Balloon Victories?

[Check Six 2]

I had my first balloon attack mission last night, and shook in my boots with nightmares about the RB balloon attack missions where the wingmen strafed the ground crew etc while the "Aces" attacked the balloon.

 

I was pleased to see that I was to lead this mission, as I might get a few rounds into a gas bag. I'd read a thread here (somewhere) where a pilot was complaining bitterly that he was certain that he shot down a balloon and wasn't presented with a claim form at the end of his mission. The reply from those of you in the know was that it was a "spotter" that he attacked as a target of opportunity on the way to or from his intended target or patrol route, and therefore didn't count.

 

So last night, I got in about 30-40 rounds at close range and had to pull up I ended up so close to it, and it exploded, and went down in flames (I took a screenshot of it as I was flying away, and haven't as yet had a look at it, as it was very late and I needed to get to bed). At the end of the successful flight, I was not presented with a claim form.

 

Are balloons in OFF valid targets when sent specifically on a balloon-busting mission? Perhaps the slight delay I experienced between pulling up and the explosion meant that in fact, my wingmen were also shooting at it, and it was one or both of them that took it out. I did check the ready room and saw both of my wingmen were aces with 7 and 5 kills respectively, and both had two claims pending (I haven't got any claims for this pilot yet). Although I couldn't seem to be able to "select target" on this balloon (can you select a balloon as a target, and how?), I did order my wingmen to "attack" when approaching it in a slight dive.

 

I'm not one to shirk my duty, even dangerous duty. Regardless of whether balloons are recorded as a victory or not, I am not one to refuse or reject the mission I'm ordered to fly for any reason.

 

I also was not shot at half as much as I remember from the old RB days, but I guess that is because for once I was at balloon height, not just above ground level shooting the poor ground crew, who gave as good as they got. (Oh, I did see tracers whizzing past me, but it didn't seem as bad as I remembered it...maybe it was the euphoria of the "kill").

 

Early days in Naval 8, RNAS Squadron, flying a 1 1/2 Strutter (later on I'll get to fly tripes - if I live) with my heroes. I am currently researching Australians who served in the RNAS and we are soon to be writing their biographies. I'm flying with the likes of Robert Alexander Little and Stanley James Goble. (I have the great honour to consider his son a personal friend, as he and I are both Co-Vice Presidents of the ASWW1AH - see website below for info). Later on...Richard Pearman Minifie, a real virtuoso of the Sopwith Tripe, and Australia's youngest ace.

[Olham 164]

Steve, I'm afraid you attacked another ballon; otherwise you would have got a kill claim form.

Best check your flight path (blue line in the TAC) to the target.

Then assign the target (I think, you must switch TAC to "vehicles"), if you want your wings to attack it; then

press "attack". If you want to attack it, you better only make sure it's the right one. Don't mark it, just fire at

the balloon, and press "return" (then the wingies don't seem to attack).

 

Which nation are you flying for? It might be, that some didn't regard balloon kills as victories? Pol?

[+Winder 32]

Steve, I'm afraid you attacked another ballon; otherwise you would have got a kill claim form.

Best check your flight path (blue line in the TAC) to the target.

Then assign the target (I think, you must switch TAC to "vehicles"), if you want your wings to attack it; then

press "attack". If you want to attack it, you better only make sure it's the right one. Don't mark it, just fire at

the balloon, and press "return" (then the wingies don't seem to attack).

 

Which nation are you flying for? It might be, that some didn't regard balloon kills as victories? Pol?

 

 

In P3 you can only claim a balloon if you are assigned a balloon attack mission.

 

I hope to expand this in P4.

 

WM

[Rickitycrate 10]

Ah... and there's that P4 reference again by the man himself...... bless ya.

[Waldemar Kurtz 1]

I still attack balloons even if they're not designated targets and it never goes into my score. I don't think I've ever had a confirmed victory over a balloon so I stopped worrying about it.

 

on recon patrols, if there's nothing else going on, and I haven't seen any enemy machines, I'll dive down and attack a balloon of opportunity. I figure they can at least add to my score in some small way.

[Waldemar Kurtz 1]

oddly enough, OFF isn't very eager to discourage you BEFORE you blow something up. I think this must be a hard-coded CFS3 problem. because I can vividly remember flying a Junkers Ju.88 in at low altitude and spamming bombs and rockets at a oil refinery over England at no more than 700 feet. you can bet if a real German twin-engined bomber was scraping the deck at 300 mph there would be a wall of flak so thick you could probably walk on it! but the guns didn't even open up until AFTER I had flattened over half of the refinery.

