Bullethead

I have excellent fighterpilot reflexes. No matter what chaos surrounds me, no matter how hard you hit me, I won't spill a drop of my drink . 0.2812 Bobbing Bobcat, with a good buzz from 6 fingers of sour mash in the last hour, 2 fingers at a time .

Bravo on surviving your 1st sortie and popping your cherry. I'll buy you a drink for that .

Thanks for the kind words. Yup, you can have the thing. It's already been approved over in the download section, where you will find many better skins by other folks.

Howdy Pol- I don't fly bombers, I fly fighters, so can't comment on how the Fee performs on bomb runs when made into a "fighter_bomber". However, my squadron gets the occasional ground attack mission, so I'll see someday. The important thing, IMHO, is that the "tactical_bomber" AI for the Fee is just not cutting it. When stuck this, the Fee's sole tactical move, even in fighter squadrons, is to fly directly away from the enemy. For conventional 2-seaters, this lets the tail gunners have a shot, but in the Fee, it's pure suicide. Which is why the Fees and other 2-seat pushers did NOT do this in real life--they circled so that each could cover the tail of the one in front. This was regardless of the type of mission they were on. The Fee was a fighter 1st and a bomber 2nd, and in its day it equips a large number of Brit fighter squadrons. And, of course, also a fair number of buff squadrons. Having the Fee use the "tactical_bomber" AI therefore really detracts from the game IMHO. It makes things WAY too easy for the Germans, and it makes things WAY too hard for the Brits. There's a reason the Fee remained on the front line until the end of the war (even if by then only at night), and that reason was that it could take care of itself fairly well. But you'd never know it from the way the AI flies it in OFF. I have found that making fighter Fees into "fighter_bombers" in now way screws up the game, and in fact greatly improves it. It makes flying the Fee much more survivable and makes the Fees behave much more realistically. However, it only improves it from the perspective of my own flight--all the other Fees continue to act like clay pidgeons. As I said, I don't know yet what this change will do for bomber Fees. And bear in mind that you changed the Fee's flight model fairly early on--have you looked at this change since then? But at least for fighter Fee squadrons, IMHO this would be a very worthwhile change.

If you get the new TIR5 software, it comes with one called "Default". I find this to be just perfect.

Today I thought I'd try my hand at making 5-color lozenge camo, something I've always sucked at. However, my recent work with the pre-printed naval hex pattern had given me better ideas on how to do it, although of course the army lozenge patterns are more difficult due to all the different shapes. Still, I was fairly confident I could make it work OK, or at least better than my last attempt back in RB3D/FCJ. Thinking I could get the pattern itself OK, the question arose as to which of the various color options to use. I really wasn't excited at doing the standard thing (what else is new), and OBD already has done plenty in that regard anyway. Then it hit me--AFAIK we have no skins in the night version of the 5-color stuff. That was worth doing yet another DFW skin. So, I found some Dan-San-approved night colors (for Gothas, but who cares?) and, after a semi-hard but fairly short struggle, I got the lozenge pattern to look good. Here's the result. Those who liked my 1st blue "naval" DFW might take comfort in having what I think is a legit blue paintjob. Too bad you can't tell in the dark .

Very nice, WM!

I imagine it happened frequently, but the folks who bravely ran away probably told a different story back at base. The lack of radar and interplane communications in WW1 greatly facilitated fudging on your report when you got home. Even if some of the more impetuous guys lived, they probably were in no position to tell what really happened, due to their attention being absorbed by the fight they were in. And of course, it was often the case in real life, and in OFF, that once your scrap is over, you find yourself all alone. So what folks probably said in such situations was, I started in with the others, got cut off by more Huns diving on us, and was thus separated. It was several of them against 1 of me so I ran for it and managed to lose them. Of course, if you made a habit of this, your squaddies will begin to suspect cold feet and might actually notice you sneaking away. So it would probably help to fly low over the trenches on the way back to pick up a few bullet holes to back up your story

It's the one that ends in "Sqd" without any numbers. If you sort by name, it'll usually be the last folder for that type of plane.

