OFFworld: Persistent Online Campaigns for OFF/WOFF

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Good evening, all.

 

With OBD rightly furthering its strengths in WOFF's immersive single-player campaign, multiplayer WW1 aerial combat has become the territory of other games (hard to call anything else out there a 'sim' in comparison). OFF multiplayer has fallen by the wayside for good reasons including technical/compatibility nightmares and the death of Microsoft's CFS GameMatch service. I can solve those problems, but have something much grander in mind. The following is a brief outline of my thinking at this stage, as an initial gage of interest.

 

The goal is to merge the rich depth of OFF's campaign and the thrill of its aerial combat into a massively(?) multiplayer online role-playing combat flight simulator (MMORPCFS?), where players can fly both singleplayer (PvE) and multiplayer (PvP) missions in the same persistent, shared online Great War:

 

Serve in the same squadron as your friends, with a common roster of human and AI pilots and OFFbase ground crew. Submit claims from multiplayer as well as singleplayer missions and witness claims by both human and AI wingmen. Even friends without OFF would be able to join and take the role of Ground Crew!

 

Encounter other human pilots OFFbase and fly alongside and against them in multiplayer combat missions. Or fly your own AI-only singleplayer missions to advance your career and the persistent campaign if no other human flyers are available and no multiplayer missions are scheduled for your squadron.

 

Global campaign open to all well-behaved OFFers would begin early in the war (date TBD) and advance time across all participating player squadrons with each mission until Armistice. But anyone would be able to create and share multiplayer campaigns for private clubs, special events, etc.

 

Start the campaign at low rank, but earn achievements and promotions as you build your persistent online career. Replacement pilots could begin at ranks you've reached in-game but no higher, while transfers between squadrons open new career possibilities. Multiple pilots in different squadrons and nations would be supported.

 

One highest-ranking player per squadron can serve as Squadron Commander:

• Score multiplayer mission claims for confirmation based on player reports
  
• Reward medals and promotions as well as approve/reject those granted by OFF Manager
  
• Coordinate with other squadron COs to approve and assign transfers
  
• Generate and schedule multiplayer missions and schedule parties in the Mess
  
• Assign flight leaders and alternates
  
• Authorize players for lone wolf missions
  
• Disciplinary options for breaking formation, friendly fire, cheating, etc.
  

Of course, it would need a Matchmaker system:

• Far more than just a replacement for the defunct CFS GameMatch directory
  
• Publicize and help players sign up for and join scheduled multiplayer missions
  
• Let players post future availability to help COs schedule missions
  
• Make roles available in hosted mission files for player squadrons on both sides of the lines
  
• Synchronize all players' date, time, frontlines, weather, etc.
  
• Synchronize all players' available aircraft to eliminate mismatch errors while affording individual armaments/skins, gun convergence distances, fields-of-view, etc.
  
• Require/enforce OFF Workshop and CFS3Config difficulty settings for difficulty/fairness and to prevent cheating
  
• Generate and publish web-based killboards
  

Expanded OFFbase Mess Hall where you can hang out with your fellow human squadmates:

• Built-in chat client
  
• Multiplayer mini-games, both turn-based (move a chess piece) and real-time (drinking contest)
  
• Publish and share tales of your deeds from your Journal in a squadron Library
  

And of course, full integration with WOFF after release (aka WOFFworld?). Combining the depth of that experience with the stakes and emergence of a persistent shared online campaign would be the greatest simulation of the Great War,.

 

I've done enough research and experimentation to know this is feasible on top of my OFFice system. But to make it a reality I need help from all of you. This would be a paid effort. The final form could take the form of either a single purchase or subscription, but I would need funding to get it off the ground, so to speak. I'm thinking of charging via PayPal for 'Early Access' to the closed test campaign and a chance to shape it's features and development.

 

So if you would truly value something like OFFworld, let me know. I'll try attaching a (non-committal) poll to this topic, and if you're reaaally serious about contributing feel free to message me privately. As I said, this is just an initial, informal, gage of interest. If it's going to be dead in the water, I'd rather know now.

 

But if not, the fun can begin soon. Shared synchronized OFFbase squadrons, with all pilots and ground crew, are already mostly up and running over a decentralized network on top of the latest OFFice release. Anyone willing to pay to share their "singleplayer" OFF and OFFice campaign with a friend?

[Slartibartfast]

I would go with this as it sounds like fun... of course it would depend upon the pricing etc.

 

But I am playing War Thunder to get my WW2 fix at present so would be nice to have a WW1 fix as well...

