Hasse Wind

Nice to hear from you, Widowmaker. I was beginning to worry the aliens abducted you or something... aren't the OBD guys great for continuing to improve OFF? The latest patch really makes a difference in the sim!

Enjoy your holiday, Creaghorn! Isn't it nice that the superpatch comes out exactly the same time you have to leave?

This patch is fantastic! I love the new graphics, especially the main menu looks great from an Albatros pilot's point of view. And I could swear the sim runs much smoother now, or is it just my imagination? I had a couple of QC missions and tried the Spads, they are now much more enjoyable to fly as they don't stall all the time at ridiculously high speeds. And the AA fire looks and feels superb. I don't know what to say, OBD guys. Your support for your product is outstanding. Thanks!

That cockpit does offer a remarkable visibility. I think that's the best part of the Eindecker. I once tried the Eindecker in QC and then tested the Spad - the difference in visibility made me almost claustrophobic in the French cockpit! But watch out for the Nupes, because they are there already in May 1916, in the form of Nieuport 11. And later in the summer, the N.17 comes into service, and it's superior to Eindecker in every possible way (well maybe not the visibility!). I imagine switching the TAC off completely will also prolong the life of an Eindecker pilot. You don't want to go chasing after every enemy in that crate like you do when you're flying the Alb, Olham!

Flying a Pfalz is a challenge, but that makes it very enjoyable if you're a person who likes challenges. Just remember you don't have an observer to shoot at enemies all around your crate like in the Fee. And you'll have to be very cautious and cowardly with the Pfalz, otherwise you won't survive two hours. It is the ideal plane for flagellants who like to play OFF.

Thanks for posting those pics guys, they are great! That pic with the "ghost" Albatrosses is quite eerie (I hope that's the right word). I often have that kind of feeling when visiting historical locations and thinking what was going on there at the same place so long ago... really makes you feel small!

It always helps to have enough altitude, not matter what plane you are piloting. In strong and fast planes the best way to escape is to just dive and fly home. The SE5a and Spad are great at this. The Pfalz is not nearly as fast as these two, but diving like the wind is still the best way to run away from a fight when flying that Bavarian Brick. But at low altitudes, you're in trouble with the Pfalz. Then you'll sorely miss the turning ability of a Nupe or a Camel... Nupe campaigns against the Eindeckers are great fun, because you almost never have to run away. And if you do, you can do so almost with half throttle, because the clumsy monoplanes will never catch you! :yes:

Creaghorn, I don't think the early Albs are outclassed by Entente fighters, on the contrary. For example the Alb. D.II is better than any Entente fighter in late 1916, and in early 1917 the D.III is definitely not inferior to enemy fighters. The Tripe is an exception to this rule, but they are rare compared to other scout models. That's been my experience in OFF, for what it's worth. I agree about the D.V and D.Va though, when they come into service the Entente is getting much improved types into action, like the SE5a and the Camel. Olham, The Pup is not a Pfalz or a Spad, but it's still much stronger than the Nupes. So if it's a butterfly, it's a much bigger and sturdier species. :yes:

Nice one, Olham! You showed the crumpets who rules the skies! (Un)fortunately there's no danger of that in the German Air Service. You're in for the duration, and either receive an iron cross or a wooden cross in the end. I've been getting the latter mostly. :yes:

These cultural differences between European countries are interesting. Here in Finland, nobody would even dream of localized versions of niche products like flight simulators. The most localization we usually get here is a translated manual or some short installation instructions, everything else is in English. Consequently I'm sure that every sim player here knows English at least relatively well - if they don't, they have the wrong hobby. :yes: So language is not a problem here, but nobody seems to have heard about OFF when I mention it in some forum. And if they have, they aren't very eager to try it because they avoid CFS3 like the plague. I believe a digital distribution system would help sales a lot in countries far from North America.

Some new screenshots of the new planes would be great to see. The pics Paarma already posted about the new award system were amazing. I'd sure like to see more of the new content, and I know I'm not the only one. :yes:

My hands were already starting to shake uncontrollably! Seriously speaking, I'm always worried that the hackers finally got CombatACE when these blackouts happen. Fortunately that wasn't the case this time either.

