griphos

I'm going to join today and give this another whirl. I woudn't at all mind flying a DR1.

I can send you one from Texas. PM me your address and I'll get it out tomorrow.

Ohhh, I'm pretty sure it landed!

Oh Baaaabeeeeee! I was testing the patch for MP with Duck and Ax earlier and we didn't really fly it, and I only installed it this morning. So this evening was my first chance to fly it. I don't know what all has changed. I read the list, but some of that is pretty mysterious. But I just flew one of the scenarios (the first one on the British side, Se5's attacking an airfield...with bombs, no less). What a fantastic mission!! As we approached the airfield, Dr1s and Alb DIIIs appeared from all over. I was sure I was a goner! I sent my wingmen into the fray and then got busy myself. Maybe it's just my imagination, but it seemed much easier to control throttle and stay close on the enemy than it has been before. Has the FM been fine-tuned that well (or is all that practice just paying off?)? I had him filling half my screen for minutes at a time. And that's not because he just flew straight in front of me. No! He was flying very well indeed to get away from me. And then his buddy who came after me did the same. I don't know what happened to the first guy after getting him smoking, because my hands were full with the second. It's a wonder I beat either of them, as they were just so darned beautiful that I sometimes forgot to fire at them! We flew over a nearby town, which opened up on me with Archie. The new sounds and new realistic levels are just incredible. After downing the second plane, I appeared to be in the clear with most of the enemy off attacking other planes, so I headed for the airfield and plastered some of the planes and hangers. I was feeling very good and heading home when I spotted one of my flight off shooting at another airfield. I went over to gather him up and he turned out to just be some other Se5 off on his own mission. I love that there are lots of AI busy doing their own things while I'm out flying a mission myself! I think he was about to fall into formation with me and head home with me anyway (comfort in company, don't you know) when I was hit by flak and died. No more than a mile from the front! Ces't la vie! But you know what? I was delighted! This is just superb! SOOOO much better than the old QC (which has its place for quick tests of new planes and brushing up on skills). Now, when I don't want to fly campaign, or don't want to risk my carefully nursed pilot right as he approaches veteran status, I can jump into one of these Scenarios and have a full-fledged and complex engagement! It reminded me just how breathtaking this sim is! What an incredible development and improvement of this wonderful sim. By the way, Sig, I noticed no decrease in FPS during this mission, and there was LOTS of stuff happening. I haven't changed any of my settings. I wonder if your issue might be separate and coincidental with the patch?

Here's a shot of you after 700 rounds, Duck. You still couldn't see any flames, right? Here's a shot of me after I landed after getting shot up by you. After I landed, I caught on fire. I kind of like how the pilot is silhouetted by the flames in this shot!

Hey Duck, I've been using the beta version of this mod and I think you've got most of it just right. Excellent visual aids. If pilots have just installed the superpatch, and haven't messed with FOV settings yet, then backing up their current aircraft files will create an online set of aircraft that uses the new DM models from the superpatch (I think this is the best plan, and if I'm understanding things correctly, the new DM includes stuff from these 3rd party DM mods). We may need Matt to modify his installer so that any new extra planes (besides the Zeppelin and Gotha) we want in MP get installed in this "online" directory (WW1Scenery/SPMP/OnlineCraft). Then setting the radio button to Auto MP Control On will install those aircraft every time we fly MP. So, I think that if people click on the Backup as Online button right away, we will not lose our new aircraft. I've installed the Superpatch and have the Gotha and Zeppelin still in my aircraft directory. I imagine that the DM and FM have changed for only the default aircraft. From my understanding of the beta text instructions, if the Auto Control is on, then when starting MP, it will look for a set of aircraft in the OnlineCraft folder. If there is a set, it will load it. If not, it will load aircraft from the Default set. When exiting MP it will load the offline set if it exists. So if we don't click Backup as Online right away, then when we enter MP for the first time, the default set of aircraft will be loaded (without the Gotha and Zeppelin). The AutoBackup setting works like this: If Always is chosen: The manager will always auto backup current aircraft config files to the 'Offline set' before putting in the 'Online set' - best option to have if the user changes FOV etc offline often. This will happen as long as 1) Auto MP control is on. If Never is chosen: The manager will not backup to the 'Offline set' but will load the Online set going to MP and will try to reload the 'Offline set' that was already in the OfflineCraft folder upon exiting MP if existing as long as 1) Auto MP Control is on. This may be an older set that doesn't reflect any FOV changes since the last time the Offline set was manually backed up with the button below these options in Workshops. I think the best bet for MP players is to set this to Always, so that whatever set of aircraft they have in their SP offline game will be backed up automatically when they start MP and will be restored when they leave it. EDIT: Duck and Ax and I just tested with the superpatch. There were a few strange issues, but the bottom line seems to be that everyone should go to the Workshops after installing the Superpatch, and Backup as Online their current aircraft. Then, as long as you don't change any settings to the current aircraft (no FOV changes, for instance) you can join MP with either Autocontrol on or off. If you have Autocontrol on, but haven't backed up your current aircraft as an online set, you will get a mismatch. If you have Autocontrol on, I would recommend Always Backup is checked as well. This will insure that your most current set of offline craft (with whatever changes) is the set that is reinstalled after the MP session. If you don't ever change your aircraft, this won't matter, and you have no reason to have Autocontrol on either. We also tested the new DM. If the host uses normal strength, then the planes are almost impossible to shoot down. I poured more than 600 rounds into Duck several times from close range while he flew straight and level and saw pieces flying off his plane but he kept on flying. Aside from the not inconsiderable pleasure of shooting at Duck with that many bullets, I think this isn't a workable damage envelope for MP. We tested the strong setting and damage was much more reasonable and planes were able to be dispatched with a normal number of rounds. Hope that's at least semi-clear.

