Do you ever look into the "Duty Room"?

[Olham 164]

The blackboard in the "Duty Room" is quite informative.

The RL pilots (like Oswald Boelcke, Manfred von Richthofen or Stefan Kirmaier here)

are listed there together with the "player's" fictitious wingmen.

You can see, who is on leave, who is missing or who was killed in action.

There are the confirmed kills as well as the pending claims for everyone.

 

I never used to go there much, but with Jasta 2, I will visit it more often.

 

 

[Creaghorn 10]

i'm surprised you don't look into the duty room often:dntknw: .

that's essential for a long, immersive campaign. my standart procedure is to every newcoming AI pilot, i erase his kills so he has to earn his kills like anybody else. and if you have long enough careers going, you can see their progress like your own. you can see them die, see them getting kills within the time. more experienced AI pilots even survive very much longer than newbies. you really get a bondage with them. especially if you see them die after a virtual year or so. the best virtual comrade i had yet was horst pagels with 32 kills.

[Olham 164]

you really get a bondage with them. especially if you see them die after a virtual year or so.

the best virtual comrade i had yet was horst pagels with 32 kills.

I am only getting there slowly, Creaghorn - bit by bit.

My first year with OFF was the typical "I will win the war singlehandedly" approach.

Then I got more and more into personal skins, and I learnt more about a war I didn't know

anything about. I learnt to know about the structures and Staffeln; and about the many known

pilots. I read their books, as well as historical research.

And only now, after more than 2 years, I am beginning to develop such a "deeper relationship

to the whole rest of the Staffel.

I always used to know my direct wingman by name, and I once lost a good longtime fellow,

which was really saddening. But I still have to go a bit of way to reach a real life behaviour.

 

There is hope - the tendency is there. Right now, I am reading "Voices in Flight", a book with

interviews of British WW1 pilots, and it brings them closer to me. In fact it makes me want to

start a longer lasting British pilot soon.

But that is a development - not something I can just decide to do from now on.

I have to grow into it. I need to feel it.

Edited January 23, 2011 by Olham

[Slartibartfast 153]

I have used it on many occasions too keep track...

[+elephant 36]

I do it all the time...(I have OFF at last and beeing a bit enthousiastic, I guess)...

I used to play, before I get OFF, Campaigns with Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator for RoF.

There, by clicking every individual pilot's name you could see his Dossier, (picture, stats and awards), also the aces had their actuall victories logged on in historical time frame and you could see them amassing kills as time passed. (they died, "historically" and not only, too)... ie You could kill an ace and never meet him again.

I would like to see such features in Phase 4.

 

BTW does anyone knows how I can assign individual skins to my virtual squadmates?

 

Edited January 23, 2011 by elephant

[Olham 164]

...the aces had their actuall victories logged on in historical time frame and you could see them amassing kills as time passed.

(they died, "historically" and not only, too)... ie You could kill an ace and never meet him again.

I would like to see such features in Phase 4.

The data about each ace are also growing with the timeline in OFF.

But OFF is striktly historical - the aces die, when they died in real life. I prefer that to being some super heroe

who can kill Guynemer before his time.

 

BTW does anyone knows how I can assign individual skins to my virtual squadmates?

Nope. Not possible.

But you can share with them the same self made skin.

To get that, you need to select "Petrol management" in "Workshops".

[+elephant 36]

Bummer...I did that in Pat's Campaign and I didn't have to turn labels on to see who is who...

I know it's not a feature addressed to the casual or average player but I would like to have it in Phase 4.

I too have the tendency to bond with my virtual squadmates.

CFS3 has a pretty lame set of external views, BTW.

In all other sims I play you can cycle between friends and foes easily in external view.

When cruising to target I usually set autopilot on, get outside and wonder around taking screenshots or just watching the planes fly...(Am I missing something 'cause I only can see someone else, externally, only if I set him targeted).

[Olham 164]

You can cycle through friends & foes this way:

- switch TAC on

- use TAB to mark one craft

- go through external views by clicking F4 two or three times - you should get the outside view

of the aircraft you have marked

- now press TAB again and again, to cycle through ALL other craft

 

It may be slightly different (like Shift + TAB), but I have changed "Controls" and reduced it to TAB only.

You get there by pressing "Esc" ingame. You can program any Control for a new button or key.

 

The CFS3 engine is surely limited here or there. But since the guys have built their most immersive

sim on that engine and no other, I will make do with it the best I can. I am addicted to OFF.

[Dej 17]

There you go, Olham. If this sim wasn't immersive enough for you already (which it is, I'd guess) you now have a whole new area of involvement with your fellow Jasta pilots.

 

I'd prefer to check the duty room before every mission, but can't always because of RL pressures - but I do more often than not. I like to hear the buzz of voices; see who's on leave; imagine where they are; see who's joined; look at their rank; imagine what they might be like - gives me a sense of belonging before I set off on what may be mine or one of my squadron mates' last flight.

 

And I'm always intrigued, when the OFF manager tells me that n members of my squadron made a claim today, to know who those members were.

[+elephant 36]

Yes I know how to do it, I just think it's too complicated to get someone targeted first to see him externally!

