77Scout

I think "OFF - Reloaded" sounds sexier than OFF2

A quick Google search indicates to me that pretty much all the combatants interned in Ireland were navy personnel, not fliers. It seems a bit silly to imagine a Spitfire and an ME109 ending up in Ireland - I can just look at a map and tell it couldn't happen.

Fifty is a good age. Old enough to know better, but still young enough to do it anyway. Have a great celebration!

Quite a feast. Thanks to Pol for putting that vid together. So much great new stuff I saw in there, but the blurb about the AI (they will scan the sky, think, and decide) really got my attention. It's all super impressive.

The workshop setting that truly matters is 'AI Skil'". Make sure it is on 'aggressive'. The other settings will give you opponents that are rather timid and circle around while rarely attacking.

Totally agree Olham. Using the TAC means you will never get lost, and you will never be surprised. Using paper maps better simulates what a WW1 pilot had to deal with and is challenging and fun (well, for me anyway). I know not everyone has the time (or eyesight) to fly in real time with no aids, but for those who can it is great.

Not sure why none of the rear gunners were firing at your pursuing Albatros. Normally they will. Your rear gunner should fire of his own accord. You don't have to switch positions unless you want to. I rarely switch because the AI gunner is better than I am. I suspect telling your RE8 wingmates to 'attack' an aircraft will elicit no response, as they are are not a 'fighter bomber' designation in CSF3. I think the 'attack' command would only work on ground targets, assuming you are leading the flight and your flight is suitably armed.

So guys, you are saying that if I fly off on my own, away from my wingmates, and shoot down an enemy plane with no witnesses then I will absolutely NOT get a claim form at the end of my mission? I would have to test this, but I am pretty sure I have gotten claim forms just about every time I make a kill, whether I am with my flight or off by myself. I too have had to use 'ground troops' in the witness box ... doesn't that case basically prove that proximity of witnesses doesn't affect whether you get a claim form or not? Think also of the programming that would be needed to keep tabs on witnesses. You are implying that CSF3 records the distance to all witnesses at the time of each kill, puts this data into a file somewhere, that the OFF Manager has been programmed by Winder to find this CSF3 data file and use it to decide whether to give you the claim form or not. Well, if Winder tells me that is how he made it work then I will of course believe that. If that is the case I will also be blown away by the programming involved because it would be a hell of a complicated thing to make work as you are describing.

If the enemy plane crashes and you were the last to shoot it, CSF3 will normally record that as a kill and then OFF should give you the clim form to fill out. I have a very strong suspicion that the OFF manager has absolutely no idea whether there are witnesses nearby or not, so I have my doubts that witnesses are a factor

Nearly making 200 hours is damn inpressive. Myself, I am happy on the very rare occasion I make 20. Dej: Love the BOC poem in your 'sig'. "Fifteen feet and he flies inverted" - priceless!

The comment about starting point confuses me. The starting point for your mission is always your home airfield. You can see the proposed flight route on the mission map prior to flying. If it is not to your liking simply cycle through alternate missions until you find one with a route that suits you taste. Missions never go anywhere near Paris, so yah, something is way wrong there.

Not sure I understand why that would be worse, but I could be missing something. We want flamers to NOT continue flying so I am thinking that having the plane run out of gas and crash be an improvement?

HPW, I don't know much about the DM files but I do enjoy looking at them and trying to figure out how they work. Looking at a typical aircraft file in the DM section (Alb DIII), I see where a centre fuel tank fire starts at something like damage Level 66, but there seems to be nothng else that happens that disables the plane. Unless some critical part of the plane (like the pilot or engine) 'breaks' then I assume you just get a fire in anotherwise flying airplane (?). Would adding a line to 'break' the fuel tank at the same damage level as the fire cause the plane to go down (basically out fuel?).

Hi Olham. If you look in the DM and the FM mod folders and you will see that each mod has a subset of all the standard OFF aircraft files, but the files within each mod do not overlap so there should be no conflict or file overwriting between the two mods.. It seems JSGME is just warning you that the various aircraft file folders already exist, which is a bit silly. Maybe it is just the 2.2 version of JSGME you are using, giving unnecessary warnings? I am using v2.6.0.157 and seems to work well

Far out man Groovey!

Olham, mine looks basically the same as yours, but like the other guys i have no trouble getting all three Mods activated on the right side of the JSGME screen. Not sure whay you should be having problems. What error message do you get? Could that '1917 Active Sector' mod you have installed be causing a conflict?

I know squat about guns, but Google found me this picture and discussion of a magazine cut-off "The magazine cutoff was a feature on the SMLE invented by some stupid bean counter who was worried that soldiers would waste too many bullets with them new-fangled "magazine" thingies. The theory was that the soldiers would use the cutoff and load single rounds until the enemy got really close, then flip it off and unload the whole magazine on them. The reality was that it was just an additional useless hunk of metal to get caught on things and break in the trenches. During WW1 the British stopped putting them on the rifles when speed of production became more important than chrome-plating. Other countries had cutoffs too (Turkey comes to mind), but they were pretty much passe by the end of WW1. Nowadays it's a bonus feature for enfield collectors who want to collect every mod of every model of enfield ever built."

Great picture UK_WM. It is now my new windows desktop background!

Very nice. An armed BE2 will be a much appreciated addition to Phase 4. I like Povloski's hints that cool stuff is getting tried out and working well.

I don't know about the LOD's. I personally haven't noticed disappearig undercarriage etc. Hopefully someone else will answer. Yes, I believe all BE2's are similairly armed (forward fixed gun and no flexible gun). Neither do they attempt to evade or maneuver so It makes them a very easy target. This may change in Phase 4 perhaps? Death on die roll is exactly as it says. When you die, the computer 'rolls the dice' and will determine you to be alive a certain persentage of the time. It has no actual intelligence built in AFAIK. So with this setting you can have a horrible certain death and still be allive next mission. if you don't like it, use DID (which will kill you for even the smallest crash) or use 'pilot cannot die' and manually kill (delete) your pilot when you judge he should have been killed.

You might try re-installing your nvidia driver, as that often resets everything back to default. Might not work but I don't think you have anything to do by trying.

I'll echo the others ... I would buy Phase 3 now. Phase 3 and the expansion pack are excellent value (great products for a good price). My personnal expectation is that Phase 4 will not be coming our way until at least 2012, so why miss having a bunch of fun with Phase 3 in the meantime.

Here is a link to a good pdf book on the subject... http://www.journal.d...c/61-64-eng.pdf As a Canadian I have this innate desire to believe that Bishop was the hero he made himself out to be, but reading this certainly makes it look otherwise. The book makes a strong case that he was a brave man, poor leader, lone wolf, and a patheological liar.

Definately I would try to solve some great historical mystery ... can I take a video camera with me? Go to Roswell New Mexico at the time of the 'alien spacecraft crash' and see what really happened. Be in the Texas Book Depository window on the day of JKF's assassination. Be present during any of the various 'miracles' described in the Bible. Wow, the list can be almost endless. I think we are going to need more time machines.

Very interesting Creaghorn. I wish I had more free time ... it would be fun to run some experiments..