So, anyway, last night I thought I had some time on my hands and decided to jump into the T&T server, which reported empty; in my never ending quest to get the right mixture of graphical settings for the best trade-off of quality and decent fps I figured I'd see how they looked in a server.

Of course the darned thing had all sorts of people in it.

So I grab a SPAD, which I think I've flown zero times since the NP17 came out, and followed this fellow from the aerodrome over the front, noting that my frame rate was higher than in single player and admiring the sights when this guy in a stripey plane comes out of nowhere and - get this - shoots at me!

I waggled my wings and dove, but he didn't understand or, more likely, didn't care, and chased me. The SPAD started shedding bits and pieces, and I crashed.

Thinking it might have been a misunderstanding of some sort, the next time I took up a different plane, the N28. Maybe he had a grudge against somebody in a SPAD or something.

So I'm minding my own business, circling this balloon and admiring the flight sim in all its glories and this other fellow starts in on me just like the first guy had. Once again, I waggled my wings as a friendly hello, but he only took that as an encouragement to assault me. No matter my attempts to explain by way of waving my arm about that I was only there to check on the state of our observers, he continued to chase me all over the place and then shot my wing to ribbons. This compromised the integrity of the aircraft and it fell apart, just like the SPAD.

He had a bluish-white sort of plane.

Both of these hooligans had a sort of black cross, like an arithmatic addition sign, on their wings and fuselage.

I think its some sort of online gang.

Something ought to be done about these people; I'm firing off a letter to the server host. In the meantime, I'd suggest everyone be on the lookout for these guys and try to avoid them whenever possible.

Yeh, I know where you are coming from.

But you think you got it bad? Last night (also on T & T, is there something wrong with the people there?!) I decided to take a flight over the enemy lines in my trusty fokker.

I had a pleasant flight until I reached midway over no mans land. Twas then that i saw 5 dots far far above me. "lovely i thought, some fellow airmen, Ill go over and say hello".

Just then one of these "Spacemen" decided to dive down on me and show me just how well his machine guns worked. To make matters worse this only incouraged his friends to also try and show off.

Next thing i knew and without so much as a apology or explaination one of these orbital bandits decided to saw my wing off with what could only be described as a rather dense burst of 7.62 bullets.

Now Im all for people enjoying themselves, but i ask you, is that really necesassry?

This "gang" all flew odd sounding green planes that obviously had some "hack" applied to make them super-powerful.

This is why I do not like open MP.

I concur on these newly reported experiences, I went out to see if this actually was true, taking of in my well prepared DR.1 (With twin spandaus just for precaution.) and went to have a look at some of these shows where, reportedly, airmen from different nations clash up against each other for reasons unbeknownst to me.
When all of a sudden a engine blipping sort of new rotary type aircraft broke off from the show I was watching, and for some reason let his Vickers eat away at my fuselage, my aircraft stalled out because I pulled the stick back out of sheer fear, we ended up circling down and down (And I had a good look at his face, he was wearing goggles!!!) He seemingly wished to end my life right then and there so I figured, as self preserving as I can be sometimes, that it would be best to dito in the same way before he got another chance.
But none the sooner did he fall to the ground after taking quite a few unfortunate poundings from my Spandau`s, before another bloke with a green aircraft went in to pick up where he left off!? I barely got away with a shredded rudder... what is that place?! I shall make sure to force these scoundrels to state their intentions!

Wouldn't Aerial Combat be so much nicer without all the shooting and loud noises?

The only way to fight in the air is with a handgun!

This is why I do not like open MP.

Gotcha

Ming

It would seem aerial battles are replacing pistols/swords at dawn!
Very well, I shall give in and adapt to this new technique of settling differences!

And this is why I avoid the Terror & Trauma server and others like them.

I have more than enough trouble trying to deliver greetings and offer friendship to fliers of other nations in our own little world. Often, they are less than warmly receptive, and often quite belligerent! A strange reaction from those who fly such beautifully painted charges which invite close inspection...

Same reason i decided with a friend of mine to play chess in COOP mode: black and white pieces, together, against the black and white board.