Bullethead

File Name: BH_DFW_CV_KuK_Unpainted File Submitter: Bullethead File Submitted: 11 September 2012 File Category: Aircraft Skins A DFW skin with no paint other than the insignia and serial number. This, with its darkly varnished fuselage, is intended to stand in for the Brandenburg C.I in its most common appearance. Seems like most KuK planes weren't painted. Click here to download this file

Somehow this was below my radar until I saw a banner ad for it in this forum. I LOVED the original XCOM game, and also the 2nd underwater one. Everything since hasn't lived up to the standards set by those. Now I see Firaxis is remaking the original and from what I've seen of it, it looks pretty good. It's coming out 9 October. If you've never had the opportuntity to enjoy the old XCOM games, you can find them on Steam for ridiculously low prices. These games are BRUTAL. If you think Bloody April is bad, you ain't seen nothing. When the game starts, your guys are hopelessly outclassed and die like flies. But their sacrifice lets you learn a little, so your next wave does a bit better, but still they die like flies. And so on, until hopefully the tide turns at some point and you can start kicking alien ass. That is, assuming you haven't lost the war by then. Anyway, great fun. When the original games were in vogue, I used to name my troops after folks in my flightsim forum of the time, as well as myself, and post up reports of their heroic deaths ;). I'm looking forward to doing that again.

Nope, totally different. Check the names again ;). You said you got this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO:_Alien_Invasion The real 1st XCOM game is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO:_Enemy_Unknown Jagged Alliance is also a good series but it's totally different. The only thing JA games have in common with XCOM games is that they both have a turn-based, squad-level tactical combat system. In JA, you're a merceny hired to help 1 side in yet another civil war in some 3rd World country. You use the money from your employer to hire other mercs and buy gear, then do a series of commando raids that ultimately lead to your employer's side winning the war. It's all real-world stuff so there aren't any real surprises, and there's no strategy to speak of. It's just buy the troops and gear, fight the mission, refit your squad, fight the next mission, repeat. Fun but lacking in depth and not particularly replayable. In XCOM games, OTOH, you run a vast military-industrial complex, so there's a huge strategic side. You have to play politics with world leaders so they keep giving you money. Then you have to use that money to build your facilities, hire scientists and technicians, and recruit and train your soldiers. You're fighting aliens and begin horribly outclassed, and you're only hope is to capture and research alien technology, then build human-adapted versions of it for your troops to use in the field. But you never have enough money, people, or resources to do everything, so you're always making hard decisions. And then besides all this, you have very intense tactical battles to fight, to aquire the stuff to research. And because you're fighting aliens, you're running into nasty surprises. So IMHO, XCOM has everything Jagged Alliance has, plus a lot more.

Thanks for the tip but the only copies I can find are all well over $100 :(. The thing was published in 1968 and would, in a perfect world, now be public domain. But the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned European copyright laws will keep it locked up forever. That'w why it's not part of the canon. Being canon implies general availability. Because this book wasn't reprinted, and doubtless never will be, it's doomed to sit forever out of reach thanks to the interminable duration of the stupid copyright laws these days.

But that's not a real XCOM game. It's a fanboy project that IFAIK isn't even complete. The real XCOM games are: 1. UFO: Enemy Unknown aka X-COM: UFO Defense aka X-COM: Enemy Unknown The original game, set on land. 2. X-COM: Terror from the Deep The sequel, essentially the same game but now you're based underwater and can fight on both land and water. Both of these games had the classic gameplay model with a real-time strategic view of the world. Here you did research, made new gadgets, recruited and trained new troops and scientists, intercepted flying UFOs, and decided what missions to send your troops on. Once your troops got somewhere, you had a turn-based squad-level tactical firefight where you shot it out with the aliens. You'd also pick up alien gadgets to take home and reverse-engineer. 3. X-COM Apocalypse The beginning of the end of the franchise. Everything was real-time, even the combat, which made pretty much killed everything. In addition, instead of the whole world, all you had was 1 huge city. 4. X-COM Interceptor A spaceship shooter. No troops. More like a Battle of Britain thing than a space thing. 5. X-COM First Alien Invasion A PBEM head-to-head tactical-only thing. 6. X-COM: Enforcer A mindless 3rd person shooter with no real strategy side.

Definitely. You are the 1st person I've ever met who didn't like the old XCOM games. Now, I my self didn't really like any after the 1st 2, but I thought everybody liked those :).

Yup, it's an interesting story that might have been taken from today's headlines. The splash of Deperdussin's fall cast wide ripples throughout the French aviation industry, too. Thanks for posting.

