themightysrc

As a Brisfit pilot, I'm slighly amazed to read BH's conclusions on the field of fire for rear gunners. I'm sure there are many variables, but I can attest that Vic's observer has been pretty handy with his Lewises, and that includes pointing practically forward to engage a German aircraft. Now it's quite possible - I haven't checked - that RFC12 changed from 'bomber' to 'fighter/bomber' which might change the dynamic somewhat, and it's possible that Brisfits, being what they are, don't follow the 'rules' outlined. I'm not making a judgement nor casting aspersions on BH's post. I'm simply stating that observers in Brisfits (at least) are pretty aggressive and will swing through nearly 360 degrees to geet a hit. Would that my observer in the RE8 had been quite so active!

Hmm. Very tough. I think my top 5, in no particular order would have to be: Stewart Lee Father Ted A little known Briddish series called Early Doors Frasier - the wit is astounding Ted Chippington

Interesting! I was in touch with a bloke in the USA who'd also written a (still semi dormant) game on the same lines, but unfortunately he's put it to bed it seems. Let us know how it pans out.

"Long enough to attack an Alb DII that had just shot down a flight mate - shot down the Hun with my Vickers, and in an RE8 to boot!" Good God, my current pilot did about 9 months on RE8s and never got a sniff. That's quite a testament to your abilities if you downed a German scout in that monstrosity. "Moving forward a couple of decades, it would appear that AA fire during the Blitz, was more of a morale booster for the unfortunate population of London's East End, than a really effective way of shooting down enemy aircraft." On topic! I'm led to believe that this is correct. It was more a measure to encourage the public who were subject to the bombing. Equally, I recall reading elsewhere that one of the problems with throwing up so much flak was that it actually caused civilian casualties as the shrapnel fell to earth. I can't recall where I read it but there was a memorable passage in one book about how the author looked out of their window (in central London) and was amazed at the amount of metal that had effectively defoliated the trees in the garden. Newton knew his stuff: what goes up, must come down.

Lou and DIH, Right that does it. I think I'm going to go for 'real' and wind back more or less everything but the engine and wind noises. If we're trying to be realistic, let's avail ourselves of the most obvious tools and changes that are available.

As I'm feeling whimsical, how about OFF - Fear and Loathing in Le Cateau ?

Hi Lima, I'd agree that the management in FE is actually quite good - you can play with rosters, etc - but the only campaign I tried was the 1917 Cambrai one (I think it was?) which was OKish, but of course you had to remember to activate a British or French pilot, because FE wouldn't warn you that you were just about to fly a mission in an SE5a with a German pilot! I think it's fair to say that the campaign system could, and should, have been much better, but that's not to say it was utterly crap. Certainly it doesn't match OFF, but it does appear to have been a brave and honourable effort in the right direction. Oh, and that Martynside Scout. What a beauty!

Hi DIH, Please let me know what you think. My judgement is that the front line artillery is still far too loud, so I might start mucking about with the settings, but, as ever, any input is gratefully accepted. Cheers, Si

I'd say that if you have Trackir (or an equivalent) then head bob is highly unlikely to be a useful addition - you're already bobbing your own head. If you desperately need it, set up a mechanical device to hold your chair that's linked to your joystick and rudder. Bank violently and hey presto! the chair goes with you! You'll probably bob your head too. I'm more interested to read about people's settings when it comes to sound setup. Mine are set thus: engine 100%, then 20% 50% 50%, reading from the top down. My feeling is that you'd hear a lot of engine, probably wind, the odd creaking effect and bullet hit, but unless you were ridiculously low, not much in the way of gunfire. How does the above compare with your settings and reasoning for them?

How about Over Flanders Fields: Aces Falling? Subliminal hint to new/would be owners that it's possible to vanquish von Richtofen, etc....

It seems to me, that if you're an OFF fan, you're probably a scholar of WWI, and therefore will not accept a 2nd best campaign, or no campaign (thinking of FE). Whilst I appreciate - from what I've read - that TSTMNBN has a wonderful flight model, that's not the be all and end all of a WWI sim. Even hardened RoFers (oops! said it!) saying that if you want a WWI experience, then OFF is the choice, whilst defending - and quite properly - the flight model in RoF. The fact that it's still a shadow of reality is probably not territory that they'd wish to visit, as the warm up procedure for an SE5a quoted elsewhere recently attests, however you take as you find. I'm excited by P4 mainly because of what I've seen of P3, and the fact that it could be better. Much of that is down to my meagre rig, so I get pauses and hangs occasionally, which is also I'd guess down to my setup, but there's still enough clunk in there to remove to ensure that P4 can - and I hope, will - be a quantum improvement again. That's the promise, along with more of those lovely kites and the upgraded campaign. I'm looking forward to it, and hope that I'll have another job by then so I can afford to buy the damn thing!

