Campaign Builder Requests

I just posted the latest chapter in Mosquito Ace. So far I have flown about 12 campaigns in IL-2, resulting in 5 blog-novels. I don't have that much experience in mission or campaign building but I do have some suggestions for campaign builders.

1/ Create moody briefings: write extensive briefings, setting the mood of the mission.

2/ Populate the world: Most missions start from the runway, unfortunetaly most campaign builders forget to populate the airfield. Often I get the impressions that my flight is the only one occupying the airfield. Another aircraft buzzing overhead, parked aircraft, a truck crossing the runway, all these items can create the illusion that our flight is part of much larger, living world.

3/ put cameras in the world: unfortunetaly Il-2 has no free-roaming cameras. Taking screenshots from dogfights is rather easy, but picturing a ground attack is rather hard when each shot is based on the aircraft-bound views.

4/ Avoid repeating missions: basically each mission follows the same pattern: take off, fly around, dogfight or bomb, fly back, land. Flying 10 mission like that is extremely boring. Its much better to alternate missions or targets. Let the player perform some ground attacks or intercept bombers if he has been fighting fighters for a while. By changing mission types, the player is forced to adapt too.

5/ create odd missions: Like I said in the previous point, most missions follow the same scenario. Try to create missions that break that mold: recently I flew a mission as a German pilot, protecting a computer-controlled aircraft that would ditch in the channel. It was my job to protect it from an attacking Hurricane. The Hurricat campaign also offered a unique challenge in the requirement to ditch or bail out near the allied ships in order to survive the mission.

6/force the player to make decisions: This one I actually borrowed from Sid Meier and requires that you sometimes lie to the player. Tell him in the briefing that he is preparing for a bomb run, but once he takes off make him fend off an enemy raid on his airbase. Now the player has to choose: protect the base (and forfeiting the bombing order) or press on his own attack (risking an attack in the back by the enemy fighters)

I have flown several campaigns and much to the credit of the different campaign builders, only once I decided not to finish a campaign, because it focused solely on ground attack, without any variation. So keep up the good work and it would please this player if you take some of my suggestions in consideration.

In the meantime you can read the next chapter of Mosquito Ace at SimHQ or at my blog-novel.

Happy Reading