Moogy Dutch and I worked on that

(and I'll let Dutch answer this of course)

We halted any progress of high altitude bombing as the way the Blenheim is modeled, its impossible to see the target to get lined up. The instrument panel is in the way in the. pilots position. The bomb aimers panel is in the way in front.

We figuered why spend 15-20 minutes climbing and get very poor results, when low level is safer and more accurate

(Sorry for stealing your post Dutch was I was here anyway) ???

Knucks

Hi Moggs. What Knucks says is just so. I made a short vid in the Level Bombing thread here;

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...t=28667&page=6

Level bombing from 6000ft, entering IAS into the sight, not TAS. Entering TAS fell way short. Bit of a game issue going on there.

But if you mean a vid simply for engine management at altitude, it's a bit of a strange one. I've always thought of carb heat as either on or off, but only recently someone mentioned that it's variable. I've yet to test this theory out for the reasons Knuckles says.

But for ref, I climb at +4 boost, cowl flaps 1/3 open (visually that is, it's about 35-40% in the digital readout), never touch mixture from the 'lined up with the mark on the quadrant' setting (I don't think it works anymore anyway since last official patch), engage carb heat @ 4500ft.
Now comes the strange bit. As you gain altitude your engines start to rattle, even with temps in range, and the only cure I've found so far is to gradually back off the throttle, which is opposite to what I'd expect. keep on climbing and 10,000ft is easy, but by the time you get there, you're at about +1 boost or so. Keep your temps in range and it's not a problem, but backing off the throttle seems weird. Maybe I'm missing something here, and it may be the variable carb heat.

Now I'm going to have to go and try it out. Thanks for the prod! :grin:

Edit: My previous carb heat on/off setup gave either zero or 100% carb heat. With it now set to variable, you can gradually increase it from 4500ft upwards, but it actually makes no difference, so on or off is better in terms of workload.

Again, the engines started to rattle at about 7500-8000ft, so I pulled back slightly on the throttle until it stopped. A few hundred feet later it rattles, so back off a bit more. Eventually at 10000ft I was at 50% throttle and +1 boost, but cruising along happily at 150mph IAS.

I can confirm again that mixture setting does not function at all at the moment, and because mixture setting must be fixed, probably explains the need to back off throttle. Perhaps the mixture is fixed at too rich a setting for these altitudes. Here are some screenshots of settings at 10000ft. I included the digital readouts for those that use them, and you'll see that some shots say mixture 32%, some 93%. This is to show that mixture makes no difference. ;)

And some more;

Dutch, I don't know where to begin but you guys are stars. I only asked because I was having trouble with what I can only describe as engine surging once I pass through 5,000 ft-ish and Iseem to remember a conversation about carb heating at around that height. I'll have to start practicing again with the Blenheim. On a semi related note a few TP'ers have been enjoying themselves on the ATAG server in recent weeks, great fun.

LOL.. I had actually been doing ok with setting the compass and Gyro and making it to the German ships the nights before (when I wasn't stranded on Littlestone getting repeatedly straffed). But last night, I was attempting to do a course a lil further South, to try and get away from the fighters, and I ended up turning too much.. think I gave up and started trying for 'sight'.. must've seen the Cliffs and thought it was France.. I did think things looked strange and thought the ships seemed in a 'new' different place.. Guess I should've tried to look at the flags!!!.. Next run Snarglepuss and I went out on a run, and he had forgot to change off the 1 second fuse, so he only got to drop one bomb that run.. and me, unlike my 3 kills against our ships.. I only sunk 1 with my 4 bombs...

But all and all, it was a lot of fun.. I love this game, and love the server! Had a really fun run with Snargle up the river a few nights ago, it's great that there are so many people that want to help others!..

Now if only I could find some Fighter escort on those rough nights!!.. Tried the Spit II after getting shot down on the field so many times two nights ago, but I am really bad with getting the speed up and such, so for now will stick to the Blenheim.

Regarding the OP's videos:
1) Is one 250lb bomb sufficient to actually sink such a tanker?
2) Without having CoD open to check: Is single-bomb-drop-mode the default? or is it some special key, as opposed to salvo drop?
I've always been under the impression that I suffer the "bombs non-existent" bug/error, because I couldn't make out any bomb impact/damage after dropping (yes, bomb doors were open), but it may be that I only threw a single bomb and I missed that somehow...

