Herr Prop-Wasche

Did you audition for Cirque du Solei right after?

Happy Christmas and a Merry Birthday, OvS!

Added poll question about AI's ability to hit player's aircraft aileron cables. Revised third poll question to clarify it is about components on AI aircraft only.

Thank you for the replies. So far, it seems most people are pretty happy with the latest DM. In truth, I haven't had a lot of time to fly yet with the new HITR expansion, so maybe the devs made some changes from the previous DM and have improved it. Another testament to the devs devotion to improving their product as much as possible. If I may venture an opinion here, I think one reason people don't mind the wings coming off or the engine losing power on the AI planes is to "even the odds" somewhat in combat against the AI. I agree with FB and others who argue that it seems to take human players longer to disable an AI aircraft than the other way around. Even rookie or intermediate AI pilots seem to have laser aiming systems installed on their guns and cause pretty serious damage to my craft with just a 1 or 2 second burst. They also seem to be excellent at hitting my aileron cables on their first pass. Humans are less able than the AI to concentrate their fire on a specific part of the aircraft so it is not surprising that we tend to hit the largest component instead. Perhaps the wings blowing off is a fair tradeoff? What would people think about strengthening the aileron cables a bit? Are there many others who feel that their aileron cables are a little too easy for the AI to hit? Or is it just my imagination, LOL?

BH, I'm glad that you are finally turning your amorous attentions to the French lasses. The sheep have been complaining and I think they are all worn out!

Not to take this thread too off-topic, but I had to add this sketch, as I am a bit "peckish":

X xxx xxxx xoxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxoxx xxoxxxxxx xxxxxxoxxx xxxoxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xx xx xx Merry Christmas to All!!

Olham, Are you familiar with dead parrots?

Thanks, Winder. Where do you find your patience? It must be very frustrating having to work with the limitations of the CFS3 engine while adhering to realism and the requests of your fanbase. Again, your response indicates a strong desire to accommodate all reasonable demands of your customers. OBD's motto should be "If it can be done, it WILL be done." As others have said more eloquently than me, I have faith that you will find a satisfactory solution, and even if not, a reasonable compromise will be found. Finally, lest you forget, your work is much appreciated by everyone who posts on this forum--and many who do not!

No worries about your English. More understandable than most of the "native-speakers" I run into here in the USA!

Super duper! Downloading now!

In XP, moving the page file is fairly simple: Open control panel, click on system. Click tab labeled "advanced." Under section labeled "performance," click "settings." Of the three tabs show, click "advanced." You will see a section titled "virtual memory." Click on "change" to open the virtual memory box. There, you should see all of your physical hard drives along with their partitions listed. Choose the drive and partition you want to put your page file on, select either custom sized or system managed, and then set. Make sure you only have the page file set to only one partition. Then reboot. Do NOT choose the button for no paging file or you will have performance problems (woof, woof)!

Didn't mean to imply the debate was not friendly. We are all comrades in (sim)arms, right?

To make sure we are comparing "apples to apples," we should be careful to note which squadrons or Jastas we are up against. Some of the different AI behavior observed by ZZ vs. Morris could be due to differences in overall squadron skill.

IMPORTANT: This is a recommended update for all users of IDM 2.1. INSTALLATION: Simply right-click the IDM_2_2.zip file and extract to the OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder. DO NOT unzip the file into the aircraft folder itself! If prompted, simply click "Yes to all" when asked if you wish to replace files. If you later decide to go back to either the normal or hardcore damage models, simply run the appropriate DM program from OBD. Changes in 2.2 Added appropriate bdp files for each aircraft. In certain circumstances in previous versions, the bdp files from other DMs were not being deleted, resulting in the failure of the IDM to work correctly. This update takes care of that problem. Also included a file to automatically remove bdp files from other DMs. Click on "deletebdps.bat" to run this program, if needed. BHaH will automatically recreate the bdp files based upon the currently installed DM the next time you fly. To be absolutely safe, please back up your aircraft folder before installing this update. For changes to previous versions, please refer to the IDM_2_2_Readme.txt file, installed to your main CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder. Edit: Version 2.2 is available in combatace's 3rd party file and mods release forum here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=44766

Don't get put off by the installation instructions! Although it might sound complicated, it really is easy to do. All you have to do is follow these steps: 1. Back up the "aircraft" folder by right-clicking on it and copying and pasting it to your desktop or other location where you can find it easily. This may take a few minutes, depending on the speed of your computer. 2. Unzip my mod to the OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder. It will automatically replace the xdp files that already exist in the aircraft sub-folders with my modded xdp files. That's it! If you decide to go back to the OBD DM, simply locate the aircraft folder you pasted to your desktop, right-click and select copy, and paste it back over the modified aircraft folder. With HPWFB Variety DM, you can also use JSGME to automatically handle mod installation and backup. Once you set up JSGME, installing and uninstalling ANY mod is extremely easy. If you want to know more about JSGME, just let me know. I will be glad to answer any of your questions.

