Vasco

No Lou, Middle setting so damage is visible. Wingtip strikes during collision other aircraft show ripped canvas and wood, really, really bad hits on the elevators show the frame but with wing and airframe hits you're lucky to see a single tight group of hits when the handling suggests the wing has lost over 50% of its lift. It's when the aircraft is virtually unflyable due to machine gun damage I would expect to see a lot of doped linen stripped or shredded from the affected surface not just 5 bulletholes. Vasco

Very difficult to say Von Paulus as I've never taken damage while flying the Tiger Moth, but at least when you're damaged in RoF you can see the effects as well as the change in handling. In OFF the bloody kite can be unflyable but you're lucky to see a single bullethole in the airframe. Vasco

Love the sentiment VonGuber I was speaking to Winston on TS about 40 mins ago and he told me about a trick he used to use to locate his wingman in flight sims before he became a true believer and got his hands on TrackIR and it'll work well in the MP campaign as well. Pair up while on the airfield, locate your wingman for the sortie and lock him in TAC. When in combat, you can press the tilda key and snap view to your wingman to find him. Brilliant, eh? Vasco

I used to fly for a living in the British Army, and amonst the types in my log book are the Chipmunk, Tiger Moth and Beaver. The only time I can remember when the conditions were that turbulent that it threw the aircraft's nose around as much as in RoF was on a low level photo recon sortie at 200' AGL in Northern ireland. The target was in a dell surrounded by low lying hills and the wind shear of those buggers bounced us up and down so hard my chinagraph pencil actually launched itself out of my top pocket and hit the roof! It was pretty interesting seeing the very solid wings of a De Haviland Beaver flap like those of a bird while having to overfly the target 6 times Even in gusty conditions I never had the nose of the Tiger Moth I flew for pleasure in Hong Kong (not mine - it belonged to Dave Baker, senior pilot with Cathay Pacific Airways) bounce around like the aircraft in RoF. There's full reality and there's flying in a bloody hurricane, which is what the RoF developers have opted for. Vasco

Mike, Winston's already asked for a dedicated Strutter and I said I'd like to get regular 2-seater crews working together. You just got the job as his gunner! Vasco

Winston, You said you couldn't fly the DH2, but within 15 minutes when we had the MP training session on the type, you were throwing it around the sky and didn't stall or spin once. You pick things up bloody fast once you know how it should be done. Jump on TS and let me introduce you to TAC only. I think BB's suggestion has the most merit and I wouldn't want to lose you again after just coming back - after all, you are the originator of the Sunday game allowing all TZ players to get into the sky together! This change just takes things to the next level and I really want to give those DiD offline campaign pussies a run for their money and show them that the MP community can go one better. Vasco Multiplayer kills have witnesses!

Beard, I think I should have made the order in the poll as: No visual aids TAC only TAC and External Views TAC, External Views and Labels Having TAC on but not labels or external views would allow you to idenity that something's there but no idea what it is until the flak lights it up. It would also help with reforming the flight once a dogfight is concluded (what's left of us). With no labels in combat it really makes the fight a matter of situational awaeness rather than following the big red label even when it's obscured by the wing. TAC only would have my vote if FR was out. Vasco

A much-needed Albatross C-type if I'm not mistaken. If this is your first attempt, keep it up for God's sake! Vasco

That's changed then. MadMatt identified the 2-gun as the bird with the problem ages ago and Duck, Stump and I confirmed it in testing. Ax if you've got the time now, jump on TS and I'll test it with you. Vasco

GaryR, ODB cracked the source code to sort out the problem with severe turbulence in cloud that was ripping the wings of our kites. They're already in the heart of the machine, it's just there doesn't appear to be any appetite to pursue it at the moment. It's this community and heros like Sitting Duck and Stumpjumper who are keeping this aspect of this sim alive, not the developers. Releasing HitR without identifying that two of the new aircraft shared the same fault in MP with four others already in the game gives some indication of how high MP is in their list of priorities currently. Thank God that Winder's got the MP plane fix in his list of priorities for the upcoming HitR patches. I only hope they stumble upon the reason for stuttering aircraft and the problem with player-flown aircraft being drawn with the incorrect attitude during dogfights and fix it. Once that's acheived I'd happily drop-kick any other Great War sim into touch and start designing eight-a-side MP campaigns and start badgering ODB to lift the 16-player limit on MP to 64! But then maybe I'm Vasco

