Waldemar Kurtz

I did something kinda similar with RB3d-- but it didn't use all of the names-- it stopped around 2-300. but, my question then is, so long as the data is formated in the same manner you have here-- then I could presumably expand ALL of the various names of the various flying services? I've already decided I wanted to scrabble together an alternate list of American names for a Lafayette Escadrille career... cuz, I just don't feel quite right seeing all of those French names in a squadron that's supposed to have American volunteers! so if I just switch the appropriate "FrenchLastNames" and "FrenchFirstNames" out (and save the originals as back-up) the problem's solved, right?

"These bombs may be used against kite balloons. they can be burst at any desired height below an aeroplane, and when burst spread out a shower of burning phosphorus over a circle of about 250 yards diameter. consequently, a balloon will be hit if it is not more than 125 yards from the center of the burning particles. ..." "the lumps of phosphorus slowly burn out while falling, and about half burn out while falling the first 2,000 feet from the burst. consequently, bombs should be timed to burst about 700 ft above the target, and any bomb which is burst more than 3,000 ft above the target is practically useless" "when attacking an object of known height, all bombs are set to the same fuse timing. since each covers a circle of 250 yards diameter, it is useless to release two at the same moment, and since the aeroplane will travel about 40 to 50 yards per second, an interval of about 4 seconds should be made between the release of successive bombs. if this is done with four bombs, an area of about 250 x 800 yards will be covered, and thus considerable errors in range can be made without missing the target." I just got "Details of Aerial Bombs" a reprint of the Air Ministry's 1918 publication from the Imperial War Museum as printed through the Naval and Military Press. (ISBN 184574278). it's got all sorts of things from how to assemble the bombs properly, how the bomb racks work. even going into detail about Very cartridges, flare launchers... high explosive, incendiary, and leaflet boms-- pretty much anything and everything connected to bombs and flares in the RAF gets covered. a fun, fun book.

I've just finished a late war career where 80 percent of all of my assigned missions were scramble sorties. given that I was flying for a Schusta 24b near Cambrai-- I would have hoped I would get at least one ground forces attack mission! is there any way to swap the scramble mission out and replace it with something more plausible? I've already tried the "cut-and-paste" approach of pasting missions in from the corresponding fighter mission text file--but that just makes the game freeze up and become unplayable. given that the Roland can't carry bombs at all--it makes sense to bypass bombing missions when I'm doing a Roland career. likewise, it would make sense to give it balloon busting missions and escort duties since they actually performed these duties during the Battle of Verdun. just thinking here... obviously by the end of 1916 we don't want every German two-seater unit doing balloon busting attacks or escort work! then again, FA62 is a bomber unit equiped exclusively with Fokker monoplanes-- so it's not that strange, I guess.

I've never posted pictures before--so here goes my first try my brush with death. this Camel was pressing his attack SO close that we clipped each other's wings.

speaking of which, would it be possible for me to edit the mission files to simply remove scramble missions from the list of available bomber missions? I notice I get a crap-load of scramble missions and have yet to get a single "close air support" or escort mission. for a Schusta this would have been unusual. the Schlasta were basically dedicated close-air-support, ground attack types that also did escort work for other two-seaters. and yet I find most of this career has been frittered away on scramble missions. I've also noticed that bombers are never given "Ground Forces Attack" missions--and yet I get them in the SPAD VII a lot. which doesn't really make sense to me. a Hannover CL.III squadron should be getting that mission a couple of times a day. I've tried adding "Ground Forces Attack" to the "GermanyBomberMisssionTypes1918" but I ended having the careers crash because of it. apparently just doing a cut-and-paste of the necessary text data doesn't quite work! oh yeah, and I'm staying away from the Battle of Cambrai until I get better, lol!

