Waldemar Kurtz

agreed-- Karel Dooms was literally a 'game changer'. I have nothing great to say about him, because I didn't really know him-- but he always seemed like a classy guy on the RB3d forums.

so... is everybody supposed to be chatting it up at the Sim HQ forums now? any news on the release of Phase 4? it looks nice, but I was hoping for more French two-seaters... are they going to add the Nieuport 12, at least?

I've been gone for the better part of a year because of RL (getting a promotion, working 50 hours a week or more). then there's the small matter of finally creating my own mod (after years of playing everybody else's). I was sufficiently lacking in skills to help with the OFF mod-- so I started working with the Atari RTS Axis and Allies. however, modding a game is really hard work! it gives me a new appreciation for what the development team here has been doing.

I actually haven't played this game in about a year-- but I still drop by and check on progress. part of it was that no matter what I did my AI wingmen would live or die at random. the dynamic and interactive squadrons I was used to in RB3d were something that I really missed. the fact that I couldn't survive crash landings also frustrated me. I'm also very pleased that a much better flight-map is being provided. it's exciting to read about WOFF because it's addressing most of the things that detracted from my OFF experience the most. the other reason is because I've been modding the heck out of the Atari Axis and Allies RTS game... but reading the most recent article reminds me that I really need to fire up the old OFF game in the near future. providing my computer(s) can run the game-- I'll have a check ready for the date of release. and, perhaps even if I don't have a computer I'll probably purchase a copy and save it for later,

Lucas was involved in the project-- that means it was going to be bad history and bad film-making. this is the same guy who's convinced that "Vietnam taught us that a primitive civilization could defeat an advanced civilization. you can see that in my work when the Ewoks defeated the Empire, or when the Gungans defeated the droid army" maybe they didn't have the same advanced infrastructure, running water, and personal comforts we take for granted in the west-- but last I checked AK47s, Mig 21s, SAMs, and radar were all fairly "advanced" tech that was being supplied to the NVA by the Russians and the Chinese!

very nice. this part of the Western Front isn't very well represented with maps. there are LOTS of great maps that cover the British occupied sectors north of the Somme-- but to get primarily French occupied territry like this is really cool.

http://www.naval-military-press.com/national-archives-british-trench-map-atlas-the-western-front-1914-18-1-10-000-regular-series-with-an-index-of-over-20-000-trench-and-topographical-names-and-a-commentary-for-each-map.html http://www.naval-military-press.com/captured-german-trench-and-operations-maps-from-the_public-record-office-archive-on-cd-rom.html two links. they were kinda pricey. but they're really interesting. the German trench-maps won't work with Windows Vista, though.

I like to use this button when my RFC squadron stationed in the Ypres sector is inexlicably sent on offensive patrols to Cambrai. when flying for two-seater squadrons I'll use this button about 70% of the time! I've got some DVDs of trench maps from both sides of the war. so sometimes it's nice to cherry-pick my flights on a certain date so I can pretend I'm using historical maps like the ones the pilots would have used.

really? I fly it more or less like a SPAD VII and I find myself scoring victories without even knowing it! I could come back from a mission and claim one victory and find that I am credited with claims and victories I didn't even know about. this has happened at least three times. I suspect that it's because of the observer packing twin Lewis guns. if you get a lot of practice in single-gun machines it's not too hard to score kills in the Bristol Fighter.

given that my most common 'mount' is the Fokker E.III or a two-seater-- I have to use tactics that will always work well against faster and more agile enemies. I use the nose-to-nose turn, or "counter turn" all the time. if somebody attacks me I turn against them and stay in that turn as long as I can get away with. the AI tends to keep turning in one direction so if they're turning in a clockwise turn I'll go counter-clockwise (or vice versa). this allows me to get in numerous snap shots against the enemy's engine. of course, the same holds true for the enemy. but it's better than having a Nieuport 17 sitting on the tail of my Fokker E.III and sending me down in seconds. this at least grants me a few minutes of life. if another adversary moves in to get behind me I just change directions and perform a counter-turn against the more threatening opponent. the variation of this is that sometimes instead of performing a flat counter-turn I will climb or dive, and then move towards the same altitude as the enemy (basically just using a high or low yo-yo turning against the enemy). with this variant I can make it even harder for the enemy to attack. I prefer the high yo-yo-- because if they get their sights on me I can just push the nose down and it gives them even less time to make a shot. if given a chance I try to have one of my wingmen attack the fellow on my tail. this will force them to break away. I then turn immediately on this enemy and start shooting him up. I usually don't spend more than one solid gunnery pass on the enemy because my wingman is trying to shoot him down. it makes life easier for my wingman if I deal some damage-- and then I can clear his tail if things get bad for him. I've learned to not be TOO picky about victories in the Fokker E.III-- the main thing is to get home alive. the second thing is to have my wingmen survie. the third thing is to neutralize the enemy's actions. and lastly, to score some victories. if I can rough up a Nieuport 17 so badly that he runs away it usually means that I have the other three to worry about. so not getting a victory seems better than getting killed. I almost never use acrobatics. about the most I'll try is a flat-scissors or a defensive spiral (which can work well against sesquiplane types) I aslo like to use diving turns because the Nieuports can't follow without their wings snapping off.

