Got my first online kills tonight.

[ElAurens]

Flying on the Syndicate server and using the new patch.

Was in my trusty Hurricane (ROTOL) Mk. I and basically just flew CAP over my airfield and waited for Jerry to show up.

First kill was a Bf 109 that was after another Hurri. I latched on to his tail and he pulled up right in front of me. Made a quick deflection shot right into his cockpit.

Then an He-111 was having a go at our base and a Spit and I took care of that little vermin. We shared the kill, I had 63% of it.

The final victim was a 110 that was bent on bombing our hangars. I had just taken off so was low on airspeed and could not catch him before he dropped his bombs. However I made him pay dearly for that transgression. He put up a good fight with some good low level twisting and turning. I was dodging his tail gunner and taking pot shots when I got the message that his gunner was killed. MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!

He tried to run to no avail. I put rounds into his engines until I saw the right one burst into flames. Put the remainder of my ammo (not much) into his port engine and wing and down he went.

Three separate sorties, and they never laid a glove on me.

The sim is indeed improving.

[jimbop]

Nice stories. I haven't ventured online yet, still tweaking my controls and settings. Online play is certainly more satisfying when you're successful though! Especially those deflection shots into the cockpit.

[Feathered_IV]

Congrats on the first victories. Does CoD allow AI aircraft in multiplayer? I recall Oleg saying it would, but it was a few months ago and things have changed a bit since then. It's one of the things I like most about RoF multiplayer. Even on an empty server I can still go hunting two seaters. If other people show up too it's just a bonus.

[SlipBall]

Nice going ElAurens:grin:...how was the immersion feel

[41Sqn_Stormcrow]

Can we now select a bit of your ammo belts in MP? I do would like to have tracers on my Spit occasionally.

[41Sqn_Stormcrow]

Got my first real! online kill today. Up to now I just damaged then and they simply lost control of their plane slamming into the ground. So I consider this to be my very first real online kill.

I flew heading north west at 10,000 ft and was observing two distant dots I intented to inspect closer. I don't know what but something inside me told me that I should check my six. And there I saw it - the slim silhouette of a Messerschmitt, its yellow nose pointing at me about 200 yards away. I immediately broke hard right and he overshot me over my tail. I banked a little further for a low yo-yo and somehow we ended up in rolling scissors while loosing quickly altitude. I somehow managed to increasingly win the angle advantage however I unfortunately offered him a very short shooting occasion. Fortunately for me he missed. We continued to spiral but finally I had him nicely in front of me in a left turn. I banked to the left, brought my sights to the right position and started pumping lead into his fuselage. Suddenly he errupted into a huge fireball and plummeted down and after a full loop crashed into the sea.

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/639/confirmedfirstkillonlin.jpg
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/639/confirmedfirstkillonlin.jpg

[jimbop]

Nice one. I was going to ask what you were flying until I saw your pics!

[Ataros]

Can we now select a bit of your ammo belts in MP? I do would like to have tracers on my Spit occasionally.

Save a preset in FMB and then you can use it online.

[SDT_longshot]

well my first online kill was a 109.
i was flying round by the cliffs of dover admiring the scenery when i seen puffs of AA by the airbase so i went to have a look this is where i seen a small dot in the sky so i give chance but then i lost it by the ground,
so i moved more inland and not far from me to my left i seen the AA fireing at this 109 again as i spotted it i noticed it was after a spitfire so i gave chance, i managed to hit this 109 a little bit but it still managed to straife the planes on the ground and shoot down the spit unfotunatly, but then i got him good and proper in the wing and real of the tail and he rolled over and crashed into the houses.

shortly after this sortie as i had taken off again i was flying over he cliffs of dover again and was bounced by a 109 that i didnt see untill my engine was engufed in flames as i tryed to bail out i crashed into a feild and the second sortie was also my last :( :D

[ElAurens]

Nice going ElAurens:grin:...how was the immersion feel

SlipBall, this is the best part of CoD at this point. The feeling of flight totally eclipses IL2. The "feel" of the whole atmosphere of the sim (I have no better way to describe it) is so much more involving. Much has to do with the more realistic procedures in aircraft management. I think the team did a good job of balancing the tedium of a totally realistic start up with good "game play" if you will. An example, I was sitting in a hangar waiting for the cooloant temp to get up to 60 C so I could advance the throttle and taxi to the runway. One of my mates on comms said that there were 10+ He-111s inbound to the field!!

