Damage Model Mod - where do I start even looking?

[Hellshade 110]

If I wanted to start messing around with the DM in WOFF, where would I start looking?  Which files do I need to open up and tweak?

 

Having asked that question, let me state for the record the obvious.

 

#1.  I'll probably break the sim in multiple and unintended ways and it will be entirely my own responsibility.

 

#2.  If I experience any problems at all, the Devs are certainly in no way responsible.

 

#3.  I expect to lose pretty much everything in the process - favorite pilots, etc.

 

#4.  Chances are I will only make things worse. 

 

#5.  I'll probably break things so bad, I expect to have to wipe the game and do fresh re-installs to make it right again.  Again, it's all on me. 

 

Having stated the obvious, somewhere along the line, the DM seems to have undergone a change (intended or not, I don't know) whereby shooting at an enemy aircrafts fuselage seems to have little effect at all and then all of a sudden there is a huge explosion sound and all of the wings just completely fall off.  Total structural failure.    My desire is to make that a much more rare occurrence and perhaps instead increase engine fires, pilot kills (which will probably mean I will die more often as well) and if nothing else, increase the number of planes that trail black smoke after taking a few good hits to the engine. 

 

Any ideas on what files I start tweaking to see if I can accomplish something like that?

[Hellshade 110]

Over 160 views and not a single post on where to look?  That's encouraging.

[Olham 164]

Sorry if you feel lonely here, Hellshade; I was one of the 160, but I don't have the faintest idea.

I maybe a good skinner, but tweaking FMs and DMs is far beyond my capacities. Good luck!

[Hellshade 110]

Thank you, Olham.   Hopefully someone pops up with some information.   

[corsaire31 7]

Sorry same for me, no idea...

[Olham 164]

Herr Prop-Wasche might know - but I haven't seen him recently...

[Hellshade 110]

He would.  The man is a genius with what he has done with OFF.  Sadly, I don't think he got WOFF.   I'm not sure he meets the system requirements.  A genuine loss to the community.    :(

[Olham 164]

That's true - I hope HPW will eventually be able to upgrade his system and come back to us.

[corsaire31 7]

I am also using his FM and EW Mod, Weather Mod  and Ultimate Damage Mod in OFF.  They all are great additions to the original OFF.

[Baldric 42]

I'm one of the 160 as well, and I've nothing to offer m8, so sorry.

 

 

Kind regards,

Dave

[+Polovski 460]

Not that I an condoning but bear in mind the DM system is completely re-written under the hood even though it may appear to work similarly.

 

But to make things tougher you could (simplest method in theory) is decrease the damage done by bullets.

all in C:\WOFF\WOFFScenery\Difficulty\Normal\mainbullets (air ones are for the air obviously) but there's a lot of work recreating .bdp files blah so actually quite longer to do.

 

 

or edit 4856656522 aircraft XDP files

for example areas like this

      <Box ID="damagebox_fuselage" Parent="damagebox_fuselage">
     <BoxMap SystemID="center_fuel_tank" Probability="1" Points="10"/>
         <BoxMap SystemID="fuselage_structure" Probability="99" Points="50"/>
      </Box>

 

to say

      <Box ID="damagebox_fuselage" Parent="damagebox_fuselage">
     <BoxMap SystemID="center_fuel_tank" Probability="1" Points="10"/>
         <BoxMap SystemID="fuselage_structure" Probability="99" Points="100"/>
      </Box>

 

Things may break though obviously.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Polovski

[Hellshade 110]

Thanks Pol.  I know Winder and crew have worked miracles under the hood and that means the complexities of what they have done are increased dramatically over what the DM was in OFF.    I expect to be hopelessly lost and pretty much break everything while I peek around under the hood of the DM.    

 

My theory is this, though.  The wings didn't use to suffer total structural failure nearly so often when WOFF first came out - as I recall.   (Maybe it did and I have a poor memory.  We shall see).   So I plan on re-installing WOFF without any patches and then start flying and fighting.    If I see that the DM behaves different than it does now in terms of total structural failure, I'll load up the next patch (I believe I have almost all of them saved) and try that.   Once I find the patch that appears to have affected the likelihood of total structural failure, I'll look at the change log and that will (possibly) give me some kind of a clue where to look.   Given how complicated and integrated everything is, its possible it may not help much either.  I imagine the change was not intentional and was probably an unintended consequence of something else that got improved or added.   

