33LIMA

I lost my eBay copy a while back, much to my regret and as you say, only very expensive ones seem available at the moment. Luckily I have been able to pick up cheap copies of Winged Warfare (1918 edition!) and Saggitarius Rising in a local 2nd hand bookshop and will be looking out for a replacement Flying fury too :(

Thanks Sid I'll give '46' a try, I quite like all the OFF Sopwiths including the Camel. If there are still no Huns in Hunland, then I'll know it's something else wrong, and will try disabling mods, unlikely tho I think it is, that one of them could be to blame. At the moment my impression is that the March to May period with the RFC is blighted for some as-yet-unknown reason, tho that may prove a dead end.

Hey, Hellshade, that looks rather good! The lighting effects lift the visuals appreciably. I've only an 8800GT so may be too much of an FPS hit for me. Must find those settings from Lou; may I ask, which EMB mod did you use?

Thanks for the response, Sid. I generally don't much care for flying as wingman, hated this in RD3d and IL2 (fortunately picking a higher rank solves the latter) and I hate it still on the OFF Beta career. However hard I practice formation flying I and try to match throttle settings, I seem to end up playing catch up - I prefer to look around and not have to concentrate so much on staying in formation. To an extent I blame the lack of peripheral vision, that's inherent in all PC sims, and also like the patrol leader role. Last mission, all the way home I had the 'radar' set to 8 miles and only friendly flights showed up. The 'radar' should I think be at least as likely to 'see' planes as the AI. You're seeing plenty of Huns, you say? What squadron are you flying from, and at what date? Are you on HiTR? If so, I'll give that a try.

And to develop the SF2-FE2 family relationship theme that Pamama rightly mentioned, it's worth bearing in mind also that many mods designed for the SF TWO series, also work just fine in FE2. Not that you'd want to add Mirage III's or MBTs to FE2, but for example, I'm using a horizon (cloud) mod and a (sky) cloud mod designed for the SF2 series in FE2.

I gather plane expansion packs are being considered, so if a Dolphin doesn't make the first cut for OFF2 it may well swim into view later. I entertain similar hopes for a DH4, a Pfalz DXII and an LVG CVI amongst others...amongst quite a lot of others in fact, integrated into the campaigns of course...all in the fullness of time, hopefully. 'Downloadable Content' seems to be quite the rage these days and there's no reason why OFF shouldn't have some, whether sold individually or in HITR-style expansion packs. The great variety in planes is one of the distinguishing features of WW1 and I for one would be very pleased to see OFF2 expand even more in that direction. I'd gladly buy packs with even the more obscure planes like the BE8 'bloater' or the Roland DII 'haifisch', even if they are available in FE2 (or RoF) too. Variety is the spice of life in the WW1 skies, and I suspect most enthusiasts will be the same. Who says you can have too much of a good thing? Not me! Off topic I know but it wasn't a very nice topic, was it, no fault of anyone here of course.

Wrong forum never mind wrong thread - ceasing and desisting now!

Ace They work fine in FE2 - if you look at the install instructions that come with, say, Stephen1918's great planes at CombatAce, like the new Rumpler C1 or revised Alb CIII, they explain the difference - basically for FE2, you copy the compete installed plane to the Objects/Decals folder (make one if it doesn't exist) and then to save space, delete all in the copied folder apart from the sub folder labelled 'D' (and any in the path to it)- I did it just now for the Snipe, which i had d/led some time back but not installed till now, with the result below. Also helps to install Peter01's FM mod, since some mod planes are made for Normal FM, not Hard:

Yes it certainly is. It's one of the A Team Skunkworks planes, along with the Snipe; but then, you already knew they had a Snipe, didn't you? :) http://cplengineeringllc.com/SFP1/

Not so:

Sitrep, after several more missions flown. 10 Naval from Furnes, now moved on to May 1917 - lots of Archie in Hunland but no still Huns, not in the air anyway. Quite a few friendly flights, no enemy ones. It'll need another few flights to confirm the pattern but it seems something's wrong, somewhere. The mods can hardly be stopping the enemy flying as the friendlies are in the air in reasonable numbers. Weird.

