33LIMA

For info, I have uploaded an additional ArcMod specifically for the FE2b (two versions, for use with or without HPW's 1.25 Damage Mod). It gives both front and rear guns more realistic fields of fire; flying or gunning the Fee, you will now be a more dangerous foe; attacking one, the very wide blind spot straight behind has been somewhat reduced and you will now need to come in lower, to keep clear of return fire.

Yes nice one there. 'Mac' is my hero too. If anyone here has never read this passage from 'Flying fury' before, you should read it now. If you have already read it, you should read it again (rom Wikipedia): The Hun triplane was practically underneath our formation now, and so down we dived at a colossal speed. I went to the right, Rhys-Davids to the left, and we got behind the triplane together. The German pilot saw us and turned in a most disconcertingly quick manner, not a climbing nor Immelmann turn, but a sort of flat half spin. By now the German triplane was in the middle of our formation, and its handling was wonderful to behold. The pilot seemed to be firing at all of us simultaneously, and although I got behind him a second time, I could hardly stay there for a second. His movements were so quick and uncertain that none of us could hold him in sight at all for any decisive time The triplane was still circling round in the midst of six S.E.'s, who were all firing at it as opportunity offered, and at one time I noted the triplane in the apex of a cone of tracer bullets from at least five machines simultaneously, and each machine had two guns. By now the fighting was very low and the red-nosed Albatros had gone down and out, but the triplane still remained. I had temporarily lost sight of the triplane whilst changing a drum of my Lewis gun, and when I next saw him he was very low, still being engaged by an S.E. marked I, the pilot being Rhys-Davids. I noticed that the triplane's movements were very erratic, and then I saw him go into a fairly steep dive and so I continued to watch, and then saw the triplane hit the ground and disappear into a thousand fragments, for it seemed to me that it literally went to powder ” “ As long as I live I shall never forget my admiration for that German pilot, who single-handed fought seven of us for ten minutes, and also put some bullets through all of our machines. His flying was wonderful, his courage magnificent, and in my opinion he is the bravest German airman whom it has been my privilege to see fight

Glad you like the results you're seeing, Cap'n. I appreciate the feedback! Previously, I had suspected the Empty Weight Mod might NOT affect your AI flightmates, only other AI, but from what you describe, it seems that it affects all AI, which is good. I fly as leader and I had noticed that my flightmates need me to throttle back otherwise they take somewhat longer to catch up, which also supports this. One of my wingies often seems to catch up faster, tho. I also notice that enemy flights often seem to have one plane faster (ranging well ahead) than the others. Such variations MAY be due to the fact that, per the Devs, some OFF planes have been left with 'engine boost' active (not the same as the CFS3 War Emergency Power thing, apparently), which they say was done to reflect the fact that in real life, some planes and engines would be better than others, IIRC. Anyway I'm delighted you're finding the 'mod combo' improves your experience of OFF

Hi HPW Maybe i'm misunderstanding but if you mean the files with the extra weight edits, the best source of these is the AI Empty Weight Mod itself, here. It has a 'weight-added' version of the aircraft.cfg file, for all the AI-only planes in BH&H and HiTR (the AC and SQ ones). No .air files, as the AI seem to ignore these (at least, they take their weight from the aircraft.cfg files, not the .air files, which may be why they fly at empty weight in the first place). I didn't touch the files for the player-flown planes (QC1 and Sqd) - the Weight mod is only for the AI-flown planes (AC and SQ). If it's something else you meant, let me know and I'll post it. The only value edited in each file is Empty-weight, which I increased as described in the readme, according to the rationale also described therein. At the moment I'm using your FM mod - Allied + German + N.28 - variants of these containing and applied to ONLY the player-flown planes as described above (AI planes stripped out), plus your DM, plus the AI empty weight mod, plus arcmod (DM version), plus flakmod, and all seems well. A combined FM and Empty Weight mod option would be better still.

