Finally Got WOFF

[Sailor Steve]

I've been watching videos of 'Wings: Over Flanders Fields' for months now, and I finally have myself organized enough to buy it. I joined the SimHQ WOFF forums a couple of months ago, but rather than jump into the best WWI air war sim available I've been having fun with Microsoft Flight Simulator X and X-Plane 11.

The first thing I did was set up Training Mode and start learning how to fly the sim. I immediately noticed that the creators have a good sense of humor and a good background on the material. The instructor is Captain Owen Triggers, which was the name of the flight instructor turned squadron commander in the 1977 BBC TV series 'Wings'. It only ran two seasons, but it followed the adventures of a farm-boy who joins the war and becomes a BE.2c pilot just before the Fokker Scourge. It's not a great series, but it's a pretty good one.

I just ordered a TrackHat and it won't come for a few weeks, so I'll probaby devote what little gaming time I have left to learning WOFF and continuing to play with the other two flight sims I have.

[Buddahaid]

Let me know how you like it although my game time is pretty limited these days. I'm simply curious.

[Sailor Steve]

I've already watched dozens of videos, possibly more than one hundred. I was a big Red Baron fan back in the day, and this looks at a glance like it could have been called Red Baron 4. I also considered Rise of Flight, but online multiplayer just isn't my thing.

I kind of wish I could start even earlier in the war, but I understand their reasons for the start date they did pick. In 1914 you would be flying some very primitive planes with no opposition, just doing your job. I have one pilot who was given the very earliest possible date, March 1915. I don't like that a French pilot is training in a BE.2c, but they didn't want to waste resources developing models just for training. It's still cool since April 1 was the date of Roand Garros' first victory as a single-seat pilot shooting a gun through the propeller. The first Eindeckers didn't go into service until the very end of June, and the first victory in one was July 1, with the first confirmed kill coming on the 15th.

So far the modelling and scenery are first-class, and the sounds are also quite good. I'm getting my fill of more primitive planes with SFX, flying a Bleriot XI out of an unused grass strip in England. That's been fun too.

[Mud]

Do you still need the original CF3 to play it, very tempting to buy it.

[Sailor Steve]

For the earlier versions you needed to put the disc in the drive to play it. With this latest Ultimate Edition they say you need the key code from CSF3, but in fact it never asked me to enter it. I'm sure they reserve the right to ask for it, since they originally were tied together, but now I don't know. I didn't, but who knows if they'll ask you or not.

I bought CSF3 last year just for this purpose, and I consider the money well spent. So far I've been having a blast, and I haven't seen any combat yet. I've set up several careers for January 1915, six months before the Eindecker made its appearance, and I've been using the Quick Combat function to just fly around behind the lines, pretending it's July 1914 and waiting for the war to start.

[Sailor Steve]

I've started my first WOFF careers. Not really the first, but what I had before is just experimenting.

I found that the earliest I can start a new career is January 1915, and that all the QC mission I fly will be applied to that day. I then realized that I could use the QC to practice and write my own personal log to assign those missions an earlier date. I then wondered how far back I could take it.

Then I realized that, while the 100th anniversary will never return, the 104th is happening right now. RAF No 3 squadron was the first to cross over to France for the war, with several others only days behind. That was August 13. Since I wanted to have a fighter pilot and a two-seater pilot from each power running simultaneously, I figured why not do the research for the squadrons I wanted and find out where they were on August 1. Or July 30, which was yesterday, and the day I wanted to start this mess. So I created a French pilot. The earliest date I could find was August 12, so I created the pilot and flew a QC mission, choosing an airfield for my "training" base and practicing touch-and-goes in a Caudron G.IV. I'll continue this sort of thing until August 12, then move to the base they were actually at during that time. It's weird, but I'm starting a career at the very beginning of the war, and almost a year before the eindeckers made their first appearance.

But that's just me...

[Sailor Steve]

And then something really awesome happened, all by itself:

It's not enough for me to just make up a pilot. I want real names, so I came up with a generator using dice and websites dedicated to names - British, French, German - first, last and middle, and to generate city names as well. And that's where it got weird.

My first pilot is French. I rolled a 14 for the first name, so it starts with 'N'. A further roll came up with 'Noel'. I rolled for a middle name, and he has one. Being French, he might have a few more, so I rolled for that. Nope, only one. The next roll was a 15, so it begins with 'O'. The only 'O' I could find on the list I had was 'Odil'. For the last name it came up 11, which is 'K'. The only French last names beginning with 'K' on the list I had were 'Kay' and 'Kirouac'. A further roll said his full name is Noel Odil Kay. Unusual, but there it is. Except it gets even weirder.

