themightysrc

My view is that HitR fixed a lot of stuff - particularly for those of us with low end systems - whilst adding a lot more options. I like the N28, can live with the DH5 but I don't think I've ever bothered with the EV (sorry Olham!). What I liked so much about it was the perceived oomph that my versions of the game got. Prior to HitR, I was between 10-20 FPS (ie, annoying). After HitR, it's a steady 20+ FPS, which makes the game eminently playable. I know that high end systems can run 60+ FPS, but that's utterly irrelevant to me (until I replace my current kit, which looks like 2-3 years down the road): OFF runs great - now. My only fear with OFF P4 is that I'll buy it and find that I can't run it to my satisfaction on my existing rig.

This is one area where the OFF community could make an excellent addition to P4. To create a cover that captures the whole feel of the subject is mighty difficult, and I've often sat and watched the various loading screens in BHaH and wondered why they ended up looking that way, who was responsible and what the process was - ie, what got included, and what got chucked out. I suspect that the P4 cover will be best it is simple, stark and uncompromising. I should add that whilst I like the DVD cover on BHaH (very doomy, and quite right too), the screen on the HitR expansion never fails to make me grind my teeth in impotent fury. It's quite horrible and, I'm afraid, looks like it was put together by someone in a great hurry who knew nowt about the subject matter. The smiling/shouting N28 pilot really, really should not have made it onto the final product. Sorry if that's offended anyone, but I had to say it. Put an evocative cover on P4, and it will sell itself. Put a comic strip one on it and people will be less inclined to buy. My 2 pennorth.

An authentic BE2 and now a BE12 as well? I'm absolutely staggered and delighted - I hope I had some hand in persuading you down this road. Well done, and many thanks...

f***. Ing. Hell. Thanks Pol - that's astonishing stuff on the BE2 series. I'm extremely grateful that you've listened to us and made such a superb job of putting that that m/c where it should be. The rifle is a wonderful aside, and makes me wonder if you're planning to go back further than 1915 with P4?? Finally, if all the pilots and observers are to be modelled to the standard of that BE2 observer, then that would be superb. A very great piece of work. Well done indeed. Cheers, Si

Hi Vasco, I'm saddened that the MP side appears to have ground to a halt in OFF - I really enjoyed those marvellous sessions that you ran. I can see that, given the number of servers available to RoF players that's a big attraction, but I'd be very interested to hear from you what MP gaming is like in RoF with regard to aspects like technical issues, sustainability, player input, and, perhaps most importantly of all, historical accuracy, which is why - I'd guess - we got involved with OFF in the first place. Cheers, Si

"Do I spend "too much" time playing video games? I'm sure from many people's perspective I probably do. But I've come to a point in my life where I think to myself, If playing games and using my imagination to enjoy experiences that I otherwise could never have makes me happy, why shouldn't making myself happy be considered productive? I own my own home, I have two cars and for the moment at least I have a good career going. The lawns mowed, the laundry's done, the bed is made, the bills are paid, the house is clean, the kids are well taken care of and my wife has literally finally run out of things to buy. Everyone has what they want and the necessities of life are taken care of. If gaming makes me happy, then I feel I deserve to put as much effort into my own happiness as I do into making my family happy. If someday I change my mind and decide going out and climbing mountains is what will make me feel happy and passionate about life, then I'll turn off my system and put on a pair of climbing boots. To me, it's not about how much time you spend doing a particular thing that makes you happy. It's about how happy it makes you feel as long as doing it is not somehow holding yourself or someone else that you love back in life. And really, if they love you as much as you love them...shouldn't they get as much joy out of seeing you happy as you get when you see them living their dreams? I would hate to see my wife or children ever feel guilty about doing what they enjoy most in life. I give myself the same gift. If you ever think you are somehow holding yourself back in life or missing out on something because of your flying time in OFF, then step back and ask yourself what it is that you really want out of life that you are missing. Go do that. But feeling guilty over doing something that makes you happy? No sir. Making ourselves happy is just as important as making a living. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's just how I see it. Hellshade" Worth reposting, because it goes beyond the nuts and bolts of time allotted to OFF (or otherwise). It's easy to forget that happiness is a reciprocal process within a community of people. If I gain, you gain. This is not a zero sum game.

"and I have, therefore, solely flown BE2s with 2 squadron RFC since I got OFF." Yes! <punches air> Get in!

Belated happy birthday ArgonV - loved your work on FSOE, and pleased to have met you..

