von Baur

Another point occured to me after reading Olham's post. OBD has never said, "That's it boys, we're done." In fact they were probably working on HiTR...and maybe even P4...when BHaH was released. Not through desire to soak us for more money (which is the feeling I get about the IL-2 gang), but because there's always something new out or coming out...faster cpu's, bigger/better/badder video cards, memory growing faster than you can keep track, newer coding programs. At some point they have to say, "We'll release this for now and incorporate the increased capabilities in the next release", otherwise OFF would always be a work in progress. Two prime examples of that are Birds of Prey and Richtofen's Skies. So what's the point of an independant making a significant mod when the devs have shown that they're still working and sharing what they've got? Red Baron, OTOH, was officially finished. Sierra was not pursuing it. Any improvements would have to come from the users who had the skills. And thank God many of them did. CdT's (along with others who followed his lead) updated 3D models (I didn't like von Helton's early RotJ work and never tried the later stuff), Kessler's terrain graphix and ground objects along with a half-dozen or more FM's and DM's and Ren's FM switcher to manage them all, even a wacky-pack from some dude who called himself Stachel ....heck, my Sierra folder was 14GB or more by the time I was through. But how much of that[/i would have been done if Sierra hadn't pulled the plug? In short, OFF doesn't have the same need for indie work.

That's the file for the TAC size, Duke. Near the bottom, after the HUD settings, listed as tactical display. It's the BGScale setting. I keep mine at 0.20 and at the bottom center of the monitor (because that's the least likely place you'll ever find an enemy airplane, therefore the least obtrusive in a fight, IMO, but that's a personal preference). At that size and dragged down as far as it will go the bottom 1/4 of it will be out of view completely.

My wife and I had a 'second' ceremony while visiting Vegas (no, not by Elvis). When she calls me crazy I used to reply, "You married me...twice." Now she usually beats me to the punchline. Be 20 years in a couple of weeks since the first.

I'll add my two cents in one point: as uncleal said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I doubt anyone would say that OFF is perfect but it's darned good. Besides, define 'perfect'. One of the things I disliked about Red Baron was the mods. I'm not talking about the improved plane models or the graphix and sound contributions (flew many of them myself and still have my FCJ disc), I mean all the different flight and damage models. It wasn't so much the fm/dms themselves as the bickering over which one was 'better' or 'more realistic'. And each one of them claimed to be historically accurate based on research and contemporary accounts. It got tiring, for me, just to read it on Wings of Honor and then Wings of Valor. Personally I prefer everyone being on the same page.

The easiest way is to cycle through until it shows only ships. Unless you're near the water you'll never see a blip.

Most people who receive awards for 'heroism' feel as if they weren't doing anything anyone else wouldn't have in the same situation. Those honored for deeds of valor will, to a man, point to their comrades who didn't make it back and say, "They were the heroes because their sacrifice was greater." The propaganda machinery is an important tool in war and public decoration ceremonies are key in it. But that's more for the people on the homefront, to give hope to those with loved ones still serving. Newspapers have published casualty lists since at least the American Civil War (and probably before), and readig them day after day, praying not to see a name you know, saps patriotic fervor. To see stories of how one man in the right place turned the tide restores hope. With pilots it's usually sustained success at great risk (remember, even without being shot at airplanes were considered deathtraps in WWI) that garners awards, although medals are still conferred for specific individual actions, if significantly 'above and beyond'.

Personal experience, skydiving in South Carolina summers. Hot as...well, a South Carolina summer...on the ground, but the thermometer on the Cessna 172's airvent almost always read in the low 40's to high 30's at altitude (typically only 7,500 feet). Extrapolate that any way you will, on whatever continent you like and whatever latitude you're operating at and it's damned cold upstairs. Logic dictates that a tractor would provide better protection from the wind than a pusher but not enough to make it comfortable or even bearable. As others have mentioned, with fuel and ammunition sitting practically in most pilots' laps (fuel particularly on the German machines), they probably didn't want to channel too much heat toward the cockpit. The real he-men IMO were the FE gunners, out in the front of that nacelle with no cover above the knees.

The image at the bottom that says "Das Propellerblatt" is a link to a pair of publications with more photos. Worth a look, even if you can't speak German.

My hat is OFF (get it?) to you it you have. I had to cheat and look up the lat/long on the real thing and look in that area. From what I found online it's modeled about 25 seconds too far north and about the same too far west. Which puts it in the middle of these trees (bottom of picture): There are a few fields just south and east of there that would make it easier to find. Or maybe the treeline could be pushed north.*edit* If you look at satelite imagery there's barely a few stands of trees within kilometers. Very open ground.

