Creaghorn

thanks for sharing olham, jacobs is one of the guys i like most, together with julius buckler (thanks again for the book, my friend, though i still have to find out if it's an original dedication from uschi to erich "bubi" hartmann). both humble lifes before and after the war with feel for honor and duty

hi wid, as long as i know the main reason the germans (fortunately) did not win was the decoding of the crypted german messages (ULTRA). so the brits almost always knew the german next moves. at least enough to know where to concentrate their forces. the other reason is "herr meier" göring, who shortly before beating the brits completely by destroying all airfields etc. decided to appeal to hitler by attacking london, so the brits had enough time again to repair their airfields and their recources. sorry for beeing off topic. the main topic should still be why the germans had so few losses, not why did they not win or why they had so many victories. cheers

i would say there are several reasons for it 1. many german pilots had a career as two seater pilots. so they were much more experienced and had much better SA compared to the allies who often threw in boys in fight with handful flighthours. 2. better developed tactics to fly as a group. the rookies have been protected, like in wolfpacks. 3. at least until mid 1917 it was more dangerous to be for a second in the line of fire of twin spandaus than on single vickers or lewis guns. 4. allies flew many more rotary types. that meant tougher handling of the AC and many more accidents 5. germans mostly flew until they died. allied pilots had a year or so and then were sent home and got replaced by new ones. so the experience and leadership for the germans was still there while the allies always had to train young pilots over and over again. the level was equalized from about mid 1918 to the end when most german top aces have been dead. 6. the allies carried the war into german territory and despite heavy losses this tactic was kept active until the end of the war. at last it paid off. it was kind of quality agains quantity. 7. because of the overwhelming numbers flying into german territory, the german jastas had many more options to choose when to fight and when to let the enemy pass. and when they chose to fight, then with the option of winning.

hi wayfarer, that's why you should use HPW's latest DM. in his DM neither you nor AI will crash because of attemped forced landings too often. even if you or AI get hit the manouverbility won't be affected too much. so out of control behaviour will only occure when something severe breaks (losing wing etc.) or when the pilot is dead or the engine catches fire.

i tried exactly the same about a year ago. fooling around with navidia 3d. overall it is indeed quite cool. especially when seeing flak and other AC around you etc. but there were some IMO important points why i turned it down again. mainly the FPS hit. it was still playable but it's another fun to have FPS between 50 and 60 permanently or having FPS between 20 and 40 or so. the other thing was the overall colour of the virtual world. was kind of too psychadellic and desert and apocalypticl-ike for my taste. usually when flying a sortie one is completely immersed in the screen and also has a feel for distances and sizes. that means that when sitting in the cockpit and looking at the guns etc., then they look like guns with the correct size. but strangely with 3d the guns seemed to rather look like small toyguns because of the effect. they seemed to stick out of the screen and like you could touch them. that's actually the purpose of 3d of course, but in that case it looked rather funny and was an immersionkiller for me. that's the same like watching star wars, knowing that if darth vader could leave the screen, he would be 2 inches tall .

please send us a report about your first day

have fun,olham.

this "wronghanded" starting and landing is probably more useful for british campaigns since german pilots mostly were twoseater pilots previously. but it should be done just for the first 5 sorties or so to prevent your other hand getting used to it, and just for starts and landings. when in formation then one should fly as always. especially with the camel it might be very interesting . thanks for the pics

no, not castor oil. just things which are yet available to add realism. . that's a good idea olham, waiting for p4 and then start like a "rookie" so to say. dunno about how much the twiststick reproduces all movements, but at least in my case the twist stick felt more easy for flying and aiming since there is only hand eye coordination needed and the hand automatically does what your eyes are following. with rudder pedals there is hand-eye-and feet coordination needed and i needed quite a time to get used to them. in the beginning i sometimes simply forgot to use my feet while i was using the stick. especially on starting and landing. i'm sure you'll get used to them quite quickly when you start to use them (and indeed, then the AI has to dress up warm). also i think that doing immelmanns and hammerheads etc. is easier with pedals. oh, by the way. i thought about trying, when creating a new rookiepilot, to emulate a bit the rookie-clumsyness by starting and landing with the other hand (in my case right hand because i usually fly lefthanded). that would add a bit more rough landings and the lack of feel for startings and landings. if that's not barmy...

yes, i use pedals (and so should you my friend. you miss some important realism if not) and breaks are deactivated since day one. the problem never occured until the last couple days, but i sorted it and all works well again. for some reason if not "officially" deactivating the bombtracking view again by cycling with F9 until you see your own AC again, the engine issue is triggered. probably somewhere deeply coded by mistake or whatever. that leads me to the idea that this "fault" might be of good use to generate random engine failures as an official feature. but that's another thing.

hi stump, welcome back. in your first post i missed your stumpjumpereese, and thought there must be something wrong. but now i know everything is well.

usually with F9 the camera follows the bomb until exploding, then after few seconds it automatically jumps to an outsideview of your aircraft. from there i had hit F4 for virtual cockpit again and continued. but i think the automatic jump from the exploded bomb to the outsideview caused the issue. when after the bomb exploded i manually hit F9 again to get to the outside view (and with that deactivate the bomb tracking view again), and from there again back to VC view with F4, then the issue is gone. strange, isn't it?

