Lothar of the Hill People

Hey guys, finally back online. My move was a bit of a mess, didn't get my stuff for a looooong time.

I'll try to get out a little update for Andy's latest sound mod soon. In the meantime, the easiest way to use it with OFFice/OFFbase is to choose "Stock Sounds" on the OFFramp "Music & Sound" page, and activate Andy's 3.3 manually in JSGME. In the status bar, it'll say "Andy73's Sounds deactivated so you can restore the stock OFF sounds or use an unsupported sound mod." In this case, the unsupported sound mod is Andy's 3.3 version.

Same thing to use his new music mod.

Andy, for OFFice should this be built on top of your existing mod (so it includes all the other engine sounds, not just the new Fokker)?

Hey folks, version 1.1.1 of OFFice, OFFbase, and OFFworld is now available for download at the official website and Combat Ace. Here's the change-log:

• Injured pilots can access their journals and read their squadron's daily status reports from in the infirmary.
• Counts missions flown by your AI squadmates, reporting the tally in the Duty Room.
• Reduced frequency of Congressional Medal of Honor being awarded in American campaigns.
• Adjusted Goodwill scaling so missions are relatively more important.
• Optional Goudy Bookletter 1911 for American campaigns and Croissant One font for French campaigns, while clarity of the German Behrensschrift and British Railway Sans have been improved.
• Fixed bugs transferring between squadrons, handling gunner/observers in multiplayer squadrons, encounter partner selection, and elsewhere. Some edits to encounters and internal code refactoring as well.

If you're interested in membership in OFFworld, the kick-ass multiplayer version, send me a PM.

CFS3 is from a weird time in Microsoft history: doesn't use the system registry and config is stored in XML files. Not the ideal solution, as for example it has the habit of deleting the CFS3Config XML file when you update your graphics driver (use my OFFset program to backup and restore your settings!).

But it does mean it's easy to have multiple copies of CFS3 installed (OFF takes advantage of this as it installs its own copy). Thus you should have no trouble installing and playing CFS3 and add-ons such as "Fire Power" elsewhere on your drive.

Only reason I appreciate OFF using the system registry is I can look up the location it's installed on your machine in order to install my mods in the right directory automatically.

Shared registry entries is what would prevent OFF and WOFF from both working on the same machine (just like P2 vs P3). But since OFFice fully controls these registry entries through its OFFset settings manager, it shouldn't be difficult to make OFF+OFFice/OFFbase/OFFworld coexist on the same machine as WOFF, provided you install WOFF in a separate folder.

Then you'd be able to play either, or both, while I transition my software to support WOFF as well. So no worries!

Just curious, is the 1.1.0 a more significant difference than, say, 1.0.10?

Given that it now looks a lot different with the complete font overhaul, and sounds a lot different with two entirely new soundtracks (from Wings and RB3D), along with a bunch of under-the-hood changes for future development, figured the version bump to 1.1.x was earned.

Good luck in your battle against plants, Tom!

Just a brief update on the ongoing OFFworld campaigns. The 94th Aero campaign has been very active, but is nearing the end of the war. Good time for paycheck-raising promotions, I guess:

Weather's finally improved, as the past few days were rather brisk. A frontiersman such as Darkalder's 2nd Lt. Alderson knew what to do:

The German Jasta 5 campaign has been slower, currently end of August 1917 with plenty of room for new pilots. Anyone care to join the three of us in this cozily elite squadron?

And it'll soon be time to start a new allied campaign. Anyone up for a multiplayer version of Escadrille Américaine, beginning in the fall of 1916?

Full membership in stage 1 of OFFworld is a one-time PayPal payment of $12, no nickel-and-diming like most other online games. Send me a PM to get started.

The OFFbase software itself shouldn't have a noticeable impact on performance. As for the mods... Can you try something for me?

Open OFFramp from the main squadron HQ window. Starting at the "In-Game Maps" page and working down through the "Guns & Ammo" page, disable ALL of the mods--music, sound, FM, DM, everything. Then let me know if it still has the performance issue. Maybe we can pin it to specific mods.

Funny you should mention that. I've worked up a mod that incorporates the original RB3D music into OFF - replacing the original score. I'll get it posted at some point - I was seeing if Lothar could incorporate it into OFFice but once Combat Ace gets the downloads up and working again, I'll post it. Brings back a flood of nostalgia every time I play!

Hey Capt, your RB3D music mod is now available in version 1.1.0 of OFFice, along with a soundtrack mixed from Cinemaware's Wings for the Amiga (released in 1990, same year as the original Red Baron for PC and Amiga). See this post for more details.

