Rythm

I have settled into a good rythm to write my Il-2 AAR's. I usually fly a mission on Monday. since most missions only take 30 minutes to fly i have plenty of time for other things (watching TV, reading or doing household work). Tuesday is the day when I watch the replay and take the screenshots. When I return from fitness on Wednsday I write the AAR itself. Publishing the AAR on Simhq is then done either Wednsday evening or on thursday.

By limiting myself to publishing (and flying) only one mission a week, I experience far less stress and I have time for other activities, either new activities or things I should take up again, like posting on this blog, something I will try to do a bit more often.

If you are finished reading this post, you can perhaps read the latest AAR at SimHQ.

Happy reading

Devil May Cry

I just posted another chapter in the Port Moresby AAR at simhq. Currently I fly one to two missions a week, each time waiting to fly the follow-up mission before I have written the AAR. As a result I find myself much more involved in the story created by the campaignbuilder and my own imagination.

Last Saturday was the new year party at my work. After a long night out, I was not in the mood to do something difficult or boring so I popped an old game in my playstation 2: Devil May Cry. This was the first game I bought for my PS2. It's still fun to play and I set myself the challenge to finish all 3 PS-2 games of the series. There is Playstation 3 release schedule for the fourth installment but I don't own a PS3 so its unlikely that I will ever play that game. Not that I would not want a PS3 but its still a bit too expensive to my taste. Furthermore the games are not cheap unless you are willing to to wait for second hand games.

I guess I'll wait untill the playstation 3 drops some more in price (I don't want to pay more then 300 €) or untill I need a cheap blue-ray player.

In the meantime I'll keep myself busy with flying flight sims and playing Civilisation 4.

Happy reading

So much to do

I just posted my latest entry for the Port Moresby AAR, you can find it at SimHQ. Professionally It are busy times and it seems to spill over in my private life.

I just redownloaded Operation Tainted Cigar for Wings over Europe and patched Falcon 4 AF to version 1.0.13. And don't forget that I am still writing on the final draft for my machinima movie. On what subject should I write first? A new series of AAR's based on Operation Tainted Cigar. And what about the six AAR's I wrote for Falcon 4 AF, should I continue the campaign and add more AAR's and when will I post them? And what about the Port Moresby AAR, should I stop that one?

At the very least, my new way of writing for the Port Moresby AAR allows me to fly missions and write short AAR's about them (with short I mean a lot of image with caption, not much story between the images). I remember my first AAR's in Il-2. I had them lined up for a whole year in advance, but after a while that got pretty boring.

I don't know, I'll think I'll fly one more mission in the Port Moresby serie and will take it from there, perhaps its better not to let the stress from work spill over into my personal life.

Happy Reading

New Internetprovider

Since january 1st, I have been changed from internet provider. I stress have been changed. I used to get my connection through UPC. Through UPC I a no limits connection, so downloading movies, images and stuff was never a problem.

Unfortunetaly UPC Belgium has been acquired by Telenet, so since january I have the "pleasure" of being a telenet customer. I still have the relative high connection but Telenet has something like their telenet-meter: if you surpass a certain amount of megabyte (down and upload) your bandwith is reduced (with slower download and upload as a result). AFAIK Belgium is the only country where broadband internetproviders use such tactics. Telenet is also famous for offering a lot of services for free upon launch, but after a couple of months they start charging for it. However I'll have to learn to life with that, since the other option is going to ADSL. At this moment I already passed my download limit and am put on reduced bandwidth untill 27/1/2008. I'll monitor my bandwidth and downloads because I don't want to be cheated by telenet.

On a slightly brighter note: I uploaded the next installment in the Port Moresby AAR at Simhq (just scroll down to the bottom of the page on the forum). I'll try to maintain a twice a week posting rate but that does mean that most stories will be rather small in text. But I don't think that will be a problem since most people just watch the images.

Happy Reading

Happy New Year

Ok I know, I am a little bit overdue, but the last weeks I had not much time or material to post on this blog. I set myself a deadline for end of january for my script (its fitfth rewrite) and although i have flown a mission in the Anzac campaign I was not really in the mood to create a movie (yet).

It seems that I am juggling with too many projects. I recently started writing AAR's again. My latest one: Defense of Port Moresby can be found here. Unlike my previous AAR's i won't create new posts on Simhq for each chapter. Instead, like Dart's Afrika '41 AAR, I will add every chapter to the same post.

