Hellshade

Ugh. All that pushing for a Snipe and when the Devs finally deliver it, the guy who wants it most moves on. Oh well, such is life. The little :( at the end of his comment sort of looks like he's not too happy about it either. I sincerely hope that all is well in Windowmakers' life. Maybe someday he will be able to return to WOFF 3.0! :)

I personally happen to believe (besides the quality of the product they create and the amazing high level of support that they offer) that the fact that they DON'T take their marching orders from a big company is why they are still in business. WWI flight sims are unfortunately not all the rage that they were in the 1990s. Flight sims of any kind have dropped down to incredibly small numbers as more and more developers focus on hugely popular video game genres like FPS (First Person Shooters), MMORPGS (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) and MOBAs (Mupliplayer Online Battle Arenas). Any major company is going to focus almost exclusively on profit and that takes their sites off of flight sims rather quickly. For those that do focus on flight sims, WWII and jet age stuff seems to be the most popular. I think OBDs genuine passion for WWI and the fact that they answer to no-one is why they are still developing today. I definitely don't think it's their strategy to get rich quick.

CombatAce provided a wonderful home to W/OFF for many, many years and I know a great many of the longtime veterans of W/OFF have nothing but the highest praise for the system administrator, moderators and service that this forum has provided. Indeed, when OBD decided it needed to move to SimHQ due to a series of unfortunate events that were beyond CombatAce's control, I remember there was considerable community backlash against the idea due to the strong loyalty that so many members felt for this great forum that had, for so long, been W/OFFs forum home. But much time has passed since that move and SimHQ, for better or worse, is where OBD is releasing information about WOFF updates, patches, expansions, etc. Over time, this forum has regrettably though understandably become very quiet. FM & DM Mods, DiD campaign updates, basically anything new is posted on the SimHQ forum. I worry that anyone who stumbles across this forum for WOFF might be given the false impression that WOFF is no longer being actively updated and supported by the Devs and / or that the community has vanished. And so, though I have nothing but the greatest reverence for the wonderful support that CombatAce has provided to W/OFF and it's community for so many long years, I have to a difficult question: Is it perhaps time to close the CombatAce OFF / WOFF forum in order to avoid any confusion over the current state of development and support of WOFF and it's community? My apologies if my question is upsetting to anyone. It is not ment to be. Hellshade

As long as there is some LIFE to the forum, it makes no sense at all to close it. I still think there should be a pointer to the official WOFF site letting folks know the sim is under active development and for all the latest news, check there.

Maybe to be sure at a quick glance that the tape had, in fact, been applied to all appropriate areas?

I'm happy to post here if we can get the community going again. It would be awesome to have 2 active forum communities.

WOFF Is essentially the only WWI sim that I know of that is still in active development. RoF gets a new plane maybe every 6 to 8 months, but that's about it. 777 is no longer funneling resources into it much more than that and keeping the MP servers turned on. That's not saying RoF wasn't / isn't a great sim, it's just that if you are flying it, you shouldn't expect any more active development on it. Even a lot of the improvements to the core engine of BOS/M have not been translated back into RoF, which would seem to be relatively "low hanging fruit" given that they share the same core engine. I had always hoped they would do something about the "AI" in RoF. Unfortunately, no. We are lucky OBD is still fully committed to WOFF. We still never know when the next new add-on, patch or expansion will be released but we can feel pretty confident that it is in development and that's all the Devs are focused on.