As the engine was not able to increase RPM without damage there was nothing to do but sit there and wait as they got ever closer. I don't remember a more tension filled moment in the old sim, not even close. As I was finally able to roll out towards the field I could see the Huns inbound from the coast. WOW!!! I get on the runway and open the throttle just as bombs start walking from my left towards the runway, about half way down it's length. It was mesmerizing. The explosions were very real looking, and unfortuntely so were their effects. Just as I got the wheels up I took some shrapnel which oiled the screen and wounded me (a thin red haze in my vision). I was out of action, but still flying. I turned right for a go around as I watched my oil temp steadily climbing and noticed I had no prop control. Fortunately flaps and landing gear were unhurt and I was able to get the plane back on the ground safely as I watched the He-111s turn North East and fly away.

A totally memorable sortie and all I made was one half lap of the circuit.

So, yeah, immersion is covered.

:cool:

[SlipBall]

A very exciting recollection, exactly what I have been advocating for...this sim has a soul:grin:

[Blackdog_kt]

Glad you guys like the tactical implications of extra pilot workload, especially since so many were negative about this when we asked for things like more coplex CEM and aircraft systems management in the past.

This is not an "i told you so" post by any means, i'm just genuinely happy that what i was trying to convey back then is now out there for everyone to experience and the verdict is positive ;)

It's things like that i most wanted to see. Sure, the eye candy is nice and the bugs are annoying, but for me the core of the sim is in the stuff ElAurens pointed out: the more complex the simulation of the aircraft's mechanical parts, the more interesting and varied the ways things can go wrong :-P

[BP_Tailspin]

Sounds like you had a blast Mr. ELAurens …

Soon CoD will be released in the U.S. and I will be hunting for you ….. looking for my “first kill”

[ElAurens]

HEE!!!

Hopefully we will be flying for the same side.

:cool:

[BP_Tailspin]

Good point, but accidents do happen you know …

[ElAurens]

TEAMKILLER!!!!!!1111!!!!!!11!one!

:grin:

[Lixma]

How's the stability now, El?

Last week the servers were dropping like flies....couldn't stay in a game for more than 10mins. Is the ball rolling?

[whoarmongar]

Flying on the syndicate server full realism is a most immersive experience. I took off throttled back a bit to save the engine and staying low to pick up speed I scanned the sky for any lurking 109s. Good it all seemed clear,with the spitfire nicely trimmed I climbed in a wide spiral to gain height until I was at about 10,000 at this point I headed north towards where I thought I might find some action.

All this time the old fighter pilots sayings were running through my head "watch for the hun in the sun", "keep your eyes peeled its the one you dont see that gets you"and "stay together if your alone theyre bound to get you". I have to admit I felt very much alone. No wingman to share the burden, no leader to lead me into battle with his experience and knowledge,no sector controller giving me any worthwhile information about the presence of the enemy. Just me in an apparently empty sky.

Its incredibly difficult to find another aircraft with all the views switched off,you suddenly become very much aware of all those blind spots.you start doing quick 180* turns on the hunch that something may be behind you, staying straight and level seems a silly thing to do, you start weaving left and right constantly scanning for other aircraft.

It was as is often the case the bursts of flak that gave way the presence of enemy aircraft. Seeing the flak bursts from quite a distance I headed of towards them. I was just contemplating if to put the prop into fine mode, open up the radiator etc when I saw them . Two midges,mere dark specks low in the distance. What were they ? Enemy fighters? Or just friendlys taking of or landing ? Peering at them I tried to decide, I was quite a bit higher than these other aircraft and didnt want to needlessly loose that height if it was just a couple of spits taking off. I was totally undecided, I peered at them these tiny black specks trying to decide what to do, were they dogfighting ? Or flying as a pair ? British or German ?

Damn . I had lost sight of them. I couldnt see them against the background of the land. perhaps they have landed ? Were they British afterall ? All this time I had lost a bit of height trying to see clearer what was going on. I still hadnt put the spit into "combat mode" but was just merrily stooging along trying to decide what to do, to be honest I still wasnt sure what was going on, I couldnt see any other aircraft anymore,the flak had stopped it all seemed rather quiet.

