Pike Bishop

Dear pips, What I cannot understand is that with WWI aircraft there are no superchargers (excepting the DVIIF) so as one goes higher the air gets thinner proportionally. Therefore there should be a proportional change in speed. The wing loading and power loading will also show a PROPORTIONAL change. If you know the wing loading this will tell you whether one aircraft can out-turn another and the power loading will tell you how much excess power is available to maintain speed (or height) while turning. Most of this can be worked out on paper as near as dammit. Best regards, Pike.

Dear All, I usually fly the SE5a but recently I tried a HITR career with a Nieuport28. But there is no gunsight?..so it is a little difficult to hit anything...........What am I missing?? regards, Pike.

Dear All, Regarding the crash itself,someone suggested that I had my sliders set too high. Well what actually happens is the game will freeze and lots of bits of aircraft are spread haphazardly all over the screen. If this is what happens with the sliders too high then I will reduce them. So, is that what happens? regards, Pike.

I think I have isolated the install problem in that I tested each time I added a patch. It went wrong when I put the optional hard core damage model on......I then found out on the download screen that we do not need that any more anyway and it is working fine. As to what caused the original crash......it may have been because I am using XP 64 bit. It used to crash often last year and then it suddenly behaved itself until now.........I put it down to one of the updated patches that I added as time went by but we'll se how long this lasts. Best regards, Pike.

I now have another problem.......I have reinstalled the game but cannot select the SE5 (went to 56 sq).....it says it is unavailable nomatter what date I choose. regards, Pike

Dear All, Just had a game crash and were advised to completely erase and reinstall game. With all the different patches I am not absolutely sure on the order of patching and what to put on after what any more to get a complete game. Regards, Pike.

Dear Creaghorn, I must say that your comments about "just staying alive" instantly made me think of the times that I have been paintballing, and attempts by people in our group to rally and charge the enemy.....as we cower behind oil drums.......no-one moves because getting shot bloody hurts!! So, with regard to the realism factor, this game is certainly one of the best. Clearly there is a fine balance in making a game as real as possible and making it as playable as possible at the same time. This "simulation has come the closest yet in my eyes. Every time I go up my mouth is as dry as a bone and many times I have 'run away to live to fight another day'. But of course to spend the majority of your time doing this will ultimately be boring so we must seek combat every mission instead of 'tactically avoiding'(I.E. running away) combat which of course real life was not like. Many missions must have taken place where the enemy were never seen at all. However, for me that may be a good thing because I am becoming old slow and my eyes are not so good....... boy do I notice it (I have my freedom pass now which, in England, you pick up when you are 60). Looking at the actual experiences that I have had in this game......I really enjoy watching enemy machines diving down and 'bouncing a flight' some distance in front of our own and the puffs of smoke signifying some poor sod getting plastered. Then you see the attackers pulling up again and coming round again...sometimes close enough for me to have a go at. Another time I watched an Albatros burning and spinning down not 20 feet from me....a victim from a dogfight taking place above and I swear I heard the pilot screaming. Best regards, Pike.

Dear Siggi, As I said I don't know about the programming side but with the radii of turn or turn rates I think that once a turn is initiated by a more manoeuvreable aircraft, the pilot's ability to move out of the arc would be rapid.........so the attackers shots would go wide quite quickly (I don't have the data to hand but I have worked them all out in the past and am certain that because the radii are tight, at close range the arc of fire would be narrow). Obviously it would be less narrow at medium and long range, but hitting power is reduced. Even if both aircraft are turning at the same time reacting to a tighter turn rate would be enough to cause hesitation by the attacker, and subsequent realignment......G loading adding to the difficulty. I will test your idea out and see if the AI behave similar to as you describe. But as I see it at the moment as soon as you are in and E/A's sights you have little chance of surviving the combat. I recall one of the other problems that was addressed was the long range at which AI aircraft fired, but that appears to have been solved. Now it seems to me, they fire at closer ranges but fire a continuous burst which one cannot evade easily. Best regards, Pike.

Dear All, I do notice that this yo-yoing is quite prominent but I also notice that it happens often as one pulls round in a steep turn to get on the enemy's tail......your speed is then low....so when the target pulls up like that you have to be careful of stalling, so I am not sure if they are programmed to do that at that time. Secondly, what I find a bit of a problem is that when you are fired upon, it seems to me that even though you are responding by, for instance, pulling a tighter turn, you still seem to be in the AI attackers arc of fire. As a result considerable damage is done because nomatter how I manoeuvre rounds continue to hit me before I can extricate my aircraft from this arc (including the time looking around and behind for the attacker). I am not sure by how much this tallies with machine gun rates of fire versus snap manoeuvres and general buffeting/jinking. However I fly the SE5a exclusively and this machine seems to be a little slow in the roll, so perhaps it is that rather than the ?(oversized)? arc of fire for the AI but I still think that they hit you for too long when you are attempting an evasive manoeuvre. As I said once, a few years ago now, I would rather see aircraft returning with lots of holes without severe control impairments than lots of crashes with a few holes. Best regards, Pike.

Dear All, Let me say......the only real way you can do this is put windows 98 on your computer and then set your joystick up. Then use XP to overwrite (but NOT reformat) 98. I am saying this because when I first got XP I did this and XP just retained all the programs drivers and setup and so it still functioned as normal. As my son did the installation I do not know how he did it but it did work. Later we had to do a complete reinstall and lost it all because I forgot that XP reformatted and not just overwrote if you do it wrong, so I lost it all. But it did work for a while. regards, Pike.

Dear All, The main thing I would like to see would be pilot and gunner coop online. I realize that there are hard code limitations but it would be nice if the developers could crack it. I think it would add to the feeling of comradeship and pilot/gunner coordination. But care should be taken so that the human gunners are not TOO effective. Best regards, Pike.

Nakajima Ki84 Spitfire IX Harrier Gr4. Best regards, Pike.

Dear All, I personally think the the IL-2 project can only add more to the WWI scene. However, I must say that not only will online play have more to offer but with regard to 2 seaters players will be able to fly with both pilot and gunner seats occupied with the IL-2 engine. I will play both games........but then where will I be able to find time for RoF.......well I will be retiring soon so what-the-hell....I'll have loads of time then!! Best regards, Pike.

Dear All, Had an amazing dogfight in the campaign this week. Whilst on our way in SE5A's to attack a railway yard, my wingman and I ran into (I think) 6 Pfaltz's. My wingman got one before being shot down himself, leaving me against 5. I must have spent at least 45 mins fighting for my life and would you know it.....I managed to bring all of them down and actually survive!! When I got back to base I found that I had been promoted from Captain to Major with a medal. After the next mission I was told that because of lack of visual confirmation I would not be awarded my 5 claims. But I am still a Major. Bloody Bishop got away with it so why could'nt I? Now I have been captured and am spending the rest of the war in captivity! Best regards, Pike. P.S.....I am still running XP64 with no computer crashes for 4 weeks now.