Olham

Hey, Pawgy, I didn't mean it that way - I just realised it was that Tripe I had made some time ago. Of course you can use it ingame, that's why I uploaded it. That you use it as your acatar, I actually feel honoured by that.

Von Paulus; to be honest, Bronski Beat & Marc Almond came very unexpected for me here. But it is a memory, I understand. And combined with memories, songs turn into something special. Widowmaker, The Stranglers had several good ones - my favourite of theirs was "There's always the Sun". "Skin Deep" comes to mind. They had a hand for arrangements, I'd say. Conrad, my very first LP was Uriah Heep's "Salisbury"! I still like their stuff. My favourite of theirs is "Demons and Wizzards". Pawgy, that's Country, I suppose? A department I still have yet to get to.

I must admit, that I have never made a donation to the CombatAce crew; but now I'd like to make one, as a little "thank you" for all the great work.. So I searched for any link or advice, but I must be either blind or stupid. (My worst fear: it might be both). Can anyone guide me there?

Hey, big or small - if many people make a small donation, that's better than none at all. And for an unemployed person, a small donation is a big donation, I'd say.

You must have changed the first link, cause now it worked for me. Impressive; and nice music (incl. Barber's "Adagio for Strings").

Today I did something, that must have been quite common in WW1 air combat, but happens rather rarely in OFF due to the overall awareness of the AI: I "caught someone the cold way", as we say in Germany - I killed a pilot, who hadn't even noticed me at all. It was - and felt like - an icecold kill. His flight had gone lower to attack a ground target south of Douai. For some reason, this guy seperated from the others. I had no intention first to attack the flight of Nieuport 24, as we had a balloon attack mission to do. But when I saw him splitting off, and even coming our direction much lower, I could not resist: I went into a steep dive. When I almost overshot him, I rolled the Albatros on it's back and fired into his engine and cockpit headover. His craft exploded immediately and went down burning. I saw the pilot jump. I know it was a common thing to happen, but I find it very hard to feel proud of it - it was an icecold kill.

Jarhead, your link doesn't seem to work for me?

I had searched the whole forum - only my own button I had not clicked. Okay, been there, done that. Thank you, Dave!

Ditto to von Paulus. I don't get any problems so far, Eric. Thank you for your work!

No problem. The world was a modern world already at Jesus' time. They had not only groceries, but also bakers, bath houses, hospitals, international trade, etc. To reduce our absolutely greedy waste of energy would NOT mean to drop back to stone age.

Look into our OFF Forum Pilots maps, FastCargo - in the "Sticky Threads".

I knew this would happen...

Just had the fight of my life! Trying to defend a balloon, we got under attack from 8 RNAS Triplanes. Josef Mai's 1. Kette of 4 Albatros D.III (early), plus my 2. Kette with 8 Albatros, fought them quite well, and they all went down. I had shot down 2 of them. Then I found myself all alone, and turned to fly home. Now came another flight of 6 Tripes. I hastened to get under the cover of the balloon base Flak and machine guns, and the tight turning began. With the help of the ground fire, I brought down 3 or 4 more of them, before the rest flew away. Trying to fly home now, I sighted a flight of S.E.5a, and another with SPAD VII. Now I had enough, and set my craft down at Douai airfield. I exited the sim - and got no claims form???!!! Was all this too much for the OFF Manager? Did anyone else have such problems?

Certainly not, Lou - we do not drink alcohol very often at Jasta 5, and never in large amounts. The British always come over with several flights, which seem to cover each other. It is not unusual, that we fight one group of 6 - 9 scouts, and during the fight are getting jumped at by another 6- 9. Often, a third flight joins in; and so we often fight 12 - 18 Triplanes, plus 6- 9 N17 Lewis. So, another good explanation would be: the British attackers are so many, that we can hardly miss?

Yes, I would recommend that, Pawgy. Hey! Isn't that my silver-blue Triplane in your avatar?!

Lou, I have once witnessed a big object, chasing across the sky over Norden (my hometown) burning. I was in Ostfriesland, where there are no big cities, and so the sky is very clear at night. My dad and I strolled along a wide patch of green, so we were not even blinded by the lights of houses. Then a long flame appeared from northwesterly direction. First I thought of a comet, but then I saw, that the whole object, which was long, like a big pen, was turning. When it stood upright, the flames formed a wide band. The object, compared to it's speed, must have had the size of two or three passenger train waggons. It was turning with equal speed, forming a narrow, then a wide band of flames, while it crossed the sky and disappeared in the southeast, without crashing. I guess it was a large rocket stage. And I hoped, it was no satelite - cause they use nuclear power. We searched the news and the morning papers, but nothing.

Well, you guys shoot down dozens of Albatros - I shoot down dozens of Tripes! It's not all my fault - Mr. Sopwith's products are flying nice like butterflies. But they do also break as easily.

7 May 1917 - Another busy sortie with Jasta 5 this afternoon. Top left: Vzfw. Josef Mai and his flight are going down onto three Strutter Top right: good, that we remained high - a flight of RNAS Triplanes appeared to attack us. We fought from 9.000 feet altitude, all the way down to the deck. With my 7 Albatros, I fought 6 of them, and we did very well - 4 Tripes went down. I have damaged one hard, and shot down another. Bottom left: after the fight, I circled over Lille with my Kette, to search for Mai's flight. We found him, still fighting the Strutters. I joined in, and shot one down over Lille. Bottom right: the Strutter's rear gunner had demolished a valve on my engine. Hot oil was spurting out and forced me to land at Houplin aerodrome. (The oil was added with Photoshop by me afterwards.)

Yeah, well - who would believe a guy saying he shot down 5 Tripes...

Looks like they have finally built something like the Horten Ho IX, maybe with silent jet engines.

What they did realise though, was another advantage. I don't know the English words for that - the Germans had pressurised fuel lines to the carbourettors, which also worked during minus-G action, like in a fast, steep dive; or when rolling headover. The Spitfire could not follow that; their fuel supply would stop then. I think, most of the pilots were not into extreme turn fighting, on either side. I saw a lot of the condenser stripes in documentary films, and the actions at the sky were rather tame compared to what we would do in a simulator. But when you met an ace, who knew what he and his craft could do - then it got dangerous. Not sure, if you have seen this video, which I like a lot. It's all only computer-generated, but it looks amazing, and the sound of the Rolls Royce Merlin is breathtaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNJ8rIEPLOo

I don't think so. The sim uses the skins for all the many squadrons. You would rather mess up everything - cause the sim would now search for skins, which you eliminated. OFF won't load skins it doesn't need for a mission or QC, so you wouldn't save loading time.

Bullethead, if we condense the whole debate, we can cut it down to this: We want the luxury of having an electric dishwasher, a washing machine, a microwave and a coffee machine etc. etc. A luxury even the old kings and lords never had. And therefor, we must either come up with a clean and healthy solution - or go under in a poised world. Sheer Darwinism. I think, you can agree on that?

Wonderful video, Lewie! When I was a playing kid, I always picked the Spitfire for myself. Firstly, I liked the sleek design better than the Messerschmidt Bf109's, and secondly, I seemed to be on the "better" side, moralwise. These seem to be later Spits (Mk V ?). I actually liked the Mk 1 best - the one that fought the Battle of Britain.

Thank you, TaillyHo! It was a tough morning. I was asthonished to get home alive - and with not a single bullet hole! I got it wrong - it would be the "EK II" - Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (Iron Cross 2nd class).