Wow.
This new campaign-thing is excellent - so very polished for a Beta IMHO. Many thanks to the RoF team for workng so hard on it, it seems you have done really good work.

Just have to share my first mission.
Flying for Jasta 11 on Sept 1,1916.
=========================================

From the desk of the Kommandant JG11

The new pilot, Lt. Ernst Schleicher, arrived August 30, 1916, encountered several difficulties in his first flight. Questions must be raised about the efficacy of his training establishment.

Left behind on take-off as he fumbled for the controls, he eventually managed to find his flight over the target - observation balloons.
Though still separated from his leader, he was seen to make two brave diving attacks on the French balloon, scoring several hits and setting it up for the flight leader to finish off. At this point, contact was lost once more. It appears he spotted another balloon somewhat to the north and opted to engage.


His absence was noticed after a moment and an effort to retrieve him was made. Unfortunately it was too late. His engine had stopped.

Evidently in the heat of battle he had turned it off, rather than blipping it, and consequently found himself unable to restart it. By gestures he indicated his intention to set her down. Being on the French side of No-Man's Land, he opted to head for the smoother territory beyond.

Bad luck again intervened - he had chosen a spot 500metres from an encampment, complete with anti-aircraft gun. From the amount of fire directed at him, the gunner was clearly angered at the downing of 'his' balloon only moments before.

His flight leader risked all and flew overhead to ascertain his condition. Schleicher reportedly waved at him once, then several times more in an excited manner. He had succeeded in restarting his engine, which tends to support the theory that the engine itself was not at issue. All this time, the gunner had continued to pour shells in the Leutnant's direction, many deflecting off or exploding on the ridge that partially obscured Lt. Schleicher. Despite this, his aircraft began to roll and pick up speed.
At this juncture, additional enemy fire was noted by the no.2. A flight of three (3) H/A had arrived on the scene. The leader fired several accurate bursts towards Lt. Schleicher.


Though the left plane was visibly damaged, Schleicher continued to gain speed and took off, immediately rolling towards the east. Evidently he had suffered injuries during the strafing attack by the H/A as the aircraft was observed to slip somewhat erratically in this manoeuvre. However, low-level flight was maintained. The H/A flight leader returned and fired another burst. The rounds were clearly seen to strike the cockpit area. Lt. Schleicher's aircraft was seen to hit the ground and pitch forward, coming to rest inverted. Even had he survived the gunfire wounds, it is extremely doubtful that he could have survived the impact.
At this juncture, our patrol withdrew due to the tactical disadvantage. Both pilots returned to base without further incident.

It is to be noted that the arrival of his twin brother, Franz, is expected tomorrow. A summary of today's events will be presented to him, along with the notification of his brother's Missing in Action (presumed dead) status and personal effects.

My first campaign started in bad weather with a very low ceiling for several days. We had a series of front patrols. It was very exciting flying at low altitude at "high" speed over the fall terrain with ground mist, AAA going off, and being able to see distant aircraft for a change. Aircraft were all over, but they were all ours.

One mission resulted in no encounter, we came back and landed. Love the flares going off at home base. So THAT in itself was a terrific surprise.

My careers have been in fall 1916, and so far my flights have been no larger than 3 A/C, and I have not encountered more than 4 NME.

My first mission in the Airco DH.2 was quite exhilarating. Like you Bandy, low ceiling of 900m. Foggy and snowy. Played catch up with my wingmen for a while, and as we got to our first waypoint, I spotted an enemy two seater and made my first mistake.

Never fly out of sight from your wingmen. We got separated, badly. I saw them for a fraction of a second heading away from the waypoint, but circling a few seconds later I completely lost them. I decided to circle the waypoint, hoping they'd return, and almost decided to abort the mission. Fortunately, I dove a little lower, and a few minutes later saw them coming back my way. Falling in line we made it over the front and made a few attacks on some balloons. Flight lead downed one, did a few circles and we headed back. As we did, we were engaged by an Albatross defending a balloon near the front. I tried to engage him but was having a lot of difficulty. A few flack bursts exploded literally right in front of me, and the AAA from the ground was pretty scary, so I decided to dive for the other side of the trenches.