So there I was, leading a flight of 5 Strutters when we were bounced by about 15 Huns before crossing the lines. Egad! This is still 1916! Don't they know we don't start to get that serious until next year? Anyway, a desperate battle ensued, twisting and turning from about 9000 feet down to treetop level with planes and tracer going every which way. Great fun! Early in the fight, I latched onto an Albatros, the 1st one I'd seen so far in this career. He'd just overshot one of my wingmen and didn't see me as he pulled up steeply to do a hammerhead reversal. I closed right in on him, firing about 50 rounds from very close range, and damn few missed. The Hun staggered, smoked, and then went right down in a vertical spinning dive to explode on impact. "Huzzah! That'll be an easy claim", I thought. The fight continued. Little by little, I got fairly well shot-up. While desperately dodging bullets and trying to maneuver for a shot, I caught occasional glimpses of my wingmen also fighting for their lives. We were doing quite well, all thigns coinsidered. Most of us were still flying and there were noticeably few Huns. But obviously this couldn't go on much longer. We were all shot up, just about out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas, and low on ammo. I was already starting to look for a nice field to set down in while I still could. Then the cavalry arrived. Out of nowhere, a herd of green Nupes appeared and piled into the remaining Huns. Those Huns weren't in much better shape than my flight, so the Nupes made short work of them. I quickly rounded up the Strutters I could see, counted noses (only missing 1--amazing!) and landed on a field conveniently just below us. I looked at my clock: exactly 20 minutes had elapsed between the start of the fight and switching off my engine. I was totally drained. I figure I spent only a few minutes leaving the scene so that was about 15 minutes of pure adrenaline. There had probably been 30 planes at the height of the battle, the biggerst furball I've ever seen so early in the war. Woohoo! So I filled out my claims, then watched the replay. Much to my surprise, the game didn't give me credit for that 1st Albatros, the one I'd really plastered before I thought anybody else could have touched it. But that's OK. I got credit for 2 other Huns that I thought I was just finishing off for my wingmen. Such things STILL bring a smile to my face, no matter how many times I've seen it happen before :). Damn, that was a fun sortie. I wonder how WOFF can surpass such things?

In an online version of WOFF, you'd probably be right, at least to start with. Like Air Warrior back in the day, an online WOFF has barriers to entry that will keep the community small and skillful. At the very least, the ancient CFS3 engine will continue to deter new pilots, no matter what miracles OBD works with it. Also, as long as OBD keeps true to its main mission of providing the best offline experience possible, the online content will necessarily suffer in comparison to online-only competitors. However, I submit that should OBD ever remove these barriers to entry, then an online WOFF (or whatever the future online version will be called) will be flooded with PHDs just like every other wide-open online flightsim. When this happens, the PHDs do NOT get driven away by an inability to compete because everywhere they look are other PHDs they can fight on equal terms. I've seen this happen many times with many different games over the years, and I've never see it not happen. Why should it be any different in this case? And let's face it; in WW1 sims, knowing your Shaw is not anywhere near as critical as in later periods. The default method of flying for all PHDs in whatever game is bank-and-yank, and in WW1 you can actually do fairly well knowing nothing else. Hell, very few WW1 planes have the horsepower to do much in the way of extended vertical maneuvers anyway. Thus, WW1 sims are particularly vulnerable to PHD infestations.

Very nice work, ITI! Be advised, though, that making a model for a game is a huge task. You actually have to make about 20 versions of the model all superimposed on top of each other. These models are the full plane and also with the various parts shot off, and then several simpler copies of each that the game displays at longer distances from the the observer. And then there's the virtual cockpit on top of all that.

The poor bastard didn't even get the chance to do any wenching on his way back to the squadron

