DoubleTap

Gents, I have sent out the manual for the new online campaign this afternoon. If you did not get a copy, my apologies. Send me an email and I will send one out, or perhaps a fellow squad member can pick up my slack. Cheers! Doubletap

Redeye, I'm sorry, m8, but the problem is, nomatter what date I pick, it will always conflict for someone. I picked the 28th because a) It has been a while since the D-Day event, its close enough to put pressure on me to finish things up. I cannot guarantee anything, but I might run into schedule issues of my own, or might need an extra week to work on the maps. So, there is a chance it will be pushed back anyway. I will keep everyone informed. Doubletap

3pm EST? Done!

Hello Gents, I am back from sabbatical. You, uh, did miss me, right? Right? ...(bastards!) Anyway, couple of announcements. I cannot host this Thursday, the 13th, because of a family thing, but I am itching to fly and host coops, SO, I'd like to run coops tomorrow, wednesday, the 12th. I could start anytime during the day, actually, but those folks willing and able to fly please give me an idea when you might show up so I don't end up playing with myself. I could run it for at least 4 hours, but can certainly go longer. The game I mean. Second Announcement. The second K9 Squadron WWII FB Daemon event, "Sand, Sea and Steel : North Africa 1940-41", is nearly ready, and I am scheduling it for Friday, July 28th, from 5:00pm EST to 8:00pm EST. Expect the full manual to come via e-mail by the end of this week. Hope everyone can make it. Glad to be back, Gents. Doubletap

Okay, so, we are changing the K9 reunion location to Sweden, right? Damn straight we are!!

HEY! I am pa rt Portugese! GO PORTUGAL!! Broo-ha-HA!

As good as it may be looking, I think BOB will lack enough diversity in planes to keep people coming back to Il2 for quite a while. I think we're golden for a year or two at least...

Amazing what these guys from that generation did. Durning did all that and turned out to be a great actor and talented performer.

Caught this article online. Wing commander Nicky Barr, who has died aged 90, was one of Australia's most successful wartime fighter pilots, credited with destroying at least 12 enemy aircraft. Shot down three times, on the third occasion he was badly wounded and was taken prisoner by the Italians. He then escaped three times, and remained behind enemy lines for more than a year conducting clandestine operations with the partisans and special forces. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2006/06/20/db2001.xml As they say online, read the whole thing; there is much more. His record is astounding.

Congrats Now shave, ya hippie!

MMCUMC! (Making Me Cough Up My Coffee!) Favorite Line : "Downed all over Kent, just like the Luftwaffe!" Freakin' Brilliant!

This is my favorite so far: "Its always darkest right before it goes pitch black." http://www.despair.com/despair.html

Fantastic, and I mean, absolutely fantastic pictures. You got to see stuff I have never seen except in illustrations or old photographs. Thanks alot for sharing them. I think I feel the need to take a trip down south to see these for myself. Seems like you guys had quite a good trip. I am glad it all worked out. Oh, and I can't resist: "Im wondering about the belle being vandalized on mud island....you had to take a tram to get to the thing, and it was in great shape, mostly restored back in 89, and under a large open air pavillion that protected it (or so it seemed) from elements. I kenw it got vandalized really bad when it was on a pad in the open in memphis for decades" So, WHEN are we bringing caning to the U.S.? Vandals in general are maggots, but defacing history is even lower. Sorry to end on a negative note, but in New York, we have to deal with morons who can't even draw writing their stupid "tag" all over the place. Should be whipped and dipped in paint thinner. Okay, I'm done.

Its the mask Mistress Cruella makes me wear when we have our "sessions".

I only have a cheap pair I converted from a Saitek driving system and it is definitely worth it. You can pull things off that I don't think even a twist rudder would allow. I also find it more intuitive after I got used to it.

