Pre-OFF purchase. Some questions.

[jaa 0]

Hi,

 

I have just bought CFS3 ready to buy OFF. (Thanks for putting the price down to $29.99 - this makes it a typical triple-AAA software price once tax and P&P is put on for the UK.)

 

The trouble is, I am having real difficulty flying the WWII planes. I don't want to purchase OFF if I am going to have a similar problem with that. I want my flight model at a minimum of medium difficulty so I can do some of the fancy stuff like stall-turns.

 

My problems.

 

Landing: I am at about a 50% success rate. I am having difficulty spotting the runway, too far away, so am having to make major adjustments too close to touchdown. This added to my flight difficulties (detailed below) makes for a very frustrating game.

 

Flight: Some of the WW2 planes need serious rudder just to keep the plane straight on take-off. Fair enough. But once airborne the plane becomes uncontrollable. Instead of concentrating on combat, I am trying to keep my plane in a vague direction of the enemy.

 

Sometimes I am on a levelish attack but turning with airlion and a bit of rudder, and then flip and have to get out of a stall. I don't feel i am fighting the enemy, I seem to be fighting my own plane.

 

I need to eat copious amounts of raw coffee just to be hyper enough to react to the erratic activities of my plane.

 

Does this happen in OFF?

 

(One note - In one scenario in MAW I am flying a bi-plane and dont seem to have any problem controlling my plane at all. I can even land on a postage stamp. Although I can't find how to turn off my engine - anyone know?)

 

So my questions are, does anyone else have these problems in the WW2 CFS3 or is that just me? (I think my German plane was a BF??? something-or-other and my english plane a typhoon.)

 

Does this erratic flight model happen in OFF? (My flight sim experience up to now was Red Baron for the early PC. I did not have any of these problems before.)

 

Also, in an OFF campaign do you choose missions like CFS3 or are they assigned like RB. (I think the latter is more realistic.)

 

Yours with confusion and coffee withdrawl,

 

JAA

 

PS. My joystick is less than a month old and in perfect working order on every other game I own. Its a Logitech Extreme 3D pro.

[Pappy55 1]

I have only had OFF 2 days and I can Fly and Land.. just make sure you approach SLOW and glide the last part, touch down at the start of the field.. These crates dont have brakes.. Its not hard learning curve for basic flight is a few hours or less.

 

Combat is HARD althought I just "almost" downaed the special red DR1 set to ACE with 100% realism HUZZAH! I was with him for ages and shook him twice in my trusty (Niuport 17) I crashed after I went into a spin recovedrd at the last second and only cliped my wing then dediced to land quick because the plane was almost uncontrolable. couldent lose the speed in time and she collapsed after touchdown..

 

As other will say or may have alrteady posted to say.. Do your self a favour and use a Track IR.. makes the looking around searching chore nautral and fun. Believe me when I say looking abot easily is a must.

 

A few tips..

 

1. In a fight NEVER I repeat NEVER fly stright for more than a few seconds

2. Keep looking.. if you lose him keep turning about and trying to find him

3. Paitiance.. "Sooo Gooo on and do not stop till his tails are near your prop" :) get in close and use 2-3 second bursts

 

If you are already a sim fan or intrested in aerial combat you will/should know this

 

EDIT*

 

As for campaign the missions are issued to you like in RB.. weather permitting ;)

Edited June 19, 2009 by Pappy55

[Dej 17]

Hi,

 

I have just bought CFS3 ready to buy OFF. (Thanks for putting the price down to $29.99 - this makes it a typical triple-AAA software price once tax and P&P is put on for the UK.)

 

The trouble is, I am having real difficulty flying the WWII planes. I don't want to purchase OFF if I am going to have a similar problem with that. I want my flight model at a minimum of medium difficulty so I can do some of the fancy stuff like stall-turns.

 

My problems.

 

Landing: I am at about a 50% success rate. I am having difficulty spotting the runway, too far away, so am having to make major adjustments too close to touchdown. This added to my flight difficulties (detailed below) makes for a very frustrating game.

 

Flight: Some of the WW2 planes need serious rudder just to keep the plane straight on take-off. Fair enough. But once airborne the plane becomes uncontrollable. Instead of concentrating on combat, I am trying to keep my plane in a vague direction of the enemy.

