Herr Prop-Wasche

Yikes! Here are some more monsterous oddities:

ZZZZZZZ, snort, cough, hack! What the...? Phew. My aching head. What a whopper! I must have been out two days...what...you said...almost two months?!!? (sputter)! That WAS a real bender--and the last time I try any green liquid offered to me by that shady Bullethead character! "Good for what ails ya," he says. Bah!! Sorry to have been AWOL for so long, but life sorta got in the way as it sometimes does. I hope I didn't leave too many people in the lurch, waiting for a fix for the EW FM mod. Although I had to do avoid anything to do with OFF for this whole time, I hope to have a fix for this problem available in the next few days, assuming I can get OFF to work on my newly upgraded Win 7 OS. I believe all I need to do to fix this is to reduce the AI empty weight a little bit so there is not so much a discrepency between the human and AI empty weight values. The drawback, of course, is that the AI will have a slightly larger weight advantage on your aircraft than before--but still less than the AI has in the stock OFF verson. You may also anticipate FM fixes for a few planes like the Camel so the AI flies them a little better, with not so much hanging and stalling in the air. I think you will find that the Camel is no longer as easy to kill because it doesn't hang at the top of its climb like it used to. I haven't completely solved the stall behavior of some of the other "problem" aeroplanes at low altitude, but even they fly somewhat better than they used to, IMO. Hellshade just gave me a suggestion to fix this that I haven't tried yet--I hope to test it out beginning either today or tomorrow. Stage One will be too release the EW fix, along with an update to the Camel FM. ETA in a few days. Stage Two will add FM tweaks to a few planes to try and improve their flight at low altitudes and reduce that stalling bug. ETA will be a bit longer, perhaps a week or two more because I have to test and change a lot more variables and then copy them to a lot more folders, etc. So, I am back and very sorry about the unexcused absence. My punishment will be lenient, I trust? HPW

Just to be clear, are there ANY planes that do NOT have an FM or DM for both the human and the AI pilot yet? I think I can make any of the non-flyables flyable by us humans, although they won't have any interior cockpits unless someone is willing and able (I'm willing, but not able) to create textures for them. You can still navigate using the instruments provided by CFS3 via the Ctrl-Shift-1-4 keys.

Also, I found a fantastic three-part French documentary of WWI aviation in color (or colorized, I'm not sure). Also includes several looks at a variety of French (and other) uniforms worn throughout the war. Enjoy!

While mucking about, I found a couple of Youtube videos that I don't recall seeing before. The first is some vintage film and interviews with a couple of British WWI RAF vets. The second video is a little less serious and includes some of the failed experimental aircraft of the Great War. http://youtu.be/dn6tUz_d3jo

It depends. I can probably whip up a basic version of each plane in a day or two while I gather info for a more complete version which would probably take another 3-4 days or so. Okay, the OeFFAG DIII, an Aviatik and a Hanriot. The OeFFAG (with 200 or 225 HP engine) can be based on the German D III, the Aviatik D I (with 200 HP engine) can be based on either the Fokker DVII or the Nieuport N28, and the Hanriot on a Nieuport 11 or Sopwith PuP? Did I also see a Short sea plane somewhere around here, or was that just my fevered imaginings? No problem Stumpjumper. Look forward to looking at your goodies!

I PM'd Stumpjumper but haven't heard from him yet. Is anyone interested in my doing some FM's and DM's for any of the planes for the Italian front missions? Of course, the aircraft that appeared on both the Western and Italian fronts can use the FM's and DM's that they already have, but what about the planes that appeared exclusively on the Italian front, like the D III Oeffag or the Aviatik? Perhaps Stumpjumper has already taken care of this? If not, I would be more than happy to help.

You are most welcome. Let me know if you have any other questions. Please feel free to comment on any of my mods, as well.

What planes do you intend to have in your mission pack? I might be able to lend a hand in creating some FM's and DM's for some of the unique planes in this theatre.

I believe that you only have to do this once after (or is it before ), your first flight. So, if you fly several flights with the same pilot during your gaming session, you should only have to reload the mission once. I assume that if you switch from one pilot/campaign to another or create a new pilot then you would have to do the start mission, exit, and reload mission thing all over again.

