Claim report details and cryptic map numbers

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Well, happy to report that Fritz Von Schtusselheimer has successfully completed 4 missions! Turning the outcomes to: Easy-Die Roll on Death, sure has helped! I've survived 2 crashes, one of them a landing. heh!

I've actually shot some planes down, but got 2 of them denied, due to lack of corroboration, even tho both were behind my lines, and my entire flight not only witnessed them, but survived as well.

 

I did a search and read many of the threads on claims, but I guess I'm missing something. Thought I'd post my descriptions here to see where you all might be able to give me some pointers.

 

26/3/1918 12h14 Verdun Mars-sous-Bourcq Patrol Enemy Front Lines Flying: Albatros DVa. On this day claims: 1 Nieuport 17 . I dove over the nieuport 17, guns blazing, and hit his tail rudder, and wings, sending him into a flat spin. Enemy went down at N49, E4, 2 miles south of Argonne. Carl-August Guhike saw the whole thing.. Witnessed by: Squadron Witness Franz Von Liebau Status : Rejected .

 

13/4/1918 9h2 Verdun Mars-sous-Bourcq Balloon Defense Flying: Albatros DVa. On this day claims: 1 Single Seater Type. Spad 7 pulled up in front of me, I fired into his wing destroying it, and hitting the pilot. Altitude was 3150, site of dogfight was 20 miles east of Argonne. Wingman Franz von Liebau saw it, as did Martin Schreiber.. Witnessed by: Squadron Witness Carl-August Guhike flight leader Status : Rejected .

 

4/5/1918 13h0 Verdun Mars-sous-Bourcq Reconnaisance Flying: Albatros DVa. On this day claims: 1 Single Seater Type. Spad 7 from the Esquadrille 124 was shot down 15 miles south west of Porcher. It was raining, and cloudy. Visibility semi-clear. Plane went into a flat spin and crashed behind our front lines.. Witnessed by: Squadron Witness Flight Leader Carl-August Guhike Status : Pending .

 

 

 

Interestingly, there is no plane in the menu for Spad 7, only spad 13 and "single seater type", so I put that.

I tried altitude, etc...

What else can I add, and am I even doing it right?

 

Also, on the map (thanks for the heads up on zoom in/out Steve Drew!), there are some cryptic map numbers that look like:

N49*1'33.0251"

E5*40'26.0516"

I was thinking this was lattitude and longitude...but ?

 

And...finally, is there a scale of miles? I saw a funny stick/tree like thing, which I'm assuming is a town, that said "porcher" when I put my mouse pointer over it. I just guessed I was about 15 miles from it, tho I have no scale.

 

Any help is appreciated greatly!

 

 

...Although I understand if you dont want to help. You see, Fritz is a bit of a coward. During this last flight, He lost my flight wing, and when he shot down that spad 7, his 4 buddies (also in Spads) got really irritated and all ganged up on me. Shots hit me from all over. I thought "this is IT maverick!", but then I saw a friendly airfield, slowed down and let the spads zip by, and landed on the field (yes, this is one of the few landings I've actually MADE!). Quickly I hit escape, and ended the mission.

After losing 20 other pilot friends (some of them english, but none of them French) over the last week, Fritz is a bit skittish about dying. So if you dont want to help, I/WE understand. Perhaps after my next flight, when I dont make it home, someone can write my family....

Edited July 15, 2009 by Broadside uda Barn

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Sadly, Fritz crashed behind enemy lines and was captured and in prison for the rest of the war.

 

Is there anyway to find out if his pending claims will be confirmed?

[Winston DoRight 3]

You'll need a better "story" to get more reliable confirmations. Check this thread for some ideas: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=43043

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

This is such an awesome game!

 

Thanks Winson! BTW, are you related to Dudly?

[Olham 164]

Fritz Von Schtusselheimer Hahaha!!! These "Hollywood Baron" names you guys come up with - phantastic!

 

BuB, you must get the names right, I think. Carl-August Guhike saw the whole

I'm pretty sure, his family name should be "Guhlke" with an "L"; maybe his first name was Karl, not Carl?

There is another name, that even I as a German, got wrong for some time - Wittkowski. I read: Willkowski.

If you don't get them right, how could the program identify them?