For the record, here's the intro to Wings:

Graphics and sound on the Amiga were obviously superior to PCs of the time, but too bad it never got the sequel it deserved ala Red Baron II/3D. Recent kickstarter for a high-def remastering failed. They should've been more ambitious, imho, than merely wrapping new graphics on decades old gameplay.

Edit: sound is all messed up on the embed of the video. Here's the direct link for the wonderful four-channel, 8-bit stereo sound.

Think this next update is something many will really enjoy. Along with a complete font overhaul to make spending time OFFbase and OFFworld more pleasant, version 1.1.0 includes CaptSopwith's mix of the soundtrack to Red Baron 3D, along with a mix of the soundtrack from the old Amiga classic Wings as suggested by Creaghorn ages ago. These make for amazing retro experiences that will take you right back to those glory days of the 1990's.

FYI: Wings, the major inspiration behind OFFbase, is graciously available as a free download for the Amiga by Cinemaware, who reserve all rights. AmigaForever is an officially licensed Amiga emulator that will let you play Wings on your PC. Digital joystick recommended.

Look at all these music options to suit any mood. Try them all!

Additionally, the installer can now extract music & sound files at different levels of quality, providing low-def versions for old, slow computers with crummy onboard sound that suffer FPS hits under all the fancy high-quality stereo sounds.

So get OFFice 1.1.0 today! And as always, if you're interested in joining and contributing to OFFworld, the kick-ass multiplayer version, send me a PM.

Given the trouble I've had finding people to sign up for OFFworld (seriously the most fun you've had with OFF in years), I'm growing pessimistic. With all the silence from OBD, I've been the only one actually releasing new and improved gameplay for OFF, and for the most part no one seems to care.

See the new website I've put up with help from RAF_Louvert.

Here's the changelog:

• Lots of bug fixes.
• Bunch of edits to encounters.
• Some internal refactoring.
• Improved and expanded grammar rules for the Adjutant status reports.
• Adds observations in character descriptions about one's Goodwill, and adjusts some Goodwill scaling.
• Reduced severity of damage and injury under the "Forced down" mission result.
• Extends time to complete missions before the possibility of getting in trouble with the Adjutant.
• French squads have an "Aide-de-camp" to the CO instead of squadron "Adjutant", to avoid confusion with the rank of the same name.
• Cannot create new pilots in an OFFworld squadron if you have at least two on active duty already.
• Expanded names files thanks to data sharing with Patrick Wilson's Campaign Generator. OFF P3 shipped with just 11,850 unique German names, boosted to 116,446 in HitR by including Creaghorn’s German last names. With the power of combinatoriality, the additional names collected by Lothar for OFFice and Pat Wilson for his Campaign Generator push this to a vast 1,343,406 unique German names! British now include 511,674 unique names, 156,306 for the French, and the Yanks get 120,246. But OFFice also sprinkles a few middle names into the non-German campaigns for additional combinations of Allied pilots and crew. Still, this is a far cry from the tens of billions of unique personalities possible in the game.

If you're interested in joining OFFworld, the ongoing multiplayer campaign, membership is a one-time fee of $12. Send me a PM to get started.

The location of the website may end up moving. I'd be willing to discuss free membership in OFFworld in exchange for hosting it.

The site in development is currently here, if anyone wants to check it out. Lou's made a huge difference already, but it's still a work in progress. So feedback welcome, as are reviews of OFFice/OFFbase/OFFworld if anyone's itching to contribute such.

Also, would be willing to consider trading membership in OFFworld for hosting the site...

Great Lou, I'll send you a PM shortly.

Thanks, HumanDrone. If a WOFF falls in a forum and no one's around to hear it...

Best way anyone can help my efforts to keep the community alive would be to join OFFworld. Even if you don't have time to play much these days but just wanna say thanks for OFFice and OFFbase and all my other mods and programs. And if you can find time to play, it truly is the most fun you've had with OFF in years. In any case, I really could use the support.

Forgot to mention, free membership to OFFworld for the person who can contribute website graphics. Mostly need help making graphical buttons for the various pages, OFFice, OFFbase, OFFworld, and a few others. Same style as this would be awesome:

(Siggi's? button from the old DiD site)

But any consistent WW1-ish style would be nice.

Hey folks. Setting up a little website for OFFice/OFFbase/OFFworld so people can download them and such even when the forums are cranky. But I've no talent for visual design and such, and wondered if anyone with such skills would like to volunteer?

Siggi? Lou? Anybody else?

Wouldn't mind just reusing the layout I built for the old DiD website, designed by Siggi. But I'd need new graphical icons and new header images. You around somewhere, Siggi? Still have the raw banner images without text overlays?