Here's a tip for movie goers. My wife, rather more than me, is a great movie fan, as in going to the cinema, which I tend to treat as slightly less unpleasant that attending a public execution. My eyes, though, were opened recently when we went to watch the final Harry Potter film - don't, before you even say anything, just don't. We'd missed the non-subtitles showing and so had to watch the one with subtitles for the hard of hearing. Tell you what - I'm doing that again. Absolutely no noise from the rest of the audience whatsoever, and you quickly ignore the subtitles. Bliss. No crisp packets, no colicky babies, no kids rabbiting, no adults questioning the script. Just silence, and the occasional waft of hands behind you as two deaf people argue frantically about some aspect of the plot. Well recommended.

"A fine series. It's been a long time since I saw it last, but I still remember well some of the characters and plots." As a primary school kid in the early 70s, and bearing the same name as one of the characters in Colditz, I used to have two particularly annoying little girls (well year below me) follow me round and yell "Colditz!!!" at me when they thought I wasn't looking. Whilst slightly cross about it at the time, and giving them a penny lecture about such disgraceful behaviour, I suppose I was vaguely flattered that anyone had made that connection. And, of course, having confirmed to them that I was nothing other than a humourless grumpy sod, they eventually gave up for pasture new. Damn shame is, ten years later, they both turned out to be absolute babes, witty and university bound who by then had developed a well merited dislike of me for being such a prig. Gaaah!

"Most of the new craft in Phase 4 are 2 seaters" Alright then. That's good, and probably reflects a majority view here - I suspect. Can you be a touch more specific in terms of nationalities, numbers, time periods, etc? I'm not asking you to divulge stuff that I know that you'll want to advertise as part of the "WOW" factor to shift copies of OFF P4, but I think that a few more hints beyond what's already been leaked won't exactly drive people away or lose sales to TSTMNBN. Tease us, if you please.

Happy 5000th, WM, although I don't know where you get the time from - and I'm on the rock and roll! I do cherish this community, although it can be occasionally a bit to self congratulatory. In this case, it's an easy pass, as WM seems to me to be a pretty sound character, even if he is from Geordieland!

It's worth bearing in mind that one of the reasons why the 1918 offensives by the German army were ultimately unsuccessful was because they were harried mercilessly from the air by the RFC/RNAS/RAF. The German air force began well, by all accounts, but simply didn't have the logistical expertise, know how and experience in this sort of warfare - hardly surprising, given that they'd spent so much time on the defensive - and hence they were left behind a Michael, Georgette and the subsequent operations carried on. The Entente forces dug deep indeed and despite having to retreat in the initial period of the offensives, apparently never gave up on offensive operations against the advancing German forces. Personally speaking, I think you'd have to be brave beyond normal comprehension to do that, but I speak from a 2011 perspective. There's plenty of written history concerning 1918, but much of it agrees that the contribution of the French, Briddish and American air services did as much as was possible in halting the German offensives. It's a period that's been neglected by historians, and I'd love to read anything like a definitive history of that year. It's a commonplace in the UK that WWI was so awful that we only remember it with a grimace and a tear. It's forgotten that the period including and following Amiens was actually the most successful period in the British Army's history. But it's easier to say that it was a pointless slaughter, rather than to analyse the facts, which is a shame.

Frankly, I'm surprised that the DVIII was even modelled for OFF - something of a triumph of cinematics over realism. If there's one German scout that really should be modelled for the late period, then surely it's the Siemans-Shuckert DIII/DIV? As far as I'm aware, it served more widely and longer than the DVIII. And I'd like to chuck in a request for some information: what were the most widely top 6 scouts used by Entente forces and German forces, by year, from 1015 on? I suspect that if we had that definitive information, then the question of what's up next in P4 would be better discussed. Oh and chuck in the top 6 two seaters using the same criteria. Cheers, Si

Olham, "What any German readers may find very special about it, is the fact that Lee never paints one of those sinister clichee images of his German opponents, but he describes their actions and ways much the same as he does about his Entente comrades. He was a very intelligent man, who could see very well beyond any propaganda, and he was well aware, that the pilots in the planes with the cross on were actually much the same as his own comrades - young men, young pilots, trying to survive the everyday madness of the Great War." It might be vaguely of interest to you to learn that it was this book that opened my eyes about the air war in 1914-18. Prior to that I'd picked up, read and discarded as rubbish two potboilers about von Richtofen and Brown, the titles of which I won't divulge since no-one should read them! Lee was different. This wasn't the musings of a hack whose interest was at best prurient: this was the recorded feelings of a flyer who had more reason than most to worry about his fate, but who laid it out with absolutely brutal candour. Pilots cracked up; they died in unnecessary ways; they were pressured; they got pissed; they knew they could be burned to a crisp after each sunrise; they felt their aircraft inferior to those of their foe, and that their own high command didn't really care about their fates: it wasn't called "No Parachute" without a reason. Lee's politics are vastly different to mine, but he certainly identified the mindset of flyers of the period, and, of course, he never resorted to mindless jingoism with regard to the fight against his German adversaries. What a shame more books of this ilk aren't available. A remarkable addition to the literary pantheon of the time - oh yeah, he could write a bit too.