I've hesitated to throw my $0.02 in, because I haven't been flying lately, and so haven't been participating in the discussion much. And I've also hesitated to put something out there that might discourage or turn away potential recruits for MP. Plus, I love OFF. It's a fantastic sim. And if it were the only MP option out there, I might have stuck with it even with all the difficulties. Blame Ax! He's the one that seduced me into IL2 online! But, in that spirit, I do want to say a little about what has kept me away lately. I am a relative newbie. I certainly wasn't part of any pre-Phase 3 online play with OFF (didn't even know it existed)! But I worked with Stump and Ax and Duck and later Matt to try and help get MP workable in OFF since BHAH came out. I was in there chopping wood and trying to brainstorm about how to make it all work better. I thought Matt's installer was a HUGE step forward in the right direction. Then came the dm mess (sorry, that's how I feel about it). I thought it was a mistake to finally get to the place where one double-click on an easily downloaded file got everyone on the same page and ready to connect back to having to check in and make sure you had the right files that were going to be used for THIS particular session. I wasn't one of the participants this last Sunday but it sounds a lot like the last Sunday I was when I determined to give OFF MP another chance and tried to join up and got mismatches. Duck and Vasco and everyone else were very gracious, but getting me ready delayed play at least 30 minutes. And the really frustrating part was that the reason was that I had downloaded and installed the beta tools for switching between online and offline planes that Pol (or Winder?) put out to try to help us in MP, and that made it harder to actually get the new dm files in the right place. I worked with Vasco to test those. They were supposed to help. My point is that I worked to get the right files installed and tried to stay current, and then went on a trip for a week or so and when I got back, everything was changed. I don't think that's a good strategy. But, really, the main reason I'm reluctant to join in anymore is that OFF's (CFS3's) MP engine is deeply flawed. OFF in dogfight mode is just not playable for me. It may be my lag, but it is simply not at all appealing to fly against planes that don't actually fly like planes! Trying to use any kind of real world set of skills to maneuver on an enemy when that enemy can fly standing on his tail backwards (and I don't mean a hammerhead, I mean standing on his tail and flying backwards around and around in continuous circles) is silly, in my opinion. I don't mind getting shot down. I even kind of enjoy it when it is the result of going against someone with superior flight tactics that I can admire while he puts bullets in me. But to get shot down by a guy I'm just about to get a clear shot at because in my game he's in front of me, but in his game, I'm in front of him, is silly. I don't think this is just my individual experience. I think the MP engine doesn't get it right. It doesn't seem to know how to calculate intercalating positions between the packets in a way that keeps the planes flying like planes. So, I made up my mind only to fly co-op. Like some others (but not everyone) I prefer flying with a group on a mission and getting that mission accomplished. I enjoy the camaraderie. I like flying an assignment, even if I don't see action. I like trying to keep station or covering the bombers or cooperating on bringing down a set of balloons or whatever. But on the last couple of sessions, even flying co-op, even though the AI planes flew much more like planes, they were often so jittery that I couldn't really aim. I just had to shoot in the general area. It worked. I shot planes down. But it was less than ideal. I don't know why this is so. I remember that when I flew some of Stump's missions in coop with Ax or Duck when we were just getting going with BHAH MP I didn't have so many stutters and jitters. So, those are the issues that make me reluctant to join anymore. I don't care what flight model or damage model we use. I can't really tell much difference in the damage models, and I like the flight models as hard as possible, but don't care what we do together online. I can fly them as hard as I like offline. I just think we need to settle on a set of files that everyone needs to fly MP and put them in Matt's installer, and have everyone install them and then stick with those. I think it would be best for them to be whatever most people use in their offline game. I think we will mostly chase people away if they have to install/reinstall files everytime they want to fly MP. And if we pick files for MP that most people will not want to use in offline, then that's what we'll have to do. At least I can say it will chase me away. So, these are clearly the opinions of someone who has largely given up, and so maybe aren't worth much. I just thought I'd voice them, though, at least as the reasons for giving up. And I haven't totally given up. I keep reading these threads and hoping that these things will get sorted out. I have hope. I sure want Stump, or someone, to pull it off. And I'll be thrilled if these things get setttled, and, given that anyone would want me to, would be delighted to be able to join you guys in the skies over Flander's fields again.

