Ogmund

Pilot Claude Desaix of SOP39 completed a bombing mission in his Sopwith 1.5 Strutter, scoring two hits on the enemy airfield and returning to base with no damage. It was great! OFF has a steep learning curve but I'm delighted by the level of immersion available. Questions and observations: 1) Just before we reached the target my squadron seems to have veered off to engage enemy fighters. I thought that would be madness so I proceeded to the target alone. As far as I can tell I was the only plane to actually bomb the target. Is that typical? Should I have followed my flight leader into the dogfight instead? 2) Is there a preferred method for aiming with bombs? I just set the TAC for 1 mile and released when it looked like I was right over the triangle. It worked but I'm wondering if that is the best method. It doesn't seem very realistic. 3) I wasn't given the next waypoint until five minutes after bombing the target. Why the delay? Was it waiting for my flight leader to get to the target or something? 4) I finished the mission by landing at my airfield. That was probably the most dangerous moment for me. When I made my first pass over the airfield I was told my mission was complete. Is a landing even necessary, as far as the campaign is concerned? I'm so happy I survived my first mission that I'm afraid to start my second :-)

That is a very cool idea. I wonder if any of the services had some kind of standardized report form to fill out on return from a mission. If so it would be great to see a copy and reproduce a version for OFF. You did indeed have a fine day. Mine consisted of patrolling for two hours through snow and thunderstoms, trying to keep my skittish crate pointed in the right direction. No enemy sightings at all.

"Goggles on, chocks off, last one back's a homo. Hurray!" Should I make that my sig?

Thanks for the link. That Pfalz is a pretty sight.

I just purchased OFF but have not received it yet. I was wondering if I should get a joystick with force feedback. I'm new to flight sims but I know that force feedback steering wheels make a huge improvement to the immersion I get in some driving games. Does OFF support force feedback and if so what are your opinions on how much difference it makes in OFF?

Thanks for all the feedback gents. I did do a forum search but got nothing at all for "FFB" and tons of random, unrelated threads for "force feedback". I ordered a Saitek Cyborg Evo Force joystick from Amazon at $61. It looks painfully wrong for a WWI fighter but as others have mentioned there aren't many choices. TrackIr 5 is available from PC Aviator for $135. Buttkicker was listed as "out of stock" or "no longer available" everywhere I looked. But I did find a similar shaker coil and amplifier on Amazon which should work just as well.