Hasse Wind

It's unfortunate that talking about different WW1 sims so often leads to heated arguments and even serious flame wars. I for one am happy that now, for the first time in years, we actually have several WW1 sims to choose from. And all of these sims have something that they do better than their competitors. In an ideal world, all those good qualities could be combined to create the ultimate WW1 flying sim. But this genre sure as hell ain't big enough to warrant the constant bloody fighting between supporters of different sims. It's almost a miracle that somebody even bothers to make such sims these days, it's not like it's a good business compared to mainstream gaming. A little bit of open-mindedness is all that's required from all of us.

Ah, beer! The next best thing after whisk(e)y and rum. My favourites are the German Rauchbier Schlenkerla and everything bottled by the Norwegian Nøgne Ø brewery. Those Norwegian beers are a tad expensive for major consumption, though... I really must taste that Spitfire some day!

Modded FE is a very good WW1 sim. OFF is better, but FE is good too. I didn't know they've already released FE2.

One of the great things about OFF is that it can be configured to suit every player's skill level. If somebody wants to fly on easier settings, they should have the option of doing that. And hardcore players should have their own setttings. That way everybody is kept happy. And whatever flaws the sim may have, it's still the best WW1 sim available.

CFS3 is indeed a stigma for OFF. I've talked about this in many fora, and people are always almost scared when they realize OFF is built upon the ruins of that sim. It's really hard to try to convince them otherwise. About the huge kill numbers. If I some day had a pilot with 400 hours (like Creaghorn repeatedly has), he would most likely have over 1000 kills. I just find it impossible NOT to get involved in so many fights all the time. It's not possible for me to avoid the AI attacks all the time. And when the fighting starts, I usually have no other option but to shoot down everybody myself, because most of the wingmen are unable to do it. And soon I will have a pilot with only a few flight hours and about 20 kills, and that feels bad and unrealistic. I've solved this problem by concentrating more and more in flying bomber careers. It's much more challenging to shoot down hordes of enemies when flying a bomber, and you can use you recon/bombing missions as good excuses for not entering combat all the time, which leads to realistic flight hours and kill numbers. And it's quite fun and challenging to try to survive the war as a bomber pilot.

I haven't studied the books either, but I think it's inevitable they can't be perfectly objective when dealing with that kind of subject so soon after the end of the war and the signing of the hated Versailles peace treaty. But on the other hand, those books were written during the Weimar Republic, so no bizarre Nazi views of history should be included. And Germany is after all also the home of serious modern historical writing with all it's critical methods of study that were developed in the late 1800s and are widely accepted even today (use of primary source material, critical analysis and comparison of sources etc.), so I'd be very surprised if those books were only stupid propaganda.

Now that's a ***load of books! Back then they knew how to write history as thoroughly as possible. Nobody releases such impressive series of historical books anymore. Would need a truck to ship those over here, though. Or maybe a C-130. Edit: Olham, you were asking about Jutland in the other thread. Maybe you should read those first before playing the game?

That site seems to have some interesting titles in their selection (based on my quick look), and the book about Immelmann is very reasonably priced. Thanks for the link, Olham. Lou, You have an amazing collection of old aviation books!

Damn, that's a cheap price for such a book. Being a collector of old books myself (nothing major yet, just a few books on interesting subjects), I know the feeling when you find something good and affordable.

TrackIR is very easy to set up and use, and as soon as you get used to it (won't take long), you'll be left wondering how on earth you could have played any flight sim without it, it's that great. It's really the best thing to happen to simulators since the invention of joystick.

Olham, Jutland is quite easy to play, but challenging to master. It certainly helps if you know at least the basics of WW1 naval history and naval tactics and strategy. Give the demo a try and see for yourself if you're interested - that's the best method of forming an opinion on the game. I think Jutland is a very good naval wargame, and doesn't have nearly as steep a learning curve as some other games in the genre.

Yes, Wilhelm II has been unfairly blamed for a lot of things after the war. But the truth is he really didn't have much to say anymore in German affairs after the Hindenburg-Ludendorff duo took over the military and political leadership in the later half of the war. And then when all was lost, the generals washed their hands of the mess that was mostly of their own making and blamed the politicians who had the ungrateful task of trying to build a new republic out of the ashes of the 2nd Reich. Interesting discussion, but maybe a bit off-topic for this thread.

I'm sure there would have been thoughts of revenge on the French side, just like there were after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. But it's another thing altogether whether they would have been able to do anything to get their revenge against Germany, at least on their own. Interesting speculation though.

What little I've gathered from Paarma's posts, the awards in P4 are going to be AWESOME. If the current system in OFF P3 is completely unrealistic and unsatisfactory, the P4 award system will take the realism and visual beauty of the medals to another level altogether. So all we have to do is to wait for the next version of the sim...

You guys really know what you're doing. Keep up the good work!

