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Armchair aces 1915

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Hello, friends! As promised I have updated both Armchair Aces 1915 and 1916. The changes are:

 

-Rumpler CI added to campaigns

-Fokker EII added to campaigns (new custom FM included). This is for you, 33LIMA.

-Better researched planeset for Belgians

-Support for the new Halberstadt version (corrected LOD)in Skunkworks forum.

 

Good Flying!

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Hello, friends! As promised I have updated both Armchair Aces 1915 and 1916. The changes are:

 

-Rumpler CI added to campaigns

-Fokker EII added to campaigns (new custom FM included). This is for you, 33LIMA.

-Better researched planeset for Belgians

-Support for the new Halberstadt version (corrected LOD)in Skunkworks forum.

 

Good Flying!

 

Thanks for the EII, Ojcar! :drinks:

 

Tho alas, I am sad to say, this comes just too late for Leutnant Richard Boelcke, who, still flying his inferior 80hp Fokker EI, met an untimely end on his first flight in September 1915, after colliding in mid-air with a Nieuport believed to be one of the new Bebé types, which he had mistaken for one of the more-easily-despatched Nieuport 10s and then found himself the hunted, not the hunter. A n especially sad loss, as Richard had managed to get through all of August in his EI, including many close-fought combats against the superior Morane Bullets.

 

His brother, Garth Boelcke, is looking forward to avenging his late brother's demise, hopefully now in a Fokker EII at least!

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September 1915? Sorry to say, but you have collided with a Nieuport 10 from nº1 RNAS Squadron (the very same unit I'm flying for now). No Nieuport 11's at this time in campaigns.

 

If you choose same unit, you'll start with EI in August (historically only 2 EII in the Front at this time), EII in September and EIII in October. For a longer carrer in the EII, you'd better fly for Fokkerstaffel West in the Verdun map.

 

Good luck!

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September 1915? Sorry to say, but you have collided with a Nieuport 10 from nº1 RNAS Squadron (the very same unit I'm flying for now). No Nieuport 11's at this time in campaigns.

 

If you choose same unit, you'll start with EI in August (historically only 2 EII in the Front at this time), EII in September and EIII in October. For a longer carrer in the EII, you'd better fly for Fokkerstaffel West in the Verdun map.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

I didn't check the campaign file to be sure of the plane type and yes August 1915 is too early for a Bebé. But Lt Boelcke wasn't to know that and his last memories were of horror in finding that what he took to be a Nieuport 10 - a plane he had little trouble sending down in flames before, and was looking forward to adding to his score in similar fashion - had instead turned wickedly onto his tail with a skill not seen before from an Nieu.10 pilot. In his evident desperation to escape what he assumed must be a new, faster, more dangerous type of Nieuport, he was seen to pull up sharply and collide with the Nieuport, before the remains of both aircraft fell to earth, taking their luckless pilots to their doom below.

 

As with the Bullets, the English Nieuport squadron seems to be more skillful than its French equivalents!

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You're right! Each Squadron has its level of experience in both sides (between 50 and 100). So, fighting against same plane could be a different experience each time. More experienced units will spawn aces more easily too!

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Ojcar, your campaign sounds like it is going to give RB3D and OFF3/4 a right good run for their money. The permutations seem infinite, with almost eternal replayability!

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It's no secret I'm trying to have the old RB3D feeling. I like a lot the moddability and AI of FE, but OFF and ROF are great sims too, so if you can, try all of them.

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It's no secret I'm trying to have the old RB3D feeling. I like a lot the moddability and AI of FE, but OFF and ROF are great sims too, so if you can, try all of them.

 

I already have, unfortunately ROF is too much for my current pc, but I have it as an investment for the future. It looks great, and they provide really good support. OFF is a labour of love, but I find myself always going for FE, but it is good to have such choice.

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Well, Vizefeldwebel Garth Boelcke took to the skies today to avenge his brother Richard's death at the hands of an RFC Nieuport 10!

 

Flying from Brayelle with KEK Nord, days after the shooting down of his older brother while serving with the same unit, the younger Flieger Boelcke succeeded in satisfying family honour in an outstanding first mission in a brand-new Fokker EII (supplied from a secret assembly line in Madrid!).

