Waldemar Kurtz

is the Hispana 8a really rated at 150 hp? because 132 mph seems pretty fast! most of the earliest 150 hp rated versions went about 118-120 mph. I thought, or surmised that, it wasn't until after they got an uprated engine with 180 hp that the SPAD VII started reaching speeds of 130 mph.

File Name: alt_low 1917 File Submitter: Waldemar Kurtz File Submitted: 12 Jan 2010 File Category: Maps, Missions, and Campaigns this is the standard in-flight map from the game. I've taken two maps and overlayed them transparently to help with navigation. rather than try to get the entire nation to line up, I've only selected the areas which seem to get action in the game. you'll need to change the name from "alt_low 1917" to "alt_low" to get it to work. Click here to download this file

so, I found an old 1937 book about the US Army's involvement in "the European Battlefields" and decided to see if I could use this for something fun. in the firm hope that this book is now public domain I photocopied a map of France and tried pasting it onto the existing map that came with OFF. getting the contours of one map to line up with the other was a little bit tricky. but I found out that even if I got the maps to line up as much as I could there was still the matter of how "playable" it was. the original map was naturally in black and white. but when I tried playing missions with this it was unreadable! I couldn't find my flight-path or waypoints on the map at all. aerodromes were almost impossible to locate. in short, it was worse than the map we have now! so then I went back and altered the color levels and changed everything to get closer to the dull green colors we have on the OFF map. far more readable! but then I had to see just how close all of the landmarks were. I found that some locations were very close: Douai, Calais, and St. Omer aerodrome lined up almost perfectly. Aincreville, Bantheville, Martincourt, and Jametz were pretty close Lomme/Lille was miles NE from the map location Epinal, Frescaty, and Colmar were even worse. but I'm happy with the progress. even when the aerodromes are way off they're at least within 5-10 miles of where they're supposed to be. and it plays passably well. the bitmap version is just barely under 10 megs. what you see here took about... a full 8 hour work day. (counting the library visit, photocopying the reference book, scanning and compositing images, adjusting contrast levels, changing the color, distorting the 1937 map to overlay properly with the OFF in-game map AND naturally the game-play testing) this doesn't even include the active battle-lines, either! and you have to make adjustments for all of the TWELVE different stages of the war too. I have a new-found respect for the hard work that goes into making a great flight-sim! (I mean, I had it before, but seriously... this is probably one of the easier things to work on for a game like this)

the biggest difference is that it's a transparent overlay rather than opaque. as such I made much more of an effort to try and get things to "match". once it became clear it wouldn't match I focused on getting a couple of key cities to line up (aka Paris and Calais, with a few others) rather than try and make everything else work. in the earlier version I was trying to make the the coastlines match up as best I could. this time around it became obvious that a matching coastline was the least of my troubles! here's another version-- I've also found a decent map which can cover for England's "hot spots" [oops, the forum won't let me post another picture on this thread, apparently! so I'll just have to post it in the downloads section] but, I gotta go to work. so it might be a day or so. this week will be interesting. oh, and the google earth stuff won't work any better than the historical map I posted here. it's the nature of the bitmap that the game uses. it has a finite resolution and is fixed in size. if the game could be altered to use a larger file THEN we could consider using a higher resolution map. of course, the larger the file the more strain there is on memory. all sense of detail would probably get lost (which might be good, because the Google Earth pictures would still ultimately be modern pictures!)

I dunno man, I know some guys at work who might benefit from a crane simulator! it might not even be the worst simulator ever-- it's probably the most boring and frustrating one out there. I've read the two full reviews-- and it actually doesn't sound like a BAD simulator. in fact, it sounds like the developers have done such a good job that they've made a piece of professional training software rather than a game. which is fine, because nobody would ever bother to do it for any other reason. I laughed out loud while reading the two reviews though. it ALMOST makes me want to try this thing out.

huh, if it works for Vista then I'm buying it (when I have money). even though I already own both of those programs! I still haven't had all of the fun I can have with WFP just yet. thanks for the link

you mean the Patrick Wilson who helped make the WFP the most time-tested and awesome WWI flight sim patch thus far? (no offense to OFF, because I think it will inevitably surpass the WFP one day-- and this is in spite of having exponentially fewer people on the development team, and more complex demands from the game) he told us (back when I was in JG1) that he was leaving RB3d to work on another flight sim-- but I didn't realize that was the one.