I remember stuff like that. I had to do a bombing sortie with the DFW C.V and I was sent out to destroy this railyard and while the label showed up-- I could never find it. which was jarring because it still managed to shoot me down!

File Name: Jasta 73 "Night Owl" (fictional) File Submitter: Waldemar Kurtz File Submitted: 25 December 2010 File Category: Aircraft Skins after reading about the night victories of several Jasta 73 pilots I decided it would be fun to create a fictional ace skin for aspiring German night fighters. Jasta 73 had 7 confirmed night victories between June and October of 1918. Fritz Anders scored 5 of these. the original skins for the Albatros D.Va were by Paarma. I just cut and pasted a few skins together and added some personal markings. Click here to download this file

it looks very nice. keep up the good work. I like these maps because of the handy legend in the bottom-- as well as the distance scale. it's very nice when planning out flights in real-time (if you, for example, want to accomplish the mission without following the game's specified waypoints and altitudes)

this is a very difficult plane to fly. I know lots of people have said that the Fokker E.III is the hardest plane to fly-- but since I had a lot of practice with the old Flanders in Flames flight-model in RB3D (an online campaign that's similar to the OFF flight-model excepting that it bleeds off energy less dramatically and had even more torque). with the E.III it wasn't too difficult to predict when a stall would come. it had a rotary engine and I knew that left-hand turns had to be done by reducing power and pointing the nose down. right hand turns you had to be careful not to try and bank too hard or you could end up inverted. but with the Nieuport 28 the stalls are vicious and without warning (at least for me). it can happen going either direction. I've found that (like the Fokker E.V) if I can keep my speed above 70 mph it's mostly manageable... but it still becomes almost impossible to control at 60 mph. the visibility feels bad. maybe I'm spoiled because most of my flight hours have been in the Fokker E.III, FE2b, and the Roland C.II. but it's really hard to keep track of enemies in a fight! any suggestions or tips? comparing this to the fast and rugged SPAD XIII it's easy to see why most American pilots were glad to be rid of this fragile and tempermental machine

my two choices, exactly.

