Herr Prop-Wasche

Thanks, Lothar. Glad to see that you are back and tweaking! I've just downloaded your FoV calculator now. Will give it a look tonight.

Lothar, Have you updated OFFBase to accept the corrected version of my FM (3.1)? Thanks.

I haven't had a chance to check the skin problem recently, but I would assume it is the same as before: after starting your campaign mission with your aircraft on the ground (or in the air if you chose air start), end your mission and exit to the main OFF menu. Click on Campaign and then click "Fly Last Mission." Ace skins and modded skins should now appear. As long as you fly the same campaign and do not exit the game entirely you shouldn't have to do the entire process over again. Next mission, simply fly as normal without ending the mission and restarting. Of course, if you switch pilots or campaigns, or exit OFF entirely you need to repeat the process over again.

Here is the download link for the mod: http://combatace.com/files/file/13417-hpw-fm-and-ew-campaign-mod/

Twitch indeed. Yes, moving CoG and CoL can have some very dramatic and nasty effects, as I have already seen. Rest assured that I am talking about relatively small changes of tenths and sometimes even hundredths, of a foot. Furthermore, almost every plane is different, and as you said, we also need to consider the effects on both the human and also the AI pilot. So, lots of tinkering and testing. This also means that I could afford to have a few more people who would be willing to act as beta testers. Perhaps you might be interested, Pol? I kid, of course. I know you are a little busy right now with a bit of a project of your own. I sure hope it comes out well--and soon! Sorry to hear about your stay in hospital. Did National Health Service treat you decently? More importantly, are you back up to snuff? I know you may be tempted, but please don't over-exert yourself. We can all wait another two weeks for WOFF. At least, I think we can! I admit I feel a bit jealous when I see you and Windingman posting screen shots. It lets me know you are enjoying the game right now and I'm not! Of course, that assumes that developing, testing, tweaking, and testing again can be called "enjoying" WOFF. Take care and good to hear from you again.

For those of you who were having trouble unzipping the FM 3.0 mod, here are three zip files in 7-zip format for you to try. These files also contain an updated and improved FM for the N28. The original mod actually used an earlier, incorrect version of the N28. This one should fly much nicer. In the course of working on even more enhancements to FM 3.0, I have also made two significant discoveries which should substantially improve the responsiveness of all of the planes in the mod. I had noticed that the planes in my FM mod seemed to be a little too docile as compared to the stock FM. Apparently, this was due to a small change I had made in an earlier version of the mod that I had forgotten about. The next version of the mod will fix this. The next version of the mod will also contain some major adjustments to the CoG and CoL values used in the game. Basically, in both the stock version and in the current version of the FM mod, most of the planes have their CoG in front of their CoL. I have found that moving the CoL slightly in front of the CoG for some planes has a substantial effect on the "feel" of the aircraft in flight, making them feel more like they are floating on air a bit more than before and making them somewhat more challenging to fly, as well. In general, I am finding that you need to fly with a lighter hand than before or you will be more likely to find yourself in a spin with the upcoming version. No ETA yet for the new version, but I expect it to be ready before WOFF comes out. In the meantime, here are the replacement zip files for FM 3.0: HPW FM and EW Campaign Mod 3.0.7z HPW FM and EW mod for QC - German Enemies.7z HPW FM and EW mod for QC - Allied Enemies.7z

As for myself, I've been holed-up too much in my secret lair , working on FM mods and the like. I really need to get out more....

Welcome back, Slarti. If you are interested in some mods, there are a couple out there. In the area of DM mods, the latest vesion of my DM mod is UltimateDM_1.25. Buddy99 also has a DM mod that is primarily based on my DM mod but seems to do a better job at getting rid of "flying flamers." although there are a few things I still prefer with my mod. As far as the FM is concerned, I am the only one I know of who has been doing any work in that area. Originally, I started out with FM mods just for individual airplanes such as the N28, Pfalz, the Albatros series, etc., but now I have branched out to more of an all-encomposing FM mod that includes virtually all of the planes in OFF and HiTR. My latest FM version is HPW FM and EW Campaign Mod 3.0. This mod corrects the "crash on takeoff bug" that afflicted earlier versions of 33Lima's and my own empty weight mod, and adds several major updates and tweaks to several more aircraft in OFF. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view ), the Sopwith Strutter B1 and A models are two planes that I left alone for the most part. In general, I spent most of my FM modding on scouts rather than two-seaters, with the exception of a few minor adjustments in terms of drag, roll, and adjusting the empty weight of a few of the two-seaters (but not the Strutter's). I don't fly two-seaters too often, so if there is anything that you feel is not historically right about either of the Strutters I will be happy to look into it. One thing I did with the FM that I have applied to ALL of the planes in OFF (including Strutters) are several adjustments to the .air file that are designed to improve the AI's flying behavior in dogfights and when flying at low altitude. Although I think I have made a lot of progress in this regard, I am always looking for feedback from users. There are also a bunch of "little" mods, such as news, weather, and mission mods, along with other mods that modify sounds and tracers, etc. Finally, in the area of "role playing mods," nothing, of course, can beat Lothar of the Hill People's Office mod. In addition to the role playing function, which is based on the 3P rules developed by Bluevoss and others originally for Red Baron 3D and subsequently revised and updated by Bletchley, Lothar has added some functionality which makes it much easier to mix and match a number of your favorite mods, based upon your preferences. Also, don't forget JoneSoft's Generic Mod Enabler (JSGME), which makes the process of installing, enabling, disabling, and uninstalling mods a snap! That should be enough to get you started. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

