Uncleal’s Hints 'n Tips: The Return

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Landings

 

 

Landing these birds without flaps or brakes ain't as easy as it sounds. On your approach, anytime you dive to shed altitude, you'll speed up. And while chopping your throttle is always a good idea when diving, don't turn that engine off as you might not be able to restart it. Fly with your throttle, losing altitude can be a good thing but you might need to start your approach 5 miles out, especially if your aircraft is a 'Good' glider like a Nieuport.

 

You’ll find most airfields have a row of trees at the end of the runway. If you can't clear the trees, you'll need to give it gas to fly over them. Now you're 25 feet up, going 85mph. Anything above 50mph and your landing gear collapses on contact, followed by a loud noise which you might not hear. So you do a little side slipping, engine at idle, mild left rudder with a gentle bank to the right. You're now flying slightly sideways in the same general direction, you're losing altitude and slowing down. Don't attempt to land without straightening out first, as your landing gear will collapse. Forget the three-point landing, that's with a tail wheel that you don't have, and your engine lacks the power to do a decent flare. The instant your wheels touch the ground. kill that engine, (the quicker, the better). Then dig for potatoes with your tailskid to stop.

 

Exception with the DR1, as she'll do a back flip. A little rudder side-to-side is required. Watch those wingtips. After you're down to about 30 mph, dig those potatoes.

 

The SE5a is a bouncer, and the only cure for that is stalling 6 inches up. Easier said than done.

 

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Different Ideas of the Best Way for Newbies That Wish to Start Their First Campaign

 

 

If you like the SE5 I'd suggest joining 56 Sqn. RFC in early 1917, just as they arrive in France. You'll get enough action, weather allowing, but should be able to get on top of your adversaries who'll be flying Alb DIIIs and later DVs, both of which the SE can handle admirably. Alternatively, if you want to feel god-like, join the RNAS with Naval 10 in May 1917 and be amazed at how your Sopwith Triplane runs rings around the Alb. DIII opponents, negating their firepower advantage. Then a little later with equal firepower your twin Vickers will rip them to shreds, but only for a little while alas!

 

If you're eager for a scrap follow the aforementioned advice, for there you will still more or less hold the advantage in machinery. A little rule of thumb: The number on the TAC will tell you the distance to your next waypoint in nautical miles. Above 40 Warp, below 40 fly it. Warp is handy to reach altitude, but once you've reached it cancel Warp (Ctrl+X). Altitude is visible on (Z). If you still find yourself starved for activity go to Workshop and set Regional Air Activity to Heavy. You can always switch back.

 

If you want hair-raising action, fly 1918. I had crazy furballs with 93rd Aero against Jasta 18s DVIIs.

If you want it a little less crazy, as a German start at Wasquehal in May 1917, (Jasta 10, Jasta 28w). They see good action against Pups and Triplanes, (but you have to be good, because the Albatros DIII early is not superior except for the two machine guns the others don't have).

With Jasta 6, you can fly the early Fokker Dr.1, a real devil of a turn fighter. You’ve got to get used to it, as it's an unstable craft. It just does anything you do on the stick. If you know how to fly it well, you will be a "Reaper with three wings". Good action against Camels and S.E.5a guaranteed.

 

Seriously speaking, 1918 is a bad year for OFF newbies to start with, especially in the northern and central sectors of the front. There's just so much action everywhere against deadly planes that it can be quite overwhelming even to experienced pilots.

 

SE5a is a great beginner's choice; easy to fly, fast, two machine guns, and it can easily give the Albatros pilots some serious headaches, particularly when flown in a campaign that starts in early to mid 1917. For Germans, the Albatros D.II is a perfect beginner's plane and really superior against most opponents when it enters service in autumn 1916, (it's also one of my favorite planes in OFF). For its time period, (late 1916, early 1917), it has the same good qualities as the SE5a does a bit later. I think the Alb D.II is better for inexperienced players than the D.III, because the latter has weaker lower wings, which can cause problems, (i.e. break off), if you don't know what you're doing. Otherwise the D.III is superior to the D.II in every way, and is a good plane to choose next in the learning process when flying for the Germans. For Entente, the easiest and definitely the most enjoyable plane to fly beginning in December 1916 is the Sopwith Pup. The Nieuport 17 is more manoeuvrable, but much more difficult to master because it has REALLY weak lower wings. I've had a lot of fun with the Pup in early 1917 British careers. Late 1916 - early 1917 is in my opinion the most enjoyable period to fly in OFF. The mix between fierce action and peaceful, uneventful missions is just about perfect then. The earlier in the war you go, the more peaceful it will be because there aren't that many squadrons or planes on the front, and OFF is currently lacking almost all the primitive early war designs, with some exceptions. And 1918 is deadly, especially after the major offensives begin in March 1918.

