OvS

Matt, I love this idea! Imagine RFC 56 vs The Flying Circus! Gents, I'd love to play, but 2pm on a Saturday is a very difficult sell to the 'Commendant' unless it's pouring rain and all the rooms are painted already. Know what I mean. I stretch it enough working on the Nova... when I should be working on a new kitchen. If I can squeeze it though... I'll fly for the Europeans...

Yeah, I know the feeling. I was knocked out of Annapolis because my parents were 'blue-collar' and could not afford to pad the palm of the local Senator. He gets 2 picks, and our campaign contribution wasn't high enough. That was 1987... you're spot on. Funny thing is when they came to my town to evaluate and interview the final candidates; I arrived on time and entered the room alone. I left my parents out in the hallway waiting for me. I sat down in front of the desk with the Admiral (School Chancellor), and he told me the bad news. I was really upset, but he was honest and he was also mad. His comments will never leave my mind... 'Son, I’ve seen a lot of young men tonight, I have to let 2 in, and unfortunately, you're not one of them. I am sorry. You qualify, but it's politics. But, if it makes you feel any better... of the 20 candidates I’ve seen here in the past week, you're the only one that came in here alone, without mommy and daddy holding your hands, and wiping your tears. You have balls son, you'd make a great Naval Officer, I can tell, but I can't bend the rules. Would you consider college, then enlistment?' I stood up, shook his hand, and said, 'It’s Annapolis, or nothing, thank you sir.' It must be nice to have money. Yeah, I’m still bitter about it… OvS PS... sorry to hi-jack. I actually was a Commercially Licensed A/C mechanic for British Airways. I have since moved on to their IM department. It was a fun job, always dynamic, something new every day. You'll enjoy it and the knowledge applies to EVERYTHING! They say if you want to fix cars, go to Auto School, if you want to fix everything... become an Aircraft Mechanic. It's 100% true. Good Luck! Keep 'em Flying!

Use this post to point to where users can get the files required to play MP games

What bothers me the most are the fans that do the smack talking. As a developer, I never liked guys doing that. You almost want to ask them why. When you see how much work it takes to make a game, how much time you spend researching, modeling, creating databases and all that, you empathize with another team rather than bash them. For us, RoF is competition, but friendly at worst. We need them to succeed, and not fail. It will benefit both of us. If folks see BHaH as the go to for SP, hopefully the die-hard MP guys will give it a taste as SP can be far more rewarding than MP on many scales. If guys that are die-hard SP, maybe they'll give RoF a try on MP. It works both ways. We do have an MP side of BHaH that is VERY good despite all the bashing it takes. Albeit it's limited to 16 players, but really... 8 is more than enough. RB3D's all out wars were the best, but they lacked a lot of details... in the ground and in the air. It took a lot of guys many years to get RB3D to have balloons, moving fronts... etc. If RoF come with all the bells and whistles out of the box for MP, hey... I'll see you all in the sky! But in the meantime, the RoF fans need and should respect the ground BHaH walks on as we do for them. To survive the game market, we need each other and can compliment one another... just like WFP and FCJ/HASP did for RB3D. All the best and as always, you guys ROCK!! Thanks for the support! OvS

Glad you enjoyed it! :) MP is a lot of fun. I've gone 'up' with the Boys a few times already and it was fun everytime. Yes, lag will cause strange things to happen. Especially if the hosting PC has conx issues. OvS

Wow! That's a really nice painting. It's hard to believe someone can make something looks so nice... with paint! :) Thanks for posting it and recognizing the efforts of the OFF team and RoF as well. OvS