Well, by the time WOFF finally ships, who knows? I might finally have broadband on a landline by then, in which bet your ass I'll be doing MP again. And I'm sure you'll beat me up badly because I'll have years of rust in fighting other people Yup, formal dueling is the only way for knowledgeable and skillful sim pilots to face hale fellows well met these days. Sure, once in a while you might meet such an oppenent by chance in the general melee, but the multi-bogey context then often prevents you from really getting the most of such encounters. The enemy ace is just another face in the crowd. But when you can arrange a duel, it's a fight to remember all your life. I still can tell you all the details of most of the dueling ladders I competed in dating back to the mid-90s. However, my point, as you perceive, is that IMHO saying that online is better than offline because you're fighting humans instead of AI is no longer a valid argument. Online, in general you have about zero historical immersion; the usual fair is what I call "Quake with airplanes". It's all played with the same mindset as FPS deathmatch. The only escape from this is pre-arranged special events intended to recreate historical battles. So, it used to be that offline AIs were so bad that no amount of historical context could cover that failing, at least if you'd tasted online fighting just once, where everybody was MUCH better. But these days, AIs have improved so much, and human opponents on average have gotten so much worse, that you have both historical context AND better opposition offline than on. That is, if you're just dropping in to fly a little while you have the time. If you know some good opponents and can arrange duels with them, then you'll never find a better fight, although completely devoid of context. But for just day-to-day casual gaming, I'd rather fly offline these days. BTW, RE: "paint-huffing dropouts". I used to call such folks PFRs, for "pimple-faced retards", but then I had an online squaddie who took offense, so I "picked the turd up by the clean end" and changed my terminology ;). In fact, calling somebody a PHD is often taken as a compliment As long as we can still routinely curse the claims bureau, I'll be happy :).

Damn, that's an impressive collection!

I fly this game because it brings back fond memories of being shot at. There's no bigger rush than having bullets JUST MISS you :)

Yes and no.... I flew online almost exclusively for nearly 20 years (it's been available for close to 30 years now) and only stopped because I had to get lag-ridden satellite internet. I have literally thousands of hours of experience with it, from DOS Air Warrior to Aces High 2, and I used to have to pay anywhere from $2-5 per hour to get it. So I think I'm fairly well qualified to opine on this subject. First off, in real life, they only let smart people fly warplanes and you see why every day online where the skies are open to all. It didn't used to be that way. When I started, only people smart enough to have good jobs, and thus able to afford top-end computers, fancy joysticks, and the hourly fees to play, were online. This was the High and Far Off Days of Gods and Heroes, when nearly everybody was a highly experienced, highly competent killer and the learning curve was vertical. In those days, Robert Shaw, author of Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering, was an active player, came to game conventions, and everybody had him autograph their copy of his book. These days, however, everybody has a computer, joysticks are cheap, and there are no hourly fees. Thus, the virtual skies are filled with paint-huffing high school dropouts. If they've ever heard the term "energy management", they lack the mental capacity ever to grok it. They are and always will remain total dweebs. The bottom line is that while the online population has gotten much bigger over the years, the average talent level has nearly hit rock bottom. So, IMHO, these days you really have to qualify the statement that "no AI can match the challenge of fighting another thinking, adaptive opponent." You only get a challenging fight if your opponent has a skill level comparable to your own. Now, for the vast bulk of online players, this is no problem because they all suck equally at ACM. But somebody who knows what he's doing will have to look far and wide for a worthy adversary. Thus, the people who most desire to test their skills are the least likely to have a chance to. For them, it's just another day at the office clubbing baby seals. I honestly think that today, most AIs are better than most humans. Certainly, in the old days, AIs totally sucked, which is why I started flying online. But these days, most AIs have Shaw's teachings hardwired into their brains whereas most humans have never even heard of the man. But people who've slept with Shaw's book under their pillows for decades will always be able to beat AIs, and nearly all humans, too. Personally, I'd rather fight OFF's AI than any of the last few thousand of my online opponents.

I just hope they don't tinker too much with the claims system. Maybe I'm sick, but I rather enjoy the impenetrable archana we currently have, where the game will sometimes give me credit for putting the last nail in the coffin but not for making the coffin necessary. This is a fine simulation of military bureaucracy :). My only problem is that sometimes the game burps and forgets the whole mission happened, losing hours, claims, and all. That's what I hope they improve on.

That all sounds very familiar--it seems most of my flights end like that Thanks for the translation!