When I first joined something online that needed a username I drew a blank. I wanted to think of something cool and relevant, but I'm not very good at that sort of thing. It seemed to me that these usernames are a kind of riddle, really, as all the responses above show. One aspect of my professional life requires that I know ancient greek and one ancient greek word for riddle is "griphos" (transliterated of course). There you go. Seemed as good as anything and unlikely to be taken by someone else. I'll admit that I get a little kick out of the idea that people may try to figure out what the riddle of my username means, and it only means the word "riddle" itself. I've used it ever since because it's always available. I think the funniest attempt at interpreting it was the guy who thought it spelled "grip ho's."

Okay, this is kind of weird reading about all these scrambles and whether to fly them or not. I've flown my share of campaign missions since Phase 3 first came out and I have never ONCE had a scramble mission. Is it just me? Is it perhaps the squadrons I'm flying in or the time of the war (always fairly early as I never live that long)? Anyone else not getting these missions? They sound kind of fun to me.

Thanks Pol. I've got a new 24" 1920x1080 wide screen (the skin contest made me lust for one) and I think I've noticed the difference from the old monitor in terms of having more scenery on the side. I've certainly noticed the difference in size of everything (my old monitor was very small!). So THAT's what those enemy planes look like up close!!

Well, the new patch has re-aroused a long curiosity for me. I've always wondered what "setting" in the virtual cockpit most replicates life. I've gotten to where I fly around a notch or two zoomed out and then zoom in a notch beyond where I started when I dogfight so I can see the enemy better. On those LONG flights over the front, I constantly play around with these settings and look all around and over the side trying to figure out which setting most seems to replicate what I'd see in "real life" in these little cockpits. I've never been able to decide. The new patch has brought this issue up again for me. So, guys (Winder, Pol, et al), which little numbers in the new FOV settings boxes did you intend to be "life size"?

Winder, Vasco and I just did a test in MP with your new MP Tools. I installed the patch and then (VERY IMPORTANT) went in to workshops and did a manual backup of both my Online and Offline aircraft (which were, of course, the same at this point). That populated the new folders your patch created with my current aircraft. I think this is an issue that could be tweaked in the patch. Without the manual backup, it installs the default aircraft, so those who are already set up to fly MP will lose their aircraft. At any rate, I installed, manually backed up and then tested. Smooth sailing. I then tweaked FOV so I could test whether that would cause mismatch and the new settings automatically backed up the newly changed aircraft files correctly and installed my MP aircraft files. Again, smooth sailing. No problems connecting MP. And when I went back to workshop after disconnecting from MP, the offline aircraft with their changed FOV were restored. Again, this was all seamless. I think the only thing that needs to be changed in the patch is to have the player's current aircraft backed up automatically into the new folders your patch creates.

Hey Vasco, I got the MP tools as well, so let me know when you would like to test and I'll join also. I've installed the L minipatch also now (getting thrown to the ground after flying into that last set of clouds in MP the other day convinced me to install it), but haven't changed the FOV settings. I'm around most of the time this week until Friday.

Well, I live about a half hour from the nearest thing you could call a town. Here's the town I work in: And a shot of typical work day traffic: Where I work: And here's where I live. My "driveway": My daughter doing chores: Friends gathered on the porch for dinner:

Thanks Winder. I appreciate your attention to MP. I'm willing to test your new tools and will send a message to that effect to support. But I voted no to the poll. For me the problem is not so much the mismatch issues (which can, after all, be dealt with by groups if they are attentive...and Madmatt's installer is just the ticket for that problem I think). What's kept me offline lately is the other issues which I suspect, as Winder says, are pretty much hardcoded into CFS3 MP. These issues make dogfighting unplayable for me. Well, I can play it, but I don't enjoy it. Planes don't fly like planes. They often stand on their tails and fly backwards. I can't tell you how many times I've been turning on an enemy plane, have him say 30 or 40 degrees above my wing and trying to get on his tail, so he's basically still in front of me, at least above me, and then he shoots me down. From in front of me!! I have a great computer and fly OFF offline at pretty much max settings with high FPS. It's a lag issue. Planes fly under the ground and then come up again. Planes stand still in the sky. Even in co-op, which is MUCH better and MUCH more enjoyable, there are those odd issues like planes just sitting in space, or vanishing. These are just some of the issues. The jittering, the sudden leaps from one spot to another, etc, also are a bit of a pain. I think that CFS3MP just wasn't coded well, and causes serious lag issues. I'm certainly no expert, and have really only flown MP in OFF and IL2 (heavily modded and which flies MP like a dream compared to OFF MP). I've almost always flown online in OFF through a desktop shortcut to the CFS3MP.exe. I noticed Winder's message on the other thread about this a few days ago and will only fly through the manager in the future. I'm hoping that will help. But I just wanted to mention the issues that really keep me from flying. I'd LOVE to see some of these fixed. I'd LOVE to fly OFF MP a lot more, but as it stands, I'll only fly co-op now, and there are still issues with that which diminish the fun.