themightysrc

Hi all, I recently started flying again having neglected OFF for a month or so, and, alas, the force feedback element of my beloved Sidewinder FFB2 had gone walkies in the meantime. I've deleted the program from my Win 7 system and tried to reinstall from CD, and it's telling me that it's not compatible, which is bollocks because I've had it loaded and working previously from the CD. What's the trick get round this, so I can have my lovely FFB Sidewinder 2 back to where it should be? Cheers, Si

Incidentally Lou, congrats on your promotion to playground monitor!

"Agreed Si, it does help one build characters." Well, as opposed to having to dispose of so many dead ones, yes.

"Si, I've gone on the attack as well, and I agree it does scatter them. However, I've also found it can really get them quite PO'd at you." It's the only way you'll get away with it. I attack them and then run like buggery towards the nearest Entente site, diving as steeply as possible. Do that and you'll save your skin. Stick around for a fight and there's only going to be one outcome, which is why I run away. To be fair to Redmonkey though, it's probably not a great idea to start off in a BE2 unless you wish to have your imagination and ability to think up new pilot names exercised on a weekly basis.

"Nothing quite compares to the sheer horror of being under attack by red-nosed Albs in a B.E.2" It's survivable - just make sure you attack them before trying to escape. Puts them off a treat.

BTW, did I mention Come and See? Pretty sure to put you off any form of organised violence so long as the world exists.

"at least northern france and belgium is usually rather dull. the further south you go, the more mediterranean it gets, and southern france of course is a completely different ballgame." I wouldn't disagree. I'm a real Grecophile and have flown out to Greece many times over the years. Apart from the quality of the light and detail you can see - which I put down to the bone dry climate and the absolute lack of moisture in the air causing clouding - the other major shock on a holiday is flying back into Manchester to see just how earthy, dull and unclear it is, like there's semi permanent haze through which one must pass to be able get back to the legendary land of Moorhouse's ales and black puddings. This lack of clarity is quite shocking at times. It's also a reason why I fly with hdr & bloom. The darker the better I think.

A thing (or things) of beauty indeed. Can't wait for it to be released....only two weeks!

"Thank You for the feedback. I did much research on this sim before I made my post. And have heard of others with win 7 problems and OOF along with CFS3. So I just wanted to make sure before I buy the product that I am not going to have a problem with it. I appreciate the promt reply of the devs on this issue." Understandable caution, but I do wonder where you were looking for the information that you turned up about Win7 and OFF being problematic? If you could let us know which sites have stated this as being a problem, then I'm sure that the devs (and posters here) would be happy to pop over and put the record straight. Just to let you know - I was running OFF and HitR (you really must get that too!) on XP SP3 32 bit and it ran fine. I've recently bought an i3 based Win7 machine with a bit more RAM and it runs oodles better than on XP (and I rated XP highly, and Vista as a pile of s**t). Go ahead and buy it. You genuinely won't regret it. Ask around here if you have any problems, and spend a bit of time configuring your CFS3 files. It's absolutely worth it, and a fine addition to your PC. Cheers, Si

Hi everyone, I'd just done a mission as Major Vic Timm, and decided that it was way overdue for me to update the famous war diary - it's beginning to look like War and Peace these days - when I found, in panic, that the document I transferred in January to the new W7 machine only has diary entries up to and including 21st January 1918! Eek! I've checked all my archives and there's nothing there, SimHQ is worse thn useless - no change there then - and trolling back through pages at random from the current reports from the front thread (now 180+ pages) is not finding me the posts I need to reconstruct this unique historical document (ahem!). Seriously, I'd really like to put it back together, so if people would be so very kind as to post the page numbers in that thread where there's a Vic TImm entry, that would be very much appreciated and probably more than halve the time I'd otherwise spend on reconstructive surgery. Thanks to all in advance. Si

Hi Olham, Brilliant - I will reconstruct the diary forthwith and ship it off to Harper Collins for about £50,000. Many thanks, Si

I have to agree with people saying buy it, and HitR. I've not really played any other games for a couple of years now, and I've always enjoyed the ride that OFF offers. If OFF2 is twice as good as the current set up, it will be an absolute gem. As for the DVD/download thing - it can be terribly timeconsuming downloading stuff like HitR unless you hae a very good internet connection (certainly not a given, even in the UK!), and I think I prefer the 'safety' of a DVD, as it's only too easy to download software and forget to back it up. Hope you enjoy it when you get - do spend serious time on setting the CFS3 config files up, as it's an instant win, as they say. And look forward to raising your screen res! Cheers, Si