Yeah the thread is still accessible from the link (cached page?) but the whole thing seems to have been taken down from the 'live' forum. One assumes it was done because wiser counsels have prevailed re that remark (which is disgraceful rather than just sad, as I was about to post over there, being an RoF flyer too) rather than to supress the strong undercurrent of disillusionment with RoF that was suffacing in it. A cynic - even one who appreciates the considerable virtues of Rise of Flight, as I do - might observe, more in sorrow than in anger, that it's not OFF2 that would benefit from stealing or just emulating RoF's medals - medals, for cripe's sake!!! - but RoF that would benefit from stealing or emulating OFF's (never mind OFF2's) planeset, SP career, flexibility, and representation of the Western Front. An even greater cynic might observe that this 'revelation' has probably come just in time to deter OFF2 from stealing RoF's pack of coloured pilot scarves :)

Looked there already, he's not there, either

AS YOU WERE! AS YOU WERE! Settle down now! No, HPW's final FM mod isn't available yet, still in testing...patience, patience, now, lads...like OFF2, it'll be worth the wait.

It's Armchair Aces which has inspired me, first to start a serious career or two in an eindekker - something I'd never done before - and to write of the results! I miss RB3d's little video clips and pilot logbook but campaign-wise, this is as good or better! PS I've now posted this account on SimHQ as well - any WW1 flightsim fan who isn't flying FE is missing out anyone who isn't flying Armchair Aces is missing out even more! http://simhq.com/for...tml#Post3540325

This is shaping up nicely! On a point of detail, I think the darker, lower-contrast perimeter track around the Wrigth/Astre field looks a lot better than the lighter (default?) shade track around the nearer landing field, altho the latter probably helps spot the field at long range.

Yesterday, only a few days after his triumphant first mission from Brayelles, Garth Boelcke re-learned the hard way that despite the medals and the good food and better company at the mess table, the life of a war pilot can so easily turn from triumph to tragedy. The day started out so promisingly. Responding to reports from front-line observers of an enemy incursion heading for Cambrai to the south, he led away from Brayelles VzFw's Becker, Recker and Barth, the CO having decided to send a strong flight in order to guarantee giving the enemy, and any escorts, a good drubbing. Proud to be leading a flight of Fokkers again so soon in his new posting, and equally keen not to take any chance of dissapointing the Old Man's confidence, Garth took his comrades up above the mission's planned ceiling, to just below the broken cumullus which barely disguised the otherwise fine and sunny weather. The rattling drone of his Eindekker's powerful 100 hp motor seemed to echo the sense of power and security he felt, looking back at his comrades echeloned behind him. On they surged, and soon, the buildings of Cambrai began to emerge from the morning mist ahead of them. Four pairs of eyes scanned the heavens, concentrating on the south-west, from which the reported enemy flight seemed most likely to appear. But all remained peaceful. No planes, no flak, 'all quiet on the western front', seemed to be the order of the day. Perhaps the report had been mistaken? Looking back, well behind and below, just behind the German reserve trenches, an orange burst of fire suddenly appeared, and a smoke trail could briefly be made out. Had the enemy changed their course, and were they now up to some low-level mischief with the comrades on the ground? There was one way to find out! Wheeling around, suddenly anxious at the thought of having been caught out by the wily English or the crafty French, the young Boelcke led his flight back, losing a little height as he did so to pick up some speed, lest some unseen assailant elude him by slipping back the short distance across the lines. But as they drew near the scene of the pyrotechnics, it was as if they had never happened. Whatever it was, it seemed to have left no trace; the skies and the ground all around were clear. But were they? A glance back towards Cambrai revealed a line of black flak bursts creeping from the west towards eastern outskirts of the large town. A quick reversal of course brought Garth's flight heading back towards the intruders, but they were now well above the Germans and it was obvious that they would reach Cambrai long before they could be brought to battle. As the range closed, two specks could be seen to emerge just ahead of the easternmost of the trail of black bursts, now over the town's western suburbs. The specks wavered, then started to swing around. At the same time, a series of sudden, violent splashes of orange fire erupted from the town below and behind them, followed by a raging fire topped by a pillar of smoke. A bombing raid, and somehow, it had sneaked in behind them! Flushed with anger, Garth swung his flight to the right, still climbing, so as to catch the enemy on their way home, for the two specks had now settled onto what was clearly a course to the west, back to their own lines but a short distance away. The range closed quickly, but not quickly enough for Boelcke junior. The enemy could now be seen to be a pair of BE2's, and as soon as he judged he was close enough, he gave the signal for a general attack and swung his own machine in behind the trailing Englishman. The climbing turn was too tight, however, and Garth could have shouted aloud in frustration as his Fokker shuddered and then spun away under him. A quick recovery meant he lost but a little ground, though, and looking up, he was relieved to see his comrades had made a better job of the business - two Fokkers were now snapping at the heels of the first BE, while a third was behind the other English machine. Four planes in a deadly conga line. Who would be first to fall? Boelcke decided he would let his flight-mates win the glory today and intervene only if a suitable opportunity arose. That opportunity came as the rear BE, to escape the streams of tracers of the Fokker pursuing it, turned across Garth Boelcke's nose and he stitched it with a series of short bursts from his Spandau, receiving in return some accurate return fire from the enemy observer, which punched some holes in the fabric of his port wing and, from the racket it made to his rear, in the fuselage somewhere close behind him, too. This BE was his now, and after a few further bursts, it shed some parts, began smoking, and started to spiral down in an increasingly steep dive, ending with a sharp explosion on the fields below. A horrible but compelling fascination seemed to force him to watch it all the way down. Turning back to the other combat, he could see that the lead BE was being hard-pressed by two Fokkers; of the third Eindekker, there was for the moment no sign. As he closed on the action, one of the Fokkers behind the English machine curved away, gently at first, but as Garth watched with mounting dismay, its nose fell into an ever-steeping dive, until it was going down nearly vertically. No smoke or damage could be seen, and Garth hoped against hope that his stricken comrade would yet pull up. And indeed, the Fokker's dive seemed to level out slightly; but it was not to be; another spash of fire against the green fields and it was all over. From that moment, in his heart he'd no taste for any further butchery; but in his mind, a sort of robotic trance seemed to descend, and dully, mechanically, he swung his sights onto the fleeing BE, the two Fokkers taking turns methodically to hose the enemy with streams of tracer. The observer's return fire seemed to have ceased, and it ended suddenly as the BE spouted a trail of grey-black smoke and dived away into the ground below. Back at base, there was more bad news. Not one, but two Fokkers had gone down, and both pilots were dead. The BE observers' shooting had been good, and the two had sold their lives dearly. It still seemed a poor exchange to Garth, two planes and two comdades gone, for two English packing-cases brought down, but that, his mess-mates consoled him, was the reality of fighting in the air: sic transit gloria mundi. The KEK Nord sergeant's mess at Brayelles was subdued and quiet that night.

