Hi guys,

Anyone got any good stories to post from missions or campaigns you have flown in OFF?

Care to post them here?

Here's a few recent examples copied from our CA forum to get the ball rolling....

(hope the guys there don't mind)

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by Ironhat:

Journal of 2nd Lt. Robert Johnston cont.
46 RFC, La Gorgue Airfield, Flanders

June 6,1917
8:15am
My flight has been assigned a mission to spot enemy troop positions on the enemy front lines.
5 AC take off into clear skies with high thin clouds. Four Alb. D. III's sneak in over our field at low altitude and before we even see them the strafe our flight. My wheels are barely 200' off the ground when stracers are all around me and i take about 20 hits in the fuselage, wings and engine. How all those bullets missed me i'll never know ! I'm still on full power, lower the nose to gain speed. the speed does not build. A D. III flashes across my flight path (?) about a 800 ' ahead and goes into a vertical left hand climb. I can gain no altitude and am a sitting duck at a 100' and 55 mph. I set the kite down gently just outside the airfield boundy in the bare ground and she rolls to a stop. I leap out of the striken ac and run as fast as i can to cover in the trees. I make it safely and sit at the base of a large tree gasping for breath. How could this happen ? Is everyone sleeping ? We had no warning before they struck. At this rate we can hardly get our ac off the gound.

9:35 am, base briefing room: I learn by some miracle the rest of my flight got off the ground and tried to give chase but the huns had made one pass and ran for home. They got me and shot up 2 Pups that had just been rolled out of the hangers. One ground crew was killed and one wounded.

June 6, 1917 2:30 pm. Report to CO 46RFC La Gorgue Airfield
submitted by Sgt. A. Neviles

Sir i regret to report the death of Lt. Robert Johnston at aproxmentaly 1:15pm this date. Our fligh of 6 lead by Lt. Johnston took off at 1pm . We saw 3 aricraft approaching our airfield at an estimated 6000'. Lt. Johnston immeditaly turned from our assigned mission heading and starting climbing toward the possible hostiles. The 3 aircraft passed over the field and headed toward German lines. At about 5000' i identified them as 3 German DFWCV bombers. One EA was hit by our flack and went down trailing heavy smoke. Lt Johnston pulled ahead of us and closed on the trailing bomber. They must have seen us for as we approached the front lines they started into a dive, picking up speed trying to out run us. Lt. Johnston closed on the trail bomber and fired on him at about 2900' registering several hits. His air craft was under fire from both bombers rear gunners and shuddered from serval hits. Lt. Johnston dove under the trail bomber, rolled up under him and shot him to pieces. The bomber broke up and started down.
Lt Johnston then turned toward our lines with a thin trail of smoke coming from his engine. His intent was clear as i followed him, get behind our lines and land. He had enough altitude to do so but the engine was dying fast so he picked a large clear area and set her down gently. The engine died and the plane ground looped exploding in a huge ball of flame. He had no chance to get out.

Post Script:
2nd Lt Robert Johnston was credited with a killed of the German Bomber. His final tally : 2 air kills and 1 ground.


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by Bullethead:

No. 24 Squadron, Baizieux airfield, Flanders
27 Aug 1917, 0650hrs

As usual, we were sent to bomb the trenches at Arras, but this time we had 7 SPADs from Spa26. So we got there and bombed a small patch of woods from which we say tracer rising at us, but couldn't observe results. We went around again and made a strafing pass on the same area, again with results unobserved. Flak wasn't noticed and ground fire, while heavy, was inaccurate. A couple of holes here and there but nothing important.

About this time, we were set upon by a flock of Albatri right over no-man's-land, with troops on both sides firing indescriminately into the melee. We fought and the escorts were nowhere to be seen. I shot one Albtros up badly but was then shot in the back by one of my own men, so I broke off with a clattering engine and found another target. Same story, except this time it was ground fire that winged me and I realized I'd drifted too far east. So I turned back and met a couple of DFWs coming head-on at my level, down low. Shot up the leader, turned around, and shot up the #2. About this time the escorts finally showed up and shot me in the back again, plus the Hun gunners had gotten their licks in, too.

By now my plane was more holes than canvas and wanted very badly to roll over to the left, the engine was sounding as if only 2 or 3 cylinders were firing, I was out of ammunition, and none of my men were in sight. Plus, I was getting close enough for the German ground MGs to be taking an interest in me again, so I turned back west, spotted an airfield, and landed. The wings collapsed as soon as they lost the lift holding them up, but fortunately the backwards stagger of the DH5 prevented them from falling on me.

The mission doesn't seem to have done much good but that's no suprise given how this war has gone so far.

