CaptSopwith

Wow, simply stunning. How on earth are you guys doing this with the CFS3 engine!? I'm floored that you can get the kind of fidelity, lighting, and detail with a graphics engine from what, 2003? You've done it again - but we've never doubted you for a second! Cheers guys and really, job well done, I can't wait to take P4 up for a spin. In the meantime, I'm going to rack up a few hundred more hours in HiTR!

While we wait for Olham to return and reignite the board, I'll jump in and see if I can help. I saw this earlier this morning and felt the need to share. This made my morning. Cheers guys!

Well said man! Hear Hear!

I think I hear the murmurings of a release date... what's that OvS? Ah yes... two weeks. Whenever it comes out, I'll be one of the first in the virtual cue to buy a copy.

Hi gents. I'm working on learning German. I pestered poor Olham a while back for some assistance and then found myself quickly caught up in RL issues. I'm working on some exercises and I was hoping someone could just proofread for me and let me know if I'm on the right track of if I'm talking like an illiterate German. If anyone would like to volunteer, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Great news Creaghorn, I look forward to your hotfix for MvR! To touch on Olhalm's original comments, I use the duty room frequently too. I usually copy the kill board over to a Word file and print it off and then I have an actual Kill Board to look at in my room. Also, it helps me remember their names for those post flight kill claim forms that require witnesses! Also, I'm working on a WWI novel (as I have been since I was what... 14? lol), and I actually use the missions I fly in OFF as a driving part of the story line - after all what could be more real and random than dynamic missions! I also borrow some of the kill board names for characters. I find that as I fly and my pilot ages (I actually cheat slightly and make sure that he can't die... at least not until the appropriate time - if my story requires it) I get a real attachment to his wingman as I know their names and flesh them out as characters in my writing as my pilot's career continues. If anyone is interested, I'll post some excerpts and see if anyone likes what I'm doing. (If nothing else, it's a nice break from my "professional" work!) Cheers guys!

You guys are awesome! I'll send you a PM with what I've been working on. Thanks again!

Hellshade, I really appreciate you putting your views to paper, as it were. I completely agree with your assessment of the types of personalities certain games attract. The best example I can think of to bolster this idea is Call of Duty. If I switch my privacy mode over on Xbox Live and listen to the radio chatter, there is more homophobic, profane, and aggressive language than any other environment I've ever been in - and I've been to several NHL games! If you take cover, your manhood is immediately questioned. If you stay in one place, you're labeled a camper, and so on. It's tiring. Which is why my settings have everyone except my friends muted. Every six months or so, I'll feel generous towards my fellow man, switch it back, and then change my mind about ten minutes later. It's just not worth it. Likewise, if you look up a game like The Sims and visit the various boards out there, you'll find some of the nicest community members around. Now, granted, they're there to talk about the latest pair of pants someone made, or a new wall texture, so it's perhaps a bit slower than our usual gaming pace, but they're usually very polite. I should know, I do actually play the Sims. I got the Sims for Christmas about ten years ago, and played it for about a week before it was simply lost on me and I went back to my shoot-em-up games. Like you Hellshade, I felt like I wasted a perfectly good Christmas present (and the money my folks spent getting it) Today? I have the original Sims (still my favorite) and the Sims 2 on my HD right next to games like Il2, COD, and of course, OFF. I've lost hours of time just playing the Sims and enjoying it. I joke with my friends on Xbox Live that online gaming would be great without the people. And some nights we have more fun playing through the Combat Trainer on Black Ops (which populates the map with AI bots) than we do playing competitively. Of course, the same isn't true about the OFF group - this really is a great community - and one I'm proud to be a part of, although admittedly I'm on the fringes these days at best. Anyway, my long rambling point is that I think you're right and that I enjoy your videos immensely. And after all, what we choose to play is our choice. And I hope no one judges me from moving from my DH2 and into my little Sims house to watch them set fire to their oven for the third time this week because I haven't made them study cooking enough... PS: You should pick up CoH - it's a great game and your rig would blaze through it. My advice though, get the original release, and Do Not Patch It! CoH went down a very strange road with updates and try as I might, I decided that playing online wasn't really a priority and installing enough updates to break the game just wasn't wroth it. As always, YMMV

