Boring April?

[tix 0]

Hey guys, noobie here. Absolutely loving this game. I've abandoned Rise Of Flight to play OFF and I'm not missing it a bit. Kudos to the developers! Call me a heretic, but I think this is even better than RB3D. Haven't even bothered to buy the new Deus Ex game, and I've been waiting for that for years.

 

But I've run into a problem. I joined RFC 56 in mid April 1917 and after about 30 missions or so, I've yet to run into a enemy fighter. No joy even on the scramble missions. I have run into a few 2 seaters, but precious few of those even. I have the manager set to "Heavy Activity". I even adjusted the time manager so that I've only flown one mission a day. I've run a few other French and English campaigns during April 1917 and seem to have the same problem. Basically, I'm not seeing any German scouts during "Bloody April". Just the occasional flight of enemy 2 seaters.

 

If I start a campaign in 1918 the enemy fighters are present again (and how!!!). I've searched the FAQ and the forums and I know that enemy air is pretty realistic, in that they're not all that common, but even with my TAC on I'm seeing very few enemy craft. I reinstalled once and same thing (but the uninstall may not have been thorough, as I did not need to redo my controls). I'm runing Windows 7 64 bit on a beefy rig.

 

I guess the question is this: Is this situation normal for RFC 56 and other Allied squadrons in mid april? Or did I bork my install? I'm wondering if I didn't somehow screw up the enemy fighter spawn.

I would love to avoid a second, more thorough uninstall. The last time I messed with my registry, Chernobyl exploded. I don't think it was a coincidence.

 

I'm running the HPW FM mods and the HPW Damage mods, by the way. I uninstalled them for a go through but seemed to have the same problem.

 

Edit: I also have HITR installed. Everything is fully patched as far as I can tell.

Edited August 25, 2011 by tix

[smilingmonkey 1]

Hi Tix, I am by no means the brains of this outfit. But I can let you know that having nothing much happening in the way of scouts during April in 56 Sqn doesnt sound right at all. I am currently running a campaign in that squadron and have just come through that time and there was plenty of enemy activity.

 

If you need to reinstall and patch up though, go take a look at this

 

http://combatace.com/topic/37488-off3-issues/

 

Note where it says you need to delete all files, some of them need to be manually searched for and deleted before reinstall apparently.

 

I dont know if that can help, but looking throught he 'help' pages mught get ou something. If not, keep making noise until someone that knows what they are talking about hears you....(that isn't me by the way.)

 

Anyway, Welcome to the forums.

[tix 0]

Hi Tix, I am by no means the brains of this outfit. But I can let you know that having nothing much happening in the way of scouts during April in 56 Sqn doesnt sound right at all. I am currently running a campaign in that squadron and have just come through that time and there was plenty of enemy activity.

 

Thanks Monkey! That was the quick answer I needed for my long winded post. Just wanted to be sure that the game wasn't running normally before I started futzing around.

 

I did a second reinstall and re-D'loaded the patches. Plenty of enemy scouts now, and all is right with the world.

 

Thanks again for the quick reply!

[smilingmonkey 1]

Nice.

 

A positive result all around I would think.

 

Have a great time flying in 56, make it through until march of 1918 and you may just wish there were less enemy in the air though....just sayin'.

[SirMike1983 3]

I've had this too, but with a different squad. Something may be up with the flights generated at that time. I have a Nieuport career going in that same timeframe (spring 1917) and I'm never encountering any enemies. Even on a scramble that generated last night, no Germans showed up at all. It might be a regional thing, but then again maybe not. I've tried a couple different squads for that period and never encountered any enemies. I just avoid playing that period now. Later 1917 seems fine, and late 1916 seems fine as well.

[33LIMA 972]

I've recently started flying Camels after a long time on Albatrosses and Pfalz DIIIs, around July 1917, and - so far, early days yet - most missions are a wash out, altho the ground war seems active enough and I have Bletchley's busy sector mod enabled.

 

Once, I happened to look down and chanced to see a DFW slipping by a few hundred feet below. Had I not looked in the right direction at just the right time, i'd never have realised he was there (and he wasn't alone).

 

Otherwise the campaign has been very quiet so far. I don't use zoom, have my TAC set at 1 mile range and only turn it on to padlock AFTER spotting an enemy, likewise I never use labels to help spot or even ID a plane. When flying German, nearly always I spotted enemies through archie bursts. Flying RFC, the latter is rarely seen (except when they're shooting at ME!). So if you play with minimal reliance on visual aids, then I think when flying for the Entente, it seems very possible to miss enemies who are there, but just not close enough or obvious enough, in the direction you're looking.