 

since balloons are actually ground targets-- I fear that OFF won't dish out preventative fire to keep you AWAY... it'll just open up with everything after you've made a pass at the target. although I do recall in earlier versions that I've had Fokker monoplanes turned into fiery cinders before I even reached the balloon--but for some reason machine guns almost never open fire until the balloon is already quite dead.

 

I'm still a novice at this game--but I bet other people have noticed this too. RB3d (especially with the later WFP modifications) had pretty nasty defensive machine gun fire. they'd tear your plane apart if you flew level towards a balloon. the downside of RB3D is that the machine guns could reach up to ridiculous altitudes and kill you. (sometimes between 3-4,000 feet, which was just not even possible).

 

in OFF you have to be pretty low in order to get killed instantly by ground fire. so, in this respect, it's a bit more realistic than RB3d...although both games have the balloons being a bit too easy to destroy. this is probably one of those few areas where I feel RB3d surpasses OFF.

[Check Six 2]

Herr Olham,

 

I did mention that I was flying for the RNAS, and that it was an assigned balloon busting mission. I did attack the correct balloon I'm certain, as it was at the end of the blue waypoint line. Yes, you are correct, you must target it in the vehicles TAC window. It must have been my wingmen that were successful in that instance, or that the Brits don't count balloons, even if they are your assigned target. Never mind, the mission objective was achieved.

 

I flew for the German side for the first time last night

 

as I just had to try out a Fokker DVII. Brilliant aircraft.

 

However, I was shot down after my first mission (a balloon busting mission - that's how I knew you were right about the targetting in vehicles window).

 

 

Well protected by the very service I usually fly for (I research these chaps and I feel like I know them...I certainly know the Australians anyway). I was shot down and captured after taking out my target. Despite being in captivity until war's end, I was still asked to file a claim form. So there you have it. Either my wingmen were successful the first time (I doubt it) or the British don't count balloons, even when they are your assigned target.

 

I was taken out by a better man, one of my Aussie heroes in the RNAS, Stan Dallas. Another tripe virtuoso.

 

 

 

A picture of his grave in Pernes, France. No-one knows who took the photo or laid the tribute at his grave. They won't admit to it. In the foreground is his biography, written by my friend Adrian Hellwig. I must in all modesty add that the photo of Stan's grave included in Adrian's book is taken by me when I paid my tributes there (Adrian credits me in the acknowledgements as assisting a great deal in providing him with information).

Adrian is now working on a biography of Robert Alexander Little, and I'm providing him with all my info on him.

[Olham 164]

Hey, Steve - that Smiley with the German "Pickelhaube" is cute! Is it among the emoticons here?

 

Yes, the Aussies seem to have been great soldiers in WW1. An Australian machine gunner seems to have

downed the great MvR; and they performed the burial ceremony for him very good.

 

I see you're the vice-president of the Australian Society WW1 Aero Historians.

Perhaps you can get hold on some pics of that Albatros, that got shipped to Down Under?

I want to visit some sites of aerodromes too, maybe by train and bicycle next summer.

Edited June 22, 2009 by Olham

[chrispdm1 1]

THe other thing that happens quite a bit is that the balloons gets shot down by ground fire accidentally... As you attack they start to shoot at you and inadvertently hit the balloon. It doesn't take much to down it.. just a close ack ack burst will do it.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Incidentally, I have just found the location of the xdp files which you can open with a text editor to increase the hit points for observation balloons so they don't get destroyed so easily. I doubled the hit points from 20 to 40 in my installation and will report back later to give you my observations.

 

You can find the files here: OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\vehicles Look for the following folders: a_obs_balloon, g_obs_balloon, and h_obs_balloon. Open the folder and then open the .xdp file to alter the hit points.

[Check Six 2]

Hey, Steve - that Smiley with the German "Pickelhaube" is cute! Is it among the emoticons here?

 

Yes, the Aussies seem to have been great soldiers in WW1. An Australian machine gunner seems to have

downed the great MvR; and they performed the burial ceremony for him very good.

 

I see you're the vice-president of the Australian Society WW1 Aero Historians.

Perhaps you can get hold on some pics of that Albatros, that got shipped to Down Under?

I want to visit some sites of aerodromes too, maybe by train and bicycle next summer.

 

Olham,

 

The Pickelhaube emoticon, plus the spandau, plus the Lewis were all imported from another site (I think "The Aerodrome") from someone's else's post. I just thought they were appropriate for here. I ...errr...borrowed them, so I can't see any problem in anyone taking them for their own use.