I thought I had written off yet another pilot last night - and on his first mission too! Flight Lieutenant William Dearing (the younger brother of Charles Dearing from Wings of Glory) had just joined 8-RNAS in October of 1916. Their first mission was a bust, a patrol of the lines was called off due to bad weather. The next morning, the squadron was ordered to fly South to a new aerodrome. What should have been a simple transfer mission culminated in two separate dogfights with German Halberstadts. Of course, Dearing was piloting his trusty Nieuport 17 - which by all accounts was more than a match for the Halberstadt. Indeed, Dearing did fine - flaming one Halberstadt and watching as his wingmen systematically destroyed the Germans - after all, the entire squadron was airborne in two large formations - so being outnumbered was never going to happen. Regrouping, the squadron continued south and nearly made it to their new home when a second flight of DII's - this time only four in number, were courageous (or suicidal) enough to dive on a full compliment of N17s. This time, Dearing came under fire - not from the Germans, but from an overzealous wingman who opened fire on a German and instead, hit Dearing's plane - severing some control wires - undoubtedly contributing to the unpleasant turn of events later in the battle. Dearing's Nieuport was still flyable, but he soon wound up in another tangle with a lone DII. He followed his target lower and lower - until they were dancing at treetop level. Dearing, his eyes fixed on his target, failed to notice that the nose of his Nieuport had dipped too low, and by the time he looked out of his windscreen again, the ground was there to meet him. Boom! The Nieuport was literally in splinters. It was a high speed crash - even for 1916 standards - Dearing must have been traveling at over 90MPH when he hit the dirt. I sat back, released my controls, and swore. Dammit - another one written off. After all, I fly close to the DiD standard - and my workshop has the "Dead is Dead" box clearly checked. No one could walk away from such a violent crash. The medics would be scraping Dearing off the ground with a squeegee after that kind of wreck. Only as the menu came back up, OFF announced that Dearing had, in fact, arrived at safely his new base - the rest of the squadron - minus two pilots who had been lost during the skirmishes along the way - were all accounted for. I knew damn well one of those casualties should have been William Dearing. And yet, his career continues... for reasons surpassing understanding. My advice for the rest of the squadron - stay away from William Dearing - he's probably bad luck, or a member of the undead horde!

Wow, you're right BH, you really never do know. I've been in two crashes in my time - one at 17 when an old lady ran a red light and hit me head on, and another one about six years ago, when I hydroplaned and crashed into some trees. The first wreck left me pretty banged up with some broken bones. The second, which happened when I was in my twenties, in which no airbags deployed despite hitting several hard wood trees at speed, left me without a scratch. It really is all a crap shoot. Glad those folks were okay - even if they were a bit dimwitted. Back to flying... I remember writing off a long-term Red Baron 3D pilot off a number of years ago (funny how we remember these things as if they actually happened). He had 40+ kills to his credit, won the VC among other medals, and was having a time of it flying SE5's. I don't remember what squadron he was with when he died, but he started out with 24 RFC in early 1916 and flew a few missions with Lanoe Hawker. Anyway, my prized pilot was flying a balloon busting mission and it was a rousing success. The top cover flight of enemy aircraft never woke up to attack and my namesake pilot and his wingman dispatched the balloon and were busy shooting up the lines. Of course, RB3D was pretty formulaic. You knew every balloon position had X number of artillery guns beneath it and 2 machine gun emplacements - all laid out in the same pattern at every balloon station. So I dispatched both ground gunners, which left me to shoot up the now infamous green tent and truck combination without any harassment. For some reason, flaming the truck and tent added extra points to your sortie performance. Mind you, at 40+ kills and a VC, I doubt I needed to pad the points, but I decided they had to go. And I should note that after 40+ kills and some close calls, you do start to feel a certain sense of invulnerably. So I brought the SE5 in at trench level, swooping my guns left to right with my rudder, shooting the hell out of everything. I must have made four or five passes in this manner. Unfortunately, the final time I tried this stunt, I kept low for a split second too long and mistimed my climb over the truck which was sitting idly in the mud. As I yanked my stick back, my landing gear clipped the truck. Had I been flying a nimble little Nieuport, the landing gear would have fallen right off and I would have been left to make a crash landing. But my robust SE5 undercarriage snagged the truck, held firm, and flipped me right onto my nose. The plane blew up on impact. Just like that, my 40+ kill pilot was dead; all thanks to much of the same dimwitted decision making that landed that pickup truck and its two passengers on its roof into oncoming traffic. Below is a picture of one such offending Balloon - often the end of many of my old RB3D pilots...