I was reading about night-fighting efforts by the German Air Force in WWI and WWII. and I learned that Jasta 73 was probably the most successful Jasta when it came to night-fighting. so I've been trying out a campaign where I never fly before 18:00 to see how far I can get. thus far I'm really enjoying this "Night Owl" campaign. it's really hard, though. I'm always looking at my compass and checking the time! I can't recognize anything except the largest and most obvious of landmarks. the first mission nearly got me killed. I was patroling over an enemy aerodrome (I was hoping to find bombers) and suddenly my machine gets shot to hell and I have to dive away as fast as I can. fighting at night brings new meaning to "didn't see that coming"! I was badly damaged. I had seen an artillery barrage lighting up the landscape 10 minutes earlier so it was clear that I was at least 10 miles behind enemy lines-- so all I could do was hope that if I headed north and dove at full speed that my black Albatros would disappear into the night and the French would see fit to let me go! I couldn't recognize the landscape-- and calculated that diving at over 100 mph for some 10 minutes would probably get me far enough where I could be safely behind my own lines. it wasn't until 15 minutes later when I crossed over the massive dark swath known as the Argonne forest that I knew I was safely behind German lines. when I landed it was impossible to keep my right wing from clipping the ground so the machine was a complete write-off even though I was able to land safely. on the second mission it was quite the opposite: I managed to shoot down two Nieuports after 10-15 minutes of really savage combat. 10/3/1918 18h55 Verdun Mars-sous-Bourcq Patrol Friendly Front Lines Flying: Albatros DVa. On this day claims: 1 Single Seater Type. the weather is still good. scattered clouds, star-lit sky. east of Argonne at 19:15 I see flak bursting near a large cloud on my right. I turn over to investigate. as I draw closer the flak becomes more intense, and the bursts are moving away from the clouds. I see three glittering silver specks in the moon-light. Nieuports! they start turning towards us, and I give out the order for a general attack. I pick one fellow and stay on him. it takes all of my concentration to stay on this Frenchman. he's a nimble and crafty opponent. after a long series of turns, counter-turns, dives, and zoom-climbs I put several long bursts into him. the range of fire varied from 300 to 30 ft. I shot up him so badly he began spraying out fuel. with a fuel leak like that streaming across the sky, and with his silver-doped Nieuport, there's no way I could lose sight of him now. I move in for the kill and open fire. he bursts into flames and falls to pieces. I'm blinded for a minute so I start into a hard turn and close my eyes for a moment to get re-oriented. the Nieuport 24 crashed east of the Argonne at 19:20. this victory was witnessed by Otto Schneider.. Witnessed by: Otto Schneider Status : Pending . 10/3/1918 18h55 Verdun Mars-sous-Bourcq Patrol Friendly Front Lines Flying: Albatros DVa. On this day claims: 1 Single Seater Type. after destroying my first enemy I looked behind me and saw that the flak bursts were not relenting. I turned back into the battle and saw two fiery spiral plumes and feared that some of my men were now dead. it was hard to tell if they were friend or foe-- because all of the aircraft had the sesquiplane configuration. I saw a silver machine glinting past me at 2 o'clock high and turned into him. he was determined to stay above me. so I would turn against him and climb. if he got on my tail I would dive and reverse directions. once I managed to reverse our situation he proved even more troublesome! I fired several hundred rounds into him without noticing any sort of result! he went into a series of sharp turns that lost me. everytime I managed to get on him he'd turn sharply towards me and nearly ram my machine. then I'd climb and try to swing back onto his tail-- but it was useless. finally Otto Schneider came howling down from behind and gave the Frenchmen a good long burst. the Nieuport began pouring out fuel and I was certain that he would be done for. Otto must have had a gun jam because he mysteriously failed to follow through with his attack. so I once more tried to conquer this Nieuport. he went into a flat-scissors and made life difficult for me. I could not catch him. but I saw that he was getting comfortable. so when he turned to the left I went into a climbing right hand turn as hard as I could, then snapped back down and was lucky to land right behind him! I was barely 40 ft away when I panicked and fired everything I had at him! his lower left wing broke away, as did pieces of his upper left wing, as a result of my withering barrage. the Nieuport snapped over into a spin and began flying apart as it tumbled towards the ground. it crashed east of the Argonne at about 19:30. this victory was witnessed by Otto Schneider. Witnessed by: Otto Schneider Status : Pending .

in Quick Combat spawns are of great value. as they can help you practice your marksmanship. there's really no better way to practice the skill. where else can you fly a Fokker E.III and shoot down 15 aircraft in a single sortie? (my practice for intercept duties was to take 8 bombers and THEN have the same two-seater type flying as the escort machines. you get really good at flaming Hannovers and BE2c that way) in the original CFS3 spawns were damned annoying because they would always 'generate' a flight of enemy aircraft above you. it didn't matter if you approached the target in real-time at high or low altitude. enemy formations would just show up above you and dive down and attack you. the other really annoying thing about spawns in CFS3 is that if you approached the target outside of the line-of-flight dictated by the mission the enemy might never appear! here's an example: let's say that you're supposed to attack a ground target in France (a V-2 rocket site). you start off in England. you approach the target in real time-- but rather than approaching directly you decided to cut around to the north, go in behind it and attack it from the east. this would make sense. you can stay at high altitudes and dive in on the target make your gunnery pass and then keep your speed up and fly back to jolly old England. I've done this on sorties where the targets should have been heavily defended-- but they weren't. because somehow I didn't trigger the spawn by ignoring the flight path. having said all that... I would like to point out that spawning infantry to march out of trench positions would actually be really cool.

