Winston DoRight

There's a new aircraft provided by Stumpjumper now available on teamspeak in the "Over Flanders Fields Briefing Room". We are going to try flying one mission with it Saturday so everyone download this file, unzip it and drop the folder into your aircraft directory. If there's any aircraft mismatches we will not spend any time sorting out anyones problems. I'll simply load up the next mission and we'll continue flying. Hope to see as many of you tomorrow as is possible, and remember, if you can't make the start time drop in when you can.

I'm logging on now to be available all day for checkouts. Just yell when you get here so I'll hear you if I'm in another room.

Anyone who can help in testing Stumpjumpers fix of the N-17 Bis with rockets, log into teamspeak around 4-5pm USA pacific time tonight (Wednesday).

What are you smoking? Can I have some?

Testing done, thanks to Loopy and Stump himself. The Stumpjumper N-17 Bis not only works with rockets in MP but the flight model is alive and well! The file will be available soon.

On the propdisc; it's all but nonexistant in OFF. Infrequently you can see your own from the cockpit if you look to the side slightly, but it's not distracting. Once you get used to the fact that it's not visible looking straight ahead, you get used to it. For me it was dearly missed as I found the propdisc graphic most pleasing in CFS3/ETO. All propdiscs are visible externally.

Pop in when you can Ax. I will still be on.

Thanks Loopy. I'll get on teamspeak as soon as I can today, after I take care of a few real life things. With the help of Burning Beard last night we found that Stumpjumper's new N-17 Bis works now with rockets attached! But there was an a/c performance issue. Stump has given me another Nieuport to try today. Thanks to Sitting Duck who came on later when I was practically falling asleep at my keyboard. Sorry I drifted off. How about a big round of applause for Stumpjumper who is a master at his craft! Testing today/tonight for any who want to fly it.

I'd could ship you a disc, but first I'd need the Dev Teams OK and of course their verification that you have purchased the expansion. So Cal to AZ would be a quick trip even for the US snail mail. Can we even do this?

Now let's not get into the question of memory, as I'm quite sure there are only a handfull of members here that are older than me. There have been oh so many patches courtesy of the dedicated dev team that I wouldn't want to say that there's never been one, it's just that I don't recall it and there's definately not been one in there lately. Oh yes, totally in jest and all in jolly good fun I'd say. Actually I wonder why uncleal puts up with the rest of us!

Good thing I got in here before Uncle Al ripped you a new one. The vertical sync option is a product of your nvidia control panel, under <Manage 3D settings>. Just select CFS3 from the <Program Settings> . If you don't see it you'll have to add it. Then you'll find V-sync at the very bottom of the list.

Just skip them; advance the time manually. The odds against you are totally outrageous and you may survive one or two of these with various tactics but they won't work every time and eventually, you will be hammered. It never happened like this anyway so why should you be expected to do it.

Big thanks to all who flew the second session today. Thanks to Ax who hosted my missions when my internet speed to europe became unacceptable. This cured the jitters that some were experiencing. Axgrinder von Baur Loopy Dudley Vasco Red Dog Burning Beard and myself Here's the only photo I took. Looks like my keyboard key that I mapped for snapshots is finally giving out after 15 years of use. I'll have a new keyboard before next saturday. In this photo we're all kicking off on one of the missions.

I am an American. In real life I have fought in two wars and worked for a third world government helping train their army. I'm proud of my country overall in spite of it's shortcomings. But I have always been fascinated by German machinery. At airshows, the Fokkers and Messerschmidts cast me under their spell at the first glance. In comparison with any other countries offerings the German machines were better built and more innovative, hands down. In the great wars if they had had many, many more of these machines we all would probably be speaking German right now. I have no problem flying the axis side, or the French, just make up a good fantasy name for your pilot like Willy von Krautmeister, or Pierre Le Pew, even Nigel Crumpet gets me in the mood to fly for the "other" sides. Oh, and BTW, I only purchase and drive German cars. They are made so much better just like their aircraft!

Since some of our missions last week took us off the grid map to the north, I made a new one. You can use it or continue on with the old one. It's so easy to make these, I have an overlay made in paint.net and I can put it on any map in minutes. If anyone needs a grid map made for any other year just let me know. Hope to see you all there. I'll be on teamspeak most of the day today if anyone needs a checkout or has anything to fly. http://forum.combatace.com/topic/52445-new-1917-grid-map/

Everyone is welcome at the Saturday sessions, no long term committment is necessary. Come whenever you can, leave whenever you want. You owe it to yourself to see what multiplayer is all about in this sim. The camaraderie and atmosphere just cannot be experienced in single player mode.

