New to these forums and flight sims

[themightysrc 5]

Welcome to Death Valley, Flanders.

 

I would heartily recommend that you spend a good while learning how to configure the standard CFS3.1 - I assume you have the game already, 'cos you'll need it?! - to run optimally on your rig. I arsed about with OFF when I'd got it, and I was appalled at how badly it ran and how the colours were gash, etc. Well, of course, it was my own fault for not carefully pored through the readme's concerning tweaking the CFS config files. Once I'd done that, it made an enormous difference to the FPS and suchlike.

 

Didn't stop me getting killed repeatedly, like, but you can't have everything.

 

Speaking of getting killed: yes, you will. A lot. It's best to learn the sim with everything set to realistic except pilot death, at least to begin with (in my humble). Otherwise you'll end up with a stack of dead pilots scattered all over the floor beside you - I know I did, and it was quite painful, as I was losing pilots after 1, 2, 3 or at most, 4 or 5 flights. It's a brutal game, as you'd expect, and the AI won't show you any mercy whatsoever. When you've finally plucked up the courage to start a campaign, you'd be very well advised to start in early or late 1916, before the real butchery kicks in, as you'll met fewer foes and they won't be quite so mental.

 

Mine's a pint of Pendle Witch, ta muchly.

 

Cheers,

Si

[carrick58 23]

Welcome to the Meat Grinder. Shiloh. I had a lower end Rig than yours and it still ran OOF although Heat was a problem. Just relax and enjoy.

[Shiloh 12]

Sopwith Camel has a lot of character. She's like your wife. Handle her with care and you'll be rewarded. Misuse her and she will cut your head off. Usually in the form of an unrecoverable spin.

 

SE5 is a good starter plane if you join the Flying Corps. Very forgiving, you have to work to make it spin out on you. Stable gun platform, and capable of diving and speeding away if you bite off more than you can chew. Plus she can climb so high that nothing can get ontop of you, except a Fokker DVII if you live long enough to see them introduced.

 

I don't have much experience with other planes. If you join the Americans the Nieuport 28 is very mediocre. It's wing invariably sheers off whenever things start going well for you.

 

Thanks for the tips.

 

Welcome to Death Valley, Flanders.

 

I would heartily recommend that you spend a good while learning how to configure the standard CFS3.1 - I assume you have the game already, 'cos you'll need it?! - to run optimally on your rig. I arsed about with OFF when I'd got it, and I was appalled at how badly it ran and how the colours were gash, etc. Well, of course, it was my own fault for not carefully pored through the readme's concerning tweaking the CFS config files. Once I'd done that, it made an enormous difference to the FPS and suchlike.

 

Didn't stop me getting killed repeatedly, like, but you can't have everything.

 

Speaking of getting killed: yes, you will. A lot. It's best to learn the sim with everything set to realistic except pilot death, at least to begin with (in my humble). Otherwise you'll end up with a stack of dead pilots scattered all over the floor beside you - I know I did, and it was quite painful, as I was losing pilots after 1, 2, 3 or at most, 4 or 5 flights. It's a brutal game, as you'd expect, and the AI won't show you any mercy whatsoever. When you've finally plucked up the courage to start a campaign, you'd be very well advised to start in early or late 1916, before the real butchery kicks in, as you'll met fewer foes and they won't be quite so mental.

 

Mine's a pint of Pendle Witch, ta muchly.

 

Cheers,

Si

 

This is some great advice thanks. I did order CFS3 and OFF so hopefully I get them by the end of the week. I'm getting a real sense of how hard this will be based on what you guys are saying and given the average life expectancy of WWI pilots it makes sense. It sounds like a lot of the deaths were caused by inadequate equipment/mishandling of planes as it was early flight and that's something they didn't have to contend with as much in WW2. I'm really glad I joined this community as I already feel you guys are at least pointing me in the right direction - I appreciate that.

 

Have one on me.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Welcome to the OFF community, Shiloh! You will have a lot of fun flying these old crates--in between all of the dying, that is!

[Olham 164]

I'll send you my location as a PM as it's top secret and I wouldn't want for it to fall in enemy hands.

~ Shiloh

Okay, I'll send you this encrypted line - you should know how to read it:

 

http://combatace.com...post__p__315225

 

Might even be persuaded to enlighten you about the time I bested four Albatri and a brace of Fokker tripes who all pounced upon my trusty Camel over Lille.

Cheers!

Lou

Heeeyy!!! Don't buy him any more drinks! The man is already drunk as an ocean!

Edited April 4, 2011 by Olham

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

I'm not as think as you drunk I am.