I'm curious... What are people's overall feeling regarding plane choices? The reason I ask is that I think that assuming I am not completely outmatched, I enjoy flying almost anything. Its not a matter of doing well or not, but rather the challenge and diversity of flying something unusual. For instance, I downloaded some missions based on the German invasion of Poland, and flew the P-11 (along with Roger) in Coops a couple of weeks ago. We were obviously outmatched (as were the Poles then), but it was interesting and fun to fly it all the same. The fact that it was based on the historical situation is a plus for me. As it turns out, I don't know if we brought anyone down, but we did get hits on a few people, and had my shooting skills been a little better, I might have even scored a kill. In addition, me and Roger seemed to work together pretty well, mostly out of outright neccessity. I am not touting this as a virtue, just as a explanation of what I find interesting, while understanding people have different preferences. Hell, I think the Poles would have preferred different planes in real life! And except maybe for an occassional foray, I do not enjoy being in a scenario with completely overwhelming odds. I am not that much of a masochist. I am interested because when designing missions, I find I am drawn to some of the more obscure or at least earlier war scenarios. I strive to make them play balanced, while retaining some aspect of the historical situation. I guess what I am trying to gauge where people's preferences lie. I will always create missions I find interesting, but I would also like the ones for the group to appeal to the majority. I'm democratic like that. Anyway, vote and opine away...

As a long-time BF 1942 fan, and as a primarily first person guy, I have resisted getting BF2, even after I got a system which would run it very well. I have gloried in learning the arcane arts of prop driven military aircraft and reveled in the cold, yet seductive challenge of WWII aerial combat. I have slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth...Put Out My Hand And Touched the Face of God. (Or occasionally filled Psycho full of holes, which is, quite frankly, just as good.) Now you show me video of earth-bound tanks and bombs and helicopters and explosions and missiles and first person carnage and I find it...disturbingly tempting. The roar of the tank muzzle, the prattle of automatic weapons fire, the rag doll dance of the enemy as your grenades explode like thunder... No! NO! I must resist! Get Thee Behind me, Satan! I will not be once again seduced into first-person debauchery!! On a completely unrelated note, I am cancelling Coops today, as I need to go to Best Buy and get...uhm, some Tax software, and uh, do my taxes...Yeah, I am going to frag those taxes, baby!

Excellent, frior-one! Can I, uh, sponsor a fallen women?

Guitarman, I am already working on the next series, which will be set in the Med/North Africa. I wanted to do a much smaller map (although I am going to use every damn bit of it and then some!) to see how everyone fared as far as lag. I am working on a couple of unique (I think) ideas for it. However, yes, having premade maps to work from would be a big damn help. Can you give me a link to the missions you mean, and let me know what kind of missions you are thinking of. The reason I ask is since its a DF map, people will have to fly the bombers and I don't know how many want to fly those. Of course, I do recall that Stukas and 110's (and even some Italian planes, lord help them) were used against the more southern portion. Anyway, I will look them over and email you and we can go over ideas on how to structure the FBD missions. Doubletap

Jeez, did I actually say that? I remember the "Oh, you are going to pay!" comments, but I seem to have blacked this portion out...

Thanks for the info Rog. It's good to get confirmation from the experts. Hopefully these things will improve things for next time. Couple of notes, though. One problem, though. The lag makes it as difficult, if not more, to take off than it is to strafe, particularly on a complicated/busy runway. Trust me, I know. I crashed a couple of times because I could not properly judge my speed and turning. At least if you start a strafing run and you sense things getting goofy, you can pull up and wait for things to calm down. I usually have this turned off, and it was on Friday. I think it would be better to exchange skins for our PC libraries so we don't need to transmit during gameplay.

