themightysrc

Hi Chaps, Managed to get onto Teamspeak (I was the anonymous English voice who disappeared), but couldn't get onto Winston's server address despite various attempts to do so. Not sure what was going on there, given that I thought I'd followed all the correct steps, have OFF patched up (on Hard) and have the 1.1DM installed. Any ideas? It was terribly frustrating to hear you all shooting things (or getting shot down by the Albatros aces and indestructible Fokkers) without being able to lend a hand/be a liability... Cheers, Si

Hi, I might well be around for this evening's fun and frivolities. Because I've been out of circulation for a couple of weeks (hols, etc) can I ask that the workshop settings be spelled out for idiots like me? If we're using DM1.1, that's fine, but I don't know what other settings need changing, and having it all here on the page dealing with the session would make it more definitive and immediate. Can we do that, pretty please? Cheers, Si

"I should note too that after posting my original message I got smacked out of the sky like a mosquito the very next mission and was killed." Curiously enough, my first couple of missions - on 130% realism - as a Pup driver saw me putting in claims (and getting them) for several victims. I was just beginning to wonder if the game was simply 'easy' and then I had the same thing happen to me: shot out of the sky in short order! Sad to relate, since that happy (and brief) time, I've been getting regularly pasted regardless of what I'm flying. It looks like evolution in reverse truly can happen...

If people don't mind - I hope they don't! - I was wondering if anyone can help those of use with ATI cards to get a leedle more FPS out of our systems? Mine runs OK, but I can't help feeling that even with TIR4 gurgling away in the background that I should be seeing (reliably) 25-30FPS? Any hints, you PC gurus?

"Okay I admit. It was me. :) I'm glad you guys enjoyed it." Well, very well done. I was impressed, given that script writing really isn't that easy, and being funny even less so (as I've found to my cost). Olham - I well understand your reticence regarding the video, and I winced slightly at the context, but, when all's said and done, it's now a historical period which is slipping - like they all do - into its place in history. When I was a young lad, I read a boy's annual sort of book that described the American Civil War (getting me interested in it forever, dammit), wherein it mentioned that the last survivor of that war had died a few years earlier. History. A few days back, Henry Allingham finally stuck his spoon in the wall, poor old sod. But he'd had a magnificent life, it seems, and used his latter years to good effect, telling the young people of Britain what war was about. Good on him. A life well spent. But there goes the final - is he the final one? - serviceman from WWI. In a few years, we'll be saying much the same about WWII servicemen and women, and the immediate emotional distance from such a traumatic period will recede. It recedes all the time, of course, but with such distance, all personal feelings and implications about WWII will also be viewed (to my mind, quite properly) through a more objective lens. In short, whilst there are people who might feel that Germans have some sort of unique guilt or responsibility with regard to WWII, I'm not one of them. As a historian, I can see (I hope) a larger picture in which personal guilt (or suchlike) is simply a chimaera - individuals were guilty, people as a whole were gullible or acquiescent; this is simply a fact that is repeated throughout the known history of mankind. So, forget that social conscience for a moment. The Germans I know are remarkable people who've well absorbed any lessons to be learned from a war that ended nearly 70 years back. Barring a few right wing nutters - that every country has, including the UK, USA, Oz and SA, let's not forget - there's no issue to address. Well, that's the way I see it, anyway. My best wishes to you!

Mine comes from the days of FRP yore when Superhero 2044 hit the gaming world, and I read with increasing respect and awe of some created superheroes named Fartman (guess the superpower), What'sThatOnYourShoulder?Man (a very strange superpower indeed), Llamaman (who could summon a room full of live llamas) and, last but not least, TheMightyBuckets - complete with bucket on head naturally. Having warmed to such blatant silliness whilst all around tutted about some people not taking it very seriously, TheMightySRC was born out of admiration and as a tribute. Unfortunately, not owning Superhero 2044, or knowing anyone who did, said superhero never got to exercise his superpower - in fact, I'm not sure what I wanted it to be. Perhaps the ability to do double entry book keeping in tense situations, or being able to spontaneously dislocate his shoulder at will.

Snoops, Thanks for looking in - if you can give us all a tableau of that area, I'm sure it would be appreciated. There's a direct and very palpable link between Britain and France - ignore the nonsense you might find in populist British papers (usually Murdoch owned) - there's a lot more goodwill than the media might have you suspect.

