redpiano

I tried uninstalling the DM mod and still the first hit kills my ailerons.

This is how it's placed in the folders.

C:\OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\MODS\HPWUltimateDM1.0

Also I turned off fog and this game looks a dozen times better now.

Does anyone know if it's possible to get shadows for all the trees and such? I noticed there's ground shadows near airfield structures and trees around the airfields but none just on general groups of trees. I'm enjoying the game quite a bit now, I'm past worrying about flight models and if I can get past whatever this damage model thing is I'll start flying OFF only.

Okay I installed HPW's rear gunner mod, that makes me get hit less often but when I get hit I instantly lose roll speed and my engine gets hit and starts sputtering. I must have the DM mod installed wrong.

Okay, I did that and it hasn't changed anything. I engaged a group of hannovers and immediately took damage to my ailerons and engine again.

Okay, I set the two seater guns to easy.

I flew a mission about an hour ago in the SE5 and again same thing happened, I passed in front of a dr.1 and from behind he hit my engine and my ailerons with just a few shots. I don't think I have your DM mod installed wrong because it was giving me errors for trying to load the planes that I don't have from hat in the ring.

Are you referring to the AI gun range setting? I have that on normal, I thought that only affected the distance at which they'll begin firing though.

I have gun accuracy and rear gun accuracy both to normal.

redpiano, turning without losing much altitude is a matter of feeling.

When I started flying OFF P3, I would crash into trees at low level turns.

Nowadays, I evade chasing Nupes at treetop level or even below that, zigzagging through the woods.

You need to find out

a: how much can I bank the craft at various speeds without dropping too much

b: You need to make sure, that you don't raise the nose above the horizon level in such a turn - with

the one exception, when you have a lot of "energy"; in other words; when you gathered speed in a dive before.

 

I'm almost ever only flying Albatros types and am quite good at turning them.

But put me into a Camel, and I would be lost, and had to learn it all new for this particular craft.

It's a lot about feeling.

 

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Agreed, I'm having a hard time finding the level horizon for some of the aircraft. With the SE5 in particular it requires a really high pitch angle to climb and I'm used to the way ROF models the SE in which the nose goes below the horizon for level flight. The most trouble I'm having with OFF is that I'm being forced to relearn all these aircraft when coming over from ROF and that's just weird to me.

Can you describe more specifically what you mean by "out of commission?" Single shots should not render your aircraft inoperable, even under the standard damage model. Be sure to make sure that the DM mod has been installed correctly. I assume you are using JSGME to manage your mods?

 

 

It's my understanding that low level flying behavior has been substantially revised for P4. The AI in P3 in some planes tend to go up and down like on a rollercoaster at low altitudes. Eventually, they run out of energy and can't climb without sliding back tail first into the ground. My FM mods help a little with this for some planes, but not the Camel yet, I'm afraid.

Yes they are installed via JSGME.

Basically I played two missions yesterday in a Dr.1 in which I flew just in front of an opponent for a split second, I heard one "bang" and my roll capability was instantly crippled. On the second occasion I was fighting an RE8 and I heard a single shot hit me and again instantly my ability to roll was shot. I couldn't see any hit decals on the wings or anywhere, it was weird.

Flying the albatros and SE5 in days before this I noticed the same exact thing happening, just a few shots and I always lose my snappy rolls.

I installed the HPW ultimate damage mod but I'm still being put out of commission by a single shot, I don't understand that.

Also, I keep seeing AI pilots fall for the same thing I mentioned before about low altitude turns causing you to fall backwards and down, I saw two camel do exactly that in the last mission I played, both of them were making wide turns and just steadily fell backwards; I don't understand that.

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With all due respect Redpiano, I don't see how you can decide after a dozen or so flights that this sim needs all sorts of mods and changes in order to make it somehow more "correct". RoF is certainly not the begin all and end all when it comes to the FM's and DM's either, and despite all the original documentation that exists no one but our WWI counterparts, (and a lucky few modern day pilots who've gotten to fly these kites), really knows just how they should feel in actual flight. Every dev team takes their best shot with the same goals in mind concerning flight characteristics, and every one comes with differing results.

