My chat with Jamie about missions for OHP, P-3 and MH-60

[XabbaRus]

In a conversation I had with Jamie via PM the other day I lamented the fact that there were few missions for the new playables especially the OHP. He also had noticed this and was mildly dissappointed that they had not seemed to be as popular as SCS had anticipated. They had hoped that the diverse range of platforms would help recruit additional wargaming/strategy gamers who may appreciate the diversity of play (and inherent strategy) available to them in DW."

I suggest that we start to ramp up on the production of missions with the FFG, MH-60, P-3 so that we can try our best to "convert" those Sub Command fans too - who may be sitting on the fence and waiting to purchase DW.

[Ula Jolly]

I know from HL chats and MP experience that a lot of people like the FFG, so you need only the missions, not the enthusiasm!

Edit: Wow! From Shore-leave status to the next certainly comes quickly!

[Fish]

There are multiplayer missions for all platforms, not only subs, although the majority of the players use the subs.
When more players report FFG, Helie and P3 maps, there will be more such maps. Its the natural way things go.

[Bill Nichols]

I checked on my site, there are 16 DW custom scenarios for FFG-7, 14 for P-3C and 14 for MH60. This compares favorably with the total of 23 missions for the various classes of subs (688I/Seawolf/Akula/Kilo). What's the beef?

[XabbaRus]

Hm last time I looked I saw very few OHP missions, most seemed to be still sub oriented.

Will have to go back and have a gander.

I was also thinking of platform specific scenarios where you only have one vessel to choose from.

I see there are loads of multi-platform and that is my mistake...
I guess there just hasn't been many posted recently due to other commitments.

Okies will try them though

Cheers for pointing that out Bill.

[SeaQueen]

That being said I think that the missions available for the FFG and other platforms are potentially more exciting. I think people need to get out of the mindset of ASW and into a broader picture of naval missions.

FFGs, for example, today perform counter drug ops, naval surface fire support and anti-surface warfare. The helo can perform armed reconnaissance. Back in the old days they could also perform a limited anti-air warfare mission. We could make missions for MIOs, NEOs, ASW, AAW, ASuW...

Sometimes I think the lack of scenarios is because of a lack of an overarching vision of warfare at sea.

Originally Posted by XabbaRus

In a conversation I had with Jamie via PM the other day I lamented the fact that there were few missions for the new playables especially the OHP. He also had noticed this and was mildly dissappointed that they had not seemed to be as popular as SCS had anticipated. They had hoped that the diverse range of platforms would help recruit additional wargaming/strategy gamers who may appreciate the diversity of play (and inherent strategy) available to them in DW."

I suggest that we start to ramp up on the production of missions with the FFG, MH-60, P-3 so that we can try our best to "convert" those Sub Command fans too - who may be sitting on the fence and waiting to purchase DW.

[XabbaRus]

This is what I am getting at.

I have downloaded a few more of the OHP missions from Bill's site and I stand corrected that there were hardly any but I am trying to move away from pure ASW at the moment and move into brown water ops.

My mission I am making is based on rig patrol in Iraqi waters in the gulf and looking out for insurgent craft and bolshy Iran.

[SeaQueen]

Originally Posted by XabbaRus

..but I am trying to move away from pure ASW at the moment and move into brown water ops.

My mission I am making is based on rig patrol in Iraqi waters in the gulf and looking out for insurgent craft and bolshy Iran.

I think that's a great idea for a mission!

Unfortunately, I think most of the people who put together scenarios don't have any experience with naval matters. They hear the OHP was designed to chase submarines, which is true, but they lack the experience to see all of the other crazy things they do with them. Their imagination is limited to what they see in certain books. There's not a lot of other places where they can see how things work. Let's face it, warfare at sea is not particularly well covered by the press.

http://www.navy.mil/

publicizes some neat stuff occaisionally. If you check on it regularly, you'll sometimes hear of some amazing adventures that would be fun to try to recreate.

Something that's been bothering me, though, is that I'm having a hard time thinking of scenarios where there's a real chance of taking a hit provided you do everything correctly. Between the CIWS, ECM and AEGIS the most I've figured out how to lose is a helo!

I like to think about how to make scenarios revolving around ESGs and what not. Ultimately, naval battles are motivated by events on land. I like to imagine helo ops in support of Marines. There's other stuff too. Piracy and counter terrorism in the Straights of Malacca could be good material. Supporting counter terrorism operations in someplace weird like Somalia might be interesting.

The fun thing about DW is that it tries to make you feel like you're actually at sea. All of these things are beyond the scope of sims like Harpoon, which best simulate big fleet actions where ASW is a piece of a larger picture. Getting into the littoral, and into harm's way is where DW is most fun.