New mods for a rainy Sunday

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

News and weather tend to go together, right? In honor of that tradition, I have two more mods I would like to announce.

 

The first is actually just an update for my News mod from a couple of years ago. I have done some minor editing of the news for 1915-1918 to add a few more stories and a few more details. I also cleaned up the spelling so that it now consistently reflects U.K. spelling preferences (honour vs. honor, etc.).

 

The second mod is both new and more ambitious. Basically, I have re-writtten the weather files so that each year from 1915 - 1918 is divided into active and quiet sectors of the front. Depending on whether the OFF Manager tells you that you are in an active or a quiet sector, you activate the appropriate mod, e.g. HPW 1916 Weather Active Sector. Using my mod, if you are in an active sector, you can expect to fly more missions per day. You are also more likely to fly in adverse weather conditions, such as rain or snow--after all, there is a war on! On the other hand, if you are based in a quiet sector, you are likely to fly fewer missions per day, and are less likely to fly in poor weather. In cases of extremely poor weather, you may not fly at all for several days or even a week or more! Regardless of whether you are in an active or quiet sector, I also modified the weather descriptions so they are a little more "descriptive." See if you notice the "easter egg" on Armistice Day!

 

The weather mod also contains an optional HPW Skies mod. This mod does not have to be used with the weather mod, but if you do decide to use it, you will notice that I have added a few more cloud types. Don't worry, the cloud types use OFF cloud skins, so there is no loss in quality if you use this optional mod. Finally, the HPW Skies mod also makes it a little more likely for you to experience clear skies under very good weather conditions and gives you a little more variability in variably cloudy conditions. Together with the additional cloud types, I think you will see even more variability in the skies over Flander's Fields.

 

As always, the mods will be available in the download section of the forum after they are approved by the admins. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and I will answer them in this thread. Happy flying!

[Shiloh 12]

Thank you HPW for adding yet another mod as a compliment to OFF. I have only been flying OFF for 4 or 5 months and have yet to try any mods out as the vanilla version has been just great. I am tempted to try out some mods though as I know from other games they can really enhance the experience.

 

Thanks again and once I give these a go, I'll report back here.

[DukeIronHand 8]

Ahh...I see I timed my return to the OFF front perfectly.

 

Thanks HPW for your continued work toward improving my favorite sim.

 

Especially eager to try the "Skies" mod.

[gaw 5]

HPW......been rattling around with your UDM and it's a marvelous change of pace.....different slant on almost all engagements....lost 3 pilots in a row on first missions....more caution and craft seems to be called for. Look forward to trying on your skies. Thank you!

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

You guys are all welcome. Thanks for your interest in the mods.

 

I'd be especially pleased if more people would take a look at the Weather/Mission frequency mod. I put a lot of work into it - more than I intended, I think. The weather is virtually the same as in the OBD version, the main differences are the mission frequencies in the active and quiet sectors, and the "weather reports" that you get before flight - they are a little more descriptive about what you might expect weather wise (but not too much).

 

I should explain a little more about the optional HPW Skies mod. I probably should have called it "HPW Skies Addition" because it does not replace any of the OBD clouds. Instead, it merely adds a few more cloud types that I created by simply copying an existing OBD cloud type and either increasing or decreasing the number or density of the clouds or adjusting the height of the OBD cloud type. I also tried to make the two good weather conditions a little more distinct from each other so that the "Good" weather condition represents truly nice weather conditions, while the "Light" weather condition represents basically "fair" weather conditions. (The other weather conditions in the game are "Medium," "Heavy," "Variable," and "Precipitation.") Finally, the HPW skies mod can be used either with or without the other weather mod files.

[Bletchley 8]

I have been using these mods for a campaign in February-April 1916, and I like them :)

 

Difficukt to compare the mission frequency change without running two identical campaigns side by side, but my 'quiet sector' version seems to be doing the job well without any problems so far.

 

I very much like the weather add-on mod for extra cloudiness - there is a much better NW European cloudscape now, I think, a big improvement on the 'blue skies with a few fluffy clouds' that seemed to predominate with the OFF stock weather.

 

Bletchley

[Hasse Wind 46]

Sounds like an interesting mod. I'll give it a try soon. I'm already using a whole bunch of your mods, HPW. And Bletchley's mods are great too.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Yup, Bletchley's mod originally gave me the idea for a "weather" mod that generates different mission frequencies for active versus quiet sectors. If you are in an active sector in either 1916 or 1917, you will find you are flying more missions per day than in the stock game. On the other hand, quiet sectors will be much quieter than in the stock game. In 1918, active sectors have about the same amount of activity as in the stock game (fewer 3 mission days, but more 2 mission days), while quiet sectors will be a lot quieter.

 

Here is an excel spreadsheet that shows the active sectors for 1915 - 1918:

OFFActiveBattles2.zip

Edited September 9, 2011 by Herr Prop-Wasche

[Hasse Wind 46]

Nice spreadsheet! For people who want a peaceful career, Alsace is an excellent choice. Beautiful forests and mountains, and not too much flying to do.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

I have a few minor updates for the weather files. To install, just drop the attached 1916, 1917, and 1918 OFFHistoricalWeather files into their respective MODS\HPW 19** Weather Active Sector\campaigns\CampaignData\weather folder.

 

The most significant change was to the 1917 weather file. I reduced the number of missions by approximately 20% so it is not as busy in the active sectors. It is still much busier than the OBD version, but is now closer to the 1916 level of activity than the 1918 level of activity. I also corrected an error in the OBD version of the 1917 weather file that was also carried over into my version. If you do not want to install my mod, but want to correct the OBD version of the 1917 weather file, open up the OFFHistoricalWeather1917.txt file, and find the following text:

 

EOR

26

11

1917

28

12

1917

and change the 12 to an 11. This will change the date from reading "26 November 1917 to 28 December 1917", to the correct reading of "26 November 1917 to 28 November 1917."

OFFHistoricalWeather1916.txt

OFFHistoricalWeather1917.txt

OFFHistoricalWeather1918.txt