1. Destroy Entente train [target of opportunity]
2. Destroy On-Road Entente Convoy [target of opportunity]

Since these are listed as Primary targets, are they only to be attacked by Bombers? 

Anyhow, based on the objectives descriptions

...and also on the ruleset there still some things not completely clear to me which I'd like to clarify:

Q1: Will the refligth rule of 5 Minutes now be enforced by server settings?
I think this would make sense now, and based on the re-arm and re-fuel feature now pilots who land the plane on an active field and manage to reach the service area will benefit accordingly. And as FC shows after every mission clearly if you are captured or killed, it is much clearer for the pilots if they are allowed to fly again or not thus unintentional breaking of re-flight-rules should not happen any more. Also checking the completion of the rules after the session can be simply reduced to a check of V-Lives of each participating pilot, if comply to reflight-rule is ensured by the server

Q2: I did not understand, if the server selects one of the primaries „Supply Depot“, „Factory“, „Bridge“ and „Aero-Dromes“ as the active one to be destroyed or if they are all active and each side can choose freely which one they go for to collect the point and activate depending secondaries? And if second is the case, just to make it clear: If you destroy for example all 3 factories, it will not bring you any benefit, correct?

Q3: Is the primary aerodrome target also an active aerodrome that is in use for enemy planes to take off? When I interpret the map correctly, this is not the case, but the note „Destroying the oil drums will deny the enemy of the aerodrome's use“ in the objective description is a little confusing? If it is an usable field that just becomes inactive after destruction of the oil drums: Will it be repaired or will it stay inactive for the remaining mission?

Q4: Can the regular fighter and 2-seater bases be destroyed and become inactive? If yes: will they be repaired?

Q5: Recon missions say the base for landing and deliver the plate „….does not have to be active.“ => Does this mean e.g. also the primary aerodrome targets or any other airfield (even not shown with an icon on the map) are possible landing points for recon flights? Or can you even land anywhere on friendly territory as long as the plane will not suffer to much damage?

Q6: HQ Destruction: What must be destroyed for completion? (All buildings or all vehicles or both or a certain part of?)

Q7: Also just for complete clarification on HQ secondaries: Description says „A secondary recon objective will then be announced within the game.“ I guess this secondary ojective becomes active after of landing the plates of HQ savely and not after the destruction of the HQ. So after recon is done and the plane lands successfully, 2 additional icons will apear on the map: The one of the secondary recon objective and the HQ location itself (meaning: Once the HQ is shown on the map it can be destroyed) => Is my interpretation on the overall logic correct?

Q8: Regarding the Spy/GenCap Missions - just for clafication: Pickup of Spy or Gen brings the first point and destrcution of the 1st secondary objective brings another point for the team , no matter if the plane will be shot down later on or not; landing on friendly side is only needed to activate the 2nd secondary target and enable the team to collect a 3rd Point of those missions => Correct?

And finally some comments:
1st: I absolutely like the solution (meaning the background info) on the general capture and the spy pickoff very much
2nd: Also the fact that Icons now simply become active and show what needs to be done is great, will make communication and organisation much more easier…
3rd: /smartassmodeon/ You are really sure that architecture style of the hospital is „Gothic revival“??

Thanks very much for the work on Butzzell, Klaiber and every one else supporting this tournament, really looking forward to it…

PS: For easy reading please feel free and use admin privileges to edit my post and place the answers directly under the questions.... if you want to...

Last Saturday I was assigned to cap the HQ, for the life of me I couldn't figure out  what was what.

Danke 

Recon aircraft may carry ordinance and are allowed to bomb secondary objective targets, as well as supply trains and supply convoys. They may not bomb Icon targets. That role is strictly relegated to pure Bombers.

​​I am interpreting the "secondary objective Targets" as those targets that are activated after primary objectives are completed, now just to make it clear: Is (for example) the recon plane allowed to bomb any secondary target, even it was not activated with this specific plane and pilot, but from anyone else?

Or is this rule specially dedicated to the situation: Only if you returned the photos of a recon flight successfully, you are allowed to direclty re-use the same (recon-)plane for the bombing of exactly this secondary target that you have activated?

And regarding the "Targets of Opportunity" (like e.g. supply trains): Does it bring any advantage for the team to bomb such targets?

....hope Q's are clear and not (too) stupid... 