 

Taking off with VzFw Bekker after a report of enemy planes approaching Emerchicourt just to to the east, immediately after takeoff the Brayelle flak MGs and cannon were seen to open fire. Their targets were two machines quickly identified as English BE2c's, insolently flying eastwards at less than 1000m. The new Fokkers' 100hp motors soon hauled the two KEK Nord pilots up and onto the tails of the two BEs and though both Fokkers were hit by return fire from the English observers, first one, then the other BE went down trailing smoke, one being credited to Boelcke junior, the other not being seen to crash and thus not confirmed.

 

Reforming, the pair of Fokkers made for the nearest of two new clumps of flak bursts they could see in the busy skies above them. After another tail-chase, they succeeded in catching up with two Vickers Gunbus 2-seaters, like the earlier BE's heading east. Were they the escort for the luckless BE's, arriving too late? Were they the enemies the KEK pilots had been sent up to intercept in the first place? No matter, they were the Kaiser's enemies, and down they must go! It was a struggle to climb up and close the distance and initially, some ground was lost when Boelcke's Fokker stalled and an incipient spin had to be corrected, before the hunt could be resumed. The tail chase was taken up again. Conveniently for the Germans, the trailing Vickers fell below and behind the leader and was then persuaded to turn by a long-range burst from Boelcke, enabling the German pilot to cut the corner and close in quickly. A series of short bursts fired in a turn at the wheeling Vickers, and the latter was sliding towards the ground, his prop grinding to a halt as the Englishmen headed down to captivity - 'For you, the war is over!'.

 

But suddenly, there was firing from behind and Boelcke's Fokker was hit again. Turning as tightly as he dared, he could see a nimble Nieuport single-seater firing at long range. RFC roundels denoted the plane was another Englishman. A moment's hesitation, remembering his brother's fate. Then a conscious decision - the Nieuport might be the better plane, and its pilot might be the better pilot; but Garth Boelcke was not going to run to avoid his brother's end - he was going to avenge it. And incredibly, after a short but desperate turning fight, the Nieuport was caught in Boelcke's sights for just long enough for a quick burst, which set the V-strutter on fire, and down he went!

 

Unseen, a second Nieuport had attacked and hit VzFw Bekker while this was going on, and a collision had resulted. Both machines fell to earth and were wrecked, but Bekker walked away unhurt.

 

A triumphant return of a Brother Boelcke to the flying front was emphatically confirmed with the award of the EK2 - Iron Cross, 2nd Class - for the day's exploits! Bravo Leutnant Boelcke!

 

 

This is a great campaign system Ojcar, and I'm really relishing it - can't wait for the next installments. Hopefully we might have one or two more later-war 2-seaters from Stephen by about the time 1917 and 1918 appear, to make it even better!

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Edited by 33LIMA

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33LIMA - I really enjoy your action reports. They bring the game to life for me and I'm always inspired to fly another mission or two.

 

Ojcar - Thanks for Armchair Aces, I find myself flying the missions instead of doing other things, like making new airplanes... :) I'm looking forward to future installments.

 

 

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Yesterday, only a few days after his triumphant first mission from Brayelles, Garth Boelcke re-learned the hard way that despite the medals and the good food and better company at the mess table, the life of a war pilot can so easily turn from triumph to tragedy.

 

The day started out so promisingly. Responding to reports from front-line observers of an enemy incursion heading for Cambrai to the south, he led away from Brayelles VzFw's Becker, Recker and Barth, the CO having decided to send a strong flight in order to guarantee giving the enemy, and any escorts, a good drubbing.

 

Proud to be leading a flight of Fokkers again so soon in his new posting, and equally keen not to take any chance of dissapointing the Old Man's confidence, Garth took his comrades up above the mission's planned ceiling, to just below the broken cumullus which barely disguised the otherwise fine and sunny weather. The rattling drone of his Eindekker's powerful 100 hp motor seemed to echo the sense of power and security he felt, looking back at his comrades echeloned behind him.

 

On they surged, and soon, the buildings of Cambrai began to emerge from the morning mist ahead of them. Four pairs of eyes scanned the heavens, concentrating on the south-west, from which the reported enemy flight seemed most likely to appear. But all remained peaceful. No planes, no flak, 'all quiet on the western front', seemed to be the order of the day. Perhaps the report had been mistaken?

 

Looking back, well behind and below, just behind the German reserve trenches, an orange burst of fire suddenly appeared, and a smoke trail could briefly be made out. Had the enemy changed their course, and were they now up to some low-level mischief with the comrades on the ground? There was one way to find out!

