer in exchange is a copy of the final product through the DCS gift system once it's released. The DCS community really is the best.
Just finished Pardise lost. What a ride! Very impressed with what you came up with, and grateful for the energy you put into this. I'm hanging out for what helicopter DLC you come up with next! Please tell me you have something in the pipeline? 🙏😁
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Unfortunately I don't have anything else planned for helos.
Whenever you need help with a southamerican campaign let me know, it can be about Malvinas war or about ecuadorian cenepa war or maybe th war in Colombia letra me know i can help you with info or with voice acting, this kind of effort must be suppported, at the end its for all of us
Thank you!
That's awesome to wach. Now I feel the need to play your campaign 💚 thank you for this great insight and all your passion and work 🙏
Thanks for the support! :)
Great video! Really helpfull!
Excellent behind the scenes video .. I enjoyed it a lot, gives new appreciation for the Campaign designer's efforts. Thanks for sharing this :)
Cheers
Great video. And great campaigns. Loved bridge over the Yalu and Paradise Lost
Thank you!
Also one question, let's say for a personal hobby are you able to create your own Combat Aircraft, just for fun, how would you be able to do it.
There are several 3rd parties developing new aircraft modules, but I have no clue how to do that :)
Thanks Reflected. Very interresting. You're the Guru of DCS campaigns. I never hesitate to buy one campaign by you! I know how immersive, intense ans great they are! Cheers.
Thanks for the support!
Amazing work. Best campaign I've played. I hope you will do more work with the Huey in the future.
Thank you!
Thanks for an inside look.
Phenomenal! Thanks for this! I knew it was complicated and takes time but this really shows just how much work goes into them and how talented you are for it!
If ever you need an English accent then I'd happily volunteer 🙋♂️
Ps. You should DEFINITELY do a whole vid on doing the skins!
Thanks, appreciated. Skins are 'easy': just trial and error, comparing it to RL photos. That on repeat for months...
i’m loving paradise lost! Just finished mission 6
Thanks! Now on to the gunships, for the remaining 6 :)
What a cool insight into the insane amount of work that goes into making epic campaigns such as yours. Love ya work mate. Thanks for sharing 👍🏻👍🏻🙃🙃
Cheers
So impressed of your dedication! Really looking forward to the mossie campaign.
Thanks, I'm also looking forward to finishing that one. Waiting for a couple of stuff to be finished on the Mossie first though.
What an outstanding video! Loved the soundtrack too, especially the Delta Blues guitar during the part where you go into how these missions can never, truly be done and finished 😂 🤣
Haha, yes, only Delta Blues would reflect all the pain and struggle :D
@@ReflectedSimulations 😉
You always take things to another level! Awesome job. Now I have to learn the Huey! :-D
Thanks Mate, you really should, it's a lot of fun :)
Just what I needed. I've been muddling through the mission editor with aspirations of creating an A4 campaign. Lots of great stuff here.
Even if you stop you today you have a great legacy of campaigns I hope you don't lose your drive. You may have to take break form all THIS.
Thanks for the tips I want to make multi modules Fictional campaign seem so real can be under copyPasta the campaigns be under flight leaders names example (a-10 flight leader have around 15 campaign mission but a different flight or squadron have a-10 flight have 10 campaign mission) each module is the same in active in 2000s have that type of campaign example even the combined arms be in the campaign
Thank you for all the great content over the years. I am a mission maker for my group and find the world building very enjoyable. In the future, I would also love to one day be able to publish a dlc campaign. Could you provide some tips as to how to start the process or look at the first steps?
My advice would be to pick an era and a module that you love and know a lot about. Then, do some extensive research on how things happened, and once you have that you just have to be creative with the mission editor to make it happen. That's the easier part actually.
Thank you, Greg. I will give it my best shot. You guys have led the way. @@ReflectedSimulations
@@Bypass346 best of luck with it!
Do you use scripts in your missions? Or do you just use in game stuff?
I try to use as little scripting as possible, because they're harder to debug and fix, but when I can't achieve what I want with normal triggers, I use scripting
@@ReflectedSimulations thank you :)
All that for price of a big mac & coke.. your work is priceless mate, thank you.