Thx / best

Etzel 

I recently received a question regarding the Refly Rules (Friendly Territory and No Man's Land), found within the tournament ruleset:

http://forum.jg1.org/topic/2216-flanders-in-flames-ruleset/?p=17545&do=findComment&comment=17545

The person who asked was kind enough to allow me to post this.  I thought it might help people.

. . .

Question #1: If I landed my scout aircraft at an active friendly two-seater base, would I lose my plane?

If you're in a scout, and you land at a bomber base, the answer is yes.  You'd lose it.

All of this has to do with aircraft numbers at the bases, and whether or not you pull from those numbers when taking off.

Let's say there are two scout aerodromes (AF1 and AF2), and one "bomber" aerodrome (AB1).  Both AF1 and AF2 have the same aircraft.  And AB1 has two-seaters.

If you took off from AF1 at the beginning of the mission, that's your home base.  And every time you refly, you take off from AF1.  If you've landed at AF1, you refly in the "same" aircraft you landed in (i.e. it doesn't pull from the field's total number, saving your team aircraft).  If you've ditched somewhere else, you respawn at AF1 in a "new" aircraft that does take away from your team's total number at that base.  If too many people ditch, and not land, your team could run out of aircraft!

With AF1 as your home base, you can emergency land at AF2 (the other scout base).

When you do this, you're taking off from AF2 in the "same" aircraft you landed in!  Thus, you're not pulling from AF2's total number.  This is because AF2 has the same aircraft type as AF1, and thus they can refuel and repair you.  However, if your aircraft is destroyed when landing at AF2, it's a write off.  You'll now have to go back to AF1 (your home plate).  And your team loses the aircraft.

So, if you emergency land at AB1 (the bomber base) in a scout aircraft from AF1, the aircraft is lost.

This is because AB1 doesn't have the same type of aircraft as what you're flying.  When you hit refly, the aircraft disappears.  You'll now have to reup at AF1, in a "new" scout aircraft that takes away from your field's total number.

Of course, you (as a pilot) can always switch between a scout base and a bomber base in order to change mission roles (fighter to bomber, back to fighter).  That's completely cool.

You just can't switch back and forth between AF1 and AF2.  AF1 will always be your home base.

Question #2: Would I then have to refly from my home Aerodrome in another aircraft?

As in the above example, if you don't land your aircraft at a base that supports that aircraft type, the aircraft is lost.  And you must pull from your home base's total number.  

If enough people do this, you could technically have an aircraft shortage in the later parts of the mission.

Question #3: Will my aircraft appear after 5 minutes at the home Aerodrome?

If you've landed at a base that supports your aircraft type (and it's not severely damaged), it automatically is credited to that aerodrome.  There is no wait time.

The 5 minute waiting time is actually for you.

After landing or ditching, you must wait 5 minutes before reflying.

I wanted to post a bit about No Man's Land, and our rules regarding it.

Up until last weekend (2/25/2017), our tournament ruleset stated the following:

If a pilot crashes in No Man's Land and survives the event, that pilot may switch to a new aircraft and take off again from his original aerodrome provided that another aircraft is available at the discretion of the CO and after a 5 minute timeout.

The idea was that a crashed pilot who came down in No Man's Land (and survived the crash) would ask a Team commander first before hitting refly, thereby getting a verification that they weren't captured.

And additionally, my general rule of thumb had always been that landing in the brown dirt meant that you were safe to fly again, while landing in the green grass of the enemy meant that you were captured, regardless of what the FIF stats said.

Even though these rules seem weird, they existed for a specific reason.

The Old Reasons:

When FIF moved from RB3D to ROF in 2011, No Man's Land was intended to be a full capture zone, where everyone was captured regardless of where you put down.

However, eventually, No Man's Land became a "25% chance of escape" zone.  Pilots would receive a message letting them know their fate.  This was popular, but generally hard on the mission builder (i.e. Butzzell).

Eventually, when pilot numbers started to drop off during the North American flight times, the No Man's Land rule was modified again, and all of No Man's Land became a refly area.  In other words, if you put down anywhere within No Man's Land, you could refly after 5 minutes.  This was designed to create a buffer between the front lines, but also give everyone a break, so that in-game numbers would stay high during the mission.

This is what that looked like:

And that's the way it's officially been up until last Saturday.  And no one bothered to re-examine the rule again because nothing happened that caused us to think about it.

That's now changed, and as a result, we've sat down an thought about it.

