Hasse Wind

But how would you then earn your PLM? If there weren't any defenseless, helpless victims around, you'd actually have to face enemies who fight back, and you wouldn't want that, now would you? (Yeah, the 2-seater AI could in some cases need some improvements, but I believe that is already being worked for P4. And some of them do put up a good fight, like the Rolands for example.)

It would be great if P4 had all the aircraft we now have in P3, and even some new ones, especially 2-seaters. Speaking of 2-seaters, lately I've been flying them more than fighters. I would like to see the behaviour of escort fighters improved so that they stay more with the 2-seaters they are supposed to escort and not abandon them so easily and go chasing after enemy planes that pose no immediate danger to the 2-seaters. I know coordinating escorts was difficult in WW1 (and it wasn't easy in WW2 either, but much easier than during WW1), but when they are present with the bombers, it would be nice to see them act more like true escorts. It isn't such a major problem when flying a bomber such as the DFW, which is capable of climbing so quickly and flying so high that it can usually evade attacking enemies even without escorts, but slow and clumsy 2-seaters, the worst of which is the BE2, are extremely vulnerable (as they should) without their escorts. In WW1, 2-seaters were often used to escort other 2-seaters, so this is also something that I'd like to see much more in P4.

I only fly ground attack missions if I'm serving in a squadron that historically had such missions and was equipped to do so with suitable aircraft. If I'm in a fighter unit, I just ignore those mission types. The Nupe is no P-47 or Typhoon, no matter how powerful its rockets are. For P4, I hope we'll see some real ground attack squadrons - a German Schlachtflieger career would be something special.

I hope that in P4 it will be possible to enlist first in a 2-seater squadron and then later as you become a successful pilot, get the option to transfer to a fighter squadron if you so like. I do this all the time manually in P3, but it would be REALLY great if it was officially possible in the P4 transfer system. It would also be historically accurate - many famous aces first flew bomber and recon planes before becoming fighter pilots.

The manual transfer method seems to work quite well in P3. I've been doing it for a long time now without any problems. But yeah, it's not official, so if something does go wrong, you can't blame the devs. And now I'm even more anxious to get my hands on P4!

Like I posted in the most recent P4 thread, I'm sure we'd all like to see a squadron management system comparable to what RB3D had. But such a system would be very unrealistic, in fact almost crazy, with the number of casualties we currently see in combat. You'd lose the whole squadron in a couple of days, and at least for me, that would be much more of an immersion killer than the current system. It all comes down to improving the AI behaviour. If this can be done in P4, then there will be no need to stick to the current system. Until that day comes, I'm satisfied what we have now. OFF is far from perfect, but compared to any other WW1 sim out there, it really is the best sim for single player campaigns.

Well, at least the French pilots wore quite colourful uniforms, depending on the branch of service they came from to join the air force. Blue, white, brown, red, and various combinations of different colours seem to have been common among them. Not at all as uniformly dressed as the British airmen.

That makes my Opel Astra look like a Ford Model T in comparison. But even if I had enough money to buy one of those "Brisfits", it would be pretty useless on the roads here.

Barrel roll indeed. Oh, and welcome back.

This has been mentioned before, but I hope the promotion system will be changed (as the awards will be) for P4. Now it's far too easy to get promoted rapidly. My pilots, if they live, usually reach the highest rank available for their nation and service within a few weeks of game time, and that's definitely too fast.

A very nice find, and seems to be in good condition. I wonder whether it has been in action during the war, and in whose aircraft? Speaking of cockpits, I wouldn't be surprised if Lou somehow manages to find all the instruments of a real WW1 aircraft on sale on eBay and then uses them to build his own cockpit.

I think the radar (TAC) screen doesn't have to be removed completely. It can already be switched off if one wants to fly with more immersion, or you can make it show something else than aircraft - it makes a useful waypoint guide when switched to show ships, for example, as they don't exist in OFF, so you see nothing but the waypoint lines. And also one of OFF's greatest strengths is that the sim can be tailored for every kind of player with the workshop options. For beginner pilots or those who don't want to be hardcore all the time, the TAC is definitely useful. Otherwise I agree with your post. Would be really nice to see the wingmen react more realistically to the environment.

I think most people would like to see the campaign manager evolve in the direction of RB3D, particularly the squadron management side of the sim. Let's just hope that it's possible to do it with CFS3. But with the current extreme casualty figures caused by the AI's tendency to always fight to the death, a dynamic squadron management system similar to RB3D would feel very unrealistic. We'd lose all of our pilots in a couple of days. So in that sense the current system is better, because it takes longer for pilots to become casualties, no matter how many of them die in the actual missions. But if the AI behaviour is improved even more in P4 and we see less deadly battles, the current system should of course be changed too. I'd also like to see a different management system for non-fighter squadrons in P4. Currently in P3 it doesn't make much sense that a two-seater squadron behaves like a fighter unit, with all the pilots getting claims and kills continuosly and in every way acting like they are in a fighter squadron.