Hiya Redroach.

Yes one 250lb bomb is enough. I try to aim for the part of the hull where the funnel is. Seems reasonable to aim for the engine room! :grin:

As to bomb drop, it's been a long time since I set up my controls, so I can't say if it's default or not, but I have a button set to drop individually.

One thing I have noticed though is that the loadout can sometimes default to 2 x 500lb if you don't check before take-off, which sometimes leads to confusion.

Meantime, with the new patch, the flying aspects of these vids are out of date, but I'm not going to change them until I know that the FM is finalised.

Cheers! :)

hey, thanks for your quick answers! :)
Found out about that second part: you can switch between bomb patterns in the Blen - single or salvo. There is a switch in the Bombardier's position which I use but I think there's a key assignment possible for that, too.

But now the sad part: After being shot down rather quickly this morning while going to our target on ATAG (L5.3 afair) the direct rout, I set up an elaborate great-circle route for the purpose of coming from another direction.
Arriving at Dieppe ( :D ), turning east there and turning north after an arbitrary distance inlands (at some waterway ^^ ) , I actually made it to the target! Yay! With some corrections when double-checking with landmarks, but still... Yay! Only to find out that my bombs still won't explode, as others have reported here :( . Damn, I got CoD since release, got angry about a lot of things but I have yet to get a bomb on the ground that is actually dangerous...
Now, I tried everything that's been suggested in that other thread. I set up my own armament profiles on every level (4x250s), and tried the No.27 and No.28 MkII pistols/fuzes so far (level bombing, that I'll try). I try to arm bombs (though it doesn't seem to be necessary with what I've tested), open bomb bays of course, but... still nothing.
I dropped them directly after spawning, while still on the ground, generating a lot of dust - so the bombs DO actually exist. Furthermore, I've just bombed my own airfield on ATAG and I could make out four little craters afterwards, as if the bombs just buried themselves in the ground. Still, no explosion, no smoke.
What am I doing wrong? This starts to get not awesome... especially after 1,5h flight time, as described above.

P.S.:What I didn't test is 11s fuze delay resp. the longest delay available. Maybe it's that? Anyways, I'd strongly prefer instant fuzes!

That sounds very strange.

I always use the 'ever ready' fuses, with 11sec delay for skip bombing and 1sec delay for land targets. If you've got the graphic effects settings turned down this might not show an explosion in the new patch, but I haven't tried this on low settings.

Basically, if you've got bombs in there and you drop them, you should blow things up quite easily.

I always press a 'arm bombs' command as a matter of course, although this shouldn't be necessary with the Brit bombs, again unless it's changed with the patch.

I haven't done much flying of the Blen since the patch. Well, I haven't done much flying............:(

Roach: dont get discouaged, we have all had the :do I really have bombs" issue. I have been back flying the Blenheim the last few day as I have myself have found some new "Patch" Issues. Look for me in Coms and give me a holler. The best way to track down that " my bombs dont explode is to fly together.

I'll be looking for you as well

We will get this worked out, and we are ALWAYS looking for more Blenheim pilots. Trust me is really a hoot when you can get say four or more to go on bomb runs

hey, thanks for that offer! I'll try and be online tonight, say from 21:00 CET or so. It would be great if we can figure out what's wrong (though, while I consider my written english to be 'okay', I hope I'm not struggling too much with my spoken english :D )!
And yeah, flying in formation has always been my dream in aerial combat sims... sadly, I didn't have the opportunity so far, as I always went online as a loner ;)
I hope we can do that, and we can do that often, for some time to come :)

Trust me you English will be no problem.

