Winder

This should not be happening all the time based on the system function - it may happen and I guess could happen for a spell of missions based on random events within the system context and this is actually a good thing. It might be worth starting a poll - are you always outnumbered in missions.... Yes running away if outnumbered is alwasy a good plan - one needs to pursue self preservation if you want to acheive 17 hours - pick your fights well and if at a disadvantage bug out! I remember with my longest surviving Pilot in RB3d I followed this action plan carefully and often theer were enemies approaching that outnumbered me or my flight and we would not engage.... But clearly we are all seeing different things as even in this post the response varies from yes I am always outnumbered to no I am not so from that POV the system is working well. I'll keep an eye on this issue nothing is ever perfect and war certainly is not either. WM

No sorry the ultimate goal is to have enough CPU/GPU power to generate flights in the whole theatre in keeping with ethe actual scale of events in WW1 - then I will be happy. The system is powerful and can grow in effectiveness (sheer weight of air activity) or down to micro management on a per day basis. WM

Could be chain of bad luck certainly you can see how this can arise within the context of the system as it stands. And it does add an extra facet of variability which in keeping with Dej's view and mine is a good thing - makes the game less predicatble. However I will look at the OOBs and make sure that all is well therein and report and update with a patch if needed. But first 1.32 then MP so not a top priority right now. Please also remember we are working on P4.... so much to do so little time. WM

Yes indeed if you know historically what is happening on a day to day basis. Yes it also would make the experience very consistent - if you fly on the same day 10 times in a row it would always be the same flights going out - the mission micro dynamics would differ of course as the mission plays out. I have no intention of ever going down to that level as a its a mammoth amount of work. The point is that the engine can cater down to that level of replay and if we ever got there there would be a button in workshops that would switch on historical war activity on or off - I doubt we will ever get there. HTH WM

Guys there is no bias in the way missions are generated there is always X number of Allied Flights and X number of Hun Flights based on: 1) The OOB (order of battle)- this dictates the ratio of enemy to friendly flights based on historical reseach and varies as the two sides air activity and superiority changed over the years of the war. 2) The Players settings in workshops then simply scales this up or down to increase or lessen the total number of flights in the region. This does not affect the ratio in 1) One can see that depending on what the OOB is and what the players settings are that there can be marked differences as the war progresses from mission to mission Remember the flights are randomly picked and it could be that a particular mission has picked X flights from squads that are close to you. Or X flights that are far from you - both enemy and friendly. This is a good thing as it adds variation to the equation. The final facet that affects what you see and how often you see them is based on location. OFF has 4 main regions and I list them in descending size (area and squad count ratio) and activity ratings 1) Somme 2) Verdun 3) Marne 4) Alsace 2 and 3 are very close activity wise. Here then is the final effect on what you see - 3) Your location. Alsace is lightly loaded but the fields are all quite close so you may even see more activity there. Somme is heavily populated and heavily congested but a large area so you may not see a lot if all the activity is in W somme and you are in E somme but on average over X missions this all balances out. As our PCs improve I would like to generate real air activity (qty wise) in these larger areas but guys we dont have the CPU power. There is a small element of local air acitivity generation around your home field and your target to balance this CPU issue in the short term. But as you have seen we are still a way off from the CPU/GPU power we require realistically.... I would summarise by saying that the missions generated are not some random string of air activity - every one is based on replicating real flights (with real objectives) from real squads with real aces and real homebases in your area of activity, ratio'd by the OOB (who is stronger / more prevalent at that time in the war) and curtailed in overall numbers (maintaining ratio of OOB) by your settings in workshops to suit your PC power. I have considered breaking down the OOB from its current 'war periods' to weekly and or even daily ratings based on Ted's exhaustive research but will not implement that just yet as its a mammoth task. The other way of doing campaign generated missions (as in P1/P2) is to simply randomly generate enemy flights that are in your mission path so you will either run into enemy or not and this is then IMO the very plastic way that most campaign engines run on - I doubt that I will ever return to this. We will continue to expand the real air activity model as our PCs allow. I might consider expanding the CPU weightings even for 1.32 if users whant to give this a go? As a parting comment the OFF campaign engine is very powerful and can be made to generate flights down to daily OOB commands to actually replicate the war day by day - the actual flights that squads undertook - thats is an ultimate goal we all look towards and Moore's curve may see us there sooner than we think. HTH WM

Thank you sir. Best WM

Thanks Creaghorn - file received. Best WM

Oh and I almost forgot... Many fields had to be moved due to: 1) Straddling a Road... 2) Straddling a stream... 3) On difficult terrain... 4) Too Close to hilly terrain that result in AI take-off problems... Yeah many hours went into that as well - in all 12 global layers. HTH WM