It is perfectly okay for people to let their whales swim here. Except they aren't. And it's not because they don't know the "pool" is here. It's the long time members who love the forum that are choosing not to post here...for quite some time. It's not that people should only post on the "Official Forum." It's that they are, quite literally, choosing not to post on this forum and so it leads to the appearance of a Ghost Community and an unsupported Sim. I would be elated if CombatAce had a thriving community for OFF / WOFF and would, myself, happily participate. But despite the passion for this Forum, there are not the posts that would match said passion - except in this thread. The reality is, for better or worse, with all official news being released on SimHQ, that's where the overwhelming majority of WOFF fliers go to read and post about the sim. Additionally, WWI flight sims aren't exactly as popular as "Call of Duty" and so it's far more difficult, as evidenced by the long absence of posts in this forum, to support multiple forums with an extremely limited fan base. The counter argument - near as I can tell is "We have the right to keep using a Forum that isn't really being used." My answer is "Yes, you absolutely do. But I wonder if, at the very least, without a pointer to the official website or the more active forum, we aren't doing more harm than good to our much beloved sim, WOFF, by giving newcomers to this forum the perception that WOFF is yet another WWI flight sim that has gone the way of the Dodo. And with that, I will let the community and any Forum Moderators / Sys Admins decide what steps should be taken, if any at all. I'm sure there will be more opinions and clarifications of thoughts, all of which are very welcome and highly encouraged. I've made my opinion as clear as I can and further re-stating of it will not really serve any constructive purpose.

And that could / should be that. I'm simply saying that people seem concerned about saving conversations about WOFF that ...quite literally...they aren't having. It's sort of like going on a crusade to "Save the Whales in My Swimming Pool." There aren't any to save...but folks are passionate about the fact that maybe there could be someday. (Probably a bad analogy but I beg your forgiveness in the name of creative writing) WOFF has been out for over a year and a half now and, for better or for worse, this forum simply isn't the place where those conversations are happening. Its barely having conversations about P3. In fact if it was, I would have never mentioned the idea of closing the forum or putting a pointer to the official website or any of that because it wouldn't be a forum that gave the impression that WOFF doesn't have an active community or on-going developer support. Having said the previous two paragraphs, posting a pointer to the WOFF website on a Sticky at least lets folks know where the new up to date information about patches, expansions, add-ons, etc are, regardless of the state of the rest of the forum. No need to apologize Tamper. You certainly have not done anything wrong. Hopefully I haven't either and I sincerely apologize if I have. That was not my intent.

The evidence seems to point to the fact that hardly anyone was discussing anything at all for the past several months and what was posted was about OFF P3 (skins for Camels, A zep mission, help getting it working on Wn 7, etc). This thread about potentially closing the forum has probably had more posts in it than every other thread combined for the last 3 months. Most posts are literally from 2014 or earlier. gosd posted in April 2015 on the OFF / WOFF Knowledge base asking for help getting OFF P3 running up on Windows 7 64 bit. He received no replies. If folks want to talk about WOFF here they can...but if we are being honest with ourselves...nobody has been for quite some time. They barely use it to post for P3. All I was trying to do was prevent somebody from showing up to an essentially ghost forum where there are very few new posts and almost none of them dealing with WOFF and having them leave thinking the sim is no longer active with developer and community support. But I guess ultimately it doesn't matter. We can talk about it but in all likelihood nothing will happen anyway so in the long run folks, things here will probably remain exactly as they are.

Who is the forum moderator now? Can they add a Sticky to the top of maybe this General Discussions and OFF / WOFF News that points to the www.wingsoverflandsfields.com website and a little blurb that discussion of the legacy product OFF are here, however for the most up to date information regarding WOFF (the latest version), please see the official website.

Agreed. If there is a good indicator of where folks can get up to date information regarding WOFF (the official website) on a sticky, then it's not necessary to remove WOFF references or shut down the forum.

Good thoughts and suggestions from all. That seems like a reasonable suggestion to me. I would also like to add a Sticky up top that says there is a new version of WOFF that is being actively developed and supported along with a link to the official WOFF website where they can get more information as this site is not dedicated to WOFF. Then all the OFF historical information is saved for those who still enjoy it. The forum remains but any potential confusion a newcomer might have about the current state of WOFF is cleared up with a link to the official site.

You may wish to check out the screenshots from the WOFF V2.06 screenshot competition. WOFF got new DX9 shaders in the update and it looks pretty amazing, in addition to fantastic AI, massive single player campaign and regular updates (free patches, add-ons and Expansions) from the Devs.

Let me know how it works sir. Just an FYI, this forum is pretty much a ghost town for WOFF now. Everybody's mostly over on SimHQ.

