Did you ever let your opponent go?

[Wodin 0]

Your screenshots always look superb....is it the skins you use that make the planes look so crisp? You always seem to have great lighting going on on the planes.

[tranquillo 10]

You'll be pleased to know, Olham, that I did let an Albatros go once but it was only because I didn't want to chase him over enemy lines - I'd already come from there and I'd been shot at without mercy and didn't want anymore.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

Widowmaker wrote:

 

haha,,,silly me!..the thought of MvR being a school teacher was quite disturbing

 

 

If MvR had survived the War:

 

 

 

"Good Morning class, I am Professor Richthofen, and I will be...YOU IN THE BACK, PAY ATTENTION! I have not come to this university to collect cheese and eggs, but for another pur...err...ummm...as I was saying...I am your Professor..."

 

.

[Bullethead 12]

I admit to being a complete butcher. I show no mercy whatsoever if I'm able to continue the fight, even strafing force-landed planes. If they'd wanted to live, they shouldn't have messed with me.

 

Perhaps what makes me more evil than others is that I do this mostly for my own selfish purposes. First, I want to make sure I and not a wingman get credit for the kill. Second, I like to take screenshots of my plane close to the shattered wreck of one of my victims. For this latter purpose, finishing off unresisting cripples is ideal, especially if you can get them to flame up .

 

Also, nothing annoys me more than after a long and arduous fight, when I've finally gotten my Fee saddled up on an Albatros and my gunner has put several good bursts into him, for the cowardly foe to scamper away from my slow bus. :fu2: Thus, when I fly something faster, I make sure none escape.

 

 

[Hasse Wind 46]

Haha, what's happened to Professor v. Richthofen's hair?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Hasse Wind, clearly you have never taught to a roomfull of smartass, know-it-all teenagers who are convinced they have everything figured out already, or you would not ask that question.

 

.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Bullethead, I've had the same bloodlust coursing through my veins in the situation you've described with the Fee. Fight for an eternity and finally have the upper hand, only to have the bastige run away. Kill him...KILL HIM!

 

.

[Hasse Wind 46]

 

Hasse Wind, clearly you have never taught to a roomfull of smartass, know-it-all teenagers who are convinced they have everything figured out already, or you would not ask that question.

 

 

No, I haven't. But I've been one of those teenagers.

[tranquillo 10]

.

 

Hasse Wind, clearly you have never taught to a roomfull of smartass, know-it-all teenagers who are convinced they have everything figured out already, or you would not ask that question.

 

.

 

I taught adults for 17 years but would never dream of taking on a class of teenagers :suicide2:.

[Olham 164]

Wodin, I sometimes click "Auto-contrast" in Photoshop - that makes them perhaps more "crisp".

But apart from that, I haven't done anything on these. Good graphic card and settings, perhaps.

 

tranquillo, no problem, Sir, when you normally shoot down anything from the German side.

I do the same with the Entente. It was much the exception, that I suddenly felt this way.

 

What an absurd idea, Lou! Mmuahahahahaaaa!!!!

 

Bullethead: Thus, when I fly something faster, I make sure none escape.

 

Monster! Brute!! Devil!!!

 

Hasse Wind, that must be the new "Einstein Look", which came in fashion those days!

[Bullethead 12]

Bullethead: Thus, when I fly something faster, I make sure none escape.

 

Monster! Brute!! Devil!!!

 

I blame my upbringing. See, my 1st exposure to a gaming community was DOS Air Warrior back in the early 90s. Before then, I'd been avidly simming but that was before the internet really existed so it was all by my lonesome. Anyway, DOS AW cost like $5/hour to play (the game fee itself plus the exhorbitant rates charged by ISPs in those days), which was at that time considered cheap by the vets because a few years before I got into it, it had been like $8/hour. And this was in early-90s dollars, which were worth about 3x what they are now. IOW, it was nearly as expensive as a drug addiction.

 

As a result of the cost, it was considered extremely bad form to be anything but a berserker. Get in there, fight, and die. Even if you were an expert, you didn't want to waste a dollar or 2 flying all the way back home from where the fight was. Thus, when you killed everybody in the vicinity and were a bit low on ammo, you'd just split-S into the ground and get a new ride. Folks only RTB'd for smack value, like if they had a string of scalps from worthy adversaries or people they particularly hated. Remember, this was the early 90s so conversations were usually uncensored. So in such cases, you'd talk smack on the general channel all the way home and then in the forum later that night. Otherwise, you'd stick around and give the guy a chance to avenge himself.

