CaptSopwith

Good to see you, Fortiesboy! Hope you're doing well. I don't have WOFF just yet but after reading over the list of modifications to the AI code for the game, I was deeply impressed. It sounds like WOFF really is one of the last (if not the last) great Single Player, Dynamic Campaign Driven, flight simulators of its kind. In addition to the comments left above, I thought I'd direct you to Hellshade's preview videos which demonstrates the breadth of knowledge that the AI now possess - particularly at low altitude which used to be their Achilles Heel. See what you think! :)

That might just be the best news I've heard in months! Thank you for letting me know Shred - how is life treating you these days? Hope you're doing well!

Hiya Lou! CaptSopwith reporting for duty! Hope I'm not too late for roll call, and a pint of Guinness at the pub! I have updated my pilot's badge accordingly, as befits the occassion! And remember, Guinness is good for you!

Great post, Widow! Gave me quite a good laugh this morning. And about that Snipe, I'd say you bent some of the main support spars but like the other say, some straightening, a little elbow grease, and some PC-10 doping, and it'll be good as new! And take it easy on those landings! Those Snipes don't grow on trees, you know!

Hey Shiloh! I didn't know you were a fellow graduate student! Mind if I ask what you're studying? I'm a history PhD, not surprisingly!

I'd say "Grad Student Stanard Time" where five minutes is actually closer to six months! Good to see you too plug! That power supply you sent me is still going strong! Hope you're doing well!

I agree that $60 is a lot of money these days for just about anyone... and believe me, as a broke grad student, I can sympathize! That said, there really aren't any flight sim developers left anymore - at least, not in the WWI arena. The ROF team has largely moved on to work on other projects, and the kickstarter funded resurrections of RB3D and Wings look great, but they're not going to be a hardcore, technically researched WWI sim that puts every squadron at their resepctive bases at the correct time of each month of the war... there's just no market for that outside of our merry band of Barmy OFF'ers! And you know what? I've known Pol since I was what... 17? I remember posting back and forth with half of the OFF team back when I was in High School and they were modding Red Baron 3D. I know it's biased, but they've been killing themselves now for going on four years and with - it seems - a lot less manpower than they once had. So really, even on food stamps, I'm willing to kick them 60 bucks for their troubles. Right now, it feels like the least I could do. And I agree with you on consoles! 60 bucks for a half-baked, over-hyped game that's going to force me to pay another 20 bucks here and there for DLC to finish a game that should have been done when they printed the thing? Yeah... not so much. At this stage, if I had to choose between as PS4 and a new gaming rig? WOFF would win me back to my keyboard and mouse - not to mention my ancient Microsoft Sidewinder Joystick! Cheers!

Lou, you are absolutely one of the foundational members of this community! I have missed reading your writing and especially enjoyed your recent publication of the Illustrated BOC News. I read it this morning over coffee and attracted quite a few puzzled looks from my girlfriend as I laughed hysterically at my laptop. Thankfully, she knows I'm a flight simmer and she's even okay with my TrackIR setup! Just wanted to say thanks for posting this - it was a fantastic read and a much needed laugh after several months of hard work in RL. Cheers Lou! And a very Merry Christmas to you sir!

...everything changes! Hi guys! I hope all of you have been well in the weeks / months since I last posted antyhing of note. As usual, RL (particularly school) has taken up all of my time, and much of my "free" time as well! It's fantastic to see everyone returning now that WOFF has come out. I only wish I had a computer with even a snowball's chance in hades of running the thing. My 2008 era desktop is struggling to run OFF with the graphics cranked up, let alone anything new. And, as an incredibly poor grad student, that probably won't change anytime soon. (I really need to publish that best-selling novel about WWI pilots while working on my dissertation! ;)) So... if I may return to the BoC, I'll have to grab one of those new badges for my signature. And, if I can ask: How the heck has everyone been!?!? Would love to hear what everyone has been up to. It's great to see Olham, Lou, Hellshade (fantastic videos, sir!) all back and chatting busily at the bar. I'll be traveling for the Holidays - which means my beloved OFF rig will be left behind, but I will have my laptop with me - so hopefully I'll be posting far more often than I have in the last few months. Cheers!

