Really loving the DH2

[HomeBoy 1]

I absolutely loathed the DH2 in the RB3D days. It was stupid looking, slow as molasses, horrible to drive, and fodder for anything with a gun, maybe even a rock (just finished watching Braveheart on TV ).

 

Ok, I've made a rule for myself that I am not going to start a campaign (I've started one twice now and quit for several reasons, mostly technical problems) for two months while I play QC exclusively and spend at least an hour or two in every plane in the game. Naturally I started with the D7 so I could build up some positive encouragement while I'm getting used to things. That was a blast! After that, I thought "I should just get this DH2 bathtub thing out of the way now while I'm in such a good mood."

 

I gotta tell you, this thing is a hoot! Now, I don't mean to dis RB3D here. It's just that it's 2009 and that was 1999. The main difference (besides the truly beautiful graphics) is TrackIR and a honest-to-goodness rudder axis. I had rudder pedals back then but RB3D did not support a rudder axis so you had to configure your pedals to send out the keeboard commands for left and right rudder. That was most inadequate! Force feedback makes a huge difference in this game too as you can stay right on the edge as the rattle lets you know just where that edge is! Fantastic! The key to flying the DH2 (IMHO all the WW1 birds for that matter, especially the early ones) is good rudder control. In fact, my observation has been that rudder gets more and more important the further back you go in time. When I fly the F-15 in LockOn, I hardly touch the rudder at all, a little more in the P-51D Mustang, and almost constantly in the WW1 crates. I was excited when I read a confirmation of that in Wolfgang Langewiesche's "Stick And Rudder."

 

Gosh I'm such a nerd!

 

I built a QC dogfight with a DH2 late model and a wingman going against five Alb II's (veterans). I crashed on take-off a couple of times, spun it into the ground more than a couple of times, and got shot down more times than that. I am so good now at creating a new pilot, I don't even have to look at the screen while I'm doing it! With each flight, I got more and more hooked. This thing is really fun! To stay on the "edge", you have got to coordinate rudder just right and pay very close attention to attitude, airspeed, etc. It requires total concentration and all the piloting skills I have and then some! When I finally got away to take a break, I told my wife "This DH2 is more like real flying than anything I've done in years!" She just gave me that blank look of course, but I digress. Eventually, I had a flight where my wingman and I cleared the skies of nasty Albs and I was in a pool of sweat. I had to take a break a few minutes and towel off!

 

BTW, I believe this is the best AI I have played against in a computer game. I have been playing Aces High for some ten years now playing against other humans so I haven't faced AI all that much. However, I have played games where the developers, probably sensitive to all the crap they get about how bad the AI is, make them so hard that they do all this quite impossible stuff (magic turns, zoom climbs, etc) and you can't beat them. My hat's off to the OFF guys for a super job on these AI. I haven't seen them do anything impossible yet. I do laugh though at how they want to stand on their tail and how easily they fall for the scissors and being jinked into hitting the ground. But heh, that's pretty impressive to get AI good enough that they put up the kind of fight they do. I think the AI is even better in 1.30 though I still prefer fighting veterans over aces as they seem to do fewer stupid things, especially at low altitude. (I tend to fly five feet off the deck.)

 

Man, I'm really rambling, sorry about that. I'll quit now. More reports to come. I am really getting hooked on this game!

-hb

[Interlocutor 0]

Yeah, I've been tempted by the DH2, too :yes: . In fact, in the very first "mission" I flew when I got OFF3 back in January, I created a pilot based at North Weald near London, took off in a DH2 and flew to London, and flew under London bridge...

 

Fun plane, the DH2. It makes me think of the epic duel between Hawker & Boelke.

[NS13Jarhead 6]

I've been a fan of OBD's DH-2 since the Phase 2 days (it was the first bird I flew). Once you get the hang of it, it's really kind of fun. I like the fact that there's no struts, motors, wires, etc, between you, the gunsight and target. The only thing that takes getting used to is the speed. It's almost like flying in slow motion. And in Phase 2, you couldn't hit "warp" until you hit 123 mph (nearly impossible in a DH-2) which made long missions quite miserable. So I'm thankful for that change in the new version. The only complaint I've got is that the single gun in the plane just doesn't seem to have enough punch. But I've been able to knock out my share of E.IIIs and even some D.IIs. Anything newer than that, and I've got a challenge on my hands just in trying to out maneuver them, let alone shooting them down.

 

I haven't flown a DH-2 in a while, maybe I'll go back to the beginning again and start all over.

[Burning Beard 14]

Heck,.... I liked the DH2 in Red Baron 1. :yes:

 

Beard

[BirdDogICT 3]

I absolutely loathed the DH2 in the RB3D days. It was stupid looking, slow as molasses, horrible to drive, and fodder for anything with a gun, maybe even a rock

 

Best part of theDH2 in RB3D was the spinning engine. Got me to thinking....with a total loss rotary engine, it was common for pilots to have chronic diarrhea from ingesting castor oil. The BIG ADVANTAGE of the push engine in the DH2 is that when you got shot down, you died with clean britches.

 

BTW, thanks for putting together the TrackIR setup guide. It really came in handy when customizing my profiles.

 

Cheers