That had me puzzled, too, but unzipped and installed,1.25 has the same c.950 files and c.19Mb as the 1.1 DM, so all seems well...

First, I should say the Arcmod doesn't affect the FE2b. A quick look at the settings indicated its arcs of fire didn't look too bad as they were, but I must take one up for a spin and try gunning myself. I may then add it to the mod. ArcMod CAN be enabled with HPW's DM - BUT be sure to use ONLY the version of ArcMod specially made (by HPW himself) to go with it - this one, which you enable AFTER, and on top of, the DM: http://combatace.com...damage-mod-125/ The AI Empty Weight Mod CAN be enabled as well as HPW's DM - that's what I'm flying with now. The AI Empty Weight Mod CANNOT be enabled as well as any FM mod - UNLESS you do it selectively, in which case it CAN...with some limitations (tho I think it gives you the best of both worlds). Again, this is how I'm flying now. Explanation follows... HOW TO ENABLE AND USE THE AI EMPTY WEIGHT MOD AND HPW'S FM MOD AT THE SAME TIME The problem is that both these mods use modified versions of each plane's aircraft.cfg file. If you apply one, it over-writes the other. This isn't good. But OFF provides more-or-less separate planes for the player and the AI. If you look in OFF's 'Aircraft' folder, the player flies the planes labelled QC1 and Sqd, the AI flies those labelled AC and SQ (I think the aI flies the QC1 planes in quick combat but that's no big deal). So - the way to use both mods at the same time, is to apply the AI empty weight mod to the planes ONLY flown by the AI (SQ and AC) - which it does, anyway! And apply HPW's FM mod ONLY to the planes flown by the player (QC1 and Sqd). To do this, you need to: 1. Make a copy of HPW's different FM mods- a full copy of each mod's folder, complete with all subfolders & files - Allied, German and Nieuport 28; 2. In the copy FM mods you just made, DELETE the AI-only planes (SQ and AC) leaving ONLY the player-flown ones (QC1 and Sqd). I also deleted the 2-seaters tho I'm not sure now I needed to! 3. Rename the copy mods to something you will recognise, when looking at them in JSGME - like 'HPW_AlliedFM_Player' etc. 4. Enable both mods (AI Empty Weight and your MODIFIED FM mods, not the original ones) in any order; they now contain separate files, the former for AI only planes, the latter for player planes. Granted the AI won't get the benefit of the FM changes (tho the player will) - but I think it's much more important the AI don't get the advantage of flying at unladen weight - may as well give them an extra 20hp or so. A combined version of the FM and AI empty weight mods would be the ideal solution, and may come at some point.

Yes nice one, not found that before, thanks for sharing, Grinseed!

File Name: ArcMod for HPW's Damage Mod 1.25 File Submitter: 33LIMA File Submitted: 16 November 2011 File Category: Modding Tools and Add-on Software This version of ArcMod, like the other version uploaded to CombatAce in Oct 2011, alters the arcs of fire for the observers' guns in all OFF Phase 3's 2-seaters (except the twin-Lewis-gunned FE2b and the fixed-Lewis BE2c, neither of which really needed any change). The only difference with this version is that it includes HPW's 1.25 Damage Model for the included 2-seaters. It is designed to be installed AFTER and ON TOP OF HPW's 1.25 DM - see 'installation' in the Readme for details. This enables both mods to be in use at the same time, instead of one or the other, so you can get both the improved DM and the increased 2-seater arcs of fire. Easy installation with Jonesoft Generic Mod Enabler. Enable only after HPW's DM 1.25, ignoring JSGME warnings as the files concerned DO need to be over-written. Thanks are due to Herr Prop Wasche for producing this version! Click here to download this file

By way of a 'bottom marker', I have a 512 Mb Nvidia 8800GT, and I run at 5-3-3-4-5 with skins at high resolution and ground objects medium, 1600x900, 4x AA, 4xAF, and get about the same average FPS as you do now, no stutter. Had a budget 9300GS before that, and ran sliders slightly above yours with 2xAA & 2xAF and got the same stutter in bad weather. the 8800GT was enough to cure thatand up the sliders, AA and AF a notch. So anything better, should give you better still results. Needed a new PSU as the 8800GT needed more power on the 12v rail - check what your chosen card needs for that, not just the wattage.

