Wayfarer

Bletchley, thanks for the instructions. Wife and daughters are in computer frenzy tonight so I will try installing later in the week!

Dumb question time. This is the first OFF mod I ever downloaded. I have found a number of threads with instructions - which is fine but ... where did the downloaded file go? Sorry if this is covered somewhere else - I just couldn't find it. I'm running VISTA by the way, in case that makes any difference

Tailly Ho, Javito, thanks. As I might try a few mods now, its good to know you can save these things

Lewie, what was 'The Casket Crew' 's last big mission? my dad had 'The Fledgling' and 'Years of the Sky Kings' by Arch Whitehouse, but would this be a fiction piece - I understand he wrote them as well.

Thanks for your posts. They'll be a consolation to Arthur's family at this sad time!

That amount of flying time was achieved by some extremely circumspect flying! As I have mentioned, I deliberately took the attitude that I thought reconnaissance pilots would have to have had to complete their missions, so following the waypoints, getting back home and protecting my wingmen were my priorities. I always tried to evade enemy machines and never yet attacked anything that wasn't already attacking us. Although I hit several enemy machines I haven't had a single claim (although, in his log, two missions have 'aircraft destroyed' in the details - but I certainly didn't see them).

I also flew 'death on die roll' and seem to have been extraordinarily lucky with it!

I started him in February 1915 and flew for a few missions at 3 missions a day. My intention has always been, however, to fly through the war in the same squadron, creating new pilots from when the last one fell. I soon realised, however, that it would take me longer than the actual war itself in real time! I eventually started flying about a mission a week game time (which roughly matches my real time frequency) to get a feel of how the war progressed and conditions changed. Given that Arthur spent several spells in hospital (I was really lucky with that death on die roll) he actually fell on January 11th 1916, just short of a year in game time. I am aware that was only about 3 to 4 weeks worth at 3 missions a day.

I am still carrying on with 2 RFC, literally from the same day, as planned. I am thinking of downloading Bletchley's 1916 mod. I didn't dare alter anything whilst Arthur was still going in case I deleted him somehow! So I'll be carrying on with BEs until we get a new type delivered. Eventually I would like to do the same thing with a German fighter squadron - we'll probably be up to pP8 by then!

Actually, can you just copy the dossier and log files and paste them back in if you ever have to relaoad the game?

The skies are definitely getting more unfriendly since Arthur started, so I don't know how many hours the next one will last, however there's a likely looking chap, Harold Rawtenstall, just joined the squadron. From one of the industrial towns up north apparently. A bit technically minded I understand ... oh no, it's that 'name' effect again!

Well, ironically, I just killed my first pilot after 64 missions, 52.73 hours of flying time, and just over 1 year in real time! So I am feeling a slight but genuine sense of loss right now, and am somewhat annoyed with myself because I should have known better.

I watched a flight of Eindeckers go past us for quite a way. On the last mission, a flight passed very close by us and didn't bother us at all, so I took my eye off this lot and started scanning for my typically errant wingmen. Next thing, I am being shot to ribbons and shortly after my engine packed up completely. I glided towards a nearby airfield, and you can bet I was getting stressful then ... I always knew it would be landings that would get me! Of course, I managed to position myself so I was heading directly for the trees at one end of the airfield, with no engine to throttle up over them and no room left to manoeuvre. At the last, I tried a slight twitch in a forlorn hope of avoiding most of them, and that spun me straight into the ground.

I have been really lucky with the death on dice roll, l and knew the odds had to catch up eventually, so I am less dismayed than I might have been earlier on. One person I can guarantee will be disappointed, however, is my wife (presently at work). She always seemed to have a soft spot for Arthur, especially after seeing his photograph in the pilot dossier!

It is still remarkable to me how just inventing a name for a virtual construct, or even an inanimate object sometimes, can make you regard it in some ways like an actual entity with a personality. I have never gone so far as imagining a background 'life' for Arthur but I realise I could tell you how he spoke ... is that not weird!?

Just as I got to January 1916! I would certainly look forward to a 1916 version though.

The thing that gets me the most nervous is landings. I am a quite hamfisted individual who could never have flown an aircraft in real life. Even with something as forgiving as a BE2 I can still make a terrible mess of it, and this is when the the toungue starts to stick out between the teeth, and the hand tightens vice like onto the joystick, which, of course, exactly makes things worse until I can consciously tell myself to relax it. I am also liable at these times to voice the odd expletive. As I quite often am using headphones to avoid interfering with family TV watching, and don't realise how loud I am, this can earn some disapproving looks.