 

I will say that I have flown light aircraft and ULs and I find the planes in OFF to handle about as I would have imagined they might in RL. But to each their own I suppose. None-the-less Redpiano, I don't believe you've given the unmodded sim even close to a fair shake.

 

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You're right, I'm only going off of what I've read and seen quoted from first hand accounts.

As for mods I only have the weight mod, damage model mod and flak mod installed.

Some of the OFF planes are very subsceptible to going into a sort of tail-first sideslip in a turn. Worst 'offenders' from what I have flown include the SE5a and the Pfalz DIIIa. I have read reports that the real Pfalz did this sort of thing to some extent, tho it doesn't seem to in RoF (nor the First Eagles add-on Pfalz, with Peter01's 'Hard' setting FM mod). The solution is to use a certain amount of 'bottom rudder' (ie, towards the low side) as you turn. This can convert the sidelsip into a fairly wickedly-tight turn. Bottom rudder usually helps tighten turns with the non-sidelsippers, too. HPW's FM mod (the one compatible with my empty weight mod, if you're using that too) also helps with the Pfalz and some other planes.

 

Some/many OFF planes are nose-heavy while in RoF (as I think in real life?) most I've flown are tail-heavy. So whether or not the real plane had elevator trim (and some did, like the SE5 & RE8 IIRC, and others could be rigged to some extent) the first thing I do after takeoff and getting established into the circuit is trim my plane so it flies level at full throttle, or at least trim out the worst of the nose-(or tail-) heaviness. HPW has a specific FM mod for the Halb DII which reduces that plane's extreme nose-heaviness, which I'd highly recommend.

 

It goes against the grain but I would also advise in Workshop, setting player guns to 'Strong' rather than 'Normal'; personally I find this more realistic and better than using the setting which makes all front guns more accurate (the AI seem to hit me often enough as it is). Even with Player Guns=Strong, you won't tear up your targets with a few hits, like you can in RoF.

I'm flying the Albatros D.V now and I haven't noticed it quite as much as with the SE5 which I'm going to avoid entirely, I did notice it equally as much in the Camel as the SE5.

As for the guns, I actually get kills on the first pass now, my problem before was that I had installed one of the better tracers mods and didn't realize that it got rid of the debris when you hit an enemy so I wasn't able to accurately aim because I got no feedback on my shots, but now I'm back to the "tennis ball' tracers and I'm doing just as good as I do in ROF with normal weapons and normal spread.

And yes the flak mod was the first mod I downloaded and it's great! Much more realistic than ROF's flak, it adds a ton of ambience to the game.

Okay good to know.

Another question, which I'm wildly off topic here but I can't change the thread title, but is there a way to get your wingmen to attack and alert to an enemy? The standard CFS3 wingman commands don't seem to be effective, there have been a number of occasions where my AI friends don't bother engaging and I'm left to fight alone.

Also can anyone help me with the claims form.

Does it take multiple days before claims are investigated/confirmed? I just played a mission in an Albatros D.V and killed three Camels and two Sopwith Tripes 2 gun version, I filled out the form, I put "Robert Tegmeier" in the witness section, a squadmate who was nearby for most of the kills and I filled out something like "Shot down in flames and saw crash near the lines" for the camels and for the tripes "Shot one down in flames and the other stalled after I shot and crashed"

Is that the way it's supposed to be filled out or am I doing something wrong? I tried looking at the manual and FAQ and didn't see anything about this.

EDIT I will say I'm really enjoying the game, I was having a hard time before because I've focused entirely on the SE5 in ROF so I was just picking apart how it handled in OFF vs ROF instead of enjoying everything else. I'm flying Jasta 11 now, I started with the Albatros D.V and plan to keep going till I die or finish the war. I really like the atmosphere, the flak and the ground gunners are great, all the ground objects and such; it's really awesome.

Can anyone tell me why turning causes me to go down?

When I'm low to the ground I notice that when I go into a horizontal turn it's impossible to keep height, I just begin floating kind of backwards and falling to earth; is this because I'm turning too sharply or something?

I noticed that most of the flight models in this game fly level with the fuselage parallel to earth, although this isn't accurate for the SE5 and most if not all WW1 planes, so maybe I'm holding my nose in the wrong position and this is causing me to go down; I really don't know.

