themightysrc

Hi thewoo1, In general, the main parts of the sticky on how to get into an MP game are, in essence, quite correct. However, you should be aware that since OFF doesn't (yet) have the venerable history of RB3D or the megabucks of RoF/NeoQB, there aren't dedicated servers around for MP - only those kindly provided by OFFers who take the time to host games (rather well, as I can attest). Check the MP thread carefully to find out what's going on. There's currently a Jasta 4 campaign that flies on Sundays (evenings for us Briddish), that is run by Vasco. If you PM him, I'm sure he'll be delighted to recruit you into the ranks! As I say, do read the stickies carefully, and try to get onto Teamspeak and have a chat with Vasco and others. Is your first language English? I'm guessing not, but as long as you can understand the basics, you'll get by. If you're French, German or Greek I can try to chat to you online, but I'll bet your English is much better than my French, German or Greek!

" Fly zig zag criss cross - never straight for longer than half a minute. Flak wants to kill you. And by 1918, they aren't beginners anymore." very sound advice. And, is should be said, Aug 6th 1918 puts you right slap bang in the middle of the Battle of Amiens - not exactly the safest posting!

Hi Winder, Well you and Pol go and have a good break. I know it must be disheartening to put so much effort into (non-chargeable) mods and improvements only to find yourself excoriated by a few people who, it must be said, should have PMed or emailed you, and who as it's been pointed out are in a vanishingly small minority. However, don't lose sight of the bigger picture - the relationship that OBD has with its customers is largely a testament to both sides: superb and responsive customer service on your hand, and much thoughtful debate and experimentation by your user base. I'm personally very grateful that such a relationship exists, and it has enhanced my pleasure of this superb game, as well as encouraging me to participate on these boards, despite my lack of technical expertise. So, have that break and forget CA, OFF, et al for a while. Face it - even WWI pilots went on leave occasionally (admittedly they generally had to go doolally first, but I digress...). I for one will be pleased to see your return and to hear the plans for P4. Cheers, Si

I voted against the change, simply because I don't see the need for it. We're all pretending to be WWI pilots - I rather suspect they didn't get much choice about ambient conditions in the air, including enemy density. My position is that if you're outnumbered - learn how to run away. It'll make you a much better combat pilot in the long run.

Winder, "But Winston you know nothing about what you are talking about so please don't rant here or you will be banned.. Calling the OFF community sheep etc is pretty low and I can see this thread being locked soon." Please don't lock this thread or take any hasty action against Winston. I'm sure no-one likes being called sheep, but we're all adults here, and if that's the worst vitriol, then it's hardly worth noting. Give him time to simmer down: I'm sure that he's a reasonable bloke who's just had a bad day, eh?

I suspect it's been a combination of people trying to establish MP on a firm footing whilst variosu different damage models have been floating around - difficult to manage, hence a measure of chaos! My suggestion at this point is this: MP should only be flown now with vanilla but up to date - ie, V1.32 - systems. If there is then an agreement on what will be the simplest configuration within Workshop (ie, no f***ing about necessary), then surely all the mismatches and all that nonsense will become history fairly quick. How do people feel about this?

Yep. If you look for them, both are floating round and used in scenarios that can be run under OFF P3.

"I got totally owned by some Nupe ace. Last I knew, I was in a vertical dive at about 6,000 feet with him on my tail hitting me with every round in his Lewis drum. All the controls were useless, major pieces were missing, there was the horrible noise of my plane shredding, and it looked like a fire was starting. Then the screen went black, but instead of saying I was dead, it said "Another flight logged". I wasn't even hurt--I had to fly the afternoon mission that same day" You are David Niven and I claim my £5.