I think my biggest claims disappointment thus far just happened a little while ago. I was with two other Roland C.II and a trio of Fokker E.III providing escorts on an arty spot. when we reached the target we were attacked by 9 Airco DH2 from 24 Squadron. the battle started at 11,000 ft east of Lens and spiralled all the way down to the deck. during the course of that battle my observer and I managed to bring down at least four enemy machines (two of which were flown by Saundby and John Oliver Andrews). then after getting out of there alive, I headed back home and spotted a trio of Airco's beneath me as I started climbing up. I got above and behind them, then dove down at 180 mph on the trailing Airco and got him completely by surprise. made it back home and it wouldn't let me make any claims because my wingmen were dead. which is too bad, really, because the Fokker E.IIIs that were providing escort were with me the whole time! ah, such is life... and death, in OFF

NINE Aircos diving from altitude on three Rolands and three Fokkers isn't very good odds. at the time I could only think of two options: 1. I could dive away and leave the three escorts to certain death with odds of 3-against-1 and completely inferior machines. we would have no escort for the rest of our flight... the Aircos would most certainly not allow us to do our range-finding duties over the target. the mission was a failure as soon as those Aircos showed up. they went straight after us and our escorts had no means of escape. 2. if we stayed to fight (and I did have hopes that my wingmen would be more aggressive) that would make the odds of our 6 against their 9. the Roland had more firepower and comparable speed when compared to the DH.2. if we got lucky we could destroy a large quantity of enemy machines and force them to flee. further I was pushing the flight towards friendly lines were flak could help us out. 3. we were east of Lens, so we could expect help from friendly anti-aircraft artillery as the fight descended. whether we chose to run away or fight, these guns would come to our aid eventually. bottom line: I didn't want to abandon those three Fokker monoplanes. it seemed worse to me, at the time, to abandon those three pilots to their deaths when I had the power to stay and help them. I honestly felt that if we all stayed together and fought hard enough that we could have one with no losses. the Roland is superior to the Airco in most respects outside of turning battles. it made sense to stay and fight so that the Fokkers weren't lost. of course, the loss of two pilots and two observers is probably worse than saving three friendly scout pilots! but I freely admit I wasn't thinking along those lines at the time. so next time perhaps I will try to save four lives instead of three. I do have pilots where I go chasing after victories at the expense of everything else. but that's not what I was trying to do in this situation. the claims bummer is this: had this occurred in the real world I'm fairly sure that I could have gotten at least a few confirmed victories. after all, I had shot down 5 British fighters down in flames over German territory in the presence of my three assigned escort fighters. a limitation of the game engine I guess. it could be worse. any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

now that you mention it, I have noticed that cutting throttle before a turn helps out a lot. the rudder is very responsive-- maybe a little too much so. I've found that the 28 is best handled stick, throttle rudder. that rolling over on a stall proved handy when I was dogfighting Dr.Is in Quick Combat. there was no way I could out-turn them in the level, but if I knew that I was going to roll over in a stall and drop like a rock, the Nieuport 28 recovers pretty readily if you pick up speed. I've been practing in the floating chase-plane view Shift + F6 and doing a couple of Free Flights. that's helped me out tremendously. I can get a better feel of how the aircraft behaves in various parts of the flight envelope. inside the forward cockpit view I can't get a good feeling for what the machine is doing. and, since I don't have Track-IR this seems like the most practical solution.

I got really lucky with this one. I got shot down twice. the first time I was taken prisoner for 20 days but managed to escape. such was my tremendous good fortune that I elected to go with the most outrageous paint scheme I could think of.

oh yeah, I forgot to mention how he died. he was attacking a Bristol Scout at his preferred distance of... 35 ft! y'know how sometimes when you shoot down an enemy plane they lurch up and go into a Dead Man's spiral. well... that lurching up part is what got Oskar killed! normally I dive off to one side (usually the right) to avoid collisions before preparing another attack. breaking right also makes it harder for Bristol Scouts to get on my tail. with this last attack I started climbing off to the left side... this was an obvious mistake because if the Bristol pilot had not just gotten himself killed he could have gotten on my tail if he were any good. so... yeah, food for thought. I knew some of the claims would never get accepted because my wingmen were over 1000 ft away... but I went for the kills anyway out of... um "strong moral convictions"? yeah, that's it. that's the ticket.