[MudWasp48]

If I ever get access to high speed internet I'd be in. Don't see it coming my way though.

[Shiloh]

This sounds pretty incredible Lothar! I'd be the first to sign up and help test, but like Mud, I live rurally and high-speed Internet is still a few years away. I hope enough other members do show interest and this gets off the ground as it seems like it would be awesome. What might something like this cost or have you not determined that yet?

[MudWasp48]

A neighbor, (he lives 1.75 miles away), hooked up to Hughes Net last year.

 

What a piece of crap that is. On a crystal clear day a flock of geese can cause it to loose signal and it takes much time to get it's sheet together again. There is also a daily cap on how much he can use.

He came over to my house a few times this winter to access Gmail.

 

For now, I'm thrilled with the offline campaign. Thinking about going to OFFice. Had a friend D/L it last week, but haven't had time to get ducks in a row.

Now I see there is a new version......

 

What do I need to back-up before installing OFFice and how do I do it?

I just don't want to ruin the good thing that I got going on now.

Edited May 17, 2013 by MudWasp48

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Here's what I have in mind:

 

A $12 buy-in for the first stage, PvE "singleplayer" in a shared persistent online campaign. This would support development and testing of the persistent campaign engine itself, along with the underlying networking etc., basic communication and coordination features, and the core work to bootstrap into the second stage. While the underlying campaign and interactions in OFFbase would be multiplayer, missions themselves are individual "shards" with AI wingmen and against AI enemies, with results synced to the persistent campaign.

 

The second stage, PvP "multiplayer", would begin when the most basic multiplayer missions can be generated and flown in the persistent online campaign developed in the first stage. The buy-in would be a little more, say $20 ($8 upgrade for 1st stage members), and support development and testing of all necessary interface, security, and synchronization features to make it usable and stable for a full general release.

 

All the unnecessary bells and whistles like social minigames, achievements, web-based kill lists, etc. would depend on the level of support, possibly a third-stage continuing from the 2nd if necessary or following expansion pack. The goal of the first two stages would be the basic functionality to get it up and working so people can fly consequential missions with and against each other.

 

The first stage is ready to begin, with a single shared squadrons and its pilots and crew. To grow from individual shared squadrons to a full shared persistent multi-squadron war that supports multiplayer combat, that's where you all come in. And of course, the $12 would be a minimum--chip in more to spur development or just to say thanks for OFFice and OFFbase and all my other mods and utilities for OFF.

 

Thoughts?

 

I get your pain, Shiloh and MudWasp. The first stage of OFFworld wouldn't require "high-speed" internet by any means--not much bandwidth use at all. Dial-up should work just fine, though you'd still have to be online while playing.

 

As for getting OFFice up and running, Mud, if you've already got the full 500MB download of OFFice 1.0.2, all you need to download for the new version is the small update to install on top. No need to back anything up first, but I recommend creating a new pilot in a new squadron to try it out. None of your existing pilots in other squadrons will be touched. If you don't like it, it's easy to deactivate and go back to flying OFF normally.

Edited May 19, 2013 by Lothar of the Hill People

[MudWasp48]

Crap!!!!!

Went to run OFFice from an USB drive and the little bugger is not working.

Guess I'll ask a favor again on D/L'ing stuff. Sucks being on dial-up

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Went to run OFFice from an USB drive and the little bugger is not working.

Guess I'll ask a favor again on D/L'ing stuff. Sucks being on dial-up

 

Sorry you're having problems, but can you be more specific than "not working"?

[MudWasp48]

The USB, "thumb drive", that held the download, Flash Drive, umm, ah, hmmm, (sounding like a policians', sporksman now), there are other names for them

It looks like a malfunction. Other drives work. never had one fail before. This one is dead.

 

The other USB flash drive holds HitR is good

 

Just need to get a new/another copy and have it saved to a device I can take home.

Not a problem with your work, just the media that it was saved on.

 

 

Lothar, I enjoy the two seaters. There is not much in the campaign stock that recognizes bomb runs and hitting targets. It's all about downing enemy aircraft.

Is there anything in your mod that adresses this?

 

Not a HUGE issue. It just sucks flying a bombing run, kicking butt on ground targets, avoiding the enemy fighters, and making it home with no claim form recognition.

It would be great to have a low chance of living through flying a mission to bomb a target of great importance, and have that scaled against an easy hit the enemy airfield just over the mud.

Maybe an important shipment or official is on a train that is moving, that kinda stuff.

