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View Full Version : Back in the saddle (or at least lookin' at the horse...)



LOWnSLO
Feb-15-2012, 23:00
Gentlemen (and any ladies, persons of indeterminate gender, etc. that may be present),

Ive been reading through the various Cliffs of Dover forums with interest. While it seems that the simulations release was a tad premature, it appears to have the potential to develop into a really good online flight sim. While theres a considerable amount of information on a number of other forums, the decorum and signal to noise ratio on this one seems to be better than most, so for starters I'll sign up here.

A bit of background: Im a long time, intermittent dabbler in flight sims, dating back to the early days of Air Warrior. When that went off the air in the early 2001 I drifted around for a bit, finally finding a promising looking beta flight sim called Targetware. I was drawn to it because of its focus on developing as accurate and realistic a flight model as possible, and because of the corps of dedicated volunteer developers from around the world that were working on making it a reality. I worked at researching bombsights, radar, and interminable by the book test flights (power/pitch/speed settings confirmation, rates of climb, fuel consumption vs power tables, ). Unfortunately, the software engine development (by the commercial company holding the rights) slowly ground to a halt, until they eventually pulled the plug on the project, leaving its developer community high and dry. So after a few years of gathering dust, maybe its time to dig out the old stick and have a look at this sim. Im generally interested in the accuracy of the simulation all aspects: historic fidelity, physics (flight modeling, damage models, etc), how tac and strat aspects are incorporated; eye candy is nice but of secondary importance, the game part even less so. As regards actual flying, Im primarily a mud mover. Having neither the skills not time to progress beyond the level of journeyman fighter pilot, bombers fit my abilities and mindset better. Bombers are a weapon of offense, fighters are a weapon of defense (particularly early in WWII), so while I appreciate the fighter jock keeping the bogies off my backside and marvel in awe at the pilot who controls his aircraft as if it were another apendage, Ill do my part driving the bus to deliver the loads needed to move a campaign forward.

What caught my attention in CoD is the Blenheim (and the hinted at hope of maybe getting a flyable Wimpy in the future) and the Course Setting Bomb Sight (CSBS) in it. I havent purchased CoD yet no rush as theres always lots of other irons in the fire and it appears to be early days. In the meantime, I have a few questions and comments that Ill bring up shortly in the threads that I hope are pertinent to those topics. Til then,

cheerio
Lo

Doc
Feb-16-2012, 00:42
Welcome to ATAG!

Blenheim's are targets not bombers. :thumbsup: Get everything setup and join us on TS3 comms. We have a lot of work to do!

Doc

ATAG_Torian
Feb-16-2012, 05:19
Welcome Lownslo,
Cliffs is certainly still a work in progress but it comes from a well pedigreed
company. Updates/patches are slow in coming but the scale of this sim means
there are a lot of nooks and crannies to hide glitches in that need to be ferreted
out. Having said that it it is still an awful lot of fun and has huge potential.
Combat flight sims are not the cash cows that 1st person shooters are. Dev
teams are small and the level of detail to be fine tuned must be horrific.
And so we fly with what we have and wait patiently for the rest.
As Doc has said, our server's TeamSpeak is a good resource when ur ready hit the
ignition switch again.
Torian

Dutch
Feb-16-2012, 08:42
Blenheim's are targets not bombers. :thumbsup:

'I have to hand it to the red team you handed our asses to us last night. Good job'.

Heh!

Welcome Mate. Buy the game. You won't regret it, even with its known issues. :dthumb:

ATAG_Snapper
Feb-16-2012, 08:53
Welcome to the ATAG Forum, LOWnSLO!

Thanks for the kind words. We're a good bunch (no false modesty here :laugh1) and despite its foibles we're really enjoying taking to the online skies over The Cliffs of Dover. Discussions can get spirited st times, but we all try to stay reasonably civilized about it.

Feel free to drop in frequently. Hope you do decide to get CoD and join us in the fray! :thumbsup:

Snapper

ATAG_Knuckles
Feb-16-2012, 09:35
As with the rest

Go ahead get the sim. If you want realistic, you wont be disappointed.

We are certainly looking for more Blenheim pilots. Get on our Team Speak, look for any of us, we will go to a "Help" Channel and get you soloed in no time.

Then you will be hooked Haaa!!!!

Knuckles

ATAG_Bliss
Feb-16-2012, 15:00
Welcome to our forums! As others have said, definitely get the sim. The online experience is the greatest I've ever had with any flight sim.

There's quite a few of us that like to fly bombers. Looks like you've come to the right place!

ChiefRedCloud
Feb-16-2012, 19:44
Welcome to the forums and Blenheims do their jobs quite well ..... though it may take two to match a Bf 110, it can be done ..... We'll put a spot of tea on and warm some crumpets for your arrival ol chap .....