Shiloh

Good to know Mud. I attacked one with an Alb.D.II a long time back and most of my runs were from directly behind and head-on with no good results. It's fun to play chicken with a train - you should try it. Maybe I need to attack it from the side like you said. Next time I see one I'm going for it. Have you tried flying under some of those bridge structures? Good fun with a pilot you don't care about.

Don't know about boats. I've never flown over water long enough to see them let alone attack them. I'm sure someone else will chime in with an answer.

So you flying the Pup a bit? She's a good tame girl with a predictable feel. In honor of Rene Fonck whose book I just finished reading, I started a Nieuport 17 campaign with Esc 103 (April 1917). They're an elite group and we've been kicking the crap out of Jasta 23 and Jasta 19 with their Alb.D.II's (sorry Olham). I haven't flown the Nieup. much but I find she can be a bit particular especially on left turns. I'll fight all day a few hundred feet off the turf with an SE5a or a D.VII but not with the Nieup unless I have some square 'air' footage between myself and the ground. I'm getting more used to her though and maybe my opinion will change.

Really? I once put 700 rounds into a train from every angle and it didn't so much as scratch the paint.

Thanks guys. It just takes away from the enjoyment of reading when I have to put energy towards mental math... my least favorite subject.

Decent book so far. This was originally written in French just after the war then later translated to English. I wish they had converted meters to feet as I like to know at which height he is flying or from which distance he attacked. Whose idea was it not to go with the metric system in America?

Anyhow, Fonck's personality does come across in this book and I can sense how he might have rubbed some people the wrong way. There are some gaping holes in his fighting history where 3 or more months are omitted and I would have liked more. This book is only 130 pages so additional content would allow for a more thorough understanding of France's greatest ace. I'm more than halfway through and look forward to the rest.

Thanks Lothar. I may play around with unlimited ammo settings and see if it actually counts down rounds as you fire. If it does then I can cease firing when I reach the max, then I can make myself land for a minute or two and go back up before firing again. This will only work however if it counts down and let's me know how many rounds I've fired.

There's very little written about Fonck. The best I've read was an article in Over the Front magazine: http://www.overthefr...2012-Issues.php

 

He seems to have been a man of strong nerves and determination. Several times he shot down German aircraft that he had surprised with only a few bullets. The French system of confirming kills was strict, so it's possible that he was in fact the ace of aces of the whole Great War, with even more kills than Manfred v. Richthofen.

 

I'm not sure about the credibility of the stories that picture Fonck as somebody who was particularly disliked by his comrades. It's possible that envy had a lot to do with it, and the fact that Fonck was no "party animal" and didn't participate in the drinking and whoring activities that were so popular with many pilots.

 

He definitely deserves a modern and well-researched biography in English. My French is terrible, so I don't what's available on him in his native country.

Thanks for the link Hasse Wind. I'm not sure about his reputation but much of what I've heard was that people generally did not like him. His best friend Lt. Claude Haegelen, (a 22 victory ace), was quoted as saying of Fonck:

I'm with Hasse Wind there - a well researched book in English is over-due.

I wonder if there are French books about their aces? But then I couldn't read them anyway...

 

Maybe it wouldn't be a thriller though.

When the man shot down so many planes without catching more than a single bullet, then it is most likely

that he always surprised his "prey" totally, shot them down before they even knew he was there, and then

disappeared again (for which the fast and strong SPAD XIII is predestinated).

I guess he never joined into any sort of turn fighting and furballs.

Maybe reading this book will teach me how to fight in a Spad.

There were good detailed writings (four parts) about René Fonck called "From light to shadow" (iirc) in " Le Fana de l'Aviation" earlier this year.

Is there a link to this somewhere?

Anyhow, I learned so much from reading McCudden's book "Flying Fury" and I hope to learn just as much about Fonck and his tactics. McCudden did his best to simply get above people by improving the performance of his SE5a to the point that his enemies (many were high-ceiling 2-seaters) would almost think it improbable that anyone could be above them.

I've always been curious about Rene Fonck, the great French ace as he was a mere 5 confirmed victories behind Richthofen at the end of the war. He claims he only received one bullet to his craft over the entire war and had over 120 victories. He was brash for sure and was generally disliked, or perhaps misunderstood. Regardless, I am curious about him and his curious hunting style in the skies where he tended toward avoiding the dogfight and looked for quick, decisive victories.

His book, Ace of Aces is on the way and the second link below provides some excerpts that I found quite interesting. Have any of you read about Fonck?

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6921351-ace-of-aces

http://acepilots.com/wwi/fr_fonck.html

Thanks Lothar for taking the time to put that together. For me, it would be an immersion killer to alt-tab in and out of the software as I try to make the flying/fighting experience as authentic as possible. Right now, I'm trying to create some dialogue and see how people feel about it. I am hopeful the developers will take it under consideration and perhaps integrate it into the next release (WOFF).