ArcMod with HPW's 1.25 DM just uploaded and awaiting mod approval; thanks to HPW for producing this version, which enables the new DM and the increased 2-seater arcs of fire to be in use at the same time. Must be enabled (by JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler) AFTER and ON TOP OF the full 1.25 DM, ignoring the over-write warnings.

PS another point worth mentioning is, in campaign missions, you can happily IGNORE the 'fail'/success' ratings you get in briefings. It makes NO difference to how the campaign goes. Don't worry if you never even make it to your mission 'objective'; concentrate on damaging the enemy while surviving AND minimising casualties to your own flight. The campaign goes your way, with the enemy being repulsed or your own ground attacks being successful, depending on this and not on the notional (and unrealistic) success or failure rating.

You might want to try this setup. It may not work for you but I use the same basic approach with most aircombat sims including RoF and OFF as well as FE and I find it makes a big difference in air combat. To do this you'll need a joystick with some buttons you can 'program' (=assign to certain keystrokes, using the FE in-game menu Options/Controls/Customise). I assume you have this. I have attached my FE control assignments file (Options.ini - I had to change the file extension to .txt to upload it but you can just change it back to .ini and save it in your First Eagles/Control folder) . You can use this or just do what I describe below. My file also has the hatswitch buttons set up to pan the field of view. I have an old Saitek Cyborg 3d and I used the above in-game FE menu - not my stick's driver s/w, which doesn't work with Vista - to assign Button 2 (top left of my stick) to the F1 (cockpit view front) command. I then assigned the 'Toggle padlock' command to Joystick button 4, top right of the stick. I then assigned two buttons on the base of the joystick to 'Padlock NEAREST air target' (Button 5) and 'Padlock NEXT air target' (Button 6). Also assigned other joystick base buttons to 'Padlock Nearest GROUND target' and 'Padlock NEXT GROUND target', tho these I very rarely use When I'm in a dogfight I hit joystick Button 4 to toggle padlock on and then hit 'Nearest air target' (Button 5) or 'Next air target' (Button 6). 'Nearest' is good to start as that may show up a bandit right behind and about to shoot, rather than a target. I do this until I have my view padlocked on a target that I want to attack and then I go for him. If I feel a bit disoriented while my view tracks the bandit, I very briefly toggle padlock off again, (Button 4) or snap back to front view (Button 2), then toggle padlock back on to the target I'm after. It's like looking away for an instant from a target you've been holding in your vision, just to regain your bearings, then snapping your eyes back onto him again. This I find works well in most sims and in FE it's a lot more realistic and I find actually more intuitive than trying to chase a target indicator cone pointing at a target I can't see. With the cone, an off-screen target could be reversing his turn for all you know, and the first you see of that is that he whizzes across your front and is suddenly off the opposite side of the screen. With padlock, you can see what way your target is manoeuvring. The trick is usually to keep your 'lift vector' (the imaginary line drawn vertically up from your wings) towards the target, and your wings in the same plane as his, so if he rolls right, you roll right, etc, etc. You can't react quickly enough to a target, if you're chasing a cone pointing at an off-screen target. With padlock, you're watching the target's every move and can match him quickly, move for move. I don't use padlock until I can see the bad guys on screen and an about to engage or be engaged, as this is a bit of a cheat. Then, I regard it as my pilot quickly looking around, from plane to plane, and reasonable compensation for the limits of 'flying' with a monitor and no peripheral vision. I found this setup works quite well after only a little getting used to.

