Hasse Wind

The world would be a dull place without British humour. I wonder what it is that makes you limeys produce so many excellent comedy series? Good food and climate perhaps?

We have a system somewhat like that in Finland. Everybody is entitled to health care, a system which is funded by the taxpayers and has worked quite well for decades (and enjoys widespread popular support - maybe because we are a small nation and used to looking after every member of our society - we can't afford to "waste" our people), but if you want to get faster health care, you can get it from the private sector. Life-threatening conditions are always treated ASAP, even if you are poor. It just means somebody with a less serious condition will have to wait a bit longer to get his treatment (unless he wants to go to the private sector). The concepts of Liberalism and Conservatism seem to be turned upside down in the US politics. It seems to me many Americans understand Liberalism to mean practically the same thing as Communism (and I have personal experience from that system, having lived in Estonia during the Soviet era) which is something I don't understand. And people who claim to be conservatives are really following a system of Liberalism (minimal state role etc.), maybe even Libertarianism as far as I understand these concepts. In European history, Conservatism has been something very different, even reactionary, in its support of old monarchical regimes and undemocratic societies. (Think of Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary for example, which were ultra-conservative.) That probably didn't make any sense to anybody, but at least I got it out of my system. Now back to enjoying OFF.

Endless greed combined with increasingly globalized capitalism of major corporations (government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations) is a problem that I hope will be solved in the future before things get completely out of hand. In the past, even big corporations had at least some sense of patriotism, but that doesn't exist anymore, only the small companies are still interested in supporting their local communities. And the big corporations will always find some s**thole where people are so poor that they are willing to accept any kind of barbaric treatment and work almost 24/7 to make a few bucks to support them and their families. It's pretty difficult to try to compete with that in the West. More people should be introduced to OFF. It would increase their happiness and they would become less greedy.

Great post. Hope to see this in P4. But some of this is already in the sim; it's possible to get such bad weather that the manager tells you flying is impossible and all missions are cancelled for the day. Sometimes they prevent flying for a week or maybe even more.

Thanks, Olham. This is exactly what I meant in our discussion about the claim form.

Widowmaker: I had forgotten all about 1942 - and I agree, it was a great sim. Red-Dog: No, I haven't tried PTO. But I really must, if it's that good. Thanks for the tip.

For some reason I never liked the Pacific Fighters add-on to Il-2. It just didn't feel so immersive as I had hoped, and the campaign play was nowhere near as fun as it was in the ancient Aces of the Pacific. Maybe Pacific Fighters has been modded for improvements though, I haven't played it for a long time.

The Japanese produced some excellent fighters in WW2. Too bad there aren't any decent modern sims around that let you fly them and their American counterparts of the Pacific War. I had a lot of fun back in the 1990s with Dynamix's Aces of the Pacific.

Cheer up, people. This isn't the end of the world, though it may seem so to many with personal economic problems. Each generation that goes through such periods of depression are inclined to feel it's something extraordinary and will lead to the complete collapse of their civilization. But such collapses aren't exactly commonplace, and always take place in the context of massive warfare (think about the Great War or the collapse of the Western Roman Empire). Greece is a sad example of huge corruption and miserable level of skill in managing economic policy. It hasn't exactly been the rich man of Europe ever before either. It cannot be compared to the majority of advanced European countries. I'm actually more worried about the gradual Islamization of Europe than the current lousy economy, but I'll shut my mouth now so that things will not become too political.

A great game and works well in Dosbox. I have the original, including the box and all the goodies that came with it. Not to brag or anything...

I can also recommend gog.com - they have excellent customer support and the whole process of buying and downloading games is very painless and simple. And they are constantly adding new games to their catalogue, many of them old (and not so old actually) classics that are very hard to find elsewhere or make to work on modern PCs.