 

At any rate, then I roll up my sleeves and see if I can figure out what exactly happened, which is a long shot at best given how complex WOFF is and how limited (read: Non-existent) my programing skills are.  

 

Thanks for the info! 

Edited May 7, 2014 by Hellshade

[Fortiesboy 3]

Hellshade  Hello

As one who delved into the DM of OFF, I know how much work is involved. In fact there may still be a modded DM of mine kicking around somewhere in the forum.

HPW and I did liaise in the early days and he went on with more dedication and patience than me, to produc e some great DM packages which many could readily use.

like him, I am still with OFF, being on XP still and not the most up to date system.  Of course I am using my 1.2 DM - The ironic thing is that I did it to make more damage apparent than the stock OFF.. It seems from what you say that WOFF is more like the OFF mods than the OFF stock.

So, there you are Pol, you just can't win mate! lol.  Make more damage and someone wants to mod it to less     

When my system changes I'll give WOFF a go and it'll be fascinating to see the DM.

BTW-  continued thanks for OFF  . Still flying most days in dogfights and still getting loads of pleasure. Best flight sim ever.

[Hellshade 110]

So, there you are Pol, you just can't win mate! lol.  Make more damage and someone wants to mod it to less     

 

When my system changes I'll give WOFF a go and it'll be fascinating to see the DM.

 

BTW-  continued thanks for OFF  . Still flying most days in dogfights and still getting loads of pleasure. Best flight sim ever.

 

Well not quite true.    I think the Damage Modeling that WOFF shows is utterly fantastic.   In fact the main reason I want to get the DM to do fewer total structural failures is because when it does do that (which is now very often indeed), you can't see all the rest of the great damage effects that have happened to the plane.   They get blown up.    I'm hoping somehow to restore it to where those excellent DM effects are apparent for much longer because the planes go down in flames, or trailing smoke, or just with the prop stopping and gliding down without power, etc...all the damage on the wings and fuselage still readily apparent.

 

I look forward to hearing your impressions of WOFF when you are able to join us on it, sir.   I think like the rest of us, you will be very pleased indeed.   OFF still has a lot to offer.   With WOFF, they somehow managed to up the ante even more.

 

So by the way, do you have any ideas what directories and files I should (or probably shouldn't!) be poking around in to mess with the DM?    Send me a PM if you don't feel like making that information public, please.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Hellshade

[+Polovski 460]

One problem is you are a super accurate killer in WOFF Hellshade, I have seen it in your videos.  Most of us can't hit a barn door at 50 yards.  So actually we think it's pretty good and as Fortiesboy says each person will have a preference.

 

You need to make your bullets weaker, but often wings did collapse as it does in WOFF once they have enough damage to cause the large stress already on them to break them off.

Once one goes the rest are much weaker so usually all together.

 

The DM is totally different including the final break up etc etc, which we worked very very hard to achieve ;)

 

 

Thanks FB for the comments :)

Edited May 11, 2014 by Polovski

[Hellshade 110]

Oh sure...blame the pilot.  I see how it is now.   ;)

 

I did some flying of DIIIs vs DH2s to help answer problems in another thread and interestingly enough, I didn't have the problem of the wings blowing off.  I'm beginning to wonder if the SE5s top gun is just really, really powerful.   It certainly seems to have a lot more punch to it. 

Edited May 12, 2014 by Hellshade

[+Polovski 460]

;)  mm maybe I think they kept the Lewis intentionally as it had no gearing involved, probably also the angle it comes in at helps hit critical areas more who knows.  But either way your accuracy is scary ;)

[Hellshade 110]

Well, I can still blow stuff up even in a single gun Triplane, however I do need to hammer on it fairly good to make that happen.   I think the top gun of the SE5s does hit harder though.  Doesn't seem take as many rounds to have the same effect. 

 

I guess what's confusing me is sometimes I hear the sound of something breaking on the enemy aircraft - almost like a structural failure - except that I don't actually see anything break off.   I figure he's doomed, but not always so.  Sometimes they end up getting back into the fight so now I just keep hammering away at them until they catch on fire, explode or just about drop straight down out of the sky.