In combat I fear I am lacking in aggressive spirit. I put trying to protect my flight members as a high priority. A combination of my innate lack of coordination plus the lack of a sight on the BE means that my shooting is singularly ineffective (I have hit things but never had one claim). Often, therefore, I use the less subtle but more effective tactic of heading for the enemy machines and forcing them to evade (hopefully!). Early on, however, this lack of lethal intent put me in mind of an old lady shooing a cat off her roses ... and I got the sillies. Consequently, I have to admit that I frequently dive to the rescue with a quavering cry of 'Hey, get away from my men!'

Having read this thread I realise that I am seriously going to have to work on that one.

Usually once, occasionally twice, a week. Almost always just one mission. Never flown more than two missions in one session. Wife and many daughters also requiring computer time.

Surely Wayfarer there are some shops nearby that do document sealing using this stuff?

 

27" roll of Doculam

There is surely a stationers near to where I work that sells some suitable stuff. The problem with me is not the actual availabilty of things, but me remembering that I wanted them! I would like to ascribe this purely to age but, whilst I am sure it gets worse with age, I have always been like it. Fortunately, however, I read your email just before going out and remembered long enough to come back with some wallets that I think will do the trick. So thanks for the reminder!

Tailly Ho, it's true the view is lamentably limited. There may be some use of Spot View I'm afraid (no TrackIR yet).

Wayfarer, I understand you landed on an own airfield?

As a two-seater crew, it would of course be far more difficult trying to fly after paper maps.

It cannot be achieved at once; you must study the ground details on several sorties,

before you know your area.

It is something I definitely intend to do as part of trying to fly without any screen aids. I Just keep forgetting to get hold of some heavy duty plastic wallets.

A: Switch all that off, and fly like a real man - with a prepared paper map.

I tried flying like a real man with a map. I got lost after about half an hour and flew round and round in circles absolutely refusing to land at an airfield and ask the way. Eventually we were forced to land and refuel. My observer, making an excuse of needing the latrine, asked directions of a kindly office orderly and we were back on course in five minutes. We got there and back safely, but we weren't talking all evening.

As for the AI seemingly 'uninterested', I'd have to say that models real life quite well. If the squadron was on a particular mission and ordered not to deviate, they didn't. Shooting down scouts wasn't as important if there were 2 seater recon flights to go after. The big irony about the air war is it was mostly about protecting the troops on the ground from accurate artillary rounds being directed by 2 seaters. Shooting down a fighter was nice. Shooting down a 2 seater that could direct fire that kills hundreds of your men on the ground was essential.

 

Hellshade

Ironically, we were just four BE2s out artillery spotting on our own. This mission actually came up with a note at the beginning saying that the intended escort fighters weren't available so we just had to go it alone (another first for me) - so I was quite glad they had higher priorities!

It is true, it was an honest to goodness OFF question. I am a relative newcomer, it being almost exactly one year since I got OFF, flying about a mission a week. Also, I have only flown a narrow set of mission types. So I am still experiencing new things.

I expect those people who have enjoyed OFF for a number of years are not so often surprised as myself. I do not doubt, however, there will be a mighty outpouring come P4 - whilst I will still have much of P3 undiscovered!

I had a surprising encounter on my last mission. Whilst flying through a partly cloudy sky, a tight formation of aircraft emerged from the edge of a cloud ahead of me, heading directly towards us. My conviction that this was a flight of friendly BE2s returning from a mission was quickly overturned by the utter absence of a top plane on any of them! Any warning from friendly AA must have been masked by the cloud.

As I was heading in their direction anyway, and always turn into attacking Eindeckers, I sat tight and steeled myself for their next move. To my astonishment they flew past, slightly to starboard, and no more than a couple of hundred feet below - I could have spat on them (with more effect than my shooting) - and kept right on into the distance behind us without the slightest aggressive move.

I have never encountered this behaviour before from enemy machines so close, and it made me wonder, what governs AI behaviour in the vicinity of enemy aircraft? Is it, in effect, a random result from a range of possibilities, or is it something more complex? I have absolutely no programming knowledge whatsoever, so I have no idea how these things are worked out - it'd be quite a neat trick if I could pull it off on a regular basis!

