griphos

I'm curious, Winder. I've been following the various threads about DM and guns since they started. I have certainly appreciated the dev's interest in scaling the sim for everone's benefit. And I'll echo the oft-repeated refrain of how amazing (truly unheard of in my experience) the support is for this sim. I've got 1.26, but have only flown one mission so far, my first encounter with two-seaters. I play some version of DiD (usually use TAC). But I sure poured a lot of bullets into (or at least in the general direction of) that two-seater without much apparent affect. I noticed pieces flying off. But he sure wasn't "easy"! So, if I keep my settings on hard, and thus 100 Realism, what is different, if anything, from 1.25? Will the AI start shooting as far away as before? Is there improved DM even in the hard settings? In other words, should I experience more variety of plane behavior on shooting them down?

Hello, I bought OFF3 and also CFS3 from Amazon. I didn't install CFS3 first, as I wasn't really interested in it. So, when OFF3 came, I started it's install first, and it asked for my CFS3 cd, and I put it in and it copied some files and then finished its install. It went smoothly, and I've been playing it quite happily ever since. However, I've been bitten by the multiplayer bug and joined Doves and Hawks so I can do that. Last night, just to check things out, I clicked on MP in OFF and it took me to a screen where I could choose dates and missions and told me what pilot was active, etc. I made some selections and then click "Accept" (I think), and then I got messages that CFS3 crashed and it wanted to tell MS about it. :-} OFF still seemed to be working fine, but I exited out. So, my question is whether I installed correctly or if this problem might be because I don't have a copy of CFS3 on my system, just the files OFF needed for itself. The only other problem I've seen is when I try to access manuals while in the game through that little drop down "Hangar". After closing the manual, CFS3 crashes. So, I just don't access the manuals in the game. Could this be related? I assumed that the cd I bought of CFS3 was 3.1, since the install went smoothly. Any suggestions?

Hey Duck, Got your message. We've got company coming for lunch in a little bit, but should be free again by about 5:00 your time (adjusted).

Hit the Z key. But I always say, if you're happy with how it looks, don't worry about it. Easy to get caught up chasing numbers.

Well, I've been playing since OFF3 came out, but today I flew against my first two seaters. These are not fun! I mean, they're a blast! But they are dam*ed dangerous! I'll do a report from the front I guess on the details, but whew! I tried to come up under the guy, but he seemed to be able to shoot at me even though I was significantly below him. Did me some serious damage! I got one, but he got me too. We both flew a long way, gradually descending, without much control, but I managed to land, and he crashed in the trees. I've noticed some different AI behavior though. I don't know if this is 1.26 or just different circumstances, but always before, when I've led a flight, my wingmen form up on me and stay behind me as I climb, usually to 10,000 ft, if it's clear enough. They stay behind me pretty much whatever I do. They've been great. :yes: Today, a couple of my wingmen climbed with me just fine, but also seemed totally unable or unwilling to stay behind me. They kept shooting past and circling around. Once I leveled out, and sped up of course, they kept their place. Also, when we encountered the enemy - two Halb DII, and six DFW-CV, I waved my wingmen to attack, and two of them went after the Halbs, but my wingman just stayed on me while I attacked the two-seaters. I waved and waved for him to attack, but he wouldn't. Hmmmm. On the other hand, is it possible that this patch further increased FPS? I even increased ground object density in the workshop before flying for the first time with the new patch, and she was screaming. 50-70 FPS and no stutters as I first closed on the enemy this time. Sweet.

Looks great, Siggi!

Ohhh! I guess I'm going to have to bat for the other team for a bit. Maneuverable! Great view! Twin guns!! It's enough to drive a man to defect (or whatever they called it back then).

Thanks Pol, That's what I thought. And it seems the trick about renaming the .exe and shortcuting to it from the desktop with XP compatibility checked makes MP work in Vista. I'm very glad not to have to un- and re-install. Now if the headset I ordered will get here, I'm ready to fly a differently crowded sky. What a great thing, to have a sim with the immersion and realism of OFF for campaign mode, and still be able to MP!

In general, I like the solution Gous and Siggi have worked out (as well as Siggi's acronyms for the variables). My guess is that I'll run different variables at different times if such options are available (except for the Warp...I really have come to prefer the experience of being in realtime the whole time). But I have no problem with my totals being registered as DiD/TL, for instance, if SOMETIMES I use labels or SOMETIMES I use TAC. I don't think this is really about competition (and so I also have no concern/interest in any kind of verification). In fact, it would serve as an aid to realism and immersion, for me, to have something like this board going IF it seems to be focused on just what Pilots at the time would be focused on, which I assume is some combination of the choices Siggi offered above. So, to speak to that, my sense is that WWI pilots weren't concerned with hours racked up. Kills, yes. How not? And a tally board keeps some competition alive about that, for them and for us. But I'm guessing that survival ranked pretty darned high! I would think missions flown also means something significant. Even without kills, it's a mark of how much service and risk is being offered and accepted. I think I would think highly of a mate who has been up there day in and day out for a long time even if he didn't have many kills to show for it. That would be a significant way to emphasize survival, I think. So, I lean toward emphasizing missions (and thus survivability), and let the kills come as they come, which seems more realistic to me. Of course, this is for fun, so kills matter in a different way for us. But some of the fun, at least in OFF, comes from the immersion, no? All this would mean, I think, that I lean toward limited use of TAC, and labels only briefly to see who one is fighting. Personally, I may use the TAC more than that sometimes, if I can do so and have that be indicated on the board to distinguish my flying from someone doing "pure" DiD. Oh, and as to boards, I'm good either way. By nationality makes a kind of historical sense, but it's not as if these pilots didn't keep some track of the pilots flying for the other side.

