themightysrc

Hi Al, Yep, I read your advice about FFB, which is what got me curious in the first place. thanks for the further advice on particular josticks - I can see this is going to be about as much fun as getting a new video card was! <inserts emoticon denoting frustration and banging one's head against a hard surface>

I've been curious about FF joysticks for a while - do they really do a 'better' job than non-FF items? I've had a look at Ebay and there seem to be a number of Microsoft USB FF sticks on there, and none going for more than about 25 quid. What would people here consider a fair price - indeed, is it worth getting a new one rather than a working 2nd hand one? Having just (finally) lashed out a ton on Trackir 4, I'm a little loathe to spend about the same again on a new FF joystick.

I think I can define my fighter/scout pilot personality as downright chicken. I'm there to complete my mission if I can, and get myself back alive to fight again. This generally involves avoiding fights unless you possess a numerical advantage. Basically, if it looks like 1 to 1 odds, and I'm not facing grossly inferior aircraft, I'll stay away from it. And, yes, it is cowardly, and, yes, I do prefer fast scouts that can outstrip anything in a straight line or dive. If some silly sod wishes to attack me as a heroic gesture, I'll weigh up the odds, and if they're very much to my benefit I'll have a go, but if it looks like it'll end up as a 50/50 sort of thing, I'll stay out of it. Sad, isn't it?

I'm coming over all Biggles...

Cheers Stumpy! just as a matter of interest, are you planning to do aircraft which might fill some of the squadron roster gaps, such as DH5, N28, etc?

Hi Cathy, Have a look in Workshop in the OFF manager - you should find plenty there to change all sorts of realism settings, from arcade to suicidal! Cheers, Si

Hi, Got round to downloading the Zeppelin and the Paris raid (for the same). Where do all the various files go? I was looking for a quick readme, but alas, nowt there. Can anyone give definitive guidance? Thanks

Hi, this is just a bump to this subject, in case Stumpy is around and is taking requests/questions!

"The time hasn't been totally wasted, I've learned how to take off, fly, land, etc, learned a lot of the command keys and such but the time has come to fight...!!" Erm. I wouldn't be too sure about that, or quite so hasty about getting stuck in. I have a large and mouldering pile of dead pilots just next to me, and the health and safety issues are becoming onerous. Of course, the smell's appalling too.

Hi Mr Dog, That's a mighty fine picture - feel free to publish or link to more of that sort of thing.

"I think one of the reasons the Quirk doesn't have an observer's gun is probably not so much an animation limit as a limit of the CFS3 engine. I get the distinct impression that the game engine requires a gun to be in 1 place on a plane at all times." Doesn't the FE2b have a 2 position observer gun setup? Not flown it, but a quick glance persuades me on that?

Winston, if it's any help, I've lurked around Ebay and seen copies of Trackir come up fairly regularly for auction. Admittedly, they tend to attract a fair number of bids and go for near the price of a new copy, but it might be worth a punt. Alternatively, you could try Freetrack - I would have done so myself, but I suspect that my skills are very limited and that I'd probably end up with something which didn't work at little cost, as opposed to something that did for rather more.

"note: Lot of old RB players went to IL2 and now to OFF3. " Absolutely bang on! I fell in love with RB3D, and played it to death, until commitments elsewhere forced me away from the PC. When I returned, much later, I found IL2 and various other sims - it was IL2 that hooked me. After it became clear that my kit wasn't good enough to handle IL2, I lloked for and found RB3D again, but patched the buggery out of it, culminating in WFP2 and FCJ - which I still run. FE's sort of come and gone for me, as the lack of a decent campaign mode meant that I couldn't maintain much interest in it. Now I've found OFF:BH&H, I'm a happy man. All I need is a major league, industrial strength f*** off server to run it at 55555!

beside the excellent command key reference card, you can also find manuals in the OBD directories - can't remember the exact path, and I'm now at work - which will help you flesh out your knowledge. If you have any other problems - just ask. There are no dumb questions when you don't know the answer, and everyone here started by not knowing. Some (like me) are still pretty much in that position! I'm very happy to pay tribute to all the very knowledgeable and infinitely patient posters here whose kindness has enabled me to get much more from BH&H than I could have on my own. So ask away!

