Wayfarer

Congratulations to William on his survival! I am still on my first pilot, and using death on die roll. So far he has survived being hit by AA, landing in a tree, a fiery pile up of a landing when damaged, and twice flying into trees whilst I tried to work out where the bullets were going from a BE2. He was captured but escaped after the AA incident, and hospitalised after one of the tree episodes. Although he probably wasn't doing the speed William was when he crashed, I feel he has been luckier than I deserve. It's made me wonder how death on die roll works, although it might be tempting fate to ask!

Out of interest, when you do this, should you be able to pan around the aircraft you see? I can't seem to.

I am flying reconnaissance missions in July 1915. The mission breifings show an average mission height but I have never been sure what height I am supposed to be at at any particular time. I confess that I used to warp throught the 'circling the airfield' waypoints until I was on course for the front, imagining that the altitude I ended up at was the 'proper' one for the mission. Recently it took me to an unusually high 8000' and, for the first time in a number of missions, the flight got back home completely unmolested by Eindeckers. In the last three missions, therefeore, I circled the airfield climbing up to around 8500'. I completed the missions seeing no enemy aircraft at our level and no AA that seemed to be seriously aimed at us, though there was plenty going on below. I'm concerned, however, that I might be exploiting some sort of game design limit for the enemy AI, which seems a bit like cheating. Does anyone know if there is any 'correct' altitude set for each mission and, if so, how to find out what it is?

How ironic! Got a mission with average height around 10300'. Tried warping to the 1st mission waypoint just to test it. Brought me out at about 9800' to get swarmed over by Eindeckers! And there were more flights at lower altitudes, so as we lost height they outnumbered us even more. After losing about 75% of my fuel I managed to land at a forward airfield, with chewed up port wings, a misfiring engine and one Oswald Boelcke skimming over my head! I really don't feel like I'm cheating now!

Bullethead, thanks for that explanation. It's kind of what I suspected but hadn't fully worked out.

Thanks TaillyHo, and everyone else. I don't feel like I'm 'cheating' now. It seemed right to get less enemy activity at higher altitude, but to have three missions without any encounters seemed too good to be true! It takes a time to get up to 8000' or so, with much mixture adjustment and avoiding stalls. Shallow steady climbing is definitely the way, but worth it if it's a legitimate way of getting all your flight back home. It's just slightly deflating, after all the effort, when your wingmen do that diving into the trees and exploding thing once you have landed - even though they are ready for duty again the next day!

I recently completed a reconnaissance mission and noticed that the message ‘Goal Completed No More Goals’ came up as I was nearing my home airfield. A couple of missions ago, my flight was intercepted by Eindeckers and all my wingmen were shot down. Immediately after the last one went down a mission failed message came up. I carried on and completed the mission anyway. Both missions were recorded and contributed to the total flying time. Does it make any difference in any way in OFF if you can get a ‘Goal Completed ...’ message - say in terms of promotion?

Thanks TaillyHo. This all explains why Arthur made Major so quickly. I'm not sure whether it's really commitment or just perversity! I think sometimes it's subconsciously my little testament to the real aircrew who had to fly the things.

Regarding the 'Bleriot' designation, as far as I understand, early on the Royal Aircraft Factory used the names of prominent French designs to indicate the configuration of their aircraft. Bleriot was for tractor machines and Farman for pusher types, I think (haven't had time to look this up yet). I don't think it meant that the design was necessarily French.

Still on my first OFF campaign, flying BE2s. I find they stand up to my poor handling pretty well ... except when flying directly into a tree ... twice!

Thanks both. As I am flying reconnaissance and spotting missions in a BE2 I'll continue dutifully follwing my waypoints.

I'm glad to hear that. I frequently listen to the whole theme before playing. Somewhat to the surprise of a CFS3 playing friend of mine to whom I recently gave an OFF demonstration. I kind of got caught up in the music and suddenly realised he was waiting to start, with a politely puzzled look on his face!

I got 'Over Flanders Fields'! (Seriously ... that and this forum kept me sane through a number of family illnesses and deaths.)

On the last leg of reconnaissance missions, behind our lines, I usually accelerate time, or warp a little, to get back to the airfield. Sometimes I get the 'cannot leave ... enemies nearby!' message. A couple of times I have got this message even when no other aircraft were showing within 8 miles on the TAC. Does anyone know the actual distance that has to be clear before acceleration/warp is allowed?