There are some very good points here Olham and no doubt a safer approach will lead to the chance for a longer career. I do want to look at this in a different way. I tend towards aggressive when I fight because I like the action and want to take the fight to the enemy. With this approach I've had some pilots who have survived well over 40 hours and I lost interest in them before they were ever killed.

With that said scram and in not knowing you personally, perhaps this is your style as well? I think every pilot develops their own style of flying/fighting/surviving that is unique and is in line with personalities, goals, and levels of aggressiveness/passiveness. If you are an aggressive flyer there are things you can do to increase your chances of longevity. The first thing I would recommend is to program your throttle into your stick and always have your free hand on it when in combat. This way you can make subtle changes in speed as you go and learn to better judge your speed in relation to that of your enemy. It's not unlike driving a car and knowing when to ease off the pedal when approaching a slower vehicle and having the ability to judge your speed, the speed of the vehicles around you and the angles at which you might meet.

When diving or coming directly behind an opponent, I will put rounds into them until the very last second and will usually pull up the stick hard at the last moment to avoid contact. They are more likely to dip down then jerk up when hit but they do go up sometimes so give yourself enough space. If you are engaged with just one craft then considering pulling off your attack earlier and doing a quick bank turn around to get on his tail again quickly. Sometimes I do this 2-3 times as the craft will generally lose the ability to maneuver - if you put enough lead into them - and they're basically a sitting duck that you can pick apart until they go down.

And as Olham mentioned over-aggressiveness can send you 'west' real quick so I think every pilot must find a balance between aggressiveness and longevity. I have a lot of confidence in my flying ability and that's come with many, many hours logged flight time. You can survive with an aggressive approach but you must be skilled and that comes with experience.

At any rate I'm glad you're having fun and mixing it up a bit with the enemy. You'll progress nicely if you keep at it and patience is key here. Here is a link to some of my videos and Hellshade has quite a nice collection as well. He is a top-notch pilot and you can learn a lot by watching him.

http://www.youtube.com/twbattles

http://www.youtube.com/user/Hellshade68

Never read that from a German pilot.

But then they had 1.000 rounds since the introduction of the Albatros.

 

If it is easy to add to WOFF - why not. But if it should hold up the release even more,

I guess it wouldn't be worth it?

I can't imagine this would be too difficult Olham. I know nothing about coding a flight sim but it's just a matter of setting things up so that when a player lands at a friendly field for a certain period of time, say one minute, then they can take off again with fully replenished ammo.

I love OFF as much as anyone but this one enhancement would greatly-enhance my enjoyment factor. And if it's historically accurate as McCudden states, why not put that option in there?

I'm sure it happened. If you still had fuel left but lacked ammo and were reasonably close to a friendly field, it wouldn't take long to replenish, especially if you had a drum-fed weapon like the Lewis, which was quick to reload.

 

Now I can't remember if this was already possible in CFS3? I'm sure I've played some flights sims that allowed you to land and replenish both fuel and ammo, and then continue the mission.

So other sims have done this? Historically, there would be no reason I could see where a ground crew wouldn't give a friendly pilot some ammo - unless they were in low supply. So many times it's happened where my flight is engaged over friendly airfields and I either have to call them off to join me in heading for home which is very dangerous for them, or I have to abandon them in the middle of a fight because I'm out of ammo. If I could land, I could reasonably be back in the fight in 5-10 minutes at most provided it was a low fight as the lengthy fights often end up very low to the ground.

But as you say, to be fair, you should have to land to reload.

I agree with this totally HumanDrone. I wouldn't ever feel right about ticking that unlimited ammo button in workshops - and that's just me. But if it was required that one land, then it stays within the realm of historically accurate. And when you're in a heated fight landing is not always the easiest thing to do. I thought I read something along the way where landing/taking off were going to be made more difficult in WOFF - maybe I'm mistaken? In any event, it would add an additional risk factor in choosing to land to replenish ammo.

This sounds pretty incredible Lothar! I'd be the first to sign up and help test, but like Mud, I live rurally and high-speed Internet is still a few years away. I hope enough other members do show interest and this gets off the ground as it seems like it would be awesome. What might something like this cost or have you not determined that yet?

I had discussed this before and something prompted me to make a thread about it. I'm reading Flying Fury: Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps by James McCudden. In it he mentions a particular instance where he fired all his rounds and landed at a friendly aerodrome to pick up some more. I have often thought we should have this option in OFF as I usually run out of ammo way before I run out of gas or the will to fight. This may have been common practice or not but this is the first time I have seen evidence of it in my roughly 2 years studying WWI aviators.

What are your thoughts?