 

Wheeling around, suddenly anxious at the thought of having been caught out by the wily English or the crafty French, the young Boelcke led his flight back, losing a little height as he did so to pick up some speed, lest some unseen assailant elude him by slipping back the short distance across the lines. But as they drew near the scene of the pyrotechnics, it was as if they had never happened. Whatever it was, it seemed to have left no trace; the skies and the ground all around were clear.

 

But were they? A glance back towards Cambrai revealed a line of black flak bursts creeping from the west towards eastern outskirts of the large town. A quick reversal of course brought Garth's flight heading back towards the intruders, but they were now well above the Germans and it was obvious that they would reach Cambrai long before they could be brought to battle.

 

As the range closed, two specks could be seen to emerge just ahead of the easternmost of the trail of black bursts, now over the town's western suburbs. The specks wavered, then started to swing around. At the same time, a series of sudden, violent splashes of orange fire erupted from the town below and behind them, followed by a raging fire topped by a pillar of smoke. A bombing raid, and somehow, it had sneaked in behind them!

 

Flushed with anger, Garth swung his flight to the right, still climbing, so as to catch the enemy on their way home, for the two specks had now settled onto what was clearly a course to the west, back to their own lines but a short distance away.

 

The range closed quickly, but not quickly enough for Boelcke junior. The enemy could now be seen to be a pair of BE2's, and as soon as he judged he was close enough, he gave the signal for a general attack and swung his own machine in behind the trailing Englishman. The climbing turn was too tight, however, and Garth could have shouted aloud in frustration as his Fokker shuddered and then spun away under him. A quick recovery meant he lost but a little ground, though, and looking up, he was relieved to see his comrades had made a better job of the business - two Fokkers were now snapping at the heels of the first BE, while a third was behind the other English machine. Four planes in a deadly conga line. Who would be first to fall?

 

Boelcke decided he would let his flight-mates win the glory today and intervene only if a suitable opportunity arose. That opportunity came as the rear BE, to escape the streams of tracers of the Fokker pursuing it, turned across Garth Boelcke's nose and he stitched it with a series of short bursts from his Spandau, receiving in return some accurate return fire from the enemy observer, which punched some holes in the fabric of his port wing and, from the racket it made to his rear, in the fuselage somewhere close behind him, too.

 

This BE was his now, and after a few further bursts, it shed some parts, began smoking, and started to spiral down in an increasingly steep dive, ending with a sharp explosion on the fields below. A horrible but compelling fascination seemed to force him to watch it all the way down.

 

Turning back to the other combat, he could see that the lead BE was being hard-pressed by two Fokkers; of the third Eindekker, there was for the moment no sign. As he closed on the action, one of the Fokkers behind the English machine curved away, gently at first, but as Garth watched with mounting dismay, its nose fell into an ever-steeping dive, until it was going down nearly vertically. No smoke or damage could be seen, and Garth hoped against hope that his stricken comrade would yet pull up. And indeed, the Fokker's dive seemed to level out slightly; but it was not to be; another spash of fire against the green fields and it was all over.

 

From that moment, in his heart he'd no taste for any further butchery; but in his mind, a sort of robotic trance seemed to descend, and dully, mechanically, he swung his sights onto the fleeing BE, the two Fokkers taking turns methodically to hose the enemy with streams of tracer. The observer's return fire seemed to have ceased, and it ended suddenly as the BE spouted a trail of grey-black smoke and dived away into the ground below.

 

Back at base, there was more bad news. Not one, but two Fokkers had gone down, and both pilots were dead. The BE observers' shooting had been good, and the two had sold their lives dearly. It still seemed a poor exchange to Garth, two planes and two comdades gone, for two English packing-cases brought down, but that, his mess-mates consoled him, was the reality of fighting in the air: sic transit gloria mundi.

 

The KEK Nord sergeant's mess at Brayelles was subdued and quiet that night.

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Edited by 33LIMA

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Wov, You are a talented man! . You have "put me in the cockpit" with your action reports! Maybe you can do a novel about Garth's career!

 

PS: At the moment Flight Leader Harry Flashman has been forced to crash landing it's Nieuport 10. Only injoured in its moral...

Their victor was an anonimous Bavarian crew flying their Pfalz Parasol recon plane.

