OFFbase: the Barmy Automated Squadron Experience for OFF

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

While we're all waiting for P4, I've written a program that will revolutionize your Over Flanders Fields campaign experience. If you've yet to try OFFbase, or even if you have, I've posted a massively-expanded new version.

 

- OFFbase features squadron-based play. Take turns flying multiple pilots in a squadron while sharing the same roster and more. Separate wingmen are assigned and flights split as much as possible. See your other squadron pilots in the duty roster with you! Fly as a rookie pilot in your favorite squadron while taking your long-time veteran out on the occasion you work up the nerve. If your pilot dies, you can start a new pilot to take over for him with the same squadmates and everything, and continue your squadron's story throughout the war.

 

- OFFbase puts you right in the Squadron HQ, where you can visit the Adjutant to manage your career, kick back in Lodgings that you may share with a roommate, go down to the Mess for food or drink and see how your squadmates are doing, or head out to the Airfield to fly campaign missions.

 

- OFFbase implements Bletchley's Pilot Personality Profiles (3P) to give each pilot in the squad individual character that informs how they behave and relate to each other. This enhances the squadron-based gameplay by structuring social interactions between pilots as well as your squadron's infrastructure, all of which affect the development of your pilots' reputations and careers. Engage in many different types of social encounters, and watch your squadron's airfield and lodgings improve over time.

 

- OFFbase builds on 3P with academic game theory to make social encounters richer, more intuitive, and more rewarding for different play styles. Will you try to out-do other pilots, enhancing your reputation at their expense, or try to build both your reputations through friendship and social support? Your success at playing different strategies depends on the rank, personality, and social skills of your pilot character. The effectiveness of different strategies depends on the strategy of the opposing player...

 

- OFFbase gives pilots in your squadron artificial intelligence. They remember how you and other pilots have treated them in the past and form social strategies to pursue their own goals based on their own rank, personality, social skills, and history. Some may try to boost their careers by bullying subordinates to make themselves look better, others may focus on building peer networks, while some may do a bit of both depending on who they like and who they don't. This makes encounters a true strategic game where your strategy depends on not just what you hope to achieve but also what you think the other pilot is after.

 

- OFFbase features a full dynamic squadron simulation: Non-player pilots have daily encounters with each other, developing their own prestige and goodwill to develop their reputations and earn their own promotions, while periodically going on and returning from leave. All this goes on even as you advance or skip time due to weather, injury, whatever. Watch non-player pilots in your squadron share a drink, talk politics, make friends, get in fights--building relationships that affect how their careers develop, and yours.

 

- OFFbase makes completing missions more rewarding, with additional benefits and costs to your career from shooting down enemy aces, friendly fire, pulling a hat trick by shooting down three or more enemy planes, and taking out ground targets and balloons. If a fellow pilot steals your kill, you can chew him out once you're back at HQ and try to take back some of the prestige he earned instead of you; or apologize and give back prestige if you steal someone else's kill.

 

- OFFbase brings additional features to the game such as transfers between squadrons, player input on promotions, care packages for POWs, and funerals for dead pilots.

 

The deeper investment in building each pilot's career not only further customizes and enriches the campaign experience, but makes death in the air all the more terrifying, and thus OFF even more fun. Who'll carry your casket to its final resting place? Play OFFbase and find out!

[Creaghorn 10]

great mod. can only recommend it

[DukeIronHand 8]

Whew - after that sales pitch I feel compelled to give it a shot. It certainly sounds great.

 

D/l'ing now.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

I have the downloads and will be giving them a go once my two longest surviving pilots are either killed, captured, or survive the war. Thanks Lothar.

 

.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Now that my 1.25 DM has been released, I finally had a chance to play around with OFFbase a little bit.

 

I like it! It's fun and adds another dimension to the OFF experience. Great idea, Lothar, to include NPC on NPC interactions.

 

Couple of questions/observations:

 

Are you still using Tables 3a and 3b from Bletchley's 3P rules? If so, I have a couple of suggestions for attitudes or relationships between different player classes, if you are interested. I also noted that you have Bully and Coward as friendly towards each other. Personally, I would have them as hostile toward one another, but maybe that's just me.

 

Also, is there any way to indicate to the human player the level of prestige of the NPC's, for comparison purposes? I'm not thinking necessarily of telling us how many points of prestige each character has, but more like a ballpark figure, such as high, medium, low. In real life, humans generally are pretty good at or have a fairly good idea of the "pecking order," or how each compares to others in terms of prestige, dominance, etc.

 

Finally, I noticed that you can trick OFFbase into giving you more encounters than you might be entitled to by simply exiting out of BHaH and starting it again. Other than that, the program works great with no bugs so far! Thanks for this gem, Lothar.