"Si, and Creaghorn! I salute you both. I just hope that you will find the P4 campaign worthy of noble spirits like yours. All the best, the shredder" Oh give over... I'm absolutely chicken hearted in the air, partly because I fly crocks, but mostly because I'm a bloody useless pilot who couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. Noble spirit indeed... Having said that, I'll be absolutely delighted if the P4 campaign improves upon the P3 one. I can think of areas - such as home leave, more variable injury periods, transfers, etc - where I think that OFF could be made better without (I suspect, but don't know) taking an axe to the engine, and I'd dearly love the two seater campaigns to have more meaningful missions in terms of reconnaissance and spotting (like mechanisms to do such in game). I genuinely hope that some or all of the above can be addressed, because were that the case OFF would be unbeatable for some years to come as a campaign. In case this all comes over a little curmudgeonly, let me reiterate more initial post: the OFF campaign is superb as a mechanism, but like all mouse traps, there's a better one to be had, I hope. Cheers, Si

I think I can probably say that my choice of nation has been predicated more upon the uselessness of the aircraft. I flew OFF for a while, sampling various different aircraft from the combatant nations, and then, for reasons I'm hard pressed to explain, decided that having a crack at the BE2c was - for some inexplicable reason - a Good Idea (when it patently wasn't). I lost my first two BE pilots, but my currently existing pilot has graduated - if that's the word - to the RE8, and so that's what I fly, and obviously it's for the RFC. The underlying reasons have become these: I identify with that style of warfare (ie, running away all the time), and I'm very much used to the aircraft, as others here may attest. Dig a little deeper and I think that there's a large - but largely unremarked - factor in that a long lasting (which is to say, cowardly) pilot in a campaign allows you to sample the full glory of the OFF P3 campaign system. I rarely, in fact almost never, change the mission I'm assigned, but grit my teeth, grumble and curse the upper reaches of HQ for the incompetent swine that they clearly are. It's a long term, major league investment of time, faith and effort in an experience that I couldn't get in another sim. It's not a one off, it's not spawned random nonsense over a sterile landscape: to me, it's the life and death experience of an RFC pilot doing his damndest to survive in an insane situation, and therefore it is entirely worthy of my fullest attention. <hops off soapbox> And, I'm sure, players who have French and German pilots feel the same way. I've got a bit off thread, so I'll try and drag it back on thread. I don't actually fly to experience the best aircraft that WWI had to offer, although it's nice. I fly to indulge my senses in a smidgeon of what it might have been like for the people who did it in reality, and often at mortal cost. Cheers, Si

Hmm. Not very impressive was it? And that's exactly why I prefer CA. It doesn't matter what the conversation's about (although it's usually flight sims), but I find that there's a maturity and willingness to accept opposite viewpoints without recourse to rancour, or deletion, or thread locking - well done Freycinet - that persuades me that I'm conversing with adults here. Something, sadly, that I can't necessarily say about SimHQ. I suppose it's possible that if OFF had a massive following and dozens of people online singing its praises then the OFF forums here might degenerate into a bipolar back-slapping/witch-finding experience, but I somehow doubt it. I continue to post over at SimHQ, in the after action reports to give OFF a little much needed visibility, but other than that, I simply stand back and look on whilst shaking my head.

"Lewie sorry but it is NOT a CFS3 thing. There are NO spawns in OFF. They are disabled by us, this is an important point." Worth repeating. Given that it's a preface to every session in OFF P3, there in front of one's eyes, I'm sure we should all have sussed this one by now!

"33Lima I'm working on the Be2 at the moment so have to decide on armament - there are some issues with some of the loadouts which limits it some, but we will move the side gun anyway." Hurrah! The basic kite's fine. But do what you did with the Strutter - there are two versions, single and two seat. Just mod that loadout so the two seater gets the rear gun and the single seater is the BE12. If you want to be sexy about it, give the two seater a %age chance of being 'field modded' with a front firing machine gun and install the model as per. Everything else is already there... Cheers, Si

TH, "Are those tanks you found there in your N.11 - I didn't think they were around that early (!?)" They weren't. The British used tanks for the first time at Flers - Courselette in mid September 1916 (effectively, part of the Battle of the Somme). One to correct for P4...

"I never used the labels in CFS3 (or IL2 either) but I have started turning them on now and then in OFF as it helps me keep tabs on my wingmen with whom I already feel a good more identification in OFF, than I did in CFS3 - not least as witnesses to my claims, nice touch that, adds a bit of WW1 atmosphere, sort of thing that brings a sim to life! The 'bl**dy radar' and the labels could be argued to be a substitute for the eyes of your wingmen, after all it's not just the leader's job to keep a lookout.Provided, as I suspect is the case, the dots appear at the distance you might typically expect to see 'something' and turn red/blue at the distance you might typically expect to recognise what the 'something' is. Not a cheat, just a sort of 'situational awareness plot' (albeit it looks like a bl**dy radar ). " Hi Lima, There's only two mods that I have on my OFF setup, and they're both useful for the situation you're in. The first is opaque labels for aircraft - basically, you can hardly read them unless the aircraft is pretty close - ie, the level of closeness where you'd (IRL) have identified your own side, a local squadron, the enemy Jasta, but without making it easy. And, they're always white in colour, so until the planes are close, you don't necessarily know if they're Them or Us.... The related mod is white TAC blobs: you know they're there, but you don't know who's who at a glance. Marvellous for inducing paranoia in fights with 10 or more aircraft... Having said how great these mods are, I'm not sure where you'd find them - perhaps other OFFers can help in this regard. Cheers, Si