 

No problems with your mods, just the device I stored them on is junk...

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Not a problem with your work, just the media that it was saved on.

 

Ah, hate when that happens. Good luck getting it sorted out.

 

Lothar, I enjoy the two seaters. There is not much in the campaign stock that recognizes bomb runs and hitting targets. It's all about downing enemy aircraft.

Is there anything in your mod that adresses this?

 

Not a HUGE issue. It just sucks flying a bombing run, kicking butt on ground targets, avoiding the enemy fighters, and making it home with no claim form recognition.

It would be great to have a low chance of living through flying a mission to bomb a target of great importance, and have that scaled against an easy hit the enemy airfield just over the mud.

Maybe an important shipment or official is on a train that is moving, that kinda stuff.

 

I've mostly flown two-seaters myself (love me some DFW C.V), so yes OFFice does feature a number of enhancements for two-seater campaigns. You can indeed write reports after your missions to document your adventures, even if you don't have claims to file. You share lodgings and interact with your observer/gunner, who has a name and a unique personality, and who builds a career just as you do. German campaigns have a different dynamic, since he commands your missions and likely outranks you.

 

As for missions themselves, OFFice includes a dynamically enhanced version of Bletchley's mission mods. Not only are missions more historically accurate for the role (no more sending bombers up for scrambles), but there's more variation and more to do and a few missions with a bit more... character.

 

OFFice truly is a massive improvement over stock Phase 3 + HitR. Getting back to the subject of this thread, it'd be great to bring the best of OFF and OFFice into a shared, persistent multiplayer campaign where what you do in the air (and on the ground) matters, not just to yourself and your AI squadmates but to the war other OFFers are flying in as well.

[MudWasp48]

Thanks for the reply.

That does sound like a good time with the two seaters.

 

A basic question on two seaters... when I go to the gunners' seat, I can only control the gun movement by flightstick or throttle wobbly thing

Is there a way to use the mouse to aim the the rear gun?

 

So the PvE would let me play single player, but require the data from the mission to be uploaded whie I'm playing?

[Lothar of the Hill People]

A basic question on two seaters... when I go to the gunners' seat, I can only control the gun movement by flightstick or throttle wobbly thing

Is there a way to use the mouse to aim the the rear gun?

 

You could try finding a program that lets you use the mouse as a fake "emulated" joystick, but this could interfere with your ability to use the menus or other mouse controls.

 

So the PvE would let me play single player, but require the data from the mission to be uploaded whie I'm playing?

 

Depends on what you mean by "playing". The first-stage PvE OFFworld doesn't transfer any data while you're actually flying, just before and after and when you're playing on the ground, OFFbase.

 

So you'd go online, let the campaign synchronize, then launch OFFbase. All the stuff you do in OFFbase, interacting with your fellow squadmates and such, will sync with the shared campaign. Then you launch OFF from the OFFbase Hangar to fly your OFFbase-enhanced mission. As soon as your actual mission starts, you could alt-tab out and disconnect your dial-up. Just remember to alt-tab out, dial-up the internet again to sync to the latest campaign data before you quit your mission and exit OFF. Then your mission results will be synchronized with any changes from other players while you were in the air.

 

Unlike standard OFF where what happens to your flightmates in the air is forgotten as soon as the flight is over, in OFFbase you report your flightmates' results too, witnessing any claims and reporting crashes and stuff. If you see your wingman downed in a fireball, he won't just magically reappear as if nothing's happened. WOFF will do this automatically, but you don't have to wait "two weeks" to get a crude version of this persistence feature today in OFFbase/OFFice.

 

Even worse, in standard OFF, if your pilot dies or is permanently captured, poof! your campaign disappears. It's as if your squadmates never existed. OFFbase makes your own squadron's campaign persistent, which truly allows OFF's deep campaign engine to shine. This brings in all the joy and terror of building your squadron, protecting your flightmates and seeing them through the mission and back home--the stuff that got us all hooked on games like Wings and RB3D in the first place.

 

With OFFworld, what happens in the air matters, not just to you but other human pilots in the same persistent campaign. If an AI "friend" of yours is killed flying alongside another human pilot in their PvE mission, your character will feel the loss and this sadness will show in his interactions with others. If your character hates another player's character, and they get captured, your mood will brighten a bit. All this cascades through the social networks that develop in the squadron.