 

I think, apart from that, your reports should do.

But you must know, that we Germans have a lot of our claims rejected. Even OvS, one of the devs flying

German side, has many rejected.

Edited July 15, 2009 by Olham

[Check Six 2]

BuB,

 

The map that you pulled up has a scale on the top left. It says (for example) map is 80NM across. You are in the centre of the map, so you just have to guage how far away any particular town is. The figures you quoted were in fact Lat and Long. Sometimes Lat and Long is displayed in Minutes and Seconds

N49*1'33.0251"

E5*40'26.0516"

as that is. Sometimes it is displayed as decimal. I have trouble also trying to work out what Lat and Long to quote, and exactly how to write it (as you can't use degrees symbol).

 

There have been a few posts where the mention is made that lower case "a" and "o" look very similar on the duty room board (turn on labels in flight to see a different font displayed to check if unsure), and I believe the devs have taken this on board and have fixed it, perhaps for Phase 4, maybe a patch. You have to be carfeul in writing down the names of your fellow flight members for this reason.

 

If you land at a friendly aerodrome, you can change views (F4) until you have a target view, and watch the enemy planes stunt over you, but they won't shoot (I hope, they didn't shoot at me anyway). Then watch the aerodrome ground crews shoot at them until they are discouraged enough or shot down. You can of course, choose to end your mission there and then, or re-start your engine and head for home. (I like to end at my aerodrome). The only time I tried this, I watched them stunt and dive but weren't getting hit too often as I was at the other end of the aerodrome, so I started up and began taxiing, did a ground loop, and died.

Edited July 15, 2009 by Steve Drew

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

I found a great use for my 2nd monitor: I open a word document and just copy and paste my flight pilot names into it, while OFF is still running. Winston's thread helped as well.

 

Too bad we cant save information in the flight log, but instead it only saves in the claim form...

[Check Six 2]

Broadside,

 

You might also try a screenshot of the "Mission Briefing". Gives you the names of Flight 1 pilots, and your Flight if you click again. Location of your target if any, mission type, expected duration, Map, take off time etc. All great stuff for a Pilot's Log.

 

I don't think you can take a screenshot using the key command specified in OFF unless you're in the air. I tried to take screenshots of a pilot that I wanted to retire (as he was deceased and I didn't want him to take up space. If you restart the game, and have to select an active pilot, scrolling through a ton of dead guys isn't fun). I had success with the "Print Screen" key on my keyboard, and cutting and pasting to Paint Program.

 

That might help you with what you need.

 

And I have received a claim form as a POW for the duration, as opposed to one who escaped a few weeks later (and my pilots can, AND DO, die). I can't say whether or not you can get confirmation, as I retired this pilot as he could never become active. Perhaps his claim would always be pending as far as his pilot's log was concerned.

Edited July 15, 2009 by Steve Drew

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

BuB,

 

The map that you pulled up has a scale on the top left. It says (for example) map is 80NM across. You are in the centre of the map, so you just have to guage how far away any particular town is. The figures you quoted were in fact Lat and Long. Sometimes Lat and Long is displayed in Minutes and Seconds

N49*1'33.0251"

E5*40'26.0516"

as that is. Sometimes it is displayed as decimal. I have trouble also trying to work out what Lat and Long to quote, and exactly how to write it (as you can't use degrees symbol).

 

 

Steve--So that would be 80 nautical miles?

 

Also, is it necessary to write out the lat. and longitude? It's so tedious while in flight to do it...not fun.

[Winston DoRight 3]

..... is it necessary to write out the lat. and longitude? It's so tedious while in flight to do it...not fun.

 

Not necessary. Just something like "southwest of Douai airfield" will do nicely.

[Hasse Wind 46]

There is another name, that even I as a German, got wrong for some time - Wittkowski. I read: Willkowski.

If you don't get them right, how could the program identify them?

 

Hah! What a coincidence! My current wingman in MFJ I is Leutnant zur See Ernst Wittkowski. Guess what: I also thought for many missions it was Willkowski and wrote that name on several claim forms. But I did get about 75% of those claims confirmed, even though the name was spelled wrong.

[Olham 164]

Perhaps you had more witnesses with correct names?

Yes, the type style for the blackboard is not too well to read. The "t" and "l" look too similar,

if one isn't German speaking.

