von Baur

I admit to being moderately computer and internet illiterate, but this comes as good news to me. I'd always thought that my experiencing these problems were due to an iffy wireless internet connection. But if people get the same thing through LAN (which, as a direct connection, I would think should be lag-free) then maybe it is largely something in the game that's causing it. Never having any interest in CFS3 until OFF, I never tried it online. Does anyone here know if it had the same problems? If it's something in CFS3's multiplayer coding it might be unfixable, and that would be a sad thing, to me. Because, while I like OFF's single player and believe it's the best campaign since Red Baron's (and a very close second, IMO), I also like online play with other people as well. And as much fun as that is right now, it would be fantastic if these bugs could be exterminated.

A good time, despite some connection problems (my end, no doubt :( ). Only got one screenie: WAIT!!! How did that get in there? This is the real one, from the third mission. Took it just before I timed out. There were two flights of N-17's, Axe leading Vasco and Dudley and three AI and me leading Burning Beard and Winston (just out of frame on the right, sorry, Winston) plus three AI. Looking forward to the next one. And hoping for a more stable connection.

It looks great. And being almost as big a fan of the American Od West as I am of WWI aviation, if there was a FPS game I'd buy it would probably be this one. But did anyone else see that guy carrying a Gatling gun?????

I, too, suffer from motion sickness...most particularly airsickness. Interesting, considering I was in special forces in the USAF (static line airborne and HALO qualified) and I used to skydive. The ride up was often hell, but as soon as the door opened and I started focussing on the jump everything was fine. And the payoff more than made up for the misery. As far as Track IR inducing motion sickness, it took me a little getting used to at the start, and then it was ok. The very few times it's affected me that way since it's turned out I was already feeling poorly with the flu or some other malady. For the most part I've had no problem at all (again, after that initial stage). Of course, that's not to say that you may be more sensitive to it than I. Just don't give up on it too quickly. IMO, it's worth the effort.

As posted in Winston's thread, I'll be there if I can. Time to practice with the Nieuport in QC. Three on one should do it.

Ummmm, I'm pretty sure the British took it on the chin during Blody April. Probably better life expectancy flying Hun. Just joshing. God (and my internet connection) willing, I'll be there.

OUT-FREAKIN'-STANDING, Stumpy . That's one thing that mp really needs, IMO. And one of the things that made flying online in Red Baron so enjoyable...all the different colors. If this becomes possible on a regular basis I might have to get to work on my paint schemes. So what's the secret? Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Well done, Olham. I missed #11 and #12. I'll give them #11 but I disagree with their version of 12. Early on the rotary's power-to-weight ratio is what made them so attractive on the scouts. When the craft is already underpowered why add the weight of a closed oil circulating system and a cooling system? Later Fokker used rotaries because he was (politically) frozen out of the inlines being Dutch, in favor of the German Albatros Flugzeugwerk. And I believe the castor oil shortages didn't become a problem until later in the war, well after the Halberstadts and Albatrosses had established themselves. Besides, I don't believe the Allies suffered the same lack of castor oil and yet they built several very good inline fighters. Or are all those pictures of SPAD's and SE5's photoshopped? **edit** I guessed at the Bristol, but it was an "educated" guess. It was a monoplane and I saw the "M" designation and figured..... Also, am I mistaken or did the engine pictured in question 10 look more like a Clerget than a LeRhone?

The real key here, Widowmaker, is the thought that a weapon will make war so horrible to contemplate that reasonable men will find ways to avoid war. The problem is that that's what Hiram Maxim thought about his machine gun (didn't quite work out that way). I've heard that the Wright brothers correctly anticipated their airplane's potential effect on the conduct of war. But they believed the same thing, that with airplanes able to watch your every move or unleash weapons from an untouchable altitude it would be pointless to wage war to begin with. Gatling and his multi-barreled gun, same thing. I have no idea how many inventions were created "to make war impractical" that were soon after used to make war more terrible, but I'm sure there are hundreds or maybe thousands. Kind of funny that I saw this tonight. On my way home from work I began thinking about the old song "One Tin Soldier". Any of you too young to remember it should look up the lyrics. Very powerful.

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro is not force feedback (at least mine isn't). Logitech used to make a FFB stick, but I don't know if they do or not any more. I used to have a Microsoft FF Pro, that I liked a lot. It had a shift key that allowed you to effectively double your programmable buttons, but between having a gameport interface and the fact that XP doesn't support the drivers I finally retired it and went to a Sidewinder FF2 when I upgraded my rig.