Welcome aboard, Deadangle. New guy buys the drinks! . Yes indeed, late 1917-1918 is the most dangerous time period to fly in, and it's off the charts if you fly in areas of active ground offensives. There are huge numbers of very good planes, massive furballs, and intense flak. You're constantly in danger and almost constantly in combat. It's truly epic, but extremely grim . Mid-1917 is a bit less intense. There are fewer planes in the air so fights are smaller and fairly widely separated. They're still quite deadly, but you don't have the feeling that you're just cannonfodder like you do later. It's the last of the "knights of the air" thing. Go out, have a stiff fight, then enjoy the scenery on the way home and have a jolly evening in the mess. Before then, action is harder to come by and the real challenge is keeping your underpowered, unstable crate in the air while trying to do combat moves.

Curiosity finally got the better of me and I made the suggested tweak to the Fee file, turning them into "fighter_bombers". Given what Pol's said several times, I was expecting things to go horribly wrong, but I was pleasantly surprised. For my experiment, I tried 21 Squadron on 1 Jan 1917, which is the only "good" Fee fighter squadron AFAIK. Most of the rest are "average" and 1 or 2 or "poor". I have no idea what the Fee bomber squadrons are like--I've never looked. At least with "good" AI pilots, Fee "fighter_bomber" wingmen neither maneuver like Brisfits nor fail trying to and stall. Instead, they just make wide, horizontal turns. This seems realistic to me. When I gave them free rein with the "attack" order, nothing much happened. While they seemed somewhat interested in their designated target, they made no attempt to cut inside his turns to close the range. Instead, they wandered around in big flat curves while the Albatros danced around. OTOH, this at least was an improvement from having "tactical_bomber" mentality. They stayed together instead of scattering to the 4 winds, and they didn't just fly off in a straight line presenting their undefended tails to their attackers. They took pot shots and any Albatros that came along and it was pretty much a stand-off, which is how I understand most Fee fights were. The main problem with this order for them was that they wandered off and left me alone. What I found worked best was me giving them the "Help Me" command instead. While I flopped around madly dueling some of the enemy, my wingmen circled around nearby practically doing a Lufbery Circle with me and my opponents in the middle. This was GREAT! No matter which way I was pointed, one of my wingmen always had my back and meanwhile they were defending each other from the rest of the enemy, too. I really like this change. I can stop doing my makeshift "Rally to Me, Lads" Lufbery Circle, which required way more attention than I really wanted to spare and didn't work that well anyway. Just giving a "Help Me" command now and again produces a better and IMHO more realistic result. I can either circle myself with them, or have them circle around me as I act more aggressively. But that's the extent of the good news. Fees not in my flight don't seem to act any different than before. When flying as a German, it's still the usual mass suicide-by-Albatros. You know, "shoot my engine as I fly along slowly in a straight line".

Based on the recommendations here, I installed the TIR5 software for my TIR4 and Pro Clip hardware last night. Not much experience to go on yet, but I so far agree with what's been said--the #5 version of the software seems to work way better than the #4 version. I haven't found a way to import profiles from #4, but in my case this doesn't matter. The "Default" profile that comes with the #5 software is IMHO ideal for OFF and FPS games without modification. I suppose it would also work for anything else, too. However, if you don't like it, editing seems rather easier than in #4 due to the redesigned interface. In operation, the #5 software is MUCH smoother in panning than #4. Also, with the "Default" profile anyway, it's just more comfortable and natural to look around where I want to. In #4, I sometimes had to crane my neck unformtably to look behind me, while angling my eyes back hard to see the screen. And near the extremes of vision, sometimes the view would go in a different direction than I wanted. NOT SO in #5. There are no contortions needed, you can always see the screen easily, the view always goes where you want it, and there are no "blue jaggies" along the sides of the fuselage when you look down and to the sides. It's MUCH easier to track a flat-turning enemy while you're doing a high yoyo over him. Me likes.

