Siggi

6th April 1917 Walmer Dearest Papa. Today's the day, we're off to France and should be leaving (in our scouts) in a couple of hours. Many thanks for the selection of scarves, they arrived safely yesterday. I particularly fancy the white one with red polka-dots, very spiffing!. We're been flown hard by the boss and I now have around ten hours on the Se5, about six more than most chaps get before being sent over. He's also had us doing all sorts of tricks to make us sharp. It looks like I'm going to be given a flight of my own, apparently I'm a fast learner. The responsibility of other chaps' lives in my hands is a bit of a weight, but I'm a cautious fellow as you know. One hears all sorts of tales from the older hands, but one still doesn't know exactly what to expect. Some of them make it all sound so easy. But I'll be finding out for myself soon enough. Can't think of anything else to write. Head's in a bit of a whirl if I'm honest...this is really it. No more training, practice, the balloon's going up and I'm off to the sharp pointy end. Give my love etc. Your loving son.

I used to pause the game, open the map and find the nearest aerodrome. Now I just open the map and locate the nearest big town (no more pausing). My reports are very brief ("Engaged three scouts approx 15 miles north east of Amiens, fired bursts into one and he was observed to go down out of control and crash into the ground"). I've had such claims confirmed. What did a real pilot do? It was interesting to see the scene in Der Rote Baron, where one of the German pilots quickly marked his kill on the map he had in a thigh-pocket. X marks the spot.

It could be described as chronically anal behaviour, but it was purely accidental/fortuitous. I have the game time synched with real time (4th april 1917 / 4th april 2009). If I miss a day/mission etc I fast-forward the in-game time to re-sync with real time. God...somebody help me.

I think Pol has made it abundantly clear, the system works randomly and you have to take the rough with the smooth. Write your reports as you would in real life and take what comes. Some will be confirmed, even if all you write is "I shot one down", others will be rejected even if you write a novella of a report. Yes, the after-mission de-briefing tells you 100% for sure what you got. And your wingmen confirm it. But your claim is rejected. From the history of the Jasta Boelke, pilots made claims, confirmed by witnesses, but no wreck was found or another pilot claimed the same downed plane (in perfectly good faith). Some "definitely downed planes" actually made it home, but the claimee still got his confirmation. Stop thinking there's some sort of magic formula. You may increase your odds by inserting certain key-words and/or phrases, but if you seek to do that deliberately you are gaming the game. Personally I can't be arsed with it anymore, but I DO know that the sim will only allow you to claim for what you actually shot down, so your recorded CLAIMS are as good a marker of your achievements as your actual confirmed kills. Richthofen started off making a sport of it. He had cups made for each kill. Then he became sick of that and the kills no longer mattered beyond their usefulness from a purely military point of view. He stopped counting (plus he already had the top award, the Blue Max). The aim of the game is to survive the war. Anything else is icing on the cake, a bonus. Think survival, not score. My tuppence-worth.

My understanding is that you still have a chance of a miraculous escape from such situations, but it's significantly reduced.

Ah, I see, those settings have an impact on the realism % rating. I was unaware of that. Had I known I would have made them "Users Choice", being that a score of 100% is all that's required for DiD, from whatever combination of settings it's derived. I will amend the rules accordingly.

I've been using TAC, and allowed it in DiD, because too much action was being missed as a result of not being able to realistically see a/c at distance. My first campaign pilot went 12 missions without seeing a thing. But I'm going to stop using it now. I've already stopped chasing after white bogies anyway, so there's not much more point in it for me. I also believe it'll result in a more realistic incidence of encounters. And I'll be glad to lose the "T" off my "DiD" rating.

I believe the "AI gunfire (range)" dictates the range at which EA will open up on you, and has nothing to do with flak. The "Main Guns Hard" is six of one, half a dozen of the other. If your guns are harder to hit the enemy, the enemy's are harder to hit you. Vice versa it's easier for you, easier for them. Net result = same.

