Hasse Wind

The DFW is easily the best two-seater in OFF. I mean a real two-seater, used for recon, arty spotting and most importantly, bombing. The Brisfit is of course the best one in air combat. The Strutter is excellent, but lacks the amazing engine performance of the DFW and doesn't have a bombsight, which makes high-altitude bombing extremely difficult. But it's very useful as a heavy fighter in 1916 and eats Eindeckers for breakfast. Almost every Entente two-seater before the excellent French types (and some British, like the DH.4) that saw large-scale service only in 1918 was woefully underpowered compared to German two-seaters. This made them easier for Germans to shoot down. I've flown a lot in a BE2 in OFF, and while it's definitely fun to cruise around peacefully, it's not a plane meant for air war after 1916. So underpowered, so slow, so clumsy. The RE8 does have a more powerful engine, but not good enough compared to German two-seaters. It will be interesting to see what kind of changes the devs are making for P4. Will more planes have real bombsights?

It is easy to understand why many people prefer consoles to PC gaming. What a nightmare it is with all these drivers upgrades, various hardware problems etc. etc. Some progress has been made over the years with ease of use (for example operating systems are not so cryptic anymore even for ordinary users), but there's still some work to do with all this user-unfriendliness.

Glad to hear you're back in action, Widowmaker. Aren't computers a load of fun? I rarely update graphics drivers after I've found a good version that works well with all games, because it's so common that the new version causes more trouble than good. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Maybe with the heavy bombers in P4 we can do some night bombing. Only time will tell, but it would require some changes to how the CFS3 engine models night time. The night fighters (and bombers) of WW2 would make for a really fascinating flight sim. I imagine that kind of combat would be very different from the action in broad daylight, with radars and stuff.

This is what worries me about getting Windows 7 some day: will OFF work on it without problems? Some people seem to be having trouble, while others have none. I have it working beautifully on my XP rig, and it would be a disaster if I would be unable to play my favourite sim some day!

The fighting certainly did end in 1918, but we are still living under the shadow of the Great War. It brought about such huge and dramatic changes and almost completely wrecked the centuries old European world order. Just think about all the empires that collapsed immediately during or after the war, or were so badly weakened that they fell later, after the Second World War. All this was caused by the Great War. Rarely has a conflict had such a dramatic impact on world history as WW1 had (and still has). It's incredible that WW1 is almost completely a forgotten subject outside the academic circles. If people knew more about what happened during those four years, they would find it easier to understand the world we are now living in.

There are also some places where you can easily find things left from the actions of WW2. For example in Lapland and other northern areas of Scandinavia there are many wrecked aircraft or their remains from WW2 era, quite easily visible and some also quite well-preserved. Such remains can also be found from many Pacific islands. In densely populated areas everything tends to disappear quickly, but things are different in remote areas where only few people live. Here's one website about the WW2 aeroplane wrecks in Lapland: http://koti.phnet.fi/junkers/

The first German air-to-air rockets were fired from a Halberstadt. But they never saw as much use as the Entente's Le Prieur rockets. As better incendiary and tracer bullets became available in large quantities, the need for such primitive rockets disappeared. Al is right about the rockets we have in OFF. They really do belong to a P-47 (HVAR rockets), and cause quite an explosion when you hit something with them.

I once saw a documentary about archaelogy and WW1. They interviewed one British archaelogist, who was quite angry at people who go digging through old WW1 battlefields (apparently it's a popular hobby) and remove things such as those bullets and buckles you mentioned, Lou. He said that by removing such objects people are destroying history and the memory of the men who fought and died in the war, because those items are often the only thing the archaelogists can use to identify the units that were in the area, and sometimes even find out the identity of the men who were there. So when somebody uses a metal detector and removes everything he can from the area, he is actually making it impossible for archaelogists and historians to gain any useful information from that area. And it's not like you can become rich by selling old boot soles and belt buckles taken from old trenches. This has nothing with that hat, of course. Just some food for thought about the damage people, even well-intentioned, can cause to historical locations.

A great find. But can you be sure it's actually been used by a pilot in the Great War? That's one of problems with buying historical stuff - you can never be absolutely sure. On the other hand, it doesn't really matter. At least it is the same model from the same period as the hats that were used in action by many pilots. Who knows, maybe the hat spent the war in some depot and was later used by some French farmer while driving his brand new tractor in the 1930s?

Red, green and white are all the flare colours I've ever read about. When artillery spotter aircraft weren't equipped with wireless sets, they sometimes used flares to communicate with the gunners. Different combinations of flares helped to direct the fire. I remember reading about the German system for artillery flares, but unfortunately I can't remember the combinations they used. In any case, it was quite an ineffective communication method compared to wireless. They couldn't really be very accurate with the corrections, just give the gunners a general idea of where the shells were falling. It was much more accurate with wireless.

Funny, I was able to get System Shock (cd version) up and running without a problem. But in my opinion, unfortunately it's one of the old classics that are not very enjoyable anymore. SS2 is still great, though.

Wow, that's great news! OFF really needs more bombers than fighters. Some modern laptops have more than enough power to run OFF smoothly. There are even laptops that are mainly designed for gamers, and seem to be more powerful than my current desktop PC. Olham, take both of these pills. They should help to ease the symptoms of your Gotha-itis.

DOSbox is the easiest program you can use to make all these old classics work. Just install a game (Wings of Glory for example) and play it like you used to do back in the DOS era. DOSbox also supports modern joysticks, so you can use them to play old sims. Though it must be said that time hasn't treated gently many of the old games everybody loved back then. There are some notable exceptions, of course - some games are still great after all these years, even though graphics and sounds are nothing to write home about if you compare them to modern standards.

