Javito1986

I completely by accident stumbled upon this old 2003 post on the Aerodrome forums while browsing WW1 aces: "On August 26th, 1918 nine Sopwith Camel's from the 17th Aero Squadron were attacked while attempting to assist a single Camel of the 148th Aero. Depending on the source anywhere from 30-50 Fokker D.VII's of J.G.3 decended on the would be rescuers and downed seven aircraft.Six from the 17th Aero and the one from the 148th. This was over Bapaume. Also depending on source it was claimed the 17th *downed anywhere from five to eleven D.VII's. My question is what do the German records reflect regarding this combat in reference to their total *numbers and their losses? Thanks" Now have a look at my pilot's diary entry for August 25, 1918. He's in 148th Aero: "August 25, 1918 Massive air battle on our side of the line today. At least 25 craft involved from multiple Aero squadrons pitted against a number of DVII craft from Jasta 25. I shot the wing off one of them but was hit very hard by another Hun, hastily made a rough landing in the nearest field. 17 Squadron intervened and finished off the last of the Huns. I must say, Elliot White Springs handled himself with the utmost skill during the battle, having claimed a number of enemy machines downed." I didn't write down everything out of laziness but what actually ended up happening was that I and the squadron dove on some four Fokker triplanes below us because they were easy pickings. I looked up and saw the sky darkened with many, many, many (at least 15) Fokker DVIIs that I hadn't seen. We were very, very hard pressed (i.e. I mentioned shooting one down only to be hit and forced down myself immediately after) until 17th Aero arrived out of nowhere and chased the DVIIs off. This was by far the largest air battle of my campaign and has yet to be surpassed (currently it's September 26th). Granted it happened a day earlier than the real engagement, and in real life it actually went even worse for 148 and 17 than it did in my campaign... but I read that and was amazed by how closely my pilot's career that day lined up with IRL events, without my even realizing it!

Man this is seriously hilarious. I've been repeating it to myself here at school and laughing. Looking forward to returning to the Western Front tonight!

I'd like to do that but the problem as I see it is that the monitor imposes unrealistic limitations on you. At least mine does. I can't scan the sky as clearly as I would if I was there, using my fixed views to scan the sky doesn't give me the necessary freedom of ocular movement. This is going to improve a lot when I get my TrackIR but I still worry that I won't be able to distinguish aircraft beyond a certain monitor-imposed distance. What I'd really like is to get a TrackIR, then configure my stick so that I can zoom incrementally. It's too cumbersome at the moment to zoom via the [ and ] keys. I figure once I can do that I'll be in a better spot and can more comfortably take off the visual aids.

This thread rocks! Gave me great ideas. In addition to rolling a die to determine when I get leave, I'm also rolling a die to determine: A) Whether or not air operations are grounded on a rainy day (have to roll a 6 to fly, 4-6 if in an active sector during a battle) B) Which air activity setting to use (Light is default. 5-6 I switch to medium in a quiet sector, and in an active sector 4-5 give medium and 6 gives heavy) C) How many missions I fly in a day (max 2 in a quiet sector) I didn't get a real die or anything, I just use an online one. Takes the user's choice out of the equation. I'm so biased and hoping I survive the campaign I'd just advance time at every feasible opportunity if you'd let me. The rules discussed in 3P and the ones I threw in keep me disciplined :)

My current pilot is my most successful ever (including my days in RB3D) and I'm very attached to him. This makes me EXTREMELY anxious every time I go up because it's Sept 1918 in my campaign and I know the war is almost over, I'm just terrified he'll be killed at the last minute

I just received my first ever medal in OFF. And it's a big one.. How did the game decide I deserved -this-?!?! That's like the biggest medal the USA can give you! I would've thought maybe a Distinguished Service Cross or something but a CMH?????

It seems like 70% of my pilots end up killed on a balloon busting mission...

Those videos are awesome but it's so bizarre watching them after having strictly played OFF a while. Looks like you're watching stuff from hundreds of years in the future in comparison! Amazing how fast tech improved between WW1 and WW2. Just the speeds involved blow me away. ...for sanity's sake I choose not to watch any vids of Falcon 4.0

Click on his name on any of his youtube videos, you can find a full list of everything he's uploaded there

I played Birds of Prey on the 360 and it wasn't really what I was looking for. How accurate does the 'simulation' aspect of the PC version feel? The visuals are certainly gorgeous, it'd be amazing if it was as realistic as OFF and had a nice dynamic campaign to go along with it.

I'd sure love to see a tank assault. Maybe you'll see one if you hang around the Amiens battlefield enough in 1918? Lots of tanks were there. Another question: Regional Air Activity. What's the most 'realistic' setting for, say, late 1918? Currently I alternate between the three settings depending on my mood. I just set it to Heavy and ended up having a 20+ aircraft dogfight but that kind of thing isn't healthy for my pilot's long-term health so maybe I should go back to Light...

You can do that?? I've never seen gas clouds in this sim!

I've decided to keep it on normal. There's a strong element of danger/panic I feel every time I'm over the Hun lines with gunnery accuracy on normal that I lose when it's set to easy. It makes me feel the way about airfield attacks/balloon busting the way I know I should feel... i.e. terrified. Honestly I'd rather get attacked by a squadron of D.VIIs than go balloon busting again! It's a very apprehensive sensation diving with your squadron and having flak bursts all around you and MG fire arcing across your path. And I -know- that I can get hit if I get careless and fly in a perfectly straight line. Keeps things interesting when you're on the other side of the line! Can friendly flak hurt you? Just a few moments ago I was chasing down a Dr.I on the USA side of the line and a big flak burst impacted in front of me, close enough that I could quite clearly distinguish the explosion animation. Bit too close for comfort...

