The OFF Campaign PND Standard

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

The OFF Campaign PND Standard.

This is intended for the added enjoyment of those vPilots who choose to have as much fun with their OFF experience as can be had. "Fun Experience" in this case, is the total enjoyment of all the unique missions and aspects of OFF.

 

Many of the settings in OFF exact a critical demand upon the pilot to be extra conservative when flying, so as not to lose your beloved pilot. This cuts into much of the enjoyment that can be had flying this amazing sim, not to mention the depths of the sim that are avoided because they are simply too dangerous.

 

PND is not intended to express contempt for those who play the sim by a "higher" standard. And for those that choose to fly that way, their reasons are entirely valid for their own private purposes. But (BUT), if one wishes to experiences the entire arena that the OFF world has to offer, one should let fly the said "higher" standard, in favor of overwhelming fun and excitement. PND is intended to provide that standard of fun, and to erase preconceived notions of what a "real" pilot would do. Be a hero! Nay, be THE hero! Be the pilot that takes the risks, pushes the envelope, and lives to tell about it!

 

So...OFF: PND:

 

Workshop:

There are many options to avail yourself of and to tailor your WW1 flight experience to your liking.

One in particular is one that is often avoided, and is at the very heart of PND. It's the option: Pilot Never Dies.

Click this option.

 

Pilot Never Dies allows you to take the missions that you avoided, or just didn't fulfill when flying with mortality. Take that mission to strafe troops over the front, knowing full well that you likely will not return...because you just might! Charge the airfield when it is being attacked by overwhelming enemy planes who have height and position advantage. You might just teach them a lesson about messing with YOUR airfield! Take out the train yard...not just once, but level every building that your limited ammo will allow you to! Go after that pesky flight of 5 two seaters, they will be one or no seaters after your done!

Would you comply with these missions with your mortal pilot? The one that has 12 missions, 8 confirmed kills, and 11 hours of life? No way! So you follow the waypoints, look for aircraft, and go home...forgetabout the mission objective, cause you know you'll be enlisting a new pilot in 3 minutes if you do. And this is the heart of PND: There's so much to do and see, that you avoid. Have fun, knowing that YOU are the one that even when shot down behind enemy lines, escapes in 2 days! You somehow live thru that crazy flaming camel spin, albeit with a few scratches and 21 days in the infirmary.

 

 

As to all the other realism settings within the workshop, it is encouraged that you use these as you see fit. It's an enjoyable experience to fly a plane with demanding circumstances. If you keep this realm of realism for the flight model, limited weapons, stress on the AC, etc, you will learn quite a bit about what your plane will allow you to do and what it wont...thus making you a better pilot.

 

Play a full campaign with ONE Pilot! Get some medals, see your claims confirmed or denied, get a promotion! Grow close to your fellow pilots, and agonize when they don't return, but somehow you do. Enjoy OFF for all that it has. Have MORE fun, and avoid (at least for a time) the frustration of losing your beloved pilot with 12 missions, 8 confirmed kills, and 11 hours of flight, just because the cat jumped on your desk as you were taking off, or worse yet, because you tipped your wing at 5 mph on your landing, and you ended up crashing and dying a horrific death.

 

That's the PND standard. If you wish to be regarded by it, you are entirely welcome to include the acronym PND anywhere you please.

 

I'll finish with the usual fun loving bit..."PND sorts the colon cleansing salad from the colon clogging cheese, the pilots who enjoy this amazing game in all its facets, from those that rarely saw much of the game, in effect the Heros from the dead!

 

Broadside uda Barn

 

note: Plaudits to Siggi for his excellent DiD optional flight standard!

Edited August 11, 2009 by Broadside uda Barn

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Any way that this can be stickied?

Edited August 11, 2009 by Broadside uda Barn

[+Polovski 460]

Sounds like a fun idea Broadside, we have a lot of stickies OvS is cleaning up but maybe yes if there is interest.

[Bullethead 12]

I agree, the whole point is to have fun. The problem with DiD is that it just takes too much time for those whose real-life commitments limit flying time. So, I usually have a stable of pilots.

