Bombers in OFF

[Ironhat 0]

Newbie here to OFF and the board.

 

I'd be interested in any comments from you that have flew bombers in OFF.

Only had the game a couple of days and flown only fighters of both sides, 4 pilots.

I just made a new English fighter pilot and had him start early in the war with a RNAS squadron. When i checked the stats on the Nieuport 11 i saw it had a rear gunner and one forward firing gun. Oh well it looked more like a bomber or recon plane but what do i know, it's very early in the war.

 

Loaded my first mission, it's an escort the bombers to a German airfield type. Take off not expecting much from this old kite after flying several late war fighters. Yes it was slow but it turned pretty darn good and was much slower to stall than some of the others i had flown.

We got the bombers to the target and headed home. Just before crossing the lines we encounter 4 German fighters going home an below us. I am flight lead so i dive on them and come in behind the last guy and hose him down good before over shooting him. Darn he was flying slow in a E III Fokker ?(hope i got that right). It was that early war single wing figher. As i passed over him i rolled left and went into a shallow dive to build up more speed as the kite was down to about 55 mph. My rear gunner popped off a few rounds and hit him with 2.

Short story is after a couple of more passes i nailed him. I found the ac actually easier to to dogfight with at low altitude than most of the late war fighters i've tried so far. It turned very fast and i never stalled once. After a few more minutes i had shot up another pretty bad and another guy finished him off. The rest of the flight finished the other 2. I decided to warp home, flying straight and level but heading the wrong way. All hell broke loose as i hit warp. The plane jumped to 3000' and warped so fast i could hardly believe it but in the wrong direction ! Finally 500 miles away from home the game froze and no way could i get it going again, even tried alt + tab. Finally had to shut down the pc and restart the game.

 

When i got back in game there was no sign of this mission and my new guy was on inactive status. I loaded him up and got another mission. This was a photo recon over German lines and bases. I noticed i could load bomb on this ac so i loaded up 4. Took off and went to controls and checked for bomb bay and bomberdier keys etc in case any of this worked. I think there were no bomb sights at least this early in the war ( where there ?) but better know what keys do what. After we got the mission goals done i targeted a building and made a level run on it at about 5000', hit B7, ouch no bomb view just a detail map lol. Back to pilot view, hit key to open bomb bay doors in case there were any. No idea if there were are not. Selected the bombs and dove on the building, did a visual drop from about 3000' (more of a guess drop). Later i find it hit close enough to give me 2 hits, on what i have no clue. Going back we again catch several German fighters near their airfield. Jump them and i shoot down 2, again my rear gunner is popping off rounds from time to time and getting some hits in.

 

This squadron will move up to single seat fighters in a bit so now im thinking of making a bomber pilot to see what thats all about. OFF is getting more interesting by the minute. Please tell me your bomber experiences.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

A Nieuport with two guns? Are you sure it wasn't a Strutter?

 

As you already know, "X" starts warp. To cancel warp, press Shift-X.

 

If you wish to warp back to base, you need to make sure that you have advanced your waypoint to point home. To do this, press Shift-W a couple of times. I think Ctrl-W goes back to the previous waypoint.

[Ironhat 0]

Yes it was a Strutter. I'm pretty sure the menu also said Nieuport 11 , so maybe it was my mis reading the menu or it was a mistake on the menu. AC was biplane, one forward firing mg and a rear gunner.

[themightysrc 5]

Hi Ironhat,

 

Welcome to the mayhem.

 

It sounds like you were in a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter to me. They're a good choice to start with; as you've already seen they're manouvreable, relatively quick, well armed for the period and can kick the living s**t out of Fokker EIIIs. For increased fun, but fewer kills, hit your F8 key during a tussle and drop into the rear gunner position. HPW is on the numbers about warping - it's caught me out a few times, thinking I was heading home but actually heading back to Hunland!

 

Make sure you have a voluminous bin by your desk - you'll ned it for the piles of dead pilots that you'll inevitably collect over the next few weeks and months. Also have a handy picture of your partner and loved ones near the PC, as you'll need to remind yourself occasionally what they used to look like before you got sucked into OFF.

 

Cheers,

Si