How Did You Find OFF?

[CaptSopwith 18]

I just thought of this... and I'm not sure if it's been asked before. If it has, pardon my redundancy.

 

How did each of you come to find OFF? Unlike so many other sims in the past, this one wasn't sitting on a store shelf staring at us when we walked by. So I'm curious to hear how each of us found OBD and their work and where in OFF's timeline we each showed up. It seems like all of us have been here forever.

 

For me, it came while I was still in college, over on the old Hell's Angel's Superpatch boards at OvS' site (before they were hijacked multiple times by Turkish hackers). By then I knew Otto by his real name and I remember getting a message from him about this new project for MS CFS3 called Over Flanders Fields. He included some links to a few screenshots and told me that he was now concentrating his efforts there. Mind you, I was a diehard Red Baron fanatic. I had every patch from Beery 2.0 to 1918 Air War to the latest versions of Western Front Patch, Hell's Angels, and Full Canvas Jacket. He told me that, by this point, RB's days of being pushed any further had pretty much run its course. I remember being surprised - after all, I was devoted to the Old Gal and here was a core member of the community saying that the game had run its course. I think, ultimately, he was right. RB saw a few new addons here and there and some pretty cool utilities. But we've never seen another WingStrut 2.2 patch or a HASP since I got that message.

 

So I kept tabs on P1. I remember downloading it once after I bought a friend's computer - a slight upgrade from a Pentium II to a relatively fast (for the time) Pentium 4. I think P1 could run at 600x800. It was pixely and sluggish on my machine, but it looked promising. I started visiting the various forums, saying hello and, much to my surprise, being recognized and welcomed by a lot of the members.

 

I've been here ever since. My old computer ran P2 - though to be honest it ran so badly I couldn't really fly it. Now I have P3 BHAH with HiTR on my "new" gaming computer from 2008 and I love every anti-aliased, eye-popping second of it.

 

How about you guys? Pull up a stool and tell us your tale.

Edited February 18, 2011 by _CaptSopwith

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

How did each of you come to find OFF?

 

 

I took a left at RB3D and followed the signs.

 

.

[DukeIronHand 8]

I am probably quite the "Johny come lately" here having been a P3 guy from the start.

 

Played all the usual PC WW1 flight sims from my C64 days onward (and I mean every one...at least bought and tried) before finally settling in with RB3D for what...15 years?

 

Clearly RB3D was getting a little old and I watched everywhere for the next latest and greatest. Watched the development of RoF with much excitement before realizing it was, indeed, a flight sim but not a sim of the WW1 aerial combat experience similar RB3D.

 

I expressed my concerns on a RoF board and some kind chap (whose name I forget) was talking up OFF. Like some, the "CFS3 mod" was a bit of a damning indictment but after much reading I decided to give it a shot. Clearly the best money I ever spent and I have never looked back.

 

OFF, in my eyes, is a worthy (and only) successor to the RB3D crown because it is not just a flight sim but an experience.

Edited February 18, 2011 by DukeIronHand

[von Baur 54]

You beat me to it, Lou. :yes:

 

Seriously, though, I've always been on the lookout for a good WWI sim. Flew RB3D (with most of the patches and tweaks) for years. Followed Birds of Prey until it died on the vine. Tried FSW WWI and held out a lot of hope for Richtofen's Skies. On one forum or the other...can't say for sure which any more...I heard about a mod for CFS3. I was on dial-up at the time and had a friend download it for me. P1 had all the graphics beauty I'd come to expect from a Microsoft flight simulator and all the shortcomings in flght modeling, too. Plus with the system I had at the time it didn't run well. I toyed with it for a bit but stayed focussed on RS. As the support from, and interest in all phases of, TargetWare dwindled word started coming out about the approach of OFF P3. I dusted off my CFS3 disc and the rest is geometry. Or was it biology? One of those boring subjects, anyway.

[Hasse Wind 46]

Completely by accident. It was late 2008 and I was checking what kind of new mods there were available for RB3D, if any. I was just getting back to flying WW1 sims after a couple of years of IL2. Well, I noticed somebody mentioned something called Over Flanders Fields and posted a link. I followed it and was quickly hooked. I bought P3 soon after it was released. It was my first OFF experience, as I didn't know anything about P1 and P2. And what an experience it was, and continues to be!

