Olham

I like that picture - a very good treated screenshot!

I hope you guys keep an eye on your health every now and then. I guess a monster like such a Flight sim can eat one up - nerves, or complete health. I want to wish you all the best positive health resources you can possibly get.

Yes, that book is on my list too.

Buckler's book got translated by Norman Franks (not sure how good though) and is released in English. At AMAZON you can get it used for 12,- $. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Buckler+Malaula

Thank you for the detail, Jim! I didn't know, that they were using the different radiator variants like that, mixed on a timeline, forth and back. Then of course the terms "early" and "late" make no sense. They should rather be called "D.II ear radiator" and "D.II airfoil radiator" then. I guess when we go on like that, people will stone us for attempts of delaying the release even more.

The list was from RAF_Louvert. Perhaps you search the forum with key words? The most sympathic German books I read were those of Ernst Udet and Julius Buckler. Ernst Udet: "Ace of the Iron Cross" Julius Buckler: "Malaula! The Battlecry of Jasta 17"

Jasta 18 are a dangerous lot. They will later have red/white planes - red front section, white rear and tail plane, with black emblems like a raven. I admire you British flyers! Crossing the lines almost every day - a tough and straining job.

There must be multiple smaller and bigger reasons which hold up the release. They build and add something, and then many other things need adjustments etc. Knowing them a while now, I'm sure there are only "good reasons" - they wouldn't do it for bad ones. I don't think a 1 1/2 year old rig would be outdated for WOFF. After all it won't work with the latest possible visual effects. It should still work fine, I guess.

I heard it all! Better beware - one day you may meet an Albatros you can't get into your gunsight! And it's favourite meal is wings with roundels!

Robert, as von Paulus said: it's not a force feedback stick. But LOGITECH and THRUSTMASTER DO still build them.

Yep, you better pilot the crate. That way you can still shoot at opponents, but also make sure the course and altitude is right.

Yes, but I thought it could be such a nice plane, that he might want to shift sides for once.

Shiloh, you must switch over from "Individual skins" to "Fuel Management" in "Workshops". Then you can select the amount of fuel befor each flight. I think it was in the briefing window. You will soon find out, how much you need for which distances, and it makes a difference, wether you fly with 100% or with 30% fuel weight.

Once the British had learnt to use this craft like a fighter, it must have been a hell of an opponent.

The DFW is a very good two-seater; forgiving and easy to fly. It is fast and strong enough to let Nieuport 11 or even 17 behind, when they have not yet reached her altitude. You simply climb away and leave them behind and below. The engine block in front of you is a "nose-warmer" in the cold up there. You get used to it. I even shot down fighter aircraft with the DFW - what I didn't hit got peppered by my rear gunner. The Bristol Fighter is a joy for bombing! Fast and furious you approach and attack railyards, and when you get attacked by fighters, you have a two-seater you can use like a fighter to fend them off.

Damn, you're right, elephant - rounded rudder is there. I'll change the above post. The D.III early in OFF has a centered radiator; the later ones have an offset radiator.

Looking into RoF I find the following Albatros versions: 1. Albatros D.II - with "ear radiators" 2. Albatros D.II late - with radiator centered in upper wing - no D.III early - no D.III Johannisthal (vertical rudder) 3. Albatros D.III OAW - rounded rudder - no Albatros D.V - no Albatros D.V uprated 4. Albatros D.Va - no Albatros D.Va 200 In OFF the variety is better. 1. Albatros D.II - with "ear radiators" - no D.II with center-wing radiator 2. Albatros D.III early (centered radiator) 3. Albatros D.III (Johannisthal - vertical rudder) 4. Albatros D.III (OAW - rounded rudder) 5. Albatros D.V - version with "hunchback" headrest 6. Albatros D.V uprated - headrest removed for better vision 7. Albatros D.Va 8. Albatros D.Va 200 - faster version with stronger engine I wonder if it would be too big a job to complete the production lines. For the D.II, the model would only have to be changed slightly (the radiator). If you should be working on it already, a simple Smiley would be answer enough...

What about 'uppers' and 'downers'?

Mmuahahahahahaaa!!!! MudWasp, I remember I had a similar time with him while being in Jasta 2. You see, now you got some kind of friend, and you both won't get bored, but can look forward to the next meeting. I shot him down over the lines once, in a fight very low over the mud. But he must have climbed out of the wreckage and entered another S.E.5a. Next day he wanted revenge. Personally I prefer it this way - I would want to see the historical aces as long as they would have been there. You can still note in your pilot book: "Shot down British ace Albert Ball". .

Ahem... - yes, you are obviously QUITE happy! Welcome back, Tranquillo, and good luck in the air and in bed on the ground!