For the city I rolled an 9, which is 'I'. I could find exactly zero French cities beginning with 'I'. Well, except for "Irish Nantes". That's a nickname, and it came about apparently because Nantes was founded by Irish smugglers as a base from which to sneak things into England. And it turns out that 'Kay' is a Celtic name. One source says it's related to MacKay and McKay, but it's also the name of King Arthur's foster brother and Chamberlain, Sir Kay, or Sir Kai in the earlier versions.

So there you have it. Noel Kay's surname comes about because he's descended from the Irish smugglers who founded Nantes. And that's the weirdness. I didn't come up with that origin and then make up the names, I rolled up the names and the story is a logical explanation for something that actually had nothing to do with me at all. Like I said at the beginning, "all by itself".

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

. I could find exactly zero French cities beginning with 'I'.
.

Issy-les-Moulineaux... Ivry-sur-Seine

[Sailor Steve]

Hmm...I wonder why they didn't show up on Wiki or any of the other sites I checked. Anyway, I found another more detailed site.

[Sailor Steve]

2/08/1914 Caporal Noel Kay has been transferred from Breuil-le Sac to Camp de Chalons where Escadrille C13 is forming. It seems that the rising tensions between France and Germany over the declaration of war by Austria-Hungary on Serbia knows no end. Actual hostilities may not be far off.

Meanwhile, In England I've created a new pilot. Sergeant Corrigan Yegor "Corrie" Aujla, of Saanitch, British Columbia, Canada, has begun training with No 3 Squadron RFC at Netheravon. One of the fun things I just discovered on my own is that you can not only select the season in Quick Combat but also the airplane. This is good because the game has No 3 Squadron starting in January 1915 with Morane parasols, and that is when they first outfitted with that aircraft. Prior to that they were flying BE.2s. With QC I can actually change it so my British pilots are flying BE.2s for the first few months of the war.

I love this game.

[Sailor Steve]

03/08/1914

Noel Kay is busy flying orientation flights to learn the area of Chalons.

Corrie Aujla is also doing orientation flights around the middle of England.

[Sailor Steve]

04/08/1914

Escadrille C13 got word that late yesterday afternoon Germany declared war on France. Noel Kay and Caporal Alfred Esnault made a flight from Chalons to Nancy and back.

With No 3 Squadron in Netheravon, Corrie Aujla has been assigned a senior observer. He made his first flight with Captain Fabio Carlson aboard. His first opinion of his new aircraft commander is "He drinks too much." On the other hand he's starting to become friends with Welsh pilot Sergeant Robbie Reinard.

[Sailor Steve]

05/08/14

In France, Noel Kay and Alfred Esnault make a flight from Chalons to Auve and back, with some sightseeing along the way.

In England they receive the news that at 2300 hours last night Britain declared war on Germany, due to that country's invasion of Belgium.

Corrie Aujla makes another very long flight with Captain Carlson. They head south to the Channel coast and when Aujla starts to turn back, Carlson begins waving at him from the front cockpit, signalling him to keep heading south. Following orders Augla travels out over the Channel until they are out of sight of land. Carlson then signals him to turn east. Aujla does so, but after a few minutes begins to worry about their fuel and turns back northward. Carlson signals him to turn eastward again, but Aufla ignores the Captain's frantic waving and returns to land. By this time a thick fog has set in and Aujla becomes disoriented and heads west rather than north. With the sun setting and fuel running low he finally sets the plane down in a field near the town of East Wittering. After berating Aujla for a time Carlson seems to realize that he might not want the attention punishing Aujla might bring to him. They finally find a house with a telephone and manage to get through to Netheravon, informing their commander of where they are and that they will find gas in the morning and head for home. The family invites them to sleep in their barn.

[Sailor Steve]

6 August 1914:

In France, Noel Kay makes another flight, this time to Belrain and return. No news from Belgium.

In England Corrie Aufla and Capt Fabio Carlson are awakened at 0300 by the family with whom they have taken shelter for the night. Father and son take them in a horse-drawn wagon to a gasoline storage facility on the outskirts of East Wittering. The man there fills a tank on the back of a lorry and gives them a ride back to the farm, along with the father. The son follows with the wagon. When they explain that they will have to return with payment they are told that with the new war brewing this one is free. The plane is filled and at 0405 they take off in the dark. The sun rises while they are in flight and they land back at Netheravon in time for breakfast. Captain Carlson says nothing of their disagreement, so neither does Sergeant Aujla.

[Sailor Steve]

7 August 1914

In France Caporal Noel Kay suffers an engine failure three minutes after takeoff. On landing the plane hits a tree and is badly damaged. Caporal Esnault is unharmed, but Kay receives a severe gash to the forehead and is taken to the town hospital.

At Netheravon in England Sgt Corrie Aujla and Capt Fabio Carlson make an extended flight northeast to Oxford, south to Portsmouth then northwest back to Netheravon. Total flight time is 3 hours 1 minute.