 

Sometimes I am on a levelish attack but turning with airlion and a bit of rudder, and then flip and have to get out of a stall. I don't feel i am fighting the enemy, I seem to be fighting my own plane.

 

I need to eat copious amounts of raw coffee just to be hyper enough to react to the erratic activities of my plane.

 

Does this happen in OFF?

 

(One note - In one scenario in MAW I am flying a bi-plane and dont seem to have any problem controlling my plane at all. I can even land on a postage stamp. Although I can't find how to turn off my engine - anyone know?)

 

So my questions are, does anyone else have these problems in the WW2 CFS3 or is that just me? (I think my German plane was a BF??? something-or-other and my english plane a typhoon.)

 

Does this erratic flight model happen in OFF? (My flight sim experience up to now was Red Baron for the early PC. I did not have any of these problems before.)

 

Also, in an OFF campaign do you choose missions like CFS3 or are they assigned like RB. (I think the latter is more realistic.)

 

Yours with confusion and coffee withdrawl,

 

JAA

 

PS. My joystick is less than a month old and in perfect working order on every other game I own. Its a Logitech Extreme 3D pro.

 

Hi Jaa, welcome to the forum,

 

Different people have had slightly different experiences with the flight models in OFF so this is only my take and may not be true of everyone.

 

I don't have any of the erraticness you are experiencing in CFS. The aircraft in OFF for me are generally consistent with the reports on their true life counterparts in terms of docility or viciousness, easiness or otherwise to fly. They are certainly consistent in themselves, i.e. they don't do one thing one flight and something else the next. There have been some lengthy discussions about one or two aspects, e.g. the stalling speed of the SPAD XIII, but for the most part people seem happy.

 

You don't say how realistic you have you flight mode set in CFS but assuming it's full real are you trimming and untrimming your aircraft? Bring up the control config. screen when you're on the airfield and check the keys if not. To turn your engine off in OFF I use CTRL+SHIFT+F6 which is Mixture Idle Cut-off I suppose it'll be the same in CFS though I confess I've hardly played it.

[jaa 0]

Thanks for your tips.

 

I don't mind the combat being hard, in fact that is one of the things I like about what I have heard about OFF compared to others. I want this to be the closest thing to the real thing. I want a kill to be earned not expected. I want to be REALLY p*ssed of when my claim is rejected (ala George Peppard in Blue Max). When the latter happens I want to be in a mood for a few days.

 

But at the same time I want a level playing field. When the enemy is turning and controlling his plane like a Pro to avoid my fire, I want to have the same control over my plane. I don't want to be fighting my plane to do simple airlion-rudder turns. I want to be able to land my plane with a near 100% chance like in RB. I dont want to shut off any realism either so I cant do pro moves like stall-turns. From what you have said it seems ok.

 

I cant afford TrackIR but that is ok as I am ok with my joystick's hat-switch. Compare to my old RB days this is a luxury.

 

Also, good news about the RB style missions. CFS3's choice of mission was a bit stupid. Oh, today I will go on a chocolate Hob-Nob eating mission!!!

 

Another question. In CFS3 I am some lowly private but am team leader telling all the pros what to do. (Also I appear to be directing the land war??????) WTF. Does this happen in OFF? It's very annoying.

 

 

JAA

[Pappy55 1]

Thanks for your tips.

 

I don't mind the combat being hard, in fact that is one of the things I like about what I have heard about OFF compared to others. I want this to be the closest thing to the real thing. I want a kill to be earned not expected. I want to be REALLY p*ssed of when my claim is rejected (ala George Peppard in Blue Max). When the latter happens I want to be in a mood for a few days.

 

But at the same time I want a level playing field. When the enemy is turning and controlling his plane like a Pro to avoid my fire, I want to have the same control over my plane. I don't want to be fighting my plane to do simple airlion-rudder turns. I want to be able to land my plane with a near 100% chance like in RB. I dont want to shut off any realism either so I cant do pro moves like stall-turns. From what you have said it seems ok.

