how do I find the way back to base after a dogfight ?

[sparrowhawkms 0]

how do I find the way back to base after a dogfight ?

 

After I have shot down the enemy I would like to land at my home base, at the field I took off from.

 

QUESTION:

1. how do I find the way back to home base after a dogfight ?

 

2. please be specific I am a newbie

 

Thanks

 

sparrowhawkms

[HumanDrone 4]

Welcome! I just happened on your post and wanted to say Hi!

 

Now others who are better at this will be along, I'm sure, but you can always "cheat" and press "M" for the map button - I think that still works. For best immersion, though, the hard core guys here print their maps and used dead reckoning and ground landmarks just as the pilots did. When I get more time to fly, I'll probably go that route. How long have you been an OFF'er? Do you have anything like TrackIR so that you can look around easier?

 

BTW, you'll find that this is one of the best, most "gentlemanly" forums on the internet, a very competent and helpful and courteous group of "avaitors." So again, Welcome!

 

Best,

 

Tom

[Hauksbee 103]

how do I find the way back to base after a dogfight?

If you've settled on a squadron you expect to stay with for a while, go to a bookstore, get a paper map, and then fly some 'lone wolf' missions and scout the territory. Get to know it. Make a screen cap. of your base from the air. Keep it handy. Fly short distances from home, then turn back and land. Then increase the distance. Pretty soon, you'll know the neighborhood and you'll be able to fly 'dead reckoning'...and with a bit of compass thrown in.

[Bullethead 12]

Welcome aboard, Sparrowhawk! New guy buys the drinks

 

If you want to go hard core with a paper map, you'll find a bunch of them for you in the Download section of this forum. Folks like Olham have spent a lot of time verifying them.

 

If you want to do what most folks do, however, besides the M key to bring up the map, there's also the "Tactical" radar display available with SHF-T. On the map, you'll see your whole mission route. On the Tactical screen, you'll see a blue line from the center to the edge somewhere that shows your heading to the next waypoint on your route. As you reach each waypoint, the tactical display's blue line changes to point at the next waypoint.

 

BUT, if you want to just go straight home without following the whole route, hit SHF-W repeatedly. This is the "Next Waypoint" command. Eventually, it'll stop at the last remaining waypoint, which is your home base. Then just follow the blue line right to it.

[Burning Beard 14]

If you are new, you are probably using the tac screen (the little cirlce thing that has the waypoint line). I use it and have flown this since Phase One. Anyhoo, if you get disoriented or run out of ammo or are beat up or sumpin', hit Shift W and it will advance the waypoints. When it stops advancing follow that heading and it will take you home.

 

Beard

 

Gee Bullethead you beat me by a minute, lol.

 

Beard

[Olham 164]

Welcome over Flanders fields, sparrowhawkms!

Please send me a PM with your town and country - I will add you to the OFF Pilots Maps then.

 

Using the inflight map is what I'd recommend for beginners, who want to fly more realistic.

It shows you the momentary position of your craft. If you see then, that your course should be

northwest, you could exit the map and fly after your compass again.

Check map - correct course. (And your six of course!)

 

The TAC is very helpful, cause it shows your course, plus a kind of radar showing all other aircraft

around you in a certain range. But since I left the TAC behind I only know, how much it had always

distracted me from the real life feeling. But it's okay for the first campaigns, I'd say, just to help you

getting into the whole business.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Olham

[HumanDrone 4]

Welcome aboard, Sparrowhawk! New guy buys the drinks

 

Criminee! I forgot about that! What kind of OFF'er am I? I'll go all-out and have a nice Merlot!

[Bullethead 12]

I'd also like to point out that I feel no shame whatsoever using the in-game map and tactical screens. These aren't just for new players. And the game allows you to make more or less use out of them as best fits your own tastes.

 

For instance, I myself almost always hit X to "warp" between Point A and Point B, rather than fly along in real time having to navigate myself. I don't have all day to play this game, usually just an hour or 2 before bedtime, and I want to KILL SOMETHING. So I skip all the dull parts and cut right to the action. Thus, I've never used a paper map in all the years I've been playing this game. That said, however, I ALWAYS take the time to learn the neighborhood around my home base because you always have to land yourself once you've warped to the last waypoint, and sometimes the weather is so bad that the only way to find your runway is to follow local landmarks.

 

Also, the tactical display can be set to show everything on the ground and in the air at once, or filtered to show different types of objects (planes, buildings, ships, airfields, etc.). This allows you to get more or less info from it, depending on taste. For instance, it can either be like having AWACs support, or it can nothing more than an aid to navigation if you don't want to mess with paper maps. To do the latter, set it to display ships. There are no ships in the game, so the display will show nothing, but the waypoint like will still be there for you to follow.

[sparrowhawkms 0]

Olham, Bullethead, Burning Beard, Human Drone, Hauksbee

Thanks guys!

I will to use these tools, now that I realize their usefulness

--------------------

 

I am really into WWI, reading whatever I can find (on-line and FREE).

QUESTION_1

Any suggestions as to what to read? English only (my German is way too inadequate)

----------------------

 

< Track IR > is out of my reach for now since I'm retired (finance$)

QUESTION_2:

< Free Track > is interesting, only because it is free, but is it a realistic alternative?

any feedback would be appreciated.