Bullethead: Actually there WAS a lot of air combat up there before I stopped using the TAC, and not just two-seaters but fighters also (Brit Nupes and Bristols). I find it more realistic not to have combat each and every time I take off from the homebase. And the TAC screen is really bad for immersion, in my opinion. But that's just my way of enjoying OFF, and you have your own way. I have no problem with that. :yes:

Olham: Try the Alsace region. The Bavarian Jastas with the Pfalz D.IIIs are there and they face French Escadrilles mostly equipped with Spads. There shouldn't be any nasty Camels down there either. Duce Lewis: I've flown the D.VII a few times in QC, and each time I kicked the Entente's ass. I guess I've been avoiding the D.VII campaigns because I'm afraid it's going to be too easy to shoot down all the crumpets! (As if anything is easy OFF...) Looking forward to it. Themightysrc: I actually read that Strachan's book earlier this year, and it was probably the best single volume history of WW1 I've read. I understand he has written a lot about WW1, but I haven't read any of his other works. Most people are just too occupied by their every day life and issues to have any serious interest in history. It's a shame really, because everything and everybody has roots in the past and if you don't see them or know about them, it's more difficult to understand why things are the way they are today. I was fortunate to always have good history teachers who knew how to make those ancient things seem interesting and relevant. That is not always the case, and many people leave school thinking history is one of those useless and extremely boring subjects they are forced to study without benefiting from it in any way.

Ever since I practically stopped using the TAC, I've had A LOT fewer enemy encounters. I've just had about 5 patrol missions in a row (MFJ I, January 1917) during which I had absolutely no contact with the enemy. I do use warp and when it deactivates and tells me there are enemies near, I don't use TAC anymore to see where they are. I continue flying on the planned course and search for the bad guys with my eyes only (I do have TrackIR). Most of the time it seems I don't find anybody and neither do they find us. But I agree the AI vision should be reduced.

It seems to me most people hardly know what WW1 was (it's completely shadowed by WW2, and even that conflict is not nearly as well known as it should be), and if somebody happens to know something about it, it's VERY unlikely they know any pilots by name.

I was somewhat surprised when I first tried the D.II after the D.III and D.V - it was much better than I had expected and performs really well against the Entente fighters of late 1916 and early 1917. In fact I think it's actually the Albatros that is best suited for energy tactics, because its wings can tolerate dives so well. And it's not very clumsy either. I'm having loads of fun in early 1917 with the D.II. Spads often tend to be easy targets - it may be the AI doesn't quite know how to best use them. In my Pfalz campaigns, I was most confident when going against the Spads, because I knew I could even try outturn them with the Pfalz. We'll see how the new patch changes Spads and whether it makes them more dangerous in both the player's and AI's hands. :yes:

Being too aggressive is what kills pilots quickly in OFF. I've noticed that almost all of my "Pfalz mentality" pilots (who avoid combat when the situation is not advantageous - an absolute must when being a Pfalz pilot, so I decided to name the method after that) live much longer than the aggressive turn fighter guys. Using TAC all the time to look for fights everywhere will produce spectacular kill numbers for a short period, but then the Grim Reaper swings his scythe and collects another trophy...

The more I've flown the various Albatrosses in campaign mode, the more I've learnt to like them, though I'm not so fond of the D.V or D.Va. But the D.II and D.III I find extremely easy planes to like - they're fast enough for their time, easy to fly, nimble (the D.III in particular), they've got plenty of firepower and they don't have any nasty flight characteristics. I may have to say the D.II is my current favourite, because it has stronger wings than the D.III so I can do some harder manouevres with it. I shouldn't jinx my career, but it looks like my longest-living pilot ever is going to be my current Alb D.II pilot. I think I've spent most of my OFF time flying the Albs and the Pfalz for the Germans. Soon I'm going to start a Fokker D.VII career (my first) and then I'll start flying more for the Entente. The Tripe is high on my list of planes to try... And then there are all the two-seaters with which I have very little experience, just one (failed) Strutter campaign. Isn't OFF just great! :yes:

I've seen this happen too, but often I find I'm attacking enemies that are themselves outnumbered, sometimes even quite badly. I've been flying a lot over Flanders area lately, and the activity there is often heavy compared to any other region. I haven't had it so bad that I'd feel I have no chance to survive against the enemy. I use TAC very rarely nowadays, and that makes it actually a lot easier to survive longer. I don't even see enemies in every mission. I also use light air activity settings, which in my opinion makes the game feel more realistic. My current MFJ I (January 1917 in Flanders) pilot now has about 40 hours and 13 confirmed kills. Shouldn't the OFF manager try to simulate accurately the German strategy of concentrating their Jastas heavily in certain regions? This was the practice that helped the Huns to often gain local air superiority (and of course be weaker in other sectors).

Hmm, I wonder whether I'm the northernmost OFF player in the world. Capt. Winters seems to be the southernmost.

I was just about to start naming my French pilots Legrand so that they wouldn't stand out from the considerable crowd of other Legrands.

I was wondering why about half the pilots had the same last names in every French campaign I've ever played in OFF. I guess that explains it. Thanks for improving the dismal French name situation, Waldemar!

A Quirk is the BE.2.

Phew! A close call. Good to know you weren't hurt and nobody lost their lives. The Devil takes care of his own. :yes: Working in a hospital as a surgeon assistant, I can confirm that cars have definitely become much safer over the last 20-30 years. I see some really bad cases every now and then that would have been fatal in the 80s, but not anymore. Of course treatment methods have also improved, but not as dramatically as car safety.