Herr Prop-Wasche

It's the little things that make the difference between just an okay piece of art and a great one -- and P4 seems to be absolutely stuffed with the little things! Great work, Sandbagger and OBD!

You guys are all welcome. Thanks for your interest in the mods. I'd be especially pleased if more people would take a look at the Weather/Mission frequency mod. I put a lot of work into it - more than I intended, I think. The weather is virtually the same as in the OBD version, the main differences are the mission frequencies in the active and quiet sectors, and the "weather reports" that you get before flight - they are a little more descriptive about what you might expect weather wise (but not too much). I should explain a little more about the optional HPW Skies mod. I probably should have called it "HPW Skies Addition" because it does not replace any of the OBD clouds. Instead, it merely adds a few more cloud types that I created by simply copying an existing OBD cloud type and either increasing or decreasing the number or density of the clouds or adjusting the height of the OBD cloud type. I also tried to make the two good weather conditions a little more distinct from each other so that the "Good" weather condition represents truly nice weather conditions, while the "Light" weather condition represents basically "fair" weather conditions. (The other weather conditions in the game are "Medium," "Heavy," "Variable," and "Precipitation.") Finally, the HPW skies mod can be used either with or without the other weather mod files.

HPW Weather Files and HPW Skies (optional) View File JSGME Installation: Open up the HPW Weather Files 2.zip file and open the HPW Weather Files 2 folder. Inside this folder, you will find the following files: 1915 ActiveSector 1915 QuietSector HPW 1916 Weather Active Sector HPW 1916 Weather Quiet Sector HPW 1917 Weather Active Sector HPW 1917 Weather Quiet Sector HPW 1918 Weather Active Sector HPW 1918 Weather Quiet Sector Copy these files and paste them into your JSGME MODS folder. All of these files can be used either with or without Bletchley's active sector/quiet sector mission mods. JSGME will show a warning if you use my 1915 mod with Bletchley's, but my mod only replaces his weather descriptions for 1915 and will not effect your mission types or the changes he made to the flak settings. What do these files do? These files adjust the mission frequency for your squadron depending on whether you are in an active or a quiet sector of the front. At various times in each year between 1915 and 1918, a particular region in France (Flanders, Marne, Verdun, Alsace) would become either active or quiet, depending on the level of air and ground battles (Alsace is always a quiet sector). The OFF Manager always tells you whether you are in an active or a quiet sector of the front. Simply activate the appropriate HPW Weather file for either an active or a quiet sector. In active sectors you can expect to fly more missions per day, and you are more likely to fly in poor or inclement weather. Quiet sectors, on the other hand, mean that you may fly only one or two missions a day, and that you won't usually fly in rainy or otherwise very poor weather. HPW Skies (optional) The optional HPW Skies mod will add a few more cloud types and will generally add a little more variation to very good and good weather patterns, and will give you a better chance of having almost completely clear skies in very good weather conditions.YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO INSTALL THIS FILE IN ORDER TO USE THE ABOVE WEATHER FILES. Submitter Herr Prop-Wasche Submitted 09/04/2011 Category Modding Tools and Add-on Software

HPW News View File Installation: 1) JSGME: simply unzip file into MODS folder. 2) Manual: Copy news files into your OBD Software\Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\News folder. Don't forget to back up the old files first! Submitter Herr Prop-Wasche Submitted 09/04/2011 Category Modding Tools and Add-on Software

News and weather tend to go together, right? In honor of that tradition, I have two more mods I would like to announce. The first is actually just an update for my News mod from a couple of years ago. I have done some minor editing of the news for 1915-1918 to add a few more stories and a few more details. I also cleaned up the spelling so that it now consistently reflects U.K. spelling preferences (honour vs. honor, etc.). The second mod is both new and more ambitious. Basically, I have re-writtten the weather files so that each year from 1915 - 1918 is divided into active and quiet sectors of the front. Depending on whether the OFF Manager tells you that you are in an active or a quiet sector, you activate the appropriate mod, e.g. HPW 1916 Weather Active Sector. Using my mod, if you are in an active sector, you can expect to fly more missions per day. You are also more likely to fly in adverse weather conditions, such as rain or snow--after all, there is a war on! On the other hand, if you are based in a quiet sector, you are likely to fly fewer missions per day, and are less likely to fly in poor weather. In cases of extremely poor weather, you may not fly at all for several days or even a week or more! Regardless of whether you are in an active or quiet sector, I also modified the weather descriptions so they are a little more "descriptive." See if you notice the "easter egg" on Armistice Day! The weather mod also contains an optional HPW Skies mod. This mod does not have to be used with the weather mod, but if you do decide to use it, you will notice that I have added a few more cloud types. Don't worry, the cloud types use OFF cloud skins, so there is no loss in quality if you use this optional mod. Finally, the HPW Skies mod also makes it a little more likely for you to experience clear skies under very good weather conditions and gives you a little more variability in variably cloudy conditions. Together with the additional cloud types, I think you will see even more variability in the skies over Flander's Fields. As always, the mods will be available in the download section of the forum after they are approved by the admins. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and I will answer them in this thread. Happy flying!

You're welcome, hood! I am honored that you chose me for your first add-on.

