CastelEtzwane

My RNAS-1/RAF-201 pilot is still hanging on. He's flown about 2 weeks worth of combat missions and spent a further 3 weeks in the hospital. Seems like the Hun pilots in the Flanders area during the summer of 1918 abound with pilots who know wots wot.

Historical Ace Kinkead is the last man and sets down a little to the left of Booker. He rolls by Booker's Camel and eventually goes all the way to the end of the field with no problem. I then restarted my pilot's Camel engine and rolled over to Booker to look for a bomb crater or some other kind of obstruction but could find none. The airfield in question is Noeux-les-Auxi in the Flanders region, July 1918. So does anyone have an explanation for what happened here ? I'm curious because the same thing happened to my SE5a pilot in the RR Challenge, except he rolled only a few feet before he 'hit the brick wall' and in his case the aircraft exploded in flames.

In comes Historical Ace Charles Dawson Booker and he makes a normal landing. His Camel rolls some yards and then seems to hit an invisible brick wall. The aircraft jerks to a complete stop and emits brown smoke.

Would be nice if on the Campaign 'Duty Room' menu (i.e. scoreboard) there was room for players to post pictures/images of their choice, for example aircraft, pilot portraits, memos or grafitti. Seems do-able since the bottom half of the scoreboard is almost always blank anyway.

It would also be nice to have the option to write a final epitaph for a deceased pilot, especially since most of us enjoy writing mission reports. Seems incomplete that pilot records lack the option to describe how that pilot came to the end of his journey. For instance I just had an Albatross/Pfalz pilot that died on his 15th mission after an epic engagement with 3 RNAS triplanes. Many AI pilots try to leave after getting damaged, but these three Royal Navy pilots stayed put despite getting holed and my DIII pilot finally succumbed to blood loss. My poor DIII guy tried several times to break off without success. It would be nice if a final account like this could be a part of the pilot dossier. Would also be nice if clicking on the picture of the pilot dossier itself let you view the pilot record.

How about: 1) implementing streamers for formation leaders. 2) O.B. and German 1918 parachutes. 3) Recon formations which adopt a defensive circle when attacked (think only the British/French did this, maybe only the helpless RFC two-seaters like the FE2bs). Documented by Gould and several others. 4) the use of Very lights (flares?) to signal when the (RFC?) formation could break up ('wash out'). Documented by Gould and several others. Have also read about Very lights being by two-seaters to attract help from friendly scouts when being attacked. 5) Pilots waving their arm, for instance when meeting or regrouping. Or when disengaging after a lengthy but inconclusive combat with an enemy (to signify farewell). 6) Airfields implementing lights or flares after they have been bombed in order to warn returning aircraft to be careful when landing.

My Aussie Camel pilot got a bit too bold and after achieving 10 victories, and took on a formation of DFWs by himself. Usually he manages to separate one of the two-seaters from the flock and then work it over until it crashes but this time all 5 DFWs remained resolute and held formation. He ignored this and bored straight in a second time, drawing fire from 3 DFWs at once. The rear gunners seriously wounded him, and though he broke off and flew quickly home, he was done in by a loss of blood + a too hasty landing. Then started another Camel campaign in the same area during the same time period. He got to 19 victories and won a ton of medals, all in April 1918, but met his end when he tried following a certain Fokker DVII once too many times in a zoom climb at 300 ft. The third zoom ended in a nasty spin from which he did not recover. RIP. Am now trying yet another Camel campaign (Bentley variant this time), starting this time in July 1918. Goal is for him to last until the Armistice or at least get 30 victories. But it doesn't look good. He gets his victories, but the boys from Jasta-5 (Fokker DVIIs) are very good and seem to have his number. The last two missions they have shot his machine up so much he has force-landed, once behind the lines. His Camel's good luck talisman hasn't been of much help.

I swear your videos take the cake for being the most cinematic WOFF productions around. Smooth as silk and great at showing the viewer what is happening. That was quite a lot of good action - but what was the day's tally ? What did Nought's flight have to report ?