File Name: HPW FM and EW Mods for Campaign and QC Battles File Submitter: Herr Prop-Wasche File Submitted: 06 October 2012 File Category: Aircraft Models <a name="top">Thank you for downloading my FM update! This important update changes many FM settings on most of the aircraft currently existing in OFF. The most significant include changes to the elevator, rudder, and center of gravity (CoG) and center of lift (CoL) values in order to reduce the sluggish turn performance of several aircraft in version 3.0 of the FM mod. In addition to being more tail-heavy, most aircraft should feel more nimble and will now require a more delicate touch on the controls. As a result, while you will be able to fly much closer to the edge of an aircraft's "envelope" with this FM, you also bear the increased risk of possibly stalling and spinning your aircraft if you are not careful! This update also revises the moment of inertia (MOI) values of many aircraft in order to improve the performance of AI controlled aircraft, particularly at low altitude. Although I do not have access to and have not changed any of the AI routines, it is hoped that changes to the MOI values will result in the AI being somewhat more likely to "choose" turn, rather than climb-n-stall, tactics at low altitudes. *Note: Although the FM has been updated for all QC aircraft, the AI will have the same empty weight advantage they have in the stock OFF FM. Consider the AI in QC battles as "practice opponents" who are a little better than your average campaign AI pilot. Zip file contents: This readme file, plus the following files: 1) HPW FM and EW Campaign Mod (version 4.0.0) 2) HPW FM and EW Sopwith Tripe 130 HP (see New Alternative Aircraft in 3.1 below). 3) HPW FM and EW Sopwith Pup 100 HP 4) HPW FM and EW Spad VII 180 HP 5) HPW FM and EW Spad XIII 220 HP 6) HPW FM and EW Spad XIII 235 HP INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS Important! This version of the mod is ONLY intended to be used with Jonesoft's Generic Mod Enabler and should not be installed unless JSGME has already been installed in your OBDSoftware main folder! In order to install the main campaign mod and optional airplane mods, find the "HPW FM and EW Campaign Mod 7z" zip file and click on it. When the new window opens, you should see six folders plus this readme file. Click the "Extract" button at the top of the window and copy all six folders inside your OBDSoftware\MODS folder. The files are correctly installed if you see all six folders the next time you start JSGME. After copying the folders to the MODS folder, you can either keep or move the readme file to another location on your computer. In order to activate any of the mods, simply start JSGME, highlight the mod you wish to use, and click the top button. Click okay and the mod will become activated. Important note: As in previous versions of the FM mod, and any other mod which modifies any of OFF's .cfg files, using this mod will result in the user not being able to see any of the ace skins, either those already included in the game or that the user has created on his own or downloaded for use with HITR. Fortunately, a workaround for this problem has been identified by Panama Red. Basically, in order to use this mod and also to see all of the ace skins available in the game, first activate the FM mod and start the game. Begin your campaign as usual, but instead of flying your mission, click on end mission as soon as you find yourself on the field. Exit to the main menu and then restart your campaign. Then, on the campaign screen, click "Replay Mission." This will take you back to the beginning of your mission but with the advantage of allowing you to see all of the fantastic skins which have been lovingly created by members of the OBD team and by many others for users of HiTR. As long as you do not quit the game entirely or switch pilots, you should not have to repeat the procedure on subsequent missions. Finally, OBD has already assured us that this problem has been eliminated in the next version of Over Flanders Fields. Huzzah! Click here to download this file

Finally--it is finished! Uploaded and awaiting approval by the CombatAce moderators. Look for it in the Downloads section of the forum. Although I have worked long and hard on this project, please consider this a work in progress. Although the AI crashing problem has been cured, I am still learning things about the FM, so please keep this in mind if you find that your favorite plane does not perform quite as you would like. Many thanks go out to Pol, Winder, and everyone else at OBD for their help and assistance. I would also like to personally thank Hellshade, 33Lima, and Panama Red for their advice and comments. Thanks guys!