I was sort of hoping that this would be something to do with A G Lee's superb collection of diary entries, however, given that it's the best anti war film of all time, you get a major league pass! A superb film which everyone should watch.

Hi all, Having (apparently) sorted out my sound gremlins, it looks like there's more buggeration afoot. I now have sound, and the briefings come up fine, as does the last minute weather report page, but click OK and up it pops: 'Run time error 48: File not found: OFF.dll'. I know that I have copies of this scattered hither and yon across the system, but I suspect that the copy I need is either gash/corrupt or altogether absent. Where should this file live? If I can pop a copy straight in, great, if I have to reinstall, I'll scream. Any mods reading - what's the path for this baby? Cheers, Si

Hi Capt. O'Reilly, I think you might be advised to go into Workshops and unclick the OFF intro movies - they're unnecessary anyway. BTW, welcome to the grinder - get thee to General Discussion and make yourself known! Are you in the UK perchance? Cheers, Si

For those of you who might prefer white TAC blobs for all aircraft and white/opaque labels in flight (makes them difficult to see), try Von Baur's fabulous modded version of ViewUI.XML Here: ViewUI.xml

Hi Olham, Yes, I think it's been a good discussion without rancour. Because it can be emotive, I think it only right that we reign in any overweening feelings - after all, the subject deserves much better than a testosterone fuelled rant. Only a calm and rational analysis of the subject can do justice. To get back to the original point: I think that via circumlocution, we've more or less pulled the major bones out of the subject, and identified why it is that the jastas won so many battles but lost the war. In essence, it was not their fault. They fought within the constraints placed upon them at the time, and it would have taken an extraordinarily brave commander to have promoted a strategy similar to Trenchard's, given that the German army for much of the war was actually on the defensive. I'd very much like to see research on the activities of the German air service during those periods when offensives were under way (in the West). I suspect that until quite late in the war, their activities would have remained as they generally did: local air superiority. If anyone can point me in the direction of any works regarding this aspect of the war, I'll stand you a virtual beer! Cheers, Si

"Contrary to a large number of books and reports, I struggle to accept the British commanders were arrogant buffoons content to see their pilots entering combat at such a seriously disadvantaged position. To me, it would make sense to encourage them to flee from encounters with the enemy which held little promise of a victory." Well, yeah but no but.... Trenchard and his people knew exactly what they were about, and they simply instilled a similar ethos (or at least encouraged it) in the RFC. They knew the planes were rubbish, the training inadequate and the German scouts formidable, but, as you've already pointed out, they had their eyes on a much bigger target, one that required that perhaps dozens of RFC flyers died, but which then saved the lives of hundreds - perhaps thousands - of allied ground troops. That was the trade off. You might lose a squadron's worth of spotters, but those that got through provided the intelligence to enable you to plaster a German battery or trench system, thereby enabling the great advance. Of course, that's where the thinking - apart from the early part of the battle of Arras, and then into 1918 - fell apart. The spotters went out; men died; some returned; the intelligence was gathered; plans were laid; attacks took place; more casualties, for insignificant material gain. That's not to say that the psychological toll on the German army wasn't considerable. It's been remarked by better historians than me that the Somme was the graveyard of the elite of the pre-war German army, and Passchendaele the graveyard of its hopes for victory. No matter how appalling the slaughter was on the allied side of the fight, it's often forgotten that German troops in those - and other - battles generally suffered comparable casualties to the Entente forces. So as not to divert, I'll get back to the point. The RFC planning was sound, but the delivery of the end product - the successful breaching of the lines and a march on Berlin - were chimaeras in the imaginations of the planners. Were the British commanders heartless? No. Were they hard headed and largely realistic? I think they were. They realised that they needed intell, and the RFC was the way about it. In the end analysis, if the allies had stormed through at Arras (for example) in 1917 due to the sterling work of the RFC, the question wouldn't even be asked, as the contribution would be entirely obvious. Because the war carried on until November 1918, it's all too easy to see it as the pointless deaths of hundreds of airmen - on both sides. I'm willing to bet that neither sidesaw it that way.

"I had always guessed they should have had much higher losses." Why? Surely, grouping together experienced scout pilots with a well developed tactical methodology into squadron (or larger) sized bodies would produce the exact opposite?