However any one have a good link to time zone converters, havings trouuble with the

CET (Central Europe Time) to PST Pacific standard Time (Arizona)

I think that's 1pm for you Knucks. ;)

hey, was online yesterday, but I didn't feel well, so I called it a day @ approx. 22:30 - sorry :)
Didn't find you either - but that may not mean too much because I was struggling a bit with getting the proper sound volume balance with TS3 on.
But I tested at least one more thing: I tried a 11s delay with the No.28 fuzes and got the same results as before. 4 little 'didn't explode' craters. However, I noticed a strange thing: Some Blennys, parked approx. 50m away, were burning! I don't know why, maybe some Axis plane got in and strafed them while I wasn't watching, but this leads me to a more generalized question:
What is the result when my bombs hit plain grasslands, like I did describe in here. Sure, there should be an explosion (which I have or have not missed every time...), but is there some kind of smoke column afterwards, even if somewhat limited, time-wise? There should be, right? If that is NOT the case, then my bombs probably have been working the entire time and I just didn't see/recognize that...
On the other hand: Bombs DO throw up dirt and smoke on their own, so this SHOULD, by all means, be visible :-/
I'm getting desperate >.<. All I want to do is delivering a pathetic 1000lbs payload so that my foes shall snuff it :(

You should see a small puff of dust as the bomb hits, then a larger cloud of smoke when the bomb explodes.

This vid will give you an idea, there is a good view of Tonka hitting the fuel depot on ATAG with me filming in the turret towards the end of the vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww3sIT-uT_c

Roach

I was on twice yesterday, saw you on coms but you were listed as "Mike Muted"

we will just keep trying to hook up

yes, as said, I needed to get TS sorted out and I went to bed rather early due to me not feeling well - sorry!

I just did a few flights a few minutes ago, and I'm having a break right now, but still nothing. I thought I could hear a single explosion behind me, after dropping bombs - but, still, no smoke columns when I turned around to investigate :(

/Cry, it works with everybody, it can't be that hard to get those fricken' bombs to explode, can it? Maybe blackdog_kt can help! Show yourself! :)

No, really, It's probably best, as you, knuckles, suggested, to have you watching if my bombs are actually dropping and if they'tre actually exploding, and go from there.

P.S.: I tried to record a bomb drop on ATAG (where I always am). Am I right that you can't even switch positions/have an outside view on video playback, too? :(

P.P.S.: A little OT: I'm a realism geek and therefore, I rejoiced when AI radio commands were finally introduced in the current beta patch (about time, btw; without that, CoD was just a flight demonstrator). Now, I always request permission to take off, only to be told: "Takeoff_denied"[sic]. Do I need to do something special there or wait for something? or is it just another bug?

First thing: dont get discouraged we have ALL had issues at times: they are all fixable, just takes time to sort it all out

Views: in multiplayer if i am correct, only cockpit view in playback: off line play you have get all the various views

Radio/Coms: they have never worked, something we hope to have fixed eventually

Big, fat thanks @ you, knuckles, for providing "external view" to double check on my issue! :) It seems my bombs did actually work from the start, but I went from wrong assumptions, which, on full-real servers, obviously DO sometimes happen (see other threads about the matter) :).
S!

Edit:
Oh, while I just remember it: A follow-up on "bombing on plain countryside" would be: What about bombing airfield runways? Are the craters which you blow into mostly "plain soil" (i.e. on the enemy's runway) sufficient to take that runway out for some period of time? Or is it pointless?
Maybe this should be tested as well ;-)

Redroach, you have to come along and join the online Blenheim crews. :)

Unfortunately everyone's a little 'down' at the moment (except Knuckles, he just keeps on going!), but the ATAG chaps have a very strong Blenheim fanbase, so we will most definately get together soon.

I look forward to it, but my German is definately far worse than your English!! Look forward to it!

I'd be very happy to join your blenheim squadron, really! :)

But... why is everyone down? With the last patch, I've just put the "down" (and ...angry) phase behind me - AI radio commands, while not that decisive in online play, are finally there!
And, while the game was at least playable for me since release, I've been able to tweak my settings so that the game looks really pretty now!
Flight models are also (slowly) approaching to where they should be - Things get definately better for me, so get your fellow blenny pilots motivated; they should not be too disappointed, I think :)
Sure, there are still hundreds of smaller bugs (see the Takeoff request I've written about above...), but from my POV, the major ones have been resolved.
Were it not for my fears about ordnance, I'd actually have had fun, for the first time in CoD :rolleyes:

Furthermore, I'm not really into (online) mission building, but knuckles and I talked about that before. There seem to be some performance issues, but, from what fragments I've seen, there's potential in that department that no other flight simulation comes even close to. As said, performance seems to be tricky, but I'm sure that more, awesome things could be implemented on ATAG, provided some tweaking :).
Generally speaking, more, and more diverse missions would be great additions to ATAG, along with somewhat more lively airfields/landscape (knuckles told me that the 'purist' airfields are due to performance - but there NEEDS to be something to bomb and to strafe; I hope that things can be pushed a bit in the future :) ) (*)