That is--impressive!

Thank you, Olham. I can almost feel the antiseptic sting of the cold air on my face in those pictures with those Fe2b's!

Thank you, everyone, for the replies. I don't know what got into me; I have been slogging along on this mod for what seems forever now, and I guess I just needed some validation. The good news is that I am virtually finished now and all that remains is checking for errors and preparing a readme file... BUT THEN, DISASTER! Whilst working on tidying up some of the mod files, I got a wild-hair idea that I needed to clean up my My Documents folder. Now, I have had Win7 installed for a couple of months now, and I am still trying to figure out the folder structure. For the life of me, I can't figure out why Mr. Gates decided that certain files now have to reside in more than one place on your hard drive. So, I was poking around and noticed that under my Users folder, I have not one, but three My Documents folders. One was different from the others, but two appeared to be exact duplicates. Still being used to my XP days, I thought to myself, "Now why do I have two identical folders taking up disk space," so I resolved to delete the duplicate folder. Of course, when I started to do this, Windows dutifully told me that "The My Documents folder is too big for the recycle bin and the folder will be permanently erased, do you wish to continue?" At first, this gave me pause and I cancelled the operation. But then my tiny brain told me "but you have a duplicate folder--even if the one folder is gone, you will still have the other!" So, without thinking (and without pausing long enough to save a copy of the folder on my desktop just in case), I went back and deleted the folder. Feeling proud of myself for being so efficient and smart with my computer, I then looked to confirm that the files remained on the "duplicate" My Documents folder. BUT NOOOOOO! Apparently, Bill Gates decided in his great wisdom to link the copies of the files and place them in separate, but identically named folders, so that when you delete them in one folder, they are also deleted in the other!!! CRAP!!! Oh, but all is not lost, right? I'll simply use System Restore to go back in time a few days and restore the folder. Sure, I'd lose a week or so of work, but nothing too serious. But what do I discover when I start the system recovery tool? To my HORROR, Windows helpfully tells me "No restore points have been created on your computer's system drive." WHAT!!?? #@%! This makes no sense to me, because I can clearly recall seeing several restore points the last time I poked around in there--but, come to think about it, that was before I bought that little SSD drive to use for my Widnows files and moved most of my data to my 1 TB hard drive. Crap, crap, crap! Even though I had gone in and turned on drive protection for the system drive, I guess an additional step is required in order to activate system restore. The good news is that all of my FM files are stored in my JSGME MODS folder, located in the OBDSostware folder on my D: drive and that I have not lost any of these files. The bad news is that ALL of my Excel spreadsheet files, which stored all of the changes I have made to the DM and FM since I first installed OFF, are GONE! The last time I backed up those files was a couple of months ago, when I upgraded to Win7. So, while not technically gone, the record of all of the changes I have made to the FM in the last few months have disappeared. Now I stand before you as a lesson and a warning: BACK UP YOUR FILES EARLY AND OFTEN!! And make sure that Winblows is doing everything it is supposed to be doing to protect your data. Don't be caught with your pants down, like me.

I'm sorry, I just have to ask since no one has responded to my last several posts: Is anyone interested anymore? Should I even bother working any more on these mods? If you are interested, either post a reply or send me a PM so I can guage the level of interest. Thank you--and thanks especially to the handful of people who have expressed their interest and support in the past for my "tweaking activities." I don't mean to sound like a crybaby, but I'm also thinking of some of the other tweakers who are no longer active on this board, due in part I believe, to lack of encouragement from the other people who play OFF. I'm thinking primarily of fellow tweakers Fortiesboy, Buddeye, 33Lima, and LotharoftheHillPeople, among others. /rant mode off Edit: for clarity

We are getting closer! I am basically finished making the required changes. All that remains is copying the changes--in total, more than well over a hundred, and those don't even include all the empty weight changes--to all 477 or so aircraft folders in OFF. So, I still have quite a bit of work to do, but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! The final mod will contain three folders--a main campaign mod, and two folders for QC flying. Which QC mod you use will depend on whether you wish to fly against Allied or German enemy planes. I had to split the QC mods up in this way in order to eliminate the weight advantage the AI would still otherwise have in QC battles. Of course, in addition to the weight changes, this mod also contains hundreds of different FM changes for virtually every plane in OFF! Most of these FM changes are designed to improve the AI's performance, but there are also some FM changes that will effect the human pilot, as well. Finally, after this mod is released and if there doesn't appear to be any major problems, I will also eventually release an EW mod without any of my FM changes, for those who don't like the current AI weight advantage, but who also prefer the original OFF flight models. Fortunately, this next mod should not take nearly as much time to put together. Now. Discuss...