I wouldn't have the foggiest idea, sir but it's possible. Certainly SSD is faster than regular hard drives. But the question is does your 3.5 year old laptop have a USB 3.0 connection? If the laptop doesn't support 3.0, it will run at the very slow USB 2.0 speeds.

You realize the last post in this thread before yours was in April of 2011, right? :) It's a necro thread sir. And if I had Mig Alley, I would be happy to help you but alas I do not. My apologies.

A few videos of WOFF V2.0 - using Aris Cloud mod and SweetFX. Be sure to change to 720P on Youtube for best details Scenery low over England https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruOj6GeJP3U&list=UU93XMlFKHkjNpGBNGZR7QUA Pups vs Halbs in Campaign Mission dogfight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CknwcuwU9PA&list=UU93XMlFKHkjNpGBNGZR7QUA DR1 Campaign dogfight - engine shout out and still fighting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjMUBPkPppc&list=UU93XMlFKHkjNpGBNGZR7QUA DR1 Campaign dogfight vs SE5a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb-GWFRB2dc&list=UU93XMlFKHkjNpGBNGZR7QUA DR1 Campaign dogfight vs Spad XIIIs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOHDRkb5zH0&list=UU93XMlFKHkjNpGBNGZR7QUA DR1 Campaign - Brave Camel Pilot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Dw4w9Z_7w&list=UU93XMlFKHkjNpGBNGZR7QUA DR1 Campaign - The Baron Leads us into Battle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tA1-Ok0frk&list=UU93XMlFKHkjNpGBNGZR7QUA

Get 'em while they're hot! http://www.wingsoverflandersfields.com/news.html Don't forget to make a backup of your download too. Hellshade

I can't imagine what would be gained, personally.

Indeed, while WOFF has no "Official" forum, most people have made the move over to SimHQ because that's where the Devs generally post news. For instance, they announced the WOFF 2.0 Feature list there but not here, near as I can tell. While CombatAce was and still is an outstanding forum, it's pretty much a ghost town in regards to WOFF.

If I wanted to start messing around with the DM in WOFF, where would I start looking? Which files do I need to open up and tweak? Having asked that question, let me state for the record the obvious. #1. I'll probably break the sim in multiple and unintended ways and it will be entirely my own responsibility. #2. If I experience any problems at all, the Devs are certainly in no way responsible. #3. I expect to lose pretty much everything in the process - favorite pilots, etc. #4. Chances are I will only make things worse. #5. I'll probably break things so bad, I expect to have to wipe the game and do fresh re-installs to make it right again. Again, it's all on me. Having stated the obvious, somewhere along the line, the DM seems to have undergone a change (intended or not, I don't know) whereby shooting at an enemy aircrafts fuselage seems to have little effect at all and then all of a sudden there is a huge explosion sound and all of the wings just completely fall off. Total structural failure. My desire is to make that a much more rare occurrence and perhaps instead increase engine fires, pilot kills (which will probably mean I will die more often as well) and if nothing else, increase the number of planes that trail black smoke after taking a few good hits to the engine. Any ideas on what files I start tweaking to see if I can accomplish something like that?

Well, I can still blow stuff up even in a single gun Triplane, however I do need to hammer on it fairly good to make that happen. I think the top gun of the SE5s does hit harder though. Doesn't seem take as many rounds to have the same effect. I guess what's confusing me is sometimes I hear the sound of something breaking on the enemy aircraft - almost like a structural failure - except that I don't actually see anything break off. I figure he's doomed, but not always so. Sometimes they end up getting back into the fight so now I just keep hammering away at them until they catch on fire, explode or just about drop straight down out of the sky.

Great screenshot sir.

Oh sure...blame the pilot. I see how it is now. ;) I did some flying of DIIIs vs DH2s to help answer problems in another thread and interestingly enough, I didn't have the problem of the wings blowing off. I'm beginning to wonder if the SE5s top gun is just really, really powerful. It certainly seems to have a lot more punch to it.