Having dabbled in the editor for weeks on just single missions alone, by far the most time consuming part I found was flying mission making sure every trigger is fool proof ( ie. Lankypilot proof ). And getting timings for ai right. And then make sure triggers still work when feature creep steps in & want to add something cool hadn't thought of! How you do it for a campaign & stay sane is beyond me. I always feel guilty when my dopeyness messes up your misssions.
Thanks for the insight :) nice huey flying btw & vietnam footage too
Geez, Big Macs are getting so expensive?! :D I agree, timings are really hard to get right when you have to factor in the random behavior of the player and the ever changing behavior of the AI. In some cases there are just too many 'but what if...?' -s. Thanks for your support and all the videos, they are immensely helpful for me to fine tune the triggers / instructions.
@@ReflectedSimulations everything is expensive in Australia haha. Yeah I often wondered particularly in cutscenes how you get ai to behave as well as do, especially troops & vehicles. Everytime I run a mission of my own they seem very variable with their pathfinding, even with micromanaging waypoints. You're great at making everything feel organic. Like that cinematic late night pub run in Wolfpack. Timing all that would have taken a lot of playthroughs I'd imagine
@@lankypilot778 those are actually easier, because there is no player variable there.
@@ReflectedSimulations Good point there. Except maybe getting them to look the right direction
Great content, Reflected. As a budding mission creator with dreams of someday creating a campaign, this is great. Thanks for putting this video together.
The amount of work that goes into creating a top-quality campaign like this is mind-boggling! I always knew it is not easy and consumes time, but I've never imagined how complex it is. The "Behind the Scenes" videos like this help us appreciate the effort of campaign creators even more! Thanks for sharing this Reflected!
I can't wait to play the "V for Victory" campaign!
Awesome stuff. How do you go about setting up the short cinematic missions?
Very professional and persistent!
Keep up with the good job!!
Hi
How do i purchase your missions.
Subbed.
Hi! They are available at the DCS webshop. Just filter on campaigns & Reflected Simulations.
I also put a link in the description of their trailers
What a work it is !!! I already imagine how hard it should be to create a campaign, but I was way too far from the truth.
Thanks a lot for all the passion and dedication, you put on those campaigns so we can have fun playing them.
Thanks for the support and all the videos!
nice video. looking forward your other tips :D
Wow, that's pretty awesome. Love your campaigns. They show you put a lot of time and dedication into them.
Thank you!
I had no idea the work that's goes in these missions.
Thanks, very cool! Question: is it possible to add audio files to a world position?
You mean like it's played at a certain point of the map, like a loudspeaker? Unfortunately not :(
Great insight, thanks for sharing this! You just successfully talked me out of building a campaign 😂
Noooooooo :D
Reminds me of the days i spent hundreds of hours in the recording studio just to get 10 songs radio ready...
been there, done that. Yes, there are lots of similarities :) Like when you get the 10th version of the final final mastering, and you still don't know that there would be another 30 of these :D
Thanks for making this video! One thing that I don't like about all campaigns is that they are in English. haha, I know that is the way they have to be, but for us non english speakers, it is hard when communications are under several sound fx layers. I know we have the captions, but it is not the same, hearing and understanding the first time what the radio says, than reading.
It is difficult to make a solution here, and the only thing I find is leave 2 audios to choose. One with the fx and other without them (at least with some kind of radio fx but not too hard).
In any case thanks for all!
Unfortunately that would literally double the workload it takes to create and maintain a campaign, I don't have the capacity for that. I do understand what you mean though, and that's why I always include extra instructions and on screen messages in my campaigns, so that you almost never have to rely on hearing and understanding a distorted radio message for the first time.
So you do not use scripts on your campaigns? If that's the case, it's very interesting and impressive.
I use some scripting where it cannot be avoided but I try to stick to the deafult ME features.
Just bought 3 of your campaigns and I’m starting with speed and angles...absolutely phenomenal.
Thanks for the support, and enjoy the campaigns!:)
@@ReflectedSimulations you’re very welcome, all thanks to you! Your work is amazing.