It occured to me that the new AI lethality might be down to one of those old simming bugbears, every AI in town concentrating on the player. So I set up 6 vs 6 in QC, Random all round, Se5 vs AlbDVa. The first one, I had what seemed like the whole flight after me, and I got shot to pieces (ordered my flight S and A during the merge). Second one I boxed a bit more clever and got one down, tail clear, all other a/c engaged with each other. I got back into it and singled one out. Oh my god, how good was he? I had to fly like a loon to get him off my tail (chopped my throttle at zero alt, which flumoxed him). Ended up going head-on at each other, then the flak got him. I side-slipped into the trees (had lost all my energy). Third one, vs six Dr1s (Random). Tore me to pieces in seconds. Fourth one put them all as Rookies, we tore them to pieces. Conclusion...the sim isn't cheating, it's just vicious. And damned if the combat doesn't feel like something straight out of the book I'm currently reading (history of Jasta Boelke). If you get a good pilot on your tail you are basically done, because even if you manage to get clear your kite is going to be useless and it's time to get it down. This is no IL2, where keeping a turn on is a gaurantee of survival...the AI in 1.3 OFF can deflection-shoot superbly. But not omnipotent. My campaign rule is now simple. Unless my flight outnumbers theirs I'm gone. In the case of Dr1s, the advantage will have to be significant. And no more low-level patrols, I'm going to take us up to at least 10,000ft before leaving the environs of the home field. Bottom line, unless we have ALL the advantages, I'm not engaging. In my best Chandler voice: "My god...how real is this?!!"

I have exactly the same. Do you have a wide-screen monitor? I also get the same thing with the prop. If I'm looking more down than up I see the animation. If I'm looking with the horizon mid-level or lower the animation vanishes. I believe they're limitations of the CFS rendering engine, same as the non-textured triangles one can see just aft of the cockpit, looking back and down. IL2 had something similar, transparent triangles through the wings at certain back-down views from the cockpit. They're ugly and irritating, but not show-stoppers (for me at least).

Run it through Windows Movie-Maker (built into XP SP2 and Vista), you can save it from that in various filesizes, all acceptable by Youtube.

Apr 1917 The coordinates: N51 * 29' 22. 7293" E0 * 24' 33. 8928" In a river, or somebody put it up on a flood-plain and they've been caught out by the torrential rain.

Bloody hell. It's all here: http://www.hetzer.talktalk.net/

April 4th 1917 to be precise. I'm flying with RFC 56, out of Walmer (UK). The aerodrome in question isn't mine, I came across it while tootling around near London.

Thanks Alex, that's the jobby. :yes: I believe he died in 1994, at a ripe old age.

Do you have Eric Hartmann's? If you do...could I...see it? Puh-leese?

I wondered that. Then I remembered I'd monkied with the sim's sound balance. After returning it to "Realistic", no more sirens (other than as an extremely faint noise if low enough). :yes:

Are you ready for a place on the DiD killboard then? :yes:

I don't think it matters much how you write the time, it's a small part of the totality of the report. Describe the combat, using those words that capture the flavour of the period. Hard for a non english speaker, as the "flavour of the period" is different to how english is currently spoken ("shot him down" vs "drove him into the ground" for example). Use google to find some first-hand accounts of UK/US pilots describing their combats, and take note of the words they use etc.

Here's one of my shorter claims, confirmed: 3/;9/;1916 ;16h;55 ;Flanders ;Vraignes ;Balloon Defense ; Flying: Halberstadt DII. On this day claims: ;2 ;Nieuport N11 . ;While returning from balloon defence approx 20 miles north west of Vraignes our flight engaged a flight of scouts at low altitude. I engaged three successively performing hard maneouvres and was able to put bursts into them, driving two into the ground. Both were observed to crash and burst into flames.. Witnessed by: Hugo Leber. Gerhard Lange. Richard Barkusky. Status : Confirmed Keywords: 20 miles north west of Vraignes Engaged flight scouts low altitude bursts driving ground observed crash in flames Other good words: down out of control seen to

Bloody hell, he's not wrong! Me vs two DVa, I'd barely got on the tail of one and the other was up my ass, firing all the way in until it rammed me! I was like a rabbit in the headlights, watching him and thinking "He'll break away now...no...now...no...surely now...WTF...MENTALIST!!!" I guess the days of taking on six EA single-handedly and picking off each one as the others fly around aimlessly are over. NICE PATCH!

Thanks, we're being transfered to France in a couple of days and you just sent my morale straight down the crapper. Is there nobody censoring your letters home?

More likely he punched a few holes right through the geezer behind the stick.

I'm about halfway through my new book, the history of the Jasta Boelke. What occurs to me is that no matter how talented a pilot, or skillful an ariel hunter, pure luck played a very significant part in the process of survival. Being good gave an edge, undoubtedly, but once a pilot was mixing it up just about anything could happen, and it was largely beyond control. I intend to fight from now on with a whole lot of discretion and very little valour.

Ah, the mechanics have monkied with my Se5 have they? Good to know.