Olham

Oh, I see - yep, I'll read it right next time.

Funny, Duce - I also just lost my best pilot. But he lives - although in captivity. My Flak is set to "normal"; I haven't lost any pilot to it since long. But just yesterday I saw one of the Nupe 17 we sneaked on to, got hit and destroyed by Flak. Friendly ground fire has NEVER killed me yet.

Rossmeister, I know what Erich Zahn does, but I googled. I assume you really are German, cause your subline "i get pissed off" was surely meant in another way. In english it means "to be really annoied" or "to be turned off by something", and I don't believe, you wanted to say that. Thanks for the drinks. Make sure your fatal spin is headover, so the CC is really not wasted.

Thanks for the pics. Some combat scenes would be nice ?

Good one! (Does he ever breathe?)

Update 10/09/09 16:00 Berlin time (GMT +2) Uwe, North Carolina, added. Mike Dora, New York, added. Sieben, North Carolina, added. the maps are in post 1 of this thread

Didn't know that sketch, Duce - the Monty's are absolutely bizarre, crazy, mad - but wonderful! Now, how can I get rid of that picture in my mind: Lou with a Viking helmet on, singing "Spam, spam, spam - it's manna from heaven!"

Matt, do you fly in OFF? Just thought, you'd actually belong into the OFF Pilots Maps. In red even, as you created the music for the sim. What do you say? I'd need your town and country then.

In German we have that saying: a stone fell from my heart. That's how I felt, when the post girl (yes, we often have post GIRLS in Germany!) rang at my door to hand a padded envelope from America to me. My neighbours may give me strange looks the next days, cause a cheerful "Yahoooo!" might have come from my flat. What can I say - it looks wonderful! Here are some first pics of it - I ironed my best white shirt, but wasn't very good at making self-shots, sorry. When it has a special place near my monitor, I'll send more. Lou, thank you very much for an interesting competition and a wonderful prize! I will keep it in honour!

SPAM? Vulcanized pork???? Sounds horrible!?

Yeah, that Fokker D VIII is a real star! Nice Nupes, too. The Siemens-Schuckert could be meant to be the D.I, which looked like a mix of the early Fokkers and Nieuports.

[an Albatros D III with a white band with black lines, and the word "Mops" on the fuselage suddenly roaring over the mess at lowest altitude; a small wreath sailing down; the German craft pulling up, disappearing. A note attached reading:] We want to express our respect for a fine pilot from the Royal Flying Corps. He took up the fight against our fighters in a desperate situation without any hesitation. He would have surely given us a great fight, but he was taken out by a direct Flak hit - he had no chance, but he did not suffer. The pilots of Jasta 17

Well, Duce, read Carrick's line about the post girls there. It is similar here - nothing to envy me for. Bullet, that first poem is very good about that inner conflict. I had a picture in my mind, of god and devil, sitting in a tavern, getting drunk; and god asking the devil, why he decided to act the way he does. And the devil answers: to have it my own ways, I had to be different to you.

Hey, appraiserfl That was your "OFF Baptism of fire" only. Most of us had that happening at some point - all messed up, and the whole great mission result lost. So pull yourself together, Lieutenant, this war was not started for your pleasure! (Lol!) By the way - the sim is said to show better results on Nvidia cards, or so I think to have read. But I have an older ATI card, and it's doing fine, too. You did fine in returning to help your men. Don't worry about your witness killed. Most of your shot down men are not dead and will appear on the next mission board unhurt. So all, that he witnessed before his crash, could be still confirmed (if your system hadn't crashed, too. Lol!). For ace identification, it might be good to assign "pause" to a joystick button. That's better than a screenshot, cause in "pause" mode, you can 1. write down his full name, and 2. then turn around your scene, until you got the perfect angle for a screenshot. Okay, it interrupts the immersion, but you could use the ace name in your report, which is quite something! And yes: it is all totally senseless, but we'll carry on!

Absolutely amen to that.

You can always warp, Rossmeister.

Stiffy, those uniforms are not made of the right cloth/fabric, and the whole seemwork is done too cheaply. A German Ulan uniform would have looked far better, for example. A well made copy would certainly cost 400,- - 500,- Euro, if not more. For that, I'd rather upgrade to the best possible rig for BHaH.

Good question, Stiffy! But they all seem to have good jobs. Still though, it would have been worth to think about making a package of CFS3 + OFF-BHaH, distributed and commercialised by Mickeysoft, sharing the winnings. They might have earnt more even on a 15 % basis. But the devs seem to be "the last of the Independants", and I feel a deep respect for that. And yes, the AI behaviour is really split into low, mediocre and high morale fighter pilots, and aces. And so, meeting the same plane doesn't mean the same outcome at all. Better be careful every time.

Geeze - you Americans where far ahead then! Back in the 80s, I got porn still in glossy magazines, to be honest.

Thank you, Rickity - yeah, next time you'll catch it. If Red Dog, Dej and Zoomzoom let you! Lol! My alter ego, the "Bordeauxred Baron", sent this "anti-thank-you-card". Seems he's afraid about fraternisation. Or maybe he just can't show how touched he really is, the old Iron Fart.

Haha! From stoneage to the first air combat sim! Great, never knew there where some that early. My first one was "Their Finest Hour" by LUKAS ARTS. More advanced already. You saw the planes as a bitmap or pixel-picture; there where various angles of it, no real 3D model, but you would recognise the craft. And I must have flown it with "glowing red ears and cheeks" - I played it for hours some days.

Thank you, Red Dog! Is that original, or well written, Creaghorn? Thanks! Thank you, Ras, and good idea. Thank you, Check Six - oh yes, I'll wear it with pride, and see, that one of my pilot really gets it now. Thanks, Bullet! Thank you, OvS - hope you won quite some money! Thanks, Balders, and have one for me too, as an absent friend. You all are such a great community!

It's incredible, what situations some good men have managed to deal with. Respect!

Yes, indeed, Widow, nor will I about the north sea wheather in Ostfriesland! But he is the "Bruce Willis Die Hard" type, you know? And I got the impression, that he really chose these circumstances of aggressive environment. It wouldn't surprise me at all, if the next thing he described was alligators, crossing through his back yard regularly.

A very interesting read, and good information on a guy like me, who didn't know about all this really. Thank you for this article about the "Fokker scourge", Bullethead. And thinking twice, maybe the craft I mentioned furhter up was a DH-4? (I don't know these early craft well).