Olham

Hi, Radio If you like air combat of WW1, you should get this sim! It's the best I have ever flown (and I know IL 2!). The white craft is from 1916; the brown-green one from 1917. When the model is ready, please show us some pictures.

Wow, the "Blue Max" ! Now that I have recognised the semicolon trap, I will get it for me, too. You may get only 50 % because you make so many kills. Headquarter is suspicious about claims too high, and so they drop some of them into the paper bin.

Update 09/17/09 19:50 Berlin time (GMT +2) deadangles, Arizona, added. the maps are in post 1 of this thread

Definitely not a single bullet - I had to fire at least two bursts. Those with the single round have probably witnessed the balloon being blown up by it's own ground crew Flak.

KISS ? Must stand for "keep it short + simple" ? (So the English way to kiss, I assume )

The British even tried to blow the whole island up - with no success though. I had overlooked, that Hasse Wind flew Nupes then - I thought he always flies German crates.

Okay, sorry, I have checked it all. I run a 5:4 monitor (didn't know that); so 1280 x 1024 was right for me; combined with an FOV setting of 25 : 20 Sorry von Paulus - my lack of knowledge.

Those rockets are something to envy you Allies for, I must admit.

Yes, or I start campaigns with Tripes, S.E.5a and Camels, with Nieuports and SPADs, and clobber the whole Imperial Luftstreitkräfte!!! Schnorch, steam, grumph!!!! But: not I have found it - Ryan H wrote it elsewhere - thanks again, Ryan!

As I said - the German ones are either tougher, or it is because of only one gun on most of the Allied fighters?

Condor, you either fly by the map to find the right balloon, or you use TAC switched to "vehicles" or "Ground targets" (don't remember which one). Then you will find the ground crew can be target marked, and your blue line will lead you to the right one. The balloon can't be marked, but you could send your wingmen to attack the marked ground crew, whilst you do the balloon. The only German balloon I ever attacked (in a Triplane) was incredibly tough - it took me 4 attacks to get it blown up. Hasse Wind, if you circle directly above the observer, it will be only a question of time for the ground crew hitting their own balloon.

Ryan, if this was the whole problem with my claims, you didn't only save my day - you saved all my future campaigns! And for Winder and Pol: it may not be possible to change, but you could (in a future version) write a note in the claims report window, that people should not use semicolons. I could have had 5 Blue Max by now - at least!

Sure! But which game? This ain't no game! The sooner you realise that, the better your chances, pilot!

Have a pint on me too, Widowmaker. Hasse Wind - next time remember the island of Helgoland. Just big enough to land there, and inhabited - the Friesen would have brewed you a "stiff Grog" or three. (Half Rum, half hot water, and sugar. May not bring your senses back, but that wouldn't matter then anymore).

The art of beer and cheese! http://www.chimay.com/en/intro_58.php

Update 09/17/09 02:08 Berlin time (GMT +2) kingkat, Tennessee, added. the maps are in post 1 of this thread

It's nasty to say that, but: a collision is ALWAYS your fault. If you had full situational awareness, it wouldn't happen. (But to comfort you: it even happened to a man like Boelke)

Yes, but before, people complained about how tough they were, how difficult to destroy etc. Maybe the devs made it easier then. Perhaps they need a workshop choice, like: O Flyboys O medium O tough balloons (I wouldn't like to be one of the devs - whatever you change, someone will complain)

Only had a strange warp once. Brought me to the Ardennes. No problem for a German Albatros, but I was pretty much irritated. But that was long before the Super-Patch. Never had it happen again.

Yes, I will make one Blue Max, before the year is over. I used to have 25 - 30 claims, but only 5 - 12 confirms. If the semicolon was the problem, I will soon have problems to get my crate off the field - because of all the Iron Crosses!

You know, Sigmund Freud would say now: It was not a navigation error. Your subconscious navigated you exactly to Chimay.

I think we can say, that balloon busting is easier in OFF than it was in reality. The gas inside the balloon would not ignite (so much for the stupid flare gun scene in "Flyboys"). It had to mix with air outside the balloon to become inflameable. So the balloon buster had to perforate the hull, and only after that, he could light it with his tracers. If you fired your first burst from a distance, and it hit and perforated the balloon, and you hit the same area a bit later again, you could possibly light it up.

Just did my first attempt to fly "Creaghorn style" (as a hunter, who tries to survive firstly) but failed. My temper is just different - but I'll try it again. Well, Daniel Mahlo had only two wingmen with him on a friendly frontline patrol; and he did quite right to avoid a flight of six SPAD VII (something, Olham had never done!). Then he spotted a flight of 4 RE8s from RFC-59, much lower, and flying into German territory. So he went down to fight them. He came out below the last flying crate and pulled up the nose firing. But meanwhile, the other three had gone a little lower, and peppered our Daniel. So he turned around and approached again. This time, the RE8 broke away to the right and dropped it's bombs. Also, while banking right, the rear gunner fired at me again! I have never had so aggressively defensive RE8s before - great fighting, boys! But well, on my next approach, they lost a wing, began to burn and went steep down. Now I followed the other three, but they must have broken off their mission - they flew into British territory, constantly lowering altitude to gain speed, it seemed. And they where heading directly for a balloon base, as if to get help! Dropping their bombs and this gaining of speed plus the balloon firing at me - they acted very intelligent! I hit the last of them from 650 feet, but suddenly tracers zipped around my ears from behind. I looked round to find myself hunted by three Bristol fighters. As we where in between 4 British field, they could have started short before, or they must have come down from high up - I hadn't had them on my list!!! (Very non-Creaghorn, so to say!) I ordered my wings to attack them, and managed to shoot the one down, that had peppered my Albatros before - of course my engine was damaged; from behind! - but my wings got shot down quickly. I tried to escape, and even lost the right lower wingtip , cause I flew insanely low, but those Brisfits slammed me right into the ground. Anyway - by June 1917, the British two-seat crews must have got some more lessons on how to defend themselves. Very good!

I have the highest respect for all the Mustang pilots, who escorted the big ones all the way to Berlin. And after the long way, and probably fierce fighting, they still had to fly all the long way home again.

Yeah, or they are so stupid, that they meditate about the question, whether it is a komma or a full stop. But seriously now: I looked into the log files, and indeed the semicolon is used as a stop sign, to split the report in parts written by the program, and your report text. So, DON'T USE SEMICOLONS in the claims reports, everyone!