 

Naturally, this bred egos. As a result, it was also considered extremely bad form to bail from a fatally damaged plane. That was an admission of inferiority, you see. Proper AW pilots had the attitude that they could beat anybody with 1 wing tied behind the backs. Expected behavior was to scream out the uncensored version of "Curse you, Red Baron!" and swearing eternal vengeance, all the way down. Thus, those rare noobs who bailed were always shot in their chutes. Even guys on their own side would do this, to teach them proper manners.

 

I doubt there will ever be a sharktank like the DOS AW community. But that's where I formed my simming attitudes, so I treat the AI planes in the campaign as I treated real people back then, and expect the same from them in return

[Olham 164]

As a result of the cost, it was considered extremely bad form to be anything but a berserker.

 

I see I missed the early ones - very entertaining, Bullethead; thanks for sharing!

Edited February 24, 2011 by Olham

[CaptSopwith 23]

This was something I have rarely ever done - I let an opponent go.

 

We had attacked a flight of 4 Sopwith Pup with a clear advantage in height and number.

Two Pups went down under the guns of my wingmen, while I engaged a third one.

But the first burst from my 08/15 LMG made my guns jam! The poor feller - his craft had

several holes - froze in sheer terror. He didn't do anything but fly towards his lines.

 

When my guns got clear, I lined up behind him, came clso and closer - and couldn't

fire at him. He didn't try the faintest evasive manoeuvre; he flew straight on! Has I fired,

I would have made minced meat of the boy. But I couldn't.

I waved my wingmen back and flew the last two miles to the lines with him to make sure

nobody else attacked him. I could see him clearly in his cockpit - staring forward.

I could read "Ad Aura" on his fuselage, under the cockpit.

At the front, I turned away. My wingmen must have been wondering, what that was.

Well, I think it was a "mental jam" of my killer instinct.

 

Turning away from him, I thought: "Hey, Tommy-boy - make something good of your life!"

 

Anyone ever did something like this?

 

 

 

I too have let a few go in my time. Perhaps I'm not as cold-blooded as I thought. I remember a particular instance with a Hanover CLII in Red Baron 3D. I had chased down several of its comrades and dispatched them. The final Hanover was booking it for the lines, running scared. I lined it up and opened fire, and heard the tell-tale scream of a fatality. It turned out that I hit the gunner, the only way I could tell was the sudden lack of rear-gunner fire. The plane was horribly damaged - billowing black smoke, wings all shot to hell. I could tell that he might make it home if I let him go. I didn't have the heart to blast a defenseless pilot out of the sky (clearly I'm no Bruno Stachel! lol). And so, I let him fade into the horizon. I'd like to think he made it home...

 

[Olham 164]

I didn't have the heart to blast a defenseless pilot out of the sky (clearly I'm no Bruno Stachel! lol).

As far as I remember, Bruno Stachel did not shoot up a defenseless craft.

He tried to force one to land, when the rear gunner, who seemed to be down and wounded,

came up again and opened fire at Stachel.

I don't recall any scene, where he acted totally ruthless?

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Mick Mannock was an interesting charecter...seemed to delight in Killing, and yet was very protective of his squad mates...and ended up going totally do-lally bless him.

 

Awful experience for all concerned....thank god we merely create it in the comfort of a chair!

[Olham 164]

Amen to that, Widowmaker!

[tranquillo 10]

 

Awful experience for all concerned....thank god we merely create it in the comfort of a chair!

 

[CaptSopwith 23]

As far as I remember, Bruno Stachel did not shoot up a defenseless craft.

He tried to force one to land, when the rear gunner, who seemed to be down and wounded,

came up again and opened fire at Stachel.

I don't recall any scene, where he acted totally ruthless?

 

Oh man, Olham. You're right. I should stop posting until I'm well enough to be coherent again! I just watched The Blue Max a week ago too... I can't believe I blanked on the part where the gunner tried to return fire on Stachel. I'll be glad when I'm over being sick, this is killing me lol.

[Olham 164]

I can't believe I blanked on the part where the gunner tried to return fire on Stachel.

It was actually a bit worse: Stachel had assigned to the pilot, he should land, and wasn't firing at the craft anymore.

Then the rear gunner came up again. He had not noticed the hand signs, and took up firing at Stachel again.