I love scrambles. They may not be realistic but you are protecting your home turf and that should get you red under the collar and ready to fight. You're not expected to win and if you do down a few it will be even more glorious. I do tend toward the aggressive approach in OFF so I always fight it out on a scramble but try to stay low especially if the odds are against me - which they typically are. If you do get damaged you could usually coax your craft down without getting hurt too badly or not at all. I try to keep my fight right next to the airfield so if I have to land I have some flat even ground. Usually the second I take some bullets on a scramble I level her off and get right to the ground.

I don't fly 2-seaters that often though so that could change your thinking a bit. The DFW maneuvers pretty well so you should have a fighting chance but I think what you did under the circumstances was the smartest think rjw.

Funny Lou.

Whatever you guys do with your 'dangling participles' is your business. I don't want to know about it.

Thanks for clarifying Lou.

I believe all my values are the default settings. How do these custom values make for a better experience?

You're the only one here who knows what a preposition is Lou so it's all good.

Shiloh, I found this about your mobo

 

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813130138

 

That will take the ram I have, 4 sticks of 2GB. Now I also ran into a issue with one stick and did the reseat thing and it worked. I did mark that stick so I just install my 3 sticks and your 1 known good stick.

 

PM me yor mailing info and I'll send it out

That's my mobo all right. Thank you so much Mud...I owe you one!

No big deal on the $$s, maybe mail me postage cost.

 

You want to go win 7 64 home premium?

 

win 7 home premium will use all 8gb

I don't think so. I'd have to wipe my drive clean and that's a project I don't have time for now. I can send you back the mailing cost once I get the package...thanks again!

I am running almost identical numbers. So what is the way to raise the 5.9 Hard Disk rating, just a different drive totally or a separate drive for the sim? Currently have a Hitachi 7200 2TB.

I was running OFF on C drive to start then when I reinstalled recently I installed to B drive and my rating still remains at 5.9 as always.

Yeah you can mix brands of ram, doubt about Mhz..

 

Hey, googled your mobo and saw a newegg add for it which says.....

1. 
    
    
   Buy MSI K9A2 CF-F ATX AMD Motherboard with fast shipping and top-rated ... Memory. Number of Memory Slots: 4×240pin. Memory Standard: DDR2 1066 ...
   

It will work Shiloh, this ram has high cooling fins. It sits higher, but that won't matter unless you sre using an after market cpu cooler that overhangs the ram

 

Aroth, check out if your hdd is sata 3 or sata 6. It is probably sata 3

I have at least 1.5" above and below. I'm glad it will work. Ram is pretty inexpensive but if your willing to part with it that can save me some dough and I'd appreciate that. If you want a few bucks for it let me know and we can work something out.

I tested my second ram stick and it's bad ram all right. Every time I reseated the stick my computer wouldn't boot properly. I even tried a different slot. The only reason it was working to this point is I hadn't reseated the ram properly so my computer wasn't seeing it at all. Here's my specs and I'm assuming that ram you have might work for me but I'm not sure.

- MSI M/B K9A2CF-F AMD 790X

- AMD Athlon II X4 640 Quad-Core 3.0 GHz

- 4GB RAM (limping on 2GB right now)

- Seagate Barracuda 250GB Sata HD (7200 rpm)

- Samsung Spinpoint TB HD (7200 RPM)

- DVDRW/CDRW drive

- Corsair 650TX 650W ATX12V

- GIGABYTE Radeon 6850 HD video card

- Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)

- Acer 23" monitor (max res 1920 x 1080)

Also, my ram is Fatal1ty 2GB stick and here's a photo of the tag. If you don't know Mud maybe someone can chime in on whether the ram you have will work for me. My other question would be can I mix ram or is that not a good idea?

I had an issue where my computer wasn't booting at all. After troubleshooting I reseated the ram and then it worked again. I didn't realize until today that it's only reading one of them. I'm assuming the ram is bad but its possible I just need to reseat it.

So you're not going to use those sticks? I'll have to figure out what type of ram I have. Any ideas on how to do that?

Windows 7 Home Premium, 32-bit. I believe you're right in only getting 16GB potential on Hone Premium. As far as I know OFF relies on CPU power more than anything else which is why I upgraded my CPU to an AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0 GHZ.

Processor 7.3

RAM: 5.5 (probably due to only 2GB ram being seen and not the 4GB I have in there)

Graphics: 7.7

Gaming Graphics: 7.7

Primary Hard Disk: 5.9

You're not spoiling it at all Olham. I've always found it unbelievable or at least very rare that this could happen. Like you, I was attracted to this shot more because of the timing of the engine separating from the fuselage right as I was closing in on him. I took this shot using Fraps while in live combat and I must have taken 30 or so just to get this one good shot.

The one other thing that I wish for in WOFF is that they remove the pilot ejection animation, then the slow descent to the earth with an invisible parachute.

Mine is currently at 5.5 although I did just notice that my system is only recognizing 2GB of my total 4GB of RAM. I'll have to look into that. I think it's normally at 5.9. My rig handles OFF fine unless there's 20+ craft in a crazy dogfight then my frame rates start to get a little choppy.