Mr. Lucky

I'm going to be on the road alot in the near future and I'm wondering how I can put together a rig to fly OFF when I'm on the road. So far, I'm thinking laptop and some type of joystick...but what about trackir, rudder pedals and throttle? Looking for ideas and suggestions.

I know but those da##$ned mchine gun bullets keep mis aligning my shakras.

I've seen this happen with RFC60 in 1916. It starts with a non existant airplane, so I advanced to N17 Lewis. I got those errors and others but it didn't seem to affect my career. Not as much as that stupid gun sight...but I digress.

A non believer! you know I like to fly as pure as possible. I have to use my watch when flying for the Fatherland.

I'm interested.

A bitter sweet moment. Back in my trusty Alb DII for J34, flying airfield defense in the snow. Circling the target airfield, ordering my wingmen to return, as usual, while looking behind me, I see the tell-tale flash of silver. I immediatley signal 'attack' and whip around to engage. It turned out they were two miles away, so I'm surprised I actually saw them, but it quickly ended up three N17's against only me. The fight ended up within about 1/2 mile of the airfield anf about the same distance from an obs. balloon. I kept turning and firing, never letting up and the AA gunners were trying to help me out. Being so busy, I never actually saw any go in, but after a while I found myself alone. I stayed in the area for a bit just in case, then headed home. No claims to file, so I figured, that while I did get some hits, maybe the AA finished them off or they ran off. When I reviewed the mission, it turned out I did shoot down two of them. The third, was simply destroyed, probably by AA. No squadmates witnessed my kills as they were all done in before I avenged them. So, no witnesses so I didn't get to even try to claim those kills. Even though I was between an airfield and balloon. Well, with visibility so bad, the AA fire, it was probably unclear as to who killed whom. But for me, it's not about the kills. I'm glad to have tangled with three of them, gotten two and lived to tell the tale, not to mention fulfilling my orders of protecting the airfield, and even the balloon survived. I guess the wingmen "wouldn't obey my signals. Too keen." This is about as close to WWI flying and fighting as I can imagine. "Next time, you must have witnesses."

Now that the AI behavior has been straightened out, I sincerely hope something can be done about their aircraft. With them being so determined and deadly, there is sometimes no means of escape but to fight it out. I was flying the SPAD in 1918 and was fighting two DR1's. Many people advise to use boom and zoom tactics in the SPAD, but you can't boom and zoom an opponent that can outclimb and outdive you. There's no way, a DR1 should be able to stick to my tail in a dive. I don't mean staying in the six o'clock position, but actually drawing closer. If it's possible, I hope the wizards at OBD can do something about the lack of aircraft limitations for the AI pilots. Thanks.....back to the ALB DII again.

I'm not asking historically, but what's necessary for the programming of CFS3. When we fly planes without mixture controls, Should we set automixture to on in workshop? Or leave it set off and just don't use mixture controls? IIRC, many German engines had a form of automixture on their engines so .... is this modeled by the aircraft just not usinf mixture control and we do nothing or as I asked, do we need to select automixture on to emulate this. Thanks

Thanks all for your help. I knew Bletchley posted that for P2 but didn't know it was out for P3. Thanks.

I disagree....I think FE functions much better in the coaster department. (not really, I just wanted to try and be as inane). Anyway, Big Jim has a valid point in that most flight simulators try to even the playing field for the AI by exempting them from their aircraft limitations. I saw this in my beloved IL2..i.e. the A6M5 Zero out diving a Wildcat. So, this is not exclusive to OFF riding on CFS3. IMO it's not a good simulation choice for helping the AI. If we want to experience the situations as close as they were, we are unable to manage our aircraft's strengths and weaknesses, which for me is a big part of WWI air combat. Now, there's no bigger fan of OFF than me, but I can still honestly point out what I find to be short-comings. Since the OBD team had done so well with the changes to the CFS3 code I would like to know if they can do something about this issue. Siggi also makes a valid point about the leavening affect of aces versus dumb AI pilots but what tactics do you use? You've got the tightest turning plane, but all of theirs out turn you, you've got the fastes plane in a dive, but all of theirs out dive you, etc, etc, I exaggerate of course, as this does NOT reflect OFF AI behaviour, but the OBD team fell into the usual trap. They've done so well with this that we now expect them to be able to do anything to make it perfect. I would like to see that.

Don't worry, every time I try to fly for the Entente, I'm always drawn back to flying for the Fatherland. I can't wait until we get some more early planes so I can experience the Fokker scourge.

