Rick Rawlings

I would also add that I don't think it matters much what you put in your claim form. Make sure you put down the name of someone in your flight, even if you are on a solo mission. Other than that, I get 70-80% confirmation with some relatively general stuff like: "Engaged tan enemy scouts northbound at 7000 feet elevation. After several turns, I was able to get behind one and fire 60 rounds into the cockpit, observing many hits. After this, the scout was seen to crash into a field four miles west of the front lines." Now, if I had said southbound instead of northbound or 5000 feet instead of 7000 feet or 40 rounds instead of 60 rounds, or ochre instead of tan, would it have made a bit of difference? I seriously doubt it since I am just estimating anyway and they mostly seem to get confirmed... Hope that helps, and remember, the calm, cool pilot tends to live longer. Writing you posts in your opponent's blood does not denote the temperment of a long-burning candle... RR ps- kudos to griphos on the bulleted format, very classy!

I agree with a lot of what you said, my main question is... is that the way it is supposed to be? After a series of frustrating mid-air collisions that ended many promising careers, I foolishly attacked a flight of 6 Pfalz scouts from below them...and lived to tell, eventually shooting down 4. I was so much faster than them that I could attack and withdraw from the level without worring to much about being hit. I extended and attacked for dozens of passes, never turning more than half a circle in any attack. This allowed me to keep my speed up and I never stalled once, which is good because I was at tree top level. Even really concentrating, however, leads to a very ammo-intensive experience. I had a hit percentage of only 18%, as opposed to the mid-thirties on an N17, so you really have to change your whole mind set. In other flights, however, I have experienced the weird high speed stall and the just general loopyness of stalls in this craft. I have never heard that it behaved that way. I am re-reading "Fighting the Flying Circus to see if EVR mentions anything about the SPAD flight characteristics, but I haven't gotten there yet. I do not experience any problems with landing, cutting the throttle and gliding down much like any other plane.

Sweet Story! I love those Neiuports! (Even with their irascible lower wings!) RR

Hey Olham, I was having good luck taking on Halberstadts and Albatross in it, up until (as usual) an Albatross DII flew right through me! It's very maneuverable and if you get into a right hand turn with an enemy scout, you can just plop rounds into their cockpit all day long! RR

The other odd part is that with my brief experience with the SPAD VII, the eirlier plane seems to fly better than the latter, without so much stallin' RR

Uggh! I refer to the SPAD XIII as the "I've Stallen and I Can't Get Up!" plane! RR

I use light campaign mission frequency to simulate the other eventless flights that so often happened during the war and to get to see more of the war (so I fly one mission a day, I assume the other patrols are quiet and eventless.) This seems to keep my kill total believable. I also manual time advance for leaves, when it says "the weather is likely to deteriorate over the next few days" or when I should be in the hospital. (Hospital has not worked for me since sometime around patch 1.28, even after an install. I either die or get completely away. Has anyone actually been in the hospital lately?) RR

I actually work with the padlock and snap views and do just fine, even though track IR would be super cool, you can get quite far with just the normal views. I will padlock one enmy a/c before the fight using the TAC and then shut it down. I will then go for the closest plane and try to follow it using the snap views. I have button 2 set up on my joystick to toggle between padlock and snap views. Even if you are not fighting the a/c you have padlocked, snapping to padlock every now and again will help you keep some situational awareness. With some of the boom & zoom planes, esp. the SPAD XIII, you need to padlock as you will often be fighting BVR (at least for the resolutions of monitors that exist today!) One other problem is that Padlock has problems with enemy scouts that are very close to you; sometimes it won't switch to them using the TAB key. Momentarily turning on the TAC seems to cure that. Hope this info is helpful! RR

WWI Fact # 337: It is a little known fact theat the Great War was the origin of what we now know as extreme sports. Everything that could be done outside of France was attempted somwhere along the front lines...to the EXTREME! Here's an example that never really caught on... extreme railroading...

1. Drag a copy of your pilot, log and claims file onto your desktop as a backup. 2. Go into the game and look up the squadron you want to join. Copy down the start and end dates. 3. Create a new pilot in this squad. Close the game. 4. Open the new pilot from the campaign data/pilots folder. Copy the squad abbrieviation that appears near the top of the file (something like "RFC-56"). 5. Open your old pilot file that you want to transfer from the same folder. 6. Paste in this new squad abbrieviation over any old ones that appear. There will only be two or three of them. 7. Find the current campaign date near the top of the file. Make sure it is within the range that you copied down for your new squadron. If not, change it to at least the earliest start date. 8. Don't change anything else! Your new plane or any other data will switch automatically! 9. Save it! Make sure it is a text file with the same name it originally had. (will be something like "Pilot01" or so) 10. Congratulations! Due to you l33t skillz you have now been plucked from obscurity to serve with the big boys in No. 56 Squadron at Vert Galant. What's even better, all your squadmates have been carried over with you! Just watch out for Olham over the lines, he's bloodthirsty! I have never lost a pilot as long as I didn't mess around with anything else! If something goes wrong, copy the desktop backup back into the folder and try again! RR

Dude, that's a sweet 'stache, too! Remember to live long enough to give the ladies of Paris a gander at that Croix de Guerre! RR

Hey Bullethead, I see two-seaters quite frequently, maybe 30% of the time. I usually fly in RFC 40 squadron in March and April of 1917, but am currently in the midst of a long run in February 1917 that started in November of 1916 with RNAS #8. I have even managed to shoot down about 5 or so with my current pilot. I do not think that they are as frequent as they should be, but I definitely see them. It may have to do with the time period and the frequency of the versions that are modeled in the game.