[Creaghorn 10]

imo it makes perfectly sense to have the bully and coward becoming friends.

 

fear attracts the fearfull. the last thing a coward wants is to have the bully beeing his enemy. and the cowards is rather glad if he befriends the bully and therfore is not the target anymore but somebody else. of course it's no real friendship, but hey, if you remember your time in school, the bully is always accompanied with cowards who are only strong when the bully is near, and they are glad that they can together target some other weak one. the real enemy of the bully is the other bully or similar, someone who will not run or duck when the bully comes.

 

personally i have additionally to OFFbase a file where i note everything and have all in one sight. when i like somebody, i make a starsign, if i dislike somebody i make a red starsign. same for the other guy towards me. no opinion means no signs, and depending of how many points one has i know if he is a very good friend, or am i just getting along etc. 5 black stars mean very good friend, 5 red stars mean enemy.

also i made some colourmarkings if the NPC become friends among each other. if somebody is my friend, and also a friend of somebody else, then i check if the other person is also my friend. if we all three get along, then we all have the same colourmarking and i know that we are a kind of clique. of course one character can belong to more groups, depending of how good everybody is with the other.

 

e.G. here i'm daniel croft and i'm getting along quite well with rick falkland. he is befriended with fabio ross. both have therefore green markings. since i'm not befriended too well or ambivalent towards ross, i don't have a green marking and am therefore no part of the clique but just with falkland.

 

i'm very good friend with swithin and with a fellow who recently fell. swithin was also good friend with the fellow and therefore we three had black markings, showing we were hanging out together. of course we suffer more about the recent loss than the others.

 

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

personally i have additionally to OFFbase a file where i note everything and have all in one sight. when i like somebody, i make a starsign, if i dislike somebody i make a red starsign. same for the other guy towards me. no opinion means no signs, and depending of how many points one has i know if he is a very good friend, or am i just getting along etc. 5 black stars mean very good friend, 5 red stars mean enemy.

also i made some colourmarkings if the NPC become friends among each other. if somebody is my friend, and also a friend of somebody else, then i check if the other person is also my friend. if we all three get along, then we all have the same colourmarking and i know that we are a kind of clique. of course one character can belong to more groups, depending of how good everybody is with the other.

Very neat, Creaghorn! I'd like to build some of this into OFFbase's Duty Room. You'd be able to see other pilots' class, reputation as HPW just suggested, and some of this relationship info.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Now that my 1.25 DM has been released, I finally had a chance to play around with OFFbase a little bit.

That reminds me, OFFbase is compatible with any and all other mods for OFF. Thanks for all your hard work on the DM, HPW.

 

Are you still using Tables 3a and 3b from Bletchley's 3P rules? If so, I have a couple of suggestions for attitudes or relationships between different player classes, if you are interested. I also noted that you have Bully and Coward as friendly towards each other. Personally, I would have them as hostile toward one another, but maybe that's just me.

I'm using those tables but slightly differently, and I've changed some numbers a bit. The way it works is positive numbers in 3a and 3b make pilots more cooperative, negative numbers more aggressive. I've swapped BL and CW relations so bullies are -2 to cowards, more aggressive to them, while cowards are +2 and more submissive to bullies. With the bi-directional relation system, bullies might come to like cowards because they like picking on them, while the cowards hate the bullies for always stealing their prestige. But the coward will get a little daily prestige from the bully's "friendship" e.g. protection--the bully wants to keep the coward around to keep picking on him so they can ultimately take that prestige in encounters. Nothing a bully would like more than a gang of cowardly hangers-on who suck up to him and build up his prestige even though they're terrified of him.

 

Also, is there any way to indicate to the human player the level of prestige of the NPC's, for comparison purposes? I'm not thinking necessarily of telling us how many points of prestige each character has, but more like a ballpark figure, such as high, medium, low. In real life, humans generally are pretty good at or have a fairly good idea of the "pecking order," or how each compares to others in terms of prestige, dominance, etc.

Yep, the new duty room will do something like that. I'm also working on a mood mechanic, where encounters can spill over onto third parties. This will bring more impact to encounters. Bully someone and they make take out their frustration on someone else. Or play a chatterbox who's good at bringing up the morale of the entire squadron by encouraging others to be nice to each other.

 

Finally, I noticed that you can trick OFFbase into giving you more encounters than you might be entitled to by simply exiting out of BHaH and starting it again. Other than that, the program works great with no bugs so far! Thanks for this gem, Lothar.