Re planes on the ground, if you mean the planes you can see if you cycle thru them using the F6 key, remember that FE puts other flights into the air, besides your own, going about their own business. I know that some of the planes I see on the ground using F6 are casualties from combats that I didn't even see, and were not shot down by my flight. I'd suggest playing German for a while, and using the Roster to make sure you fly with at least 4-6 in your flight, so that you are not swamped by enemies; in FE, a combat often draws planes like moths to a candle and what looked like easy meat can turn nasty quickly, if most of the newcomers who arrive while you're otherwise occupied, are bad guys. I think it was Mannock or McCudden who said that flight leaders always had to keep an eye out for this sort of thing and be ready to disengage if things got sticky. Playing German also means you will more often have the enemies pointed out to you by the black puffs of German AA fire, long before you could make out planes. Back off rather than engaging, if the odds are not in your favour - eg a flight of 3-4 2-seaters is a tricky enough proposition for 4 of you so if they have an escort as well, just steer well clear and look out for easier prey instead. FE is not one of those sims where you should attack every time. Try to stay above an enemy flight, and keep a bit of distance, until you are sure you are going to engage them. If you see two groups of friendly AA bursts, steer away, or else you may end up the meat in their sandwich. Then, engage one flight only if the other draws away. Like Nelson at Trafalgar, splitting the Franco-Spanish fleet in two and dealing with one half, before the others could intervene. It's not so much a matter of being an expert pilot, or a great shot. It's more about patient persistence to gain the experience, like they did in real life. You've read the books and the articles, just do what Boelcke or Mannock would have done - 'Always above, seldom on the same level, never underneath', all that sort of thing. Another thing is to avoid target fixation, you may think you just need to stay behind that enemy just another few seconds to get that kill, but the instant tracers start whizzing past or whack into your plane, break hard and turn into your attacker first, or your target fixation will make you someone else's kill. Again, basic Boelcke Dicta stuff. Dogfighting and patrol-leading is what the Third Wire sims do especially well, FE in particular; better than most others, so it's not the case that you will do any better with a different sim. What worked in real life in WW1 is usually what works in FE, and likewise what got pilots killed in WW1 will have the same effect in FE. Re not being able to get close enough to enemies, make sure you gain height en route to the combat area. Granted the sim will take you to your 'assigned' height if you Alt+N; but get into the habit of gaining height at every opportunity, as a matter of habit, so you can convert that to speed and overtake enemies, or stay up and clear of them if the odds aren't right. If you're below them, a tail chase will be a long one, even if you have a faster plane, and if you're in a slower one you'll never catch them unless they turn to engage. Fly an Albatros DV not a slow DRI (even then, if an SE5 really wants to break off combat, you will have trouble catching him). Re getting close to enemies, scouts will often engage your flight on sight so they come to you. Once in a dogfight, if they keep turning, try a high or (more often ) low yo-yo to gain on them; don't necessarily stay in a level turn behind him, trying to gain - 'use the vertical plane, not just the horizontal'. Or watch for them to reverse their turn and jink back across your nose, a fairly regular tactic, when you can cut the corner and gain ground. If you can manage to put a round or two into them, it will often cause them to react or 'panic', by weaving or evading, and you can use this to close the range. Keep hitting the 'Target next air enemy' key to cycle thru the enemies close to you and break if he's a threat, go for him if he's a possible kill, rather than staying fixated on a particular plane who may be too far away or too far above you. Seek out the easier kills. Avoid becoming one. Make sure when creating a Campaign, that you have the enemy skill set to 'Normal' not 'Hard' - the latter seems to pit you against aces most of the time. As you'll probably appreciate from what you've read, much of what you describe sounds exactly like what real WW1 pilots experienced on their early flights; not being able to see enemy planes, opening fire at what they latter learned was too great a range, that sort of thing. Success will come with experience, but you do need to persist, to get over the initial 'This just isn't working!' frustration. As Biggles would have said, 'Dogged is, as dogged does' :)