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It's Armchair Aces which has inspired me, first to start a serious career or two in an eindekker - something I'd never done before - and to write of the results! I miss RB3d's little video clips and pilot logbook but campaign-wise, this is as good or better! :drinks:

 

PS I've now posted this account on SimHQ as well - any WW1 flightsim fan who isn't flying FE is missing out anyone who isn't flying Armchair Aces is missing out even more!

http://simhq.com/for...tml#Post3540325

Edited by 33LIMA

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I already have, unfortunately ROF is too much for my current pc, but I have it as an investment for the future. It looks great, and they provide really good support. OFF is a labour of love, but I find myself always going for FE, but it is good to have such choice.

 

Replying to myself here, but I think I was out of touch with my comment on ROF ("...they provide really good support."):

Recent developments seem to point to the fact that all is not very well with that game. Ah well...

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Please, don't critisize other games here! This is FE/FE2. Each game has its strong and weak points. And the wwi sim community is very small. Let's not divide it in flame wars!

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Please, don't critisize other games here! This is FE/FE2. Each game has its strong and weak points. And the wwi sim community is very small. Let's not divide it in flame wars!

 

Ojcar, not trying to do that, at all, and I apologise if I gave that impression. I like to give everyone and every game their due. I will say no more on the subject, except that there has been a shocking accusation directed at some of our colleagues in the wwi sim community, and you might want to have a look elsewhere on the forums and see the real flame war!

 

Cheers.

Edited by Sky High

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Yes, I know an I'm sad about it. But the flame war was started in another forum (the official ROF one). I don't want this happening here. I simply enjoy the games (my fav is FE2, but I fly ROF from time to time, and I'm waiting for OFF2 to join OFF community).

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Hello All!

 

New poster alert! Let me start by saying I am in awe of what is being done with this mod. This definitely a labor of love and it shows! I'm a long time simmer since the late 90's and RBII/3D was one of my all time favorite sims.

 

I bought FE2 last year but I haven't had a lot of time to spend on it as of yet. I recently re-installed it and started looking for mods and this one certainly looks like a must have! I have a couple of questions and need a bit of help in some areas. I have a few of the SF2 titles so modding Thirdwire stuff is not entirely foreign to me.

 

1. The first issue I have is not going to go over well I'm sure. When I saw the mod on Combat Ace I purchased a membership right away and have no issues there, it's all good. I do however, have a problem with the

Skunkworks portion of the mod. Having to give that much of my personal info for a mod is a little bit over the top IMO. Truth be told, I would much rather give them a 10 spot via Paypal and be done with it such as I did with Combat Ace.

I haven't had to give that much info when purchasing brand new titles. That said, will the campaign run without the Skunkworks downloads? Is there any mirrors where their downloads are available? I'm sure they have their reasons, but if the campaign won't run

without their mods than it's a no-go for me I guess. No worries, I can chalk it up to not doing my homework before paying for the membership to get this mod.

 

2. I realize most of these mods were created for FE1 so there are some things that need to be done. I don't have sound on a lot of aircraft. Some aircraft require you to put a sound file in the "Sounds" folder, but since FE2 doesn't have one, I created one in my mod folder and dropped them in there

and still no joy. Another example is the E3 downloads don't have a sound file with them, the instructions just say to drop the file in the aircraft folder, but the sound is not present there either.

 

3. Pete's FM stuff: Do I just grab every file Pete has for FM's and install those? I don't see too many aircraft specific files, just a lot of packs for different EXP for FE1.

 

That's all for now. I realize a lot of my issues are because I never owned the 1st generation of Thirdwire products, just the second. I am really interested in the 1916 campaign but I know I need to get this 1915 one solid first. I think this mod is the true succesor to Red Baron, and thats high praise indeed!

 

Great work!

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Hi Force 10!

 

1. I don't recall having any concern with Skunkworks registration but maybe it's changed since. I would strongly recommend going ahead regardless, it is very well worthwhile eg Pfalz DIII, DIIIa &DXXI, Dolphin, Snipe etc. They are a good, helpful bunch over there.

 

I don't know if a campaign will crash or run with some planes missing. I'd suspect it will run but the missing planes will just not show up. You can always hand-edit the campaign files to replace the planes you don't have, with those you do, did this myself to give Jasta 10 in the stock Cambrai campaign the Skunkworks Pfalz DIII. these extra planes are too good to miss!

