About This File
.
Greetings All,
Here is a full set of new and improved medals for our beloved Over Flanders Fields BHaH HiTR combat flight sim.
The instructions for their use are relatively simple. Start by making a back-up copy of your "Medals" folder found in the "CampaginData" folder of your OFF install; the path to it should look something like this if you've installed the sim on your 'C' drive:
C:\OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData
Now all you need to do is copy and paste all the new medal files found inside the "New_OFF_Medals" folder into the "Medals" folder of your OFF install, allowing all the new files to overwrite the old ones, (this is why you made a back-up copy of the original folder first, so that you can go back to the old medals if you so wish).
Alrighty then, that is all that's required if you wish to do nothing more than see the shiny new versions of the thirteen original OFF awards on your various pilot's pages. However, if you're like me and would like to adjust the medals presented to be a bit more historically accurate, you can now do so by going into your active pilot's dossier and changing a bit of text. Following the same path that brought you to your "Medals" folder you will also see your "Pilots" folder. Inside are all the files for your pilots; active, inactive, captured, and dead, (assuming you haven't already deleted your captured and dead ones). Find your current active pilot's dossier by opening up your "PilotXDossier" files one at a time, with 'X' being the number of the pilot, (but don't assume the number matches up with that actually shown in the sim; it does not, which is why you have to go through your various pilot dossiers until you find the correct one). Once you have found your current active pilot's dossier, make a copy of it for back-up purposes. Now, with your active "PilotXDossier" opened up in Notepad, look down to line #19 and you will see a number that represents how many medals your pilot has been presented, and immediately following that are the names of each medal. To change a medal you need only type in the new medal name, (which is the same name as the medal image file found in your "Medals" folder), in place of the medal you are replacing. The lines of text you are dealing will look something like this:
5
Iron Cross 2nd Class
Iron Cross 1st Class
Hohenzollern House Order
Orden Pour le Merite
Red Eagle Order
Null
Null
Null
Null
Save your changes and you're done! Now pop into the sim and look at your current Pilot's Page. Is that spiffing or what!
******************
The medals included in this new pack are as follows.
The thirteen original OFF P3 medal files which are, in order by country:
Military Cross
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Service Order
Victoria Cross
Croix de Guerre
Military Medal
Legion of Honour
Distinguished Service Cross
COngressional Medal of Honor
Iron Cross
Royal Hohenzollern House Order
Red Eagle Order
Orden Pour le Merite
The seventeen new OFF P3 medal files which are, again in order by country:
Military Medal Britain
Military Medal with Bar
Military Cross with Bar
DFC with Bar
DSO with Bar
DSC Britain
DSC with Bar Britain
DSC with Oak Leaves
Croix de Guerre Belgium
Albert Order with Swords
Iron Cross 2nd Class
Iron Cross 1st Class
Iron Cross 1c Iron Cross 2c
Military Merit Order Bavaria
Hohenzollern House Order
Golden Military Merit Cross
Turkish War Medal 1915
Just as before, red backgrounds denote awards of the Entente Powers, while blue backgrounds denote awards of the Central Powers. In the new awards you now find a few more that can be presented to the enlisted pilots. These are: the British Military Medal and Military Medal with Bar; the Belgian Croix de Guerre, which can be presented to NCO's and officers alike; the Prussian Golden Military Merit Cross, often called the "NCO's Blue Max", (as the Orden Pour le Merite was for officers only); and the Turkish War Medal 1915, (like the Iron Cross, this can be awarded to all ranks). On this last one, you could assign it to a pilot who may have started his military career serving on the Eastern Front before transferring to the Kaiser's air service, (much as Ritter von Richthofen did).
About the various versions of the Iron Cross now available to you. The idea is that when the sim assigns you your first award as a German ace, (which will be the generic Iron Cross), you can now go into your pilot's dossier and change that to the Iron Cross 2nd Class, and at the second award of same generic version you can now switch it to the Iron Cross 1st Class, which would have been the proper order back in the Great war. Additionally, as you are presented more awards both by the sim and later on by yourself as acting Adjustant, you can switch to the single image of "Iron Cross 1c Iron Cross 2c", which will free up an additional display space on your pilot's page for one of the new awards, (despite the extra "Null" lines in your pilot dossier, the sim will only ever display five medals maximum).
You will notice two versions of the Hohenzollern House Order, and they are identical except for the name. I included the second one as the sim does not allow room for a third line of text under the medal image, and with the original file the word "Royal" forces the name into a third line which gets cut off by the text below it.
I should also point out the British DSC; this was a typical award of the RNAS and should be used when flying with that branch of the service.
And remember the medals with bars, (or in the case of the US DSC, an oak leaf cluster), denote a second award of the same honor, so these would be added to a pilot's page later on in his career and would take the place of the same award without the bar.
One final point. Sometimes the sim will revert to the original medals on your pilot' page when it presents you with the next one. Not to worry, simply change them back. This issue doesn't come up very often, but it might and I didn't want you getting all fidgety.
That's it. Have fun with the new baubles, and feel free to stop by the "Over Flanders Fields General Forum" and make a post if you have a question about these, or if you wish to spot me to a pinta' for being such a swell.
Cheers!
Lou
P.S. I have created a set of tables to help folks determine how to go about awarding the new medals to their virtual pilots, and here is the link to these tables:
Award Guidelines For The New Off P3 Medal Set
Enjoy!
.