I've been taking your advice on taking whatever they give me--but 80 percent of my career has turned into scramble missions where I get shot down inside of 10 minutes--and if I'm lucky, I just start landing before I get killed. not a lot fun, to be honest. maybe that's how it was in late 1917 for a German two-seater career--but... I wouldn't want to make a habit of that. unremarkably, I got shot down by a swarm of SPAD VIIs from Escadrille 153 near Arras. I was supposedly going to bomb the railyard west of the city without any sort of escort. we all got wiped out in about 45 seconds. I lost control of my machine so I just pointed my nose at the nearest British trench and BOOM! at least I took somebody out with me!

even though the BE2c is actually faster than the Fokker E.III in the game (which ain't historicallly accurate)... that's still pretty good! Sholto Douglas pulled off the same thing-- hedge-hopping his way to safety and narrowly evading Boelcke and Immelmann in the fall of 1915. in fact he was flying so wildly and putting his plane through all manner of heavy manuevers that his observer actually threw up and collapsed in the cockpit. that moment was apparently dramatic enough where Boelcke thought he'd killed the observer! (guess he wasn't close enough to tell the difference between blood and vomit!)... .... so maybe you'll take over the whole Royal Air Force one day! ;)

SORTIE NO.1 let's see, the first sortie was a scramble (man, I hate those things!!! ) so I'm getting ready to take off and head to the front with some bombs (I'm trying to pretend we had plans, and got caught by surprise). so I find myself in 70 minute long dogfight against 6 SPAD XIII from Escadrille 3! I managed to shoot down two of them before I got SOO frustrated I gave up and landed. those SPADs just wouldn't not fly away and leave me alone... but they wouldn't attack me either. so I had two guys trying to shoot me down and another guy who wiped out the rest of my flight--and three guys just wandering around up above me making it impossible for me to escape towards the front lines. so, FINALLY, after blowing off about 1100 rounds (with the front gun and the observer) I shot down two of them and landed. (I got one of them confirmed, and the other rejected--even though they both crashed right in the middle of two different German aerodromes!) SORTIE NO.2 a ground attack near the trenches west of Cambrai. I blow up 7 entrenched troop positions, a couple of machine gun nests, and cripple a wave of attacking British infantry before flying home. SORTIE NO.3 another annoying scramble mission. I run like hell to the lines--hoping to either catch some friendly infantry, or drop some bombs on the British advancing army. the Camels wipe out my wingmates (who I don't have a chance in hell of saving) and follow me 7 miles to the front, shooting all the while. I finally cross the trenches and am flying SO low that when I drop my bombs on the British advance troop positions that the frag-pattern blast nearly blows me out of the sky. I hit the ground, bounce really hard, and level out. I strafe a British tank in front of me and then I see a wall of machine guns opening up right in my face. my engine cuts out and I crash in the British trenches. (I figured, "WOW, this must be the shortest career ever") and then I get told "you escaped captivity after 19 days!") SORTIE NO.4 (it would have been a scramble but I thought, "screw that!") and hit time advance! then I find myself on an arty-spot. as we're approaching Douai, getting ready to head towards the line our paltry flight of three DFW C.Vs gets attacked by 6 Sopwith Camels! these guys were shooting us up badly. one of them get so close his right wing-tip hit my left wing and he ended up ripping about 20 percent of his right wing off. miraculously he seems to have suffered no deterioration in performance--whereas I had quite a bit of trouble. my observer shot up a few other guys, and I spiralled to the ground--getting shot up by Camels all the while. I crash-landed behind our lines and found myself thinking.... "I am not long for this world, am I?" this has been the exact opposite of my otherwise pleasant and unexciting early war BE2c careers!

