Lewie

It's a toss up for me, there's about 3 or 4 times and places in WWI that I would like to see. One day in particular would be the Messine Ridge underground mine explosion. But you did say any time? How about roughly 65 million years ago on the very day the big rock fell onto the Yucatan peninsula. Of course I'd have to be quite a ways away and have protective eye gear. It would be a feat just to get the exact date it happened.

Well I've been trying out various 3rd party importers to see which ones do the deed with loss of mapping and or polys. So far It seems I'm kinda stuck with a Metasequoia>Truespace>GMax routine, but the mapping is steadfastly not appearing in the Gmax rendered views even though the material is shown in the material editor box in Gmax. Do you have to have the surfaces "active" for the drag and drop function to occur, why isn't the mapping showing up on the shapes when in solid render? The Help files are less than useful in this aspect as they send you off into the overtly complex material functions routines I''d like to know of a simple way to get the mapping images to show in Gmax..

Well Pol, I thought I wasn't being that negative, but, I am expressing some personal desires, so basically it's a bit selfish, yes, I can see that I've been a bit negative. I have nothing but major respect for what you and the rest of the crew at OBD have done, I don't think I've criticized any of you folks about OFF in general, I don't play sim vs. sim. I've seen a couple forums descend into a sim bashing feeding frensy, it's ugly and stupid, and I hope you don't think I'm doing this, because I'm not. But, I'm one who likes to customize my sims, it's a bit of a hobby for me, especially since discovering FS-WWI and working in OpenPlaneStudio.

Well right now I'm still awaiting word back from ArgonV about the state of 4 of my in development Pioneering mod, models. He's been having a rough go. Thanks for the offer. I'm wondering if one of my monoplanes wouldn't be a good first start, they are simple enough.

You'll think that until one of these techies passes you, riding their home made turboshaft powered motorbike on the motorway like you're in first gear. Then you'll probably want one...

Yes, the strutter in this sim is well done and is a challenge to fly aggresively. My favorite though, at least for now is the 'arry Tate. I'm flying mine like a low level fighter bomber. Like the Australian RE8 crews of 1918 which used their Tate's like slower SE5's with a sting in the tail. My pilot Pips Laetra with RFC13 has a couple of kills done solely with the tail gunner.

Well for starters; for Targetware and FS -WWI.. My Re8 ( which has now been dressed up even more by the tireless effort of ArgonV at Fighter Squadron WWI...), My Henry Farman HF22 floatplane and RAF FE4 bomber.. ...some of my pre WWI models for my mod in FS-WWI which also have been generously helped with by ArgonV's talents with a lot of fiddly details, My Caudron 1912 Type "N" racer, Farman III Boxkite and Eastbourne Monoplane.. Listen guys and Pol in particular, I'm sorry if I coming off as a Know-it-all, I tend to be a wee bit abrasive, but I've done 3D stuff for 10 years now, and I love all things WWI. And in particular, OFF is one of the few sims I spend much of my time flying. I really would like to contribute, but I seem to have annoyed more than a few of you so I will just stop making suggestions and just enjoy being here. OK? Peace and stuff..

Well I'm used to opening and editing one or two text files to change where a weapon appears on a 3D file, so you'll have to excuse me, I'm not trying to be rude here. I could with time learn to use Gmax to good effect but so far my attempts with it are less than stellar. No WWI sim on this world is perfect, I'm not suggesting it either, but.. Maybe include the over wing Lewis equipped Bristol Scout with P4? BTW my model files are still available, but someone would have to smooth them, because frankly it's the one part of G-max I'm not getting.

Yes you will be Abbot San-itized.

Here's another truck engine turbo charger jet engine mounted on a small motorbike chassis And this one using a pair of RC model jet engines on a bicycle.

Probably my small moto, but getting it shipped would be more expensive than a bicycle.