There are some fields that had to be moved to accommodate approximations of the frontlines at various stages of the war. Why is this? Well I have modeled the frontlines in only 12 states - of the actual rather infinite states of the frontlines as they vascillated during the war. This effectiveley means that OFF is actually 12 sims in one with 12 global layers to represent the 12 frontline states. Each state has a global layer that has over 1000 objects so thats 12000!! objects in all. Many move (they are moveable objects) and many are stationary Rather than have the field suddenly move only in the period that it might be affected by the averaged front line state(s) I decided to move (as little as possible) all affected fields in all 12 periods 1914 - 1918 so as to best suit the frontline clash period and to avoid a player seeing the field move (ahem what??? has my field grown legs???). Moreover there are I am sure some typo errors - its a mammoth job and it is being looked at together with the Railyard exercise and historical landmarks and correction of towns that are offset, as part of P4. I may introduce more frontline states but I think its hard to convey the amount of work this requires. I also believe (I have not confirmed) that there is a Lat/Lon offset error in CFS3 that someone recently pointed out to me (one of the other CFS3 mod team members) and we might be able to correct this in hardcode. This means that even fields that I did not have to move might have an offset. Ted acurately researched all fields and we used the real world Lat Lon co-ords of all fields... Finally I know too that there are some placeholder fields- I believe Brayelles is one of them.. Ted and I are discussing solutions but please be aware it will not be in 1.32 Patch. It might be given the amount of work that an updated Global Layer pack will be made as a purchaseable upgrade unless we can sort the CFS3 offset by hardcode. Of course sales/support play a big role in this decision making too. I hope that ultimately these errors in offset and forced moves and or placeholder fields do not spoil too much the immersiveness of OFF and as usual we are always improving it. Best WM

Sounds good - will be keen to know how it pans out. WM

Good grief so there is - only 13 French names... If you guys give the nod I can include updated files like this in upcoming patches - but not 1.32 alas. Yep we are not French or German...lol If you do agree then kindly send them to support@overflandersfields.com and it can be processed accordingly. If you feel that because OFF is payware and would rather not then again please that's no problem!! I will look into expanding names files in future patches/releases these things all add up. Best WM

The first card I ever bought was a Matrox one - I forget its name - then came Voodoo1!! Yeah I think TI400 is a wee bit old. WM

Thanks Guys - predictably this thread is turning into a personal abuse session in e-mail with people taking things as personal insults rather seeing it as a discussion as to why DRM is coming and going to get worse. I cannot leave a thread open when I have e-mail abuse on a subject. Thanks WM OBD Software

Hey no problem I read exactly what you meant and thanks! :yes: I have made a mental note to myself to include smilies more as I actually type too 'literally' or 'sparsely' - its the engineer in me I guess. WM

I guess many patches can infer many bugs but thanks for putting it in prespective in such a nice way - much appreciated. Yes we will continue to support and tweak P3 as we go. WM

To SCSG1 I believe you posted in this thread and it was deleted? Well I cannot tell you who deleted it... as I have no idea but... I said: "Its only rotten from a user whose perspective is skewed towards feeling like a thief and then possibly acting like one." My comment pertains to DRM not the quality of ROF or how shakey its DRM is (I have had issues too and I allude to them) or whether you believe the product is a rip off. 'Its' equals DRM 'Its' does not equal ROF My response to you in email thus: Hello Mike, The line quoted is in reference to peoples feelings about DRM and making them feel untrustworthy. It is not about the quality of a product, any product, but about the imposition of DRM and ones reaction to it- "oh so they think I am a thief and not trustworthy?" sort of gut wrench reaction - we all experience it in one way or another. I would not care to comment at all on the quality of ROF at all and it has no bearing on the topic in hand. HTH WM

Pleased to hear it - only re-install the sim if you have contacted us on the support e-mail and we run out of ideas! I put in the reset button back in P1 because CFS3 occasionally (rarely I have not seen it) screws up the outcomes data file in which case OFF no longer communicates correctly with CFS3. Have fun! WM

CFS3 always insists on a resetting of the Graphics settings whenever the driver version changes so even if one were to 'forget' then OFF simply cannot run. Clever stuff by Aces - not that they got a lot right but that part they did. 190.38 gives an increase in FPS because on some rigs (I cannot say all) AA and Aniso is not working correctly... 3 users so far are known to me. I spent two hours trying every Nvidia setting combo under the sun and nothing made the AA/Aniso work including a double reinstall of 190.38 so I hope that others who are considering this for OFF steer clear for now. And yep YMMV. Oh and I did not mean to sound blunt so please dont get me wrong - forums are bad for that and I am known to not use smilies when I should... HTH WM

Waste of time IMO. HTH WM

Yes thanks I am quite familiar with the settings given that I have spent 5 years making OFF. WM

No just press the reset CFS3 files button in workshops. WM

Will have a look I think the N11 also needs its wing mounted lewis better aligned although it has no GS at all so you don't know its out - but it is. Wont make this patch as its in beta test. WM

Ted I am using the one that came with my GTX280 on the included CD/DVD - may I suggest you do the same for your card - as the latest driver seems to have crippled AA/Aniso. Hence the reports of 10 FPS improvment that chaps are reporting - not surprising that.... if AA and Aniso are stuck off! I may pick up an ATI card tomorrow lol as I have had enough of Nvidia driver issues.... time to have ATI driver issues for a refreshing change! HTH WM

No Trackir I assume? WM

I have just updated and have exactly the same problem AA/Aniso is not working well at all.... I even tried uninstalling and re-installing to no avail - bad aniso and AA issues. I have GTX280 - will install default drivers as I cannot live with the shimmies... Maybe its time to go back to ATI... WM