Hasse Wind

Looks very nice, Widowmaker. Anybody know if the French ever tried the Tripe? Not in combat, of that I'm sure, but maybe in some training facility? Or did all the Tripes (there weren't that many in the first place) go to the British? At least some Sopwith planes saw good service with the French, ie. the Strutters.

I guess I've been fortunate in that I've never had to reset my pilots. But now as I think about it, I've always been doing exactly like Olham suggests in this thread. Every time I've deleted a pilot I've immediately created a new one to replace him. Maybe it does really help?

Yeah, I've been using the historical setting mostly. I agree that the less aggressive setting is best for early war, but it isn't quite enough to transform the action so profoundly as it should be if one wants to accurately simulate the early war. We would really need different formations and tactics and everything for that to happen. I do hope it's possible some day, and that we'll see it in OFF sooner or later. I'd happily pay for such an improvement in the form of an expansion pack, for example, if we won't be seeing in the vanilla P4. Anything to make it possible for the devs to keep improving my favourite flight sim!

September 11 was a fateful day also during the Great War. On September 11, 1917 one of the great aces of history, Georges Guynemer, disappeared with his SPAD XIII. Guynemer was a national hero in France, and his motto "Until one has given all, one has given nothing" was popular at the time.

I wonder if the devs will find a way to make the early air war MUCH less brutal than it is currently. Now there really isn't much difference between 1915 and 1918 - the action is just as fierce in both years, though of course more common in 1918 as the planes become better and there are more of them over the front. In reality, that kind of air combat didn't really exist in 1915 - the formations weren't there, and neither the tactics. Eindeckers were deployed here and there along the front, one in that FA, two in another, a few in the third etc. No big Eindecker squadrons as we currently have in OFF. It's going to be interesting to see how things will be in P4. But hey, it's always nice to see people willing to fly the early war careers. I prefer to fly on the British side in some BE2 squadron. It's quite peaceful usually, if one doesn't go looking for trouble and those big Einie formations. Congratulations on the kills!

She is very pretty, though not quite as beautiful as Fräulein Albatros. Hmm, maybe I should start posting pics of French two-seaters in various threads so that the devs would keep them also in mind in addition to all these less important planes, like the Snipe.

I was in the operating room of the hospital I used to work back then, and didn't hear about the attack until we were finished with the operation (some routine orthopedic) and went for a lunch break at noon. I didn't eat much though, just watched the events from TV and talked about it with my colleagues. I remember thinking that this is a historic day that will be remembered for years to come - I could witness the end of an hopeful post-Cold War era and the beginning of something sinister with my own eyes. What it would be we didn't know back then, but a lot has indeed happened since 2001. Terrorism certainly didn't start with that September, and didn't end either, but I think it really woke up the Western world to things that we had read about in the papers and seen in the news, but never thought would happen in our civilized west. As much as I hope things will some day be different, the tendency to act violently and aggressively, to kill and wage war seems to in our genes. We've always been very good at causing death and destruction not only to each other, but to the world and nature as a whole. Maybe it will change some day, but I'm not very optimistic about the latest Dark Age that began already in 1914. Remember and honor the dead, but do not forget the living.

One of the reasons why ordinary soldiers were treated badly in so many armies of WW1 was the general social environment of the early 20th century, especially in countries with monarchies and less than democratic (often downright autocratic) systems. Officers, the high-ranking ones in particular, came from higher social classes, and quite often they saw the rank and file as ignorant peasants who didn't need any good treatment or even the smallest of luxuries on the front. This attitude was very common in the Imperial Russian army, for example, but it happened in all armies, including the British army, which certainly was very conscious of rank and class. Pilots were mostly officers forming a small elite, and that explains why they were treated better than many other soldiers of WW1. But I guess that wasn't enough for the British high command and their attitude on parachutes. All armies and navies of WW1 had more than their fair share of idiots as generals and admirals (and politicians), but in some cases, the high-ranking idiots seem to have far outnumbered the intelligent types.

