Hasse Wind

Maybe in Phase 4 there'll be an option to start a career as a bicycle or Model T courier, who's job is to deliver mail and occasionally people to various locations. Or maybe go and pick up pilots who've been shot down behind the front and drive them back to homebase.

BuB, I actually meant a pilot that won't die and not a pilot and aircraft combination that's indestructible. I was shot down many, MANY times but never lost the test pilot I used to learn the sim. Sorry I used the wrong term, I'd forgotten there was an option to actually make the pilot invincible in the workshop settings. :yes:

Strange that you've actually had a loss of performance after the superpatch - my FPS definitely increased after installing it. Everything seems to work somewhat smoother, even my TrackIR.

I've seen a huge number of planes shot down in OFF (and have been shot down myself just about as many times), but I don't recall ever seeing an engine break loose from the airframe. I've been seeing some more burning crates after the superpatch, but not a single loose engine. So I think it can't be all that common to really worry about it.

When I first got OFF I flew a lot with invincible pilots, but then as I learned to survive a bit better I decided to see for myself what all the fuss about the DiD mode was. Even though it's very difficult and often frustrating to fly DiD, every time I achieve something, no matter how trivial it might be, it feels really good. I don't have that feeling when using a non-DiD pilot - no pain, no gain I guess. But the best thing about OFF's various settings in the workshop is that they can be modified to suit practically every player. I'm sure many will find PND flying very enjoyable, even though it may not be my cup of tea. :yes:

On a patrol mission close to the Franco-Belgian border (coordinates N50*50'44.1359", E3*18'10.3136 on the OFF flight map) I found a very strange looking road network. Those Belgians sure know how to build roads!

The local fire department must have their hands full with all those wrecked Tin Lizzies.

I'm itching to start my first D.VII career - I'm sure it does a lot better against Biffs than the Pfalz! Attacking them straight from behind is indeed a quick way to become a casualty. Diving attacks sometimes do the trick, especially if you manage to hit the engine or the poor guys sitting in the plane. And if you succeed in killing the gunner, fighting Biffs becomes suddenly MUCH easier. They are really tough opponents.

Warp and Albatros go well together - I've been warping with them all the time and have done quite well in combat. The D.III in particular can be used as a turn fighter, and the D.II ain't bad either. I have a pilot with almost 50 hours and he's warping all over the place in the D.II. I agree that it's easier to survive as a Spad or Pfalz pilot if you use warp as little as possible so that you won't suddenly lose your altitude advantage. I wonder if the warp coding could be changed so that there wouldn't be so major differences between altitudes at various waypoints. The devs have done marvellous changes to the CFS3 code already, so maybe this would be also possible some day in the future.

The first U-Boot sim to have a band playing was Aces of the Deep back in 1994. I thought it was a really nice touch, especially when I returned having sent several Allied ships to the bottom of the Atlantic. Now if we had a guy turning the propeller at engine start in OFF, that would be REALLY nice. :yes:

As probably everybody here knows, in the real Great War exploding AA shells could be used to see where enemy aircraft were operating. This has always been possible in OFF to some extent, but until the superpatch came it never felt so realistic to me as it does now. I finished one patrol mission a few minutes ago and as usual, wasn't using TAC or labels, which makes it a lot more challenging to spot aircraft, friendly or enemy. In my current career I'm flying near the North Sea coast (MFJ I, early 1917) and during the winter months the weather can be really terrible up there with plenty of thick clouds and rain and snow almost every day. Under these conditions, spotting enemy aircraft can be really difficult (but on the other hand, the AI won't spot the player as easily either.) In the mission I just had I was able to locate and attack a flight of Fees (sorry Bullethead, but c'est la guerre!) by flying toward friendly flak explosions. With this latest patch, I feel OFF has become even more realistic than it was before. I recommend everybody to try some missions without labels and TAC and see for themselves how cool and useful this new improved AA fire is.

I'm sure it will feel even more wonderful if I manage to survive through the long winter and see the coming of the spring. I'm almost in February now... Spotting aircraft against the blue sky is indeed a lot easier than struggling with the North Sea cloud formations.

Maybe there could a military band playing when you leave and then later come back from the patrol? (Let's see if anybody remembers which old sim had such a nice scene in it...)

Looks like Dad's Army gave you a beating, Maxiku!

That's cruel, Olham! I opened the thread hoping to find you were offering to deliver free beer all over the world. And I'm a newbie, right? Been here just a few months and some hundreds of posts.