I'm more prone to being a shooter-- but I always like to dictate the terms of combat as much as possible. it's not unusual for me to grab a Roland C.II or DFW C.V and then single-handedly attack flights of 6 or more Sopwith Strutters and FE2bs over German lines. the main reason I don't identify with being a 'shooter' is that I always try to have a way out of the situation if I can help it. I often spend 10 minutes or more stalking a single enemy machine. usually attacking from blind spots. on average, when I engage the enemy, I get around one-to-three confirmed kills. so I picked "two". I didn't count missions where no enemy activity is encountered or combat was not engaged-- because that doesn't really reflect the situation properly. if I included how many victories I get per sortie--well, then it would be less than one per mission. but if I consider only those "combat missions" as the frame of reference than "two" is the average. since I like to fly two-seater careers a lot I generally avoid combat except for all but the most favorable circumstances... or when I've got absolutely no choice! if I'm flying a DFW C.V and I get bounced by 8 Sopwith Triplanes and Nieuoprt 17s there's no way in hell I'm getting out of there without a fight!

since Lille was historically an important railway hub for the German army for most of the war-- I find that if I just fly around Lille for awhile I will eventually find trains. I've found trains there two missions in a row. the problem is, I can't seem to destroy it with my BE2c!

I was running repeated bombing passes on a moving German train, and although at least three of the runs looked like direct hits, there was no discernible damage. to make matters worse, in the mission debrief it seems to have come to the conclusion that nothing happened! I assume that bombs are the best way to destroy trains--but are the light early war 20 British pound bombs good enough?

attack them where they are most vulnerable: the FE2b (a pusher) is best attacked from below and in front. there is no engine to protect the pilot and observer. attack all tractor types with either an overhead pass or from 6 o'clock low-- preferrably both, and in that order. but, yeah, the best method for dusting off two-seaters is a shallow diving attack head-on. you'll hit the engine (if you aim well) and force them out of the formation. at which point you can take your time and pepper them at medium ranges. then fly at their 6 o'clock low. get direction below them, perhaps 400 feet below, then zoom climb and give them a quick burst. then immediately turn away-- otherwise they'll turn and kill you at the top of your zoom-climb. make sure you kick the rudder bar around a lot as you dive away. if you've played your cards right, and aimed well, after two solid bursts like that the two-seater is doomed. if you don't get them one of your squadron mates will-and that's just as well. the aforementioned method works in WWI and WWII flight sims. I've used it on the original Red Baron, Aces over Europe, Aces over the Pacific, Red Baron 3d, Flying Corps Gold, European Air War, Combat Flight Simulator's 1, 2, and 3... and, of course Over Flanders Fields. I don't turn with two-seaters unless I've killed the observer. if you HAVE to turn with them-- stay on the blind side. they can't shoot through the wings and fuselage. early in the war, the Roland C.II can only be safely brought down with zoom-attacks from below. conversely, the best German interceptor for dealing with Allied two-seaters early in the war is the Roland. it's not until the arrival of the Albatros D.I and D.II that the Germans acquire a scout that has the speed and firepower to take out enemy two-seaters. the BE2c is actually modelled more like the BE2e or the BE12-- thusly the Fokker E.III and Halberstadt D.II will have trouble keeping up with it.

"Lawrence of Arabia"... oops, I guess that wasn't on the list!

so, if I'm joining the Lafayette Escadrille and don't really want to see tons of French names among the AI pilot roster-- would it be safe (or advisable) for me to go in and swap out the original data for the names and replace it with more 'American' sounding ones. I know with good 'ole RB3d that this was not a problem-- you could add hundreds of names (although it seemed to stop searching after about 200 names) for fun and variety. anbody else tried this out?

I always ALWAYS A-L-W-A-Y-S cherry pick my flights. why? because the mission planner loves to assign my flights to ridiculous sorties. I think my favorite is where I was based near Calais and I get sent to fly a mission all the way down near Cambrai and St. Quentin! I just can't believe that would ever happen. obviously a carry-over of the CFS3 game engine!