I think everybody with plenty of hours playing OFF has experienced something like that. I know I've sometimes lost pilots for very stupid reasons. Here's a useful hint for everybody: don't play OFF when you're tired and have had a little too much to drink.

It's always fascinating when you discover something like this about your family. And it does bring the war, even though it's now a very distant, and for many people, practically a forgotten war, much closer when you know your family also lost somebody.

Heh, that's a great quote Rabu. And I suppose that's quite true. The majority of people know nothing about such inaccuracies, and don't really care to know either. They are only interested in the story, the characters, and the action of the movie. We'd need somebody who respects history and is willing to faithfully reproduce everything from that bygone era for his or her film. And that somebody should be so filthy rich and powerful that he could do what he likes and not be forced to listen to some artist who says this or that ahistorical emblem or camo or whatever looks better on the screen than the real thing. But where are all such people? Anyway, that sounds like an interesting book. I didn't know that The Blue Max's author was such a prolific writer.

Are these the guys who executed the Gallipoli operation on the Entente side? (Sorry, but I couldn't resist when I saw that typo.)

Yes, one can only imagine what would have happened if a truly fanatic Nazi general had been in command. Even if such a fanatic didn't have all the necessary resources (and Germans didn't when Paris was liberated), he would certainly have done his best to destroy everything.

I find it strange how few historical movies about air battles and campaigns are made these days. You'd think it would be a great subject - air combat, action, guns firing, big explosions, and maybe a pretty lady or two in some scenes - everything that an exciting movie should have. And with the help of modern computers, the special effects shouldn't be that hard to do convincingly. Aircraft should certainly be easier and cheaper to animate in a realistic and believable way than living creatures, especially humans with our complex facial muscles and structures. There are many stories to be told about the first war in the air, so it didn't necessarily have to be a redo of that classic, The Blue Max. But I'm not holding my breath in excitement. 90% of movies are crap anyway, and nobody seems to be interested in doing a decent WW1 film either.

I think your music is great, Matt. I've been playing OFF a lot, but that music never gets old. I'm looking forward to hearing more in the future.

Like I mentioned, von Choltitz's actions during the liberation of Paris are certainly controversial. In his memoirs he of course paints a very positive picture of himself as the hero and savior of Paris (which one of us would write bad things about himself for posterity?), but the French at least don't see him as such but as a ruthless general among many others who did his best to oppress France. Some historians have also criticized von Choltitz's account of what happened in Paris. Before the Allies came, he certainly didn't act like a great humanist and patron of civilization, but then not many generals did - some were much, much worse. If you were in a high-ranking position under Hitler's rule, it was practically impossible not to get involved in dirty business, because the whole NS-Staat was based on nothing but dirty business. And that makes the few individuals who dared to think, and most importantly, act differently from the majority, that much more great and worthy of respect.

Good to hear from you, Lou. We're such a nice bunch of people that you just couldn't stay away for full six months, eh? Excellent screenshots. I hope we'll see at least the Italian front in OFF some day. That would be something that you don't have in every flight sim!

Excellent as always, Olham.

I think it was Albert Speer who wrote that Hitler was thinking of destroying Paris completely (Speer and Hitler were very close, in fact Speer may have been Adolf's only true friend), but then decided against it, because he was planning to reconstruct Berlin as Germania, the capital of the German Empire and the biggest metropolis in the world. Hitler said there would be no need to destroy Paris then, because it would be completely shadowed by Germania. But in 1944, when Allied troops approached Paris, Hitler finally gave the order to destroy as much of Paris as possible. But Germans didn't have enough time and troops to do that - fortunately. There's some controversy about the German commander of Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, and his role in not being able to, or not wanting to, fulfill this order. It's safe to say that Hitler didn't respect anything or anybody that opposed him and his ideology. Human beings, history and culture were meaningless to him, if they didn't serve his rule. In OFF, I've never been to Paris. I've had one bombing mission that took me quite close to it though.

I also suspect Bullethead is currently involved with containing the effects of the oil spill, being a fireman and all. I've tried flying the Fee a couple of times in campaign mode, but I just can't really get into it. If possible, I feel myself even more helpless in the Fee than in the Be2c, which isn't a very safe crate to be in either in the case of a German attack. The Fee does have some firepower, that's true, but otherwise it's like sitting in a flying bathtub, hoping that nobody with bad intentions comes anywhere near your route. I guess I've been spoiled by the excellent DFW C.V.