 

 

Best advice!!! All of us "newbies" need to heed this.

 

I tried to start in 1918, realistic, hard mode. Got my tail fin shot to hell. Going back a little. Gonna start in 1917. Need to start slower, take some time, not worry about score, staying alive is the key. Maybe the Allies are better to start with. SE5a is a good kite. WOW is this game fun! I can't stop reading about it, researching it, buying more books about the air war.

 

Before you buy any more air war books, a while back many titles had their meat turned into PDFs and uploaded. Go to OFF Downloads, Scenery and Ground Objects, and there are five sets of WW1 Aviation Books.

 

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One of the Hidden Features of OFF

 

 

In your OFF main screen click on 'Credits', (nobody ever does). Make sure your speakers work. After the actual credits there appears a field of red poppies and the taped voices of four WWI pilots, all of them frightfully British, followed by the reading of "Over Flanders Fields".

 

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One thing worthwhile to think about! Originally, Quick Combat was considered a practice area, where you could work on your gunnery and your piloting skills ‘til the action of the AI became just too predictable to be a challenge anymore. Then you would advance to campaign. Well QC has changed, and some accomplished pilots never leave QC, as there you control ALL the variables. Also, it's a great place to practice dead stick landings and side slipping, with nobody bothering you in Free Flight

 

But if you wish to jump into campaign, with both feet, and die a lot, be my guest.

 

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Then we have the other extreme, the newbie who says, "The best place to begin is the beginning, so I'll start OFF in Jan 1915, flying with RFC 3 in the Bristol Scout". Well, six missions later, and you've yet to have an enemy contact, frankly you're bored stiff. Nobody to blame but yourself. In early 1915 there weren't that many aircraft anyway, mostly recon and spotting for the field artillery, and most of those endless 'patrols' were just to keep you busy. Plus, if you believe in flying without aids, (i.e. Labels), there might have been an enemy around but you never saw him. He could be behind a cloud, you'd never see him.

NOTE: There's no hiding from the TAC with the aircraft only screen up.

 

PS: If you can hit anything with the Bristol Scout, (other than a tree), you were born too late.

 

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The Olham Method for Ordering Your Wingmen About

 

My way is dead simple: You press your "Select Target" key, (don't know the default one, see under "Controls", mine is put on joystick). In your TAC, (which has to be on for this, I'm afraid), you now see the previously red dot of one craft as a yellow. Also you may have a yellow bracket shown at the selected craft, (the bracket has to be "On" - see "Controls"). If you don't want brackets, switch them off, it still works as long as you have the TAC on; you must now look for the yellow specs. If there are too many craft around you, you MAY press pause and click through your enemies until the desired craft is marked. Of course, this is an immersion killer. If you got a target marked, that you want your wingmen to attack, press the "Attack" command; if you want them to stop and come back, press the "Return" command; if you want them to attack a different target, mark that one, and press "Attack" again. Your wingmen can also be given a general "Attack" order when nothing is marked. Therefore, the enemies have to appear as RED dots, then they are close enough. When you press "Attack" now, your wings will attack a craft of their own choice; probably the nearest. Your direct wingman will not, he will stay with you if he can. If you press the "Help" command, he will attack the craft next to you. He can be a great help, but he might also fire at the same craft you are hunting when it is the closest to you. To make the wingman stay with you, press "Help" right after "Attack", that should keep him with you. But when there are a lot of enemy fighters he may get forced away from you. I have put the wingman commands on the joystick base buttons, so I can use them very fast, and often effectively. Not always though. When your wingmen are carried away by the fighting and appear as white specs on the TAC, they will not "see" your commanding signs and will carry on doing what they do.

 

Edit/PS: Oh, and don't forget to set the TAC for the right target type! There are "aircraft", "buildings", "vehicles", and "ships". If you want to attack a rail yard, you have to switch to "buildings" or "vehicles.

