griphos

Hey Duck, I think that the config aa settings don't work well with nvidia cards, so I don't know about your ati. If you can set it in the card, that's best I think. I have mine set at 16Q. I think that setting the aa high in the card has little if any negative impact and sure makes for amazing graphics in the game.

That's how I did it. QC and then campaigns. I was nervous about starting campaigns before I was "ready" and it's been 10 years at least out of the sim cockpit for me. But I wound up killing a lot of pilots (mine) anyway in both. Jump in a campaign when you get it. The campaigns are very immersive, I think. You're in for a real treat.

Seems pretty much done to me. Amazing sim! I can't think of anything in it that can't be adjusted to suit people's preferences and it's the best money I've EVER spent on entertainment. The nice thing is that in addition to entertainment, there's enough careful historical detail here to make it a learning experience as well. I wish I could get my darned TrackIR to work in MP mode, but I think that's perhaps a VISTA issue. And with TrackIR working in campaign, it's as an immersive experience as is possible, I think. Coming back to the 21st century after flying a campaign mission is jarring! Could the AI be better, at low altitude in particular? Sure. How not? It's code! Not actual cyborgs! It's the best AI I've ever seen (but I'm no combat sim pro like many here). But I haven't lived past 10 hours yet, so they're doing fine, thank you. Anyway, BRAVO! Well done, mates! Stunning work!

I think the better question would be when am I NOT cross-controlling during combat (at least a little)?!

Absolutely great session, Stump. Thanks for hosting. Flying MP with live players on missions is too much fun.

TVO, the names of your wingmen are listed on the board in the briefing room, but if you'll turn labels on for a sec, you'll see their names listed above their planes. I used to just put "Wingman." Those all got denied.

Hey Duck, Sorry to miss tonight. I lost my good pilot as a POW earlier today so did the uninstall and reinstall and am in the middle of the defragging. Good news is everything works now. I'll be ready for next time.

AI takes over. I've never set "auto-trim" before jumping in the back. But, here's the rub. The AI will pilot the plane toward the next waypoint. He will NOT dogfight or even try to evade any attack. The only time I've had an AI pilot do that was in QC and I've been trying to figure out what the settings were ever since. I don't think there were any waypoints for the pilot to follow so he did a very credible job of dogfighting while I took potshots at attacking planes. It was a hoot. Anyway, in campaign mode, I jump in the pilot seat and turn sharp left or right for at least 90 degrees, then jump in the back and shoot at things while my AI pilot returns to the waypoint heading, then rinse and repeat. It works, sort of.

I remapped the key to shift to gunner position to "g". Easy to remember and you never use that key (it's for retractable landing gear). Makes it easy to jump to the gunner and F6 takes you back to pilot slot. It's easy to remap when flying by hitting "esc" for the Hanger and then clicking on Controls. You can delete and add key assignments. Just save your config as Mine and it will work from then on.

Hey W_K, Check out these threads over at SOH with some clues about filing successful claims: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=11908 http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=11658 You'll see that there is a list of things that is helpful to include in order to increase your pending score. I've never gotten 100, as some have, but I get in the 80s now by writing a few sentences like:"Engaged enemy a/c flight at 4000 feet southwest of Lille (or Emerichicourt airfield or whatever) at around 4:00 pm. After chasing two EA from Jasta 18 to the deck, I fired about 100 rounds into one with drab green markings and watched him spin into the ground." Sometimes I get a bit more rhetorical (okay, lots of times) but this seems to be good enough. If the advisor tells you "Fokker E.III destroyed" I'm not sure that means you shot him down. "You destroyed a Fokker E.III" certainly does. But the only reason I've ever had claims rejected outright was when I claimed a kill the sim didn't think belonged to me. When that happens, I cancel the claim and drop the number I'm claiming and it goes through fine then.

That's pretty good! I got a kill ratio of two swats/fly. Much higher than my current 17% accuracy average. Clearly, the movement is toward making things far too easy!

Well, if Herr Kurtz's estimates for bombing altitudes are historically correct (which I trust they are), then I'm definitely also bombing, as he says, at "exceptionally low altitudes." I suspect I've never been above 100 ft in a bombing run. In fact, I always worry about being caught in the blast. I can't imagine trying to bomb at 1000 ft.

Before I learned what to include in my claims here on the forum, my scores were routinely in the teens. They were all denied, so I suspect there is some bottom threshold or actual probabilities reflected in the score.

