Burning Beard

They usually don't live long enough to worry about it. My current pilot has 8+ hours and has one confirmed kill for 11 claims, but he has only been active for 3 days. I have noticed in earlier campaigns that confirmations come rather piecemeal. If this pilot survives long enough I expect to see maybe 3 or 4 confirmations at a time, kind of like a normal bureaucracy works. Heck, in phase two I just made up names of witnesses and got confirmed kills, at least in phase three I try to remember my wingman's name, lol. Beard

My father was a bomber pilot in WW2 (B29's) and pointed out to me when I was making models as a kid, the military planes did not shine because the reflection of light made them visible from a long distance. That aside I would think the shine would be limited to the type of finish that was available at the time. Dope tends to be shiny, but the upkeep time would be prohibitive on undeveloped runways in a constant combat situation. It would be hard enough to keep the maintenance up without having to haul buckets out to wash off crates that tended to spend most of the time out of hangers. Beard

I dont do any of it. I put in type and how many and the name of wingman, if I remember it. No description of what happened at all. Beard

Thanks Erik, that explains it, I kept looking at the calender at the top of this page (under the Combat Ace/OFF masthead) and all I saw was birthdays and such. Beard

I use Hardcore for the same reason as Winston..... I have tried the Intermediate and thought it was fine. I have not use normal in the current form. Beard

Sounds good to me Winston. I'm here in upstate California and prefer those earlier morning games. Wife usually doesn't move until noonish on the weekends ;) Beard

The idea sounds pretty good to me, it would be nice to see what type of mission would be up in advance. If it gets popular enough more than one person may have to host, and it may be necessary to spit the channel in TS if two servers are up at once. Also the split channel would be nice during dogfight mission so each side could talk to their own members. Beard

Have you tried changing the season in QC, that may do the trick for you. Beard

Is Track IR still offering the discount they used to give when you bought it through a website like SOH, I'm sure I got my TR3 that way when the OFF forum was over there. Heck maybe they offer it to Combat Ace users also. Beard

I got them to work, loaded Fortiesboy's Alb and Nieup, and Prop Wasdhe's Se5a. All seems to work well to this point. If you are having problems with the download placement, the way I did it was to copy the text file to note pad, change the name of the xdp file the plane folder to xdpxxx so it couldn't be read. Then saved the text file to the plane folder with the correct name (with underscores as spaces as in the original). Then of course delete the bdp file as instructed. They seem to be working fine for me, as I have managed to shoot off an Alb wing and have lost an Alb wing ;). I also lost the fabric on the top of the right side horizontal stabilizer of an Alb I was flying, though managed to finish that mission. I noticed that the Nieup has a tendency to do the old climb and stall routine at lower altitude, but don't be too lax because occasionally he will throw in a roll and shoot you. I have not seen the damage on the allied birds yet, but have not had a lot of time to test. Am just posting this to suggest a way to get them into the game easily. Beard

I have the Pro-Pedals also and had a problem with the "brakes" causing odd problems. I think one pedal made the plane dive (full down elevator) and the other cause the ailerons to fluctuate back and forth. Anywho, Aussie Pilot came up with a fix in the CFS3.xca file (I think) which is found in the Application Data folder. This was all explained in the old forum, but I think it was lost in the transfer. If he is watching this thread maybe he will post. Beard

I was thinking (I know, I know) that turning all the graphics down to the lowest settings while taking screen shots may give you a better platform for converting the image to line art and also be easier to posterize. Will have to try it. Beard

Well, to put the required line in, "the Flyboys DR1 was porked"...... Beard

Now you're talkin'. I went as far as to play with the Corel line art filters, and download some cell from Enemy Ace but that is as far as I got.....I like the imitation of the Comic book pages, with the cut outs, Corel would excel at this. Now I need to do some screen captures from the Blue Max, Hells Angels, etc........ MUHAHAHAHAHHAHA. Beard

Add my vote for the pedals. I use a Saitek X52 and Saitek pedals. I found that the without the pedals I tended to miss targets while using the twisty rudder. Using the pedals is second nature pretty quick and really helps when sideslipping to make that landing you really should have gone around for but were just too lazy ;) Beard

I went back to the old software, I found the view jumped around a little with the new one. Maybe it will be better when the non-beta comes out. Beard

Aren't the mirrors just eye candy, that don't really show what is going on behind you but give a stock ground/sky image. Seems I noticed in one mission that got me lost over the English Channel in clouds that the image in the mirror was ground and clouds that you normally see. Beard

Yep, on some fields I can barely crack 15 fps when looking back once I am in the air. Other fields I get a good solid 30 fps. It must have something to do with the ground objects but I am really not sure. It seems like some of the fields with a lot of ground objects have high frame rates while others with fewer objects seem to have low rates. I also think that certain plane types use a lot more graphics than others. This also doesn't seem to follow logic. I usually get high rates with Spads while a Nuep will suck up frames. Beard

I was TA for the Army Security Agency from 70 through 79, and yes I do know it became the Intelligence and Security Command in 78 or so. Beard

It is true that there is a mod of IL2 called Over Oleg's Fields due to come out this summer, and I believe that is where the online guys will flock. Modded versions of IL2 do have 6dof in Track IR, but that said, there are drawbacks to IL2 that are not present in OFF. I have flown campaigns in IL2 (scripted) and have tried to use their dynamic campaign. Both pale in comparison to Campaigns in OFF. Time restraints and the need to "slot" time for OFF online games tend to kill that venue for me. I think that the IL2 mod will be able (hope) fill that niche. There are always trade offs in all games and you do what ya gotta do. I have fooled with the First Eagles game and tried to make it work, but was disappointed. I even had Wings of War (that one was hard to find) and had fun with the outlandish arcadeness, kinda like crimson skies, but was looking for a game to replace Red Baron 1 and 3D. Off has filled that niche (except for the online thing). I flew RB3d for a very long time offline in campaign mode and absolutely loved it. OFF does the same for me. I realize that OFF will never be IL2 online, but IL2 will never be OFF offline. Online you do not need the terrains, clouds and other niceties that your appreciate in offline flying. Online you make up for it with real person interaction. There is only so much you can personally deal with when flying a sim. You can either talk to other people and stay in formation, etc., or you can operate the controls, use a keyboard, pet the dog, talk to wife, answer the phone and any of the other minutia that happens in your "cockpit". OFF offline is perfect for those of us that love the eye candy, the weather input, the individual plane quirks, that still need to use the pause key to interact with our environment. Youse guys have done a brilliant job with what is available. Beard

Sorry guys, I would love to make these but by the time I see them it is already a couple of hours after you start. Beard

One of the best ideas I saw in there was offering a copy of CFS3 with a copy of OFF, makes it more no fuss no muss. I too would purchase additional aircraft etc.... And, it would be better if it could be made online friendly. Beard

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh........ Don't tell anyone about this. I'm flying at 130% and I need every little nudge I get, lol. Beard

Could it possibly be mixture control? If you are flying with complex fuel management, could you be starving out in an altitude start? Beard

Heck,.... I liked the DH2 in Red Baron 1. :yes: Beard