Many thanks Wayfarer! Good Lord, your pilot is lucky to even be in one piece by now! Congratulations are in order for his continued longevity. Can I ask what squadron / plane he's piloting?

How exactly do you exorcise one of those from your hard drive?

Hi Gents. I hope all is well in your corner of the OFF universe. I was reading up on the forums and enjoying some hot cocoa when I thought of a question. Quite some time ago a kind soul on the boards released a series of flight handbooks for the various planes in OFF. I loved reading through these and learning some pointers on some of the trickier aeroplanes to fly in the sim. Then they upped and vanished and after my hard drive died last October, I lost them as well. So, whatever became of these great pilot's guides and where can I reacquire them for my virtual pilots? S!

Ah Ha! I answered my own question. I was enjoying Olham's thread on early war Brit pilots (my usual starting point as a WWI pilot, I know 24 RFC like the back of my hand, and I've died so many times I've lost count!) and found a link to British_eh's Survival In The Air series. http://combatace.com/topic/60942-sia-flying-and-air-fighting-pilot-primers/page__p__463192?do=findComment&comment=463192 If you haven't read these yet, you owe it to yourself to download the lot. I have them saved now in a folder with a shortcut to my WWI library link on my desktop. Perfect!

Hi guys, thanks for all of the feedback. As for my wattage - I'm limited to 400watts. As I'm in the middle of a lot of RL projects at the moment, I don't want to get too involved upgrading my PSU - my flying PC is also my working PC. Hope this helps with any suggestions regarding what kind of card would be a suitable upgrade. Cheers!

Does anyone have some suggestions on a comparable or slightly better card to replace it with?

That's what I was afraid of - yeah the fan ramps up when I run high end games - but it doesn't seem to be dispersing the heat very well. Also, I clean out the case every 3-4 months but when I removed the card - which has the fan facing down in the case so I never really was able to hit it with the compressed air - the thing was chocked with dust... I'm thinking that might have done it in.

Hello Chaps! I hope all had a restful and joyous Christmas. I am finally back after three weeks away. I had a great break, it was wonderful to be away from the computer for a while - after being practically chained to it for the better part of a month writing papers. Santa Clause - or more specifically, my family and friends - were very kind to me this year. I have expanded my gaming library considerably with F1 2010, Assassins Creed, and Black Ops for my Xbox 360 as well as a copy of Rise of Flight for my PC (purchased by my fiance, can you believe it!? ) So my WWI sim library continues to expand even more! I also added a great movie to my library: the Steve McQueen classic, Le Mans (thanks Dad), so I'm in great shape for the new year, and the last few months of my MA program! I'm snowed in, which means more time to study up and work, as well as fly. Should be a great New Year! I hope the holidays were as kind to everyone else. How is everyone doing? I look forward to hearing from all of you! Cheers and, as always, S!

Well, it might help if I spelled his first name right... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roderic_Dallas Ol' Roderic was Australian, which might account for not being able to find him if you were checking the Aerodrome - I believe they group them by the pilot's nationality. He was a pretty spectacular pilot, with 45 kills to his credit before he was killed. His SE5 featured very forward thinking camo work. I've dug through my archives... was this pilot by any chance the one I used for my first avatar?

Hi Olham! I had a hunch you'd be the first to welcome me back. I'm glad things are well with you. The avatar is Roderick Stanley Dallas, a WWI pilot I've always admired - I still remember "flying wit him" in one of my more successful RBII careers many years ago. I'm amazed you remember my first avatar - what was it? Even I can't recall as I've changed it so many times! As for the resolutions - I think you're on the right track. There's not such thing as too many pledges - aim high my friend, and all will turn out well. I too am planning on getting into batter shape this year - I had surgery over the break to fix a long bothersome hernia, now I can actually get in shape for good once I'm healed up!