 

http://www.awm.gov.au/visit/visit-mustsee-overthefront.asp

 

The Albatros Dva and four other aircraft, a Pfalz DXII, an SE5a, an Airco DH9, and an Avro 504K trainer are in a permanent display at the Australian War Memorial. I visited the Treloar Centre and had a look around whilst they were being restored, and again as they were finished and before they were positioned in the display. There is also (by all accounts) a superb film being used as background. This film was made by Peter Jackson, the world renowned director of (amongst others) King Kong and The Lord Of The Rings. Peter Jackson is, by the way, a member of our Society, and quite a WW1 aviation buff. He is very active in accurate reconstruction of WW1 craft and donates these aircraft to places such as Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre.

 

Our Society lent the photographs of the original restoration of these aircraft (in the 1960's I believe) to the War Memorial to guide them through the present restoration, and we have only just received them back into our library. I must get a loan of them soon and have a look.

 

I know I'm going to be laughed at, but I'm the ONLY one I know that hasn't been down to Canberra to see the display. I took some time off work in November of last year to go to the opening, but the timing was too tight, and I couldn't make it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it will be a permanent display. I have taken some leave off in August, and plan to go for a long ride on my motorcycle. It's going to be cold, and it's a superbike, not a cruiser, so it will be uncomfortable, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

 

I'll certainly take some pics while I'm there. In the meantime, I'll find some I took of the finished product before display, and post them here. I'll also borrow the photos of the restoration to see if any are suitable for posting here.

[Olham 164]

Great, Steve, looking forward to that. A Pfalz DXII - must be very rare!

 

If you meet Peter Jackson, please tell him, that he could make all us WW1 aircraft fans extremely happy,

if he would make a WW1 movie. I think, everyone here knows, admires and loves his works.

He would be the PERFECT man to do this job.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Back on topic. I think I have been able to succesfully modify the files so that balloons should be harder to shoot down now. To do this, go to OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\vehicles and open the following folders: a_obs_balloon, g_obs_balloon, and h_obs_balloon. Then, open and edit the .xdp file inside each folder.

 

For some unknown reason, you have to increase the a_obs_balloon.xdp and the h_obs_balloon.xdp point values from 20 to 200, while the g_obs_balloon.xdp points need only to be increased to 100, or else the balloon becomes almost indestructible. I guess German engineering really IS better!

 

On a side note, I was wondering if moving these folders to the aircraft folder would result in all balloons destroyed by the player as counting as kills instead of only the one actually assigned in a balloon busting mission? Devs?

[Olham 164]

Herr Prop-Wasche I guess German engineering really IS better!

 

Wouldn't go that far - but when I flew a British Tripe campaing, I had two balloon attacks to do,

and both times, I had to make 4 attacks and to fire more than half of my rounds into them, before they blew up.

[Check Six 2]

Great, Steve, looking forward to that. A Pfalz DXII - must be very rare!

 

If you meet Peter Jackson, please tell him, that he could make all us WW1 aircraft fans extremely happy,

if he would make a WW1 movie. I think, everyone here knows, admires and loves his works.

He would be the PERFECT man to do this job.

 

 

Olham,

 

Yes, the Pfalz is extremely rare, I believe it to be the only example anywhere. For further details about this particular aircraft...

 

http://cas.awm.gov.au/technology/RELAWM04805

 

A poorly taken picture is on a new thread, plus some others of the Albatros Dva etc.

 

All members of our Society are continually harrassing Peter to make an epic WW1 aviation related film. His reply is usually the same..."One day". I don't know whether he is waiting for the right story to tell, or awaiting completion of any of his restoration/rebuild projects. The best guess is that it will be an anniversary project (so expect something about 2014-2018). I know. Long wait huh? SIGH!

[Olham 164]

A good story would be the greatest problem. Most air combat movies have a sideline love story, that doesn't seem to fit really.

But this director has been able to show a superiour form of love between a giant gorilla and a young woman. And it worked.

THAT was the most artistic thing about King Kong IMHO.

So he is right - as long as there isn't a reasonable story, it doesn't make sense. Let's hope, he'll find one!

Edited June 23, 2009 by Olham

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Has anyone else tried the new obs balloon settings? The files are easy to edit, and if you don't like the changes, are simple to change back again.

[Duce Lewis 3]

All members of our Society are continually harrassing Peter to make an epic WW1 aviation related film. His reply is usually the same..."One day". I don't know whether he is waiting for the right story to tell, or awaiting completion of any of his restoration/rebuild projects. The best guess is that it will be an anniversary project (so expect something about 2014-2018). I know. Long wait huh? SIGH!

Now there's some good news

It's a long wait, but to see a really well crafted WWI air movie

[Burning Beard 14]

There is a Pfalz DXII hanging in the Smithsonian NASM.

 

Beard