Also the actuall external view is viewed through a weird wide-angle distorting lens, if you want to get a bit closer, that is frustrating!

But as you say we have to live with these rather minnor deficiencies as OFF really is the most immersive sim I've ever played too...

Thanks!

[Wodin 0]

Strange your view is distorted....

 

Anyway yes I always check out the duty room....you also nee to check that your wingman doesn't bugger off on leave and you don't notice and put his name down as a witness....everytime I set off I do a copy and paste job on my wingmans name...

[TaillyHo 2]

I do it all the time...(I have OFF at last and beeing a bit enthousiastic, I guess)...

 

Wonderful news, elephant - that your copy of OFF finally arrived. I think you have had to wait the longest time - hope you feel your patience has finally been rewarded!

(patience is not a bad quality to have in OFF, anyway!)

[+elephant 36]

As a matter of fact, I'm still waiting for the DVD...

Mark arranged a special download version for me, after showing my purchase receipt, with the date on!

CUDOS to OBD for their Great custommer support!

I wish a download option will be available for Phase 4 as well...

Edited January 24, 2011 by elephant

[carrick58 23]

i'm surprised you don't look into the duty room often:dntknw: .

that's essential for a long, immersive campaign. my standart procedure is to every newcoming AI pilot, i erase his kills so he has to earn his kills like anybody else. and if you have long enough careers going, you can see their progress like your own. you can see them die, see them getting kills within the time. more experienced AI pilots even survive very much longer than newbies. you really get a bondage with them. especially if you see them die after a virtual year or so. the best virtual comrade i had yet was horst pagels with 32 kills.

 

How do u erase the new pilots kills? Sounds like a good immersion tactic

[Bullethead 12]

How do u erase the new pilots kills? Sounds like a good immersion tactic

 

Look in the PilotXDossier.txt file, where X is the number of the pilot in question. These files are foundin the OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\Pilots folder.

 

Anyway, down near the bottom of the dossier file it lists all the non-ace pilots in your squadron, in the following format:

 

rank;1st name;surname;kills;claims;status

 

So just go down the list putting zeroes in for all the kills and claims.

 

I don't really recommend doing this, or otherwise editing the various pilot files. This tends to cause stability issues with OFF after a while.

[Olham 164]

You could and should only do that at the very beginning, Carrick.

As Bullethead is warning - some changes might cause problems.

 

But if you have just enlisted a pilot, and before flying with him, you just go there first

and make the changes, I believe it would be okay.

I myself have changed the names of my wingmen into the names of relatives or

friends, and it worked. But I have done right before the first sortie.

[carrick58 23]

cool. Thanks guys.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

I stop by the Doodie Room before every flight, especially if it's going to be a long recon. Oh...wait...you said Duty Room...yes, I stop by there before every flight as well.

 

.

[Wayfarer 5]

You can cycle through friends & foes this way:

- switch TAC on

- use TAB to mark one craft

- go through external views by clicking F4 two or three times - you should get the outside view

of the aircraft you have marked

- now press TAB again and again, to cycle through ALL other craft

 

It may be slightly different (like Shift + TAB), but I have changed "Controls" and reduced it to TAB only.

You get there by pressing "Esc" ingame. You can program any Control for a new button or key.

 

The CFS3 engine is surely limited here or there. But since the guys have built their most immersive

sim on that engine and no other, I will make do with it the best I can. I am addicted to OFF.

 

Out of interest, when you do this, should you be able to pan around the aircraft you see? I can't seem to.

Edited February 4, 2011 by Wayfarer

[+elephant 36]

No you can't!

CFS3 external views are awfull, the worst I've ever seen in a sim!

[JFM 18]

I know it's pedantic but on 11 October 1916 Richthofen was a Leutnant, not a Rittmeister, and he had 4 victories, not 0.

[+elephant 36]

You are right Jim...but as I have noticed, (correct me if I'm wrong), in OFF for all pilots except from the player the ranks play only a "cosmetic" role...

There are no rank advances nor rank relevance to the pilots position in flight formation or command ability but for the player himself...for all the others the above attributes are chosen by random

[JFM 18]

Okay, Elephant, thanks for that. Not quite as historically accurate as some perceive, then. No doubt keeping track of everybody's rank and victories for each day of the war and having them reflected accurately in that area of the sim would require a mountain of work.

[Creaghorn 10]

hi jim,

the aces dossiers are mostly, if not missing at all, historically accurate. and that's how it should be. not aproximately correct, but exactly as the history books say. however i found out long time ago that there were some date typos in MvR's kill board. in some others either. that's why his kills and dates are kind of screwed up and why he has for long time just handfull kills, and suddenly 52 or so. i corrected the data in my MvR file and now everything works as it should. if i remember correctly then the kill stats of bishop and mannock are mixed up or something like that. others don't show kills at all, but i think that happens when there are more pilots with the same surname.

i think that ranks are correctly progressing with aces. but not with MvR because of those mentioned typos.

for AI pilots ranks are purely coincidental.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Dear Creaghorn,

 

Any chance of making your changes to the Ace Dossier available for download? I would love to have a corrected dossier for MvR, for instance!