I fly with the labels on, to be honest. about half the time I turn them off when combat commences-- just so I can figure out what's going on. labels can obscure the target. my computer isn't that high-tech, so I use the labels to see enemys that my box won't even animate--because I have all the graphic settings set pretty low. anti-aircraft fire can be used to find enemy machines. I usually LISTEN for them and then start sweeping areas that I know are going to be targets... like front line positions, cities, or aerodromes. since I use TAC, it's much easier to find out where the archie is bursting. but the lables are useful because while I easily recognize hundreds of paint schemes and squadron colors-- I can't remember them all THAT quickly. so I use this to help me ID enemy machines. I'll alternate between the "Scroll Lock" positions every so often. this allows me to quick-check my six and wings. but at other times I'll want to use the joystick to scroll around the cockpit. another method is to adjust the point-of-view. I usually try to have it set as high and as far back as possible for a little while (it's like standing up in the cockpit, which some people obviously did). this allows me to scroll around in the cockpit and look for ground targets/landmarks, look over the sides of the wings and fuselage. and it allows me to look over the top wing (which is where most of my enemies seem to show up). you can always jump back to the default position by the key commands "spacebar" "shift" and "ctrl" (aka "sit down") another tip is this-- the longer it takes your mission to load properly after the debriefing, the higher the probability that you will run into enemy machines. if it jumps straight into the mission the odds are that you won't see anything! which means you can focus on ground attack or just keeping an eye out on enemy ground activity. I wish I could remember all of the key commands and quote them to you here. but press "Esc" and it will call up the pull-down menu. then you can just look through all of the key commands in the appropriate spot. find out what works best for you by experimentation and getting killed a lot! ;)

last night I had to use every trick I could think of (which wasn't as much as I had hoped it would be). I was flying a Nieuport 11 on a recon patrol when my flight of three got attacked by six Fokker Eindeckers from above. I didn't even see them, as I was busy firing rockets at trucks and infantry on the ground. but I suddenly turned around to make another pass and I saw a huge furball of a dozen planes twisting around just above the hill tops! I found one guy and shot him down and found myself under fire. I turned hard to the left, and that didn't shake him, then reversed direction and that had no effect. this Fokker was all over me for some reason. I then tried kicking the rudder bar around and turning again-- same result. only this time I fell into a spin! I had maybe 500 feet and a huge mountainside beneath me... I was pretty sure I was gonna die. so I cut the engine and rolled even harder to my left. then I pulled back on the stick and got ready to die... but I head a loud crack and my machine bounced harshly off the downward slope of the hill and I firewalled my engine and started to climb. just barely crashing into another ridge on the mountainside. I gained some alt, hoping the Fokker had ignored me or thought me dead--but no such luck. this time he came at me again--but he was far enough away I could gain some altitude. I held down hard left rudder and began a slight right hand turn, and then reversed that. I could see he was getting even closer. my hope was that he would overshoot me. but he just started climbing. so then I began pulling the nose up and down to bleed off speed. that got his attention, he tried attacking, so I began to dive. as he got closer I pulled up as sharply as I could and kicked the rudder over hard left and fell into another spin. I tumbled over three or four times and then recovered at his 4 o'clock low. since I was already in a pursuit attitude I climbed up behind him and emptied 80 rounds into the guy and killed him. but by now I had three other fokkers to worry about. so I was weaving in and out of the hill tops. every time I went over a ridge I'd see how safe it was to dive-- the dive full out with hard rudder to one side or the other. the AI tends to (like people) not always account for side-slipping, so that saved me a dozen times over on this mission. your evasion tactics should vary from plane to plane. if you can turn better than most of your adversaries than a flat or rolling scissors might be the key to getting out of trouble. if you can outclimb then climb. if you're in an SE5a against a Dr.I a very shallow high-speed climb is the best way to get out of there. or, for example, the Roland C.II is technically supposed to be about 10 mph faster than the Airco DH.2 at low altitudes-- so this tactic should work in that situation as well. I understand full well the strategy of flying towards the nearest friendl landmark bristling with machine guns. on the very next mission I was foolish enough to chase a low flying Fokker near an infantry position and I saw at least 6 machine gun nests open up on me. the air was filled with so many tracers I could barely see! so I let fly with all of my rockets (didn't even try to aim) and ran the hell away. I didn't want the German THAT badly! it's terrible, I know, but I've been taken prisoner behind friendly lines so often (just becaus EA were nearby) that sometimes I just put the machine down somewhere flat-- put the throttle on 10% and jump into the observer's chair and open fire on anything that gets close enough for me to kill! it's preposterous for me to land 3 miles behind the front lines and be declared a POW just because there's three enemy aircraft overhead. so, if I know that I'm doomed and have to make a dead-stick landing-- I usually try to jump into the observer's chair as quickly as possible and just start blasting people away.