One of the things I've been wondering most about WOFF is whether we'll see any "real" French 2-seaters. OBD's been pretty mum about that, but I just stumbled across a clue left by Polovski in a comment on YouTube about the WOFF teaser video #3. There, he lists the 79 (actually 78--one is counted twice) escadrilles that will be in WOFF and says "you can fly a whole historical career in (not just key places)". Here's the link to that: http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=U3h9nym70WY Anyway, escadrilles had letters in front of their numbers to indicate what type of plane they had. These letters changed when the escadrille was re-equipped but the number stayed the same, so you can trace the number through time and see the different letters. This hints at what French planes OBD might include in WOFF. I say "hints at" because I doubt OBD actually included all the planes from the early part of the war, but you never know. This is idle speculation, after all :). So, I researched all the escadrille numbers listed by Pol and came up with the results below. This and Pol's phrase about "whole careers" gives me hope that we'll at least see the Breguet 14 and Salmson 2 A2, which would also finally give the US some 2-seaters. IIRC, it's been announced we're also getting the MS Parasol. However, I don't hold out much hope for Caudrons, Voisins, or the various Farman planes because few of the listed escadrilles had them. But, like I said, you never know. Anyay, here's what I came up with: 3 - BL 3, MS 3, N 3, SPA 3 5 - MF 5, F 5, SOP 5, SAL 5 7 - HF 7, MF 7, SOP 7, BR 7 9 - BO 9, MF 9, BL 9, C 9, SOP 9, BR 9 12 - N 12, MS 12, N 12, SPA 12 13 - HF 13, C 13, SOP 13, SAL 13 23 - MS 23, N 23, SPA 23 24 - V 24, MF 24, F 24, SOP 24, SAL 24 26 - MS 26, N 26, SPA 26 28 - HF 28, C 28, SOP 28, SAL 28 29 - MF 29, SOP 29, BR 29 37 - MS 37, N 37, SPA 37 38 - MS 38, N 38, SPA 38 39 - CM 39, C 39, SOP 39, SAL 39 48 - MS 48, N 48, SPA 48 49 - MS 49. M 49. SPA 49 55 - MF 55, F 55, AR 55, SOP 55, SPA-bi 55 57 - MS 57, N 57, SPA 57 60 - MF 60, F 60, SOP 60, SPA-bi 60 61 - C 61, SOP 61, SAL 61 62 - MF 62, N 62, SPA 62 65 - N 65, SPA 65 66 - C 66, SOP 66, BR 66 67 - N 67, SPA 67 68 - N 68, SPA 68 69 - N 69, SPA 69 73 - N 73, SPA 73 75 - N 75, SPA 75 76 - C 76 (R4), N 76, SPA 76 77 - N 77, SPA 77 78 - N 78, SPA 78 79 - N 79, SPA 79 80 - N 80, SPA 80 81 - N 81, SPA 81 82 - N 82, SPA 82 83 - N 83, SPA 83 84 - N 84, SPA 84 85 - N 85, SPA 85 86 - N 86, SPA 86 87 - N 87, SPA 87 88 - N 88, SPA 88 89 - N 89, SPA 89 90 - N 90, SPA 90 91 - N 91, SPA 91 92 - N 92, SPA 92 93 - N 93, SPA 93 94 - N 94, SPA 94 95 - N 95, SPA 95 96 - N 96, SPA 96 97 - N 97, SPA 97 98 - N 98, SPA 98 99 - N 99, SPA 99 100 - N 100, SPA 100 102 - VB 102, N 102, SPA 102 103 - VB 103, N 103, SPA 103 104 - V 104, C 104, SOP 104, BR 104 105 - C 105, SOP 105, SAL 105 106 - VB 106, C 106, SAL 106 107 - VB 107, SOP 107, BR 107 108 - VB 108, SOP 108, BR 108 111 - VB 111, VC 111, SOP 111, BR 111 112 - VB 112, F 112, N 112, SPA 112 123 - MF 123, SOP 123, BR 123 124 - Escadrille ame'ricaine (N 124, SPA 124) = "Laf" 128 - PS 128, SOP 128, BR 128 129 - SOP 129, BR 129 131 - SOP 131, BR 131 134 - SOP 134, BR 134 141 - SOP 141, BR 141 150 - N 150, SPA 150 151 - N 151, SPA 151 152 - SPA 152 153 - N153, SPA 153 154 - N 154, SPA 154 155 - N 155, SPA 155 313 - N 313 (N.27), SPA 313 314 - N 314, SPA 314 315 - N 315, SPA 314 LaF - N 124, SPA 124 AR = Avion de Reconnaissance "Dorand" A.R.1 and A.R.2 BL = Bleriot (usually Type XI) BO = Borel (pre-war seaplanes, not used in combat) BR = Breguet (usually Type 14 late in war) C = Caudron (usually G and C types unless otherwise noted) F = Farman (usually F.40) HF = Henri Farman (usually H.F.20) MF = Maurice Farman (usually M.F.7 or M.F.11) MS = Morane-Saulnier (usually Type L Parasol) N = Nieuport (11, 16, 17, 24 for scouts, 10 and 12 for 2-seaters) PS = Paul Schmitt 7 SAL = Salmson 2 A2 SOP = Sopwith Strutters SPA = SPAD VII and/or XIII SPA-bi = 2-seater SPADs V = Voisin (early, MG-armed types) VB = Voisin Bombers (bigger, later types) VC = Voisin Cannon (armed with 37mm)

Olham, if you need something to cheer you up, you can't miss with some zydeco. It's all about getting happy. Here's a good one, that's not even in French :).