[Bullethead 12]

I've always liked WW1 flightsims (but that's a story for another thread). However, I hadn't played any for a number of years, ever since RB2/RB3D/FCJ quit working on my machine. And due to other things like developing my own games, I hadn't known about any new WW1 sims on the way. Then one day somebody in my company's forum mentioned in an OT thread that OFF P3 was about to come out. That was the 1st I'd heard of OFF, so I missed P1 and P2 completely. My company deals with WW1 ships so most of us like WW1 airplanes as well and discuss them now and again. Anyway, I and several others from my forum followed the link and here we are.

 

 

[Rugbyfan1972 1]

I was looking for a worthy successor to flying corps which would work on my machine, flying corps would not work when it was patched on my XP machine, and I did not like it unpatched, as I can still remember shortly after I got it flying in one of the allied campaigns, and watching an albatross performing barrell rolls when his altitute had fropped to below 60ft until he flew into the ground, that was a common occurrence at low level in the unpatched game. Which I could just not live with.

 

I stumbled across the OFF forum at simouthouse during the spring of 2008 and PM'd Nio to see if he would be kind enough to send me a copy of P2 which he did, and the rest as they say is history.

 

Thanks

Rugbyfan1972

[Olham 164]

October 2008 I googled for WW1 air combat sims, cause I hadn't found anything since "Flying Corps Gold".

"Red Baron 3D" had - very strange! - not got much positive review in the gamer mags I had looked into.

(When I later read here from so many of you, how good it seems it was, I almost bit in my own bum!)

 

Well, as I said, I googled, and I found traces which lead me to "Over Flanders Fields".

I found the name very special and though, that guys who come up with such a name for a WW1 air combat sim,

must have a "special touch".

I found the old forum, and I read there, that OFF was in it's Phase2, which was a free sim.

I saw, that people asked for copies, and that they got them sent by other fans.

But most of that was America or Britain - I seemed to be the only German.

So I finally dared to ask the question to all: who would send me a copy of this sim?

 

I won't forget that it was Typhoon from Canada, who sent it to me - and he didn't even want any money!

I was so grateful I made a screenshot story about a Major from Canada, with the name "Typhoon" on his

S.E.5a, and sent it to him. Thanks again, Tony - you have helped so much to gain a deeply devoted fan

for this wonderful sim - no, I keep forgetting it is a simulation - for this great event called "Over Flanders fields"!

Edited February 18, 2011 by Olham

[Cody Coyote 1]

I guess I go back to the very beginnings. I flew CFS2 a lot and followed their forum over at Sim Outhouse. When CFS3 came out I got it and followed their forum as well. CFS3 would never run well on my machine but I followed the forums and was very interested when the first discussions about creating a WWI addon started. There had been a couple of efforts to do something similar in CFS2 but they never went anywhere. The CFS3 version sounded like the real deal. I can even remember the threads discussing what to name the new addon and when they finally settled on OFF.

 

I downloaded phases 1 & 2 but never installed them since CSF3 was just a slide show. I bought Phase 3 when it first came out to support OBD and encourage them, although I kept it in the wrapper and never opened it. I have followed the forums and read with great interest all of your adventures but rarely posted since I had never actually played OFF. Late last year I bought a new PC, and for the first time I can actually fly OFF. I am enjoying every crash and lost pilot! I don't own HiTR and probably won't buy it since Phase 4 will be coming along. I never had the opportunity to play RB3D, but I did enjoy Sierra's Curse You Red Baron.

[Flyby PC 23]

I'm with Cody Coyote. CFS3 was my thing, but when OFF came out, the scenery and ambiance was far superior to CFS3, the game seemed more stable, and multiplayer was a bit more stable too. It still had gremlins, but it was much better than CFS3. I wasn't really a WW1 buff at that time, but I enjoyed OFF because it was good. Unfortunately as OFF has got better and better from an excellent start, I seem to have less and less time to fly. I count myself lucky to have been around then, because between OFF and MAW, it was a very dynamic time for CFS3, and it was a priviledge just to sit back and enjoy so many talented people work together to do something brilliant just for the entertainment of others. I'm so happy the OFF team have stuck together and kept at it. It's a great pity that MAW took a greater toll on its design team and put them under so much pressure they couldn't continue. I would really like to have seen where MAW 2 and MAW 3 might have taken us. I dont mean it to be a barbed criticism of anything or anybody subsequent to those days, but for me, thats when the CFS3 community was at its peak and CFS3 was re-invented every other week. AVH was active, Groundcrew was excellent as Reg's Hangar still is, but there were half a dozen more sites you had to watch regularly or you'd miss some new plane or modification.

