Replenish Ammo

[Shiloh 12]

I had discussed this before and something prompted me to make a thread about it. I'm reading Flying Fury: Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps by James McCudden. In it he mentions a particular instance where he fired all his rounds and landed at a friendly aerodrome to pick up some more. I have often thought we should have this option in OFF as I usually run out of ammo way before I run out of gas or the will to fight. This may have been common practice or not but this is the first time I have seen evidence of it in my roughly 2 years studying WWI aviators.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

[Olham 164]

Never read that from a German pilot.

But then they had 1.000 rounds since the introduction of the Albatros.

 

If it is easy to add to WOFF - why not. But if it should hold up the release even more,

I guess it wouldn't be worth it?

[Hasse Wind 46]

I'm sure it happened. If you still had fuel left but lacked ammo and were reasonably close to a friendly field, it wouldn't take long to replenish, especially if you had a drum-fed weapon like the Lewis, which was quick to reload.

 

Now I can't remember if this was already possible in CFS3? I'm sure I've played some flights sims that allowed you to land and replenish both fuel and ammo, and then continue the mission.

[HumanDrone 4]

Hi all, been a while.... I'll explain sometime. in stock CFS3, Ctrl+J will reload munitions (such as bombs, rockets, etc) anywhere in your flight if you want to ahve a gorefest of unlimited bombing. I don't know if it woul do the same for being out of ammo, as I'm still a sissy an dfly with unlimited ammo (when I can actually get some stick time). But as you say, to be fair, you should have to land to reload.

[rjw 48]

I had discussed this before and something prompted me to make a thread about it. I'm reading Flying Fury: Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps by James McCudden. In it he mentions a particular instance where he fired all his rounds and landed at a friendly aerodrome to pick up some more. I have often thought we should have this option in OFF as I usually run out of ammo way before I run out of gas or the will to fight. This may have been common practice or not but this is the first time I have seen evidence of it in my roughly 2 years studying WWI aviators.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

 

So I read the page of the book and found that it left me hanging in frustration!!! What happend when he aborted the loop!!!! PLease, Please, pretty please!!

[Olham 164]

Mmuahahahahaaaa!!!!

[MudWasp48 3]

Yeah, I'd though about that too.

Also, "Hey Guys, can you spare some fuel?",

 

Damm, between you and Olham, I may have to buy some reading material.

[Hasse Wind 46]

So I read the page of the book and found that it left me hanging in frustration!!! What happend when he aborted the loop!!!! PLease, Please, pretty please!!

 

"The resultant upward pressure was so great that all my ammunition drums shot out of my machine over my top plane and into the revolving propeller, which, being a "pusher", of course was behind me. There was a mighty scrunch and terrific vibration as three out of my four propeller-blades disappeared in a cloud of splinters. I at once switched off and removed my gun from my knees, where it had fallen after having been wrenched from its mountings and thrown into the air owing to the terrific vibration caused by my engine doing 1,600 revs. per minute with only one propeller-blade.

 

I now found that I wanted full right rudder to keep the machine straight, and discovered, on looking round, that the lower right-hand tail boom had been cut clean in two by one of the flying propeller-blades, and all that was holding my tail on was a diagonal 10-cwt. tail-boom bracing wire. The machine was wobbling badly as the engine was still turning round slowly, and I had just about wits enough left to pick out a field and make a landing successfully. As soon as I stopped running along the ground the machine tilted over on one wing, as the centre section bracing wires were broken, and there was nothing, now that the machine was at rest, to keep the wings in their correct position with the nacelle. I got out of the machine and thanked God for my salvation."

[rjw 48]

MMMM, I don't think so Hasse Wind. Nice try, and very creative I might add!!

 

Cheers

[Hasse Wind 46]

No, that's actually written by McCudden himself.

[Olham 164]

Robert, that is how McCudden's book really continued.

I often think, that the now famous aces are only famous aces now, because they simply

had a much longer strain of good luck, and survived several situations, which others didn't.

