CaptSopwith

I very much echo Sid's sentiments. A website going down for a few days - or however long it was - is pretty small potatoes compared to what you've had to deal with. While I'm glad you've taken the steps to put an action plan in place for something that - I pray - you'll never need to put into motion - I really don't think an apology is necessary. I only hope the OBD guys like Pol and Winder read this at some point soon... From my standpoint, I'm just thankful you're alive. At 30, I've had two rather nasty and close calls in my times - both behind the wheel - and the only thing that matters is your health. Your sentiment is more than appreciated but, please, above all else, get well and take care of yourself. You've got my best wishes, my thoughts, and my prayers. Get well soon.

Yikes! Hope everyone is okay! We're having some rather unpleasant weather here, but of a much different variety. No rain, and temperatures in the range of 108 degrees. Misery...

Fellow OFF'ers. It gives me great pleasure to give you some of my initial experiences flying the newly combined mods of OFFice, HPW's flight and empty weight mods, and OlPaint01's Damage modifications - as well as a whole slew of other mods that he included in his Ultimate Bundle. So, simply stated first: So far, very good! OFFice appears to do a fine job of managing the various mods and the potential conflicts that they create. After dropping all of my desired mods into the appropriate JSGME folder, OFFice took care of the rest. To fully test this set of mods, and to start some full DiD campaigns, I created two pilots. My namesake is flying for 24 RFC in February of 1916 and my German namesake is starting in Jasta 4 at its earliest start date. OFFice introduces some nice RPG style enhancements to OFF and integrates well with the OFF Manager. Start OFFice first, run through your pilot and his interactions with his other squad mates - all pulled from OFF's data to seamlessly integrate it with the in-game campaign, and then you can head to the airfield and start your mission. OFFice previously served as a nice RPG handler - it now serves in more of a capacity that those of us who played Red Baron 3D will remember - Campaign Manager 1.1. OFFice loads all of the appropriate mods based on the year your pilot serves, the level of activity at his part of the front, and the relative quality of his squad mates. From there, you fly as always. As for the flight and damage modeling. I have to say, my DH2 feels nicer than any other version I've ever flown. The controls feel nice - the plane still exhibits its usual spin and stall quirks, but the lead weight feeling of the plane from its stock OFF configuration is now a thing of the past. This plane feels light - which, given that it's made out of canvas and wood, seems like it would be accurate. The plane also turns well, climbs with less of a struggle, and fights pretty well - based on the QC's I've staged with it and other period aircraft. The damage model is interesting. I loaded the HPW Ultimate Damage model option (OFFice, btw, gives you a choice here during setup which is quite handy). It's too early to tell, but in my QC's with some Halberstadt DII's I noticed some odd behavior. The Halberstadt's only seemed to go down once you set them on fire - which I did to every one of them - 5 in total. Various hits here and there damaged control surfaces, but only fire finally took them out. Also, the hovering flamer bug from older OFF incarnations seems to be present - at least with my combination of mods as installed by OFFice. Each Halberstadt more or less flew in circles at near level altitude while on fire. The pilots never left their planes and the aircraft never crashed. As a comparison, I'll have to try the alternate damage model next and see how it compares. Over all, between HPW's massive work on the FM, along with the damage model, sound files, realism files, and the litany of other small tweaks - my DiD campaigns should be fantastic to experience! I highly recommend this package to anyone looking to stretch some more life or add some more variety to OFF before the inevitable release of its successor. This is good stuff. I'll offer more reports as time allows.

Thanks for all of the hard work Lothar. I'll see if I can give it a download and try it out over the next few days. Something happened with my OFF install and I wound up going back to a vanilla setup after the issues with the AI crashing on take off. If this has been corrected, I'd be happy to jump in and try it again.

