Rick Rawlings

double post weirdness

I've been flying Nieuports almost exclusively since patch 1.25. I finally got into an SE5a the other day and had an Albert Ball moment. "Meh" I said. I can see why he thought it was a dud. The N 11 and 17 series are great planes. Fragile, but you definitely feel like you can take on the world! Until you get shot down. Or your wing fails. Or your wingman fails and collides with you. Or the wind kills you. Or your computer crashes. RR

If nothing else, your wingmen are bullet soaks for your enemies. They will continue to duke it out while you run for the hills. If they help you to survive in this way, you will have the opportunity for hundreds of kills over the course of the war. Don't begrudge them a few stolen kills here and there :) RR

I don't believe it was a developer decision. I think it is just the way the engine handles static targets. They are in a different class than aircraft and cannot be easily worked into the kill system. At least that is what I remeber from what I read somewhere :) RR

Presumably, this could also be used to switch from an observer role to a fighter pilot role just like many of the real aces did. That's what I'm going to try once my current pilot dies and I test the whole transfer thing out a little bit. Someone with some basic programming skills could probably set up a little app for us that could do this without too much fuss, unless it introduces bugs later on that I haven't encountered yet. RR

Hey Olham, you could start in a defensive squadron and then transfer later if this is what you wanted to do. To transfer, you open up your pilot dossier under the campaigns folder. You will notice that the squadron name is very plainly listed in only a couple of places. Swap these out for the new squadron name (you can get this from starting a new pilot in the squad you want.) Then just make sure the current date is one for which the sqaudron is in service. If not you can change the (i believe it is the top) date in the dossier to the earliest one for that squad. Then save the pilot. I have tried this and it does not seem to mess anything up, but, as always when changing files, make sure you have copied your pilot to another folder for safe keeping just in case I don't know what I am talking about! I was planning to do this for when I eventually get to May of 1917 so that Rick Rawlings can be "recruited" to #56 squadron from #40. Hope that helps! RR

85% of my deaths are due to collisions. The other day, I ordered my flight to attack ground emplacements on the front, my wingman above me decides to split-s right into me. A brief flash of red, some sickening crunching noises and it was all over. I decided to raise him from the dead, as it was outside of combat and a definite fluke, but then the next flight I was shot down by one ridiculous burst from a two seater. I was flying past him to come around behind and was in a dive, so the closure rate was like 270 mph, the Huns must be recruiting Annie Oakley now! Time for a new pilot! RR

I have a 25" monitor and fly at 1900x1200. Even with padlock on, it can be very difficult to spot the planes within a few hundred yards. AI planes can spot you from WAAAAAAY beyond visual range and will dive from heights where they are invisible to even the sharpest resolution that I can get. So for those of you who use TAC alot, don't let anyone talk down to you. And should anyone laugh or throw stones, well, just lock onto them with your TAC and RR

Wels: I have definitely seen A.I. planes break for home when damaged. Yes it could happen more frequently and yes, some still insist on following me all the way back to my aerodrome when I am trying to escape, but it does happen. Winder: Put me down for phase 4 right now! RR

I've recycled all my names from Red Baron Brits: Rick Rawlings (like Mick Mannock he flies SE5a's and looks out for noobs while sticking it to the huns!) Rother Naught (perfers to stay in the aerodrome by the fire drinking scotch or frolicing with the ladies in Paris. "Anyone volunteer for a dangerous mission?" "I'd rather not.") Dirk McGurt: (A scottish meat wagon driver who is a great pilot but only a medium grade shot!) Germans: Gunther Klaut. (Aspires to be a leader like Boelcke, but tends to some of Richtofen's grim hunter qualities) French: Patrole de Fronte ( a bon vivant a la Nungesser) American: Johnny Rockitt (based on Eddie Rickenbacker)

Where is the control to adjust ground fire. With the setting that I currently have, these guys shred better than Satriani. I don't see anywhere on the workshop to adjust this, but I seem to remember someone mentioning it before. RR

Here's a couple of more points from my experiences. 1. If anybody else hits the plane you are shooting at before it hits the ground, they will get credit for it. If it was the only plane you shot down, the claim form will not even come up after the mission. You can also steal kills from your wingmen by snap shotting the plane they were after just before it hits the ground. This will not endear you to your squadmates! 2. Occasionally, you will get a purple message that reads "Goals Failed. No more goals." The game does not seem to keep track of any kills after that. If you shoot down two enemies before that message and one after, when you go to fill in your claims it will say that it is "Erroneous" if you claim three kills. If you drop it back to two kills, it will then accept it as correct. 3. Two or three sentences usually get me into the 68-80% range for kill claims. I mention altitude, direction, rounds fired and several "gory details" like "down in flames", "out of control", "blood on my windscreen", etc. Hope that helps! RR

With this in mind, I'd say it's just about right, perhaps just a touch too easy. I don't even open fire until I am right behind them and dumping rounds right into the cockpit. Now with a good 5 second burst and a hit percentage in the mid 30%s, they go down. Before 1.26, I would have to do this several times to drop a scout. Snap shots still need several bursts to do anything. Here's for OFF 4 and maybe a catchier title, like Ninja Death Gods of Skull-Crushing War, or something :) RR

Ah, thank you! Perhaps neither one of us is crazy! RR

I seriously do not have that tab. Above Outcomes I have AI Gunfire (Range) Above that is realism for promotions and claims. Is the AI Gunfire range the one that does it? RR