What's Changing:

After a lot of discussion among the FIF Admins, we came to the realization that none of what we were doing really worked anymore.

Firstly, the "dirt = not captured" / "grass = captured" thing doesn't prove anything, and only causes confusion.  The game designers made the edges of No Man's Land unique, by adding in distinctive and misleading map features.  Thus, it's often impossible to tell where you are through a screenshot of your crashed aircraft.

Secondly, we no longer need all of No Man's Land to be a refly area.  With around 30 vs 30 pilots per week, we have more than enough virtual airmen in flight to complete the 16 objectives we currently run.  Casualties affecting game-play aren't a factor anymore.

Rather, what we really need is a better representation of the WW1 front-line environment.

And, as a result, here is the change that is going into effect immediately (starting with the next session, B3, flown on 4 March 2017):

What you can see is that the FIF No Man's Land is now split between three visible zones.  A "pink zone", a "blue zone", and a "tan zone" in the middle.  These are all present in the game, and can be control by the map maker (i.e. Butzzell).

The "pink zone" is the maximum extension of Central territory, and will capture Entente pilots.  The "blue zone" is the maximum extension of Entente territory, and will capture Central pilots.  Both of these zones extend over the trench systems, and are thus as historically placed as we can make them.

Only the "tan zone" in the middle is an "escape and refly" area.  If someone can ditch in the "tan zone" in the middle, they're safe to refly again after a 5 minute wait.  All aircraft "on the line" go to the pilot.

However, there is a catch here, which I'm sure you all see coming.

The "tan zone" on FIF maps is a Valley of Death filled with machine gun emplacements and AAA.

If someone gets close enough to ditch in the "tan zone", and survive the crash, they now have to survive the ground fire which will be coming up to meet them.

It's not impossible, and there is a chance that they can escape it unharmed.  But it's hard, and as close to real life as we can get.

What to do if you come down in No Man's Land?

So, you've crash landed in the "tan zone" of No Man's Land...  or at least, you think you have.  And somehow, you've not been eaten up by murderous ground fire.  Great crashing pilot!  What do you do now?

Well, the first thing you need to do is pinpoint your exact location by checking the in-game map.  Remember, talking about the scenery that you see with your Team commanders is not going to help them determine whether you can legally refly or not.

Once you've determine where you are through the in-game map, take a screenshot of your exact location on that map.   In fact,  if you can, take two.  One zoomed out so we can see that area.  And one zoomed in so we can see the exact pinpoint location.

Zooming is important for clarity, as a group of clear screenshots are unambiguous and completely defendable.

For example, when zoomed out, this screenshot of a ditched aircraft looks like it's safe because it's "on the line".

However, when zoomed in, you can see that it's actually not "on the line"  It's actually captured.  And the FIF stats will show it as captured after the mission is over.

So, to review:

If you come down in No Man's Land, and you're checking to see if you were captured:

• Check the in-game map to see where you are.
• Take a couple of screenshots at different zooms to show your actual location.
• Tell a Team commander what happened, and if necessary show them the screenshots.
• If you're given the go-ahead to refly after this, you can do so, provided you wait the appropriate 5-minutes.

Finally, in order to facilitate a better understanding of our rules regarding No Man's Land, I've updated the FIF ruleset to reflect the above changes.

http://forum.jg1.org/topic/2216-flanders-in-flames-ruleset/

Here is the update in English (with the added portion in red):

If a pilot crashes in No Man's Land and survives the event, he must check his position on the in-game map.  If he is not within enemy territory, that pilot may switch to a new aircraft and take off again from his original aerodrome provided that another aircraft is available at the discretion of the CO and after a 5 minute timeout.

I have also attempted to update the German, French, Russian, and Portuguese rules.

German: Wenn ein Pilot auf eigenem Gebiet oder im Niemansland notgelandet ist, Er muss seine Position auf der Karte überprüfen. Wenn er nicht im feindlichen Gebiet ist, so kann er von seinem ursprünglichen Flugfeld nach Maßgabe seines Kommandooffiziers und nach der 5-Minütigen Wartezeit wieder starten, sofern auf dem Flugfeld ein Flugzeug zur Verfügung steht.

French: Si un pilote doit atterir ou est détruit dans le no man's land et survit à l'événement, Il doit vérifier sa position sur la carte. S'il n'est pas en territoire ennemi, ce pilote peut commuter à un nouvel avion et décoller encore de son aérodrome original à condition qu'un autre avion soit disponible et à la discrétion du (CO) et après un temps mort 5 minute.