I'm with Duce (except for the warping..never use it) and reduce my fuel load for nearby missions. As for the Lone-Wolf missions, I've only ever had one and it came on my first mission with a new pilot. I loved it and used it as an opportunity to familiarize myself with the landmarks within 25 miles or so of my airfield. After that I never needed the map to find my way home, whether my mission took me North or South of my airfield. I even lucked out and ran across a flight of BE2's and brought down all five behind our lines. I say, "Bring 'em on". Unfortunately the pilot was killed attacking a train station with 8+ hours flight time and 14 confirmed victories.

I decided to fly a DFW yesterday and noticed a problem. Don't know if its been reported or not yet, but the compass conter-rotates. That is, when you are flying North and turn to the right the compass rotates toward the West. The end result is that if you're flying North or South it reads properly, but any other direction is really a mirror reading (note in screenshot that the compass shows 248 but the F5 display in the upper left shows a heading of 112) with East and West being 180 degrees off. The only other aircraft I've seen with a compass on the wing is the Fokker E-III and it works properly.

Oops! I said "F5" display above. Meant to say "Z" display. Got to stop those high-altitude missions. Lack of oxygen is killing brain cells.

If I've been airborne for a long time or if I get in any scraps I use F5 (the writing, not the guages: they've all been turned off) to check on my fuel if the plane I'm in doesn't have a fuel guage. If I'm running low, I head home. Returning safely has a higher mission priority than hitting a waypoint. Also, P3 doesn't seem as hungup on waypoints for determining success or failure of a mission as P2 did. Or that could just be me.

Trust the sock, not the smoke. Thanks Pol.

"Over Flanders Fields: Die Really Easily" To cover the Italian campaign, "Over Flanders Fields:Hannibal Revisited" (crossing the Alps).

Any update on this? Here's a shot I took recently that clearly shows the windsock blowing nearly 180 degrees off two nearby sources of smoke, one being a wrecked plane and the other chimney smoke from the house. Is it possible that the smoke has a fixed direction and is therefore unreliable?

Here are a couple of shots I took. This is our new member, Winston. And this shows that those white cliffs of Dover are higher than they look. Also, Camels must have been made of some very strong wood. Look how far into the cliff it buried itself.

Please add the Gotha to single player. I'm dying to have a go at bombing London. And the Fokker EV/D-VIII (tips hat to WF2).

Inless I'm misreading the Duck's post, that's exactly what Eric is offering. Duck?

Axe, I remember the days of Red Baron's afm melee servers, and fondly. At one time that's where practically everyone flying mp could be found. But I don't think that'll be a problem here, and this is why. One thing to remember about Red Baron is that all the stock flyable planes were fighters. On top of that, the flight characteristics remained the same whether a plane was empty or fully loaded, including 8 bombs and 12 rockets. In a situation like that it's easy for things to degenerate into dogfights even on team target servers. After all, if you start out bombing and someone attacks you you're going to defend yourself, and with no rear gunner that means you turn to fight. In Richtofen's Skies, as in OFF, there are flyable two-seaters with AI gunners. A lot of people would take them up, at which point things would fall into co-op by default, with the scouts defending or attacking the two-seaters. My favorite was to fly a DFW to bomb London. No chance to make it back, but it would be fun flying to the mouth of and then up the Thames to the center of the city...and that was with no 3D buildings. I'd often see someone else join up as Allied, thinking he would get an easy kill, but I'd already be well past any bases from which he could take off. With the Gotha available online one could easily make the round trip...well, easily fuel-wise. And I think there are plenty here who would give something like that a try. Which, in a lot of ways, would be even more realistic than a co-op mission. I mean, imagine joining a server when I'm already in flying a two-seater, and you want to track me down. You'd have no idea where I was and have to try to find me, just like the real thing. And knowing that anyone who came into the server later might not be able to find you could very well give some people the incentive to take up a two-seater who might not otherwise do so. I won't lie and say that I'd never fly scouts, or even that I'd usually fly bombers. But I can assure you that I'd fly them often enough.

I agree with the duck. The first step is to get folks online and see how much fun it is to play with other people. Once they're used to going online they'll be more likely to try organized missions.

I agree that it would be a tremendous boost to multiplay activity. One of the great things about Red Baron was that there was always a server available, and it usually had some activity. Richtofen's Skies parent (as well as Target Rabaul's, Target Korea's, Target for Today's, etc.) even has a website that monitors server activity, so you can see how many people are online without having to go all the way into the game. That may not be possible with so much hardcoded into CFS3, but knowing that there's one up would likely entice more people to jump in and hope for company to join later. Don't know how that would react to mission play, though.

Very nice, Olham. Excellent work. Where in the world do you find time to do all these wonderful skins? Are you retired? It took me a couple of weeks of staying up 'till past midnight to do my RS Dr1 and longer for the Albatros. It seems to take you about the same number of minutes. My hat is off to you, sir.

Yes, you can see it on the underside. In fact, when I looked at the full size pictures it almost looked like you had only plainted the top and sides. And that's what makes them personal paints.