Bullethead

Wasn't that an ace? I should know who that was.

Winston- I'm seriously not understanding your problems here. AFAIK, 1.32 only fixed 1 real problem, that of the SPADs' flight characteristics. If you ever flew the SPAD before 1.32, you'd be amazed at how much nicer it is now. All the other things in the patch were enhancements: better graphics, better sound with more options, new features like quick scenarios and starting campaign missions in the air, more options in workshops, and a rationalized damage model that seems to combine the best of both versions available before while eliminating their problems. The AI seems rather smarter now, too, and it was pretty damn mean before. And from what I can tell, most of the patches up to now have been the same way--fixing the odd bug, but mostly adding more gameplay for free to what you already bought. You complain about being outnumbered. Dude, where have you been? I've been outnumbered since this game came out, and I've considered that perfectly realistic because that was the historical situation at the time and place I chose to do most of my flying. Hell, that's the main reason I flew there so much. Now I'm flying in other times and places, and most times the numbers are way on my side, although periodically I'm caught out. But that's war. Anyway, I guess the other folks who've commented are right--you can't make everybody happy. Or at least OBD can't make you happy. If the door didn't hit ya then the dog shoulda bit ya.

OK, thanks. What about this, though? I'm consistently finding that when my squadron has both flights doing the same thing, the 1st flight goes off and does its own thing immediately after the mission starts in the air. Here's what I'm seeing. Usually, I have some sort of patrol mission to go back and forth between 2 nearby waypoints for a while at high altitude. When the mission starts, both flights are right together at the proper altitude, heading the same direction, and directly on the 1st patrol point aimed at the 2nd (a much better situation than usually found when warping there from takeoff). But as soon as time starts, the 1st flight immediately peels off at an angle and dives to about 1/2 its starting altitude (say from 15k to 7k feet). Once there, it patrols back and forth apparently over 2 completely different waypoints than what I've got, often miles away. Why do that do this?

Stranger in the mess! Oh wait, it's just Mack. Well, you've been gone so long you still owe us drinks, which I KNOW you brought back with you from the home front :drinks_drunk:

I've seen numerous photos of B-17s that came home minus entire engines, and I'd wager they were more solidly attached to the airframes than in any WW1 kite . In a WW1 plane, no matter what the engine mounts are made of, eventually something's attached to a piece of wood. In all the hundreds of OFF planes I've seen shot down, I've only noticed them lose their engines a couple of times, so it's not that big a deal.

They must have appalling accidents at that dangerous 6-way intersection :yes:

How did you get the game to keep running that long after you were dead? I've always wanted to take pics like these, but as soon as I die or my plane becomes unflyable, the mission ends.

Bravo to all!

OK, I'll take your word for it.

From your map, that looks more like the Thames Estuary than the Channel. I guess the tide really came in that day, and of course they hadn't built the barrier thingies yet

You need to release the parking brake.

I agree, the whole point is to have fun. The problem with DiD is that it just takes too much time for those whose real-life commitments limit flying time. So, I usually have a stable of pilots. I have DiD pilots whom I only fly on my REAL days off, when neither work nor family intrude. In fact, I only touch them when I have 2 such days in a row, because only on the 2nd day do I wake up early enough to fly them while still sober. Flying DiD practically REQUIRES not warping, not because that's a "no-no" for that standard, but because warping guarantees you'll be at an altitude disadvantage, which negatively impacts your chances of survival. Thus, it's only possible to make any progress on DiD pilots when I have many hours available to climb to high altitude and fly uneventfully for hundreds of miles in real time. The rest of the time, which is most of the time, I use the "Gimpy Uncle Al Guy" standard. I set everything to DiD standard except my odds of dying. Sometimes I do like him and do PND, but most often I do DoDR. Then I'm free to warp and get as much action as possible into the short time I have available, especially if I combine that time with drinking. If they should die as a result, I kill them myself. However, sometimes I let them keep going just because I had so much fun before they, in the real world, would have bought the farm. The problem with warping is that it really limits what you can do, however. If you warp, you can only fly stallfighters, because only they have an chance when bounced from above, which is the inevitable result of warping. Thus, no SPADs, no Pfalzes, no SE5s, no Albatri, etc. You're pretty much stuck with Nupes, Sops, Dr.Is, and Fees, plus maybe D.VIIs if you're feeling macho.

SPAD go fast. SPAD like dive, but SPAD not like slow climb up to dive from. SPAD like zoom after dive, cuz then SPAD can dive again soon. SPAD not like turn at all (p-tu!). SPAD is same-same mighty avalanche, go straight down very fast, crush all in SPAD's path. SPAD's roar shakes Earth and SPAD's farts same-same thunder in hills. SPAD fills world with crying, friend and foe same-same. Fear SPAD!

Once again, thanks for the quick service.

Welcome aboard! New guy buys the drinks! :drinks_drunk:

Anytime anybody's buying, I'm drinking! Congrats BuB! Killing aces is definitely something to be proud of, and don't listen to them as say it ain't. MvR and his lads have killed me more times than I can remember and I've never downed any of them but Kurt Wolf, although I've maimed most of them a time or 2. Salute!