I've long grown accustomed to the polished manners of CA posters (apart from Uncle Al ,of course! - BTW, that's a joke, Al), and I've learned enormous amounts of invaluable information on these boards, and, I hope, forged a few friendships. I also bob over to SimhQ and whilst it may be controversial to say it, I'm very disappointed with their attitude. One RoF thread was started recently by somebody wanting to flog his copy, and was then jumped on by various posters who simply expressed bile. A few more reasonable posters pointed out that that wasn't a reasonable attitude, but the nail in the coffin came when one of the moderators - no, really, one of the people charged with keeping the forum as evenhanded as possible - steamed in, posted something which insulted (to my mind) the original poster, and then locked the thread to disable any more input. How s**tty is that? I mailed the OP expressing support for his stance, and I'm hoping that others did too. To be insulted and written off simply because they didn't buy the sizzle is appalling. If someone bought OFF and decided - for whatever reasons - to sell it on, I'd simply say to them 'thanks for trying, and having the faith in the first place'. I certainly wouldn't be slagging them off in public, and neither would I expect the hosting site to join in. Obviously standards are different elsewhere.

"But why do later film makers, especially with CGI at their disposal, always have a cannon-armed B wing model Spit? Only one squadron, No. 19, actually had them during the BoB. Assuming this is supposedly set in 1940, with those ranks of He 111s in the background?" Something of a peeve of mine. In fact, most of the RAF fighters in the BoB were Hurricanes! Also, Heinkels were supplemented with DO17's and JU88's, plus ME110's in various roles (although not, after the early exchanges, primarily as fighters). And, as a comment on CGI graphics, may I comment that those in The Red Baron film are the biggest pile of wannabe-Biggles s**te it's been my misfortune to watch since the first Star Wars film.

phantom - try Olham's settings. His screenies are gorgeous, and I've never heard him moan about fps rates, therefore there's likely to be a fair bit in there which will help you. Good luck!

"Well, Poland lasted rather longer than the 16th Century. It was (as the main player in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) at the height of its power in the mid-17th Century. It strechted from the Baltic to the Black Sea. At that time, there wasn't a Germany. There was the Holy Roman Empire to the west, and there wasn't yet a Russia to the east, only Muscovy. IOW, the PLC was the main power in Eastern Europe." Ah, BH, you know your Polish history well. I bow to your knowledge on this one - nothing like reading and learning! "This strife continued until very recent times and in some ways still smolders even today. So for all intents and purposes, Spain ceased to exist no later than 1808, at least by the standards of 1914 European politics." Oh, I'm not so sure about that one thobut. I suspect that the EC would be mightily pissed off to find out that Spain is no longer in existence! (makes great show of pulling leg). Despite its current woes, Spain is still a major European state and a not inconsiderable economic unit, even if their unemployment rate is appalling. It's interesting that you use the phrase "by the standards of 1914 European politics"; I guess I'd take that to mean that as an imperial power it was f***ed - and you'd be quite right about that. However, it's worth bearing in mind that even such powers - and Belgium surely falls into that category - were threatened with absolute dismemberment. It's easy to forget that Prussia heisted both Alsace and Lorraine (coal mining areas, I believe) after 1870. I wonder what Belgium's fate in the event of German success would have been in 1914? Mmmmmm..... lovely looking outlets for a greater German kriegsmarine?

"LIMA, from what I've read over the years, the contact patrol was meant to locate your troops AND the enemy's." Lou - given that you don't know where the enemy are (and friendly forces are often hard to pick out), it's almost inevitable that you'll find the enemy's troops as well as your own. I don't think it needs to be over-defined, if you see what I mean. Just get in, have a quick dekko, then get the hell out of there. Wayfarer, "I think I may have done it properly this time. Ended up below 500', everyone shot at me, engine got damaged, landed at an enemy airfield, took two days to escape and get back to the squadron." That's the spirit: brain out, spit the Hun bullets back at them, shout abuse from the prison camp and then go back for more!