Did someone say "shrubbery"? And who are you calling a mutant?

Straight parallel lines in dirt=well-plowed ground in the planting season. Farmland now, probably farmland for the last 90 years. My guess is anything worth finding has either been found or is buried under oft-turned soil. You might well find a few articles but without serious excavation (upon which I'm sure Farmer Jacques would cast his gravest French frown) I doubt you'd find anything significant. That said, somebody had to be the one to find King Tut's tomb and treasure, so you never know.

As stated in the initial post, the lat/long coordinates are a near perfect match with the real thing...about 25 seconds farther north and 25 seconds farther west in the game. The key error is that there are far too many trees in the neighborhood. Stonehenge sits on a grassy plain, whereas this is woodland. In fact, the trees surrounding the monoliths are but the southern tip of a rather large wooded area. Not quite a forest, but much more than a stand or even a grove, iirc.

There were a half dozen or so...a couple of small ones in the center of three or four large ones. That was all I saw, anyway...opted not to make a kamikaze run to find out for sure. I doubt I could have counted fast enough if I had. I'll bet you never saw any trees in any of those pictures, either. I know I haven't.

Update to Gotha mission: I was hoping to make more progress, but my son leaves for the Army on the 4th and I've spent most of my vacation doing family things. Not complaining, mind you...if I had the week to do over I wouldn't change a thing (well, maybe rousted him out of bed earlier every day...I'd love to see his first week. lol). I've added two large ports with adjacent railyards as targets. One is northeast of Shoeburyness and the other is on the south shoreline of the peninsula across the River Medway from Sheerness (look them up on Yahoo or Google maps). The third set of targets will be the bridges spanning the Thames. Should be fun and significant damage can be inflicted. I've also put a searchlight/AAA battery near each of the rail/port facilities for atmosphere. I've taken reconnaisance photos of the targets as well as the airfields so everyone can be familiar with the areas. We will need someone to host and we'll have to make sure any DiD folks who want to join have all the necessary files. ON TO ENGLAND!!!

Don't ya just hate it when someone pushes the issue and ruins the surprise? It started a couple of months ago, wanting to run a full bombing raid on London. I modified the "Gothas Over the Thames" mission to start at an airfield in German occupied Belgium and return there. It has blossomed to include 15 Gothas taking off from three different airfields at night, rendezvousing over a fourth, flying to and bombing different targets in and around London, reforming and returning to the rendvous field together before heading to their original bases. I've done a test flight (5 hours and 15 minutes total flying time, but I was at max power all the way...I'll have to refly at 85% to prevent flight leader separation) and recorded headings for all legs except bombing runs. I've also taken recon photos of the airfield approaches and final approach ip's (it takes alot of work to bring those beasts in but it can be done easily with the right information). I start a run of 13 days straight off work on Friday and I've already informed my wife that I will be using whatever of it I need to place more targets of a military nature (I'm thinking some shipyards around the mouth of the Thames, a railyard or two inland and maybe even the Sopwith aircraft factory if it was located nearby) and include searchlight and AAA batteries farther out, as well as some recon photos of the targets. My intent was to arrange everything just as a real mission would have been, from briefing to landing, and seek interest from both the multi-palyer and single-player communities. I expected a decent response from Vasco's Volunteers and I was hoping that a good number of the DiD crew would pick up the gauntlet. I wanted to have everything organized prior to letting the cat out of the bag, but now I feel compelled to make a pre-announcement announcement just to keep people like you from being lost . There it is...a teaser. I'll toss up a couple of the friendly airfield recon photos this weekend, but I'm a little pressed for time right this instant.

As Olham said, some of us are quite well off as Christmas approaches and others are not. For those who are, remember the humility behind the story of the first Christmas. For those who are not, remember the hope. For all, remember the lessons of peace, charity and faith taught by the one who's birth we commemorate.

Then we're talking 4 cups of brown sugar? Seems a bit much, but I'm no baker. Is that about what you used, Jarhead? And what other English measurements can you let us in on? How many cups of flour? O darn! I lost my metric-to-English time conversion chart. How many English minutes in a metric minute?

I mentioned this recipe to Frau von Baur and she wants to give it a go. I can convert grams to ounces of weight, but the brown sugar and the flour are usually measured by volume. Any chance of getting those conversions, Olham?

