"Optional Flight" in Briefing screen?

[DukeIronHand]

When in the "Briefing" screen, when playing a campaign, there is a button called "Optional Flight".

 

Never wanting to mess my campaign/campaign mission up I have never clicked on it but wonder what it does.

 

Anyone wish to spread the knowledge? And how does it effect the currently assigned campaign mission?

[Burning Beard]

It gives you the same type of mission, just a different target or route. I use it when the mission is too long, then look for a closer one.

 

Beard

[DukeIronHand]

It gives you the same type of mission, just a different target or route. I use it when the mission is too long, then look for a closer one.

 

Beard

 

Ahh...excellent. Thank you!

[TaillyHo]

What Beard says.

 

You get the same mission type (eg balloon-bust, lone wolf, recce), but will get a different target destination - and, where applicable, other changes like whether yours is #1 or #2 flight, whether you get (or provide) an escort, but most importantly - as Beard says - whether it is close by or miiles away. Of course, with Lone wolf or scramble missions, you don't see any change - but presumably the OFF manager is shuffling waypoints or details of the attacking EA respectively. For all others, you see the changes (and can make appropriate fuel load-out adjustments if you have that option setup) before 'accepting'.

[DukeIronHand]

What Beard says.

 

You get the same mission type (eg balloon-bust, lone wolf, recce), but will get a different target destination - and, where applicable, other changes like whether yours is #1 or #2 flight, whether you get (or provide) an escort, but most importantly - as Beard says - whether it is close by or miiles away. Of course, with Lone wolf or scramble missions, you don't see any change - but presumably the OFF manager is shuffling waypoints or details of the attacking EA respectively. For all others, you see the changes (and can make appropriate fuel load-out adjustments if you have that option setup) before 'accepting'.

 

S!

[Olham]

Sometimes I press "Optional flight" many times, until I get sent to the area I'd like to visit.

If it is an "airfield attack" for example, you can click it often, until you get to attack a specific

airfield you want.

Can take you a while, but that way I once ruined the day for RNAS at Bailleul Asylum.

They had messed up our field before, and this was my payback mission.

[Lewie]

I usually select it depending on how I want to plan my obs/bombing runs, sometimes the path the game chooses for you isn't the best option.

[themightysrc]

I've had situations before now where I simply couldn't take enough fuel to do a given mission, so that's definitely time for the optional flight. If you find yourself in a BE2c, with no escort assigned, being expected to fly about 30 miles behind German lines on a regular basis, there's another candidate...

[Lewie]

What I've found is that in about 30% of my missions, that I've got enemy aircraft lurking nearby, since we're right on the front, I often times end up involved in helping defend my field, squadmates, or the escorts at times. Usually minutes after I've cleared the sod. My character with RFC 13 is also fond of hunting the odd DFW passing by, which saves on the long arduous climb to '9000.

[DukeIronHand]

The "Optional Flight" button has proven itself to be a boon very quickly.

 

One of my OFF peeves were the missions that had you flying some really huge distance behind friendly lines (overflying a dozen friendly aerodromes) just to patrol some section of front many, many miles away.

 

It looked very silly on the mission map but the remedy has arrived!

[Olham]

Yeah, indeed - I too wouldn't want to miss this button!

[Waldemar Kurtz]

I like to use this button when my RFC squadron stationed in the Ypres sector is inexlicably sent on offensive patrols to Cambrai. when flying for two-seater squadrons I'll use this button about 70% of the time! I've got some DVDs of trench maps from both sides of the war. so sometimes it's nice to cherry-pick my flights on a certain date so I can pretend I'm using historical maps like the ones the pilots would have used.

[Bletchley]

RFC Two-seater squadrons were attached to an Army Corps, and had a specific sector of the Front to operate over, whilst most Scout/Fighter squadrons were part of a Wing that was attached to an Army that also had a sector of the Front asigned to it. I think it is quite realistic to limit your missions to a limited North-South sector of the Front. I usually choose some plausible features on the briefing map North and South of the airfield, and if the mission that is generated then falls outside this I will hit the 'optional flight' until one is generated that does fall within it. If you had the the time and the inclination there are maps that show the precise geographical sector boumndaries that the individual squadrons were asigned (e.g. the official history, War in the Air), but I usually just make a plausible estimate of what these might be, maybe 30 miles or so N/S of the home airfield. :)

 

Not sure how this worked for French or German squadrons, but I expect some similar division of the Front existed.

 

Bletchley

Edited May 22, 2011 by Bletchley

[Lewie]

I'm getting a bit annoyed with the virtual cloud of German offensive overflights that happen well deep into allied airspace over your assigned CAP area. I just lost my favorite pilot Pippin Laetra to a bad crash when he and two wing men got into a skirmish with 3 other German offensive patrols. They hadn't a chance, it was a ratio of 6 or seven pilots/planes per flight of German flights. It was whack-a-mole for 30 minutes until Pips ran out of ammo.

 

This is why I don't fly assigned allied side flights anymore, there's far too many German offensive flights and the game unrealistically 'plans' your arrival coincident with far too many opponents.

 

JMHO

[Olham]

Waldemar, did you download those trench maps, or were did you get the DVDs?

[Waldemar Kurtz]

http://www.naval-military-press.com/national-archives-british-trench-map-atlas-the-western-front-1914-18-1-10-000-regular-series-with-an-index-of-over-20-000-trench-and-topographical-names-and-a-commentary-for-each-map.html

 

 

http://www.naval-military-press.com/captured-german-trench-and-operations-maps-from-the_public-record-office-archive-on-cd-rom.html

 

 

 

two links. they were kinda pricey. but they're really interesting. the German trench-maps won't work with Windows Vista, though.

[Olham]

Thank you for the links, Waldemar.