does anybody else have the experience of getting victories that they didn't claim? I've had it happen twice to one pilot. I shot down 5 enemy machines in a single sortie--but all but two these were made behind my lines with no witnesses. I definitely shot down two in flames, but couldn't tweak the second claim enough to have the manager accept it as valid. so, frustrated as I was, I put in a claim for a single victory and called it good. later on in the campaign I was given credit for two victories in spite of having made only one claim. I mentioned two aircraft in that single claim--but I specifically pointed out that only one machine went down in that claim. a week or so later, I shot down two enemy machines--and again, could only get the claims forms to accept ONE of the two claims. but when that victory was confirmed I was given another victory as well. so, what I'm wondering is, why wouldn't the claims form accept these additional victories--but the manager awarded claims that I didn't make? my best guess is that since this was a Bristol Fighter career that my observer must have scored some kills in the presence of my wingmen and these 'ghost claims' were added to my score.

that's true-- I've had British pilots flame 5 German planes in a single scramble sortie and have every last claim denied in spite of one of the German plans CRASHING into a hangar at my very own aerodrome!

oddly enough, OFF isn't very eager to discourage you BEFORE you blow something up. I think this must be a hard-coded CFS3 problem. because I can vividly remember flying a Junkers Ju.88 in at low altitude and spamming bombs and rockets at a oil refinery over England at no more than 700 feet. you can bet if a real German twin-engined bomber was scraping the deck at 300 mph there would be a wall of flak so thick you could probably walk on it! but the guns didn't even open up until AFTER I had flattened over half of the refinery. since balloons are actually ground targets-- I fear that OFF won't dish out preventative fire to keep you AWAY... it'll just open up with everything after you've made a pass at the target. although I do recall in earlier versions that I've had Fokker monoplanes turned into fiery cinders before I even reached the balloon--but for some reason machine guns almost never open fire until the balloon is already quite dead. I'm still a novice at this game--but I bet other people have noticed this too. RB3d (especially with the later WFP modifications) had pretty nasty defensive machine gun fire. they'd tear your plane apart if you flew level towards a balloon. the downside of RB3D is that the machine guns could reach up to ridiculous altitudes and kill you. (sometimes between 3-4,000 feet, which was just not even possible). in OFF you have to be pretty low in order to get killed instantly by ground fire. so, in this respect, it's a bit more realistic than RB3d...although both games have the balloons being a bit too easy to destroy. this is probably one of those few areas where I feel RB3d surpasses OFF.

I still attack balloons even if they're not designated targets and it never goes into my score. I don't think I've ever had a confirmed victory over a balloon so I stopped worrying about it. on recon patrols, if there's nothing else going on, and I haven't seen any enemy machines, I'll dive down and attack a balloon of opportunity. I figure they can at least add to my score in some small way.

ooooooooh! now all they've gotta do is build an LVG C.II and arm it with a Hotchkiss replica and then they can stage Oswald Boelcke's first aerial victory at air shows! :D (hey, a guy can dream, right?) that video is cool. thanks for posting it.

the chief engineer for the shipping company I work with has a big sign inside of the mech-shop: "if you make something idiot proof they'll just build a better idiot"

of COURSE you felt silly-- you didn't give Boelcke enough victories by the end of the war!

roger that, I've been trying that... but I usually get bounced by 3 to 6 British airplanes before I can even cross the lines... so usually I just have to ditch my bombs and fight for my life!