HPW is a liar...and thank God for it.

He told us that his latest version of the FM was his last, however he decided to take a look into the problem some of the AI planes have (Camels, Pfalz DIIIas, Alb DIIIs, etc) where they pull up and climb for so long that they just stall out at the top of the climb and hang there like a big "T" for a moment before falling backwards down towards the ground. The entire time they are doing this they make very easy pickings if you have any kind of gunnery skills at all. Most of us have seen it. You put a few rounds into the plane and it pulls up into a climb and stalls out. The whole time it is climbing and stalled out you pump rounds like mad into it and the enemy plane is destroyed without putting up much of a fight.

Well HPW sent me a test copy for Quick Combat only of mods for the Pfalz DIIIa and Sopwith Camel to try and address this problem. I tested out the Pfalz DIIIa first and got good results but to be fair, the problem still persists though to a lesser degree than before. He then sent me a test QC version for the Sopwith Camel and I just love it! Suddenly the Camel has become a very dangerous opponent because (in the 10 QC fights I tried against it) not a single Camel stalled out at the top of a climb, instead choosing to either level out it's flight or roll over while still maintaining good airspeed and continuing on it's flight path arcing gracefully towards the ground to pick up more energy again.

Usually I can best a flight of 6 Camels, even on Ace mode, in a Fokker DVIIF without too difficult of a time. No more! With HPWs test mod installed I only won 2 out the 10 fights I had against both full Ace and Random AI skill level Camels. With no easy targets to pick off it becomes much harder to keep track of all of them for longer and longer fights. The odds of getting in one of their crosshairs goes up and once you take enough damage, agility drops and more often than not it's only a matter of time before one of them finished me off.
If you want to see them in action here is a preview movie of what I call HPWs Sopwith Camel Anti-Stall "T" mod. The Camels are set to random AI during this particular QC and I get lucky on a few of them up front but keep watching and see the difference in their attack patterns.

Herr Prop Wasche's Sopwith Camel Anti-Stall "T" mod Preview (5:27) 720HD


Examples of Camel AI Stalled "T" Behavior without using HPWs Mod


A big hardy salute to HPW for his continuing efforts to bring even more realism and danger to OFF:BH&H.

Hellshade