 

Expanding this persistent depth to multiple squadrons and nations, across the whole war, and sharing it with others... now that has potential for emergent narrative rivaling the stories you hear from EVE's single persistent universe. Win a major air battle against an enemy squad and it could take them a long time to recover from the decimation of their ranks and blow to the survivors' morale. Maybe this opens opportunities for others--even in other squadrons. Unable to advance in an elite squadron filled with higher-ranking aces, maybe a transfer into a decimated squadron where you'd have more authority is just the thing to give your career new life, if you can turn their morale around. The possibilities are endless.

 

Who's with me?

[Lothar of the Hill People]

The initial version of OFFworld is up and running! If you'd like to be a part of it, send me a private message.

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Quick preview of the OFFworld Mess Hall, where you meet up and interact with fellow human pilots in the persistent, shared squadron.

 

 

Join us--it's fun! To get started, send me a PM.

[Lothar of the Hill People]

I'll be posting an update to OFFice/OFFbase later today, mostly bug fixes and interface improvements but it now also keeps track of your squadron's history which can be reviewed at your leisure, helping to tell the story of your persistent campaign. For OFFworld, this means getting updates about the missions of your human squadmates, and being able to review the progress of your shared squadron. For example:

 

Lt. Hill is my pilot, Jennings belongs to Kaische, and Taylor's an AI pilot.

[Lewie]

 I realize this is sort of a retired thread, but can Office run on a standard vanilla install of OFF without the HitR update?

[Lothar of the Hill People]

It should, Lewie, but it's been a while since I've been able to test it. Install OFFice 1.0.6 and the 1.0.7 update and give it a try. Run into problems, let me know.

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Anyone care to join my 1st Lieutenant Luther Hill and the others in the 94th Aero's Mess Hall?

 

 

Plenty to do between flights (though I'm just teasing Kaische!):

 

 

Missions are flown in the same persistent campaign, what happens to you and your wingmen affects the development of the shared squadron. At this rate Kaische's Captain Jennings will be an Ace before me!

 

 

Of course, I see that not all of his pilots are so lucky. I can visit the fellow Jennings replaced in hospital:

 

 

Looks like this character'll be out for a few weeks yet:

 

 

But you and your fellow squadmates can help injured fellows heal with support, both moral and otherwise:

 

 

Already missions are more consequential, and thus more gripping and engaging, than ever. With your support, OFFworld can eventually feature full multiplayer combat missions in the same persistent online war. Just imagine if we were about to set off together to escort a squadron of human bombers... for a major multiplayer assault against a target protected by squads of human and AI Germans!

 

 

So join the brave men of the 94th Aero, where Lt. Colonel Cullen is a master of arms and the violin. Or suggest a squadron for an OFFworld German campaign. Just send me a PM to get started. Help bring life back to the OFF community, and you'll have more fun flying than you have in ages!

 

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Update: hehe.

 

 

This really is fun.

 

[Kaische]

Have to do screenshots of our encounters aswell... ;-)

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Just checked in to the 94th Aero's "Hat in the OFFworld" campaign, and Captain Lindsay told me the news: Kaische's Capt. Jennings with yet another kill. My Lt. Hill wanders in to the Mess, and sure enough guess who has to rub it in?

 

 

Captain Jennings made Ace... Great hunting, Kaische!

 

Want to join in on the fun? OFFworld Phase I is only $12. Send me a PM.

 

[Kaische]

Thank you Lothar, and in turn my congratulations to your promotion to Captain!

 

Wasn´t able to return after my last sortie to Toul, had to do a landing for repair at Verdun aerodrome after been shot at by some nasty DVII´s... Cpt Lindsay was not amused...

[Lothar of the Hill People]

The 94th's Adjutant first broke the news about Kaische's new Ace:

 

 

But the squadron's Chaplain had an idea:

 

 

 

Jennings doesn't feel too bad about his hospitalization now, but it's getting crowded in there!

 

 

But room for more... just send me a PM to get started!

 

 

[MudWasp48]

I'm tempted to join, Lothar.

 

However, RoF left a bitter taste when it comes to online connections with a sim.

 

I do appeciate your work! Had a few issues at first, but was just confused by all the acronyms. No big deal.

Switching squads is great, even see some of my former pilots at times.

 

Even if I never played the role stuff, just having all the mods together and the JSGME to control them is excellent.

 

Many Thanks!

[Lothar of the Hill People]

Glad you're enjoying OFFice, Mud!

 

OFFworld Phase I integrates the DropBox file-sharing API, hosted by Amazon's S3 cloud computing storage. No online connection problems so far, only worried about how it scales with more players. So the more playing to help me test, the better!