DukeIronHand

Agreed. Is WM gonna hunt me down and beat me up now?

Some aircraft decisions may end up being marketing ones - giving the paying customers what they want - though ultimately the OFF "purist" in me agrees with you. And since OFF is kind of "family" operation someone somewhere may be a DVIII fan and had the model and skins done on their own time, so to speak, and the Devs were nice enough to include it. While your logic is not flawed the screenshots of the DVIII flying are sweet! Very pretty... And yes I wish we could have every plane that flew operationally on the Western Front from 1916 thru 1918. If the Devs only had model and skinning help...

There is also an additional problem. Its not just making the plane and all those skins (complicated and time consuming as that must be) and dropping it into the OFF folder. Many other files have to be changed, I think, to integrate them into the campaign structure. Hey 33LIMA! What are you doing here? I was waiting for further results of your two-seater/observer Field of Fire testing. Back to work! Or is this your lunch break?

Haha...that is hilarious!

I am hardly a programming pro, and I will bow to the Devs and BH's expertise if they say either way, but I would be amazed if there are actually two different files - one for an AI gunner with an AI pilot and another for an AI gunner with a human pilot. I will say the issue, if there is one, lies elsewhere. Edit: Double post

Guten Tag Cash. Reference the use of Crosses and Cockades painted over bullet hole repairs I have seen photographs of this done on both sides but I will have to say, while making for a very cool photograph, I don't think it was all that common especially among the British. Reference the actual repair of the fabric itself it is recorded that a piece of fabric was simply glued in place over the hole. Obviously if the hit was more than just a fabric damage, like a small part or minor spar or something underneath, then of course that would be fixed first, a larger area of fabric replaced and then re-doped. I imagine, though have not seen recorded specifically, that the bullet hole patches would be re-doped also to prevent water problems. We must have an expert here, I am sure, who could add details. I do know, for the British anyway, that if the repair was major (main spars and "longerons") or time consuming, that it was not done at the squadron level but sent to a nearby depot. Engine change outs were apparently not considered major and were often done at the squadron level. I imagine the other services were the same but don't remember a written record. MvR has written of planes being "sent back" and this is probably what he is referring too. Edit: Grammar and clarification.

I gotta say P4 is sounding like some WW1 aerial "Manna from Heaven". Hopefully I won't be in heaven by the time its gets here. When and where can I pre-order P4 and the numerous plane packs?

Your observation about the difference in the AI gunner between an AI flown plane and a human one is interesting. One would think that the AI routine for both would be the same unless this is another example of an AI "cheat", when both pilot and the observer are AI, to make up for programming limitations. This is not unknown in some flight sims but I do not know about OFF. Clearly I hope this is not the case being an OFF geek. My only experience, so far, with an AI observer has been in my Br/F2b campaign. I am too busy flying during a fight but, via sound anyway, my AI gunner stays quite active and always seems to be shooting. Hmmm...is the Brisfit coded, in the files, as a fighter or fighter-bomber? I forget which file to look at.

Oh TaillyHo how much more real could OFF get? I'll be realistically simulating a low-time pilot fresh out of flight school and rushed to the front as a replacement for losses sustained under the lash of the Alb scourge. I'll just avoid the mess binge prior to my first flight!

Ah...I love first person accounts from the Great War fliers themselves. I don't care what the aircraft they are always fascinating to me. I have never flown the DH5 but there is one man here that I know of (BulletHead) whom I believe has logged much flight time with the DH5. He also appears to be fairly well versed in aerodynamics/flight characteristic so I will be curious what he thinks. As for engine reliability I do not think, with the current game engine, there is a way to simulate this but perhaps one of the Devs will dropped by and confirm either way.

Doh! You are correct Sir. I had read this before and I forgot. Of course that then begs the question: Why do they not have guns? They certainly did in real life. Are you saying the AI gunners act differently when flying wit a human pilot?