Thanks for the shout out!
Great video!
So far I've played only two of your campaigns, Fear the Bones and Zone 5, both of which I consider to be Master Pieces. Your level of passion and commitment clearly shows in best possible ways!
And been somewhat of a "sound guy" myself, I fully agree with your assessment that audio can play a vital role in creating immersion.
Besides of your campaign been both highly immersive and educational, I also like to stress that I consider your campaigns been very well balanced as regards to overall mission complexity and difficulty. For me as a (average at best) player/consumer, that means I can play through most of your missions at first try. This results in mainly two things:
1. Playing through the missions is actually a lot of fun.
2. The probability of playing through such campaigns more than once is rather high.
All in all, keep up the great work! 😃
PS.
I hear you're already working on another F14 campaign. Consider it a first day buy from my side.
Thank you for this! Your 'Hunters' F-86 campaign has inspired me to work on an F-80 campaign for the start of the Korean War. Really looking forward to you explaining the use of triggers, as my first attempts have nice combat, but are a bit simplistic. This video shows that your trigger lists create a mission evolution.
I am a mission editor and pride myself in making good scripted missions, but this is on a totally different level! VERY impressed. Campaign ordered 😊😊
May I ask you something about "transmit message" trigger? I want to make my own realistic campaign. So I put some "transmit message" triggers in the mission with right frequency settings.
But mostly they are not played or seriously delayed even when the speaking friendly aircraft is right beside me. I checked my ogg files with "Sound to all" trigger and they worked fine with this trigger. "Transmit message" trigger is so weird and I don't understand why they are not working as I expected.
I don't know how the professional mission makers made it work. If you have any ideas about this problem, would you please tell me why this is happening?
I started to notice this lately. It happens mostly when the transmit message trigger is in the same line with other triggers such as spawning groups, other AI tasks, etc...very strange..
@@ReflectedSimulations Thank you for your attention. I was really frustrated because of this problem but now I am relieved thanks to your reply. Have a good day!!
Thanks for your effort - really helpfull
Many thanks for the support
Hello Reflected, I stumbled by accident to this video - man you got me hooked !!! I am an A10-C/II with more than 625 hours logged, and in the back of my mind I always had the feel for helicopters. After seeing the amount of time and skill you have put into the campaign in the Marianas - you just did it. I already got the map and the UH-1H and the campaign will be purchased tomorrow. Lots to learn I know - but I LOVE to learn especially from the manuals and of course the challenge of flying a helicopter which IMHO requires better skills. So you see - your amazing job makes a difference for some people. Thank you for what you have done already and... - keep it coming !
Thank you so much Isaac, I hope you'll have a great time completing the campaign. I appreciate the support.
Thanks!
thank you for the support, much appreciated!
🤣 Six months to a year to make one!?!? Pass.
This is less a "How to" and more of a "This is how much effort I would like you to know I put in".
No disrespect but I'm sure you getting paid for the campaigns you make is more than just a "bonus". I'd go so far to say that knowing you will charge people for the campaign affects how much effort/polishing is put in. The research you speak of is normal for any creative project or job so I still don't understand how if can take 12months to make 12 missions when there are at least 600 work hours a month. So what, +6000hrs to make Paradise Lost? Pressing X to doubt.
These campaigns are very good given the lack of professional content, and well worth the $10. But let's not get ahead of ourselves... they are not mindblowingly complex and feel pretty community made with the Fiverr voice lines and linear gameplay. They are a product people pay for. So constantly stressing how much work or time it takes is just as annoying as paying for dinner and the chef in the restaurant telling you how hard it was to cook the meal and how long it took. Really not my problem, it's not free.
If you don’t believe me, fine. You’re welcome to make one and see for yourself. With comments like yours and others like ‘oh this is a 2 weeks job’, I see that this video was really necessary. Also, some people are interested in what’s going on behind the scenes. Some are not, and that’s fine too. Hey, maybe I wouldn't even believe myself - a campaign looks much more simple from the outside, and it's only once you make one you realize how much work it requires. And that's exactly why I made this video.
No disrespect? Seems like a ton of disrespect.