von Baur

Where do we put it?

All that happens when I click it is the Windows taskbar flashes once...the box doesn't show up. Any ideas?

It does depend on the plane you're flying. Higher speed makes you a harder target for ground fire, so if my plane can take it I dive and zoom climb away. But you were asking about DH2's and that's the frame of reference for which I tailored my answer. If you're in a SPAD or Nieuport or SE5, etc. then you'd dive.

Von Guber, I totally agree with a more or less level attack, shallow dive at best. Nothing you can do about a flak hit. I, on the other hand, took a header from a plane I knew was out there, knew was close, but couldn't see. My pics (official BDA photos appropriately color-free): First, the bombing raid. In this one two hangars can clearly be seen burning in the forground, but there's a third in the background, too And here's the fourth a little later OK, not actual BDA, but I might submit this to the London Times. Waddya think? Front page? Now for some 'just for fun' shots: Don't remember who it was asking to see what we saw (I think it was vonGuber), but here's what night flying looked like to me This was later in the day, but early that morning. This is why men and women fly All that's left of a Halberstadt I found beating up on a lone Sopwith LRT (Strutter). Too bad it was my second plane of the mission

I saw it during last weekend's flights.

First draft, with notes. Tell me what you think. Remember that what you're seeing are static shots. What may appear to be terribly obvious in these pictures is much less so in a twisting, turning furball. First, six enemy aircraft in formation at a distance. Note how, on the top two lines where the labels overlap, they are lighter and less transparent, making them easier to see. This gets more pronounced as the labels get tighter and overlap more, which will make it easier to spot a large group at a greater distance, when the actual dots might not be visible at all, depending on what your graphics card is capable of. Also, look at the distance. These planes are less than 2200 yards away, or about a mile-and-a-third, at which point a person with eyesight good enough to get into the air service should be able to spot and maybe even identify them. Next, the same planes much closer. Of note here is how hard it is to see just the label when the plane is obscured by a wing (did you see the Albatros to the upper left corner?). Also, notice how the bottom enemy aircraft's label shows up exactly the same color as the friendly airfield's to its left. Again, in the confusion of a dogfight, this is going to force you to pay more attention to the object than the label. Finally, this shows that not only the aircraft labels were changed, but so was the strike/damage info at the top center. The red warning in the second picture was the "waypoint reached" thing (I'll have to find and change that next). But in this one you can see that my having hit my target is not as noticeable with these settings. The down side, IMO, is that neither is my having taken damage. If my forcefeedback stick gave me an indication of damage I wouldn't mind it, but it doesn't and those warnings are all I've got to tell me I'm being hit. I like to know when I'm being hit. I'll have to work on that, but like I said, this is a very preliminary test...kind of a 'proof of concept'. As you can see, all objects now appear as white dots on the TAC. In the first one the TAC's range was at its default of 8NM and all objects were selected. In the other two it had been changed to my standard of 2NM and aircraft only. Also, I've left the Human Friend Color setting where it was and changed the Human Enemy Color to match it, thus leveling things in that respect while keeping the ability to distinguish fellow humans from the random electrons in the game. Unfortunately I was only able to test it offline, so I have no screeshots of that...yet. Personally, I like this and will probably keep it or some form of it, at least for offline flying, whether it's ever adopted for the Sunday campaigns or not. I've never been a big fan of the red/blue thing, just never had the motivation to get in and mess with it before, thanx Vasco. Now, if I ever hit the lottery and can afford this (http://www.vrealities.com/pisight.html), all bets are off. *edit* BTW, if you'd like to try this on your own, you need to go to the ViewUI file (typically in Documents and Settings\your user folder\Application Data(might be a hidden folder)\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields), right click and select edit, then go down about one-third of the way and change the FriendColor, EnemyColor, TargetColor, Bogiecolor, and GoalColor to 0x1FCCCCCC. As always, you'll want to make a copy of the file first, so you can swap it back if you don't like the results.

Tried putting this on the downloads page, didn't work. Said it was the wrong type of file. Sorry.

Thanx for the Vista translation, Gary. I only speak XP. And thanx to Duck, Beard and Dudley for helping people use the link. I can look into posting it on the download page tonight. Things have been a little more unhinged around here than normal the last couple of days.

Wow! That's some serious graphics corruption VG. Haven't seen anything like that since Kess's Promised Land patches in Red Baron.