It seems that AAR-writing has picked up again on SimHQ, not only Yankee Air Pirate AAR's are posted but also a Steel Beast and a tactical shooter AAR made it to the forum.

As for my good intentions for 2008, they are simple:

• post regulary on simhq
• write regulary on my blog
• finish my machinima script

Enjoy the AAR's on Simhq and see you in cyberspace.

ANZAC - Episode 2

This is the second video AAR I made based on "ANZACS in the Pacific" by Achilles_NZ. The mission itself was not very successfull but provided enough material to make a decent movie.

You need a divx codec to watch the movie (double click the player to see the movie full screen) or you can watch the youtube version here.

I hope you enjoy this movie.
PS Just finished the fourth draft of my script, next week I'll ask some friends to proof read it.

Video AAR

I have written AAR's for about two years now and wanted to do something different, which would also help me in making machinima movies. Hence here is my first video AAR of a mission in Il-2.

You need a divx codec to see the movie otherwise you can watch the youtube version here.
Double click the video, once it start playing, to see it full screen.

Back in Il-2

I have a lot to do for the moment. I am working on a Wings over Europe campaign, filming a machinima movie and at the same time I restarted flying in Il-2.

Today's AAR posted on this blog, shows that after weeks of inactivity, I have a hard time re-adapting to WW2-combat. In the coming weeks I'll post a trilogy of AAR's all dealing with me crashing or ditching my aircraft.

I am learning a painfull lesson that only constant practice guarantees my survival in the virtual skies.

You can read the full AAR at SimHQ or on this blog.

Happy Reading

WOE - Tainted Cigar

In an earlier post, I complained about user-unfriendliness of WOE. Nevertheless I have reinstalled WOE again after discovering a full install campaign: Tainted Cigar. The designer of this campaign has included all the necessary aircraft and files needed to run the campaign. As a user I only need to install WOE and the latest patch before adding the campaign files. It does not get easier then that.

But I fear that this designer is almost alone in the desert. Not many designers over such an install. And when I informed at combat ace about the feasibility of a version pack (sort of bundling of all possible skins/aircrafts so that user have a single stop download to have all required skins/objects for future campaigns) the reaction of some posters was quite aggressive. I can't shake of the feeling that the WOE community is not that happy shiny group of people (certainly not compared to the Il-2 community).

Undeterred, I have decided to build my proper version pack. Since i don't intend to ask permission to each and any modders/skinner/modeler to use his aircraft, the pack will remain a personal use tool only.

Meanwhile I will post now also some WOE - AAR's, the first one you can find on simHQ or on this blog.

Happy Reading

Spitfire Test

As promised here are the movies about the F-86's counterpart: the Mig - 15. Unfortunetaly I can't embed these movies so you will have to follow the links:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

I also finished my weekly AAR: Spitfire Test. You can find it at SimHQ or on this blog. I have not been able to fly a lot in Il-2 these past weeks (with the birth of my godchild, helping my brother-in-law with the reconstruction of his house etc) but I managed to finish my second mission for Il-2. Over the coming days I will post the diary I kept will building the mission. Next week I'll post the mission at Mission4Today and release the accompying AAR.

Meanwhile, happy reading.

F-86 Sabre

The last couple of days several people started posting AAR's at SimHq. A small overview:

• July 12, 1940 Convoy Raid
• BOBII: WoV Recon
• ADF Presence Patrol
• YAP: Pierce Arrow BDA
• ArmA SimHQ Valor
• Defending Lady Lex (another IL-2 AAR)
• YAP 42 Tchepone Barracks (Simon Read is back)

I don't want to brag too much, but perhaps this surge of AAR's has to do with my continuous effort of posting AAR's. For 9 months now I have been posting AAR's each wednsday (only Simon Read has a similar number of posts).

The disadvantage is that my own AAR's seem to get less views. Cold Channel Ditch only has gathered 480 views by now. But its something I am willing to live with, since I can now read the stories from other people.

A couple of weeks ago I started posting about famous pairs. But the project never took off. But why post something if I can find the same concept on other site. Through SimHQ I stumbled on this movie of the F-86 (see parts below). Tomorrow I will post the movies of its counterpart - the Mig-15.

Part 1/6



Part 2/6


Part 3/6


Part 4/6


Part 5/6


Part 6/6