My stomach turned when I read this Hellshade. We've lost a real giant and even though I never met him, I felt like I knew him. I echo the sentiments expressed - we should all lead such exemplary lives.

Gents, Just thought I'd go ahead and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm heading home which means my computer, and my access to the internet, will be left behind until I return in early January. I promise I'll check back in once I return, and I'll be reading the boards right up till tomorrow morning when I take off for home! It should be a fun Christmas - spent with family, friends, my fiance, and then recuperating after a hernia operation lol! That should be loads of fun. It's been a blast to be back and I assure that this will only be a temporary pause. See you guys in three weeks! Merry Christmas! Or Frohe Weihnachten von der Westfront. Depending on which side of the mud you're on!

Okay guys, bear with me. I'm finishing PhD applications and writing my final papers over the next 12-24 hours and Lord knows I need a break! So I thought I'd write up some thoughts on something fun as a respite from the labors of an academic. During the 15-20 minute breaks I've taken in the last few days while working, I've been playing a lot of Call of Duty 4 on my PC. I've played all of the COD games and I'll likely wind up with Black Ops for Christmas - as I asked for it a few months back (I should have asked for TrackIR lol). And I've noticed a perceptible difference in how I feel after playing a CoD game versus flying a mission in OFF. Now, take the following with a grain of salt - your mileage may vary - these are just my own odd opinions. First, both are immensely fun - no doubt. But a game of CoD (which on the PC features up to 50 people all blasting away on a single map) is a frantic, run and shoot affair. There are always targets in front of you. You sit, clicking away on your mouse, sending rounds downrange while taking fire from all directions. Push too far up the map and your opponents start spawning behind you (we call it a spawn flip). Take cover for too long and you're labeled a "camper" (can you imagine what they'd think of Trench Warfare!? ). Do too well and you must be hacking. Etc. I end a game of CoD feeling hopped up - like a junkie getting a fix, wanting another kill, but never feeling really satisfied. Fire up a mission in OFF, on the other hand, and it's a completely different experience. By COD comparisons its a much slower game. You fly, you look around, you wait. On any given mission you might have one or two dogfights - but usually you'll see dots in the distance and never encounter much trouble (at least when you fly in 1915 as I am). And I feel so much better after a mission in OFF. Is it tense and exciting? Absolutely! But it is so much enjoyable than a quick, manic game of shooting up in CoD. I feel satisfied with the time (and I'm very aware of my time these days lol) I invested in my choice of game. OFF feels great to play, immensely satisfying to fly, and after I'm finished, I feel refreshed and inspired to get back to work. I played one more game of CoD today - and wound up being banned from a server. Why? Because I took cover for too long and hopped to get out of a window. Silly me! It was at that moment when I came to my senses, thought "What the hell am I doing here?" and went back to my OFF career. I flew another Fokker EIII mission, saw no trouble over the lines, and landed safely without ever firing a shot. And I felt great! I guess my rambling point is this. While the gaming community at large seems to view us as a group of fringe oddballs who worry about details that your average CoD player could care less about - I'd much rather be a "fringe oddball" of a "niche" community, than continuing to battle among the masses who think war games should be fought by running into the streets, shooting as many people as they can before they are mowed down, and then repeating. While CoD had its hooks in me for the last three years - I just don't get it anymore. It reeks of the mindless lather, rinse, repeat gaming that seems to be flooding the market these days. It's time to suit up again - put back on the goggles, dust off my old pilots and give OFF the attention it deserves. Thank God my old Sidewinder 2 joystick (which I've had since 2000) still works! Cheers!

Looking forward to reading the revised editions. Quick question: What is the pilot personality profile file do? Cheers!

While I'm shamelessly spamming away on the board - or at least it feels like that as I haven't posted regularly in so long! I'm starting a new pilot career in OFF - as Friedrich Rothmann, flying for Jasta 1 in September 1915. We're flying the Fokker Eindecker. To reflect the times, I've got enemy air activity set to low - so that the number of flights reflects the lower numbers of aircraft on the front in 1915. My question is this: Should I also dip the altitude settings down to "up to 3000ft" as well? If I do, will this alter the AI flights as well, or does this just reduce my flight of Fokkers to low hanging fruit on the food chain?