Well at that time period I'm pretty sure that Lanoe was a lone experimenter with his angled gun. IIRC it wasn't even a Lewis at first. it was a Lee Enfield 30.06 so you had to also run the bolt in addition to firing the weapon. I mean we put emphasis on historical reality in this sim, I'd think the early war crates could reflect the diversity of the first weaponizing of aircraft, and there's certainly enough evidence that the Bristol was equipped with a variety of guns. The early Fokkers of that time would have been the M5- EI with the first gun synchronization. They would have been powered by the Oberusal U0 which was barely 80 h.p. The thing I'm trying to say is that the game flies the Bristol Scout like it still has a forward firing gun. Have any of you seen an AI controlled flight of Bristols ever make a kill? I've been in a couple of BE2 vs. Fokker EIII fights with Bristol scout escorts, they tend to all get shot down. Yes in 1916 the weaponry wasn't all new to aircraft, but mounting it effectively was, it was part of what ended the Fokker Scourage. The French basically handed the idea that started it off to the Germans with Garro's crash of his forward firing Morane Parasol, which, BTW, should be available as one of the new aircraft in P4.

The winter of '16-17 was particularly harsh in the Somme Valley and in Mason's book about the Esc Layfayette they were having to scour the countryside for heating wood. I'm not sure how enthusiastic I'd be about time travelling back to those years and staying at a Somme airfield. B-B-bbbrrrrr! I did do a Google map virtual tour of the area and it's got some great small back roads to tour, and most of the more renowned airfields are within a days ride of Chipilly. I can see a Northern France-Picardie bike tour in my future.

I can't believe the camping is that cheap at Chippy. I've paid over fifteen dollars a night for a lousy tent camp spot in our local state campgrounds. Only 1.50 Euro a night for a moto or bicycle campspot?

I really dislike the Bristol Scouts, is the angled gun an actual common setup on them? I ask because when you have Eindekkers and Bristols in an AI situation the Bristol Scouts get the short end of it, and they shouldn't. They're lighter, more maneuverable and faster. The angled gun is just wrong, there were versions with the over-wing mounted Lewis. What I'm finding with the AI Albatros's is that they are a real danger to slower Entente aircraft only when they are higher and can draw a bead on you while diving. Get them on your level, in a turning fight and you can certainly give them a hiding, in equal numbers situations. The problem with the Arras frontline in Spring and summer of '17 is that the Albatros's are numerously attacking the front lines and front airfields. I've made 5 of my 'arry Tate pilot's confirmed kills from cleaning up the numerous Albies wandering around at about 1500' near the front.

My second computer was a HP Compaq which the AC port was faulty on, It's been running pretty well since I've resoldered in a new connector.

Yeah it may be the only way to get stuff out there without going through the creative writing classes, fiction novel writer's shipping manuscripts off to be rejected multiple times,..route.. Have any of you watched Jim Butcher's series on becoming a fiction writer? There's some good advice given, but you have to also accept that Jim has an unusually good talent for what he does.

If it works better than that lame free version of Registry mechanic it will be worth it. It doesn't require a lot of extra window$ .NET bloatware, does it? I was having issues with NET 3.5 and the developers version of DirectX 9.C which isn't supposed to conflict with DX 10 and 11.

But luckily here in the states we have similar micro brew dark ales that could be used..

Welcome to this mad, campaign based sim. It's got a few quircks, but it starts to feel like the real thing after a few flights. One thing about using the TAC, like others have said, you can set your TAC detection radius smaller, but, you can also chose to not initiate a combat. If you have a height advantage and are over 2 miles from your bogey(s) they generally will ignore you. Choose your fights well.

Isn't that a town in S. California?

Yes I guess we'll need some game "leveler' to make up for the coming Snipe.. this is a pair of nice videos about the Bucker.

My hopes are that it plays well with my new machine.

I should have known that Louvert, who made his own nearly authentic WWI French Air Service uniform, would have a tough question about French medals. I was interested in Guynemer's Nupe back in '04 as I was scratch building small scale R/C model of one of his N17s. I have a photo of it at a local fun-fly..

George Guynemer's Nieuport 17 Escadrille N3 Very late 1916 to about summer of 1917. There were a number of variations in the N 17's, including a tricolor spinner off one of the Albatros' he shot down and an N17 with an upper wing with camo instead of silver. 19 Palms.