As to English-German: I hope knuckles did understand me before; talking english should work eventually. But maybe I can provide insight about some special/technical german phrases :)

Ouh, I drifted quite a bit OT... I'll follow-up on this on MP forums, when needed ^.^

(*) Just imagine the RAF base being blown up in the Battle of Britain movie - it would be soooo awesome to have something similar on ATAG! :)
Also: I'd really like to have missions on ATAG that take you further inland - maybe an attack on an airfield/structure in or near London (Churchill's War room?!? ) for Axis, or, vice-versa, something on Le Havre or Arras or Rouen or or or... :)
I'm full of Ideas concerning these things :-P

Back on topic (and sorry for the double post) : Does anyone have a Blenheim Manual floating around? Preferrably one of the version that's featured in CoD :)
Or maybe it's already there somewhere and I just missed it? :rolleyes:
Thanks!

Actually I'm pretty much "down" with everyone else. Haven't been in clod too much either. To be truthful, I was specifically Looking for Roach to get him up and running, never have too many Blenny Pilots. Been getting alot of building done on my current R/C project. Also why I have D/L and working on 1946

okay, now that I've got the basics sorted out (the first hit is not too far away :D ), I've got a few more questions, which may not necessarily be Blen-specific, but I'll ask them here anyway:

a)for the level-bombers: Do you have any recipe on how to keep the blen straight and level while glancing through the bombsight? I understand the historical Blen doesn't have anything of a stabilizing device, because it's always manned by multiple persons - that's mostly not the case in CoD, however. So, a level stabilizer would be nice - otherwise, I've found it quite hard to level-bomb per se, let alone getting anything done with your bomb at all, other than an emergency drop when you've taken a (minor) flak hit....

b)Does anyone know how to operate the turret? I've set all keys in the options and I mostly want it to have a look around in some situations - but I've not been successful yet, irrespective of the gun being in travel position or not. Do I have to deactivate the nice KI guy who shoots at bandits for me somehow?
(Long ago, I've read that the Turret is non-working on the ground, to have a simple simulation of the turret's need of engine power to operate; however, I tried it in mid-air, of course)

c)I've been playing online exclusively and 100% on ATAG, lately. The lack of an outward-sight is quite nerve-wracking when being hit, as it is surely harder in CoD to assess damage with given means than it was in reality; however, that's okay, that's the server setting. The problem I've got, as an user of TIR 4, is that, when ejecting, I'm confined to a single view - I can't look around at all, especially not by Headtracking. The only thing remaining is zoom - is that intended behaviour?

d)When landing at my home airfield after a mission on ATAG, I tried to taxi back to the starting point - but after, say, 2 minutes on the ground, my plane was "stolen" (disappearance, despawned etc.) from underneath myself and I sat there, confined in sight like under c). This may be intended by the server, but for what purpose? To prevent overcrowding? To simulate re-fueling, re-arming?

Thanx so far! :)

Hey Redroach, I'll try to answer your questions but for A and B you'll have to wait for an expert to pop by.

a) As I don't levelbomb yet myself this is just an uneducated guess...but I assume it's mostly a case of trimming out as perfectly and from as far away as possible and presetting the bombsight to the height and speed you plan to drop from, then juggling back and forth every few seconds to verify your values right up to the point where you drop. The higher and faster you go the bigger any deviation will affect accuracy ,so it's probably best to not practise at crazy heights and speeds.

b) Heck if I know...

c) If you have a textbox open it is reasonably easy to assess damage as you can enable messages that pop up for each system that gets damaged, many turn these off for a more authentic feeling though and then a wingman who can inspect your plane on the outside is the best there is.
For the parachute issue; press "alt-F2" after ejecting to get a 3rd person free camera that you can move around. You can also use this after landing to inspect possible damage. But be warned, you can't get back into the plane once enabled so don't ever use it for taxiing, while flying or when still in the middle of the runway.

d) This is caused by a server script that cleans up planes after they have landed. It ensures a minimum of clutter from landed or abandoned planes and thus keep performance reasonable.
Generally once you've landed just let the plane roll off the runway so it's out of the way and "escape" back to the menu. Soon as you come to a stop the "...has landed" will pop up and that's all that realy matters :)
A bug where your plane despawns shortly after takeoff is a side effect of this, sometimes you might bounce when taking off so the script will register it as a touchdown and remove your plane a little later.