Here I am, fat dumb and happy flying my 4th mission for RFC60 in a N17 with Lewis gun. It's a patrol behind enemy lines. Looking over my shoulder, I spy a flight of EIII's maybe 4 or 6. I quickly order my flight to attack while turning to meet them. I take a quick snap shot at one thinking, 'Oh boy, EIII's for breakfast, this will be like a turkey shoot'. I see one on the tail of one of my wingmen, so I go after him. These guys are good, throwing their eindekkers around. I follow one in a turn, drawing lead, slowly, he starts to shallow out his turn allowing me to slip on his six, He slides into the crosshairs...then disappears! That stupid gun sight blocks out just about any target. It's not like the aldis sight that has a thin tube so you can see your target while fine aiming with the sight. This nightmare concoction makes it almost impossible. Don't try to tell me to use the gunsight view, because it isn't much better. If I were flying back then, the first thing I'd do is rip that @#$@#$ out of there. So, I ended up getting riddled with bullets because I was trying to fight like Stevie Wonder or Blinkin. Made a forced landing and scrapped that campaign. I know it's historical and all, but that's one plane it would be nice to have the option to do a 'field retrofit' with an iron sight or none at all. That goes for that stupid canvas fairing on the N11 too!. Ya gotta love non-flying engineers and staff officers selecting your equipment for you. Ok, that's off my chest, back to the trusty Alb DII with a nice, open forward view.

Hi Condor, Welcome to the friendly skies of WWI. From the information you gave, you shouldn't be seeing those results. AFAIK, the QC missions should not tally on your logbook if you have it set to log campaign only in the Workshop from the main menu. You should be showing the time in the air for your campaign though. The BE2 you think you shot down, may have been poached by one of your flight before it crashed or they gave it the coup de grace. You'll find in OFF that the sim is very realistic in that you may not get to claim or get credit for each kill you make. Also, the waypoints and objectives are of no consequence for OFF. All that matters is that you do your duty to the best of your ability and survive. I'll let the devs chime in and see if they can give you more insight into your logbook problem. Anything else, just ask.

Shooting down an Englishman should keep you satisfied for at least a quarter of an hour.

Ahh poor Shulte's card. How very rude of them. By the way, I thought you should know, we don't dress for dinner here. Also, I might suggest memorizing the dialog of The Blue Max and Black Adder WWI series and NEVER call yourself Baldric.

I found OFF through Wings of Honor. I'd been monitoring that website waiting for a good WWI sim. I was waiting for Birds of Prey which became defunct and tried Down in Flames but then saw OFF. I already had CFS3 so I could play Korean Skies mod from Dogpatch crew so it ws easy and I've been there since Phase 1 came out. Never looked back.

Just watch out for that pesky picket fence.

Also, while the single player campaign is OFF BHH's strength, it is by no means boring or predictable. The weather is as it was each day in WWI, the other planes are on missions that they flew in WWI, the front moves there are the major offensives, and on and on. Also, there's enough variety that no two missions are ever the same. The AI is also very good, very wily and very deadly. While you need CFS3 to play, it bears no resemblance to it. Like the other WWI sims, if you love WWI aviation, you've got to try it.

I have nothing to add to what's been said, but just Welcome. Oh yes, don't be afraid to ask for help, we're all here to help you deal with death in the air :). Also, when you get the chance, read the stickies and pay attention here for tips to help you get the most out of BHAH that suits you.

That's one of the differences in having your own engine or your own code. The OFF manager is dependent on what information CFS3 gives out and the devs know what that is. If it gives out a lot of post flight info, then they can do a lot and vice versa. Ususally when I'm captured, the war is over for me. Also, I fly DID but I still accept the manager's decisions. Even if I thought I should've died, because, I've read of astounding circumstances where the pilot should've died but miraculously survived. It can happen to me too, but on the other hand, I died once, pancaking in from 13 feet and 19 mph. Freak things do happen IRL and so I allow it hear.

I can understand Olham's feelings. I'm the same way, but the subtitles, just made it hilarious. Plus it's not funny to anyone who doesn't fly OFF. I found it priceless. Esp. the end.

One aspect of OFF that helps it be the one to set the bar for all sims is the surprises that crop up even after playing it a while. I just got an escort recon mission, but the message said that all bomber aircraft are involved elsewhere, so the CO handed the camera to my wingman and we were to fly the mission. I had to make sure he came back. To make it more interesting, my wingman is on leave, so it was given to one of the other two in my flight but I had no way of knowing which one, so I had to make sure BOTH came back. Incredible job you guys did. Always keeps it interesting.

You already have me on there. Southeat USA. Those N17's are sneaky. Doing my neck exercises one day, I looked back and counted my wingmen, one...two...three....four...hey! I only had three! One was a N17 sneaking up on us which, after turning like a monkey and signalling to attack became many (I lost count). Like you, I was quickly looking for a place to land. That silver is hard to see against clouds.

Believe it or not, it's a photography studio. We drive @ 16 miles to the supermarket. But since it's a farming community, we never go hungry. My neighbor has a lot of 3 legged cows :)

Here's my hometown, the thriving metropolis of Davisboro, GA. That's my clock shop in the two story brick building on the left. One of two businesses left in town. I understand it used to be a relatively vital city 40 or 50 years ago. At least it's quiet. Hey Capt. Sopwith, I was in Dahlonega last summer for a cousin's wedding. I go up to Helen quite often and have some clocks for sale there. Beautiful country.