 

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Phase III will work fine on Vista generally, however one mode "CFS3 QC" (the old CFS3 type Quick Combat option only accessible via Workshop anyway) can, for some, cause issues apparently. Anybody running Windows 7 has no reason to fear CFS3 QC.

 

Start OFF and go directly to Workshop, there to find CFS3 QC along the bottom, and click on it. After some on-screen magic, the Quick Combat screen will appear, change nothing, click on 'Go to Field'. Then put your hands in your pockets, more on-screen magic, and the Hanger Page, that looks just like Phase II will appear. There's a medal with a maroon ribbon on the left side of the screen. Click on the maroon ribbon, the Menu will slide out, and you can customize your entire experience.

 

Click on the term ‘Flight Type’; you'll get your choice of: The Type of Action.

Click on ‘Aircraft’; you can choose the Aircraft you Fly.

Also the possible ‘Load out’; most of the German aircraft ONLY have twin MGs, except the Fokker EIII and the Halberstadt with a single gun, along with some of the bombers. British and French aircraft all have rockets or bombs, and on some you have a choice. There's also a Model 'T' Ford and a Moped if you get bored.

Click on ‘Location’; you can then choose the country, flight area of country, airfield in the area, time of day or night, where you wish to start, weather, and season.

Click on ‘Skill’; you can choose the skill of the enemy pilot, if the ground gunner can hit an elephant or not, and how will you initially confront the enemy.

Click on ‘Fighter’; you get to choose the type of aircraft that will try to kill you.

On the right side is the ‘Hanger’ and a drop down menu that speaks for itself.

 

CFS3 QC is the ONLY place, you can choose to use Spawns, on the ‘Go to Field’ screen in the middle is a small white checkbox.

 

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[RAF_Louvert 101]

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The ‘Reset’ Buttons in the Workshop

 

 

There are two, and by pressing either you ARE going to lose all your pilots. But if you’re having OFF issues it sure is the lesser evil, (if it works), than doing a complete reinstall. The one I would try first is the ‘Reset/Install’ of OFF. It's a white rectangle on the right border. Four buttons to the left is ‘Reset CFS3’: same story. Both these buttons are the last thing to try. If that doesn't help you will likely need to do a complete reinstall, and that is much work because there's no ‘Uninstall’ button. You need to manually delete all the files, stay away from the Control Panel or you'll screw-up the registry.

 

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Gunnery in WW1

 

 

You don't actually aim, you try to ram him, and just before you hit him you open fire. You'll only have time for a short burst or you WILL hit him. Your guns are solidly mounted to the aircraft, so if you tried to aim “Presto!” you're on a collision course. Besides, who is busy doing all that aiming if you're busy flying the plane? In order to truly aim you would need a front and rear sight, (most aircraft have one or the other but not both). The Nieuport 11 doesn't have any, as the gun is on the upper wing. If you only have a front sight you'll try to get closer so you can't miss.

NOTE: The twin gun German aircraft don't use a front sight at all. They pick an imaginary point between the two guns, such as the top edge of the windscreen on the Alb DIII, or just above the gauge on the Fokker DR1. There are long distance shots to be taken, but they’re only done by experienced pilots.

 

MEAT or METAL: If you fail to hit the pilot, the engine, or the fuel tank, it could be a long day. Just getting behind somebody and opening fire, unless by luck you hit the pilot in the back of the head, you can shoot all your bullets without doing anything. All the goodies are in the front third of the fuselage, (no one ever said this schitt was easy). If you dive on somebody without him seeing you and you shoot him in the wing, you haven't accomplished anything except announce your presence. And if he's a better pilot than you, you die.

 

There is no blood in OFF. If you're close enough, you'll hear him scream as your bullets turn him into hamburger.

 

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Why You Should Fly as Flight Leader

 

 

Sometimes the newbie will figure, “If I fly as second fiddle, I'll see how it's done and learn how to handle a WWI aircraft at the same time”. WRONG. Quick Combat is there just so the newbie can learn how the aircraft will react to your input, and you control all the variables. However, if you wish to jump into Campaign and kill a bunch of pilots, be my guest. It's your funeral after all.