Yes, also German fighter pilots did use parachutes in the final months of the war. The best model was manufactured by the company of Otto Heinecke, and they were thus called Heinecke parachutes. As Lou mentioned, the pilot sat on the parachute in the cockpit. The Austrian air force also used the Heineckes, as seen in this pic:

Nah, I don't think I could rival Widowmaker's fanaticism for the cause. I'll just keep posting a humble request every now and then and hope for the best.

Congratulations!

Two planes I'd love to see in OFF someday. Caudrons in particular were very important for the French, and some of their aces, including Rene Fonck, flew them before becoming fighter pilots.

Despite what you said in your post, HPW, I think this is also an excellent poll.

Hey, Widowmaker finally gets his Snipe! Now you can give the current Camel's FM for the new Snipe and design something really nasty for the old Camel, so that our crumpet friends won't have it too easy with all those splendid Sopwith scouts.

Hmm, delightfully unhealthy food. Just what I like! You did remember to have some cognac with the crumpets and coffee, right? Speaking of English cuisine, there's bad food and good food in every country. I expect England and the rest of the United Kingdom to be no different in this respect. And the Micheling stars don't necessarily mean you can actually get good food from the restaurant. Often the only thing it means is that you will be served a terribly overpriced portion of food that looks all good and artistic, but doesn't actually fill your stomach and leaves you wondering just why on earth are these people taking such a simple thing as making food so damn seriously? I've often eaten extremely good and inexpensive home-made food in very low budget restaurants or even gas stations that didn't have any Michelin cooks working for them.

I've always liked the look of the Roland D.VI. If it had come into service a year earlier, it would be have been a great fighter, but in mid 1918 it was no longer anything special compared to the best fighters of the time. Still, it did see some service in a number of Jastas, so I hope we'll see it some day in OFF, along with the earlier Rolands. I also hope they will some day repair that Roland at the museum. A rare piece of aviation history. Imagine all the things that piece of wood and metal has survived through!

An obvious (actually the only sensible one remaining) choice for the next BiA game would be the Battle of the Bulge. I'll be surprised if they don't make such a game, sooner or later.

Lou, you lucky bastard! None of my old books are signed by the author, though some of them have previous their owner's names written on them. Would be nice if I find that copy of Kaiser Wilhelm's memoirs I'm looking for with his personal signature. And Dej, that also sounds like a very rare signature. A shame Mr. Hawker didn't live to sign his own biographies.

I've never actually played ArmA II. I heard about it being quite buggy or something and then forgot it completely. But I guess they've improved the game since then, so maybe I ought to take another look at it.

The BiA series is definitely the best historical shooters out there, but I've always thought they could have been even better if there had been more historical simulation and less arcade shooting. Of course compared to CoD, BiA is far from arcadish, but still. In my opinion, there are too many missions in the BiA games where the player is forced to act like some WW2-era Rambo and single-handedly destroy several German tanks or assault guns while shooting dozens of Germans in the process. And why is the overwhelming majority of German troops armed with the StG and FG rifles, while in reality the good old Mauser 98 was the most important rifle of the German army? Fortunately they changed some of this idiocy for the latest game. But the better missions are really great and memorable, that's true.

He's probably created several different user accounts here so that he can vote multiple times.

In Finnish, there are at least two words for such a person, one of them rather rude. Pilkunviilaaja and pilkunnussija. Pilkun is the genitive form of pilkku (a comma or a dot), while viilaaja is harder to translate, but I guess in English it would somebody who fiddles, in the sense of adjusting something. So pilkunviilaaja would be somebody who adjusts dots or commas (ie. pays attention to insignicant things - nitpicks). However, pilkunnussija is the rude one. It means somebody who doesn't just adjust commas but f**** them. To be used only of really annoying nitpickers. Ain't languages funny?

I once broke a leg bone in a cycling accident. A dangerous hobby - it's much safer to sit inside your house and play OFF. I wish you a speedy recovery, and good luck with the MA thesis.

Almost every politically and militarily important thing that happened in Europe in the late 19th century, including the Franco-Prussian war, can be explained with this one man:

But it does kill the liver, Olham, if you keep drinking at the same time! "Wo früher meine Leber war, ist heute nur eine Minibar." OFF certainly deserves that score. Nice of them to change the screenshots.