OlPaint01

The third installment of the Aces, Aerodromes and Aircraft spreadsheet is posted in the OFF - Knowledge Base or OFF General Help Topics Section. http://forum.combatace.com/topic/43129-aces-aerodromes-and-aircraft/ This one covers a survey of the German Fighter Jastas in OFF-BHaH. I now will tackle the American Pursuit Squadrons. OlPaint01

Thanks, Shredward, for the heads up. I'll get started on the Bomber Squadrons then. OlPaint01

The third installment of Aces, Aerodromes and Aircraft survey is completed for the German Fighter Jastas. This one took a little longer to prepare but it is done now. As before the Excel formatted spreadsheet workbook has three worksheets selectable by clicking the tab.

Hello Sinbad Now that is what I'm talking about. Great assortment of bomb loads. Beautiful! OlPaint01

Hey Pol I opened a previous topic thread with me wondering out loud if I could pre-set Fuel Mixture when starting a QC mission. It almost immediately morphed into a discussion about how to enable Parking Brakes to simulate Wheel Chocks for pre-flight engine runup. What do you think about we start a fresh topic to generate more interest for converting and enabling a keyboard control for Wheel Chocks by hijacking the Parking Brakes control? Perhaps a few folks who are familiar with aircraft design in CFS3 can make a few suggestions how to get the A/C object to recognize and respond to the "ctrl+shft+B" keystroke already a part of the sim. Community demand was instumental in getting the improved Smoking Tracers added to OFF:BHaH... OlPaint01

This Chocks Away/Immersion discussion is very interesting. It goes to show that there was a lot of things going on in the cockpit that our WWI pilot needed to watch to just keep his crate in the air. Things like the joystick 'yank and bank' and the throttle 'push and pull' are really not a complete simulation of everything needed to manage the aircraft. I have been flying the Sim-That-Must-Not-Be-Named for several weeks. At full real settings, Neoqb has given the sim pilot a throttle, a mixture and even a radiator shutter control. I have discovered that if I don't close the radiator shutters of my SPAD XIII at engine start and allow the kite to warm up for several minites to temperature, the engine will seize at takeoff. My bird will either roll to a stop, or, worse case, crash and burn at the end of the runway due to lose of power. So much for scramble missions! Now that is Immersion!!! Of course, I can set the options for the game to manage all these controls automatically. I can even set an option to start with a warmed-up engine. I know OFF has Mixture control - I have already it linked to my Saitek Throttle Quadrant. And the CFS3 game engine even has a Cowl Flaps control for engine-temperature management but that is not supported in Phase 3. It would be nice if we had the option to select "full real" where our Joe Mechanic helps us pull the prop through and warmup the engine on the flight line before we taxi to the head of the runway. I can dream, can't I? OlPaint01

Hello Sinbad, The Observer/Gunner in the 9400 is just about the most realistic animation I ever recall in a First Eagles Mod. Absolutely Outstanding!!! I wish we could retro-fit him to all our two-seaters. OlPaint01

Hi PR If that be the case then we need to edit out the ARMED_RECON and STRIKE roles in the Strutter_DATA.ini to remove the bombing options for this 9400 version. How difficult would it be to make a 9700 version to drop ordinance from? All that would be needed is bomb racks, correct? I would love to have 1-1/2 Strutter as a bomber to fly. OlPaint01

Hello Sinbad, The Sopwith Strutter 1 1/2 download package is missing the LoadoutFile Strutter_Loadout.ini. I cannot load any bombs. Am I overlooking something obvious? OlPaint01

I second Rickitycrate's vote. The arrangement in the First Eagles download section works just fine for me and it would be a great start. But if it is possible to sort each manufacture with a sub-sub section by type that would be perfect. OlPaint01

Hello Makai The railroad yards a beautiful with all the station structures and out-buildings. You have not answered Ben C's previous question about the railline switches/turnouts. Is it possible to visually tie the parellel tracks together with a rail switch graphic just to make it appear the sidings are tied into the mainline? These do not need to be functional, just visual. OlPaint01

Hello Stary I think if you could please add some shading to the crossed flats textures, that should do the trick IMHO. I agree with Sinbad, your efforts are outstanding. A vast improvement over TK's defaults. Your trees/leaf detail is unsurpassed. And yes, I CAN almost smell the Pine Needles. LOL! OlPaint01

Stary I am having the same problems with the trees that Quack is reporting as well. They look like cardboard cutouts to me from the air. They appear to have no shading or texture to give them the appearance of 3-D shapes. OlPaint01

