RAF_Louvert

. After the earlier discussion in another thread this morning I felt the need to make a brief post about how some days it can be hard to make ourselves understood in a written comment. While I was not meaning to offend in any way, it seems I initially did, and again apologies if such was the case. Few if any of us have actually met face-to-face, so it is difficult to know what the other person is truly like, and this makes it all the more tricky to understand another’s true intentions in a posted comment. For instance, I am one of the most easy-going and unflappable people you will likely ever run across, and I tend to find humor in nearly everything, (which in and of itself can cause misunderstandings). I perhaps should make more use of smilies and emoticons to better indicate when I am joking or giving another forum member a bit of a wind up, but I tend to assume you all know me already and know when I am posting with tongue in cheek, (it is not fair of me to assume such). Also, please know that when I do so it is with the friendliest of intentions and the truest respect for each of you. I just feel as if we are rather like the collection of characters that populated those Great War squadrons and jastas we so dearly love to claim virtual membership of. There was a lot of lively banter in those outfits, and a fair amount of good-intended humor at our own and others expense. But at the end of the day we are all part of the same experiences at this idealized front. That’s not to say we don’t each bring our own RL experiences here every day: we do, and we should. It all helps to build the camaraderie and esprit de corps that are an honest part of these forums. Let’s face it; this is a fun place to hang around! I’m rambling, so I will stop myself now; just felt I should elaborate a bit. One final note though to offer a little more insight into my character: for health reasons I haven’t had a drink since 1984. But I have so many fond memories of those delicious elixirs that they tend to seep into some of my posts to you lot, (and yes, my choice of the word "some" was meant as a ridiculous understatement). Cheers my Friends! Lou .

. hmmmm...I must be totally miscommunicating this AM, but I feel that I've offended folks here with my initial post, as well-meaning as it was meant to be. I am bowing out of further comments in this one, Gents. .

. Slarti, nothing more than coffee this morning Sir. Was only pointing out that folks like Pol have reminded us all that these are the OFF forums. Imagine if you had a new Jaguar XJ coupe and had invited friends over to see it, only to have one show up in their new Ferrari F1. Your house, your candy, your invitation. Only common courtesy to allow it to be your show as well. If your friend wishes to show off his F1 the polite thing to do would be to throw his own party. Elephant, my intention was not to give you a dressing down, and my apologies if that is how it came off. I was simply making mention of a request that has been made here before on several occasions. .

. Elephant, while I agree the visuals are quite stunning in RoF, I believe the planes are rather overly sensitive and unstable. I have flown ultralight aircraft and from my own little RL experience I find the OFF planes to be much closer in feel and control than those in RoF. Also, as you are still new here and may not be aware, it is a bit of bad form to use the OFF forums to extol the virtues of other WWI flight sims. Not that you've done it in a bashing way at all Sir, but the OFF devs are fully aware of what their counterparts in the industry already provide so we don't need to keep holding it up to them for scrutiny. After all, this is OBD's house and we should each abide by their very minimal requests of comportment. .

. Gents, if you haven't already done so, you owe it to yourselves to stop by and read British_eh's primer, (penned by our own poet laureate Dej), on the DH2: Flying and Fighting in the Airco DH2 The DH2 has a tell that will help you avoid the BH spin. If I may, I will quote myself from the above-mentioned primer: "Fly it a bit and pull rather hard climbing turns to starboard and watch for the point when it almost seems like it wants to ‘shudder’, (hard to explain it exactly but watch for it a number times as you stall and fall into the spin and you will see what I mean). Once you can recognise that point you only need push forward on the stick to get some air speed back and continue the fight. The DH2 can assuredly hold its own and win against a good DII flyer if you practice with the little beast for a while." Now to Bullethead's notes on the DH5, I wholeheartedly agree. And his assessment of the plane's durabililty may well be the first great understatement of 2011. .

. I agree Lewie, those little jaunts along the friendly side are easy peasy. It's the long recon to some lovely spot like Valenciennes that proves whether or not you have the luck. Now then Olham, about these marvelous meals your having over at 24...about what time do they begin serving in the mess? .

. A full parade dress salute to Frank Buckles, the last US surviror of what was so poignantly called "The War To End All Wars". .

. Clearly, you have a cunning plan. .

. Olham, I'll download your TIR profile this evening when I get home and see how it works for me. I am already running a tweaked profile, but I am always open to improvements. A closed mind is like a closed book, as the Chinese are fond of saying, (philosophical lot, those Chinese: Confucius, Sun Tzu, Zhuangzi and all that). .