Dude, are you kidding me? It would be chewing my head off! I still don't see it. Under difficulty, there is only AI gun range for an AI selectable. Is there some way my display settings could cause it to be rendered off screen? There's no scroll bar or anything... Thanks for the help! RR

So, flying in an N17 with 4 other pilots, we run into a flight of seven DII's and DIII's. During the first head on pass, I break right only to see a DII turning to my left. Pulling hard, I manage to slide right in behind him at about 100 feet. As all of us are still very close together, I hurry to line up and plaster him with about 50 rounds in the cockpit area. He very quickly pulls down and to the right and then starts the long spin for the deck. Now I am dodging and twirling around to avoid a) getting shot and, more importantly, b) getting rammed when the fight starts to break up. Keeping my altitude, I look around and see most of the planes below me. I then notice one Albatross across from me in my turning circle at about the same altitude and so I make off for him. As we engage, I notice he has some stuff written on the side of his plane. I think it said "Mora" or something similar. Following him down, I am constantly looking around for the trap. My enemy pulls some great manuevers on the way to the deck, but eventually he is out of altitude and can dive no more. Checking once more, I see the buddy he is waiting for, but he is too far away. Several turns later and a bunch of good bursts and down the ace goes. Taking a good look around I notice a few more DII's in the area. As I am alone as far as I can tell, this looks like a good time to head home. Grabbing what altitude I can, I head north, constantly checking my six. Eventually, I notice one plane following me. What's worse, he is slowly gaining despite my good lead. After about five minutes, it is clear I will be shot down if I don't take the fight to him. Turning around, I start my attack. Unfortunately for him, he is all alone against a determined N17 pilot. The battle is brief and bloody and over. Another ace, by the name of Gros, goes down. If anybody is still sitting on the fence over phase 3, I would say that the 1.26 patch has really nailed it. If you do what you are supposed to, you stand a pretty good chance. Forget to check your six and it is all over. If you catch a plane at a vulnerable spot, like the top of a climb, a good accurate burst will take it out. In the swirling melee, several good bursts are still needed to take them down. If you love a good immersive sim, don't pass this one up! RR

Hey Olham! The other ace was some guy named Buckler: RR

Hah, Nice! It was late last night and I posted in the wrong sub-folder. Could someone please move this to the General Discussion forum? Thank you! RR

If you are flying a plane as homely as the Be2c, you deserve to be shot down. I've considered dropping a few of the ones I've escorted just to put them out of their useless misery! RR

To help out with kill claims: Mention aircraft type: i.e. "Nieuport 11" or "Sopwith Camel" I also seem to get better results using the following words: ammunition machine gun crashed engaged expended front seen witnessed altitude (list the altitude as well, example: "1000 feet of the deck" flight squad tree-top flames out of control direction, example: "North of the front lines" followed jumped fought Usually two sentences with many of the above words and my wingman properly listed puts me in the 68-80 value for my pending score. Example: "Was jumped by a flight of Nieuports west of the front. Fought them from 5000 feet altitude down to the tree tops. After expending 200 rounds ammo into the enemy a/c, one was seen to crash out of control on our side of the lines." Something like this gets me about three quartes of my kills confirmed. Hope that helps. I also avoid Eindecker squads like the plague. But then you go to the DII Albatross and it's almost criminally easy, as Olham will attest :) RR

It's also interesting to note that of the people you mentioned, only Rickenbacker survived the war. (Unless you were referring to Lothar von Richtofen!) Maybe Eddie's race car experience put him in the right frame of mind to be a survivor or maybe his ear infection took him out long enough to where his luck didn't have time to run out. Even in the cases where you had individuals of great skill, such as Ball or Voss or Boelcke, the odds eventually caught up to them. Richtofen, who, even by his own admission, was not a spectacular pilot, seemed to survive as long as he did mostly due to his iron-fisted determintaion to follow the hard lessons learned in the early days of Jasta 2. When he did fail to follow them, target fixing on a hapless Camel to become #81, what happened? Shot down. Even for the aces that survived the war, many didn't live to see the next one. It seems that their experiences changed them and they had a hard time adapting to life after the war, most likely due to what is now know as post traumatic stress. Wow, thanks for bumming me out guys. RR

On a mission last night, I dropped 3 DII's with my N17. Each time I caught them at the top of a zoom climb when they had no energy and were basically stationary relative to me. I gave each a good long burst into the cockpit area from no more than 150 feet away and... each went down! That has NEVER happened before. Usually, I would have to rinse and repeat twice. So that, if nothing else, is a good thing :) We may now be being rewarded for the good gunnery skills we have developed over the last month and a half. I did notice that in a QC using a Camel against some DV's that they went down with a couple of not-too-spectacular looking deflection bursts, but when I looked at the accuracy stats, they were still in the 30's. Things seem pretty good right about now. We'll keep playing and reporting. I have also been pummeled to the ground by ground forces on my last two ground attack missions, though, so it seems to cut both ways. There will probably be a new learning curve for the next ten missions or so. The spinning deaths are very nice and I actually saw a wing fall off a DII in the above flight in the N17. That's a first for me! Nice Winder! RR

Arrrgh!!!!!!!! Ze Germans are here! Hey Olham, good to have you back at the table! Guess I need to start checking my six again :) RR

Well, as usual with a "I know a guy who knows a guy" type story, YMMV but a friend of mine went to an airshow where they were fying a Dr.I rebuild and he talked to the pilot and the guy said that you had to constantly fly it, it wasn't really a plane that you could ever just take your hands off the stick with. RR