After a couple hundred hours in Sopwith Pups from previous versions I'm now ripping the lower left wing off my WOFF UE Pup with appalling frequency - a "thoroughly unsatisfactory episode."

Gentler handling of the aircraft is the obvious solution going forward but the only indicator I'm getting is the easy to miss text warning at the top of the screen. Is there a sound for Over-G and Over-G damage and if so, is there another way to boost its volume? I have effects volume set at 100 in workshops. If there's not, I suppose I could increase the font size of the text warning but that doesn't do much for immersion.

Yours from beyond the envelope,

epower

I have learned to not chase things down at any great speed, even if it means letting them go. A few rules I use to justify this are:

1. Never chase anything down while there are still enemy aircraft of equal or higher altitude than you. Only follow if there is no chance of another German taking advantage of your new, lower altitude.

2. Never chase anything down at all while behind German lines. Even if you stay high enough above the earth to avoid ground based gunfire, the fact is that the vast majority of German aircraft are behind their own lines, so you are much more likely to end up with a flight of higher altitude enemy aircraft spotting you down below and swooping in with great advantage.

Having said that, I agree that it's easy to lose the lower wings on a Pup without any audible warning. Some strong creaking wood sounds would at least give you a moment to try and reduce the pressure and save your wings. If such a sound was historically able to be heard over the roar of the engine and the rush of the wind, it would be great to be able to hear it. If not...well, that's my third reason for not following stuff down too quickly.

A lesson I have learned in the Alb and Nieuport series is to cut your throttle to zero when diving.
And still be careful about quick pullouts or turns.

Epower, go to QC, cut power and dive while watching your speed and the text warning. This will give you the speed at which things go bad. From then on watch your speed. As Hellshade suggests, it's a bad idea to dive too steep or long in a Pup. Hope this helps.

Is there a sound of the actual wings ripping off? If there is, I always miss it and wonder for a while why I'm spinning and try to correct it with no effect until I realize what has happened. Would be nice to have a nice loud rip or crack sound when the wing comes off. Loud enough to scare the crap out of me. At least then I would know right away what went wrong.

Also, it would be nice to see the AI shed a wing from time to time. Not from gunfire damage, but from pulling too many g's. I'd like to experience the feeling the AI gets when I lose them wings. Please.

I did have a personal mod which did something like this for WOFF2&3 at one point.

OBD does hundreds of hours of testing and retesting and more retesting to make sure the AI planes do not exceed their envelope of flight. So, what you see is the AI using the planes strengths & not rip off a wing or get over-G damage.

When I made my mod to alter the wing strength a bit on AI planes... they didn't know what hit them and wings were coming off when they did those superman dives. It was both satisfying to see, but got redundant really fast. I've noticed that WOFF AI almost always dive for the deck when they're in trouble at high altitudes. I would keep this effect if it wasn't so common to happen with all skill level pilots.

EDIT: Of course, the other option would be to beg, plead, scream, cry, etc... to OBD to have them include it in a patch.

Yup, would be nice. I've also noticed that the AI can dive much faster. Even the AI piloting your plane. As soon as you take it off the autopilot in such a dive - instant damage. I've gotten used to the fact that you can't keep up with AI in a dive (unless I'm in a SPAD), but it would be so satisfying to see the enemy outfly themselves. This could also happen to your wingmen and not just the rookies either.

Thank you gentlemen. Good points all. As a recidivist alt-Monkey from my Warbirds days I'm likely diving too far after the Hun. The Pup is most definitely NOT like the SE5 when it comes to diving. I'll need to practice my falling leaf technique and see it that works better in the Pup.

Solved the problem. Did some snooping about in the files and found the "Overstress" sound. Foolishly, I always thought that creaking meant I was nearing a stall. Not sure why. Anyway, using the Audacity program I boosted the volume of the sound by 8db. Overstress is now much easier for me to hear. I've not heard any sound when the wing actually comes off. All I notice is a big pull to the left and very heavy controls.

Don't suppose this "Audacity" program is freeware?
Like you I wouldn't mind making a few sounds more obvious.

EDIT: In my dotage I continuingly forget that Google is my friend these days.
And yes Audacity is freeware. Thanks for the tip epower.

