Vasco

Guys, Thanks for a brilliant session and my congratulations to the members of my flight (Osten and Dudley) for their immaculate flying display over the airfield at the end of the second mission (low level formation pass while deploying flares, formation break and landing together in a vic at the end). Who said DH2's were a bitch to fly! Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Gaw, Winston's a member of the OFF multiplayer community and has put a hell of a lot of time and effort into keeping the MP aspect of this simulation alive. The devs have known about the problems we experience in MP for months and the only issue they have addressed so far (for which they have my eternal gratitude) is the compatibiltiy problems that occurred when the ability to change the FOV was introduced in Workshops which caused aircraft mismatch errors in MP. In addition to the problems with having Le Prieur rockets attached to the Nieuport 17 Bis and the Nieuport 24 Bis Lewis causing the game to crash when attempting to join an MP game, there are problems with the Nieuport 17 Lewis, the Sopwith Triplane with twin Vickers and both variants of the Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter of the original P3 plane set that either cause them to be invisible in MP games if flown by the AI, or make the game client crash if a player attempts to fly one. Although the reason for this is suspected to be the length of the name of the aircraft being longer than that allowed in CFS3, the devs have yet to do anything about it - and this is despite Stumpjumper having isolated the issue and amending the stock 1 1/2 Strutters to be flyable in MP by creating add-on aircraft. Even the list of the new HitR aircraft that have issues in MP have dropped off the list of fixes in the dev's stickied To Do list. We don't want to have to rely on the dedicated members of the MP community to keep this aspect of the simulation alive when the fixes we need are being made available to OBD through their hard work and determination. The emails that members of the MP community have sent to the devs regarding the issues we experience have either been met with a auto-generated reply or nothing at all, whereas posts in the public forums at least obtain a response. So I say "Go Winston!" Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

For me it's the inequity of the effects of damage I find frustrating. I have a 25% hit rate for rounds fired and close to a distance where I can beat the bastard to death with the butt of my service revolver before I open up, but despite the blue hit messages scrolling off the screen my opponent's aircraft still maneouvres like it's in pristine condition; whereas I take 3 hits from his wingman and lose the ability to roll or have my engine shot out. All I want (apart from being able to see the damage that is causing my aircraft to fly like a Freisian with the vet's arm up her arse) is to see the same degredation in performance on both sides. Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Oh, we've got to have these in MP! .... and I bet they won't exhibit the appalling performance/attitude errors that the current OFF plane set demonstrate during MP dogfighting either. Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Don't be silly! Where could you find one of those at this time of night? Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills P.S. I'll be there

Guys, Sorry for the short notice, but I really can't host tonight's MP event due to a bad cough and fever. I tried dosing up with cough syrup and paracetamol, but I'm still a sweaty, hacking mess. I'd really appreciate it if someone can jump in and host some fun mission for the guys tonight. Any volunteers? Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

bdoubled, Go to the Black Haze Teamspeak server (69.162.122.47 :8784 = password pfalz) and you'll find the links in the Topic heading in the TS channel entitled 'Over Flanders Fields Briefing'. These are only necessary if you intend flying mulriplayer as the stock ones cause problems i.e. they're invisible in MP games when flown by the AI and make the game client crash if a player selects one to fly in an MP game. Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Guys, I've put together the first day's missions for the campaign starting on Sunday. If anybody want to get some practice in using the proposed TAC Only settings, jump on TS and yell. It may not be as bad as you fear - I can't also highly recommend a good shot or two of Wood's 100 rum before you start to calm the nerves and get the blood fired up (works for me everytime ). Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Guys, Some of the regulars have been practicing online using full reality settings (No TAC, labels or external views) and navigating using maps rather than relying on waypoints. It's challenging and very rewarding but I understand that some of you may baulk at FR and may wish to keep things going as they have been. Please indicate your choice in the poll above. Regards, Vasco

