33LIMA

See here. Have not tried it yet and don't know if FE/FE2 would benefit but may be worth giving it a go, if you have a 64-bit O/S.

PS have now applied it - to the CFS3.exe, having taken a backup. Doesn't seem to have done any harm; too soon to say if it's done any good; some load time may be faster, but I may be imagining it...

Now, that's a nice model - and a plane I doubt we'll see in too many other WW1 sims! Great stuff!

Very good Olham, I fly some Jasta careers in that sector and this will be very useful. Now, if only maps of this quality could be made available in game, both as the intelligence map and in-flight map! These were always one of CFS3's worst features and while OFF has improved on, they still fall far short of maps like this. Having a printed version is the next best thing, better if you don't like the in-flight map's 'satnav' effect (or it would be a satnav effect, if the in-flight map bore any real resemblance to what you can see from the cockpit).

Looks like both crew members got away with it in that plane (LVG CVI?). Of the two guys sitting down, the one seen first has a head swathed in bandages, the other one does not. A long, scary ride down!

Phew, that's a relief! thanks again!

OK HPW, you remember you said you could help me avoid those 'invalid plane' conflicts? Well, hadn't had one before now, but I got two now. As with other test planes, I'd cloned the .cfg files for the QC1 Roland, Pfalz and Eindekker. I edited the empty weight value as before. Then tried to fly all 3 myself in QC, before flying against them, to compare stock and modded performance. Like the other test planes, the Pfalz loaded file. but with the Eindekker and the Rolad i get the 'not a valid OFF plane' message. For the Eindekker, here's what I did: Stock: max_gross_weight =1342.0 empty_weight =879.60000 Modded: [WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE] max_gross_weight =1342.0 empty_weight =1262.00000 What's not to like about that? There seem to be the same numbers of lines in both files (from a glance not a count). File sizes are the same. Where the value has trailing zeros, do i need the same # of them in each ie should it be 1262.0000 not 1262.00000? TIA!

Glad your Old man's on the mend, first thing's first! Re integrating the Lead in the A** mod, yes indeed integration sounds like a good idea, since it's using the same files as your FM and will clash otherwise. Very happy to go down that route. We can also have separate versions, as there will be folks I'm sure who prefer the extra challenge of the lighter AI (tho you can always compensate by adjusting available Workshop settings, rather than giving the bad guys another 20 HP or so). I want to test Eindekker and Pfalz DIII and a 2-seater as well, just to make sure it works across a broad range of types, should take a day or three. As I'm effectively opting to apply full loaded weights less about half or more a tank of petrol, it would be good to be sure that fuel was definitely one of the payload components the AI was ignoring, otherwise I would go for a slightly lower loaded weight. I know you had your doubts. I could spend a lot of time trying to confirm by testing but as the results look about right with what's actually a fairly large reduction in fuel weight anyway, I'll stick with what I'm doing. I dunno to what extent logic comes into MS's design decisions, but f the AI are going to ignore anything - and they do! - then fuel is the one that makes most sense to ignore, since its weight reduces with flight alone, unlike the pilot and ammo. And from the figures I have, fuel is no more than about 150-250 lbs of the 4-550 lbs of payload. Short of any late setbacks with testing, I'll aim to have the standalone/beta version up sometime over this coming weekend. You can have a go first, no point integrating it unless you're reasonably hhappy with the results, and it might need a bit of tweaking first.

John Keegan's account of Agincourt is pretty good too, including Henry's controversial 'kill the prisoners' order, prompted by a French raid on the baggage train after the main engagement and signs that the French line (what remained of it) was about to attack again. Apparently Henry's knights refused (chivalry or reluctance to lose the ramson?) so the archers got the job but hadn't finished it when the order was cancelled. The next morning the victors advancced over the battlefield and killed any French wounded who had survived thru the night, which was probably customary, if not an act of mercy in those days.

