Baldric

I love this sim because...the immersive campaign is the finest around, and has been for a very long time (in game longevity years). You can tell it's a labour of love, crafted well, and full of amazing detail. And it's well supported, so well so that (to my mind at least) OBD puts AAA studios (I'm looking at you EAggh, UnFunCom, BubiSoft, Blusterd/Craptivision et al.) to absolute shame. Love this sim. Kind regards, Dave

Right then, allo Chesty! Archibald Turner, 2nd Lt., 40 RFC- fresh out of flying school, a favourite target of Cpt. Trigger's swagger stick ("MY GAWD Man, your military left, not your bloody civilian left!" THWAP) Brief biography: Born 6 June 1897 in a small rural area called Birch Hills in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Father a blacksmith from Birmingham, ENG., mother an accomplished seamstress from Leicester, ENG. Archi was educated in a one room school house, a favourite target of Matron Dilby's blackboard pointer stick. Played hockey on ponds and lakes, picked to play for the Toronto Blueshirts of the NHA in 1916, and enlisted in the RFC late summer 1917...

Nice stuff Lima, funnily enough I started a new campaign (01 Sept 1939) out of Wilhelmshaven about two weeks ago. Using my Steam version (I have the old disc and paper map as well) and it's plain vanilla. I tend to revisit SHIII and SHIV every couple of years as it's still a great game. Have survived (in this iteration) to January 1940, about mid-pack on the Ace's list tonnage-wise. Busy getting my crew qualified and re-jigging my shift management. Last patrol was terrible with poor weather and a full load of dud torpedoes. On my current patrol we just loaded up some of the prewar fish instead of the crap electrics. U-5 headed for AN41. Kind regards, Dave

Timeless... *cough*

I'll toss my cap into the ring too. Thanks for organizing! Will give me a chance to surface from late 1916 where I'm currently mired in three DiD campaigns now. Not got many hours in the SE5 so should be extra exciting. Kind regards, Dave

Welcome to the asylum er briefings tent...where everything is jolly until someone loses an EIII. I don't say a whole lot in here, but I've been around since WOFF BHAHII was OFF 2 iirc on a CD. I have sim flown RoF & IL2Flying Circus for the co-op MP and enjoyed those iterations. For SP pure DiD immersion its WOFF ( and WoTR) in campaign form. Otherwise it's tabletop Fight in the Skies (TSR- ancient pre Dawn Patrol version) with models or the venerable Avalon Hill offering 'Richtofen's War'. Kind regards, Dave

Interior photos from the chateaus, bottles of good mosels/champagne for German pilots post debrief. Interior photos of tents/scruffy quarters for RFC, wet mess and piano etc. For post mission hijinx and out of tune/whisky infused renditions of Its a Long Way to Tipperary. Just a thought. :D

I've noticed a similar issue but in the 'training'. Currently using a German pilot, April 1916, on an airfield in Belgium, with Caporal Hans Triggers flying the second crate (Aviatik). Instructions from the briefing tell me to follow (doing circuits) Herr Trigger. I've waited, with engine running, for the flight lead to taxi and take off but all he does is lurch a couple of times over several minutes. Restarting the scenario, and this time toggling 'on' the 'Flight Instructor', the instructor counts down and then I'm supposed to accelerate to take off which I do (despite the briefing telling me to follow) and begin the circuit. Triggers then may actually take off. He then swans about, eventually taking the lead after I circle around behind him. Oh, and before being told, I'm not using any mods.

It used to be (at least in some of the previous iterations) there was a period of time just after take-off where you had to fly circuits until everyone had taken off and managed to form up and begin the ascent towards operational height. Not sure if that's still in the sim since I've only been doing the training prior to going up to the sharp pointy end and haven't done any flight/squadron flying yet. Not sure that even helps lol, sorry! Kind regards, Dave

Thought I'd just share this link (from Kings College) https://defenceindepth.co/2015/04/29/towards-systematic-bombing-the-royal-flying-corps-and-experience-on-the-western-front-1915/