Really, the point I am trying to make is that it's not at all easy to make a good WWI flight sim, be it with a base game as a mod, or a whole new game. So as much as OFF might satify what one wants, it might not satify what another does. Same for RoF. If there is a balance between them, and there should be, there is will be plenty of room for both. It's like the BIA vs the Call of Duty games. They are both fantastic, but what one lacks in tactics, the other makes in action and vice versa, but they are both worldly for that matter and actually compliment each other. I hope the same can be said for our two games. As for the 3rd member of the clan... First Eagles, it was unfortunately an uphill battle from the start. It looked like a great effort, but lacked depth. I remember looking at screen-shots of the models and saying... 'wow, these look awesome!!', but then I saw the terrian and scenery and felt it went downhill from there. I hope those guys hang in there as well, it would be great to have a 3rd choice on the HD. The more the merrier. WWI sims are few and far between, but of recent, we have some good choices. OvS

One main point that many WWI Sim developers have failed to realize is that a huge database of information to which very randomly generated flights needs to be the focal point of any attempt at a WWI sim. It's not about just jumping into a Dr.1 and flying against the enemy. Or flying one type of plane against another. It's about matching the right planes against each other, it's about the personalities, the places, the maps, the locations of dromes, the timelines, the movements.... on and on and on. All this wrapped into a very dynamic campaign engine is what makes a WWI sim what it is. Giving someone a Mission Generator/builder is not the same thing. Scripted mission are even worse! The feeling of WWI has to be totally in what is unexpected, or what might happen.. or nothing happens at all. Keep in mind that other than Winder, Polovski and Rex Hannover, the rest of us had NO CLUE what BHaH was going to fly like, or play like until it was given to us in beta. So the majority of us developers are no more knowledgable about the way OFF plays than any of you. Sure we were heavily involved, but not in the sense that we knew what the final product was going to FEEL like. While making skins, you have no idea what a Jasta full of them, with complementing aces is going to look like until it's infront of you. So taking that into account, and being a developer of RB3D mods, I can speak for myself with very good knowledge of what to expect from a WWI Sim. Am I biased, sure... because I know it's more than just eye-candy that makes the game special. It has to have longevity, and that's what the Dynamic Campagin does. It pulls you into the game and makes you into a cog in the machine of WWI. No sim to date aside from OFF and RB3D has done that. It is frustrating, not as a developer of this game, but a fan of WWI Sims, seeing all the attention going in one direction, based PURELY on pretty pictures, and nice videos. But what about the core of the game? What about the feeling and the depth? How many years does it cover, what are the mission possiblities, what about flying a career? Those are questions we have answered very well with our product. I have yet to see any come from anything else. It's seriously not fair to see so much attention given to something that there is no way to be sure of until it is in your hands. But yet, BHaH is out there... So who knows... a showdown? I doubt it... it's already been decided. But for us, and I mean as players, depending on the player you are, you can make your choice. As an avid WWI Simmer, I made mine. I'm going to pass on RoF, based soley on lack of content (sorry I need more than a Spad XIII and Fokker D.VII) and the fact that I have to be Online to play it. No thanks. OvS

OK, I'm now monitoring this one... Have at it guys, but keep it clean. OvS

Just one comment to point out about the skins... now, not every skin is an ace... some are just pilots as is the case with Noth. We took a lot of time to place as many pilots in squadrons that were actually there, so the manager pulls them up as 'aces' so you can see their skins. So those you come by that are not listed as an 'ace' per say, are just pilots flying their own planes.... see.. yet another facet of OFF you just uncovered! ;) Ans I can say with GREAT confidence... this is going to be a VERY long thread. OvS

As per a request from Ohlam, I moved all non-skin posting from his thread here.

That was great!! Here's another one that will kill you, especially at the end. OvS

Gents, I am considering deleting all the extra talk inbetween the posting by Olham, for no other reason other than he's doing a great job and we're (including me) getting in his way. Is that OK with everyone? Thanks, OvS

A gallant effort, for an unworthy cause... the local PD (Bobbies) are best left for the work he's looking for.

