Winston DoRight

IMHO the OFF realistic flight model for the Camel seems to be a great joke. It is well known that this plane was hard to fly in it's day, but I think the devs went overboard in the stall/spin characteristics just to try and model it that way.

Sorry guys, it's just not fun for me anymore. Too many hardware, computer, mike, file installation problems, etc. This last session was delayed for over an hour again because people just didn't get on early and test their ability to connect. This severly cut into our flying time, only one mission was flown then the second mission was ended because of host computer problems. Most everyone scattered after that. Having delayed our start for so long in order to get some sorted out, that was enough to ruin it for me. Perhaps someone can take over the sessions at this time (it's ideal for the euro players) Vasco, maybe? I'm also out of practice with the realistic flight models on the "twichy" aircraft. I just can't fly the Camel and DR1 on realistic flight model. They spin way too easily and well.... I play to have fun not to punish myself. And the Aces in the missions..... who shoot you from 800-1000 ft away...... this is very unpleasant. I could have more fun by lowering my head and running into a wall. All entries have been removed from the calendar and I'll check in with you guys in a month or two and see if anything has improved.

Sorry guys, the realism settings are still unsatisfactory to me. I'll not be locked into flying at a flight model level that I don't like or feel comfortable with considering my inability to get any practice in lately. OFF hard flight model = no fun for me. I've several hundred real hours in Cessnas, gliders and Citabria, and this hard damage model in OFF is a real joke. No sensory input, sounds or any clues of the impending stall and the ever present spin that occurs is more than I want to deal with and still be able to call it "fun". If I ever change my mind about the hard flight model or get some extensive practice in I'll rejoin you. If any one ever hosts a game with the medium flight model setting, just let me know and I'll be there. I like Vasco's firm stand on excluding anyone who doesn't come perpared and tested. It's difficult to look forward all week to a sunday session and have it fall to bits at the very start, fly one or two missions and watch people leave. All prizes for July Early Birds were mailed today, except von baur's. He did not reply to my PM asking for his address. When he shows up for a MP session could someone ask him to PM me his address? Or if he doesn't want the book, I'll send it along to one of you and you can add it to the prize pool for "Vasco's Early Birds". BTW, Sunday's adversary flight was a blast, and I enjoyed it immensly right up to each time I lost control of the Camel close to the ground. If there's one thing you can say about this sim is that it's predictable. So what if the DR1's were flying tail first with the smoke exiting at every angle except the correct one. I hope you all continue on and have fun despite the many problems and inequalities. You all have much more patience than I. As my daughter would say "I'm now entering into my grumpy years."

This is a problem with the way the missions are written. Fly for the Allies and you'll see the same thing. You'll be outnumbered there as well. It just doesn't make sense to create adversaries in these quantities. Mostly, I just run away.

I'm still too dependent on my trust TAC. It's a good substitute for lack of the real sensory input that's lacking when we sit at a desk rather than actually flying. Also I wouldn't want to scare off the new players that we've gotten recently. I think Vasco's added new features for today's session will be plenty to keep us occupied. Perhaps a test of this would be in order but IMHO let's keep it out of Early Birds for now, if that's OK with the majority? Still open for discussion.

World clock converter website: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Yup. After 1 reboot I spent a hour trying to get AA working in OFF and ETO with no luck. Then I happened to notice my "Stand By" icon was ghosted out in the shutdown menu of XP SP3. So I rebooted again and AA was then working fine. Go figure!

Had that problem myself but all it required was 2 reboots after the driver installation instead of the usual 1.

Full instructions and file locations are posted on the calendar under "Winstons Early Birds"

If you were quick to download the original Fortiesboy damage model 1.2 like I was, be aware that this one will not let you connect in MP. The first file uploaded was the one with another .rar file inside in addition to the aircraft folders. If you've downloaded this, delete it from your harddrive and download and install the file again. Please get on Teamspeak before Sunday to test your installation.

Yes, the first one has been deleted. The only one available now is the one you want. If you have already downloaded the first version, the one with the extra .rar file inside, get rid of it and download again.

Sorry for being away from the board and Teamspeak, but I've had a flareup of an old back injury and can't sit in my computer chairs for very long. I hope to recover soon and get back to flying. I'll be hosting Early Birds again in August, but I may miss the first sunday due to this ailment. Please check the calendar in August for details as it will be the only notification of my events. If anyone has anything they'd like to donate for August prizes, please contact me. We'll be needing some as I've already awarded all my suitable items. It doesn't have to be much, just something that is unique or interesting to the flight simmer.