As clouds are no longer dreadful places ruled by the Turbulence of Death, I've often had exciting encounters in and around them. And yes, if you don't use labels or TAC, it is quite easy to lose your opponents in clouds. Several times some Entente bombers (Quirks mostly in my MFJ I career) have escaped my attack by flying into the clouds so that I've completely lost track of them. And heavy cloud cover is something that you'll see often if you fly close to the North Sea coast in winter. For me, the cloud fix has been one of the most important improvements the devs have made to OFF. :yes:

Looks great, as usual. Now how about some screenshots of the new two-seaters?

Hadn't really thought about it actually. But if people can get drugs from the net, then why not beer? Fortunately my local store is always well-equipped with bottles of Schlenkerla, so I won't go thirsty when playing OFF.

I'd like some of those too, and a Pfalz D.XII to boot. :yes: But what OFF really, really needs is more two-seaters. Are we going to get more of them and also for the early war period, now that's a million dollar question. In the first add-on maybe? OBD guys? Any news at all for your greedy fans?

Reading this thread has made me thirsty. Too bad some of those rare beverages must be really hard find from this part of the world. I've always liked dark, strong beer more than the lighter variants. I also like the Rauchbier, smoked beer - I think they make some of the best of that stuff in Germany and Norway, German Schenkerla being one of my all-time favourites.

A huge spring tosses the player high up in the air? After that there'll be use for all the help those doctors OvS listed can provide!

Yep. But I like the Pfalz more than the Spad, because the French plane has such a poor visibility from the cockpit (yeah, I know, I've been spoilt by the Hun scouts' cockpits!) I do hope we'll get the Pfalz D.XII some day in OFF, because that would be the real German Spad, faster and even tougher than the D.IIIa. One of the fastest German planes in fact. Yes, part of the joy of being a Pfalz jockey. I'm always shocked when I return to the Pfalz after getting used to the Alb's gentle behaviour at landing. But you'll soon get used to it. Just try to come in slow and straight so that the Brick, um, Lady won't try to flip over to one side or the other. Avoid sudden movements of the stick and hold it firmly to counter the bouncing. I've only lost one or two Pfalz guys when landing. (And none at all with the Alb, so I guess that tells something...) :yes: The Pfalz is a challenge, but that's why I like it so much. And it looks cool, too. So have fun with it!

Hey, having some pepper with my turnip would be a nice change from the usual! I hope your Vickers serve their pepper hot. This new improved AA fire leads to strange situations. Yesterday I was patrolling over the front and started receiving some warm attention from the crumpet gunners. It looks and sounds so cool now that I almost flew closer to the AA guns in order to experience the full effect of OBD's latest improvement. Not necessarily a smart thing to do with my longest-living pilot ever!

I wouldn't call myself a Pfalz expert, at least not yet, even though I had over 40 hours with the Bavarian lady in Jasta 10. The key to survival in a Pfalz career is being VERY careful about what you do. All the tips already posted in this thread are valid, so I don't have to go repeating them again in this post. But one thing I think needs to be repeated - the turning ability of the Pfalz may at first seem like it can go turnfighting with enemies, but as Pips already mentioned, the crate is so slow to accelerate (and heavy) that you lose too much valuable energy and speed when going after nimble turn fighters such as the Camel. As the Camel is not only more manoeuvrable but also faster than the Pfalz, you'll soon be in big trouble and usually end up dead. (Happened to me many times until I learned my lesson.) So the best thing to do is to stay very high and use energy fighting tactics and ONLY attack when you have the advantage. Forget the Bloody April and the RFC charging into battle with each and every opponent, no matter how disadvantageous the situation. Use the plane's stability as a gun platform to your advantage when making quick diving attacks against opponents. And you have two Spandaus, so with good aim you can often shoot down enemy planes quickly by hitting the cockpit and engine area. And once again, stay high, the higher the better, because you can gather speed and make those dives, which are often required to get away from a disadvantageous situation, if you do find yourself in one despite being careful. The Pfalz excels at diving, you won't be losing wings like in the Albatros D.III and D.V. It will also help your chances of survival to not use the TAC, or if do you use it, then at least don't go looking for trouble with every enemy flight. As a Pfalz pilot, I've had the most success against Spads and of course two-seaters. Camels I try to avoid because they are so dangerous. If possible, try to stay as much as possible behind German lines. The worst that can happen is to find yourself flying too low and slow over enemy territory. If you're on German side, you can at least find the nearest airfield or just land anywhere to avoid certain death by the huge flight of Camel aces that will always descend upon you when you go too low and slow behind the Entente lines. Gute Jagd! :)

I think he's probably staring at the main menu picture and drooling, unable to post or play.