While we're on the subject of gun accuracy, what do you guys think is the most realistic setting for ground fire? I have it set to 'normal' and I kinda like it that way because it makes me worry about flak some. Have been hit by it two or three times in OFF (at high altitudes) and just this morning one of my wingmen was hit and killed by flak as we passed through a cloud. But is it too accurate this way? Sometimes I think it might be -too- accurate. I've thought about changing it to the low setting but at the same time I don't want to make flak unrealistically useless like it was in RB3D. Back then I -completely- ignored flak, it was basically just a pretty light show.

I'm flying with player guns set to 'normal' and main guns set to 'less accurate'. I figured it would be more realistic that way, which is the way I like to play anyway. So far in my 'Major Anders' campaign it's already August (started in June) and I only have 2 confirmed kills. Which is fine, I wouldn't find it overly realistic to be an unstoppable ace or anything, but it would be nice to set fire to a Hun once in a while! P.S. Hellshade I'm always amazed you don't collide into your targets. I'm absolutely petrified of getting in -that- close to the enemy for fear of dying in a crash.

If you look at, for example, any of Hellshade's numerous youtube videos he's VERY good at bringing down enemies in just a few bursts. Sometimes even one burst. The enemy smokes, flames, loses a wing, etc. It's very impressive! I've been trying to replicate it in my own campaign and find myself quite lacking. I can dump several hundred rounds into one Albatros and he'll still be flying, albeit very very damaged and unable to maneuver. Just this last sortie I shot up a D.III so bad he started leaking some fluid but refused to go down, the last I saw of him he was beelining for the German side of the line! I try to aim towards the engine compartment/pilot but it's supremely difficult. Any tips?

How does one go about consistently accomplishing his missions? I never see the "goal succeeded" message because I -always- run into opposition on the way to the target, fight it out, and after that it's usually time to go home because you're damaged/low on ammo/tired/etc.

This problem's been resolved for me. Thank you! :)

Impressive isn't it? I landed at an airfield while it was getting bombed earlier today, quite a (dangerous) light show. Do watch out for ground fire though. Twice now, once on an airfield and once over a railyard, I've been shredded by a "lucky" flak hit. One of them killed me in midair, the other sent me on a free trip to the ground in a wingless kite.

Hullo chaps! I seem to have overwritten my CampaignData/News files with Creaghorn's homebrew German news files. Trouble is my campaign is American and now I can't read the newspaper! I did make a backup but I backed up the wrong folder. Could someone upload the original text files so I can have an English language newspaper again? :)

I'm sorry if this is answered elsewhere but I can't find it - can this and other mods be implemented without starting a new campaign? I'd like to try them out but I don't want to lose my pilot's progress

I have a fairly weak processor myself and so have spent a good bit of time finding just the right balance in performance for OFF. However, I leave Clouds at 5. The one and ONLY reason I do this is because I read that enemy airplanes can't see through clouds if you have them at 5. That's just too important for me to give up! Though I agree they look the same at 1 as they do at 5 and I'd get far higher FPS if I lowered them.

I keep Oswald Boelke's fate in mind always and make it a point to steer clear of friendly planes in a dogfight. If I'm chasing down an enemy plane and one of my wingmen decides to join in I break off and let him have it.

Continuing my study of the SCIENCE of survival in the WW1 Airwar I now turn to flak. Ahhh flak. You can fly around in OFF for weeks and not even notice it. Just puffs of smoke around you on some of your missions. Pretty to look at! But dangerous? Pshaw. That is until, as just happened to me, one of them blows into the front of your plane and sends you to Earth in a smoking burning ruin. *sigh* I've been hit three times by flak in my WW1 flight sim career. Once in RB3D years ago I was flying around at about 15,000 feet. Took a hit and fell spinning. Was a long, long way down. Second was in OFF several days ago on a balloon busting mission at low altitude. That one I kind of saw coming, made a very poorly planned attack at low altitude and was too damaged to really do much in the way of evasive maneuvering. Third was this evening on a mission to bomb a railyard. The interesting thing about THIS time was that I considered myself a very difficult target and was not making much in the way of evasive maneuvers as a result. I'd just exited a thick cumulus cloud and was hurtling downwards towards the railyard at about a 60 degree angle, speed about 180mph. Still the warning signs were there, there were a few near misses hitting in front of my plane, the gunners were placing them right where I was GOING to be and I did more than once fly right through a cloud of flak smoke. In retrospect I should have recognized that, essentially, each of those 'near misses' allows them to adjust a little bit more until finally, at 7,000 feet while diving hard at a 45 degree angle and going almost 200mph I was absolutely pulverized by a direct hit. Goodbye promising career! Reached 8 hours on that one. FYI I was using 'Normal' ground accuracy. When under fire from flak I always make alterations in heading or altitude every 15 - 30 seconds but in this particular case I really considered myself a hard target and admit my surprise that I was hit. This last time I neglected that rule thinking I was safe and now I have to start a new career for that costly error! So what's flak's 'range'? How low or how high can it hit you and when is it MOST accurate? Did my high speed dive really make me a hard target or was it actually not very difficult for them to estimate where I would be soon so they could make a killing blow? Also, I wonder if accuracy varies depending on where you are? Or is the 'ground accuracy' setting a uniform one for all ground units?

You can do some amazing tight turns with some of the fighters in this game. I don't know about a 180 flat like Voss did but... a few days ago I was in a Nieuport 17 with an Albatross D.II or D.III on my tail. Made an incredibly tight turn using full right rudder that made the whole plane whine like a newborn baby and gave me those "excess stress" warnings but lo' and behold the Albatross flew right by me and the only reason I wasn't able to shoot it head on was because I have horrible accuracy with guns in this sim