if it wouldn't have cost several hundred dollars to upgrade my computer I would have gotten ROF already. pardon my geekiness here-- but for me this is like comparing Marvel comics to DC comics. they both have their strength and weaknesses. both companies specialize in different brands of super-heroes. I hope that "Rise of Flight" does well-- but it will be a few years before I can afford to spend money on it (by which time I'll probably need to replace my computer anyway. the DRM doesn't even bother me too much (on principle, protecting intellectual property isn't a bad thing). the only thing that bothers me is the "you have to connect to the internet to play the game". I've never liked that concept. especially since there were huge spells where I had to visit a library to send/receive emails. if "Rise of Flight were capable of being played offline I'd buy it now and just plan on playing it later when I can upgrade my computer. as it stands-- I'm not too anxious to 'step up' and make that happen! $$$ try the game out. see how it works. I like OFF, but there are times where I still prefer to fly Red Baron 3d (patched up with the Western Front Patch) or even drag out the original Red Baron. (if I could play Flying Corps Gold I would-- but I can't get it to work on my machines, even with all the suggested work-arounds-- so that one's out to pasture) on a side note, I liked OFF but had serious misgivings about it when Phase 1 first came out. if we'll be so kind as to allow the OFF team to keep developing a product why not given the same benefit of the doubt to Rise of Flight? look at us. most of us have already spent at least as much money on "Between Heaven and Hell" and "Hat in the Ring" that it would have cost to buy "Rise of Flight" out of the box... and we're already talking about "Phase 4"? I think we could afford to be a bit more charitable about the 'work in progress' that is ROF. besides which, they seem to have sacrificed aircraft for scenery... the cities, for example, look pretty good (great for pre-war, at any rate)

that fort looks pretty cool.

I've looked for them several times and never found them. (there were at least 15 forts within a short distance of the city) they're not modelled anywhere in the game thus far. even after getting shelled continuously, the unsual geometrical shapes are still visible in aerial photographs as it contrasts with the organic shapes of the landscape. maybe something the developers will work on later. the nice thing is that most of the forts had pretty standard designs: the box the pentagon and the star (aka the numerous "Citadelles" used in many of the major cities) which could then be inserted, as necessary, into the landscape. all of this and airplanes too? whew, sounds like a lot of work!

I found out that there's quite a few pre World War One vintage Baedeker guides at my local library. this means that there might be hundreds of regional and city maps(1907 to 1914) that are no longer under copyright which might be useful for the OFF team in creating realistic scenery. if the team is interested, I might be able to copy or scan some of these and pass them along.

yeah, they are the same thing. when I found them I thought "this is cool. maybe there's a way to make a 'skin' for each major city just like the airplanes. that way each one might be recognizable form the air." I started a thread because, for reasons I can't yet identify, I was unable to send any private messages the other night. thanks for the web-link, by the way. it's kinda of poetic, because England in 1910 is the one I've had the least luck with. they've got London, and that's mostly from the 20s on out. Kurtz

it's easy. they pick the Sopwith Triplane, SE5a, SPAD XIII or any number of other machines that are superior to what the Germans have for a given period. since the aircraft match-ups reflect historical deployments there will be times where one side is easier to live with-- while the other is easier to die with. 200 rounds per gun? you must be talking about the Nieuport 11! once you get used to the Nieuports you'll find that they are superior to the Fokker E.III in every way... except firepower. ;) it also helps if you ease off on the throttle with Nieuports. also, don't engage every enemy machine you see. sometimes it's better to avoid a battle you can't possibly win. if you're used to flying Albatros D.III's in early 1917 (or Fokker Dr.Is later on)... then try flying Allied planes more often. practice will improve your skills. not only will you get better at surviving in Allied machines but you will also get a clearer idea of how to shoot them down while flying German careers I advise you to try flying the FE2b. you don't have to fire a single shot to score victories. that way you can focus on flying and let your observer worry about how much ammunition you have. it's a fun aircraft to play campaigns in... it also carries lots of bombs! :D

it might not be THAT boring, given that by the end of the war the Germans had developed night-bombing tactics to a degree that Fritz Gerhard Anders, C.O of Jasta 73, scored his last five victories at night. (most of these were Voisin Xs) and if the AI can "see in the dark" it might be more interesting than you'd care for!

I understand that people love scouts more than two-seaters but my big wish for the next add-on would be two-seaters. think about it like this. the newest add-on had the Nieuport 23,24, 28, the Fokker E.V, and the DH5. there's not a SINGLE two-seater in the bunch! and if we don't have two-seaters out there some of the missions aren't going to be very interesting! fixing the BE2 variants seem pretty important-- if not enjoyable! because right now we have a BE12 with the performance of the BE2e standing in for the entirety of the war! it would also be keen if we could get some of the home-defence variants included in the future. but if we're willing to settle for that sort of compromise I would suggest the Voisin. the reason being is that the Farman, while easily more numerous early on, gets dropped altogether in the middle of the war. the Voisin III served from the first months of the war. the Voisin V and VIII soldiered on as low level attack planes and night bombers during 1916-17. by 1918 the noticeably different Voisin X was still serving as a night bomber with as many as 100 in action by the end of the war. since the Voisin and Farman had comparable performance, it makes sense to pick the one that served longer. the Morane Parasol (single-seat and two-seater variants) it even got used by Bavarian squadrons in the form of the Pfalz A.I/E.III. the DH4/9 served with British and American units-- and would be nice to have. the Salmson 2a2 served widely with the French and the United States-- but, conversely, the Breguet XIV was used in even larger numbers by the French, and served with three Belgian and two American squads. if there is a scout included it would be nice to have the Morane Parasol and the Morane Saulnier N and P (aka "Bullet" types)

