Thank you all for your kind words, I'm 100% sure you're going to love this one, and that it will make you a much better Phantom pilot. To those who can't get over the Navy vs Air Force thing, it's like pineapple on pizza. If you're too cool for it, you don't have to get it, it's your loss 😉 I mean if you didn't mind flying Speed n Angels in an F-14B instead of a D, or Jagdflieger in a 109K, or Debden Eagles in a P-51D instead of a B, and starting from Kenley no less, then I don't see why this should be the ultimate sacrilege. Or, you can just wait for HB to release the Navy Phantom. Nobody forces you to do anything you don't want. 🤷♂
If they wait for a Heatblur Navy Phantom they are going to be waiting forever. When someone says "maybe" with DCS it means it isn't happening. Heathlur have a lot of other things to work on. An F-4J/S is last on their list.
For me it just came across as odd because of your hard statement of "I will not use a stand-in map for Vietnam", only to then use a stand-in map and stand-in aircraft for this campaign. Wouldn't a campaign based on the USAF Fighter Weapons School have made more sense? Flying out of Nellis etc. That being said, I'll still buy it and most likely enjoy the hell out of it.
I really don't want to take away from all the hard work Reflected puts in, but Sedlo is working just as hard. They are both incredible DCS mission creators
Besides the F4, this is the best announcement. I never knew what I was doing until I started with the Speed and Angels campaign. I can't wait to fully play this one in VR!
ANY campaign that TEACHES skills and provides multiple scenarios is vital in being successful in this simulation, no matter the aircraft or model. It ain't the plane, it's the PILOT and the skills he brings to the fight. Looking forward to it!!!!
Looking forward to both the Campaign and your F4 tutorials, you are truly one of the best DCS mission designers and so I'm sure this one Campaign should be excellent ... Cheers!
So... if i hadn't already purchased the F-4, I would definitely buy it now if i hadn't as a mostly solo player... your campaigns are absolutely key to me having more fun in this game!
As a pure campaign player, i love how the latest module developers are working with you guys beforehand, so we can start using are shiny new toys asap. looking forward to your kola/viper campaign too
@@ReflectedSimulations It's been very nice to have the module devs working with you before hand so we don't have to wait so long. Please tell me you are working with Mag3 & ED for the F4U "Angels of Okiniwa" campaign... any chance we mightbe so lucky to get that close to the corsair/marianas ww2 version launch? That would be equally amazing!
Really like the fact, that you will be doing tutorials for the F4. Your Warbirds tutorials are my favorite ones, because they go into more detail then most others and have a certain vibe to them, which I like quite a lot.
My absolute all time favorite jet is the Navy F-4J. Saw the Blues at NAS Corpus Christi in 1972, and it remains the best airshow performance I have ever witnessed. You could actually feel the heat from the burners, and there is NOTHING like that sound...
I thought so too until I talked to a USAF Phantom pilot who suggested that I do the Navy one because it’s more interesting - if you play throught the syllabus you’ll understand why. Topgun was really ground breaking and years/ decades ahead of the Air Force doctrines at the time.
Incredible level of research and work to pull this off. I appreciate the detailed explanation of the limitations you had to overcome and why you made the choices you made. I can't wait for ED to give us a Vietnam map to see what you will bring to the table.
I know your campaigns aren't meant to be multicrew, but I have spent a considerable amount of time being a RIO in Zone 5 campaign playthroughs. I'll find a way to make this one work too 😛 Everything you have made has been the pinnacle of DCS content from my P.O.V. (Admittedly I have not yet tried Baltic Dragon's campaign that you hyped up)
Incredible how you always manage to push the envelope in campaign design! I was on the fence whether to buy the Phantom this early; what I just saw pushed me over to the "what the hell, get it now!" side of said fence.
BD did an excellent training campaign for the Hawg that was a lot of fun and very informative. Would love to see both if you team up and do something similar with the Phantom. Would be amazing to go through the process of "becoming a Phantom pilot" then progressing into MiG Killers to put what we learn to the test. Just a hopeful suggestion. :)
Just curious but why not USAF Red Flag for the F-4E module instead of Top Gun? That would have been much more accurate in time, place and equipment in regard to the F-4E module. Doing that one would be much more beneficial to learning to unleash all that the F-4E has to offer over other variants.
Good point and originally that was my plan but I didn’t have much info about the USAF syllabus and the Navy tactics taught here are decades ahead of Air Force ones. I even had a USAF pilot recommend that I go for the Navy because it will be much more interedting as a campaign. You’ll see why ;)
You, sir, are a true master of your art, cannot wait for the campaign to be released! Definite immediate purchase! Thank you for all the time and immense dedication to aviation, DCS is so much the better for it!
There again Reflected! You have set a record level once again. I was already amazed enough until that auto-slat modification... Your passion and dedication for realism is truly beyond words. Big respect and congrats.