 

For my money, I'd select ‘Player Always Leads’, enlisting my pilot in one of the top 2 ranks possible for that nationality, (i.e. no Sergeants). And if you leave the TAC up you can't get lost…period. Plus there's the little matter of wingmen. Only the mission leader can command his wingmen. And without commands they do anything they damn well please, which can include them just watching as you get killed facing five enemy aircraft alone. In case anybody is wondering why your Flight Leader doesn't announce his moves before he does them: He can't. It's 1917 and there are no radios in these tiny aircraft.

 

If you decide the hell with the mission, I'll just go looking for trouble, you'll go solo. If you can keep up with your mission leader you're good. He's on your side but he's AI, which means he can climb without slowing down, his mixture is always perfect, he's unaffected by any kind of wind. More importantly, he can fly through a cloud with NO effect, and when you try to follow you can get your wings ripped out…or not. Feeling lucky today? So, as the leader, you circle the field once to get all your ducklings in a row. Then warp to mission altitude in six seconds flat. Plus, with your TAC screen up, you can follow the blue neon line from waypoint to waypoint so you can't get lost.

 

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You need to keep an open mind. After Phase 1, 2, and now 3, the best I could do with my below average machine was with sliders set at 4/3/3/4/1, getting 30 FPS and staying smooth. But now, after some of the tweaks, (always lots of computer gurus here), one of which is to ‘Disable Shadows’ in the Config overrides, we're running 5/3/3/5/1 at mid 40 FPS and still smooth. It's not only your aircraft's shadows, but all those trees too. Because of this I suddenly no longer need to replace my rig, (couldn't afford it anyway). “Your mileage may vary”.

 

PS: Clouds only hide your whereabouts from AI eyes when they are set to 5. On 4 or below, it's ring the dinner bell. My old eyes can't see the difference between 1 and 4.

 

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Operation of Your Secondary Weapon is a Two-key Operation

(unless you're flying a scout for the Dark Side because German aircraft don't have rockets or bombs, excepting of course the bombers)

 

Seeing as OFF was a patch of CFS3, firing rockets or dropping bombs is a two-step operation. You must first ‘Select Weapon’ by hitting ‘Backspace’; this is pure CFS3 as the pilot could select if he wanted to fire rockets or drop bombs on the target. We don't have that dilemma in 1917, as it's one or the other…period. I like to think of it as the ‘Arm’ command since it only needs to be pressed once at the beginning of your mission. After that you just deal with the ‘Fire’command, which is the ‘Enter’ button. What I'm saying is that only one button need be programmed to your joystick. If you're running an X-52, no sweat. But most other sticks, (especially those with Force Feedback), the buttons you can hit with your right hand fingers without taking your hand off the joystick are at a premium. For those of us who see reaching across our bodies as an unnatural movement: Enter the Saitek Throttle Quadrant and its six programmable buttons.

 

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A Trick For Those Not Utilizing Pedals Yet

 

 

The human body was never designed with the ‘Twisty Stick’ in mind, at least not when it comes to WWI flight sims anyway. In the WWII prop-driven aircraft there was some use of rudder, but not much, (except for runway activity). In the jets even less. However in 1917 we're dealing with full travel use of the rudder in gunnery, and that violent momentary course correction just prior to shooting. I won't say it’s impossible, but it's very difficult to hold a totally flat pivoting action as you twist the joystick, while squeezing the trigger to shoot at the same time. Unless you're very careful you're always going to have a slight aileron movement, usually just enough to bank off your target. I haven't met the pilot who can hold a turn that flat, without pedals, in a dogfight. I'm sure they exist, but I ain't one.

 

SOLUTION: Don't use the trigger; use the ‘Spacebar’. Your machine gun will still fire, plus your hit percentage will be noticeably higher. Try it and see, because what is your other hand doing then anyway, playing pocket pool?

 

NOTE: How to find your hit percentage in OFF, set ‘Player Stats’ in Workshop to ‘On’.

 

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Becoming the Ultimate 'Tourist' in OFF

 

 

In CFS3 QC choose the following: Any of the British Fields in England / Free Flight / Runway. I prefer Sutton’s Farm in a Sopwith Pup with rocket load out, (Yanks only).

 

Take off and fly NW, in about 6 minutes you'll reach the Thames, hang a right and you'll be travelling west. The first stream on your right features roughly four bridges, very satisfying to hit them with rockets.

