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I would suggest you go with 'Install Option Three' - worked for me, with Windows Vista - as listed here: http://www.fsww1.com/ Another option not mentioned so far and very well worth considering is First Eagles Gold or First Eagles 2: http://www.thirdwire...project_fe2.htm

Wow - not one, but five, armoured cars! Great work Stephen, and many thanks!

Welcome aboard Dale! Yeah, self-installers are neat, but so much content for so many great sims is in compressed files these days, so it's well worth getting the hang of it. After a bit of practice you'll soon get the hang of it! The payback, in FE terms anyway, is getting to give the V-strutters a tase of their own medicin in the add-on Bloody April campaign, over the add-on flanders terrain, in your add-on Sopwith Pup:

As well as the horizon cloud mod illustrated in the above screenie, I've started using Stary's SARCASM cloud mod for SF2 - http://combatace.com...ds-and-sky-mod/ - and so far it seems to work well and look good:

Wow - a re-install- that was drastic! At least it worked. Yes please, let me know if you get further problems! I'm just back online after spending ages getting rid of a really nasty trojan, the 'UKash Metropolitan police scam' (a form or ransomware) and I'm very glad I didn't have to do a re-install for that, as it would have been a re-install of everything!!! My nerves were already in shreds after a scary 10 Naval Tripehound campaign in First Eagles, V-strutters appearing from everywhere, survived some really hairy missions only to end up getting my tail shot off fourth time out, so a nice quiet patrol or two in OFF's Pups with no more than the odd takeoff incident and some 'Less Aggressive' Albatros DIIs to worry about, will seem like a nice break!

I flew a second 54 Squadron campaign mission last night with somewhat different results. As per last time, the flight I was leading all got off fine. Of the first couple from the AI-led flight, one got off ok, but the second one crashed and burned, again only just past the crest. That left two sitting at the start position. They sat there for a short time, then one took off and made it past the crest. The last one also took off, but it was rather weird. As I orbited above him on the start line I could see he was sitting askew, with his nose about 30 degrees to the right of the runway's centre line. When he started his run, he continued on this skewed path, ran off the airfield proper, past the rear of some structures (tents I think) and then got airborne, again clearing the crest, this time in the 'corner' it formed at the SE ?) corner of the flying field. I have seen this strange diagonal takeoff behaviour once before, with an AI FE2b which crashed into the sheds. Based on this - out of about 20 planes in two missions, two crashes, and two refusals (which - as on the 2nd mission - might have cleared, had I waited or circled above myself) I would be disinclined to reduce the Pup's extra weight, and to put the erratic behaviour down to the sort of takeoff incidents you got in real life due to inexperienced pilots (even with benign planes like Pups) in operational conditions. Plus Chipilly is rather a death trap, with little margin for error. So I'd actually award extra points to OFF for greater realism on this one. A WW1 sim where all pilots flew competently or better all the time would not be very realistic. Another factor is, that I have not seen this affect the flight that I am leading; only the AI-led flight, and only to this limited extent. Maybe it's just me, but I tend to ignore other flights (where there is one; in a good many cases, there isn't) and go my own way in my own time. So I'm generally not that bothered, if the other Flight screws up somewhat, as long as mine does ok At the moment I'm flying Less Agressive AI and will stick with that. Early days but with that setting, in the campaigns I'm currently flying (Brisfit, FE2b, Pup and Camel) I seem to get little of the 'dive for the deck then do roller-coasters' behaviour.

No, no, your work on the Pfalz FM isn't a distraction! It's work of the utmost importance to the German air war effort! The prayers of OFF Pfalz pilots everywhere, are with you!!!