von Baur, Once you've decided on settings that you're happy with, can you create a file that we can all download? Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Bloody hell Duck! If you start hosting celestial navigation exercises, count me in. Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Gentlemen, When I proposed a change to the reality settings by reducing the visual and targetting aids available to all players on the Sunday games, I didn't realise how devisive such proposals would be. We are are small community and having such notables as Winston and FRO stating they are withdrawing from the campaign because of it came as some surprise. I have flown MP combat flight sims since Air Warrior II and at the time I could never understand why the RR (relaxed realism) arena was always more popular than the FR (full reality) when to my mind RR should have been no more than a stepping stone. If it was populated with casual gamers, I could well understand it but it was full of established players belonging to virtual squadrons. Eventually I bit the bullet, left my squadron and struck out into FR on my own. It was the best move I'd ever made in an MP game because the people I found there, although a smaller community, were a pleasure to fly with or against; it was in their nature to master the aircraft with the hardest settings that the game's flight model would allow and assist other players to achieve a similar mastery by communicating in the air as well as the forums. If this community could be called 'elitist' because of their love of the game, by using and practicing real-world tactics and combat manoeuvres and helping others to do the same, then call me an elitist and I'm proud of being one. Over Flanders Fields is a simulation of the Great Air War like no other because of the attention to detail that the developers have lavished upon it, and to my mind it deserves a similar determination by the players that fly in it to make it all it can be. Our problem currently is that because the MP community is so small and so few of the people who own this sim have the appetite to fly online (I've heard most of the reasons, and quite frankly they don't bear scrutiny), and of those that do, an even smaller number are willing to commit to hosting regular games for the enjoyment of community we are destined to remain small. The loss of one or two of the regulars because of the settings diminish us further because although we once reached 15 players on one Sunday last year, our regular attendance is closer to 7 including the host. So here's the deal - If someone is willing to regularly host beginner's sessions on an alternate day, then I'll support you and assist in any way I can including helping with mission design, give pointers on organising it and participating. If someone wants to volunteer to take over the Sunday campaign sessions, complete with hosting, mission design, record-keeping, prizes, etc and run it with the settings they want to use, speak up and I'll stand aside. It is my intention to raise the bar a little at the time, and with some of the excellent suggestions and effort from various people in this forum (such as Beard's TAC Only alternative, Red-Dog's and Winston's In-Game maps, Sitting Duck's FR navigation exercises, von Baur's labels, Stumpjumper's aircraft and mods, everybody who has donated skins, etc) this is achievable. But this will only happen if the community supports it and flies regularly even when everything is not entirely to their liking. So, support me or replace me. Your choice. Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

This does look good. Well done von Baur! Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Guys, I've spent a fair few hours on and offline deciding when the campaign should start and the composition of the squadron. The decision is as follows: Formation: 24 Squadron RFC Campaign start date: 17 August 1916 Composition: A Flight - 5 DH2 (110) B Flight - 5 DH2 (110) C Flight - 3 Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters 1A2 The reason for moving the date to later in the year is to be able to get the DH2s with the extra 20HP because some of you (no names, no pack drill) find the 90HP version a pig to fly and keep getting your arses handed to you by Eindekkers. I have also added a third flight of Sopwith 2-seaters rather than the FE2Bs originally intended because of Stumpjumper's hard work in discovering why these aircraft couldn't be flown and correcting it. Hopefully now he's communicated the fix to ODB the next HitR update will repair all of the problem aircraft meaning building campaign missions will be even easier and we can fly Bloody April again properly with the Nieuport 17 Lewises. I strongly suggest that you all start an offline campaign at that date and get some serious practice in beforehand. These aircraft take practice to fly well and I don't want you all squabbling over the 3 Sopwith's because they're a doddle to fly even on the hard settings we use in MP games. Regards, Vasco

Guys, Yesterday evening Sitting Duck, Red-Dog, Sweeteye, VonGuber, Loony and I tested one of Sunday's missions using the proposed TAC Only settings without issue. I'd appreciate it if any of the participants would give their honest opinions about how the proposed settings affected their enjoyment of the game. Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Winston, That's great. Thank you. Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

Fantastic! You guys are awesome. Any update on whether the fix for the stock aircraft in MP will be included in the next patch now that Stumpjumper has identified and corrected the issue? Vasco Only Multiplayer Aces Get Confirmed Kills

