catch

Thanks Bandy for your measured and civil review. It is refreshing to see an honest warts and all take on things, without (just perhaps lol) the misguided passion of a chastened catch who offers his apology to those he offended. I hope the discussion, and possible further reviews, continue in a civil manner.

For the record I have the utmost respect for what Pete has done and continues to do with FE's FM's. As I said I wish him well. It is a very frustrating and time consuming business indeed. I'm sure he will agree with that. This link gives you all details about OFF Phase 3 http://www.overflandersfields.com/ And this link is the developers forum http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/forumdisplay.php?f=8 I'll leave it at that.

Lol yep still pluggin' Pete Major flight sims I've played or play are IL2 1946, FE, BOBII WOV, FS9 on top of OFF and that's enough for me. OFF beats them all imo. But WW1 is my favourite theatre of aerial combat. If I like a product I'll promote it quite happily. Yes ROF does look outstanding. Look forward to seeing how it turns out. As for OFF there's huge negativity here so I'm obviously wasting my time. Have fun converting those jet FM's' into acceptable WW1 flight models in FE. I wish you the best of luck Pete.

Mutton ! DX7 ! Derision ! Elitism ! Pinto ? You guys are very colourful and imaginative. Okay for those who wish to inform themselves rather than speculate you can check the screenies and vids here as well as other stuff. Total cost $59 US (includes postage). For that you get the Over Flanders Fields: Between Heaven and Hell DVD in an artfully decorated DVD case. If you're not interested I fully understand http://www.overflandersfields.com/info.htm

No I think you're entirely right Bandy. But then I'm one of those horrible biased OFF guys. So I'll be hung, drawn and quartered here no doubt. But I look forward to it. It will be highly amusing. Gotta laugh at some of the other comments. Pure misinformed speculation. Obviously nothing will change their minds. The ones that purchase it will be the winners. 50 bucks too expensive ! God give me strength.

Wow ! I love this stuff. Great find Pete.

Relax Pete

Lol Pete. A most enjoyable retort We'll just have to agree to disagree at this point. When you purchase P3 and fly the dynamic campaign perhaps we can re-engage the debate. The proof is in the pudding as they say. Yes, OFF does have a mission builder.

Not at all Pete. Most OFFers are quite disappointed that kots/rof/aof is not living up to the hype. No dynamic campaign, no mission builder, no publisher, no complete package. Age of Rippoffovich. Early days of course and it has great potential but I don't like its current direction. If it ever gets released I hope the developers reconsider. As for OFF, it seems the unfortunate cfs3 stigma lives on for some. Time you got over that gentlemen. A little research and perhaps actually playing the sim would highlight that OFF bears little resemblance to cfs3. P3 will remove itself further from cfs3. Even the kots boys over at SimHQ are now admitting P3 looks damn good. And it will be released as a complete package. With a dynamic campaign. http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?...440#Post2574440

It's been a while since I dropped in here. Here's another OFF P3 video from the OFF Team to check out if you so wish. Open it or right click and save. Hope you enjoy it. http://s199142289.websitehome.co.uk/OFFP3/...iew_Movie_6.wmv

Enjoy ! http://www.overflandersfields.com/movies/P...iew_Movie_3.wmv

As Jedi indicated campaign mode is where the AI works best and it has been improved further in P3. And not every sortie in WW1 resulted in massive dogfights so just count yourself lucky and enjoy the pretty view ....

Yes some very interesting comments. Foxendown, you may need a better PC to fully appreciate OFF .... it does need a fair bit of grunt to run well .... but the results are worth it. And the scenery/terrain is the best there is imo if you can afford to have the graphic sliders on 3 or above. WM has done some magnificent work in this area. All aircraft in P3 will be 2048 textures but a lot are already in P2. Set the aircraft slider to 5 (always) and the cockpit detail is there. And the all important flight model .... well it's pretty damn good all things considered ..... there are limitations imposed by CFS3 but hopefully the devs can crack the code and get around some minor (but important to us WW1 nuts) quibbles. At the end of the day .... all WW1 flight sims rule the skies. 2008 should be interesting.

Read about current developments of OFF Phase3 here .... http://offaerodrome.com/OFFweb/ .... or check out the forum here .... http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/forumdisplay.php?f=8

I missed out on the RB series but from what I've been told it is the grand daddy of WW1 flight sims and rightfully deserves the pedastal on which it is placed so highly. Having said that and with no experience of actually playing RB I essentially agree with Redwolf's synopsis of the remaining sim's with OFF a clear winner. I would recommend it to anybody and a few of the modders involved with various incarnations of RB now work for the OFF team. The current Phase2 is a free download but Phase3 will be payware and promises to suceed RB as the pre-eminent WW1 combat flight sim. These guys are very serious about getting it right. They are not "lite" by any means.

