Siggi

You beat me to it by about 30 seconds.

Don't be too dispondent Winder, I think OFF will turn out to be a 'slow burner' and sales will go on and possibly increase if RoF's offline turns out to be a dud. As for new planes and suchlike, I'll buy any such packs you chaps choose to make and offer up for a price. I consider I've already had more than my money's worth out of P3. Such an engaging and immersive experience. And thanks to you and the rest of the team for such superlative support. That alone has really been quite extraordinary and has helped made this sim the incredible experience it is.

21st April 1917 Vert Galand Flanders Dearest Papa. Hope all is well at home! Sorry I haven't written for quite a few days but we've been terribly busy with this new offensive. The barrages as seen from the air are truly frightful, the front lines are a cauldron of fire and smoke. One feels for the poor Tommies in the trenches. In the air things are often as hot, in their own way, and the flight from which I've just returned was a perfect example. I shall now tell you all about it, so hang on to your chair! It started off in the usual way, take off and climb to a decent height. I led my flight of six (that includes me) towards the lines and came to see our archie having a go at something. I couldn't see it but ordered my chaps to attack, hoping they could see what I couldn't. It does no good to wait lest I drag my chaps into danger while tarrying. Sure enough they'd spotted the hun and went tearing after them. I followed and saw one hun, who I immediately went after and gave him a good squirt. We twisted and turned for a bit, at around 6000ft, until I must have hit something important (the pilot or his wires) because he went down vertically and smashed into the ground. I had a look around after that as I climbed back up a few hundred feet and saw two of the chaps giving another hun a jolly good thrashing. These were Albatrosses by the way, black and white horizontally striped tails, quite pretty little buggers. After a while I had two of the chaps back with me and we circled for a while, trying to collect the others, before making off down the lines, looking for more action. Sure enough, more archie, and damned if we didn't practically fly into four hun 2-seaters! Quite a shock as they opened up on us. I waved the chaps in and then I kind of went mad, seeing red as it were, and latched into the tail of one of them and fired until my Lewis ran dry and the vickers jammed. Not clever! The hun looked like he was going slowly down after that but I never saw what happened to him in the end. I pulled clear, fed the Lewis and tried to clear the Vickers. Found the old kite had taken a bit of a beating from the 2-seater, she wasn't flying too straight any longer. We set off again, and I was thinking of putting down at the nearest field. Only Oscar, my wingman, was with me at this point. The others were still going after the 2-seaters. Looking around one could see kites all over the shop; three over there, two there, another two up there, some fighting, others seeming to be spectating almost. I'd never seen the sky so busy. Then there was archie close by again and a few seconds later an Albatross went whizzing by from in front, all-black tail on this one. I turned after him, having no choice really. It was that or dive for the deck. We got into it and went around and around, me doing the best I could to force my damaged kite to behave. Then the hun went down through a thick cloud and I followed. That was nearly the last of me! A terrific wind took hold of the kite and literally threw it towards the ground in a frightful spin. I thought something was sure to break, the groaning and creaking was so bad. But I came out the bottom in one piece, got the kite in hand, and spotted my hun. The dance was on again. I got him eventually, but it was a close thing. I'm not sure if I wounded or killed him, because he went down in a very long shallow dive before ploughing into a small woods. I would have finished him off immediatey, but I'd run the Lewis dry and jammed the Vickers again. Oops! At this point I was sweating like a bally pig and feeling quite exhausted. Picked up Oscar again and made for home. We got there to find two Albatrosses in our way, about a mile from the field. Unbelievable! I ducked under them and made it back ok while Oscar chased them off. All sounds very exciting, doesn't it? I dragged myself out of the kite and couldn't stand up. I vomited like a dog on all fours. Typing this three hours later and I can barely hit the keys straight my hands are trembling so badly. But what ho, eh Papa? One has to do one's duty, and better like this than in a vile trench covered in s**t. Well, that's me done with typing for now. Still waiting for any letters you might have written to catch up with me here. Oscar and I are off to the local town tonight, to tie one on. Please give my love to all. Peter.

I'm having difficulty reconciling the first sentiment with the second. How many hairs does each GA mission put on your chest sir? As for the DiD thing, I can't understand why it puts such a burr up yo ass. Does it detract from your enjoyment of the sim that others get a kick out of DiD and the killboard and all that other stuff? Maybe it's just that it's a standard you don't feel up to tackling? Chill out pops, you enjoy the sim your way and we'll enjoy it our way. And finally...yay! I reached 17 hours today. Yes, quiet at the back, I know I did eight or nine of those in England. Gothas, Zepplins...cough...

That'll be nice, if it'll make ground-attacks a viable proposition (as opposed to a 95% certainty of death).

The thing is this chaps; if it's too easy your achievements will count for zilch. If it's middling your achievements will count for middling. If it's hard your achivements will be impressive, IF you get any. I've learned that patience is the key, as it is with any kind of hunting. That's long-term patience I'm talking about, not in-flight patience. And it's not patience for the kills, it's patience for the hours. I'm now happy to complete a flight with zero contact, because I'm going for the hours. But knowing that over the long term I'll get a kill here, another there. On my terms, minimum risk. And no attacking ground-targets other than flying over above MG range and 'dropping grenades'. Fly at very high altitude, so as to avoid most contacts. Watch for friendly archie, order flight-members in first and watch. 2-seaters, I dive on them at high speed, spray one and get clear. The last time I did that they still knocked out my engine and I had to force-land at a nearby aerodrome. So, to summarise my simple Dicta: a) Fly at high altitude. b) Avoid combat unless on max favourable terms. c) Go for hours, not kills. d) Avoid ground targets. e) Dive on 2-seaters from above at high speed, one pass only. f) Never ever go even near to clouds, never mind into them. Don't play it like it's a game of pinball. Go for survival, with glory as an accidental by-product. :yes:

No, I don't. When I want to, it's done. I have to be really really really bored though. To post that is, under one of my numerous accounts.