Panama Red is correct, Wayfarer. I hope you enjoy using the damage mod, and if you have any comments or suggestions, I will be glad to see what I can do! BTW, using the damage mod does NOT cause any of your skins to disappear, or any other major problems that I am aware of - so far, at least.

I don't know whose reflexes were better, the other drivers or Widowmaker and Olham; I am just glad that you both survived your experiences and are here on the forum! I have a small tale from the other side of the wheel, as it were. Just after I had got my license at age 16, I was driving the second car in a caravan with my Mom (Mum) in the passenger's seat. My father, who was driving the first car, passed a line of slow moving cars on a two lane high way in a rural area. Not wanting to get left behind, I also pulled out to pass. There were cars coming in the opposite direction, but they looked far away. Well, I had misjudged the distance and the ability of the car I was driving to accelerate. By the time I realized I was cutting it too close, I had no where to go. Fortunately, the other driver was paying attention and the ground was flat with a wide shoulder, so he was able to pull of the road before we met. I'm sure he cursed me good! My mother sure did!

Lima, you might give Bletchley a ring, as he included a mod to make AA less lethal. He might have a clue about increasing or decreasing the "spread" too.

Glad to hear that you and your family are okay, Shiloh. I hope that you will be able to say the same for your house. Are there any OFFers in Vermont? I hear that there was a lot of flooding there, with many washed out roads.

"There are bold pilots and there are old pilots, but there is no such thing as an old, bold pilot."

1917 instead of 2011? Anyone could have made that mistake. Right?

Here are the files with my corrections added: CorrectedOFFHistoricalWeather1915.txt 1915 Line 231 Changed 2-10-1915 to 1-10-1915 CorrectedOFFHistoricalWeather1917.txt 1917 1) Deleted lines 339 to 350 (28-3-1917 to 1-4-1917) so 28-3-1917 to 30-3-1917 could be read 2) Deleted text: 18 5 1917 18 6 1917 . . . EOR 3) Added additional text to cover period from 18-5-1917 to 18-6-1917 CorrectedOFFHistoricalWeather1918.txt 1918 1) Duplication of 2-1-1918 removed 2) Duplication of 24-4-1918 through 28-4-1918 removed 3) Duplication of 4-7-1918 removed 4) Changed 9-8-1918 to 9-9-1918 to replace missing date of 9-9-1918 5) Duplication of 1-11-1918 that appears after 2-11-1918 to 3-11-1918 removed I also changed the array reference at the top of each file with the correct number of records due to these changes. If anyone wants to use these files, simply back up your old "OFFHistoricalWeather19xx.txt" files, copy my files into your Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\Weather folder, and remove the "Corrected' from the name of the files.

Perhaps you should change your avatar? Just kidding!

Breaking News! Hacked from Widowmakers Smart phone:

I forgot to bring the file with me on my thumbdrive to upload, but I should have it later today or tomorrow. Along with the 1917 weather file, I also noticed a few very minor errors in the 1915 and 1918 weather files (repeated or missing dates, etc.). I can send you corrected versions of those files, too.

Thank you, Pips. Most of your data correlates with the info I have--perhaps a little more cloudy and stormy up there on the coast than what my guy reported. My "guy" was apparently at Le Havre, Arras, and Vimy Ridge during this time. If anyone else has some good sources, I am still eager to here it. Again, "No Parachute" may have some info about weather on the days that he flew, but my local library does not have a copy. Pol -- I will send you the file soon. I made both a Quiet and Active Sector version, where the weather is the same (some slight variation in cloud condition), but the flight frequency/activity is different from your original file. Or, I can just paste the new dates into the existing OFF file. Which do you prefer?

I am pleased that I was able to find this very small error and point it out. I'll do almost anything to help and/or promote the great work you guys have already done on this sim. Proof reading you own work is one of the most difficult things for both writers and game developers to do, I imagine. Sometimes a fresh eye can spot things that the more jaded (or should I say experienced ) may miss. Regarding the weather during this period, I was able to find an account from a Canadian soldier who wrote brief notes back to his family virtually every day from this period--including frequent comments on the weather. Here is the website: http://www.kingandempire.com/becker2.html I've incorporated this information into a revised OFFHistoricalWeather1917.txt if you are interested.

Good luck on your first day, Widowmaker!

Thank you, Lou, UncleAl, and Pol!!

Stimulated by Bletchley's 1915 weather mod, I've been knocking around in the OFF weather files and noticed that there is a gap for the period from May 18, 1917 to June 18, 1917. (I think someone accidentally punched a "6" instead of a "5"). The result is we get the same weather conditions for a whole month during that time. Since the weather file also partially controls the level of air activity, we also get the same amount of air activity for that whole period. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone might have any information about the weather during that period? I know that the summer of 1917 was supposed to have been unusually wet, but beyond that I have no information. I believe that A.L. Gould's "No Parachute" is a contemporary account that covers that period--are there any other sources of information that might have daily weather information that can be shared? I also think the battle of Messine's Ridge took place during that time. A description of the battle might also mention the weather conditions. I hope to take the information and put together a weather mod for 1916 -- 1918

Have a good trip, and try not to think too much of Albatri, Fokkers, and Camels!

Ow, ow! :lol: