The latest version of DCG, (6.32) works well. If you have a working set of campaign files, it will generate missions for you all day without a hitch.
However, when it comes to building your own campaigns, DCG is persnickety, and can be frustrating. One syntax error anywhere in a campaign file will stop it in it's tracks, and finding the error can be a real headache. To build your own campaigns, you have to know the exact structure of all the campaign files and follow it religiously.
But I found that with experience, I was able to put together a set of campaign files and have them work the first time I tried them. It's kinda like making a stew, once you get the hang of it. You supply the ingredients, and DCG cooks up the missions for you.
I also wrote several versions of a QBasic supplemental program for DCG which I dubbed "AIRBOSS". The program is designed to make specific changes in the DCG "MISSION" file, adding some player options and mission complexity, finds and fixes a couple of DCG bugs, and most importantly, drastically reduces the number of collisions in missions, which was a major problem for DCG.
However, I never was able to get the program to compile to machine code, so it has to be run from the Qbasic editor. Vista also messed with it some. I had to break it up into 2 separate modules when I got a Vista machine. The main module does the "MISSION" file editing, and the other does a few things with the campaign files.
I figure all this is too much trouble for most players, who I'm sure would prefer to just click and fly. But for myself, I find that the end result produces some fairly interesting campaigns, with no mission building required. My DCG missions have non-DCG stuff such as A.I. escorts, meaning I don't always have to fly strike missions without escorts. Also reassignment of unnecessary A.I. CAP's to escort A.I. bombers, which DCG does not do. Also optional payloads for each plane in the player flight, so my flight doesn't always have to be armed with the little anemic rockets. Finger four formation for fighters instead of echelon left. The ability to reduce enemy airfields' launch capability by bombing and strafing them. Task force synchronization so that task forces tend to appear and move in the general vicinity of one another. Stuff like that.
But all this requires some additional setup and clicking to accomplish. And all the clicking has to be done in the correct order.
I have DCG versions of all the major carrier battles except Midway, a Bougainville campaign featuring the Black Sheep, a New Guinea campaign, and a Guadalcanal campaign. The carrier battles can be very intense at times, because the bombers have fighter escorts, and the carrier task forces in the bigger battles have plenty of fighter cover. A battle may include up to 8 carriers and 34 squadrons of aircraft.
I haven't figured out what to do with Europe yet. The European theater is too big for a single DCG campaign to encompass. I've toyed with the idea of having a multitude of campaign files which could be swapped out to produce the effect of focusing the campaign on different areas and different air groups at different times. But I dunno. Building all those campaign files would be a lot of work. I don't know if it's worth it.
One of the major complaints players had when they tried the stock DCG campaigns was a lack of action. That was mainly because the stock DCG campaigns start out with no aircraft in the squadrons! The squadrons "build up" at the rate of 1 aircraft per squadron per mission generated. So it takes 8 missions generated to get all the squadrons up to full strength.
So I guess the bottom line is, us CFS2 hackers have been at this for a while, and we've pretty much got all the bases covered, including DCG, which is better than it ever was before, even if you don't bother with all the AIRBOSS stuff. There are quite a few DCG campaigns you can download and just click and fly, using the latest version of DCG.