If you are sure you overflew the waypoint, simply advance it manually by pressing Shift w The waypoints don't auto advance on ground strike missions either, I suppose it's to give you all the time over the target that you want.

Drop me a PM when you get your headset and have teamspeak installed. I'll meet you there, walk you through a few simple setup steps in the game and make sure you're sorted out.

Vasco and Stumpjumper have figured a way to give each craft in MP a different custom skin. When a pilot achieves 5 confirmed kills, he's allowed a unique custom skin. Stumpjumper then makes a new a/c file with the custom skin and it's placed in everyones aircraft folder. The craft is then specified in the mission builder and the player who owns it always jumps into his own craft at the MP loading screen. After we complete the 9 missions I have already built for RNAS-6 flying N-17 Bis' we will fly the same exact missions again from the Axis perspective in Albatros DIII's. Maybe after that we'll fly them again with players on both sides. After that I'll start a new single player campaign in some other interesting craft and save the most challenging missions and convert them for the Saturday sessions. More of Saturdays photos here: http://forum.combatace.com/topic/52174-winstons-saturday-mp-sessions/ You can see my custom skin, it's on all the planes of this type, but of course only I can see it.

To expand on what Sitting Duck said, adversarial flights are not only possible but just as easy to set up as co-op. You naturally need a few extra people in the session and in converted single player campaign missions you simply have to make a few enemy flights flyable. The option to join either side is always present in the MP load screen. As the Saturday sessions progress, we'll switch from flying the N-17's of RNAS-6 to the Albatros DIII's that we're flying against now. Perhaps later we'll fly the same missions from yet another viewpoint of having players on both sides against each other. For now the Saturday sessions are designed to get the new multiplayer pilot up and running and we'd rather not scare anyone away with adversarial flights right now. The only problem that arises is the unreal attitudes that you may see in the enemy plane your dogfighting with. Due to the level of detail (LOD) in the OFF models (it's very high) sometimes during hard turns the craft in front of you will appear to be flying askew from it's normal flight path, or the smoke from the engine exhaust is trailing at unreal angles. The original CFS3 didn't have this problem, the models had nowhere near the LOD as in OFF. The old dreaded a/c mismatches are a thing of the past if you have the following: Hat in the Ring expansion and the latest patch installed. Then Madmatts essential MP autoinstaller. Finally Stumpjumpers Strutters which are available on teamspeak. We have had none of the old a/c mismatches if you have these items installed. There's a few other things you'll need like teamspeak and the grid map, etc. All are rather simple and quick to get. All the links and more info here: http://forum.combata...ay-mp-sessions/

File Name: New 1917 Grid Map File Submitter: Winston DoRight File Submitted: 30 Jan 2010 File Category: Maps, Missions, and Campaigns Since our Saturday sessions took us out over the channel and farther northeast than I realized, I've made a new grid map for 1917. The only difference is the 2 extra grids added to the top. Install and reading instructions included. OBD copyright text included. Click here to download this file

Thanks for posting the snaps guys. The one of the smoke rising from the railyard is great! I put my snaps of today here: http://forum.combatace.com/topic/52174-winstons-saturday-mp-sessions/

A big thanks to all who flew today. I posted some pics in the general discussion forum in hopes of attracting a few new players someday. I see Ducks photos of the railyard there too. Perhaps Ax will post his BDA of the railyard photos there too. We had great cooperation from the internet today. The lag was minimal and no one really had any bad jittering. Not bad since the U.K. players were connected to me way over here on the west coast USA. I'm already looking forward to next Saturday. We flew the first 3 of the 9 missions today. Next week it's mission 4: enemy balloon attack. mission 5:Escort Recon. and mission 6: Airfield attack. After completing these 9, I'm going to reverse things and we'll fly the Albatros DIII's that we're fighting now. Should be interesting.

Some screenies from our first Saturday MP session. Would love to have some new players come and check it out. Remember, no adversarial contests, only co-op missions. Photo 1: Loopy led the flight home after we patrolled our friendly front lines. We (Loopy , Red Dog, and myself) landed in formation at our home airfield. Photo 2: We all came back after our 1st mission, patrolling the enemys front lines in Nieuport 17 Bis'. Burning Beard is parked between two of the hangars a bit off screen. Photo 3: I flew between Sitting Duck and Red Dog. Didn't even startle them. Situational awareness is paramount. They saw me all the time. Photo 4: Loopy was a great 1st wingman. Close formation flying is important enroute to the targets. Photo 5: All back after mission 2, the railyard attack with Nieuport 17's and rockets. Loopy clipped a tree on approach and his landing gear collapsed during the taxi to the hangar area.