spotting aircraft

[Olham 164]

UncleAl: Thats sure to cause havoc for the DiD boys

 

Absolutely right. That's why I should say, archie, where archie belongs. I found it always dense enough

over cities, airfields and army camps. And inbetween - well, there was no archie really, or am I wrong?

[Guest British_eh]

carrick58 "I'm going to get some flak (sadly, pun intended...) for bringing this up again, but if the AAA/archie was more active and concentrated (as it was historically"

 

Actually the FLAK as it is portrayed in P3 is quite accurate. Flak, as separate from ground fire, did not, in 1914 to early 1918, cause to much problem for the pilots. It certainly notified others where there may be aircraft, and I think P3 does this quite well. Should you wish peruse in a more detailed fashion rurther historical data on flak, and you haven't yet read Bletchley's diologe, then I would highly recommend it.

 

Regards,

 

British_eh

[Guest British_eh]

More: From an earlier forum topic:

 

Bletchley :

Since writing the article that tttiger refers to above (quite a long time ago) I have been able to look closely at further data sources, for French and German as well as British, and can say with some confidence that pilot losses to AAA were approximately 8% to 9% of the total combat losses (this excludes losses as a result of accidents). This means that out of 100 pilots lost in combat, 8-9 were lost to AAA, and a similar number were lost to ground fire. This is an average for the whole period of the war - there were obviously peaks and troughs, and seasonal variations.

 

I don't have any problems with the current AI Gun Fire (Range) settings, as they can be varied. They seem about right to me, so far. I have seen aircraft shot down on the easy setting, and the AAA seems deadly enough on the hard setting. I have been flying with the "easy" setting in 1915, and the "normal" setting in 1916-1917. The flak bursts seem to me to be reasonably grouped - I can usually get a good general idea of where the e/a are from the bursts, even on "easy", and I doubt if they could be grouped any more tightly without making them also more effective. I think the setting also effects the range at which AI pilots open fire, so keeping the setting to easy-normal prevents the kind of accurate long-range mg fire from AI pilots that have been complained about in the past. I am still getting a feel for it in the later years of the war (I have been flying mostly 1915/16), so the "hard" option is still there if "normal" starts to feel too inneffective in the later war period of 1918.

 

Bletchley

[carrick58 23]

Hmm - you have the TAC ("Radar") on? Perhaps you have it set to show all targets?

Press "T" until you see "aircraft" - then Ctr.+Shift+T, to set the distance you want it to work in.

I have mine set to 4 miles, as that is the distance I can really see aircraft.

 

An RE8 should NEVER get one of my beloved Albatros by surprise - NEVER! Lol!

 

 

Still dont get the tac. When you see a blip on the tac at 12 o clock is that in front of u ? and can it tell what height the blip is at? Been turning alot whenever a blip appears and I have been spotting the attacks to the rear of the aircraft.

[77Scout 3]

When you see a blip on the tac at 12 o clock is that in front of u ?

Can it tell what height the blip is at?

 

Yes, the TAC is oriented to your aircraft so 12 oclock on the TAC is always where your nose is pointing.

 

No, the TAC gives no info on height.

[77Scout 3]

More concentrated will make player die in Flak more easily - is that what we want?

 

WM

 

I think the bulk of OFF's core users want the sim to remain as close to real life as possible (although I realize that you have to also appeal to the masses if you want to sell more copies), and my personnal preference is to continue to base all decisions on duplicating historical and factual conditions, as you have done to great effect in the past.

 

That said, things that make OFF more fun or easier for people to enjoy are great and should be added whenever possible. I think one of the great things about OFF has been the options to select easy-medium-realistic settings in the workshop settings, allowing for everyone to be happy, and if you continue to stick with that approach you can't go wrong.

[Waldemar Kurtz 1]

I fly with the labels on, to be honest. about half the time I turn them off when combat commences-- just so I can figure out what's going on. labels can obscure the target. my computer isn't that high-tech, so I use the labels to see enemys that my box won't even animate--because I have all the graphic settings set pretty low.

 

anti-aircraft fire can be used to find enemy machines. I usually LISTEN for them and then start sweeping areas that I know are going to be targets... like front line positions, cities, or aerodromes.

 

since I use TAC, it's much easier to find out where the archie is bursting.

 

but the lables are useful because while I easily recognize hundreds of paint schemes and squadron colors-- I can't remember them all THAT quickly. so I use this to help me ID enemy machines.

 

I'll alternate between the "Scroll Lock" positions every so often. this allows me to quick-check my six and wings. but at other times I'll want to use the joystick to scroll around the cockpit. another method is to adjust the point-of-view.

 

I usually try to have it set as high and as far back as possible for a little while (it's like standing up in the cockpit, which some people obviously did). this allows me to scroll around in the cockpit and look for ground targets/landmarks, look over the sides of the wings and fuselage. and it allows me to look over the top wing (which is where most of my enemies seem to show up). you can always jump back to the default position by the key commands "spacebar" "shift" and "ctrl" (aka "sit down")

 

another tip is this-- the longer it takes your mission to load properly after the debriefing, the higher the probability that you will run into enemy machines. if it jumps straight into the mission the odds are that you won't see anything! which means you can focus on ground attack or just keeping an eye out on enemy ground activity.

 

I wish I could remember all of the key commands and quote them to you here. but press "Esc" and it will call up the pull-down menu. then you can just look through all of the key commands in the appropriate spot.

 

find out what works best for you by experimentation and getting killed a lot! ;)