Sure is Lonely Up Here

[Cody Coyote 1]

I don't fly OFF a great deal so don't know if what is happening to me is normal or not.

 

I'm flying an E.III with KEK 1. I joined in June of 1916 and it is now the end of August. All I have ever flown are Lone Wolf missions. Although I have wingmen, I am always sent up by myself. I could be wrong, but it doesn't strike me as historically accurate that a new pilot would always be sent out alone, again and again (unless of course they are trying to get rid of me). The other odd thing I've noticed is that the flight path shown in the briefing never matches the flight path shown on the in-flight map. The briefing usually calls for me to patrol our side of the lines, while the actual flight path always sends me over enemy territory; and should I choose to warp I follow the in-flight map flight path.

 

Is this the same experience the rest of you have had? The only mod I have activated is the 1916 ActiveSector July-August mod. I had the QuietSector mod activated in June and still only drew lone wolf assignments.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Hey Cody Coyote. Bletchley's mission mod does only assign Lone Wolf flights for German fighters in those two months of 1916. You may be interested in trying Buddy1998's mission mods, which fix some of the waypoints and don't have any Lone Wolf missions.

 

Get OlPaint01's Realism Bundle, which contains both mission mods and a bunch of other goodies. The OFFramp mod manager built into my OFFice incomplete campaign editor lets you easily choose which mission and other mods to run, activates the right ones for your squadron and date in the war, etc., among its many features.

[Olham 164]

I only recently read the book about the famous Fokker E.III pilot Max Immelmann,

and he went up mostly alone. Sometimes he "found Boelcke" on his patrols, but I

found no such thing like flying in a formation.

 

My advice for all new OFF flyers: drop the idea of flying the war chronologically

from the beginning (and if the pilot dies, starting again) - enlist pilots in

early and later 1917, and in early and later 1918, just for testing and checking

out, how much there will come in OFF - you could be missing the most of OFF,

if you try to get there by surviving all those months - most likely you won't.

At least I could never achieve that yet.

 

As for the flight path, you can click "Optional flight" repeatedly in the briefing window,

to get a path of your likes. I did not find a difference between the briefing course and

the path in the inflight map. That may result from using the mod.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Olham

[Hasse Wind 46]

OFF P3 is at its best when you fly in 1917 and 1918. The aircraft and squadron selection is good for those years, and the formations and AI tactics better reflect that period.

[corsaire31 7]

When I bought OFF recently, one of the reasons was that the early war planeset was much more interesting than RoF which has no early planes besides the EIII ans the DH2. Problem in the OFF early war campaigns is that most of the time you meet nobody ( I flew a lot of Roland CII and Eindecker missions without seeing one single allied plane using Buddy1998 missions) Since I don't use warp and never will, it is a lot of time just flying around. I agree of course it is historical, but we also fly to see some action ! So as it's down again to mostly 1917/1918 I'm in the end mostly flying RoF with Pat Wilson Campaign Generator. We will see how it goes with WOFF in two weeks...

[Hasse Wind 46]

In P3, the earliest campaign you can start is on the British side in January 1915, flying the BE.2. The problem is you won't meet any enemy aircraft until the summer of 1915 when the Eindecker appears. Then you'll have to wait until spring 1916 when the Roland C.II comes into service. Only in late 1916 - early 1917 will there be a reasonable number of different aircraft types and squadrons available for all sides.

 

Both OFF and RoF are severely lacking in the early war department. But I suppose that's because most people prefer to fly the iconic aircraft of WW1, which came into service in the final two years of the war, and are not so much interested in the early war and all those ugly flying contraptions in use back then.

[+Polovski 460]

Some comments on that in the FAQ...

http://www.overfland...com/FAQ.htm#A29

 

Q29. I do not see many enemies. I am flying in 1915 / 1916 and not seen any enemy yet?

A29. It can happen and depends on lots of things, the scope of OFF is to produce a dynamic realistic campaign but also make an interesting flight sim. However the very fact it's dynamic and can produce all sorts of missions - it is possible you may not meet an aircraft for days or weeks or fly right by them. Some squads start early 1915 and

there are no enemies nearby.

 

a). Update to the latest version to fix some issues with early enemy squads not being assigned to missions (RNAS-1 for example should have more enemies than show in 1915/1916 and this is fixed in latest version).