I am going to have to go with themightysrc on this one. Granted I do not have hundreds of hours attacking two-seaters but their Field of Fire does not seem to be lacking in my experience. And when in formation they all engage without hesitation. I was once trying to be clever and come low and under the tail of a RE8 and he engaged me just fine - in fact he appeared to be shooting through his tail planes! All the while his flightmates were potting away at me also. Sop/1 1/2's also do not show timidity or Field of Fire issues! They engage just how I would expect them too. I have not seen any lack of return fire when I am lower than them, especially with the RE8's as mentioned above. They were all higher than me and blazing away happily. The only two-seater which I find to be "easy meat" are the BE2c's; just like in real life I guess. I have shot down a lot of them (being a 1917 campaign guy) and I don't remember any return fire at all from the observers. There are, perhaps, some Field of Fire issues here. I wonder If some of this has to do with which aircraft is the players (human controlled). Someone stated earlier that the AI fighters essentially ignored everyone else in the formation and attacked only him? And AI observers apparently have no problem trying to shoot down attacking human controlled planes. Is the AI perhaps keying off of which aircraft is human controlled and somehow ignoring fellow AI planes or reacting less aggressively? EDIT: As a further thought I wonder if the file designating the two-seaters as "bombers" is making them act, and fly, like B-17's ala CFS3? Wonder if a file change of all two-seaters to "fighter-bombers" would perhaps make them behave more like we would think an RE8 getting the crap shot outta it would act? An attempt at maneuver or the observer acting more aggressively, i.e., fly more "realistically?

Thanks for the tip TaillyHo. I think you are correct about 20 Squadron. Oddly I was thinking about them already as they figure greatly (FE2-wise) in the air war of early 1917. I did d/l the FE2 SIA but never studied it which I will do now. I have already done the file change to make the FE a "fighter-bomber" in the past so I figure I am raring to go

Oh...an old Nvidia 7950GT. Adequate but not spectacular due to its age.

Ah...another P4 sign from the maker! When, when, when?

Olham I am always always amazed by visual quality of your screen shots! I know you are a PhotoShop wiz - do you "filter" or "touch up" your screenies before you post them here? I will say probably not and, in that case, I want a computer/graphics card just like yours!

All these two-seater campaigns people here fly, and are apparently enjoying, have inspired me to give my own a try. I do have a BR/F2B campaign going but its still really a fighter campaign as OFF lacks "life" for the observer. I figured to do a FE2 campaign starting in January, 1917. The only question now is which squadron? And I'll have to look at the mission files (Bletchley) and perhaps tweak one or two as I did the fighter file.

Man, I spent many hours with Richtofen's War before moving on to Dawn Patrol/Fight in the Skies by Mike Carr and spending even more time with it. Actually I used the Richtofen's War board and counters when playing Dawn Patrol/Fight in the Skies so I alway had both at hand. There was always talk for years that a new version of Fight in the Skies would be released but I don't think that ever panned out. Too bad. Edit: Just got back from your link Wodin - looks cool. I will be watching for your reports.

After years of faithful service the company that produced/supported NOD32 stop making updates for it. After talking with our local computer expert he recommended Avast as a good and free replacement and so far it seems ok. When playing OFF I could shut NOD down all the way with no problem however Avast does not allow me to do that. Now when I play OFF I get little pauses that I will presume are related to Avast. I put it in gaming mode but it is still "on" apparently and possibly causing these pauses. Tried going the Cntl-Alt-Delete route to shut it off when not on-line but Avast won't let me shut it down. Shades of Skynet! Am I missing some setting setting or does anyone know of a way to shut it down completely when I am off-line and don't need it?

Thanks!

On the strength of everyone's recommendation I uninstalled Avast and installed Microsoft Security Essentials. I had been running ZoneAlarm Pro alongside NOD for years. Microsoft Security Essentials seemed to hint, upon installation, that I do not need ZoneAlarm anymore. Can any of the pros here confirm this or did I misunderstand during MSE installation? Edit: Whew my grammar blows in the morning...

Interesting. As a user of your mission files (with the attached AA mod) from Day One I will make this additional changes in another homemade JSGME mod and use them too. Thanks! Also interesting is the use of the "Noise". Didn't RB3D use the same term for the accuracy of guns in the game files?

That was a hell of a subscription then. Think I've used NOD for approx. 6 or 7 years! I don't remember what I paid...if I paid at all. The "buy new version" and "we stopped making virus updates" for my version didn't mention a subscription but NOD has been so pain free I may have missed something. Thanks.

Yes - for whats its worth that was our "local experts" other recommendation for good, and free, anti-virus.

At least for the version that I had they stopped making virus updates for it in mid-August and Esset wanted you to buy their latest version.