Hasse Wind

Most war movies are crap. This one is no exception. When war films are made, the usual procedure is to change the way things happened in reality. I could understand that to a certain extent, if it is absolutely necessary for story purposes, but the way it's usually done completely clashes with history, and it disgusts me to watch such lies being portrayed as a true story. Even the best films, such as the miniseries The Band of Brothers, are not 100% historically accurate. There's always something that the directors and writers think needs to be changed. But I guess most people don't even realize or care about such things, as long as there's plenty of fighting and killing and famous last words.

What everybody else said.

If this was an infantry simulator, having extremely realistic looking trees would be important. But it's not top priority in a WW1 flight sim, in my opinion. So it's a very good attitude that you are not willing to sacrifice FPS for that.

I wonder how much more demanding P4 will be, hardware-wise, than P3? The graphics are certainly much improved.

That's funny, though the best thing to do would be to ignore such idiots completely. They only drag you to their level in the mud if you start trading insults with them.

They weren't as agile as the normal Albs. But their purpose was also different, and they weren't expected to fight against the same opponents as on land.

Two-seaters!

Yeah, I hope we'll see these naval aircraft in OFF some day.

Maybe it was one of these?

Oh. Well, you're the Albatros expert and have much more experience flying those birds than I do, so I trust your observations are correct.

The AI aircraft have a speed advantage, yes - but haven't they always had it in CFS3? They are not troubled by the weight of fuel and ammo, as far as I know. I always use auto mixture to help even the odds somewhat, because if the AI is always operating at best performance, why shouldn't my engine too? Even the SPAD XIII, the fastest fighter in the sim, doesn't always give you enough speed to leave the AI opponents behind. It's just something I've learned to accept as one of the quirks of CFS3, but of course I hope things will be different in P4. It doesn't bother me too much in any case, as I mostly fly two-seaters such as the Fee and the BE2, which are slower than anything else up there.

Every nation that participated in the Second World War was guilty of war crimes, at least to some extent. That's what happens when huge armies go to fight a total war for many years. There will always be some bad apples among so many people. But in some armies, it was official policy to act in a barbarous way. The German army (Heer) fought in a different way in the west - they treated western prisoners and civilians very well for the most part, but on the Eastern front, it was a completely different matter. Even though the generals and field marshals of the Wehrmacht tried to hide the crimes after the war, the fact remains that the Wehrmacht gave full support to the Gestapo and SS murderers in the occupied eastern territories. And Stalin's Red Army was in many ways just as bad, killing and raping their way through Eastern Europe and into Germany herself, not to mention the horrible way they treated Axis prisoners of war. The Imperial Japanese Army was also notorious for its cruelty. They showed no mercy to enemy soldiers and civilians, and didn't expect to receive it either. In the end, the people of Japan had to pay a very heavy price for the cruelty and stupidity of their leaders. Unlike German soldiers, who for the most part gave full support to their regime until the very end (as always, there were exceptions and not everybody was a fanatic Nazi), the Italians were never eager to fight and die for Mussolini and his fascist lackeys. That explains for the most part the poor record of the Italian army in WW2. They just didn't feel like it was their war to fight. Some branches of the Italian armed forces did perform quite well, like the air force. But the longer the war continued, the more the Italians felt that they were participating in it just because Germany demanded it and Mussolini was too weak to say no to Hitler.

Interesting stories here. I don't know much about the war service of my paternal or maternal grandfather, unfortunately. One of them died of a stroke when I was too young to know and ask anything about the war, and the remaining one wanted to forget the whole thing; the memories must have been too painful, and he never talked much about it. I do know that they were both in the infantry and saw combat. As far as I know, they were both ordinary men who did their duty when it was demanded of them under very difficult and dangerous conditions. They didn't won scores of medals or lead armies to victory, but were simple soldiers like so many millions of other men in all countries during those dreadful years.

What a terrible loss. I know how it feels, as I'm sure many of us here do. I hope the bad mojo won't spread to my British pilot!

Why would they remove it? That would make no sense. QC is perfect for testing aircraft and practicing maneuvers, and for the occasional reckless dogfight that I try to avoid with my real career pilots.

Interesting. Maybe you encountered a more aggressive Escadrille/Squadron? Hopefully we'll see more of that in P4.

That AI setting is an interesting one for experimenting. I noticed that the SPAD XIIIs were very difficult to shoot down, because they stayed so high all the time. Now if they had dived down and attacked and then used that extra energy to climb back up, it would have been a great example of energy tactics in action, and they would have been really challenging opponents for a less powerful fighter. But unfortunately they really were "less aggressive", and didn't attack much at all. The less aggressive AI is perfect for the early war, but doesn't produce satisfactory results in later periods. We already know that the AI will be improved in P4. I'd love to see it using at least some of the proper tactics of WW1 air combat.

I can't complain about this summer too much. We've had some pretty typical weather with rains and stuff, but also many warm and sunny days. I've experienced many much worse summers than this one in the past. I'm really enjoying the short summer, as always. Winter is so terribly long, dark and cold (and snowy!) here that summer months are like a paradise to me.

Lewie, Uncleal's problems are definitely not your fault. He just went too far too many times.

Flying two-seaters for the most part, I use the rejoin command a lot. It helps in keeping the formation together and allows my flight to direct as much firepower as possible against attackers. Using Bletchley's mods, I've become quite used to flying many two-seater missions alone. It's wonderful when the doctrines change and I'm allowed to fly with several other aircraft. The difference in firepower is quite remarkable, and the feeling of safety that provides can't be overstated.

I fly two-seaters a lot (most of my flying time actually), and I don't think this has ever happened to me. If my crate gets hit very badly, my pilot usually dies with the observer.

Thanks for the explanation. It's a shame Uncleal never learned his lesson. Maybe he just couldn't control himself, I don't know.

Not only uniforms were purchased, but also officer ranks. This didn't happen anymore during the Great War, but it was also a common practice in many armies and navies well into the 19th century to purchase a commission. So if somebody had plenty of money and he wanted to have a career in the military, it was possible to become an officer through a simple purchase.

That was certainly common practice in many armies and navies (maybe all of them, I don't know) in the 19th century and before. Maybe it was done during WW1 too. Or maybe he wanted get a better, tailor-made uniform for himself instead of the ordinary army issue uniform?

You can also manually transfer your pilot from one squadron to another. Just replace the name of your current squadron (in Olham's example, Jasta 2) with the name of the squadron you are transferring in. The name must written correctly to avoid any problems. So if Olham wants to go to Jasta 11, he simply replaces Jasta 2 in that file with Jasta 11. Your new squadron will be shown in your pilot's book when you fly your first mission with them. In P4, it won't be necessary to transfer pilots manually. RAF_Lederhosen