Hasse Wind

I doubt that's the cause, Olham. When I had the problem, it was May 1917 and the weather was not bad at all. It's possible to keep flying even if the flight stays on ground, but you won't be able to use warp. Maybe the problem is somehow related to the RE.8? Now as I think about it, I've never had it with any other plane type, and Javito1986 is also flying them.

I've also seen this behaviour a couple of times. It's always happened in British two-seater squadrons. I'm always the flight leader, so I don't think it's related to that. The last time I experienced this was a few months ago. I was probably flying in RFC 21 (or 22) and had the rank of captain. The rest of my flight just refused to take off. A bug perhaps?

The best forum ever? Yeah, I can drink to that. Edit: Apprently one of the emoticons is not working, so move along people, nothing to see here.

Yes, a frontal attack against overwhelming odds has always been the most ingenious stratagem of the best military minds in history. It worked particularly well in WW1 with all those trenches, machine guns and quick-firing artillery. In my Blood April career, I often had to turn back when I encountered Albatrosses with red paint. But I wasn't retreating, really. I was only advancing in another direction.

I suppose there's nothing at the National Archives site? Such family research is quite popular here, though it's mostly about WW2 records (a very large part of the population participated in that war) and our National Archives have prepared guides for people who want to know what all the strange acronyms and other markings on military documents mean. Unfortunately I know nothing about British military records, but the people at your National Archives are more than willing to help, I bet. Such discoveries are always very interesting.

It's perfect for sightseeing in those early war careers. Easy to fly, no bad habits. But not something you want to fly in a battle in 1917.

On German side of the front, the Pfalz fighters (not the Morane-Saulnier types!) were popular balloon attack planes, because they could dive like no other German fighter. That was very useful when attacking a balloon from high above. It's rare to find a description of what it was like to be a balloon observer, but I know at least one such description from Major Georg Neumann's book Die deutschen Luftstreitkräfte im Weltkrieg (published in 1920), where a German balloon observer describes his experiences on the Eastern front. It's often forgotten that there actually were people in those balloons we so casually shoot down in flight sims, and often they were quite extensively trained and experienced observers and artillery spotters. Anyway, I don't have much problem with balloon attack missions. As a bomber pilot you don't get them.

I'd also like to see an improved BE2 and the BE12 in P4. I like to fly early war campaigns in BE2 squadrons. I had one very promising pilot but I lost him when my hard drive died. And I have fond memories of flying through the Bloody April with my BE2; every fighter jockey should give that a try, it teaches some humility.

Yeah, I also hope they'll take a look at the Nupe 28 for P4, if possible. It can be said the plane had a very marginal role in the war as a whole, but it was extremely important for the new American air force in the first half of 1918. Poor devs - they must be completely exhausted by these constant demands! I should start a new American campaign just to see what the N.28 can really do. Most of my experience with it comes from quick combat. EDIT: Now wouldn't it be great if P4 were to simulate engine trouble, which was extremely common in WW1 aircraft? How exciting it would be to lose your engine while flying deep behind enemy lines!

As far as I know, the wing wasn't the real problem of the N.28 - the unreliable Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine was the big one. The structural weaknesses of the wing were quickly fixed (and they didn't lead to that many accidents or casualties), but the engine problem was not so easy to solve. The SPAD XIII was the best French fighter of the war, so the American decision to get rid of the N.28's was definitely the correct one. The N.28 was no disaster as a fighter, but I think it tells something that the French didn't even bother dealing with it as they were in the process of re-equipping their fighter escadrilles with the SPAD XIII.

Some kind of personalization seems to have taken place even with the earliest Eindeckers. Below is a pic of Lt. Otto Parschau's Eindecker in June 1915. But it's true that the crazy colour combinations and emblems of many German units and aces came into existence only much later in the war.

How appropriate, Dej! Isn't that the Order of the Golden Fleece? (The old nobility and royalty of Europe was obsessed with creating all sorts of weird orders...)

The landing difficulties are definitely present in OFF. That wing configuration makes downward visibility simply awful. I really hope the devs have time to look at some of the flight models for P4. Have you tried the R.E.8? In real life, it was hated by many pilots because it was prone to stalling badly and didn't behave nicely at all compared to its predecessor, the B.E.2, even though it was supposed to be an improvement. But in OFF, the R.E. flies beautifully, with no nasty characteristics at all. I realize this complaining about FM's must annoy the devs, but its the prize they must pay for trying to make OFF as historically accurate as possible. And I certainly wouldn't complain if I didn't care a lot about the future of the sim.