 

.

[Olham 164]

Yesssyess, Iknowha'you meannnn - ifff I getholdofthebleederwho'sputtadeadmouse... - deaaad moussse in my beer...! (Fallump!)

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

HEE HAW!

 

.

[Olham 164]

From under the table: "Raaaaaaaaaaeich mir die Hand, mein Leben! Didumm, didumm, didaaaaa!! Ja, ja!!!

Couldya... umph! (Bonk!!) - ouch! - ah, Lou?! Areyouzeresomewhere?

Couldyaham'mee senewglassofbeer ... ups! ... beer ... downere? Please?"

 

The man who can fly the heavy Albatros like a ballet dancer is doing the "Dying Swan",

needs to get carried to his bunk. He mutters these last words, before he falls unconcious:

"I vill nott gettup again, before ziss room stopps turnink!"

[Dej 17]

Welcome Shiloh. To add to Olham's advice above, the 'Flying and Air Fighting' primer on the Camel includes advice from Louvert, so read up on that first and then ask him any additional questions after you've flown the Widowmaker when you have OFF in your mitt, I'd suggest.

 

Another point if you're a Camel fan is that of all the machines in OFF she does seem to provoke the greatest variance in flying experience depending on the rig you have... don't know why or how but that's how is seems to be. OFF is hard - it's meant to be - but it'll be a whole lot harder starting out in a Camel. Of course, you can make life much easier with the Workshop seetings and as a newcomer to flight sims you should take advantage of that until you have your 'air-legs'. Nevertheless, I'd still recommend starting out with a Sopwith Pup - it's the best behaved scout in the sim, then move up to the Sopwith Triplane before you try the Camel.

 

Anyhoos, welcome again, and mine's a pint of Mauldon's Suffolk Pride, if you please.

[Shiloh 12]

Okay, I'll send you this encrypted line - you should know how to read it:

 

http://combatace.com...post__p__315225

 

 

Heeeyy!!! Don't buy him any more drinks! The man is already drunk as an ocean!

 

Thanks for putting me on the map. Great...my wingmen are a bunch of drunks. :helpme:

 

 

Welcome Shiloh. To add to Olham's advice above, the 'Flying and Air Fighting' primer on the Camel includes advice from Louvert, so read up on that first and then ask him any additional questions after you've flown the Widowmaker when you have OFF in your mitt, I'd suggest.

 

Another point if you're a Camel fan is that of all the machines in OFF she does seem to provoke the greatest variance in flying experience depending on the rig you have... don't know why or how but that's how is seems to be. OFF is hard - it's meant to be - but it'll be a whole lot harder starting out in a Camel. Of course, you can make life much easier with the Workshop seetings and as a newcomer to flight sims you should take advantage of that until you have your 'air-legs'. Nevertheless, I'd still recommend starting out with a Sopwith Pup - it's the best behaved scout in the sim, then move up to the Sopwith Triplane before you try the Camel.

 

Anyhoos, welcome again, and mine's a pint of Mauldon's Suffolk Pride, if you please.

 

Thanks for the advice...bottoms up!

[Olham 164]

Dej's advice contains the safest British craft to score with, and to be able to evade with:

The Sopwith Triplane! But it will spoil the other craft for you.

The Pup is also agile, but less effectiv.

The Camel is agile and effective, but much harder to fly.

The only other very good beginner's choice would be the S.E.5a - fast, good climb, solid, effective, and agile enough.

Dizzy now?

[Lewie 7]

From under the table: "Raaaaaaaaaaeich mir die Hand, mein Leben! Didumm, didumm, didaaaaa!! Ja, ja!!!

Couldya... umph! (Bonk!!) - ouch! - ah, Lou?! Areyouzeresomewhere?

Couldyaham'mee senewglassofbeer ... ups! ... beer ... downere? Please?"

 

The man who can fly the heavy Albatros like a ballet dancer is doing the "Dying Swan",

needs to get carried to his bunk. He mutters these last words, before he falls unconcious:

"I vill nott gettup again, before ziss room stopps turnink!"

 

I usually have a couple of technicolor discussions with the Great Porcelain God before I can even think of sleeping, if I ever am that far down the bottle(s).

 

Airplane spins, you can keep them, let the Camel pilots get their thrills getting dizzy..

[Shiloh 12]

Dej's advice contains the safest British craft to score with, and to be able to evade with:

The Sopwith Triplane! But it will spoil the other craft for you.

The Pup is also agile, but less effectiv.

The Camel is agile and effective, but much harder to fly.