Russian: Если пилот разбился на дружеской территории или на линии фронта, но при этом выжил, он должен проверить его положение на карте в игре. Если он не находится в пределах территории противника, то, спустя 5 минут, он может выбрать другой доступный самолет с домашнего аэродрома и вылететь повторно по усмотрению командующего команды. 

Portuguese: Se um piloto cair na Terra de Ninguém (fronteira entre os territórios) e sobreviver ao evento, Ele deve verificar sua posição no mapa no jogo. Se ele não está dentro do território inimigo, após um período de 5 minutos poderá mudra para uma nova aeronave e decolar novamente de seu aeródromo original, desde que outra aeronave esteja disponível e conforme a decisão do seu comandante.

I had to heavily rely on Google Translate here.

So if you're a native speaker of any of these languages, and have a better translation for me, please post below!

Thanks in advance, and should anyone have any questions, just let me know.  I'll do my best to answer.

Note: paint schemes that show the incorrect country ("captured skins") are a violation of sportsmanship, respect and fair play. The use of "captured skins" during the tournament will result in the following penalties:

• A first infraction by a player will result in a ban from the next session.
• A second infraction by a player will result in a ban from the rest of the campaign.
• A third infraction by a player will result in his squadron being banned from any further tournament play.

 
I've done my best to translate this rule into German, French, Russian, and Portuguese.  Please let me know if you have a better translation!

Post any questions below.
 
. . .
 

Hinweis: Tarnung oder Farbtafeln, die das falsche Land zeigen ("Beute Flugzeuge"), sind ein Verstoß gegen Sportlichkeit, Respekt und Fairplay. Die Verwendung von "Beute Flugzeuge" während des Turniers führt zu folgenden Strafen:

• Bei der ersten Zuwiderhandlung wird der Spieler von der nächsten Session ausgeschlossen.
• Bei der zweiten Zuwiderhandlung wird der Spieler für den Rest der Kampagne ausgeschlossen.
• Bei der dritten Zuwiderhandlung eines Spielers führt es dazu, dass seiner Staffel von jedem weiteren Turnierspiel ausgeschlossen wird.

 

Note: les esquisses de peinture qui montrent le pays incorrect (« Captured Skins ») sont une violation de l'esprit sportif, le respect et le fair-play. L'utilisation de « Captured Skins » pendant le tournoi se traduira par les pénalités suivantes:

• Une première infraction par un joueur résultera une interdiction à jouer la prochaine session.
• Une deuxième infraction par un joueur résultera une interdiction à jouer pour le reste de la campagne.
• Une troisième infraction par un joueur résultera à son ecasdrille à ne plus jouer pour le reste du tournoi.

 

Примечание: схемы краски, которые показывают неправильную страну ("Captured Skins") являются нарушением спортивного поведения, уважения и честной игры. Использование "Captured SKins" во время турнира приведет к следующим штрафов:

• При первом нарушении игрок будет забанен на участие в следующей сессии.
• При повторном нарушении, игрок будет забанен до конца кампании.
• При третьем нарушении, сквад, к которому принадлежит игрок, будет забанен для участия в любой следующей игре турнира.

 

Nota: os esquemas de pintura que mostram o país incorreto ("Captured Skins") são uma violação do desportivismo, respeito e fair play. O uso de "Captured Skins" durante o torneio resultará nas seguintes penalidades:

• A primeira infração por um jogador acarretará um banimento para a próxima sessão.
• A segunda infração por um jogador resultará em banimento para o resto da campanha.
• A terceira infração por um jogador acarretará em banimento de todo o seu esquadrão de quaisquer futuras ocorrências do FIF.

 

We had a few discos last night, and at least one of them happened in enemy territory.

Traditionally, discos in enemy territory have been viewed as a pilot capture.

The reason for this has been to close a loophole that would allow a doomed pilot (destined to be KIA or POW) to exit the game during combat, claim a disco and then respawn unhurt.

However, when Butzzell looked closely at the rules during Session 1, we quickly realized that they actually didn't specifically state that a disco in enemy territory is a capture.

So, the question for the community is how to move forward on this issue?

Do we self regulate, and use the honor system to say that discos in enemy territory are not captures.

Or do we adjust the ruleset to specifically state that all discos in enemy territory are captures.

Thanks all!