Heh!

a) Warhound is spot on. We tried extensively to level bomb at height in the Blenheim but found other problems in addition to the control issue, such as lack of forward view to track correctly, and needing to input Indicated airspeed rather than True airspeed/groundspeed.

Here's the link to the thread;

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=28667

Here's a little vid;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnyYTZNjQJQ

b) Once the port engine is running, press ctrl/o to raise the turret. The left and right cursor arrows turn the turret, your mouse controls the gun, right click and wait a few seconds to reload.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_HDp...feature=relmfu

c) after bailing out on the server, press alt/f2 for an external view. Don't use this whilst flying because you can't get back in again. :)

d) Once you see the message 'Redroach has landed/returned to base', you only have a limited time to taxi. If you keep moving after landing you'll taxi ok, but as soon as you actually stop, the time limit will kick in.

I'll see if I can root out some old vids I did for the first two questions, then edit the post. Bear in mind that the vids were made pre-patch. I haven't assessed bombing accuracy since the patch. :(

Cheers!

yeah, thank you! Found out about the turret myself... it just takes a while until the gun is ready and even then, movement input is quite un-responsive. I wouldn't want to actually shoot with that!
However, binding turret movement to the "mouse stick" of my x52pro will be another story... :rolleyes:

Big thx for the alt-f2 thing! Didn't know 'bout that!

Sadly, that ground script steals my trusty plane, which had brought me over the channel and back, so soon! Guess I should never come to a full stop then ^-^. But, heh, that unintended behaviour at T/O sounds quite funny :D

P.S.:You're probably right about the IAS thing, however. I did input IAS, made several attempts to get a near-perfect approach to probably one of the tiniest targets on ATAG (ammo dumps at devgres or so) - and threw just a little short of the target, easily explainable by error margins. I assume that had I given TAS, the problem would only be excarb.. ecxcarb... ekscar... made worse.

Roach; I use a Saitex 52 and have a program for the bomb Aimer and Turret position.

are you aware that you can enter another Blenheim's turret position. I usually do that on bomb runs where I get shot down and another is still flying. I jump in their turret and finish the mission that way.

I'll see if I can send you the profiles for the X52 turret position

so in this game, you cannot hold your course or altitude?

yes but only by using your yoke and rudder pedals :)

to answer:: no !! no auto hold or auto pilot

that's why I think my $50 dollar was a waste, who can sit behind a computer for some 30+minutes to get to a target, i only played once or twice since i bought. is there any hope that they will have that function in any upcoming patch?

Killer ::: you havent played enough to be frustrated yet Haaa !!

what we do is utilize the Blenheim as the did with the full size. which is low level bombing (many tutorials on the ATAG forums. The blenheim was way too susceptible to fighter attacks from underneath, SO low lever was the norm.

Also skip bombing ship is an absolute HOOT (again look for "Skip Bombing" tutorials. The best way to alleviate your frustrations is to get on our team Speak ask for some assistance, someone will take you to a help channel and get you fixed up . If you see me call out , we are ALWAYS looking for Blenny pilots

So, since the developers revised the FM in the Blenheim, I have to say that I haven't flown it very much.

Is there anything different about the new model that people should be aware of? Any new foibles, things to look out for etc?

Or is it just easy to fly now?

The only thing I've noticed is that the variable flaps are useful, but this seems mainly because the 'plane is so slow to accelerate now, the flaps are needed for take-off where they weren't before.

Any tips available from anyone?

Cheers. :)

I actually dont fly it any differently than before:

warm up times are short
still dont use flaps for take off: probably should as the real one did: I use up most of the runway:

Cowl Flaps (Gills for those over the pond) can now be almost fully closed after altitude is reached. Which for me is STILL about 400 feet

Top speed now with full throttle: course pitch: is 210

Thats about it

Thats how I flew pre beta but I was told to now fly with fine pitch and boost on to get a speed of 240.