The only other very good beginner's choice would be the S.E.5a - fast, good climb, solid, effective, and agile enough.

Dizzy now?

 

This is a lot to take in. I think everyone is different. I usually like a more balanced machine that does pretty well in most categories, although maybe not the best in any of them. I'll take a look at the S.E.5a.

 

I usually have a couple of technicolor discussions with the Great Porcelain God before I can even think of sleeping, if I ever am that far down the bottle(s).

 

Airplane spins, you can keep them, let the Camel pilots get their thrills getting dizzy..

 

This Camel sounds like it's tough to fly. I still say the key to no hangover is a half-gallon of water right before you go to bed.

[Lewie 7]

This is a lot to take in. I think everyone is different. I usually like a more balanced machine that does pretty well in most categories, although maybe not the best in any of them. I'll take a look at the S.E.5a.

 

 

 

This Camel sounds like it's tough to fly. I still say the key to no hangover is a half-gallon of water right before you go to bed.

 

I like the Sopwith Camel but I've only flown it in CFS3, and if the Nieuport 11 is any indication that the planes do fly differently between CFS3 and OFF. The Bebe Nupe is good kite, but it's touchy about climb rate and rudder input and it has a good portion of gyro procession to make rudder turns interesting.

 

Yes hydration helps but I don't always remember that when I've been drinking.

[tranquillo 10]

I, too would recommend the SE5a. It's still my favourite plane of choice even now.

[TaillyHo 2]

Gee Shiloh, you've made quite an impact - half the mess are falling over themselves to greet you (or is that just falling over the ones that have fallen down, drunk!). I'd order a virtual Laphroaig but I think they've closed the bar (and with good reason!)

 

Pleased to hear you're not so-named after the Neil Diamond song!

 

If folks are now advising on specific craft for you to tack your 'L" plates on - let me put in a plug for the Soppy Strutter: well mannered in all aspects of flight (from lift-off to landing and pretty much everything in between); handy rear gunner to watch your 6 if you're fully occupied concentrating on what's happening up ahead; get in early (ie with a RNAS squadron in April-June 1916) and you get a relatively quiet airfield with coastal views and fresh sea air - and a handy combat advantage over the Fokker Eindeckers you'll mostly encounter for the first few months - just treat the odd Roland with respect. They bite!

 

There might be 'better' planes on offer in 1917, but there's also a whole lotta bad company you have to share the sky with by then . . .

 

And as for immersion - if you're excited at the prospect of joystick control, just wait til you combine that with a TrackIR (or similar) headset. Man, you are in for a great time here!

[Shiloh 12]

I like the Sopwith Camel but I've only flown it in CFS3, and if the Nieuport 11 is any indication that the planes do fly differently between CFS3 and OFF. The Bebe Nupe is good kite, but it's touchy about climb rate and rudder input and it has a good portion of gyro procession to make rudder turns interesting.

 

Yes hydration helps but I don't always remember that when I've been drinking.

 

I'm assuming I'll control my rudder on my joystick? or keyboard?

 

I, too would recommend the SE5a. It's still my favourite plane of choice even now.

 

Cool.

 

 

Gee Shiloh, you've made quite an impact - half the mess are falling over themselves to greet you (or is that just falling over the ones that have fallen down, drunk!). I'd order a virtual Laphroaig but I think they've closed the bar (and with good reason!)

 

Pleased to hear you're not so-named after the Neil Diamond song!

 

If folks are now advising on specific craft for you to tack your 'L" plates on - let me put in a plug for the Soppy Strutter: well mannered in all aspects of flight (from lift-off to landing and pretty much everything in between); handy rear gunner to watch your 6 if you're fully occupied concentrating on what's happening up ahead; get in early (ie with a RNAS squadron in April-June 1916) and you get a relatively quiet airfield with coastal views and fresh sea air - and a handy combat advantage over the Fokker Eindeckers you'll mostly encounter for the first few months - just treat the odd Roland with respect. They bite!

 

There might be 'better' planes on offer in 1917, but there's also a whole lotta bad company you have to share the sky with by then . . .

 

And as for immersion - if you're excited at the prospect of joystick control, just wait til you combine that with a TrackIR (or similar) headset. Man, you are in for a great time here!

 

I think word got out that I'm buying rounds for anyone that can stand. Never used a joystick but I know I'm going to love that thing - not much of a keyboard guy. I've been gaming on consoles since Pong in the 1970's and have only been PC gaming for a bit over a year and never really got comfortable with the keyboard.