What the hell was that! Tracer passing upwards in front of my plane ! Were the stupid gunners on the ground now shooting at me? Then the realisation dawned. It was enemy aircraft and they were shooting at me ! As I went to slam the throttle forward and pull the stick over and back, sudden blackness.....No the game had not crashed, I was dead and my now lifeless body could and would not operate any controls.

The end was shocking in its suddeness, the realisation painfull, I had died like a noob, and never even fired my guns.

C`est la guerre.

[jimbop]

Glad you guys like the tactical implications of extra pilot workload, especially since so many were negative about this when we asked for things like more coplex CEM and aircraft systems management in the past.

This is not an "i told you so" post by any means, i'm just genuinely happy that what i was trying to convey back then is now out there for everyone to experience and the verdict is positive ;)

It's things like that i most wanted to see. Sure, the eye candy is nice and the bugs are annoying, but for me the core of the sim is in the stuff ElAurens pointed out: the more complex the simulation of the aircraft's mechanical parts, the more interesting and varied the ways things can go wrong :-P

Well you've won me over - I launched 1946 last night and flew a quick mission. Fullreal just isn't... fully real any more!

[Sauf]

Nice well written acount of your adventures Whoarmongar, I expect a lot of pilots in RL experienced the same thing.
And gratz Blitz on your victory's.

[Strike]

I'm just experiencing the damage model as I go along now... It's truly immersive to get shot up now. I imagine if I turned off the damage notifications I'd be curious about my aircraft state after I hear a hit, or after flying through heavy flak.

Here's what happened after my R/H engine caught fire whilst strafing spits at Manston. Apparently some Flak cloud shot shrapnel all through my engine, severing whatever fuel lines and causing fire. I quickly shut down the engine and lowered gear but it was too late, I couldn't gain enough speed to keep my heavy bird level so I ditched it near a country road.

After watching the plane in 3rd person view for a while I noticed my wing caught fire from the engine fire... really sweet, spreading fire and all...

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560906397114204618/C042EDCB7A665BD53C39AFA19D4C806C20AB9595/

Then I reflew the mission and this time I scored a nice strafe on a poor Tommy getting ready to taxi to the runway... You can obviously make out what happened:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560906397114208262/6A0E2E6E99BD0D28F5499AF700132CF83C53FC64/

Rest In Peace Tommy!

Then later I was avenged by a 3 inch AA gun, a black cloud exploded right under my fuselage sending shrapnel up me and my gunners ass.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560906397114202515/8402EFD81127613E27B773B3BBA8D3A0CB9642DE/

Instant black screen...



There were even holes in the ceiling of the cockpit glass from the underbelly burst... I LOVE THE DAMAGE MODEL!!!!

[Sauf]

Is it just me or does anyone else "jump" a little bit when the flak bursts close? Scares the bejesus out me sometimes lol.

[Strike]

Is it just me or does anyone else "jump" a little bit when the flak bursts close? Scares the bejesus out me sometimes lol.

Well me and my gunner got slammed into the roof of the cockpit with ass full of flak shrapnel so yes, we jumped. One last time...

LoL, seriously, if you are close enough to the burst you will feel the stick shake. Also if you are very very close the plane will "jump" because of the blast pressure, much like RoF.

I love the fact that you can see the shrapnel. It really makes you feel "exposed" to injuries up there.

Luckily AA is seriously poor shots compared to IL-2 1946, which makes it a lot easier to manouver without being instantly shredded. Once it took me 20 minutes of flying in a hot zone to actually suffer a hit that mattered. Another time, I got hit after 2 minutes and lost my tailplane :P

[ElAurens]

How's the stability now, El?

Last week the servers were dropping like flies....couldn't stay in a game for more than 10mins. Is the ball rolling?

I've been able to stay on a server for a couple hours with no drops Lixma.

The beta has lowered my FPS 5 to 8. which is not good, but it's still playable.

[fruitbat]

Maybe i'm just being to picky, but although i can see how great the game can/will be, until the fm's of the planes are actually anywhere near how they should be, i find my interest is just not there online.

to me, at the moment, its a quasi online situation.

however, i'm looking forward to that time when they are right.

[Lixma]

I've been able to stay on a server for a couple hours with no drops Lixma.

The beta has lowered my FPS 5 to 8. which is not good, but it's still playable.
Rgr.

Just spent an hour on Syndicate. A mixed bag in that the server was rock solid but I crashed out of the game 3 times and the longer I stayed in the choppier and choppier the game became. Felt like I was leaking memory drip by drip.