Closer to (my) home, not your average war film, but then, it wasn't your average war - AFN Clarke's 'Contact', very loosely based on his second NI tour with 3 Para in the 1980s, as described in his book of the same name. Apart from the fact the multiple patrol has more contacts than many batallions did, their webbing looks like it was filled with expanded polystyrene, and the platoon commander's SLR has a rotating disc rear sight from a Canadian C1, a more authentic portrayal could not, and probably never will, be achieved: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MOQZZ_ULPI&feature=related

Well, Vizefeldwebel Garth Boelcke took to the skies today to avenge his brother Richard's death at the hands of an RFC Nieuport 10! Flying from Brayelle with KEK Nord, days after the shooting down of his older brother while serving with the same unit, the younger Flieger Boelcke succeeded in satisfying family honour in an outstanding first mission in a brand-new Fokker EII (supplied from a secret assembly line in Madrid!). Taking off with VzFw Bekker after a report of enemy planes approaching Emerchicourt just to to the east, immediately after takeoff the Brayelle flak MGs and cannon were seen to open fire. Their targets were two machines quickly identified as English BE2c's, insolently flying eastwards at less than 1000m. The new Fokkers' 100hp motors soon hauled the two KEK Nord pilots up and onto the tails of the two BEs and though both Fokkers were hit by return fire from the English observers, first one, then the other BE went down trailing smoke, one being credited to Boelcke junior, the other not being seen to crash and thus not confirmed. Reforming, the pair of Fokkers made for the nearest of two new clumps of flak bursts they could see in the busy skies above them. After another tail-chase, they succeeded in catching up with two Vickers Gunbus 2-seaters, like the earlier BE's heading east. Were they the escort for the luckless BE's, arriving too late? Were they the enemies the KEK pilots had been sent up to intercept in the first place? No matter, they were the Kaiser's enemies, and down they must go! It was a struggle to climb up and close the distance and initially, some ground was lost when Boelcke's Fokker stalled and an incipient spin had to be corrected, before the hunt could be resumed. The tail chase was taken up again. Conveniently for the Germans, the trailing Vickers fell below and behind the leader and was then persuaded to turn by a long-range burst from Boelcke, enabling the German pilot to cut the corner and close in quickly. A series of short bursts fired in a turn at the wheeling Vickers, and the latter was sliding towards the ground, his prop grinding to a halt as the Englishmen headed down to captivity - 'For you, the war is over!'. But suddenly, there was firing from behind and Boelcke's Fokker was hit again. Turning as tightly as he dared, he could see a nimble Nieuport single-seater firing at long range. RFC roundels denoted the plane was another Englishman. A moment's hesitation, remembering his brother's fate. Then a conscious decision - the Nieuport might be the better plane, and its pilot might be the better pilot; but Garth Boelcke was not going to run to avoid his brother's end - he was going to avenge it. And incredibly, after a short but desperate turning fight, the Nieuport was caught in Boelcke's sights for just long enough for a quick burst, which set the V-strutter on fire, and down he went! Unseen, a second Nieuport had attacked and hit VzFw Bekker while this was going on, and a collision had resulted. Both machines fell to earth and were wrecked, but Bekker walked away unhurt. A triumphant return of a Brother Boelcke to the flying front was emphatically confirmed with the award of the EK2 - Iron Cross, 2nd Class - for the day's exploits! Bravo Leutnant Boelcke! This is a great campaign system Ojcar, and I'm really relishing it - can't wait for the next installments. Hopefully we might have one or two more later-war 2-seaters from Stephen by about the time 1917 and 1918 appear, to make it even better!