I'm not sure about that particular mission; reading the download notes it seems to be designed to provide a particular challenge ie evade the triplanes and save May before he becomes MvR's 81st. But I don't see why it should be any harder to spot or shoot down planes, in that mission, compared to FE generally. I would suggest getting the knack of things in common-or-garden Single Missions, before branching out into player-made missions. I play at 'Hard' settings with all the visual aids turned off, including the inflight map which I've edited so it displays no plane icons, just your waypoints and route. Despite this, I can't say I have ever had any probs locating the bad guys. I fly mostly the Germans so rely a lot on Archie bursts; when I get closer I can then see the exhaust trails then the planes. AA fire can reach across the Lines a mile or more (as in real life) so even flying as RFC, it helps. I tend to fly precombat and postcombat in external view and pan around a lot; my flight-mates seem to be fully occupied keeping formation so it's up to me! It takes a bit of practice but I find I can manage without the aids and it's much more realistic with no target cone, waypoint cone, target box, or display read-outs on screen. If I fail to spot the enemy, they often spot me, so we generally get to meet up! Played this way, FE teaches you to maintain a good lookout, and the price of getting caught by surprise; one of the reasons I like it so much and play without the aids. In Single Missions or Campaigns you are quite likely to bump into enemies en route but if you Alt+N to your objective you will usually find enemies in the vicinity. At the pre-flight planning map, as well as moving my waypoints to place them over more prominent features, I also move my 'initial point' - the waypoint before my objective - a bit further away from the objective. This gives me time to approach the objective cautiously, gaining height and with time to scan for the bad guys likely to be there somewhere, as I approach. If you are anywhere near the Lines, Archie will show the way. If not, then it's down to the Mk1 Eyeball. FE has its limits but I find it noticeably better than either OFF or RoF, at rendering distant planes on-screen, so you have time to react to them if you see them first. Even with no aids, map icons etc I just don't find locating the enemy to be a problem. I don't use padlock untill after I have acquired them visually, so as not to 'cheat'. If you're firing at 0.6 (miles or Km) I'd be surprised if you hit anything, let alone get any kills, even if you have gunnery on easy mode. The only time I'd fire at that sort of range is in the hope I get a lucky hit, either so as to get someone off a flight-mate's tail or to make a fleeing enemy turn so I can cut the corner and catch him up. The 'Hard' setting gives me a realistic ammo load (Normal is more, double I think) so I can't waste my rounds, but manage to get kills just fine with just that. As in WW1 you need to get much closer, within about 100m or less. Learn where your rounds go at that range, in relation to your windscreen, centre-section bracing wires or other prominent part of each plane (In the Albatros, I use the little header tank thingy at the front end of the cylinder block) and use that as a 'battle sight'. Short bursts concentrating on the centre mass, leading the target slightly if he's crossing your line of sight. Even on 'Hard' Flight Model, I find the planes in FE are quite tractable (more so than OFF for example) and it's possible, and a lot of fun, trying to stay with a jinking target at close range. Having joystick buttons set for padlock toggle and straight ahead view helps, I find. One of the neat features in FE is that planes don't just blow up, break up, go down with a dead pilot or go on fire. Engine damage can cause their prop to slow down and then stop (you may have seen this already) and they will then force land. Still counts as a kill, and if it happens to your squadron-mates in a campaign, you will see that they are generally not reported as KIA, maybe wounded at worst. I would encourage anyone playing FE to make the initial effort to get used to playing with everything at 'Hard' (except enemy skill at Normal in Campaign, unless you want the extra challenge) and 'Alt+D' a couple of times to turn off the remaining on-screen aids. It's one of FE's strengths that this more rewwarding and immersive approach is not particularly difficult to follow; and it's the 'Hard' settings, not the 'Normal' ones, that are most realistic, in relation to flight model, ammo load, landing, etc.

There's never anything mundane about a Hurricane or the sound of a Merlin, especially over the White Cliffs, with or without Blue Birds.