HPW doesn't seem to be around these days, but can you confirm which version of his EW mod you have installed? Look inside your JSGME mods folder, an in the "HPW FM and EW Campaign Mod" folder there should be a file with the .vers extension. Open this in notepad or something and it'll tell you the version number and date.

May end up just removing the DH2 and EIII from the mod.

CaptSopwith,

 

Those are some sweet looking skins. Olham is very talented! When the library is back up I'll look for the red "R" skin

Is that one of the skins included with OFFice in the 'Skin in the Game' pack?

Lothar:

Was he joking? Hard to tell. No smiley faces anywhere in his post (except after mentioning how much better WOFF is...or will be, or...never mind), so maybe not.

There are so many mods running around now that OFF is starting to look like RB3D, where there were a dozen or more different versions and each one had its supporters claiming that theirs' was the best. Probably a good thing that there's no real multiplayer capability, since there'd be more time spent sorting out mismatches than actually playing.

Well, a major goal of my OFFice project was to bring all the mods together, sorting out incompatibilities between them and enhancing their features (the versions included in OFFice are often greatly enhanced over the stand-alone versions). The downloads section of CA (when up) is a bit of a nightmare with multiple incompatible versions of everything scattered all about. With OFFice, everything just works, and you have your choice of mods where appropriate (which damage model, flight model, even musical score, for example), with all the documentation on the mods right there to help you choose, in a nice graphical interface, making it easy to try different things without worrying about breaking anything.

And it fixes a whole mess of bugs and other issues in BHaH/HitR that OBD's never gotten around to, while adding a vast array of other features, some unavailable in any other flight sim.

As for multiplayer capability, mods do introduce more mismatching issues, but having everything organized and controlled through my OFFramp mod manager and the underlying OFFice scripting engine, the mismatch problem can be solved once and for all. Support OFFworld, and let's see what we can do together as a community.

Actually I have no problem with take-offs, but it's difficult to stay close to the AI as they outrun me which I suspect is because their weight is less.

It's the mods which correct for the weight of AI planes so you can keep up with them that cause them to have trouble taking off (the AI don't "know" they're heavier). Take-offs are not a problem with stock P3, hence Pol joking about mods breaking things.

Haha, something like that Robert!

Thanks Aroth and Olham for your input. I'm surprised at the crashing into trees scenario. I thought that this problem was resolved with HPW's empty weight mod.

 

Hey Lothar, that sounds like a nice feature you have added to accommodate poor landings and take-offs. Do you know if HPW's mods are preventing these crashes?

The latest version of HPW's EW mod included with OFFice does improve problems with crashing on takeoff, compared to prior versions, but not sure if the problem's resolved completely with all planes and all airfields. Crashing into the trees on takeoff is because the planes are modded to be realistically heavier but the crummy AI doesn't always handle them properly.

At the same time, heavier planes should stop faster on landing, perhaps reducing crashes into the treres at this end of the flight. Haven't done any comparative testing myself, though.

While downloads at Combat Ace are still down, subscribers to OFFworld are still getting new features and bug fixes, including updates to supported mods--and some early results of sharing data with Patrick Wilson and his Campaign Generator for RoF.

It's been busy lately in the 94th Aero, and it's time to open a second shared, persistent, online squadron. Thanks to Olham's suggestion, you can now join the Germany war effort with the elite Jasta 5:

Thanks also to Olham for the Boistrancourt airfield photo, also available in single-player OFFbase (when the CA downloads return!). It's shown here in OFFworld with my own hand-coded sepia-tone filter.

Join OFFworld today. Having real people in your squadron (or squadrons now) with whom to interact is amazingly fun, bringing OFF to life like never before. And at only $12 (secured via PayPal), it's probably a lot less than you've spent on extra planes and add-ons for something like RoF. Just send me a PM to get started.

A tip for OFFworld/OFFbase: If your squadmen crash on takeoff or landing, when you report it to your Adjutant, check both the "Crashed" and "Landed" boxes. This'll use more generous rolls for the crash and injury for these situations where pilots and observers can more easily bail and medical attention is right there. Well, unless your squad's Medic is an incompetent boob, in which case they'd have better luck crashing behind enemy lines haha!

Glad you're enjoying OFFice, Mud!

OFFworld Phase I integrates the DropBox file-sharing API, hosted by Amazon's S3 cloud computing storage. No online connection problems so far, only worried about how it scales with more players. So the more playing to help me test, the better!

The 94th's Adjutant first broke the news about Kaische's new Ace:

But the squadron's Chaplain had an idea:

Jennings doesn't feel too bad about his hospitalization now, but it's getting crowded in there!

But room for more... just send me a PM to get started!