"If you're happy with 'M'...." Which one? or ?

XP C:\Documents and Settings\(your profile folder)\Application Data\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\ViewUI Right-click, then click 'edit'. About 1/3 of the way in is the label colors, which also controls the colors of the dots on the TAC. The HUD text (F5) colors are about 3/4 of the way down and the size and position of the TAC is just below that.

Ever heard of Archie Bunker? Called his wife "dingbat" and his son-in-law "meathead". He was the central character in the US TV series "All in the Family", which premiered in 1971 and was itself copied from..."inspired by" is the polite term for it... a BBC show called "Till Death US Do Part". He even had a loyal following in a tongue-in-cheek Presidential campaign in 1972. A popular T-shirt had the character warning us all that "There's a little bit of me in all of youse".

"Ring, Little Bells, Ring"! Another of the songs we sang . Not to try to one-up Capt. Sopwith's 78, but we were cleaning out the pole barn this summer and ran across something my mother-in-law had brought with us when we moved here from southern California nearly nine years ago. Her father had worked in the recording, radio and movie sound effects business back in the 20's and 30's. When I looked inside a box that was much heavier than I'd expected it to be I found dozens of glass masters. I'm thinking of talking to my wife about selling them online. I could probably retire. Oh, and by the way...if anyone suggests "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" I will hunt you down!!!

I like the game, Olham. Very ingenious. If you post anything of my hometown (see Christmas Carol thread) though, you'd better make sure the buildings look appropriately old...I haven't spent much time there since 1972. Ava, MO is where I hang my hat now. Actually five miles outside it and 1/2 mile off the main road, so even Google Street View can't find me .

Olham: Yes, I know that Dutch and Deutsch are two different people. What I meant by that was that the term 'Pennsylvania Dutch' actually refers to German immigrants who settled in the southeastern part of that state. They referred to themselves as Deutsch, obviously, but the English-speaking inhabitants (through ignorance, arrogance or a combination of the two) said 'Dutch'. In those days the people who came here wanted to fit in and become Americans, not try to make everyone else cowtow to them, so they didn't correct their neighbors and that's what stuck. As far as "Silent Night", what I've heard is that the cathedral's organ broke on Christmas Eve and couldn't be repaired before the service. The priest (I don't remember anything about a teacher, although I can't say one wan't involved) wrote it for guitar because that was the only musical instrument available. He probably had no idea it would become arguably the greatest Christmas carol ever. Rather symbolic of the story of Christmas itself...the humble origins of someone who would change the world. (I'm also reminded of Lincoln's modest assessment of The Gettysburg Address when he said in it, "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here...") Finally, thank you for reminding me of "Oh du Frohliche". That was one of the songs our 9th-grade German class sang when we carolled my hometown of Bloomsburg, PA 41 years ago (although it struck me at the time that we were singing to a lot of men who had fought in WWI and WWII...I can imagine some of them were not thrilled). Being uniquely German I don't hear it any more, but what I remember of it still pops into my old gray head from time to time. I've always enjoyed the happy feeling of the song. Jarhead: "Mary, Did You Know?" is also a fantastic song. I don't believe I've ever heard other than Dolly Parton's rendition, but to be honest...I can't imagine anyone doing it better or making it more powerful. uncleal: You and I don't agree on a lot, but there's no arguement at all about Mannheim Steamroller...I could listen to them all day. If I create a Christmas Music folder on my cell phone (now that I've made the move into portable electronic music storage) I'm sure they'll find their way into it. Wayfarer: Sorry to hear about your father . This will be the 21st Christmas since my dad passed away. As beautifully as my mother sings, he was the opposite end of the musical spectrum. He always said, "I may not be able to sing but I can damned well make a joyful noise." He, too, liked to make that noise to "Adeste Fideles". (Back to Olham for a sec...I would sing "Herbei, O Ihr Glaubigen" under my breath )

I agree, JFM. There were several people at Wing of Honor who would regularly post about how he claimed or 'poached' other peoples' kills (mostly an infamous SPUDDER who loved to put a last burst into a dieing aircraft that someone else had spent considerable time, energy and ammo on). But the high morale and total victories in Jasta 11 and later JG1 belie that mistaken belief. Personally, I think it all started with Allied propaganda designed to try to minimize the fear factor. Not unlike the US Army training film during WWII that said the MG42's bark was worse than its bite. I wonder how many GI's died believing that when a little more caution and respect for that bite might have helped them survive the war.