von Baur

I don't believe the AI have super vision. More than once I've had enemy scouts pass me by in a position of strength rather than attack. Also, I've managed to stalk opponents and get within meters below and behind without any indication that they've noticed me.

I started using Rabu's paper maps almost a year-and-a-half ago flying online with Vasco's Volunteers (DH2 campaign out of Bertangles West). Most of my campaigns since then have been for FA62 begininning mid 1915 and I use it for that, too. In fact, I'll refer to it to give a detailed location of where my kills fell in my claims report and I was getting over well 50% confirmations (including confirmations witnessed by obs balloons and ground troops). I'd even started revising the Douai area to more accurately match the game until my hard drive crashed and burned. The only downside is the in-game map differs so wildly that it's difficult to transpose that in the briefing to the paper maps to accurately mark your waypoints. That's why I keep repeating as my primary request for P4 to have a detailed in-game map that matches the game's terrain. I don't even care about airfields, just so the towns, roads, rail lines, rivers, lakes and preferably even woodlines coincide with what we see from the air.

People having premonitions of their own deaths is an interesting subject. I have had such "premonitions" many times and am still alive, with no current reason to expect my life to end shortly. I'll wager most if not all of us here can say the same. But let one of those feelings of foreboding bear its bitter fruit and people will say, "He knew it was coming. He said he flet it." But what about all those times it didn't come? Choosing the moment he did to name his successor was happenstance, nothing more. As to his losing his edge because of his head wound, the evidence doesn't support it. His second most productive month (according to this list) was March of 1918 with 11 victories, with April shaping up nicely (six victories in the first three weeks, making it already his fourth best month). And that must be weighed with the fact that his best (April 1917, 21 victories) and third best (March 1917, 10 victories) came at the height of the Albatros domination while in March and April of 1918 he was flying the Fokker Dr1, which could't chase down any but the slowest Allied planes. I go back to my contention that he let 21 April get personal. May and von Richtofen's cousin Wolfram had both been told to climb above and observe if there was any trouble. Whether May fired on Wolfram, Wolfram fired on May, or Manfred just didn't like anyone being that close to his inexperienced cousin, Manfred fixated on this Englishman (I know he was Canadian, but that would have been MvR's take on things) and all that mattered was to punish him. In my mind, nothing else explains his actions.

Thinking about adding a couple more sticks of memory and I want to make sure it's the same as I already have. I know I'm running two 2GB and pretty sure it's DDR3. Is there a way to check without pulling one out? My OS is WinXP. Also, will OFF benefit from an increase?

So, smilingmonkey, don't hold back...tell us how you really feel about OFF.

The "chivalrous" nature of WWI aerial warfare has been overblown, that's been accepted by those who've looked more than superficially at the subject for some time now. The early days saw aircraft armed with little more than pistols (extremely limited range and accuracy, firing from an unstable platform at a target moving in an unpredictable manner), rifles (more accuracy and range than a pistol but harder to handle), shotguns (similar range to a pistol and increased chance of hitting something, but the more pellets in the load the less damage each can cause), bricks-flechettes-etc. (really?!? you expect to down anything with that other than by the sheerest luck?). Given all that, better to wave at the other guy and try not to piss him off. There were cases such as Guynemer/Udet in which one pilot let the other go whether through pity, respect or a moment of moral clarity but they were exceedingly rare. But the fourth estate, being what it is, played them up for the sake of sales. Propaganda machinery undoubtedly had something to do with the perpetuation of that myth, too, hyping (or even inventing) instances in which airmen from their side "gallantly" let a stricken opponent go. Similarly, the Old West walk-down (high-noon, town square faceoff) happened only once that is known and recorded. It was between Wild Bill Hicock and a man named Dave Tutt in Springfiled, Missouri in the mid 1860's. But thanx to dime novelists (and later, Hollywood) it's been portrayed as a regualr occurance in every town from St. Louis to San Francisco. As to pilots attacking two-seaters being less courageous than those who shot down fighters, how many fighters can shoot back from almost any angle? McCudden pointed out in his book that by taking position below and directly behind a two-seater the gunner can't draw a bead on you. But his greatest success with that tactic came with the SE5, in which he could pull down on the top-wing gun thereby having a firing solution while flying straight and level. If you try that with a fixed gun you'll find yourself drifting up into the gunner's line of fire rather quickly. And unless you've got only one EA to contend with you'll also be vulnerable to one or more of his comrades at all times. This is why von Richtofen (as well as others, I'm sure) preached that when attacking two-seaters you always go for the man with the gun first. To Dej: That was a misunderstanding. Remember, the earliest accounts of Robin Hood were verbal. When it was written down they called her Maid Marion...should have been made Marion. What do you think kept his men so merry?