 

I cant afford TrackIR but that is ok as I am ok with my joystick's hat-switch. Compare to my old RB days this is a luxury.

 

Also, good news about the RB style missions. CFS3's choice of mission was a bit stupid. Oh, today I will go on a chocolate Hob-Nob eating mission!!!

 

Another question. In CFS3 I am some lowly private but am team leader telling all the pros what to do. (Also I appear to be directing the land war??????) WTF. Does this happen in OFF? It's very annoying.

 

 

JAA

 

Nope you get you mission orders and flight assignments and your off

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Hi JAA

 

I know where your coming from on the CFS3 aircraft's take off roll!.... It's pretty unsettling!

 

I find taking off in OFF is easier than that!...Once you are on full power in, say, a Sopwith Camel...you are airborne pretty quickly...and as it's a 'field' rather than a 'Runway'...it isn't generally the end of the world if you go off tack slightly! (just try not to run into a wingman!)

 

I am sure, with a bit of practice...you will be taking off like an old timer!

[Check Six 2]

jaa,

 

To reflect what other posters have been saying here, and in answer to your questions...

 

These aircraft are modelled well, they are WW1 canvas and string kites with underpowered engines. They take off slow, they stall easily. Their cruising speed is generally less than 100 mph. So you're going to have to modify your flying habits.

 

As UK_Widowmaker pointed out, you're taking off from a field, not a runway, so a little bit left or right is no big deal (and the same goes for landing). Like he suggested, just don't crash into your wingmen. I start my engine and wait for the others to have taxied past me about 10 meters before I gun the motor and start my take off. You'll find that generally, your fellow flight members wait for you to land before they attempt it, so it's no problem there, except you have no brakes. The trick is to turn your mixture to "Mixture Idle Cut-off" (Ctrl+Shift+F6 - suggest you use your keyboard to use these keys...you don't want to map that keyset to a hotkey on your joystick that you can hit accidentally in combat - I have mine mapped to my throttle so I won't hit it accidentally).

 

A lot of WW2 combat planes were designed with the most powerful engines they could fit into that airframe, or designed the smallest, most manoeuvrable airframe around a powerful engine. Because of this, they had a lot of turning torque, and could "get away from you" easily on take-off. These aircraft in OFF are generally easier, you might have to be careful taking off in a Camel, but the rest are pretty easy. Perhaps you should start with a bomber, they are much more stable and sedate. Once you get used to them, it's easier.

 

The missions assigned to you in OFF are very much like in RBII or RB3D. They can be balloon protection or attack, patrol behind enemies lines or your own, lone wolf missions, escort missions, ground attack and more. You can choose to ALWAYS be the flight leader, or select "By Rank", in which case, you will follow a higher ranked pilot in your flight. If you choose "By Rank" you may still be required to lead a mission. The only real difference is that you can target an enemy and order your flight to "Attack", or you can order them to "Rejoin" or "Split" or "Help".

 

I recently got my first ever set of rudder pedals, and wanted to learn to fly with them PROPERLY instead of flying like a fighter pilot, where erratic movement can save your life. So I reloaded M$ Flight Simulator X. There is a "Learning Centre" there that has Pilot Lessons. That might be helpful in learning the aerodynamics of flight, and why you stall etc, and this will help you become a better pilot, and hopefully survive longer than the requisite 17 hours.

 

I understand you said you can't afford TrackIR, but I seriously recommend you do a lot of overtime or sell a kidney or whatever it is that you need to get enough bucks to afford this invaluable tool. Well worth every cent.

 

Hope that lot helps.

[Fortiesboy 3]

I think the problem may be emanating from your settings in CFS3.

 

Go into Controls and look at your joysticks sensitivity and the null sizes in the Axes sensitivity section.

 

You have to get these to your liking. I find the default null sizes make the joystick do weird things like not controlling , then suddenly over controlling.?

 

Once you have things set up right, you should be able to fly OK , if you have flown RB all right.

 

HTH

[+Polovski 414]

Just to add as per the features list on the website, OFF has it's own WW1 campaign manager which is NOT CFS3's campaign engine at all.. it is written especially to handle WW1 campaign for OFF.

http://www.overflandersfields.com/Features.htm