Looking forward to this HPW, as well as Lou's 'Pau-mod'!

Well done Mrs WM! It's not easy on the other side either, especially if you're complete noob - I had to do some vox pop interviews in my local city centre for a diversity training video and you were really glad when you got someone like Mrs WM you didn't have to feed lines! At least you got to see it; I got nabbed once by a local TV crew for a word on a Peace March, thought I had managed ok (apart from looking at the soundman the odd time, seemed rude just to ignore him) and it was televised but I never saw it. Also apparently I got at least two pics in national dailies while I was doing cordon for the (1993) Shankill bomb scene, all I got from the lads was, 'Hey, your mug was in the papers - again!', and I never saw any of it. Probably just as well.

Sweet! I can see the line of sheds where the photos were taken, and the landing ground is very well blended into the landscape. Good place to start a Lafayette Escadrille or USAS Nieuport 28 campaign! And on my weekend off, I can nip over the mountains and down to Barcelona if I fancy seeing what the place looked like about a hundred years before I was last there!

I think we're still waiting for HPW's final P3 FM mod; I hope i haven't missed it, because I have been holding back from flying a Pfalz again, until the mod is ready! While it is probably quite a lot of work to integrate a new plane into OFF's campaign, I'm guessing it is not too hard to add single missions, for Lou's purpose. I wonder if it would be possible, as well as 'takeoffs and bumps', to have an air combat training single mission with, say, an N.24 you could take up against a similar plane, but with doctored MGs (or DMs) so hits would be harmless and you could practice dogfighting and air-to-air gunnery? I remember one of the Flying Corps Gold training missions had you briefed to take off with your squadron commander, under instructions to stick with him, and after a bit he'd twist and turn all over the sky, and you had to stay with him, getting a 'mission fail' and a b*llocking if you failed to keep up. Was quite fun. An 'empty guns' dogfighting practice mission, followed by a 'harmless bullets' air gunnery mission, would be neat follow-ons to the ab initio stuff.

Great work! I like the red-noises and Buchner's plane, especially. Unfortunately even after a re-install, my FE2 install locks up hard if I click on the Loadout option so my abilities to select skins in-game are a bit limited, but I assume the unit amrkings at least will show up in campaign.

Thanks for the tip! I didn't check the campaign file to be sure of the plane type and yes August 1915 is too early for a Bebé. But Lt Boelcke wasn't to know that and his last memories were of horror in finding that what he took to be a Nieuport 10 - a plane he had little trouble sending down in flames before, and was looking forward to adding to his score in similar fashion - had instead turned wickedly onto his tail with a skill not seen before from an Nieu.10 pilot. In his evident desperation to escape what he assumed must be a new, faster, more dangerous type of Nieuport, he was seen to pull up sharply and collide with the Nieuport, before the remains of both aircraft fell to earth, taking their luckless pilots to their doom below. As with the Bullets, the English Nieuport squadron seems to be more skillful than its French equivalents!