. Plug-nickel and Bullethead, you are both responsible for me spewing a rather large sip of my afternoon coffee all over my monitor, thank you very much! Plug-nickel, I feel your pain Sir. And BH, ain't cats just the damndest critters. .

. Wow Morris, I'm touched Sir. To think the modest improvement I've offered here has enticed you back to this wonderful sim, well that just warms my old heart, it does. .

. In der Liebe und im Krieg ist alles erlaubt. .

. Best of luck WM. Here's hoping you breeze through the interview with flying colours. And as soon as you've nailed that job, we will be opening a new bar tab for you, so have your wallet at the ready. .

. You are more than welcome Olham. And I am quite certain that many guises of your virtual self will last long enough to enjoy them. .

. Well, I'm not so sure about being a good OFF pilot, but the UL experience does provide a bit of insight into how the WWI kites may have handled. I haven't been doing much RL flying for a while now, mainly because of the occasional dizzy spells I've been having, (sinus issues), which would not be a good thing several thousand feet up in a 250 pound aircraft. Don't want to end up as "Film at 11:00". .

. Absolutely Olham, those are the ones for me, with King Camel leading the pack. But I've been practicing a bit more with the DR1 and it is pretty amazing once you've sort out it's own little idiosyncrasies. .

. Olham, that second video reminds me of the view I get when flying ultralights, minus the aerobatics. And I fill out the cockpit just about as much as Teddy does, (still working on losing my Christmas weight). .

. Hellshade, I've said it before and I will say it again, your videos are superb! And you have indeed done your bit and then some to show folks out there just how amazing OFF really is. Well done Sir! .

. Yes Sir, Creaghorn, your sound mod is one of the best little tweaks around for our favorite sim. Good to see so many have found it. Also good to know there are that many folks flying OFF. .

. Nupe 17 is one of my favs, but then I'm a turn fighter at heart. .

. I love the old fours! I'm rather a fan of the mid-1930's 601 Ariel Square Four, very sweet. Now as to toodling around in OFF via ground conveyance: I once drove some 10 miles between aerodromes up at Bertangles without killing myself or crashing. Unfortunately after several hours of drinking and singing in the officer's mess the drive home ended badly, (should have gone with Bullethead's advice). .

. I actually enjoy the challenge of the DH2 and had a campaign pilot crack the 100 hour mark with 24 RFC throughout Bloody April and beyond. But he ultimately ended up digging turnips for the duration somewhere in the hinterlands of the German Empire. I'm with BH, "real" men do indeed fly the DH2 or Fee at this time of the altercation. .

. That is good news Andy and Wodin! Glad to know the download and my instructions worked for you Gents. Wodin, yes, you will have to go in and make the needed changes manually as I did not attempt to try and rewrite the coding of the sim, (even if I knew how). And to the DFC, it was not even instituted as an award by the King until 3 June 1918, so in reality if you are flying before that date you should be presented with the Military Cross, (or the British Distinguished Service Cross if you're flying for the RNAS). Also, if you were flying as a Sergeant you can now switch that DFC for the Military Medal, and further if you are flying in the Flanders region or serving with Belgian troops you can also use the Belgian Croix de Guerre as well. Options man, you now have options. Cheers! Lou .

. Many thanks Olham, Dej, Wodin, gordohk, elephant, and plug_nickel. Andy, yes I did disable the old link while I wrapped up the final changes. And those changes are completed. I've decided I'm as done as I'm going to be with these. I have just uploaded the RAR file to the OFF downloads section, so it should be available soon. Here is what you will be getting in the finished set: Many thanks again for all the input and kudos on this project, and I hope you folks enjoy the new eye candy for you Pilot's Pages. More bling is always better. Cheers! Lou .