Somehow, and I really don't know how the hell this happened (Why didn't these buggers have compass'), I flew towards what I thought was a friendly balloon emplacement and it's overseer.... when suddenly I realize it's a German Balloon! Yup, somehow I did a 360 and ended up right back in that guys back yard! Unfortunately, diving for the lines didn't work quite as well this time. He got a few shots off that wounded me pretty badly. About half way over the front my engine starts making noises... theeeeen quits (needless to say next thing I did was buy the field mod kit for the Airco so I could have a damned fuel gauge!). But I do manage to land her on the good side of the front. Finishing the mission, I did survive to fight another day, but whew! Harrowing!

Love it.

I am in morning at the loss of my pilot...namely me! ...
first 2 missions were kinda boring and the third was fantastic!! shot down planes a ballon
and attacked a convoy all in the same sortie....I got greedy tryin to get a truck ..went to low and clipped a tree.
RIP...me
ok ok..this time the pilots gonna live through the WHOLE WAR!!!! HAHA ..AAHH HAHAHAHAHA...YOU'LL SEE!!!!!!YOU'LL ALL SEE!!!
MUWWHHAAHAHAHAHA.

or not

the arrival of his twin brother, Franz

Clone Wars

Great story!!

Ming

I started a new campaign with Jasta 6 and just flew the 1st mission: patrol the front.

Followed my flight leader and soon we were cruising above the trenches at 1.500m. FL waved to me and broke right, I followed. Soon I spotted a Nieuport attacking one of our observation balloons. We moved to engage but suddenly the French fighter got hit by our Flak and fell from the sky. Flight leader turned back south and we resumed our patrol. After maybe 10 minutes he again signalled to attack. I followed him and spotted a French balloon. We both attacked it and I finally shot him down on my 2nd pass. As we were flying back north two D.H.2s dove down on us and we got into a fine dogfight, from 2.000m down to treetop level. After lots of turning I short down one D.H.2 in flames, while my flight leader crashed into the other one.

I headed home and about 10km from base my fuel ran out. I glided the way back home and barely managed to reach my airfield.

Great mission, but unfortunately again nothing was saved. Not my kills and not my flight leader crashing. Not even the flight time was recorded.

Had no recording on my 1st Mission also. 2nd and all other missions ok. MAybe it happens when Masterserver has alot of traffic? Neer was the case in beta for me.

Yeah, same with mine, which was unfortunate. But it's still fun, thankfully. Hope it's just a first mission glitch.

That's some glide!

Thus far I have not had any issues with kill confirmation (except my own death!), then again, all of them did happen on friendly side of the lines. Seriously, maybe there is something worked in there about not getting automatic kill confirmation? That would be very nice, but I doubt it...

As far as getting greedy, DEFINITELY I know what you mean! Resist the temptation! Be happy with one kill and get out. I only stick around if one of my wingmates is still in the fray. Even then, if he is grossly outnumbered I make sure that I have altitude if/when I return to pull his arse outta the fire.

Try to fly like you really are there, it's a lot of fun...

Aladar, FYI, the DH2 does have a compass. It's on the cockpit floor, just ahead of the control column.

God!!! I'm lovin this!! bless you 777 guys just frickin bless you

Actually while setting up my campaign I thought I'd lost my first pilot profile so made another. I'd forgotten the first one's given name, so chose a different name for no.2. Turns out both profiles were there, hence the twins thing.

It's such a small thing but I love the way the biography screen adjusts automatically as you alter the age and name of the pilot.

Flatspinman, thats an excellent post.

For me too, its all about the roleplay. Love the stories guys, youve inspired me too.

Stay tuned and keep em comming, love reading this stuff.

Interesting mission this evening. A standard offensive patrol with a flight of five tripes. We head out on course before the flight leader lead us over a neighboring 'drome where we fly a CAP in heavy cloud for two hours. Never saw a single aircraft outside of my flight.

I flew the first hour in real time, and then the second in x4. After two hours I wimped out and went home to land.

Not every mission has contact. Nice touch.

Have only had two days worth of sorties in the campaign so far and loving it. One thing that I have noticed is that my kills (or anything else such as crash landings etc) arent showing up in the mission debrief, and I see that some have also had the same problem..

I also think the campaign is a smart move by 777 as it has made me much much more interested in this product and has also forced my hand to go and buy a handful of new planes. I bet they have seen a significant increase in plane ownership this week!