Hi Broadside, Glad you got sorted. I'll try to help with one or two of these. There's no brakes - well, none I've ever found! I've given up on the (admittedly useful) ghostly instruments and now get by with the stuff in the cockpit. I find that leaning in towards the instruments makes them fairly readable. F12 is the only way I know of centring, thankfully you can belt it repeatedly until you're happy with the view. As for TIR - if you have to turn your head that far round, it's not set up properly. I think I'm using the standard air combat default, renamed to OFF, and that works a treat for me. No such thing as dumb questions - we were all beginners once (some of us still are!!)

This is 5 minutes from where I'm sitting - the disused rail line that's now part of 'The Lines', our local nature trail.

Chaps, I think we're outnumbered.... Sidles towards door...

Olham, I'm North of Manchester - Bury.

"But first I am an American, something these Muslims have yet to understand." Uncalled for, Al. I'm from Cheshire and Lancashire, live in t'North (hence the accent), am largely English, and therefore a subject of Her Brittanic Majesty, Brenda, rather than a citizen of Great Britain, per se. I'm a proud European, and realise how lucky I am to have a first world life style, which allows me to fritter money away on bloody computer games. I'm finally a citizen of the World, occasionally proud of what we as a race have achieved.

"Im not even sure if ms ever made a cd patched to 3.1" Oh yes they did and it's sat in my DVD drive as we speak - genuine mickysoft.

It should help limit some of the mutterings concerning the rest of ROF. I still think I'll give it a miss until this time next year, by which time it might have matured into a desirable proposition.

HB, Thanks for the info and the link - i'm just off to download it... Cheers, Si

"Him and good 'ole Sgt. Rock!" Surely not the XTC version??

I'd say it's not worth getting for itself, however it *is* worth buying because you can run OFF:BH&H thereafter, and that is an excellent and immersive sim of the first order.

"And don't forget to fly at least once with the 3.1 install of CFS3" And, frankly, once you've done that, I doubt you'd ever want to fly CFS3 again. Utterly awful compared to the sublime realism (within certain bounds, natch) of IL2. Still, I suppose it makes it all the more impressive that Winder and the rest of the OBD mob could take such a red-haired child and turn it into something rather better. Cheers, Si PS - if you're an OBD fellow and reading the above as a panegyric of praise for OFF, I'd like to point out that I still wish to see the aircraft rosters filled out, transfers available (memories of RB3D I suppose) and a shorter loading time on missions. Other than than, I'm pretty happy. Oh, I could do with being a somewhat less s**t pilot, but I suspect that that might be beyond your ability to sort out...

Hi Olham, Wie gehts? Yep, now that's a nice roll call of experts, friends and visitors - not to mention the lurkers to whom I'd extend a big hello.

"Economicly it's rather hard times in the USA with Obama at the helm. And it could be a choice between feeding your children, or paying that ISP" Al, please respect the unwritten rule regarding political views as stated above - RPG - pretty good rules it seems to me. I know that my politics would be utterly abhorrent and unacceptable to some posters on CA, so I never, ever mention them.

"HB- A "standing O" on this project. Should enhance the OFF experience immensely." ..and should have the summary for each page become the replacement text and illustration for the rather simplistic bits and bats found in OFF itself (the bit where you're choosing a pilot/squadron/kite. Anyone who's ever played IL2 will have a good idea of just how impresive and useful (as well as interesting) such features can be, and given that there's probably about another 200 meg of space left on the CD that people receive OFF:BH&H, here's a cracking way of filling it!

"if they are scouts (wich you also mostly would know in real before they actually appear) i let them go because it's suicidal to go up. i'll rather stay on the ground and look for cover. retaliation tomorrow." I'd be interested to know how WWI pilots of the time handled these situations - I'll bet they handled it exactly this way. As for the maximum authenticity thing of no TAC, no warp, etc - no, it's not for me. I have a hard enough time staying alive as it is (as the heap of dead pilots around my desk attests), so I don't mind using game aids. For maximum authenticity, I'm told that sitting naked and being sprayed with freezing water in front of an industrial strength fan, having first gulped down a pint or two of castor oil, greatly enhances the feeling of being there. Even better to have one's partner lurking in the background with a 12-bore for those occasions when you fail to return....

"Aha! Where did the word come from?" Scouse is a concoction made of the leftovers from the last meal - generally vegetables, etc. I can't believe it - an OFF thread that's head off into etymology and cuisine! Fab!

I'm either living right, or doing something wrong - I only ever seem to fly in sunshine. No that's a lie, I sometimes take off in snowstorms, but I invariably get shot down, so I don't have to worry about finding my way back. Still haven't had a balloon mission....<sniff>....

Pol, Are you from the Right Side of the Pennines? Whereabouts, if you don't mind me asking? Cheers, Si