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

In the claim form, after witnesses it says:

Quantity, then aircraft, then cirucmstances.

Do I need to make a heading for each kill? Our flight hit a group of 7 Alb D.Vs from Jasta 3. I downed 2 of them. Then later, we ran into another group from Jasta 3, this time a bunch of aces (like 3 of the flight had names, instead of standard "Alb D.V", so I'm assuming they were aces?

Anyway, I downed 2 of that flight as well.

 

So do I make 4 separate entries, of quantity 1,

2 entries of quantity 2,

or 1 entry of quantity 4, all with the specifics of each kill?

 

thanks!

 

BuB

[Olham 164]

You can do as you like - as long as the type is the same, you can write them all into one line.

But for better 'Looks' I would prefer to write two lines; one for each Jasta.

 

When I'm not sure, how many I killed (in dense battle, Labels and TAC off), I write several lines.

When then the message says "erronneus", I erase the last line. If it's erroneus again, I erase another,

until it get's accepted.

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

You can do as you like - as long as the type is the same, you can write them all into one line.

But for better 'Looks' I would prefer to write two lines; one for each Jasta.

 

 

turns out it was teh same Jasta.

 

Here's my entry for all 4 kills:

 

10/10/1917 12h36 Flanders Droglandt Patrol Enemy Front Lines Flying: Sopwith Camel. On this day claims: 4 Alb DV . Dan Cudney was my wingman and flight leader. We took off from Droglandt at 12h35 and encounted 2 flights of Alb D.Vs. At 12:55 zulu time we came across 7 Alb D.Vs with the markings of Jasta 3. We had position of altitude and coming from behind. They turned to meet us, and I peppered the first plane that met us. I believe I hit his engine as I saw puffs of immediate smoke and sparks. He quickly lost alitude and crashed about 2 miles North of La Gorgue. Next I spotted another Alb. D.V trying to climb away from one of our boys. I turned to meet him and he stalled at a very inconvenient time, right in my gun sites. I fired a long burst into him as I closed on him. I must have hit his rudder and struts as he lost control and crashed about 1 mile North of La Gorgue at zulu time 12:56. We continued on our patrol and came across another flight from Jasta 3, and I immediately noticed the purple and black Alb. D.V of Franz Bacher, the famous German ace. They passed below us and began to climb. I sped past and circled as I followed Bacher's plane. I dove on him from above and behind, and he went into a steep dive. I followed and opened fire. I was a quite nervous, and loaded in all, about 200 shots into him. I shatered his lower left wing, and he lost control, spinning to the ground where he crashed. this was at Zulu time 13:06 and 8 miles SE of La Gorgue, right over our front lines. As I gained altitude, I saw a camel (I think it was Tallon) attacking another ace. I positioned myself on his right wing and we both fired on the ace. He turned to the right, and tried to dive, coming right into my sites. I unloaded 100 bullets into his cockpit area. I hit his engine and he crashed. This was 10 miles SE of La Gorgue. All in all, we're putting up a fight eh?. Witnessed by: Tallon Allen, Ren Denton, Dan Cudney Status : Pending .

 

Decided to err on the "wordy" side, as per winston's suggestion.

[Olham 164]

Do you 'wordy guys' write all this with a text program first, or do you really write it

into the one line? I would get lost, I'm afraid...

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Do you 'wordy guys' write all this with a text program first, or do you really write it

into the one line? I would get lost, I'm afraid...

 

 

I typed that one into the one line...yeah, it's a bit difficult.

Thinking of just putting easy confirmed kills on and saving the time.

[Condor44 0]

This is such an awesome game!

 

Thanks Winson! BTW, are you related to Dudly?

 

I agree that this is an awesome game but do not extend that to the claims process. After reading some threads on claims I had a major headache. I'm all for realism when it comes to things like flight and damage models, challenging oponents, great graphics, etc. but I would rather not extend it to paperwork. I changed my setting to bypass claims in workshop and was amazed that it droped my realism setting by 40%. Why is it weighted so heavily? I hadn't had the opportunity to fill one out yet becuase I did not get any kills in my first two campaign missions. I'm not, however, sure "try it, you'll like it" will apply to me. I assume the computer knows the kill occurred and I will get credit. Is that correct?