Hi there! Tried to PM you but seems not possible, so... ..provided you're fully credited, I was wondering if you would be willing to let me use a slightly-mofidied version of the Allied & German flak round .xdps & .bdps from your '1917 Active Sector' mod (the only change, reduced BlastRadius) in a 'flakmod'? It's designed to make Archie bursts a better indication of the course, alt & heading of enemies, by enabling use of the 'Hard' setting for ground fire and the resultant tighter 'grouping' of AA bursts; but without resulting in you get creamed when they're shooting at you (or you're flying through the bursts in pursuit). The only other stuff in the mod (which I've been using for a while myself, but I think would be of interest to others) are files for the OFF flak guns, with a reduced rate of fire, as it's still a bit too lethal otherwise. I have not modded ground MGs but might add that later if they need toned down too, on 'Hard'. On 'Easy', the flak is all over the sky, and even on the middle setting it's very wide. Neither realistic to my eye, nor an adequate compensation for the limits of OFF in rendering more distant planes (improvements to aircraft LODs are one of the things I hope P4 tackles). Tighter clusters also reduce reliance on labels or the 'radar' - I can call it that, now that UncleAl's no longer watching :) Anyway, I think this would be a mod that some players could find welcome. If you'd prefer your files were't included', no prob of course, I can upload just my little bit, recommend your files from the 1917 mod and describe the necessary edits in a readme. TIA!

PS Flakmod now uploaded and pending Moderator clearance.

Thanks for the all-clear - much appreciated!

Engine hit points increased - I like the sound of that - as opposed to the dreaded 'bag of spanners' sound every time a round or two hits your motor, which I hear too often. After this, bring on the 2-seaters, I say!

Have been looking forward to this, HPW! Enjoy your game and we'll be watching out for the mod tomorrow!

All I can find are the following from 'Warbirds - Military Aircraft of the First World War in Colour', which together might help. First a list of variants, which you may have already, but linked with photo captions and drawings, this helps piece the story together Phoenix production Series: 23, 160 hp Daimler 26, 160 hp Austro-Daimler 27, 185 hp .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 29, 210 hp .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 29.5, 200 hp Hiero (Fiat) 429, 230 hp .. .. .. .. .. .. .. UFAG production Series: 61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 160 hp austro-Daimler 63, 160 hp Mercedes DIII 69, 200 hp Hiero (Matra) 169, 220 hp Benz BzIVa 269, 200 hp Austro-Daimler 369, 230 hp Hiero A pic of the UFAG-built CI 61.57 forced down by Baracca on 7 Apr 1916 (says it's got a 160 hp Daimler), so that places the Series 61 to being in service in Spring 1916. A colour 5-view of CI 429.29 says that series was built in 1818. It has the Maltese cross not the Greek cross so early 1918, if the Austrians also adopted the latter marking when the Germans did. A pic of a Phoenix-built machine captured in May 1917 says it's serial number 29.70 and had a Hiero 200 hp, which places that Series in Spring-summer 1917. Hope this helps. The key thing is finding pics with both dates and serial numbers, which can be cross-referred to the list of Series and their engines, quoted above. PS for 160 hp planes this book gives weight loaded/empty as 1310/770 kg, max speed 140 Km/h, climb to 1000m n/k, to 5000m 6min55sec,(!!!), endurance 3hrs. For 200hp, it's 1310/800Kg, 155Kph, 55 seconds (!!!), 4min30sec(!!!). For 220hp it's 1320/820Kg, 158Kph, 55 sec(!!!), 4min (!!!). For 230hp its 1350/830Kg, 160Kph, 50(!!!)sec and 4 min.(!!!). Unless the C1 was the Me163 of WW1, the climbrate figures are wildly wrong, they would be way too high for 1000 and 5000 FEET, never mind metres.

VERY nice - that does it...I have to get the Caporetto campaign up and running!