I haven't seen the landing issues - I usually exit out after I land and I'm usually on the ground, switches off, long before my wingmen circle around. The bug I'm seeing occurs on take off when we have a large number of planes on the ground taking off towards any sort of object or structure - IE: trees and hangers. I'll lose a handful of pilots when they hit the trees at the end of the field. When I roll OFF back to a vanilla, stock, setting, the bug never happens.

I just thought of this... and I'm not sure if it's been asked before. If it has, pardon my redundancy. How did each of you come to find OFF? Unlike so many other sims in the past, this one wasn't sitting on a store shelf staring at us when we walked by. So I'm curious to hear how each of us found OBD and their work and where in OFF's timeline we each showed up. It seems like all of us have been here forever. For me, it came while I was still in college, over on the old Hell's Angel's Superpatch boards at OvS' site (before they were hijacked multiple times by Turkish hackers). By then I knew Otto by his real name and I remember getting a message from him about this new project for MS CFS3 called Over Flanders Fields. He included some links to a few screenshots and told me that he was now concentrating his efforts there. Mind you, I was a diehard Red Baron fanatic. I had every patch from Beery 2.0 to 1918 Air War to the latest versions of Western Front Patch, Hell's Angels, and Full Canvas Jacket. He told me that, by this point, RB's days of being pushed any further had pretty much run its course. I remember being surprised - after all, I was devoted to the Old Gal and here was a core member of the community saying that the game had run its course. I think, ultimately, he was right. RB saw a few new addons here and there and some pretty cool utilities. But we've never seen another WingStrut 2.2 patch or a HASP since I got that message. So I kept tabs on P1. I remember downloading it once after I bought a friend's computer - a slight upgrade from a Pentium II to a relatively fast (for the time) Pentium 4. I think P1 could run at 600x800. It was pixely and sluggish on my machine, but it looked promising. I started visiting the various forums, saying hello and, much to my surprise, being recognized and welcomed by a lot of the members. I've been here ever since. My old computer ran P2 - though to be honest it ran so badly I couldn't really fly it. Now I have P3 BHAH with HiTR on my "new" gaming computer from 2008 and I love every anti-aliased, eye-popping second of it. How about you guys? Pull up a stool and tell us your tale.

Took the words right out of my mouth! I was just about to ask the same questions. Didn't realize you were Propwash from Delphi... I probably should have. Delphi... now that is going back a way. Do you ever drop by for a look these days? It's painfully quiet - kind of sad to see actually.

Great find Olham! I'm going to start a new bookmark folder just for the historical gems you keep sharing with us. Thanks for posting this!

Hi Guys! I've never really been able to create much from scratch for the community - but here's a little something to add to the anticipation while we all await the release of WOFF. Here is my own OFF Windows 7 desktop theme. The theme comes complete with over 120 desktop backgrounds taken from screenshots of OFF posted here at Combat Ace and from my own personal flights. Also in this pack is a full collection of sound effects. Flak bursts, tearing canvas, sputtering rotary engines - all greet you as you use your computer. Lastly, this theme includes some classic Windows 98 icons for "Computer," "Network," and "Recycle Bin" to give your desktop that early 20th century look. Hope you enjoy! Note: desktop wallpapers are widescreen 16:10 ratio but should scale pretty reasonably. Let me know what you think and I hope this serves as a small way of giving back to a community that has given me so much. Cheers! Here's the link: http://combatace.com/files/file/13054-off-desktop-theme-for-windows-7/

Thanks guys! Glad you're enjoying it so far! If anyone would like me to make a zipped version with all of the parts - I can do that as well - that would be handy for anyone using Vista, as I'm pretty sure Windows 7 themes aren't backwards compatible with Vista. Weirdly enough - the old Windows 98 themes work... that's right - Microsoft seems to have dug up the architecture to make Windows 7 theme files function the way they used to with the old Microsoft Plus! packages. Odd... Like I said - I can include a kit of parts - it would require assembly on the users end - but would be handy way to "build your own" if anyone's interested in that sort of thing. Cheers!