We just need Stumpjumper to have a look at it. He's already fixed the Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters (both the 1A2 and the 1B1) for MP and created downloadable versions of both aircraft so not to affect offline play (until ODB implement the fix in the stock aircraft). All he has to do now is fix: Sopwith Triplane (2 gun version) Nieuport 17 Lewis (Though we have access to the Boys of 60 Squadron version that works) Nieuport 24 Lewis Nieuport 24 bis Lewis Vasco

GaryR, Thanks for the info. HiTech has had Dawn of Aces (Now Flyboys Squadron) going for years. I'm not sure what he's attempting to acomplish in adding Great War aircraft to the Aces High package. Personally, I'm waiting to see what the IL-2 modders do with Canvas Knights. With the MP functionality that currently exists within IL-2, this mod has serious MP potential. I just hope ODB place OFF MP functionality high on their list of priorities soon before we start losing parts of the community to this when it arrives. Vasco

von Baur, Because of the way the campaign generates mission I cannot guarantee they'll be bombing opportunities on every mission. I'm considering making the squadron consist of 12 DH2s with 3 FE2Bs available for bombing/fighter ops but this will only work if we get 6 people who want to crew the Fees. With regard to the points system, it will remain the same except any points achieved by the Fee crews will be granted to both pilot and gunner as theirs is a team effort e.g. bombs on target = 2 points for each member of the crew. The same for any air-to-air kills achieved by the gunner. I think this is an equitable method of scoring which doesn't penalise the seperate duties of the pilot and gunner in these craft but I'm open to alternative suggestions. Vasco

We're still flying Simon - but it's FR (full Reality), no tac no external views, no labels, etc. Red-Dog and I have just landed an FE2b we crewed together and Red-Dog bagged an Eindekker. Talk about sweaty palms! FR is awesome! Vasco

I'm in. Vasco

Yes Donald, He flew with us yesterday. Unfortunately one of his kills was Firecage <g> Vasco

Yes. Vasco

Parky, During the Sunday MP session, I put together a mission so we could practice together in DH2s in preparation for this next campaign - it took me less than 15 minutes from scratch while the other guys grabbed a coffee. And here's a little taster of what happened when the boys of Vasco's Volunteers ran into 40 Squadron RFC led by Mick Mannock during our current campaign- enjoy! You don't get this level of immersion in single player campaigns. Vasco

Parky, As Red-Dog says, I create a pilot and use the single player campaign to generate all the neccessary mission files which I then amend using the mission builder to allow up to 16 people to participate. What you fly offline and alone during a single player campaign, we fly together. Vasco

Yes, Same time, same place. See you there. Vasco

Merry Christmas guys Vasco

I like the idea of 24 Sqn RFC under Lanoe Hawker myself - Nieuports handle beautifully but have the least amount of ammo, FE2Bs require full crews to operate successfully, Pups are too forgiving (and occur later in 1916 which means we'll be fighting in s**t weather - again), but DH2s have terrible rearwards visibility, are temperamental in combat and difficult to fly well .............. They get my vote too :nyam: Vasco

Stump, I thought both variants of the 1 1/2 Strutters were still borked in MP (Dispite Winder's statement that it's just the B1). Why, do you know different or have you got a fix for them? Vasco

Red-Dog, Thanks for taking the initiative. With regard to combining FE2Bs and Pups, they'd have to be in different squadrons to make it historically accurate (which makes mission design more complex and splits the participants). von Gruber, You could make my life easier if you could find a British squadron that used Nieuport 11s during 1916. The reason I didn't look to use that aircraft is the fact it carries bugger-all ammunition so kills will be very limited. Stumpjumper, 1916's a bit too early for the Salmsons. Also, when we start the new campaign can you only include extra aircraft we're likely to use in missions please? We've had a number of false starts recently due to aircraft mismatches (particularly the AEG) and I'd like to keep the potential for start time delays to a minimum. Regards, Vasco

OK guys, I've been setting up campaigns and testing them for viability. In order to meet all the top preferences listed above (and taking into consideration that the French don't have a single MP usable 2-seater available during the period - NOTE to ODB: Fix those bloody invisible aircraft!), it looks like you're either going to be flying Pups, DH2s or FE2Bs for the British. The FE2B will automatically give you that 2-seater element, but we're going to need high attendance to make sure we can field enough full crews (unless you want to pray that Otto can shoot straight). Which would you like? Vasco