Would it have something to do with the time period? I tried flares before with a BE2 in early 1915 and it didn't work, but when I tested it with a 11/2 Strutter in 1917 they worked fine (didn't actually get as far as testing the BE2 in 1917 unfortunately).

My apologies sir. I was "in character" when I responded though I can see now it looked as if I was criticizing your way of flying. Please know that I make no such judgements! I greatly respect those who have the time and patience to fly it "like it really was" back then. That's what's great about OFF. You can choose to fly it in whichever way you find most enjoyable.

 

Hellshade

Hellshade, absolutely no need for apologies! I think it's one of the strengths of OFF that it promotes flying with a certain 'character' , and that we have different attitudes within the same game. I'm sure that's not unrealistic. I was just amused by the contrast of your statement and the thought of me scuttling fearfully about, and trying to shepherd my wingmen around!

In other sims, to a certain extent, I tended just to see how many things I could shoot at until my ammo ran out. After introducing a friend to flight sims, however, I was impressed by his more realistic approach and dedication to learning the ins and outs of the game (if anyone visits the SOH CFS3 forum, it's 'Beau Brummie', champion of Coastal Command and the Mosquito). It made me look around for a sim that seemed worth playing in that way ,and it's the reason I chose OFF rather than RoF. I can spend an hour not shooting at anything and still feel totally absorbed.

Regarding the original posting, I think it would definitely be good if you could be rewarded for patient stalking of an enemy machine by sometimes acheiving total surprise, but also knowing that you may get a wily, veteran crew who might be pretty lethal. I understand from Polovski's post that there is a certain amount of this already, although always being the target I never really see it!

Fair enough, but I know only this when I take to the skies:

 

"None of the men I kill today will have me in their sights tomorrow."

 

If I wish to have a better chance at living tomorrow, my duty and my way are clear.

 

Hellshade

My reason for playing it that way is really because I am flying a BE2 on recon/spotting missions, rather than a fighter. I try and fly 'carefully' because I think they would have had to.

When I finish this campaign, though, I would like to start one as a German fighter pilot, from Eindeckers onward. I would fly more aggressively then - although I'll probably be more of a Boelcke than a Voss or a Lothar von Richthofen.

I want them to be apprehensive the moment they see my plane. I want them to give me begrudging respect as I work my way through the furball, damaging or destroying anything that crosses my path. I want them to feel a shiver of fear as they see me latch onto their 6 and I want the shiver to turn to desperation as they try every trick they know to shake me, but I stay locked on their tail. I want them to know the fear of the Almighty as they hear the first reports of my guns. I want them to know terror and regret for even climbing into the cockpit that day as my rounds shred their flesh and rip into their engine. I want them to feel hopeless as their wreck of a plane tumbles out of the sky, speeding towards their imminent death. Most of all, I want all of his wingman to see it happen. I cannot kill every man, but I can kill their will to fight.

 

I tend towards trying to get us all safely home for tea.

. I also have the original paper maps that Flying Corps Gold came with, which were supposedly well researched and based on period Obs photos. It covers the Somme and Arras fronts, and Verdun.

I also still have the Flying Corps maps. There are discrepancies, but I 'd guess that mirrors the real life situation. The font lines are somewhat different to those in my 1915 campaign, I think they are more applicable to 1917. I hadn't thought of using a plastic cover and non-permanent pen to map out your route, but I'll definitely try that.

Olham, I think you have said elsewhere, but which maps do you actually use?

Although it is hard to believe, I experienced a similar incident during my time in the Air Force. I was stationed at Travis AFB, which is in California, in the early 1990s. During that time, California was in the midst of a 5 year drought, so naturally the grass was all brown. They actually commanded airman (not me, thank God), to go out and "Paint the grass green" because some General was supposed to drive by our building. Some things are just mind stunners.

 

Hellshade

Back in the '70s they built a new residential area on the edge of Birmingham UK, not far from us. The queen came to open the shopping centre and, because the new turf had gone brownish, they sprayed that green before her visit!

I have just had OFF crash 3 times in succession when performing the same action.

I use a button on my joystick to to cycle Iron Sight/Instruments/Pilot views. As usual I have used it to cycle to Instrument views, then use the the joystick switch to lower the view to the altimiter. At this point OFF crashes - giving me a 'CFS3 will have to close' message, although it actually goes back to the initial campaign screen.