There's a trick I do to keep things simple and not end up with my computer desk covered in paper recording the names of my flight members. I open a text file and copy and paste the names of the individuals in my flight from the campaign screen (before you head into the briefing screen) by highlighting them by dragging the mouse with the left button down and then pressing ALT-C to copy. I then paste the text into the document (ALT-V or 'Paste') and sort the spacing out and add commas so they're all on one line. Copy that line (highlight and ALT-C again) and when the claim form comes up after the mission, highlight the contents of the box for witnesses and ALT-V the buggers in there. Once you've done it once, all you have to do is ALT-Tab between the game and the text file to add or subtract individual flight members when they change. Vasco

Nice job Winston! However, I think I know what Sitting Duck was requesting and it's more in the manner of the index page of a road atlas to make the in-game horror of a map coincide with these excellent printed maps. The problem for the modder is that although the printed maps are square, they overlap in exactly the same way that each page of a road atlas contains an element of the ajoining maps around the edges so it's easier to find your position when you turn the page. For instance, the town of Amiens appears on 4 of Rabu's maps (Maps I, J, M and N) placing it in one of the corners of the map and showing the terrain to the Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. The squares on the ingame map therefore would have to overlap to be accurate. All in all a pig of a task and I wouldn't blame you if you ran away screaming into the night! A reasonable compromise would be to make the squares on the in-game map as large as the area covered by the printed maps (forget the smaller 9-square grid within each square) and place the letter representing the individual printed map squarely in the centre. Furthermore, it would probaly be pefectly acceptable to forget the overlap between the various maps and just make the map grid regular as a rough indication of which printed map to select. One thing that would certainly help everyone is to amend the basic in-game map to show accurately the position of the major towns by moving those bloody red dots (and changing the colour so that those close to the front don't merge with it) - I've flown over the top of them on the map and found that the town they represent, although still in visual range, lies miles away from the indicated position. The bigest clue to course navigation are the things you can see for miles, not the detail of the terrain directly below you. The biggest aid are lakes as they stand out even close to the horizon but they don't appear on the in-game map at all. Move the posion of the towns and change their colour on the map, add blue dots for lakes and you'll take in-game navigation to a useable level - if you want to. You'd be doing the community a great service if you did. Vasco

Guys, From testing the available settings online the happy medium definitly appears to be TAC only. We don't lose each other in flight, we know what direction to look when unidentified aircraft appear 4 miles away and reforming after combat is a doddle with TAC and the gridded in-game maps that Winston put together based on Red-Dog's model. I would urge you all to give this a go just once. If it proves unpopular to the majority we'll go back to enabling all the aids and have done with it. Vasco

Welcome back Simon! We've been trying different combinations of TAC, labels and exteral views online to see which is workable this week and have found that TAC only offers a good compromise to flying in FR. We've been able to form up quickly (and reform after combat) by using the TAC alone as all the player markers are cyan and easily identifiable. Add this to the gridded in-game maps that Winston put together based on Red-Dog's model and keeping together in flight is pretty easy. Jump onto TS sometime and give it ago. Vasco

Hi Donald, Yes -a level playing field can only be guaranteed by the host settings. Are you joining us this time around? Vasco

LOL Donald! Not when the in-game map is all you have. When I have no waypoints I check the map before launching and estimate the headings from waypoint to waypoint and fly on those turning when I think I'm in the right place relative to an airfield, town or the front lines. Works for me until my printer gets replaced. Vasco

Yes. With TAC only you can't target a bogie and use external views to identify it as friend or foe anyway. Apart from nominating targets for the AI it's of little use otherwise. Vasco

Sorry to hear that Winston, We keep trying to move the bar upwards for a more rewarding experience (if Sitting Duck would host those navigation sessions at 6PM EST instead of 7PM EST I'd be there too). Personally, I thought you were doing very well during the practice session and if you were flying a Strutter in the campaign with Stumpjumper in the back as you intended you could concentrate on getting HE on target and let him keep you alive. Please host a Saturday session - I think the majority of the MP community would join in anyway as well as the new players. Vasco