 

Turn your labels ‘On’ as some of the sights further along the Thames will simply amaze, such as Tower Bridge (flying under the roadway), Big Ben, and Battersea Power Station.

 

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BALLOON BUSTING (hopefully staying alive in the process)

 

 

Any Discussion about the proper method for destroying a balloon, should include how it was actually done. Let's get one thing straight; a balloon is a PRIME Target. You know it, I know it, and the enemy defenders know it, so to say it will be rather heavily defended is an understatement.

 

What is a balloon but a bag of gas, which when mixed with air is extremely flammable. Your attack plans must differ throughout the war. Early on the incendiary ammunition was highly unreliable. It was known to ‘light off’ from engine heat alone.

 

The great Willie Coppens, Balloon Ace Extraordinaire, would purposely kill his engine at high altitude directly over the balloon, as noise abatement, as he did a full dive on the balloon. When within gun range he would restart his own engine, the gunners couldn't hit him because the balloon was in the way. So he'd destroy the gasbag, only to fly away at full speed. He did this 16 times. It worked, but the method was never copied

 

The more accepted method, is to ventilate the gas bag real well with your machine gun, so that the area near the balloon is saturated with a mixture of air & gas, which only needs to be exposed to flame to destroy the balloon.

 

Enter the Le Prieur rocket, which was little more than an overgrown firework. Your aircraft carries 8 of these rockets, fired electrically, and they're none too accurate. So get close, fire your rockets, and hopefully set off the escaping balloon gas thus destroying the balloon. By the way, as soon as the incendiary ammunition became more reliable, the La Prieur rocket disappeared at the front.

 

The rockets in OFF belong on a P47 in terms of range, accuracy, and destructive power. However, this is hard-coded into CFS3, so if you want rockets, use these, or none at all.

 

Just how close you wanna get before opening fire is up to you, but there's no hiding why you're in the area. The diving attack has some merit, as the defending machine guns can't hit you until you’re at about 2000 feet. But the AA fire has no such limitation, plus you can't bob and weave on the way down. Once you open fire you're committed, and they know it! Balloon busting is no easy job, unless you're talking about the one every airfield features, and you can destroy those just testing your guns. You could of course make a show out of the balloon mission and order your wingmen to attack while you just stay back and watch. However you can't claim the balloon if they shot it down. If you're the guy who destroyed the balloon, you should go straight home, (no dogfights along the way). You must survive and your wingman has to as well, he's your witness. If he dies, kiss that balloon goodbye.

 

PS: Those rockets are great for bridges and locomotives

 

 

THE OLHAM METHOD OF BALLOON ATTACK

 

For balloon attack, I approach the balloon at 2.000 - 3.000 feet, zigzagging first,

and find out how he is lined up because I always attack them along their full length axis,

and if possible from the sun side. From the right position, I dive on it in a 30° - 40° dive, stabilise my aim, and fire bursts at it when it appears big enough. I mostly destroy it in the first approach. If that fails, I go back to 2.000 feet zigzagging, and then dive down on it much steeper (45 - 50 °), blow it up, and then pull out and away zigzagging, not climbing too hard, as that would reduce my escape speed, (I stop firing at the balloon at about 400 feet distance, and pull out). When out of reach of the balloon's flak, I climb higher for crossing back over the lines.

NOTE: German aircraft cannot carry rockets of any kind, ever.

 

 

NEW PILOT'S METHOD, AND IT WORKED

 

Long story: I went around the front and circled around from the east. The balloon was high in the sky by the time I found it. Wingmen went down to the deck and started suppressing the German defences; I bored straight in on that sausage. Took a hit from something, (no idea what), that knocked the Nieuport around like a kite. I had a look and my left bottom wing tip looked as though Superman had grabbed it and bent it upwards. It wasn't sheared off it was just bent upwards. Very bad for the controls, I was side slipping all over the sky with flak/mg fire all around. HOWEVER, I was still able to flame the balloon and because I was already aiming west I was able to kind of make my plane coast towards friendly lines. The landing didn't go so well. I landed among the British troops in No Man's Land. "Landed" is overstating it since the plane crashed and sent me to the infirmary for two weeks.

 

PS: Seeing as how it's Bloody April, missing two weeks of it may not be a bad thing.

 

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