There's a huge amount of historical info on that site. I particularly like the Escadrille emblem descriptions. All that art is fascinating, and even more so when you know the background. Now if only I could speak French much better...

I have no idea what that uires file is, but I've had and currently have many French pilots active in OFF, so even if there is nothing in that file, it doesn't prevent us from flying as the French. I've always greatly admired the French pioneers of aviation, and they had a great air force during WW1.

Easy to answer - keep the bodies! It always bothers me (not very much, but still) when I don't see my character's body in computer games. Empty cockpits in sims, floating arms and weapons without the rest of the body in shooters - not very good for immersion.

I hope so, Olham, I really do. But while waiting for the Belgians, do yourself a favour and start a Nupe career or two on the French or British side. Nupe 11 and 17 are both great planes, quite easy and fun to fly. You should be familiar with the weak wings too, thanks to your long experience with the Albs. The N.11 is the best fighter for early 1916, and the N.17 is a match for the Albatros D.II and also for D.III. I like these Nupes more than the later, heavier ones.

Those skins are new to me too. Never seen them before. Hopefully some day the brave little Belgian air force will be included in OFF. They had some great and highly motivated pilots, and it would honour them and their country, which had to experience really bad things at the hands of militaristic great powers of the 20th century, to be remembered in OFF. The fate of small neutral countries is one of the biggest shameful things of both world wars. They didn't want war, but the great powers didn't give a damn about them.

That map also doesn't show the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, which made it easier for Central Powers to keep on fighting. Both Germany and Austria-Hungary were able to move a huge number of divisions from the east to the west and the Italian front after the Russians left the war, though Austria-Hungary was itself on the verge of collapse and their army wasn't very useful anymore at that phase of the war. Still, they tied up a lot of Italian, French and British troops on the Italian front. Then there's also the fact that not all of the countries that declared war on Central Powers did actually much to help Entente win the war. In some cases it was more symbolic support than anything else. Of course such things happened to Central Powers too. For example Finland. When Russia collapsed, Finns gained their independence with German military help. After the independence war was over in May 1918, Finland practically became an ally, or even a vassal or satellite of Germany for the remaining months of WW1. But they didn't declare war to Entente powers or give Germans any kind of military help, only traded with them. So the Entente was not alone in having almost useless allies or sympathizers. But still, the map helps to understand just how many enemies Germany eventually had to face with her weakening allies. I've always believed Germany had her best chance of victory already in 1914. If they had taken Paris and beaten the French armies, the British would have been forced to withdraw from the continent, leaving Germany with Austria-Hungary against Russia. And in such a situation, Russia couldn't have hold out as long as she did historically when large numbers of German and Austrian troops were tied up on other fronts. Imperial Russia wasn't as powerful as the Soviet Union later was. But when things went badly for Germany in 1914, it became very difficult to turn the tide afterwards. The Entente was simply too strong materially.

I have a system almost similar to yours, Olham. The problem is the huge number of casualties my units always suffer, which means that I must keep constantly updating the list. I guess I'm a dangerous man to have in squadron. That's why I wouldn't mind to see my computer take care of such things - isn't that why the bloody things were invented in the first place, to make life easier for humans, to perform tasks which are too bothersome or impossible for us?

I agree with all the previous comments about streamlining the claims business. I'd love to see such improvements in P4, and I think they are much easier to implement than many of the crazily ambitious things we are asking for.

Sounds like an interesting book, HPW. I'll have to read it some day (though I already own literally stacks of books I haven't read yet!) Extremism, no matter where it comes from, left or right, religious or political, is always the problem. And like I mentioned in my first post, it seems to be in our genes to act stupidly and aggressively. Religion and politics are two things that quite easily reveal the worst in the best of people, no matter how civilized they are otherwise. But the beast within us all is always lurking there, just beneath the thin layer of civilization, waiting for the right moment to unleash its animalistic rage. And when it is unleashed, terrible things will always happen.

I can also recommend the Halberstadt. A fine fighter for its time, quite enjoyable to fly. Re: Germans and air superiority. There's a German military term that nicely describes the two world wars: Materialschlacht, battle of material. Germany, while being a great industrial and military power, simply didn't have the material its opponents had. The longer the Great War went on, the harder it became for Germany to keep producing enough war material, whereas the Entente powers decisively benefitted from their colonial resources and most importantly the massive US industry. The British naval blockade meant that Germany lacked certain important raw materials. Naturally this had an impact on their aircraft industry. It never was big enough to come close to the combined Entente industrial might. All the advantages the Germans had were related to superior training and also tactics at first. The Albatros D.II and D.III wouldn't have been that good in early 1917 without well-trained and well-led pilots who fought with careful tactics. But even these advantages weren't that decisive in the end, and the side with the most material triumphed, as always happens in prolonged industrial age warfare. The Albatros factories were unable to keep improving their fighters as quickly as the Entente aircraft industry progressed. When something really impressive finally came into service (the D.VII), it was designed by Fokker. I'm not really sure why the Albatros factory was unable to design any better fighters than the D.III and D.V were. A little seems to have been written about Albatros, especially compared to Fokker. But Germans did use a lot of ground attack aircraft. They had plenty of Staffeln dedicated to just that purpose, namely the Schlachtstaffeln with their Schlachtflieger, battle pilots. Already during the battle of Cambrai in late 1917 German ground attack squadrons actively interfered the British movements and supported their own infantry. And the spring and summers offensives of 1918 saw extensive use of ground attack planes.

Neither did I. But now I do, thanks to this forum. Learning new stuff about WW1 is an every day occurrence here.