Thought I fixed that! How are you exploiting it? Way I thought it works is you get only one squadron and wingman encounter per day, one flight encounter per mission, but if you skip time or time is advanced due to weather or something all the encounters are set for the new day. So if you go into OFF and out but it's the same day and you haven't flown a mission you shouldn't get more encounters. But maybe there's a bug somewhere?

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

That reminds me, OFFbase is compatible with any and all other mods for OFF. Thanks for all your hard work on the DM, HPW.

You are quite welcome. And thank you for writing this computer program that brings 3P to life!

 

I'm using those tables but slightly differently, and I've changed some numbers a bit. The way it works is positive numbers in 3a and 3b make pilots more cooperative, negative numbers more aggressive. I've swapped BL and CW relations so bullies are -2 to cowards, more aggressive to them, while cowards are +2 and more submissive to bullies. With the bi-directional relation system, bullies might come to like cowards because they like picking on them, while the cowards hate the bullies for always stealing their prestige. But the coward will get a little daily prestige from the bully's "friendship" e.g. protection--the bully wants to keep the coward around to keep picking on him so they can ultimately take that prestige in encounters. Nothing a bully would like more than a gang of cowardly hangers-on who suck up to him and build up his prestige even though they're terrified of him.

Ah, that makes sense! I agree with you about the bully and the coward now.

 

If you are interested, I have a file that shows some of my thoughts on tables 3a and 3b. I adjusted some of the ratings between player classes. Changes are noted by cells with a light blue background. The attached file is at the end of this post.

 

Yep, the new duty room will do something like that. I'm also working on a mood mechanic, where encounters can spill over onto third parties. This will bring more impact to encounters. Bully someone and they make take out their frustration on someone else. Or play a chatterbox who's good at bringing up the morale of the entire squadron by encouraging others to be nice to each other.

Fantastic!

 

Thought I fixed that! How are you exploiting it? Way I thought it works is you get only one squadron and wingman encounter per day, one flight encounter per mission, but if you skip time or time is advanced due to weather or something all the encounters are set for the new day. So if you go into OFF and out but it's the same day and you haven't flown a mission you shouldn't get more encounters. But maybe there's a bug somewhere?

I may be incorrect about this. I did have one mission scrubbed because of weather...and now that I think of it, I did have to advance time because I got an OFF error message, so those probably account for my extra encounters. Plus, it was late last night and I may not have been thinking clearly.

3P Table 3a 3b.doc

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

To give those of you who are curious but haven't tried it an idea of what OFFbase is like, here are a few screenshots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Olham 164]

"Toten Fleisch"??? Is that his name? What do you guys think we Germans are named here???

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

"Toten Fleisch"??? Is that his name? What do you guys think we Germans are named here???

Hey Olham, don't worry he's just a test pilot for developing OFFbase. Did manage to shoot down a British ace with him though.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

If you are interested, I have a file that shows some of my thoughts on tables 3a and 3b. I adjusted some of the ratings between player classes. Changes are noted by cells with a light blue background. The attached file is at the end of this post.

Thanks, HPW. Just taking a quick look your changes seem to make sense, alpha males being more aggressive to fops for example. This thing needs tons of balancing, so I'm sure they'll be lots of little adjustments like this as people play and give me feedback. And it's very possible I made errors transcribing the tables into my program.

[Creaghorn 10]

something which might be a cool addition is if someone saves your arse in a dogfight or vice versa.

maybe when entering OFFbase in the screen where you can choose "successfull landing on own airfield", "argument about kill" etc. additional two options where you can choose "someone saved you" and "you saved someone". when you tick the apropriate one, then the list of the available pilots appears (like when encountering someone) and you choose the person whom you saved or who saved you. that might lead to more prestige or prestige losing or better/worse relationship when there might occure an argument why one was so careless, or losing face etc. or to conversations one shaking thankfully the others hand or buying champagne. of course if there wasn't such an obvious situation where one saved another one, then it should be left unticked.

 

 

another thing is that when you make a victory in the sortie and then go to the adjutants office, then he shouldn't congratulate you for the kill immediately. because it's still pending actually, but tell you instead he'll send the claimform to headquarters, hoping it's going to be conclusive enough for you to earn the victory. and congratulate then when it's confirmed.

 

i see that in the pilots folder there are still the plt files left of the NPC's of former squadrons after you've been transferred to another one. a cool, but absolutely unnecessary future-feature might be that if you befriend somebody or more in a squadron really well, and then you get transferred, that OFFbase remembers this former squadmate and although you are in a new squad with new guys, OFFbase informs you occasionally what happens to your former mate(s). or at least if the former mate dies (simply by dice roll). that would simulate still having contact to him.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

something which might be a cool addition is if someone saves your arse in a dogfight or vice versa.

maybe when entering OFFbase in the screen where you can choose "successfull landing on own airfield", "argument about kill" etc. additional two options where you can choose "someone saved you" and "you saved someone". when you tick the apropriate one, then the list of the available pilots appears (like when encountering someone) and you choose the person whom you saved or who saved you. that might lead to more prestige or prestige losing or better/worse relationship when there might occure an argument why one was so careless, or losing face etc. or to conversations one shaking thankfully the others hand or buying champagne. of course if there wasn't such an obvious situation where one saved another one, then it should be left unticked.

