Hellshade

After spotting the twin gun Sopwith Tripe on a campaign mission, I just had to try one in a campaign. For some strange reason, because only 6 were ever put into combat I thought the Devs had included it purely as a QC fighter. Silly me. Anyways, I started a pilot in RNAS 10, late July 1917. While still retaining the quick turning capabilities of her single gun sister, the twin gun adds enough firepower to destroy nearly anything unfortunate enough to be in front of you for more than a few seconds. With it's incredible manueverability and twin guns, I felt like I was everywhere I needed to be doing the work of some unholy avenger! Hellshade RNAS 10 Patrol (7:02) 1080HD

I found it in the campaign. RNAS 10 starting on July 29th, 1917. Wow. I didn't think they were flyable in the campaign for some reason. That's just awesome! Hellshade

I'll volunteer to test it! Whoot. Fewer cable hits is a win for everyone. I bet it will be significantly harder still to take down planes then. The more manueverable the enemy AI stays, the harder it is to draw a bead on the vital areas of the plane to take them down. Hellshade

Obviously I don't know the backstory to this most recent banning more than any other forum member. I can only guess that either the latest offense must have been more excessive than usual or that it was 'the straw that broke the (sopwith) camels back", because I think this is the first time I've ever heard of someone having every post they ever made, including the many non offensive ones, deleted. It would certainly present itself as a measure of 'finality'. Though in the distant past he and I had trained our guns onto one another now and then, at least you always knew where he stood. As Olham said, war changes people and if you end up making a sacrifice as life changing as the loss of the use of your legs in defense of your country, it's pretty hard to blame that person for being aggressive in defending and promoting their political views. The big irony between he and I was that I didn't always disagree with him. I just knew this wasn't the proper forum to debate them. I won't question the wisdom of needing to delete every post he ever made, including the very helpful sticky thread of his. The people of CombatAce have given us a lovely forum to call home here and I very much appreciate it. UncleAl has had many warnings and bannings before this to get him to refrain from inappropriate behavior. There must come a time where at some point the moderaters and forum owers say "Enough is enough. The message just isn't getting through for whatever reason." I'm genuine sorry that it appears to have gotten to that point. We'll miss you UncleAl, and thanks to the Forum Administrators who work so hard to make the OFF:BH&H forum an enjoyable place for everyone. Hellshade

No secret that near the top of my list of games I'm waiting for this year is Skyrim, the next open world epic fantasy RPG in the Elder Scrolls series from Bethesda. So for the hell of it I loaded up Oblivion again (Elder Scrolls IV) and put a few new mods in place to add to the thrill of combat. Here's 33 seconds of a fight my "Death Knight" (custom class I created) is in against a group of highway bandits, including at least one spell caster. I use my undead skeleton pet, my drain life touch spells and my mighty dwarven axe to defend myself. IMHO, this is what fantasy combat should look like. Don't forget to watch the carnage in 1080HD! Brutal Oblivion Death Knight Battle (0:33) 1080HD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5t0IHFBf8 Hellshade

Try loading up that old game again and typing "Decapitate dwarf with a back handed double bladed axe swing." Hellshade

With the deepest respect to both Flyby and the OBD software team...there's no way in hell anyone is going to program an AI wingman that mimics how I fly in combat. It just isn't going to happen, especially in a pup or triplane. I don't think the technology exists to write that type of code yet, and I've yet to see it happen in ANY sim, regardless of the engine the developers are using. So I try to look at it like this. Since I'm always flight leader, I see myself as the experienced flyer and it's my job to look after the pilots in my flight. In fact since I've been running Campaign missions so much lately (thanks HPW for your DM / FM!), I've found that the best combat experience isn't about me trying to get as many kills as possible. It's about watching the furball and trying to save as many of my inexperienced and veteran pilots as I can. If I really want the most intense air combat experience I can get, trying to save lives is far more intense and gut wrenching that trying to take them. When I focus on keeping my wingmen alive, it's tremendously more satisfying when I can save them and even emotionally troubling when I fail. Seeing one of your 'boys' in trouble and trying to get there in time before the enemies gun can do their vicious work of snuffing out another life is pulse pounding for me. Of course I'll try to take down the hun, but if there's someone I have a chance to save it would be incredibly cold blooded of me to needlessly let a wingman die just to bump up my own score. I might also add that there's great historical accuracy benefit to this as well. When you focus on keeping your wingmen alive it helps to reduce the number of kills that you get overtime to much more realistic levels. It's easy to add another kill to your tally once you've got an enemy aircraft smoking and he's running straight away from the fight as best he can. But would you still take the time to finish them off if you saw a real life friend in danger of losing his life? Or would you break off, let the hun go and try to have one less empty seat at the supper table that night? Imagine what your fellow squadron mates would think of you if they saw you could have saved one of your own but you chose to raise your score instead. Hellshade

