elephant

I've been playing OFF for 6 months now and never had a night mission...well, not exactly... In my new Jasta 23b Campaign, (third in a row...thanks to Olham's airfield thread), I had a late afternoon mission. We are in the winter, (Dec. '17) and my return was at dusk time. Considering the bad weather conditions, isn't the terrain looking too bright? I had a feeling that there were floodlights illuminating it! The objects on the other hand look pretty dark all right...(look those tents in the backround they're almost black!) Is this "terrain illumination", for playability reasons? What do you guys think about it? In an Airfield defence mission, our flight encountered an attacking flight of Strutters, (nothing weird so far). When I got close I saw they were British! In our sector, (Verdun area), there were no Brits... The colours of the Strutter looked like those of RNAS 4, (I fly with them on my British Campaign). I turned the labels on, to realize that the planes were supposed to be of a French Esq.(26?) If that's the case, why they were not wearing a generic French livery, if there wasn't a special skin for that Esc. available? Is this a bug? It was kind of immersion killer when I realised it... Talking about immersion killers another thing that haunts me, is the AI formation flying and landing procedure. The pilots in formation don't follow the leader as normal but just keeping up with the mission waypoints. When the FL reaches a waypoint and turns to the direction of the next, the rest of the flight doesn't turn with him, (as supposed to, in order to keep formation), but continues straight flying till the waypoint is reached and then turns! I find this behaviour totally unrealistic... Also the landing procedure for the AI is a bit weird too. When they reach the final waypoint at the airfield they don't loiter over it and start landing one by one as normal, (may be more than one there is enough space, but anyway), but instead they turn and travel to another direction for several miles and when they finaly come back they land as if tied by an ivisible string, one behind the other at the edge of the airfield and stop there... I skip the landing procedure as I land first and end the mission, let the others wonder about.. but that formation thing is a real immersion killer. What to you think about these? Any chance to see them "fixed" in P4?

Very interesting thanks, Shiloh!

OK, here is a photo sequence of a taking off procedure from the weird Saint Mard, aerodrome:

I like all the airfields in OFF...they are very atmospheric, indeed! Right now, I only have these pics of Aniche, Flandres, home of Jasta 23b, in early 1918. I must admit though, I remember the most, another airfield of Jasta 23b in the Verdun region. I don't remember the name exactly, St. Marts or something. It was placed in the most inappropriate place for an airfield... It was dug into the ground, like been at the bottom of a bathtub...I may visit it again and bring back some pics.

I only rely on photographic evidence... Profiles have a great deal of personal interpretation involved! You are right about the last pic... Jasta 8 DVas, late 1917.

My further investigation on the matter, revealed that most probably the OAW built machines had the triple row specifications stencil above the centerline, just below the cockpit... :yes: I almost confirmed that, with numerous examples of D.IIIs with the distinctive OAW built, vertical stabiliser that cannot be mistaken. About Jim's, (JFM) profiles now, here is pic of MvR visiting a naval base with one of his D.Vs, (OAW built?), that the triple row inscription is clearly seen above the centerline: Here are the D.III OAW pics revealing the same type of inscription and placement: and a D.Va more, probably OAW built too, featuring the same characteristics of the specifications inscription: I wonder what Jim says about it...I guess his archives would be significantly richer than mine...

As I said above, according to my references, there were two types of specification inscriptions. Some examples more: Twin row inscription placed below the centerline: Triple row inscription placed above the centerline: I found also this sole example of a triple row inscription centered: And yes! A DVa with a triple row inscription below the centerline like yours, but it seems kind of an exception: If I dig more into my books I could find more on this little detail...

Yes, your documentation is right, Olham, but not for the type of inscription your skin features... I have seen a twin row inscription as in your reference pic, below the centerline, but the triple row one as in your skin, above the centerline... I don't know weather the different type of inscriptions were manufacturer dependant, (most likely though).

Very nice, thanks Olham Those specification stencils on the port side souldn't have been a bit upper, (just bellow the cockpit), or I'm wrong? I would like to see from you, more generics if possible...

What can I say... I can't wait! :clapping:

In WWI kills by two seaters were credited to both crew members so an observer could well be an ace... In OFF the observer is not an actual member of the squadron, (non existent in Duty Room), so all the "crew" kills are credited to the pilot, (player). As Olham suggested, piloting your plane to a favorable position to the rear gunner and at the same time keeping yourself away from enemy fire can be great fun!

They look fabulous!

Wow, what an honor! Thanks so much!

Thanks for the answers Bletchley! I'm sure you've done your research, no doubt on that! "- but let me know, in that case what proportion you think should be 'Lone Wolf' (currently 55%) :) " Well I don't know...I'm not that expert... 30% would feel OK... or better, if possible, to make some of these Lone Wolf missions for a pair,Player and Wingman, instead of solo. And some more from my current pilot's Log Book: As you may notice I skipped/advanced the morning, (Lone Wolf), mission of 22/2 but afaik...

Oh, I was just replying to the first post by Olham and several others have arrived meanwhile... To Olham: I'm using only one pilot at a time... To Bletchley: Indeed, the Lone Wolf missions generated are of different type but...

Well, as a matter of fact I'm in Feb. 1918, with Jasta 23b... I started the Campaign in the Summer of 1917... We were flying Alb. D.III and switched to D.V a bit later that summer. I'm using the Quiet Sector files as recommended by the OFF Campaign, according to Bletchley's ReadMe file... I was having reasonable number of Lone Wolf missions in '17, no problem. Now I have enabled Quiet Sector 1918 Jan-Apr mod accordingly and the majority of the missions are Lone Wolf ones with small interims of other types...I tried to advance time manually but the Lone Wolfs keep coming!

The topic description says it all... I'm using Bletchley's Great mission edits. I'm having IMO too many Lone Wolf missions. OK once in a while such a mission is wellcome, can be fun also! But five Lone Wolf missions in a row is just too much... don't you think? Is it a way to come around this "problem"?

Hey Gustav, I think I'm going to reinstall FE2 looking at your pics!

Impressive!

OK, thanks Olham...

Great as always Olham! May I ask about the type of font you are using for the stencils on wings as well as for the serial numbers on the tail? Is it possible to pass it/them over?

Brilliant!

If you have an NVidia card you can install the NVidia DDS plugin for Photoshop and there is no need for converters...

Olham's system even with no Vid Card upgrade yet, cries for P4...

Thanks, downloading now...