Well, sounds like a fun project. Right next door is the modding forum for OFF where you can find all sorts of helpful info on doing such things. But just to make sure before you get too far along here, you do know that this plane is already in OFF, right? It was part of the HitR expansion. So if you have that, I suppose you could use it as a reference.

Yes, I'm looking forward to that as well. I really liked that feature in RB2. And to bring this back on topic, I recall one time where I made a mission in RB2 that was like 60 Breguets being intercepted by 15 or so Fokkers. Whatever it was, it was the most airplanes the game would accept in a mission. And it was totally unplayable as a participant, with like 2 FPS on the system I had at the time. So I changed it to where I just watched from the ground at an airfield and had the Breguets bomb it from low altitude so I could watch the carnage :).

I used Albin Denis' site for a lot of the list in my 1st post. I didn't know about the other site, though. Thanks. I can, with difficulty, read French if I'm familiar with the subject matter, but I'm hopeless with speaking and writing it :).

Ah, thanks for the explanation. Anyway, you can use my skins however you want, but I can't guarantee they'll work with P2 models. When I have a chance, I'll send you what I have on the bases used by KuK squadrons. These will just be airfield names. I have no idea where they were on the map.

Well, fingers crossed :). I myself would love to fly the R.11 because it would provide an excellent view of some truly epic air battles. Imagine riding herd on a formation of 100 or more Breguet 14s that's being attacked by dozens of Fokkers and Albatri in a long, running gun battle deep behind the lines. Just watching all the AI planes duking it out would be great by itself, even if you personally never fired a shot. But sadly, I don't see a single "R" escadrille on the list so I'm afraid that won't be happening any time soon. But OTOH, there are quite a few old French pushers potentially available. Those would provide a lot of fun, too. And not just flying them. They would provide some much-needed variety in what German players face in French sectors in the 1st half of the war.

I should also mention that OBD has said 2-seater careers will be redone so that 2-seater squadrons are more specialized by mission type as they were historically. This has implications for the above list because the French had a system of numbering escadrilles based on their role. Unfortunately, the French weren't consistent in using their numbering system. They sometimes ignored it, changed the rules several times during the war, and sometimes renumbered existing squadrons when the rules changed but usually not. Thus, it's a confusing subject and isn't a very good guide to what the squadron's role was (the plane type is usually a better clue), but it's better than nothing. To start with, there's what I call the "1st Generation" escadrilles, which are those formed from before the war until somewhere in the 1915-1916 timeframe. These were numbered sequentially as created, regardless of role. But in 1916, as the air force expanded and the French got a better idea of what type of units they needed and how to organize them, they established the following system: Escadrilles 1-99 = fighters Escadrilles 100-199 = dedicated bombers Escadrilles 200-299 = Heavy Artillery Spotters and Corps d'Armee (army cooperation) Few, if any, of the "1st generation" escadrilles were renumbered, but the 2-seater squadrons with numbers 1-99 were pretty much all army cooperation units, although 1 or 2 were dedicated bombers. But this is why there's a huge block of fighter escadrilles from 67-99 in the list above. Those were all formed in the latter part of 1916 under the new designation system. Fighter squadrons with numbers 1-99 were, for the most part, put into the "Groupes de Chasse". Their main mission was to flood a given area of the front to achieve air superiority with offensive patrols. They hardly ever did other things like escort or attack missions. Most of the French aces were in these units. The 100s are interesting. As far back as 1915, the French formed "Groupes de Bombardement" of multiple bomber escadrilles. These escadrilles provided their own escorts to start with but, eventually, the "Groupes de Bombardement" obtained actual fighter squadrons that were paired with specific bomber squadrons as dedicated escorts. These fighters also defended the bomber bases. That's why there are fighter squadrons in the 100 series, although there were also exceptions like N/SPA 124. I note we don't have any 200-series escadrilles. These are the squadrons that did most of the recon, photography, arty spotting, and frontline tactical bombing. Most of the "1st generation" 2-seater squadrons and some of those fighter squadrons were in here as well, although there were a few 200-series fighter squadrons. Those had the job of protecting the 200-series 2-seaters and doing things like strafing trenches. The 300-series were dedicated interceptors defending specific locations. 313 was at Dunkerque, 314 was at Nancy, and 315 was at Belfort.