That's a good idea. Maybe a higher priority would be backing your squadmates on their claims. Since P3 doesn't track your fellows' progress in your actual flights, this would be a way to make it count if you observe them shooting down enemies and make it part of their actual record in your squad.

 

another thing is that when you make a victory in the sortie and then go to the adjutants office, then he shouldn't congratulate you for the kill immediately. because it's still pending actually, but tell you instead he'll send the claimform to headquarters, hoping it's going to be conclusive enough for you to earn the victory. and congratulate then when it's confirmed.

Will do.

 

i see that in the pilots folder there are still the plt files left of the NPC's of former squadrons after you've been transferred to another one. a cool, but absolutely unnecessary future-feature might be that if you befriend somebody or more in a squadron really well, and then you get transferred, that OFFbase remembers this former squadmate and although you are in a new squad with new guys, OFFbase informs you occasionally what happens to your former mate(s). or at least if the former mate dies (simply by dice roll). that would simulate still having contact to him.

Or maybe he'll get transfered to your squad sometime in the future and you can meet up again? Or if you transfer back some of them might still be there with additional progress in their careers. Too many ideas to do!

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

wow!...amazing work!

[Creaghorn 10]

That's a good idea. Maybe a higher priority would be backing your squadmates on their claims. Since P3 doesn't track your fellows' progress in your actual flights, this would be a way to make it count if you observe them shooting down enemies and make it part of their actual record in your squad.

 

might be a tough nut to crack since AI is getting victory-numbers anyway within the time. and if you see them actually shooting others down, then they would get even more gifted than the system gives them anyway. so wether keep it as it is and let the system give them kills by skill and chance as it is now, or deactivate the system of giving them victories but just those they really made. downside of course would be that they would only get kills when you are witnessing it. otherwise not. that was the problem in Rb3d. AI made only victories if they were in the same sortie as you or at least at the same time as you were in the air.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Just posted version 0.6.2 which features the new mood mechanic I was mentioning. More important is the debut of the new Duty Room, where your pilot can reflect on the complex social relations in OFFbase. Here's a screen shot:

 

 

Hopefully this will make the social game more straightforward, helping you form goals and track progress on them. And less paperwork for Creaghorn!

 

It may take a little bit for the admins to approve the new version, but as soon as they do, go get it!

[Creaghorn 10]

WOW

:yikes:

 

can't wait

very well done, sir

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Holy Cow! I just LOVE the OFFbase Duty Room!

 

Can't wait to try it tonight. Thanks, Lothar.

 

Ah, crap! I meant to give your program 5 stars, but I accidentally chose 3 instead, and the forum won't let me edit my vote! Sorry, Lothar.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Herr Prop-Wasche

[Creaghorn 10]

IMO the best 3rd party work made for OFF 3, yet

 

 

immersion taken to the next level

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Ah, crap! I meant to give your program 5 stars, but I accidentally chose 3 instead, and the forum won't let me edit my vote! Sorry, Lothar.

Doh! Well HPW you can make it up to me by leaving a review at the bottom of the download page to encourage others to try it.

 

I just voted 5 stars for your new DM!

 

IMO the best 3rd party work made for OFF 3, yet

 

 

immersion taken to the next level

Thanks Creaghorn, especially for all your help testing earlier versions. If you want to leave a review at the bottom of the download page to encourage others to try OFFbase, I'd appreciate it. And vote it 5 stars!

[Olham 164]

Now you're getting serious, Lothar? Looks very good! Must go and get it...:fan_1:

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Olham, you simply must!

 

Doh! Well HPW you can make it up to me by leaving a review at the bottom of the download page to encourage others to try it.

 

I just voted 5 stars for your new DM!

 

I definitely will! Thanks for your vote.

 

I haven't had a chance to try the new Duty room yet, but it looks like it takes immersion in OFFbase to the next level! (also helps me to keep track of all of these different personalities I now have in my squadron. Mess hall will be a lot noisier from now on, I tell you)!

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Thanks for the reviews, Creaghorn and HPW!

 

Just posted version 0.6.3, the focus of which is refinement and bug-fixing of post-mission results. Should be up on the download page as soon as admins approve it.