Bloodthirst and Hunting Fever

[Olham 164]

Could it be uncontrollable bloodthirst or hunting fever, that I always engage

in a most risky way, and as a result, die before my time?

Yesterday I made a flight with Jasta 12 in April 1918. Our four Dr.1 were superiour

against a flight of five S.E.5a. But they had capital "S" on the planes, and at least

two aces with them.

First, I did fine. Checking overall, picking the highest flyer, and hunting him, away

from the others. It took three good bursts, and his plane broke up in mid air.

There, I should have climbed, and taken a good overviewing look, before I picked

my next target.

But, since another plane, with an ace in it, sharply crossed my flight path, I went

after him like mad! Must get him!

Now I know, he only just lured me to follow him right into a trap of two other pilots,

who shot me up faster than I could shout "Dammit!"

 

I'm still waiting for the day, when I manage to get a good carreer going, with a nice

kill tally, and many flight hours.

But honestly - the more I think about it, the more I find the MvR style boring (Lol!)

 

Is there anyone here, who flies with 100 % realism and without tricks, who has

achieved a kill tally of 16 victories yet, and still has this pilot alive ?

[themightysrc 5]

Hi Olham,

 

"Is there anyone here, who flies with 100 % realism and without tricks, who has

achieved a kill tally of 16 victories yet, and still has this pilot alive ?"

 

I'm flying on 130% realism (according to the control panel!), and have at least one pilot with 20+ hours to his name, although no kills. Admittedly he's a bomber pilot (Strutter) and spent a while in Blighty before being shipped over to the hellhole in France, but I've achieved this mainly by RUNNING AWAY A LOT. One tactic that appears to work for me - particularly with the BE2c - is to dive for the cover of a friendly airfield when attacked, thereby giving the ground based machine guns the opportunity to spring a rather unpleasant surprise on my pursuers. I've even punctuated missions by landing at airfields, waiting until the local anti-aircraft people have dispatched my would-be killers, and then taking off again to complete the mission.

 

You can't be too cowardly in this game.

[Interlocutor 0]

Is there anyone here, who flies with 100 % realism and without tricks, who has

achieved a kill tally of 16 victories yet, and still has this pilot alive ?

 

Olham, your question is a good one.

 

My current "best pilot", and indeed the best I've ever had, flies at 110%. I use Automixture, have "AI Guns" set to "Normal" (I found AA too strong for my taste with AI Guns = "Realistic"), and fly with the "Normal" damage model. He's up to 16.75 hours and 11 confirmed victories, flying N11's with the LafEsc over Verdun in May 1916. I'm not sure what you consider a "trick", but I'll admit that early in his career I warped a lot, used TAC on 2-mile radius to "sight" enemies, then turned TAC off but used labels in dogfights.

 

Admitedly, my LafEsc pilot has an advantage flying the N11 against the Fokker EIII, which is the only single-seater the Germans have in May 1916. But recently I've begun flying with no in-game aids. I use TrackIR, and I now live in the cockpit always, I've disabled in-game messages, and I never use TAC, labels, the "Z" key, or warp. I guess that's what Siggi calls full DiD.

 

Without labels I find it very hard to keep track of planes in a dogfight, and without TAC or labels I find it much harder to spot aircraft formations in the air. But I'm keeping my pilot alive so far by resisting the kind of "hunting fever" you describe. I always fly as flight leader, and my role now is to get home alive, and get as many of my flight members home alive as well. If I can accomplish the assigned mission while doing this, fine, but keeping myself & my wingmates alive comes first, mission comes second.

 

As others have mentioned, I'm much more cautious in full DiD mode, and even more so with any pilot who has survived long enough to accumulate significant flight hours.

[Rickitycrate 10]

I find that the case of flying DiD all the time is that you are keenly aware of keeping your pilot (character) alive. Which means to be very careful to evaluate the overall situation and act accordingly. You will not win the war by yourself Olham, pick your battles as best you can and live to fight another day. The more you fly DiD and invest in your character the more you hate it when he dies or is captured. You become invested and that changes your approach and philosophy. I had not flown any QC for weeks until I got my FF stick to get used to and now TIR to adjust to and QC is a lot of fun but I look forward to a new DiD carreer with my new gear. The good carreer that you are looking forward to will not be an accident but a matter of making the right choices and a lot of luck. Best wishes.

[Siggi 10]

I'm about halfway through my new book, the history of the Jasta Boelke. What occurs to me is that no matter how talented a pilot, or skillful an ariel hunter, pure luck played a very significant part in the process of survival. Being good gave an edge, undoubtedly, but once a pilot was mixing it up just about anything could happen, and it was largely beyond control.

 

I intend to fight from now on with a whole lot of discretion and very little valour.

[griphos 0]

My best pilot just died, with 11 hours and 12 confirmed kills. I've been flying 110% DiD/T with Tac set at 2 miles and turned off when the dots turn red. I've been very careful with him, as Rickity describes. Flying without aids once the fight starts means I spend a lot of time just searching for where everyone is, and I find that helps me not get so blindered on one target, as when I used to leave the TAC on and relied on it to tell me if someone was behind me. I've actually done MUCH better without it.