That's a really nice looking museum!

Okay I've installed the patches and AI weight mod as well as Wasche's damage model mod and it's more bearable now, the AI doesn't really float above me like before and there's much more indication that I'm hitting my opponent so I've returned the options back to normal spread and normal weapon damage and it's much better now.

although I have to say that I crack up every time I hear the pilot scream when he's struck, not in some morbid way but it's just a bit silly hearing him over the roar of both engines, guns and wind lol.

Thanks guys! Will keep going with it, the interface was a great improvement visually with the patches as well.

Oh gosh I didn't even realize there were patches for this, I'll do that now.

Yeah I've engaged from various distances.

Most typically in ROF I engage at a deflection angle specifically to hit the pilot/engine and bring them down quickly, this is extremely successful in ROF but utterly hopeless in OFF. But I've been trying a number of different angles and distances and nothing seems effective. I fought a roland C.II earlier and first engaged on a high angle shot for the engine and didn't notice any damage or change to hit flight path, I then got in collision range like you mentioned and maneuvered around up and down, aiming for the observer, pilot and engine and still nothing. I've only been able to get one opponent down in flames so far and that was an albatros D.III, but it took nearly all of my ammunition.

I also noticed this gunnery issue in CFS3 before I played OFF, using regular machine guns it took almost every bit of ammo I had to kill opponents regardless of where I aimed.

As for the Albatros 200hp, I've been fighting D.III's and the standard D.V mostly as well as a couple DFW's and Rolands, there just isn't any momentum to the planes.

Not my picture but I've been there, it's in mcminville oregon, I've been there twice.

As the title says.

I've played a dozen missions in P3 now and I'm really disappointed with the flight characteristics and damage model/ballistics. None of the SE5's seem capable of climbing above AI albatros scouts, which is all kinds of wrong to me, not only that but it's able to do a negative G loop on a dime and can turn as hard as a Dr.1; but booming and zooming is next to impossible because of the weird flight model.

As for the damage model, I don't know if it's just the bullet spread or the DM itself but with the settings on tight spread, I can get right on the tail of an opponent and pump rounds into the gunner/pilot/engine and barely notice an effect; where in WW1 most pilot accounts mention killing their opponent or setting their engine on fire in the very first pass, I can't do damage while sitting on their tail for five minutes.

If I'm missing something or any mods fix these issues please let me know, I really want to enjoy P3.

You edited your post which brings up a question, if you want to simulate "field mods" basically, why not have multiple versions of the aircraft so the player can choose? SE5a viper w/aldis, SE5a viper w/o-aldis etc.

I wasn't meaning to make a big deal out of this so whatever.

SE5's were all outfitted standard with an Aldis, period.

Seriously? It's not about sniping or not sniping it's about historical accuracy, SE5's were all outfitted standard with an Aldis, period.

That may be but never the less it was standard so I think it should be on the in game model. If you don't like it then you can lean over and use the ring sight on the gun. I don't like the bead and ring sight that we've got on there though, it looks really out of place and dinky to me.

I'm enjoying the game so far, I've flown about four campaign missions for 56th squadron. I love the environments in the game, lots of ground objects and stuff going on all over the place. My only complaints are that the lighting in overcast weather doesn't look right and I've got a "cfs3 has encountered a problem" error a couple times.

I have a couple more questions if you guys don't mind.

1. What key disables the hit messages, I looked through the options and I thought I had found it but those messages don't seem to want to go away.

2. Can gunners shoot through the tail of the aircraft? Fighting a DFW C.V I engaged from below like I do in ROF(with mods) and I was hit, I'm not sure if I wasn't totally under the tail or if he shot me through the tail.

3. Can gunners and pilots be killed? I haven't been wounded yet and it doesn't seem like I've gotten any pilot kills either.

4. Is there an actual reload animation? Flying the SE5 I know that the gun ran out of ammo at some point but it seemed to just come back on it's own moments later. Also can anyone confirm if P4 will have like gun cocking animations or anything? I imagine that's maybe not possible in CFS3.

Thanks again.