Wow, Tony, I'm sorry to hear about your wife. Fortunately, it sounds like everything is going to be okay. You and your family are in my hopes and prayers. Things like this remind me that we are all hanging by a thread--no matter our age or general health situation. Two years ago, my 40 year-old cousin died from a sudden and totally unexpected heart attack. To be fair, she drank and she smoked more than she should have, but she seemed to be in good health, otherwise. I still think about her almost every day. I know that it's corny to say, but treasure every day! And let your wife know we are thinking of her.

Cool! Thanks, Dej.

Winnona Ryder, I believe. And please do not mistake my knowledge of that tiny bit of information as signifying any interest of any kind in celebrities or celebrity gossip, thank you very much!

Nice detective work, Olham!

VERY nice models, there, itifonhom.

Well, one step forward and two steps back. It seems that improving the FM for the AI in order to reduce problems like the stalling-T may actually make the FM for the equivalent human-controlled plane less manueverable! In essence, making the AI more maneuverable at times seems to make the human-controlled plane less manueverable, and vice versa. On the bright side, I think I can report with confidence that the problem with the AI crashing on takeoff has been dealt with appropriately! Although I could use more assistance with testing, I can personally report that instead of anywhere from 40-80 percent of my wingmates crashing on takeoff (depending on aircraft and airfield); I have managed to reduce this to less than 20 percent--generally much less! I'd say that 90% of the time, my whole flight now takes off without incident. So, at least that little bug-a-boo has been dealt with, I believe.

Hmmm, pretty quiet in here. I guess most people are pretty satisfied with the current OFF FM--as they should be--it is a very fine interpretation of the flight characteristics of these antique relics from the past. Almost 100 years ago by now! Phew! NEVERTHELESS, I have an important announcement about two significant FM changes that will be included in my long-overdue update to the AI Empty Weight FM mod: 1) I believe I have identified several variables common to the .air file for each plane in OFF that seem to control the AI's low-altitude flying behavior. By adjusting some of these variables, I have been able to eliminate some of the "porpoising" that many of the AI aircraft seem to do at altitudes lower than around 1,000 ft. This substantially reduces the roller-coaster behavior of the AI at low altitude and makes for a smoother, more level flight at low levels. This also makes the AI more willing to keep turning and evading at low levels and also makes them more likely to try and keep shooting at you if you try to escape by using the old trick of flying just above tree-top level. In general, the AI will now do a better job of maintaining altitude. When they do start porpoising, they also seem to take much less time to level out again. Lastly, I think I may have also reduced the AI's tendency to wildly adjust the throttle under certain conditions--again, usually at low level. Wild gyrations in the throttle also contributes to the porpoising behavior, I believe. 2) No less significantly, I think I have managed to reduce the tendency of certain AI controlled planes when engaged in a dogfight to constantly insist on trying to gain altitude while directly in front of your guns. This is the dreaded "stalling-T" behavior that Hellshade has mentioned at times. Sometimes, this behavior causes the plane to actually fall backwards--as if they are trying to perform a "reversement" or "Immelmann turn," but forgot to use the rudder! All eight Albatros', the Pfalz, and a few others are the most serious offenders here. Basically, I think I have managed to "encourage" the AI flying these planes to be a little more willing to use the rudder, whilst reducing their over-reliance on the elevator a little bit. This makes them more likely to roll or turn out of a climb than before, resulting in an AI that is not quite as easy to shoot down as before. I plan to implement both of these AI FM changes in the coming update to the AI EW mod. The initial release will include the first FM change to the low-level AI behavior for all 47 planes currently in OFF. The initial release will also include the second FM change for all eight Albatros', Pfalz, Camel, and a few others. More aircraft will be added later after more testing. Speaking of which, I can always use more test pilots! So far, Hellshade and Panama Red have been a tremendous help and have shown tremendous patience in this regard. But, they can't test everything--there is just too much stuff in OFF--so any extra help would be greatly appreciated! I know I have been very bad at promising the update will be ready "any day now," for at least a couple of months, so I think it better just to say that I hope to have the mod ready for download around two weeks or so from now.

HH, the main pooba in charge of customer relations for OFF is Polvoski (he's also involved in a lot of the artwork on the menus, as well as the FM and DM, among other things). You can best reach him via the SimQH forum, which is now the official forum for OFF and WOFF. He's an extremely friendly and helpful chap and will be glad to answer your questions about anything related to OFF. You might also try communicating with Windingman, Sandbagger, or Rex Hannover, although they don't tend to post as much as Pol.