As soon as I get my greedy hands on my recently ordered copy of OFF, I will post some AARs
I am looking forward to do some Brisfit flying - so watch this space

cheers
BL

Good man BL I'm looking forward to reading them

Here's another great one from Creaghorn from CA forum;

Posted Today, 03:30 PM
November 1917 together with 3 of my mates of jasta 5 we went up to patrol the Cambrai area behind friendly frontlines. though the mud was several klicks to the west, we could see enemy artillery barrage bursting onto so far untouched forests, fields and farms well behind german lines (by the way, very touching and well done, how the battle of Cambrai is slowly carried into sofar untouched german territory). underway we saw a formation of several sopwith camels below us, flying to the east, so we placed ourselves into the sun and stalked them a while, giving them time to go deeper into our territory to cut off their way back and to watch for other hidden enemies. then we dove for attack.
I was able to hit one camel from above and then zooming up again, using my energy,
while the camel swerved around to avoid my fire. I made an immelmann (hammerhead) for another pass and hit again his wings and fuselage, trying to again use my energy to stay above him. as I looked back i saw him turn, looked almost like turning on a dime. I flew straight, looking for him who was still underneath me. I didn't want to get into the position of getting into a turnfight with him so i just watched the hostile aircrafts next move. he turned away so i dove again onto him with another long burst, thoug not seeing any sign of damage. the camel turned and dived away, then my wingman took over. I lost visual with my other mates and other enemies, so i continued my patrol and regrouped them after some nm (warp). everybody was still there. we made our patrol without any further incidents. on the way back half an hour later we encountered one lonely camel below us. I attacked him alone without signal for attack. we fought a while and everybody was able to hit the other with some bullets. Me, trying to stay above him, booming and zooming, him with trying to get me into a turnfight. we fought like madmen finally i hit something vital and he left a trail of black smoke. after another burst he stopped beeing evasive and just flew straight away towards his lines. with this same burst I exhausted all my ammunition, which of course he did not know. probably he was wounded. I flew next to him. We flew side by side, looking at each others holecrippled aircraft. I didn't see his face good enough but i could bet that he knew he was beaten and would accept any fate. I could not bring it over my heart to order attack to my wingmen to shoot him down, though the times of chivalry are over since at least a year ago. I just wiggled with my wings to say farewell and turned homewards. Damn, what a sim

by Creaghorn

This is the only simulator/game where I feel empathy towards my enemies.
Don't like to look when I see them falling in flames.
Indeed, what a sim. OFF is a window to WWI air war.

I would share some war stories but I don't live long enough to garner any! I take off, then try my best to keep my wingmen in sight, but I generally seem to loose them. The only way I can find them again is to hit x and warp to the next waypoint. There is an auto pilot ( Ctrl + Shift + A ) but it it only seems to work for flying straight and level. It doesn't seem to work for flying in formations, or heading to a mission objective, or taking off, or landing, or combat.

It is kind of easy to get lost because the scale of the map is so large. I fly with Trackir, but I will often pause the game, pop into Spot View, and check out my surroundings. I use the map a lot too, but I can't stand flying with icons / labels on the screen, although that would be a huge help. So it seems enemies find me before I see them, which is really deadly. Once they are on my tail I am pretty much dead meat; Ratatatatt and I am down in flames!

I haven't flown too many campaign sorties, but I have yet to survive a single mission while on patrol. One time when I was lost from my wingmen I flew across the front to bag an enemy observation balloon. Shot it down, crossed back over to our lines, and hit warp to find my wingmen. Right after we reunited a pack of Dr1's found us and I was able to make one or two evasive maneuvers before getting shot down. I need a lot of practice before I am able to fly this sim like it was designed to be flown!


As far as performance, the game is looking good. I recently upgraded to a Win 7 64, i7 920 cpu, and 6gb ram, keeping my old HD 4850 vidcard. I have the graphic sliders set at 2 and that seems to keep corruption away. I tried sliding them higher but had glitches or lock ups. This is a huge improvement over the way my old dual core XP rig with 2GB ram was running the game. I am flying with the latest patch, but not HitR.

Hi Toadvine, If I could suggest, go into the OFF Workshop and selet "Always Lead" then your wingmen will follow you. Also use the Tac so that you may follow the waypoints. You can drag the TAC to the lower left corner of your monitor. It is less obtrusive there or as I have done you can map it to your joystick for easy quick viewing. I try not to warp as I find it too unrealistic and disorienting. If you do these things I think you will find the OFF more enjoyable. I don't know of anybody that does not fly with "always lead" selected. I hope this helps.

Always lead, gottcha. I don't have trouble with the waypoints, I use the map to locate them. But I also have been having trouble mapping controls to my Logitech force 3D Pro joystick.