since I've been working on an alternate pop-up map I struck on the notion of planting balloon base locations on some of the smaller maps. (I've found a WWI era map on one of the Naval-Military Press DVDs where they actually have little balloons drawn directly onto the map in red ink to show where they're located-- so I figured, "why not. I could try that on some of the maps I'm working on" then this got me thinking that maybe the balloon bases could be given town names instead of numbers for each period. which might make them a little easier to find for the DID players using maps. additionally, I believe towns show up in the pop-up map as simple numbers. then, of course, I started thinking about how it might be possible to change the town names from "tow ____ ###" to something else. if I actually went through the trouble of changing a bunch of the town names would that interfere with how well the game operated? would it make claims invalid because of mismatched locations? would it generate problems in assigning waypoints? I'm curious.

no. it's not a part of OFF at this time-- I also can't imagine it being something that would likely ever exist for OFF. somebody else would have to go into more detail as to why. but that's just my hunch.

er, I don't miss the smoke TOO much because for me it is inseperable from Bedcheck's online antics and bad manners. anybody who's played RB3d online will remember Bedcheck aka Bedwetter!

OlPaint-- hopefully you converted the JPEG into a bitmap before inserting them into the appropriate folders. I haven't posted a bitmap yet because I didn't feel confident enough about the project to make it a general upload yet. I could tell from just looking at Rabu's maps that they wouldn't reduce well enough to bother with. but, having just tried it out, it confirmed all of my worst suspicions. they had to be reduce to 10 percent or less of their original size just to get even close to matching up with the larger map. not worth the trouble when you can't read any city names, barely see the major roads. about the only thing it would do is include the major forests. which is better than nothing, I guess. a fellow OFF forumite has graciously provided me with some useful source-materials that I think I might be able to make a better map with... in a few weeks.

that's totally cool. it's not finished yet. so that's the main reason I didn't post anything. so, if you find anything interesting you can feel free to post it here. I'm pretty positive that I need to reapply the image to get a better fit. the southern border of france, as it currently stands, I believe extends into the Mediterranean. I'm still looking for non-copyrighted period maps of Belgium, England, and some of the other places so that I can insert them in there. I've got some images from Germany as of 1896, but I don't know how well those will integrate as they use an odd serif font C: OBDSoftware - WWIScenery - Period - (insert folder name here) if you take the jpg and convert it into a bitmap it will be the exact same thing that I've been testing out games with. but, naturally, you'll want to make a back-up of the original map to save yourself some trouble down the road. it will only work during a very specific time-period as encompassed by the Period folder. if you put it in folder "1916 +6 it will only work in the last half of 1916. if you put it in 1915 it will work until 1916 shows up.. and so on.

Red Baron (the original) had five fold-out paper maps that came with the standard purchse: England, Dunkirk, Marne, Verdun, Alsace I imagine the main reason for the sub-divisions of the Western Front was a lack of memory and resources. and there were no pop-up maps or displays in RB. they would simply say "we're going to destroy some balloons in map grid" and you had to look it up on the paper map! I have no memory of RB3d ever having a second disc with maps on it. maybe you're thinking of Flying Corps Gold or something like that. RB3d probably stuck with the partition approach because it simply couldn't juggle the entire Western Front at once. computers have become far more powerful and it's not so much of a burden now. and at least with OFF you can't fly your plane into an invisible wall and get stuck until you turn around! although I did really like the old RB possibility of passing out from lack of oxygen. that was cool.

yeah, I like Rabu's maps-- I've used them more than a few times. you're right, the big black line needs to go. it means I'll have to go in and 'clean up' the working document and work from there. but, on the bright side, once I get a 'Master' copy done it will be fairly easy to add the Front Line in later. although the game actually inputs the front-line markers on the in-flight map already. so I'm actually pretty fond of leaving the current map the way it is. I will try out both methods though, and see which one works better.

File Name: American Operations Meuse-Argonne 9.26.1918 - EOW (1937) File Submitter: Waldemar Kurtz File Submitted: 20 Nov 2009 File Category: Maps, Missions, and Campaigns with the pending "Hat in the Ring" add-on I thought it might be nice to have a new map to cover some of the American operations. this is taken from a 1937 U.S. official volume: as such several war memorials are included on the map. while anachronistic for the purposes of OFF, I felt that having at least some sort of map to cover American operations would be nice to have. this is my first experiment with this sort of project. I had to photo-copy the stuff in the libary before I could scan and composite any of the images. sorry about how primitive it is. but I hope it helps out with game play! the thick black lines and gray patches indicate the progress of the Allied attacks. the time covered is from Septeber 26th until the end of the war. taken from the 1937 revision of "A Guide to the American Battle Fields in Europe". Click here to download this file