August sessions are now posted on the calendar. Instructions and locations of all help files and required files are listed there as well. I hope to be able to join you all on Sunday, I sat in my computer chair for a few hours this evening and it seems to have gone well. No heavy pain now, just some soreness and it should pass by Sunday (hopefully). If I can make the session, and we split into two teamspeak channels, I'll take the scoring duties of the Axis side if that's OK with all.

We have some new things planned for August, and the info from Winder that they will soon be looking into the MP problems is welcomed news. Vasco is setting up some two sided coop missions; two adversary teams flying against each other with seperate communications channels on Teamspeak. Sound like fun? You bet. No more stupid AI wingmen to frustrate you, now you'll have a real human pilot on your wing in August Early Birds. Get setup now and be ready on mission day. All info, help files and required files are on the calendar here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?act=calendar just go to the bottom of the page and at "Calendar Jump" select: August 2009 and pull down the tab to get: Over Flanders Fields Multi-player Contact me, sitting duck, or Vasco or just drop by teamspeak for setup help. Hope to see some new players join in.

Ah yes, all this will be moot when the new patch arrives. Hopefully Fortiesboy and Herr Prop Wasche won't tire of making updated damage models for future versions. Or maybe the new OFF dm may be suitable for us? You know the hardcore DM was great and worked well for us, it just doesn't show the damage as well as the others. Until then, I believe the multiplayer session host will decide which DM to use. No matter which, it takes but a few minutes to install whatever one is required, and arriving early for the session will give everyone a chance to test their installation before start time.

Is there a max number of installs you can do with ROF? I've been putting off buying it because of the fact that you have to be constantly connected to play single player, but if you can only install it "x" number of times I'll probably never buy it. I usually reinstall my OS every year or so on my game machine and a fresh install of all my sims.

but why for any reason would you want to go back to Fortiesboy's 1.1? 1.2 has the same DM, plus now all the planes are done. 1.2 is NOT a new damage model. It just now has more a/c that are modified. I see no reason to load the 1.1 DM anymore. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

My experience with wingmen seem to indicate that they are all rather stupid. This is true for me when joining an elite squadron also. So it could only help to hold their hands and show them each and every specific target to attack.

I vote for 1.2 It seems the way to go. It's really the same DM as 1.1 with all the a/c now modified.

Congratulations to the winners and all participants. I wish I had more prizes to award because so many made valuable contributions and so much was learned from flying with you guys. Here are the results for the Early Birds July sessions: 1st Prize: Burning Beard 2nd Prize: von Baur 3rd Prize: Dudley Honorable mentions: Vasco (for the great campaign missions you developed and contributed for our enjoyment) sitting duck (for "middle man" hosting and your tireless efforts in setting up new players) Axgrinder (for attending each and every July session) I'll be contacting the winners soon by PM to get mailing addresses. If anyone wants to contribute prizes for future month long events, please contact me.

Just a few words about scoring, and remember, this is skewed towards participation, then performance. On each Sunday, each pilot that shows up and flys receives 10 points. Every time I noticed an outstanding event from someone, I awarded 1 extra point. This could range from excellent formation flying, to helping out a wingman, or really anything positive. Every time I noticed a negative event from someone, I removed 1 point. Some examples would be: Ignoring a flight leaders orders. Shooting at friendly planes. Disregard for mission objectives, etc. So you see the importance of attending each and every session of the month. Hope to do this again in August and I'm going through my storage area to see if I can scrape up some new prizes. Cheers, all

I'm in a campaign now with Jasta 11, and the thing is..... since receiving our DVII's, we've encountered only Spad 13's as scout opposition. I mean no other aircraft except a stray bomber here and there. I thought it would be fun to get to the DVII, but really it's quite boring now.

Now, that would be a hoot!

In team dogfight you'll see that every Axis flyer will choose the DVII, therefore the game is skewed from the very start.

Sorry for being away from the board and Teamspeak, but I've had a flareup of an old back injury and can't sit in my computer chairs for very long. I hope to recover soon and get back to flying. I'll be hosting Early Birds again in August, but I may miss the first sunday due to this ailment. Please check the calendar in August for details as it will be the only notification of my events. If anyone has anything they'd like to donate for August prizes, please contact me. We'll be needing some as I've already awarded all my suitable items. It doesn't have to be much, just something that is unique or interesting to the flight simmer.