 

I have DiD pilots whom I only fly on my REAL days off, when neither work nor family intrude. In fact, I only touch them when I have 2 such days in a row, because only on the 2nd day do I wake up early enough to fly them while still sober. Flying DiD practically REQUIRES not warping, not because that's a "no-no" for that standard, but because warping guarantees you'll be at an altitude disadvantage, which negatively impacts your chances of survival. Thus, it's only possible to make any progress on DiD pilots when I have many hours available to climb to high altitude and fly uneventfully for hundreds of miles in real time.

 

The rest of the time, which is most of the time, I use the "Gimpy Uncle Al Guy" standard. I set everything to DiD standard except my odds of dying. Sometimes I do like him and do PND, but most often I do DoDR. Then I'm free to warp and get as much action as possible into the short time I have available, especially if I combine that time with drinking. If they should die as a result, I kill them myself. However, sometimes I let them keep going just because I had so much fun before they, in the real world, would have bought the farm.

 

The problem with warping is that it really limits what you can do, however. If you warp, you can only fly stallfighters, because only they have an chance when bounced from above, which is the inevitable result of warping. Thus, no SPADs, no Pfalzes, no SE5s, no Albatri, etc. You're pretty much stuck with Nupes, Sops, Dr.Is, and Fees, plus maybe D.VIIs if you're feeling macho.

[Duce Lewis 3]

The problem with warping is that it really limits what you can do, however. If you warp, you can only fly stallfighters, because only they have an chance when bounced from above, which is the inevitable result of warping. Thus, no SPADs, no Pfalzes, no SE5s, no Albatri, etc. You're pretty much stuck with Nupes, Sops, Dr.Is, and Fees, plus maybe D.VIIs if you're feeling macho.

I'll agree with you on the Spad and the Pfalz

But the DVII is quite definately able to handle getting bounced

I wouldn't be too concerned with the Se5 or Alb either

[rabu 9]

Nancy

 

 

Just kidding..

[Hellshade 110]

Well said BuB. I think the PND is an excellent concept upon which to experience more of OFF. I'm quite sure I will try it. That said, I believe the DiD standard also offers certain experiences - namely fear, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat (if I may steal that phrase) more intensely because of the genuine fear of loss. With DiD, the highs are higher and the lows are lower but with PND the variety is wider. If I can, I think I should make one of each type of pilot.

 

The real beauty of it all of course is how those clever Devs gave us the ability to do both and anything in between. Now that's a sim you gotta love.

 

Hellshade

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Two other opportunities for the PND pilot:

 

Hunt the aces! Hunt down MVR, LVR, Boelke, Rickenbacker, Bishop, Guynemer, Mannock, Ball, etc. Find them, and see if they really are THAT GOOD! (Ok, they were THAT GOOD, that's why they're aces, however, see if YOU are THAT GOOD!)

Find the region they fly out of, the squadron they are flying with, raid their airfield a few times, and when they show up, engage them. Perhaps on THE DAY that they ended their career, you'll be the one who ended it....

 

Show the world your exploits!

Ace hunting makes for some great stories, and better yet, an opportunity to get FRAPS ready to chronicle your dogfight in a movie!

 

Push the envelope and see what you can do!

[Hasse Wind 46]

Warp and Albatros go well together - I've been warping with them all the time and have done quite well in combat. The D.III in particular can be used as a turn fighter, and the D.II ain't bad either. I have a pilot with almost 50 hours and he's warping all over the place in the D.II.

 

I agree that it's easier to survive as a Spad or Pfalz pilot if you use warp as little as possible so that you won't suddenly lose your altitude advantage.

 

I wonder if the warp coding could be changed so that there wouldn't be so major differences between altitudes at various waypoints. The devs have done marvellous changes to the CFS3 code already, so maybe this would be also possible some day in the future.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

Fun idea BuB. It could be prove to ba a refreshing change from the PAD I fly most of the time, which all go pretty much like this:

 

"Contact! Clear!" (varied flight interval) "AUUUUUUUUGH!"

 

Sadly, you have died in combat...

 

 

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

 

[Bullethead 12]

Warp and Albatros go well together

 

OK, I'll take your word for it.