I have been annoyed by the primary splashscreen for BH&H (the brown one with the Camel, Pfalz, and DVI) because its resolution is 1920x1080 while my screen's actual resolution is 1920x1200, which results in a distortion of the aircraft portrayed. Over time this has become irritating because I spend a lot of time staring at this flawed picture. So I thought I could supplement or even replace it with an image of my choosing but have run into problems. I found and replaced the Splash2.dds file in the 'WOFF\OBDWW1 Over Flanders Fields' folder but this did not totally solve the problem as the brown BH&H splashscreen still displays the majority of the time while my Splash2 replacement image is only displayed a minute or so while the game loads a mission. But why does the brown BH&H splashscreen still display even though I have replaced the Splash2 file with another image ? Is the BH&H splashscreen located in another file in another folder or is it hard-coded into the WOFF executable file ? ******************************************************************************************************************************************************* By the way, the image files which display when loading the campaign etc. menus are superb !! I enjoy looking at them but often wonder what about the background of what I am looking at. Does anybody have a guide to these photos ? For instance, while looking at a British campaign menu screen, I suddenly realized that the accompanying photo was that of Billy Bishop sitting in the Se5a in which he achieved his last 12 victories !! (I knew this because I am re-reading a book about Bishop's war career and the book includes a color profile of this very Se5a.)

'My flight however, was by now nowhere in sight. So I flew back towards British territory. Flying west and after crossing over to inside our lines, I spotted a ragged line of 3 ac flying low, heading east at 600 ft intervals. I swung down to investigate and discovered that the ac I had swung in behind was a V-strutter. I pursued it for several minutes before catching and shooting it down. Later spotted lone Albatross stragglers four more times but was unable to close and engage.' Upon landing back at my aerodrome I learned that I was the only one of our four-man flight to return. It appears the Albatross formation we surprised followed my flight back and engaged them later, with discouraging results. This was the second time in a row that I avoided a massacre because I had become separated from the main formation whilst engaging the enemy. My flights continued onward without me only to be later decimated by a numerically superior foe.'

From pilot's log: 'We took off in total darkness. Once inside enemy lines, we were bracketed by search lights. We located the AF but unfortunately my bombs hit nothing. Then I saw a line of 8+ Albatrosses taking off one by one, and latched onto one which had become airborne for about 10 seconds before. Hit him many times before he finally spiralled down and crashed near his airfield. Then I flew away, once again bracketed by a searchlight. Airfield ground fire was lackluster.'

My Aussie pilot participated in a pre-dawn airfield attack. Vision was good because of cloudless skies.

I haven't been active on this forum very long, so I could be mistaken, but I don't see any videos where loops are being performed. Why is this ? Is it not a valid tactical maneuver ? Use this Topic to share with us your views and experiences with the loop in WOFF. If you do use the loop as a part of your repetoire, please share a video with us !!

Ok I get it - you know alot about air combat - so do the lot of us. There is alot that WWI combat has in common with WWII combat yet it is still distinct from WWII, and is very different from jet age combat. There are of course some commonalities but ignoring the differences will get you shot down real quick. Someone should start a thread on Dicta Boelcke - Nr 4 and 7 are relevant for me. LOL, Nr 2 actually supports my contention to concentrate on shooting down the target in front of you!! No no you misunderstand again, I check six until I've committed to attacking the target in front of me. Then it's time to concentrate on shooting it down. Even then I will break off in the face of a determined rear attack. And guess what - that's also how fliers did it in WWI and WWII. Nothing unorthodox here. Well my opinion is that in most cases, the AI fights in the vertical plane better than the average WWI pilot did. For one thing, their wings don't fall off as they maneuver while diving, which is a great advantage. And unfair. Some AI even energy fight better than WWI aces did, making judicious use of the vertical plane to pounce and then climb out of reach. Heck, even though your Boelcke's Dicta doesn't mention using a height advantage, the AI sure doesn't overlook it. Energy fighting wasn't a formalized thing in WWI, so its extensive use can be considered an exploit on the AI's part. Strange if you think those were blind loops in my two videos - they weren't. And never claimed that the loop was a cure-all for every sim out there. Btw, I haven't flown MP Rise of Flight or Flying Circus though I can imagine that playing MP has its own problems when it comes to truly simulating WWI aerial combat. I used to fly MP IL2-Sturmovik back in the day and there was a world of difference between playing MP and SP. Anyway, the problem here is that while flying on MP servers is different from SP WOFF, it is not any more realistic. Just different. Like I said, the AI actually fights very well vertically. But yeah, it's not perfect. No loops but plenty of AI zoom climbs. Surely zoom climbs are a legit tactic for both AI and MP humans alike, but like the loop the timing, distance, and energy state has to be right or you end up a sitting duck. So do you avoid zoom climbs online as well ? OK I get it, you realize that you want to play WOFF the same way as you would in a MP combat sim. Great, that's fine. Makes sense, too. Well, seeing as how you selectively read Boelcke's Dicta I shouldn't be surprised that you do the same with my remarks on checking one's six. Have a good one.