View File OFF Desktop Theme for Windows 7 This is a Windows 7 desktop theme designed to bring the immersion of OFF to your every day computer use! This pack includes over 120 desktop backgrounds taken from screenshots of OFF posted here at Combat Ace and from my own personal flights. Also in this pack is a full collection of sound effects. Flak bursts, tearing canvas, sputtering rotary engines - all greet you as you use your computer. Lastly, this theme includes some classic Windows 98 icons for "Computer," "Network," and "Recycle Bin" to give your desktop that early 20th century look. Hope you enjoy! Note: desktop wallpapers are widescreen 16:10 ratio. Submitter CaptSopwith Submitted 06/10/2012 Category Modding Tools and Add-on Software  

Okay, it's after midnight, I haven't gotten any work done, and I'm still fighting the urge to go up for another mission... Further thoughts on this collection of mods for OFF. Wow! Is all I really have to say. Having swapped out the damage model from the HPW to Buddy's version, the improvements were noticeable from the outset. At least with my configuration - everyone's machine handles things a little differently - the difficulty and immersion of OFF has skyrocketed. I have created 10 new pilots - all with back stories, desires, and aspirations for their time at the front. Some seek to serve King and Country. Others are there because life in the cavalry grew tedious and dull in a war that no longer needed them. Still more joined because they sought glory - and found chaos and death instead. With OFFice, I suddenly remember my squad mates names. I feel I know them a bit better - having interacted with them. I only wish we could create some sort of visual representation of them - even if it was on the level of Wings of Glory, it would still be fantastic. As it stands - the simple interactions, the ability to move time in the campaign (IE: I get to fly real dawn patrols now, which are my absolute favorite). The improvement in the variety of weather - I know that the war was typically a mud and rain filled quagmire - but it's nice to fly in some clear weather for a change! The additions of the new sound files - I've used Creaghorn's sound mods for a while but these introduce some new ones I've not heard before. The engines really sound alive now! Even the light powered rotaries have a full, metallic, heavy sound to them - it's fantastic. It all comes together so beautifully. OFF was already the most immersive WWI flight sim I had ever played. This is just dumping icing on an already delicious cake. Did I mention that I like the new loading screen sounds as well? I like that there's a clear difference between the Allied and German side now - feels better. Oh, and during the German briefings - am I right in guessing that the briefing voice over work is taken from the German version of Red Baron II's German Intelligence Briefings? Sounds just like them - I really like it! So overall - would I recommend this set of addons to the community? I give it a resounding YES! This pack really breathes some new life into a sim that I feel like I'm still learning. They are small improvements - but the cumulative effect is massive. From the new sense of immersion in interacting with my squadmates through a simple, old-school, but effective text-based RPG element to the immersion of flying with new sounds and dealing with a whole new FM and DM to learn... it all comes together to make for an utterly gripping experience. I thought I was addicted before... but nothing like this! Fantastic work guys! I cannot commend you enough. I love it! PS: The mods are so good - esp with OFFice, that I have started my first round of 2-seater campaigns. First up was Fritz Morgens - who served as the observer of the Roland CII below. I got Fritz settled into the new barracks and he introduced himself to his new squadron members and had a meeting with the Adjutant. The first mission was a lone patrol - a chance to take Fritz up over the lines and let him get a look at the Front. The weather, as you can see, was terrible. I realized that I have never actually flown any of the 2-seaters in OFF since buying the sim in 2009! Well, it was a long overdue treat. We got up in the air and from that point on I let the AI do the flying while I panned the skies for trouble. I do wish that my TrackIR system would work from the observer's seat - is there a trick to make it work?At any rate - we went up and down the lines and finally up to the coast - all on our side of the front. As we turned for home, I got a strange feeling in my gut. Coming through a thick wall of cloud cover were three Nieuports and they had us caught low and slow, heading for home. The result was as terrifying as it was sickening to experience. The Nieuports - painted in French markings - smelled blood and came right for us. I've never seen fighters attack me while sitting in the back of a plane - and I don't want to see it again anytime soon! All three opened fire and, try as I might with my rear gun, I could do little to fend them off. The first burst from the three French planes was also exceedingly lucky - putting our engine on half of its cylinders right away. We were belching smoke as my pilot tired to get me steady for a clear shot. Then - I felt it - another barrage of bullets hit us and wounded the pilot. Our plane lurched, side slipped, and headed for the trees. The impact turned my stomach. Fritz is dead - on his first mission, and a training sortie at that. But, never fear, a new man, Kristof Maybach - a family man from Prussia, has just arrived as a replacement. Life in the squadron now goes on. Fritz's name is still on the board - listed as deceased. The rest of the squad barely remembers him - they had so little time to even learn his name. As Maybach learns his new surroundings - the fellow pilots that Fritz knew (ever so briefly) remain - the same personalities and traits, the same quirks, the same temperaments. These fellow pilots no longer vanish into the ether of history. Life goes on and the sense of institutional memory is now a part of OFF. What will become of these men, as well as my own, remains to be seen. This is really great stuff! If you haven't had a chance to try this out - it's a snap to install, and once you start messing with it, you quickly see how addictive this form of OFFing suddenly becomes. Oh - and if you really want the hardcore heroin version of this - fly DiD. I'm finally giving it a real go (now that I have TrackIR) and I have to say - it's terrifying. Without time compression and without warp and without a tactical aid screen - I really feel uneasy and vulnerable from the time I get to my cruising altitude until I cut the engine and land safely at home. There are simply no safegards and the feeling of emminant danger is tangible through the monitor. Hats off to Siggi for those rules. If you see this post Sig, thanks again! Whew! I'm typed out. As you can see - I'm in love with this sim all over again. What a great sim and what a fantastic community! Cheers all around!