Well, I finally got around to trying OFF with the new patch and hotfixes in place, and I have to say that I'm very impressed for the most part. The new scenery is absolutely spot on - I can now see well defined roads, for example, and generally it simply 'feels' like real countryside. I'm glad that we now have a new set of screens and menus - I don't think I'll miss the determined, fag smoking bloke; the new and more colourful screens are a joy. Ditto the changes to the Workshop screens - it's getting busy in there, but everything is rational and readily comprehensible. I've not had a real chance to check out the new AI - I did two quick scenarios (thanks, BTW, for immortality - much appreciated!) and then fired up Willy Coppitt (66 Sqn, Pups) for a flight, which turned out to be a simple transfer flight to Vert Galant. Saw some Albatros DIIIs on the TAC, but they simply went on their way: in the past, that would have spelt an instant fight (perhaps outnumbering them about 3 to 1 helped), which seemed realistic. Found the field - much less obvious than with the previous version, with better integration into the rest of the landscape, landed, ended the mission and had a friendly little screen pop up - welcome to Vert Galant! I've not seen anything like that before. Nice touch. So any down sides? Yes. My FPS has taken something of a battering with the increased detail, but seeing as (a) it wasn't stellar anyway, with around 20-25 the norm and (b) my rig only runs 2gb of ram on a Radeon 512mb video card, this is perhaps understandable. It's an acceptable tradeoff, and will spur me on to dig out AlacrityPC again to bump the rates up. Overall, a thumbs up, chaps.

Hi Ax, Yes it was a wee bit distressing to be flying the runt of the litter - I threw out my lucky rabbit's foot, lucky horseshoe, lucky heather, lucky reinforced jodhpurs and one of the Spandaus, but the bugger still ran like a Morris Minor. On the bright side, even after the Tommies had taken out half the cylinders and clattered the rest of the motor, it still ran at much the same speed! Rewengie vill be mine!!

Hi Iscin, "Guess my knight of the air will be mounting up his Sopwith Camel in about a week. : )" I hope you know what you're doing... If I were you, I'd be tempted to get acclimatised via the Pup or something else relatively benign - Camels are a bit, er, challenging to fly, if you know what I mean.

"and TBH we need to get on with P4" <rubs hands gleefully>

Hi Stickshaker, Nice to make your acquaintance! Well, it's quite possible that in due course ROF will make it onto my hard drive, but the thing that concerns me most about the game is the (lack of) communication by the makers. I'm sure they're aware that there are plenty of people whove bought a copy, but, as I alluded to before, it seems to me that all discussion of ROF with regard to the future is largely pointless since the people who've written the damn thing aren't there and talking to players. I genuinely hope that ROF succeeds, but I have to say that I'm at best agnostic, or more accurately sceptical. One of the lesser considered aspects of OBD - that they are doing this as a sideline (please correct me if I'm wrong) - seems to me to be pertinent: OBD don't have to rush out products, as far as I know, in order to generate the income stream that enables them to keep developing OFF, whereas NeoQB had to release what is, I suspect, now quite widely seen as a product that was at best a beta release. I'm sure they'd have loved to have had another year or so for development, but that's the nature of a capitalist system - return on investment or die. Take away that stricture (I'm fairly sure that the OBD people have other jobs) and you remove the necessity to go to market before you're reasonably sure that you've got a saleable item on your hands. Anyway, I guess I'm just rambling now, so I'll shut me cakehole. But I definitely want an SSW DIII/IV, all you OBD people out there. Take note. I have spoken!

"For those haven't heard of "LMF" before....LMF (ie : Low Morale Fibre)" Wasn't it "lack of" rather than "low"? Either way, what a draconian system of customs/immigration!

Hi Vasco, I'd just like to mention that I was also getting peppered over the airfield, if the engine sound was anything to go by - ie, it sounded like a bag of nails. Made it back though, so I suppose it couldn't have been that serious. It was great fun, and with a more structured setup rather better from my POV than the previous week. My apologies to those who had to suffer me a the worst flight leader ever - damn you all for voting me to be *it*. Next time, I'll be a bit better organised, I promise! Here's to next week and, I hope, even more players. Cheers, Si