The AI don't seem to follow exactly the same rules that we do with regards to plane performance. Ever see one of your N17 wingman crack up in a dive even though they will always beat you to the deck? I haven't flown in a career yet with a spad, but I was smacking down some ace DIII's in quick combat with a SPAD VII. I also remember someone else posting that they were beginning to like it, so maybe they will jump in with some tips! RR

Jeez, will you people stop waking up so early? I thought in another thread it was mentioned that the Germans got to sleep late!??!?! Nothing left for me to add but "Here! Here!" I guess that does save me on typing, I pay for my internet connection by the keystroke... ... ... Oh, and I do hope that the tracers mod is going to be added in the new patch as mentioned! "Here! Here!" RR

I think that unless one is on invulnerable, we could all use a nudge RR

Jeez, Pol, so far you're the only one to use the "B" word in the whole thread so far :) RR

This seems to happen when the game senses that you have no more control over the aircraft and it determines what your fate is. Sometimes you live, sometimes you die. I don't believe that the hospital has worked for the last several patches; at least, I have not been hospitalized since 1.28 or so. Whenever something like what you described happens, if I live, I use time advance to put myself in the hospital for ten days or so. To help get your mind around it, imagine you just went Barker on us and managed to bring the plane down miraculously through bouts of unconsciousness. Don't worry, another time it will happen and you will be properly dead :) RR

I finally lived long enough to collect 4 DFC's and a VC. I thought getting the same medal over and over again was a bug and had been squashed. Was it and has it? Or is it just possible to get several of the same medal? Thanks! RR

Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a phase I am going through and I will come out of it soon and die :) Almost happened today when my wingman and I got jumped by 5 DIII's after we just finished a major fight. Fortunately we were near the ground on our side of the lines near an aerodrome and an observation balloon. The AA guys kicked them around while we made our escape! Never a dull moment! RR p.s. the thrid and fourth DFC look suspiciously like the first two

Man, I gotta tell you, all my dreams of survivng to the summer and getting the Camel went right out the window with one sickening crunch! After a few seconds, however, I found the flight control wasn't too bad and was able to finish the fight. The other guy wasn't so lucky. You can see the results on his wing tip below. After being on the receiving end and buying the farm from collisions over the last many campaigns, it was nice to have someone else bite it for once!

This is almost impossible to duplicate in the game. I have never gotten more than a 10 scout to 1 two seater ratio. Attacking from below is do-able, even without particularly getting shot up, but there just aren't that many two seaters around, it seems. I always see way more fighter squads than 2 seaters, even deep in western France, which was not the way the German doctrine worked, as I understand it. I'm sure track IR also makes the attack a little easier, even thought they do sometimes shoot too well. I shot down one CII a while ago that caught on fire and went into a spinning dive. As he was spinning and burning, the gunner hit me with a burst that put my plane out of commision and I had to head home! I don't know what the answer is, but I salute Winder and Pol for putting up with asking our opinions. I am just thankful the true successor to Red Baron got made and am looking forward to whatever improvements they come up with for this phase and for whatever goodies they have in store for phase 4! RR

I look at it like it is a microcosm of the war. I have my pilots set up on light mission duty, otherwise, even if I could survive that long, I would have to quit my job and devote myself to doing nothing but flying OFF if I was ever going to see the end of the war. I imagine that my pilot is off flying the no-contact, inconclusive missions while I am away. I only take control of my alter ego for the "ones that count". So far, after 4 months, I have 30 kills, which seems about right. If Winder was ever able to completely encapsulate the entirety of flying as a world war one pilot into a super 17,000 gig patch, it probably wouldn't be very fun. I am always watching stuff on the history channel about the old west and my wife says that if I were to ever live in another time, that must be the one I would choose. I tell her no, it is interesting to learn about. To live then would almost certainly suck. RR

The quality of your wingman help out a lot in keeping the enemy busy so they don't gang up on you. I religiously check my six and never fly straight for more than a second or two in combat and it serves me pretty well. Collisions, on the other hand, are another story! (See my other thread) :yes: RR

Well, Olham, all I can say in reply is that if he didn't want to die, he shouldn't have painted his plane black! RR

GAAAHHH! Curse you ATI! Graphic stutters that almost get me killed and no rearview mirror! Is ATI owned by the Kaiser by any chance? I'm going to have to throw this card in the pile with my betamax player, my 3DFX stock, my HD DVD player and my Duke Nukem Forever preorder purchase receipt! RR