Well written! Well illustrated! Fantastic stuff! :) OvS

Axe, I've never tried to make a mission. I used to with my HASP patch, but OFF is a totally new thing to me. OvS

Duck, I'll try and make it. As of 1021 LT, I can say yes, but one 1930 rolls in, who know. But I'd like to be there. As far as enteraining, I'd be more than happy, as I have offerred in the past, to show how it's done from the Huns side. :) OvS

Thanks for posting these. You have confirmed 2 of my suspicions about the Dr.1 and MvR's red Balkenkreuz. 1. The Dr.1's main spar was weak by design, and certainly wouldn't have lasted very long in the weather. Just looking at the cross-section and noting the extremely thing walls of the spar denotes that. Although these pieces are 90+ years old now, it still does not eliminate the idea that warping would have occured no matter what. The design was light, and made to be strong, but certainly it was not made to last very long. 2. MvR's Balkenkreuz crosses were field painted! Now, I know by mid-March 1918, all German planes were to be remarked with the new Balkenkreuz, but I always thought MvR's all-red Dr.1 was taken out of service and totally repainted from the Iron Cross version, and not painted in the field. But that proved it, his Dr.1 was painted at the field, and not given any more special treatment than any of the other members of his Jasta. That says a lot about MvR, unlike his lovely friend Göring, who wouldn't DARE seat himself in anything other than something that was factory fit and brand new. OvS

I'll bet that the competition got a tougher as the 'month' went on.... aw jeez... I'm sorry, I couldn't resist!! ;) Great little movie, watch the clip. See, those were the BEST days of aviation. Them and shortly after WWII when we were experimenting with the sound barrier and space! Now it's just a bus route from A to B. :( OvS

No, check-out the previous sentence, he points out that a pilot is taking his life in his hands by allowing a mechanic to tweak his plane, and that was not good enough for him. There were a few pilots that worked on their own planes, Fonck was certainly not the first, but his demeanor about it is what is so annoying. Who better to trust than your own 'pit crew'. I think he what he means by 'outfit' is what the plane is 'outfitted' with, like motor, carb, etc. I re-read it a few times as I was thinking the same as you, that 'outfit' meaning the military word for group, operation... etc. But, no, he definitely means the powerplant and set-up of the plane. Other than that, yes, I agree... I really have to say that hands down he was the best true fighter pilot. Although I have to add that Udet was right there as well, maybe not for kill numbers, but sheer piloting skill. There is no taking away what Fonck did, but it's a shame he had such a way about him. That's like meeting Tiger Woods and him being the biggest jerk on the planet. OvS

I would just start the campaign. Some of the missions in there are older, or may not have the desired effect you are looking for. Let us know how you make out with a new pilot and a new campaign. OvS

Quote: "Without boasting. I may say I can take any machine in our group, and in a week, it will be the best of the lot - not because I am specially clever, but because I know the whole outfit thoroughly." Being a mechanic myself, I would have snuck in the hanger and cut the SOB's fuel line for saying that. It's easy to see, just in the short length of this article, that all that was written about his demeanor and attitude was totally true. #1 Rule of teamwork: YOU NEVER INSULT THE OTHER PLAYERS ON YOUR TEAM! On a side note, I never read that "The Flying Circus followed the Storks",did anyone else read that? As far as I know, they followed the RFC 56, and also moved around at will regardless, depending on where the Entente bombers were coming from. They followed the Storks... please!

Damn!! I was going to join in last night as well... I had to finish painting some molding on a window I recently put in...sux for me! OvS

Yes you are right. No doubt the quality of the kill list is important, and should not be overlooked. Same can be said for Udet, and Fonck. Many scouts for each of them. This is a topic that has been debated over many times, and for some, it's really the final factor in deciding who is a better 'fighter' pilot, rather than just a pilot. As Udet put it, he shot the plane, not the pilot. Take out the plane and the pilot is left to his own demise, to use his skill to try and possibly survive the contact. I agree with that, although it does contradict the idea behind war, and a dogfight. I estimate his thinking was that if the pilot was a good pilot, he'd survive and come back to try it another day. While MvR was a pure hunter, as well as Fonck. They shot the pilot, Fonck being the expert marksman tallied a few of his kills without expending many of his rounds. OvS

Zonealarm! It's FREE... also I use AVG as well. Once you set Zonealarm to accept in/out connections in OFF, you're all set. Try it Olham, it's a TON of fun!! OvS