I really like this thread...My first experience is as follows:

Joined Jasta 11 and posted to fly the second mission of the day at 1330 hours. Flying wing in an Alb DII with squadron commander and another seasoned pilot. We are to patrol the front and engage any EA we see. I am lagging behind my flight until we reach the front and I take my eyes off of them to get my bearings. The next thing I know is that I am alone and have no idea where they are. I Continue to designated patrol point as best as I can since not using the way point helps or map icons. I then observe a dog fight below my alt between some Alb DIIs and DH2s. I join the fight and notice that there are about five other ALbs against 2 DHs (a little lopsided but hey I like the odds). I finally got behind a wounded enemy and let him have it at which time he lost a wing and went to the ground. We were maybe 500' above the deck.

After this short battle the other Albs headed for an Obs balloon and enaged it. Before I could join they downed it and flew off after joining up together. Since there were four of them now I assumed that they were not part of my flight so I began looking for my flight. After a while of looking unsucessully I decide to fly home (fortunately I had payed attention and knew where I was in relation to my airfield.) After landing sucessfully I was pleased to see that I was credited with downing the DH2 even though He was almost done for before I finished him off (there is probably a very mad pilot at another squadron). To my dismay though I was informed that the other two pilot in my flight(included the squadron commander) were shot down and killed (how I do not know since I lost sight of them and to my knowledge never saw them again). The result of my first mission was to receive the pilot's badge and a new squadron commander.

Like everyone else says, I really like the new campaign mode. I can't wait to get to my next mission and just hope that I get better at situational awareness. A side note is that I am reading "High Adventure" by James Hall of the Lafayette Escadrille and his first experience in combat were very much like mine (he got seperated from his flight and lost his bearing. After drifting into enemy territory, one of his mates came to his aid and directed him back to the squadron).

Terry

Whew what can I say. Just wow!
Just returned from a 90 minute mission in my DII flyin with Jasta11. We got in a fight with a Dh2 soon after departing the aerodrome. We all had a crack at him and my leader clipped his wing on the bandit and eventual my leader crashed. The DH2 went on fighting. The remaining wingman got a couple hits on him then I got behind him and tore him up. He lost engine and crashed into the city
As I returned to the flight plan I noticed my wingman was following my every move and realized I was now the flight leader. This added responsibility made my heartrate increase and turned my attention fully on navigation and the mission at hand. As we were flying over Arras and avoiding flack bursts, my wingy
suddenly turned 180 degrees into the sun. I followed. I looked down and saw a flight of 3 or 4 craft. I couldn't tell what they were and went down for a peek.
It turned out to be a recon flight of my fellow Germans. I never saw a enemy aircraft in the city (my framerate was terrible) so I headed back on course for a couple minutes, then circled and tried to get my wingman back with all the commands and flares (except RTB of course) I could think of but to no avail. I never saw him again.
Back on course and alone. I navigated semi well to waypoints using only landmarks and landscape as reference. Got some nice pix of a couple enemy dromes and cities. They were like ghost towns.

I fought the headwind back to base after getting lost a few times and frighteningly becoming disoriented in a big cloud, almost losing it.
It felt good to see that nice bright flare as I aproached and made a good 3 pointer on touchdown.
Then to the windsock for a photo op.
It was good to be home. Sady tho, I am told that my flight leader and wing man had both died in the line of duty.
Salute!

I've started two campaign missions in the frankly terrible Eindecker (Wing warping?! Seriously?! And since when was it a good idea to run at 100% power ALWAYS?! You gotta love the early days!) and on both occasions I've been turned to matchwood by the random medium altitude flak - you know, the little black puffs which are so few and far between! It's either that, or I've flown smack bang into an invisible wall over the front. Has this happened to anybody else? I mean, those little flak puffs look so ineffectual, yet I've literally been vapourised twice in a row!

Still, it's a nice addition to the sim. I suppose I must defend the Eindecker, in that it's opposition was as bad or worse

In six campaign missions with my trusty Fokker I haven't yet suffered damage to flak, but I witnessed a Nieuport getting shot down while attacking one of our balloons.

I've flown lots of missions with this release and the previous betas and have only once been blasted out of the sky like you mentioned while flying over no-man's land. It is a rare occurrence, looks like you've just had some bad luck! Maybe go buy a lottery ticket today?