View File All New Medals For OFF P3 . Greetings All, Here is a full set of new and improved medals for our beloved Over Flanders Fields BHaH HiTR combat flight sim. The instructions for their use are relatively simple. Start by making a back-up copy of your "Medals" folder found in the "CampaginData" folder of your OFF install; the path to it should look something like this if you've installed the sim on your 'C' drive: C:\OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData Now all you need to do is copy and paste all the new medal files found inside the "New_OFF_Medals" folder into the "Medals" folder of your OFF install, allowing all the new files to overwrite the old ones, (this is why you made a back-up copy of the original folder first, so that you can go back to the old medals if you so wish). Alrighty then, that is all that's required if you wish to do nothing more than see the shiny new versions of the thirteen original OFF awards on your various pilot's pages. However, if you're like me and would like to adjust the medals presented to be a bit more historically accurate, you can now do so by going into your active pilot's dossier and changing a bit of text. Following the same path that brought you to your "Medals" folder you will also see your "Pilots" folder. Inside are all the files for your pilots; active, inactive, captured, and dead, (assuming you haven't already deleted your captured and dead ones). Find your current active pilot's dossier by opening up your "PilotXDossier" files one at a time, with 'X' being the number of the pilot, (but don't assume the number matches up with that actually shown in the sim; it does not, which is why you have to go through your various pilot dossiers until you find the correct one). Once you have found your current active pilot's dossier, make a copy of it for back-up purposes. Now, with your active "PilotXDossier" opened up in Notepad, look down to line #19 and you will see a number that represents how many medals your pilot has been presented, and immediately following that are the names of each medal. To change a medal you need only type in the new medal name, (which is the same name as the medal image file found in your "Medals" folder), in place of the medal you are replacing. The lines of text you are dealing will look something like this: 5 Iron Cross 2nd Class Iron Cross 1st Class Hohenzollern House Order Orden Pour le Merite Red Eagle Order Null Null Null Null Save your changes and you're done! Now pop into the sim and look at your current Pilot's Page. Is that spiffing or what! ****************** The medals included in this new pack are as follows. The thirteen original OFF P3 medal files which are, in order by country: Military Cross Distinguished Flying Cross Distinguished Service Order Victoria Cross Croix de Guerre Military Medal Legion of Honour Distinguished Service Cross COngressional Medal of Honor Iron Cross Royal Hohenzollern House Order Red Eagle Order Orden Pour le Merite The seventeen new OFF P3 medal files which are, again in order by country: Military Medal Britain Military Medal with Bar Military Cross with Bar DFC with Bar DSO with Bar DSC Britain DSC with Bar Britain DSC with Oak Leaves Croix de Guerre Belgium Albert Order with Swords Iron Cross 2nd Class Iron Cross 1st Class Iron Cross 1c Iron Cross 2c Military Merit Order Bavaria Hohenzollern House Order Golden Military Merit Cross Turkish War Medal 1915 Just as before, red backgrounds denote awards of the Entente Powers, while blue backgrounds denote awards of the Central Powers. In the new awards you now find a few more that can be presented to the enlisted pilots. These are: the British Military Medal and Military Medal with Bar; the Belgian Croix de Guerre, which can be presented to NCO's and officers alike; the Prussian Golden Military Merit Cross, often called the "NCO's Blue Max", (as the Orden Pour le Merite was for officers only); and the Turkish War Medal 1915, (like the Iron Cross, this can be awarded to all ranks). On this last one, you could assign it to a pilot who may have started his military career serving on the Eastern Front before transferring to the Kaiser's air service, (much as Ritter von Richthofen did). About the various versions of the Iron Cross now available to you. The idea is that when the sim assigns you your first award as a German ace, (which will be the generic Iron Cross), you can now go into your pilot's dossier and change that to the Iron Cross 2nd Class, and at the second award of same generic version you can now switch it to the Iron Cross 1st Class, which would have been the proper order back in the Great war. Additionally, as you are presented more awards both by the sim and later on by yourself as acting Adjustant, you can switch to the single image of "Iron Cross 1c Iron Cross 2c", which will free up an additional display space on your pilot's page for one of the new awards, (despite the extra "Null" lines in your pilot dossier, the sim will only ever display five medals maximum). You will notice two versions of the Hohenzollern House Order, and they are identical except for the name. I included the second one as the sim does not allow room for a third line of text under the medal image, and with the original file the word "Royal" forces the name into a third line which gets cut off by the text below it. I should also point out the British DSC; this was a typical award of the RNAS and should be used when flying with that branch of the service. And remember the medals with bars, (or in the case of the US DSC, an oak leaf cluster), denote a second award of the same honor, so these would be added to a pilot's page later on in his career and would take the place of the same award without the bar. One final point. Sometimes the sim will revert to the original medals on your pilot' page when it presents you with the next one. Not to worry, simply change them back. This issue doesn't come up very often, but it might and I didn't want you getting all fidgety. That's it. Have fun with the new baubles, and feel free to stop by the "Over Flanders Fields General Forum" and make a post if you have a question about these, or if you wish to spot me to a pinta' for being such a swell. Cheers! Lou P.S. I have created a set of tables to help folks determine how to go about awarding the new medals to their virtual pilots, and here is the link to these tables: Award Guidelines For The New Off P3 Medal Set Enjoy! . Submitter RAF_Louvert Submitted 02/01/2011 Category Scenery and Ground Objects