 

But, I lost Stan last night (can you tell I'm still in mourning?) because I hadn't flown in about a week (that da*ned job!) and I was feeling cocky. I mean, 11 hours and 12 kills! I was feeling invincible. It didn't help that the last few missions saw no enemy. So, my skills and tactics were rusty, to say the least. When those two sets of white dots first showed up on TAC at 2 miles, one at 11 o'clock, and one at 2 o'clock, I should have gathered my wingmen and headed to 6 o'clock while climbing to reconnoiter the situation. Instead I kept my heading and waited for the dots to turn red. When they did, off went the TAC and I signaled my wingmen to climb to meet the group now at 9 o'clock. I think if they were the only group, even outnumbering us 6-4, we would have been fine (I got two of them in that first whirl of battle). But of course, the other group turned out to be just as strong, and also enemy and we were vastly outmatched in seconds.

 

So, I think that flying without aids actually does make one more invested and safer, as others have suggested, even though that might seem odd. But it also helps to keep sharp. When I fly daily, I feel a lot more like I imagine those pilots did in life. I get anxious. I get stressed. I look forward to quiet flights. I keep my wits about me. But after a week away I KNOW I should have flown a few QC rather than jump back into campaign. I'm guessing that for real WW1 pilots, those first few flights after leave were always the most dangerous. But I was anxious to move Stan along in the war and when I was tossed by thunderclouds in the first mission (doing damage to my plane...that's never happened before...new in 1.3???) and had to land just on the German side of the front (escaping after 19 days), I should have taken that as a sign that Stan was not ready. Instead, I jumped right into another mission, cocky and ready for action, and Stan's war came to an end.

 

Of course, one of the best things about this sim is the number of ways one can play it. Each very fun. But I do love the challenge of flying a campaign pilot without aids at hard realism settings and trying to think and feel and act as necessary to make it through more than a few months. Hopefully my next guy, flying for the French, will make it.

[Olham 164]

Right, Rickity and Siggi - I'm still the unpatient "want to reach MvR's tally" type.

Maybe that's what killed Werner Voss, an excellent pilot, but maybe not as cold

blooded as MvR.

And as for the luck you need, Siggi: here's apicture of Ernst Udet after a fight.

You know, he survived the war. But how close - death had kissed him on the cheek already...

 

(This was posted in the old forum, but some may not have seen it. And before the debate about the

strange look of the holes starts again - it looks very much, as if someone had rolled up white or yellow

paper and put it into the holes, as if to make them more visible; or not to count them twice.

I have Udet's book, so I could see it better there).

 

Sorry for you, Griphos - all sounds so serious, the way you did it; and he had a good kill tally.

Yes, it must have been terribly hard to survive; and I repeat again, what some ace has said:

"On a long enough timeline, your chances to survive this, drop towards zero."

Edited April 3, 2009 by Olham

[Rickitycrate 10]

griphos, what you said rings true to my experiences as well. I have flown DiD with Tac up to this point as I did not have TIR but now that I do I look forward to DiD with Tac off. This will be after some more flights in QC first. Yes , it does seem that the occasional non-event flight is rather a relief than a disappointment. You want a kill or two but more than that you want to fly again, survive. I saw your man on the killboard and was impressed. Best wishes with the next one.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Rickitycrate

[Olham 164]

Were's that kill board?

[Rickitycrate 10]

http://www.hetzer.talktalk.net/fr%20killboard.html

Check it out and fly DiD. Get a Pilot on there. The nationalities are seperated. We need French and U.S. entries.

[Interlocutor 0]

When I fly daily, I feel a lot more like I imagine those pilots did in life. I get anxious. I get stressed. I look forward to quiet flights. I keep my wits about me.

 

Yes, I agree. I'm lucky enough to be retired, so I've been flying several hours almost every day since OFF3 came out.

 

I started out using ALL the aids, even the target cone. As I got better, I shed the aids one by one. Now I'm flying full DiD. Each day I fly one day's worth of missions for my current active pilot. Makes it more real for me...

[Rick Rawlings 136]

I am pretty bloodthirsty as well. May main problem, though, is flying a Nieuport, I always feel I have to crawl up someone's butt before shooting them to conserve ammo. 70% of my deaths are due to collisions, either with the plane I just shot, my wingman trying to steal my kill, another plane that my wingman shot down right above my head or the ground that I hit after stalling to avoid all of the above. Not having Track IR and having to quickly cycle through padlock and snap views makes it much more of a pain. I just yesterday mangaed to finally acheive my goal of being "recruited" by 56 squadron and called up with the big boys at Vert Galant. With 15 mission in and 11 hours in the air, 8 confirmed kills and another 4 pending, I am hoping I can enjoy some more stand-off fights where my constant, constant fear of collision begins to settle down. I need to go on leave for my nerves!

 

RR

 

edit: Yay! I'm now a valued member!

Edited April 3, 2009 by Rick Rawlings