I think the realistic setting on claims means that it takes quite a while for claims to be confirmed. I suspect this models real life, where claims had to be posted to HQ, go through the bureaucratic red tape and then return by post to the airfield. It seems to be taking several weeks for my claims to be confirmed. So, most of my pilots die before their claims are confirmed. But I advanced my recent pilot through a few weeks to get him out of Strutters and back into Pups (he took some leave and visited his young wife who he married in the giddiness of the days leading up to his enlistment in the air corps). When he returned after a few weeks, 3 of his early claims were confirmed. I learned how to write them up from folks here on the forum. I had quite a few denied at first until I learned the tricks. But even now that mine score in the 80s, it still takes the same time to get them confirmed. Less realistic settings in the workshop for claims will result in all of them being confirmed immediately, I believe. But even at realistic, if enough time has lapsed in those 15 missions and the claims were early in the run, then they would have time to be confirmed (and whoever it is on Siggi's board is reporting truthfully, I'm sure).

No, I haven't tried dive bombing as in a Stuka, mostly because I don't think that's the way these aircraft did it (although I could easily be wrong about that). I fly in a shallow dive and to tell you the truth, haven't worked out a visual cue for release point. I don't think my approach is that uniform yet that such a visual cue would be accurate. I release before I am directly above the point of impact by an amount similar to how high above it I am, minus a little bit. Basically so the parabola of the falling bomb matches my path through the air after release. I say minus a little bit, because once it's not attached to me anymore, I think drag slows it down a little. Of course, I have to picture all this in my head. :umnik2: And I imagine this technique would only work very well for the kind of low bomb passes I've been doing. But you probably shouldn't use me as too much of a guide. I've only done this a few times. I've managed to blow up a train and a MG emplacement and some supplies at a railyard, but I've not had much practice at this either, and my success is probably due to the strategy of lining targets up so that I hit SOMETHING rather than any great release technique. I prefer rockets, as you mostly just point at the target and fire, as with bullets (although the rockets seem to hit high to me).

Great report, catfish. This sim continues to impress me regularly. It's great that the AI for those aces was modeled such that you had an advantage in this mission. Superb!

Hey Creaghorn, I think that the way to do what you want is to try to enlist in a squadron that lists a large mix of the different planes used in those different missions. Some squadrons just list a few fighters, which means, to me, that they stay in those throughout the war. But others list lots of different planes used, which suggests, as with my guy in 9 RNAS, that he will get shuffled around in different planes for different missions. Underdog, I use TrackIR, and I rudder turn as I'm climbing away (but I don't climb much). That pulls my tail out of the way so I can see my damage. This is easier in the stable bomber planes than it would be in a Tripe, for instance! Hard to fly that baby if I'm not looking out the front, she's so tail heavy. I use the standard keys (haven't remapped them to my stick, and doubt I will). It's "backspace" to select weapons, and 'enter' to drop or shoot (rockets) them. As for knowing when, I guess practice would help. I just try to line up on my target in the most advantageous way. For instance, if it's a rail yard, I'll fly in with the train longitudinal to my flight path rather than transverse. If I fly over them that way, when I drop, I pretty much hit something! If it's planes on the airfield, same thing. I fly at them when they're in a nice little row for me. I even try to fly over things so that the MG emplacements are at the end of my path, so if I miss the stuff I'm supposed to blow up, I may hit the MG! If it's supplies, I try to line them up as well. Plus I fly low (and so dangerously) so that I improve my chances of hitting something. To escape, I stay low and hug terrain while slipping like crazy under full power to get away from the MG. I take hits. Every time. But so far, on my few bombing/rocket missions (offline and MP), I've not been shot down by enemy fire, just damaged.

Hey Olham, Just watched one of these again (End of a Hunter). Let me just say you're more than ready for online. I'm very impressed with your fighting without TrackIR!! What a limitation. For some reason, my TrackIR doesn't work in MP (I'm sure it's just my install, 'cause it seems to work for everyone I'm flying against), so I get a taste of the old hat-switch viewing there, and me no likey! I figured out how to use padlock, though, and that makes things much better, when one view just follows my target and I can jump in and out of it. Anyway, looking forward to more video when the new rig is up and running. I may have to try this FRAPS thing.

I flew a number of missions in 1916 I think (can't be sure) even before 1.25 (again, I think) when I went about 4-6 missions without seeing any enemy. Anyway, whenever it was, it was definitely before these latest patches. I flew a mission in 1917 last night when I was in a Strutter and we went to a rail yard DEEP into enemy territory, and I didn't see any EA the whole roughly 200 mile (round) trip. But then many times I am sent on a Patrol mission and barely get 10 miles from the field before getting jumped by EA flights outnumbering mine 2 to 1. I know NOTHING (as Schulz would say) about computer programing, but I suspect that patches of the sort that are coming out wouldn't introduce such issues. It's hard for me to imagine how tweaking what these patches tweak could affect the larger sim in that way. But I don't know. Anyway, I think this is not a patch issue. I think it is just realism built into the campaign mode. I, actually, appreciate those missions where I have the skies to myself occasionally. Sure, after the third one, I get antsy for a fight, but after 10 straight hair-raising fights, I always find myself going up and thinking to myself, wouldn't it be nice to have just a quiet flight for a change! I think QC is for fighting every time you fly, and campaign ought to have those missions, or even whole periods of the war, when flying without seeing anything happens more often.