Dude, you know how long it takes to make a map? :? Actually, I am toying with the idea of using DCG to create missions, tweaking them, and them running them with FB Daemon. It would make things easier in the long run, although it might not be as slick. Badaim brings up a couple of good points, one of which is that someone with a good connection could also host and run these sessions. You just need to get set-up with the server and then FB Daemon software. If anyone is interested I suggest downloading the server software first and then getting to run successfully before bothering with FB Daemon. Although I am far from an expert, I could help walk you through. Also, anyone able to use the Full Mission Builder is able to make maps for FB Daemon. All it involves is making a dogfight maps with stationary type vehicles, and then doing a little cut and past in the mission properties file. Basically, the properties file (normally just has the briefing text) has some additional information that tells FB Daemon info it needs, like duration of the mission, which and how many vehicles/planes/guns etc count as objectives, and which map loads based on who wins. Technically, I really think its not that difficult once you get the hang of it, but the problem may lie in play-balancing. Again, I would be willing to walk people through it. I think most people want a pretty historical set-up, but at the same time they need to be roughly fair for either side. Roger, if the upload sections are working, I could post the mission files for D-Day so people can take a look at how they work. Also, BadAim, points taken about the airfields. One, the Allied Island airfield was particularly difficult because one had to taxi to even take off. I am sure a couple of the German were like that, so coordination is neccessary each air group. The dropoff airfields were a result of not having time to work on the map, and the problems with the map itself. Despite appearances, there are very few places where airfields will lie flat on the Normandy countryside, so it was even more difficult to fit several together, at least in the time I had.

Was that you? I seem to recall that happening, but I thought it was a wing. In any event, I never knew what the hell hit me. One moment I am flying above Caen, looking below for bogey's, the next thing BOOM! I am still looking at Caen, but its spinning. WTF? :shock: Heh.

D-DAY AFTER ACTION REPORT Forgive me if this gets long, I’ll try to be brief (and fail), but I hash things better for myself when I write them out. I also would appreciate insight on some of the more technical issues presented. First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who joined up on Friday, and for making it a memorable experience. It is hard enough to get 4 adults who live locally together for an event, let alone 21 of them living across 6-7 time zones, in several different countries. Considering the logistics of that alone, let alone the technical pitfalls, it went smoothly. You guys were great in dealing with delays and snafus that occurred. Second, while there were a few issues, I was very pleased with the overall result, and it looks like most of you were too, which makes me glad. People have been expressing what worked for them and made it a good experience, so allow me a couple of thoughts. One, the missions thankfully seemed to be very competitive in the end. (some say TOO competitive, heh. See below). By that I mean I think that things were close in all of them. The first mission in particular was literally a nail biter. Imagine this; as Psycho is lining up his cross hairs on a P-47 (and Red’s last pilot) somewhere on the map, Painless is lining up his attack run on a group of trains which will put Red over the top on its objectives. Probably within seconds they both fire, and Painless only manages to destroy the trains moments before the P-47 blows up in a fireball. This is Hollywood action kind of stuff. Second, this being a simulation, the theory should hold, generally, that what works in real life should work in the sim. While there are limitations to it, of course, I found the principle to hold true. Take the P-38 for example. Historically, it was a valued (and feared) airplane for its role, but in the European theatre, it did not fair well as a dogfighter, and quickly switched to ground attack roles when other more suitable fighters became available. I think this follows in the sim in that the P-38 is definitely not a plane of choice for dog-fighting with most people. For ground attack, however, it is hard to find a more capable fighter, at least in the theatre and scenario we were engaged in. For the ground attack role, flying the P-38 was eye-opening. Suddenly, my need to knock out as many bunkers as possible made the 10 rockets and up to 2000lbs of bombs a Godsend. The fact that the thing could maintain good speed while loaded, and then could get the hell out of dodge when empty made it shine. A big reason why I wanted to do these kind of missions was to allow all the different models of aircraft a chance to prove their stuff in the situations for which they best suited. I think that this kind of format really helps accomplish that. Also, the principle of air superiority was proven a couple of times, particularly in the last mission. I don’t know what the Blue experience was at that point, but it seemed Red was somehow able to establish a firm hold on the air there which was hard to break. One of the most exciting moments for me was flying around Caen in patrol, and someone announcing the Me-262 had arrived. Yikes! Where?!? Don’t know, but I hear a wing-mate calling for help from a 109, and I dive down to the deck after him, brushing him off. The 109 starts running and I give chase down to the deck. Can I catch him? Looks like it, but not fast enough. We’re running from the city, so I figure I can open up my WEP and my radiator. I am gaining. He looks like he is running for home, so I could run into more enemy fighters, but I might also find his airfield and go to town. Heh. But, be careful. I call out, “Hey, I am chasing down this 109. Can someone watch my back?â€

Better than Porn...Actually, if you have pictures of nude woman splayed out over airplanes, all the better.