Yes, the E.III is indeed a flying turd. It wasn't a very good aircraft at all - the only good thing about the Eindeckers was that they were the first fighters to be armed with synchronized forward firing machine guns, and that gave them an advantage for some time over enemy aircraft, mostly 2-seaters, that were even slower and clumsier than they and lacked proper armament. The problem with Eindecker campaigns in OFF is that we lack all the primitive early war aircraft which were the main course for Eindeckers - Farmans, Caudrons, Vickerses, and early Be2s. The Nieuport 11 is a better fighter than Eindecker in every way except the machine gun - they can easily outrun, outclimb and outmaneuver you. And it gets even worse when the French receive the Nupe 17 in the summer of 1916; that fighter will eat Eindeckers for breakfast. If you try to turn fight with the Eindecker against Entente fighters, they will kill you. Your only chance is to try to avoid situations that are disadvantageous, try to maintain altitude and fight in the vertical rather than turning with your opponents. But the Eindecker is so slow and clumsy that it won't be easy. Your easiest targets (actually the only easy targets) are the Be2s. Good luck!

A lucky bastard (or unlucky, depends how see things). Kudos to the surgical team for managing to save the patient. You don't see such a survival (or injury) every day...

Haven't actually tried it myself, but I think the Pfalz D.IIIa might be able to do just that, and the Pfalz D.XII also (but that we don't have in OFF - yet). But the SE5a can definitely outrun the Pfalz.

Translation programs have become more and more sophisticated over the past few years. Below is Olham's poem translated with the help of Google Translate (apologies to Olham and the German language). Der einsame Wolf Von dem hellen Morgenlicht Mirror von Platin Baden mein Gesicht in Gott Kam er zu töten Firebird von der Sonne Nahmen im Raum ein Heartbeat mein wingman, mein lieber Freund Roaring Vergangenheit gegangen Albatros Burning Red Putz hob seine Hand auf den Kopf seinen letzten Gruß an uns Bereits tot So schwer zu verstehen Zuerst hat er würde mein Freund Später wurde er verschont mein Leben Rittertum Vieux Charles, wo hast du das Ende Unbekannt Ihr Ort des Todes Kein Grab, kein Kranz noch Gesang Lonesome and gone As anybody who understands even a little bit of German can easily tell, the translation program didn't do a very good job. But it's still better than when I translated the poem from English into Finnish. The result made me laugh. A lot. But the most important thing is that I was actually able to understand the translation. It was more than a bit silly with some words and sentences, but the main ideas were there. Not a bad result for a brainless program, when you think about.

It seems there are strange things going on on the ground. C'est la guerre.

It's best if they are close, otherwise their bombs won't drop nowhere near your bombs.

Most long range bombing the Germans did in the war was performed at high altitude, and often at night to avoid Entente fighters. For ground attack missions close to the frontline, they had special aircraft and squadrons later in the war. The DFW wasn't a low level ground attack bomber, so I never do my bombings at a low altitude (and besides, that would be a total waste of the excellent bombsight). The only bomber in OFF capable of flying higher than the DFW is the Hannover CL.II. But since that 2-seater (which was designed to be used mostly as an escort for other 2-seaters, if I remember correctly) has a puny bombload and no sight, the only crate in OFF able to perform devastating precision-bombing from high altitude is the DFW.

I agree, a very good poem. Can't say much about the language though, not being a native speaker.

Aren't you at all worried about being married with a Mrs. Widowmaker? Because if widows will be made, then who's the victim?

I believe Mr. Jumblees just got the attention of several vengeful gods of war.

There's no need to be afraid of Herr Göring, unless your pilot is able to see the future and sense what becomes of that ambitious young fighter pilot. And now you're definitely jinxing your current pilot's career by bragging about being a Brisfit killer. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the gods of war decide to punish you for your hubris and send a nasty Brisfit to shoot you down in the next mission.

How strange! I've never seen this behaviour. If I start a mission and then immediately end it on the field, I don't get credited for more than one or two minutes. Of course I haven't calculated every mission I've flown and compared the time the sim shows me to the real time I actually flew, but I believe I would have noticed if the actual minutes were THAT badly wrong.

Bismarck is always marketable. But yeah, it's amazing what can be made with Legos.

Exactly, Widowmaker. And notice that cross somebody has drawn above the observer in the lower picture? I wonder what it means.