By popular demand, this is a copy of my ViewUI file. Not sure it will work this way. If anyone has trouble with it let me know and we'll work out an alternate method. ViewUI.xml The path, once again is OS drive:\Documents and Settings\your user folder\Application Data(usually a hidden folder)\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields If you've got the folder arranged by type it will probably be all the way at the bottom. There's also a Master Copy of ViewUI in there. DON'T TOUCH IT!!! It's got the default settings in case you hopelssly screw up the ViewUI file. The simplest way to do this is to download this to wherever you like, copy the current ViewUI file, then drop this one into the CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder. I've changed the TargetColor to yellow so that targeting can be used as in the second flight. Of note: Your TAC will be smaller than default and located at the bottom center. Move it to wherever you like, but I found that the least obtrusive; The HUD text will be at the lower right in the default blue. Pilot health and possibly one other line are offscreen to the bottom, as I didn't feel they were important. Put it where you want it; If you use the WWII HUD dials you'll need to change them back, too. I only have airspeed and attitude (and I only use them to maintain decent flight in bombsight view). The nice thing about this is that it doesn't have to be the same for everyone, so any changes won't prevent connecting.

Add mine to the thanx heaped upon your noble brow, sire. I think a lot of people who were apprehensive about the heightened reality may be starting to thaw to the idea a bit. Now if I can get my sewer line to thaw.... What happened to the last mission? I went away for no more than 10 or 15 minutes and when I got back everybody had left. Was it something I said? should I change my mouthwash? My deodorant? Should I start using mouthwash and deodorant?

Hey, Vasco. Would that qualify as unrealistc???

Trying to come up with a compromise between no labels at all and the red/blue default. I found the colors for the TAC so I can set friendly and enemy to the same thing. My problem is I haven't found where the label colors are. Any help?

Thanx for the feedback, guys! Kinda makes it worth having stayed up until past 3AM running it down and testing it (it really wasn't that hard..between frozen drain pipes, wanting to watch the playoffs and falling asleep watching the playoffs, I didn't actually start until 12:30). Particularly since it's all been so positive so far. Now it's off to do the ferrets and then I'll back. I'd love to test this online and see if all players are light blue, friend and foe alike. Maybe someone will be online in an hour or so. Simon, the hud colors are about two-thirds of the way into that file. The first is listed HUDText Color and the second HUDTextMetric Color. I'm not sure what the "0x" at the front is but the rest is pretty simple, actually. The first two characters control the level of transparency and the last six are RRGGBB, with 00 (that's double-naught, not the letter O) being the highest value and FF the lowest (16 bits, 00-FF gives 256 levels, for those of you as unfamiliar with this crap as I was last night). Here's a link http://www.pagetutor...gcolors216.html to the color chart I used last night. So it should be fairly easy to wash out the colors and make them more or less transparent to your taste. You can also drag them to the lower right, as I've done, by grabbing the left side of the text area with the mouse. At this point, I don't believe you can eliminate lines you feel are unnecessary, but play around with it. I may change the color, but I'm ok with the default settings because I only pop it on briefly to check ammo and fuel (in planes without a modeled fuel guage) and then turn it right back off. As far as dropping enemy labels completely, sure. Just set the first two characters after the 0x to 00 and that should render them completely transparent. I haven't tested that, btw, so don't quote me, but logic dictates that if FF is 100% opaque then the other end of the scale should be 100% transparent.

It appears the labels are controlled by the same entry, so no assistance is necessary. Web-boss, feel free to delete this thread.

First, to Duck: The yellow box was added to the screenshot by me after-the-fact, to draw attention to my TAC. Second, to Vasco: Once again Mack and I seem to be of one mind (which is not the same thing as sharing a brain ). I would ask that you table the increased difficulty levels at least until the regular players have time to practice and become more comfortable with them. And also not to have as significant a prize up for grabs the first time or two that they are implemented. They will see that it's not as tough to get used to as it looks at first. To everyone, on both sides of this debate: I've posted some screenshots of my first test with modified lables on a new thread. Check it out http://forum.combata...ality-settings/ and post your opinions there, not here. As Mack said, this thread is about the settings for the upcoming campaign, not any beyond that.

Patch 1.47 is available. I've downloaded but not installed it. Given the short notice, what's the verdict, Vasco? Yea or nay? Also, I've not picked up whatever Stumpjumper came up with to fix whatever problem exists (existed?) with the Strutters. Do I need to and where do I find it...TS, as usual?

