Olham

Wayfarer, that is a very interesting report. Most of it sounds very believeable compared to RL. The German air force was much smaller than the Entente's, and the disproportion grew with the war time. Although many Entente flyers were hit hard, others must have been luckier most of the time. Being the fighter type rather, I admire your patience flying the big ones (which were the more important planes tactically). I wish you good luck with the scout carreers. Please report, what you choose to fly.

Psychoanalyst to Polovski: "Now let's talk about Paula Patton for a bit, Pol, shall we? How would she behave, when you try to jump her? Can she counter your "turn fighting" with good "energy fighting"? Would she sometimes withdraw your fiery attacks? Would she break off her engagement, when you get too rough? How elegant or clever would her manoeuvres be, if she tried to evade your powerful rushes? Questions we should talk about in detail, don't you think?" Comics used without permission by, but with lots of love for Charles M. Schultz and his Peanuts

I was only joking. But as a guy born in West Germany, I have never heard of the label "Monitor". Doesn't mean much though - it might be regional. Edit: Ah, I found it. "Monitor" is a Czech label and belongs to EMI. Not too German then, altogether...

This artist sure could draw! Great stuff, Lou! I bet he learned lithography - it looks much like that art.

So Bletchley has added some special missions? I didn't know that. A great idea, especially to make the two-seaters' life more colourful. I also use the Bletchley mods (the overworked ones from Buddy). Maybe one day I'll have a special fighter mission - who knows...

Seriously now: is there a mission, where you two-seat guys transport a spy? Or was that a user-built mission?

Is recently EVERYone speaking in cryptic terms here??? Who is Beatrice - if you don't mean the Dutch Queen???

Ah, THAT meaning was the meaning of it! I thought it was too simple to be the correct answer...

Hope this helps??? And that isn't cryptic??? Do you mean the Smiley??? What does the Smiley mean????

Don't fall for this - it must be fake Soviet propaganda material to weaken their enemy! Kaiser Wilhelm had no "Hitparade" - we didn't even have radio!! And German blondes look far better!!!

HTH ??? Another cryptic message... ???

A forum friend (I won't say who) exchanged some PMs with me about the change of forums (? fora?) by OBD; a change that was said was made due to the necessity of a company, to be available with their official forum, for all problems and questions; for showing the new preview video to the waiting, etc. We all know CA was offline for more than 3 days (which wouldn't have driven anyone to make such a move), and so they finally made this step - because they felt they had to make a decision. The decision was found quite drastic by many fans of Combat Ace, myself included. I did not see it so much as a necessary business decision, but as a sudden, abrupt change against my will. I had not even been asked; and I am part of all this; I am part of the forum. I have lots of stuff here. In a way Combat Ace is an extension of my home. And it is a comfortable home. I love being here. My forum friend had a very different attitude to this change and the necessity of it; the importance or the unimportance of likes and comfort. He reminded me of all what OBD have developed and built for us for a very small price. How they have followed our posts about ideas, desires, likes and dislikes - and how they worked out solutions, improvements, and dreams. For some people - like me - they have fullfilled a lifetime dream; no less. For some people they have built a desired plane, that is not of such immense importance for the WW1 air war, like the Fokker E.V / D.VIII (and then this woman left us before she could fly it), or the Snipe. And my friend asked me, if we should not show some loyalty to OBD - no matter how much we disliked the decision they thought they made for good. I have been in my favourite park in the sun for two hours today, with the book "Immelmann - Der Adler von Lille". But I couldn't concentrate on the (very good and interesting) book - had to think about my friend's heavy words. Loyalty - almost an old fashioned word, like "chivalry". He had made a direct hit. My anger, my opposition and my arguments all went down in flames. Wasn't he so damn right - don't I want to support the guys, who made my dream come true; and who did all that in a very small team in such a tireless way, like blood hounds on the trail of the right thing? Now don't worry, my friends - I do not mean to say, that I must leave and move over to the new official forum. All I want to say is, that it might be the perfect time to show some loyalty. Not by leaving this forum behind. Simply by showing up and posting in the new official forum too. I will do - it can't take that much more of my time - could even double my victories. I had to write that off of my heart. Thanks for reading. .