I have a profiler for it but none of the keys I assign it will work in the game. The game doesn't seem to see any changes at all. I dunno what is up with that, if I am doing something wrong in the profiler menu or what.

So, until I get that ironed out I am playing with the default control scheme, which means all commands like changing views, pause, warp, start engine, the map, are out on the KB instead of on my joystick.

The Trackir is working perfect, that is a good thing.

Hi Toadvine, This information is from the OFF Website FAQ and has always worked for me. Give it a go. Best wishes.

1.1.2 ) Setting up keys and Joystick controls:


You can change these settings in CFS3 but when you go back out an back in again it is back in "OFF mode". Most settings are set from WORKSHOP button now in the OFF Manager and they may override settings in CFS3 options in flight however Joystick settings and keys are set from within the sim! To do this launch a flight (from QC for example, or a campaign mission (i.e. fly!) and then Press ESC when in flight, Click on the Controls.. Edit them, then you must save your settings as "Mine" (without the quotes of course) and the profile will stick for next time.
Or use your joystick's own profile software to setup different settings.

-

Thanks guys, can I ask we stick to "stories from the Front" in this thread please. Seems to have gone off track some.

Ta



Here's a longish one from Olham (hope he doesn't mind posting it here) :


Posted 27 February 2010 - 12:35 AM

"What a sortie I had today!
Although still in summer 1917, we met lots of British aircraft west of Epinoy field.
Maybe I even witnessed a strong historical offensive?

Jasta 5, Boistrancourt, 30. August 1917
Leutnant Hans-Jurgen Harms

Half an hour after takeoff, we spotted Flak over Epinoy. Five aircraft became visible.
Flashar, Mai and Konnecke, about 300 Meter higher, engaged the FE2b. Still climbing,
I saw 5 more two-seaters high: British RE8 bombers. While we climbed on, I spotted
more Flak west of Epinoy airfield, and the most had yet to come.
I counted at least 4 - 5 British Nieuport, 5 Sopwith Pup, and 4 Bristol Fighters!

Now I wanted to climb into the sun, hoping they had not seen us yet, as only the Pups
were at our altitude - the rest approached us higher. But now, some black and white
Albatros from Jasta 7 came down on the fighters, and a furball developed.

Still climbing west, I traced a Brisfit coming down in a fast attack on my group!
Waving like mad, I sent my men to split and get at them. And they did perfectly!
The Brisfit found itself under fierce fire from my four Albatros, and tried to escape in
a steep dive. I know the trick by now - it would come up again with the gained speed,
and I brought my craft into position. From a perfect angle, I hit them right into engine
and cockpit; the defensive fire died, I came closer and shot off a complete wing - the craft
tumbled earthwards and crashed.
In the same moment, I noticed all five Pups approaching us fast! I ordered split and attack
again, and now hell broke loose: two Nieuport 24 joined in! Seven agile fighters against
five Albatros D V - now everyone fought for himself; there were no tactics possible.

I alone had 1 Nieuport and three Pups chasing me higher, the rest all went for the deck.
I could only turn left tight continuously, cause they all tried to get behind me. Now they
rather hampered each other, but I lost altitude meter for meter. I had to get some of them!

First, I concentrated on the Nieuport. Their turns overleaped in a way, that one always had
to turn out a bit, as not to run into the other. Once I knew that, I got him the next time,
full hard and close. He fell away and must have crashed. But another came to join in.
Realising, that the Pups did not turn as tight as the Nupes, I hit them, whenever I could.
They tried to climb out then, and following meant to give the N24 a good chance.
I still did that twice and totally shot up two Pups, without them getting into the fight really.

But then I had a gun jam, or my ammunition was out. I banked hard right, kicked full
rudder left and eliminated a lot of altitude that way, before I caught her up and approached
Epinoy airfield. Their ground gunners and Flak were my last hope now!

First I was only followed by 1 Nieuport and 1 Pup - none of my wingmen was anywhere near.
I really flew between trees now. When I reached the field, I turned eights around the ground
gunner positions, always trying the guns again. And suddenly they cleared!
In one of the many turns, the Pup came into reach. When he noticed it, he tried to climb out
the circle, to lure me into the gunsight of the Nupe. But I took the full risk, zoomed in his neck
and hit him terribly, before my guns were really empty.
In the same second, my craft was hit by the N24. It was to dangerous to continue tight turning
so low with a damaged craft - the cables could snap any moment. So I put her down hard
behind the tents and rolled towards a machine gun position. From their shelter, I watched more
Pups coming and turning over the field. They fired at my craft and everything, and they were
mad as wasps. But to my great joy, the Pup that I had hit so hard, crashed right into the field!

This was a great fighting day - but I hope there won't be more like this one!"