After that, Stachel shot them up - or down. The Germans on the ground now thought, that the eager Stachel

had forced the British craft to fly to his field, only to shoot it down for all to see.

Everyone was quite upset - no one had seen, what really happened.

 

I'll be glad when I'm over being sick, this is killing me lol.

Being sick is like that - a fever can obscure the brain quite a bit.

I wish you a good and quick recovery, Captain!

[themightysrc 5]

"Mick Mannock was an interesting charecter...seemed to delight in Killing, and yet was very protective of his squad mates...and ended up going totally do-lally bless him"

 

No he didn't. He had been badly mistreated by Central powers people - Turkish rather than German - but seems to have taken his incarceration, which was pretty harrowing, admittedly, that when he went to war, he threw himself in. Given his Irish background and the slightly ambiguous nature of Irish nationalism in the period, which Mannock as a socialist might well have averred to, then his motivation clearly came from something other than liking others. There's enough documentary evidence to the contrary concerning his character to believe that he was simply a mad killer.

 

My opinion, FWIW, is that Mannock was a nationalist who, had he survived, would probably have ended up on the Sinn Fein side in the Easter Uprising. As I've stated, he was an ardent socialist - let's not forget that to state such in the officers' mess in the average RFC squadron would probably have ostracised him from his fellow officers and may well have led to his initial reticence to engage - and would no doubt have been influenced by the writings of Marx and the then current political swirlings within Europe. Let's face it - the Russian front ended when the revolution occurred; the German front ended in a welter of influences, not the least of which was the influence of left wing thought within Germany.

 

As to the original question: I tend to shoot down what I can, but given that I drive two seater buses, it's something of a rarity for me!

 

Cheers,

Si

[Bullethead 12]

My opinion, FWIW, is that Mannock was a nationalist who, had he survived, would probably have ended up on the Sinn Fein side in the Easter Uprising.

 

That was in 1916 and IIRC he lived a bit longer than that . But the Troubles after the war, that's another story.

 

As I've stated, he was an ardent socialist - let's not forget that to state such in the officers' mess in the average RFC squadron would probably have ostracised him from his fellow officers...

 

I dunno. By the middle of the war, almost all officers below colonel (and by then, some few of colonels and above, too) were pre-war civilians who'd picked up a bit of education before joining the colors. And of course all were rather young. Socialism is the timeless delusion of educated youth so I imagine there were quite a few kindred spirits in the mess.

[themightysrc 5]

"Socialism is the timeless delusion of educated youth so I imagine there were quite a few kindred spirits in the mess"

 

BH, you're trolling a little here, so can we park it?

 

The point that - regardless of your political affiliation - is that somebody turning up in the officers' mess with outspoken left wing views would not have been looked upon with unbridled enthusiasm as 'one of us'. my point about his nationalistic credentials is that this would have seasoned and made more palatable any sense of socialism, particularly given the number of Irishmen who volunteered, as Mannock did, to serve for the British Empire - a body for whom he must have, at best, have held mixed feelings.

[Bullethead 12]

BH, you're trolling a little here, so can we park it?

 

I'm not trolling at all. Looking around the world, it's painfully obvious that socialism is a complete failure everywhere it's been tried. Now granted, it might have accomplished its targetted short-term goals, but the long-term, systemic effects have been universally baneful and have created a worse mess than socialism set out to correct originally. And this is coming from somebody who's devoted his life to helping the lumpenproletariat in various capacities.

[themightysrc 5]

BH, I suspect we'll have to differ on this issue, but I would simply point out that in a world that is driven primarily and fairly overtly by a non-socialist system, countries adopting even the mildest form of socialism were and are likely to be viewed with suspicion by countries that don't or haven't done so and thus the odds tend to be stacked against them. FWIW, in my opinion the best way forward is a mixed economy and society that harnesses the best of capitalism but tempers and tames it with a socialist architecture to ensure that the majority gain the benefits where otherwise it might lead to rather more inequality and, more importantly, social division.

 

But having ignored my own request to park the subject, I will now do so and won't derail the thread further.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I'm not trolling at all. Looking around the world, it's painfully obvious that socialism is a complete failure everywhere it's been tried. Now granted, it might have accomplished its targetted short-term goals, but the long-term, systemic effects have been universally baneful and have created a worse mess than socialism set out to correct originally. And this is coming from somebody who's devoted his life to helping the lumpenproletariat in various capacities.

 

Socialism is a fantastic Ideal...just doesn't work in practice that's all.