25 Feb 1918 Dear Dairy- Three sorties today. Each time, as we were leaving the mess (which we use as a briefing room), the meteorological officer rolled halfway out from the table under which he'd been passed out drunk until then, and told us, "Shi'y wea'er tuhday, guysh. Low cloush an' shish. Prolly nobody flyin' in thish shish." As we all knew from having looked up on the way into the mess, he was full of "shish". It was scattered cumulus at 2500m. The weather was so nice, one of my wingmen snapped the photo of my flight that I've glued on the facing page during our 3rd hop. Otherwise, it was a bad day. On the first 2 hops, 3 of my comrades bought it. So when the met. officer repeated his performance for the 3rd time, I shot him between the eyes with my Luger. Nobody complained. The skipper wrote it up as a suicide. Hopefully, our next met. officer will be more competent. ====================== First time I've ever seen a met. officer be so badly wrong, so consistently. Most times they're spot on.

Like I said, it's the standard skin for that squadron. I just flew what they gave me.

Welcome aboard! New guy buys the drinks :drinks_drunk:

I beg to differ. Fee crews had a much worse blindspot to the rear than regular 2-seaters, because neighboring planes in their formation couldn't cover under the tails of the others. Fee crews knew this, so started doing the Lufbery Circle very early on, so that each Fee covered the blindspot of the one ahead. They'd do this until the enemy either gave up and went away, or until the enemy completely blew his energy. After that, they flew like fighters, because then it was an even fight. The problem the Fee AI has is that it just flies along in a V formation like a tractor 2-seater, allowing enemies to come up from behind and hose them with complete impunity. That isn't realistic. But neither is having them go all aggressive from the get-go. So IMHO, neither AI mentality suits the Fee, but the "bomber mentality" is worse than "fighter mentality". Ideally, you'd have them circle until the enemy was co-E, then fight. But failing that, having them be aggressive from the beginning would be better than what they do now. 48 Squadron's disastrous debut lasted all of about 1 week. The guy who imposed those tactics on them was lost on the 1st hop they did, and they only followed his example for a few more days. It was patently obvious to all that sitting there and taking it was suicide, so they changed, and all subsequent Brisfit squadrons did that from the beginning. The Fees had come to the same conclusion the previous year earlier in the Fokker Scourge, and they all became Brisfit squadrons. So really, don't you think they KNEW they needed to do something other than just fly along as sitting ducks?

Forgive me for being drunk and/or just dense, but I can't figure out how to select the mission to begin with. I put the SE5 low-level night mission in the folder specified in the readme, but I don't see it on the list to select in either QC or QS. Just the stock missions. And WHO is "Giovani" and where is the option for him to prep my plane?

Schwing! Where's W2F? She needs to know about this.

The squadron's standard. You must be one of those brown-nosers in 1.Kette who get to fly black Albatri with white polkadots . My surviving subordinate Pfalz-drivers are named Zeuch, von Rolshoven, and Hilker. Of them, Zeuch is hospitalized from wounds at present. So things are a bit lonely already and my leadership is being questioned .

If the AI flew Fees in fighter squadrons with its "fighter mentality" (as in like it flies Brisfits) instead of with its "bomber mentality", you'd have a lot more respect for them. The old Fee, when flown aggressively, can hold its own against a swarm of AI Albatri, and might even give you a good fight. But no, the AI Fees (unless properly led by a human) just sit there and take it. It's a real shame.

I just killed my 1st Pfalz pilot without firing a shot or being shot at. And geez, I did several QC hops wringing the pig out, until I thought I knew it. So I'd appreciate some tips from folks who have plenty of experience with the Bavarian Brick. Before you answer, here's what I discovered in my test flights and short combat career: Climb: not that bad. Speed: not that bad. Zoom: not bad. Dive: very good. Pilot's visibility: very good. Wings-level stall speed: about 35 knots. Banked stall speed: huge. Aiming: easy--use the radiator cap as your sight. Roll rate: somewhere between a SPAD and a Fee (that means bad). Turn rate: EXCELLENT, better even than a Pup. Let nobody say the Pfalz can't turn. Put it on a wingtip, haul back on the stick, and you'll get dizzy. Problem is, it bleeds altitude like a stuck hog while doing this, even with nose level. Top ruddern doesn't stop the altitude loss, but can slow it. Vices: 1. Poor Roll Rate and Rudder-Induced Accelerated Stalls The Pfalz turns like a 2-seater, as in once you get it banked, it turns like mad, but getting it banked is the problem, and you really notice this when you're trying to reverse your bank to turn the other way. IOW, it has poor aileron authority. I found that, like a 2-seater, you can boost the roll rate with rudder. This works just find as long as you're doing this in the direction you're already banked. HOWEVER, if you're trying to reverse your turn, using a lot of rudder to kick your bank over the other way WILL kill you--that's what happened to my campaign pilot. You go from being banked 90^ left to spinning to the right, usually nose-up. Doing this at 100 feet AGL is NOT survivable. 2. Nose-High Stalls and Tail-First Slides The Pfalz is can do this to a more extreme degree than any other plane I've flown, even the pre-1.32 SPAD XIII. When I was testing wings-level stall speed, I got the thing into a 70^ nose-up attitude and it slid backwards from there. Most planes can't do this with the nose more than 1/2 that high. However, the Pfalz doesn't seem to spin unless you force it into one with a lot of rudder, and recovers from spins easily. 3. Falling Sideways If you do an incomplete hammerhead and keep the nose more than about 45^ above vertically down, the plane will sideslip the rest of the way down to the ground, unless you force that nose more vertical. While it's yawing down like this, you can't pull out and fly on off at that angle like you can in most planes. So obviously, I need to avoid doing these things. Any other tips?