REVIEW: Armchairgeneral.com

[Slartibartfast 153]

Anything for this glorious work... well within reason... and somedays reason does go missing like going for one more flight before sleep... and finding that flight is for 2 hours... and time slips away... this is one of the 2 Flight Sims I can say do that to me... its an amazing piece of work...

 

Just can't wait to get flying again... and I have managed to get an old 3.4gig single core PC to set it up on...

Edited August 31, 2010 by Slartibartfast

[Olham 164]

Hihi - I know what you mean, Slart! Some call it addiction. Well, okay - it doesn't kill the liver!

[Hasse Wind 46]

But it does kill the liver, Olham, if you keep drinking at the same time! "Wo früher meine Leber war, ist heute nur eine Minibar."

 

OFF certainly deserves that score. Nice of them to change the screenshots.

[Olham 164]

"Wo früher meine Leber war, ist heute nur eine Minibar."

Mmuahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!!

 

Hey, you must have spent too much time in Germany, HasseWind!

Careful with drinking in the air - it won't keep you warm, but it could

make you an easier prey.

[SirMike1983 3]

I think the review did well.

 

-yes, at this point CFS3 as an engine is a liability to a developing game. It would need a major, major overhaul to be worthy of a fresh game today. When P-1 started (what was it 5 years ago now?) CFS3 was actually still semi-current. Today it's starting to look quite old, though I do think the general combat sim market has thinned out a little in recent years, in terms of quality engines.

 

-the physics on wings as they break off is a little weird, well I should say the visual of it. They kind of float off as they break sometimes. Sometimes it looks like a nice, awkward snap. Other times it's as if they just sort of "rise off" the rest of the wing. That's nit picking though.

 

-the instrumentation on the later Nieuports is a little sparser than probably should be. It's not, in the strictest sense, inaccurate, though the 24 series (24, 24bis, 27) and 28 planes should probably have compasses and altimeters in addition to the tach. The 17 does. One of the big reasons the survivors of these planes have so few instruments is that they were often harvested and given to newer planes that could take them. This was especially true of Nieuports in French service: the French system was to send the plane with just a tach and let the pilot or squad put in what he wanted to. Most pilots harvested their gauges from older Nies and added it to their newer ones, accumulating them as they went. The British were a bit more rigid and often modified theirs to take wooden instrument panels akin to what you'd see in a Sopwith Pup.

 

-AI still doesn't like low altitude and tends to "stunt" when it gets down to a certain level. Probably an engine issue.

 

-Spad XIII doesn't have a mounting stirrup (from what I can tell). Again nit picking level though.

 

 

I think 91 with the HITR patch is low, and especially if you take a couple of the nice 3rd party mods and mix it with HITR. I'd award something more like a 95 or so with all that in place.

Edited August 31, 2010 by SirMike1983

[CaptSopwith 26]

I think the review did well.

 

-yes, at this point CFS3 as an engine is a liability to a developing game. It would need a major, major overhaul to be worthy of a fresh game today. When P-1 started (what was it 5 years ago now?) CFS3 was actually still semi-current. Today it's starting to look quite old, though I do think the general combat sim market has thinned out a little in recent years, in terms of quality engines.

 

-the physics on wings as they break off is a little weird, well I should say the visual of it. They kind of float off as they break sometimes. Sometimes it looks like a nice, awkward snap. Other times it's as if they just sort of "rise off" the rest of the wing. That's nit picking though.

 

-the instrumentation on the later Nieuports is a little sparser than probably should be. It's not, in the strictest sense, inaccurate, though the 24 series (24, 24bis, 27) and 28 planes should probably have compasses and altimeters in addition to the tach. The 17 does. One of the big reasons the survivors of these planes have so few instruments is that they were often harvested and given to newer planes that could take them. This was especially true of Nieuports in French service: the French system was to send the plane with just a tach and let the pilot or squad put in what he wanted to. Most pilots harvested their gauges from older Nies and added it to their newer ones, accumulating them as they went. The British were a bit more rigid and often modified theirs to take wooden instrument panels akin to what you'd see in a Sopwith Pup.

 

-AI still doesn't like low altitude and tends to "stunt" when it gets down to a certain level. Probably an engine issue.

 

-Spad XIII doesn't have a mounting stirrup (from what I can tell). Again nit picking level though.

 

 

I think 91 with the HITR patch is low, and especially if you take a couple of the nice 3rd party mods and mix it with HITR. I'd award something more like a 95 or so with all that in place.

 

What third party mods would you recommend?

[Hellshade 110]

What third party mods would you recommend?

 

I run the following now:

 

Herr Prop-Wasche's Damage Model 2.2 - excellent DM to make things more challenging up there.

Creaghorns Ammo mod (no tracers & no smoke, smoke trails only or tracers only) - makes accurate firing much more challenging

Creaghorns Sound Tweaks II - fantastic engine sounds

 

Hellshade

[Olham 164]

I ditto Hellshade's recommendations. All three of them are great!

