Campaign Mission Generation

C

cpirrmann

Guest
I've always felt one of the strong points of OFF was the campaign and mission generator, but therein also lies a weakness. In P1 and P2, the generator had a propensity to generate missions way out of your area of operations, or sector, and sometimes even beyond your aircraft's range. This has carried over with P3. I had thought that with the more historical aspect of P3, we would have more historically based missions for ourselves. I understand that you may be pulled away to help in an offensive, etc. But that appears to be the norm instead of the exception. Right now, I'm flying for 17th Aero (in 6/1918 I believe) out of Petit Synthe on the north coast. I got an airfield attack half way to Verdun and just within range of the Camel (200 to target, 260 aircraft range).
I had to click optional flight 9 times to get one close to my sector, in Cambrai. I have seen this in many different campaigns.

The optional flight is a viable work around, but this is something that the team may want address in the future when the other stuff they're working on is done.

Thanks
 
cpirrmann said:
I had to click optional flight 9 times to get one close to my sector, in Cambrai. I have seen this in many different campaigns.
Click to expand...

Hehehe, I've always considered this a part of the realism. One of the main constants of military life is that you're often given impossible assignments by clueless pogues at higher headquarters. It's then up to the line units to figure out how not to do them without appearing blatantly insubordinate :)

My favorite method of shirking my duty is to start out on such trips, then get tangled up with a target of opportunity en route, making it necessary to abort the mission due to ammo expenditure. Another method is to end the mission at the earliest opportunity (preferrably before leaving the ground) and claiming you had a magneto problem or something. Either way, you can report up the chain that you tried but were unable to complete the mission. :jump:

If these role-playing workarounds don't suit you, there are other in-game options besides "Optional Flight". "Alternative Target" works. Also, you can just go back to the main menu and then restart the campaign, which appears to result in a whole different mission being generated.

PS: WW1 had more than its share of clueless office pogues. IIRC, one of them finally arrived at the Passchendaele battlefield after months of slaughter, observed the morass, and said, "My God, did we actually send men to fight in this?" So having mission objectives way out of your range IMHO is in keeping with this :).
 
Hm, June 1918? Wasn`t it the allied breakthrough at Verdun, that forced germany far, far back, nearly into Germany itself? It was the attack, that made the Germans think of surrender? Then this mission makes sense. Allies were gathering all available power to make this attack sucessful.

Guess you were supposed to free the airspace of enemy a/c. Then I would take that mission, and landat an friendly airfield nearby.
 
There's always a method by which the survivors, survive, the sheer lunacy of their commanders, as Bullethead eluded to.

In WWII with the advent of the radio, it was easier than one might think to diisobey a command which would surely result in your death

Poor Signal . . Your Breaking up . . Please Repeat, whilst crumpling a piece of cellophane near the mic. Most exsperienced radio operators suspected a ruse, but they couldn't prove it.

Those who were honest, probaly died . . . . . . batter up

You could always Manual Time Advance in search for a closer mission
 
I'll add my vote to Cpirrmann's, that most missions would be a little closer to home. I can see the odd mission being way down the line, of course, but most of the squads work will probably within their own piece of the front. Taht is the logical reason they have been stationed at that particular location.

I also just cycle through optional missions until I get a 'close one'. Not too big a deal. A tweak to the program would be nice but I am not realistically expecting this to be too high up on the priority list.
 
From what I've read, not having really been there, in the case of a big push, the squadrons would be transferred to a closer airfield, esp. in the case of the Germans who cooperated more closely with armies. Reading Sholto Douglas' book, during the battle of the Somme, they still only flew in their sector only more often and more aggressive missions. As, I said in my post, I can understand the odd happenstance, whether, special missions, offensives, or 'military intelligence' but this happens way too often for those excuses. The work arounds are fine until this is addressed, but I still think it needs to be.
 
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