"A man will fight long and hard for a piece of coloured ribbon." - Napoleon I Yes, there will be a completely new and historically much more correct award system in P4. We'll just have to wait and see. For me it's not the most important improvement, but it certainly won't hurt immersion either. One big difference between the British and German awards system is the concept of classes. A German couldn't receive the same decoration several times - he would receive a higher class of the same order, or a completely different award. But British awards, at least some of them, can be given multiple times, hence those bars added to a decoration. Another important difference for Imperial Germany was the political composition of the Reich. Germany was unified in 1871, but all the various states that joined together with Prussia (some eagerly, others not so) didn't cease to exist completely - they kept their royal dynasties, flags, coats of arms and also decorations. So during WW1 there was a system in place where a pilot could receive awards from various states of the German Reich. PLM was originally a Prussian order, and it became the most prestigious award in the Reich thanks to Prussia's great influence (without Prussia there wouldn't have been any Reich). But it certainly wasn't the only one, and I imagine some pilots may have given even more value to the highest award of their home state, if they were not from Prussia. An Oak Leaf (Eichenlaub) could be added to the PLM as recognition for truly extraordinary deeds, but this was extremely rare. Otto von Bismarck got one, and some of the best German generals.

My time is consumed by WW1 simulators, but WoP certainly looks nice. Maybe I'll give it a try some day. And hopefully the new BoB sim will run on normal PC's when it's released - they won't have too many customers if you need to have two graphics cards, 8 gigs of memory and the latest multicore processor to make the sim run decently.

Don't worry, if worse comes to worst, the European Union will save you from bankruptcy. Just queue up behind Greece, Ireland and Spain. The Lords of Europe in Brussels have money to spare. It's best to spend it all now before the oppressed masses finally decide the whole thing isn't working and revolt. Now speaking of WW1 books, I haven't read the one recommended by Lou but I will add it to my reading list. Like Von Paulus, I also recommend Massie's naval books. They are really good, and you don't have to be a naval historian to enjoy reading them. And yeah, for the minor European languages, it's hopeless to expect to find that many translated historical books. If I didn't speak English, my knowledge about WW1 would be much more limited simply because it's so rare to find many books about the subject in my own language. It's understandable, because publishers can't really afford to translate and print books that only relatively few people would buy. Olham, below are the names of the most important warship types used in WW1 in German and English: Schlachtschiff - Battleship (Dreadnoughts were modern battleships, and they received the name from the first of their kind, the British HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906. Britain had them, so Germany also needed them, and then Britain had to build more, then Germany etc. etc. - ie. the naval race.) Schlachtkreuzer - Battlecruiser (Lighter and faster warships than the dreadnoughts. Not as well armored, making them much more vulnerable in battle.) Kreuzer - Cruiser (Lighter and smaller ships used for many roles, reconnaissance, escort etc. Smaller cruisers were called light cruisers, heavier heavy cruisers.) Zerstörer - Destroyer (Small, fast and agile warships, mainly used for escorting and anti-submarine warfare.)

Do yourself a favour and fly an airfield attack mission with a real bomber sometimes. The DFW C.V carries 150 kilos of bombs and also has a bombsight so you don't have to fly too low when bombing. It's very satisfying to drop the bombs and watch them fall down and explode in the bomb view (F9 by default). If you aim well, you can completely devastate the hangars and buildings, especially if there are several bombers attacking.

Yeah. When I was in the army (national service) I saw more than enough such 'great leaders', and I didn't even have to spend 23 years there. Fortunately they were in the minority. But during WW1, I'm not at all sure the bad generals were in the minority in many armies.

Oh no, now we have no choice left but to stone you for you shameful act, Olham! (Now I really hope the below vid is not blocked by the solicitors in Germany...) Seriously speaking, who's Nupe was that?

A well-written poem. However, all too often you could replace 'politician' with 'general' or 'admiral' in a poem such as that. Especially if talking about WW1, a war that saw more than its fair share of incompetent butchers of good, ordinary men. Many times in history great things have been achieved even though the generals and admirals did their best to screw things up. Military leaders have always loved to blame politicians for their own failures. Sometimes they are right, sometimes not.

No problem. Hopefully your OFF is now properly patched so that you can join the DiD campaign and see the world. By the way, have you already prepared your last will and testament? I don't mean to suggest that DiD flying is dangerous or anything, just a friendly reminder.

I looked through my pilot files, both the dossier in-game and the actual file in the pilots folder, and couldn't even find any realism percentages anymore. Are you sure you have the latest version of OFF, carrick58? It should be version 1.32g for basic OFF without HitR, and 1.47 with HitR expansion installed. Here's the official site for patches: http://www.overflandersfields.com/Downloads.htm

Well, if you have set everything like the rules say, you should be ready to go. I haven't paid any attention to those percentages after they were removed from the OFF workshop in one of the patches.

Yeah, I thought it must be something like that. Stupid, but what can you do.

That part is supposed to be kept secret from the recruits. And the 17 hour life expectancy is hush-hush too. If you or anybody else who's interested in DiD has any questions, feel free to ask them here. I only know the German side well though, so hopefully there's somebody around here who has more to tell about the Entente campaign.