Olham

Hasse Wind: More two-seaters and other heavies. Even if only AI controlled at first... At first means, if they can't build them early enough for the players to fly, they might add them as AI piloted planes at first (and make them flyable later). That's what I understood, Vasco - of course we want them ALL flyable; Hasse Wind first of all, as far as I know the old two-seat f*rt.

First sortie with your completed FM installed was fine (Albatros D.V), Herr Prop-Wasche! But all this data stuff is so confusing for me - does it also contain the DM?

HW: Needless to say, OFF P4 absolutely requires more 2-seaters. Haven't I read that before? Somewhere?

Carrick: However I was wondering if aircraft loss to Trees count as anti aircraft ? Well, if it was an "anti-aircraft tree", then it does. And when you had to fly very low to escape AA, then you could say, yes, it does again. Always sounds better to say: I was downed by AA - instead of: I crashed into a tree.

Widow, I didn't mean the way to go for OFF, but for users, who want to update their rig. For the sim, you are right: it should work with more than the latest version. Lou, I think, Vista can (and in my case does) run as fine as XP, and maybe better. But you need far more knowledge to set it up that way.

Go to Jasta 18 in Halluin or Jasta 28w in Wasquehal to find some good action - you should meet Sopwith Pups, Bristol fighters, and the Sopwith Triplane, when it gets intrduced. And the other 2seaters too. Or go to Jasta 11, and fly well guarded by Manfred von Richthofen and his elite pilots - it's fun to see, how well your wingmen will follow. Everywhere above Arras, the chance will be bigger to meet British, Canadian or Australian pilots, while the south is more the French area. Set air activity to "medium", to find more choice.

What I'd like to see in Phase4 (to be continued) Winder promised to read all our ideas, so please keep them coming. I have one here. What always annoyed me quite a bit, was the weather report coming after the briefing. Could it be done, that it is part of the second briefing window? That way the pilot would see, what weather the mission would have, and if he doesn't like to fly in rain or snow, he could advance time for a better day. Sometimes, there won't be no flying at all on a day, or even a chain of days. It is quite disappointing to go through a briefing, making notes, checking the map, and then when you are ready to go, you get told: Sorry, no flying due to bad weather! To have that proceedure repeated for several days, is often more than I can bear. Just my 2 cent.

Twoseats like the DFW should be rugged enough to get through most of the Flak except a direct hit. Julius Buckler had to fly with a photo recon observer for some weeks, and they seem to have been "shipping" through all the Flak fire too without much worrying.

I'm running OFF on Windows Vista. Heard lots of bad things about Vista, but I never had any problems. A friend set it up and tweaked and tuned it, and he has done a great job surely. The way to go must be Windows 7 64-Bit. And for the C: drive an SSD - should be heaven!

Hasse Wind: ...when I do, the explosion seems to always blow my plane to bits. Maybe it's just bad luck. Not for the Crumpet gunner, Hasse Wind! Mmuahahahahaaaa!!!! What aircraft do you fly mostly?

In Kurt Jentsch's book "Beim Jagdflug tödlich verunglückt?" I read, that he first got a Pfalz wing warper at the Makedonian front. He was very happy, when he received a Fokker Eindecker after crashing the Pfalz in a crash landing. So we must regard the "felt" quality of a plane with it's service time. The Eindecker seemed to be great when it was new. Jentsch shot down Farmans with it. Sounded easy in the book - he followed them and shot up their rear engines. No one seemed to be into much turning in the early days; the Farmans way to fight was to push down their noses and run. The Bristol Scout still is not much of a problem, due to the strange mounted gun. But the DH-2 must have been, with a center forward pointing gun, well to aim with for the pilot. When I compare the aircraft in OFF, that seems all right for me - I can do better in a DH-2 than in an Eindecker. The appearance of the DH-2 and the Nieuport 10 must have been like a new age - it must have let the Eindecker look old and dated. Don't know RoFl, but I am quite happy with the Eindecker in OFF.

Do we all observe different things to happen, depending on the speed of our CPUs, perhaps? I cannot remember the last time I was seriously hit by AA shrapnell. On one occasion, my tank was punctured, so I had to glide back over the lines. On another, my engine got damaged, and I headed back and made it home. I have been taken out completely by AA only once or twice in my whole flying time of Phase 3. Now, I am almost only flying Albatros - a quite rugged aircraft. Maybe a Pup would show more effect of damage, when AA granades exploded close to it?

A proud American bird - good job, nbryant! MOMENT OF GLORY AND DEATH This screenshot is showing me (left Albatros) just shooting up a Nieuport over it's home field; a millisecond before my wingmate (right Albatros) crashes into my bird, killing my pilot. I had attacked and destroyed a balloon, and so completed our mission short before. A-flight did not seem to like the fact, that my flight got the sausage, and in their frustration they attacked a nearby enemy airfield, although there were several airborne Nieuport 24 over the field. And I was stupid enough to hurry for their rescue (will I ever learn?); shooting a Nupe to pieces in the final minute of a fighter pilot's life.

Yep, it took me some time to find the best words for the English version, which would only get better, if I could speak about their German meaning with an English speaking person. Better words could probably be found here and there, but I had no Englishman around. Perhaps I'll write single lines to you or Dej in future, add a wider description of the German meaning, and you send me your proposals. What d'you say, Lou and Dej?

Winder: In terms of improvement yes in P4 the rivers have been completely overhauled along with virtually everything else. And again, I feel like Pavlov's dog. I have seen many flight sims, and the terrain you created for OFF is a beautiful work of art for me.

A sausage factory in Tanganika... Blackadder's (not Baldric's) explanation of how it all started, is short, but spot on. Can always watch it again.

No problem; I found several books in "Abebooks", two at "Amazon" and some in "Ebay".

The OFF Manager will tell you when you're dead, or when you are in hospital. There are other occasions, were it looks like you should be dead, but aren't. Like when your wingless craft falls from 2.000 feet vertically. So I assume, that they hadn't found a way yet to blend the facts (dead or not dead) with the scenario that really fits it - maybe in P4? Your way of deciding the pilot is dead, is a good way to reach full DiD, I think.

A very good step forward in marketing THE WW1 air combat sim available! Great job, Hellshade!

PS: Thank you, von Paulus, for the book tip - I'll order it.

A good one to leave the political terrain here with some laughter, Wels!

Brilliantly made, Creaghorn! Thanks, Hellshade, for the video, and Rabu for the original version! I'll download it right now!

Just found a very dark "trench poem" by the German soldier Ludwig Baeumer. I did my best to translate it. I believe I got all the meaning right - maybe not always with the best perfect word. The poem is about how he saw the common German of his generation; and it reads like what I have seen from the film "The White Ribbon". A generation, where the single being had no individual value - like in a state of ants. Midnight We are long disowned more than three times. In our gestures all our aspirations fell together, all those that were in our fathers and mothers... We stand by our biers absorbing deaths, so we will come to end. Cause this is our reason: We are children of a breed without reluctance, of children against their breed. Spiritless. We have the eyes, that grub in the own brains, sucking pain. We are long disowned more than three times and have to benumb more than one god. No return is blessed for us, and for our crying no Amen of endearing mouths, once bursting from sweetness... Our mothers failed, who mourned about us. We wonder about those, who came the way of mothers. And this won‘t ever leave us. - Maybe that, when we once know, that we are children of error, and therefor Unmercifuls of time; maybe then... What?... Insubstantial... A land blanching far, and many fell, and we are longing for it‘s pillows. Ludwig Baeumer