Ok, so when we are tasked to attack an enemy airfield, I always go for the planes on the ground, which I might add are extremely difficult to "shoot down". My AI wingmen though all seem to be targeting the tents and airfield structures. So which targets should I actually be aiming for to properly complete the mission? As you can see from the picture below, while my wingmen were busy flattening a few tents, I was making enough straffing attacks against this one grounded plane to get it smoking and hopefully unservicable. Unfortunately, those bloody AA gun crews eventually got a bead on me.

Well thank God for not answering P4 features & fixes questions anymore. Christmas is no fun if you've already unwrapped every present 1 bit at a time for 6 months prior. I'm more than happy to get the occassional small slew of pics that doesn't even show us anything we haven't really seen before. In fact I think I'd prefer pics, that way I can just dream about the possibilities! Winder posted somewhere to keep watching the forums because they'd be listing some of the features soon. As far as I'm concerned, "soon" is anytime before Christmas of 2011. My credit card is at the ready! Thank you OBD for putting up with your rabid fan base (myself included) while you advance the WWI flight sim market. Hellshade

It's not a custom campaign mission. It was just a normal mission I got assigned by the OFF campaign manager. Hellshade

I will say that HPW is right in that his changes make the fights last longer and works to reduce the players kill rate a bit, while doing a very good job of avoiding the "flying tank" syndrome. If he can fix the flying funeral pyres, that would be a big plus as the default OFF:BH&H was programmed to avoid the issue, so it would be the best of both worlds there. I'd love to see the cable hit chance reduced significantly more, personally. I can't imagine cables being hit by bullets is 20%! One out of every 5 bullets hits as cable? It just doesn't seem likely. One out of 100 or maybe 1 out of 80 perhaps, but that is just my opinion. Reducing that hit chance will further increase the likelihood of the AI putting up a good quality fight for an even longer period of time. I can see myself coming home with 1 or 2 kills per mission tops, if I'm lucky. That said, and being a huge proponent of HPWs Ultimate Damage Model and Flight Models, I must also say that while I'd like to see Winder and crew trying out the Mod to see how they feel it impacts the experience, I also have a lot of faith that OBD Software probably have some significant tricks up their sleeves regarding P4. FM / DM and AI will probably be completely overhauled. My guess is that whatever they come up with be awesome, but just as great is the fact that HPW will still be able to tinker away to his blessed little hearts delight once he has it for awhile and make an alternate FM / DM for P4 just like he has done for P3. I see it as a win / win for the community. Hellshade

I'm all for making the control cables virtually impossible to hit. Maybe 1% chance? The odds of a bullet hitting a cable would seem slim. Hellshade

Thats not a Quick Combat video. It's a genuine scramble mission from a Campaign. HitR is well worth the price and more sir. Hellshade

Schliss, you can always try Herr Prop Wasche's Ultimate Damage Model and Flight Models too. His latest one has me re-addicted to the sim, so much so that I can't even play The Witcher 2 (which I just got). You can see the Barmy Film Review here: and me flying an actual in campaign "Scramble" mission here: Hellshade

Of all the suggestions for names I've heard, I still like OFF: Wooden Crosses. Iron Men the best. I wish I could give credit to who thought of it. Brilliant though. However OFF: Hellshade Gets a Divorce edition is perfectly acceptable too. Hellshade

It's the part about the fuel tank flying out of the plane that isn't terribly realistic. Same thing when it happens with the engine. I just can't imagine that ever really happened so I'm not sure for the life of me why it got put in there. That's one thing in particular that always breaks immersion for me. Fires? Sure. Explosions? Ok. Wing tearing off? Quite possible. Engine or fuel tank flying up out of the plane? Gotta go with a 'no' on that one. Just a personal opinion though. Hellshade