Like Mack, I've not voted (unlike him I do expect to be flying Sunday). I believe I've shown myself to be a glutton for realism, what with my wing-waggles to signal course changes among other things, but I don't have a problem with TAC and labels for one very good reason...the inability of a computer monitor to provide the same level of detail as the human eye. I know from my days of skydiving that not only can you see an airplane at 12,000 feet (4000 indcated range in OFF) but you can identify a Twin Otter from a DC-3 (two twin-engine aircraft of roughly the same size) at that distance. I challenge anyone to tell the difference between a DFW and an RE8 at more than 2000 indicated, or even to see an aircraft at ranges of 4000 or more. The TAC helps me "see" beyond the limitations of my computer monitor and the labels help me identify aircraft types at greater ranges (although, to be honest, I usually can ID them by zooming in before the label does, it's just that with the reduced situational awareness of zooming in it's not always practical to do that to select your next target during a furball). Another, IMO important, reason for labels is to tell who's who on a personal level. Guys, I love you all, but if I want to fly realistic missions I'll stay offline. No stutters, I don't have to co-ordinate it with a dozen other peoples' schedules from a half-dozen or so different time zones and it won't interupt my real world responsibilities or pleasures. The reason we put aside a couple of hours on Sunday afternoons is for the personal interaction with other humans with a shared interest. The main reason pilots took to personalizing their planes, and probably the main reason the top brass allowed it, was so your fellow pilots could tell who you were at a glance. Even if it was just a number on the side of your plane, a la the US planes. You could tell at a glance that the guy with the great big "1" was Rickenbacker. Does anybody remember the 94th Aero campaign? We all flew number 3. The first steps have been taken to remedy this, with personalized aircraft available (many thanx, Stumpy), but it's still rather dodgy because...well, see above paragraph. Another point of agreement between Mack and me is how to balance the assitance to SA of TAC and labels with the desire not to go completely arcade. I like the two-mile range for TAC. I believe I would be able to at least detect movement at that range irl if not actually identify planes. In fact, the first thing I do is reduce the range to that and eliminate the clutter by setting it to show only aircraft. Another change I've made is to bring it to the bottom center of my screen. At normal size that cuts out anything behind you, forcing you to check your six the old-fashioned way. I've reduced the size of mine and can see a couple hundred yards back there (I'd like to eliminate even that, just not possible to drag it any farther down). Something that occurred to me while I was typing this addresses the other realism bugaboo...labels. Returning to my first paragraph, they're there to overcome the limitations of the technology. So is it the labels themselves that are objectionable or is it the unrealistic "all I need to see is if it's red or blue" aspect of them? I think it's the latter (Ok, I'll admit, I'd like to see them disappear when the aircraft goes behind a wing or something, but one thing at a time). I know I've seen color adjustments in the ui files and I'm sure we can adjust the TAC blips so that they're all the same regardless of nationality and the labels to something duller that will blend in well with aircraft parts, sky, and ground. In fact, I'll probably do that to ramp up my offline pucker factor regardless. As a compromise (i.e. to take some of the barbs off the tighty-whities, if Vasco will allow me to paraphrase) how about we fly this campaign with TAC and labels so as not to scare anyone off, especially considering the significance of the prize being donated, and start the next either with all aids off or modified to eliminate the unnatural assistance provided by the default settings?

OK, I guess I have to be the one to say it. It really is the Isle of White.

I may not make the session today, guys. Wife's truck went on strike last evening and it's still sitting in town. My son and I are about to go try to get it running again. And once that's done I'm going to have to clear the snow from our dirt-and-gravel driveway...all 1/2 mile of it...by hand!! See, now nobody up here has a 4-wheel drive vehicle and that hill is a real bear when it snows. I'll get there if I can. If not, that's the way it goes. Good flying.

Got a projected campaign date, Vasco? Thinking of getting in some practice offline prior to the start and want to make it right.

I'll back up what duck said, Simon. My connetion problems are with the outside wireless internet, not the inside wireless router. Just try to keep the line between your computer and the router free of things like cordless phones and microwave ovens. Those can cause interference.

Lots of interesting info and opinions here. Personally, I think there's some kind of randomness to some of these things. I fly with AI agressiveness set to Historical and Flight spacing at Tightest. Until HitR v1.46 my wingmen rarely fired a shot, now the four I usually fly with have (combined) almost as many kills as I have. They tend to go for the single seaters (I have only two, so far, although none we've encountered as a group have made it home alive) and have no interest whatever in the two-seaters. And they work in pairs, when numbers allow. I stab at the attack key repeatedly whenever there are enemies within about 1500 yards and never designate a target, btw. And not only has none of them run into me, they also haven't gotten in each other's way. And even though I'm constantly telling them to tighten it up sometimes they are right behind me and others we pass each other in opposite directions on our patrol routes, they're so far behind me. But they're always right behind me as we descend toward our airfield at the end of the mission. Oh, and even though I have Flight Position set to Lead by Rank, I'm in command of every mission whether or not someone outranks me. What's up with that? Do you know how hard it is to disobey orders when you're the one issuing them? I mean, what's a rebellious child of the 60's to do?

Flight Evaluation Log: set to "All" should get your QC kills scored.

You can count me in, Vasco. Can we get an official post about the mission aircraft? I believe what was discussed was FE2's bombing and DH2's flying cover, correct? If so, what will the scoring be for the FE's; how many points for bombs on target and will there be bonus points for downing an enemy craft from one?