Wow! That's an impressive piece of detective work! Primitive but effective; things have come on a way since then but that's progress. Reminds me of an early indoor firing range - 'theatre' range or somthing, thy called it - which projected a view of the countryside with pop-up targets, via a reel-to-reel movie projector on a big screen which comprised two paper screens on rollers, like giant, rectangular white conveyor belts, one right behind the other, one running left to right and the other running top to bottom. When you fired (SLRs, firing .22 rounds with the H&K conversion kit) the sound stopped the rollers instantly, and a light shone from behind the screens then showed thru as a little prick of light, indicating where you where you had hit, since the two moving screens stopped with the 'entry' and 'exit' holes lined up, facing you. A real Heath Robinson piece of kit. Wind the clock forward about 20 years and we had the Firearms Training Simulator which used a modern video projector with actors playing out the senario, firing electronic replica pistols and getting critiqued on where every round went and whether it was within the 'RoE'. Ah, progress!

Thanks for that HPW! I think I've now got this working. I took a Nieuport 17 and an SE5 and in the .cfg file only (NO editing of .air file or deletion of .bdp file) I increased their empty weight to their loaded weight, LESS 60 lbs or 80 lbs, to represent fuel used en route to the point of combat. I did this to the Quick Combat versions of both these scouts (QC1) only , so I could test quickly in Quick Combat, instead of having to go into Campaign (even tho the final mod will not work for QC planes as they are used by both player and AI in QC). Then I flew against them in a 175HP Alb DIII. The results were quite definite - the extra weight noticeably decreased the performance of both scouts, to the point my DIII was no longer struggling to keep up with the N.17s, if they didn't give me a chance to cut a corner - in spiral climbs, for example, where before they would tend steadily to pull up and away. The faster SE5a (200HP) retained its ability to increase the range but noticeably less so, with the extra weight. Neither plane showed any sign of the AI finding it any harder to fly; they were able to climb, roll, turn and dive much as before, they were just a little less sprightly. The extra weight has merely reduced the differential that existed previously, slightly reveresed it in the case of the N.17. Of course there's a certain amount of subjectivity about these observations but I've now seen it enough to believe that extra weight added to .cfg files can indeed have a tangible effect, in levelling the playing field between AI enemies and the player. AI friends in my own flight were not affected as they use the same plane as the player but the mod did not seem to give them a great advantage; sometimes they got a kill, sometimes they got shot down. Rather than trying to be too sophisticated I'm going to set empty weight to loaded weight minus 80 lbs for all scouts, and loaded weight minus 100 lbs for all 2-seaters. For scouts, that leaves a fuel load in the plane of somewhere between a half and two-thirds off a tank, give or take, and depending on type. More than that, I think reins in the AI performance just a bit too much. Rather than testing all possible combinations, I'm going to make all the necessary edits to all AI Campaign planes (the SQ and AC ones) and then upload it when it's ready, effectively as a beta, probably by the weekend. If it really needs tweaking, that's the best way to find out. Thanks for the advice and encouragement!

Apparently the prototype crashed on test, probably because the pilot was unable to leave behind him the quaint belief that he should to be able to see where he was going, thereby denying the DFW Floh its place in history. I look forward to the Englanders trembling at the sight of them darkening the skies of Phase 4.

Hey, I like CFS2, must see if that mod is still available. A unique plane to fly, baddies to hunt, white sand and blue, blue seas, what more could you ask for...oh yes I know, bring on the dancing girls! I suppose it's too much to hopeTHEY are in the mod, too?

As it was in a Stringbag, maybe it means Wet, Slow and Draughty?

Naw, that was European Air War. CFS(1) had some nice missions and add-ons (I liked the Cold War set) but the exploding planes were a bit Bugs Bunny, and the way the planes - rendered larger than life - seemed to move, I always found odd. In EAW you could do the BoB AND Defence of the Reich with skies full of bombers. OK other aspects were limited (eg compared to Jane's WW2F) but EAW was the RB3d of the Second Big One's skies. I mean, name me a sim which had creaking bunks and your mates coughing in your Nissen Hut while you changed the tune on the radio set on the table, looked at your logbook or medals? A WW2 version of OFF would come close but nothing else has, sadly. The CFS3 ETO expansion has a fantastic planeset and much better graphics but basically the same old CFS3 campaign engine, ok if you want to do mud-moving.