As far as I know, Matt finished scoring the soundtrack for OFF / WOFF back in 2011 or 2012. So it's been finished for quite some time now.

Hi Andy! Just wanted to let you know that I gave your new mod a run through and it sounds fantastic! I really like what you've done to adjust the sound distances. The enemy can really sneak up on you know and the echoes of the big guns near the Front are much more eerie at a distance. Fantastic stuff! My thanks for posting this so late in OFF's lifespan.

Sounds great Andy! I'm currently using Lothar's OFFbase program - how would I incorporate the new mod into the program, or is Lothar planning a version update that will do so in the near future? Can't wait to hear it - your current mod leaves me frequently jumping in my seat! Thanks for all of the hard work! Sounds great Andy! I'm currently using Lothar's OFFbase program - how would I incorporate the new mod into the program, or is Lothar planning a version update that will do so in the near future? Can't wait to hear it - your current mod leaves me frequently jumping in my seat! Thanks for all of the hard work! Cheers!

Here's a fantastic video of Kermit Weeks taking you for a walk-around tour of the Sopwith Snipe! Quite informative: I learned a lot about the plane!

Looks fantastic Lothar! And thanks for taking the time to work in the RB3D soundtrack - I think it makes for a fun retro experience. Tossing in Wings, too, is a great idea! I'm looking forward to seeing what the new version does. I do have a technical question for you, however. Whenever I run OFFice, I have noticeably lower frame rates and a lot of intermittent stutters in my gameplay when flying. When I unload Andy's sound mod, it's a little bit better but my FPS are down a good 25% from the stock game when I run OFFice. I don't think it's the software... is it possible that my rig is just too old to run the mods? I'll list my system specs below to see if you have any suggestions. The stock game runs between 20-60 FPS depending on how busy things are on screen. I usually run with regional activity set to medium as high can also cause a degradation in performance. Here are my specs - try not to laugh too hard Gateway FX7024 2 x 500 GB HD (Games installed on one disk, OS on the other). Windows 7 SP1 3GB RAM nVidia GeForce 9800 GT Intel Core 2 Duo Quad Q6600 at 2.40GhZ

That's fantastic Lothar! Very happy the Red Baron 3D soundtrack is alive and well once more! I love Matt's score to OFF - but there's something about the more upbeat tone of RB3D that I remember quite fondly. And Wings, wow... I wish I had played that one but 1990 is just a little before my time. We got our first PC in 1993 and shortly after that, Wings of Glory came out (which I have installed on my current rig in DosBox). Love the soundtrack through. Great stuff! And for anyone who hasn't heard the Red Baron 3D soundtrack - which I still catch myself humming around the house all these years later - here's some previews of what it sounded like. The audio quality is pretty low in these videos but they'll do.

Apparently so! Glad I got a little discussion going! And I remember those flame wars quite well - I believe there was one rather infamous thread entitled "The Fokker DR1 is Porked!" I got quite an introduction to life on message boards back in the late 90s. And Royce - I'm pretty sure I still have some of your handiwork on my PC. I have all of the major RB3D patches installed and I'm sure your FM is still kicking around there somewhere!

I have to say, I certainly agree! Matt's scores are magical - and I'm dying to hear the rest of his work when WOFF is released! Somehow, my Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 is still working after all these years. Got it for my 17th birthday... in 1999.

It is indeed, heartening to see all of the old names coming out of the woodwork! I was getting a bit worried (as you saw in my other post...). I'll happily take up a game of darts, and make my pint a Guinness! PS: Glad to see PW is still working on all things WWI - I remember he had a terrible time of things years back (I believe his wife passed away quite unexpectedly). I too play some ROF when I get time but with my system, if there are more than a half dozen planes on the screen ROF drags to a slow-motion crawl. Not sure there's anything I can do to fix that - short of buying a new system. And being a PhD Candidate, I don't have a lot (read: any) extra income right now.