[Lewie 7]

Well if you have to, get yourself a twisty joystick, at least one with enough optional buttons and hat switches so you can move some of the more frequently used keyboard commands to the joystick.

 

My recommendation would be to initially move the elevator trims to two of the buttons straight away, as it will reduce the amount of workload trying to hold the joystick off center for climbing and descending rates. get to know your throttle control and treat it like it's supposed to be, as the up and down control. Most of these kites have little handling quircks. Also get to know your F4 key for panning external views and keep the "Z" key, ( which brings up the HUD information..) handy so you can keep track of how the various planes handle, their stall speed and which direction they're headed, as some like the Bebe don't have a compass.

Edited April 5, 2011 by Lewie

[Shiloh 12]

Even though around here it's use is frowned upon, in Workshop you can monkey around with the Realism setting to make the aircraft more forgiving of input.

 

As long as you're not intending to practice your gunnery, the Bristol Scout is the most docile bird available. That can dive, climb, and turn like an actual fighter

 

If you were ever too attempt using the gun you would never forget it, and you might hit a tree. As the gun itself is canted 35 degrees off the centerline of the aircraft

 

She does feature a vicious career ending stall, but only when set to REALISTIC, on EASY it all but vanishes

 

There were a couple of corny Utubes, from the original R.O.F. showing the princibles of Flight. But they appear to be history now.

 

The Sopwith Camel earned her nickname of 'Widowmaker' a name bestowed on her by British Pilots

 

Hmmm...I'm wondering whether I should start off on realistic or easy settings?

 

 

Well if you have to, get yourself a twisty joystick, at least one with enough optional buttons and hat switches so you can move some of the more frequently used keyboard commands to the joystick.

 

My recommendation would be to initially move the elevator trims to two of the buttons straight away, as it will reduce the amount of workload trying to hold the joystick off center for climbing and descending rates. get to know your throttle control and treat it like it's supposed to be, as the up and down control. Most of these kites have little handling quircks. Also get to know your F4 key for panning external views and keep the "Z" key, ( which brings up the HUD information..) handy so you can keep track of how the various planes handle, their stall speed and which direction they're headed, as some like the Bebe don't have a compass.

 

I ordered the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick and I figured that would be enough to get me going. It has 12 programmable buttons so maybe a can add most of my controls there. Do people use mostly joysticks or a combo with keyboard?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

I have used that JS for the last several years and find it excellent for OFF. I have moved to rudder pedals rather than the twist function, but it worked very well for rudder control when I did use it for such. And Lewie is quite right about programming those extra keys for the more needed functions.

 

.

[Shiloh 12]

.

 

I have used that JS for the last several years and find it excellent for OFF. I have moved to rudder pedals rather than the twist function, but it worked very well for rudder control when I did use it for such. And Lewie is quite right about programming those extra keys for the more needed functions.

 

.

 

Good to know. So the the twisting motion allows you to control rudders?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Oh yes Shiloh, and quite well too. Which is a good thing as the WWI kites respond quickly to rudder, and it is an integral input for many of the maneuvers you will need to perform to stay alive in a dogfight.

 

.

[Shiloh 12]

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Oh yes Shiloh, and quite well too. Which is a good thing as the WWI kites respond quickly to rudder, and it is an integral input for many of the maneuvers you will need to perform to stay alive in a dogfight.

 

.

 

Good stuff. I just watched a few more of Hellshade's videos and I have the itch to get up there flying. All my stuff is en-route so I read up and play the waiting game.

[Shiloh 12]

As the game is installed, your mixture adjustments will be manual. As a beginner you will find Auto Mixture in Workshop makes life a lot easier

 

Upon installation . .the command for Virtual Cockpit is unassigned ( what you would see as the pilot) so you would assign it a Key Command, you have no use for in OFF. Such as FLAPS, which your aircraft doesn't have, because they were not yet invented. They were primeraly used to decend without gaining speed when attempting to Land. So that free's two commands. . .F and V

 

Also you lack Brakes . . . which free's up . . B

 

Just as it's never a good idea to let go of the steering wheel it's never a good idea to let go of the Joystick to operate any buttons or the throttle. There are solutions, but for now bring your Left hand across your body

 

All Microsoft flight Simulators can have the controls swapped around for your Joysticks use INTERNAL to the game. Any non-Microsoft flight simulators, you must use a program supplied with the joystick

 

I use basically the same joystick, except mine features Force-Feedback. Alas a discontinued option for that model

 

When you install the joystick, all the basic control works as does the throttle, and Machine gun

 

As for key commands used SEE Tips & Cheats #18

 

This is very helpful - thanks uncleal,