Taking a little brake from BOB II I see. Just out for a bit of sight seeing or are we flying a particular Campaign? You seem on a bit of an odd Russian Roulette ramble of pictures SIr?

S!Blade<><

"I see we've had visitors II'


A troubled outing!

Where is this 33lima?

Still a great looking game.... can't wait for version 5 to come out

CloD did an update last night and wiped all my preferences, grrrr! Only found out afterwards what I should have backed up. Time go go a-fiddling with the control key setup again and map the awful MP console/window thingy. Haven't played Clod Blitz since completing this and tend only to fly a little before losing interest again: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/92980-battle-of-the-battle-of-britain-sims/

CloD Blitz may be the Dog's Danglies for MP, but for SP it's the Curate's Egg - 'good, in parts' ie not good really. Radio command menu mostly non-functional. R/T traffic present and working, but the scripting mostly sh!te: 'I'll fly your wing', pass the sick bag please. Scale too small. AI mostly Artificially Dumb (AD rather than AI?). SP campaigns with broken or badly-scripted missions (LW, mostly) or imaginative but essentially awful briefings (RAF), the redux ones a little better on that score but still bearing only a passing resemblance to 'the Battle'. AAA (Awful Anti-Aliasing) instead of AA. No (easy) way to turn on labels in-game. Need complex engine management to get Spit/Hurri negative G cut-out.

As Tim Stone said of the original, ok if you can regard it as a nice collection of flyable virtual warbirds, with a limited air combat capability and a map, something between DCS and a 'proper sim'. As the focus seems to be on expansion, it's not clear how far the many SP limitations will be addressed in future.

Edit - since this is a screenshot thread...

Take THAT, you beastly Hun!



And THAT!



And the rest of you, stay away from my convoy, or you'll be for the chop, too...



(all three pics from the RAF Redux SP campaign, if I recall right)

Seriously, you couldn't not like CloD for its planes, and occasionally for its air combat, but as a serious SP sim of the BoB....

Take that!

S!Blade<><

***Captions for THIS screenshot are NOT invited***

'' Is that the joystick?''

"Or are you just glad to see me?"

Sorry Mates, but someone had to do it. 33lima, you asked for it by using reverse psychology me thinks!

LOL Trooper.

S!Blade<><

Missed your location quiz, Blade, that'll be Dover Castle, methinks. I was virtually there too, just a few weeks ago...

Sight-seeing...



More sight-seeing...



Not sight-seeing...



Home sweet home...

Some pics from the first Spitfire mission from the RAF Redux campaign, which I will have to replay because the sim, as well as ignoring its own V-synch settings, zonked my video card before I got to RTB and end the mission.

Ready to roll on a test flight with my new squadron leader, with CloD demonstrating its delight in cluttering the airwaves with stuff the boss should have told me before we were about to take off from Manston...



I thought from the briefing that I was supposed to follow the boss, an impression re-inforced by our relative positions on the ground. But hey, it wouldn't be CloD if missions played out as expected, so after waiting for ages I decide to crack on...



My take off was pretty awful, so I decide to do a quick circuit and end what looks to be a fairly boring sortie with the minimum of fuss. Seen here banking around Ramsgate on my crosswind leg...



I'm not sure what this airfield is - Ramsgate? - but it isn't Manston...



I decide to beat it up on my way back...



...before rejoining the Manston circuit...



However, the mission designer isn't going to let me off so lightly. A radio message reports incoming Ju88s. I can't turn on labels, the comms menu is mostly non-functional, and the map icons are staying switched off due apparently to CloD's penchant for ignoring settings changes. Anyhow the Huns are there somewhere, so I orbit dutifully and wait for them to appear. Which they do, coming in low from the east.



I slip in behind the last one and let him have it.



I get hits but not enough. Bits fly off the Junkers and he pulls up out of formation for a while, before settling back down



I take some hits from the bomber, as if the gratuitous advice on the radio, presumably from the boss, isn't bad enough...



My nose pierced by return fire, I then run out of ammo, and hear and see me telling myself that...I have run out of ammo.



By this time, my intended victim is flying on merrily as if nothing much had happened.



My hopes rise as I see him dip earthwards, but are dashed when he starts climbing back up after his comrades again, as they run in to bomb Manston...



I decide that I might as well do as someone is bidding me and land now, dodging any bomb craters. I'm surprised as I come in to see Manston apparently undamaged...



...and even more surprised to see that the Redux campaign's message system is telling me that I got a kill. That Hun bomber must have pranged, after all.



Before I can land, my PC prangs, the screen going black and the speakers emitting a gentle buzzing sound, which requires a cold restart to silence. So I'll probably have to fly the freaking mission again. Perhaps this time, V-synch will be working.

It's the Battle of Britain, Jim, but not as we know it

Tough buggers, those 88s. Fast too.

Those screens are absolutely fantastic. I actually have no issues with CLOD as a combat flight simulator. The combat seem very real to me. Few games have caused me to feel as though I've been in an air battle better than this one. I've read that the graphics are getting old, the AI isn't any good, it sucks....etc.. But I've had a completely different experience. I'm very much looking forward to 5.0 and hope that it's released while I can still hold a joystick.