Hey man, I just wanted to say that your work is extremely inspirational. To take something that is already an amazing venture (DCS) and make it all the more amazing is truly an accomplishment. Not only that, but the honor you pay to all those who have "been there and done that," through your commitment to historical accuracy is awesome. Smart thinking on the "welded" wings. Keep up the great work👍
Anything improves our basic airmanship, and pushes you a little further in simulation experiences, is a good thing. And you're just the guy to do it with yet another amazing campaign!
People say DCS is hard, mostly because it is a one-man air force. It will be much more enjoyable if there is someone to guide you through the learning path.
Don't play Jagdflieger either, because you'll be flying a 109K not a G. Oh and Debden Eagles with a P-51D instead of a B. Or Speed n Angels with an F-14B not a D, and Nellis instead of Fallon. If it kills the immersion for you, you're more than welcome to wait X years until the Navy version will be released.
You should read the book The Warbirds by Richard Herman. It is an awesome book where the main aircraft actor is the F-4. The book starts following a cocky rookie pilot stationed in Egypt. After some personal drama the story moves to training in the UK. The squadron ends up fighting a shadow operation against Iran in the middle east. It is an awesome book available on Kindle. The story continues in the second book, Force of Eagles. I highly recommend them both! I would love if someone could put together a campaign based on The Warbirds. Have a read on me!
WOOOOOOOOW!!! :D This is fucking _amazing!_ You're amazing, man! Thank you for making it! Speed and Angels remains the best campaign I ever flew and I kept wishing there was one for every plane in the game. Getting something similar fo the F-4 is _perfect!_ Day 1 purchase! Can't wait!
@@ReflectedSimulations Looking forward to it gleefully all the same =). Zone 5 was great, too, though Speed & Angels was, IMHO, a step above it. A mix of both sounds just perfect to me!
@ReflectedSimulations I'm sure someone at some point will mod the 3d model of the HB F4E to a navy version and you should add an option to use it over the standard E if/when that happens. Super hyped for this anyways
LOL! At the start you say you'll never use stand-in maps, then half way through say Creech is standing-in for Miramar. Anyway, looks great! Good luck with it!
Haha, busted. You're right :) It's just that we'll probably never get a Miramar map, and the California desert looks similar enough to the Nevada desert. Vietnam, on the other hand, is coming - eventually, one day? - so when it does, everyone would be asking me to re-make the campaign for it. So I'm all for stand-in maps, just not Vietnam :)
@@AdmiralQuality I did the same in my Huey campaign, but for a beast like the PHantom it's just too small...this being said, I have some Phantom news on that front too, related to Paradise Lost :)
Sign me up … the phantom looks infinitely different then the tomcat I can’t wait this is a new era of pc sims with the amount of actual systems simulated can’t wait.
It's very different, but it's also not...It's an analog jet, there are no computers between your controls and you, it does precisely what you tell it to do. Easy to fly, but hard to fly well. I love it!
As much as I absolutely love this, I think it's better if you wait for a Naval Phantom as Heatblur did say they were gonna make that too. And you could have made a Red Flag for the Phantom instead, and set it in the opening days when Red Flag just started?
I could have, if I had enough info and sources about early Red Flags. Also, I could have waited for the Navy Phantom, but there is no telling whether it's gonna come in 1 year or 5. And I'm much more interested in the Topgun course than Red Flags, although the latter would indeed be a great campaign too. Also, as I said in the video, for the sake of these lessons, it's really not a big deal that it's an E not a B. Actually less of a big deal than flying a 109K in 1944 for example...
@@ReflectedSimulations yes yes, I made the comment while watching the video so hadn’t gotten to that part yet. However did you know that at the very beginning of Red Flag they actually did use F-86s and F-5s as MiG 17 and 21 stand in aggressors initially?
Insta buy. Thank you for all of your hard work, Reflected! Also, the USAF got a hold of a real MiG 21 at some point in order to fight and study its performance. Would be a cool bonus mission to add!
This campaign is going to be a total blast. My only question is why you decided to go with top gun instead of the USAF fighter weapons school? You put a ton of effort into this clearly but you wouldn't have needed to do a handwave and make certain exceptions if you chose to go after the USAF's program of the same era. Either way, I'm excited to get my first taste of proper ACM learning; assuming I don't pick up your other campaigns. P.S. Paradise Lost was great.
Good point and originally that was my plan but I didn’t have much info about the USAF syllabus and the Navy tactics taught here are decades ahead of Air Force ones. I even had a USAF pilot recommend that I go for the Navy because it will be much more interedting as a campaign. You’ll see why ;)
@@ReflectedSimulations Fair enough. I eagerly await the campaign, I'm sure it will be fantastic. Also, quick suggestion, for someone wanting to learn the cat from the top, would you suggest Zone 5 or Speed and Angels first?
Oh god please stop releasing those amazing campaigns that fast , we can't keep up 😅 I'm moustache ready for this one. Like speed and angels and zone 5 were for the Tomcat , it will be a great tool to learn the phantom.