 

I hope OFF continue to go from strength to strength. It thoroughly deserves to. If I had any criticism at all, it might be that OFF is so good that new 'tinkerers' seem to be quite reluctant to come forward in the way the once did with CFS3. It's difficult to be brilliant right away, and so much of OFF is brilliant you don't want to spoil anything. I think it was OFF2 which the Boys of 60 flew with the noble Stumpjumper pitching in with mods unique to the squad. His gas effect was inspired.

 

So keep it up OFF developers. I am really enjoying your journey.

 

Edit : I seem to be unique in these parts having never played RB3D. Not once.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Flyby PC

[Lewie 7]

Ever since I started building R/C 3D models for the R/C training simulator FMS, I've wanted to get into their cockpits and fly them. I also had the PC games Flying Corps Gold, and RedBaron3D, and wanted to make my own custom models for them. I also wanted to do a pre WWI flight simulation, and at the time, like Von Baur, I was on the Prospero Full Canvas Jacket and Western Front patch forums, trying to figure out how to get my models into Redbaron 3D. I was hearing a lot about this WWI add-on to Microsoft's flight simulator and CFS2, through the members of the Prospero forums, which I suspect is what OFF evolved from. One thing lead to another, I discovered the Targetware Team and got on the Richthofen's Skies development team just as 0.64 was having development stopped.

 

It was a shame because I was getting the hang of importing my models just as the ax fell on any further development for TW's 0.64 rendering and FM engine. I'm glad they are developing it further, but it would have been nice to keep the legacy features and formats. A lot of folks who had much time in the sim felt the same way. Water under the bridge..

 

I'm now working with SDOE's mod Fighter Squadron WWI and am getting the hang of it. That you can have a dynamic combat situation in FS-WWI is a bit better than RS's offline play, which is you, by yourself, flying a solo mission with a bit of flak to worry about.

 

I'm also here because I'm looking into adding some of my models to OFF. I 'm still getting to know gmax as a 3D program, it has a lot of niggling problems and there's not a lot of beginner help, especially with the user interface which I'm finding a bit hard to grasp.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Coming from a long line of WW1 aerial games (I moved over to PC from Amiga to play the original Red Baron)...I had purchased CFS3...and having been utterly disappointed by it's lack of anything good...I uninstalled it!

 

A long time passed, and I decided to have a look if some Mods were available, and after a telephone conversation with my now friend, Dave...I was pointed at P1 of OFF

 

The rest is history

[Von Paulus 8]

I found about OFF in the RoF forums in July 2009.

It's true.

[Olham 164]

I found about OFF in the RoF forums in July 2009.

It's true.

A good example for the theory, that two competing buisinesses can also drive each other forward.

[carrick58 23]

How did I find OFF ? I found it to to be a lot of fun.

[Rickitycrate 10]

Like most of you guys I had played the PC WWI flightsims even the Amiga ones. I still have an Amiga 500 and a Commodore 64. I was out of action for awhile as I did not keep up with the advance of computers but turned toward game consoles for more than a few years. My greatest wish and expectation was for a console version of Red Baron 3D. It never happened. I did get the XBOX because of "Wings of War". I finally got myself a new PC and my first forays in what to me was the "new" worldwideweb with highspeed was to see if there were any spiffy, neato WWI flightsims. I soon was at YouTube for the first time ever and I found Pol's vids previewing P3. It looked fabulous so I went to the OFF website and reguested a P2 disc to help me anticipate P3. SittingDuck was kind enough to send me a copy of P2 and six to eight weeks later P3 was released. I learned alot about my new PC from the OFF forum and I have enjoyed OFF beyond words. Also the kindness of OBD and the forumites here has had a meaningful impact on my life. My thanks to all!

[Wayfarer 5]

On holiday, when I was young, at the end of the pier, was 'Tailgunner'. Not the later, blue, angular sci-fi 'Tailgunner', but the fuzzy browny-grey one.

In the centre of the browny-grey background, the slightly lighter silhouette of a fighter, seen head on, jiggled about. If your six year old hand held the thin metal 'gun' steady enough, so that the bright sparkles that appeared when you pulled the trigger stayed on the fighter long enough, suddenly - and dramatically - the silhouette dropped down! The score at the top advanced by one - and the whole thrilling process started again until the time ran out. Then your dad explained that this was like the men that flew in the bombers during 'the war' - and a small bit of your mind was entranced forever.