I think that FlybyPC was pretty much said everything that I would have in terms of critical look at the prose you've submitted. I'd add that descriptions of people and things as being just so - the example of Tilley is a good one - should be avoided. Only enlighten the reader objectively if there is no doubt about the fact. Hence, you can say that The Somme ran through chalky soil, or that the nearest town was set in flat countryside, blah, blah, but don't say that Tilley was a born leader and flyer; let that be the hero's opinion of the man. In fact, we may find out he's a nutter or a coward, but Allow Dearing an opinion or stardust. Take it easy on the exclamation marks in the diary. Remember the period. Read some contemporary diaries. You'll find that strong feelings are often expressed, but generally in language that appears muted until you go back and read it again, and then appreciate the depth of feeling. Remember also that formality was still something of a given at the time, and the structure of society didn't engender much in the way of "I love you guys" bonding. Surnames - yes; initials - yes; nicknames - frequently; first names? Far less so. They weren't remote men, they simply followed the social mores of the time. I would strgonly recommend that you read as many accounts as possible, as written by participants in both the war and also in the period between say 1910 and 1920. It will influence the way you interpret the period and the people who lived through it if you see through their eyes, and read their thoughts. And that will make whatever you write thereafter much more authentic, and hence, believable. Keep it up!

"In my view the guy deserved topping and thats from info I know about and yes I do joke about it" Looking back from nearly a year after, would you say that his being killed by American troops (and the subsequent revelations regarding the whole operation) still sustain your view, or do you think that it might have been useful to capture him alive, as opposed to indulging in what can only be described as a judicial execution? The facts have become clearer, and it's apparent that there was no intention to capture bin Laden and find out what he knew. Also, the facts regarding his existence in Pakistan, and who knew, are extremely embarrassing to various governments and agencies. My view has not changed. Has yours altered at all?

Unavailable, I suspect, to our colonial cousins. Having said that it could have been much better - and let's face it, it could, particularly had it been 90 minutes, and if they hadn't arsed around so much in the first 1/2 hour - it was a genuine and decent attempt to try and cover the subject. I would have approached it a little differently, I will confess. The Somme and Arras offensives were covered, but I would dispute the blanket contention that without the RFC the British army would all have been slaughtered, which was the not very subtle contention. That's not the case. They probably would have suffered the same casualties, just quicker and have given up sooner. There should have been a section on both Cambrai (combined arms) and, perhaps most importantly, the German 1918 offensives which foundered due, not in small part, to the relentless pursuit of German troops by the RFC/RNAS/RAF. That was both a turning point in history and in military experience and doctrine. I would have emphasised that the German air service got it wrong (in effect) by undermanning and underusing their aircraft compared to the highly aggressive strategy and tactics of the RFC and RNAS. The aeroplane is not primarily a defensive weapon, and yet the Germans treated it as such and apparently undervalued it. The formation of the Flying Circus was, in effect, an admission of weakness. They couldn't control the front as Allied aircraft did, so they needed an elite force to throw in and pinch off local hotspots. It may look successful, prima facae, but it's a sure fire recipe for surrendering overall control of the front. Never addressed.

Saw most of it (had to pick up my other half). Not a bad attempt at explaining the conflict and issues, but handicapped by having to yoke in Vintage Aviator people and footage every 2 minutes. Reducing the air war to it being an arms race twixt EIIIs, FE2bs, Albatri and SE5s was actually a bit s**t. If they'd given it another 30 minutes running time and been a touch more forensic then it would have been vastly better.

"And the best indication of the truth of that is how many of his once most-faithful followers have turned on him and 'his' directionless product." I did wonder why they decided that what ROF really, really needed was a couple of seaplanes and the Channel coast. AFAIK, it doesn't even have Flanders and a decent selection of early and two seat planes yet. Never mind. I wonder who did the consumer research on that one.

Scary isn't it? I still use TAC and labels, but the TAC blobs are always white, and the labels are opaque until you're close up - this emulate (for me anyway) the better vision I'd have IRL, and which the AI has regardless. Try those mods, use TAC and it's still a challenge.

"Not funny at all... I posted comparative pictures over there, so everyone can judge that ridiculous claim..." Saw that Ellie - given that his 'joke' was in such bad taste and so paranoicly aggressive, I simply wonder what runs through his head.