[BigJim 0]

I agree that this is an awesome game but do not extend that to the claims process. After reading some threads on claims I had a major headache. I'm all for realism when it comes to things like flight and damage models, challenging oponents, great graphics, etc. but I would rather not extend it to paperwork. I changed my setting to bypass claims in workshop and was amazed that it droped my realism setting by 40%. Why is it weighted so heavily? I hadn't had the opportunity to fill one out yet becuase I did not get any kills in my first two campaign missions. I'm not, however, sure "try it, you'll like it" will apply to me. I assume the computer knows the kill occurred and I will get credit. Is that correct?

 

I think the realism drop is because the game cannot "deny" your claims making it VERY unreal compared to the WWI experience.

 

My bomber pilot has killed 2 balloons 1 was confirmed the other was denied, my witness on the first one (which was denied) was too far away I think.

 

Heh I am one of those that won't write long reports

 

If you get no opportunity to fill out a claim then the game didnot record you hitting or downing anything.

[Condor44 0]

I think the realism drop is because the game cannot "deny" your claims making it VERY unreal compared to the WWI experience.

 

My bomber pilot has killed 2 balloons 1 was confirmed the other was denied, my witness on the first one (which was denied) was too far away I think.

 

Heh I am one of those that won't write long reports

 

If you get no opportunity to fill out a claim then the game didnot record you hitting or downing anything.

 

I'm not questioning that it was a real hassel that WWI pilots had to endure. I do wonder why it's weighted more than inactivating g effects, increasing the efficacy of your guns, decreasing the efficacy of the AI guns, turning on auto rudder, etc. (I played around a little with workshop settings and their effect on the realism number. I must have too much time on my hands.) It seems we should b be more concerned about the things that effect the flight model and difficulty of the fight than the paperwork when assessing realism. I would apply ther VERY unreal more to those other changes than the claim report. But that just my probably worthless 2 cents. The nice thing is there are no hard and fast rules for OFF and we can set things up as we want. It's not a big deal, I hope, just makes for intertesting discussion late at night.

[Check Six 2]

Olham, Bub,

 

You can type all that into one line without getting lost by placing your cursor inside the text, then taking it back to the start of the narrative with your arrow keys, then slowly proressing it right as you read it like a story.

 

BuB, that is correct..80NM = 80 Nautical Miles (1 Nautical Mile = 2026 Yards, a bit longer than a statute mile, 1786 yards IIRC).

 

I haven't been all that "wordy" in my claims, (I don't get many) but I still get some claims accepted. I must admit though, having read MANY CITARS (Combat In The Air Report) from all of the research I've done on Aces, that the pilot's log looks much better in it's descriptive form like you posted.

 

I know that recording the Lat and Long IS tedious, especially after a protracted combat, but if you downed an opponent after a long hard fight, I think you deserve the rocognition. Try hitting "Z" to toggle your in flgiht information (which includes Lat and Long) immediately after a successful combat, and then taking a screenshot (Ctrl + ; [ctrl + semicolon]). I have this on one of my throttle buttons. quite useful for claims. Something like 5 miles SE of Arras will probably do, and much more realistic than Lat and Long for your CITAR.

[BigJim 0]

I'm not questioning that it was a real hassel that WWI pilots had to endure. I do wonder why it's weighted more than inactivating g effects, increasing the efficacy of your guns, decreasing the efficacy of the AI guns, turning on auto rudder, etc. (I played around a little with workshop settings and their effect on the realism number. I must have too much time on my hands.) It seems we should b be more concerned about the things that effect the flight model and difficulty of the fight than the paperwork when assessing realism. I would apply ther VERY unreal more to those other changes than the claim report. But that just my probably worthless 2 cents. The nice thing is there are no hard and fast rules for OFF and we can set things up as we want. It's not a big deal, I hope, just makes for intertesting discussion late at night.

 

Well I suspect that the programmers put alot of time into the "claims" portion of the game and wanted guys to use it so they weighted it accordingly (now realize I am just guessing here).

 

Yeah there are so many choices you have to remember what you have done, the other day I was amazed at how well my bomber pilot was doing only to discover that I had set pilots to never die while testing some stuff on QB and forgot to set it back