Hi Bandy, Well, I hope that it works out well with the latest patch, but I've got reservations, based on what I've just read. They seem to be implying that if you shoot down more aircraft than other people, you'll get to lead the flight, and then perhaps the squadron. Is that actually historical? My understanding is that people got promoted partly through longevity/superiority, but mostly through be a good flight commander - perhaps the very antithesis of the systems promulgated in RoF (after all, why else would they have a ranked list of players ranked by kill?). I'm pleased that you now have Autumn - were you all flying in lovely Summer weather until now? As standard, any WWI flight sim should ship with all four seasons, accurately modelled. Is Winter catered for yet? Still, the recon stuff looks quite interesting, although there are pitifully few aircraft in the RoF stable in which to enjoy such mods. Is it still two two-seaters for the entire World War One? That has to improve, otherwise any toys for recon/bomber people are simply pointless. Have fun with it anyway. I'm off to rev up the ol' RE8 for a job over Passchendaele. BTW - any word from the RoF people about Flanders scenery yet? Cheers, Si

"HOWEVER, Poland was European, and in fairly recent European history (as seen from WW1's timeframe) had gone from being a mighty empire to not existing at all. There were still Poles but they all lived neighboring parts of other mighty empires, which between them had divided and absorded what had been Poland not so long before. Poland has been resurrected 3 times since then: after WW1 (for a couple decades), after WW2 (in theory only), and after the break-up of the USSR (as we find it today). Seems a good example to me." You have a point, but Poland is quite atypical, since it was not an established state and had been bickered over, sliced up, invaded, reunited and generally mucked around so much since the 16th Century that I doubt that anyone in 1914 would have pointed to Poland as an example of long lived state that had or would suddenly undergo complete dismemberment. Certainly, by that time it had been the bone of contention for so many countries (Prussia, Austria, France, Russia) that it would have been a brave bloke who'd have bet his trousers on its surviving particularly long. I'd agree about the German and Italian states that were subsumed into Germany and Italy respectively, but that's a bit more complicated, since in many cases their identity continued and certainly their essential character (pre-absorbtion) was in most cases untouched. Woe betide a non-Bavarian who tells a native of Bavaria that they have no history or underlying culture! Cool reception guaranteed... Anyway, it's nice to debate this sort of stuff: after all, if we don't, then we have to turn to professional historians for The Word, and fashions tend to come and go...

Al, I get the feeling that Trackpad was flying an Albatros and simply bemoaning his lack of accuracy (see the reference to 950 rounds). It's common enough Trackpad (welcome, by the way), and it simply requires a little (or a lot of) practice which I'm sure you'll gain. Trackir is a great move - you'll wonder how you flew without it once you have it. It's worth reading the Survival in the Air primers available elsewhere on the site, and, of course, you're more than welcome to pick everyone's brains for information and tips. One hint - create a pilot and tick the 'pilot never dies' box until you feel confident about your abilities, otherwise you'll spend an awful lot of time creating pilot after pilot. Now then - mine's a pint of Marston's Pedigree, but as I'm in a hurry, make it two. Cheers, Si

BH, "I have to disagree with this because there are many examples to the contrary. Start with the dawn of recorded history and you find city states being utterly destroyed, then mighty empires falling in the Bronze Age. Things continued in this vein throughout the Iron Age, the Classical Period, the Middle Ages, and the Rennaissance. It just wasn't as frequent as before, but it still happened. Troy, Jericho, Babylon, the Minoans, the Hittites, Carthage, both the Western and eventually the Eastern Roman Empires, post-Roman Brittain, the kingdoms of the Huns, Vandals and various types of Goths, the Sarmatians, the Tartars, the Aztecs, both Kingdoms of Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and eventually Poland itself, the Papal States, the Confederacy, and countless others, all before 1914." I mentioned European history - I doubt that (a) people in 1914 would have had a profound and widespread knowledge of the Aztecs, (b) you're also invoking states - like the Confederacy - that had dubious legality for existence and © were simply not the stolid and reliable bodies that had continued to exist for hundreds of years. It's easy to invoke the Hittites - as though it would have had much traction in late 19th and early 20th century Europe, and I'll offer you a free hit in places like Savoy, etc, but my point stands: no-one had, until this point, and in recent European history (dammit, you've made me qualify myself!) had seriously thought that a country like France might be taken apart, along with its empire. People had doubts about the Ottoman Empire, but I wonder how many saw the destruction of that, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire (and state) as outcomes in 1914? And yet, by 1917-18, these were all too visible outcomes for these states, and, to be frank, France had missed out on such a fate by a slim margin.

Seems to me that the way you'd judge success would be if you pass over certain troop bodies - your own, definitely, the enemy's, at the mission's/Winder's discretion - under a certain altitude, otherwise it's a fail. Having said that, any mission you can fly back from alive is a success, even if you had to give up on the objective.