Glad you like it Javito! I've got a few years on you, but not much: I was 16 when I picked up Red Baron II in 1998. Got it with our second home computer, a Dell XPS R400 that still sits in my closet. It's funny how we remember the missions we flew in that sim as if they actually happened. My girlfriend gets a kick out of my stories - and even asks me how my latest mission went when she knows I've been flying OFF. Out of all of the hundreds of hapless lads I sent up, only one actually made it through to 1918. He flew for the RFC, I think started in 1RFC, then 24RFC, followed by a stint with 60 before finishing the war behind the controls of an SE5 in 56 Squadron. Wound up with 82 kills - only two better than Manfred and I wound up with a VC (partly because I was maimed... ouch). Had another Brit pull a stint with Roderick Stanley Dallas and I felt terrible on the mission where I saw him shot down in the clouds over the lines. Funny... this is all getting close to 15 years in the past now but I still remember those evenings playing like yesterday. Your fights sound truly epic! Thanks for sharing them Javito! Hope you're doing well, mate.

I have to say, it's good to see a lot of names I recognize! Hope you're doing well Hellshade! I still enjoy watching your OFF videos over on YouTube. I also wasn't aware that people were actually complaining about getting previews... seems really baffling to me. I'd much rather enjoy some eye-candy to tempt me along for another two weeks!

Funny you should mention that. I've worked up a mod that incorporates the original RB3D music into OFF - replacing the original score. I'll get it posted at some point - I was seeing if Lothar could incorporate it into OFFice but once Combat Ace gets the downloads up and working again, I'll post it. Brings back a flood of nostalgia every time I play!

It is indeed, the one and the same! I wonder what OvS is up to lately... haven't heard from him in over a year now...

I seem to remember you saying that you never played RB3D, so I thought you'd like to see what all the fuss was about. Indeed! I remember upgrading my old Dell XPS R400 a few times just to play RB3D. The ATI card it shipped with did not do Glide, which was so essential back in the late 90s so I saved up my pennies and bought a Voodoo 3000 card. I also upgraded my RAM to 128MB, which was huge back then! It's amazing to me how quickly the time has passed. Doesn't seem like that long ago until you stop and really think about it and then, oh dear... it really has been. BTW: I've been meaning to ask this, is the Pat Wilson behind the ROF Campaign Mission Generator the same Pat that worked so tirelessly on RB3D over the years?

Hi Olham! I came across this video while having my coffee this morning. It's a gameplay video of Red Baron 3D that also shows the intro and how the sim's interface functioned. For those of us who played it, it's a nice trip down memory lane. And for you, my good friend, I thought it would be a fun glimpse at what had us all terribly addicted back in the 90s! And, I would dare say you can see where some of OFF's inspiration came from! Hope you like it!

My fellow OFFer's: I've been following the boards closely for the first time in about a year. And over the last few weeks, I have to say, I think we are in dire need of a release of WOFF - and soon - or we might not have much of a community left. I know that it's the summer months and many of us are off on holiday or busy working, but the lack of activity around both here and SimHQ is, to be honest, disheartening. I hope the quiet is only an indication of happy fliers off enjoying the original OFF while patiently waiting for the next version and not, what I fear, the silence of a community that isn't really here anymore. While I am happy to see familiar faces, and we do get the occasional new pilot popping in with questions, the silence is otherwise deafening. Even the after action report I posted a few days ago only received a few replies. Worse still: on SimHQ, I posted the report again to try and garner some attention for OFF, only to have OFF confused with Rise of Flight. While the mods released for OFF is keeping things going for now... this is beginning to have the eerie sensation of the old Red Baron 3D boards when the sim started to finally die out. It's disheartening and, worse still, seeing just how good WOFF already looks, the increasing passing of time while we wait is, I fear, beginning to have a seriously deleterious affect on the community as a whole. People aren't reading the boards, they aren't visiting, and I worry that when WOFF is released, the number of people who hear about it will be far fewer than a sim of its undisputed quality truly deserves. I sincerely hope that we start hearing more about WOFF and soon: It's going to be a major release and I feel, given the passage of time now and the continued aging of the CFS3 engine - it's going to be the culmination of what OBD can do with this engine. Pol, Winder, Shred... you know that I have the highest respect for everything you've done over the years and OFF is still the most fun I ever have sitting at my computer - it fuels my passion for my own work - but please, give us a sign soon that things are at least progressing and that all is on track. I sincerely hope that my post is read as intended: with all due respect and as a heartfelt hope that things get busy around here soon. The quiet around here is beginning to worry me.