Now that explains a lot! It may help me break the habit of using the TAC if it doesn't show all enemies anyway. I start off with the best of intentions, but the paranoia gets to me. I realise that accelerating/warping also tells you when enemies are close so I should really stop that. It's just that I have to fit OFF inbetween people's coursework. Still, my wife's course ends in August ... perhaps I'll just carry on using them until then!

Uncleal, that could be it. It is possible there was the remnant of another flight near us. Unfortunately, it was one of those landings where all the AI aircraft flew into a wood at the edge of the field and blew up. I wasn't quite sure who made it back.

Thanks for your replies. I thought I'd been able to warp with the enemy over 4 miles away before now. I'm wondering whether I could actually have had enemy aircraft flying parallel directly below us - being one of the few times nowadays that I returned with most of my flight, and in close formation. We were at about 8000'. Could I have missed a different coloured spot under the gaggle of blue.

See, the old Quirk is really quite versatile! Nice period look to the decoration as well. Merry Christmas to all members of this forum. Wayfarer

Mightysrc, Von Paulus, sorry to hear hear of your troubles. Can't offer any better advice than Flyby's positive comments, but you have my sympathies for what its worth. I'm waiting to see if the budget cuts in my organisation will mean I have a job or not. My wife finishes her nursing diploma next year and we aren't sure what NHS reorganisation will mean for her getting a job. It may end up with the kids keeping us yet. My own personal political/economic rantings won't add anything useful so I won't trouble. I hope, of course, that things eventually work out better than they look at present. I guess you just have to stick it out for the moment, like an old BE2 full of holes, fighting a bitter Westerly, heading through the Archie to a safe billet.

Having got to the stage in my early period campaign where enemy aircraft are starting to take a really unhealthy interest in me, I have been giving TrackIR serious consideration. One concern I have, however, is that it seems my occipital nerve (up the back of your neck and round each side of your head - apparently) is easily aggravated. Amongst the 101 things that upsets it is repeated turning of the head. I have things set up at work to avoid this. Symptoms can include acute headache, sensitivity to light (I thought I was becoming a vampire) and plain old throwing up (embarrassing at work). I would be interested to hear if anyone has encountered any problems like this themselves. I really would like to try TrackIR, but if the odds are it will bring this on ( something does most days) it might be wise to give it a miss and my wingmen will just have to make more effort to defend themselves!

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm going take it it under further consideration after Christmas. I have a couple of friends who used TrackIR and I think I might be able to get a live demo in the New Year.

Happy Christmas Captain!

I seem to connect the wearing of armour like this with attempts at planting explosive charges under the enemy's wire to blow gaps in it - only thing is I can't remember why I make this connection!

Having run a BE2 campaign from Winter 1915 and reached early June I encountered the first serious enemy aircraft opposition last flight. There were hundreds of ‘em! Well, 12 in the end – and only 4 in my flight. I used the various tips I have picked up from this forum. When the first four attacked, I turned into them, selecting a target for my wingmen and ordering them to attack using ‘A’. Whether anything came of this, I don’t know because I got too busy trying not to get shot down. I tried to clear the Fokkers off my wingmen’s tails when I could. I used ‘R’ in the hope that Rejoin would help keep us in some sort of formation, but I kept losing track of them. By the time one of my wingmen had gone down and I had realised there were now 12 aircraft directly attacking us, I decided to try and lead my flight to the nearest friendly airfield, pressing ‘R’ every now and then. They kept falling behind, however, and I had to keep turning back to try and help them (despite the fact that before I started leading the flights I could never keep up with them). I headed close to one of our balloons, in the hopes that the AA might scare the enemy off. It did, apparently, destroy two of them. By that time, however, my other two wingmen had fallen, so I scuttled back to my home airfield with a hole in one wing and a rattling engine that seemed to be slowly dropping revs. Given the odds, the aircraft types and an inexperienced flight leader, the outcome seemed not unreasonable. What I’m wondering, however, is did I miss anything obvious, tactically or game command, that I could have done to save any of my wingmen or have I got to get used to the guilt!

Thanks for your replies everyone. I shall try using 'H' next time. I was aware of the view in F6 but I hadn't really got faith in what I was seeing at the time. As it happens, we did end up just over the treetops. Unfortunately, as posted elsewhere, I got struck by the stutters with the frame rate dropping to single figures. One touch of the joystick was producing sickening lurches a few seconds later - often even nearer to the trees! Fortunately, the FPS picked up after I paused it but I tried to get a little height after that as I didn't want to lose my pilot that way. It's a testament to the immersion factor of OFF that I realised I was actually reproaching myself for not knowing my wingmen's names (I am duly ashamed Olham)! It made me think, how must they have felt in real life when they were responsible for people.