The "17 hour thing" was - AFAIK - only especially about the average life expectancy of a British pilot in "Bloody April" days. Any sim can only provide us with a believeable AI, technology and environement. What the sim cannot reproduce or simulate for us is, that we would be vulnerable; and that we would die from our mistakes only once. No further learning - just full stop. So, a believeable carreer must be simulated by the flyer himself - if he wants to. Edit: Devs, give the man a "Lufberry Circle" if you can (should be even an interesting new tactic).

Berthold Brecht said: "Man is a wolf to mankind." Maybe it is because we have no other enemy, that we act like this - splitting some humans off of our community, to have someone to fight, to trample down, or at least to look down onto.

From today's point of view it is hard to understand at all. You can only catch a glimpse of what the situation was like, from reading, or from good films. In our world of wealth today, we know only very little (if anything) of the hardship of life in Germany before WW1; and then of the 20s. Has anyone of us lived in despair for a longer time, without any "light at the end of a tunnel"? I guess the most of us have not. I am not a big reader of books about this time, but I recommend the really good film "The White Ribbon". It gives you a glimpse of how hard the time and the people were back then. Germany was only just rising from poverty back then - no comparison to the Germany of today. And still - there are always so-and-so-many stupid, fashist, cruel blockheads around - even in this wealth. However - reading or watching good films are only faint attempts to understand, how this could have been possible. All that I have read or watched, could still not explain to me, how people could have done these things. I only learned: Fear is a terrible leader. Despair is an untruthful judicial power. Cruelty is a horrible executive branch. Democracy may be the best of all bad solutions. But the best one. May we all never become so desperate again, that we give it up, to follow blind.

This website has tons of SANKE cards - worth to post it again. I use them for making my own pilot photos - I only have to stick my own face on top. http://www.sanke-cards.com/page14.htm .

Hey, hey, there, there... I have seen a photo of you, and it wasn't the right age, but you did look quite normal to me. Looked it, I say. Maybe you aren't, though. On the photo you were angling from your balcony...

Beanie, I wish you, that you will have enough time for flying WOFF, when it comes out. Work can eat you up. Good luck!

Bullet, you may get what you want. An earlier Preview Movie showed the text announcement, that the AI will "think" about taking on a fight - or giving it a miss. That sounds like they will carefully calculate their chances. Also the breaking off of a fight and retreat was mentioned (if I didn't dream this part). What I meant will get even tougher, is the direct fighting/flying ability of AI pilots. Until today, I could fight Triplanes or Camels very well. But I guess these turn fighters will get harder to beat. Hopefully also the energy fighters. That would be the most difficult task - to "teach them" good energy fighting.

Everyone and their dog are writing their memoirs these days - so I thought to myself: why not me? Printers and publishers fight a tough battle for markets. They even have spies, and one such spy found out, that Dej as well as RAF_Louvert are planning to write a book about their numerous adventures during their OFF campaigns. So I had to be quicker, and really - we have the title done today. Well, almost. My publishers are yet trying to work out a deal with OBD Software about the use of the OFF-Emblem. So far, I heard that Winder wantes a whole case of 24 year old Scotch Single Malt Whisky, while Pol wants additional hours per day for sleeping, and completing WOFF. My publishers now try to find ways how to achieve that. Here's my book, Dej and Lou - beat that - Mmuahahahahahahahahaaaaaa!!!!!!

Impossible for me to say - there are at least 5 I like best, Wayfarer.

Thank you, HumanDrone. Yes, that's me - or better: that used to be me around the age of 30. I only found 5 or 6 photos of me which show me in a believeable WW1 pilot age.

Hihihi - indeed, HumanDrone, it is Rumey. I like Jasta 5, and especially Rumey's officer's coat.

Lothar, I didn't mean to criticise. What you have done already, is beyond anything I could have imagined. Great job, Sir!

Yes, "Flieger-Album" is a great site too. Their pics are damn small, but good enough for OFF pilot photos.