Hmm. Not impressed with his post following the accusation. As follows: "LOL. Man I love kicking the bee hive sometimes to uncover the Jason haters." Given that it was in an ROF forum - presumably inhabited by people who've bought, play and like to discuss the game, that's a terribly lame start, and smacks horribly of paranoia. "Why there is so much angst in the flight-sim community still boggles my mind." Well, nothing like adding to it with an accusation and a threat of litigation against another developer eh? Bound to lower the temperature, that is. "I'm not suing anyone. Someone sent me an email saying to have a look at their medals. I did, looks very similar, but whatever. I just threw out that bomb for fun. You guys don't dissappoint." And there's nothing like insulting the intelligence of your customers to give the best possible slant upon your business and personal morality and your atitude towards them. You'd have thought he'd have more respect for both himself, and more importantly for the people who pay his wages. Clearly not. Add in a gratuitous and very possibly libellous accusation regarding OBD, and I think we have the measure of the man in spades. "I'm the most evil dude ever to try and give people a good flight-sim. Someday you'll miss me." My only thought: don't flatter yourself, matey.

It's hard not to have massive and I think well deserved contempt for such a comment from Jason whoever. I've never seen the OBD people ever slag off the ROF people or distributors, and they've always been highly respectful of the work and product, encouraging everyone here to support ROF by buying it. That's class. By contrast, This Jason fellow clearly has something of a chip on his shoulder, and to post something so demeaning to himself - and by association, his company and ROF - is, in my opinion, utterly cheap and the sort of crass nonsense that persuades me that I won't be buying his product either now nor at any point in the future. 0/10 for class.

"A reflection on this particular point of view: The scene still worked for me, even though it did not align fully with the novel. I personally find it very believable that an educated man - who had viewed the war as an exercise in futility and degradation; who had been trapped underground and close to death for days at the very end when he thought he might have made it through; who had grown close to very few and had had them all taken from him by the War - should collapse sobbing on the shoulder of the German officer who told him it was finally over." But that's not how the book worked, and, frankly, if there were even a hint of reality in the Beeb version, then they might have acknowledged the fact that that's not how the narrative was constructed by the author. If I want to be patronised by a bloody awful version of a bloody awful book then I suppose I'll submit to the version filmed recently, but, with hand on heart, you'd have to be very generous indeed to both the book and the adaptation to find very much to praise.

"Other sims feel like avionics and flight model studies, with token targets and missions as an afterthought. OFF and Falcon derivatives are the only sims I've played in the past decade which feel like they put the player into a situation much bigger than themselves. I just barely survived an OFF mission a couple of hours ago where my only chance of survival with no ammo and a damaged engine was to circle above a friendly base while hoping the flak and mg file would take down my pursuers. While dodging trees, I was flying past friendly soldiers who were physically aiming their rifles at the enemy aircraft, and I could hear the reports of their rifles above the sound of wind (HITR) and my sputtering engine. In the distance, I could see friendly (white) flak shooting at something else. I could see smoke rising from the tree line below the flak. It must have been a ground attack mission of some sort by an enemy flight. The war is happening regardless if I'm there or not, and I love it. By contrast, I've been flying missions in another sim, where in the entire world at any given point there may exist two, maybe four enemy aircraft, four mg emplacements, and 3-4 balloons. I can land and taxi around the enemy trenches with no fear. The graphics and flight model are great but... there's no real war atmosphere of any sort. I always come back here for that. And most missions wind up being worthy of epic "and there I was..." stories." It's funny you should put it that way, being versed in other flight sims, but that's actually what I've I've been trying to put my finger on for a long time. It's not the missions. They're there - we all know that. It's just flying. Flying in that immensely hostile universe. There is no script. There's a mission that you're meant to complete, but, truth be told, if you get back in one piece, you're doing well. That's what was missing from IL2 and even from RB3D. It's world to explore, and no-one's nagging you with waypoints unless you're daft enough to buy into the whole waypoint thing. I don't.

Christ, what thoughts must have run through his head flying over that. I'm even more in awe of the man now than when I first read the book.

Well, for whatever reasons you're here, and for whatever reasons CA saw fit to host, I don't care. I'm immensely glad you're here and I am grateful to CA for being munificent hosts, and to the people at OBD for their superlative work. So there.