Hey All You know what they say...Anticipation is making me wait! I would prepay to reserve the addon packs if they were available... OlPaint01

Good idea, Duck I want to update my CombatAce subscription also...to help pay for the Downloads Section Bandwidth. OlPaint01

Fates Absolutely an outstanding effort from you and your team. And so quickly, too. The forum looks great! Fellows, Let us all raise a glass...Here, here, Salute! OlPaint01

Hello Bullet Great skin for the DFW. BTW there is a lot of undiscovered power in the F keys commands that allow movement around the various a/c stations. But the M$ CFS3 key board commands list is hard to learn since there appears to be no set pattern with them. I have reprogrammed the F Key commands by adding the CTRL modifier to each so I can quickly jump from Pilot to Gunner to Bombadier stations with out having to think about it. CTRL + F8 goes to Gunner Seat, CTRL + F6 goes back to Pilot Seat, CTRL + F7 goes to Bombadier Seat. and so forth. CTRL + F9 goes to Weapon View. In the FE2b pressing CTRL + F8 cycles between forward facing and rear facing Lewis Guns, in the Bristol F2b pressing CTRL + F6 cycles between virtual cockpit, ironsights, and Aldis sight. I have followed Uncleal's advice to move the commonly used multikey strokes to the unused Key Commands in OFF. I use V Key for Virtual Cockpit, Y for Float View, U for Chase View, and G for Player/Target View (I have left the seldom used CTRL + SHFT + F4 for toggle Play/Target to set up Target View.) I can cycle the TAC range quickly with the C Key. I can toggle Labels with L and I can toggle the TAC with F. I toggle HUD with F5. I toggle the Info Display for FPS with Z. I can kill the engine with B, I can set Full Rich Mixture with N, and I can increment or decrement Mixture with PERIOD or COMMA Keys to max out the RPM at Altitude. Very Powerful command set when you understand it. OlPaint01

Olham M8, You have me diving for the slit trenches!!! I am anticipating our beautiful banner being placed back into position by Eric and the Crew. Things are beginning to shape up. I can read the individual posts now without straining my eyes. OlPaint01

Hello Fates It appears that I was a bit premature in my criticisms. If you put the old couch in the corner and the piano against the back wall. There now...it is beginning to look like the Ol' Mess. Thank you for all your team's efforts! OlPaint01

Me No Like...I hope someone adds some personality back. This view is way too Sterile in my opinion. It hurts my eyes trying to follow the posts...This is definately not the CombatAce that we have grown to love... OlPaint01

Whoo Doggies...Where is CombatAce that we all knew and loved? This is really a sterile experience. I guess it will grow on me but what a visual change. Is this supposed to be a better experience? OlPaint01

Blue skying again... How about some talented modder, like StumpJumper or CaptWinters, making another attempt to build a working Aircraft Carrier with a flight deck that does not plunge to sea level during final landing approach - One that could be used to launch a flight of RNAS Camels on a whatif attack mission against the the Zeppelin sheds in Belgium. OlPaint01

Thanks Rickitycrate Your comment caused me to check out things we already have pilot controls for. I just discovered that I actually do have fuel mixture control even after setting the option for auto-mixture in Workshop. I tested my mixture control at altitude and I was able to maximize the engine RPM by playing with increment and decrement and full rich keyboard commands. In the Sim-that-remains-to-be-Unnamed, the SPAD has a pilot operated radiator shutter control that helps prevent the engine from overheating. This translates directly to Cowl Flap control in our OFF/CFS3 interface for engine temperature adjustments. IIRC the SE5 had elevator trim that was pilot controlled from the cockpit. As to effects, it would be both interesting and appropriate for the a/c to catch fire if all the oil was lost from an running engine as we saw in RB3D. So, in actuallity, we have a lot of pilot control over our kites. OlPaint01

As long as we are 'blue skying' ideas for PhaseIV...It would be cool is we could add functionality to the engine and guns that GabiLaser added to RB3D with his "Reload" utility...that is, engine failures and gun jambs, engine performance degrading at altitude, stuff like that. I just started learning the full realistic controls included in the Sim-that-remains-to-be-unnamed and am having great fun managing the SPAD flight controls all over again. OlPaint01

This Alpha Channel stuff is what makes terrain design and tile construction so confusing for me. I have tryed to puzzle through Gepard's tutorials several times already and have given up. I don't think I have all the necessary tools. It is almost true that you need to be part of the "priesthold" and apprentice in the process to be successful. OlPaint01