Hi SD, of course - why didn't I think of that (hint: probably because I'm dim)? I'll give that a try and let you know how it goes - I *think* I've set everything up correctly, but there's obviously something amiss, so I'll check the log for the 'gotcha!'. thanks again, Si

I have to say, I've put my miraculous survival of some horrendous crashes/bullet-riddlings down to the historically accurate preponderance of cunningly camoflaged mattresses all over Flanders. These started appearing in early 1917, in the Arras area, once the Allied brass realised that their pilots were (a) getting offed in large numbers and (b) pretty cheesed off with not having parachutes. Tests on Salisbury Plain quickly ascertained that a falling pilot could be saved and therefore quickly returned to action, unharmed by his ordeal. BH&H models this little known facet of the air war brilliantly.

i've been trying to get AlacrityPC running on my kit. Because I'm a massive coward (just like in BH&H, in fact), i've taken the lowest risk option of stopping and then restarting the most common and easily identified programs - ie, I've ticked the box in the relevant screen. Then all I'm asking it to do is run OFFmanager.exe. The problem is, I get a DOS type window up, telling me that various things are being killed (hooray!) or, in the case of 32 bit (I think?) processes, not killed, then it simply hangs up, without running OFFManager.exe. I've checked out my settings, and whilst I appreciate I might be doing something horrendously dim and mouth-breatherish, I still can't fathom it. Anyone else found this? what was the cure? thanks, Si

Nice question! In no particular order - Siemens Shuckert DIV, Westland Whirlwind and MiG21. I'm also extremely fond of lamb Henry and Moorhouse's Pendle Witch, but I don't think you need to know that. Cheers, Si

Hi Winder, May I ask what sort of publicity you went for? I know that (for example) Full Canvas Jacket went to various magazines for review - did you follow that path? I'm well aware that there are magazines dedicated to flight sims - I've read a few and they reassure me that I'm actually quite a normal bloke compared to the more, er, dedicated members of the fraternity. Did they get copies? In the UK, I read the Guardian (broadsheet national newspaper) and they have supplements that feature games - worth a shot? (for the US papers, not the Graun, I hasten to add). I'm aware that we're a minority interest, and equally aware of some gamers' aversion to paying for add-ons/games like BH&H, so depending on how many units you've shifted you really should take heart. Remember, if IL2 could turn what was prior to it a minority/obscure part of the WWII flight sim into such a success, then BH&H could certainly get there with more targeting (and I don't mean cones). Thanks for all your work thus far. Cheers, Si

"I agree with Sig that probably what bums some folks out is watching the "realism %" setting drop to a lower percentage in order to have a better fighting chance against AA by changing the AI Gun Range to "Normal"" So ignore it, and ignore DiD, which is simply a personal choice anyway. Have to agree with most of the posts put in so far - I voted OK, as I am well aware how rubbish a pilot I am, which is why I die so much. My only issues are with missing aircraft from squadrons (hardly a major issue) and the fact that OFF turns an otherwise fine PC into a crawling wreck if you don't have a pretty recent piece of kit to run it on. Overall, it's a happy 9.5 out of 10 from me.

I think I like the idea. And for those of us still quite new to CFS/OFF who use TAC, why not make the AI's "vision" equal whatever the human opponent has set - 2, 4 or 8 miles? I wonder how doable that would be...

Hi UK_W (are you another Si as well?), Thanks for the information - that's bloody quick work to produce three new planes, I have to say. I'm awaiting the stampede of people asking for the Nieuport 28! Cheers, Si

"you can trim your graphic card to perform better with OFF" What arcane muttering is this....? I've never heard of this idea before - can you explain further for the hard of thinking (ie, me)? Cheers, Si

"Maybe we should start a strategy sticky where we can share fabulous tips like this that we figure out." i'd certainly appreciate that, if only to keep to reasonable proportions the number of dead pilots I chuck on the pile every few days.

Good lord. And there I was thinking that my combination of fishing and OFFing were unique. Does anyone else combine those two with drinking beer as well?