Yup. The surest way to get a MOH is to throw yourself on an enemy grenade. If it happens in training, you just get the Navy and Marine Corps medel, the highest peacetime award. Bear in mind, however, that having the MOH be the ultimate award for combat heroism only started about during WW1 or a bit later. Prior to this, the MOH was a lot easier to get and was awarded in peacetime. For instance, on 21 July 1905, the little gunboat Bennington suffered a massive boiler explosion in San Diego harbor. This was a very bad thing--it killed about 1/3 of the crew--so obviously heroics were necessary. This was recognized by handing out 11 MOHs to survivors. Not to discount their bravery, but it does show how different the MOH standards were back then.

Amen. And I'm a deist--I can't remember the last time I said "amen" and really meant it . I really hate to get into this, because no matter what I say, somebody will find it disrepectful, but here goes anyway. Audentes Fortuna iuvat! Apolgies in advance.... At the bottom line, religion is a matter of personal taste. Some folks are more comfortable with 1 thing, others another. Some folks are very passionate about it, some are completely uninterested. As such, and again not trying to disrespect anybody's beliefs, you could class religion in with hobbies. Some folks have hobbies they're passionate about but for some hobbies (say flintknapping, atlatl throwing, and beekeeping, to name a few of my non-OFF habits), most folks couldn't care less. If I started a discussion about flintknapping, for example, maybe a score of folks here would find it of passing interest and 1 or 2 might want to take up the discussion with a fellow enthusiast. But nobody would find it "offensive". At worst, I'd be told it was off-topic to this forum and to take it somewhere else. And even that probably wouldn't happen here if I put an "OT" in the subject of my 1st post. So why is it that when somebody brings up their religion, somebody elese has to jump up and say he finds it "offensive"? After all, apart from jihadis and other whackjobs who want to kill everybody else, one person's religious beliefs have no effect on another's, unless they WANT to be affected. If you don't want to be affected, what harm does it do you if somebody else brings it up? Just tune it out the same as you would an OT discussion of a hobby that doesn't appeal to you. Besides, us deists could be wrong, in which case it's nice to know there are believers in more interactive deities praying for us sinners

A pet peeve of mine is folks in war movies saying "repeat" on the radio. At leat in my day, everybody had it beaten into them NEVER to say "repeat" unless they really meant it, because "repeat" has a very special meaning in military radio jargon, which can get you killed if you don't know how to use it. "Repeat" means "fire the same thing as before, as modified by the other things I'm saying in this transmission." Such as, when an FO is adjusting arty fire on a target. He'll call for 1 spotting round at the target. It will often miss, in which case he'll say something like "left 200, add 300, repeat", which means fire another spotting round 200m left and 300m longer than the last one. Where this gets people killed is when the last thing the FO says is "Fire for effect." So now the arty is on target and fires a lot of rounds to plaster the objective just before the grunts assault. Then the grunts carry the objective and are setting up a hasty perimeter there, and in the excitement of the short-range firefight the FO forgets to say "end of mission". So the arty unit calls the FO to ask if any more is needed and the FO can't understand them because his ears are still ringing from the assault. So he says "Repeat that", which to the arty unit means fire for effect again, only now the only people standing on the target are friendlies..... As a result, the correct way to do this is for the FO to say, "Say again?" And thus all military folks are trained to say, even if they don't understand why.

Well, it's either 1 or the other. It's pretty hard to do both at once . (<-- this smiley reminds me of Stan from "South Park" reacting to Cartman's latest wild hair up the arse). I did some generic naval skins (as best I can research) because the naval squadrons in OFF didn't appear to have the right schemes. And I put 7 months worth of Bloody April Fee angst into my "Bad Attitide" Fee skin. I'm thus fresh outta ideas. However, I'm now beginning to grok a whole new flavor of angst, that of the 1918 Kaiserschlacht. Seriously, this puts Bloody April in the shade, and it's pretty much the same for both sides. So I figure I'll soon come up with inspiration for 1918 planes with bad attitudes, too . But that's for the future. In the meantime, as you suggested, let's drink!