 

Later, you had the one in colour. A film strip showing actual WW1 aircraft moved up and down and, if you kept the two bright flashes that converged from the sides on the central picture long enough, suddenly - and dramatically - it dropped down! I was older, however, and wanted something which I imagined to be more 'realistic'. Later video games seemed too 'comic-bookish' in atmosphere.

 

With the advent of flight simulations for PCs I though that if anyone developed a decent WW1 game I would buy it. I saw some early ones that seemed a bit 'arcadeish', but when 'Flying Corps' came out that seemed to be what I was looking for, and I happily played that until we got a new PC with XP and it wouldn't work any more.

 

I still had MiG Alley, Battle of Britain, B17: The Mighty Eighth, IL2, CFS3 MAW and EAW, but no WW1. I was looking for a worthy successor. I managed to miss Red Baron, that everyone else seems to have played, but it's possible I didn't see it as enough of an advance on Flying Corps to seem worth it. I would occasionally do an internet search for WW1 fliying sims and became aware of OFF as a game that was praised for it's authentic period feel. The more I read, the more I became convinced that the game would repay trying to take time to fly in a 'realistic' fashion, as I saw it, rather than just trying to blow things up in quick games, which I tended to do with the other sims. I did look at RoF. With the IL2 engine it has some nice graphics, but I didn't think it would have the right 'feel' for me.

 

I am now flying my BE2 in August 1915. I put completing my reece./spotting missions first, protecting my flight members second, and firing at any enemy aircraft (with a gun with no sight) a long way third. I have flown 50 missions and was once told I had downed an enemy aircraft, but it was so long after I'd fired at anything I had no idea which one. I have never had a claim - and I am very satisfied with OFF. It feels just right!

Edited February 19, 2011 by Wayfarer

[shredward 12]

I was looking for something to do after Gennaditch collapsed.

the shredder

[Tbolin 0]

I have just registered as a new member, have been following this website for a few weeks, I just purchased, recieved and installed CFS3 and I'm fixing to order BH&H and I'm so excited I can't see straight. I haven't felt like this since 2002 when I recieved CFS2 as a birthday gift and couldn't believe I could actually fly an f4u instead of just build plastic models. I also installed SDOE and really enjoyed the WWI download as well as WWI downloads with CFS2. Cody Coyote's mission builder tutorial has been an excellent tool and alot of really good people make CFS2 continue to upgrade and carry on way past what I believe was expected. I also believe that enthusiasm is present in OFF. I know that too few movies and simulators of WWI aviation are available (my favorite movie "The Blue Max") and now I'm looking forward to being shot up to pieces in BH&H.

[hood 2]

I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Wayfarer has just reminded me of something..that goes back way beyond PC's, Consoles or even the BBC or ZX.

 

I used to travel with a friend up to Heathrow Airport every weekend Plane spotting...I would have been 13-14 yrs old (35 yrs ago)...and there was an arcade game called Red Baron....you were in possesion of two machine guns...and the aircraft you were shooting down were projected onto a screen...movie like....it was stunning!...and I'm convinced, even with todays hardware...I would still play it!

[Olham 164]

Welcome to "Over Flander Fields" Forum, Tbolin!

Oh, I LOVED CFS2, and have played it for countless hours.

And yes, "The Blue Max" must be the best colour movie about WW1 air combat,

cause it has a good story to hold all the flying together. I hope very much, that

Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), who is a "wing nut" with own WW1 planes,

will top the Blue Max one day.

Although you are not "airborn" with BHaH yet, I will add you to our OFF Forum Pilots map.

 

Oh, and you know: you'll have to buy the first drink!

I think I'll have a big Warsteiner Pilsener.

 

Edited February 20, 2011 by Olham

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

CFS2 was class!...I wonder if it works under Win7 64?...Think I might just fire it up and see...I have loadsa mods/aircraft/scenery for it

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Welcome to the OFF forums Tbolin, and soon to the virtual skies above the front! You are going to love this sim, and I envy you your first mission in the WWI kite of your choosing. But even after 1000 missions the excitement is nearly the same, as I and many others have found here.

 

Now then, a nice mug of fresh hot coffee with a touch of cream, and two fingers of Tullamore Dew my good lad!

 

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

.

[Olham 164]

Please report, Widomaker - I still have it, and might also dig it out and give it a bash.

Although - maybe it will run on Win7, but not on Vista?