 

b). Still even with the update you will find in 1915 and early 1916 it was relatively quiet. Most people would hardly engage an enemy early on. Very few squads, few flights, few attacking craft. This is realistic.

 

c). Also possibly you are in a quiet region during a quiet period. As OFF is scalable for major ground offensive build ups or known periods of extra activity in the air (as per our features page) so if there is no major attack in your sector it will be quieter. However if there IS a major battle expect it to get more hectic!

 

d). Moving quickly to the days where action is there may help. Depending on your mission frequency if you are on 3 missions a day, 9 flights is only a 3 days!

You can set auto/manual time advance in Workshop settings, and you can also set campaign activity (mission frequency) to light which will give you around 1 mission a day and the days will seem to progress more quickly so you can progress to dates where new squads have been posted or nearer a major event.

 

e). Try another squad and/or another date period if you want more action. Or maybe you have been lucky enough to pass flights by without seeing them, or maybe mostly they have not gone your way. If you have "target awareness" radar dial showing or labels turned on, you may see more, at the expense of immersion. Otherwise as in real life you will fly past many craft you never realise are there - enemy AI pilots also often may not realise you are there and fly past, perhaps busy on their own mission or a cloud blocked their view (possible if you have Clouds slider on setting 5 in cfs3config - accessible via Graphics Config in Workshop).

 

f). Also even though we have lots in there, we still do not have every single aircraft/squad that ever existed active, so some areas may need an aircraft that does not exist in the sim yet - that could add to the quietness in some areas. We have made sensible substitutions in many places to help. For example substituting Eindecker EIII for EI squadrons as EI is currently not available. It's difficult job to balance this - to be historically accurate where possible and also make it play well.

 

g. If you want some definite action join somewhere close to Flanders region in later 1917 or 1918! ;-)

Edited August 6, 2012 by Polovski

[Cody Coyote 1]

Lothar - I think you hit on it. My specific problem is the mod. I had flown some other British missions using the mod and hadn't run into the "Lone Wolf" issue so I wasn't sure.

 

Olham - Since I started flying OFF I have only flown trying to work my way through the war from start to finish; a long and often frustrating process. I think your recommendation is sound. I need to shelve that idea and jump forward in time.

 

Regarding not seeing other planes, that isn't a problem for me. While I've experienced that in other campaigns, particularly British ones, I see enough flying for KEK 1 to keep it interesting. Just as well too, flying the Eindecker I can't evade a parked plane let alone one on my tail.

[Olham 164]

Cody, you can have more than one pilot in OFF.

Not all pilots of WW1 entered the war right at it's beginning. Some came in 1917,

some even in 1918. At these times, the early ones may have long been fallen.

Just create some of those later pilots - it's not unhistorical.

You could have one in each nation; or 3 - 5 for the various phases of the war,

from autumn 1916 to the end in autumn 1918.

 

In WOFF we will definitely see the Morane Parasol, which should make the early

encounters between the Germans and the French much more interesting.

 

In the time of Max Immelmann, the major air activity seemed to have been in the area

cornered by Bapaume (and Arras) - Lens - Douai - Cambrai (more or less).

In other areas, it may have been very quiet.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Olham

[Hasse Wind 46]

Maybe some day we'll have an even bigger selection of squadrons in WOFF. Expansion packs? Currently things are relatively well covered starting from the latter half of 1916 until the end of the war, especially in Flanders. Obviously there are still glaring holes, like the French air force, which is missing most of its squadrons.

 

Did I mention expansion packs? I'd gladly buy them for WOFF.

[corsaire31 7]

 

g. If you want some definite action join somewhere close to Flanders region in later 1917 or 1918! ;-)

 

I have read this FAQ before, but then if it comes down to 1917/1918 I prefer flying RoF which looks a lot better and feels more like flying, considering that with PWCG I get historical situations and I can play with the setup. We will see in two weeks how it goes !

[corsaire31 7]

No misunderstanding : I don't regret at all having bought OFF and HitR (still fly with it from time to time) specially if it helps you working on the new release !

[Olham 164]

Well, I do fly RoF, but only online MP sessions.

Offline, the "Campaign" has not enough immersive power for my taste - the whole historical detail

and the amount of squadrons which are present in OFF are missing.