I've flown online 3 or 4 times this past week for the first time. Trust me, Olham, if I can do it and have fun, anyone can. As Widowmaker said, there are online quirks. I've seen planes fly backwards. And do this strange little shuffle, first on the right, then on the left, then on the right.... And I got shot down plenty, but got others as well. As Widowmaker said, the biggest problem for me was just finding everybody at first. But I don't think of online play the same as offline. Offline is immersive and realistic and challenging. Online is more lighthearted entertainment. The difference is flying against real people, who will simply do FAR more than any AI in any situation. And pulling up in formation with other planes on a mission, or turning on one in a dogfight, is just different when you know there is another real person in that plane. Really different. And fun. (Being able to talk to them adds another dimension as well, including the agonizing groans others hear when I go down, so I'm told). But flying a mission where you keep station with other real pilots, no warp or time advance even possible, and then find your target and coordinate a real group attack, warning each other of MG emplacements (ummm...errr...a new set of complicated hand signals??.....okay, so that parts not at ALL realistic) makes online worth doing all by itself.

Funny you should ask. I flew a mission with my DiD pilot tonight and when I went to briefing, lo and behold, he'd been moved out of a Pup into a Strutter. This wasn't what I signed up for!!! But, queen and country and all that.... It was actually pretty fun. I remapped the key for switching to gunner to "g" (when will I EVER need that for landing gear?!?!). I never got to shoot at anything, though. Never saw any enemy. Our target was a rail yard DEEP into enemy territory. And I got 40lb BOMBS!!! And it was a night mission. Beautiful moonlight on the snow. We cratered that rail yard! Very satisfying. And I flew in the gunner position for a good chunk of the 70 miles back just to look at the scenery. Stopped to shoot up an OB at the front. Satisfying! Slept a bit the last few miles, huddled in my sheepskin there in the back. Then hopped up front and landed and headed to the officer's mess for some tea! Still, I advanced the time a few weeks until Ed was put back into Pups. It's the fighter life for me!

I'm with Parky as well. I've been quite impressed with the AI lately. One of the changes seems to be that they watch their six now. I've turned on planes flying away and level and gotten to where I was just about to fire and they turn and burn. Very impressive. In my mission tonight, we were jumped by six Alb DIII out of the clouds and one of my wingman was spinning to the ground almost before I could collect my wits. They broke fast and as if they had a plan. It seemed that two of them targeted each one of us. I drew my two away a bit so I could engage them by themselves, and there was none of that old long distance shooting. They chased and closed to within 500 ft before they thought about shooting at me. In the furball that followed, I thought I was flying against aces, so flipped on labels, but it was just regular Airmen from Jasta 9! Anyway, I think your rule #3 is about the best, Hellshade. That's been working for me in these multiple enemy dogfights. And I never engage h-t-h. Normally, if the enemy closes from the front, I either turn and climb until they are close enough to fire, when I turn to engage, or climb toward them but a bit to one side and cross-control as the enemy comes into range so I look like I'm turning toward them but am really slipping further off to one side. This usually gets them past me with any bullets they fire streaming off to my side, and I can turn and try to get on the highest one's tail. I guess that's possibly a rule to add. When engaging multiple enemy, engage the highest one first. That's what I've been doing. There's usually one who stays high hoping you'll follow one of his friends down so he can get on you. I try to wound him and then turn on the next one who's climbing back up to come at me. That way I work my way down, keeping the advantage of stored energy and shooting at whichever target of opportunity presents itself at my height. This kept me in good shape against multiple aces once until their buddies downed my wingmen and all came for me!

Have you watched Parky's great videos on the OFF site? Those are almost tutorials in aiming. Wonderful stuff.

I've only flown MP a few times and dogfighting only once, but it was a blast, so I'm definitely in! I fought Gary when his N17 was invisible! I turned labels on and still couldn't hit him, until i HIT him. I wonder what the boys on the ground thought of that one. An Alb. DV flying along shooting at nothing and then running into an invisible wall in the sky and falling to the ground like a brick!

What you said! It's really hard to imagine how this sim could be much better. I don't EVEN have time for it, and I manage to fly it at least some every day. I'm TOTALLY addicted.