Same here, as a SP person I'm waiting for 5.0 before I start playing again though... If they don't sort out the radio commands and the AI though it may be the nail in the coffin for me.
They do say there are far more SP people than MP players, so I hope they improve that side of the game... otherwise it may be end-ex for CloD

I wish I could share Coot's enthusiasm and hopes for the future, but every time I decide to fly another SP mission in CloD, I come away with a glass half empty sort of feeling. Or maybe that the glass is full, but about three-quarters is something decidedly unpalatable

Individual air combats can be fun, but for me are spoiled by stutter when an RT message plays, the fact that so many of them are nonsense (wonder if locating and deleting some culprits like 'I'll fly your six' would reduce stutter; failing that i'll install on an SSD at some point). And the audio is nearly inaudible, the comms menu mostly broken, the scale of ops is very small, the missions and other things seem often to be broken. I keep going back, hoping it'll be different, which only goes to show I meet that definition of insanity attributed to Einstein.

Case in point, 29th August mission in the RAF Redux campaign. The briefing talks of a maximum effort but the raid we're sent to intercept from Manston is...'TWENTY-plus'!



First play-through after the usual pre-take off RT chitter, the first two Spits leave but mine won't move, like I've got invisible chocks or my tyres have been superglued to the turf. No amount of fiddling with CloD's options menu seems to help.



In desperation, second time around I hit the autopilot key, which at least works. Really, it shouldn't be this hard.



I take back control as I follow the boss out to sea over Ramsgate. In views like this, I'm always distracted by the knowledge that those piers are going to disappear from view any second, draw distance being short despite maxed settings.



The boss reports incoming Dorniers. The report itself is very well done (despite the inaudible audio, which might as well be completely turned off to end the associated stutter), although he hasn't spotted escorts yet. Still he must have much better eyesight than me because I can see absolutely nothing of the enemy.



By the time I can. the embarrassingly small scale of the raid is apparent - six bombers (or maybe nine, if another kette was out of screenshot to the left) with a small clutch of 109s for escort. At least they react with convincing aggression.



About this time somebody reports spotting 109s, but by that point we are already engaged with them.



I chase one of the Messerschmitts and get some hits. Breaking off after he starts trailing thin white smoke, I lose him briefly and have to avoid an attack when tracer zips over my canopy. When I next see my target, he's going down in a shallow dive, and ends up crashing into the sea. At which point I start hearing (or rather, seeing) some of those embarrassing 'I'll fly you wing!' messages, complete with more stutter.



First one and then the other of my section rejoins, while the virtual airwaves start to fill with courses and heights. Is the fight over, are we supposed to reform, or what?



I can see no-one but my section so decide to go home to Manston. I can't tell them to land so it's every Spitfire for itself. Despite being as usual denied permission to pancake - those menu options at least work - I can't be bothered doing a full circuit so I make a quick approach, watching out for any other traffic. I'm coming in from the west, the same direction as our departure. Even now, somebody is still on the blower giving courses and heights.



As I land another Spit is buzzing by, and somebody is reporting 109s. I'm on my own and have no idea from what point the bearing to the enemy is being taken. Map icons, paths etc have so far resisted every effort I have made to turn on any of them, so I can't even 'cheat'.



As I taxy along looking for somewhere suitable to turn off, another Spit lands in the opposite direction. Glad to have avoided a collision, I am also pleased to be awarded a kill (meeting the mission completion goal) and can therefore quit. IIRC the debrief stats confirmed my 109 shot down, another damaged (by me or not is unclear), and a Spit from our squadron lost, along with two Hurricanes from a squadron I never saw. 'End Ex' indeed - 'No duff!' Until I feel the insane desire again, to try one more time...

In my book, CloD is just about acceptable for the odd tussle, and is possibly the proverbial dog's danglies for multi-player, but as a single player sim of the Battle of Britain, it's not at all satisfactory. So near, and yet, so far.

Well I solved the sound stutter following an ATAG forum poster's suggestion, installing CloD Blitz on an SSD (actually using Steam's settings options to move it, which was easily done using the instructions here... https://www.howtogeek.com/269515/ho...another-drive-without-re-downloading-it/ ).

To celebrate, here are some screenies from the last mission before the move (the RAF Redux FW200 Condor interception)...







I have no idea how the R/T traffic degenerated into this nonsense, but I suspect it's a lead in to the infamous Spitfire Girl mission...





...and the first gloriously sound stutter free mission, afterwards (the stock single mission intercepting a low-level bomber attack)...





















For all its many foibles, there are aspects of CloD that I find it impossible not to enjoy!

This fellow doesn't look so sure, though...!

Great pics!

Thanks Trooper.

The last CloD update seems to have broken the single mission, intercepting Heinkels bombing London. Before, the bombers stayed reasonably well in formation. As they seem to do in other single missions eg if substituted for the Stukas in the Hawkinge interception. Now, the Heinkels heading for London break formation more wildly than in that impressive but unreal sequence in the BoB movie. After that, they are all over the sky, climbing wildly, rolling left and right, going in all directions at once. I know there are accounts of single Dorniers during the 'Battle of France' attacking and even trying to dogfight with a Hurricane, but this is ridiculous! And their gunners seem more accurate than before, regardless of G forces.

Still, I managed to get some decent pics.

I say! Would you mind awfully not doing that?



Hah! Take ZAT, you Englander pig-dog!



I sink ze sick bags are in ze back somvere, Hans.



HELLOOO! You don't happen to have some change I could borrow, for the telephone?

LMAO! Your killing me here. Somebody needs to cut the freaking grass!
Also, what is with the outdoor Grandfather clock?

S!Blade<><

'Cut the grass'? Don't you know there's a war on?

As for the clock, it's probably that deranged fellow running the London Marathon. He must have got really badly lost, because he finished yesterday, nearly 79 years later. It's all over the news, this side of The Pond: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48084878