Congrats on living so long in the Eindecker. While not the Most Evil plane in OFF, it's definitely got some seriously bad habits that have killed quite a few folks, usually many times over. Just MHO, but now that you've joined us at the Front, here's BH's $0.02 on the lay of the land. Note that the times are just rough guidelines, but you get the idea. 1. 1915-1916 Danger from the enemy is relatively few and far between. Not much flak, few enemy planes, and few planes in flights. To compensate for the relative lack of action, many of the planes will try hard to kill you when you're just flying along minding your own business, and are positively lethal when maneuvered hard in combat. And even then, they have very anemic performance. 2. 1917 Medium danger level. Most planes on both sides are pretty safe to fly and quite a few have decent performance, good lethality, or both. Fights are usually larger than before, more common, and more intense, but are still separated by fairly long intervals of calm during a single sortie, during which you don't have to work so hard staying in the air. Also, there's more flak. 3. 1918 All planes except the Pfalz fly very well, all are lethal, and there are LOTS of them. Fights tend to be huge (like 40-50 planes per furball) in areas over active ground offensives, and elsewhere they're not much smaller. It's also hard to find any real time to catch your breath because outside the huge furballs are wandering groups of enemies at full squadron strength looking to start another huge furball or join one that's already going. The flak is intense and nearly ubiquitous. Goint to all the waypoints, patrolling for the required time, and/or destroying the briefed target. Of course, one of your waypoints is getting home, so survival's counted in this. I already love this game!!! itifonhom

JAYZIS!!!! That makes all my gimpy joints ache just thinking about. I'd definite shoot myself long before the thaw, except I'd probably be too gimpy to get the barrel in my mouth..... Where I live, it's the exact opposite. 8 months of the year, it's too hot and humid to wear even the short type of skivvies, unless somebody dies and you have to dress up for the funeral. And the rest of the year, even wearing enclosed shoes is optional.

I didn't know there was a skinning forum until just now, and I apologize if I've inadvertantly stepped on somebody's toes with the few skins I've made so far. However, I have next to zero info about historical paintjobs and ain't really interested in doing them, anyway. I figure most of them have already been done, or are in work, or other folks have better info on them than I do. So I just make generic things or weird personal markings. <BR><BR>HOWEVER, if the urge ever hits me to do some historical thing, I'll be sure to give you all the head's up.

Good. I was hoping this would inspire others to make some clapped-out, battle-scarred skins . The most amazing thing about that video is that the Pfalz flew a circle around the Fee without falling sideways out of the air . As to why anybody would want to fly it, IMHO you're not a REAL fighterpilot until you can live through Bloody April in a Fee. Anybody can do well in a scout, but it takes some flying to beat scouts in a Fee . Well, we'll see. I censored the bumper stickers with bullet patches, but perhaps not enough to get by the mods....

File Name: FE.2b with Bad Attitude by Bullethead File Submitter: Bullethead File Submitted: 11 Sep 2009 File Updated: 23 Oct 2009 File Category: Aircraft Skins A humorous skin for FE.2b. The "Fast Extinction, Too" has had a hard life and has had major surgery several times, including a wingtip covered in a table cloth from the mess. This has given everybody concerned with the machine a bad attitude, which they have expressed with anachronistic, mutinous graffiti and bumper stickers. Now includes text file with OBD credit for original skin. Click here to download this file

And now for something humorous..... This is how I envision my fighter Fees in Bloody April. As you can see, it's been shot up numerous times, requiring major component replacement. Note the upper right outer wing is from a hangar queen with the old-style inboard roundel placement. There's also a relative new right elevator. The lower left wingtip had to be rebuilt and there wasn't enough linen on hand to cover it, so they used a table cloth from the mess. All this has given everybody concerned with the machine a bad attitude. They have expressed this with anachronistic graffiti and bumper stickers. I hope this skin entices a few folks to try out the Fee as a fighter in Bloody April. It's great fun, but it's not a job for the faint of heart .

That's quite true. But most of my pilots only live long enough to be wounded or hurt in a crash, so it would be nice if they had something to show for their pains