I am an avid "Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy" player, and branched campaigns are that games bread and butter. FYI, it's a 3D tactical ground combat sim/game on the battalion or lower level. I think IL2 would benefit from branched campaigns, and the campaign builders would eat it up. It would give them greater flexibility in campaign progress, and allow the people who fly their campaigns to really feel like they are having an effect on the out come. As we all know, scripted missions have more 'feel' and 'atmosphere' to them, but dynamic campaigns are different every time. To combine these into one campaign type, genius!!!

Good idea, so who is volunteering to make one or more branched campaigns for 4.12 ?

You will get more answers when you ask this question at http://www.mission4today.com/

An actual, honest to goodness, Dgen capable Channel Map...

Could somebody please explain this branched campaign stuff? Sounds interesting.

Hrmmm... I might be persuaded :)

I'm not sure how branching would or should work in the IL-2 context. Would ever mission have a branch or just key missions with specific events. The interesting part about this is that I would have to change how I view my campaigns... I tend to make them with this historical inevitability about them and the player is just caught up in the events. If they mess up then they have to play it again.

But with branching...say the enemy sinks your carrier or destroys a vital objective. Then in theory it could change the course of history. Or it could be small scale enough to not matter to the whole war but matter to you on the front.

The narrative would be important.

While we're talking about campaigns... Being able to do non-sepia filter tracks with text at the top might be a nice feature for campaign cinematics. Aside from NTRK playback in these modes not using Perfect mode... it would be nice to have the option of it appearing just like the game. Or having the sepia filter on for other instances.

What about the 3D model fix of the P-40?

It doesn't need to be that dramatic. Branching could be used for campaigns where you don't change history.

E.g.,

Assigned target
> knocked out > next objective
> not knocked out > fly another mission against it.

Squadron takes losses

> below X threshold > continues operations.
> above X threshold > halts operations.

Mission performance
> player performs well > given greater responsibility on future missions.
> player performs badly > given less responsibility on future missions.
> player performs amazingly well > recruited for special missions.
> player screws up entirely > demoted/transferred/court martialed/shot.

Squadron performance
> squadron does well > gets better missions/guards status/unit citations.
> squadron does badly > gets worse missions/senior officers demoted/transferred/shot.

Branching could be interesting, but the workload for mission-builders would be at least doubled for a given length of campaign.

Improvements to DGen may be more worthwhile. Apparently the creator, Starshoy, was found and it's being worked on.

Maybe the cross between dynamic and scripted can be achieved some other way. The DGen makes the environments, etc, but the mission builder writes the narrative and briefing, and tweaks the way each mission is generated, or inserts scripted missions into a dynamic campaign.

For instance, the player selects a Stuka Campaign for the North groups. The mission builder has selected a date, a map, and plane with specific loadout. In this case, the mission builder selects:

Date - 23, September, 1941.
Map - Finland
Aircraft - Ju-87
Loadout - SC 1000
Number of planes - 40

He also places a Marat object as a target in Kronstadt harbor.

When the player flies the campaign, starting in 22 June, he proceeds normally. But on the 23rd of September, the scripted mission loads, and he flies that mission.

Regardless of whether or not it was successful, the player loads the next mission and proceeds with the dynamic campaign as normal (such an attack was only carried out once, I think). The next dynamic mission takes the results of the scripted mission into account (the Marat had a target designation, so if sunk, the player gets a congrats in the briefing).

This can add elements of surprise and make missions interesting without having to carefully design each mission leading up to a specific event.

The mission designer can select which maps to use and for what time-frames to make a historical or what-if scenario and incorporate maps in clever ways (Med map can be used for a variety of locations; Guam map makes a decent Malta scenario, even if not totally accurate).

EDIT - another possibility: The designer sets an air-start spawn point for the player's Spitfire over the Channel on the Normandy map. The DGen decides whether the sortie is a combat patrol, or escort of B-25s, A-20s, Mosquitos, or P-47s, and what enemies will be encountered.

Another: The builder indicates dates and times for a mission to start. This would allow players to fly several sorties in a "day" such as in the BoB, or fly rarely, such as when planes were shared among pilots, or incorporate travel-time when being transferred to a new airfield or front.

I will FC! I have been mulling a South Pacific campaign for a while now. I have bought a couple GREAT reference books about the land and air battles (one book on each by same author) in the Solomons/New Guinea. With this, I think I could build a top notch branching campaign for 4.12. This is a map that really needs it's own campaign too, in the worst kind of way. Plus, since the Ki-45 was added, they will be that much more realistic, as all the other aircraft needed were present.