That should read "We don't want anyone there who's got a pair."

I also chose OK. The only real issue I have with OFF right now is in relation to the clouds. Yesterday I was well clear of the clouds and had one suddenly spawn around me (one second I was in clear sky, the next second I was in a white-out). My plane got tossed about very violently, but no red-out/grey-out and no damage after recovering a couple of thousand feet lower. But as this is an un-fixable issue with Microsoft's code it's a grin & bear deal. Winder, the AA is configurable via WS, but the realism-rating sours it for some I believe. Being brought down by AA should be not so common, without suffering a realism % hit by so making it.

According to the book I've just finished reading (On a Wing and a Prayer) the biggest fear of most pilots was going down in flames. The refusal of the authorities to issue parachutes was roundly despised and criticized by crews. 500 were actually provided, but just too late to be issued to crew before the war ended.

The book I've just finished reading (On a Wing and a Prayer) mentions the use of Brisfits in low-level strafing and bombing over the trenches, and the pilot being quoted says how the majority were put out of action by MGs, needing extensive repairs back at base. So it would appear that they were hit very badly but not actually brought down in the majority of cases.

I suspect I know the reason, because when I lose my current pilot (when, not if) I think I'll be needing a long leave of absence. Is this what's happened to everyone else? It's not just combat-fatigue, it also takes it out of one starting a new persona, building him up, generating a new style etc for his reports/diary/letters home etc. Anyway, just wondering. The first flush of enthusiasm seems to have waned somewhat.

What's that you say? Flying at 10,000ft one misses lots of combat opportunities? Damn!

This is the second time in my current career I've had a plane trashed and been thrown back to the de-briefing screen, presumably forced down onto the ground with a terminally damaged plane. I wasn't even in the cloud proper, I was climbing through a hazy gap between two banks. I had nowhere else to go, other than to fly beneath them directly over the lines at a dangerously low altitude or go tens of miles left or right around them. This is effectively rendering huge portions of the sky as no-go zones, even on bright sunny days (as was this one). Personally I don't consider this even remotely realistic, the clouds in RL are simply not this catastrophically dangerous on so relentlessy a regular basis. It's not turbulence, it's a huge fist that simply picks up the plane and throws it around the sky like a UFO. Dark-grey/black storm-clouds, ok. Straight into white fluffy ones, maybe. Around the edges of white fluffy ones, on a bright sunny day, hurled around as if in a tornado, I call BS on that. Please try and fix it chaps, it has become a significant detraction imo.

Whatever's convenient to you old chap. :yes:

That's exactly what I'm going to do. Thing is, I was already doing it...for flying IN clouds. I'm now going to extend that to flying NEAR clouds.

No, they're the stereo sub-woofers.

With the current metal prices around the world they probably go into a box, to be collected later by a shifty mechanic and flogged on the never-never.

I getting the sense that having TAC off means far less huns are spotted which equates to what feels like a more real incidence of encounters. And from what I'm reading (currently 'On a Wing and a Prayer') it would appear that the enemy was encountered far less frequently than he was encountered (eg, go up ten times, see the enemy only once). I'm quite happy to go up and see nothing, which is how I suspect it was for most real pilots.

My policy now is to not look for combat, to avoid it unless I have a distinct advantage, and otherwise let it find me. Though going up on two scrambles (forced down on the first, three kills on the second) probably wasn't the brightest risk to take. The name of my game is survival first and let the kills come when they may, which is about as realistic as it can be I think. The normal gaming mindset is to rack up kills like playing on a pinball machine. I don't think that's done deliberately, I just think that players lose the sense of time in a game. Kills came at a handful a month for most pilots in reality, if even that. In the game I think most players look for a kill or more a day, even if that means flying a week's worth of sorties in an afternoon. I'm finding it very useful to have game time synched with real time, and I won't fly game time ahead of real time, and rarely play catch-up by flying late game time with current real time; if the game date is behind the real date I hit the advance time button and pretend I've had a couple of days off (in game time). Confused? I'm finding the longer my pilot lives in real time the more 'real' he becomes (in an RPG stylee). Time = value = immersion. :yes:

I guess one needs to play a little more fast and loose with the mission parameters then (thanks for the legitimisation chaps ). "Sorry sir, there was no way past the clouds, so we went on a free hunt instead. Damned shame we couldn't reach the enemy airfield (and dive down through a hail of lead)." :yes:

8800GTX is going for around £100 here, which is what I'm using. With my E8400 at 4ghz and all settings set crazily high I get pukka FPS.

It seems to vary with different a/c. I always lead, and once to my chosen altitude I engage level-autopilot (so I can relax with a fag and a coffee while admiring the scenery and looking out for the hun). The Se5s have no problem sitting nicely behind me, but the Halbs would always be left behind unless I kept the throttle at no more than approx 75%. As for staying in formation as a non-lead pilot, forget it. The AI out-climbed me immediately and were long gone.

Ah, another rain nut. I spend hours in various games that have rain, hidden away somewhere (under cover), feeling all cosy with a cup of tea or coffee and a fag. We're not right, are we...?

Here's a good guide: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1198647 It looks like your board (mobo) should handle an OC ok, unless it's a very early model (do you have the deluxe?). You'll need 1066 RAM. A good heatsink and fan for the CPU (Zalman Flower is good, all copper). You will not need to reinstall the OS for an OC.