News system in P4 about aces

[Creaghorn 10]

i'm wondering if p4 is going to have a historical correct news system about aces.

germany made their successfull pilots public and famous right from the beginning. so did the french. the brits on the other hand made the complete opposite. they thought that single aces mentioned in the news would drop the morale among the not so successfull pilots. the first time the british people learned the names and saw the pics of successful british pilots was about may 1918 with mccudden etc. until then the people didn't know anything about albert ball or mccudden or whoever besides maybe the local hometown of the ace.

so realistically, in p4 it should be that you can read a lot about the rise and maybe fall about german and french pilots when making a german or french campaign, but know nothing about the british pilots in the news when making a british campaign. also the germans and french knew who was the leading ace and the top ten etc., but only from the own country.

so realistically a chalkboard showing the best aces from all countries during the war would be wrong. also it would be correct that a james mccudden with 40 kills at that time did not know if there is another brit somewhere with 127 kills maybe. actually it should be as it is now, when flying for the brits. although brits should know more about MvR and voss and wolff etc. than about fellow aces in other squads.

 

are the devs thinking about this historical accurracy or is it going to be as in most ww1 sims, where one can see more information than it really was during the war? just wondering

Edited July 12, 2010 by Creaghorn

[Hasse Wind 46]

A good idea. When I think of excellent immersion in a WW1 sim, the modded RB3D comes to my mind first. OFF is great, but still lacks some of that old magic. Hopefully with P4 the immersion will be even better. Things like Creaghorn suggests are what help with making the sim come to life.

[themightysrc 5]

I have to say, I rather like the idea of UK/Commonwealth ace anonymity. It's historically accurate, and yet certainly wouldn't stand in the way of P4 having some form of information area purely for pilots - McCudden, for example, used to go and speak to other squadrons, and Ball certainly became known through out the RFC, despite the lack of press coverage at the time (although I suspect this changed).

 

I'd be happy if the visit of an ace pilot made all the mediocre wingmen better flyers for a few days - and that's surely reproducible via a wee bit of subtle pilot reratiing for a set period is it not?

 

I'd also say there's a strong case in P4 for reassignment to Britain (for the above pilots, dunno about the French and German services), if only to enforce a career break and to reintroduce one's pilot back to the front at a different rank and probably a different squadron. Given, also, that flight leaders were judged by their pastoral care of pilots as much as their ability to rack up kills, perhaps this needs to be recognised in P4; after all if OFF seeks to reproduce WWI aerially, it would do well to recognise that pilots who were rubbish at flight management were not held in the esteem of the likes of Mick Mannock and McCudden.

[Pips 5]

Anonymity of British aces is not necessarily true. It's one of those myths that have grown up after the war. Although to be fair, British aces were not fetted by the 'Establishment' as were aces from France, Germany or Italy.

 

In reality there existed two levels of 'public awareness'. The first level was that which existed within the RFC. Top scoring pilots were very well known by their compatriots. The second level was that of acknowledgement by the public. Despite the best efforts of the stuffy establishment, newpapers (especially the more base tabloids) searched out stories concerning aces and published them frequently.

 

Lanoe Hawker for example, was well known by the public following his VC award. Prior to that he was very well known within the closed ranks of the RFC. Ball too was a public idol - which started when his proud father sent copies of his letters to a local newspaper, who promtly sold them onto to the major tabloids in London. Bishop, Claxton, McCudden, Hazell, Bell-Irving (to name just a few) were reasonably well known by the public. Perhaps the best British ace unknown to the public was Mannock, yet his fame within the RFC was high.

 

Another myth fostered about the aces was their lack of interest in their kill claims. I'm not sure why this came about. Perhaps it's the civil British attitude that one doesn't delight in killing. Or maybe the 'also-rans' felt threatened. Certainly the stuffy Establishment wanted no one to share the glory other than themselves. Whatever, just read some bio's or letters by the aces, especially the high scoring ones. They are very particular about their kill numbers, scrupulous in keeping tabs of where they stand, who is doing better than them etc. Ball wanted to head Guynemer, and beat Boelcke; Bishop very badly wanted to be the top dog; Hazell and Fullard had an ongoing race; Cobby was after Little's score; Collishaw strove to be the top Canadian ace; McCudden knew exactly where he stood in the race for the top; and Mannock wanted badly to beat McCudden.

 

They're people, more particularly young competitive high spirited men. Of course they kept count.

Edited July 12, 2010 by Pips

[von Baur 54]

Another point regarding knowledge of the other aces of any nationality is that, as the old legal saying goes, you can't unring a bell. We already know who the top-scoring and most influential pilots were. And that knowledge can't be taken from us regardless whether OFF includes it or not.

 

What I'd like to see in this regard is intel about opposing aces in my sector. Who are they and how can I identify them? Maybe the duty room could include some descriptions (I would shy away from pictures) of their airplanes. For instance, "Manfred von Richtofen: top living German ace..normally flies Albatros D-III that has been painted over in all red, such that the German cross is just visible through the red paint at close range." Or, "Edward Rickenbacker: rising American ace..flies SPAD-XIII with 94th Aero Squadron's Hat-in-the-Ring insignia and a number '1' on the fuselage and the top wing." They would have to be timeline and area controlled so as to stay current with both the player and the enemy pilots' careers, which might be tricky and/or time-consuming, but I would guess that that information was available to most pilots, or at least squadron commanders.