And the fact, that I know there is nothing flying anywhere else - only just the aircraft which will get

spawned for me to entertain me on my path - all that makes it rather a "non-event" for me.

Good looking isn't enough to compensate for all that. Just my 2 pence.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Olham

[corsaire31 7]

Totally understand how you feel, but I'm acting as a stupid soldier and always follow the mission I've been assigned, so I don't fly outside of the mission map (which is usually 45 to 60 mns flights, sometimes more) so I don't see the difference. I don't play the official RoF campaign either, I use Pat Wilson's CG which is historical, both in the OOBs and the missions and behaviour/altitudes of Central /Entente planes at different times of the war. Moreover, I like the idea that I don't have to be connected to internet to play. For me the main difference is not the "good looking", but that in RoF planes I really feel like flying, have to use the wind and other factors, and the navigation on the map. (of course I don't use anything like plane icons, 2D gauges or navigation icons) The changes that have been introduced in gunnery in the last update are another step forward and the 1.027 is due this afternoon.

But may be I will change my mind in two weeks ?

Edit : as posted before, I still also enjoy flying OFF now and then.

Edited August 7, 2012 by corsaire31

[Olham 164]

I hope and guess, that WOFF will also feel even more like really flying these crates.

We can see the cockpits do look like real ones now - let's wait and see, how the flying will feel.

 

I may not see, what is NOT there in the further distance (in RoF) - but I know it.

And I am more the German Jasta leader type flyer (in a sim that is - who knows how I would deal with that in RL!),

so I often fly my own course with my flight - and really meet other French or British aircraft on their own missions (in OFF).

I understand it's perfectly okay for you, when you don't miss it - for me it is the essential difference

between a WW1 game and a WW1 simulation.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Olham

[RamblingSid 3]

Hi all,

 

never had a problem with

too few EA, to the contrary.

In vanilla P3 that is.

 

Currently with 24 RFC flying

DH2s in Feb 1916, bloody EIIIs

everywhere.

 

"Feel" ? Only, Olham, if you have

ffb or something. Otherwise there

is no physical sensation at all to

be had either in OFF or RoF:

No engine vibration.

No G.

No landing or t/o feel.

No gunfire effects.

It is a testament to both OFF and

RoF that there is as much immersion

as there is. But it is a limitation.

 

All the best.

[Olham 164]

Sure - and on an ice cold February day, when we're up to 15.000 feet in our open cockpits,

or when I'm hit, bleeding, and the engine catches fire - then I am quite happy

that I don't have to feel it, and gladly accept the "limitations".

[RamblingSid 3]

You misunderstand me, Olham,

 

I'm talking of immersion, not

violent and sudden bloody death.

 

Things like engine vibration, G

etc can be emulated and do add

immeasurably to immersion imo.

 

Of course,you may disagree. I

would be interested to hear your

reasoning in that case.

 

All the best.

[Olham 164]

Well, in my case: I have too much phantasy rather, which emulates all that might be missing.

(Great for OFF - very bad before a date with my dentist!)

 

I know there is a seat cushion type of thing, that imitates the rise or climb feeling,

and maybe even engine vibration - someone posted it only recently.

Then there is Force Feedback on the right sticks for that; at least in OFF.

 

The question is: how much capacity will such additional physical simulations require from our rigs?

OFF actually puts so much already into a mission, that I wonder, if more would be possible

without us buying much more advanced systems?

Edited August 9, 2012 by Olham

[Panama Red 22]

RamblingSid:

You want to feel engine vibrations, read this: http://combatace.com/index.php/topic/38170-buttkicker-review/

[RamblingSid 3]

Hi Red,

 

I did look at the "buttkicker",

but in the end (heh)I decided to

go with a Tactile Feedback

System outfit from ivibe.com.

 

If you are interested in more info

I can send you a PM.

 

Olham, apologies, I did not see

your post until just now: I

believe my rig is not

dissimilar to yours excepting

the ATI card, no probs at all

running the kit.

 

Btw,I am not an employee of the

aforementioned ivibe, nor do I

have any commercial/financial

interests in the company.

 

Kind regards.

 

 

Edited August 9, 2012 by RamblingSid

[Panama Red 22]

RambingSid:

How does this Tactile Feedback System work ???