Funny that. I was thinking maybe the camera obscura was some kind of hood or something they used to do blind- or night-flying training in daylight, but that really is a wild guess. It does ring a bell tho and thinking about some sort of light projection system and blind flying, had me looking up the Link Trainer. A total dead end but I'm wondering if I could knock one up in the garage to enhance my flight simming; http://en.wikipedia....ki/Link_Trainer Put a detachable wing on top and it could double for WW1 and WW2 Anyway, back OT, I wonder what WS&D means?

Well, it's good to see that the dear old BBC isn't letting itself get carried away by any of this patriotism business: http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-15428024 They seem to have forgotten or left out a couple of other corrective pieces, like the one about Genghis Khan's conquests actually being a a sight-seeing trip that just got mis-reported, but I'm glad to see they didn't forget to point out that it was actually Stalin that saved Western Civilisation and not really anything the UK did. Worth every penny of the licence fee, they are, God bless their little cotton socks.

Yeah, look how low the leading Spanish pilot comes in, any lower and he'd have departed trailing some wire and fencepoles behind him - a real Hot Shot, that guy.

Agincourt is one of the battles dissected by John Keegan in 'The Face of Battle', quite an interesting read if you haven't already.

Ah yes, 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'. The Bard knew how to write a good speech or two. I hope they still teach this stuff in schools, some of them anyway, if they can find time in between lessons on parenting, how not to offend anyone etc etc.

You've got me there; the Fleet Air Arm museum could help. I'd hazzard a gues that these are references to practice missions for night-bombing techniques, as put into practice by Swordfish in the attack on Taranto. Maybe 'sashlight' was the term used to denote the dropping of flares to illuminate targets, which was done during that mission. These techniques would have been rehearsed pre-war, I imagine.

Seeing the Hurri in an attempt at 'Battle of France' markings, I could not resist posting my all-time favourite pice of Huricane film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNOKXfZTEAE

Nice pics! I used to love building the Airfix 1/600 warships, crude models tho they may be by current standards, but the original instructions told you what each part was, so you got to learn your high-angle directors from your director control towers. Glad to see many are still available. Also built the Eaglewall 1/2000 ship kits, they were 'themed' around battles like Narvik and came with maps of the battle, the models were tiny but where else could you get a model of a Dieter von Roeder or H Class class destroyers, the Altmark, or a KGV, back then.

Some more info here, including this from a synposis of the film mentioned: START 00:00:00 Title 'Pathscope Safety Film presents "Mediterranean 1938 1939"' superimposed over a still of the G Class destroyer HMS Glowworm (pennant number H92) in the Grand Harbour, Malta. On board the battleship HMS Warspite with spray breaking over the bow as she pitches up and down in rough seas. Intertitle 'Gibraltar'. Europa Point and the town of Gibraltar beneath the Rock of Gibraltar filmed from a fast-moving ship - a flock of seagulls keeps pace with the vessel. A panorama inside the crowded harbour at Gibraltar from the bridge of the battle cruiser HMS Hood during the March 1938 Combined Fleet exercises; nearest to Hood is a G Class destroyer HMS Gallant (pennant number H59) moored alongside a County Class cruiser, probably HMS Sussex, and, close by, another Country Class cruiser, probably HMS London; both cruisers are in Mediterranean Fleet light grey. Also visible are three new Southampton Class cruisers, HMS Newcastle (with her stern to the camera), HMS Sheffield and HMS Southampton (all three light cruisers are in Home Fleet dark grey), the hospital ship HMHT Maine (painted overall in white) and, moored along the south mole, four battleships - HMS Nelson, HMS Warspite, HMS Malaya and HMS Royal Oak (the last two warships with a pair of fleet destroyers moored alongside). A view from the boat deck of HMS Hood near the single port side 4-inch anti-aircraft gun looking aft towards the battleship HMS Rodney. Another view of HMS Newcastle (?) beyond an H or I Class destroyer in the foreground.

Looks like one of the distant battleships - possibly the one with the raked funnel cap - is Revenge, see here, an account of her 1938 cruise including the visit to Gib: http://www.naval-his...moirAndSo03.htm you're quite right about the resemblance to Royal Oak, the three are sister ships, the 'Woolworth' class so called I gather because they were a cut-price follow-on class to the QE class.