Thanks, Pol. Umm, not to nit-pick too much, but my understanding from reading the Microsoft CFS3 SDK Mission Scripting document (yes, I looked it up--I am nuts) says that Skill=3 means Ace, so my reading is that the above named aces are, indeed, aces--unless I am misreading you somehow. All I'm saying is balance out some of the aces by throwing in a couple of rookies. But, no worries if you can't get it in until P4. I understand how busy you guys are and don't mean to put unnecessary pressure on you.

Can you tweak it so it isn't so dark or is it always dusk?

That is very good news to hear. However, I thought I was pretty sure I heard someone say that assigning individual experience levels in a flight was not possible. But, I've been wrong before! Then I would suggest you give each squadron a more diverse range of experience levels. Even an ace was a rookie at some point in his career! I would say that at any one time, even an elite squadron would have a fairly equal mixture of aces, vets, and rookies. Phooey, even the presence (or transfer) of just 2 or 3 aces might transform an average squadron into a good or even elite one! Of course, you should also make exceptions for legendary squadrons such as Jasta 11, RNAS 3, etc.

Does this make it easier to spot airplanes at a distance? Does sunlight glint off the wings more? If so, I would be very interested in trying this out.

Olham, Interesting poll. I'm not sure about your first question, as I think almost everyone will say they would like a combination of the old and the new AI. I could be wrong, however! The second question is a tough one. Overall, I think the 1.32h AI is too aggressive/suicidal. I also don't like the "porpoising" at low altitude, either. OTOH, I'm not sure about the HITR AI, either. It is definitely too passive--at least in initiating attacks. However, once engaged, they seem to fight reasonably well, although better at attacking than defending. And, I like that they don't appear to be as suicidal. So, if the HITR can be made to be somewhat less passive and to evade better, I would prefer HITR AI. Note: one trouble with the AI, I believe, is that OBD can't assign different AI experience levels to the individual members of an AI flight. They are either all aces, all vets, or all rookies.

Yep. Another thing that would be nice is a greater range of behavior between rookies and aces. Right now, I get the sense that there is little or no distinction between rookie and ace. Can OBD increase that without making the rookies fly like a twit and the aces fly like Einstein wrapped inside a combination of MvR and R. Fonck? Another problem I just thought of is that I think someone at OBD said they can't program individual differences in AI pilot experience within a flight. IOW, in any given AI flight, either everyone in the flight is an ace or everyone is a rookie--no mixture of experience levels in a single flight. Is that true, OBD? If so, can that be changed, similar to the way you managed to give the player a personalized skin? That would be great, if doable! Thanks, ZZ!

Let me throw out some ideas off the top of my head, given that we are hampered by not knowing the CFS3 code and therefore not knowing what parameters and variables can be tweaked by OBD. Obviously, the more variables, the more tweakable, but also the more complicated and possibly buggy is the implementation of the AI behavior. In BHaH, we all know that AI pilots are classified as rookie, veteran, or ace. So, experience is obviously one variable influencing AI behavior. What are the other variables which influence the AI? For example, does CFS3 code for personal pilot characteristics such as "aggressiveness" or "will to survive" or even "flying skill" etc? Are those variables also influenced by pilot experience, or not? Furthermore, does AI experience have an affect on other variables, such as "mistake-proneness" or "impatience" or "ability to take advantage of an opportunity?" Without knowing what variables can be manipulated in the code, we are basically "flying blind," so to speak.

Damn, the dog ate my post! Well, what I was trying to say was that I am bumping this thread for some of the newcomers to BHaH, and in particular, the users of HITR. Some of you may not be aware that I released two slightly different alternative damage models (DMs) back when OFF had two optional DMs, the "hardcore" version and the "normal" version. The first DM I created is called the Intermediate Damage Model (IDM) and is up to version 2.2. This model was designed to be a compromise between the hardcore DM, which some users thought to be too hard, and the normal DM, which most agreed was too easy. In the IDM 2.2, every airplane in every squad, friendly or enemy, has roughly the same general damage model (there are individual variations in aircraft types, but the DM is based on the same principles. You can find the link to IDM 2.2 at the top of this thread. The second DM is called the Herr Prop Wasche and Fortiesboy's Variety DM (HPWFB DM)and is at version 1.1 for JSGME users and 1.0 for non-JSGME users. This DM is made up of a combination of slightly different damage models and is designed to give the player a greater variety of damage effects when he or she encounters enemy aircraft. Please see the release thread for more details and for a link to the mod. The release thread for HPWFB can be found here: http://forum.combata...__fromsearch__1 Please note that neither of these DM mods has been updated yet to encompass the new planes in HITR. Therefore, planes such as the Fokker EV and the N28 will continue to fly, but will be using whatever DM OBD has created for HITR. In all other respects, both of my DMs are compatible with HITR. I plan to update both IDM 2.2 and HPWFB 1.0 and 1.1 very soon to incorporate the new planes.

Good news, everyone! All hail to the Dev's! I'd let everyone of OBD marry my daughter, is she wasn't already married!