There are various sounds, indicating that you are about to stall. Frantic wind fluttering etc.

there are also various sounds indicating that you are overstressing your AC. Fabric ripping sounds, structure breaking sounds etc. They are rather loud and making you jump in the seat (I remember the feedback from Winder when he tried them for the first time )
One has to seperate between overstress by diving too steep for a long time, and damaging the aircraft by G-forces. Diving too fast for a long time makes your fabric rip off and there are audible indications for that. Also sooner or later you will see teared off fabric on the wings etc. Eventually the wings will break sooner or later.

Too high G-forces for too long or too often (the structure gets weakened the more you put it under hight G's) is indicated by audible groaning of the structure. Of course once a wing snaps, it snaps with the apropriate sound. It either does snap or does not snap. Prior to that there is this groaning and working of the structure (think of the scene in Titanic shortly before it breaks in two).

Not sure about your settings but all this groaning etc. is usually clearly hearable. Fabric tear etc. even more.

HTH
Cheers

Thanks Dan,

One of the variables I seem to recall is how many speakers you have - stereo 2:1 4:1 5:1 7:1 etc and your driver settings for this, as this seems to have a bearing on audibility/loudness of sounds 'around' the players position depending seemingly on how they are 'mixed up ' or 'mixed down' to suit the setup.

But I have never investigated to establish which setups are good or not so good...5:1 seems great to me

HTH

WM

I have no problem hearing the creaking and groaning sounds from overstress, just don't seem to hear the sound of the actual wing snapping off, be it a rip or a crack. Is that programmed and I'm just missing it for some technical reason?

You should hear it very clearly.
Yes, as Winder said, it depends what kind of speakers you have, and how your setup is. If you are using 5.1 speakers, your windows setting has to be set to 5.1 to work properly. Default is 2.1. so for instance if you have normal stereo speakers, and your setup is set at 5.1, of course the sound is played, but you won't hear it because it's played with speakers which you don't have. Also if some of the 5.1 speakers and too soft or not working properly etc. But the sound is definitely in, and it's a WTF sound as well when it happens.

What's also possible is that if your wing gets shot off, there can be many sounds at one time. Bullethits etc. It can happen that you miss it because of all the other simulataneous sounds.

Thanks Creaghorn. I'll test it some more.

I like it! Only hardcore WOFFers would be testing the 'wings ripping off' sound effect. S

Most interesting info. Thank you.

I'd not considered the audio setup. I've never flown with external speakers, always headphones. At present, I'm using in-ear Bose noise cancelling earphones. Much more comfortable than the over-ear type since I wear glasses.

I'm not an audio expert by any means. Now I'm curious as to the difference between headphones and speakers? I'll play around with setting and see what happens.

SteveW, I would rather have to call it obsessive compulsive, not hardcore.
Well, I took the Pup for a spin in QC and tossed it around until the port wing ripped off, but no sound. I hear all the other sounds of the frame creaking and groaning during the maneuvers, but no sound when the wing comes off. Does anyone else hear the sound of the wing coming off from too many G's? Hate to turn this thread into a troubleshooting one, but here it is. Sound coming through my headphones and set in the drivers as such, so no chance of missing any channels.

Ok thanks seems to be a small error in the config for some wings in the Pup.

You mean I'm still sane? Excellent thanks for looking into it Pol. BTW, it's not just the Pup.
Also, while you're at it, I've noticed that there is no sound of the rain at the start of the mission. When I land I can hear the rain banging on the canvas, but not at the start. Really cool sound if I may say so.
Don't you guys sleep?

So I got the sounds sorted out. I think much of it is just awareness as to the overstress creaking.

I did do some full throttle 90 degree dives from 10,000 feet and tore up the fabric of the lower wings but good. The rip sound does get your attention! The Pup is tougher than I thought since try as I might, I couldn't get the wings to rip off until I started my full power dive at 18,000'. I did hear a wingbreak sound but it was quite muted. I'll do some additional tweaking with my sounds.

As for the wings coming off in dogfights where my speed was nowhere near Vne, that could very well be battle damage weakening the struts.