Looks like I got lucky with my timing, Lothar. I checked the version number and I'm using 0.7.5. Must have downloaded it right after you posted it!

Not that this does you a damn bit of good now but... I too keep my game downloads backed up in multiple locations. Really need to invest in a new external HDD though so I can flat out image my gaming desktop computer. Makes life so much easier in the event of a crash. Perhaps there's a subconscious desire to donate to the cause - that it might hasten the release of WOFF and, with it, the beloved Sopwith Snipe! At any rate - my sympathies, Widow. It sucks to lose data... and it's happened to me far too many times.

Hi Guys! Just took a look over at the European Air War board at SimHQ and saw a post from Mike! Here's the link: http://simhq.com/for...tml#Post3588494 Here's what Mike had to say: Hi all, Just a quick note to let you all know - "i'll be back" - too k my first steps today, although a bit unsteady. I'm making progress and hope to be home in a week or so. My first job will be to update Tally-Ho. Very many thanks for your thoughts, prayers and messages of support. Cheers for now I'm glad to see Mike is on the mend! No doubt he still has a long process ahead of him. Mike may have started in the EAW community but he's very much a part of our OFF group. Keep him in your thoughts!

Ah, thanks for the heads up Luther. I've gone ahead and picked it up to add to my summer reading list. Should be a good one!

We've got a ways to go then... Tell Pol to get cranking on those YouTube videos!

I really need to go back and re-read some Doug Adams when I get a chance. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would probably put grad school into a proper perspective!

Hear Hear! I'll be keeping you in my thoughts as well Typhoon! Let us know when you're safely out of recovery - we'll keep the place warm for you until you return!

Hey British! Good to hear from you! The "official" OFF forum is now located over at SimHQ. The decision was made a few weeks ago when CA suddenly went down and, through a aristilian confluence of events, the major CA support staff was out of internet reach. OBD is obviously close to releasing W.O.F.F. and so, to keep the lines of communication open on the pending release of their new product, needed to relocate in a hurry. The new board is over here: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/89/1/Over_Flanders_Fields.html SimHQ gave OBD and all of us some pretty nice digs - you'll quickly notice that it's the most customized forum over there. But most of us are still visiting both, so you'll likely see us both there and here. Hope this helps!