Well, I really hate the DRM and having to PAY for aircraft beyond the measly f***ing TWO that were.... oh , wait a minute... Downloaded it, but not flown it yet, however, I'll make an observation that's probably worth nothing, but anyway.... there's been a lot of heat (but precious light) generated at simhq.com concerning the plans (or public lack thereof) and roadmap (or public lack thereof) for ROF. I'd simply like to contrast that with the attitude and PR that comes from OBD people. Compare and contrast indeed. There's been some (thankfully not a lot) of derision levelled at OFF as being old, stale, 80 year old flight engine, etc, etc (ad nauseum), however it seems to me that most of the people now feting ROF as The New Sliced Bread who've slipped into this rather lazy mindset are missing a fundamental point: OBD are here, and they are listening. So many of the - rather pointless - threads at simhq slip into a dead end that consists of ROF fanatics proclaiming that all will be well, faced off by the more sceptical posters expressing their astonishment at such naivety. And that's it. Input from NeoQB people? None, as far as I can see. That's my biggest compare/contrast. I'm pretty sure that if I moaned hard enough here (and I probably will!) for a Siemens-Schuckert DIII/IV, a feature that enabled me to transfer home because I'd been certified bonkers by the squadron doctor or perhaps the ability to write my memoirs in an on-screen facility, it would actually be read, considered and acted on (well, perhaps!). *That* is what separates OFF from ROF or any other flight sim as far as I can see. And it's called class.

Hi, I almost shudder to mention it, but.... Have you had a response from anyone in the MP crowd?

"petal???" Er, sorry. Northern English venacular! I also refer to people as 'pet', 'duck' and 'love', which goes unnoticed in my region, but causes mirth and raised eyebrows elsewhere (even in the UK). I won't even begin to explain the perils of referring to non-fellow-Northerners as 'cock' - a very commonly heard affectionate form of address...

Oooh, sorry petal, you're about 5 hours behind, and I've got work in the morning! As for my opinion, well I guess I've had my say above. I'm willing to support MP, but let's ensure that everyone knows what's expected of them by the hosts, and when it's expected. Crack those two simple points and I think the rest is mere detail.

"have a mp tuturial tonight, and will help anyone who needs assistance in hosting games." Nearly missed this - SD how late would that be? We're GMT here, well actually BST.

"And almost hate to say it,,but i did try and get a consensus on a procedure for starting the sessions, but for whatever reason,,,got very little response. Had we managed to come to an agreement, it would have helped solve one problem in sundays session." SD, one reason why you might not have got much response is that at the time very few people (who have now done MP) knew the ins and outs, and may well have felt unqualified to proffer an opinion. I know I did. Now, of course, having done all of one MP session, I will treat everyone to my sage insights, on the basis of having crashed once, got completely lost another time and having hit practically nothing, whilst presenting a juicy target to other people. Ah, the voice of experience.

"I'm hoping phase 4 will be on a different engine, with a different name. original, and full scale, so i can write a full score." <drops to knees and starts praying to deities he doesn't believe exist>

"It seems to me most people hardly know what WW1 was" As a general comment, that could hardly be more true. I live in North West England - an area redolent with the memories and memorials of WWI. Everywhere you go you'll find plaques to the menfolk of X, Y or Z who laid down their lives, etc, etc. This is the land of 'Pals' battalions, and the roots run very deep indeed. The only problem with this evocation of a people cherishing the history and feats of its forebears is that it's mostly bollocks. WWII was a 'good' war, because it involved defeating fascism - simplistic, I know, but bear with me. WWI is still not seen as anything like a 'good' war because (a) lots of our brave boys (fill in your own personal choice of flowery language) got killed, (b) it's always argued that WWII was ineviable anyway - thus ignoring the actual history of the period 1918-1939 and © well, it was just so awful wasn't it? What's conveniently forgotten are the *facts* of WWI, which unfortunately don't actually gel with the dark mythology of lions sent to slaughter by donkeys, and why the war was actually fought. I could go on about it at length (pages, days, etc), but you probably get the picture. I recommend Huw Strachan's excellent single volume history from about 3-4 years back.

"For all of Spielberg's talents, he has a tendency to the overly saccharine or maudlin at times." Spot on that man. Spielberg's films are inevitably spoilt by his inability to make a point without drowning it in pink icing. And for everyone else who's been saying that SPR is such a superb war film, may I suggest you dig out a copy of Come And See - now *that* is a war film.

Hi Vasco, I think you've probably nailed all the major gotchas in one there, as well as providing an interesting structure for a mini campaign on a monthly basis. Bravo. May I make a plea that we don't fly aircraft with difficult flying characteristics? If you want plenty of new players who've not cut their teeth on OFF (or MP) may I suggest aircraft with benign flying characteristics be considered? If there's any way I can help out to make this a success - please let me know. Cheers, Si