One curious point is that, usually, I have to press scroll lock to to change from snap to scroll view, but it seems to be functioning as scroll view (for a second or two before crashing ) without having to do this.

I have rarely had any crashes at all with OFF, which I have run for virtually a year now, neither have I updated any drivers. The joystick is a Saitek Cyborg Evo that I have been using all the time with OFF. I did alter some of the display settings in line with Olham's guide, but that was some weeks ago and it has been fine until now.

Has anyone else ever had any crashes associated with this particular action?

I respectfully disagree gentleman. Scrambles are an excellent opportunity to add to your score without having to waste any of your precious fuel flying around trying to find the little bastards. I like to think of scrambles as like having breakfast in bed. It's always nice when someone brings the meal right to you.

 

Hellshade

Ironically, I actually managed to get the old Quirk off the ground and score a few hits on one of the attackers. Whilst taking off, I cunningly kept an eye on the gaggle of unidentified aircraft approaching our airfield. This explains why I didn't see the Eindecker which attacked from the opposite quarter and peppered my fuselage. Even that wasn't what brought me down. I had just registered a few hits on another Eindecker, a very rare event for me, when my engine was hit and I got the 'stones in a tin can' noise. With the throttle at full and the revs at nil (or almost) I thought I had better try and land immediately. Being already over the airfield, however, gave me a glide angle of about 89.5 degrees! Hence the resulting hospitalisation ( I actually managed to level out about 20 feet off the ground - but at a 90 degree starboard roll).

Mightysrc, I don't know about sweating yet, but swearing apparently. I often use OFF with earphones so as not to disturb wife and daughters' viewing of NCIS...CIS...ICI... or one of the various perm any three letters from C,S,I,N programmes. The last mission I flew, I got what Bullethead described - the stalking Jasta which follows you all the way home. They held off right until I was approaching landing, just at the point where you have to be low, slow and straight, or the Quirk's undercarriage will come off. Then one of them zoomed in and opened up. Apparently I said, out loud, a rude word, I think it must have been the rude word. It seems that there was a gasp from middle daughter (who, at 19, has been known to mutter the odd curse under her breath herself) but, with all senses isolated in my OFF world, I carried on oblivious.Fortunately this was amusing enough not to earn me too much censure from my wife, although my daughter made the most of being able to be shocked at Dad.

I think the strain must be getting to me after all. Maybe I'm due a couple of nights in Paris. Another testament to the realistic atmosphere of OFF!

TaillyHo, I am flying in 2 Squadron RFC. My plan, at the moment, is to carry on through the whole war in this squadron, then I think I'd like to go back and try a German fighter squadron starting with Eindeckers. As computer time is at a premium, I only manage about one OFF session a week. This is why I time advance roughly a week after each mission. I think this gives me a sense of the developing nature of the war, and some hope of getting to 1918 before Phase 11 comes out!

I have grown quite attached to the old BE2s really, there's something about an aircraft with it's own 'chimney stacks' puffing away, but it will be interesting to fly something different when new machines are delivered (some time to go yet).

Incidentally, I came across a history of 2 RFC on the internet quite by chance. It mentioned how the squadron transferred from Merville to Hesdigneul, exactly as you do in OFF! A further example of excellent research by the developers.

"Hey Wayfarer, how about posting a 'report from the front' every now and then. It would be great to read about early-war life in a B.E2 squad (with or without 'scramble' missions!) "

 

Hi TH,

 

if you browse through the reports from the front thread - easily the best read on this forum - you'll find that I've posted multiple times concerning being a BE2c pilot in campaign from 1915 to 1917. My pilot is now onto RE8s, which is horrible, but there are a few tips and hints in my earlier posts, should you ever feel the suicidal need to run a career in the BE2c. It's not all doom and gloom, I assure you, and if you do so, you'll learn a lot of worthwhile habits to help you survive in any squadron, and at any period of the war.

 

Cheers,

Si

Mightysrc, how are you? Would I be right in guesssing that the BE2/RE8 swap is a short while after Bloody April? I have wondered when the change over would occur.

Hey Wayfarer, how about posting a 'report from the front' every now and then. It would be great to read about early-war life in a B.E2 squad (with or without 'scramble' missions!)

Well, I suppose could give it a go for one of the more 'dramatic' (in 1915 terms ) missions. I think I'll browse the reports a bit to profit by good examples!