 

sparrowhawkms

[Olham 164]

1. Arthur Gould Lee: "No Parachute!"

2. Cecil Lewis: "Sagittarius Rising"

 

Both absolutely great reads, believe me! If you ever wanted to kind of accompany

a British pilot of the Great War through his war days, weeks and months, you will

surely find these books valuable.

 

Edit: I do usually feel more "naturally at home" with German Jasta in OFF, but these two

gentlemen really managed to bring the British pilots' everyday life and thoughts - their

flying and freezing; their singing and drinking evenings in the mess - so close to my

German soul, that I felt a deep empathy with them; and a very comfortable one.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

Any suggestions as to what to read? English only (my German is way too inadequate)

 

Every book written prior to 1923 or so is public domain. RAF_Louvert has uploaded a bunch of WW1 memoirs and other books about WW1 aviation to the Downloads section of this forum. Go get them. And there are scads more you can get for free in the various online libraries.

 

< Track IR > is out of my reach for now since I'm retired (finance$)

QUESTION_2:

< Free Track > is interesting, only because it is free, but is it a realistic alternative?

any feedback would be appreciated.

 

I've never used FreeTrack so can't help you there. But I can tell you that unless you're cool with using padlock views during ACM, you'll have to get some sort of head-tracking device, because CFS3 was made in the era when using the tried-and-true, and MUCH BETTER, additive keypad view system was considered passe'. Personally, I find padlocks totally unplayable but that's what CFS3 was built around, and so OFF inherited it. So, given that for me a head-tracker was required, I cut back (slightly) on beer and tobacco for a couple weeks and bought Track IR, on the theory that getting a factory-made device would be better than anything I could slap together with my total lack of understanding of electronics.

 

After 5 minutes of using Track IR, I was convinced it was worth every penny, every brief moment of sobriety, and every slight nicotine fit. Now I won't go back to the old (but still better-than-padlock) additive keypad view system. If a game doesn't support Track IR, I don't buy it.

 

And just to be sure you understand how serious I am about getting Track IR, remember what I had to cut back on to get it. As it says in my signature...

 

It's all for me grog

Me jolly jolly grog

It's all for me BEER AND TOBACCO

I spent all me tin

On the lassies drinkin' gin

So across the western ocean I must wander

[HumanDrone 4]

I'm with Bullethead here. It's worth a couple of weeks of delivering pizzas or "welcome to Walmart" or "do you want fries with that?", if you're able. TrackIR is just that indispensable, especially for a lousy pilot like me. You can look over the edge, line up to your sights, glance over your shoulder, all kinds of things, without horsing around with a hat button or keypad malarkey. Beg Santa Claus, tell the gang to pool together for your birthday, just somehow get it. You'll never regret it.

 

(@ BH... "every brief moment of sobriety...." you are quite the writer, sir!)

[Olham 164]

sparrowhawkms, I definitely ditto the TrackIR pros here.

TrackIR is able to put you into the cockpit, no less. You will feel like really flying the crate.

You will look out left and right, down the port side of the fuselage, a quick check of your six;

it is the device to turn your sim into an almost real life feeling.

 

Sounds expensive? Drop cinema and pizza service, drinks and magazines - whatever.

You'll be surprised how soon you can save 120,- Dollars.

[+Polovski 460]

FaceTrackNoIR is a good free alternative that uses a web cam to track your face. So if you have a webcam worth a look. It may even be worth looking for a second hand trackir 3 or 4, it really is like going from using keyboard to using joystick for a flight sim, you will never ever want to go back to anything else.

 

Free one anyway with OFF support in:

http://facetracknoir...ome/default.htm

 

info on OFF on the download page read it carefully.

 

http://facetracknoir...ks/download.htm

[von Baur 54]

I've tried FaceTrackNoIR and could never get the accuracy or response that I do with TrackIR and I have a 16-9, 1080 webcam. That said, I bought my TIR Pro3 w/Vector back when they were the best thing out there (2005 or thereabouts) and it still works very well, so don't feel like you have to shell out the big $$$ for Track IR5. Check ebay for a used 4 or even 3 in good condition and you'll be quite pleased.

 

To your original question, I agree with Hauksbee...scout the area on your side of the lines north and south of your field (east and west where that applies) during solo flights in QC mode and note the major landmarks like river and road layouts. That way you just have to keep your general position in mind and if you get terribly disoriented head straight across the lines and once there make the appropriate turn to get you on your way. Then it's just a matter of flying until things look familiar. Paper maps work well enough, but the one complaint I've always had against OFF is that their landscape doesn't match reality accurately to the point of making precisely locating your position with a real-world based map difficult at best (though they, too, can usually get you 'in the neighborhood') and their in-game maps are basically CFS3 maps which, IMO, suck. Fortunately, the rumor is that WOFF will correct both of those deficiencies.

 

 

Happy flying!

[+Polovski 460]

No one said it's "as good as" TrackIR but if you have no money worth a look.. TrackIR is fantastic, and worth every penny but not everyone has the money.

 

Making a whole real world is rather a huge undertaking.. with more time and support anything is possible of course.