Hey Duck, Okay, I've got Teamspeak 2 installed, the Quickstart Free Trial version. Is this the right version? My understanding is that Teamspeak is free to non-commercial users. Right? I dug up a little microphone as well. I've tried to connect to the Teamspeak Test Server, and it seems to connect to the test servers, but I don't hear anybody, just the computer voice saying when "new players" join or leave. I'm trying to find the Outlaw TS server Stump mentions on the D&H site. I'll try to connect to that when I find it. Otherwise, I'll check back here and when you're available and want to try to hook up via TS or connect the game to test MP fully, just let me know. Again, thanks for sticking with me. I think this is going to work!

Success!! That thread on the old forum did the trick. I followed the instructions and when launching from the shortcut on the desktop as they suggest, I appear to get where I need to be. It puts me on a field looking at an Albatross and with the "Hanger" and two medals, a "Missions" medal and a "Multiplayer" medal. I clicked on Multiplayer and it pulls up some screens that look like the screens in the slides of the how to do MP thread I downloaded. So, let me download Teamspeak and dig up some kind of microphone (until I can get to Walmart and get the one you mentioned) and I'll read through that thread with its slideshots and I think I'll be good to go!

Okay, progress, I think. I set up the CFS3MP.exe to run in XP compatible mode and run as administrator and we get further in the process now. I click on MP and it loads things and then asks me to allow CFS3MP to run, which I do, then it gives me the error message that the cd is not in the drive (which it is). I'm using the original CFS3.exe and have gotten rid of the extra file (Rzr..something or the other). I tried using the second cd, but same message. I'm going to try launching it directly, rather than from the OFF manager, and I'm going to read the thread you mentioned, Duck, and also another one on the general forum about someone having problems with this error message even though the cd is in the drive. I may try setting up my OFF manager (and maybe the plain CFS3.exe) to run in compatibility mode and run as administrator, although the only other time I did that, it caused problems with the regular offline execution of the game. It'll be a couple of hours, as I have to talk to my mortgage broker now (interest rates are down below 5%!). But I'll holler when I've made any progress (including downloaded Teamspeak and setting it up). Thanks Duck for sticking with me and trying so hard to get this figured out with me!

Hey Duck, I'm just now heading for home, so it'll be another hour or so. And, Pol, I've always had the original CFS3MP.exe (it was just the CFS3.exe that was replaced), but I'll set it up as you suggest. Excellent idea!

Hey Duck, I'll be around later today, probably about 4pm or so your time. But I'm pretty stumped too. Thanks for looking around to see if you find anything else to try. I'll do the same. I'd hate for it to be something having to do with my rig, particularly if I go through the process of uninstalling and reinstalling CFS3 first as a full install and lose all my pilots and still wind up having the problem.

I don't know if it was you, MK2, or someone else on the team, but thanks for the new interface. Very nice to have crates up top and the new look is fantastic. You guys sure are going the extra mile! Ahh, Mike, it is you. Thanks!

Okay, I tried all these things. I replaced the workaround .exe with the original .exe and got rid of the other extra file. Tested that. It worked fine (but required the cd in the drive as it is supposed to). Tried MP. Same crash error ("Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator has stopped working, Windows is trying to figure out the problem"). Put a shortcut to the CFS3MP.exe to the desktop and tried to start it from there, just immediately gave the crash error message above. Set the sliders in CFSconfig to 3 except for Terrain and Scenery to 2. Tried again, same problem. What it is doing is accepting my mission and date, then doing the usual setting up message dialog boxes (you know, setting targets, etc.) and then when it seems it wants to go to the first MP page (such as I see in the slides on the old how to do MP post) it gives the crash error message above. It then takes me back to the manager. I'm stumped. Unless I don't have the firewall set correctly, which I believe I do as it was quite simple (just open firewall settings and click on the allow programs box and click or add the programs to allow). ??????? Did I mention that I REALLY don't want to have to uninstall and install again?! I guess I don't mind that work, or the work of setting all the settings again, or the work of defragging afterward, but I'm also guessing that if I try to save my pilots and reimport them into the new install, I'll probably mess things up, since I'm guessing there's more involved than just copying and pasting the "Pilots" folder in CampaignData.