Edited May 18, 2013 by Olham

[Hauksbee 103]

I often think, that the now famous aces are only famous aces now, because they simply

had a much longer strain of good luck, and survived several situations, which others didn't.

I agree.

[rjw 48]

Robert, that is how McCudden's book really continued.

I often think, that the now famous aces are only famous aces now, because they simply

had a much longer strain of good luck, and survived several situations, which others didn't.

 

Hass Wind / Olham;

 

That's incredible!! It seemed too fantastic to be real!!

 

Thanks for the confirmation. I have the book on order and expect it soon. Can hardly wait to get into it.

 

Best Regards;

[Olham 164]

Make sure you also read "No Parachute!" by Arthur Gould Lee (if you haven't already).

He was another feller who used up at least 5 of his 9 lives.

His "adventures" during the battle of Cambrai alone are hairraising.

[Dej 17]

Robert,

 

Some more of Gould's autobiographical notes are to be found in 'Open Cockpit' which has recently been republished. I highly recommend that in addition to 'No Parachute'. Together they form the finest WW1 aviation autobiography, IMO.

[Olham 164]

Thanks for the reminder, Dej - that book is still on my open list.

[rjw 48]

Robert,

 

Some more of Gould's autobiographical notes are to be found in 'Open Cockpit' which has recently been republished. I highly recommend that in addition to 'No Parachute'. Together they form the finest WW1 aviation autobiography, IMO.

 

Thanks Dej / Olham;

 

Really appreciate the feedback!

 

Cheers!

[Britisheh 0]

Hi there Gentlemen,

 

One delightful passage has led me to remember to add " No Parachute" to my Christmas list. Perhaps it will coincide with OFF P4? It would be two nice presents!

 

Cheers,

 

Britisheh

[Shiloh 12]

Never read that from a German pilot.

But then they had 1.000 rounds since the introduction of the Albatros.

 

If it is easy to add to WOFF - why not. But if it should hold up the release even more,

I guess it wouldn't be worth it?

 

I can't imagine this would be too difficult Olham. I know nothing about coding a flight sim but it's just a matter of setting things up so that when a player lands at a friendly field for a certain period of time, say one minute, then they can take off again with fully replenished ammo.

 

I love OFF as much as anyone but this one enhancement would greatly-enhance my enjoyment factor. And if it's historically accurate as McCudden states, why not put that option in there?

 

I'm sure it happened. If you still had fuel left but lacked ammo and were reasonably close to a friendly field, it wouldn't take long to replenish, especially if you had a drum-fed weapon like the Lewis, which was quick to reload.

 

Now I can't remember if this was already possible in CFS3? I'm sure I've played some flights sims that allowed you to land and replenish both fuel and ammo, and then continue the mission.

 

So other sims have done this? Historically, there would be no reason I could see where a ground crew wouldn't give a friendly pilot some ammo - unless they were in low supply. So many times it's happened where my flight is engaged over friendly airfields and I either have to call them off to join me in heading for home which is very dangerous for them, or I have to abandon them in the middle of a fight because I'm out of ammo. If I could land, I could reasonably be back in the fight in 5-10 minutes at most provided it was a low fight as the lengthy fights often end up very low to the ground.

 

But as you say, to be fair, you should have to land to reload.

 

I agree with this totally HumanDrone. I wouldn't ever feel right about ticking that unlimited ammo button in workshops - and that's just me. But if it was required that one land, then it stays within the realm of historically accurate. And when you're in a heated fight landing is not always the easiest thing to do. I thought I read something along the way where landing/taking off were going to be made more difficult in WOFF - maybe I'm mistaken? In any event, it would add an additional risk factor in choosing to land to replenish ammo.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Shiloh

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

I can't imagine this would be too difficult Olham. I know nothing about coding a flight sim but it's just a matter of setting things up so that when a player lands at a friendly field for a certain period of time, say one minute, then they can take off again with fully replenished ammo.

 

I love OFF as much as anyone but this one enhancement would greatly-enhance my enjoyment factor. And if it's historically accurate as McCudden states, why not put that option in there?