Time period is spring 1918, Flanders area. Here is a list of missions assigned so far (had to abort 4-5 of these because of blank screen or non-responsive rudder issues): Patrol Behind Friendly Front Lines Intercept Patrol Enemy Front Lines Patrol Enemy Front Lines Intercept Patrol Enemy Front Lines Patrol Enemy Front Lines Patrol Enemy Front Lines Patrol Enemy Front Lines Patrol Enemy Front Lines Airfield Attack Balloon Busting Close Air Support Airfield Attack Close Air Support Patrol Enemy Front Lines Close Air Support Airfield Attack Patrol Enemy Front Lines Ground Forces Attack Ground Forces Attack Ground Forces Attack

Why do you keep referring to your supposed real life experiences when this is a WWI sim we're discussing, not your real life? Why do you stick by your opinion (i.e. my lack of gunnery skills) based upon one specific video clip of mine when I have put out 4-5 others which disprove this ? Perhaps you could start a thread with some videos of someone with good skills shooting down a SPAD or Se5a. Then I could see what you are talking about, just like you can see thru my videos that the loop works very well. Btw my flight model is set to realistic, Head Shake is on, Wind Effects Player is on, Main Guns is set to Normal - how about you ? The reason why I specifically mention SPADs and Se5as is because as a rule they can leave an encounter when it suits them, which makes them very difficult opponents. Your opinion on checking six seems to be the same as your opinion regarding the loop: that is, you have one, but it is not based upon experiences with WOFF. My experience is that 99% of the time it is more productive to concentrate on shooting down the enemy you have 'locked onto' than to check one's six. (But I suspect that most people will disagree with me.) To make it clear, I'm very much in favor of checking six, but not while I'm busy trying to shoot down an enemy.

OK, you missed the note which explained that in my excitement sometimes I was using the right-hand gunsight when in actuality I should have been aiming straight down the middle. Btw I do check six regularly, but not when engaged with a bandit.

On his latest mission my Australian pilot and his flight were bounced by yellow-tailed Fokker triplanes:

My pilot went hunting for stragglers after a furball with some black-tailed V-strutters and spotted a flight of DFWs forming up. He attacked, shooting down two: Notice this aircraft is still carrying its ordnance and that the observer is slumped over his gun.

I started a new campaign with a pilot flying Sopwith Camels in the AFC-4 (Australian Flying Corps). The most noteworthy things are 1) all pilots carry 4 Cooper bombs for EVERY mission, 2) the maximum height for every mission has been less than 7000 ft. Usually 3500-5000 ft.

This was my first taste of WWI dogfighting:

Not sure, but don't think that ground fire gets triggered over 3000 ft. I'm wondering if you're going to try a loop when you start meeting Albatrosses . . .

Btw since it seems you like odd variants of Dr.1 FMs, I read somewhere that Josef Jakobs was so enthusiastic about the triplane that he continued flying his Dr.1 long after the type was withdrawn from service and his squadron had re-equipped (with the DVII ?). He managed this by getting his mechanics to scavenge Camel crash-sites and re-fit his old Dr.1 with the Clerget (Bentley too?) engines. So it seems he flew a Clerget-powered triplane at some point in time !

I had to google the bit about the Mikael Carlson-style loop - do you mean the maneuver that starts at about 7:10 ? I haven't tried a loop with a Fokker Triplane in BH&H but don't remember any torque when I did them last year in WOFF UE. By the way, I have now started a Camel campaign in BH&H and tried a few loops. With a Camel, the torque pulls you around into a diagonal loop just as you described ! I used to do this too, until I started flying campaigns versus SPADs. SPADs like to circle around and use pouncing attacks from above so if I split-Sed they would just spiral down after me and repeat their pouncing, albeit at a lower altitude. So now I circle around below them and roll onto their six as they complete a firing run at me. Someone should start a thread on favorite defensive moves . . .

Did I say anything to offend you ? If you think I have something to learn about gunnery, I'm all ears. Just start a thread and I'll join right in ! Saying that you don't like the loop because it didn't work well in WWII or jet- vs jet combat doesn't hold water when we are discussing its use in a WWI sim. Neither does it change the fact that when the loop maneuver in WOFF is correctly applied, it works well and sometimes even spectacularly well. I don't know of any other maneuver where you can be attacked from the rear and then consistently turn the tables on your attacker 10 seconds later. But of course everyone is free to use or not use this maneuver as they see fit. The beauty of this sim is the freedom we have to choose the manner in which we play it. I started this thread to find out what other members thought about the loop and show how I used it.