[Olham 164]

Disadvantage at warp is mostly the altitude. I come out lower than my other flight,

and much lower than all opponents.

Now I use Pol's advice: exit warp earlier by pressing Ctrl. + X

When you want to warp further, do it again. But I am glad when I exit warp on half the

way to the first real waypoint. Then I climb up to my comrades, and fly the rest unwarped.

[zoomzoom 2]

I've been attempting to become "unwarped" for quite some time now.

 

ZZ.

 

Oops...almost forgot. Ahem...Hide here in shame thou PND cravens!!! With my best scary voice and pointy accusatory finger of doom. Oh the shaaaaame. The Shaaaaaaaame!

 

Whatever....actually does sound kinda fun. Not my cup-o-tea though.

Edited August 12, 2009 by zoomzoom

[Hasse Wind 46]

When I first got OFF I flew a lot with invincible pilots, but then as I learned to survive a bit better I decided to see for myself what all the fuss about the DiD mode was. Even though it's very difficult and often frustrating to fly DiD, every time I achieve something, no matter how trivial it might be, it feels really good. I don't have that feeling when using a non-DiD pilot - no pain, no gain I guess.

 

But the best thing about OFF's various settings in the workshop is that they can be modified to suit practically every player. I'm sure many will find PND flying very enjoyable, even though it may not be my cup of tea. :yes:

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

When I first got OFF I flew a lot with invincible pilots, but then as I learned to survive a bit better I decided to see for myself what all the fuss about the DiD mode was. Even though it's very difficult and often frustrating to fly DiD, every time I achieve something, no matter how trivial it might be, it feels really good. I don't have that feeling when using a non-DiD pilot - no pain, no gain I guess.

 

But the best thing about OFF's various settings in the workshop is that they can be modified to suit practically every player. I'm sure many will find PND flying very enjoyable, even though it may not be my cup of tea. :yes:

 

Hasse, there is a HUGE difference between PND and Invincible pilot. Invincible means you cant be hurt. PND, means you get shot down and destroyed, just that your pilot escapes. If you are invincible, you dont take damage, which means you stay in the air and can do amazing things that are not otherwise possible.

PND means you have to fly well, fly defensively, and fly smart to get anything done....you just dont have to pay for your mistakes by creating a new pilot.

 

PND is not Invincible.

 

Lou--PAD? Pilot Always Dies! ROFL! Great one!

[Hasse Wind 46]

BuB, I actually meant a pilot that won't die and not a pilot and aircraft combination that's indestructible. I was shot down many, MANY times but never lost the test pilot I used to learn the sim. Sorry I used the wrong term, I'd forgotten there was an option to actually make the pilot invincible in the workshop settings. :yes:

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Oops...almost forgot. Ahem...Hide here in shame thou PND cravens!!! With my best scary voice and pointy accusatory finger of doom. Oh the shaaaaame. The Shaaaaaaaame!

 

Whatever....actually does sound kinda fun. Not my cup-o-tea though.

 

 

DiD? vs. the fun of PND?

 

Good choices both, but strafing dangerous targets, stalking aces, climbing to engage an enemy double your numbers, finishing a campaign with ONE pilot?

 

Hard to put this into words, can't...quite...compare. PND FTW!

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Another interesting side to PND is that you need to be a decent pilot and make smart choices in order to avoid being shot down again and again.

There is a huge penalty for being shot down, or crashing your plane: Time.

 

If you crash, you lose a certain amount of days from your campaign. Days that cannot be regained.

If you are trying to, for instance, beat MVR's tally of victories, it's going to take you quite a bit of time. If you start in early 1917, you will have less than 20 months to achieve your goal. When you crash from a high altitude or are shot down behind enemy lines, etc, you lose A LOT of time from your limited campaign. It could be 3 weeks for each instance, possibly more, probably a bit less. When this happens continually, you will eat up your 20 months quickly, and your campaign and chance for being the best pilot with the highest tally will be over.

 

You will have to fly well, make smart choices, and protect your limited time and opportunities.

 

 

This is an interesting facet to PND, because in a game where you can replay your mission if you get shot down, there are NO consequences. PND has consequences....it's just that recreating your pilot during his campaign isnt one of them.