No bomb-sight mod back in OFF so I used the TLAR (That Looks About Right) targeting method for dumb bombs. Fly enough sorties at a specific altitude band and you get used to the visuals, then compensate for variables such as winds, airspeed, bank angle etc., one last check to make sure doors are open, steady on...press button..."Bombs gone". Jink a bit to wiggle the tail at the AckAck. If no defenders then you can watch the fall and oftentimes follow the impacts. I can say without hesitation there were many times I put the bombs into a field a mile or more off target, but that odd time you managed to at least bracket a target or land most of the ordinance on target well that felt pretty good. Kind regards, Dave

iirc one of the DiD campaigns Olham organized here on CA had us all start our pilots as recce/bombers. After a specified period of time one could then 'graduate' up to a specific fighter squadron. The bomber/recce piloting in the sim was actually a lot of fun. Kind regards, Dave

The download took under an hour for me, the install time afterwards was about twenty minutes (my machine is venerable now). Fired it up briefly...first impression was great, the added colourized photos are nice to see, and the music by M.Milne is excellent as usual. This is going to be a lot of fun. Now to get the TiR reset-up and my hotas needs a good dusting off. kind regards, Dave

Good tip, thank you for sharing it. I haven't played for awhile so was thinking of using the TAC and being able to resize it is great.

Fun to be back here! Hello all, good to see all these most excellent folks.

Have to agree with you Do335 :) Times have deffo changed!

I'd hesitate to say 'mass disappointment' only because it's just the same five or six people yammering tiresomely away in several similar threads-- I agree there were some disappointments (unlock issue, graphics presets, campaign mission difficulty presets to name three of the most..um...vibrant issues) but overall it's a pretty decent sim and does what 1C/777 said it would do in the time period they allotted themselves to get this out. ME is coming, along with d-server. Cheers

I voted for a later start but it doesn't really matter...I can always say I was caught up in the transfer paperwork SNAFU if we start on the 7th. Kind regards, Dave

Good to see that kind of torture carry on through so many of the MS flight sim initiatives in order to share the pain. I shared some of that in FSX and got to the point where the sheer volume of add-ons required a special ritual prior to each flight in order for those God's to be appeased. Then, this last weekend, in a fit of idiocy I added the Vertigo Studios Dauntless and I've now got FM nightmares to sort...over-trim, under-trim, smoke pouring from the engine cowling when the keyboard master light switch is punched...wobbling through the air...straight is doable, level is more like a porpoise on drammamine (queue the song from "Those Magnificent Men and their Flying Machines")...why oh why did I add another model? Then, last evening, after indulging in a wee dram of fine single malt I laughed at those same Gods. Laughed! I loaded another new model, the F4U Corsaire from A2A's Aircraft Factory. It was likened to being in a dream...soaring high, rolling, twisting, diving, no FM troubles...at all...landing safely I thanked Them...humbled. The Gods of All MS Flight Sims are fickle indeed. [./endBlather] Kind regards, Dave

I'm one of the 160 as well, and I've nothing to offer m8, so sorry. Kind regards, Dave

I haven't found the aircraft any more (or less, for that matter) difficult to fly in WOFF than OFF. I'm not a pilot in real life so won't comment on FMs-- as far as I know they are as well modeled as can be given the constraints of CFS3. I don't use pedals, just a twist stick, but I imagine they would give more precise control. Kind regards, Dave

Thanks for that info, Flyby. The skirl of the pipes stirs the blood, m8. Kind regards, Dave

I'm finding this an interesting discussion. I had stayed away from just using CFS3 as is because a lot of what I read on other forums always seemed to slag the sim and these are some compelling positive posts that might just get me to give it a whirl. I recently re-installed IL-2 1946 (Steamised version) and hadn't got around to exploring the headspinning number of massive mods. I may give CFS3 a go...I think JF has some models compatible with CFS3 too as payware. Kind regards, Dave

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing the link. Usually when I'm having a shufti through the Telegraph it's to read Henry Winter's column and check the footie news so I need to be more thorough now lol. Kind regards, Dave

I used to do a lot of skinning in IL-2 back when the templates started appearing, and after seeing some of Olham's recent efforts I've been bitten by the bug again. Thanks for the link RJW :) Kind regards, Dave