I may not be following you exactly here but I think what you're asking about is the campaign pilots. If that's the case, you can certainly make a copy before you reset your hard drive. The folder isn't that big and would easily fit on a flash drive and likely on a floppy disc, assuming your computer has a floppy drive. If you reinstall the game completely I believe that you'd have to recreate all pilots, and probably in order, then replace the folder. Otherwise simply replacing should work. Bear in mind that I'm till running XP. "If it ain't broke..." Another option is to have the game on a seperate drive. I had an old 80GB EIDE hd sitting around which, with the help of a very inexpensive adapter, I installed for the sole purpose of housing OFF. At 23G out of a useable 74.5 it's less than 1/3 full and I can reformat my boot drive if I need to without adversely affecting the game.

Flyby PC, "A Tale of Two Cities", by Charles Dickens. Spooky stories by Lou and Creaghorn. Definitely sounds like past-life memories, which I don't particularly believe in (although I won't argue with people who claim to have them, particularly when the person relating them are average everyday's instead of some ancient king or queen), but I accept the possibility of reincarnation. Like many others here, I have been interested in flying for as long as I can remember. My father flew B-17's and B-24's in WWII; my hometown's swimming pool was in line with the municipal airport, so all summer every summer planes would be taking off over my head; a skydiving exhibition at my hometown's fair was a disaster (no injuries, but only one of three jumpers actually landed in the racetrack's infield, a second came down on the midway and the third landed several blocks from the fairgrounds) sparked a fascination with parachuting that I fulfilled when I got into the Air Force; but JFM and I probably share the closest bond when it comes to WWI. I read "Peanuts" as a kid and loved the Snoopy-as-WWI flying ace-strips. I even have all three of the 'Snoopy vs the Red Baron' songs on 45 (and could probably stumble my way through them). But then one day I learned that there really was a Red Baron, that he really flew an all-red Fokker Triplane, and that the man credited with shooting him down was flying a Sopwith Camel at the time. That was the pivotal moment at which I had to learn more. Having a paper route at the time gave me the money I needed so I bought books, fiction and non-fiction. I read "The Red Fighter Pilot", "No Parachute", "Fighting the Flying Circus", "Five Years in the RFC", "Ace of the Iron Cross" and other biographies and auto-biographies that I can't remember right now. I also read "The Day the Red Baron Died" and another book about MvR's final battle, the name of which also escapes me. I never did read "The Blue Max" but there was a series of fictional WWI aviation books (three, I think)...something like The Hostile Skies, or The Deadly Skies or somthing like that...that had a British, former infantry captain as the protagonist and an American flying for the RFC as his best friend (because both were considered outsiders by the rest of the squadron). I read every issue of the "Enemy Ace" comic books (in several "Flyboys" scenes I thought James Franco would make an excellent Hammer of Hell). I never did get into the 1/72 scale models, but I built squadrons of the Revell 1/32 scale Dr1's (all brightly painted, of course), Camels and S-XIII's, several of the best of which I donated to the local hobby shop when I went into the Air Force, where they remained on display until the shop closed down. I even did one of each with an electric motor to spin the propeller...and the Camel and Dr1 engines, too.

You beat me to it, Lou. :yes: Seriously, though, I've always been on the lookout for a good WWI sim. Flew RB3D (with most of the patches and tweaks) for years. Followed Birds of Prey until it died on the vine. Tried FSW WWI and held out a lot of hope for Richtofen's Skies. On one forum or the other...can't say for sure which any more...I heard about a mod for CFS3. I was on dial-up at the time and had a friend download it for me. P1 had all the graphics beauty I'd come to expect from a Microsoft flight simulator and all the shortcomings in flght modeling, too. Plus with the system I had at the time it didn't run well. I toyed with it for a bit but stayed focussed on RS. As the support from, and interest in all phases of, TargetWare dwindled word started coming out about the approach of OFF P3. I dusted off my CFS3 disc and the rest is geometry. Or was it biology? One of those boring subjects, anyway.

I know that in some aircraft the leg blocks the view of the compass. IRL if that was a problem I'd just move my leg slightly but that's not an option in OFF so I have to shift my head a bit. It feels unnatural. In the earlier disussion it was mentioned that in some aircraft the pilot's left hand blocks the view of the mixture lever. Since I never look inside the cockpit to see my arms or legs anyway, I vote to take them all away.

As long as the paper towel is not dry there should be no scratching problems. The more you go over the screen the drier it gets. You keep going until you just reach the point at which the towel is not dry but you're not leaving water on the screen as you wipe. It can get time-consuming if you start with the towel too wet, but it's proven safe so far.

"Hey, Mr. Wilson, can I ask you a question?"

I use a damp paper towel (make it wet, then squeeze as much water as possible out), then gently rub over screen vertically and horizontally and repeat until clean and dry. Been using that method since my first venture into flat panel LCD's 11 years ago and haven't scratched one yet.

That's what I do.

I second Beard's "darnedest places" comment. I fired up a QC mission in a Dr1 and, on a lark, chose to borrow MvR's plane. When the game started the cowling and gun deck were white! I hit pause and popped into external and to my amazement saw my personalized Fokker. Funny thing is that sometimes it shows up that way and sometimes it shows up the right way.