thanks mark, i think i found the problem, though i don't know why it occured. i tried to remember what i have done the last couple days i never did before. i had a bomber campaign and in the last days i used F9 bomb view after dropping the bomb. when pressing often enough you see every bomb until you see your own AC again. when the bombview is active and it explodes, after some seconds it automatically switches to your AC again. from there i continued the sortie. i think because i did not switch it manually back to AC view it somehow stuck in bombing view (although not indicating anything visually). from then on the engine management had this issue. now i hit F9 again, although beeing in an alb in QC, but the issue is gone. usually i have my monk-moments, e.g. volume in car etc. always has to have even numbers. and everything i switch manually on i usually switch manually off again. this time i did not with bomb view and something like that happens. that proves that my monk moments are correct

i have a saitek evo force. since the last couple days in BHAH the throttle always jumps to 50% every once in a while. sometimes some minutes there is nothing, sometimes it jumps permanently to 50% despite using the lever up and down or using the key numbers 1-0. first i thought, cool. kind of sudden broken engine every once in a while. but now it's really annoying since it makes flying impossible. it is like there is an invisible kobold sitting on my keyboard and pushing randomly "5" all the time. it must be just in OFF since when checking the hardware management and testing it, there are no such jumps. any ideas somebody, gentlemen?

obviously a glitch. i would see it like this. in those times the frontline wasn't exactly drawn by computer but with a pencil or something and rather aproximately than accurate. so the the enemy goes aproximately to here and to there, but it's not very exact. that's the reason why there were made recon jobs in the first place. to have an eye and get a big picture of the whole thing. and the pictures of one day change a little bit any day. so the the picture of one small part of the front might already been out of date the next day. personally i like small glitches like that. or that the red line is no guarantee that you won't get in prison also despite beeing a mile over own lines. there are small raids, small skirmishes, the frontline might be out of date as mentioned. all that adds a bit more immersion IMO

hi jim, you were right to not watch it. and on youtube you can watch every dogfight in the movie (though very arcadish. not as arcadish as flyboys but still), anything else you won't miss. strangely mostly in movies MvR was portrayed as an aristocratic and often arrogant german. this movie turns it around in the other extreme. they portrayed him more like a pacifist who would rather listen the 80ies depeche mode than acting like a ww1 person of the era. the real MvR's personality i would rather compare to lou gehrig. the iron horse and one of the best and a teamleader, with good education etc. but in public rather shy.

since tv shows nowadays have very high standarts i would rather like to see a tv show over two or three seasons than a single movie. i would love to see a series about julius buckler. his story from the beginning to the end. there is no need to exaggregate the storyline or something. just take his story and make a series out of it. you would see dogfighting, an almost duel with his own squadmate in the air because both wanted the same girl, a lot of drama and tears and fears. he got wounded 5 times, he got promoted to leutnant despite refusing to take the quick way (Einjähriges) just because of his merits. they had monkeys in their squadron, great friendships and a band of brothers. everything an interesting story and drama needs.

yes, that's for sure also a reason. also when having an oilleak etc. you'll hear the damaged engine sound.

although the spinner is mostly just a sheet of metal and is not really protecting anything, so there is no need to actually see the engine to hit it with a bullet, like there is no protection for the pilot when a bullet goes through plywood or canvas. but you are right. a little more smart engine DM or hitbox would be great

ah, now that sounds more verständlich and now i weiss what you mein . maybe you should try HPW's rear accuracy mod. then the gunners have even less accuracy then in the stock version. you are right. sometimes it seems that they fire one bullet, and it always hits the engine. but you must not forget that it's maybe just an impression. when they hit you while you are flying away, then they very rarely hit your engine. but when you are behind them, representing your front to them, then it might be enough to be in their line of fire for a second or two. the frontview of you is mostly covered by prop and engine. so wether they are going to hit your prop or engine, or miss you completely, unless hitting a wing or so. in the line of fire for 2 seconds might be a stream of about 20 bullets coming at you. and if just one or two of those bullets (remember, you are in those moments for the gunner almost just engine and prop) hit, then the engine might be damaged. of course i doubt the hitbox is clever enough to realize if only the iron block, or the frame got hit, a cylinder or whatever. it just recognizes hit or no hit, and then depending on the DM.

in real downing twoseaters was always considered tougher than downing scouts (contrary to the knighthood-movie-romance-blah myth that it was easier and less honorable than against scouts). especially when surprising the scouts, while it was tougher to surprise twoseaters. if you are in the line of fire, behind him, then the chance to get a hit into the engine is big because you mostly offer the observer your front. that's why they wether stayed in the blind spot or they dove from above shooting and turning away immediately, then repeat the manouver several times, often with more attackers. good example is in hell's angels when they attacked the bomber in the dogfightscene. both variants and tactics are shown there. first the wolvelike group attack and than the swoop from below. but, if you are in the gunners line of fire, your engine might suffer, if not or just as long as necessary, than not.

isn't there a tv series exactly about the black sheep and pappy boyington? i remember such tv show from the late 80ies or early 90ies in german tv but can't remember the name of it.

hi flyby, there are no spawns during campaigns. the enemy patrols and twoseaters you can meet anywhere or nowhere. they are not related to any flightroute because they have own flightroutes and missions which might be near you or many miles somewhere else. that is one of the great features of the campaign systems. unlike in most other sims you are not the bellybutton of the world where enemies and everything else is built around you and with the only purpose to meet you. you are just one small part with your mission and all AI patrols have their own missions. and if you meet them, that's coincidence. it might happen that somewhere else, miles away from you there occure dogfights with friendly and enemy patrols while you are somewhere completely else. that's something the devs have mentioned a lot of times, and also when the campaign mission loads you can see the message that spawns are disabled. so nothing related to your mission

for some time i used voice command with stuff like "contact" and "anwerfen" for starting the engine and all other apropriate startup commands. that's probably barmy enough. but then i stopped it because of the occasional strange look of my wive .

Congrats, Simon