 

2. Sounds (sic!) like you did the right thing, creating a 'Sounds' (plural!) folder in your FE2 mod folder, so I dunno why you get no sound with the plane concerned. this process works fine for me. Two observations:

 

(i) A solution for any plane with no sound is to hand-edit its data.ini file and change the engine sound name to a stock one or another one you DO have. But dropping the sound that comes with the plane in 'Sounds' should work. The Fokker Eindekkers I use (which I believe are the ones required for Armchair Aces) are Laton's ones as seen in the screenies above. Laton's EIII readme doesn't mention a sound file. From its data.ini file, it uses 'EngineSoundName=RotaryEngine'.

 

(ii) Maybe the missing engine sound is non-stock and comes with another add-on plane. Some pilot figures are like that, too. You either have to install the plane that has it, in which case it shows up for all that use it, or you have to edit the plane's data.ini so it uses a stock one instead. My FE2 install has nearly all the add-on planes available which may be why I don't have this problem. I suspect that once you have finished installing just the planes needed for Armchair Aces you will find you have all the engine sounds (and pilot figures) you need.

 

3. IIRC this is the d/l you need for Peter01's FMs:

 

http://combatace.com...fms-march-2010/

 

If you expand the subfolder with the FE2 FMs you will see that it has all the FMs for all planes and variants, all sorted into the planes' subfolders. I'd suggest you just install them all, it doesn't do any harm to have aircraft folders with just the FM files in them. If installing the FM mod before you install any planes included in it, make sure you do not over-write the .ini and data.ini files for each new plane as you will over-write the FM mod.

 

One point to note - as the readme says, Peter has neutered gunners in 2- and multi-seaters; if like me you prefer them more effective, you will need to hand-edit their data.ini files to restore their rate of traverse and burst duration, after installing the FM mod (there is a recent thread explaining how to do so, in this forum).

 

Another thing I found is that adding the ground MGs for Armchair Aces means they show up in other campaigns too. In a 40 Squadron 'Bloody April' mission last night, I flew low to check out some explosions only to end up rashly going head to head with a ground MG near the trenches; I lost!

 

Yes it would be nice if there were all-in-one installers for all this but it's very well worth the modest effort when it's all up and running, or should I say, flying.

Edited by 33LIMA

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Thanks so much for the reply 33Lima! I am a long time member at SimHQ and your post over there sparked my interest back up. I am at work right now so I will try your suggestions when I get home. I was looking at the campaign ini's and it seems like it would be possible to swap out the missing aircraft

from Skunkworks for something else. It will be tedious but I kinda dig that sort of thing. Now if I can just keep the wife outta my hair for a few hours, I will be up in a crate (and probably on fire) in no time!

 

Thanks Again!

 

 

 

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Good luck with getting up to speed and welcome aboard!

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Hi all,

 

First off: Ojcar, THANK YOU for all your hard work in making these campaigns: the whole air war in flyable missions? Amazing!!!!!

 

Now: I'm having one slight problem with getting Armchair Aces 1915 to work properly: I get all the Vogesen missions showing up, nothing wrong with them, they all work perfectly .And they're great, thoroughly enjoying those!!!

 

Unfortunately, the Flanders and Verdun missions just don't show up in the drop-down menu in-game.

 

Now, I knew I'd run into problems as my install is FE+ 2008 Exp ack, and the campaign was designed for FE2. So I was ultra-careful about the install, downloaded everything specified in the readme, checked and re-checked that I'd followed all the steps, made sure the aircraft names matched etc, and I must've done something right, because, as I say, the Vogesen missions work fine.

 

I should add that my Flanders and Verdun terrains work just fine in Single Mission mode, and with the stock FE campaigns, its only the Armchair Aces missions that won't show up for these two. I'm just wondering whether it may be because Armchair Aces comes with a campaign-specific Target.ini for Vogesen, but not for the other two? Anyway, I'm stumped dntknw.gif, and would be extremely grateful for any help or advice.

 

Thanks, guys.

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Well I think it's a FE thing. I'll explain: FE2 reads both Unicode and ANSI text files (Unicode is default) and FE only read ANSI type files. Maybe all Vogesen are ANSI and the others are Unicode.

 

So, go to eacch text file , open it and save it as ANSI file. I think the campaigns will work now.

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Well I think it's a FE thing. I'll explain: FE2 reads both Unicode and ANSI text files (Unicode is default) and FE only read ANSI type files. Maybe all Vogesen are ANSI and the others are Unicode.

 

So, go to eacch text file , open it and save it as ANSI file. I think the campaigns will work now.

 

YAY!!!! That's solved it! Thank you, Ojcar, you da man!!! biggrin.gif

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