Hasse Wind

I encountered an Eindecker in my last mission. It was more exciting than usually, as this time I was truly alone with no wingmen or escorting Bristol Scouts. I was able to avoid combat and put my Quirk down at the closest Entente airfield. I'm now tempted to start a new German campaign in 1915, flying the Eindecker. I disliked the big Eindecker formations, which made air combat feel more like the battles of the final war year. This mod should take care of that little problem. I hope we'll be seeing similar improvements officially in P4. And hopefully the waypoint system won't be such a mess in the lone wolf missions of P4. I don't have the time and patience to fly every mission in real time - I do it occasionally when I feel like it and have enough energy and concentration, but otherwise I warp when nothing is going on.

I've never understood the fascination some people have with dramatic deaths. Did Voss fight bravely against overwhelming odds? Yes, undoubtedly. Did his sacrifice benefit the cause of Germany in any way? No, it didn't. He would have been much more useful to his Staffel, his comrades and his fatherland as a living ace, who could have shared his knowledge with novice pilots and helped them to improve their chances of survival as a fighting team against numerically and often technologically superior Entente forces. The British pilots who shot him down demonstrated just how to fight effectively as a team, and not go looking for trouble alone against numerically superior enemies. It was a miracle Voss lived as long as he did with his totally reckless and aggressive style of flying. Yes, it was dramatic and the stuff of legends, but also reckless and downright stupid. Voss was no leader and tactician compared to MvR. A brilliant lone wolf type of pilot, but definitely not what the German air force needed in the final months of the war.

If you keep waiting for P4, you might just as well wait for P5, and so on. I'd advise you to get P3 now and enjoy it until P4 comes. P3 is currently the best WW1 flight sim available. You won't regret buying it. I never played P2, but I understand P3 is much improved.

Okay, I've now been flying with this mod for a few hours. I really like it so far - it definitely makes the year 1915 more realistic, and the weather improvements are great to have. The only problem is that the lone wolf mission type creates some crazy waypoint combinations, so when warping it's advisable to skip some of them and direct the aircraft to the assigned patrol area. Other than that, everything seems to be working fine. I really appreciate your work with this mod, Bletchley. It greatly improves the early war careers. This is now a must-have mod for me, in addition to HPW's DM mod and Creaghorn's tracer mod. Well done, Sir.

I'd choose life over a dramatic death every time. What did Voss really achieve, besides going down in a blaze of glory? He would have been much more useful to his country as a living ace than a dead hero. Voss was probably the best example of a pilot who was far too aggressive for his own good. It was only a matter of time before his recklessness got him killed. What good is fame when you're dead?

gunz, you'll be doing a great disservice to yourself if you don't buy OFF because you don't like the DVD format. It's simply the best WW1 flight sim currently. And P4 will be a completely different beast, so it will be sold separately.

TrackIR really does solve the most obvious visibility problems. It's simply amazing. It's also expensive, but absolutely worth the money. It changed the way I play flight sims. I honestly think no sim fan should be without one. If ever there was an item worth saving for, it's TrackIR.

The smoke for Entente Archie has been white for a long time in OFF. But I don't think all the various AA equipment is modelled. That would be pretty hardcore. Maybe some day...

Ah, okay. I'm not at home currently, so unfortunately I can't test this mod and the AA effects. It sounds very exciting, though.

Big and greedy publishers (like EA and Ubisoft) are ruining all quality and creativity in games, because all they care about is maximizing profits and pleasing the shareholders.

Excellent work, Creaghorn. I'm sure your pilot is among the most longest-lived pilots ever to fly in OFF. And you are correct in that other people also have pilots that reach high numbers of flight hours. Call it superstition or something, but I don't like to talk about my best pilots too much.

Archie should reach its maximum effectiveness only quite late in the war. I've been using the easy settings for all my early war careers, and usually switch it to normal in 1917 for a more realistic threat.

I'll give this one a try as soon as I can. I'm flying a BE.2 career in 1915 (RFC 4, 150 hours) and that time period definitely needs some improvements. Thanks in advance!

When I was much younger I used to build models. I was never very good at it, and after seeing what real pros could do, I sort of gave up on that hobby. Man, assembling all those cables the WW1 crates have would drive me nuts!

It really depends on the pilot. I don't feel much for new and inexperienced pilots - if he goes down, I forget him and create a new one. But when the pilot has achieved something and has flown many missions, everything becomes much more serious. I don't want to lose my best pilots, so flying missions with them can be very exciting and also tiring, if I have to fight hard for survival. When I was flying the DID campaign here (I've been too busy and lazy to do that anymore), the missions were sometimes downright stressful, as I had invested so much in the pilot.

I wonder if there's something in the RE.8 that's causing this? I've experienced the same problem a couple of times, but only when I'm flying the RE.8. I haven't seen it with any other aircraft. Fortunately it's extremely rare.

Too many quality sims being released these days. How am I supposed to be able to play them all? WW1 is my main interest, but I also enjoy WW2 sims a lot.

That looks deadly. And they have trucks using the road... crazy.

My Fokker D.VII careers have been short affairs. I usually fly in Jasta 10 or Jasta 5, and they see plenty of action during the final months of the war. Especially in Jasta 5 it almost feels like you can't get your Fokker off the ground without crashing into Entente scouts. I admit I've been flying the Fokker far too aggressively. But if one of my serious German pilots (who all start in 1916 flying two-seaters) ever lives long enough to get the Fokker, I'll be more careful. Still it won't be easy, even if one tries to maintain energy and altitude and avoid low altitude furballs against hordes of Entente scouts. As a fighter, the D.VII of course does everything better than the Albatros. Having stronger wings is alone a great improvement, not to mention everything else that's better. Edit: And if you survive long enough to get to fly the improved D.VIIF with its powerful BMW high-altitude engine, air combat becomes even more enjoyable. No Entente fighter will be able to outclimb you above 1000 metres, not even the SPAD XIII.

One way to attempt to deal with these structural problems is to use energy tactics as much as possible when flying the Alb. Try to maintain altitude and don't go turning after opponents for too long. The OFF Albs handle diving quite well, so that's what you should use more than turning. It might work, or not. Unfortunately I'm no Alb expert. The Albs do lack some power compared to the best energy fighters. Or try flying the Pfalz. A pretty fighter with no structural problems at all.

l'll add my voice to the choir and praise your pic, Dej. Looks really great.

It was spring, and love was in the air: Okay, maybe not my best screenshot ever, but you don't see this every day!

If we look purely at production numbers and how many Jastas used which aircraft, then the Pfalz D.XII (800 built) would be a better candidate for inclusion into OFF, before the Roland (350 built). It was even faster and tougher, so you could properly imitate the energy tactics of the tough Entente SPAD's and SE.5's. And now my trademark: we need more new two-seaters before any new fighters!

Bored? With OFF? What nonsense!

I hope to see more of this behaviour in P4. Not every mission needs to turn into a bloody massacre. In P3, having higher cloud settings (at least 3) makes it harder for both human and AI pilots to spot other aircraft.