OK I THINK I've found out what the problem is and what will be needed, to sort it. The problem comes in three parts: First, 54 Squadron's airfield at Chipilly is a death-trap. It has a sudden incline at the far end, rising sharply over 100 feet from airfield level, with some trees around too. Second, the AI in OFF are pretty marginal at taking off in lower-powered planes, to the point they can't cope with a full load of fuel and ammo (let alone, the AI Empty Weight Mod's full load minus 80 lbs) if there's an obstruction near the airfield boundary...like Chipilly's 100 ft-plus ridge. Third, the AI can behave like Lemmings. With no AI empty weight mod, I once saw a flight of Fokker E3's in quite leisurely fashion follow their leader who crashed into a hill, which they proceeded to do, despite having plenty of time, space and power to pull up or turn aside. What happened when I tested was my flight took off fine (I have 'always lead' selected, plus I have load control not unique skin selected - I believe theis means my own flight fly without the mod's extra weight). But the other flight...well, the first few took off ok. But one of them crashed. Strangely, he made it past the tip of the incline, but crashed and burned about 50 feet past the crest, where the ground seemed level. The interesting thing was, the last two Pups in that same flight, stayed stationery at their start positions. They did so, I believe, because the plane ahead of them in their flight 'disappeared' when he crashed, leaving them like lost kids. All dressed up, nowhere to go. It's possible that if one of the surviving members of their flight, who had taken off ok earlier, had flown past close enough, they might have reacted and took off to follow, but I didn't wait too long to see if that happened. The prob that REALLY needs fixed here is the AI, not the AI empty weight mod, tho I say so myself. They need to be able to takeoff and generally fly, at up to and including normal full load, or otherwise much as the player's plane can; and they need not to follow their leader like Lemmings (and/or the next guy ahead whichever it is they do) regardless of whether the leader/next plane ahead is crashed, heading to destruction etc. Another symptom of this 'Lemming behaviour' is although not crashing themselves, I have noticed they follow you down to the deck (if not engaged with enemies) when you're gliding down with a dead engine and won't obey the CFS3 Split command as far as I can see, which ought to signify their leader has absolved them of their duty to stay in formation. But we can't do that; thank goodness it looks like P4/OFF2 will. So that leaves doing what was done with the AI Halberstadts ie reducing their extra weight in the AI empty weight mod, even tho that also lets them keep more of their 'lower weight' advantage, in air combat. HPW is I think still working on a new combined mod with the extra weight cut back to ramp weight, which may turn out to be the best compromise in the circumstances. If that doesn't appear soon I'll make a Pup Mod update to the AI empty Weight mod, and upload that. In the meantime, I may be wrong, but I don't think the AI empty Weight mod will affect YOUR flight, if you 'always lead' and if you have 'choose fuel and ammo load' selected, as I do. Only planes in AI-led flights. Anyway thanks again for the feedback!

Ja, we haf deployed the devilishly cunning anti-magneto ray, und Perfidious Albion will soon learn the price of their terrible folly! Gott strafe England!

Just made a campaign takeoff leading a flight of 4 other 46 Sqdn Pups and we all got off ok. Delayed starting my engine and observed the others. I could see no props either but this appeared to be because they were turning - I could hear their engines running and as usual if I waited long enough a couple took off. I then started up myself and took off, the others following me in the usual way. The only thing was that takeoff runs were on the long side and the climb-outs rather flat - they cleared a few trees at the boundary but not by much and had there been a hill as well as trees, they may not have made it. Since the Halberstadt problem came up the suspicion was that other very-low powered planes might have trouble and the Pup is light but very low-powered so it may well need a lower 'handicap', like the Halb. However they didn't fail to get underway. The only reason I can think of for any different results, is the different bases involved. Except... Were you flying as leader, and if you have HITR, have you chosen 'unique player skin' or the ability to choose your ammo & fuel load? I ask, because I think these things can dictate whether the AI planes in your own flight (as opposed to other AI planes) fly the same plane as the player (no extra weight) or other AI (extra weight applied). If that makes any sense! The AI weight mod should not stop planes at least starting their takeoff roll. I recall that during testing I had to increase weights to silly levels, to prevent planes from getting off the ground, but they never just sat there, they attempted a takeoff roll. When you say they were 'stationary on the ground' had they moved (much or at all) from their start positions, and then stopped, like, mid-way down the airfield? I have this vague recollection of once seeing some planes refusing even to budge, way before the AI weight mod, and never seeing them again on the mission, which at the time, I attributed, maybe quite wrongly, to maybe not having orbited the airfield before heading off.

Thanks for the feedback. No propellors - now that is interesting! I have a Pup pilot set up, 46 Sqdn I believe. I will activate that pilot and see what happens, and report back.

I always found that the surest way to crash while strafing a ground target was to do so at too shallow an angle, movie-style (eg like the P-15 attack in 'Empire of the Sun'). The closer I got to the target the more I would push the nose down to keep the sights lined up and being so low, it was easy to hit the ground. Better to dive (not full throttle) on your target from height, not fly at it, at or near ground level, pulling up in good time. No shallower an angle than 20-30 degrees. as seen here in this USAAF WW2 guncam footage: http://www.youtube.c...feature=related Not sure what you mean about the text as i generally fly with sim warnings etc turned off. The CFS3-style fonts are certainly 'blocky' at the best of times, AFAIK there's no easy way to change them.