Two newbie questions

[dhasdell]

I am slowly making sense of RoF, but have a couple more questions:

(i) how does one change the default colour scheme so that all Albatros DV appear as, say, Jasta 11? I have the skin packs, and know how to apply markings to the player a/c.

(ii) there seem to be two different autopilots, which appear rather arbitrarily, one having a normal capital A as the symbol and the other a capital A with a heavier cross bar, a bit like a masonic symbol. What is the difference?

Any help will be gratefully received!

[2Low]

Unfortunately I don't know the answer to either question.

I know that once I tried hitting auto pilot so that I could scratch an itch. I expected the craft to just continue straight and level, but it started a sharp bank so I took back over. I think one autopilot flies you to the next waypoint and one is just level flight. Something I need to explore.

As far as paints, no idea. I've only changed paint on the user aircraft so far.

Things could be a little more intuitive, or a more detailed manual would be handy. There are several options that are not clear to me. I keep meaning to look up engine "blipping' as I can set a control to "blip" but I have no idea what that might do!

The problem I keep running into is that I know so little about WWI that everytime I start to look into something for the game I end up all over the place learning a lot but not necessarilly what I started out looking for! It's great! I have read more than I've played this week and I'm quite enjoying both.

Hopefully someone else comes along with an answer for you. I'm off to discover "blipping" but who knows where that will lead, haha.

[dhasdell]

Thank you. I posted the same questions in the SimHQ and RoF forums, both of which seem more active than this one. Apparently one autopilot gives straight and level and the other takes full control and will fly the mission for you including combat and going home and landing - the bank you mentioned would have been to the next waypoint.

As for blipping, some of the early rotaries didn't have a thiottle - they were either running or not. Blipping means temporarily cutting the engine, as when on approach to landing, and accounts for the "brrrrp......brrrrp.....brrrrp" noise you might have come across.

If you are reading, try "Sagittarius Rising" by Cecil Lewis, "The Wind in the Wires" by Duncan Grinnell-Milne whose SE5a "Schweinhund" is in the skinpack (both 56 Squadron) and, of course the real classic Biggles - fiction, but still brilliant description of dogfights.

[2Low]

Thanks for that information. I was looking for a few WWI books to add to my next reading supply order so I will look those up.

Have you looked into any of the 3rd party mods yet? Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator (PWCG) V10.2 was just released. I installed it yesterday and like it so far. It basically generates missions and injects them into RoF.

I am going to do a write up today on how to install PWCG v10.2 because the install instructions read like someone wrote them out, cut it up so each step was seperate, threw them in a hat and pulled them out one at a time writting them down in that order and threw out the last couple pieces in the hat before recording them. It took me quite a bit to figure it out. I figure if I can write clearer instructions it would be a way for me to make a minor contribution to their efforts.

Also look into the JSGMEMODS package availible at the official forums. It is a package of several mods and a program for putting them into (and out of) the game. The mods change the AI piloting and gunnery amongst other things. Makes things more realistic.

I'll post the instructions here and the official forum sometime today.
Rob