Hi, Shiloh! I also recommend to switch all aids off. Suddenly you see the real events then, and it works fine. Throw away your crutches, brother - you can walk! I never had that problem to keep up with my flight - so I recommend: Albatros! (Mmuahahahahaaa!!!!) But seriously: maybe it helps when you do NOT try to climb as well as them, but rather concentrate on good forward speed. Only climb a bit, then line up with horizon, until the crate has the full speed again; then climb a bit again, and so on. I call it "staircasing". Once the flight reached their altitude, they won't climb anymore, and you may reach them. Another thing you could do is (for the price of loosing personal skins): fly with limited fuel. Of course you must know how much the journey takes to return safely...

Normally I don't advertise any hardware, but there are exceptions, like for TrackIR, which I think every WW1 flight simmer should buy, because it puts you in the cockpit - no less. Now, since I always found it hard to do any accurate steering AND shooting with all my previous joysticks, I searched for a more accurate stick - and found a MUCH MORE accurate one: the THRUSTMASTER T 16000 M, made by the GUILLEMOT corporation, which also produce the famous, but very expensive "HOTAS Cougar" or "Warthog". From the company manual: "The T-16000M features technology providing it with a level of precision currently unequaled in the world of gaming joysticks, including: - a 3D (Hall Effect) magnetic sensor in the stick, with a resolution of more than 268 million values over the X and Y axes (16384 x 16384 values), whereas currently competing systems (even high-end systems) provide resolutions in the neighbourhood of only one million values (1024 x 1024 values) - a magnet: no friction, for unlimited precision and incredible response - coil spring on stick (2,8 mm): for firm, linear and ultra-fluid tension For even greater precision, there is no dead zone in the central position of the T-16000M's stick." The stick is built symmetrically so, that you can easily set it up for left hand or right hand controlling. It has 2x 6 buttons on the bottom, a throttle slider, and 4 buttons at the stick top plus hat-switch. The strong spring's resistance is just right to give you a feeling of physical weight/body of your aircraft, without being to soft or too tough. The stick can be used as a twist stick - but I have not yet checked the accuracy of that; I use pedals. Now you may think I'm getting percentage for all the good words. But there are also some negative points. - the stick has a green-lighted area in the bottom center, which goes on when the stick is moved. They said it's to assign the constant self-calibrating. But it is actually too big and unnecessary. I have covered it with a cardboard cut-out. - the throttle slider is centered behind the stick. When I pull the stick fully back, I touch my finger on the throttle. Half an inch more space would have been better. But I got used to that; it doesn't really make a hindrance. Why do I think this joystick is worth a recommendation? Well, firstly and obviously for it's extreme precision. And because you can get this precision for a very low price - the stick costs 48,55 Euro in Germany; in AMAZON.com I saw the cheapest for 43,- $ - but prices seem to go up now. The price-value-relation makes it a top joystick (with some minor weak points) IMHO. On request of CW3SF (in the other forum) I unplugged my SAITEK pedals and gave the twist stick a try. Checking the response in the hardware/joystick check showed me, that the right rudder twisting did not get over 90%, while the left gave me 100%. Hmmm... I am not used to flying per twist stick anymore, but used to do it over years with my old THRUSTMASTER T.Flightstick X. I always found it hard to control all the 3 aircraft axises and to shoot well at the same time. When I pressed the fire button, I used to get a strange nose movement: the nose revolved slightly around the longitudinal axis. That made precise shooting a bit difficult. Not so much in OFF, as in other sims. This new stick showed a similar reaction SOMEtimes: firing, the nose got a bit shaky. So, for this bit, the precision the stick has otherwise, is not, or not much better than on my old stick, and I will move back to my SAITEK pedals. But I used to shoot down lots of aircraft in OFF with my old stick, and I think I can safely say, that this new T.16000 M stick is not doing any worse. I would even say, a bit better. Still, for absolute precision shooting I would always keep the rudder seperate from the stick. Seems simply too much for one device to control all axises plus the firing.

For a start, I don't think there are 8 must-haves. Let me see... 1. a good joystick as described by Bullethead, plus: a very fine-graded sensitive response* 2. rudder pedals - especially essential for WW1 aircraft** 3. TrackIR - puts you in the cockpit! 4. a good graphic card, that allows quick head movements without producing white jaggies, or stutters 5. a fast enough CPU that allows the immediate generation of plenty of fighting aircraft around you 6. a 16:9 or 16:10 monitor - the higher the resolution, the better That's it IMHO - only 6 essentials. * since I always had problems with aiming and shooting, I have now bought me a stick with much finer sampling than most others - and the improvement is incredible! The stick is the THRUSTMASTER T16000 M from the Guillemot team, who also build the great (but far more expensive) THRUSTMASTER HOTAS WARTHOG. The sampling matrix inside the stick has 16000 x 16000 dots! The accuracy you get is absolutely stunning! ** pedals are not a must-have to be able to control the aircraft - they are a must-have, because they give you the right and much more real impression of how it was to fly these craft.

Bullethead - man, this time you had me worried! This leave was a bit too long, Sir!

Hey, Flyby, I meant to send the same: seasoned with a little blink of the eye. A pity we can't post incl. "emotional timbre". I knew you were only joking.