Hey Duck and Pol, Just got home. Wasn't able to get the headset yet, and haven't been home to download and install teamspeak, so I think another time will be better for figuring this out. If tomorrow is packed for you Duck, I'm pretty flexible all weekend. I'm running Vista 32. And, normally, I'd have to put the cd in the drive to play, but I downloaded something I don't think I'm supposed to talk about to get around that, as I hated having it in all the time (my drive is super noisy). Perhaps that is the problem?! I'll put the .exe on the desktop, though, and start it from there and see if that makes a difference. I recall posts about that also. I renamed and kept the original .exe, so I could replace that and try that as well (since the workaround was just a different version of the .exe and some other file I'm sure I can find and remove). I'm such a novice when it comes to multiplay, though, that I know nothing about firewalls, and even less about them in Vista, so I'll check around the net for info on configuring that (unless Pol has some tips for how to do it). I'm pretty sure my terrain and scenery sliders are on 4. I sure appreciate the help on this. I'm pretty interested in what I saw on the little teaser video of the multiplay session. But I'm sure the instructions on the OFF site and a good number of posts claimed that OFF installs just fine by copying the files it needs from either the CDs or the DVD. Now, that may not mean that such an install is MP friendly. I sure would hate to uninstall and reinstall, though. Edit: I think I just figured out how to set up the firewall to let programs through. It seemed pretty straightforward. I allowed CFS3.exe, CFS3MP.exe, and Over Flanders Fields all just to be sure. I'll try to do multiplayer again and see what happens, although it will be about an hour before I can do so. Family duties!

Hey Jag, I'm running it on Vista 32 just great. No problem installing and no problem playing so far (with one strange exception that when I try to view manuals from withing the game...while flying...CFS3 crashes and OFF gets weird). Perhaps this is an artifact of the "hanger," from which you access the manuals (and controls, etc) seems to be really the only bit of CFS3 (besides multiplayer) left in the program. Other than that, though, superb. You'll see from a couple of my "reports from the front" that immersion is amazing.

Well, when I got home I pulled out the disk and looked at the files on it. There is a single readme file on cd 1. In the readme file, it lists the issues addressed by 3.1, which makes me pretty certain that the version on the cd is 3.1. So I think the problem must be something else.

I'm with you on the Spads. Just don't like 'em. Luv' my Sopwiths, of whatever number of wings. But Parky (where IS Parky, by the way....I tried to get in touch to let him know about the new forum, but he was banned on SOH before I could do so) has a couple of videos in the Spad that inspire me. One is called Spads CAN Turn, or something to that effect. Believe it's on the OFF website under Movies. Almost makes me want to go up in one again!

I'm in.

Hey OvS, Well, I'd rather not go through the whole uninstall and reinstall option. I followed the instructions on your website: Q. Do I need to actually install CFS3 first? A. During install process the OFF BH&H installer will ask you to provide CFS3 so it can copy the CFS3 files it needs. You can provide the files required from either : 1) An installed CFS3 - OR- 2) Your original CFS3 disks You can choose. I'm pretty sure the instructions that came with the OFF3 dvd also suggested this proceedure, and there were numerous posts on the old forum about just installing OFF3 without needing to install CFS3, as OFF3 would get the files it needed in the install from the original disk. So that's what I did. I've got things set up well and have a number of pilots with histories, and have defragged my drive (not a quick procedure with these large programs) so as to maximize play speed. So, uninstalling and reinstalling isn't appealing, particularly when I followed directions on the install in the first place. Is there not another way to address this issue?

Thanks Stump, And Duck, it's definitely the cd version, not the dvd. It's two cds, actually, although OFF only needed the first one. I had downloaded the patch, in case I needed it, but it didn't seem to. I've posted over in "General Help." We'll see what the devs say. Thanks again!

Thanks, Duck, I got the thread, and copied the text and slides into a Word document so I can send it to myself at home. On the install, I think the cd I bought was 3.1 (I don't know about "a"). Anyway, I started the OFF install first, and it asked for the CFS3 disk, and I inserted it, and it installed just fine. I've been playing OFF3 with the latest patches as they come out without any trouble whatsoever, with the single exception that if I try to access manuals from within the game, after closing out of them, CFS3 crashes. Maybe that and the MP crash are because of the way I installed. I'll post in the OFF3 forum and see what people think.

I just bought the CFS3 cd from Amazon so I could install OFF, and since I didn't install OFF until the P3 version, I did the install where you just put the CFS3 cd in the drive and OFF copies and installs just the files it needs. So there's no separate CFS3 folders or anything on my drive. I tried clicking on the Multiplayer "button" in OFF last night just to see what would happen and after selecting the date and mission (random), I clicked on "accept" or something like that and CFS3 crashed (or so the warning messages said). OFF kept going, though. Weird. Do I perhaps need more/other files from CFS3 for mp? I can install CFS3 fully if I need to, but would prefer not to. And I joined D&H last night as well. I'm a member now. I looked for a "how to do mp" sticky on SOH and didn't find one, but I'll look again now that I know it's there. And I'll get teamspeak. And look for that mic headphone combo at Walmart, hopefully today. Can't make tonight's session (dance class duty for my daughter until about 9:00 Central), but will try to get things in order so I can make the next one. Thanks for the help. Looking very much forward to this. Edit: I looked again at the SOH for anything like a "how to do mp" and couldn't find anything. Could you point me toward that with a link?