without air knights

[Dave]

Manfred...

The Englishman landed close to one of our squadrons. I was so excited that I landed also and in my eagerness, I nearly smashed up my machine. The English airplane and my own stood close together. I had shot the engine to pieces and both the pilot and observer were severely wounded.

 

As you see, he did not make extra passes like everyone does in this game.

And yet he met his end chasing a rookie pilot (on his first mission to observe his flight leader) who had disengaged, dove to the deck and had retreated well behind friendly lines below 50ft. He saw the Canadian was a rookie running for home and went after the easy kill despite the absence of any threat to continue the fight. This was how Manfred got most of his kills - he would watch and wait to cut the weak from the pack. 

 

I'm not judging him for it - it is a solid tactic if you want to stay alive. Just please stop romanticising.

 

S! 

Edited November 12, 2015 by Dave

[Dave]

I can think of several occasions where I've set an aircraft to smoking, the other guy has disengaged and I've then flown along beside them. It takes all sorts I suppose.

I can think of a few occasions where I've set an aircraft smoking and disengaged, considering him finished, to focus on a greater threat only to have the first aircraft then shoot me down. When there are other aircraft in the vicinity you don't have time to watch and wait for a guy to land. You either finish him off for sure or risk him getting into position while the other guy keeps you defensive.

 

Basically I'm down with Lothar's earlier observation that some civility has declined and the Salutes! are not so common these days.

I'm not so down with criticising others for not conforming to my own idea of moral behaviour, particularly when my perspective can be rather tainted. For all I know the other guy might have had the last 3 guys he failed to finish off turn around and kill him.

 

S! ... bringing it back

[von_Tom]

Not much chivalry in the real air war over the Soviet Union, so it all sounds about right to me.

 

People tend not to worry about their virtual life if they've been shot up so they tend to fight on rather than try to survive. This is a generalisation.  With that in mind, if you damage someone I say put them down to save them coming back to get you.  This is especially true if you shoot up a VVS plane as they seem to be far more combat capable having taken damage.  In my opinion, anecdotally, allegedly etc etc

 

Or, as there isn't a real life to be lost so do whatever you think feels right.

 

von Tom

[BraveSirRobin]

I have always felt that the online tradition of saluting people after a fight was idiotic.  I've had people salute me after strafing me while I tried to land.  I've seen many people who jump in to steal a kill salute so fast that I don't know how they avoid crashing.  Someone even saluted me after vulching me while I was trying to take off in an E.III.  It doesn't feel like a sign of respect.  It feels like someone trolling me into wanting to punch them in the face.  So any time a noob asks what "SI" means, I type "Suck it!" into the chat.

Edited November 12, 2015 by BraveSirRobin

[Dave]

I've had people salute me after strafing me while I tried to land. I've seen many people who jump in to steal a kill salute so fast that I don't know how they avoid crashing. Someone even saluted me after vulching me while I was trying to take off in an E.III. It doesn't feel like a sign of respect. It feels like someone trolling me into wanting to punch them in the face. So any time a noob asks what "SI" means, I type "Suck it!" into the chat.

Yup. Laughed pretty hard just now. S!

Edited November 12, 2015 by Dave

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

I was never one for salutes either, never got the appeal or purpose. Two pilots meet, fight respectfully, either one or both fall or both disengage. We salute each other guns blazing, and whomever returns home lives. I take the respect as granted, so to say. You'd rarely hear someone jumping to the enemy frequency to congratulate them on the fight. If they got away, respect to them after all. If they jumped, at less the Soviets took pilots to the regiment that brought them down for 'meet & greet'. If they died, respect to them too. No S! replaces that to me.

[-TBC-AeroAce]

This comes up all the time. All I can is there will be some that play nice and there are some that play dirty.

 

This was also true in real life in world war 2. For example polish raf squadron were notorious for trying to kill the actual pilot with chute shooting...... This was because the polish felt very bitter about the invasion of the country.

 

The British being British had a more gamely attitude hence they were generally more sporting.

 

The Russians and Germans I have not heard any reports of this but considering the viscous nature of the ground war and the atrocities committed there by both sides leads me to believe that it would have spiled over to the airwar for sure but maybe to a lesser extent.

 

I'm not saying its right or wrong or common but at the end of the day it did exist irl and even if there is disproportionate amount doing in game compared to reaL life you just got to except it happens.

 

There will always be new casual players doing this but the people to fly more will for the most part change this behaviour as really by doing these things they are really just exposing themselves to more dangers.

 

If these guys does it don't get angry just note that really they are a bad overall pilot and that you made a mistake that got you shot down in the first point.... BreaTh and move o

Edited November 12, 2015 by [TBC]AeroACE

[PatrickAWlson]

IMHO if you take any high scoring air ace of WWII and tried to analyze their victory tallies you would find them lacking.  It all happened too fast and it was too easy to mistake damage, or even escape, as "destroyed".  I remember seeing gun camera footage of an aux fuel tank going up in flames.  Was that really a victory or did the victim drop the tank two seconds later and escape?  If five people take shots at a Yak and a Yak is seen going down in flames, how often would 5 Yaks be claimed?  Reverse the names of the planes and the scenario remains the same.

 

What I respect of these men is that they flew every day for years, putting their life on the line and often enough losing it.  I have no doubt that Rudorffer scored many victories.  I really am indifferent as to whether his 222, or Johnson's 28, or Malan's 27 were all accurate claims.  They could be off by a factor of three (and probably are) and it would not IMHO detract from what they did.

[[CPT]milopugdog]

I'll usually try to shoot a flare towards whatever aircraft I downed. This of course, was easier in RoF, but I still attempt to in this game.