The bailout isn't certain death. In fact I doubt any of them die. It's a holdover from CFS3. I've watched them and they assume a "modified frog" position, which is a basic stable freefall body position. They hold this for a few seconds, then pull a ripcod that isn't there and descend slowly under a non-existant parachute. Sorry, no Raoul Lufbery's. Elephant, I don't know what setting you have but that's why I dropped "Dead on roll of dice" in favor of "Dead is dead"...too many simple landings resulting in, "Like many pilots in The Great War you have died." Since switching I haven't had a single instance.

...Green Bay's first touchdown was aided by the refs' failure to call two holding penalties even though both took place right in front of them. The interception that was run in for a touchdown included a Green Bay block from behind which should have nullified the td and possibly even resulted in a field goal. And finally, on the second interception the Pittsburh receiver was held back just before the pick. If the call had been made the Steelers retain possession and Green Bay loses that seven. I doubt the catch would have been made had he not been interferred with but probably neither would the interception, and even an incomplete pass prevents that touchdown and the tone of the game is significantly different. Yes, the phantom face-mask against Green Bay was bogus and I hated it because all the Steeler-detractors will point to it and say the refs are biassed towards Pittsburgh, but balanced against the above along with sundry other obvious shirt-pulls and holds and the case could be made for Green Bay awarding the officiating crew the MVP. Call it sour grapes, if you like, but that's the way I saw the game. Either way, Pittsburgh Super Bowls are anything but boring.

I saw (and referred to) the bogus face-mask call, uncleal, but thanx for proving my point in my original post that that would be the remembered bad call. And I know, whiteknight, that holding happens on nearly every play as does some degree of interference or illegal contact. But it's one thing to happen lost in the muddle of 300+ pound bodies between the tackles and it's something else again to happen two yards from the QB, between him and the official, with the pass rusher beyond the blocker and the blocker's inside arm around the chest of the rusher. Twice on the opening drive. The interference I cited was as the ball was approaching the receiver and the defender clearly held him back (his right arm, I think), slowing him down just slightly but enough to allow his teammate to get to the ball cleanly and intecept. All these things happened in the open and at the focal point of the play, and yet were not called. Furthermore, in the second Pittsburgh-Baltimore game, just a few plays in a pass rusher swings his forearm between Rothliesberger's facemask and helmet opening breaking his nose and no flag is thrown. Later Miller is taken out with a concussion following a helmet-to-helmet hit in what for any other team's receiver would be called an unprotected position and again no flag. Along with several blatant holds, including a couple of tackles of the pass rusher. Let them play, yes. And I personally agree with those against over-protecting football players all the way back to Jack Lambert's comment when asked what could be done to prevent quarterbacks being injured ("Put them in dresses."). But either give both teams the same leeway or hold an equally tight rein on both. Let them play on equal terms. And Rodgers as MVP ? The defense won that game, end of story. Three take-aways resulting in 21 points with one touchdown scored by the defense. Take any one of those scores away and the Lombardi Trophy would be in the House of Rooney. I guess when there's no single stand-out player they just default it to the winning quarterback.

The only thing that could have been more confusing than all that information spewed out so fast would be for it to have been slowed down to be 'better understood'. Also, now I know how my son and his friends feel when they ask me to explain something.

Yeah, I'm with Bullethead on this one. I've seen 'Wings' before (and remember The Coop's scene...all two minutes of it), but I've never seen a Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and my beloved Steelers. And with Pittsburgh Super Bowls being among the most nail-biting, down-to-the-wire I doubt I'll dare change channels. edit: I just hope someone hides Ted's crayons.

I've tried to drive from Bertangles-West to Amiens several times but there's a downhill slope about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way there where I build up too much speed even with brakes applied to manage the sharp angle between terrain planes (correct term?) at the bottom and crash every time. Same with the bicycle.

TOO FREAKIN' CUTE!! (That'll cost me a 'man' card) So where was the camera that took the backwards shots? Hit up YouTube and check out the one with the snowy mountains. Not only great scenery but the landing is...ummmm, not as good as this one.

Heavens, no! That was a good-natured jab at OvS, one of the devs here, who is von Stachel of Red Baron fame and author of the "Hell's Angels" patches (there were more than one weren't there?). I have flown as von Baur (or Ritter von Baur) on all sims...Red Baron, Richtofen's Skies, OFF, even CFS (the first one) and IL-2.

If you mean the words, "All", "Ships", etc on the TAC, I don't think that's editable. Trust me, it's not that obtrusive anyway, especially if you've reduced the TAC's size. If you're talking about the labels that hover over objects, they're about 1/3 of the way down that file listed as, "Friendcolor", "Enemycolor", "Targetcolor" etc.

Not only that, Olham, but we'll have dropped our bombs and be headed home before they can get up to us. Too bad they don't have some method of finding our planes before they can actually see or hear them. Some machine that will warn them that we're coming and from which direction, at what altitude, etc.