One of the great things about OFF is that it gives me the possibility to experience WW1 air combat from many different sides and fly both bombers and fighters. I've had long campaigns for each nationality currently included in the sim. But since I like trying to survive as the underdog, most of my careers have been on the German side. But I also really like flying the French planes, so after the German campaigns, most of my flight hours have been on the side of the Third Republic. Most people don't seem to know it, but in many ways the French air force was the pioneer air force in the world, using many tactics and formations in the war long before the others, so I'm a great admirer of the French achievements in aviation.

Yes crumpets, don't be afraid of becoming POW's - the Imperial German Army has more than enough turnips to properly feed every captured Entente pilot. "Once you pop*, you can't stop!" *open a can of turnips

Lately I've been flying 2-seaters actively in OFF, and I really like it that the sim gives us this opportunity, which not every WW1 flight sim has. Historically, bombers and recon planes were the reason why fighter units were created during the war in the first place. Aerial bombings had a much more limited role in the Great War than during later conflicts, because most of the bombers couldn't carry very heavy bombloads and were unable to deliver them very accurately. Only later in the war did the ground attack bombers have an increasingly important role to play. But recon (and artillery fire control) planes were important already in 1914 and had a major role to play in analyzing the enemy strengths and positions and helping to prepare for offensives and estimate their results with the help of aerial photography. Much has been talked about the need for having more 2-seaters in OFF. But I'd also like to see some improvements made to the bomber careers, which I'm sure would get more people playing and enjoying them and forgetting the fighters, at least for a while. Currently the only way to get medals in OFF is to shoot down enemy aircraft. It goes without saying that most of the glory and awards went to the fighter pilots, but the 2-seater guys could also be rewarded for their efforts. There should be a separate reward system for 2-seater pilots in OFF, so that successful pilots would get at least something for their efforts. It's very motivating for players. The only bomber in OFF that has a real bombsight is the DFW C.V. It's one of the reasons why I enjoy flying that plane so much (another is the ridiculously high accuracy of the sight, making precision bombing a true possibility in OFF ). But historically, it wasn't the only bomber with a bombsight. Maybe in P4 we could have more bombers with more realistic instruments? It would definitely make flying all the other bombers much more enjoyable. Recon missions are currently quite simple in OFF. Maybe some kind of a photographying system could be added to P4? As far as I know, that would be something never before seen in any flight sim. If you had a target (or targets) you actually had to photograph, it would really improve the recon aspect of 2-seater careers. Imagine the excitement of flying through heavy flak, angry fighters behind you, looking for an opening in the clouds to take those important pics for the generals. Get rid of the scramble missions for bombers. Why would any bomber pilot take off in, say, the Be2c when the field is under attack by Albatrosses? *** Anybody else have any ideas for 2-seaters in P4 and the future? I know there must more people out there who like to fly bombers in addition to the couple of guys I already know do so.

The OBD customer support is really something special. If we feel there's something in need of fixing or improving in OFF, it will certainly be done by the devs, if at all possible within the limits of CFS3.

Yes, that Spandau sounds like a real MG firing, much better than the sound that comes with OFF. Thanks for your improvements, Creaghorn.

The attitude of the German government toward symbols that might even remotely be connected Hitler & pals has been and continues to be ridiculous (mildly put!). And sometimes other people have to suffer for it. I remember when I bought Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin. The version sold here in Finland was from the same publisher as in Germany, which meant everything connected to Nazi symbolism was removed from the game. Even the SS wasn't mentioned, they had invented some completely different name for Waffen-SS troops. The best of all was the censuring of Finnish swastikas from the game, even though they have nothing whatsoever to do with Nazis and were used in Finland long before there was a single Nazi in the world. So thanks to the silly German legislation, we CM players in Finland had to make new skins for Finnish tanks that included the proper swastika symbols. I'm sure some of the flags and badges of our Air Force would cause heart attacks to German legislators. As an example of our Evil Finnish Nazi Symbols currently in use, below is the flag of the Karelia Air Command.

I wonder if it would be possible to have a dynamic rate of fire for MG's in P4 that would depend on the rev speed of the propellor like it was in real life? 6 rounds per second for the Spandau sounds quite realistic to me, but I've seen even lower figures for WW1 synchronized guns. Something like 300 or maybe even 200 rounds per minute must have been quite common rof's back then.

I can also recommend that Kenneth Munson's book Von Guber mentioned. It has nice pictures and a lot of useful information about the planes in a compact format. I have a translated edition of it, printed only a few years ago. Don't know about any new English editions though... In any case, too many kids these days don't like to read any kind of books, which is a shame, because it's hard to beat books when it comes to learning new stuff and educating yourself.

Yeah, I have to start it manually too, and it won't sometimes recognize my head movements, which can only be solved by restarting the program. But I haven't gone back to the older software, because the results I see in-game are better with the new version. Movements are smoother and more natural. For that I'm willing to go through some trouble at the start.

Winston is absolutely right. I never start the mission in the air. Taking off is fun, and usually you have plenty of time to gain altitude, if you want.