Well that clears up everything. Clearly the Aces are too scared to fly under the new Damage Model. Hellshade

(I have absolutely no idea how this same message got posted twice. My apologies, as I cannot seem to delete the second post) I've done a few scramble videos before but now, using HPWs Ultimate Damage Model (and Flight Model) mods, it's a whole different experience. Because you can't take for granted that damaged planes are effectively "out of the fight" even if they are still flying, you really have to check your 6 all the time. You can't depend on your wingmen to take down planes in one or two good solid passes. They might, but you can't depend on it. That means danger exists pretty much at all times from all directions. You have to make every shot count and you can't depend on the idea that because you are on an enemy aircraft's six, he'll be dead in short order. You might shoot him up nicely but not do enough damage to the engine or pilot (or fuel tank) that they are still very much in the fight and you are down quite a few rounds of ammo. Here's a campaign video of a Scramble mission I did using HPWs new mod. I think the differences are pretty clear. By the way, when I stop shooting it's because I'm out of ammo. And the rockets? Well...I'll try anything to survive up there. I hope you enjoy it. PS, there's no editing. It's from take off to landing to get the whole feel of the fight. If you haven't already downloaded it and given it a try, I heartily recommend it. It's a whole different war up there. HPWS Campaign Scramble Mission (11:50) 1080HD Hellshade

That's been the solution I've been using, provided I'm not out of ammo and don't miss too much. I appreciate the feedback! At least I know I'm on the right track. Hellshade

I'm still flying and loving the hell out of the new DM / FM, however I have noticed a number of "flying funeral pyres", where the Hun catched fire but it never crashes. It just keeps on flying away forever unless you put a few more rounds into it. There haven't been a lot, but enough to say it's not a purely isolated glitch event. Not sure if you can tweak that HPW but just giving you the feedback. I hope some other folks have been trying his Ultimate Damage Model as well. It really is a wonderful addition to the OFF universe while we wait for P4. Hellshade

On 1/26/1917 while out on patrol in our trusty RNAS1 Tripehounds, we ran afoul of a flight of Halb DIIs. Their markings were of Jasta 11, so I took a closer look and guess who I found? After chasing him around a bit, I managed to get some good solid bursts into him, but he was still able to land his smoking crate. I thought I saw the pilot jump out of the cockpit once it landed and it was lucky for him he did. Moments later she burst into flames right on the ground. Perhaps we shall meet again someday... He was a damn good pilot, even with an inferior craft. But what I really want to know is how big of a pain in the ass it must have been for him to sign his name on checks!

I run OFF:BH&H with the HitR expansion on Windows 7 64 bit just fine sir. No worries. Hellshade

I bet the missing ground crewman knows. Or...did know.... Hellshade

Top notch stuff Lou! You are a natural born reporter and one hell of an Editor. I can see The Illustrated BoC News flying off the newstands all over the world. Now that News of the World is shutting down, I can easly see your paper taking the top spot. I sure hope they find that ground crewman. Either the generals got to him or he went flyin after he painted a plane. Either way, we may never see him again... Hellshade

Man it's tough to live through the campaign now. So far I've had pilots die from : A wing getting torn off from too much g-force (x2), a flak burst, enemy gun fire, attempting too hard of a turn too close to the ground during combat after having my plane damaged and one mid air collision (still trying to get used to the new FM). I think the longest a pilot has lived (using Dead is Dead settings) is a little over a month. One poor chap crash landed (and lived!) on his first flight. Everyone dies or, on two occassions, survived the crash but was captured behind enemy lines and spend the rest of the war on the sidelines. I'm trying to get an RNAS 1 pilot to survive the entire war. I can see I'm going to need to be a lot more careful if I want to live longer. Great work HPW! Even the rear gunners in two seaters are more exciting to fight against now that a single round our two doesn't knock me out of the fight. I've had some absolutely fantastic fights in a Nieuport 11 against Roland CIIs. I can usually claim 1 or 2 kills on a mission, which is still high of course, but thats down considerably from original settings. And obviously I'm flying too risky to get those kills if I'm dying within two weeks of starting a pilot. Excellent work sir. I look forward to any updates that you feel can improve things even more. Hellshade