It is truly a revelation for WW1 nuts like myself to see the amazing mod output for FE. You guys deserve a medal for commitment and enthusiasm to duty and must go through a hell of a lot of coffee ! And what can only be described as a frenzy over OFF's phase2 release. A good weekend all round for WW1 enthusiasts. A trend I selfishly hope continues. A few observations of FE from the weekends enjoyment ..... Laton's Fokker D8 ..... like it, great model .... but is the high speed tail wag built in to the FM ? Diving at or over appox 140mph produces a violent tail wag that cannot be rectified until speed is reduced. Just wondering if this is based on possible instability stats at high speed of the D8 or was unintentional ? In the plane fest (v2.1) campaign DH2 wingmates stall and crash after takeoff. Maybe 40-50% of the time. Also some Walfisch CII's crash for no apparent reason when being attacked and AI FM does strange things like hovering in mid-air or executing impossible turns at low altitude (like in "Flyboys"). My understanding was patch2 would fix these issues and the walfisch (I think?) was released updated for patch2. The DH2 itself sometimes (and again not always but intermittently) goes into a strange sideslip stall that is virtually impossible to get out of and without warning. Many times I could go around in a tight bank until the cows come home .... at other times, doing exactly the same high speed vertical bank would result in this strange stall effect. Anyone else noticed anything like this ? FM setting was at normal which is the recommended setting for these planes. Setting gun "aimangles" all to zero does not always align the virtual cockpit gunsight with the line of fire (or reticle in "no cockpit" view). It worked for the Bristol M1C but not for the Pup ? The "mountainous" terrain add-on (sorry can't remember the exact name ... Versogen or something) is great but it has strange rectangular "things" in the sky and huge wall embattlements surrounding towns / villages. I know it's a WIP and I expect these will be removed at some point. Well there's a few observations I can remember anyway lol ! All in all great fun .... a thoroughly enjoyable campaign .... I've survived 2 months (but only by cheating and hitting the refly button when I die lol) and I'm now up to April 29 1916 (he says chuffed with himself) lmao !

Thanks again Pete. I'll adjust the Pup's aim angles as per your suggestion. But guess what, I finally got upgraded from the DH2 to the Spad7 in the campaign. I'm not sure if the RFC flew the Spad ? and was expecting the Pup. As for the violent high speed yaw of the D7 I can live with it and maybe it's actually how it performed due to poor manufacture of the tail fin and rudder ? Don't know but I heard it was beset with problems due to shoddy workmanship and it was at the end of the war when Germany's manufacturing industry was in a bit of a mess with strikes and such. As for OFF ! Well it's absolute pandemonium over there. I'm waiting for things to settle down a bit before I even attempt the download. Looking very much forward to it though .... but I can wait.

Hi Pete .... with the D8 I was flying in hard mode .... the others were in normal mode. Thanks for the aim angle coords. Messing with files generally does my head in but I'll have a fiddle. I must have the Pup's sites aligned correctly before I have it assigned to me in the plane fest campaign. Otherwise the Hun may win and we can't have that old boy !

Cool Pete. Always appreciate your efforts to improve FM.

Can't help you with FM or cockpit p10ppy but I'm sure glad you're working on this M-S. It'll be a welcome addition to FE. I'm sure others here at CA will offer assistance. Good job btw if you're just learning.

Laton .... love your M1C. Are you having any luck / help with the cockpit ?

Excellent EmlD

Okay thanks for clearing that up FC. I really couldn't understand why anyone would flame you as you're doing a great job imo with your plane fest campaigns which I'm thoroughly enjoying. And I agree ... the early years of the Great War are usually neglected so it'd be good to focus on this area. I believe the French aviator Roland Garros was one of the first (if not the first) person to employ deflector plates on his prop in his Morane Saulnier N monoplane (I think). It'd be nice to get a few Morane's in FE particularly the high wing Parasol monoplane (Tony Fokker loved the idea so much he eventually produced the D8).

Hmmmm .... didn't know there was any antagonism toward you FC nor any hidden agendas. I just appreciate you doing the plane fests regardless of A/C used and I cannot see any intention on your part to favour one A/C over another for anything other than improved gameplay. Some people perhaps have too much time or meat on their hands.

Sounds fine to me. Thanks USAFMTL.