 

Two factors I think increase this, in OFF (P3 anyway, I hope P4 - sorry, OFF2 - will improve the second, if not the first):

 

1. your wingmen - flightmates, mustn't use modernisms! - don't seem to play any role in scanning the skies around your flight, which they would in real life

 

2. aircraft LOD models (settings in the plane's unfortunately non-mod-able .m3d file control at what distance these pop into view) are often such that planes become invisible at around 2 miles and even closer, are arguably harder to see than they propbably should be, eg when viewed against the ground. OFF 2 will I hope improve this, as current LOD settings also often cause some rather brutal transitions, when a plane switches from a lower to a higher-polygon model, at relatively close range.

 

In these circumstances, it may be appropriate to keep the 'TAC/radar' turned on with the range set to no more than, say, 2-3 miles, to compensate for factors 1 amd 2 above. When flying German, Archie enables you to fly without doing so. When flying Entente, less so; I've seen other posts from experienced OFF'ers also commenting on how much harder it is for Entente scout flyers, with no Archie target indications, especially it you don't use the in-game visual aids.

Edited December 14, 2011 by 33LIMA

[jamieandnici 0]

Hi all, this is the first time I've been back after a long absence although I am still playing OFF-HitR and come back to the forum every once in a while to see what's new and to download new mods.

 

Anyway, I would just like to put in my bit about a problem that I too am suffering which is similar to my good friend above, which is that I too seem to be suffering from a lack of any enemy aircraft activity in my region. I am currently playing a very heavily modded OFF (elements of Craeghorns Homebrew, sounds, tracers and effects, HPW damage mod, with AI weight mod and Flight model compatibility) all through the excellent JSGME utility. My problem is that as a Sopwith Pup pilot in 46 Squadron RFC currently in May 12th 1917 I have noticed thoughout the number of missions I have currently flown there is no enemy aircraft activity (scouts, or bombers) routinely going about their business at all. This has been backed up with the mission review to see my flight plan and important events that have occured throughout the mission. I am at the height of the Arras-Nivelle offensive and am truely 'in the thick of it', but every mission so far has been a very quiet one when enemy air activity is concerned. The weather is hot and humid and clear. But there has been no sign of any enemy air activity at all, only the stationary aircraft ground objects lined up on the German aerodromes. I am currently uninstalling OFF in the hope of trying to sort this problem out. I will start without any mods at all and will fly a few missions and then I will apply the previous mods one by one in the hope of finding out which one is responsible for this bizarre act. Is there any help and advice anyone else can provide me about this problem in the meantime? All the best Jamie.

[Creaghorn 10]

Hi all, this is the first time I've been back after a long absence although I am still playing OFF-HitR and come back to the forum every once in a while to see what's new and to download new mods.

 

Anyway, I would just like to put in my bit about a problem that I too am suffering which is similar to my good friend above, which is that I too seem to be suffering from a lack of any enemy aircraft activity in my region. I am currently playing a very heavily modded OFF (elements of Craeghorns Homebrew, sounds, tracers and effects, HPW damage mod, with AI weight mod and Flight model compatibility) all through the excellent JSGME utility. My problem is that as a Sopwith Pup pilot in 46 Squadron RFC currently in May 12th 1917 I have noticed thoughout the number of missions I have currently flown there is no enemy aircraft activity (scouts, or bombers) routinely going about their business at all. This has been backed up with the mission review to see my flight plan and important events that have occured throughout the mission. I am at the height of the Arras-Nivelle offensive and am truely 'in the thick of it', but every mission so far has been a very quiet one when enemy air activity is concerned. The weather is hot and humid and clear. But there has been no sign of any enemy air activity at all, only the stationary aircraft ground objects lined up on the German aerodromes. I am currently uninstalling OFF in the hope of trying to sort this problem out. I will start without any mods at all and will fly a few missions and then I will apply the previous mods one by one in the hope of finding out which one is responsible for this bizarre act. Is there any help and advice anyone else can provide me about this problem in the meantime? All the best Jamie.

 

i doubt that the problem is related to the soundmods, because there is not the slightest connection to any FM,DM, mission files etc. but i would suggest to not activate the soundmod via JSGME utility but how it's explained in the readme file, because it was not intended to be used with the JSGME utility, so no guarantees if it would work with it or not.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Just saw this thread today...

 

As far as I know, my FM or DM mods should not interfere with mission frequencies or the spawning of enemy aircraft.

 

However, if you use my weather mod, the number of daily missions that you fly is actually increased for early 1917. I suppose there is a chance that these extra flights might not have enemy aircraft because they might not have been included in the OFF order of battle, but you would have to ask Pol or one of the other devs about that, I'm afraid.

 

Note: I can't recall whether I've noticed any increase in campaign missions in which I don't see any enemy aircraft after I installed my weather mod, but tha'ts because I haven't flown any campaigns for awhile now. I'll try and check over the weekend (specifically flying over May 12, 1917 in 46 RFC) to see if i can confirm J & D's observations.

 

Interesting.