BH, I can offer some help with mods, I think. Let me know what questions you have and I will try to answer them. I have been in the middle of a self-imposed exile from OFF for the last few months, but I am ready to get back into the game, I think. HPW

Anyone interested in a specific FM for say, an Aviatik or the Albatros DIII OeFFAG, with 225 HP engine? And maybe a DM for them, too?

This one's on me!

Is not!!

Yup, a lot of old "faces" from Delphi now hang out on this forum. I remember Delphi with a mix of both happiness and sadness--mostly happiness. That place was a little more free-wheeling than this place--UncleAl would have felt right at home there! Of course, there were two topics that were guaranteed to start a flame war--gun control and the correct FM for the Dr1. I can still feel some of the heat from those discussions! Although I rarely visit Delphi anymore, I still have it marked as one of my "Favorites" in my bookmarks.

Guys, if anyone else is having problems with the AI crashing into hills or trees at the end of the runway, be sure to let me know so I can correct it. So far, I haven't observed it in any of my tests or campaigns, but some aerodromes are trickier for the AI than others.

You're right! Corrected post to reflect Olham's superior culinary selection.

These are all fantastic photographs of everyone's "home turf." Thank you everyone for posting them. The photos also got my mind thinking, "wouldn't it be fun if someone could make a grand tour of all of the places shown on this thread?" Sort of like the Grande Tour that all proper young gentlemen would take in Europe a little over 100 years ago. You could have some fine French wine in Toulouse with Corsaire31, bask in the sun (and in the pool) at JFM's, enjoy cheese and fresh milk at RAF Louvert's, enjoy a Bratwurst and Warsteiner beer with Olham in Germany, share some lamb stew or dare I say haggis at Widowmaker's, and finish off with barbeque down at UncleAl's in Florida! And, at every stop, a chance to talk and play OFF with as fine a group of internet pals as anyone can imagine! A fine trip indeed! Now, who will be the first to loan me $5,000 to $10,000 for the airfare back and forth?

Although I am truly sorry for your misfortune, Olham, I want to thank you for reminding me that as soon as I get home, I must make a back up of all of my pilots and settings.

What was your handle back on the Delphi forum, OlPaint01? I also got my start in flight sims with Red Baron II, just before the update to Red Baron 3D. Back then, my handle was simply "Propwash."

There are a couple of old threads dealing with this very issue, if I recall. Finding them, however, is another matter!

OlPaint is absolutely right. There are now maybe dozens of mods that have been done for OFF. At a minimum, I heartily endorse incorporating Elephant's tracer mods and Lou's medal mod into one of the mods bundles. A skin pack would also be an interesting idea, but perhaps too much work at this time.

Lothar or OlPaint01, Do you have my HPW News mod? Basically, it is the same as Creaghorn's News mod, except mine is in English instead of German, so is better used in an American or British campaign.

Will the screenies work with XP? I know, I know, I really should update to Win7. Sheesh!

I just wanted to pop in here again and let everybody know that the trouble I was having getting mods to work along with Office were entirely my own fault, and not because of any problems or difficulty with Lothar's excellent and fun program. All I had to do was to upgrade to JSGME version 2.6.0 and my problems were solved. For the life of me, I thought I was running the very latest version, but I guess I was wrong. The moral of the story is to never assume, because we all know what happens when we ASS U ME. I also wanted to give a very hearty and enthusiastic thumbs up to Lothar and his Office and OffSet programs. As stated by CaptSopwith, above, Office is not only a fun role-playing addition to OFF, it is also a wonderful mod manager. In addition to that, Lothar has incorporated a date-enabled mod manager into his program, so the user no longer has to keep track of what month and date it is so he or she can manually enable the correct mod that corresponds with that time period. Office now does that for you! In other words, if you want to use Bletchley's missions mod and you are in a quiet sector in 1917, you no longer have to laboriously pick the correct file for that period. Office will automatically load the correct file! No more mistakes! Lothar's program has loads of potential not only for OFF, but also WOFF when it comes out. Bravo, Lothar!