Pol released a short clip called "Dev Clip #1" over at SimHQ and it sparked an idea when I first read the title. I thought, for a moment, that it might be a clip of the developers themselves. Wouldn't it be great if we could find a way to create a podcast interview of the OBD team after W.O.F.F. is released later this year? I know I would watch and re-watch something like that. I'd love to hear from the great group of guys that have worked so hard over the last 7+ years making this gem of a flight sim that we all love. Hearing from Winder, Pol, OvS, and the rest of the team would be fantastic. How did the team come together? What made them decide to start coding with the CFS3 engine. What were the hurtles they discovered along the way? What did the reception of Phase 1 mean to them? How did the set the list of things to accomplish when it came time to work on Phase 2 and 3. What was it like to develop this last, most massive, update of them all? If we could get video - even better - but I think that kind of insight from the team once the dust settles would be a wonderful treat for the community - and a fitting sign of respect and admiration from us to hear just how they did it. And I think actually hearing from you guys would be a massive treat that a simple text interview just wouldn't do justice. Besides, we've been hearing Pol shout "Contact! Clear!" now for years! Great games have released "making of" packages before. Fallout 3 did it and even IL2 1946 had a long video of the team at work. I'm certainly not suggesting adding this on to your list for the release of W.O.F.F. (first of all, I have no place to, second - I'm not crazy!). But sometime after it's all done - one relaxing afternoon - perhaps one of us could host an interview with the team and ask you some questions about how you produced the greatest World War I flight simulator of all time. What do you think guys?

So last night, I conducted a small experiment... a little historical research, if you will. I went through my flight sim collection - at least the World War I category - and played through a mission in each, in order. I started with Wings of Glroy - my first taste of aerial combat in the Great War. Here's a video of what WoG looked like, way back in 1994. Next was Red Baron 3D in its stock form. Followed by the Beery Patch, 1918 Air War (a really fantastic UOP released by a guy named WingStrut that was tragically under-appreciated). And then came the Western Front Patch and Hell's Angels. Then I moved over to Over Flanders Fields and I had to sit back and marvel... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di8adFiN_Ps&feature=relmfu If you had told me, in 1994, when I was a 12 year old kid, that one day I would have a computer that would model not just what it was like to fly an airplane from World War I, but also simulate the war on the ground and the entirety of aerial operations for nearly every squadron that served on the Western Front from Flanders to Alsace-Lorraine and model it day after day after day, from 1915 through to the end of the war in November 1918... I probably would have passed out - and never seen daylight for the rest of my adolescence! And then, if you told the 1994 version of me that one day I could snap a device to my headset that would allow me to look around my aircraft - lean over the side of the cockpit and see troops on the march below me, watch as my enemy dove out of the sun - guns blazing - and use it to dogfight my way out of trouble... I'm not sure what my reaction would have been - but you might have needed to revive me! This is a long, round about way of saying... my God, how far have we come?? Seriously - take a moment and think about the difference. When I was a kid, I was aiming at blurry pixels of German planes in the sky. This morning, I fired up OFF and took a Fokker Eindecker out on patrol over the mountains of Alsace-Lorraine and watched as a flight of Bristol Fighters - which were rendered in such high definition that I could recognize them long before they attacked - bounced us and open fire. We have it pretty good, chaps. Pretty damn good.

I almost cannot help but wonder if this wasn't meant as a nod to a classic that so many of this generation played when they first started. It seems we have come full circle here!

I've heard of situations where individuals - suddenly handed power and placed in positions of authority - can become drunk with power... but this has to be a new record! I think someone besides the mods need to keep the keys to the OFF Liqueur Cabinet!