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Those are the same three that I use.

[SirMike1983 3]

I run the two Creaghorn items: the sound and the smoke rounds.

 

Is the Propwasche DM a realism dm? Is there a short checklist of difference between that and HITR DM?

[CaptSopwith 26]

I run the two Creaghorn items: the sound and the smoke rounds.

 

Is the Propwasche DM a realism dm? Is there a short checklist of difference between that and HITR DM?

 

I was just about to ask the same thing. Does the PW DM make the planes harder to shoot down or does it do something else?

[Hellshade 110]

I was just about to ask the same thing. Does the PW DM make the planes harder to shoot down or does it do something else?

 

It most certainly does. I used to down 5 to 6 planes easy in just a Quick Combat mission. I'd say it cut my kill rate almost in 1/2 when combined with Creaghorns Ammo mods.

 

Hellshade

[Bullethead 12]

Hey, you must have spent too much time in Germany, HasseWind!

Careful with drinking in the air - it won't keep you warm, but it could make you an easier prey.

 

He'll just do the "Duck song" dance and nobody will be able to hit him :)

[SirMike1983 3]

It most certainly does. I used to down 5 to 6 planes easy in just a Quick Combat mission. I'd say it cut my kill rate almost in 1/2 when combined with Creaghorns Ammo mods.

 

Hellshade

 

I just got the PW DM up and running. The first time, the CFS3 program crashed to desktop, but after that the second attempt seemed to work ok. The planes are indeed much harder to destroy. Have the hit boxes for the vitals been configured to realism?

[Olham 164]

Herr Prop-Wasche's DM works fine for me and I like it.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Dear SirMike and CaptSopwith,

 

I had just composed a fuller answer to your questions, but the stupid computer ate my post!

 

Anyway, the short answer is that there are too many changes to the DM to mention. Basically, it is a complete remake of all of the values in the xdp files for all of the aircraft in OFF. However, because I am a total idiot when it comes to graphics, there are no changes to the size or shape of any of the hitboxes in the sim. Fortunately, that is not too much of a problem in most cases. I think the only place where the hit boxes should be changed is the size of the boxes for the pilot and observer, which I think are currently a little too small.

 

The overall effect of the DM is to make most (but not all) of the aircraft a little harder to destroy, making for longer and more intense dogfights. As others have mentioned, two-seaters are particularly more difficult with the mod than in the stock DM.

 

For a more complete list of the changes in the DM, including updates, please click on the following link: http://combatace.com...pwdm-22-update/

 

Of course, I will be more than happy to answer any other questions you may have.

 

HPW

[SirMike1983 3]

Dear SirMike and CaptSopwith,

 

I had just composed a fuller answer to your questions, but the stupid computer ate my post!

 

Anyway, the short answer is that there are too many changes to the DM to mention. Basically, it is a complete remake of all of the values in the xdp files for all of the aircraft in OFF. However, because I am a total idiot when it comes to graphics, there are no changes to the size or shape of any of the hitboxes in the sim. Fortunately, that is not too much of a problem in most cases. I think the only place where the hit boxes should be changed is the size of the boxes for the pilot and observer, which I think are currently a little too small.

 

The overall effect of the DM is to make most (but not all) of the aircraft a little harder to destroy, making for longer and more intense dogfights. As others have mentioned, two-seaters are particularly more difficult with the mod than in the stock DM.

 

For a more complete list of the changes in the DM, including updates, please click on the following link: http://combatace.com...pwdm-22-update/

 

Of course, I will be more than happy to answer any other questions you may have.

 

HPW

 

 

Thanks for the link-- agree with the changes you've described, especially the ones about wing roots.

 

I like the concept of a little bit harder DM for the planes-- as many pilots learned damage to skin alone does little to harm an opponent (and in WWII the Germans found this out with the Hurricanes). So the game of getting close and hitting the vitals is big. I think that's a good move.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Thank you, SirMike.

 

Yes, just now I was involved in a dogfight against Jasta 14, with Voss and a few other aces. I was flying an N24 in Alscace. Voss played a good flight leader--if I got him in my sights and was able to squeeze off a few rounds he would dive to the deck, trying to tempt me to go after him and give up my height advantage over his wingmates. For the most part, I was able to resist the temptation, but in the swirling mix, either he or one of his friends got a pretty good shot at me. I thought I was a goner, but they apparently just hit me in the wings. Although I lost some control, I was still able to fly well enough to enable me to escape, even against an elite Jasta. Previously, this usually meant you were easy meat.

 

When I reviewed the mission, it said that when I was hit, there was "a slight effect on controllability." Before 2.2, that often meant your plane was toast. I like it better this way, as it makes both you and the AI less dependent on lucky hits and more on overall skill and quantity of hits.