Rick Rawlings

Great stuff!

Sorry! (Love the new Camel's paint scheme, BTW...) I have easy claims on and the game said I got two, but l only felt comfortable with the one two seater seen going down, so that is what I put in for. It was confirmed. No other claims from the rest of the flight but everyone got back safely. As you may have heard during the video, the Strutters were able to sneak in and drop some bombs and did some damage, so we got a successful mission on top of that...

Rother Nought 3 Sqn RNAS Nov. 1916 Near Dunkerque Took Ash, Randulph and Matheson across the lines in what has become the routine: Clear the area, draw the fire so the Strutters can sneak in and bomb:

Yikes! That's chewed up and spit out! Are you exclusively watching the one guy or helping out the whole flight. I have another vid to upload tomorrow and I'm finding it very difficult to keep track of everyone, or even any one plane! Good luck!

Thanks! They can still soak up a lot of lead, though!

Rother Nought 3 Sqn RNAS Oct. 1916 Near Dunkerque, We lost Sam Atherton the other day. He went down when he was hit by Archie dog-fighting too low near a Hun balloon. My promotion to full Lieutenant put me in charge of our flight. I took Ash and a couple of the newer boys out to clear the way for our Strutters to bomb the Loos Junction rail yard. The plan was to go down to Lens and turn North, drawing the attention of any enemies in the area and the Strutters would be able to fly directly in. We caught a flight of three huns directly over Lens at about our altitude. As there were four of us, I liked those odds. They were either Fokker biplanes or the new Albatros scouts, which have not come close enough for me to get a good look at. Made a claim for 1 driven down, 1 down in flames. Went off to Loos Junction afterwards but couldn't find the Strutters or anyone from my flight but bomb damage was visible. Got back home to find everyone back safely.

Rother Nought 3 Sqn. RNAS Sept, 1916 We were informed that the German ace Wintgens was shot down the other day. A bit of good news for us, but it is still sad to see such a pilot go West. Today we were up on an afternoon scramble as enemy craft were spotted headed our way! We got up and I immediately began climbing without waiting for the others, knowing that height and an easterly track would be crucial in catching the huns. Sure enough, they bombed our field as I climbed...but it is a long way back to the lines and I caught them! I was able to take out two of the three Germans before my engine gave out with the oil line shot away. I made a dead stick landing and put in two claims, which I hope will be credited as they crashed only a few miles away...I

Nice stuff! I've often wondered about this...So in my limited understanding, I am guessing that the clouds are large image files. The rendering engine looks to see if the center of the image is in your line of sight and if so, draws the cloud. As you turn your head, the center of the image is no longer in your line of sight and the cloud is no longer rendered. However, since cloud are often a half mile or more across, this causes the cloud to stop being rendered while its edge is still visible. As you look back, the center is suddenly in your field of view again and the cloud is re-rendered, flickering back into view. Is this even close to correct?

Roll-back, see if it goes away?

Nice! I always advance time on those missions as I can never see anything. Maybe my gamma is too low or the room too bright...

Those are great!

Hmm. Paul Stanley was/is the lead singer for the rock band KISS. I don't know if the generic squadron pilot names are random or if someone was doing a tribute nod? The lead guitar player for KISS was a guy named Paul Frehley, who's nickname is "Ace"! So I thought a guy who's already an Ace would be a better candidate as you try to level up your wingmen (which of course you have no control over!). And now you are up to speed!

Heh, I just noticed that Lt. Stanley has been given a kill without even claiming one! Surely he leads a charm-ed life! But wouldn't Lt. Frehley be a better wingman trainer? He's already an Ace...

Do they get incapacitated with fewer hits or is it all or none?

Nice! Someone, somewhere earlier asked if there was still ground traffic. As they can see, there is! I even spotted a brave "Olham convoy" sprinting from one front to the other under heavy bombardment!

Hmm, seems like the patrol and intercept missions would be higher...

Nice! What time frame are we talking about? I seem to remember that Camels were sent on a lot of ground attack missions later in the war. What mission types are we talking about here?

Or maybe (probably) I just can't shoot...

Rother Nought RNAS 3rd Sqn Mid Sept, 1916 Nice to use the new Sopwith, although those Fokkers were pretty tough and took all the gunfire I could give them!

Rother Nought RNAS 3rd Sqn Sept, 1916 Finally, the instruction manuals came for the Sopwith Pups that had been sitting in crates for all these weeks and we were able to unbox them! I can see why we had to wait as there are so many dials compared to the Nupes! Anyway, we went up to the front to clear the area for our Strutters and I was able to bag a lone German, that was of course before the C.IIs showed up! I got a few rounds into one before my fuel line was holed and I had to glide back to safety! If the Germans ever manage to put a few squadrons of those birds up together, this war will be over very shortly and we will all be eating strudel! Which I guess wouldn't be all that bad. *as a side note: was that tracer attached to the artillery shell or was it just a coincidental machine gun round that just happened to pass in the exact same path as the shell burst a half second later? I don't know!

Rother Nought RNAS 3rd Sqn Aug 31, 1916 Scramble Mission. ROLANDS!!! I'd say we got the worst of it! That guy was shooting at me upside down!

Actually, but for the DiD thread, it's not super busy over there, either...

Yeah, I wouldn't play it now, but it you look at the way it is set up: playing the war all the way through from both sides, medals, promotions and kill tracking, types of missions, no "story" but what you make as your own pilot, even the nested menu structure; it's a pretty good line through to the (W)OFF series (probably mostly through RBII). That does seem to be the case.

Simply amazing! Mine are contributing to world pollution in some trash yard right now!