 

You'll have to remember that OFF/WOFF run on top of CFS3. OBD can do a lot, but they can't go into CFS3's source code and make fundamental changes. Since CFS3 itself doesn't support reloading, I'm skeptical it'd be easy to do. Though if CFS3 uses a consistent memory address to track the player's ammo...

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

I may be opening a big can of worms here. But here's how to replenish ammo in OFF:

1. Download, install, and launch CheatEngine.
    
   
2. Start your flight in OFF, and pause on the runway before take-off. Turn on the HUD (F5, must be enabled in CFS3Config) and make note of the exact # of MG rounds you have to start--your full capacity.
    
   
3. Alt-tab out of your flight to CheatEngine. Hit the 'select process' button in the upper left or choose 'Open Process' from the file menu. Find the process that ends in CFS3.exe and 'Open' it.
    
   
4. In CheatEngine, for the 'Value' enter the number of rounds you noted above, set the 'Scan Type' to 'Exact Value', and click the 'New Scan' button. You'll see the list at the left fill with memory addresses containing that value.
    
   
5. Alt-tab back into CFS3, unpause, and fire off a round or two to 'clear guns' so to speak. Pause and make note of your remaining rounds in the HUD.
    
   
6. Alt-tab back to CheatEngine, enter this lower number of rounds into the 'Value' field, and click the 'Next Scan' button. If everything worked right, the list of matching memory addresses will be narrowed down to a single entry. If not, do Step 5 and 6 again until it narrows down to a single entry.
    
   
7. Double click on the single entry in the left to make it active for editing below. In the table at the bottom, double click on the description and call it 'Ammo' or something for your reference.
    
   
8. Go back to CFS3, fly your off mission as normal. If you run out of ammo, land at a friendly airfield, sit and wait for however long you feel is appropriate, and then alt-tab out to CheatEngine.
    
   
9. In the table at the bottom your ammo value should be 0. Double click on the value and change it to your plane's full capacity.
    
   
10. Alt-tab back to your game and tada!
    

Since CFS3 uses a different memory address each time, you can't just save your CheatEngine profile to skip steps, but have to go through all 10 for each flight you want to be able to reload ammo. So it's a hassle, but it works.

 

But please don't just use it to cheat! Maybe I'm just an idiot recommending a program called "CheatEngine" to make OFF more historically consistent. Hope I just totally didn't hose OFF multiplayer, but I have no idea how that tracks and communicates such between players over the network.

[HumanDrone 4]

Well, then, I take it CTRL+J doesn't reload your machine guns, only the loadout you selected under the drop down menu (in native CFS3) for bombs, missles, drop tanks, etc. (no, I haven't had time to check, in spring i work at the office, go home, eat, and go outside to mow grass or cut wood or plant or weed or spray or digh stumps or change oil or sharpen blades or grease the tractor or ....!)

 

But yeah, no matter how you do it, it's up to you to abide by gentlemanly rules of warfare!

 

Best,

 

Tom

Edited May 21, 2013 by HumanDrone

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Well, then, I take it CTRL+J doesn't reload your machine guns, only the loadout you selected under the drop down menu (in native CFS3) for bombs, missles, drop tanks, etc.

 

Yep. The point is so that if you have 'unlimited ammo' selected, you can still dump all your bombs/missions/drop tanks to lighten your plane before going into air-to-air combat (bullets don't weigh anything in OFF). Then you can CTRL+J to magically get these armaments back an unlimited number of times after your air combat.

 

Happy tractoring, Tom!

 

Anyone try the CheatEngine method I outlined for reloading machine guns?

[Shiloh 12]

Thanks Lothar for taking the time to put that together. For me, it would be an immersion killer to alt-tab in and out of the software as I try to make the flying/fighting experience as authentic as possible. Right now, I'm trying to create some dialogue and see how people feel about it. I am hopeful the developers will take it under consideration and perhaps integrate it into the next release (WOFF).

Edited May 25, 2013 by Shiloh

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Yeah Shiloh I understand not wanting to break out of the game in the middle of a mission. But OBD simply doesn't have that kind of control over the CFS3 engine. Such a feature is just not going to happen.