Yes, if we want a more realistic level of encounters we could lower the regional air activity to the lowest setting. This will be more like real-life, but many more uneventful flights will be the expected result. It depends what people want; lots of action or the more boring reality. Tough decision.

I went to low activity when we first had this discussion after MFair(?) had 11 kills in 2 missions. I'd be in favor of making that a campaign rule.

The continuing career of Albert "Mushroom" Ward:




21 Jul 1916 @ 05h22 Recon for vehicle movement Sout of Diksmuide, East of De Blankaart lake.

Soar lead the flight with Hill and myself accompanying.
Approaching the lines we encountered three Fokker EIII’s and Soar gave the signal to attack. I singled out one and continued an aggressive attack until he was forced down.
Circling I saw one of my mates being attacked by one of the EIII’s with another EIII staying high. I made a run to drive off the EIII’s attacking my mate. But the EIII and his top cover sbroke away and headed back across the lines. Later I realized it was Hill I went to protect and his plane was hit but he was able to make it back to Furnes to land.
I did not see Soar again until I got back to Coudekerque. He also took hits.
On my return flight after aiding Hill I headed for the nearest airfield at Furnes and on my approach I noted a single EIII making a run in my direction. I turned to attack and took some hits but managed to shoot him down.

The mission was successful overall.


YouTube Video:

I have the regret to announce that sergent Alf Field of 60 RFC sqnd, has been shot down by ennemy on july 22nd 1916. He didn't come back from a protection mission of bombing attack on ennemy airfield.

During the way back to home airfield, he was attacked with his comrades by a group of Fokker EIII over no man's land. His observer succeed to shoot down 2 ennemy aircrafts, but sergeant Alf Field has been injured during combat, and his plane has been severely damaged by ennemy ... Despite his injuries he tried landing in the NML, but he lost control of his aircraft and was instantly killed during the brutal crash like his observer ...

Hi, I don't have to delete him as I only ever post your latest capture anyway. So delete him in WOFF if you want to and just take on another pilot with the same name as WOFF iteself does not check for duplicate pilot names.

So long as you get the 'thanks' page you are ok. If you don't get that page then your submission has not been received and I won't get it.

I just checked and found my "regional air activity" was still on "medium" instead of "low",
as I had thought I had set some time ago.
I put it on "low" now and we'll see if that helps a bit.
Thanks for the reminder!

@ Robert_Wiggins

Just watched your video, nice flying of the Strutter ! I see your Einies also do the flat spin thingy.
I see also you're flying with a rather zoomed in view, I like to have more FOV and watch my gauges, specially the speedometer to avoid stalls.

I wish!

Tnx Corsaire. I do like the added FOV when zoomed out but I find it more difficult to keep the sight picture correct. It must be my eyes. Actually Im not zoomed in, I'm in normal default setting. The EIII flat spin Is something I don't usually see because I don't hang about wTching them fall. I was surprised by it. He either lost control or was badly hit any considered dead or unconscious.

Sorry to hear about your pilot Piedro. It happens. Crank up your "B" pilot tomorrow and carry on!

There are now two more reasons for death on the web page - 'Spun in' and 'Pilot error'. Pilot error is for things like hitting trees or railway trains or just running into the ground.

That's why it's interesting to see how other people fly, and this DiD campaign is great for exchanging ideas and experience.

I said zoomed in compared to me, but I see it is the default. I usually fly around in all zoom out to have a wide FOV and my gauges in sight, when combat starts I usually zoom in one click.

I see also many people make flat turnarounds when an e/a flies opposite direction, I'm rather fan of immelmanns to reverse, as it gives me some height and acceleration over the e/a once I go down the other way (rather than bleeding speed in a tight turn). I try to start it before the e/a is under me to stay close. I also use a lot the high yoyos for the same reason. Well I guess I'm more of a "vertical" guy than "turn and burn" ...

That was me in a Strutter at medium air activity in North Flanders. Switching to low air activity seemed to fix the problem of so many planes frequently in the same airspace. It may just have been a low probability WOFF issue...IDK for sure.

It all works and has it's place. It is up to each of us to choose the correct maneuver for the situation at hand. I wish I could always do that!!!

Quick question as I am on my 4th pilot. Everyone's advice is to fly "higher than ordered" or some variation on the same theme. I understand the benefits of that. If we are flying "lead by rank", which means as a Sargent I am playing follow the leader, how do I fly higher than ordered? I am not going to get 5000' above my formation and say bye when the stuff hits the fan. Immersion killer for me because I doubt any pilot chose his own altitude more than once before he was drummed out of the RFC. So, as a lower ranked flyer, how do you get the altitude?

I get my kicks out of being the new guy on the block that has to be good enough and lucky enough to have a little say in my fate, but I have to be good enough and lucky enough 1st. To me that means having to mix it up a little when the chips are down. If there is no advantage in shooting down the enemy, whats the point? If one only has to "survive", then take off, get high, and run like hell when the enemy shows up. I guess that is 2 questions instead of 1.

I hope no one takes this as criticism of DID because it isn't. I am learning a lot from everyone and having a great time to boot. WOFF is a whole different sim to me now than it was a month ago before DID.

I don't fly higher than my flight. Nobody would do that in real life, and if they did they would be severely reprimanded. A junior pilot was expected to keep his place in formation, so that's what I try to do in the game. (If I wanted to fly in some unrealistic way just to improve may chances I would simply leave my flight completely and fly to Paris every mission; a great way to survive but how lame would that be?)

Fortunately, I don't find flying in the proper formation to be any kind of 'death sentence', and in fact I think my odds of survival are better sticking close to my squad-mates. So far so good.

I think to some degree it depends on the attitude of your squad leader. If he is hell bent on suicidL activity when the odds say to run then I would have some reservatio in blindly following without taking some strategical moves to protect myself.

Salut MFair

My 2 eurocent... my sqaudmates arn't real and they dont behave like real people most times, plus even if squady's are sent down most times they seem to survive. I have stayed in a fight to save them in the past but always found I was on the wrong end of a short stick. Your not going to be always at an advantage so it comes down to when its time to "Run" for it, and then if you can.

I fly DID as a Sargeant so I have lead only a few missions, I too have to keep formation. But the longer I live the more I can read the situation and decide if the chances are good or not. Fortunatly the AI on the 2-seater side of the game decides quite often to abandon mission and run for it and thats what I do. All 5 Huns thus far shot down by me is because they actually caught up and forced the fight, and yes a few mates were sent down too.